Tag Archives: high intensity training

[Poof!] My Shape…Gone in an Instant

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You create your fitness plan, you stick to it for 3 months, and then you piss it all away in two weeks. That’s my story and I’m not ashamed of it.  It’s a story that will deliver a massive dose of reality and teach you a lesson if you’re willing to sit here and read it for the next 4 minutes.  As I sit here typing away on my laptop I have to laugh at how quickly I was able to reverse three months of hard work.  Seriously, three months of tracking my food intake and gradually getting my body near competition form, GONE after just 2 weeks of indulgence.

poofThe two weeks were comprised of my wedding and honeymoon so by no means do I kick myself over all the eating and drinking I did.  Heck, Corrie-Beth and I spent 7 of our 10 day honeymoon in Napa Valley and Sonoma so you better believe we were drank a lot of wine!  And the meals were pretty damn good too.

So what was the damage?  A nine pound increase in body weight and all the definition in my abs and arms had disappeared.  Granted at least 3 of the 9 lbs. is retained water which can be eliminated within a week by pushing my water intake up to around a gallon per day but unfortunately the rest of the weight (fat) will take a lot longer to get back off.

Water

I can already hear some of you saying, “But you’re already in good shape it’s not that big of a deal”.  To which I say, “It’s all relative”.  I have certain expectations and standards which if not met or maintained have the same emotional impact as anyone else who looks at them self and is disgusted with how out of shape they’ve become.

I knew it would happen, I’ve been here before.  In the early years of my bodybuilding career I would spend six months prepping for a show only to binge my way out of competition shape in less than a week.  Over more recent years I’ve learned that if I (as well as most people) can keep from letting one day of binging or cheat meals turn into 2, 3, 4, 5 days or more then maintaining that ideal condition that I worked long and hard to achieve is easy and doesn’t require being on point all the time.  But once you start rolling downhill it’s very difficult to stop and the unfortunate consequence is having to start all over.

Fitness PlanThe idea of starting over can be a little demoralizing if you don’t have the proper mindset.  As I said, I would never give up all the great breakfast, lunch, dinners, wine, beer, and spirits I indulged in over the two week wedding/honeymoon period.  In fact I had planned for it.  All the dieting I had done over those three prior months was in anticipation of all I would do and was a way of mitigating the damage.  I knew from the very beginning that at some point I was going to have to “start over”.  Since it is exactly what I expected it eliminates the pain of feeling like “I blew it”.

The situation—and the emotions that accompany it—is similar to saving thousands of dollars over the course of several months or a year for a vacation you’ve always wanted to go on.  When the time comes to actually pay for the vacation the money suddenly disappears from your account, or the envelope of cash you’ve been saving it in.  You knew it was going to happen, and you would never give up the vacation just to hang onto the cash, but you’re still left with that slight bit of sadness that all you saved is gone in an instant.  It doesn’t make the vacation any less enjoyable it’s just an unavoidable feeling…just like putting weight back on that you worked hard to lose. But the great thing is, if you’ve done it once you can do it again and if you’re committed, the next time should be much easier since you already know what to expect.

7 Lessons Learned from the Bodybuilding Stage

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When I started my career as a personal trainer at the ripe young age of twenty-two (I really can’t believe I’ll be thirty-six this month.  Look ma’ I made it! J) one of the very first actions I took was to enter myself into a natural bodybuilding contest.  I had wanted to bodybuild ever since I watched Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk in the mid-eighties television series.  Then of course there were the professional wrestlers in the WWF like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior who became another source of motivation before I started “investing” what little money I earned at thirteen years old on muscle magazines. But I digress.

My reasoning for entering the contest was two-fold.  First, I always wanted to look like a bodybuilder so it only made sense to do what bodybuilders do…compete.  Second, and the stronger of the two reasons, was to gain experience and knowledge.  I reasoned that if people were going to come to me with the expectation of achieving six-pack abs, defined muscles, or to simply get lean and muscular, then I better know and understand all that goes into the process.

After 14 years of competing it is impossible for me to place a value on the lessons I’ve learned from getting up on stage. What I have gained through those experiences cannot be learned in a book or in a classroom. The lessons can be categorized two ways; physique development and self-development.  While my initial interest was regarding physique development I quickly learned that self-development works in tandem with physique development—sometime preceding it, sometimes resulting from it, and sometimes working side by side with it.

Here are my top 7 lessons learned from the bodybuilding stage:

  1. Fat loss takes time but needs to be approached with a sense of urgency.  While losing weight slowly is necessary for maintaining a healthy metabolism and ensuring that the weight you shed is fat and not muscle, don’t use this as a reason to get complacent or justify poor decisions about eating or exercise. With few exceptions the metabolism is very slow to get started, often taking 4 or more weeks just to build enough momentum result in consistent weekly fat loss. And that’s if you’re doing everything right!
  2. Track everything.  As the old adage goes, you can’t know where  you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.  While keeping a food log and keeping track of your calories, carbs, protein and fats might seem like a royal pain in the ass, it is the only way to figure out exactly how much you can or can’t eat without disrupting your fat loss efforts.  Don’t try to guess…it doesn’t work.Journal
  3. Until you change your mind you cannot change your body.  The body has a funny way of following what your subconscious believes to be true which is why I can’t stress enough the importance of developing self-belief and having a positive self-image.  I have never had a competition season in which I didn’t improve upon my condition from the previous season.  I attribute this to first seeing myself better than I once was the previous season and then taking actions on achieving it.
  4. Have a strong “why”.  It’s easy to stay the course and do whatever is necessary to achieve your goal when you have a clear-cut reason for doing so.  Getting up in front of a bunch of strangers with less fabric covering you than what you would wear to the beach was, and continues to be, a very big reason “why” I’m so intent on not screwing up my diet or missing workouts.  Just wanting to “look better” or “get a little leaner” is not incentive, it’s a wish.  Attach it to something bigger that will keep you doing the not so fun stuff and now you have a why.
  5. This s#%t is hard!  Make no mistake about it, you have to work your butt off and be disciplined to make even minimal gains.  Showing up is not half the battle it’s about 1/10th of it.  You need to constantly outwork yourself in order to make forward progress. Accepting this reality will help minimize frustration when you’re not achieving results at the rate you think you should.
  6. You are always IN-season.  One of the most common traits amongst top competitors is that they focus just as hard on their diet and training in the off-season as they do 3 months before stepping on stage.  By living the lifestyle year round it makes getting into competition shape much easier and faster and makes the damage done by an occasional night out on the town or going out to eat almost World's 2012 (125)non-existent.
  7. Support systems are a necessity.  As stated in lesson #5 this stuff is hard, but it can made much easier, and your likelihood of success is greatly increased by having one or more people working towards similar goals alongside you.  Conversely nothing can thwart your efforts faster than resistance or ridicule from family members or friends.  Be sure that the people surrounding you understand how important your fitness goals are to you and to respect your decisions about the way you eat and how you spend your time.

Choose your Exercise Wisely

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We are fast approaching overpopulation within the fitness industry.  It feels like a new exercise program is born each day.  It’s no wonder there’s so much confusion surrounding what type of exercise you should do, we have more diversity in the fitness industry than we have throughout the U.S.!

Trouble is, unlike people, not all exercise is created equal.  Some exercise is simply ineffective, inefficient, and a flat out waste of time.  I know people like to believe that some exercise is better than none but the purpose of exercise is to make an improvement, slow down, or maintain your physical condition.  Aside from the “feel good” or psychological side effects much of the activity people engage in on a daily basis would not constitute effective exercise.  Activity…yes.  Exercise…not so much.

As an example, take a look around your gym.  Actually…just look at the “cardio” section.  You are certain to find at least a handful of individuals who have been doing nothing but their 30-60 minutes of walking, biking, climbing, or ellipiticalling (yes, I made that word up) each day for years.  It is also likely that these individuals have not improved their fitness or body composition in years and depending upon their age they may have even regressed to some degree as a result of muscle loss and joint damage.

Even those forms of exercise that have shown to have a positive effect on physical performance, such as CrossFit, bear the harsh reality that you are likely to experience a significant injury at some point due to the high impact nature of the workouts and obliviousness to proper form.   Sorry CrossFitters, it’s true.  Just check out the CrossFit message board and note that there are more threads regarding injuries (4,633) than their Workout of the Day (3,245).

Which brings us to the most important question you can ask yourself about your exercise of choice.  What is its risk/reward ratio?  In other words, relative to the result you are seeking, your time line for achieving it, what you need to do realistically to achieve it, and the long term effect of how you achieve it, what are you willing to risk in order to reap the reward?  Some forms of exercise come with a greater likelihood of acute and/or chronic injury compared to others (i.e., torn muscles and tendons, sprains, breaks, dislocation, tendonitis, bursitis, degenerative discs, subluxation, etc.) as well as require more time investment.

Looking for a good way to waste time, look moronic and hurt yourself? Try this!

Your choice of exercise goes beyond the risk/reward ratio.  As alluded to above in the “cardio” example some forms of exercise simply produce better results than others. There is a reason why more and more health professionals from cardiologists to chiropractors to primary care physicians have crowned resistance training as the number one form of exercise (something us bodybuilders have known since first picking up a weight).  That reason being, resistance training has a bigger impact on all areas of fitness—including cardiovascular conditioning—than any other type of exercise.

Taking it a step further, the way resistance training is performed will also influence its effectiveness, safety and time requirement.  We could spend days discussing and comparing different training methods and protocols, separating the good from the bad to the downright ugly. Primarily, the comparisons will revolve around training intensity, volume, frequency, speed of movement, impact forces on the body, risk of injury, equipment selection, and time requirements.  There is much to consider when choosing your exercise, so choose wisely.

Killin’ It through Competition

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I love competition, I always have. But not for the reason people might think.  Everyone assumes that if you love competition it’s because you always win.  Not true.  I have accumulated more 2nd – 5th place trophies than I care to remember, found myself on the “2nd team” more times than I’d like to admit and I probably fall flat on my face more than 70% of the time I try something new.

The fear of failure is the primary reason why people do not like competition. They’re afraid they will be branded a “loser” if they don’t come in first or even worse, if they don’t place at all.  But the real failure is not recognizing that competition is merely a means of pushing yourself beyond your perceived limits by having a goal to move towards.

People who compete—be it with themselves or against others—achieve greater results than those who do not compete…fact.

Think about this for a moment. If you were in the hospital about to undergo surgery do you want a surgeon who competed to be recognized amongst the best in his/her class, who had a desire to be the best or one who wanted to learn at their own pace?  Just like in any profession, sporting event, or life in general there is a top and bottom and to be at or near the top you need to be “in the game” so to speak.  You won’t always win, you won’t always be the best but you will definitely be far better for trying and achieve your personal best in the process.

As I mentioned above I have a lot of 2nd—5th place bodybuilding trophies.  But I can say with absolute certainty that from my very first competition twelve years ago until today, not a single year has passed that I have not improved my appearance from the year before regardless of my placing.  I know I don’t have the genetics to be the very best but, to be better than I was previously and to compete and hold my own amongst the best is everything I could ever ask for, and that’s why I do it.  Does this make me a loser?

We all need to get over our fear of competition and realize that competition is healthy.  Look no further than the PURE PHYSIQUE 12 Week Fitness Challenge report on page 3.  We could only have one winner, Mike Flannery, but everyone who got in the game saw results and many achieved personal bests.  Even though Mike earned the title of Champion for this year we still had several winners.

You may have noticed that we recently put up a Leader Board in the studio.  We did this for two reasons.  First, we want to publicly recognize those who are putting forth their best effort and achieving their personal best.  Second, we want to encourage a friendly competitive atmosphere so no one gets complacent.  We expect to see EVERYONE’s name up on that board at some point because they’ve either lost a certain amount of body-fat or gained muscle over the course of a week or month, lifted more weight or lifted longer for a particular exercise, or achieved some personal best.

However, we’re not going to be like Little League and give every kid a trophy just for being on the team.  While we do expect to see everyone on The Leader Board at some point we expect you to compete and earn your way onto it.  We want to see you get greater results and killin’ it through competition.

 

Become Lean Without Aerobics

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One of the longest and hardest fought arguments in fitness is between those who believe that aerobic exercise is necessary for fat-loss and those who believe it is not.

The primary reason why this argument rages on is because both sides bring some heavy ammo in substantiating and defending their belief. When it’s time to go to battle, these two sides trade blows like a couple of heavyweights fighting for the championship. Just when you think one has the upper hand the other one comes back with an unexpected uppercut to send em’ stumbling backwards.

I have tested both theories at various times throughout my bodybuilding career as well as tested them with clients. There is so much research and empirical evidence for both arguments that one simply has to learn for him or herself. While I tend to lean more towards the “no-aerobics” camp there are specific circumstances under which I believe aerobics are appropriate and would encourage them.

Let me give you an example.

In my first year as a competitive bodybuilder I was utilizing a method of weight training called Super Slow™. This particular method of training adamantly opposed the performance of aerobic exercise not just for fat-loss but as a form of exercise altogether.

Through diet and resistance training alone I was able to achieve the “bodybuilder” look I had been after since I first started weight training nine years earlier (I was 13 when I first began weight training). The following year I continued to steer clear of aerobics and simply worked on improving my diet…I looked even better. For the next go-around I decided I would diet exactly the same but add some moderate to high intensity aerobics. Once again, I improved.

For the next few years I would continue the implementation of aerobic exercise during my contest prep, despite my aversion to it. I’m the type who will do things I despise if I know that in the end I’ll get what I want. All I wanted was to get leaner and more muscular each and every year so if that meant getting on that treadmill or elliptical I was all in.

However in 2010 I was put in a position where because of my heavy workload and other obligations I had to be very stingy with my time. This time around I would need to make some adjustments and the first thing I did was revisit my diet to see how I could improve it based on my current knowledge. Next, I decided to hold off as long as I possibly could with performing aerobic exercise. I figured I would use it only as a last resort when I needed to get that last bit of body-fat off and for now put my time and energy towards other important things outside of bodybuilding.

After the first month I was consistently losing body-fat week to week through better nutrition alone. Upon finishing month two, I was within 5 lbs. of where I projected myself to be on contest day (2 months away). Having eight weeks to lose the last 5 lbs (the hardest to lose) I decided to continue on without aerobic exercise and would only add it as a last resort if I hit a plateau.

With four weeks until the contest I was ahead of where I projected myself to be at this point. What a great feeling it was being “stage ready” with just a few short weeks remaining and not having performed a single minute of aerobic exercise! By the time I hit the stage I was 3 lbs below my projected weight and was easily the leanest and most muscular I had ever been.

Just as proof that this was not a fluke or a gender issue (yes, men do lose weight more easily). My girlfriend took the same approach with her diet and lost 29 lbs. in those four months without performing aerobic exercise and competed in her first Figure competition.

So as you see I’ve taken both paths to achieving personal bests. And whether yo need aerobic exercise or not is a function of many different factors. Just so that you don’t walk away with only my personal experience on the issue let me leave you with why I believe at times aerobic exercise was needed versus not needed. Please keep in mind that these are MY reasons and may not be applicable to everyone.

NEEDED WHEN:
•Diet was inadequate and proper adjustments were not made as my body/metabolism changed.
•Too few weekly weight training sessions (2-3/week), not enough to keep metabolism elevated.
•Work schedule was lighter and I was not expending as much energy throughout the day.
•Did not give myself enough time to diet.

NOT NEEDED WHEN:
•Diet was meeting personal requirements and proper adjustments were made as body/metabolism change.
•Performing 3-4 weekly high intensity weight training sessions.
•Heavy workload with long hours.
•Lower stress levels as a result being in a “better place” personally.
•My significant other was also training and dieting for competition so I had a great support system at home.

How to Perform Your Exercise for Ultimate Success

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Every fitness magazines, blog and book promises that their training method or program that will lead to, Faster Fat-loss, Bigger Biceps, A Flat Stomach, Toned Arms in 10 Days, Sculpted Legs, Better Sex and a host of other desired, over-exaggerated and embellished benefits of exercise.

It’s amusing to read the some of the reasons given by the author as to why and how their program will succeed where others have failed, especially when the program has no scientific backing or logical basis. But heaven help us if there is some celebrity or athlete who endorses the program! Then the program must be legit!

Without fail these routines typically…fail. Aside from the most obvious reason that no routine or specific formula can address or make up for the various intrinsic and extrinsic factors of all individuals, the second common reason why they fail is because they never address how the exercises should be performed. This “oversight” is most common with weight training or any type of resistance training programs. Specifically, they give no detailed instruction on repetition performance other than a few generic recommendations like, “Lift the weight under control. Don’t cheat.” or “Move slowly.”

It is impossible to provide anyone with a training routine or to follow a routine that is certain to produce the desired result unless you are assured that the exercises will be performed properly or in the manner intended. Although the repetition is the most fundamental element of weight training it is also the most overlooked, under-appreciated, and misapplied. This should come as no surprise. Consider how many of us have stepped into a gym for the first time and carefully thought out exactly how we will perform our very first repetition. It would not be a long shot to say none of us, unless the first visit was with a very mindful and detail oriented personal trainer. Unfortunately many bad habits are established within those first few months or years of training which for many will never be reversed.

Whether new to exercise or a seasoned veteran, it serves one well to be very clear about the purpose each repetition serves. It should not be as simple as moving the weight from point A to point B—that’s a simpletons approach. In the simplest way I can explain, the purpose of each repetition is to maximize muscular tension and place the greatest amount of strain on muscles possible while minimizing the strain placed on the joints and tendons. This is best accomplished by moving at a tempo slow enough to keep momentum from becoming a contributing factor in the completion of each repetition and being able to feel the muscles at each point of the range of motion.

Fast repetitions (i.e. 0.5-2 seconds to lift the weight, 0.5-2 seconds to lower it) utilize momentum to carry out a better part of each repetition whereas repetitions performed slowly (i.e. 4-6 seconds to lift the weight, 4-6 seconds to lower it) must rely on the force generated by the muscles in order to complete each rep. Moving slow makes performing the exercise harder and as we know, the harder or more demanding an exercise is the greater the likelihood of it stimulating an improvement in you physical condition or development.

Effective weight training begins and ends with the repetition. It is the foundation from which every set of every workout is built, and will be a determining factor in any programs success. Address the rep and everything else will begin to fall into place.

How to Create Your Workout Program

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I won’t beat around the bush, tease you for a handfull of paragraphs and keep you hanging around waiting with bated breath for the answer to the question everyone wants to know, how do I create a workout program? I’ll tell you upfront.

The very best way to create a workout program is from the bottom up.

This means starting with a small amount of high-quality exercise then, slowly adding more after you have measured the results of the work you’ve already done. Some might find this to be tedious and too slow of a method for discovering what is ideal. However the time spent during this process is well worth it over the long-run as you gain a better sense and understanding of what you need to do to realize future success. The most difficult aspect of this process for those with limited exercise experience or who never received proper exercise instruction (i.e. 98 percent of those who work out on their own) will be determining whether the exercise being performed is truly high in quality (see last blog entry: How to Perform Your Exercise).

Immediate success does not come except by chance. And even then continued success will be hard to come by because you will be unaware or get a false sense of the cause for your immediate success. If you are someone with two or more years of training under your belt reflect for a moment on all the different training programs you’ve tried that have been unsuccessful in delivering the results promised. Most of them were likely routines plucked right out of a magazine or book designed by someone who knows nothing about you yet still prescribed specific rep ranges, number of sets or workout splits to perform each week.

What every one of these “canned” exercise programs or workouts has in common is that they each have you performing arbitrary amounts of exercise, after which, you still have no idea why or how the program did or did not work. As with all “canned” routines your outcome is a roll of the dice.

If over that same span of years you had endeavored to work from the bottom up as opposed to searching for the “magic workout” and jumping from one set of training criteria to a completely different set, you would today have a better understanding of what works best for you. Your chances for continual progress would be much improved because you could now predict with some certainty what will transpire if you chose to take your training in one direction versus another based upon the information you gathered and your understanding of past experience. Instead you are probably just as confused today as you were back when you first started, about what to do and how to do it.

We live in a society that wants immediate results. Just watch some of the fitness infomercials or read the ads in fitness magazines and you’ll notice a common thread. Each product promises to deliver results fast. Rarely do they live up to their hype. Although the “bottom up” approach may not be as enticing, it assures you of a better understanding of what works best for you and how you can make informed decisions in the future to make or maintain your progress.

While everyone else will be plodding through their workouts hoping to stumble upon something that works, you will already be in possession of your key to success…information.

Winning The Fitness Game

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At PURE PHYSIQUE our annual Fitness Challenge is in full effect. Whether you’re a member of ours competing in the contest or you workout on your own competing against yourself, how you go about “winning” is exactly the same.

I know that not everyone will actually follow through on my advice which is why I don’t hesitate to spell it out for anyone who wants to know. Those that do employ the strategies I’m about to layout will certainly hold a huge advantage over those that don’t. In fact 8 out of the last 10 place winners of our contests have applied these strategies and I’ve used them myself and with those I’ve coached for bodybuilding and figure contests to achieve their all-time best condition and earn top placing.

The best approach is often times the simplest. For some reason we try to make things harder or more complex than they need to be. Perhaps it’s because the simple approach requires us to do things that are tedious or calls for more sweat equity and attention to detail. It’s just not fun!

Winners don’t concern themselves with “fun” they concern themselves with winning. As it relates to your fitness pursuits winning is not necessarily tied to making the top three in this, or any contest. Winning is taking yourself from where you currently are to where you want to be or at least making significant strides in that direction. So even if you don’t make the top three, or even the top ten for that matter, but lose the 5 lbs that you’ve struggled with for the last four
months then you won.

The strategy that time and time again works without fail is tracking your food intake. I’m not just talking about writing down what you eat, but actually weighing and measuring your food so you know precisely how many grams of carbs, proteins, fats and calories you are consuming. It doesn’t matter that you eat healthy, don’t have treats, or don’t drink alcohol. At the end of the day it takes going just 1 calorie over what your body actually needs for you to store that extra calorie as fat. I know most of you are probably going more than just one calorie over which is why it’s that much more important to start tracking. When you know specifically how much you’re taking in it becomes much easier to determine how much needs to come out in order to start burning body-fat.

Reinforcing this point’ last year’s winner of The PP Fitness Challenge, as well as my girlfriend and myself in preparation for our last bodybuilding and figure competition, performed no cardio. All of us achieved our all-time best condition by tracking our caloric and macronutrient intake and consistently performing 2-4 weight training sessions each week.

Next, you can’t miss workouts. If you need to move to a different time, a different day, fine, but you can’t miss. There is a certain degree of consistency that is necessary in order to keep your metabolism working at its highest rate and your strength and muscle development at its peak.

Lastly, you must approach each workout being 100% focused and work to your greatest capability. There cannot be any holding back, no whining, no complaining, NO EXCUSES, just hard work all the time.

There is certainly nothing sexy about the above strategies but they are tried and true. I will not attempt to fool you into thinking that any of them will be easy to apply because they won’t be. But I will tell you this…if you make a truly valiant effort and apply all of these strategies you will find yourself achieving success beyond your wildest dreams

Before Your Workout, Eat Like This

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Nutrition plays a big role in your ability to engage in an intense and productive workout. How and what you eat in the hours leading up to your workout can determine whether or not your energy, focus, and performance is at its peak.

Here are some simple guidelines to eating right before your workout:
•Eat 1-2 hours before your workout. Eating too close to your workout could cause you to feel sick or feel sluggish while having your last meal too far in advance could leave you with few nutrients to fuel the workout.

•Consume a moderate amount of low-glycemic carbohydrates and protein as well as a very small amount of fat. (If you are currently eating low-carb then at least 25-30% of your days carbohydrates should be consumed during this meal).

•Examples of low-glycemic carbohydrates that will provide a slow release of glycogen (sugar) to the muscle during your intense workout are brown rice, sweet potatoes, sprouted grain bread, rice cakes, oatmeal, and fruit.

•Good sources of protein include egg whites, chicken breast, turkey, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and protein shakes.

•Good sources of fat include almonds, nuts, natural peanut butter, or almond butter. However your carbohydrate and protein foods may contain enough fat making the addition of these fats unnecessary.

•Be sure to drink 16-32 oz. of water so that you are well hydrated. Being the slightest bit dehydrated will result in you feeling fatigued, lethargic, and your muscles (which are 70-75% water) functioning below par.

FOCUS VS. CONCENTRATION

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By Daniel W. Nolin

“Focus is everything.” This was the opening sentence from one of six-time Mr. Olympia winner Dorian Yates’ articles. From the context from which he was speaking, he was correct. A trainee’s level of focus is one of the deciding factors in how far he will go in his exercise career. But what is focus? How is it used? Is focus the correct terminology to use for this mental state? These are questions that will be addressed in this article.

Aside from genetics and drug use, it is the ability to concentrate, not necessarily the ability to focus, which is a key factor that separates the professionals from the average trainee. Perhaps this is an exciting prospect for many trainees since their dreams were shattered upon the discovery that they either did not have the genetics to become a competitive bodybuilder (or athlete) or did not want to abuse anabolic steroids to get to that level. Granted, although the proper use of concentration will not compensate for poor genetics, it may help a trainee take his or her physique to a level never dreamed before.

WHAT IS FOCUS?

Being in focus is not the same thing as concentrating, although people use the terms ‘focus’ and ‘concentration’ interchangeably. And if an individual is talking casually there is nothing wrong with doing so. However, from a philosophical perspective the two are different, albeit, they do work best when used together. And so, let’s see what each one is and how a trainee can derive optimal benefits from both.

First, take a look at the concept of focus, a much more fundamental concept than concentration. To be in focus is to be in tune with reality. A focused individual is concerned with facts and not feelings, fantasy, or other peoples’ opinions.

Focus is such a fundamental aspect of volition that there is no step-by-step process by which one initiates focus. It is simply a volitional switch that can be turned on or left off. Focus must be maintained on a moment-by-moment basis. A trainee literally must reaffirm his focus every two seconds at minimum. The more consistently the choice to focus is made, the easier it becomes. Many individuals think that once a strong focus is established they can ‘coast’ for a while without negative consequences, but this is not true; either an individual is in focus or is not. What may seem like a comfortable coast is actually the beginning of a descent that will end up in a pit of chaos. Focus is what gives an individual control over his life, and there can be no substitutes.

It is also not true that there are different levels of focus. Either a trainee is in full focus or he is not; there is no middle ground. It may seem as if there are levels of focus since most individuals are not in focus consistently on a moment-by-moment basis. The measurement that should be considered is not the level of focus, but the consistency of time spent in focus. Meaning that if throughout the course of one minute an individual is in focus for thirty of the sixty seconds then that individual may reflect on that minute and feel that he was only half in focus. The actual truth was that at any given moment he was either in full focus or not.

Being in focus at the gym does not guarantee a good workout. What being in focus will guarantee is that a trainee will be fully aware that he is at the gym, and this means that while he is in focus his mind will not wonder into fantasy. It will not drift to other menial concerns or other people’s awareness of him. His mind will only be concerned with himself, where he is, what he is doing, and why he is doing it.

HOW TO APPLY FOCUS

Remember that focus is a much more general concept than term than concentration. It would be incorrect to tell a trainee to stay ‘focused’ on his workout, as that would be too specific and the term that should be used for such a statement would be concentration. Being in focus means being in touch with reality in general. When in focus an individual’s mind is aware of where he is, who he is, and why he is there.

To reiterate, being in focus does not mean an individual is focused on the specifics of a task at hand. It means that his mind is ‘in touch’ with reality. And so, when a trainee is in focus while he is at the gym his mind is clear, alert, and ready for action; he is fully aware of the equipment around him. With every piece of exercise equipment he looks at a flood of information that instantly is available to him. Being in a daze and not being cognizant of his surroundings as various thoughts float in and out of his awareness would be the opposite of being in focus.

The best method a trainee can use to get focused is for him to ask (what may seem like trivial questions): “Where am I? What piece of equipment am I going to use? Why this equipment instead of another?” He should ask of himself orientating questions that will make him more aware of his physical surroundings. A sure fire way to know that he is not in focus is if he is distant or even seems separated from the objects around himself. A trainee who is at the gym, yet seems distant from his physical surroundings is most likely not in focus.

Being in touch with concrete objects around one’s self is vital for sustaining focus. However, physical objects are not the total of reality: an individual’s consciousness is just as much a part of reality as the steel dumbbells in front of him. It is just as important for a trainee to orientate his mind to his own consciousness as it is orientate his mind to his surroundings. This means a trainee must be fully aware of what is going on in his head, or ‘consciously conscious, so that he will be able to guide it in the proper direction.

WHAT IS CONCENTRATION?

Concentration is the act of isolating one’s attention on a specific object, task, or aspect of consciousness. Anyone who has done any type of meaningful work in his or her life has had some experience with concentration.

An individual does not have to be in focus in order to concentrate, and vise versa. This means that an individual can concentrate on an object or act without being focused on reality, such as when he is engaged in a training routine that he knows to be irrational and unproductive, but is doing it very well.

Unlike focus, concentration is not merely a choice of ‘on’ or ‘off.’ There are varying degrees of concentration, even though there are no means of measuring these degrees at present. Currently, you can give your full and undivided attention to what is being read, or your concentration may be divided, the latter of which may be more appropriate if there is something in the oven, there are children playing nearby, etc.

HOW TO APPLY CONCENTRATION

Remember that concentration is the isolation of your awareness to something specific, in contrast with focus that is a much more fundamental concept. However when most people use the term focus it is actually concentration to which they are referring. Even though it may be misnamed, the concept of concentration is much more widely used in today’s culture.

What concentration means in practice at the gym is that an individual’s awareness is riveted on himself and his workout. It means that his attention does not wonder about to other concerns or events going on in the gym. If a group of people beside him is listening to a joke one of them is telling, he is not diverted by it.

Unlike focus, which is either ‘on’ or ‘off,’ there are different levels of concentration. At present there is no objective way to measure different levels concentration. However, it is observable through introspection, in that one can heighten or lower the intensity of concentration at any moment.

FURTHER UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION

The idea that focus and concentration do not pertain to the same mental state may be so new to some that further differentiation may be warranted. The best way to see the difference between the two concepts is to isolate each from the other. The following are examples of being in focus without concentrating and concentrating without being in focus. An individual can be at the gym in full focus, but yet not concentrate on his workout. The clearest example would be a trainee fully aware of where he is and why, but having a nagging problem from his work day, at the peripheral of his mind that will not go away. Or perhaps a more common example is a trainee being in focus but not concentrating on anything in particular; simply moving from exercise to exercise, in focus, but doing so out of habit and routine.

Concentrating on a workout while being unfocused is a more common phenomenon. It can be done by concentrating on the particulars of a given exercise while not focusing on the routine as a whole. A trainee may be in full concentration when it comes to the concentric, eccentric, tension time, etc., but will ignore other factors that he knows to be important, such as regulating the volume and frequency.

THE PERFECT BALANCE

By now it should be apparent that to live a long productive fitness lifestyle there needs to be a harmony between focus and concentration. A trainee should be fully aware of himself, his surroundings, and why he is at the gym. As well, he should keep his mind isolated on each individual exercise and not have his mind wondering to other issues during the middle of a set.

The ideas discussed in this article are not new; they are discussed in philosophy classrooms around the globe. But perhaps they are new to the reader of this article. It should be obvious that the basic concepts discussed herein can be applied to almost any human endeavor, yet it is arguable that the amount of focus and concentration needed to be a successful trainee is higher than that of many other goals. Using rational high intensity training principles in exercise is one of the most physically excruciating activities that can be done. Yet learning how to harness the benefits that a properly focused and concentrated mind can provide is an invaluable ability that can help a trainee reach his or her fitness goals.