Sarcomere and Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

     I recently did an oral presentation for my class on Sarcomere and Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Just the thought of hypertrophy makes me curious. I did a lot of research on it and found a lot of very useful information. Some of which I am actually including in the design of my work out routines.

     Instead of talking about both forms of hypertrophy on here, I will only make a brief comment on Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy. As most of my attention is focused on Sarcomere Hypertrophy.

     Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy is non-functional hypertrophy. Sure it can make your muscles bigger. Who doesn't want to be bigger? I wouldn't mind being a little bigger myself. Within reason though. I want to add lean muscle mass, but still be able to do most common daily activities without having to hire an assistant to help me, simply cause i can't reach, or bend that way any more.

     So, that brings us to Sarcomere Hypertrophy. Sarcomere is the smallest functioning unit of the muscle, and is also the part of the muscle that does the "contracting" or moving. Increasing the size of the sarcomere, and not only do you increase muscle size (of course not as much as in Sarcoplasmic), but you also increase muscle strength for more forceful contractions. Which is functional since your strength increase is relative to muscle size. Simply put, Sarcomere builds a more dense, stronger muscle. Sarcoplasmic builds bulk, but not as much strength.

     An easy way of picturing the difference would be to picture two well known people. Just as an example, lets use Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger. When thinking of sarcomere hypertrophy, think of Bruce Lee. He was very strong, but he also had small but very dense muscles. Very functional. Which leaves Arnold Schwarzenegger to be sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Arnold is strong and has large muscles. If Bruce Lee was still alive today, and we could compare, I'm sure we would find out that they are both pretty close in strength. The only difference would be somewhere between 80 to 150 pounds of body weight.

     Although there is a lot of ways I could explain how Bruce Lees muscle structure is more functional, I would rather just make one observation and leave it at that. Bruce Lee being as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger, could still buy his clothes right off the rack. 

My Time in Class is Almost Over!

     It's been a while since I was last on here to talk about myself. I figure now is a good time for an update.

     We just finished the Anatomy and Physiology portion of our program. It has been a very interesting year, and only a few month's left to go. We have covered a lot of information in the past year. Information that I can honestly say, would have been very boring if it wasn't for our exceptionally great teacher. Someone I honestly classify as an "Elite Instructor". Mr. Tranter brings so much energy and enthusiasm to the class. You can't help but to absorb some of his energy and enthusiasm for the class. I couldn't imagine sitting through so much information with anyone else.

     In the last few months, we've seen 3 of our classmates, the first 3 to attend the class; leave us to continue their lives in the new field of work that we all are striving for. We have 3 more classmates leaving us to strike out on their own soon as well. Over the next few months, the class I started in will be completely different. Including myself, as I go out to perform my hours of work at a local gym. During that time, I have to go to Las Vegas, Nevada. While in Las Vegas, I'll be going through a boot camp to get my NSCA, First Aid, CPR and AED certifications.

     As for now, over the next couple months I have a lot of exams to write. I have every confidence in my self, that I am more than prepared for everything that will take place in the next few months. I owe my confidence to Mr. Tranter. With his energy, his life stories and the way he helps us all to learn. He has helped all of us that have been lucky enough to study with him, to see how valuable we are, and how to strive to reach our goals.

     So now I would like to take the time to say "Thank You" to Medix school, and Mr. Tranter for all the help, and for getting me going on the right path for a job I can see myself very happy doing.

Next client please!

     As we travel along in our program to become the most up to date and knowledgeable Professional Fitness Consultants, We have a lot of interesting challenges. My first client was a challenge for me, as it was the first time in a client/trainer relationship. That was a fun yet challenging time for us.

     Now we have moved into another session of client/trainers. As before, it has already proven to be challenging, yet fun. The first time, both my classmate and I really didn't know exactly what we were doing, so we were always erring on the side of caution. The classmate I have now as a partner, has a great deal of knowledge about exercises and workout routines.

     I spent the first few weeks of the new relationship, trying to be creative enough to come up with routines that she would enjoy, and would surprise her. That didn't go over to well. Took me 3 attempts at designing a routine, and her looking at it 3 times. The first 2 times she of course explained to me both the pros and cons of my design. 3rd times the charm! She checked it over (strictly as a classmate offering help) and gave me the thumbs up. WOOHOOO!
 
     I think, even with as much knowledge as my new client/trainer has; she is still going to prove to be a challenge. She is very light weight, but wants to add some size. Simple enough, use heavy weights and increase your dietary intake. Not so simple. She has such a busy life, she often doesn't have time to eat. She runs her own business, and has spent the past few month's renovating her house. Renovations are almost complete, but now to make ends meet, she has taken on a second job. Throw into the mix, the football practices and games her kids have. Yes she is busy.

     So I designed a 3 day work out. The first 2 days, are workouts we perform together at the gym. The 3rd day i reserved for her to do on her own when she finds time. Should be interesting in seeing how this works out.

UPDATE

     OK! It has been a few weeks since we started training. I'm very pleased to say that i've noticed some changes in myself, and my client. For her, we did a core routine a little bit ago. A couple days later, her abs suffered DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). She still felt it a few days later, but she can't wait to continue on and see how cut we can actually get her abs. I'm very interested in seeing for myself as well. I have a whole list of ideas to run her through. I will do my best to keep you updated on how things work out for us.

     More to come.

My First and most Important Client

     Well here we are. Almost at the end of a 3 month program of working with my first client. I'd like to take a little time to explain a bit about my client. First off, she is from Lebanon. She is a 34 year old mother of 2. When she started the program with me (Professional Fitness Consultant program) she weighed 168 pounds. She was also suffering from some shoulder pain and demonstrated a lack in upper body, and distal arm strength. She does have lower body strength, since she was a belly dancer in her home country. However she was also lacking in cardiovascular.

     Her goals were to lose at least 18 pounds, gain upper body strength, and increase her cardiovascular. I love the reasoning for her goals. She wants to be able to play longer with her children, and have the strength to play harder as they get older.

     Our plan of attack? Simple. Start off increasing her Cardiovascular. It is important to do this for a couple of reasons. First reason is it helps build endurance and increase the flow of oxygen to the system. Second is its a great way to help lose the weight.

     We have had some obstacles to over come. The first few weeks we had to take it easy, due to an issue of a personal nature of my client. At the start of Week 3, we started our assault on her system. First plan of attack was to improve her cardiovascular system,  and endurance. We did this by starting every session on a treadmill. She would start off walking for 5 minutes, to prepare her body for the workout ahead. After the 5 minute walk, we would increase the speed. At first she would last between 60 and 90 seconds. Gradually over the weeks, we greatly increased her time to the point where in a 1 hour treadmill exercise, she spends a majority of the time jogging at a fast pace. Congratulations to her and all her hard work. I am more than impressed.

     Second attack was on her upper body strength. I put my client through a short serious of machines from the Fit-Fix area in our gym to find what her base strength was. Since we had a rocky start, I didn't see the need for a mid point reference. On the first machine, she was able to do 1 set of 10 reps with 75 pounds. The last time i tried her on the same machine, she managed to do 3 sets of 10 reps with 115 pounds. An increase of 53.3%. Although not all increases were as great, they are still very significant. on average the strength increase is between 30 and 54%. I also have to take into consideration that not only is she able to lift more, but has also increased her amount of sets, and repetitions.

     Here is a chart to show the weight loss that was achieved.

 As you can tell by the graph. Weight loss was gradual. Slowly losing weight gives a higher probability of keeping the weight off. The following graph shows the gradual decrease in my clients Body Mass Index.

The final chart i wish to share with you, is my clients Fat Mass. As you can tell by the chart below, my clients Fat Mass has dropped by almost 10 pounds. 

     Although we did not exactly hit my clients goal of a weight of 150 lbs, we did come very close. For me it is a great success. Even though she is my first client, I feel very confident in saying already that she was my "Most Challenging" client.

Mental Training. The Hardest Workout You Will Ever Do!

So you're 180 pounds, and flabby. What are you going to do about it? Sign up for a gym membership, just to go a few times. Then start making excuses why you can't go? Statistics show an average of 40 to 50% of people who sign up for a gym membership, quit going shortly after. Up to at least 90% will stop going to the gym within the first 90 days. Why do you think that is?

     The #1 reason for this is the lack of mental training, or Mental Toughness. People sign up for the gym because they feel they have let themselves go over the years. They are unhappy with their appearance. So they sign up for a gym membership, go a few times, then start making excuses. Sure they want to be in better shape. Sure they want to feel better about themselves. Sure they don't know that mentally they are not prepared for it.

     Just going to the gym and working out isn't going to do a lot. sure you will hit your goal....Eventually! You have to mentally prepare to push yourself to your limits. To really perform at your best, prepare yourself mentally. Don't go into the gym doing primal screams, beating your chest, and slamming weights down when your done. That's just mental. Instead, train yourself to think "There is nothing I can't do.". Don't just think it. Believe in it, use it. Repeat it to yourself several times a day. The proof that it works is all around you at the gym.

     You see men and women of all ages at the gym, that are in very good shape. They have the mental toughness to realize the shape they wanted to be in, and stick with it. They didn't just wake up one day and decide they wanted to look and feel better. They mentally set themselves in their minds. They decided how they wanted to look, and kept working until they reached that goal. You can do it too.  We all have the ability. All we need is the right mental path to take. 

     I've read a lot of articles on mental toughness. A lot of quotes as well. The best I have found is this one "Mental toughness is not letting anyone break you." and that was by Jimi Mitchell, a football player. It's all about having an unshakable belief in yourself and what you can accomplish, to be more consistent and remaining determined, focused, confident, resilient, and in control under pressure. So focus on what you want to improve, then make it happen. Regardless of what happens or what people say. You also have to remember, your goals are yours. When you do have them set, you need to block out the people around you in the gym, and focus on you. You won't look like them, you'll just be a better you.

     Once you set your goal, and decide that your not going to let anyone or anything get in your way. You will notice a big difference. Not just in how you look, but how you feel. More importantly, how you feel about yourself. 

Training Philosophy

Absorb What is Useful, Reject What is Not: I actually took this one from Bruce Lee. The intention of this philosophy is simple. When you start training, don't just jump into 1 routine and stick with it. Try several routines and exercises. Choose the ones that give you the best results. Don't keep using the ones that have little to no affect. There is many exercises out there, its up to you and/or your personal trainer to find the right ones for you.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants: Don't be afraid to take some criticizing comments from others who have been at it a lot longer than you. There is a lot of very experienced people out there. Try what they say. It obviously worked for them, maybe it will work for you!

Form is King: Keeping the proper posture and form during an exercise is a lot more important than how many repetitions you can do. Bouncing the bar off your chest while doing the benchpress, sure it helps you do more reps, but its not the proper form. To fully use your muscles potential, you should stop the bar an inch above your chest. Same as swinging your body or your arm while doing bicep curls. Your losing the effectiveness of the work out. Your elbows should stay locked by your waist, and you should keep your body as still as possible for each rep.

Assess Assess Assess: Every 3 to 6 weeks you should assess yourself and your routine. You need to do these assessments to insure your doing exercises that will help you reach your goal as quickly as you want.

Tweak Tweak Tweak: This one goes hand in hand with Assess Assess Assess and Absorb What is Useful, Reject What is Not. Assess your routine and find areas to improve an exercise, or use a different exercise with better results. A successful tweak will be one that increases your gains.

Keep Things Simple: This also includes over analyzing your workout routines. The closer we can keep to our basic movements, the less time you have to think about if your doing it right. You will get more out of your exercises.

More to come as the Experience Grows...

Dumbbell One Arm Tricep Extension

This exercise is one of my favourites. Mainly because it works on one of my favourite muscles to work on. The Tricep is the muscle on the back of your arm, and is the main muscle that makes your arms look bigger.

Preparation: Find a weight you feel comfortable using, but heavy enough to be a challenge. Sit on a bench with a back support, slightly lower than shoulder height. With dumbbell in hand, raise your arm straight over head, or slightly back. Make sure to keep your back pressed against the back support for proper posture.

Execution: Bending your arm at the elbow, lower the weight behind your head. Try to keep your upper arm as straight up as possible. After you reach the bottom of the rep, return your arm to the starting position. Repeat.

Incorrect Movement: Don't let your arm move away from your head. Moving your elbow forward will help you lift the weight on each rep, but will also lessen the focus on the Tricep Brachii.

Sidenote: Let the weight pull your arm slightly back to maintain shoulder flexion. Keep your elbow tucked in so it doesn't turn into an overhead press. Back support must not be high enough to stop full range of motion of the dumbbell. This exercise can also be performed without a back rest, or in a standing position.

Target Muscle: Tricep Brachii