Not Everything is a Priority

I'm send you my "Monday Newsletter" at almost 10pm on a Thursday

That should tell you how the weeks been going!

Now, where's the lesson in this and how am I going to spin it into an

informational newsletter?

Well, simply put, life happens.

And I spend a lot of time explaining to clients that it's ok to miss a

workout, it's ok not to train on your holidays.

It's ok, to only do the bare minimum some days.

It's ok to prioritise other things when other things need prioritised.

I've said before how my clients tend to fall into one or more of 3

categories:

1) Injured and looking for a way to regain fitness

2) A keen amateur athlete with well defined goals

3) General Fitness people looking to keep fitness high enough to take on

any challenge that comes their way

Regardless of the category you fit into, you will be well advised to

take occasional breaks away from training.

Those in category 2 generally would have this planned, maybe after a big

event or at the end of the season, we call this by a fancy name, because

they're athletes, we say it's "periodisation"

The other two categories tend to have more freedom, they can take breaks

whenever they see fit.

And for everyone, there will be times where life simply tells you to

take a break.

So what we do is instead of focusing on individual workouts, we look at

the month.

If we had planned to train 3x/week this month, then that would have been

12 workouts.

If we get all 12, then that's great.

If we miss a couple, we still have 10 workouts in the bag.

Then we compare months against months, are we hitting a good average, or

are we consistently missing sessions.

Then we have information to work with.

Again, an athlete will be more focussed, but they also have a timeline

set for them.

Rehab clients tend to be very focussed until they stop hurting

It's the journeyman that can wander.

Just like I let this newsletter slack every now and again, because it's

not the main part of what I do, if fitness isn't the main thing you do,

then the odd miss isn't going to harm you.

Just so long as on average, you get more sessions in than you miss.

And even more important than that, so long as your key metrics that

you're training to improve are moving in the right direction.

Your Squat has gotten stronger, your 10K time has gotten quicker, your

toe touch is a little deeper, you're Tee Off has gotten a little further

That's the key, that's why we train.

It's about results

It's about having the strength, mobility and endurance to to the things

that make life worth living!

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

Can You explain energy systems?

Nate has been asking some really interesting questions about how the body fuels itself.

He asked for a breakdown of the bodies energy systems, so here's what I told him:

"You have 3 energy systems.

Aerobic

Anaerobic

And the horrible middle child glycolitic (which has changed its name a few times as more evidence is discovered)

Aerobic is ALWAYS running and relies on oxygen being around.

Anaerobic is a few seconds, uses ATP that is already within the cells.

The Aerobic system then steps up to replenish that ATP

And the weird middle child that is dominant when going flat out after the Anaerobic system runs out of juice and before the Aerobic system can catch it up.

Glycolitic system kind of runs on Lactic Acid and hate as its fuel source.

ATP is the currency of energy. It's what the cells need to operate.

We break down glucose and create ATP through some mind blowingly complex biochemistry.

Fun side bar, one of my school buddies memorised the entirety of the Krebs cycle just to piss off our A-Level Biology teacher who we called "Clang"

So, in short injest food, digest it to glucose.

Glucose can be used immediately, most of the time we convert it to Glycogen and store in the muscles and liver for when we need it in a hurry.

Excess glucose can also be shunted into the fat cells.

Using glycogen to create atp is best done through the Aerobic system and is our normal operating mode.

Anaerobic makes ATP from glycogen and creatine

Glycolitic production is nuts but if you're using it, you'll be blowing out our arse too hard at the time to care anyhow!!

So, TL:DR

Fill the glycogen stores and we're all rosy in the garden.

When to fill them?

Either fill the tank before a journey

Or top it up as you go along

Either way, you get there!"

Now, outside of "for interest" how useful is this info?

To most people most of the time it isn't particularly useful.

I spent quite a while reading up and learning about this stuff because I thought it'd make me a better coach, and I'm not sure it has.

As I said in the reply to Nate, we need fuel, and wether fuel up in one sitting or across many sittings is a personal choice.

Our training can be adjusted to better access the various energy systems.

Be that anaerobic, aerobic or gylcolytic.

Of the three, the glycolytic tend to be the least trainable with short term gains being the norm.

Developing the Aerobic and Anaerobic works bets for most people most of the time.

And as the aerobic system is ALWAYS running, and has the job of refuelling the other two systems, it's a really good idea to have this well developed.

I'l talk more about aerobic fitness in another newsletter, because there's more to understand there than simply going for a run or a bike ride.

But it is important to understand that just because an exercise raises your heart rate for a bit, it may not actually be aerobic developement.

Anyhow, more on that next edition.

I'll see you there....

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net

Have you ever seen a boxer with a small back?

Have you ever seen a boxer with a small back?

I just sent that as a part of a conversation with an online client, a former kickboxer who now plays rugby.

Even before this conversation, the thought has lived in my head for years, but I'm not sure I've ever talked about it.

But recently over on YouTube, Eddie Hall, the famous strongman had the "Karate Nerd" Jessie Enkamp on his channel.

As they chatted in the gym, Eddie commented that every fighter he'd had in always blew his mind with how strong their back was, how much weight they could handle on pulling exercises.

When we consider fighters, Boxers etc, we see they punch and do pushups. Yet, they always develop impressive backs.

How?

And why then do bodybuilders need so many different back exercises?

The really short answer is: Scapula.

If there's one bone in the body that gets me excited, it's the scapula, the humble shoulder blade.

It is truly the key to the upper body.

And the thing that fighters, climbers, kettlebell sports guys and gymnasts do that bodybuilders don't is move their scapula, a lot!

There's a really common cue in fitness training: "Shoulders back and down"

This cue is excellent in the right context and awful in the wrong context.

Should your goal be to hoist the most amount of weight, especially in a gym setting, then it works.

But for most folks it's merely a start point, it's setting the shoulder ready to move.

We pull the shoulder blade back and down, to initiate the press, then as the arm move, the scapula also starts to move.

And that scapula, that wee triangle shaped bone that sits on or upper back has 19 muscles that connect to it.

It IS your back and your shoulder.

Almost all your back muscles are there to help the scapula do it's job, and that job is to give the shoulder it's power.

Any motion of the arm is backed up with motion of the scapula and it's 19 pulleys.

On this list, I have a range of folks, some are boxers and fighters, some kettlebell sports, the rest a huge variety of folks from amateur athletes to casual fitness enthusiasts.

It doesn't matter who you actually are and what you're training for, what matters is we move our shoulder blades and we ensure that we're not holding them tight and immobile,

Use simple shoulder rotations (see Basic Joint Mobility)

Use straight arm lifts, such as windmills, get ups, scap push up and pull ups, band pull aparts in every angle possible

Swing clubs, maces, kettlebells and bulgarian bags

Do Halo's with weight plates

And on the basic exercises, Presses, Rows etc

There are some lifts (bench press) where the shoulder blade doesn't move, but on everything else, feel it join in the movement.

And if you do, your shoulder will feel generally better, stronger and more mobile, and your back development will take off!

Let's face it, no one respects a small back!!

Chat soon.

Dave

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net