In yesterday’s post we talked about a really cool concept my buddy Dan Long calls “Kill Mode” and the extreme importance of really pushing yourself each and every workout.
Simply put, if you’re not feeling “uncomforable” often throughout your workout, you’re barely skimming the surface of your fat loss potential, if at all.
Are you happy with your results? If not, one of the things you need to be doing is ensuring that your workouts are set up to burn maximal fat, and that’s exactly what today’s post is about — 3 “staple” components of fat-killing workouts:
1. BIG Movements – The only movements that should be included in a fat burning workout are those that include multiple muscle groups and cross multiple joints. For example, with a Dumbbell Bench press there is movement at the shoulder joint and the elbow joint. For a DB squat, there is movement and the hips and the knees. Contrast those BIG movements with a bicep curl in which you’re working just one teeny tiny muscle of the upper arm, and movement is only occuring at one joint.
The difference? With big movements you tax much more musculature around many more joints and ultimately create a much greater metabolic effect. BIG movements burn BIG calories; small movements not so much…
2. Alternating Upper and Lower Body – Now that you know that big movements are key, here’s a little trick to get your heart working even harder: alternate BIG upper body movements with BIG lower body movements. When a muscle or group of muscles work, the heart works to pump blood to those muscles in order to deliver oxygen and other nutrients necessary to perform the exercise and for recovery after. If you just finished a big lower body exercise in which the heart is working hard to send blood to that region, and then follow it up with a BIG upper body exercise, you’re heart will then need to work even harder to deliver nutrient rich blood to the entire body.
The result? Heart rate is elevated, your heart works harder, and you burn more calories.
Want an even greater caloric burn? Mixing in full body movments like a plyometric medicine ball slam where you start with a full squat holding a medicine ball then explode up jumping as high as you can lifting the ball overhead and slamming it down on the ground…fun stuff =) Combination lifts like a lunge and press work well as full body movments as well.
3. Limited rest – BIG movements, full body movments, and alternating upper and lower body exercises is all phenomenal, but the trick to keeping heart rate up and calories incinerating throughout the entire workout is limiting your rest periods. This has two benefits. Number one, you’ll obviously be able to do more work in a 45 minute workout with 30 second rest periods than with 90 second or 60 second rest periods between exercises, which means way more calories burned. Secondly, your heart rate won’t fall off as much as your conditioning improves and you’re able to limit rest, and a higher average heart rate = more calories burned.
Some of the best workouts that incorporate all three of the above components can be found at my friend Craig Ballantyne’s site here. In fact, Craig just put up a “secret” page where he’s got 31 different interval training workouts for you that require practically no equipment:
==> 31 Fat Burning Interval Training Workouts for You
Keep rockin’!
Joel
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Here’s a little-publicized fact:
If you want fast results, you’re going to have to work out HARD. Oops…looks like I just lost 99% of the world as a potential customer.
Nevertheless, it’s a FACT. Effective fat burning workouts are uncomfortable by nature.
Let me ask you this…
When is the last time you felt “uncomfortable” during a workout? I’m talking about “hands-on-your-knees, sucking-wind, sweat-dripping-on-the-gym-floor” uncomfortable? For most people it ain’t recent.
But it’s absolutely necessary.
Why? Because it’s not about how many calories you burn during a workout – it’s about how many calories you burn after.
Classic example: For the last two weeks I’ve been working out with a guy by the name of Dan “The Machine” Long. He doesn’t call himself that, but I do. Why? Because he’s a machine. Pretty self-explanatory.
Well, yesterday Dan put me through a workout that resulted in me burning 647 calories in 45 minutes. Not too shabby. But that’s not where the real magic happened – no, the real magic happened about 20 minutes later when I pulled in to my garage and that same calorie monitor read 1009 calories.
That’s 362 additional calories burned while sitting on my butt driving home – that’s more than most people burn in a 30 minute workout, and I did it while sitting around.
Had I left the calorie monitor on for another hour, it probably would have read somewhere around 1500 calories (nearly TRIPLE the caloric burn of the actual workout).
And I attribute that kind of dramatic “afterburn” directly to the intensity of the workout, and more specifically to a concept that Dan refers to as “kill mode”.
What is kill mode? Well, allow me to define it for you, straight from Results Dictionary:
Kill Mode (‘kil · mōd) noun – a mental shift that occurs approximately half way through a work set in which fatigue is ignored, adrenaline prevails, and all-out max effort fat loss domination begins
Boom!
A practical example:
Let’s say you’re doing a timed set of jump squats for one minute. The first 30 seconds is auto-pilot. The final 30 seconds is when you enter kill mode – you forget about how you’re feeling, you allow adrenaline to take over, and you give it your all. You push. You go harder. You dominate.
That’s kill mode, and it works — bigtime.
Is it uncomfortable? YES. Is it HARD? Absolutely. Does it require mental toughness? You better believe it.
But as I stated at the very beginning of this post, you’re NEVER going to get the results you’re after without truly, genuinely working HARD.
Think about it – are you truly pushing yourself during your workouts? Does each set end with a “kill mode” moment? If not, you’re barely scratching the surface of your fat loss potential!
So here’s what I want you to do: If you’re willing to commit to giving “kill mode” a go in your next workout, respond by leaving a comment below. At least 200 comments and I’ll be back tomorrow with 3 more workout tips for maximal fat loss.
Time to DOMINATE.
Joel
P.S. This is your opportunity to show your commitment to pushing yourself and taking your workouts (and results) to the next level by commenting below. Step out and make the commitment – I’m first in line, and I want you with me. Talk to you in the comments section!
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The #1 Roadblock to Your Success
By Bill Phillips
After 20 years of helping over one million people transform their bodies and lives I know one thing for certain: As odd as it may sound to you right now, you can’t enjoy lasting weight loss, along with long-term health and happiness, without FIRST transforming what’s going on ‘beneath the surface.’ (I call this an ‘inside out approach’ and it’s making a world of difference for those who experience it.)
Sure supersized portions, addictive ‘nutrient dead’ foods, and inactivity are literally killing millions of Americans and robbing children of their healthy futures. But the truth is, unless you address excess body fat with a holistic approach—meaning you consider the mind, body, heart and soul—you’re not going to get lasting results.
Period… end of story.
That statement is so important I’d like to say it again in a more direct way…
Statistics Show That 95% of Dieters Are Never
Going To Lose Weight And Keep It Off If
They Only Focus On Food And Exercise Alone
Their old patterns, unresolved emotional blocks, addictive habits and limiting beliefs will, sooner or later, cause them to rebound and spiral out of control… again and again.
Has this ever happened to you: One day you’re following a diet, losing weight and feeling hopeful but the next thing you know you’re overweight and unhappy again?
If you’re like most people, this hasn’t happened to you just once… it’s happened many times over the years. In fact, I’m sure you know people who have been trapped on the weight loss rollercoaster for decades and the darn thing just won’t stop.
This brings me to a very important point that I want to really emphasize: Until you get to the root of what causes weight problems, you’re going to be stuck living the rest of your life in a body you’re ashamed of… along with the mental, physical and emotional health consequences that come along with it.
The reality is simple: Dieting is like clipping a weed at the ground surface—as long as the root is intact, it will come back. But I’m sure you don’t need to hear this from me—when you think about it, your past experiences have proven this to you over and over again.
You see, as long as you’re still the same inside–at the level of your thoughts, beliefs, patterns, and emotions–you simply haven’t undergone a true transformation. And any temporary weight loss results you do get will soon rebound and ‘snap back’ just like when you release a stretched rubber band.
What’s more, as you’ve probably experienced yourself, each time you try and fail to stick to a diet, it lowers your calorie-burning metabolism as well as your emotional well-being. As a result, you tend to gain even more weight until you want to give up completely.
And to make matters worse, science has shown that all of this negative emotional ‘baggage’ we carry around such as anger, frustration, stress, grief, shame, anxiety, depression, negative thinking and loneliness contribute to an imbalance in the brain which triggers cravings to eat, even when you’re not hungry. What’s more, these same emotions can negatively impact our health by lowering our immune system and increasing our risk of developing cancer and heart disease.
That’s the BIG roadblock with traditional diets—they completely ignore the root of the problem that’s driving you to overeat and feel bad. Fortunately there’s a new breakthrough…
The Bio-Balance Solution: How
to Lose Weight By Feeling Good
A leading Neurologist named Ronald Ruden, M.D., Ph.D., has done groundbreaking work in how emotions and thoughts impact something he calls ‘bio-balance.’ The simple explanation of ‘bio-balance’ is when you’re free from toxic emotions, negative thoughts, and you feel connected to other people in the world, your brain becomes much healthier and happier. This in turn allows you to feel good, enjoy a healthy state of mind, control your weight and experience more energy!
Bio-balance is a natural state of being that Mother Nature intended you to be in.
On the other hand, when your brain is out of bio-balance, it’s constantly working against you by causing cravings and stress, which of course lead to over eating, weight gain, poor health, low energy, and depression.
Here’s a question… Do you ever eat when you feel angry, stressed, anxious or lonely? If so, the cause may be coming from a lack of bio-balance.
The Serotonin Connection
To be more specific, a brain neurotransmitter called serotonin plays a big role in bio-balance. You see, when our bio-balance is off, serotonin levels become low, and not only are we not happy (actually, we’re depressed), but another one of our natural brain chemicals, called dopamine, can become overactive.
Dopamine is the ‘gotta-have-it’ neurotransmitter. It’s what makes us crave and strive for everything from certain foods, to alcohol, to nicotine, to unhealthy, compulsive behaviors.
When we ‘score’ one of those things, our brains release serotonin and for a short period of time we’re satisfied, we’re fulfilled. But then serotonin levels dip again and dopamine drives us into another cycle of craving, seeking, getting… and this addictive pattern continues, over and over again, unless our bio-balance is corrected.
The good news is that there’s a scientific, safe and natural way to restore healthy bio-balance so we can lose weight, feel better, and enjoy life more than ever.
If you’re looking for THAT answer – the real secret to end yo-yo dieting and the “falling off the wagon” phenomenon once and for all – then please make sure to watch your email closely tomorrow. I’ve got a really big surprise for you, and you’re not going to want to miss it.
All the best,
Bill Phillips
#1 NY Times Bestselling Author – Body-for-Life®
————————
Got a question or comment on today’s article? Drop it below and we’ll be here to interact with you personally!
2,937 Comments
We’re going to make this post extremely quick and easy.
To enter to win one of the 10 THIRTY free copies of the entire 1,000 Calorie Challenge system that we’re GIVING AWAY today, simply reply in the comments section below this post (reply form is at the bottom of the page) with the following information:
In 250 words or less, we want you to tell us exactly why this program is the perfect program for you at this point in your life. Tell us WHY you NEED access to this information.
Again, please keep your reply less than 250 words, and please, leave finances out of your reply. This program (via our special launch pre-sale) will be affordable for literally anyone who wants access to it. Anyone.
So, again, leaving the financial stuff out, we want you to tell us, based on everything you’ve learned about the strategic 1,000 Calorie Challenge System over the last 6 updates, why this program is the perfect fit for you.
We will keep the contest open until 12 PM EST tomorrow, and then we’ll go through the replies and notify the winners via email sometime late Saturday!
Good luck!
Joel & Arnel
NOTE: This contest is now closed.
62 Comments
Over the past few days Dr. Samhouri has been dropping knowledge bombs left and right, so much so that I wanted to get in on the action.
So today, I’ve teamed up with Dr. K to write the below article, educating you about how a strategically designed exercise program like Full Throttle Fat Loss can, believe it or not, dramatically improve digestion and lead to a plethora of other benefits that you probably never thought of. I know you’re going to enjoy it.
Digestive Exercise
By Dr. Kareem Samhouri and Joel Marion, CISSN
We all know that both diet and exercise are important to achieve optimal fat loss results, but what you may not know is how directly related exercise and digestion are-and ultimately, how a very strategic exercise program can in fact improve digestion, causing you to assimilate more nutrients, rid yourself of gastro-intestinal problems, improve overall health and lose fat more efficiently.
Over the past few days, we’ve talked a lot about the central nervous system (CNS) and how it relates to fat loss, but what we haven’t talked about much are the two different divisions of the CNS.
Parasympathetic vs. Sympathetic Activity
You may have heard, or learned at some point, about the “fight or flight” response that our nervous systems resort to when stress is present. Both of these responses (engaging in the stressor [fight] or running from the stressor [flight]) are stimulatory responses that come from our sympathetic nervous system (SNS).
During exercise, it is the sympathetic, or stimulatory portion of our nervous system that is most active. This is great, because it helps us move faster, be stronger, and exercise in a much more effective way than if we were turned “off” during exercise.
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) on the other hand is “calming” in nature and is responsible for the complete opposite response within the body.
Having said that, you can probably guess that the PNS is the system we want working for us most during digestion. In fact, the actions of the parasympathetic nervous system are often summarized as “rest and digest” as opposed to the “fight or flight” response of the SNS.
Okay, so let’s make some sense of all this and talk about why you actually care about the above brief science lesson.
Exercise and Digestion
As mentioned, your digestive processes function best when your “calming” parasympathetic nervous system is most active. Unfortunately, most people are almost nearly always in a heightened state of arousal (due to chronic stress), causing the SNS to continually fire and the PNS to take a back seat.
Chronic stimulation not only leads to general burn out and fatigue, but it also regularly hampers digestive activity as the PNS is constantly being overshadowed by stimulatory SNS function.
So how do we, or how can we turn “off” the stimulation in order to allow the “rest and digest” system to function at its fullest?
The answer is strategically “fatiguing” the SNS during exercise so that the PNS can reign at other times of the day. This is done via multi-energy system training.
Within your body, three energy systems are present:
1. First, your ATP-PC system (or if you prefer the fancy terminology, your Adenosine Triphosphate Phosphocarbonate system), is the energy system at work during quick, super fast, zero to ten second energy.
2. Second, the glycolitic system, thrives on sugar and carbohydrate to produce energy. This system is most at work during intense activity up to two minutes.
3. Third, your aerobic system, is predominately at work during relatively slower activities lasting longer than 2 minutes.
The beauty of a program like Full Throttle Fat Loss is that it is composed of exercises that fully and strategically tax ALL THREE energy systems.
By doing this, not only will you be burning your sugars and breaking down your carbs properly during exercise (instead of having them latch-on to your love handles), but the other side of this is that you’re actually going to wear out your sympathetic nervous system-stopping the stimulation and endorphin release-and ultimately turn on your parasympathetic while your not exercising.
This means:
- Much better digestion (as the PNS is the system responsible for proper digestion taking place)
- Better nutrient absorption (due to proper digestion cleaning out the “gunk” currently in your gastro-intestinal track)
- Immediate weight loss (resulting from the excretion of that same “gunk”)
- Reduced overall stress and your body being in the state that it’s naturally supposed to be in at “rest”
- Greater gains in lean body mass (due to more nutrients being digested and assisting in recovery and repair of muscle tissue)
- Reduced cortisol (the “stimulatory” stress hormone that results from constant SNS activation) and muscle wasting
- Reduced belly fat (cortisol is also heavily associated with abdominal fat storage)
- Improved GI comfort and alleviation of certain GI issues
- Increased overall health
- FASTER FAT LOSS
Can you now see that your nervous system controls literally EVERYTHING related to body transformation? Truly, it does.
And that’s exactly why Dr. K has created Full Throttle Fat Loss, and that’s exactly why both of us are so excited to release that very program next week.
But, we’ve got even better news for you coming as early as tomorrow… Stay tuned.
For now, if you have any questions whatsoever about today’s “Digestive Exercise” article for Kareem and I, then drop them below and we’ll be sure to answer them for you.
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NOTE: If you have not yet read yesterday’s article, The Limiting Factor You Don’t Even KNOW About, do that now by clicking HERE (page opens in a new window). You first need to fully understand the information in that article in order to fully grasp the “solutions” presented in today’s article.
Once finished, check out today’s dynamite content, starting with a 30-second introduction from Dr. K:
5 Solutions To TRIPLE Fat Loss Results
by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri, CSCS, HFS
Metabolic Fat Loss & Fitness Expert
Yesterday we spoke about 5 nervous-system related issues preventing YOU from getting great fat loss results with your exercise program:
1. Muscle Imbalances
2. Incoordination
3. Sub-sensory pain signals in your joints
4. Inflammation & resultant decreased circulation
5. Improper use of rest periods in exercise program
Today, I’m giving you 5 solutions to counteract each of these 5 problems… the kinds of things you can start doing RIGHT NOW & watch your love handles melt away and your results take off. Here they are:
1. Multi-Planar Movement
2. Movement Complexes
3. Muscle Balancing
4. Mindset Shift
5. Motor Learning
Solution #1 – Multi-Planar Movements:
We live in a 3D world. We need to train in a 3D way.
By working on exercises that involve forward/backward motion, side/side motion, and rotational motion, you are training in a real-life way and challenging your muscles and nervous system in a real-life way. The end result is stronger signaling, a stronger connection with your nervous system, and exponentially greater and faster fat loss results.
Here is an example of the squat, performed in all 3 planes of movement:
As an added point, it is very difficult to create imbalances between muscles when you are recruiting their fibers from so many directions during an exercise program and in a way that is natural for the body to move. Without muscle imbalance (as you’ll see below), you build healthy joints & improve circulation, leading to improved strength & faster fat loss.
Solution #2 – Movement Complexes:
Movement complexes involve doing multiple exercises, often times using only 1 exercise modality, without rest before taking a prolonged rest break and repeating again. For example, in the Double Edged Fat Loss method for Neuro Fat Loss, I use the following arrangement of exercises, all without a rest break, and all with the same piece of equipment:
- Squat
- Push
- Lunge
- Pull
- Plank
For a better understanding of the Full Throttle Fat Loss method, how it can help you, and what movement complexes are, check out one of my visits to the NBC studios below:
By performing many exercises back to back in this format, you stimulate a greater metabolic demand across your entire body, improving circulation significantly. With increased total-body circulation, it is extremely difficult for swelling to become deposited in one particular area. Your muscle pump system will be working well for you, and you will be taking the demand off of your venous & lymphatic systems.
In the end, more of your energy will be able to be devoted to your exercise, rather than other processes. You will lose fat faster.
Solution #3 – Muscle Balancing:
Muscle = Your Metabolism.
Unless you effectively balance the muscles around a joint, your body will stop growth and progress dead in its tracks.
In the video below, I teach you exactly what muscle balancing is, why it’s important, and some really important take home points that you can use with your fat loss program right now:
Invest in your body by balancing muscles for a much better fat loss result.
Solution #4 – Mindset Shift:
Belief system is everything. You truly do create your own reality. Watch this clip from Will Smith that I think pretty much sums it up:
I believe in teaching mindset, so I’ve created an audio training system that does just that. It all starts with positive self-talk & multi-sensory imagination. Basically, in English, what this means is that you want to see, hear, feel, smell, & taste success. Doing one is just not enough if you really want to melt the rest of your body fat off and truly transform, once and for all.
The entire audio series is part of the Full Throttle Fat Loss System.
Solution #5 – Motor Learning:
Basically, it matters how much muscle you recruit in an exercise & how coordinated you move. As we discussed yesterday, if you are doing 10 sets of 10 repetitions, the weakness is compounded 100x by not properly recruiting your entire muscle. In order to properly recruit your muscle, your body must know where it is in space. This is called proprioception, or position sense.
Effective position-sense training will lead to faster nerve conduction, improved signaling, more muscle recruited, and greater strength with each exercise you perform. Your body will recruit everything it has for you, and you will get results (i.e. fat loss) exponentially faster!
Once you learn movements through the proper motor learning strategy, exercise will never be as hard again. With Double Edged Fat Loss, you will learn to do 3-5 exercises at once, and you will get 3-5x the fat loss result.
Check out this video to see a demonstration of why Motor Learning is so important if you never want to plateau again:
In the end, if you want to lose fat THREE times faster, you must—absolutely MUST—learn to optimally address your nervous system with your training. That’s what Full Throttle Fat Loss does.
I trust today’s article has challenged you — start applying the techniques to your training today, and in just a few days time I guarantee you’ll notice a substantial difference.
——————————————————————————————-
I told you this guy was BRILLIANT. Kareem is truly living and practicing on the cutting edge of therapy and fitness, and the results his clients are achieving with his methods are, quite frankly, incredible.
If you have a question or comment for Dr. K based on the information he’s shared in the last two articles, post it below and Dr. K will be popping in to the blog to address each and every one of them again today.
Talk to you in the comments section!
-Joel
107 Comments
Click Below to Watch a 30 second introduction from Dr. K
The Limiting Factor You Don’t Even KNOW About
by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri, CSCS, HFS
Metabolic Fat Loss & Fitness Expert
Simply put, everything you do, including every effort you put forth during exercise, originates in your body’s central command center, the Central Nervous System (CNS).
And for 99.9% of exercisers, the unfortunate reality is this: your central nervous system is operating at a very elementary level, and it’s absolutely holding you back from experiencing the most rapid fat loss results.
How and why?
Bottom line: most people simply do not understand how to properly communicate with their nervous systems, and as such are missing out on at least 60-80% of the metabolic potential of every single exercise they do. In fact, even advanced trainees tend to be “under-achieving” by at least 30-50%.
Can you just imagine how much faster you’d progress if you were able to double or triple the metabolic effectiveness of each and every exercise you do? The answer: A LOT FASTER.
Going back to the problem, inefficient nervous system communication results in:
- poor signaling leading to decreased force output and sub-par muscular contractions
- less overall motor units recruited
- less weight used for every exercise, set, and rep (for a workout requiring 10 sets of 10 reps, that inefficiency is compounded 100 TIMES over)
- overall less work done in any given session
- neuro-muscular fatigue occurring before muscles even receive the necessary stimulus to grow and/or strengthen
- fewer calories burned
- overall decreased metabolic effect of exercise even when the same effort is put forth (the same effort for 1/4 of the results)
- dramatically slowed results
- dramatically less fat loss
On the other hand, an extremely efficient nervous system results in:
- greater signaling, leading to greater, faster, more intense contractions
- increased loads used for every single exercise, set, and rep (compound that improvement 100 times over for a workout requiring 10 sets of 10) – and that’s just one workout – imagine the effect this will have over 4 weeks worth of workouts!
- increased motor unit recruitment
- more stimulus from the same work
- greater strength gains
- greater lean muscle gains
- greater metabolic cost of every single exercise you do
- more calories burned (acutely/immediate)
- exponentially greater fat loss over time
Legitimately, the difference in the rate of fat loss between the above two examples is the difference between getting in incredible shape for summer and being self-conscious all the way through August.
This is also the difference between hitting and maintaining your ideal body weight easily versus struggling for the rest of your life—period.
Do you realize this means you’re probably struggling to lose weight right now because your nervous system is operating far below its capacity?
Essentially, you’re working twice as hard for 1/4 the result—and I hate to see that happen!
The fact is this: Most fat loss programs do not even consider the role of your nervous system in program design, and as such, at best improve nervous system communication from ‘Poor’ to ‘Fair’. Even if you consider yourself “advanced”, you probably still have room to at least double your nervous system signaling efficiency, and therefore your results.
Bottom line: If you really want to dramatically hasten fat loss results, then you absolutely MUST learn to improve your nervous system signaling from ‘Fair’ to ‘Good’ to ‘Great’-all the way to ‘Excellent’.
And here’s the best part – it can be done in a very short period of time with the appropriate plan of attack, and you’ll do it while you lose fat at an accelerated rate.
But before I teach you how it’s done, you first need to understand exactly WHAT is holding you back from experiencing your true metabolic potential-and there are 5 major contributors (each taking a major toll on nervous system efficiency):
1. Muscle Imbalances
2. Incoordination
3. Sub-sensory pain signals in your joints
4. Inflammation & resultant decreased circulation
5. Improper use of rest periods in exercise program
Let’s go over these, one by one, so you have a better understanding…
Muscle Imbalances:
Whenever your body senses imbalance, it tries to correct for it. This means top to bottom (arms to legs), side to side (left to right), and back to front.
If you’re not balanced in all 3 ways, your body will naturally stop growing and strengthening in an attempt to regain balance and prevent injury.
As a practical example, many exercisers suffer from major imbalances from front to back. Their quads generally dominate their hamstrings, and their “pushing” muscles (chest, anterior shoulders) quite often overshadow those of their back (lats, rhomboids, etc). Essentially, these types of imbalances are actually like pulling the fire alarm for your body.
In effect, you’re screaming at your body and telling it to stop growing, stop strengthening so the weaker muscles can catch up. Unfortunately, unless you KNOW that’s going on and actively take steps to strengthen those imbalances, those muscle groups never catch up and progress declines or altogether stops – and this goes on indefinitely.
In the end, calories that should be going to fuel strength and lean mass gains get shuttled toward fat storage. Simply put, no matter how hard you work, you simply cannot outsmart your nervous system.
Incoordination:
There Are 2 Kinds Of Nerve Signals: Efferent & Afferent
- Efferent (like ‘exit’) are nerve signals that exit from your brain and go down to your muscles & joints – these signals create movement.
- Afferent are nerve signals that begin at your periphery (i.e. skin, muscle, joint, etc.) & work their way back up to your brain – these signals provide feedback after movement occurs to tell your brain what actually happened.
Until your joints are properly positioned and muscles receive constant, uninterrupted communication from your nerves, both your efferent & afferent signals are like a loose wire. They are firing off, haphazardly, and your body is having to work twice as hard to control movement.
Poor movement control = Poor coordination
Poor coordination = Poor strength
For example, incoordination may cause your forearms to work harder as you bench press, instead of the target muscle. The result: your forearms tire first and your chest is never fully stimulated. The same is true on a lunge; your back leg will get tired before your front, and that’s not even where you’re supposed to “feel” the movement.
Building a bridge between efferent & afferent signals will allow your coordination to improve, making advanced exercises easy, and improving the overall fluidity of every movement you make. In other words, you’re nervous system will be effectively communicating with your musculature and as a result your body melts fat and builds muscle.
Sub-sensory Pain Signals In Your Joints:
Your body is constantly in pain, or, in other words, pain is very much relative. You see, the types of nerve cells that respond to pain are never dormant; they are always awake, and they monitor the amount of activity at various areas of your body before reaching ‘threshold’ and setting off a chain of events resulting in palpable pain (pain that you actually “feel”).
When joints are maligned and exercises are done in the wrong sequence, there is a slight increase of pain receptor activity that takes place. Unfortunately, these nerve receptors send a message to your brain to turn muscles OFF and focus on eliminating the pain. That’s why we go limp when we have back pain, for example.
Now think about how much harder it must be for someone with overdeveloped pecs and a weak back to do shoulder raises. As the imbalance grows, there will inevitably come a point where “rounded shoulders” caused by the aforementioned imbalance will actually force the deltoids (shoulders) to turn off, and the upper back (trapezius) will then take over the movement.
From there, your upper trap attaches to your cervical spine, which creates and even bigger problem and more nerve signaling that’s turning off muscles as your trap pulls your spine out of place…yikes!
The end result is a vicious cycle until you eliminate the issue altogether.
Inflammation & Resultant Decreased Circulation:
Following any workout your body is inflamed, or at least it should be. Tiny little tears take place in your muscles, and this is what allows you to burn calories as the damage is repaired. Meanwhile, your muscles grow.
When there is more inflammation in your biceps, for example, than your triceps as a result of muscular imbalance between them, and one muscle is being over-shortened while the other muscle is over-lengthened, your lymphatic (healing) system will have a harder time getting rid of the swelling. Once it does get rid of swelling, your lymphatic vessels are supposed to dump the fluid into your veins.
Your muscle pump system (opposite muscle groups actually work like a pump to assist the venous system with the return of blood to the heart) becomes ineffective. Your venous system, as a result, has to work harder, and your veins end up blocking your lymphatic vessels from ‘dumping’ their fluid and sucking up more.
Swelling persists. Over time, this will lead to more compression on nerves, and decreased blood supply to them as well. Just like everything else in our bodies, our nerves need blood and oxygen to function at their best.
And if they’re not getting it, guess what happens? That’s right, nervous system inefficiency and decreased communication between nerves and muscles, leading to decreased fat loss and overall results.
Improper Use Of Rest Periods In Exercise Program:
Rest periods, when used properly, often do not rest your body at all. In fact, there’s a such thing as ‘active rest’ and ‘passive rest,’ but most people don’t know how to choose which one they need during various points in their workouts:
Active Rest – continue exercising, rest that particular muscle group
Passive Rest – sit still and do nothing
- When training for muscle building (i.e. bulking) passive rest periods are an intricate part of the program.
- When training multiple energy systems in your workout program, passive rest periods are essential to success with your second, third, and fourth sets.
- When training for endurance, circuit-style training is best, because it is a submaximal level over a prolonged period of time. Naturally, this will lead to endurance, and you will be preparing your body for your particular goal.
- When training for fat loss, there has to be a balance between strength, energy system work, and endurance in order to become successful. You have to build enough endurance to endure longer bouts of exercise without losing intensity, while you have to build enough strength to raise your metabolism. It takes a carefully designed program to consider all factors for rest periods in a top-notch fat loss program.
Here’s The Bottom Line…
You – yes, you – likely have quite a few “issues” that are holding you back from experiencing two to three times the fat loss results you’re currently experiencing. With my new program, Full Throttle Fat Loss, I teach you how to address the ROOT problem, so that you can correct these issues and lose fat faster at the same time.
Full Throttle Fat Loss becomes available on Tuesday, September 6th, but don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging with just today’s information.
In fact, tomorrow I’m going to be back with another article to teach you THREE ways you can start immediately improving central nervous system efficiency while overcoming each of the 5 “problems” we addressed today.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: “Is setting myself up to double or triple my current rate of fat loss—whatever that may be—through a completely untapped medium, something I’m interested in?”
If so, stay tuned for some serious “solutions” coming at you tomorrow.
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I truly believe this is some of the most game-changing, revolutionary information to hit the fitness industry in years, and that’s exactly why I’m sharing it with you. I will be posting the second part of this article tomorrow, but for now, please post your comments and questions for Kareem and I to answer below.
Bring on the questions and comments!
127 Comments
On Thursday, I went over Super Method #1 – MEGA Carb Loading, and today I’d like to share a different, yet enormously effective method called Anabolic Burst Cycling through Diet and Exercise (ABCDE).
To be honest, the whole ABCDE approach is rather old news. I first read about it back in Muscle Media 2000 (man, I miss that magazine) some ten years ago when Bill Phillips interviewed some crazy under-the-radar dude named Torbjorn Akerfeldt.
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271 Comments
In our last post on gaining muscle and losing fat we discussed that while these goals do indeed require different training and nutrition strategies, these strategies are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Meaning: You CAN lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously provided you use a strategic, timed approach.
Also in that post, I loosely gave mention to several different methods to achieve both goals simultaneously, and in these next few posts I want to take a deeper, more specific look at each.
Today’s method: MEGA Carbohydrate Loading
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332 Comments
Yesterday we began a series on losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously, and with that first post I posed the question:
Can it be done?
The answer? Yes. BUT, only with a VERY strategic approach.
Now, in order to understand how these seemingly mutually exclusive goals can be accomplished simultaneously, we need to understand a few things about achieving your goals in general.
First, your goals are a direct result of both your training and nutrition program.
Second, optimal training for fat loss and optimal training to gain muscle are different.
Third, optimal nutritional strategies for fat loss and optimal nutritional strategies for gaining muscle are different.
Let’s take a look at each.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...