How to deal with forearm injuries

by Phily Nuku. 
Hi all, injuries, in our game sooner or later you're going to encounter them, and when they do occur, you'll want to get on top of them as quickly as possible.

During my time, I‘ve amassed more than my fair share of injuries and despite taking extra care, I still run into a few here and there.  

 
A trouble spot for me was always with my forearms. Particularly in the past I was always carrying some sort of niggle in them. Over time I've learnt that many who lift weights, especially Body Builders suffer in the same way.

Because we use our forearms for just about every exercise we perform, they simply become (over trained/under recovered) over used. Add incorrect lifting form to the equation and the problem compounds, add additional outside of the gym daily use and the problem can really get out of hand.

Forearm injuries are especially annoying to us Body Builders as they can seriously wane your training enthusiasm. I mean how annoying is it when you can't get past the pain in your forearms to max out on heavy compound exercises.  

The solution or the way out is an ongoing process...

 

Read more...

Need for training diaries

  This article comes the courtesy of Phily Nuku and NZ Sports Nutrition www.nzsn.co.nz . Phily's a PT at Bodyworks Gym and we've been acquaitances forever. He wrote a really good article on the need to keep training diaries. So since I probably can't write it any better I thought we'd just put on site as is.

left: Lisa and Phily

Hi all.

Man I love the off season, lifting heavy weights, eating to grow, balancing your physique, it's a time where you make real changes before your next competition.

In this installment I want to talk about the need for training diaries. Over the many years that I have been training, I'd say that I've made my best gains in the more recent years.

Over that period, I began documenting all of my workouts and regularly reviewed the information to ensure my training intensity was continually improving.

Like many, for the longest time, I had resisted the idea of documenting my workouts and this was a big mistake. It was not until I started to record and review my workouts that I began to see the many benefits of doing so, mostly achieving ongoing gains.

I now tell my clients and those who I coach, if you are not keeping a diary then you are wasting your time!

 The major benefits of my training diaries include:

-        Baseline Intensity Formation, weights used, reps achieved & time taken.

-        Information for Goal setting and an actual measure of Progression (or not!).

-       Information on variables. Such as whether I'm fully recovered, time date and place, who I'm training with and their attitudes etc.

-      Most importantly, it gives me the ability to compete against someone, a Phantom (or a future me) who is theoretically & marginally better than me. This is especially important if you are the strongest in your training camp, as you shouldn't be competing with weaker individuals anyway!   

What I've learned over a long time is that, if you can avoid training plateaus, then the sum of all the little ongoing gains you'll make, will over time, add up to big gains.

Prior to learning the above, I like many big guys always thought it was enough to lift the heaviest weights in the gym. The problem was, that they were the same heavy weights, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, leading to a plateau or worse- overtraining and injury.

Getting started:

While there are good training diaries out there on the Market, I find that the old 10cent 3B1 notebooks do the job for me nicely. Because I currently train 4-5 days a week I have 5 of them. One notebook for each body part, this way I can easily refer to a body parts previous workout(s) and compile a slightly harder plan of attack.     

Because I want to measure and check my intensity, I always record the following:

                -The time, date, place and with whom I'm training.

                -As a % how positive I'm feeling before the workout.  

                -The exercises I'm doing, any notes on form and machine settings etc.

                -Data on sets, reps & weights achieved.

                -Data on Reps left in reserve, Forced reps and if I trained to Failure.

                -How long the workout took me.

                -A summary of how the workout went and a % ranking.

                -Other stuff, like any effects of pre workout supplements etc.

Before I repeat the workout, I use the above information and plan how best to increase my intensity. I then check I'm on track during & after the workout.

 Here's what I look to achieve, especially on my Base/Compound exercises:

1.       To lift more weight, even if it's just a little.

Or.

2.       To do more reps than the last time with the same weight.

Or

3.       To do the same weights & reps as previously achieved but in less time.

Or.

4.       Some type of combination of the above 3 things.

Note: Later rather than sooner, when you have gone as far as you can with your program, (extracted all of the intensity gains out of it) change it up and form a new baseline.  

Like I said before, if you can continually increase the intensity of your workouts, even just by a little, then the sum of all those little ongoing gains, will add up to big gains over time.  But you will have to work hard and persevere- believe me!

So just start recording those workouts and in no time at all you'll find a recording style that suits your needs. Bet you when the day comes that you forget your notebook, you'll feel naked without it.

Phily Nuku
Phily Nuku is a Fusion sponsored athlete, he is Reps registered and has 17 years experience in the Fitness industry.

What chain food costs in exercise

Note: Calorie content of foods are based on official website information at the time of publication. Minutes of exercise are averages based on a 70kg person. The greater the weight of the person the more calories burned per minute.

DONUT
Dunkin Donuts Chocolate Frosted Donut (230 calories)

59 minutes of walking (3 mph).

BREAKFAST SANDWICH
McDonald's Egg McMuffin (300 calories)
32 minutes of running (5 mph).
 
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE
Panera Chocolate Chipper (440 calories)
62 minutes of biking (10-11.9 mph).
 
PIZZA

Pizza Hut Large Cheese Pizza (1 slice; 320 calories)
39 minutes of swimming (slow to moderate laps).
 

CINNAMON ROLL
Starbucks Cinnamon Roll (500 calories, varies by location)
85 minutes of dancing.

HAMBURGER

Burger King Original Whopper With Cheese (770 calories)
94 minutes of swimming (slow to moderate laps). 
 
BROWNIE

Au Bon Pain Chocolate Chip Brownie (380 calories).
129 minutes of yoga (Hatha style).
 
FRIES
Wendy's Large French Fries (540 calories)
77 minutes of biking (10-11.9 mph).
 
ICE CREAM
Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream (0.5 cup; 270 calories)
29 minutes of running (5 mph).


BURRITO
Taco Bell Burrito Supreme, Beef (410 calories)
70 minutes of dancing.
 

Fish oils can make you thin

by Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale

 Sample Image Dietary fat is often implicated as the primary root cause of the prevalence of obesity in developed countries. However, research continues to mount that support all fat is not evil. In fact, some dietary fat is good. Obesity is of increasing concern in health issues in the world, surpassed only by cancer and heart disease. While high intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol are highly correlated with obesity, insulin resistance and heart disease, other fats are gaining respect as actually attenuating these factors. The most favorable fat in recent research is fish oil.
The benefits of a diet comprised mostly of polyunsaturated fats are well documented. The essential fatty acids omega-3, 6, and 9 must be obtained from food sources. These fatty acids are the precursors for several classes of hormones and comprise most of our cell membranes. Studies are now suggesting that the omega-3 fatty acids are our friends in a number of ways. Since our modern diet typically is high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 acids, it may prudent to increase our consumption of foods that contain a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids. The richest source of omega-3 fatty acids is fish oil from cold water fish.

Omega-3 fatty acids improve insulin action and glucose metabolism in fat and muscle cells. The fatty acids in the phospholipid layer of cell membranes determine the physiochemical properties of the membranes. This in turn influences the cellular functions, especially hormone responsiveness. Increasing the membrane content of polyunsaturated fatty acids increases membrane fluidity and the binding of many hormones to their respective receptors, thereby increasing their action.

They also decrease plasma triglyceride levels. This is hypothesized and supported by studies to play a role in increasing insulin action. It involves fuel switching due to increased utilization of glucose. It is also thought that fish oil supplementation reduces insulin secretion.

 Sample Image Another important aspect is that a diet derived mostly of it fatty acids from fish oils (high 0-3:0-6/9) was shown to reduce white adipose tissue mass, or body-fat, significantly. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in rat models, and also in humans. While omega-3's also increased thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue in rats, that probably has less significance for humans.  
However, they have detected much lower levels of enzyme activity for fatty acid synthesis in fish oil fed rats (and in vitro human fat cells) than in those fed diets with omega-6, omega-9 and saturated fats. Rats fed diets with omega-3 lost more fat mass (and had much lower triglyceride levels) than those fed a low-fat, high carb diet that was matched for calories.

They have shown in both rats and humans that the composition of adipose fatty acids basically resembles the fatty acid composition of the diet. However, those eating diets high in fish oil EPA and DHA (omega-3's) were not stored in the adipose tissue in similar proportion to the concentrations in the diet. Therefore, these fatty acids may be preferentially oxidized and not stored. Thus, such rapid fatty acid oxidation might prevent a significant portion of lipid accumulation.

The other positive benefit is the consumption of a diet high in 0-3 induced an increase in UCP2 in white adipose tissue. Increased UCP2 uncoupling is associated with reductions in body weight and white adipose tissue.

 Sample Image Interestingly, a reduction of leptin levels, the fat-stat hormone, was reported with high omega-3 consumption. However, as most of the researchers stated in these studies, this may be an artifact simply due to the reduction in fat mass (leptin is secreted by fat cells).
However, in the studies that reported this, they also demonstrated a sustained decrease in appetite and no change in energy expenditure concomitant with decreased leptin levels, which indicates that decreased leptin levels may not be a concern unless they become acutely low, such as in a lean person. In that case, rotation or a blend of fatty acid sources would be necessary. But considering that our diet typically contains a high ratio of o-6:o-3, that may still be a moot point.  

 

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