Completing the trine: vive la différence!

First, the obligatory picture of Hannah Spearritt :-)

Women have a harder time losing weight than men. Women retain water more than men for hormonal reasons, but a factor that's overlooked is that, on average, healthy women have higher body-fat percentages than healthy men. This is because women have babies and men don't. Who knew? On the plus side, women produce more DHA than men.

Why should having higher body-fat percentages make a difference to weight loss? See What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss? The energy deficit required to lose 1lb of body-weight increases with increasing body-fat percentage. It's rarely 3,500kcals per lb.

If you really love mathematics, see The Dynamics of Human Body Weight Change.

From the above paper:- ΔU = ΔQ - ΔW

where ΔU is the change in stored energy in the body, ΔQ is a change in energy input or intake, and ΔW is a change in energy output or expenditure. This is the Energy Balance Equation. As I said back in Back to black, CIAB, pharmaceutical drug deficiencies & nerds.

Where body weight is concerned, calories count (but don't bother trying to count them).
Where body composition is concerned, partitioning counts.
Where health is concerned, macronutrient ratios, EFAs, minerals, vitamins & lifestyles count.

N.B. Poor health can adversely affect body weight and/or body composition, by increasing appetite and/or by adversely affecting partitioning.

Overcoming Gravity by Steven Low

Over the past few years I have often read the blog Eat Move Improve, written by Steven Low.  He has applied some good analysis to the science and practice of exercise and writes clearly, explaining things very well, even the most complex topics.

His posts on shoes and sitting are classics and I would recommend that everyone takes a look at them.  I tend to chuck short posts out about whatever catches my eye, but I have real respect for "proper bloggers" who write detailed, structured posts with new information.

Bodyweight Exercise

Back in 2010 Steven put up a post on the Fundamentals of Bodyweight Exercise, which gave a thorough exposition of how properly to  construct a bodyweight strength routine.  The focus of the piece was gymnastics and this probably flowed from Steven's own background in the sport.  A key quote:

Having trained seriously with bodyweight exercises for about 4 years now, I strongly believe that they are superior for strength development compared to weight training in the upper body.

That article sparked a lot of interest and Steven spent a long time in the last year or so expanding that article into a book and just before Christmas he sent me a copy for review.   It is a tour de force!

The book is called Overcoming Gravity:A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength available now on Amazon) and Steven writes about it here.

Wow...that's a big one!

I was pretty excited to receive the book, simply because it is huge!  I unwrapped a parcel that delivered a heavy book of over 520 pages!  This is not a little ebook hastily thrown together to make some money.  Rather this is a dense, text book on bodyweight exercise or more specifically gymnastic moves.

Initially I was a little put off because flicking through it the book seemed to be a gymnastics text book and while I like to watch gymnastics, I could not see myself doing these moves....

I remember a few years ago (actually 2004, time flies!)  when DragonDoor published that article by Chris Sommer Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning  All of a sudden we all became aspiring gymnasts and worked on at least achieving a planche.

Well I played around with the progressions for a while....didn't get far.....hurt my writs....

Anyway as soon as Sommer published his book Building the Gymnastic Body I bought it..but was disappointed.  Maybe I am too old, but the book  seemed too "advanced" it didn't seem to take you step by step through to achieving the moves.  I had other things to do with my time and sort of forgot about all this stuff.

Size isn't everything

So when I opened Steven's book and saw all the gymnastic moves in the later chapters I put it on one side.....I did not want to read something that was just about gymnastics:  planches, levers and the manna.

However over Christmas I picked it up to read.  I felt guilty that Steven had sent it to me and I had it there virtually unopened.   Well I am glad I came back to it!    When I actually started to read it I was very impressed.

A great achievement!

As soon as I started reading properly I realised what I had in my hands.  To be honest I do not see this as primarily a book on bodyweight training or even gymnastics.  I would class it as an Exercise Physiology text.  Steven's academic background, training to be a physio is obvious and gives him a great advantage as a writer.


Across 18 chapters and 240 pages Steven gives the reader a thorough education in the physiology of strength, muscle contraction and hypertrophy, goal setting, programme design and much more.  There is a dense section on how to deal with injuries and also how to address health factors such as sleep and nutrition (paleo of course!).  Each chapter has a helpful summary at the end to allow you to absorb the key points.   With bodyweight training progression is all about changing the mechanics and the levers, playing with the moment arm so that the positions become harder.  Naturally this leads to gymnastics.  I had not really appreciated that initially, but reflecting on it there is a clear logic.


The final section of the book is a huge resource of exercise descriptions, with techniques and tips all illustrated with useful drawings.

Problems?

Of course there are some elements within it that I would not endorse for everyone.  I think the training frequency that Steven recommends to too high for most  and I personally think the "science" of programme design is maybe not as settled as it might be.

Safety is also my prime concern as I get older.  I want to use moves for my exercise that are a risk free as possible.  Without coaching and spotters I would avoid lots of the moves as too risky for many people; however the moves are scaleable.

For basic bodyweight training I'd usually point people to the routine in  McGuff's article here or what I will recommend in Hillfit.  Still if you are interested in developing skills in gymnastics, then this is the book for you.  Indeed, this is the book that I thought I was going to get when I ordered Gymnastic Bodies!  It is well constructed, logically put together and reads well.

Injuries and Health

As I said this is a massive book that must have absorbed Steven's life for months in putting it together.  The sections on injuries alone would make it worth the purchase price.  Indeed, if you were to read no other parts of the book and ignore all of the gymnastics stuff, focussing only on chapters 12-18 then you would know more about injury, rehabilitation and prehabilitation than many health professionals.  Even if you were to disagree with Steven's training approach or methodology, this section on injuries is excellent and worthwhile for anyone.  That section would have made a book in its own right that would have been worth the price.

Summary

A recommended book

• A huge volume of information
• Excellent section on injuries and health
• Good primer on exercise physiology
• Superb resource on gymnastic skills and moves (if that is your interest)

The book is available via Amazon and you can read more on Steven's site

The bodyweight option.....

You will recall that in the past I have interviewed the authors of Body By Science - Doug McGuff and John Little.

Over on Mark Sisson's blog Doug has a guest post on the Body By Science approach to exercise - Setting Yourself Up to Win: A Body By Science Approach

It is a good introduction to the principles of proper exercise, but the reason I am posting this here is jsut to draw attention to his bodyweight training option.  I hoep Mark and Doug do not mind me copying it here:

If you cannot go to a commercial gym, you can get started with simple free-hand exercises that I will describe to you now.

Chin up: This can be done with a chin-up bar that mounts in a door jam, on a sturdy tree branch or rafter board or playground equipment. If you are not strong enough to do chins, you can set the bar height so you can assist with your legs. If this will not work, simply do them negative only by jumping or climbing to the finished position and lowering yourself as slowly as possible.

Pushups: If you are too weak to perform strict marine pushups, do them from your knees. If you are too weak to do them from your knees, then do only the lowering portion, lowering as slowly as possible. If you are strong enough to do classic pushups, do them with a few modifications. First is slow movement. Start the first inch very gradually, taking 3 seconds to move the first inch and then keep smooth movement going. Divide the movement in halves. Do the first half (bottom position to elbows bent at 90 degrees) until complete fatigue. After you have exhausted the bottom half, do the top half until complete fatigue (elbows from 90 degrees to almost complete extension).

Squat: Start first by doing a static wall squat. Place your back against a wall and descend to a seated position where your hip joint and knee joint are both at 90 degrees. Hold this position for as long as possible. You are done when you start to slide down and cannot hold the 90 degree position any longer. Once you are worn out on the static, do a deep knee bend but with the movement divided in half. Do the first half until fatigue (from hips and knees at 90 degrees/thighs parallel to floor, up to the halfway up point where knees are about 45 degrees). Once you canʼt do the bottom half any more, then do the top half of the movement until you canʼt go on. Remember to not straighten your legs completely, but to turn back around when your knees get to about 15 degrees.

Static Lateral Raise: This movement is done using a door frame. Stand with your feet just outside the door frame and bend slightly forward at the waist. Place the backs of your open hands in the opening of the door frame with your elbows slightly bent. You should be positioned like you are going to a lateral raise with dumbbells. With your hands in the door frame, begin to slowly and smoothly press laterally against the frame. Gradually build up to a 50% effort and keep up a 50% effort for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, gradually ramp your effort up to 75% effort and continue for another 30 seconds. After this 30 seconds is up, gradually ramp your effort to 100% and continue for a final 30 seconds. When you first start you will think “this is silly”. However, by the end you will realize that this is probably tougher than anything you could do on a weight machine.

The timed static contraction for the lateral raise at the end is a killer.  Superb stuff.

Why counting Calories and weighing yourself regularly can be a waste of time.

To lose weight, eat fewer Calories than you burn. Sounds fairly straightforward, doesn't it? Well, all sorts of things can mess up this simple maxim.

What is a Calorie?

One dietary Calorie (Cal) is 1000calories, or 1kcal for short. A calorie (cal) is the amount of energy required to heat 1g (1mL) of water by 1degree C. As 1cal is a tiny amount of energy, kcal is commonly used. I prefer to use kcal rather than Cal, as the first word in a sentence is always capitalised which could cause confusion.

The SI unit of energy is the Joule (J) and is the amount of energy required to lift a 1kg weight 1m into the air. As 1J is also a tiny amount of energy, kJ is commonly used. There are 4.186kJ in 1kcal.

Why counting Calories can be a waste of time.

1) When the label on a packet of food states that the food contains Xkcals or YkJ, the number isn't accurate. See Food Composition Analysis and its Implications for Dietary Planning.

2) Most people are hopeless at judging portion sizes, even when using a measuring spoon! Watch the following video made by Leigh Peele called Fat Loss Tips! Shocking!

3) People suffer from "The dieter's Paradox", where they erroneously believe that adding something supposedly healthy to Crap-In-A-Bag/Box/Bottle (CIAB) reduces the total number of calories. See The Dieter’s Paradox – Research Review.

Why weighing yourself regularly can be a waste of time.

As mentioned previously, scales cannot distinguish between muscle, body-fat, glycogen+water, urine, faeces etc. Bodyweight can fluctuate considerably on a day-to-day basis. The following list (source forgotten!) lists the effect of various things on body-weight.

Thing________________________Weight change (lb)
Glycogen supercompensation________~+10
Glycogen replenishment/depletion_+/-4 to 5
Pre-menstrual water retention_____~+5
Eating a high-sodium meal__________+2 to 3
Fluid retention on airplane flight +2 to 3
Going to the loo (No.2)____________-1 to 2
Going to the loo (No.1)___________~-0.5
Drinking a mug of tea_____________~+0.5

So step away from the scales. There's nothing to see here, folks! If your belt/clothes are getting tighter, reduce the frequency of eating "treats" (moreish foods that are usually high in sugar, fat, salt & flavourings).

And finally, a little light relief. If I just waffle on about Diet & Nutrition all the time, it can get boring. So here's a YouTube video of a really cool cat that must have watched the Doctor Who episode "Blink". You know, the one with the Weeping Angels. Ninja cat comes closer while not moving!