Q&A for: 23-Feb-06
1361. Q:
reply to 1354, so you only think i should hae 1 glass a day? or do you think at night w/ my cottagecheese lettuce combo would be good too, since they both have a slow digesting protein.
A:
I personally am not a big fan of milk, so I think one glass is more than enough. If you feel that milk is a must, you can drink more, but best times for it would be in the first half of the day or perhaps before training.
1362. Q:
Reply to Q 1360.I never took a week off....I ll do it from now and on however.In this week do i have to eat less than before?I dont wanna put any fat on me.
A:
I would continue to eat the same in the one week off -- that'll keep your metabolism up and you're anyway unlikely to gain much if any new fat since your body will still be busy recovering and rebuilding muscle tissue which will burn some calories. If you take more than a couple of weeks off, then I'd decrease the calories slightly, mostly at expense of carbs (substitute salad for a starchy carb in 1-2 meals).
1363. Q:
hi mike almost everyday i play street soccer in my school for around 3 hours do you think it can be considered an exercise to burn calories
A:
Definitely! Soccer is a great exercise which taxes both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems (unlike typical endurance running which only works the aerobic).
1364. Q:
hi mike i understand that you need to have a fat percentage of 10 and lower in order to get a six pack well my fat percentage is below that and i can even see my ribs a little so is there any particular exercise to do to strengthen the muscles in your abs perhaps you can give me a 1 week workout plan to exercise the area
A:
Everyone is slightly different, but certainly at below 10% body fat you should start seeing the outline of at least the upper 4-pack. There is a chance that your body fat measure was wrong, especially if it was measured by one of those handheld electric devices or weight scale -- they use bioimpedance method which is nearly worthless as far as accuracy. The best way to get accurate body fat measurement for most people is to have a trained professional measure you using body fat calipers (see the picture I have at top of the page under 'got fat?').
Assuming your body fat is under 10%, then it really is a matter of developing your ab muscles more so they stand out. There's nothing much you can do in just one week, but if throughout the week you do 8-10 sets of plain old crunches or side-to-side crunches, your abs will be a lot more noticeable after a month or two. But again, this is only if your body fat is truly below 10% -- otherwise all the ab exercises in the world won't make much difference since you'll have too much fat covering the ab muscles.
1365. Q:
mike what is the correct amout of calories intake for a 15yo
A:
Sorry, that's not nearly enough info for me to answer your question. In general the correct amount of calories is that amount which keeps you healthy and normal weight. Depending on your height, weight, diet (not all 2500-calorie diets are the same!), and activity level the advised number of calories could range greatly. You can get an approximation for yourself by filling out my fitness guide -- this assumes you are exercising.
1366. Q:
hi mike im 15 and my height is 173 and my weight is 56 and i wake up at 6 every morning i drink milo for my breakfast as it keeps me awake and for lunch i eat 1 serving of white rice , egg , leafy vegetables and meat such as 1 piece of sausage and my dinner is almost the same 1 serving of white rice or noodles with green vegetables and 2 serving of meat example pork and chicken and most of my food are not fried so do you think its an acceptable daily intake ?
A:
It's certainly not bad. It's really up to you to determine whether it's acceptable or not. If you have fitness goals such as gaining more muscle or losing some fat, then this diet can be improved, as I suggested in Q&A #1326. If you are just concerned with your general health, then your diet is fine already. So whether it's acceptable is really up to you, depending on your fitness goals and depending on how much effort you can/want to go through to change your diet.
1367. Q:
Mike, this is my first weight lifting question (thanks for all the feedback on nutrition), I am wondering if I am at risk for over training. I do not think that I lift enough to worry about this. Until recently, this has been my routine since I started my weight loss journey about 14 months ago. I have been going to the gym 3 times a week, first 30 minutes treadmill then 1 hour of lifting. My program approximates the following: bench press, I suppose to failure (155 lbs, 10/8/6), followed by some other chest (flies or something), bicep curls to failure (30 lbs., 10/7/6), overhead tricep curls(?) (30 lbs. 10/8/6). I recently added more concentrated forearm work. After this, I alternate between legs or back. Recently (just this week) I started going 5 days a week, the initial upper body I described plus legs on MWF, and back/shoulders on T/Thur. Does this sound as though I am at-risk for over-training and should take a week off every 2 months? I am 5'10', 41, male, 189 lbs. - Ramiro
A:
I definitely think that everyone, regardless of their training program, should take at least 1 week off every couple of months. In your case the 3-day routine certainly should be OK. The 5-day is starting to push it a bit mainly because you go to the gym 5 days straight. If possible, I'd recommend splitting it up as 2 days gym, 1 day off, 3 days gym, 1 day off and then repeat. I also wouldn't stay on a five-day program like that for more than maybe four months before going to a lower volume program. Aside from that you should be OK.
In any case, you and everyone else should monitor themselves for the tell-tale signs of overtraining: loss of strength, loss of interest in exercising, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, getting sick too easily or too often. Especially if you start noticing two or more of these symptoms appearing together, it's a real good idea to take some time away from the gym and then come back with a lower-volume routine.
1368. Q:
I have heard that in order to do the rep right you need to hold the weight up for a second and then return it to the beginning position.Till now i didnt do that,i was going the weight till up and then immediately returned it till down(thats a complete rep cause many dont return the weight down but only till mid and then repeat the rep).This worked for me and i have seen results.If that second counts for the exercise to be better i should low the kgs cause this way i would be tired faster.What is your opinion?
A:
That's a bit tricky. In general, no, I don't think holding the weight for a second at the top of the rep will make much of a difference. The reason why it might appear that doing this improves your strength is probably because that one second actually gives your muscles a bit of time to rest, so you'll be able to squeeze out another 1-2 reps compared to the no-pause method thus making it seem like you got stronger.
The reason I said it's tricky because pausing for a second is actually an interesting training technique, but you do it not when the weight is up, but when it's down! More precisely, you pause when the muscle doing the work is STRETCHED and not when it's CONTRACTED like you described. What happens in that case is that you lose the boost from the pre-stretching reflex. That reflex is the reason why doing the second rep of bicep curls (for example -- same is true of virtually every exercise) is usually easier than the first -- it's because the act of returning the weight down after the first rep prestretches the muscle and acts like a spring to help you with the second rep if you don't pause in between. By pausing at the bottom of the repetition you lose the prestretching effect forcing your muscle to work just as hard as it did for the first rep.
Pausing at the bottom on exercises such as bench press (when the barbell is almost touching your chest) or squat (when you're squatted down) gives a completely different experience. Doing so is actually quite dangerous without an experienced spotter -- you'll hit muscular failure a lot sooner than you might expect and may get stuck in the 'down' position!
I wouldn't recommend the pausing-at-the-bottom technique to most people and certainly not as full-time training strategy but it is an interesting training variation to add to your arsenal for when you need some variety.
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