Fast Fitness Facts
Updated: Aug 12
Brief Explanations of SOME of the most critical aspects of health and fitness
Paul Chek has a quote I like that says, "If you don't make time for your wellness, you'll be forced to make time for your illness." This is a powerful idea. Many people don't train or improve their diet because from their perspective life is going their way, not realizing that they are drawing from a well of health that isn't being refilled, without proper nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle.
This brings up another idea of mine. I believe injuries will demand a certain amount of time regardless of how you choose to deal with them (or not), and it's up to us to decide how we want to spend that time. For example, if you can't lift your arms overhead you can spend the time doing exercises to regain that mobility or spend the time getting step stool or asking for help every time you need something off of a shelf above shoulder height.
Many people confuse expressions of fitness with the creation of fitness. High performing athletes aren't pushing the limits every day at practice, yet many people in the gym seem to believe in outdated and misguided sayings like "no pain no gain" and push themselves to failure often. The expression of fitness, Usain Bolt setting a world record for exampl, is not necessarily how that fitness is created. Usain Bolt was only able to run that time once, it was a peak of his fitness that was built more methodically over time. It is much the same with feats of strength.
It's very difficult to "outrun" a bad diet. Weight loss often has more to do with diet than exercise, though exercise absolutely plays a role in burning calories as well as mental health which influences food choices.
Tone - lose body fat and gain muscle. There is no magic formula for “getting toned” that is significantly separate from losing body fat and gaining muscle.
Getting too bulky - you won’t. Many try and fail, it won’t happen by accident or so quickly that you can’t stop it.
Starting out in the gym - don’t get lost in how much and how many, just show up often and practice improving your technique, the weight and the sets and reps will go up with consistency, technique prevents injury which ensures consistency. After some time it may then become necessary to concern yourself with the particular of programming.
Minimum effective dose and diminishing returns are both very real and you want to be in between them. This goes for just about every aspect of training such as strength, mobility, endurance, and and and. More isn’t always better, better is better.
Health, Diet and losing weight - prioritize protein and nutrients (beef is your friend) and remove other things, one by one until you hit a weight (and health) you are comfortable with
Sleep - be consistent, avoid screens before bed and certainly in bed. Dark and cool and consistent are key
Water - drink enough to avoid thirst and then maybe a little extra. Keep water balanced with electrolytes and minerals
Electrolytes and Minerals - Salts. Magnesium salts, potassium salts, sodium salts, calcium salts. Minerals or “micro minerals” are often overlooked and parallel to electrolytes. Supplementation may be necessary because food is often mineral deficient because the soils are mineral deficient. This includes things like iodine and selenium and many others (Irish Sea moss has worked well for me and from my understanding covers a lot of ground in terms of minerals).
Supplements - if you are eating a proper human diet you shouldn’t need supplements so aim for minimal supplementation (this includes prescriptions)
“Biohacking” - at best many of these seem to provide short term benefits, at worst they provide long term issues. Exogenous hormones are the most clear example, they provide great short term gains in strength and size, but tendon strength trails behind leaving the possibility of tears in the medium term, and beyond that the endocrine system doesn’t always recovery from the disruption. (In my non medical opinion (and a growing number of medical opinions) this also applies to exogenous female hormones most often in the form of birth control). A less extreme and more common example would be melatonin. In the short term it can help someone sleep, in the long term it disrupts the bodies ability to produce it’s own melatonin thus creating a dependency (plus many melatonin supplements are WAY overdosed). Caffeine is another example, short term energy but then often creates a cycle of dependency (tired? Have a coffee. Then worse sleep. More tired, more coffee, repeat) that many are reluctant to admit is an addiction.
Breathing - breathe less, breathe slower, breathe lower, breathe lighter, breathe longer
Walking - do more, at least as much as you can reasonably fit in your day. The more I learn about walking the more essential it seems to be.
Training vs working out - training involves more structure and is aimed at a specific goal, working out is often chaotic and goes nowhere fast
Stretching - if the muscle is short stretch it, if it’s not don’t. Also, tight doesn’t always mean short, see a professional where guidance is needed.
Myofascial release - claimed results vary, try it out, it’s the cheapest massage you can get. It's a large part of my personal body maintenance.
The stress bucket - you body doesn’t have a different reserve for the stress from your job, and your relationships, and your diet, and your sleep, and your exercise. It all goes in to one “stress bucket”. Plan accordingly
Stability is a prerequisite for mobility, mobility is a prerequisite for strength, strength is a prerequisite for endurance and power.
Stability and strength and synonymous but could be considered different parts of the spectrum
Mobility could also be considered stability and or strength at the end of your range of motion.
Mobility = Stability + ROM
Strength = Mobility (or Stability in some cases) + Force
Endurance = Strength + Density and or Volume
Power = Strength + Velocity
Progressive Overload
Stability - Time under tension
Mobility - Range of motion, and time under tension
Strength and hypertrophy - Weight, Range of motion, time under tension
Increase sets for less hypertrophy, increase reps for more hypertrophy (with a limit)
Endurance - Less weight than strength training but more volume (focus on increasing sets) and less rest (30-90 seconds generally)
Power - similar or lighter loads as strength but fewer reps and more speed (can be highly specific)
Grease the groove - choose a manageable yet challenging weight and number of reps. Complete them. Wait until fully rested before repeating the effort. Great for building strength with minimal fatigue. Sets can be spread throughout the day.
Major Joint actions
Shoulder - internal and external rotation, flexion and extension, adduction and abduction
Hips - internal and external rotation, flexion and extension, adduction and abduction
Spine - Flexion and extension, rotation, (many other motions are coupled combinations of these)
Exercise Variables for different goals
Muscle gain - Varies a lot from person to person generally 6-20 reps coming close to failure by the end of the set, 1-3 sets. 1-3 minutes rest between sets will work for most people most of the time.
Strength - 70-80% of your 1 rep maximum (or a weight you can do for about 12 reps) doing sets of 2-6 (these should not be coming close to failure) and doing anywhere from 3-5 sets or more in some cases. Rest as needed but usually not more than 5 minutes. Occasionally add days where lifts range from 80-90% 1RM.
Range of motion - hold a stretch for 30-120 seconds then do isometric contractions in that end range both trying to get deeper in to the range of motion (RAILs) and coming out of the range of motion (PAILs) with minimal movement. Then adding full range of motion exercises using the range you had and the range you gained.
Strength Endurance - 50-80% of 1RM keeping sets shorter than 10 seconds (ideally 8 seconds) likely about 3 reps. No more than a minute of rest. Repeat several times. Take a longer break (a few minutes). Repeat 2-3x
Cardio Endurance - Use the “talk test” stay at the limit of that pace for up to 40 minutes. More if needed for specific goals but 20-40 minutes is sufficient for most people and more than that can become detrimental. Intervals can be used and helpful but require more thoughtful planning and are more beneficial for short periods of training. The simplest way to incorporate them is via “fartlek training” which is done by intuitively increasing the pace (as much as up to a sprint) then back down for recovery and repeating.
Power - Varies. Speed is the focus. Keeps sets short and rest sufficient.
Order of training when combining multiple goals
Mobility - this sets the body up for success in the coming training
Power - this is the most demanding and must be done prior to other heavy work
Strength - less demanding than power but still demanding
Endurance - Ideally done on separate days or in separate block of training but can be done towards the end of a session
Hypertrophy - Should be separated from Endurance but if not must be after as the blood flow from endurance work will reduce the metabolites that create a hypertrophic response or “kill your gains”
Functional Training
Typically uses exercises that more closely resemble movements that occur naturally in life.
A lunge is closer to walking and running than most other leg exercises. A squat may be done here and there throughout the day but rarely is loaded with a weight on your shoulders. People are almost never required to swing their legs from the knee down with large amounts of force (seated knee extension and hamstring curls).
Also may consider exercises for their ability to work a variety of muscles in a single movement.
A lunge will work all of the same muscles as a squat but will also require more balance thus building the muscles that create balance more effectively.
A single arm cable press will require the use of the entire body, notable the “core” especially the obliques. Compare to a bench press which will nearly isolate the required muscles to the chest, shoulders, and arms, all of which would be exercised in the standing cable press.
Internal Training
Trains the body/joints from the “inside out”.
Training the shoulder would start with the rotator cuff then work out to more superficial muscles. Likewise for the glutes.
These most internal muscles are the closest to the joint, are critical for the health and stability of the joint, and the are very often overlooked and injured (not likely a coincidence)
This internal perspective provides a larger “foundation” to build on whether it be for strength and power or for size.
The joint that has a greater ability to stabilize a weight without injury will be able to lift more total weight, through larger ranges of motion, and accumulate more total repetitions as a result of the health of the joint leading to increased “gains” in whatever form desired.
Rotational Movement Training and Coiling Core Training (Weck Method)
Generally performs exercises using the maximum range of motion of the spine in both rotation and side bending (coiling)
RMT involves switching from side to side as the exercise is performed while CCT remains on the same side and often seeks to drive deeper in to the coil as the exercise is performed.
Respects both functional and internal training.
Functional in that most movement in life is represented by either RMT (walking) or CCT (many rotational sports)
Internal in that by taking the spine to it’s end range the deepest muscles of the spine are required to stabilize (arguably) some of the more important joints in the body and a more stable spine becomes a more stable “core” and becomes the foundation for most other fitness related activities and life.
Exercise Timing
Time under tension
0-30 seconds on average will tend to train fast twitch fiber
30-60 seconds on average will tend to train slow twitch fiber
60-120 seconds (and beyond) on average will tend to train connective tissue
Energy Systems
Phosphagen (ATP-PCr): 0–10 seconds. Provides immediate energy for explosive movements (e.g., a 100m sprint or heavy 1-rep max).
Glycolytic (Anaerobic): 15 seconds to 2 minutes. Fuels high-intensity bursts (e.g., 400m dash).
Oxidative (Aerobic): 2+ minutes. The primary system for sustained, lower-intensity endurance (e.g., a 5K run)
Recovery - Recreated based on information from Strong First seminars
5sec - Lactic acid reduced by 50% compared to doing reps consecutively
30sec - Creatine Phosphate ~50% recovered
1min - Steepest Creatine Phosphate recovery
2min - CNS excitability starts declining
3min - Fast Creatine Phosphate recovery phase; almost complete Creatine Phosphate recovery
>3min - Slow Creatine Phosphate recovery phase
5min - CNS excitation rapidly declines after this point
5-8min - Creatine Phosphate fully recovered
10min - Performance fully recovers after a set to RM
20min - 20% performance super-compensation after a set to RM
15-20min - Creatine Phosphate super-compensation peak after strength exercise to RM
30-90min - Total lactic acid clearance
Under vs Over Training
Under training is most obvious when no progress is being made and energy remains low and mood is also “low”/calm. Appetite may be mild
As training get more demanding appetite increase as does mood and sleep quality.
The first things to go when training gets too demanding are sleep and mood. Sleep will be disturbed and mood may become aggressive or angry
If training becomes too intense sleep and appetite will be poor and mood may shift to depressed or anxious.
Finding a balance between intensity in training and having a cushion for “curveballs” from life can be challenging. I tend to under-load myself and my clients with the understanding that overloading is much more costly than under loading. Overload can lead to injury, harm to relationships and health while intelligent under loading will still produce results and be sustainable for long periods of time and can even be helpful for getting through challenging seasons of life (having something consistent and a safe “blow off valve”)
Using full range of motion seems to build muscle faster and is better for your joints. Training at end ranges may be even better.
Intuitive training and daily undulating periodization should be the goal for any average person going to the gym. Programs are great, and beginners likely need them, but programs will break down in the face of life. Consistently exercising is more important than burning out or getting injured and sticking to the program.
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