The Best Nutrition and Training Protocol for Modern Life

Life is different nowadays.

Food is abundant. We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. Do you feel like eating a whole tray of Oreos? Just take a short drive to the grocery store and bam, they’re yours. Want to get a burger with extra fries, maybe a milkshake, too? Pick from any of 2-5 locations within a 10 minute radius and go nuts. We have easy access to food, and even easier access to highly processed, hyper palatable foods.

Our days are sedentary. We simply don’t have to do as much physical work to get things done and earn a living. We have offices and computers where we can collaborate and create from one place. We have social media, skype, and phones that allow us to communicate with others at the touch of a finger. Life is just easier and lazier than it used to be.

Having easy access to highly processed foods paired up with a sedentary life is a recipe for disaster.

But it seems that life isn’t going to go in the opposite direction, so what are we to do about it?

HOW TO COMBAT MODERN LIFE

Modern life isn’t a bad thing. This is one of, if not, the best time to be alive. Although this is quite a time to be alive, it’s quite a time to be unhealthy and overweight, too. No matter what we do, we have things fighting against our ability to lose weight, keep it off, and maintain a high quality of life. We need to combat those tings, and the way we do it is through nutrition and exercise.

RESISTANCE TRAINING: THE KEY TO A FASTER METABOLISM

The human metabolism is one of the most complex things we have ever tried to understand. What we do know is that our bodies burn calories based on a few different factors.

It takes energy (calories) to digest the foods that we eat.

It takes energy (calories) to live, breathe, and perform involuntary functions that keep us alive.

It takes energy (calories) to move.

Moving is one of the best ways we can burn calories. But if you recall, movement isn’t really happening. Our lives are calling us to be more and more sedentary.

What do we do about it?

Move more and more, right?

Well, yes, and no. Creating more movement in your life is a great first step to fat loss and better health, however we can only add so much movement before we hit a wall. We can only do so many hours on the treadmill per week. We can only walk so many steps in the day. It’s not realistic for us to get to a point where we are on our feet 24/7, and exercising most hours out of the day. We have other things to do, and honestly, no one wants to be exercising for most of the hours in their day. I am in love with fitness, but the sound of living in the gym 7 days per week makes me want to die inside.

We need to do something different.

Calories are burned one of two ways. Automatically, or manually. Automatic calorie burn occurs when we just live our daily lives. Calories are burned from our existence. Manual calorie burn occurs when we create opportunity for additional calorie expenditure. Calories are burned when we exercise, do chores, walk, etc.

We can only do so much manual calorie burn, so we need to find a way to increase automatic calorie burn.

This is where resistance training comes in. Resistance training is the key to increasing your metabolism so more calories can be burned through your existence. After all, we can only do so much manual calorie burn. So why not make fat loss easier by increasing the amount of calories you burn automatically?

People interpret resistance training differently, so I need to be clear on what I’m talking about. When I talk about resistance training, I’m speaking of weight lifting and strength training. This means going to the gym with the goal and intent to get stronger by using heavier weight and usually fewer reps than you’re used to.

No, this does not mean you are adding more weight to your exercises and still performing circuits. No, this does not mean you’re doing 30 squats with five pounds more than you’re used to.

In short, here are good general rules of thumb for resistance training with the intent to speed up your metabolism:

• Follow a traditional weight lifting workout with assigned sets, reps, and rest periods

• Rest periods should be 90 seconds to 2 minutes in between sets

• Sets can range anywhere from 3-6

• 2-8 reps generally bring about the most strength increases.

The above guidelines are general recommendations. Your body will change the most after you introduce whatever it is NOT used to. For example, if you are used to training with 15-20 reps with 30 seconds in between sets, you will likely see improvement when changing to 8-10 reps with 60 seconds in between sets.

The main takeaway here is that you likely need to lift heavier, and rest a bit longer than what you’re used to.

Now, what does "heavy” mean? Lifting heavy means you are using a weight that gets you 1-2 reps short of failure once you reach your assigned rep target. Let’s break that down.

If you have to get 6 reps, you want to be using a weight that allows you to reach 6 reps, knowing you could only do one or two more reps if you had a gun to your head.

Most people don’t fully understand what their body is capable of, because they’ve never tried. Next time you’re in the gym, do your 6 reps. Then do another, then another, then another. Odds are, you’re stronger than you think, and your mindset has been limiting you. Test your strength and push your comfort zones if you want to see change.

There are a few signs that your new resistance training protocol is helping your metabolism. If you are getting progressively stronger, even if its a 5 pound difference on your lifts, you are headed in the right direction. If your appetite is increasing, you are headed in the right direction. If you are gaining lean muscle, you are headed in the right direction. Nine times out of ten, resistance training can increase the amount of calories you burn in the day, making fat loss easier and easier.

More to come on how you can assess your progress.

NUTRITION: HOW TO AID YOUR TRAINING FOR A FASTER METABOLISM

Unfortunately, you can’t just lift weights and see results. Well, you can, but the results won’t be most optimal.

In order to maximize your results and really get your metabolism cranking, you need to use the food you put in your body to enhance the effects of your resistance training program.

If you recall, we can burn calories by digesting and breaking down the food we eat. And good news, there are foods that burn more calories through digestion than others.

Protein makes the body burn the most amount of calories through digestion. Increasing your protein intake is key for building muscle (which will increase your metabolism) and increasing the amount of calories we burn through digestion.

To tell you the truth, I can’t remember the last time someone was eating enough protein before they came to me for coaching. Protein is one of most underconsumed nutrients. We need to eat more of it, and you need to eat more of it, especially if you want to change your body and health.

It’s recommended you eat .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight. If you are overweight or obese, you should be lower than that. I have found for most of my clients that aren’t overweight or obese, .8g of protein per pound of body weight is the average sweet spot. However, as with other things, there is individual variance. Play around with it and see what your body responds best to.

Aside from the extra calorie burn through digestion, protein is going to be one of the main contributors to building lean muscle tissue that increases your metabolism.

Protein is a must.

Not only do you need protein for a better metabolism and a healthier body, you need to use fats, carbs and additional calories to aid your weight training.

Healthy fats are a must for proper hormone function, and carbs are extremely helpful with performance and recovery.

Other than getting proper nutrients in, it’s likely important to slowly increase the amount of food you’re eating over time.

This is what we talk about in detail in the Eat More, Get Leaner Ebook.

The metabolism can’t increase if food is being restricted. There must be a slight introduction of additional calories week over week.

When I’m helping my clients work on building their metabolisms, we slowly introduce 50-150 calories per week as they begin to get stronger and stronger in the gym. Note: we only do this if they are undereating. There are a lot of factors that play into this, but if you’ve been decreasing your food intake over time, increasing your activity, and you haven’t seen results in some time, odds are you need to increase your intake.

You should have your protein set, and you can add additional healthy fats and carbs into your 50-150 new calories each week.

HOW TO ASSESS PROGRESS

There are many ways you can track your progress throughout this process. I have found one of the best ways is through body composition tests and weekly average weights.

Using the scale isn’t enough because there are many factors that come to play. Sodium, water, and even stress can skew your weight.

Body composition tests will tell you how much lean muscle you have, and how much body fat you have.

I recommend taking one of these every two weeks at the most. Every month works will in my opinion.

As you increase your weights in the gym and very slowly increase your food intake, your goal should be to keep your average weight the same, decrease your body fat, and increase your muscle.

Let’s talk average weights. As I mentioned, taking a weight each morning and using the average to determine progress will help zero out all of the random fluctuations that come with body weight like water, salt, time of the month, stress, and more.

Take your weight first thing in the morning after using the restroom and before eating and drinking. On Sunday, average out your weigh-ins and record that as that week’s weight. As you increase your weight and very slowly increase your food, the goal should be to keep that average weight the same, or +/- two to three pounds. If this happens, it could be a sign that you’re doing exactly what you need to which is increasing muscle and decreasing body fat, thus increasing metabolism. Getting the body composition tests done every so often will help verify if this is really what is happening.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Lift weights with the intent to increase your strength each week. Push your limits

• Your program may include 2-8 reps, 90 seconds to 2 minutes of rest, and 3-6 sets

• Slowly increase your food intake week over week, given your average weight is staying the same. 50-150 calories will suffice.

• Eat .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re overweight or obese, you can go a little lower than that.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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Creatine 101

Supplements have been in the health and fitness industry for as long as we can remember. You could even say they started the health and fitness industry.

For years, they’ve promised results that can save you from your fat loss problems. Supplements promise to build more muscle than ever before. They promise and promise and promise, and promise.

Yet they don’t come through like they say they will.

Except for creatine.

Creatine is one of the most widely studied and used supplements on the market for one reason: it works.

WHAT IS CREATINE?

Creatine, though you may have never heard of it, is a naturally occurring substance. Our body creates it, and it is found in our muscle cells as well as the muscle of the animals we eat. It is most commonly known and recognized in its powdered supplement form.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

When we exercise, our cells produce ATP for energy. Our cells produce lots of ATP when we are lifting weights and training at intense levels.

Creatine helps increase the phosphocreatine stores in our muscles. The increase in stores can help produce more energy in the cells (ATP) which can lead to the following benefits.

BENEFIT #1: INCREASED MUSCLE MASS

Even if your goal is to lose body fat, increasing your lean muscle mass will help you do that. Muscle is one of the main contributing factors to a faster metabolism.

Having a faster metabolism makes fat loss far easier. It is important to put on and maintain lean muscle mass, and creatine can help you do so.

Creatine is known to be the best supplement for building muscle, and it should be. Time and time again, study after study, creatine helps individuals build muscle. But how?

There are many different ideas, but the most common understanding is that since creatine increases energy production in the cells, it increases performance in the gym, too. The increase in performance in the gym leads to greater strength increases.

Lifting more weights increases the individuals overall volume, which is believed to be one of the main contributing factors to increased muscle. Your body adapts as your volume (weights x sets x reps) increases.

Basically, creatine can help you increase the amount of weight you lift in the gym which can help you build more lean muscle.

BENEFIT #2: EXPLOSIVE PERFORMANCE

Aside from strength and lean muscle mass increases, creatine has been shown to help athletes and top performers get more from their body.

Without creatine, ATP is gone after about 8-10 seconds of exercise. Creatine can help ATP last a few seconds longer.

This has been shown to help sprinters sprint longer, cyclists cycle further, and athletes perform better. Whether you’re performing a one-rep max or a 12-second play on the field, creatine may be the supplement for you.

BENEFIT #3: COGNITIVE FUNCTION

Believe it or not, creatine has been used to treat neurological conditions. Much of the research is not conclusive as to whether or not this supplement can help treat the symptoms of the many neurological demons we face today, but some say they notice a difference.

Anecdotally, creatine seems to have more of an impact on vegans and vegetarians, or those with a diet low in meat. Given that creatine is found in animal meat (especially in red meat), it is likely that vegans and vegetarians are in dire need of creatine and thus see the greatest cognitive improvements when supplementing.

Aside from neurological disorders, creatine is believed to help with things like memory.

Pretty cool, huh?

WHO SHOULD TAKE CREATINE?

For some reason, creatine has been over popularized in men and hardly marketed to women at all. So much so, that many women believe it is a man’s supplement. This simply is not true.

Both men and women can see benefits from supplementing with creatine. If your goal is to improve your performance in the gym, get stronger, and increase your lean muscle mass, creatine may be a great fit.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Creatine is one of the safest and most widely studied supplements on the market.

Creatine helps our bodies produce more ATP. This can lean to increased strength, performance, and lean muscle tissue.

It seems that vegans and vegetarians may see the most benefit from creatine given their low to non-existent exposure to meat.

Creatine can be taken by both men and women. Whether your goal is to build muscle, burn fat, increase strength, or improve your overall performance, creatine may help.

Consult with your physician before making the decision to take creatine.

And remember, no supplement is as effective as a sound diet and quality training program. Supplements do best when all of the big rocks are dialed in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

WANT MORE FREE CONTENT?

Download any of our ebooks or guides for FREE in the “free” tab at the top of the page.

How Long Should You Rest In Between Sets?

The topic of today’s discussion comes from a question an individual wanted to hear an answer to on the show.

And I am SO thankful they asked this question.

As a trainer, you tend to notice things in the gym that others don’t. There are many things that I notice that don’t seem quite right, but improper rest between sets is the common offender.

Believe it or not, the rest you take in between sets carries a lot of weight (pun intended) in the results you see from your workouts. Changing your rest times can completely change the outcome. If you want to speed up your metabolism, but you love the sweat, you may be doing yourself a disservice. If you’re wanting to increase the pump in your muscles but chatty Kathy got the best of your rest period, you won’t get that pump.

Since the amount of time you rest in between your sets carries just as much weight as the weight, sets, and reps you are lifting, it’s crucial we take a detailed look at rest periods.

WHY REST?

As you know, your body absolutely needs rest. It needs all sorts of rest. Sleep, rest when you’re sick, and rest in between sets, too.

The reason we rest in between sets is to allow our body to recover from the exercise it just performed. If we don’t rest, we don’t recover, and we can’t continue progressing.

But why does it matter how long we rest? As long as we feel ready to go again, right?

Well, yes. And no.

Most people that exercise are cardio junkies. They love to sweat, and if their heart rate monitor doesn’t get into the red zone, all hell is breaking loose. Most people believe that when they have finally caught their breath, they are recovered and ready to go into the next set. The problem here is that this hypothetical cardio junkie is only training one system of the body. Their cardiovascular system. They may want to get stronger and build leaner muscles, but if they are training to get their heart rate up, work up a sweat, and go balls to the wall for an hour straight, they won’t see those results. Not after a short while, at least.

When we exercise, we are telling our body to adapt to the environment we put it in. If that involves lifting heavy weights, you will likely become stronger and have a faster metabolism as a result. If that involves doing a circuit, your endurance will improve.

Whatever we “tell” our body to do, it becomes.

So if we aren’t supposed to go again when we catch our breath, how long should we really be resting? It depends on the goal.

RESTING FOR STRENGTH

Merriam-Webster defines strength as “the quality or state of being physically strong.”

Well, duh.

Basically, your physical strength is your ability to move some heavy ass weight. The more weight you can move, the stronger you are.

Our ability to produce strength comes from our central nervous system (CNS). Think of your CNS as your amplifier to your muscles (the speakers). The better the amplifier is, better sound will come from the speakers. The better your central nervous system is, the better it can communicate to the muscle fibers to produce more force. So we must tell that amplifier to improve through strength training.

There are two “unfortunately”s when it comes to rest and strength training. The first one is this: the central nervous system takes a long time to recover. The second is this: we can’t really feel when our central nervous system is recovered and ready to go.

A minimum rest period of 2 minutes is recommended when trying to improve sheer strength. If you are working in low rep ranges (2-6) to get stronger, make sure your rest time gives your CNS time to recover. I have found 2-3 minutes between sets to be the sweet spot.

RESTING FOR MUSCLE GROWTH

Hypertrophy (muscle growth) rest periods are different from strength rest periods.

When we go into higher rep ranges with shorter amounts of rest, we train the muscles more so than the CNS, and your muscles don’t need 3 minutes to recover between sets.

Fortunately, feeling out your rest period when training for muscle growth is much easier. You can get a sense of when your muscles are ready to go at it again.

Resting for 30 seconds to 90 seconds has been shown to be the sweet spot for muscle growth, preferably 60-90 seconds.

You may be sitting there thinking that 90 seconds is way too long for you to rest in between sets. If that is your thought process, you’re likely not lifting enough weight and pushing yourself hard enough. Your muscles should feel like they need every second in that rest period to recoup and recover before lifting those weights again.

RESTING FOR ENDURANCE

When we rest for endurance, the goal is to endure the stimulus (exercise) for an extended period of time. Think of the difference between an olympic sprinter, and an olympic long-distance runner. They are capable of extremes but those extremes are two very different things. One can sprint faster than most humans in the world but if you asked them to run a marathon, they’d suffer. The other can run a marathon like it’s a breeze, but don’t have the muscular capacity to move explosively in short windows.

But we’re not olympians. Maybe you are, I don’t know.

We are the general population that isn’t training to be the best of the best in a very specific sport. Which is why resting for endurance is very subjective.

It all depends on where the individual is at.

If you’re used to resting for 3 minutes in between sets, resting 1 minute may really test your endurance. If you’re used to resting 30 seconds in between sets, 15 seconds may feel like no time.

Generally, resting 15-45 seconds in between sets has been shown to help people improve their endurance. But again, it all depends on where you’re at.

THE TAKEAWAYS

You may have noticed that some of these rest period ranges overlap. As I mentioned, it’s because it all depends on what your body is used to.

As long as you stick within the ranges, your body will likely see the changes you’re demanding it to make.

Strength: 2+ minutes in between sets. Be sure you’re lifting heavy weight for 2-6 reps.
Hypertrophy: 60-90 seconds in between sets. Your weight should be heavy enough that a 6-12 rep range is difficult, but not impossible.
Endurance: 15-45 seconds in between sets. Usually paired with lighter weight that can be lifted for 12+ reps.

Now I do want to note one more thing before closing. These rest periods and energy systems don’t work solo. They are all intertwined, which is why it is super important to work in and out of training programs that improve all three - strength, hypertrophy, and endurance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

WANT MORE FREE CONTENT?

Download any of our ebooks or guides for FREE in the “free” tab at the top of the page.