The popular debate that surfaced this past year was between the role of exercise in fat loss.

It basically started with Time Magazine running an article titled Why Exercise Wont Make You Thin.

Right when the article came out, it began an internet firestorm from health professionals blogging about how horrible Time Magazine was for publishing this article – talk about going viral!

I read the article a few days after it came out and to tell you the truth, it wasn’t that bad!  In reality, all it was saying was what we basically already know, “you can’t out work a poor diet.”

I am not going to dispute that diet is an important component to losing fat.  In fact, it is the most important component as far as I am concerned.  We have all seen those people in the gym who kill themselves 2 hours a day/7 days a week, yet see minimal to no results because they are constantly over-eating.

While diet is important for losing fat, exercise is essential for achieving higher levels of health.  Together, an appropriate calorie-restricted diet and a sound exercise program are essential not only for improving body composition, but also improving the overall function of the body’s systems.

Researchers at the Pennigton Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University recently evaluated the results of caloric restriction with or without exercise.

Thirty-six overweight participants (16 males/20 females) were randomly assigned to one of three groups for the 6-month study:

1. A control group who ate a weight-maintenance healthy diet
2. A caloric restriction group who restricted energy intake by eating at a daily caloric deficit of 25%
3. A caloric restriction plus exercise group who created a daily caloric deficit of 25% by reducing energy intake by 12.5% and increasing energy expenditure by 12.5%

The researchers posed the following question:

“Does caloric restriction with or without exercise result in different improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors which could ultimately improve longevity?  The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether a deficit by energy restriction or energy restriction plus aerobic exercise that produces equal change in fatness leads to greater cardiometabolic benefits when exercise is included.”

The Diet

The diets used in the study where based on the America Heart Association’s Step 1 recommendations.

During the first 12 weeks of the study food was provided for all groups based on their dietary needs.  In weeks 13-22 the subjects self-selected their own diet based on their individual caloric target, and in weeks 22-24 (the final two weeks of the study) the subjects returned to the in-feeding protocol, which they used in the fist 12 weeks.

The Exercise

Both the control group and the caloric restriction only group where not allowed to alter their current level of physical activity for the 6-month study.

The caloric restriction plus exercise group was required to increase their energy expenditure by 12.5% above their baseline requirements.  They did so by partaking in a structured aerobic exercise program (IE, walking, running or stationary cycling) for 5 days a week.

Adherence

Adherence is a common problem in studies like this, and subjects are notorious for under-reporting their caloric intake and over-reporting their caloric-expenditure.

The subjects in this study attended weekly group meetings and were contacted once per week via telephone to ensure there were no adherence problems to the program.

Tests

The subjects were tested for changes in fat mass, visceral fat, Vo2 peak (using a graded treadmill test), muscular strength (isokinetic knee extension/flexion), blood lipids, blood pressure, and insulin sensitivity/secretion.

Aerobic Fitness and Muscle Strength Results

The exercise group was the only group that saw improvements in Vo2 peak, which is to be expected since they were the only group stressing their aerobic fitness.

There were no changes in muscle strength between the groups.  This would be expected considering this study did not have a resistance training component to it.

Body Composition Results

Body fat was significantly reduced in both the caloric restriction and caloric restriction plus exercise groups, as were total body fat mass and visceral abdominal fat.

People may look at those results and think that those results aren’t very promising for the exercise group; however, I look at those results and see what I would expect to see given that both groups had created an equal caloric deficit (25%).

Cardiometabolic Risk Factors

This is where, in my opinion, things get important.

HDL (the “good” cholesterol) was significantly increased in all treatment groups, including the control group. This is possibly because their diet was set up for them based on the American Heart Association guidelines. And even though they were not eating in a caloric deficit – rather eating at a weight-maintenance level – the diet was probably healthier than the normal junk they would eat on a daily basis.

Fasting serum triglyceride concentration increased significantly in the control group, but decreased significantly in both the caloric restriction and the caloric restriction plus exercise groups.

While systolic blood pressure was not changed in any of the groups, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL (the “bad” cholesterol), and insulin sensitivity were significantly improved ONLY in the caloric restriction plus exercise group!

Summary

– Adding exercise to your calorie-restricted fat-loss diet has greater improvements on cardiometabolic health, which are greater than caloric restriction alone.

– The addition of aerobic exercise to a calorie-restricted diet enhances overall aerobic fitness which is helpful for improving health and wellness.

– Calorie restriction is essential for fat loss and body composition changes; however, when combined with exercise, the amount of caloric restriction needed to illicit the same results in body composition is decreased (12.5% caloric restriction with exercise intervention vs. 25% caloric restriction with no exercise).

– Aerobic exercise has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which is important in the health of overweight/obese individuals who may be at greater risk for diabetes and/or other metabolic disorders.

Conclusion

Calorie restriction is king when it comes to fat loss.  A proper diet will help you achieve this goal, but exercise can be effective in not only helping you reach this goal (without having to rely as heavily on reducing calories, which typically leads to a miserable experience and lack of adherence) but also, in helping improve your overall cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Reference

Larson-Meyer DE, Redman L, Heilbronn LK, Martin CK, Ravussin E.Caloric restriction with or without exercise: The fitness versus fatness debate. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010;42(1):152-159.

Keats Snideman and I just did a quick two-part video on the Kettlebell swing.  We go over a few teaching cues and supplemental exercises to help you perfect your swing technique.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Young athletes practice long and hard to try and improve their sports skills. Coaches and parents will typically encourage long practices as,“practice makes perfect.”  Often, the emphasis on practicing a specific skill or task is done so at the risk of not focusing on other things that may additionally help the athlete improve their athleticism and abilities.  For example, incorporating appropriate strength and power training into the practice (which should be addressed during the offseason as well as the inseason).

Since we don’t have winter and snow here in Phoenix, it is not uncommon to drive down the street and see some of the club and high school teams practicing on the various fields this time of year.  Observing these practices is an interesting peek into the mind of the coach.  A typical practice usually looks like this:

• A relatively non-specific warm up (jog two laps around the field)
• A bunch of basic sports dills
• Finally some sort of scrimmage or drill that simulates game-like circumstances

In my opinion, the recipe could be better.  Unfortunately, the cook, I mean coach, usually doesn’t understand how to blend the spices together to make a great tasting meal.

One of the most important things that can be emphasized in youth sports practice is dropping the non-specific warm up (the 2-lap plop around the field) and starting to use a more movement based warm up (consisting of various exercises and mobility tasks) to not only enhance the overall movement capacity and awareness of the young athletes, but to serve as a segue into some basic plyometric drills to help teach them how to appropriately absorb and apply force.  I talked a little bit about this in my article on the importance of deceleration training, “We can’t stop.  It’s too dangerous.  We’ve got to slow down first!”

A current study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research evaluated the influence a short-term plyometric training program – included within a normal 90-min soccer practice – would have on inseason youth soccer athletes.

The athletes (13yrs old) were placed into one of two groups

• A control group who performed the normal 90-min soccer practice, twice a week, for the entire 8-week program.
• A training group who substitute the first 20-25min of their normal soccer practice with a variety of plyometric drills, twice a week, for the entire 8-week program

The athletes were tested before and after the 8-week period using 6-tests to evaluate explosive actions

1. 10-meter sprint
2. Agility test
3. Squat jump
4. Countermovement jump
5. Jump contact test
6. Multiple 5-bound test

The training group performed a periodized plyometric program, which was carried out following the warm up.  The program consisted of:

• Ankle hops
• Vertical and lateral hurdle hops
• Horizontal and lateral bounding
• Skipping
• Footwork (speed ladder)

All exercises were performed on the field, and each session was composed of 4-different exercises for 2-4 sets x 6-12 repetitions.  Because the athletes had no prior training in plyometrics, the 4-main points were stressed:

1. Correct posture (IE, spine erect, shoulders back) and body alignment (IE, chest over knees) throughout the jump
2. Jumping straight up for vertical jumps, with no excessive side-to-side or forward/backward movement
3. Soft landings including toe-to-heel rocking and bent knees
4. Instant recoil preparation for the next jump

Following the 8-week training program the plyometric training group saw decreases in both 10-meter time and agility test time (meaning they got faster!), significant improvements in countermovement jump height (7.9%) and, while not statistically significant, the plyometric training group improved their multiple 5-bound test by 4% and their jump height after rebound in the jump contact test by 10.9%.

The control group showed no significant improvements in any of the explosive power tests and their performance left much to be desired.  Their squat jump and countermovement jump height actually decreased by 4.5% and 3.8% respectively, over the 8-week training period and their agility test time actually INCREASED significantly by 2.8% (meaning they got SLOWER!) following the 8-week training program.

Practical Application

This study is helpful for sports coaches in that it can allow them to draw up practices that are not only time effective, but focus on a variety of essential factors which will aide in developing youth athletes.

The nice thing about this study is that it takes away the excuse, “There isn’t enough time.”  Ninety minutes is the typical amount of time allotted for youth sports practices, and with proper planning the coach should be able to devote the first 30-minutes to a sufficient warm up consisting of basic movement preparation exercises and followed by a safe and progressive plyometric and agility training program.

I do however urge coaches to learn as much as possible before implementing this sort of training program with their youth athletes.  The program in this study was periodized in a manner that allowed the athletes to adapt to slight increases in plyometric volume and intensity over the 8-week period.  The athletes did not just go out and start jumping around.  Each session was rated for intensity on a 1-5 scale and each session built its volume on that of the previous sessions so that the young athletes could properly adapt to the stresses that were placed on them.  Additionally, the coach should have a thorough understanding of how to teach jumping and agility activities safely, so that proper technique is re-enforced, as “Practice makes permanent.  Only perfect practice makes perfect!”

If possible, attempt to contact a qualified strength and conditioning specialist to consult with your team or work with your team on the development of a safe and effective training program.

Remember, coaching youth athletes is about setting them up for success in the future.  I know one junior high lacrosse coach in town that is using some of the agility drills I have worked on with him as part of the teams practice (following the warm up).  These young athletes will surely be astep-ahead of others in their age group when they move onto the next level.

Reference

Meylan C, Malatesta D. Effects of In-Season Plyometric Training Within Soccer Practice On Explosive Actions Of Young Players.J Strength Cond Res 2009;23(9):2605-2613.

Interval training, in the form of repeated sprints, is a common modality used in training programs for those in team sports.

You certainly can’t discount the fact that these athletes need more than the long-slow aerobic type of training that was more common years ago.  Most team sports are intermittent in nature, so various forms of interval training lend themselves well to preparing the athletes to do work at a high or relatively high intensity, recover quickly (sometimes in a minute or less) and then perform a high amount of work again.

There is certainly enough research over the past few years to support this contention.  Here is a brief synopsis of two articles on the subject of interval training and team sport athletes:

• Continuous training (aerobic work for 20-25min) was compared with Interval Training (10sets x 10sec max pedaling on a bicycle ergometer followed by 20sec of recovery) in Eighteen lacrosse athletes.  Vo2max increased significantly in both groups during the aerobic exercise test (incremental cycling test to exhaustion), while maximal anaerobic power only increased significantly in the interval-training group.  Additionally, the interval-training group saw improvements in maximal power in both the early and late stages of the intermittent exercise test (10sets x 10sec max bike sprint followed by 40sec rest).  The researchers concluded that, “Ball game players should therefore improve their endurance capacity with high-intensity intermittent exercise, and it is insufficient to assess their capacity with only Vo2max or continuous exercise.”

• Female college hockey players participated in a study evaluating the relationship between aerobic capacity – measured by Vo2max – and recovery from high intensity intermittent exercise.  The athletes were asked to skate 5-one lap intervals around the rink, separated by 30-seconds of recovery.  The researchers found that aerobic capacity was not significantly related to the ability to recover from high intensity exercise.  Thus, they concluded that, “Coaches and trainers probably do not need to include aerobic training in their practices, because high intensity interval training commonly seen in hockey training also improves aerobic capacity, as reflected in the Vo2max values of these subjects.”

Over Doing It?

As they say, “To much of a good thing can become a bad thing.”

I have gotten the impression that with all the research about interval training and sports preparation, some may be overdoing it, as it is not uncommon to see people programming intense interval workouts daily or several times a week (oftentimes in addition to the athletes regular sports practice).

It is important to remember that interval training can place a high amount of fatigue on the body.  If an athlete is not recovering from this type of training, there is a potential for overtraining.

One particular study looked at the muscle damage following a bout of sport specific repeated sprints.  The subjects performed 15 x 30m sprints with a 10m deceleration zone.  The deceleration zone was used as way to simulate sports specific activities, since team sports often require change of direction, cutting and high amounts of deceleration.  This is also the reason many coaches favor shuttle runs as a means of interval training, as it simulates the dynamic environment during game situations.  Each repetition in the study was followed by 60-seconds of rest.  The researchers measured maximum isometric force (MVC), serum creating kinase activity, muscle soreness (DOMS) and limb girth before training and at 24-hours, 48-hours and 72-hours after exercise.

Creatine Kinase and DOMS were elevated above baseline for 72-hours post training, while maximum voluntary contraction showed a decline at 24 and 48-hours post training, and limb girth was elevated for 48-hours post training.

These results led the researchers to conclude that, “These data show that the repeated sprint protocol with a rapid deceleration precipitates significant levels of damage in the days following the exercise bout and therefore may be used as a suitable alternative to examine the damage response from a sport specific repeated sprint mode of exercise.”

Conclusions

Much like resistance training, you can’t go heavy everyday or  all the time.  Your body needs a break and either you give it the break it needs (proper programming) or it forces you to take that break (injury).

Interval training is a very specific modality that has many applications.  Obviously, identifying the intensity of the intervals is important.  This is one of the reasons why I advocate grading the intensity of the training as “High/Medium/Low”.

Two high days in a row will certainly be pushing the envelope (not that it can’t be done) and would certainly warrant a low day or off day at the completion of those two training days.

Typically I am a fan of sequencing between days of high intensity work and days of low intensity work.

High intensity work would be things like heavy lifting (especially lower body lifts), olympic lifting, intense plyometrics, interval work, sprinting, etc.

Low intensity days would be things like body weight circuits, low intensity medicine ball circuits, tempo runs, etc.

Medium days would fall somewhere in the middle where the intensity is moderate or moderate to high and/or the volume is low.

One thing about the tempo work is that you need to be objective with yourself and perform within the appropriate intensity.  I believe Charlie Francis said something like, “Most people’s tempo work is to high of an intensity to be considered tempo work and to low of an intensity to be considered speed work.”  Basically, we are working harder than we should, instead of backing off the intensity during the tempo work and allowing ourselves to develop an appropriate work capacity and recover adequately so that our high intensity days will not be compromised.

In the article Cardio: Intervals, Tempo Work and Steady State I get more into making the distinctions between these types of things, as well as give some practical application of these training modalities.

In a nutshell, understand the training objectives and modalities you choose to prescribe to your clients/athletes.  There is nothing wrong with backing off the intensity and allowing the body to recover, as the body can only adapt to so much stress at one time.

References

Tanisho K, Hirakawa K. Training Effects of Endurance Capacity In Maximal Intermittent Exercise: Comparison Between Continuous and Interval Training. J Strength Cond Res2009;23(8):2405-2410.

Carey DG, Drake MM, Pliego GJ, Raymond RL. Do Hockey Players Need Aerobic Fitness? Relation Between Vo2max and Fatigue During High-Intensity Intermittent Ice Skating. J Strength Cond Res 2007;21(3):963-966.

Howatson G, Milak A. Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage Following a Bout of Sport Specific Repeated Sprints. J Strength Cond Res 2009;23(8):2419-2424.

Fillers are extra movements in a training program that can be added in between exercises, as active rest.  I typically will pick a mobility drill that focuses on an individual’s limitation as a filler exercise, or occasionally some sort of core exercise.

The biggest benefit of “fillers” is that you can continue to hammer out a particular limitation that the individual has and that active rest in between exercises ensures that you don’t waste time standing around during training (*Not that rest is bad!  In some phases of training, you may want/need to take full rest periods of nothing to ensure that you are fully recovered prior to the next lift or sprint).

An example of filler exercises for an individual thas has increased hip flexor tone and poor ankle mobility, would be to perform a split squat and then follow it up with psoas active isolated stretching, and wall ankle rocking, before repeating the split squat.  It would look like this:

1a) Split Squat

1b) Psoas AIS

1c) Wall ankle rocking

I have to admit, I am horrible about doing this stuff in my own training program!

I write it into all of my clients programs, but when it comes to my own, I usually don’t do it.  I will often just take normal rest and then repeat the exercise.  The unfortunate thing is that when I don’t do it, I notice it!  I get beat up much easier in training and my durability is poor.  When I am more focused on including my filler exercises, I move much better and I have less aches and pains from hard training.  So, I have decided to get serious and add them back into my training program.

Give some “fillers” a try in between your normal exercises and see how they feel to you.