Q&A session - live right now!

stroutman81

Do you have any experience with women who have Diastasis Recti, and what transverse abdominal exercises to do to help close the gap?

I'm sorry.... I do not. I know of the condition but I've not researched it. I would be interested in knowing if exercises can actually improve the issue. I would guess not to any appreciable degree... but guesses aren't worth much.

jayhawkfan51

What exercises do you recommend for toning inner thighs and abdomen?

Let me be very clear. You can't flex fat.

Read that a few times and let it sink in.

Fat and muscle are very separate tissues. Subcutaneous fat lays directly below your skin. It resides between your skin and your muscles. And because these are separate tissues, you can flex the muscles under this fat until you're blue in the face, but that's not going to do a thing for the fat that's on top of said muscles.

Which is why there's no such thing as spot reduction. I know everyone supposedly understands this... but hearing it and believing it are worlds apart. I know people who will repeat this same thing day in and day out about the impossibility of spot reduction, yet, I'll see them banging away on endless exercises to target their problem areas.

That wouldn't be a problem if their problem areas were problems due to a lack of muscle. But that's typically not the case. They're problem areas typically due to excess fat.

And fat is and always will be lost in a pattern that's genetically predetermined.

Now, maybe by now you're at a point where you're thinking, "shut up, Steve. What I meant to ask is what are the best exercises for the muscles of the abdomen and inner thigh." If that's the case, I'm not married to any one exercise for either region.

I tend to stick mostly with stability exercises for abs but I'll throw in some flexion exercises as well. My list of go tos include plank and side plank variations, stir the pots on a stability ball, pallof presses, rollout variations, dragon flags, cable crunches, and for the beginner I'll resort to introductory Sahrmann abdominal exercises (google if you're not familiar).

I'm not a fan of isolating the inner thigh muscles. I prefer compound movements involving knee flexion/extension and or hip flexion/extension. Go tos include barbell squats, goblet squats, leg presses, forward lunges, lateral lunges, reverse lunges, barbell hip thrusts, glute ham raises, romanian deadlifts, conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, rack pulls, rear foot elevated split squats, etc.

Ok so maybe I should have said tone up loose skin. But thanks for the exercises, never even heard of some of them. Assuming those same ones should help with skin issues too?

stroutman81

How many calories should I be eating? My BMR is 1600 at rest, I am doing Insanity 5 days a week. Was at 1290, per MFP but hit a plateau... heard I was in 'negative calories'.

The number of calories that allows you to lose a sane amount of weight each week (ON AVERAGE) over longer periods of time.

Stop focusing on a particular number and start focusing on the process of trying a particular intake while keeping other things constant, being consistent with that for a number of weeks (2-4), and adjusting according to what's happening. If you're losing too quickly, bring calories up. If you're losing too slowly, drop them down slightly. Rinse. Repeat.

I find that many people who claim to be eating really low calories and stalling out in the fat loss department are, in fact, eating far more calories than they believe.

In the other rare cases where they are eating in big deficits without success, first step is usually full blood panels to rule out any hormonal issues. Second step, depending on the findings of the blood work, would be to bring cals up to maintenance for 1-2 weeks, relax on the exercise, and then start again using sane parameters and the process outlined above.

HeatherHoskins

Hi,

i was watching tv last night and heard a nutrionist say that you should always eat fruit with a protein like cottage cheese. Is this true?? it is "bad" to eat fruit by itself?

stroutman81

One which is balanced, meaning for every push there must be a pull....both horizontal as vertical. This is to ensure you are building your body proportionally.

It's worth mentioning that with many of my clients I wind up doing more pulling than pressing. People's backside muscles tend to be weak/underactive and people's front side muscles tend to be short/overactive.

Thanks for your answers in the Q&A though.

shelbyfrootcake

I have no idea what mixed intensity conditioning as I am an exercise n00b; could you please elaborate for me?

CannibalisticVegetarian

Not sure how silly this sounds, but I'll ask anyway.

I know that swimming is fantastic cardio work, but could it also be used for strength training? Like on days when you can't get to the weight rack due to crowds, could you get the same results merely by swimming a couple of laps in an Olympic sized swimming pool?

deanna_bond

Everyone is telling me I should stop cardio and just lift I dont how that is going to lose weight. Im 220lbs 5'9" everytime seems like I keep the excercise up i gain even more

aj_31

What would you tell a woman who wants to lose a lot of fat in her belly area? Is it better to do more cardio now and then focus on lifting later or a mix of both?

I'd tell her to read my post above about "flexing fat" and not being able to spot reduce. I'd also tell her to stop focusing on where the fat is stored, chalk that up to genetics. Rather I'd have her focus on a balanced approach to exercise that likely included SOME conditioning work and SOME resistance training.

I'd educate her to understand that resistance training, in most cases, should be prioritized over conditioning.

Yup, that's right.

I'd also help her understand that when it comes to fat loss, nutrition is the primary driver to success.

Thanks Steve. I guess I've just hit a point of total frustration with myself and my progress. I'm having such a hard time getting back on track 100%. All I can focus on is the fat I have to lose and how I'm not losing it. I think my mind is working against me to a point. I need to get back into it mentally.

stroutman81

What is the best way to fuel a long run? I generally have an english muffin or whole wheat bagel with PB prior to running but if I'm out for 2+ hours I feel I need fuel during the run as well. What is best for this and how often (I read so many conflicting things)

ps, I run slow so my 12.5 miler tomorrow will take me approx 2.5 hours.

Thanks

I think you read so many conflicting things because there's a lot of individuality at play here. Honestly, without diving in the the technical side of the literature, my best suggestion would be to experiment with different carb loads and see where you're feeling the best.

Hopefully your running for competition training or for the love and not because you believe it's the way to get the body you're after. A lot of people think they need to run to get in shape when in reality most need to get in shape to run.

stroutman81

What's the best time to weigh yourself?

Ideally first thing in the AM after using the bathroom. Then again, most of my clients don't weigh themselves very frequently. I hardly ever do personally.

painauxraisin

Bumping for later.

krisiepoo

What is the best way to fuel a long run? I generally have an english muffin or whole wheat bagel with PB prior to running but if I'm out for 2+ hours I feel I need fuel during the run as well. What is best for this and how often (I read so many conflicting things)

ps, I run slow so my 12.5 miler tomorrow will take me approx 2.5 hours.

Thanks

I think you read so many conflicting things because there's a lot of individuality at play here. Honestly, without diving in the the technical side of the literature, my best suggestion would be to experiment with different carb loads and see where you're feeling the best.

Hopefully your running for competition training or for the love and not because you believe it's the way to get the body you're after. A lot of people think they need to run to get in shape when in reality most need to get in shape to run.

I'm doing a 1/2 marathon at the end of October and just signed up for a FULL marathon in June I love running and I'm doing some races... not competition because I'm VERY slow, but races are tons of fun to me

Muscles_Curves

Can deadlifts help with cellulite?

stroutman81

What exercises do you recommend for toning inner thighs and abdomen?

Let me be very clear. You can't flex fat.

Read that a few times and let it sink in.

Fat and muscle are very separate tissues. Subcutaneous fat lays directly below your skin. It resides between your skin and your muscles. And because these are separate tissues, you can flex the muscles under this fat until you're blue in the face, but that's not going to do a thing for the fat that's on top of said muscles.

Which is why there's no such thing as spot reduction. I know everyone supposedly understands this... but hearing it and believing it are worlds apart. I know people who will repeat this same thing day in and day out about the impossibility of spot reduction, yet, I'll see them banging away on endless exercises to target their problem areas.

That wouldn't be a problem if their problem areas were problems due to a lack of muscle. But that's typically not the case. They're problem areas typically due to excess fat.

And fat is and always will be lost in a pattern that's genetically predetermined.

Now, maybe by now you're at a point where you're thinking, "shut up, Steve. What I meant to ask is what are the best exercises for the muscles of the abdomen and inner thigh." If that's the case, I'm not married to any one exercise for either region.

I tend to stick mostly with stability exercises for abs but I'll throw in some flexion exercises as well. My list of go tos include plank and side plank variations, stir the pots on a stability ball, pallof presses, rollout variations, dragon flags, cable crunches, and for the beginner I'll resort to introductory Sahrmann abdominal exercises (google if you're not familiar).

I'm not a fan of isolating the inner thigh muscles. I prefer compound movements involving knee flexion/extension and or hip flexion/extension. Go tos include barbell squats, goblet squats, leg presses, forward lunges, lateral lunges, reverse lunges, barbell hip thrusts, glute ham raises, romanian deadlifts, conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, rack pulls, rear foot elevated split squats, etc.

Ok so maybe I should have said tone up loose skin. But thanks for the exercises, never even heard of some of them. Assuming those same ones should help with skin issues too?

I said above that fat and muscle are separate tissues. You can also insert skin in there in place of fat. You can't flex skin.

Skin elasticity is very genetic in nature. Some people can lose mass amounts of weight and suffer no negative consequences in terms of excess skin and other can lose seemingly small amounts of weight and have terrible problems with skin sag.

Tom Venuto wrote a decent article on the topic here:

http://www.tomvenuto.com/asktom/loose_skin_and_weight_loss.shtml

Now if you have fat levels minimized enough and you're still contending with skin issues, building some muscle under the skin can help "fill out" some of the excess skin. But you'd simply have to dive and and test it out... see if it'll work for you. It all depends on how much excess skin is there, how much room for muscle growth you have relative to your genetic potential, your willingness to eat a surplus to fuel muscle growth, etc.

stroutman81

Hi,

i was watching tv last night and heard a nutrionist say that you should always eat fruit with a protein like cottage cheese. Is this true?? it is "bad" to eat fruit by itself?

No. Most things you here on TV regarding nutrition can be dismissed.

stroutman81

I have no idea what mixed intensity conditioning as I am an exercise n00b; could you please elaborate for me?

Some steady state stuff, some interval stuff. I'm simply saying to use a variety of intensities. It's not necessary... it's just my preferred approach in most cases.

Read this article:

http://www.myosynthesis.com/interval-training-hiit-tempo-training-fat-loss

stroutman81

Not sure how silly this sounds, but I'll ask anyway.

I know that swimming is fantastic cardio work, but could it also be used for strength training? Like on days when you can't get to the weight rack due to crowds, could you get the same results merely by swimming a couple of laps in an Olympic sized swimming pool?

No.

I mean, on a fundamental level, swimming can certainly be classified as 'resistance training.' I mean, due to things like viscosity and drag as your body moves through water, there's a degree of resistance involved.

But when your body's accustomed to lifting weights that are heavy relative to your strength level, the magnitude of resistance involved in swimming is too low. Remember, you have to overload your muscles to trigger improvements.

Think of it like this. In some of the research you'll see where sedentary folks realize muscle growth in their legs when they're put on a walking program. That's because they're going from doing nothing to doing something. But what if you took someone who has been squatting and deadlifting for years and put them on a walking program? Do you think walking would/could replace the stresses involved in their squatting and deadlift training?

shelbyfrootcake

I have no idea what mixed intensity conditioning as I am an exercise n00b; could you please elaborate for me?

Some steady state stuff, some interval stuff. I'm simply saying to use a variety of intensities. It's not necessary... it's just my preferred approach in most cases.

Read this article:

http://www.myosynthesis.com/interval-training-hiit-tempo-training-fat-loss

Cool. Ta.

stroutman81

Everyone is telling me I should stop cardio and just lift I dont how that is going to lose weight. Im 220lbs 5'9" everytime seems like I keep the excercise up i gain even more

At your size, I'm not opposed to including cardio. In fact, if you were my client, you'd be doing some form of conditioning/cardio each week.