While there are many people who strive for athletic performance, it’s more like that the the average person just wants to look good naked. That approximately translates to more muscle and less fat (and ladies, you get ‘curves’ by having more muscle as well).

After the miracle period of beginner gains, we face a fundamental dilemmas. To get more muscle, the body has to be in an anabolic state with a surplus of nutrients. To lose fat, the body needs to be in an energy deficit.

In other words, at any period of time, the body can’t simultaneously lose fat and gain muscle.

Hence, bodybuilders over the years have practiced bulking and cutting cycles. They eat more and push bodyweight up, hoping to net as much muscle gain as possible while accepting some fat gain. They then strip off the fat with a dieting phase while trying to maintain the newly built muscle.

Sounds fine in theory, but we’re assuming that you actually build some muscle during the bulks, and hang on to all of it during the cuts. Unfortunately…

We can only build muscle so quickly

And the rate of gains is dismal compared to what people expect. More importantly, eating more isn’t going to increase this rate by very much at all.

So what is the solution?

The only real solution is to get a great coach right from the start. Someone who takes responsibility for one’s diet and training and ensures that the beginner trainee doesn’t stray off course. I’m not referring to a personal trainer here, who has a transactional relationship with the client. An example of this is more akin to the relationship between a high school football coach and his players.

Of course, rarely is one fortunate enough to land in that scenario, and ultimately, we have to take things into our own hands.

The next best solution is to actively seek out someone who can provide the right kind of advice and support. This oftentimes means hiring a personal trainer or nutritional consultant. An example would be Martin Berkhan of Leangains.com, who has a proven track record with turning people from fat to fit.

The first problem is that such an approach costs money, which many beginners don’t have. The next problem is that by definition, a beginner trainee cannot judge if a trainer is good or not.

Another solution is to take it very slow, building muscle and losing fat at the same time. But that takes a lot of micro-management, and is certainly not for the beginner.

Ultimately, it’s going to come down to committing to a single goal. That means practicing cycles where you cut and bulk to pre-determined body fat levels. Lyle McDonald discusses this in his article, ‘General Philosophies of Muscle Mass Gain‘

Personal Preference

With the numerous benefits associated with leanness, both physiological and psychological, I’d opt for cutting down to or below the 12-14% body fat range for anyone but absolute beginners.

For absolute beginners (those who have never touched a weight), the focus should be on gaining strength and eating wholesome foods. While food quality doesn’t matter in the short run, establishing the habit of eating whole, unprocessed foods will pay off in the long run, especially when it comes time to diet.

In Summary

Recomposition approaches are possible, but require a little micro-management. Bulking too fast will only get you fat, and cutting too fast will lose you muscle.

The quick and easy solution to this is to hire someone that knows what he/she is doing. The longer-term solution is to educate oneself in how to go about achieving your goals, something which I will cover in a future post.

Whatever you do, keep your eyes on the prize, and keep moving.

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Auto-regulation is a process where you determine the volume and intensity of training for the day, literally based upon how you feel during that training session. The strange (and awesome) thing is, both research and anecdote has proven that training this way seems to stimulate significantly greater strength gains compared to traditional methods.

If you’ve had the chance to talk to some veterans of the iron game, you’d come across nebulous claims like “I train by feel” and “I listen to my body”. It turns out that what these people were doing, was training just enough to stimulate gains, but not too much.

Therein lies the first key point: Training too much is worse than training too little. When in doubt, do less, not more.

What we want to do, is create a system by which anyone can auto-regulate their training, and therefore train just enough. This is opposed to systems which call for fixed weight increases week-on-week.

An Important Note

Auto-regulation isn’t for beginners. This is because it makes use of the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale.

This is an arbitrary scale by which you gauge how close you are to muscular failure. For example, an RPE of 10 means that you are just on the cusp of muscular failure; you couldn’t do another repetition if you tried. An RPE of 9 means that you could have managed 1 more rep if you tried.

This is key in auto-regulatory training, since we aim not to train too much by hitting an RPE of 10, while training enough to hit an RPE of 9.

Beginners face the problem of not having adequately good technique, as well as being unable to judge for themselves how close to failure they are. For such trainees, a strict protocol works best.

Still, there are a group of gym-rats who love to push themselves to the absolute maximum during a workout (I was one of them). If you persist in doing that, I will guarantee minimal gains.

This is the second key point: You need to be honest with how hard you are training, only training to RPE 9 on most occasions.

Some Specific Protocols

With that out of the way, this topic is still pretty broad. What I’ll do is to point you to 3 knowledge bases of information, and you be the judge upon reading those.

For a tried and true method, look up Reactive Training Systems by powerlifter Mike Tuchscherer

For a good review of the methods out there, view the article by Matt Perryman.

Finally, if you’re more ambitious, hit up Google translate and read the article by Børge Fagerli on some of his methods to auto-regulation, as well as his four part series on myo-reps. [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]

Personally, I have made tremendous gains on Børge Fagerli’s Myo-reps program. An example of my gains include an increase in the Dumbbell shoulder press from 15kg x 8 to 25kg x 8 in 8 weeks (and is still going up), a great feat for me given that shoulders were one of my weak body parts.

After all that touting of greatness, one may ask: If this is so great, why aren’t many people training like this.

I think it’s mainly because traditional methods work, so there’s no harm in following them. Most people would rather stay safe and do something that they know works, rather than venturing out to novel territory.

Probably more important is the fact that you just don’t see many people train this way. There’s no reassurance that you’re going on the right path. (see the sample routines in the notes to see what I mean)

And that’s the third and final key point: You have to take a long term view and accept progress over a period of months. At the end of the day, the only way you’ll know if auto-regulation is as great as I make it seem will be to resolve to give it an 8 week run.

Do it soon though. I predict that we’ll see more and more people talking about auto-regulation in the future. Jump on the bandwagon today and you can boast of your gains when the hype finally peaks. Until then, keep this secret weapon in your arsenal.

—

Notes:

As mentioned above, the way such routines are set out may surprise people. What is most surprising in my opinion is the number of exercises per workout for each body part: oftentimes having only 1 exercise in each workout.

I too was thinking, “How can I grow off so little work?” My experience has proven me wrong.

Sample workout routines:

Heavy Core Day – Training in the 5-6 rep range
(weights in kg. Worksets in Bold. Everything else is a warmup/ramp-up set)
- Decline Bench Press: 60×5, 70×5, 80×5, 85×5, 90×5, 95×5, 85×9
- Barbell Rows: 60×5, 70×5, 80×5, 85×5, 87.5×5, 90×5, 85×5, 85×5,85×5
- Military Press: 30×5, 40×5, 45×5, 50×5, 52.5×5, 55×5, 52.5×5, 52.5×5
- Barbell Curls: 30×5, 35×5, 37.5×5, 40×5, 42.5×5, 45×5, 40×10

Light Limb Day – Training in the 12-15 rep range
(all training with myo-reps. Not including warmups)
- Leg Press: 13 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
- Calf Raise: 12 reps + 4 + 4 + 4
- Romanian Deadlift: 13 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
- JM Press: 15 reps + 5 + 5 + 5
- Barbell Curls: 15 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4

5 sets – one for each major body part.

Yes, they look weird. But rewards are there for the adventurous, and I encourage you to read the articles linked above.

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Most people don’t put enough effort into their training.

In fact, pick whatever tasks you can think of, and you’ll find that most people partaking in that task just don’t put in real effort. For some reason, people just don’t want to do their jobs well, whether they be students, real estate agents, marketers, lawyers, or (god forbid) doctors.

The more interesting phenomenon however, is the fact that the best in the business aren’t just a little better and put in a little more effort; the best are way better and put in tons more effort.

The average wanna-be guitarist puts in 1 hour and thinks he/she is doing a great job. The elite guitarist has put in 4 hours a day, 10 years in a row, and thinks he/she needs to do more. The same is true of the best mathematicians, programmers, entrepreneurs, etc

This is just as obvious when it comes to physical activity. It’s not uncommon to find beginners who have pathetic exercise form, don’t put any effort into work sets, and then quit at the slightest hint of soreness, never to return to training. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that most people don’t really like exercise.

But then you’ve also got the psychotic athletes who want to be trained into the ground, who enjoy the vomit-inducing workouts, and are just plain suckers for punishment.

While training like a maniac is as bad as (or worse than) training like a sissy, the dedication to the task at hand of these athletes leaves something to be gained.

To be fair, most people do put in some effort, but no where near the level of dedication put in by the best. I think this is partly because of the fact that it’s easy to find someone worst off than you; ergo, you’re putting in more effort than someone else.

Therein lies the first step: Only ever compare yourself to yourself.

I’ll admit though, my statements may be unfair because firstly, the word ‘most’ means >50%, and most people are just trying something for the heck of it, so it’s obvious you’ll find lots of people who suck. But more importantly, is the strange phenomenon that the best in the business tend to lay low and forge ahead in silence.

That’s why you see and hear the “overnight success” stories popping up again and again. But it’s just that there was nothing interesting to talk about until the person actually did something really great. And doing something really great takes the time and effort, which to the outside observer, is like watching paint dry.

But the great thing is, that the best often don’t explicitly avoid telling anyone about their efforts like it’s some evil underground scheme; they’re simply too absorbed with the task at hand and/or don’t feel like there’s anything worth showing yet.

What that means is that if you approach such people, they’d often be quite open about sharing their experiences.

So talk to people like that. Not when they’re engaged in their activity (eg: during a workout), but take some time before or after to bring up a friendly conversation. You’ll learn something. You’ll learn about what drives them, and I think the most important thing to be gained is:

Use it to spur your motivation onward and prove me wrong; show us what you’ve got. Actually, no. Show yourself what you’ve got.

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Some athletes have the luxury of a personal trainer or coach to keep track of their training for them, most of the recreational athletes don’t. For this group, it is up to the individual to decide on the future direction of their training.

Fortunately, training for a bike race isn’t like predicting the stock market; past performance has a high correlation to the desired future performance. Therefore the need to record down past performance.

As a good Rule of Thumb for anything: If it’s important, record it down. Physical training isn’t any different, and people have been keeping training logs for a good reason: To find out what they did right.

Our bodies adapt to training over a period of weeks. Over those weeks, many things can occur. Life could get in the way, different training methods could have been used, etc.

Our training log simply helps as to see what we did over a certain period of time, compare it to the results that we gained, and then make changes.

If you don’t have a training log, start one right now. I personally have a text file on my computer in which I record whatever I did. Here’s a quick example from a workout I did not too long ago:

Thursday – 01/04/2010 Core 9-12 reps + 3×5
DB Shoulder: 21kg x 11 + 3×4

Pulldowns: 65kg x 10 + 3×4

Bench: 70kg x 8 + 2×2

DB Row: 45kg x 10 + 3×4

Side Leaning Laterals: 12.5kg x 11 + 3×4

—

Bench went to hell suddenly on the 8th rep; lost the groove. Wanted to grind out some reps, but decided to be patient and drive it home on Sunday. On the bright side, everything else went up easily. Will make a note to always place bench as the first exercise to make sure I hit it fresh.

[1]
From that experience, I decided to put benching as a priority.

As a long term example, I recently stopped doing the bench press. This was from observations from previous training cycles: 6 weeks of high volume training didn’t do anything to increase this lift. 8 weeks of High intensity training only gave me a 2kg increase, etc

In fact, I had looked over my training log and realised that my bench press had only increased by 5kg in the last 5 months. Obviously I was getting nowhere doing bench pressing; I wasn’t built for it.

So I decided to switch to weighted dips for my chest training, and sure enough, I’m making a lot more progress with that.

Of course, there’s no set format. As long as you can gain information about how you respond to certain training methods in order to make improvements, major or minor, to your training.

While the research about training has been getting better and better over the years, the fundamentals never change. Regardless of your sport of choice, the path to success is as follows:

• Get informed about the methods available to you
• Pick one that seems suitable
• Try it out for a set period of a few weeks
• Note improvements
• Make Tweaks
• Repeat ad infinitum

Your Training log is crucial to that process, start taking it seriously.

—

[1] If you’re interested in why my training style looks a little weird, check out Myo-Reps using Google Translate (the page is in Norwegian)

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To gym rats, the fitness junkies, and the washed-up meatheads. A message to you guys and gals:

Ideally, we would be

But of course, excuses get in the way..

Yet we certainly don’t want to have it take over our life, and have to ask

That Said, I’m sure you have goals, and..

With that dream, there is an urge to act, and…

so it’s not worth giving up.

Ultimately,

And that our answer is as well.

To that there’s only one thing to say,

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I make it very clear that I’m a big proponent of resistance training for optimal health. In particular I believe that the most effective and practical method of training is through lifting weights.

However, one cannot ignore the tremendous physiques built by some athletes (especially gymnasts) solely through means of bodyweight strength training. In this article, I outline some of the reasons why it can work, but is largely not a practical means of resistance training for most people.

What is Bodyweight Strength Training?

Bodyweight strength training basically means training to get stronger using only your bodyweight as a form of resistance.

Pushups are a form of bodyweight exercise that targets the chest muscles. Its barbell counter would be the Bench Press.

Some Definitions are in Order

This is a general article targeted at the general population. I want to address specifically why the average person shouldn’t be focusing exclusively on bodyweight strength training to build strength and for aesthetic goals; arguably the 2 most common goals among people.

This isn’t a sports-specific article, and do understand fully that some sports demand competency in some bodyweight exercises (handstands in gymnastics for example).

Some Amazing Results of Bodyweight Strength Training

Check out some vids of break-dancers, Free-runners and gymnasts and acrobats like Dominic LaCasse, and even some people like Hannibal and you’d be amazed not only by the feats of strength, but also by the great physiques sculpted in the process.

It Works if you do it right

There are sites like gymnasticsbodies.com and Beast Skills which give practical recommendations on how to go about training with bodyweight exercises.

The question becomes, can you “Do it Right”?

Limitations

All the limitations surround the Central Tenet of muscular strength and growth: Progressive Tension Overload. A muscle doesn’t sense a barbell on your chest, it only responds to the amount of tension it is under. The greater the force it needs to generate, the greater the tension on a particular muscle.

Your muscles will grow and you will get stronger as they adapt to be able to generate more force and thus withstand more tension.

1. Basic Exercises Don’t Provide Enough Resistance

While pushups may be a great challenge for a previously sedentary individual, one is rapidly able to do more and more pushups. It’s simple logic that if you can many repetitions of a particular exercise, the weight is considered “light”, and thus the tension on the muscles used isn’t very great.

Yes, doing many pushups will get you better at doing more pushups. However, most people don’t want to get good at doing many pushups, they just want to get stronger for a sport or look good naked. Bodyweight exercises like the pushup won’t cut it for these purposes. We need more challenging exercises, with leads to another problem.

2. A degree of technical competency is required

Since horizontal loading (in the pushup) isn’t enough, let’s get more weight on the muscles: Let’s do Handstand pushups.

If you saw the videos above, you’d notice that those people were in very awkward positions. In those positions, the muscles involved have less leverage; they need to produce a greater amount of force to maintain that position.

A simple example would be trying to hold a bottle of water close to your body, versus trying to hold it with your arm completely straight and parallel to the ground. The latter is harder.

The corollary, is that you can generate greater levels of tension in the muscles simply by challenging yourself with these positions of poor leverage. You thus can grow big and strong using bodyweight exercises, provided you can achieve those positions.

Let’s face it, doing a handstand, one of the basic tenets of gymnastics training and the like, is a daunting task for many people. Even if there is no fear factor, there is the technical factor to considering. Learning how to do a handstand is both an exercise in strength as well as skill and balance.

To progress further, even more technically challenging skills need to be done. It’s no wonder gymnasts train for years since youth and for many hours a day to achieve the look and strength they possess.

While training with weights also demands good technique, it is generally easier to master and “scalable”.

In other words, a properly executed 50kg bench press is going to look the same as a 150kg bench press, and getting from the former to the latter will guarantee some added muscle. Whereas going from 5 handstand pushups to 15 handstand pushups doesn’t guarantee the same; one needs to progress to more challenging exercises.

3. Not everyone is built for it

Image Credit: Beast Skills

Let’s take the example of an advanced bodyweight exercise called the planche, pictured above. Now what if it were done with someone of the same bodyweight, but with longer legs? While it is a simplified explanation, someone with longer legs would have more “useless mass” pulling down on him/her in this exercise, since only the upper body is “functional” in this exercise.

This means that the long-legged person would need to generate more force in his upper body in order to successfully do the exercise. The exercise would be much harder for the long-legged person, and progress would be arduous and slow.

Also, some people have joints which are not favourable for such exercises. I will come back to this in Point 5.

Because different people have different muscle compositions, limb lengths, muscle attachment points, joint mobility, etc, different people will find it relatively easier or harder to do certain exercises.

The corollary is that there are people who are built to be great at doing bodyweight exercises.

Gymnasts typically don’t need a very powerful lower body compared to some strength athletes, and one could say that strong arms and favoured over strong legs for gymnastics.

Also, never forget that Genetics Matter, and there are some people who are born stronger than others.

4. You Either Can Do It Or You Can’t

For many bodyweight exercises, you can either do it or you can’t. Even though highly respected Coach Sommers laid out some great progressions for the planche in his article ‘Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning’, progressing from each progression demands drastic leaps in athletic ability.

It’s just like pullups: once you get the first pullup, you set the stage for the second one, and the third, and so on. But doing a planche is much harder than doing a pullup, and there are no other alternatives to directly train the movement (you could do pulldowns to train for pullups).

5. If You Can’t Do It, You’re Left With Few Options

Also, never forget that safety comes first, and that come people cannot perform such exercises safely. The best example would be the handstand. In his Great Series, “Shoulder Savers“, Eric Cressey gives some great recommendations on how to avoid Shoulder Trouble.

In the first part of his series, he talks about the different structure of different individual’s acromion (part of the shoulder blade). He points out that those with Type 3 acromions can run into trouble doing too much overhead pressing (as in a handstand).

The question now is: If you can’t do handstands safetly, then how are you going to train the shoulders effectively with bodyweight exercises?

While many people frown on machines for forcing the body into various planes of motion, it is precisely because of this that they can be useful at times.

One of those times is when dealing with an injury. The shoulder is the lynchpin of all upper body bodyweight exercises, and if you have a shoulder injruy, you’re basically sidelined. Not so if you train with weights; one can “work around” the injury.

Finally, remember the point above, that not everyone is built for certain exercises. The difference is that if you cannot perform one particular weights exercise safely, you simply choose from the many variations out there, and pick on which you can do.

6. You can’t easily measure progress

Progress is generally vague when it comes to bodyweight exercises.

Sometimes it can be pretty specific. For example, you could say that being able to hold a handstand for 3 seconds longer is a sign of progress.

However, because one has to challenge oneself with new and harder exercises as one progresses, benchmarks are hard to lay down. For example, what does 15 handstand pushups mean when compared to 3 planche pushups?

Training with weights generally doesn’t suffer from this. Because you can keep on adding weight to a Bench Press, but not to a Handstand Pushup. The Bench Press is “scalable”, and you can stick with it indefinitely, while you will have to progress with more difficult variations of bodyweight exercises that don’t necessarily scale linearly. (Just because you can do 15 handstand pushups doesn’t guarantee even a single planche pushup)

What happens when you work in very different rep-ranges?

You can much more accurately predict that if you could do 5 reps of the Bench Press with 85kg, you would probably be able to manage 100kg for 1 rep. This is largely because exercise form with weights is easier to manage as compared to bodyweight exercises.

A good bench press always looks the same for a given individual, and assuming technique is laid down, the main factor that determines performance for the day is one’s ability to exert a certain amount of force. Bodyweight exercises, even at the intermediate level, must be performed with good form as well, but since good form is harder to master and a large balance component is involved, a bad workout may not just be caused by a lack of strength.

Finally, you can also say quite accurately, “my current bench press max is 100kg and I want to get it to 120kg by next March”. In other words, progress in bodyweight strength training isn’t as easy to measure as compared to weights training.

And remember: You Manage What You Measure.

Final Words

If all of the above arguments do not apply to you, then you are fully capable of progressing and becoming very strong with bodyweight exercises alone.

However, most people can’t do that, and for most people pursuing strength or physique goals, training with weights in the only way to go.

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Today’s post is going to be long and anecdotal in nature. However, I will promise a list of what I learnt from the experiences I am about to describe at the end of the post. This is a post about cycling, specifically, cycling to work/school/etc.

Background

I learnt to cycle when I was 6, and since then I’ve spent many hours riding in parks, and bike trails, and even trying out some bike tricks. Naturally, my choice of commute to University was by bicycle.

As much as I loved cycling, commuting was completely different from simply being a weekend thrasher. For one, I was on the saddle for a longer time than I’d (about 90 minutes a day) done before. I also had to commute at a specific time amidst the morning rush hour traffic. Needless to say, the first few days were stressful.

Also, since I was relying on my bike, there would be times when I would have to ride in the wind and rain. There was also the high likelihood that I would be riding after sunset, especially in winter, when the sun disappears by 5pm.

With all that said, I set forth in an attempt to plan for the imminent challenges. I familiarised myself with the rules of the road. I bought a great rain jacket and pants. I got some waterproof cycling gloves. I got visibility clothing, reflectors and light. I asked other commuter cyclists for tips, both on the internet and in person.

Therein lies the first point in this post: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

However, on the first day I was on the road, I was in for a surprise. No plan stands up against reality.

The question is why are these cliches true? Well, I think it’s because of there is stuff that you know, stuff that you don’t know, and stuff that you don’t know that you don’t know.

You can’t see over the cliff

Right, that was probably a little confusing, so let’s use my experience as an example. One of the first surprises that I got was that road rules didn’t really matter; everyone was just trying to get the right of way on the road. Also, because a bike falls into that fuzzy area between vehicle and pedestrian, in practice, crossing a road isn’t as clear cut as following the road signals. This is true for smaller roads, and T-junctions where there are no traffic lights.

So how do you cross? You can’t wait for there to be no cars; it’s rush hour! You don’t hope that cars will give you the right of way (they don’t). And you NEVER, EVER argue with a car, even if you think that you have the right of way. Practically speaking, you try to obey as many rules as you can, but knowing how to negotiate different situations calls for rules to be thrown out the window; it calls for judgment, which comes from experience. And that is something that I didn’t know before I started cycling.

So that illustrated a point: The fact that I didn’t know that crossing a road with my bike would be an issue until I started to actually commute on my bike. It also illustrates another point: the fact that I couldn’t explain to someone else how to do the same until they have actually tried it.

That explains why asking all those cyclists before hand didn’t really help me. But there is also another factor, and that has got to do with the way we remember things.

Let’s use a simple test. I’m sure you the reader have expertise in something. The question is, do you remember how it felt to be a novice? In other words, to not know everything that you know now? I’m sure that we can try to stretch the boundaries of our empathy, but in general, new knowledge changes you forever, and you can never feel like you did before.

I now have the ability to make snap judgments on how to cross a busy road during rush hour, but it is precisely because these are snap judgements, fleeting and sub-conscious, that I am unable to describe them to someone else. In other words, when you get good at something, you “just know it”.

More stuff that you don’t know that you don’t know

Another example would be to navigate my way efficiently around other bikes, and most annoying of all, pedestrians. When I first started, I thought, “Hey, I’ll just follow the bike path at these sections and everything will be alright.” What I found out is that Google Maps doesn’t tell you the various blind spots on the path, and the potential accidents that could occur when hapless pedestrians poked their head out of a blind corner.

Because pedestrian behaviour is so erratic (most of them don’t know what it’s like on a bike and therefore don’t know how to respond), you have to be extra careful even when on supposed bike paths. That was something that I didn’t think I’d have to face, and after I realised the challenge, I had to then figure a way around it.

Specifically, I had to figure out how to not collide with any other bikes, pedestrians or vehicles, and do so in a way that I won’t be late to Lectures. That was not an easy thing to do on my first ride, and what I estimated to be a 40 minute commute became an hour.

Fortunately, every ride got better, and as I got familiar with the route and riding etiquette, navigating my way round the vagaries of commuter cycling became easier and easier.

The Crazy Cyclist

However, being familiar with all the above doesn’t mean that you can let your guard down for one second. And just like there are crazy drivers, there are crazy cyclists as well.

I’ve got no solution to this, except to watch out for such scenarios and play it on the safe side.

Other Cyclists

Then there is the cyclist who always seems to be in a rush. He/she will be pedalling down at full speed along every single bike path, racing past bewildered pedestrians and tearing through every traffic junction at any possible opportunity.

I always wondered why these people were in such a hurry. The most plausible explanation would be to save time. So I decided to run a couple of experiments. I simply timed my commute for 3 months, varying my speed between what I vaguely called a ‘relaxed speed’ and a ‘race speed’ (pedalling as fast as I could).

It turns out that it didn’t make much difference for me; approximately 40 mins for ‘race speed’ and 45 mins for ‘relaxed speed’. This was mainly because I was cycle through urban areas, complete with numerous traffic crossings, and therefore the time sink was how long you were kept waiting at traffic lights. In other words, going as fast as you could between traffic junctions made little to no difference.

However, once you reach the clearway sections, for example, bike paths along parks, being fast does confer it’s benefit. Therein lies another point: Don’t simply charge around like a mad bull; be fast when it matters.

Of course, some people want to go fast for the thrill of it. For other people, 5 minutes may be significant, but I’d rather have 5 extra minutes to enjoy the ride and the environment around me in a relaxed state of mind.

Riding in the Rain

While that was all and good, I started riding in summer. And as summer left and autumn came, so came the wind and rain. This was a different challenge all together. Different in the sense that it was completely beyond my control (as was my unforgiving schedule). This meant being constantly prepared, taking precautions and plain old sucking-it-up-and-bearing-with-it when such a thing did happen.

Regardless of what anyone says, riding in the rain isn’t a very pleasant thing to do, especially at 8am on a chilly morning. What starts off as a cold morning becomes frigid the moment the rush of cold wind comes, an inevitable consequence of riding. However, this gets better and better, and while you have to grit your teeth and bear with those first 5 minutes, you soon get momentum, and then you actually start to enjoy it.

The only problem here is that when you next get back on your bike to ride home, the process repeats itself all over again. I could easily talk about all the extra precautions that one needs to take for cycling in the rain, but I think it’s better to say this: Anything worth doing starts off like crap. Pushing through that initial resistance often brings great rewards.

An Unexpected Side Effect

Back in the old days of riding for fun, I had never experienced any issues with injuries. Riding for the duration and speed that I did during the commute changed things. After powering on for a couple of weeks, I started to develop knee pain right above the left knee cap.

Therein lies another point: Sufficient time will manifest all potential errors, and will serve to make small problems big.

Because I also train with weights, and routinely put well over 100kg on my back, this injury would spell disaster for those efforts. I knew that something would need to be done to fix the problem, and I wasn’t willing to settle for a compromise. So I researched relentlessly.

Fortunately for me, my research bore fruit, and I was able to diagnose and fix the problem. It turns out that my saddle wasn’t high enough, and that my technique was completely wrong. So I started from scratch, learning to pedal at the right cadence, with proper foot angle, and to pedal in ‘circles’. I also coupled that with some self myofascia release therapy, and stretching of the region around the knee (calves and quads). This took about a week to learn, and I’ve been cycling pain-free ever since.

All the technical terms probably hint at the fact that I needed quite a far bit of research in order to come to the necessary actionable steps; It wasn’t a straightforward process. Neither was it a easy one, both physically and mentally. Physically, I had to pay extra attention to treating the injury and preventing reoccurrence during training. Mentally, I had to have the patience to hold back and allow time for the injury to heal.

What matters of course, is the attitude: to always seek out an ideal scenario, be relentlessly resourceful and to never settle. I must here highlight here that the internet is such a great source of information, and there are gems hidden out there, like Sheldon Brown’s Bike site.

Fortunately, the injury didn’t come and bite me back. It emphasised once again that one needs to go through the “trouble” to lay down the fundamentals. In other words: Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.

In Summary

So what are the lessons that one can take from these experiences.

First, you never know what is going to happen. The only solution is to accept the inherent uncertainty, and pave the way forward with courage.

Second, as much as courage matters, be a perfectionist about planning.

Third, you learn by doing, and therefore need to react on the fly.

Fourth, new experiences change you forever.

Fifth, know the risks, and play it safe (at least for biking).

Sixth, be fast when it matters.

Seventh, it’s always going to suck in the beginning.

Eighth, time will manifest all possible problems.

Ninth, relentless chase the ideal scenario, using whatever it takes to get there.

Tenth, start smart from the start; anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Most of all, it’s never going to be easy, but it’s always worth it.

As of today, I commute daily to University on my bike after what I now think was one of the best decisions that I’ve made.

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Having worked out at various gyms over the years, from the high school gym to many public gyms, I finally decided this year to make the switch to a home gym.

Note, that this home gym I’m speaking of is specific to strength training purposes. It addresses my needs perfectly, and leads to much more productive workouts.

In this post, I describe how I set up the gym, and why I did it that way.

Where I bought my stuff

First note, I’m in Australia, so I naturally bought my equipment from an Australian retailer. Look up the various Country-specific message boards to find out where you can get the best deals, or simply do your own research. I will say, that getting this kind of equipment is easier in the USA compared to anywhere else, and a good place to start for people living there would be BB.com.

In my case, I got the gym online, at Gymandfitness.com.au. I paid by direct debit of my bank account, and the delivery arrived promptly in about 2 weeks from start to finish (from the time I clicked pay to the time it was in my garage).

What I bought and why

Here’s a list of what I bought

• Force USA power rack + Lat Tower with dual pulley system + Dip Handles
• Force USA Flat-Incline-Decline (FID) bench + Leg Curl Attachment
• 4 x 1x1m2 Rubber Gym Mats
• 215kg Olympic Weight Plates (6 x 20kg, 4 x 10kg, 8 x 5kg, 4 x 2.5kg, 4 x 1.25kg)
• Olympic Barbell with Ball Bearings (20kg)
• 2 Olympic Dumbbell Handles
• Pulley Attachments
• Barbell Squat Pad

Before we start, it’s important to know the term, “rating”. Oftentimes you will see a product description which says, “X power rack rated to 1000lbs”. That basically means that the power rack is able to safely withstand 1000lbs of weight.

First and foremost, I had to get a power rack which provided a safe space to lift. The Force USA power rack was a decent price and was rated to 700lbs. Since I’m not one to lift super heavy weights (700lbs is a lot), it was sufficient. Typical ratings for racks fall between 700lbs – 1000lbs, and you should always get a higher rating of you can. Of course, a higher rating commands a higher price, but would potentially be safer.

For those who are unfamiliar with a power rack, the picture above should illustrate how the rack functions. It is basically a metal structure with safety pins that can be adjusted to different heights. They serve as a safety mechanism, since the lifter can abandon a failed lift by dumping the bar on the pins instead of getting crushed.

My rack in particular came together with a lat pulldown tower, which had a high and low pulley attachment (pics) rated to 120kg to allow for pulldowns, tricep pushdowns and rows. It also came with some dip bars which were rated to 150kg.

Now that I have my rack, I need the actual weights. For that, I got an Olympic Barbell and some Olympic weights plates. There are two types of barbells, Olympic and Standard. The difference is most easily seen in the hole size of the plates, with the Olympic plates typically having a 55mm hole size and the standard plates a (find info) hole size. An Olympic Barbell is typically 20kg with the standard one being usually 17kg.

The most important reason however, is that an Olympic Barbell is used for Olympic lifting; it’s a heavy duty bar capable of withstanding much more weight. Typical ratings for an Olympic Barbell range from 750lbs to 1500lbs. The one which I got was a 1500lbs barbell with ball bearings (meaning that the ends can rotate freely).

For weights, it will depend on how strong you think you will get. My current configuration (6 x 20kg, 4 x 10kg, 8 x 5kg, 4 x 2.5kg, 4 x 1.25kg) allows me to load most of the weight on a barbell (for about 200kg), and allows for two 30kg dumbbells (5kg x 4 + 2.5kg x 2 + 5kg Dumbbell Handle. Not simultaneously with the barbell of course). I will very likely get more 20kg or 25kg plates in the future, but for now the above will suffice. Scale up or down depending on your needs, and don’t forget to include multiples of 4 if you want to load 2 balanced dumbbells (1 plate on each side of the dumbbell).

For my bench, I got a flat-incline-decline bench with a leg curl attachment.

The leg curl attachment is rated to 100kg, and allows for greater exercise choice, as with the multi-use bench. Benches typically come in either flat, flat with incline, or a flat-incline-decline like mine. What that tells us is basically what sort of angles one can set the bench to. For my own, I can go from 90˚

to a flat 180˚

to around 210˚

Next, I got some pulley attachments like a tricep bar to give me more exercise choices (like tricep pushdowns), and a squat pad, which I actually use for hip thrusts and not squats.


Cost

Grand Total ≈ AUD$2400. I got lucky with a 10% Australia Day discount. So make that ≈ AUD$2650 without the discount

A detailed breakdown would be:

• Force USA Power Rack with Lat Tower – $999.00
• Attachment Pack (Tricep rope, etc) – $80.00
• Rubber Gym Flooring x 4 – $120.00 Total
• Force USA FID Bench with Leg Curl Attachment – $419.95
• 215kg Olympic Set (Weights, Barbell, Dumbbell Handles)  + 4 extra 5 kg plates – $859.00
• Discount – $250.78
• Shipping and Handling – $154.00

Total: $2426.48
Caveats

The first caveat is that most equipment for a home gym will need to be self assembled. So if you do order something, be prepared with your spanners and screwdrivers (making sure that you got the right types and sizes). Also, the entire package was really heavy, and it would be great to have some help with moving and assembly.

Second, you had better have enough space for the gym. A rack may only cover an area of 1.5m x 1.5m, but you should leave some space for taking out support pins as well as for moving your bench around. I would recommend at least a 2.5m x 2.5m area as a minimum requirement. More is better of course.

Another space consideration is height. If your rack has a chinning bar like mine, then I would expect it to be at least 220cm high. You will just need enough height to clear the height of the rack. Do note, however, to factor in the height of anything below the rack such as a lifting platform.

On that topic, if you are doing lifting for sports-specific reasons or otherwise, which require “big lifts” like clean and jerks, snatches or deadlifts, then you may want to build/buy a lifting platform to give some added protection to your floor. If not, standard rubber floor mats should give your floor enough protection.

Pros

I personally had some reasons to get a home gym. First, was cost. Given that I’m in Uni for 5 years, and the cost of a year’s membership to the University Gym is $500, that works out to a $2500 total. If I were to join a public gym, that cost would shoot up to at least $600 a year and likely more.

Basically, for the same price as a Uni gym membership, I get my own exclusive setup in an environment of my choosing, without worry of the commute, and without worry of the bros (guys, you know what I mean). I also didn’t need the fancy gym equipment in the Uni gym, but I’ll come back to this point in one of the potential cons.

In short, more focused and productive workouts.

Cons

The only real downsides to a home gym is that (a) you will have to maintain your equipment, and (b) it may cost a lot depending on what equipment you buy. (a) is pretty easy, and a standard wipe down every now and then will suffice. Point (b) is more pertinent. Some gym equipment is very expensive to purchase on your own. Good examples would be the hack squat, leg press, etc.

This is important to consider, because a home gym may limit your exercise choices unless you have a HUGE budget and enough room. This is then important, because some people may have biomechanics which make them unsuited to various exercises. Despite exercises like the squat and deadlift often being touted as “absolutely necessary” to make great strength gains, this is fundamentally untrue (link to lyle mcdonald article) unless one has to do them for a sports-specific purpose. For some, doing these exercises may lead to slower gains at best, and injury at worst. In that case, going to a commercial gym whereby a whole range of equipment is available might be the smarter option.

Also, because machines force the body into a certain range of motion, they can be used successfully in an injury rehabilitation program to effective train round the injury, but that is a topic for another day. While this is possible with free weights, one has to get really creative.

Final Words

I hope that has given you some perspective on the setting up of a home gym, it’s pros and it’s cons, and ultimately to tell whether or not it is a suitable option for you. Personally, I think it was one of the better decisions I have made.

Related posts:

1. Bodyweight Strength Training: 6 Reasons That It’s NOT The Path to Your Goals I make it very clear that I’m a big proponent...
2. Body Mechanics – Why it is important to know your own if you want to lift safely Let me say first that the reason I write this...
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When I say running, I am referring to middle to long distance running at a slow to moderate pace (which most people can sustain for a considerable period of time, from as low as 15 minutes, to as long as several hours). Jogging may describe the activity better, but most people like to refer to it as running.

This is not to be confused with brisk walking, which is simply walking at a deliberately faster speed. Neither should it be confused with sprinting, which implies an all-out effort to run as fast as possible.

Running is an oft prescribed form of getting some cardiovascular exercise. However, I strongly believe that it should be approached with the same caution we would give to a business transaction. Namely, what are the risks and rewards of running. In other words, to ask yourself, “Am I capable of running safely?”

Some people are not capable of running safely. We will see some reasons as to why this is the case later in the post.

However, we can cite many examples of people who have managed to run on a very regular basis, sometimes daily, and for years on end into old age. Such people are capable of running safely and the results that they reap from being able to do so are pretty evident.

What this article covers

The average person could probably benefit from some running. Nonetheless, after a certain point, running more isn’t better, and more often than not becomes worse for your health.

This article thus is a look into the benefits as well as the problems of running, giving reasons for each. More importantly, I try to give some recommendations to find that healthy middle.

Positive

Let’s start with the positive. For one, running gives you one heck of a workout.

Anecdotally speaking, many people feel that they can push themselves harder when they run. Very often, the average fitness enthusiast cannot do the same with other types of activity. Outside of trained athletes, the average person doesn’t have the endurance in specific muscle groups to give themselves a good workout. For example, the quadriceps (thighs) may tire out much more quickly during cycling, or the arms and back may tire out too quickly during rowing.

What this means is that the specific body part limits the duration and intensity of activity. You may “feel the burn” in those body parts, but you certainly haven’t burned much calories, [1] nor have you given you heart a good workout.

This is unsurprising, since we evolved to stand on two feet. Running just seems “natural”. In terms of total calories burned, and the general metabolic impact on the body, running gives more results per unit time invested compared to activities like cycling. In other words, the average person is likely to get a much better workout from 1 hour of running as compared to 1 hour of cycling.

Other than that, the benefits are many-fold, and I think I don’t need to preach the many benefits of regular exercise.

Negative

Simply put, running is hard on the body, especially the joints. In this case, the joints most commonly afflicted would be the knee and hip.

On a related note, running 100m burns more calories than walking 100m; walking is more or less moving directly forward, while running leads to plenty of up-and-down “inefficient” movement. Where is this relevant is that this constant ‘bouncing’ puts much more strain on the joints as compared to walking. [2]

However, I said in the beginning of the article that some people are built to run while others are not. Let’s take a deeper look into that claim.

The problem usually stems from two related things: hip width and Q-angle (Quadriceps-angle). To make this easier to understand, let’s take a look at a diagram.

Image Credit: dynamic Chiropracter

As you can see, a larger hip width is often correlated with a larger Q-angle. A larger Q-angle then leads to a knee which is less tolerant to compression. For a more detailed look at the problem, I encourage this article at Dynamic Chiropracter.

Ideally, the type of structure most resilient to vertical compression is one where the shin and the thigh form a vertical line, thereby being at a right angle to the ground. In reality, it’s never a straight line. But here you can see that the wider the hips and the wider the Q-angle, the more and more you deviate from that straight line. The result is a lesser and lesser ability to deal with the downward force of compression.

Given that every stride leads to some form of compressive force on the knees, multiplied by the massive number of strides taken during running, and you can imagine why even a slightly increased Q-angle can cause so many more problems.

Many people can infer what’s coming: that women are generally less suited to run as compared to men, simply because women generally have wider hips. This is the unfortunate case in real life.

Arguably, there are many women who manage to run and continue to run for a long time. More often than not, you will realise that they possess two things. First, a body structure with narrower hips relative to that of the average women. And second, very fluid running technique.

We can probably add a third point, which would be a general awareness and practice of nutrition and recovery protocols. Such people are usually those who would ensure that they get adequate nutrition, do sufficient warmups, take joint supplements, construct proper training programs, etc.

The problem is that the average trainee often treats running as either a hobby or an obligation, neither of which garners the appropriate level of attention and care that keeps the joints healthy. Many people are ambivalent to or ignorant of the question of “how long would you like to keep running?”.

Hence, the next section talks about some practical advice that can be applied if it is in the interest of the reader to pursue the running commitment for a good time to come.

What to Look Out For

The most important thing would be to stop any pain-provoking activity. Now, muscle soreness is fine, and many people enjoy the “burn” they get when pushing themselves. But joint pain is bad, period. Don’t think that you can train through the pain either. Maybe you could when you were 18, but do it long enough and you’ll have torn up knees by the time you’re 40.

In other words: Take joint pain seriously.

Even if you are pain free right now, take some precautions. As always, slowly increasing the pace rather than jumping straight into your workout pace is wise. Adequate “cool down” protocols are also advisable.

One thing which many people neglect though is technique. If you watch a professional long distance runner, you will usually notice some key characteristics. Most importantly, an upright torso and hips that remain pretty square (don’t rock too much from left to right) during the running process. I’d highly recommend you do a search for tutorials [3] on running technique, as well as check out the guide here.

Good technique is in place for a reason: it facilitates efficient movement patterns. More to the interest of the casual runner, good technique can decrease the stress on the joints and thus reducing the chance of injury.

I would definitely suggest filming yourself (get a friend to help) running a short stretch of straight road and slowly correcting your technique. Remember that time will amplify all potential problems, and it is in your interest to lay down good technique if you want to be running for a considerable time to come.

My Preference

Personally, I am a commuter cyclist, and after a week’s worth of cycling, running is one of the last things that come to mind.

Eventually, it’s going to come down to the individual’s goals and circumstances. For myself, with a primary goal of adding muscle mass, I already get enough cardiovascular activity. However, if you have to run for a sport, then you have no choice but to run. For the majority of fitness enthusiasts however, I’d like to stay on the safe side; I’d advise starting off with brisk walking.

Usually, for the sake of fat loss, brisk walking is more than enough; the rest of the caloric deficit can and should come from your diet. In the case of running for cardiovascular fitness, the standard guidelines apply. Start slowly, and go for two 20 minute sessions a week.

However, people often think they can handle more training than they really can. Slowly scale up as your training by all means, but I’d advise against anything more than 4 x 45 minutes a week. More is not beneficial to health, and more is certainly going to increase the injury risk factor. If in doubt, stick to less.

It would be great to note that even elite athletes (we’re talking the Olympics) don’t train hard for more than 4 days a week (usually 4 workout days + 2 days active recovery + 1 day complete rest). More importantly, the point I made in the last paragraph bears repeating. Unless you are training for a very specific purpose, running more than 4 times a week is simply not necessary.

As a closing note, I’d definitely recommend that before each run, ask yourself and answer truthfully if you are able to run pain free. If during running, an uncharacteristic pain develops, stop immediately, your body doesn’t say sorry until it’s too late.

—

Notes:

[1] Just for the heck of it, I plugged in my own values (i’m 185 lbs at the time of this writing) into the exrx.com calculator http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/Calories.html for calories burned during an activity. This is what I got for 1 hour of each activity:

Running at 8mph – 1166 kcal
Cycling (racing) – 862 kcal
Rowing (moderate) – 605 kcal
Walking at 4mph – 494 kcal

This is just one calculator and are simply estimates, but the pattern, whereby it’s much easier to burn much more calories running is still evident.

[2] For some added information, read Eric Cressey’s Law of Repetitive Motion part 1 and part 2.

[3] Note: I don’t recommend pose running

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All too often we see fitness enthusiasts recommending dedication to a certain lifestyle.

But their missing the point.

The point is: The Goal of Sports training is to become good at the sport, Not to get healthy [1]

Remember that, and never claim that your sport is the path to being healthy. There are other ways to be ‘healthy’, taking up a sport happens to be one of them, but certainly not for everyone.

Recognise the disconnect, and realise that more often than not, good health is needed to perform well in a sport, not the other way round, and with the nice side effect of improved fitness.

Notes:

—

[1] – Ladies, pay more attention to this, some info can be found in the article, ‘The Female Athlete’s Epidemic‘

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