What is Workout Intensity?

For the purpose of this topic we are talking about Workout Intensity in regards to Building Muscle, not for other areas like fat loss, cardio vascular training although there usually is some crossover involved. So if you want to get stronger and more muscular then read on...

First off let’s talk about what Workout Intensity is not!

The Busy Body: That person that jumps from machine to machine and never stops moving, they will do bench press and then drop to the floor and rip off a set of situps immediately followed with another set of bench press and so on… This is more or less a circut training session which is in some ways comparable to CrossFit when doing Metcon activities. Great for all around functional ability but not always geared towards fully benefiting maximum muscle growth.

The Permanent Gym Resident: That person who is always at the gym, that seems to be there every time you go, they are there when you arrive and still there when you leave? Time at the gym means nothing, especially if much of it is filled with socialization, texting and long breaks. I often see these people going through the motion when they actually do workout, perhaps they are pacing themselves for a long day at the gym?

Mr. Way too Much Weight: You know that guy, the one that is using every 45 pound weight in the gym on the leg press and then only bends his legs slightly while grunting and straining? Or the guy on bench with three plates a side getting his spotter to do most of the work. You have to use correct form and you need to do the bulk of the work using your own efforts, otherwise how will you know when you are improving, perhaps your workout partner is getting stronger and doing more work for you ;)

The Cardioholic: That person that wants to lift weights but ends up doing mostly cardio since their workout starts with a bunch of cardio and ends with a bunch of cardio along with a token workout effort jammed in the middle. They probably have are good intentions but if you want to get stronger and more muscular then the weight lifting needs to take priority over everything else.

Mr. 5 Exercises Per Body Part: When your muscle is done, it’s done, if it takes you 5 different exercises to tire that muscle group out then you are for sure not being intense enough! You should be able to completely tire your muscle out with one exercise, sure it may take 5-6 sets to get there but I know it is 100% possible. And once your muscle is fully fatigued, it's time to move onto a new muscle group that's fresh and ready to go. Otherwise you are simply beating a dead horse over the head and not getting max benefits from your workout. You will need to makes sure to mix-up your exercises on follow up workouts but you should also be able to hit each muscle group several times per week if you are not doing so many exercise for each muscle group during each workout.

So what is Workout Intensity?

Workout Intensity has nothing to do with how long you workout or how many days a week you workout, or how busy you are at the gym. It all has to do with preparing yourself to mentally and physically give 100% of yourself for each exercise you do until that muscle can do no more!

This does not mean that every set is at 100%, the idea is to build the weight up for your final last 2-3 sets where you deliver 100% of your focus, strength and energy to that exercise so that when you are finished, you can say you have completely exhausted that muscle group and then move on to a fresh muscle group.

I like to do 2-3 warmup sets where I keep adding weight and build up to my heavy set, my heavy set will be the goal set where I plan to do as much weight and as many sets as I can to failure. Sometimes if I feel I had a really great set, then I will do a drop set or two to finish the muscle off even more. If I feel like that muscle group has more to give, then I will drop the weight a little and do one or two more sets with decreasing weight, again to complete failure on both follow-up sets.

You don’t need to do a ton of different exercises for each muscle group, 1-2 exercises is fine as long as you completely exhaust your muscles when you train an exercise. Once that muscle group is exhausted there is no need to continue training it, that would be anti-productive and you are so much better off switching to a completely different muscle group and giving it your full attention. This way you can hit more muscle groups during each workout and be able to train each muscle group more times per week for maximum results.

When you leave the gym, you should be completed exhausted, the idea of trying to do another exercise should at this point be physically and mentally imposable.

Ice Packs to Get Rid of Body Fat - CoolSculpting - Brown Fat

In this Review/Video I talk mainly about how you can use cold temperature to get rid of fat in two ways. One way is by literally "Freezing your fat off" using a technique similar to CoolSculpting but one that can be done at home rather than in a clinic. And the second method is by using Ice and cold temperature to switch on a metabolic fat burning switch "cold-induced thermogenesis" in your body by activating your Brown and Beige Fat Cells as a fuel to heat your body.

CoolSculpting or "Cryolipolysis" is a Clinical Procedure that uses a machine that first vacuum sucks a problem area of your skin/fat into its cup and then applies super cold temperature to the area without damaging the skin, nerves and blood vessels. This is done by not going under 10 degrees Celsius. This is cold enough not to damage skin, nerves and blood vessels yet get the fat to about 4 degrees Celsius which is the temperature that Fat will freeze, By freezing the Fat, it will kill the Fat Cells which then die off over time and are absorbed by the body.

CoolSculpting is not recommended for people that have a lot of fat to get rid of, it is for addressing those trouble spots and to help contour the body by removing fat in those areas.

In this video I talk and show the possibilities of using Ice packs at home to simulate this CoolSculpting method and though it is technically possible one must use caution since over cooling/freezing an area can cause permanent scaring or damage to the skin, nerves and blood vessels from frostbite.

The second method of reducing fat in your body is by using "cold-induced thermogenesis". You can do this by simply tuning down your thermostat. The colder you can stand it, the more calories your body will burn and over time as you get use to the colder temperature your body will get better at converting its fat into heat energy. So you will feel warmer and be burning way more calories at the same time. Even limited exposure to cold temperate can train your body into burning more and more fat over time even when exposed to the same cold temperate for the same amount of time.

The reason this works is because we have three types of fat cells in our bodies: White Fat Cells that we store up when we overeat for use later on as active energy, Brown Fat Cells that are used strictly for Heat energy, and Beige Fat Cells which are actually converted White Cells that can be used for either activity or heat energy. As we train ourselves to get use to colder temperature we recruit more and more White Fat Cells to to be transformed into Beige Fat Cells which means we get better and better at staying warm in cold temperature and can use more of our fat cells for heat energy. What does this mean? Without dieting and without exercise you can literally cool that fat right off your body.

A couple good ways to kick start cold-induced thermogenesis is by drinking a 500ml bottle of ice cold water in the morning on an empty stomach. You can also place an ice pack on the back of your neck near the trap or upper shoulder area for an hour 3-5 days per week. Of course keeping your house cool will not only save money on your heating bill but also greatly help you burn more calories and lose fat through the day.

Movember - A Great Cause and Best Excuse to Grow Your Moustache

Looking for a great excuse to grow your Moustache while at the same time helping a great cause? Well it's that time of the year again where us Men, and perhaps a few Women get to grow out our Moustaches for the entire Month :)

Growing a Moustache is a great way to support Men's Health during the month of November but if you really want to help out than show some love by donating $5, $10, $20, or even more to this worthy cause. Your donation will go to help Men of all ages with issues like Prostate cancer, Testicular cancer, Mental health and suicide prevention.

You can doante directly on the Movember.com website or use my MoBro Page Here:

Why Am I Not Getting Any Bigger or Stronger?

Many of us struggle with hitting that dreaded strength plateau! If you're not familiar with what I am talking about, a body building or strength plateau is when it seems we are training just as hard as we always have been but are not seeing any more results? We are not getting stronger or we are not increasing the size of our muscles, usually strength and size go hand in hand.

This plateau effect does not generally happen to people who are new to weight lifting or body building since their muscles are in the early stages of their growth and strength gains and they have not gotten any where near to their genetic potential maximum. As a person weight lifts or body builds over time, and gets closer and closer to their genetic potential maximum strength and or size, their strength and size gains will progress slower and slower, eventually hitting a plateau. We will all experience the occasional short term plateau which is normal, what I am talking about here is that long term plateau that no matter what we seem to do, we just can not break through it.

In this YouTube Video I go over some of the most common mistake us long term and more experienced lifters may not be aware of. It's not how many days per week we workout that matters, or how many hours we are in the gym each day. Or even how much weight we are currently lifting. It all comes down to giving our bodies a reason to adapt and grow stronger and gain muscle. Doing the same thing over and over again after a while is simply not enough any more, you have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and push a little harder, try some new exercises and even change your entire program around if need be. Watch my YouTube video for more info on this subject.

GetFitOver40.com - October Update Video - DJI OSMO Mobile

This ones a short Update for October, I wanted to quickly test out my DJI OSMO Mobile in selfie tracking mode to see how well it tracked me while making this video. The DJI OSMO Mobile worked great but I accidentally had my iPhone 7's front facing camera set to 720p so the video quality is not as good as it could have been. Video quality aside the DJI OSMO Mobile did a fantastic job of keeping me in frame while I moved freely around the room, almost like having my own personal camera man at a fraction of the cost :)

I will be making a review video for the DJI OSMO Mobile at some point once I have played around with it for a while, keep in mind it will not be a full feature review but more so focused on what I find useful for my requirements.

Other topics I talk about in this October Update Video are my new workout program where I am hitting every muscle group every workout day. I have been doing this most weeks 5 days per week taking the weekend off. I can say I do not feel like I have lost any gains even though I did take some time off to go to Las Vegas and the fact that I usually train 6 days per week, there may even be some areas where I have progressed a little but it is still early on to know for sure.

I have even decided to trim my workouts down to 4 days per wee, so Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with the weekend off still. I will still be hitting every muscle group every workout day so that means I hit everything 4 times per week. Keep in mind I do train at least 1.5 hours per workout so this is still about 6 hours per week of training and when I train it is very intensive with the focus on always progressive overloading.

I am hoping that at 4 days per week of training my life balance will be a bit better while still staying in relativelythe same shape, when I approach my next contest I will of course ramp up my workouts which should allow me to make some more gains prior to contest day.