September Newsletter

?Fall is shortly upon us. This month marks my 6th year being a personal trainer! I?began my career at Equinox in?Williamsburg, New?York -- My?apologies in advanced to any client that went through the torture that I thought was effective?training -- Luckily I smiled through it all, because some of those clients are still with me today. Let's just say personal training is continuously a learning process.

Speaking of learning lets fast forward to 2022. This year has been trying to break me in so many ways. I've learned "in times of adversity you don't have an obstacle to deal with, you have a choice to make." You either adapt or you don't. I had a successful surgery this past month and I'm looking forward to getting back to what I consider normal. That is now being a good father, training hard, training clients harder, and dieting for my next competition.

This summer I was able to dive into so much science/evidence-based literature. I stumbled upon Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Of course the name caught my attention, however this book is a deep dive into stress and stress-related illnesses. What happened to me this year made me purchase it immediately! I thought about the timing of my stroke and began wondering if I was experiencing a lot of stress. My wife just had a 36 hour labor, I just became a new dad, I was still training my body hard, entertaining family members, and managing my own career. Nevertheless, this book was a "must get" for me. Although there is a lot of scientific jargon, the author does a great job explaining theories and scientific facts to keep you engaged and entertained.

I have posted a link below. I hope you too can find it informative. We all experience stress and this may be a helpful guide countering those myths to help you or a loved one beat a stress related disease.?

Now let's talk about the stress we put on our body and understanding that...

Ratings of Perceived Exertion(RPE) and Repetitions in Reserve (RIR)

You've probably had a friend say "I hit a personal record and my RPE was a 10."(maybe you haven't lol). Many people do not truly understand what that means. Let's clear some things up.?

A study was done on individuals to calculate their ratings of perceived exertion(RPE) - which is simply how hard you feel your body is working on any given set on a scale from 1 to 10. Participants were given a?few exercises and told to go to failure at 70% of their 1RM. Majority of participants under reported effort even when sets were?taken to?volitional failure.?Meaning, they still had some gas in the tank despite stating they didn't.?

There are other auto-regulation methods as well. Personally, I like to use Reps in Reserve (RIR) with my clients. I think it's a bit more intuitive and easier to explain than RPE. They're basically the same thing. RIR is simply how many reps you feel you have left in the tank before failure vs the scaling method. In these scenarios I give my clients a number(i.e. 2) and they choose a weight that allows them to train hard while knowing they had however much left(in this case 2) before they failed.

RPE and RIR are both effective. They're methods that help manage fatigue, understand relative effort(the effort you give), manage intensity(or weight) in any given exercise, and most importantly help progress you through a well constructed program.

If you are not seeing strength/muscle gains that you feel you should please email [email protected]

The Pyramid of Nutrition Priorities

This is the hierarchy of nutrition. (Credit Dr. Eric Helms)

I've been receiving many questions regarding nutrition, and most are regarding the fundamentals. I have broken it down below along with some takeaways.

As you can see, calories matter. So, whether your goal is weight gain or weight loss you need to take that into account.

Next up are macros! The methods I use to diet and coach my clients are usually prioritizing Proteins, Carbs, Fats. I take care of the hard part and give my clients their weekly targets. This allows flexibility with their diet. Hitting macro targets are especially important if you enjoy training.

Micronutrients, fiber, and water are all important. However, these are nothing to think about all day long. Did you know many foods contain water?

?Timing and frequency doesn't matter that much when dealing with the general population. If you're not competing or working towards the maximum dosage of training this isn't anything you should be concerned about.

?At the top of the pyramid is Supplements. While there are some supplements that can play a helpful role when lifting and daily protein intake, this is not important for most people. There aren't any supplements out there that you cannot get from food or an overall balanced diet.

?Takeaways:

• Make sure your diet consists mainly of whole food sources (i.e. lean meats, fruits, vegetables, eggs, etc)
• Macros are important for building muscle and supporting performance
• Fiber recommendations is 38g/day for men 25g/day for women
• Timing is important if you're a competitive body builder or athelte. However, I would always recommend eating at least an hour or two before training and consuming some protein and carbs up to an hour later for a better muscle building response.
• Supplements aren't usually important. In fact, save your money and know that you do not need anything that food cannot give you. Of course if you're getting an insufficient amount of protein, I would highly recommend getting a protein powder. But, once again thats only if you're not getting a sufficient amount from food.

If you know anyone who is having trouble adhering to a diet or is eating at an unsustainably low intake please have them email?[email protected]