Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken on something akin to mythical status in the world of bodybuilding. Despite the decades since his departure from the competitive stage Arnold is often the first name to spring to mind when bodybuilding is mentioned. He has his critics, of course (Lee Haney described himself as having "a more complete" physique than Arnold in the '80s, and current Mr Olympia, Jay Cutler, reputedly told Arnold he knew next to nothing about modern bodybuilding).

However, Arnold still bears comparison with the current crop of bodybuilding "freaks" whose proportions have become ludicrously inflated so that they resemble bloated Cardassians more than human beings. Arnold won the "Best Built Man" title early in his career: the modern heavy weights would no doubt be excluded from such a competition on the grounds of species.

There have been internet polls comparing Arnold to Ronnie Coleman, the previous Mr Olympia. Coleman may well have been awesomely huge, but Arnold came out on top in the polls due to his superior aesthetic. At his best, Arnold retained something of the classical physique, and in some ways his "weaknesses" (his legs were nowhere near as huge as the those of modern bodybuilders) may well have been his strengths.

Another recent poll, this time in a bodybuilding magazine, compared the chests of top bodybuilders from the past to the present. Arnold came first with Lou Ferrigno close behind.

Training philosophy has certainly changed since Arnold's day. He used to advocate gruelling two hour workouts often twice per day but research has shown that working out beyond the 45-60 minute mark produces high levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol. Obviously Arnold was able to achieve great results with his prolonged training sessions (due to genetics and anabolic steroids) but he may have achieved even more had he trained a little less. That said, Arnold's "Basic Training Program" in his "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" is excellent. The more advanced programmes are probably a bit over-the-top in terms of volume (as Mike Mentzer's prescriptions are woefully inadequate in terms of complete motor unit recruitment).

Arnold has a shoulder exercise named after him, the "Arnold Press", which is a sort of combined lateral raise and shoulder press. He also has "The Arnold Classic", one of the most prestigious bodybuilding competitions (which also hosts an array of other sports).

Whatever one may think of Arnold, he remains an inspiration for many and probably the greatest icon of bodybuilding - so much so that we felt obliged to put a poster of Arnold up in the F.I.S.H. studio behind the power rack (perhaps one last rep of squats could be squeezed out by appealing to this demi-god of training).

F.I.S.H. Studio Update

Word of mouth is a powerful thing. F.I.S.H. has not even launched its advertising campaign - we only have the blog and have handed out a few brochures so far - and yet the studio is filling up.

We have been fortunate that many of our previous clients have come over to the new studio. They have been quick to spot the benefits: the whole studio to themselves and their trainer; no waiting around for equipment; no feelings of intimidation from boisterous men in the free-weights area; meticulous goal-setting and record keeping; and absolutely no admin or gym fees: all they pay for is the training.

There has also been considerable interest from the staff and businesses in the surrounding offices at Temple Grove. So much so, in fact, that we are already looking at ways to increase our hours at the studio.

The training sessions to date have been an absolute joy. Whatever the trainers plan for their clients can be realised as we have exclusive access to all the equipment all the time. Derek's clients are benefiting to the meticulous attention to loading parameters and time under tension plus the luxury of being able to perform super, tri and giant sets without anyone else jumping on the equipment in between exercises.

Melody has finalised plans for the weight loss group and boxercise classes which should be up and running by next week. Her own training is gathering pace - progress shots to follow at a later date.

Leg Training

There has been a trend amongst modern body builders for training legs with high reps, thus increasing the time under tension. This protocol may be quite helpful in increasing the muscle substrate systems and may also promote a hormonal growth response through occlusion and/or the increased time under tension. However, I think that to train legs optimally you need to account for their muscle fibre composition: hamstrings and quadriceps are predominantly composed of fast-twitch fibres which contract quickly and respond to heavy loads (low reps).

Think of the leg development of sprinters, for example. Sprinters need to generate phenomenal power and speed over short bursts. The same principle applies to leg training where the goal is hypertrophy, strength, or power.

Bearing this in mind it may be prudent to work in the 6-8 rep range with squats, dead lifts and leg press for a period (I like to change workout protocols roughly every six workouts in order to force the muscles to keep adapting). Rest periods should be 3-5 minutes (larger muscles, and heavier loads, require more rest, particularly as we are interested in challenging the contractile strength of the fibres more than the energy systems).

Experiment with different foot positions and spacing (perhaps every six workouts again) and vary the exercises (back squats, front squats, dead lifts, parallel grip dead lifts, lunges, leg press etc).

Squats, performed correctly, will help to stabilise the knee joint. The squat and the dead lift are unparalleled for the amount of muscles the involve and the anabolic response they elicit.

If you squat to a position where the thighs are parallel to the floor you will involve the hamstrings and glutes to a greater degree. Lunges are also great for working these muscles but you may benefit from additional hamstring work using leg curls and stiff leg dead lifts.

To start with, I would suggest using these big compound moves for about six workouts before reviewing your leg routine. Leg extensions and curls can be added later for specialisation if you need it.

My current leg routine involves five sets of squats (6-8 reps and 3 minutes rest); five sets of dead lifts (6-8 reps and 3 minutes rest); 3 sets of leg press (6-8 reps and 3 minutes rest).

I plan to add lunges at a future date but will probably move to a strength routine of squats and dead lifts for 2-4 reps, five minutes rest, and high numbers of sets after the current phase.

F.I.S.H. Studio Opens

At last the F.I.S.H. Personal Training Studio in Eastbourne has opened for business. Our first two clients through the door were Carole Penney and Jonathan Martin who continue to train with Derek Prior twice per week. Both have made exceptional progress with resistance training technique and both already show impressive gains.

We are still awaiting the delivery of a cable crossover and heavy duty free weights mat on Wednesday.

The new brochures are back from the printers and will be distributed this week.

Melody is almost fully recovered from a bout of tonsillitis and has commenced a two week anatomical adaptation phase using the big compound exercises and target-specific loading and tempo parameters. She will then move on to a three day split (each muscle to be trained once every five days). Derek is supervising Melody's weight training in return for some boxing sessions.

Derek has also recommenced serious training after almost a three month lay off. He is following a three day split (chest, back, external rotators; thighs, calves, and abdominals; shoulders and arms). For arms he is following Charles Poliquin's "Ultimate Arm Program", a six month program with changes every six workouts. The phase one "double tri-sets" are gruelling.

Chutney has ordered us a large Arnold poster to go behind the power rack and Theo has donated an action figure of the Mighty Thor for the desk. Art work for the walls is being provided by Gordon Prout.

Why Some Clients Don't Lose Weight

Occasionally I have a client who trains regularly and makes good progress with resistance exercise and cardiovascular fitness. They may also be on carefully structured nutritional plans and yet when the time comes to check body composition there is a degree of disappointment. Sometimes there is an easy explanation: with one lady the weight did not drop significantly but the lean body mass had increased, indicating a growth of muscle and a drop in fat weight. Whilst she was disappointed by the apparent lack of weight loss, careful recording and explanation of the figures was reassuring and served as a future motivator.

Another client, however, failed to show any appreciable fat loss. In fact the fat percentage and over all body weight was higher - but so was the lean body weight. This client had made excellent progress with resistance training and his cardiovascular fitness had improved dramatically. It became apparent that something was amiss and so I became even more observant.

There may be any number of reasons for failure to lose fat weight - carbohydrate intolerance, under active thyroid, poor timing of nutrition etc - but generally the simplest explanation is the right one. Many clients who are overweight don't stick to the nutritional advice. They may indeed train hard and make progress - and they will still reap many health and fitness benefits - but if they don't make the suggested nutritional changes there will be little change in body composition.

It's not much of a problem if the client is on track nutritionally but occasionally slips up. As long as they don't skip meals and get back into the routine of regular eating the harm, if any, will be minimal. The problem is when the client professes to be following a nutritional programme but is actually gorging on ice cream, chips, cakes and fast food on a regular basis.

How is the trainer to react? Some clients will readily admit to the nutritional failings but nevertheless wish to continue with the training as a form of damage limitation. Others may become disillusioned with your training - in effect blaming you- and discontinue. Either way, the experience of a "non-compliant" client can be disheartening for the trainer - it may even adversely affect your reputation (the results your clients achieve is often the best form of advertising).

Do you just continue to train such an individual (is short-term financial reward enough to motivate you?) or does the issue need confronting?

I generally opt for an approach of gentle enquiry. It does not help the trainer or the client if an inquisition ensues. It is better to be patient, non-judgemental, and focused on the positives. It may be that the client experiences genuine difficulty making the nutritional changes; there may be hidden social pressures; they may have an eating disorder; some are fearful of succeeding; some become anxious as their body weight reduces.

The important thing is to communicate, to adopt an attitude of active listening, and to advise only where advice is sought. Suggested changes should be small and manageable, and enough time needs to pass for these changes to become habituated before further changes are made. Be specific. If your client drinks 3 litres of Coke a day suggest they switch to diet coke (or, better, water). If they are failing to drink enough water, ask them to introduce an extra glass or two and encourage them to bring a water bottle to training sessions.

Offer small amounts of education: talk about the virtues of high protein at one time, glycaemic index at another. Focus on the foods they currently eat that are helpful for their training goals. Don't label foods good and bad however.

With such clients, small changes may reap long term benefits. The key is to remain patient, to keep communicating, and never to condemn.

Binge Eating

Some of my clients train extremely effectively, working hard and diligently. They follow personalised nutritional plans and train consistently. However, every now and again they go "off the rails". Often this is the result of binge eating and the resulting negative spiral.

Generally, a binge once in a while has little or no effect on training goals. It may even help occasionally. The problem is the related negative cognitive spiral that often accompanies binging and the duration of the binge cycle.

Ideally, if a client binges, even if the binge is prolonged, my advice is to forget about it, continue to train, and return to the usual nutritional plan, which generally involves eating six to seven meals a day at roughly three hourly intervals. Under no circumstances should they skip meals or try to juggle calories to balance out a binge episode.

The problem with the negative cognition is that it is usually a response to certain eating rules: some foods are identified as bad, and if I eat those foods I may consider myself "fat", "lazy", "useless", "a failure". What follows next is a "what the hell" attitude and further bouts of binging.

In a desperate bid to take control the individual will often resort to a strict diet and will set themselves dietary rules which are virtually impossible to maintain. Once the rules are broken (and they will be) the negative cognition kicks in and the binging starts again. Another factor here is the hunger caused by the semi-starvation diet which physiologically primes us for the next binge.

There are some self help approaches that may be of benefit for those who do not have a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist (preferably one trained in the CBT-Enhanced method for eating disorders).

The first principal is to increase metacognitive awareness, which basically means "thinking about thinking". Over time, through discussion with others, reflection, or better, recording what is eaten, when, and what the accompanying mood and thoughts are, we can start to recognise the characteristic automatic negative thoughts.

A useful analogy is that of the DVD player. In various situations we relate to others and our environment on a virtually automatic basis. For each of this situations (and our relationship with food is one of them) it is as if we have inserted a particular DVD. The thoughts are not ourselves - many of us identify with our thoughts and feelings, both of which have a large degree of autonomy. Once we recognise that the "eating disorder" DVD is running we can take steps to eject it (for example: challenging negative thoughts and offering more realistic alternatives; diversion - exercise, socialising, cinema etc- or working on some of the structures that hold this negative thinking pattern in place - low mood, anxiety, low self-esteem, boredom etc.

This kind of work is ongoing and reaps benefits in accordance with the commitment put into the self-help techniques.

Statistically, however, the most effective approach for reducing binge eating is to regulate eating, to eat small meals at roughly three hourly intervals and to avoid skipping meals. Once this approach is combined with your training goals (i.e. high protein, low GI, adequate nutrition) you have a highly effective defense against binging, and if you do binge you have an immediate strategy: just get on with the eating plan you were following with no self-recrimination.

There is no need to commence "driven" exercise regimens or to increase the frequency and duration of your workouts. Just keep on as normal, train hard and effectively, eat at regular intervals, and don't worry about slipping up: just think of the extra stored glycogen you can draw upon for your next training session!

Calf Training

There are a number of conflicting views about calf training: some advocate low reps and others high; some feel there is no point training calves because they are genetically determined and no amount of training will enhance them (although Arnold surely must have disproved this one!). Often calf training is neglected as, like the hamstrings, the calves are not “mirror muscles”.

Whilst it is true that outstanding calves are genetically determined there is a great deal that can be done with correct training to enhance calves.

The first point to consider is that the two parts of the calf – the soleus and the gastrocnemius – have different fast-slow twitch fibre ratios. The soleus (the lower calf) is comprised of about 88% slow-twitch fibres and is therefore most responsive to high reps. The gastrocnemius, however, is about 60% fast-twitch and therefore responds better to low reps.

To train the gastrocnemius, the knees should be locked, legs straight (standing calf raise machine; dumb bell calf raise on a step; one legged calf raise; donkey calf raise). To target the soleus the knees should be bent, as on the seated calf raise machine.

The tempo should be relatively slow – try 5 seconds eccentric and 5 seconds concentric and pause at the bottom position for between 1 and 4 seconds (i.e. 1 second during very high reps; 4 seconds on low reps). This inversely related pause increases time under tension, which leads to greater hypertrophy.

Continuous Progression in Resistance Training

One of the difficulties facing trainers is how to ensure continuous progression. Unfortunately, it is not enough to simply follow the same training protocol for an individual. If you design a programme of resistance training and expect the client to make continual progress simply by adding more weight or more reps you, and the client, will most likely be disappointed. They may continue to make some gains but for these gains to be optimised it is important to consider a number of factors:

Time under tension: this is why it is so important to control the weight on both the concentric and eccentric paths. The amount of time a muscle is held under tension is crucial to recruiting sufficient motor units for adaptation to take place.

Load: the cumulative load for a particular muscle group should be increased either through increasing the average weight lifted or manipulating loading parameters, with drop sets for example. This will have an impact on time under tension: for example, if you are able to bicep curl 20kg for ten reps on the first set, following a rest of 3 minutes you may only be able to perform 9 reps, and then 7 or 8 on the third set. By dropping the resistance on subsequent sets the time under tension should increase.

Fibre type: depending on the client’s goals and the muscle being trained fibre type is an important factor. With the hamstrings, for example, there is a predominance of fast-twitch, type 2b fibres, which respond better to low reps (heavier weight) and a relatively fast concentric action (think of the explosive power of sprinters – who generally have superior hamstring development to body builders). The soleus, on the other hand, is predominantly composed of slow-twitch fibres and therefore responds better to higher reps.
Reduction of the myotatic response – by pausing for a second or two in the stretch position (i.e. full extension of the elbow in a biceps curl) the plyometric effect is reduced thus increasing the tension on the muscles and leading to greater hypertrophy gains.

Working from different angles – Arnold was quite right to insist upon targeting muscles from a variety of angles but it is perhaps not necessary to perform so many sets at each angle. If you are looking for complete chest development, for example, you may have decided upon 4 sets of bench press but could perform one set on progressively inclined positions rather than 4-5 sets at each position.

Manipulate rest – generally, if you are looking at maintaining strength for each set and being able to challenge the tensile strength of fast twitch (type 2a and 2b) fibres, rest intervals should be at least three minutes. However, there are gains to be made from reduced rest periods (down to 45-60 seconds), in which case there is a second hypertrophic reaction, this time through build up of metabolic by-products and occlusion of the veins. There is a corresponding growth in energy reservoirs (glycogen and phosphate creatine), and in the venous supply.

In addition, close attention needs to be paid to recovery: rest between workouts, sleep, and nutrition. These include consideration of recovery drinks with 60-80g of simple carbohydrates, 25-30g of protein, vitamin C (which not only supports the immune system but also has an anti-catabolic role), magnesium, and perhaps creatine.

These are only some of the factors affecting progress. The bottom line is that the trainer, to be effective, needs to plan for each session, or each period of training, by reviewing workout notes and paying attention to time under tension, loading, rest, and exercise selection. They should also continuously assess the client’s physical development and target lagging areas (structural assessment would be helpful at intervals).

If the client has reached a plateau in terms of strength development there should be an assessment of the primary and supporting (synergistic) musculature: a lift is only as strong as its weakest link.

Generally, a training programme should be thoroughly reviewed at the minimum six weekly. It is no good simply plugging away at the same tired old routine hoping to eke out minuscule gains. The results are likely to be despondence, over training, and too great an identification with Sisyphus of classical mythology.

Personal Training Studios

Many newly qualified trainers enter the industry sub-contracted to, or employed by, one of the major franchise gyms. Whilst this may seem attractive due to the extensive range of equipment and the potential for customer contact, these arrangements have their drawbacks.

Fitness First, for example, charges a weekly rent which may seem reasonable to a well established trainer charging London rates, but £85 per week can seem an insurmountable obstacle to a newly qualified trainer with a small client base. Fitness First claim to off-set this by starting the rent on a sliding scale in return for the trainer working as a gym instructor (with no pay) for a reducing number of hours for the first few months. Often, the trainer is not allowed to work on their own business during these hours and may end up having to work excessive hours in order to make any money at all.

An additional problem is that Fitness First has its own targets and agendas: they sell a product called "Get Results" which is often marketed as "Personal Training" when it is, in fact, a gym programme with a half hour personal training "taster" at week four. Because the sales and fitness teams get commission for selling these, and because they are set aggressive targets, it is not in their interests to support personal trainers with building up their own client base. In fact, there is an unhealthy internal rivalry which forces many trainers out of business.

Other large gyms have their own systems (David Lloyd, for example, uses a combination of salary and commission). Where the trainer is an employee they lose many of the tax benefits of self-employment and don't reach anywhere near the hourly rate they could make as freelance trainers.

One solution is to set up your own training facility, although this is a costly risk. If your budgeting and marketing is out you could end up in trouble. Attracting new clients to this sort of venture is going to be extremely hard at first, although once you are established word will get around and you will hopefully have testimonials to circulate.

F.I.S.H. (Fitness Instruction for Strength & Health) Personal Training Studio in Eastbourne was set up to provide a solution for new trainers just starting out and to offer an alternative to gym-shy or busy clients who do not want to queue up to get on a particular piece of equipment.

F.I.S.H. is an exclusive Personal Training studio with regular staff to act as mentors to newly qualified trainers. The new PTs will be asked to undergo competency assessments and will be offered ongoing support and supervision. The F.I.S.H. team is a community for nurturing new trainers and developing the highest levels of technical skill, exercise and nutrition knowledge, and client-trainer relationships.

F.I.S.H. does not charge a weekly rent but does require a percentage of the trainer's earnings (currently this is £7.50 per session the trainer conducts). We encourage trainers to follow our suggested pricing structure, which generally leaves them making a profit of £22.50 per session (which is good considering there are no overheads).

The only financial outlay required is an initial registration fee of £20 to cover the production of a profile board for in-studio, web-site, and brochure advertising. Trainers are also encouraged to order a uniform training top.

The F.I.S.H. studio is equipped with top quality free-weights, exercise balls, mini trampoline, cables, power rack, dip and chin bars, heavy duty benches, full length mirrors, body composition scales, and a height measure. Trainers and clients have access to our extensive range of supplements and fitness clothing and are encouraged to use F.I.S.H. documentation (which they are free to photocopy at their own expense).

All enquiries from prospective trainers should be directed to:

Derek Prior

fishfitness@tiscali.co.uk

derekprior@tiscali.co.uk