All Things CD-ROM/DVD and More

Intensity and effort is the key to building muscle. Without it,
you couldn’t use progressive overload, forced reps, or any other
advanced lifting techniques.

Muscle growth depends on constantly increased intensity and
overload. Not only that, there’s such a feeling of complete joy
and exuberation after completing a killer, intense workout.

You feel good, you feel strong, and you feel confident. There’s
nothing like training with complete, 100% intensity. And it’s
the most important part of building muscle consistently.

The truth is, if anything is worth doing, you have to give it
all you’ve got, or you probably shouldn’t even do it to begin
with.

There’s something incredibly intense about lifting 400 pounds on
the bench press. Feeling a power in you as you push the weight
with all you’ve got.

Not only does this intense, heavy lifting help you to build
muscle, but it will also increase your confidence and
self-esteem over time.

Intense efforts result in increases in muscle size and strength.
The closer you come to using 100% intensity, the greater the
chances of building muscle.

But it’s impossible to use peak intensity for long duration when
training. After all, you can’t use max intensity when doing
long-distance running.

As a result, the longer-duration but less intense activities you
do will result in less muscle stimulation and growth. That’s why
brief, intense bursts of exercise is most important for building
muscle.

Those interested in the most muscle growth possible must
regularly exercise at the 100% intensity level. Anything less
than that and you will not see the best results.

But the problem is, intense efforts require motivation. It’s
tough to lift with max intensity all the time. It can be very
draining and it places huge demands on the body.

I’m sure you’ve felt, at one time or another, that you didn’t
want to do anything too intense. You went to the gym, but didn’t
feel like working out. Or you felt really tired and sluggish.
Didn’t you find it tough to use any intensity at all?

Believe me, it takes motivation and determination to keep
training at an intense level. But if building muscle is that
important to you, you’ll find ways to keep upping the intensity.

That’s why it’s important to have strong reasons for working
out, goals that you really want to achieve. It’s amazing how
much intensity you can use if you’re really after a particular
goal.

So the more you want a specific goal, the more intensity you’ll
train with. If you’re tired of being picked on or teased for
being skinny or small, that will keep you training with
intensity in the gym.

Start being more aware of the level of intensity you’re using in
the gym. Are you giving it your very best when you step in the
gym?

If not, you may not have strong enough goals or a strong enough
reason for working out. Until you find your “hot button”, 100%
intensity will elude you.

Visualize what you want to achieve from working out in the gym.
Picture yourself with the lean, muscular physique you want. And
realize that it will take intense and consistent training to
achieve that.

And since intensity is the key to building muscle, start using
as much of it in the gym as you can. If you start training with
100% intensity, you’ll soon start achieving all of your muscle
building goals.

Comments Off

One for the Ages

Satchel Paige was a great baseball pitcher, one of the greatest
of all time. He was an African-American and, due to the racial
discrimination of the time, most of his outstanding career was
not spent in the (white) major leagues. However, after the
historic breakthrough by the courageous and talented Jackie
Robinson (Mr. Paige’s junior by about 14 years), Satchel Paige
pitched in the major leagues for a number of years. In fact, he
was still able to get major league batters out at the age of 60!
(Mr. Paige’s age at his retirement from baseball is not known
for certain because no one, probably including Mr. Paige
himself, knew his exact year of birth; some thought he was older
than 60). Mr. Paige revealed a mind as sharp as the break on his
curve ball when he asked this profound question for the ages:

“How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?”

These writings are dedicated to the memory of Satchel Paige and
to all the so-called “over-the-hill” guys and gals in every
sport and in every area of life, from Churchill and Reagan in
politics to Jessica Tandy in acting and Paul McCartney in
fatherhood. They and many like them in the past and present will
be joined by many more in the future who are not really “over
the hill” because they are too busy taking the hill.

Five Ways to Look at Age

Chronological Age

The most common way to look at age is the Chronological. This is
the one that everyone is familiar with. It is simply the time
that has passed since your date of birth to today. It is the one
that governments and insurance companies require of you and that
your Doctor knows, even if your boy friend doesn’t. It is a
unidimensional measure because it considers only time. It is
uniform because everybody who is 48 years, 6 months, and 3 weeks
old is exactly that, chronologically. People who view age only
from the chronological perspective are somewhere between dumb
and dumber.

True Age

True Age is another and better way to look at your age. True age
is basically what a measurement of all the biomarkers of aging
would reveal about you. Here’s four points about true age. One,
if a well-trained physician did NOT know how old you are but
reviewed a print-out of your biomarkers, she or he could
accurately estimate your true age. Two, your true age is not
uniform but varies by individual: you can be younger or older
than your chronological age. Three, true age is multidimensional
rather than confined to time. Four, absolutely nothing can be
done about chronological age because it is fixed, but a great
deal can be done about true age.

Appearance Age

Appearance Age is the age you appear to be to others. It no
doubt has some relationship to both chronological age and true
age. Yet it is different. This is because it is heavily
influenced by a number of factors outside the scope of biomarker
measurement, not the least of which is attitude. We all know
people that appear to be quite a bit younger or older than their
chronological age. But the only scientific way to measure a
person’s appearance age would be to have a representative sample
of the population observe a person for at least a few minutes. A
quick glance is not sufficient because appearance age includes
factors such as movement of the body and alertness, not just a
frozen face. Then the estimates from all members of the
representative sample would be gathered, simple statistical
measures applied, and Voila! You have the person’s appearance
age. Of course, unless we are part of a study, none of us will
ever get this scientific about it. We will just have to rely on
random comments from friends, family, and nice or mean strangers
to estimate our appearance age; and usually it’s a pretty good
estimate.

NEAT Age

A new way to look at age, which occurred to me awhile back, is
what I call one’s N.E.A.T. age. This is simply one’s time left
on the planet from right Now to the time of death. This age is
unknowable by readers or anyone, except those committed to
imminent suicide (and these poor folks are no more likely to
take the short time remaining to do age calculations than they
are to be caught dead reading an article about lively
longevity). The best we can do is make a calculated estimate
based on what we know about the general population and factor in
any pluses or minuses that apply to us individually.

The N in NEAT of course stands for Now since the calculation is
from the present, today, right now. E is for Elusive because I
believe moments of time are elusive. As we humans try to hold or
capture a moment of time it eludes us because the next moment is
here, and then the next. Time and life are a flow.

The A in NEAT is for Allotted. Everyone who has ever lived has
only so much time to live. Some have short lives, some have long
lives, and some have lives neither particularly long nor short.
But human life is finite and almost certainly will remain finite
into the distant future if not forever. We do not need to take
sides in the age- old debate about whether or not our allotted
time is predestined by God in order to recognize that the amount
is finite.

Of course, T is for Time. Time remaining is what it is all
about. As has been oft noted: a millionaire on his death bed
would gladly exchange his riches for a little more time, say one
more day of healthy living.

So one’s NEAT age is one’s Now Elusive Allotted Time. It is a
concept that provides a different perspective on aging and on
life. For example, let’s suppose there was a 30-year old person
named Terry and a 60-year old person named Sydney living in the
same town in 1960. Conventional wisdom and simple arithmetic
agree that Sydney was twice as old as Terry at that time. Such
wisdom carries the (usually) unstated assumption that Terry is
about 30 years further from the grave than Sydney.
Statistically, this is difficult to argue with. But statistics
are oft off for an individual and sometimes by a wide margin.

Let’s suppose that Terry had a lifetime of very bad health
habits and, never having had the opportunity to read my
writings, continued the very bad habits. Poor Terry expired a
little shy of 40. (The same fate could have befallen Terry due
to a dreaded disease or tragic accident.) Sydney, on the other
hand, decided at some point to lead a health-conscious life.
Sydney made good choices and stuck with them. Sydney enjoyed
basically good health beyond age 100 before passing on. When
Sydney was 60 and Terry was 30, Sydney had a NEAT age of 40+ and
Terry had a NEAT age just under 10. So way back in 1960, who was
younger: the one with less than a decade of life left, or the
one with more than four decades of vibrant life left? One of the
neat things about the NEAT age is that the bigger this age
number the better.

Ideal Age

The fifth and final way that we will look at age is one’s Ideal
Age. Your ideal age is your age of choice, your preferred age.
The concept of ideal age brings us back to Satchel Paige’s
question:

How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?

In a sense, perhaps most of us do NOT know how old we are
anyhow. Sure we know our chronological age, and some of us have
a rough gauge of our appearance age. But few of us know our true
age, and none of us knows our NEAT age. So it should not be so
difficult to put chronological age aside for a few moments and
answer Mr. Paige’s question.

Before leaping to an answer like 21, keep in my mind that
successful living usually involves a combination of physical
vigor, mental acuity, and wisdom. Personally, my ideal age is
37; thus even at my next birthday I will still be one year
younger than all the women over 40.

What about you? What’s your number? What’s your ideal age? The
way my anti-aging program works for you is that after reflection
you establish your ideal age. Then we work with all the tools
and techniques of the program to bring your true age into ever
closer alignment with your ideal age. There is a balance to be
struck. A 90-year old reader shooting for an ideal age of 19 is
setting up way too much of a challenge and thus is setting up
for failure. A 50-year old reader settling for an ideal age of
45 is not challenging herself or himself enough.

Take a number.

Satchel Paige was the impetus for me to write the close to this
article:

When it comes to matters of age, It is best to take a page out
of Paige, And move forward with grace, Paying no mind to this
myth of the human race.

Comments Off

I recently came across a research study. It talked about what
the physical activity profile was for adults who were tying to
lose weight.

They surveyed almost 15,000 people and determined that only half
of those who include exercise as part of their program
incorporate enough exercise to be effective. So, maybe the half
that wasn’t exercising enough is doing it at higher intensity
levels for those shorter exercise sessions. Then it’s plenty
effective.

I doubt the subjects used in the study were doing high intensity
training, but it’s what you should consider doing. Especially if
you have a tight schedule and not a lot of time to exercise,
it’s a great solution. 20-30 minutes is all it will take.

Guess what one of the greatest intensity factors is when it
comes to strength training? There are a few key ones, but
momentary muscle failure is at the top of the list.

This means pushing the muscle to the point where another
repetition cannot be completed in good form. Then once you’re
done with that muscle group, you move to the next one. And the
best way to do this is by lifting slow!

The great thing about it is that you can pick any exercise in
your gym to do it with. Or you can even do it with your own
bodyweight using exercises like pushups and do it from the
convenience of your living room.

I’ve recently begun training some new clients and so they’ve
done High Intensity Training (H.I.T.) a few times. One of them
is a seasoned exerciser and told me this morning that he’s not
felt his muscles work this way before. He loves the challenge of
pushing himself during a workout as well as how it saves him so
much time.

According to one of the guru’s of strength training, Wayne
Westcott PhD, “The primary intent of high-intensity strength
training is to fatigue additional muscle fibers during a more
demanding exercise set. Based on the research studies reviewed,
it appears that one good set of resistance exercise is as
effective as two or three sets for providing a sufficient
strength stimulus and producing significant strength gains.”

If you’re a busy professional and don’t have a lot of extra time
to spend exercising then increasing the intensity of your
strength training is a great solution to bring you excellent
strength gains in half the time.

Comments Off