Alternatives to a Rear Squat

I am enjoying working out with my new bench and weights, and a couple of days ago did my first workout involving a rear barbell squat. Unfortunately, the limiting factor appeared not to be the weight I could squat, but the weight I could lift onto my shoulders. Also, where the bar sat on the back of my shoulders quickly got very sore and is still quite bruised. I sent out a request for help and advice and got some useful suggestions back that I thought I’d share with you.

First off, whilst continuing with the rear squat, make the bar more comfortable by purchasing a cheap bit of foam called a barbell pad that wraps around the bar and cushions it. Thanks for that Rob. I have ordered one and it should be here soon. In a pinch, a towel will do.

Other possibilities include switching to a front squat, where the barbell sits across the front of your shoulders instead of behind them. There was recently a very good article on the Precision Nutrition site comparing front and rear squats. They reviewed research on muscle activation and shear and compression forces in the two types of squat (and included links to videos showing you how to do each correctly). They found that muscle activation was similar for the two but front squats might have the edge in people with knee injuries due to lower compression forces on the knee. So I should probably be doing these anyway. I’m going to start by trying these.

Other suggestions, from my old PT instructor, included step ups (which I can see having the same problems as the rear squat unless you hold the barbell to the front again) and split squats with the bar between your legs! This one sounds rather interesting. Do let me know how you get on if you try it.

Fat loss, bloody big weights and 7 Minute Muscle

This was mostly a good week for me. I concentrated on hitting my nutrition goals and wiped out all the weight I had put on last week. I have now lost a total of 15.3 pounds of fat (13.8 pound weight loss) and clocked in at just under 15 stone (209.8 lbs) with body fat down on last week. The only disappointment for me was two uncontrolled eating lapses – one a white chocolate ginger cheesecake at Wagamama, and one a steady stream of chocolate eclairs (the toffees, not the cakes) on Friday at work in honour of someone’s birthday. What disappointed me is not that I ate these things, but that I ate them without thinking about it. This is the bad habit I want to learn to overcome. When faced with a food choice, I want to consider my options, and if I decided to eat it, enjoy it guilt free. I don’t want to just mindlessly put things in my mouth though, just because they are there. That was how I got to where I am now. The fact that I ‘got away with it’ come official weigh day today is not the point.

On a more positive note, yesterday I took possession of my new bench, barbells and BBWs (bloody big weights) that I bought on eBay. The bench is still in pieces while I figure out where to put it, rearrange my home gym and make room for hubby to set it up. There are over 130 kilos of cast iron weight plates included so I am unlikely to outgrow this lot any time soon! All very exciting. As well as a barbell support, the bench, a York B540, inclines and declines, has a squat rack, a leg extension attachment (good for knee rehab), and I have ordered a lat pull down attachment to go with it.

I racked up just under four hours of cardio and pilates last week, including a bit of rebounding and some Bhangra dancing – hard work but lots of fun. I didn’t lift last week in preparation for my new training regimen starting today (should have been yesterday but nevermind). For the next four weeks (or possibly six weeks) I am going to be doing 7 Minute Muscle – an advance power/hypertrophy regimen by Jon Benson, apparently based on an old Bulgarian training technique, or so I am told. This involves training each body part once a week for just seven minutes. Chest today. Five minutes of barbell bench press in the strength range (1-5 reps) followed immediately by two minutes incline dumbbell flyes in the hypertrophy range (6-10 reps). I underestimated the weights for both exercises, particularly the bench press, so will have to add weight next week. That’s one of the reasons I am thinking of extending this training cycle to six weeks from the four I initially planned. Since I only do each muscle group once per week, if I don’t get the weight right to start with, I won’t get the full benefits in only a four week cycle. Will see how I get on. For now though, despite not lifting heavy enough, my biceps are still trembling six hours later!

A DASH of vegetable juice helps the double whopper bacon cheeseburger go down

With apologies to Mary Poppins. Breaking news from the FASEB conference in New Orleans this week: vegetable juice may aid weight loss. A 12-week study in 81 individuals with metabolic syndrome found that of the 60 people (74%) who completed the twelve week study, those assigned to drink one or two cups of low sodium vegetable juice as well as receiving advice about the DASH diet (Dietary Advice to Stop Hypertension – high in fruit and veg, low-fat dairy, fibre and minerals; low in total and saturated fat and salt) were more likely to achieve 3-5 servings of vegetables daily than those who were assigned to the no-juice, DASH advice-only group. They also had lower leptin levels (a hormone that affects appetite). But here’s the big news that hit all the wire services today: the vegetable juice group lost a staggering FOUR POUNDS on average over the three month trial period compared with only ONE POUND for those in the no-juice group. Who runs these things?!

Actually, the DASH diet is pretty healthy. While metabolic syndrome – a cluster of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease including excess body fat around the middle, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol – can make weight loss more difficult, one can only assume that these people had some adherence issues.

While it is generally not recommended that you drink too many calories, and if you must drink fruit juice, limit it to one cup a day due to the relatively high sugar and low fibre content, I’m not sure the same applies to vegetable juice – at least with respect to the sugars. Interestingly, many vegetable juices taste much more palatable than the vegetables themselves, and can be ’slipped in’ to a more palatable concoction to get a range of vegetables if you’re not that keen on eating your greens (and reds, and purples, and whites). Still, drinking is rarely as satisfying as eating (unless there are pina coladas involved). I’d suggest taking your veggie (or veggie/fruit mix) juice with a meal, rather than on its own. And if you have, or can afford, a VitaMix – you can mush whole fruit and veg to within an inch of their lives and get the benefit of the juice with all the fibre too. Otherwise, raw or lightly steamed fresh or high-quality frozen veg is the way to go.

BFS Phase 2, Garlic Bread and FitPro 2009

I had a much better week last week, getting in all my scheduled workouts, and finishing phase 2 of the BFS exercise plan. I didn’t make as big gains as I possibly could have because for the first few workouts I did the maximum number of reps – i.e. I wasn’t lifting heavy enough – I had underestimated what I could manage. Thus, in some exercises, I didn’t get the weight right till halfway through the cycle or later! Nevertheless I made gains in everything, and did my first 60 second plank (followed by two 40 second reps). So in two cycles (phase 1 and phase 2) I have gone from (30, 21, 24) to (60, 40, 40). Did I mention I hate planks!

Eating last week was much better too, but this weekend we were away and staying with friends, and I reverted to old habits. Eating without thinking. Not using my ‘mantra’ – “Why DON’T I want to eat it?” (Answer: Because I want to be thinner, fitter and healthier.) As a result, my weigh-in this morning (having missed official weigh day yesterday) was up two pounds. It certainly goes on a lot easier than it comes off, doesn’t it! Despite not being on official weigh day, I have logged this result in the sidebar, as there was no reading last week. And it is now there to remind me in perpetuity how easy it is to slip.

I’m OK with this though. I promised myself a month or so back that I would no longer define a ‘good day’ or a ‘bad day’ by what I put in my mouth. A bad day is when a school collapses in an earthquake and 200 children are killed. My garlic bread consumption is just another day in my ongoing journey to be a better me.

I’m taking a week off from lifting this week and only doing cardio and yoga/pilates. This is in preparation for a new training cycle next week which I expect to be very physically and mentally challenging. But I am going to concentrate on my nutrition this week and clean up my act a little.

At the fitness convention I attended over the weekend I attempted a class in GRAVITY pilates. This is done on a machine that looks a bit like a reformer on an incline. It was rather hard and I may have said some rude words. But it was a fun conference. I heard some very inspirational speakers, including some big names: Charles Poliquin, Jon Berardi, Robert Cappuccio; had a biomechanical screening and found out that my right pelvis is rotated forward, and what to do about it; had my body fat measured by ultrasound – the £2000 software came within 2% points of what my Tanita scales at home tell me (although my scales can’t show me in 3-D rotating around a central axis in a bikini (thank god!); met some nice people, bought some new sports bras, and checked out some hunky guys in tight clothing. Plus, like I said, we stayed with friends who lived nearby. So all in all, a good weekend.

Is Fat My Fate? Three months on

Three months ago, I wrote a post about a quiz I had taken in a magazine that inspired me to make some positive changes in my life. After doing the quiz, I set myself six goals to work on over the next three months:

1. Go from less than 100 mins exercise per week to between 100 and 150 mins exercise per week.
2. Go from watching over 10 hours of television a week to 5 to 10 hours.
3. Go from eating a green leafy salad less than three days per week (averaging around, say, zero times most weeks) to, first, more than zero, and ultimately to between three and five days a week.
4. Go from three to six servings of fruit and veg daily to over seven.
5. Go from eating omega-3-rich foods once or twice a week to three times a week or more.
6. And finally, start managing my stress in any way other than feeding it, and ideally by doing something physical.

Well, it’s now three months on. So how did I do? Well, I went from a score of -3 on the quiz, to one of 13, or from the bottom to the top category. I moved up at least one category in all six of my goals, and more than one category in a couple of them (exercise, television). In the three months since I started this programme I have lost ten pounds and around 3% body fat, without actively dieting or counting calories (around 13 lbs since the beginning of the year). Overall, I think this has been one of the most successful lifestyle changes I have ever made, and I don’t feel it will be hard to maintain these positive changes.

So what about the next three months? I need some new goals. I have decided to spend the next three months trying to achieve more balance in my life. So here goes:

1. Maintain the positive nutrition changes that I have made so far this year, concentrating on fruit and veg, leafy greens, and omega 3-rich foods
2. Increase the amount of water I drink, aiming for six glasses – or 1.5 litres – daily (as well as other water-containing foods and drinks; not including any extra hydration needed during/after exercise)
3. Maintain a 5-hour per week average for exercise
4. Introduce yoga into my routine, aiming for 30 to 60 minutes every week
5. Meditate at least three times per week
6. Start going to bed earlier – aim for before 11pm at least four days a week

Stay posted.

No official weigh in this week

Not so good for me I’m afraid. I’ve been following my plan for just over three months now, and have just had my first blow out. And I don’t like to do things by halves. Junk food, take-aways, little exercise (managed both my scheduled weights sessions, but only one intervals session, and nothing else – around 1 hour 50 mins exercise total for the week – there was a time not that long ago when this would have been a really active week for me!). I have been craving carby, fatty foods like they were going out of fashion, for no apparent reason that I can see (hormones, illness). Anyhow, back on plan now. To be honest, I feel less bad about the blow out, and more impressed that I have been eating healthily and exercising for over three months now. I guess I can handle one of these every few months!

Having said that, I am not entirely sorry to report though that there is no official weigh-in this week. I have either had a tummy bug, or else my body has been rebelling against all the crap I’ve been feeding it, and spent most of yesterday (weigh day) either in the bathroom or asleep. Weight and hydration all over the place. Weight this morning up 0.4 pounds on last week, but then I hardly ate anything yesterday, so not really a reliable measure. Hopefully, I will have better news to report next week. Overall, feeling good, positive and motivated, and looking forward to a week of healthy food and exercise. Really.

For Cynthia: Cod with a Spicy Mushroom Sauce

This recipe is from The Best Ever Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. It serves 4 people and provides 2 servings of vegetables.

Note: Grilling fish before adding it to a sauce helps to prevent it from breaking up during the cooking process.

Ingredients

• 4 cod fillets (or use other lean flaky white fish – see The Chef’s Thesaurus for substitution ideas)
• 15 ml/1 tbsp lemon juice
• 15 ml/1 tbsp oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 black peppercorns, crushed
• 115 g/4 oz/1 cup mushrooms (any type will do – button mushrooms will make the dish look pretty, but darker varieties will add colour to the dish, take your pick)
• 175 ml/6 fl oz/ 3/4 cup natural (plain) low fat yogurt
• 5 ml/1 tsp grated fresh root ginger (or use prepared ginger in oil from the spices shelf. In the UK Barts does one – lasts forever in the fridge)
• 5 ml/1 tsp crushed garlic
• 2.5 ml/ 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2.5 ml/ 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 5 ml/1 tsp salt
• 15 ml/1 tbsp cilantro (leaf coriander)
• green beans to serve (or use any other green veg – tenderstem broccoli or asparagus would go well with this recipe (for best results steam for about a minute until bright green)

Method

1. Remove the skin and any bones from the fish fillets. Sprinkle them with lemon juice, the par-cook under a pre-heated grill (broiler) for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a karahi, wok or large frying pan and fry the onion with the bay leaf and peppercorns for 2-3 minutes. Lower the heat, then add the whole mushrooms and stir-fry for a further 4-5 minutes.
3. In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, ginger ad garlic, garam masala, chilli and salt. Pour this over the onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
4. Add the fish fillets to the sauce and cook for a further 2 minutes. Serve garnished with the cilantro and accompanied by lightly steamed veg (and rice if required).

Nutritional info per portion
Note: this is taken from the book – I don’t know if they’ve included the beans in the calculation. They did not give protein breakdown so I have calculated that by hand.

Energy	170 Kcals/715 KJ
Total fat	4.32 g
Saturated fat	0.79 g
Carbohydrate	7.67 g
Fibre	1.00 g
Protein	25 g

Why did nobody tell me I’d get strong??

Remember my new super duper higher weight dumbbells that go up to 22kg…Well I am less than halfway through month 2 of the training plan in Body Fat Solution, lifting in the hypertrophy range, and I already up to 16kg on some exercises. I thought these weights would last me months! I’m going to have to invest in a barbell for leg exercises – squats, dead lifts, calf raises etc. Even on the bench press I’m up to 14 kg per hand. I have seen a fantastic bench, but I was hoping to have a few months respite before I had to shell out more money.

Is this cool or what? A bench plus squat station with a lat pull down attachment (and a preacher curl attachment, and a leg curl/extension attachment). They actually do a newer one now (York 540) that allows the bench to decline, which this one doesn’t but I couldn’t find a pic of it with the lat attachment, which you have to buy separately on that model. I have seen the bench (without lat attachment) for £120 but it’s another £40-odd for the attachment, which I don’t need yet, so that could wait till I switch programmes, and of course, that’s before buying the bars and the weights! So will keep an eye out on ebay and keep my fingers crossed.