Don't Use Phones During Training

"Don't use phones during training" - Charles Poliquin.

Many people are now starting to speak of this, but like many topics, Charles was way ahead of his time explaining the reasons as to why you shouldn't use your phone during training.

Don’t use your phone while you train. If you keep your phone in your pocket or in contact with your body while you train to listen to music then you could be lowering your androgens by as much as 31%. You do not want to be making 31% less testosterone. Most of us are already deficient so you want to optimize this as much as possible.

Close contact with your phone all day is bad for you anyway not just while you train, so you should try to limit the amount of time you spend on that device.

In Finland, where Nokia comes from, they have the most brain cancer in the world due to their use of mobile phones. There is a direct correlation between the time you spend beside your mobile phone and cancer.

Do not sleep with it next to your head. Put it on flight mode if you use it for an alarm and put it as far away from you as possible.

Another problem with phones is that the constant looking for updates, messages, likes or comments depletes your dopamine. Well, to lift big weights you need dopamine, so checking your phone constantly means you are wasting the most important neurotransmitter for neural drive.

Mobile phones are a training killer. You should stay away from them.

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3 Things for Continual Progress in the Gym

Here are 3 more tips from the great Charles Poliquin on how to make continual progress in the gym.

3 Things for Continual Progress in the Gym

Tip 1 – never increase the quantity of training at the expense of quality

Some days your strength may be up but your work capacity is down. Don’t drop the intensity, drop the volume. For example, let’s say you did bench and got 100kg x 5 reps for all 5 sets on Monday. Then on Thursday you do the same workout and do 100kg x 5 reps for 2 sets, then the third set you only get 1 rep. Stop there, no garbage sets.

It won’t do you any good to lower the weight and then proceed for the next two sets. It will just tap into your recovery and make the next session a struggle as well.

Tip 2 – 2% rule of progress

You should be able to add 2% more to the bar or add an extra rep every workout. If you are unable to do this then you are not recovering properly between workouts. It could be from not sleeping well, not eating enough, eating poor quality foods, spending too much time in front of screens, to name a few things.

So if you squat 100kg for 5 reps in workout one then in the next workout you should be able to squat 102kg for 5 reps or 100kg for 6 reps. This is why it is important to record all your weights and reps correctly so we can monitor your progress and use the correct loads.

Tip 3 – you have to take the time to lay the foundation

Be patient and take your time getting strong. Everyone who decides they need to get stronger wants it immediately. This is not the way to go about it and will often lead to stagnation and injury. You are better off bringing up your weak points and then progressing from there. We do this in your programs but for those of you on distance programs the next thing is to ensure you have perfect technique on each rep and don’t “cheat” do lift a load that you aren’t capable of doing with correct technique. You want to work to technical failure not absolute failure.

Getting strong takes many years of consistent hard work. It isn’t something that will happen in 12 weeks. Sure you will improve from your starting point but to get really strong takes a long time.

A Hidden Cause of Bench Press Shoulder Injuries

Watson Dumbbells

A hidden cause of bench press shoulder injuries is actually a weakness of the long head of the biceps.

The long head of the biceps is stressed more when the elbow joint is behind the upper body as they are when doing incline curls.

If you have strengthened your rotator cuff and external rotators, and have addressed muscle adhesions etc, but still experience some pain in the bench press, then you should check your numbers on incline curls and see if your weights match the norms for your bench.

I hope this quick tip helps.

If you want your programs designed to address your individual needs feel free to reach out. https://www.totalhealthperformance.com.au/onlinecoaching

If you need some work on addressing muscle adhesions feel free to book in for a performance session. https://www.totalhealthperformance.com.au/performancesession