Last Friday I talked about the mind-muscle connection, and how if we think about a specific muscle working, we can in fact increase its activation and the amount of force or effort it’s exerting on a load.

Today, I want to talk about how we can spark this link from mind to muscle and establish this all important connection.

It’s no secret; people who are new to training tend to have a poor biomechanical feedback mechanism, meaning they find it difficult to feel a muscle when exercising it. As their training age progresses, so too does their ability to engage the right muscle for the exercise.

In all the years I’ve been a personal trainer I’ve (typically) found the muscles we’re unable to see i.e. our glutes, lats, upper back and hamstrings, tend to be harder to feel and engage compared to those that we can see, such as the biceps, quads, abs and shoulders.

So, how can we teach people to start engaging their muscles and to improve their mind-muscle connection?

Well there are two tricks we can use,

1.Internal and External Cues
2.Touch

all of which have proved to be very beneficial. But today I want to talk about internal and external cues.

Cues can typically be categorised into those that have an internal or an external focus. Internal cues are instructions that direct a person’s attention towards a part of their body, such as muscles and joints. External cues have a more external focus, instructing a person to focus their attention on their surroundings, outside of the body. These are generally used when the goal is to produce power or increase performance.

Generally speaking internal cues help to:

• maximise muscle contraction
• maximise muscle activation
• improve technical form

whereas external cues help to:

• maximise strength
• maximise power, speed, velocity and acceleration
• maximise precision and coordination
External cues have been shown to be far superior to internal cues for maximising performance (Bredin, Dickson & Warburton 2013). If you’re an athlete or competitive sportsman/woman then focusing mainly on external cuing would certainly be the way to go however, we’re not athletes (well, I’m certainly not).

Most of us are simply looking to be able to effectively activate certain muscles in the right order, at the right time –  cue internal cueing.

For years, bodybuilders have been implementing the use of internal cues to help improve the mind-muscle connection. Research has shown by directing your attention and focus internally to a muscle or joint you can increase a muscle’s engagement and the level of contraction (Snyder & Fry. 2001).

Here at Hall Training, we often provide internal cues to our clients to help them to feel and engage certain muscles.

Here are just a few we like to use:
The Lats:
When performing a lat pulldown, we encourage the client to keep their chest up and imagine driving their shoulder blades back and down into their hips, leading with the elbows –  internal verbal cues help to increase latissimus dorsi activity compared with no cue (Snyder 2009).
The Glutes:
For glute engagement, we encourage the client to imagine they’re trying to crack a walnut when coming up into hip extension, or to imagine they have a five pound note between their buttocks which they’re trying desperately to keep a hold of – both cues really help to keep the glutes squeezed and muscles contacted. Researchers have reported providing internal cues during a hip extension led to increased muscle contraction (Lewis et al. 2009).
The Pecs:
When performing a bench press, it’s common for most people to feel it in their triceps or shoulders rather than the muscle they’re trying to work, which would be the chest. By instructing the client to push their hands together against the bar as they push upwards,  along with imagining the two elbows coming together in an arch motion, it’ll make the exercise more focused on the chest muscles.

Research has also concluded that in response to chest cues, subjects were able to increase the amount of activity (22% increase) placed through the chest muscles during the bench press (Snyder & Fry. 2011).
The Biceps:
For men this is never really an issue, but females tend to have a hard time contracting their biceps. Why? I have no idea, maybe because they’re not as vain as us men! Anyway, one trick we use is to imagine the elbow coming up to meet with the shoulder when performing a bicep curl, and then really squeezing it at the top like a balloon, imagining you’re trying to pop it – these internal focuses help to increase bicep activation and recruitment.

So, there you have it; a few little tricks to help bridge the connection between mind and muscle. The next time you go to the gym, try directing your attention away from what’s around you and start thinking about what’s going on inside you… you never know, it may just help you to feel muscles you never knew existed.

This month our level 4 trainer, Pete reviews the latest fitness and nutrition research from July. This month, Pete looks into how much protein you need to build muscle strength and size – more isn’t necessarily better. Can caffeine actually make us stronger… and how a simple trick can increase the recruitment of your glutes in a squat.

So pop the kettle on, sit back and enjoy!

1. Periodising your training will make you stronger
OK, so here’s something some of you may have been wondering. Is it actually worth getting a proper periodised training programme from a personal trainer instead of just rocking up to the gym and doing a workout? Well, this month Williams et.al conducted a meta-analysis (a study which examines the results of lots of different studies) looking at whether periodised models elicited a greater increase in maximal strength as opposed to non-periodised methods. And the answer is . . . yes they do! The results of multiple studies corroborate the findings that periodisation of programming saw a greater benefit for maximal strength in upper body and lower body multi-joint movements.
I was very happy to read that all the time we spend writing out weeks of programme cycles for clients will be helping them to achieve their results faster.

2. Protein supplements will help your gains
The easiest way to think of this second study is as the daddy of studies into protein supplementation! It is another meta-analysis that took data from 49 studies and evaluated the results in order to ascertain the:

“effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults”.
Clearly, with so many studies included in the analysis, there was a great deal of variation with regard to the subjects that were used; there were a few studies who used trained individuals but the majority of the interventions were carried out on un-trained subjects. All of the studies had the subjects training ≥ 2 times per week, and lasted for between 4-52 weeks. The majority of the studies supplemented with whey protein but soy, casein, pea, milk, whole foods and protein blends were also used. It is also important to note that although the protein intake was increased the total daily energy intake did not increase.
The meta-analysis revealed that:

 “protein supplementation increased 1RM strength (by 2.49kg), fat-free mass (by 0.30kg), muscle fiber cross-sectional area (by 310μm2) and mid-thigh muscle cross-sectional area (by 7.2mm2).”

What these numbers show is that adding supplemental protein will aid with both size and strength.

The type of protein did not seem to have a significant effect on the results, and it’s also interesting to note that there did not appear to be any benefit of increasing protein above 1.6g per kg of bodyweight every day.

3. Will caffeine make me strong?
When you read this title I’m sure that many of you are thinking “please say yes!!”. Caffeine has been studied lots regarding endurance, but not as extensively when it comes to maximum strength. This month we had a study that looked into precisely that, and what’s even more exciting is that the subjects of the study were trained individuals (as often studies will be done with untrained individuals).
In summary, the results showed that ingesting caffeine had an acute impact on maximum lower body strength and on maximum upper body high-velocity strength. It was surprising that there appeared to be no reason as to why maximal lower body strength was increased but the same was not true about maximal upper body strength.
For those of you who are keen to pop this bit of info into practise, the numbers used in the study were 6mg of caffeine per kg bodyweight and it was ingested 1 hour prior to training.

4. Should we ban(d) squats to target the glutes?
Sorry for the teasing title and for getting a few hopes raised the research had shown that everybody should stop squatting immediately! Unfortunately not, this piece of research is actually about what we can do to get more bang for our buck from the squat. The aim was to find out whether popping a band around the upper thighs would increase glute activation, and to see if it would have any effect on the number of reps that could be performed at a given weight.
Interestingly, the only effect that was seen through adding a band was that EMG for the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius were increased for both the eccentric and concentric phases of the squat. EMG amplitudes for the bicep femoris and vastus lateralis were unchanged when the band was added. There was also no change in the amount of reps that could be performed at either 80% or 60% of 1 rep max.
All in all, if you have a resistance band and you’re looking to get a bit more glute work into your training, try popping it around your thighs when squatting and it will make the glutes work harder without negatively affecting other muscles.

5. Train quicker to get faster
Here’s an interesting one with slightly surprising results! This final piece of research was designed to compare the effects of different forms of hamstring training on strength, activation and sprint performance. Some of the subjects carried out low volume training with a heavy load but low velocity while others used a resistance band at high velocity. As you would expect, the heavy load training increased 1 rep max strength on the leg curl while there was no difference in the banded group. However, when sprint times were measured both from a static and a flying start, the banded group improved on both, while the subjects using the heavy load saw no improvement. High-velocity training seems to have a better transfer to high velocity athletic activity. If you want to be quick then train quick!

References
1. Williams, T. D., Tolusso, D. V., Fedewa, M. V., & Esco, M. R. (2017) Comparison of Periodized and Non-Periodized Resistance Training on Maximal Strength: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine.
2. Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2017) A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training- induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine.
3. Grgic, J., & Mikulic, P. (2017) Caffeine ingestion acutely enhances muscular strength and power but not muscular endurance in resistance-trained men. European Journal of Sport Science, 1.
4. Spracklin, O. F., Button, D. C., & Halperin, I. (2017)  Looped Band Placed Around Thighs Increases EMG of Gluteal Muscles Without Hindering Performance During Squatting. Journal of Performance Health Research.
5. Janusevicius, D., Snieckus, A., Skurvydas, A., Silinskas, V., Trinkunas, E., Cadefau, J. A., & Kamandulis, S. (2017). Effects of High Velocity Elastic Band versus Heavy Resistance Training on Hamstring Strength, Activation, and Sprint Running Performance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 

Many personal trainers, coaches and gym-goers seem to think that if you a lift a weight from A-to-B, the muscles involved in that lift will be activated, while others (more sensible folk) believe a muscle is only really activated in a lift when you’re thinking about it – this is known as the mind-muscle connection.

So who’s right, and do we really need to be thinking about the muscle we’re trying to work, or can we afford to let our mind wander elsewhere?

Well, the research on this topic is limited and mostly anecdotal, however I’ve managed to dig up a few studies that can shine some light on the topic.

The largest study I found was by glute expert, Bret Contreras. He took a group of subjects and using EMG data, found whether the load, cadence, and form dictated muscle activation, or whether it’s possible to mentally steer muscle activation to individual muscles using the power of the mind.

It’s very important to note that the load, speed, grip-widths, stances, bar movements and joint ranges of motion were all kept constant between the two groups as otherwise these factors would ultimately sway the outcome.

The results are somewhat surprising! There’s certainly evidence to support that the mind-muscle connection does in fact exist, but only for certain muscles:

(source: t-nation.com)

The glutes seem to have the greatest influence of recruitment, with a 32% difference in recruitment when thinking about them working to not working. During a back extension, muscle activation only reached 6% when subjects weren’t thinking about them compared to a staggering 38% when they were actively thinking about them. Overall, glute activation was a lot higher when subjects were really thinking about them working during hip extension exercises such as RDL’s hip thrusts, squats and back extensions.

Other muscles that were found to respond well to the mind-muscle link were the pecs and the triceps; focusing on the pecs while pressing limited the work the triceps had to do, placing more load through the pecs. This was easier to do when performing a push up rather than a bench press.

For puling muscles such as the back, mid-traps and the biceps it was really dependant on the movement being performed at the time. Lat activation didn’t change too much during a chin up, but they really came into play when thinking about them during an inverted row.

On the whole there is evidence to suggest there is a mind-muscle connection, and we should really think about muscles working if we want to improve the amount of work they’re contributing in a lift. However, there are a few other things to bear in mind:

1. The amount of weight being used – steering your thoughts to a muscle when using lighter weights seems to a lot easier to do than when lifting heavy weights (Snyder & Fry 2012), this may be why the push up trumped the bench press.

2. How experienced you are – as with anything, practice makes perfect. Typically, people who are new to training tend to have a poor bio-mechanical feedback, meaning they struggle to feel muscles working when performing an exercise. As your experience in the gym grows, so will your ability to start thinking and contracting your muscles during certain movements. This should then lead to better progression and recruitment! (Moreside JM et al. 2008)(Sumiaki Maeo, Takumi Takahashi et al. 2014). 

So there you have, and I personally believe the mind-muscle connection does exist as we see it day in and day out with our clients too. A great way I explain this to clients is to look at the connection like revising for an exam:

When you revise for an exam, it’s one thing reading the information you need to learn, but just because you’ve quickly read it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve understood it or will even able to recite it. However, if you think about what you’re reading and really visualise it, then you’ll have a much greater understanding and retention rate – muscles are no different. Think about the muscle you’re trying to work and really hone in on it. I guarantee it’ll add a whole new dimension on to your training.

Next week I’ll be talking about how you can create this link between mind and muscle.

From eccentric and concentric training, to blood flow restriction and hamstring training, June’s fitness research has covered it all. Our level 4 trainer George has sifted through it all to bring you some gems you can apply to your own training straight away – enjoy!

1. Eccentric training beats concentric training – over a long time period
A recent meta-analysis study – which is the epitome of all studies and one we should definitely listen to – showed that with equal volume, eccentric-only training produced marginally greater increases than concentric-only training. Now, although the increase was relatively small, it would make sense that over time (I’m talking years) we’d likely see an exponential gap form between the two different methods.

As muscles are able to contract against more load during the eccentric, with less energy expenditure for an equal amount of mechanical tension (volume load), the eccentric proves to be of definite importance to any workout – especially hypertrophy and strength programs.

So what should you do with this information? Well, I’m certainly not advising removing concentric contractions. Both eccentric and concentric are essential elements in your training routine. They’re not even different methods, they’re just the two different phases of a rep, so make sure your training covers both. After all, it’s not likely that you’d ever perform just eccentric reps without the concentric – deadlifts would be off the cards!

2. The jury’s out on making bloodflow restriction comfortable
If you’ve ever done blood-flow-restriction (BFR) you’ll be able to recall how uncomfortable it can get! Can we get around this by applying the wraps post exercise, instead of during the set? Typically, wraps would be applied throughout the set to prevent the build-up of metabolites within the muscle from clearing, and then be kept on for an additional 60 seconds post-set.

A recent study tested out completing normal sets, then applying wraps for 5 minutes after the set (instead of while the contractions were taking place), against the same protocol but without post-set wrapping. Results showed that very similar outcomes were found across both groups.

From this study, it was concluded that the accumulation of metabolites isn’t the cause of an increase in muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), but that the BFR causes an increase in motor unit recruitment and that’s why an increased muscle CSA would occur. Taking this, and my previous point into account, seems that an increase in metabolites hasn’t been considered as a potential cause of increased CSA. As the wraps weren’t applied throughout the sets, I’d say that only applying the wrap at the end of the set would likely have allowed much of the metabolic waste to clear. After all, muscles don’t want to be full of metabolic waste, they want to get rid of it as fast as possible and are constantly flushing out that contractile by-product. They won’t be waiting until the last rep has been completed to begin this process.

There we are; as it stands the jury is still out on the exact BFR method to use.

3. Drop sets are best for size, multiple sets are best for strength
I have no idea who came up with the drop set phenomenon but it sure was a great idea, especially as it was likely done out of pure intuition and not backed by science! Numerous studies have shown the benefits of drop sets on muscle size, and here’s the freshest member to the club.

With total load lifted being evenly matched across two different groups, the drop set group increased overall muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) by 10%, beating the 5% in the normal, multiple set group. Although the difference seems minimal, again, added up overtime this could lead to the difference between 15” & 20” pythons!

But what about rep strength instead of size? Even though in this study, drop sets proved to increase muscle CSA by an extra 5% and indicators of fatigue were higher, rep strength didn’t increase. However, in the multiple set group it did. It’s likely that a huge component of this increase would be via metabolic stress (one of the primary mechanisms of hypertrophy) due to increased metabolite build-up within the muscle during the exercise. This decrease causes lower threshold fibres to work and at a higher number of reps, resulting in greater metabolic stress.

Mechanical tension still plays a huge role as another mechanism of hypertrophy and should be varied within your training programme using a phased approach – cycling between mechanical tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress.

Because the multiple set group completed the same total load using higher threshold fibres, greater mechanical tension would have been created therefore a greater increase in strength was observed.

4. The Nail in The Coffin for No Knee Over Toes? Finally!
I’d like to think that this old cliché is dying out and hope that June’s latest study will put it to bed for good. This study pitted ‘knees over the toes’ against its rival ‘knees not-over the toes’ – I guess you’d call it?

I’m not sure whether this study was designed to describe the sheer force created by a knee over the toe approach, but please bear in mind that ‘joint stress’ isn’t a bad thing at all. I’m sure if we exchanged it for ‘joint torque’, some heads would sure turn as it sounds much more conducive to strength and hypertrophy results. Torque is all we’re ever creating around joints when we lift something – from cup of tea to max effort squat – even though the torque values do vary greatly!

All in all, less knee flexion was shown to produce less joint torque (shocker). However, taking the squat for example, you might be able to squat 100kg by flexing to 100^o of knee flexion, and 120kg by flexing to only 80^o but you added load to the ‘shallower’ squat and would have most definitely still increased joint stress.

Throughout a training program less knee flexion would likely show decreased gains in the quadriceps’ strength and size due to reduced torque, and subsequent muscle stress throughout its entire contractile range.

Anyway, knees over toes is about as arbitrary a measurement I think you could find.

Assuming that the elbow is effectively the knee of the upper body – why haven’t we created an “elbow must not flex further than the hand” movement? Not so crazy, right? I’d like to add that nowhere in this study were exploding patella’s noted during any of the lifts.

5. Curl away for solid hamstrings!
No, unfortunately not bicep curls but Nordic Curls, an old-school hamstring exercise. Along the lines of our founder – Chris’s post in our Facebook Community page – one recent piece of research investigated the effect of eccentric hamstring training on total hamstring strength using two primary exercises, Nordic Curls and the Russian Belt.

Hamstring strain is common in many sports – especially football – and something we want to prevent, hence the need for building rock-solid hamstrings!

Eccentric loading alone of the hamstrings using Nordic Curls and Russian Belt exercises was shown to increase hamstring strength but interestingly, only the Nordic Curl seemed to improve asymmetrical imbalance between legs.

Most Personal Trainers will focus on the hamstrings’ function during hip extension and knee flexion, thinking only about the concentric phase. It’s important to remember their role in the opposite direction, when the hip is flexing and knee extending – acting as stabilizers of those joints. The hamstrings and calves work synergistically to provide stability across the knee, and therefore act like a force decelerator as the foot strikes the floor. Without this you’d have to kiss goodbye to your poor knees!

The biggest takeaway is that both exercises are eccentric loading exercises, therefore a protocol of eccentrically overloaded prone lying leg curls should display the same result. Muscles only response to muscle tension, they’re unaware of the actual exercise performed.

There we have it – curl away for immense hamstrings!

References:
1. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., Vigotsky, A. D., Franchi, M. & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Hypertrophic effects of concentric versus eccentric muscle actions: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research
2. Madarame, H., Nakada, S., Ohta, T., & Ishii, N. (2017). Postexercise blood flow restriction does not enhance muscle hypertrophy induced by multiple‐set high‐load resistance exercise. Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging.
3. Fink, J., Schoenfeld, B. J., Kikuchi, N., & Nakazato, K. (2017). Effects of drop set resistance training on acute stress indicators and long-term muscle hypertrophy and strength. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.
4. Kernozek, T. W., Gheidi, N., Zellmer, M., Hove, J., Heinert, B. L., & Torry, M. R. (2017). Effects of Anterior Knee Displacement during Squatting on Patellofemoral Joint Stress. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation.
5. Rey, E., Paz-domínguez, Á., Porcel-almendral, D., Paredes- hernández, V., Barcala-furelos, R., & Abelairas-gómez, C. Effects of a 10-week Nordic Hamstring Exercise and Russian Belt Training on Posterior Lower Limb Muscle Strength in Elite Junior Soccer Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

In April, I took another trip to Ben Pakulski’s Mi40 Gym in Florida. Mi40 is a world-famous facility specialising in hypertrophy, and I went specifically to increase my knowledge of exercise execution, selection and unsurprisingly push some mental boundaries when it comes to effort in the process.

I want to share a few thoughts about maximising hypertrophy gains that rubbed off on me during my trip, and the top three mistakes people make when it comes to hypertrophy training. Although there are loads of studies and theories about the best way to do this, it’s pretty hard to argue with some of the most mammoth human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Their theories must work, right? There’s always a perfect blend of science and application, and these guys have nailed it.

There are a few main points I want to cover in this blog post. Firstly, all the personal trainers at Mi40 are sticklers for technique. Now, I’m not talking about your typical “bar must touch the chest on bench press” kind of form; it’s a totally different level of technique critique!

Secondly, none of the exercises they use are special in any way; they are simply variations of basic exercises most gym-goers will have in their exercise library. All variation is done intelligently, with a proper thought process, as opposed to variation for variation’s sake, which is something we see far too often from some personal trainers!

Lastly, knowing how to apply focused effort is key to maximising your hypertrophy gains. I say ‘how’ because it seems there isn’t an inherent lack of work being done by most gym-goers, but the focus is often misdirected.

Mistake 1: Putting Periodisation Before Exercise Execution

The importance of exercise execution in training for hypertrophy that has been somewhat neglected by many in the fitness industry lately due to the arrival of the new kid on the block – periodisation.

Bold statement alert. There’s been a lot of discussion in the personal training industry recently about periodisation, and why it is the most important element of hypertrophy training. While there is definitely serious merit to a phased approach to training in everyone’s programme, it shouldn’t be made the determining factor of whether a programme is great or not. Linear, wave or pyramid – I don’t care! Put simply, each and every one of these are methods of altering total workload (volume) across a period of time.

If you ever hear claims of the perfect programme, please turn away from the personal trainer in question, and re-read this blog post. Essentially, you could have the most perfectly periodised training programme known to man, but I can guarantee that if your execution is off, you just might as well throw that plan in the bin!

Before you address periodisation; focusing on executing exercises correctly, and maintaining that perfect execution throughout your entire workout is unbelievably important. If you aim for perfection with each rep, you’ll be open to a greater margin for error within your training, allowing for greater hypertrophy gains.

Mistake 2: Random Exercise Selection

The second element is exercise selection. This is where things get interesting and seemingly unconventional. When it comes to hypertrophy:

• Yes – Free-weight exercises can be great exercises
• Yes – You’ll likely get bigger arms doing barbell skull crushers
• Yes – Chin-ups can build you a bigger back

However, the above exercises may not be your best options for maximum hypertrophy. Stick with me here. By being clever with our exercise selection, we can design more efficient and far superior workouts. Please put aside all prejudices about your favourite exercises and read the following statement carefully.

Essentially, the most effective exercise for a given muscle is one that has the ability to perfectly match the output capability of that muscle throughout its entire range of motion.

And to those who think we’re overcomplicating things here and reply – “But people have been getting big and strong by doing compound basics for years!” – Correct, they have. But, what if we never progressed our thinking? What if we still assumed that pigeon post was the most effective way of getting a message out? I have no idea how many pigeons I’d have to send in order for you all to read this…

There’s an entire plethora of fancy adaptations you can make to achieve a more optimal exercise resistance profile such as employing resistance bands, heavy chains & varying cable angles. Although throwing a resistance band on something may get you more looks in the gym it doesn’t always make the exercise more beneficial, in fact it could be making it worse! They must be used in the right way when it comes to hypertrophy, taking a lottery approach to your exercise selection isn’t likely to get you far. I’ll be doing another blog post on selecting optimal exercises shortly – keep your eyes peeled!

Mistake 3: Misplacing Your Efforts

So, effective execution and the correct exercise selection are crucial to a good hypertrophy programme, or workout. But we’re missing the third key ingredient – good old fashioned hard work.

We need all three elements – execution, selection and effort – present in order to elicit a maximal training response. In fact, we need execution and selection in place first to even qualify to use effort!

You see, most people complete 200% workouts using 50% reps, meaning they go mad for an hour with a tonne of unnecessary sets and flamboyant zero-resistance exercises. I’ll go all in and say that if we focused a little more on selecting more efficient exercises and squeezing the last drop out of every inch of each rep, you could easily cut your training volume and gym time in half. You’d even have more time for changing room selfies!

Look around, judging by the screwed-up faces and endless grunting, it’s not a lack of intensity that’s holding you back. I see 10/10 for effort but a modest 2 for concentrated focus and effort. Actual effort is what counts, it doesn’t matter how much effort it looks like you’re putting in.

The goal isn’t to “win” the workout. The goal is to progress, and enjoy yourself along the way. If you can get that done more effectively & in less time, then it would be foolish not to. Let’s be honest, nobody relishes in the thought of ten sets of Back Squats!

Please come back and tune in soon, when I’m going to lift the veil on ‘the 5 Factors of Optimal Exercise Selection.’

Hall Training Systems has rebranded to Hall Personal Training, and today unveiled its new logo, tagline and website to support its evolution over the last year.

The underlying ethos of the brand remains the same: we are still committed to providing the very best service to our clients, going above and beyond other personal trainers in Oxford. We are still committed to achieving results through science, but we blend the most up to date health and fitness theory with our years of industry experience, ensuring the best approach for each client as an individual. Finally, we still take a ‘systemised’ approach. Now this doesn’t mean cookie cutter programmes or nutrition – that is completely against what we stand for! For each individual we do everything from scratch, based on your individual goals, exercise history and the time available. But it means we have tools and systems that we know work, and processes we can employ to make sure our results are among the best in the industry, let alone in Oxford.

So, why the rebrand?

Well, when it was founded, Hall Training Systems was the brainchild of our founder, Chris. He loves practical application and science and information, and treating clients as individuals – and the old brand reflected that. But since then, the company has grown, and we now work with an amazing, hand-picked team of personal trainers across Oxford. When we got together to decide what makes us us and sets us apart, our truly personal approach for each individual client shone through. So we wanted to put the personal back into personal training, and back into our brand. We’ve kept the good of the old Hall Training, and made it better.

Now for the strapline…

“Results through science” has been replaced with “Stronger. Healthier. Happier.” Results through science is what we focus on as professionals, but it’s not why our clients come to us. We spoke to our awesome community and asked them to summarise why they wanted a personal trainer in the first place, and most importantly, what we’ve helped them achieve. Being stronger, healthier and happier people was the unanimous feedback we received, and what we, as a team, want our clients to feel when they work with us. From the comments that came back to us, it looks like we’re getting it right!
Finally, you’ll notice we have a shiny new website! We owe our thanks to the fantastic team at Rare Form New Media in Oxford for their help with this. We wanted something that reflected our vision for our clients, our ethos as a team (friendly and approachable, down to earth, but damn good at our jobs), and the fact that we work with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. Hopefully you agree that this is what we now have. We hope you enjoy exploring it!

Another month, another deluge of health and fitness research. Our level three trainer, Tobi, has looked at five things we’ve learned in April so you can incorporate them into your training programme straight away! From stretching for endurance athletes, to protein supplements for recovery, he’s got it covered.

1. Stretching may not be important for endurance runners
You’re probably reading this and thinking “surely it is?”. Well a study by Baxter et al (2016), looked into the short and long term effects of stretching on running. Acute stretching of more than 45 seconds is known to cause a reduction of force production, which impacts running economy (tool tip: the body’s ability to convert energy via metabolism into kinetic energy). They also concluded that stretching has no impact on reducing delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) which is the soreness that you may get up to 72 hours after exercising.

This study was limited as it was a narrative of the authors’ opinions, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it helps or not. At Hall Personal Training we always recommend dynamic stretching and movement before exercising.

2. Stretching before a strength training programme decreases the total volume that can be performed
A second stretching study looked at the effects of stretching vs. not stretching before a session using the legs. During a 10-week training programme, in weeks one to five it was noticed that the leg which didn’t perform the strength was able to handle more repetitions (17.8%) and a higher total training volume (20.9%), than the one that did. Similar results were seen during weeks six to ten. In the same study, strength gains weren’t massively different between the groups (12.7-12.9%).

The take home from this is that if you’re looking to improve strength and volume, stretching may not be the way to go. Instead, try performing warm up sets of an exercise.

3. Inhaling ammonia does not increase your deadlift 1RM
As the title suggests, this is just not the case (sorry for those you who do this!). Virgil et al (2017) used 10 males and 10 females with over two years of strength training experience, and assigned them to either an ammonia smelling group or a control group (smelling water). 1RM deadlift for both sexes did not increase when smelling either the ammonia or the water. Knowing this, it may be time to put away the smelling salts.

4. The structure of the forefoot bone may determine your sprinting performance
Tanaka et al (2017) measured the forefeet of 38 sprinters, who were separated into trained and untrained groups. The study concluded that structure of the forefoot bones is a determinant of sprinting performance; the first and second toes of sprinters are longer than non-sprinters, and the length of the forefoot bone of the 2^nd toe is linked with faster 100m times. Other factors may play a role in sprint performance but this is useful information to determine if you’re going to be a fast runner.

5. Protein supplementation may not enhance recovery for concurrent training
Protein supplementation during concurrent training (resistance and endurance training) showed no signs of reducing exercise induced muscle damage (EIMD). One study looked into this by giving subjects two supplements per day as soon as EIMD occurred. Subjects were given either 20g whey protein hydrolysate, an isocaloric carbohydrate, or a low-calorie placebo supplement in 500ml of liquid. The results did not affect any of the markers. However, the subjects were well trained cyclists. The study may yield different results for other populations.

But recovery isn’t the only reason we take protein – it’s the fundamental element of a healthy diet, and is crucial for body composition. For more information I advise you to download our handy protein booklet.

References:
1. Baxter, C., Mc Naughton, L. R., Sparks, A., Norton, L., & Bentley, D. (2016). Impact of stretching on the performance and injury risk of long-distance runners. Research in Sports Medicine, 1-13.

2. Junior, R. M., Berton, R., de Souza, T. M. F., Chacon-Mikahil, M. P. T., & Cavaglieri, C. R. (2017). Effect of the flexibility training performed immediately before resistance training on muscle hypertrophy, maximum strength and flexibility. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 1-8

3. Vigil, J. N., Sabatini, P. L., Hill, L. C., Swain, D. P., & Branch, J. D. (2017). Ammonia inhalation does not increase dead lift one-repetition maximum in college-aged male and female weightlifters. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research

4. Tanaka, T., Suga, T., Ohtsuka, M., Misaki, J., Miyake, Y., Kudo, S., & Isaka, T. (2017). Relationship between the length of the forefoot bones and performance in male sprinters. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sport

5. Eddens, L., Browne, S., Stevenson, E. J., Sanderson, B., van Someren, K., & Howatson, G. (2017). The efficacy of protein supplementation during recovery from muscledamaging concurrent exercise. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, (ja).

1. Community can help you improve your fitness results
Now hold on to the edge of your seats, because this study is super interesting.

A research team out in Southwest USA have taken note of the surge in the semi-private fitness training model, and have come out with a really neat study examining its potential benefits over conventional 1-2-1 sessions.

Participating members were split up into groups of 5, and while they did warm up together, they each ran through an individualised programme as part of the session.

Interestingly, the results that fed back through an online survey suggested that self-exercise motivation, exercise efficacy and self-reported health and wellbeing all rose; each of which feed into the core fundamentals of self-determination theory (which is awesome).

The best bit? All study participants came from varying age ranges, had differing physical capabilities and were mismatched in the length they had been training.

So, should you share a personal trainer or seek our a community like our private group? It certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea…Did I hear someone say “Hall Training bootcamp?”
2. Your training should change with your age
Looks like all those bajillion different articles across the internet on ‘training for your age’ may be of some relevance after all.

A recent study examining the impact of a 12-week concurrent high intensity interval strength and endurance programme in healthy older adults, yielding some surprising results. The group that partook in the more rigorous, higher intensity exercise saw greater improvements in body composition, muscle strength, mobility and balance.

But isn’t that expected?

The interesting thing is, this was despite a reduction in overall training volume to the low-moderate group!

Take home note? If you’re worried that your life number may be impacting your ability to train hard, you’re mistaken. Try out some shorter, more intense sessions and your body might just thank you for it!
3. Want a more stable squat? Take a breath.
Looking to maximise your squatting stability? Do your body a favour, and leave the bosu ball alone.

Rather, focus on rhythmic bracing and breathing. Far cheaper, far more effective, far less likely that you’ll lose balance and faceplant the floor. All good things.

A recent study examining the efficiency of Pilates-based breathing and squatting identified increased muscular activity in the rectus, bicep femoris (hamstring) and tibialis anterior (lower leg) when squatting was performed in conjunction with Pilates-based breathing; increasing stability during the movement.

Want to get more stable in your squat? Try Pilates.
4. Oxygenated Water, Fad or Fab?
If you’re anything like me, when oxygenated water hit the shelves, you were sceptical at the very least. I’ve been around the block enough times to roll my eyes when the next super-duper, colourfully marketed, tea detox is thrust my way!

So, Oxygenated water? What even….

Turns out, the guys down at JISSN (journal of the international society of sports nutrition) thought the same when they published a recent study examining the ingestion of oxygenated water in long distance runners.
Incredibly, whilst running performance nor lactate kinetics saw any improvement, lactate clearing was enhanced post-exercising, leading to a reduced recovery period.

More research certainly needs to be looked at in this rather new area, but if you’re a long distance runner, get a little bit sore after training and are looking to optimize your post-training recovery protocol; it might be worth chugging a bottle of the ol’ water air.

5. Fancy foot, everyday foot, barefoot; what shoe should we wear while running? 
Running is one of the most popular sports out there. There’s no two ways about it. It has an incredibly low barrier to entry, and at the basic level requires no learnt skill acquisition/training.

It’s no surprise then, that a whole market has emerged around the key instrument in every runner’s arsenal – the foot.

In depth analysis of running gait. Adjustments to over-pronation. Specialist prescribed shoe soles.

The amount of fancy specifications for one singular body part is really quite remarkable. So much so that there’s even been a movement backwards away from hi-tech equipment and back to how mother nature intended it. Barefoot running.

But which is optimal when it comes to running economy?

A recent study down in Tennessee sought to compare the differences in step frequency and running economy between normal shoes, running shoes and no shoes.

Looks like we’ll finally get our answer….

Yet, rather underwhelmingly, the study showed no significant differences in running economy between either of the footwear conditions, although step frequency did increase ever so slightly for the barefoot running group.

So, what type of footwear is best for running?

Unsurprisingly, whichever you feel most comfortable and confident in.

….and whichever look the best, of course!

References:
1. Wayment, Heidi A. Ph.D.; McDonald, Rachel BS. (March 2017). Sharing a Personal Trainer: Personal and Social Benefits of Individualized Small Group Training. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

2. García-Pinillos, Felipe; Laredo-Aguilera, José A; Muñoz-Jiménez, Marcos; Latorre-Román, Pedro A.. (March 2017). Effects of 12-week concurrent high-intensity interval strength and endurance training programme on physical performance in healthy older people. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

3. Barbosa, Alexandre C.; Martins, Fábio M.; Silva, Angélica F.; Coelho, Ana C.; Intelangelo, Leonardo; Vieira, Edgar R.. (March 2017). Activity of Lower Limb Muscles During Squat with and Without Abdominal Drawing-In and Pilates Breathing. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

4. Flemin, N., Vaughan, J., Feeback M.. (March 2017). Ingestion of oxygenated water enhances lactate clearance kinetics in trained runners. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

5. Cochrum, Robbie G.; Connors, Ryan T.; Coons, John M.; Fuller, Dana K.; Morgan, Don W.; Caputo, Jennifer L.. (March 2017). Comparison of Running Economy Values While Wearing No Shoes, Minimal Shoes, and Normal Running Shoes. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 31 (3), 595-601.

Alright, so as I’m sure you will have heard, sleep is damn important and most of us don’t get enough of it. At Hall Personal Training, we like to promote a healthy life all round, we’re not just about lifting heavy weights in the gym. So, I would like to give you all a few bits of information on why sleep is so important, and a few tips to try and improve our sleep in the 24-hour world we live in. As a personal trainer, I couldn’t let this opportunity go without looking at how it will impact performance in the gym either!

Why do we need sleep?
We need sleep for a number of different reasons. A key one is the release of hormones and chemicals that maintain homoeostasis (equilibrium of the body). It allows us to rest and recover our body as well as our mind. Our bodies function in patterns known as “circadian rhythms” (behavioural, physiological and biochemical rhythms) and the circadian rhythm for sleep is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (an area of the brain just behind the optic chasm also known as the “master clock”).

If we don’t get enough sleep, we are at risk of:

• Memory and cognitive impairments
• Decreased performance and alertness
• High Blood Pressure
• Heart attacks
• Heart failure
• Stroke
• Obesity
• Psychiatric problems, including depression and mood disorders
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Mental impairment
• Fetal and childhood growth retardation
• Poor quality of life

These are just a few of the problems, and issues will vary depending on the type of sleep deprivation, whether it is partial sleep deprivation, long term deprivation or short term deprivation. For example, it has been shown in numerous studies that partial sleep deprivation will have a much greater effect on mood than on cognitive or motor functions.

Will a lack of sleep make me put on weight?
A lack of sleep can also lead to weight gain or difficulty in losing weight. One reason for this is that a lack of sleep can lead to a reduction in Leptin (a hormone that makes us feel full) and an increase in Ghrelin (a hormone that makes us feel hungry) thus leading a person to eat more during the day. As well as this chemical stuff, we should also be aware of the psychological side effects that may lead to weight gain. We know that a lack of sleep can lead to increased stress levels, which can often lead to eating more as a coping mechanism. Also, most of us will be much less likely to drag ourselves to the gym when we’re feeling sleepy.

Can lack of sleep affect me gaining muscle?
Not getting enough sleep can also affect those of us who are looking to put on a bit of muscle mass. This is because sleep is when we get most of our muscle repair and it is also when we increase our production of Growth Hormone (GH). An insufficient amount of sleep will also lead to an increase in cortisol and a reduction in testosterone – all bad things if you’re looking to increase your lean muscle mass!
So how much sleep is enough sleep?
The right amount of sleep will vary from person to person, however, if you can get somewhere between 7-9 hours as an adult you won’t go far wrong.

Any tips on improving sleep?
The best tip for the majority of bad sleepers would be to take a break from electronic screens before bed. These screens produce blue light which our brains interpret in the same way as daylight. This prevents the release of melatonin, a hormone which helps send us to sleep. I’d also suggest that you should try and be in as strict a routine as possible with regards to bedtime and the time you get up. Like I said before, our bodies like rhythms and patterns. You’ll find the newer version of the iphone will have a ‘bedtime’ mode that when enabled will place an orange tint to the screen filtering out blue light.
Something we highly recommend to our clients is the desktop plug-in  – f.lux. It’s free to download and will filter out the blue screen light that emits from your laptop or computer; ideal for students and night owls.

References:
“Effects of sleep deprivation on performance: a meta-analysis.” Pilcher JJ, Huffcutt AI. (1996)
“Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin, and Increased Body Mass Index” Shahrad Taheri, Ling Lin,Diane Austin, Terry Young, and  Emmanuel Mignot
“Growth hormone and cortisol secretion in relation to sleep and wakefulness.” J R Davidson, H Moldofsky, and  F A Lue

At Hall Personal training, we ensure we stay on top of the latest research in the health, fitness, strength and conditioning journals. That way we know we are providing the best possible advice to our clients, combining theoretical knowledge with our years of practical experience.
This month, our junior trainer George has scoured the research from February to see what’s new in the fitness industry and to provide us with some top tips you can introduce right away in your training.

1. Should You Use A Weight Vest For Sprinting?
Sprinting is a key component to most team sports so knocking that split second off a 100m sprint time is a key goal for many athletes. Lately, the trend for using weight vests for sprinting (and every other exercise) has skyrocketed. A recent study conducted on improving sprint speed concluded that using a weighted vest during training for added resistance v.s. good old fashioned sprinting produced no noticeable difference in sprint times.

Rather than focusing on adding weight up-top, it would make sense to build stronger and more explosive quads, glutes and hamstrings (prime sprint movers). This would significantly increase sprint times. After all, Force = Mass x Acceleration. Save your money and put in a little more sweat in the gym building immense legs.

2. Increase Performance Using External Cues
Coaching cues are essential for performance and output during training. The two main cues we focus on are external (outside the body) & internal (focusing on the body).

Recent research has indicated a slight advantage in using external cues for increased force output and athletic performance. Even though the advantage is minor, external cues were shown to be better for both force output and performance, therefore we can only conclude that so far, external cues are the title holder! However, both of these were only performed on two exercises so how this would carry over into other exercises is yet to be confirmed.

It would be interesting to try different internal and external cues because not all cues are created equal – some have far better carryover for performance and output than others. Essentially, it all depends how you perform the movement – I could give the best cues in the world but if you’re unable to connect with them, they’re useless!

3. Which Grip Should You Choose For Pullups?
With so many choices in the pull-up library, it can be hard to know which one is the best for strengthening and growing the back. A recent study completed on muscle activation during four pull-up variations showed that the only major ‘pulling’ muscle that demonstrated much difference between variations was the middle trapezius (the meaty bit you put the bar on when you squat) and this was only between a neutral and pronated grip, the latter being superior. Essentially, all other muscles displayed no significant difference between variations in this study.

Now…
As I learnt from my visit to world famous Bodybuilder – Ben Pakulski’s – Mi40 Gym in Florida, understanding that how you think about performing the movement (where you place your focus) goes a long way to determining the outcome of muscle activation. Following on from above, I believe this is why we always get such a variance across numerous studies when looking at EMG results, and no definitive answer. Different cues for the variations would provide different EMG outcomes. I’m not saying that EMG studies are useless by any means, but rather that  they should be used as a piece of the puzzle to expand your thought process rather than define it.

4. Increase Reps & Total Workout Volume During Your Rest
Adopting a quick 30-40s antagonistic muscle static stretch during your rest periods may prove to be beneficial to increasing reps performed and subsequent total workout volume. After all, volume is one of the greatest precursors of hypertrophy – this is something you should pay serious attention to! Additionally, during the study, muscle activation was higher during the static stretching workouts compared to the non-stretching and PNF workouts. Win-Win!

The long-term effects of static stretching between sets is still yet to be confirmed.

Luckily, static stretching proved to be better than PNF stretching – somehow partner assisted PNF stretching between sets seems a little difficult to replicate workout-to-workout.
So, instead of scrolling Instagram and Facebook during your rest period, make use of your time and get stretching.

5. Lower The Bar Quicker for Increased Explosiveness
Training with shorter eccentric contractions (when a muscle lengthens under load) seems to provide increased power output as it relates to vertical jump height. Thirty men were divided into three  groups that tested varying lengths of eccentric contraction – 2s, 4s & 6s. The group that performed 2s eccentric contractions managed to increase their vertical jump the most – 3cm compared to 1 cm in the other two groups over four weeks of training.

Interestingly, the group that performed the 2s eccentric movements increased their squat 1RM the least – 11kg as opposed to 17kg & 14kg in the 4s & 6s groups respectively.
It would be great to get some further up-to date research on eccentric contraction lengths as it pertains to strength increases across a variety of movements, to see whether 4s is optimal with 6s being too long.
Currently, it looks like shorter eccentrics are better for increased power and explosiveness, possibly taking advantage of the muscle’s natural stretch reflex.

Choosing your tempo will vary considerably between individuals as this will be largely determined by your goals, in this case, power v.s. strength.

References:
1. Effects of Sprint Training With and Without Weighted training with weighted vests and unresisted sprint running training on changes in jumping, sprinting, and Vest on Speed and Repeated Sprint Ability in Male Soccer Players. Rey, E., Padrón-Cabo, A., & Fernández-Penedo, D. (2016). The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.
2. The Effects of Either a Mirror, Internal or External Focus Instructions on Single and Multi-Joint Tasks. Halperin, I., Hughes, S., Panchuk, D., Abbiss, C., & Chapman, D. W. (2016). PloS one, 11(11), e0166799.
3. Electromyographic Analysis Of Muscle Activation During Pull-Up Variations. Dickie, J. A., Faulkner, J. A., Barnes, M. J., & Lark, S. D. (2016). Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology.
4. Strength performance parameters and muscle activation adopting two antagonist stretching methods before and between sets Paz, G., Maia, M.,Whinchester, J., & Miranda, H. (2016). Science & Sports, 31(6), e173-e180
5. The Effects of Eccentric Contraction Duration on Muscle Strength, Power Production, Vertical Jump, and Soreness. Mike JN1, Cole N, Herrera C, VanDusseldorp T, Kravitz L, Kerksick CM.