Liquid Mercury’s Power Training

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted so hello to all and welcome to any that are new to my blog.  For the past 8 I have realized a multitude of things, many of which are not limited to training and nutrition.  Excuse me if I am long winded or if you were hoping for something strictly training/nutrition oriented.

Like many in today’s economy, I’ve spent the past 8 months doing what many others have:  looking for a job.  As a recent graduate in finance with little of the experiences HR mangers want, my job hunting endeavors were grim to say the least.  Over time, I gave up.  I allowed myself to settle into a routine of waking up at a leisurely hour of 10 or 11, going to the gym, coaching high school rowing, and visiting the occasional bar.  Living in my parents’ house I was able to effectively live for free and use what little money I earned from my coaching to “float through life” and generally be content with mediocrity.  Over time, this feeling of contentment lessened.  Coaching still brought me joy, as did training others, but I was not where I had imagined myself a full year after graduating college.  In my mind, I was supposed to have a lavish desk job where I traveled first class, wore expensive suits, and was the “go-to” guy at the company.  This dream-world was just a step away, or so I thought.Eventually, I decided to rethink my life, examine what I enjoyed, what I could do to maybe make something of myself.  I realized the things I know most about are rowing, weight-training, and nutrition and all ll three things had one common factor:  they made people healthier.  I now realized that I enjoyed helping people feel better about their bodies, performing at optimum levels, and taking their mind and bodies to new places.  I decided to go back to school to pursue a PhD in Physical Therapy.  With a doctorate in Physical Therapy I could help athletes repair themselves from injury, getting them up on their feet and back to the sports they love.  With my own history of injuries and stints in rehab it seemed like something I could relate to.

After looking into what needed to be done, I set about doing it, taking the needed pre-requisites (remember my undergrad degree is in managerial finance which has little carryover to physical therapy) securing loans for tuition and applying to universities.  After 2 months of being back in school I came to two very distinct realizations, both will alter my life from here on out.  The first was that I hate school.  Sitting in lecture halls listening to a professor, drone on and generally having a miserable time of it I realized I am not a student.  I am someone who enjoys learning immensely, but I am not a student in the traditional sense of being sitting in stale lecture halls and libraries, studying  for hours upon hours to absorb information that does not pique my interest, simply to have answers to write down come the inevitable examination.  With this realization, came a panic attack, I realized my plans had come undone, again, and that I was left where I had been before I started this venture, back at square one.

My second realization was even more profound than the first, one that I now live my life by and one that I summed up at the time on an extravagant facebook status update that read:  “It’s when I settle for mediocrity, or settle at all that I am most disappointed. Therefore in all I do, in all I am, and all that I will be it is all or nothing. No middle ground, no settling, no surrendering. All or Nothing.”  With this statement I have a new life plan, one that will take me far from my current location (1500 miles across the country) where I plan to start my own business up, being a franchise owner of a GNC, and down the line multiple stores and other business ventures.  There is no doubt in my mind I am able to do this because I have committed to myself that my life is now “all or nothing.”

All or nothing can be applied to anything in life; whether it’s your rowing training, your time in the gym, your nutrition, your rehab, your marriage, your relationships, or your friendships.  Do not settle for mediocrity. Attack everything you do with all you have, give it everything you’ve got.  You will not be disappointed.  I tell my rowers before races to “leave it all on the water and have no regrets.”  If they give it their all on the water, and they still lose they may be upset but they won’t be disappointed.  On that day, in that race, they gave it their all and they just got beat.  I know I will go after everything in my life from here on out with everything I have, all or nothing.  Will you?

Alright so here we go.  The past few weekends I’ve been approached a few times by some of my own rowers on how to cut weight for lightweight racing.  I’m sure many of you have been told many different things as I know I was told many things in my youth about rowing and throughout college.  I feel that there is a huge issue here in that most of the ways I’ve ever heard about cutting weight have been completely unhealthy, oftentimes having very serious health risks.  That being said, I will be outlining a proper way to cut weight (up to 10 lbs) for race day.  Although this still isn’t ideal and I do not encourage people to sit above the weight limit too much this is at the least a much healthier way then running around with a garbage bag on or starving yourself.

 

Step 1:  7-10 days before a race, up your water intake to 2 gallons of water a day.  The concept behind this is that your water metabolism will increase significantly.  Your body will start to process water at a much higher rate if you are drinking more. 

 

Step 2:  7-10 days before the race switch to a very low carb diet.  By low carb I mean less then 30g of carbs a day.  That means you will need to read labels on the back of foods and most likely limit you’re dining out.  The reasoning behind this is that your body will use up the glycogen stored in your muscles.  If you are staying low carb, then your body will be unable to resupply the glycogen in any large amounts.  You will most likely enter into a ketogenic state in which case your body uses body-fat and dietary-fat to produce glycogen.  This will just continue to add to the weight loss.  Keep in mind for rowers this is going to be slightly miserable.  As a rower your body is in a constant need for glycogen to produce those low splits.  Your energy levels will be lower the first week…..don’t worry it gets better.

 

Step 3:  Day before the race.  Drink water and all liquids sparingly.  By sparingly I mean maybe 32 oz water all day.  Yes this is not easy, yes it is not ideal but for those who need to make the weight chances are you’ve already realized this and at least its better then what you’ve probably been doing. 

 

Step 4:  Race day.  No liquid, light food (nothing with carbs) until weigh in.  Chances are you will be feeling kind of miserable but you will have also lost a good bit of weight.  If you still aren’t race weight then you may need to do your typical 30 minute sweat run (as I said this is not healthy and hopefully you won’t have to do). 

 

Step 5:  Post-Weigh in.  Go get some carbs in you.  Your body will upload these beyond your normal levels due to the low carb stasis you have been in.  You’ll feel great have tons of energy and have a great race.  Get some Gatorade/water in you as well.

 

Hope this helps.  Next article will include some dietary guidelines for rowers, coaches, and anyone who wants to look good on the beach.

Well it’s been a week or two since I last wrote, and a hectic week it has been.  I have to say that college football was crazy last week with my own Ole Miss Rebels upsetting then #4 Florida.  Add that to getting my own team that I coach ready for their first regatta and you can imagine how it’s going, I swear, do novice ever grow up?  Now on to the good stuff.

 

Supplementation can be a great thing for an athlete.  It can give you a competitive edge, help you recover, make you look better naked…..you know all those things are important.  That being said there is a ton of marketing crap out there that is geared towards misleading the consumer with shiny boxes, gorgeous women, and ripped guys on their boxes, all supposedly who got that way based upon the product they are endorsing.  The marketing works, because it is a multi-billion dollar industry and I guarantee there is not even 1 billion dollars worth of product that is truly worth it.  That being said this entry will hopefully help you navigate the marketing BS and make a somewhat knowledgeable decision.  As always if you have specific questions that I haven’t answered feel free to post a comment and I’ll get to them as they come.

 

So I’ll start off with the basic supplements (types not brands) and tell you which work and which don’t, the why and the how of it all, so here we go.

 

Creatine Monohydrate Considered the most basic of exercise supplements, CM works by aiding the Kreb Cycle by converting ADP back to ATP to be used as energy by cells. Simply put, CM takes your muscle’s waste products and converts them back to energy to be used again. It can lead to increased power and endurance(1). Also, during strenuous anaerobic exercise like weightlifting, lactic acid builds up in your muscles. This is why your muscles feel sore after a workout. Creatine Monohydrate delays/prevents the lactic acid cycle from occurring, providing grounds for the claim that CM alleviates muscle soreness(2). All other creatine products work in the same way as CM but with different advantages.
Recommended Dosing: 5-10g/day post-workout.  Loading phase In my opinion is just marketing BS.  I’ve tested it with and without and seen no significant differences.

Micronized Creatine The sales pitch here is that MCs are just creatine molecules with ~32x as much surface and are absorbed better by cells. In the production process, the creatine particles are ‘ground’ to a fraction of the size, making them easier to dissolve. Micronized is usually cheaper than monohydrate and less popular which makes most people think that it’s just a less effective creatine that costs less to make.
Recommended Dosing: 5-10g/day post-workout.  I generally use this as it is cost effective and I see no difference between this and regular creatine monohydrate.

Kre-Alkalyn* This is a pH buffered creatine which is exactly like monohydrate, but is buffered to resist breakdown by HCl in the stomach, so that it is digested much more successfully and therefore more of it gets into your cells. In other words, Kre-alkalyn is not destroyed by the stomach like Creatine Monohydrate, so it is more effective.
Recommended Dosing: 3-5g post-workout.More effective but not really worth the cost. 

Creatine Ethyl Ester* Creatine molecules are attached to an ester group and touts better absorption because it bypasses creatine trasporters of the body. Bottomline, CEE skips the typical process by which creatine gets to cells and is transported more quickly to where it is needed.
Recommended Dosing: 3-6g post-workout/day

Notes:  You can find this relatively cheap online during sales but generally is still 2-3x the cost of creatine monohydrate.

 

All forms of creatine have been criticized as putting excessive strain on the kidneys, liver and stomach. Detractors also point to the issue that there has not been enough emphasis on studying the long term effects of creatine supplementation. The following are studies that support both sides of the argument.  However, in all honesty I have found this to be a completely safe and very good supplement.  Have used it for the better part of 8 years and have had no negative side effects (I do drink a lot of water though).

Creatine supplementation does not affect clinical health markers in soccer players(3)
Acute renal failure in a young weight lifter taking multiple food supplements, including creatine monohydrate(4)
Creatine supplementation does not enhance submaximal aerobic training adaptations in healthy young men and women(5)
The effects of creatine supplementation on performance during the repeated bouts of supramaximal exercise(6)
Creatine supplementation and exercise performance: an update(7)

 

Nitric Oxide

A-AKG*/NO*/NO2* Also known as Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (A-AKG). The cells which make up blood vessels use NO to signal the smooth muscle around them to relax, which dilates the blood vessels and increases blood flow to those areas of the body. It is assumed that by supersaturating your body with supplemental nitric oxide, one can force their bloodvessels to dilate. Translation - NO increases bloodflow to your muscles (All relevant links are located in the bold subtitle, look closely, there are three).
Dosage: 3-6g pre-workout

Arginine Ethyl Ester* Also known as AEE. If you have been paying attention, AEE works on the same principle as CEE in that it uses the ester group to increase absorption and better transportation to where it is used(8), making it a more effective version of A-AKG.
Dosage: 2-4g pre-workout

 

Notes on Nitric Oxide:  Generally is a waste of money.  It makes for a great session in the gym as it will increase blood flow significantly and gives you a great “pump” but in all honesty it doesn’t increase performance and is extremely over-hyped.

 

Protein

Protein
Whey* Standard and most popular protein product. It’s derived from cows/milk (9) and is considered best for bodybuilding and strength training. Two options are Isolate and Concentrate, with Isolate considered the better choice.

 

Soy* Derived from the soy plant, this is the kind of protein that you can find in vegetarian foods. Not as popular as Whey protein, but this source contains no cholesterol or saturated fat, as plants do not produce cholesterol. 

Notes:  I do not recommend this to anyone other then 80 year old women that have low estrogen.  Soy is an inferior protein and increases estrogen significantly.  35g of soy protein is equivalent to ~5x a daily birth-control dosage of estrogen.  So I’m all for avoiding this.

Casein* A slowly digested protein, these are less common compared to both Soy and Whey. These proteins are to be used before bedtime and claim to prevent catabolism with muscles. The lowdown is that these proteins stay in your system all night and prevent your body from eating itself. 

Notes:  This would be my protein of choice for the most part.  The only time I take whey would be immediately post-workout due to it’s quick acting nature.  Other then that one time I stick with casein so that way my body can continue to have an influx of protein throughout the day and constantly repair damaged muscle.

 

Dosage for Protein:  1g/lb of bodyweight minimum.  Depending on my diet and whether or not I’m trying to gain weight I’ve gone as much as 2g/lb of bodyweight.

 

 

Amino Acids
Glutamine*L-Glutamine is a very popular supplement and is considered to be the best choice when supplementing with amino acids, although its actually effectiveness is very highly debated. It is recognized as a supplement that bolsters the immune system in sick patients, it still needs to be proved as having a place in sports supplementation(10).
Dosage:  15-20g/day

Notes:  Great for recovery, helps prevent DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)

 

L-Leuchne:  L-Leucine has been shown to increase anabolism when taken with food.  It is a branched chain amino acid (BCAA).  Recent research has shown it’s ability to increase protein synthesis significantly.  This means for an athlete, increased muscle repair, and rebuilding of new muscle. 

Notes:  I am currently testing this out in high dosages with my daily meals and will give an update later on this month as to the results.  I expect results to be good though.

Amino Acid Complex Amino Acids, aka the building blocks of protein, are supplemented in order to increase the synthesis of protein, although they are not really necessary if you eat right. Amino Acid tablets are extremely popular, but are, again controversial as to whether or not they actually work.

Notes:  Waste of money.  You get a full complex of amino acids in protein shakes as well as in most animal meats. 

Addition of glutamine to essential amino acids and carbohydrate does not enhance anabolism in young human males following exercise.(11)

 

 

Other Random Stuff:

Testosterone Boosters:  Basically does what it says.  They boost natural testosterone production.  The only one that I have ever found to be any good is P6 by cellucor.  The others didn’t really work.  That being said P6 is banned by most doping agencies.

 

Estrogen Blockers:  These will block estrogen, which is a good thing for athletes as high estrogen levels often go hand in hand with a higher ability to store fat. 

 

ZMA:  Short for Zinc Monomethionine Aspartate and Magnesium Aspartate (you’d think it would be called ZMAMA, but it’s not).  This helps with recovery due to the fact that most people are zinc and magnesium deficient.  Can also help with better sleep.

 

Melotonin:  Great natural sleep aid.  Comes in dosages of 1, 3, and 5 mg.  I take 3 pretty regularly and always sleep better with it.

 

Fish Oil:  One of the most important supplements you can have.  Nobody gets enough Omega 3 fats.  Omega 3 fats help with pretty much everything from heart health, skin health, increased fat transportation, and a good many other things. 

Dosage:  3-5g/day

 

Multi Vitamin:  It’s a necessity.  Get one.  It will help with recovery, help your body function better, and generally keep you healthier.

 

 

 So that’s all the supplements that I feel are important for people to know about even though there are plenty of more that I could go into length about.  If you have a question about a particular brand or supplement feel free to ask me via comment on here or a private message on the forums.  As always I’m glad to answer questions.

 

Until next time

LiquidMercury

Sorry for the gap between postings, after a week of the flu, I’m back.  Onwards:

 

Recovery.  One of the most important things for rowers in my opinion.  We often push our bodies to the limit, then disregarding those limits, go ahead and go farther.  Increasing our ability to recover from training both on and off the water is essential to the well-being of our body’s both for the purpose of becoming faster and for the longevity of our lives.  In the following few paragraphs or so I’ll be outlining many things that can increase our recovery rate and allow us to train harder, be faster, and beat out the competition, or at the very least, make it so you don’t wake up feeling god-awful sore or run-down.

 

There are four major aspects of recovery that every athlete needs to consider when planning their weekly routine:  energy systems recovery, psychological factors, waste removal and body repair, and the replenishment of nutrients.  All these factors need to be taken into account when planning optimal recovery.  The easiest one to control is the energy systems used factor.  This is a basic concept of not over-training, avoiding doing interval work (AT/AN work) on consecutive days, and giving your body enough rest between really hard days.  Most good coaches know this and training programs usually avoid this problem. 

 

Psychological factors may be one of the hardest issues facing us as rowers.  Things such as work, kids, financial matters, and just life in general get in the way of our mind ever truly being at peace and keeping us constantly stressed out.  Stress increases cortisol, cortisol makes recovery harder, makes it more likely for you to store body fat, and depresses testosterone levels.  The biggest factor to combat cortisol and stress in general is to get SLEEP.  Preferably 8 hours.  If you’re not getting at least 8 hours of sleep you are not going to be as efficient as you possibly can be.  You will not be able to train as hard, and you will find the results you are looking for much harder to obtain.  Other then sleep, meditation techniques can be used to help decrease stress throughout the day.  As weird as it may sound, 30 minutes a day or so of basic meditation (just think happy thoughts) can really help reduce cortisol and stress in general.  You can find books about it at your local book store and I’d highly recommend reading one of those.

 

Waste removal and body repair are very easy to do yet it is often overlooked.  One of the essential things you can do for body repair is taking a Post Workout shake or meal.  Basically, immediately after a workout, be it rowing or lifting, have a meal that has quick acting carbs (high glycemic index value) and a quick acting protein (preferably whey, as caseinate is much slower acting).  This can be done either by a shake (easy and some great tasting ones out there, I prefer Surge by Biotest) or via solid foods, something like watermelon and a chicken breast would do the job well.  I know that doesn’t sound terribly great but it’s not too bad a combo!  A post workout shake is only half the battle, getting enough protein in your body to repair muscle tissue is essential as well.  Athletes have a higher protein requirement then the average person and I personally recommend at the bare minimum of 1g of protein per body pound.  Waste removal can be achieved via a warm-down after a workout to help flush lactic acid out of your system as well as a thorough stretching program.  Since your muscles cannot begin to recover until they return to their normal length (weight lifting and interval rowing shorten muscle length) stretching will speed up recovery time by allowing your muscles to begin recovering sooner.  The most effective (and one of the most enjoyable) techniques to helping remove waste and increase muscle recovery is therapeutic massage.  Massages will help remove metabolic waste, increase blood flow to muscles, and generally result in less stress which as I discussed earlier helps with recovery.

 

Last but not least is giving your body what it needs, when it needs it.  It takes a lot of energy to train and not giving your body the proper nutrients it need’s will result in decreased performance.  Something that everyone needs, athletes and non-athletes alike, is a multivitamin.  A multivitamin will give your body the vitamins and minerals that your body isn’t getting in your daily diet (lets face it, not everyone is getting all their veggies and fruits in to the amount we should be).  A multivitamin will allow the body to recover more efficiently.  Other then a multivitamin, a proper balanced diet is paramount to your body getting everything you need to recover.  A good rule of thumb is if they didn’t eat it 2000 years ago then it’s probably not the greatest thing in the world for you, no McDonalds did not exist 2000 years ago so put the Big Mac down and toss the fries.  If it comes from an animal or a plant it’s usually pretty healthy (everything in moderation of course).

 

Some final quick tips to help recovery after workouts that I have found to be helpful are:

• Alternating hot and cold showers (will increase circulation allowing for nutrients and minerals to get to your muscles quicker after a workout)
• Foam Rolling (allows for active recovery and works similar to a massage).  I have one of these:  http://www.sportsunlimitedinc.com/muscle-massagers.html and it has worked great.  There are cheaper versions that you can find from a wide array of online stores.  Just search foam rollers in google.

 

 

That’s all for now as I’ve already been long-winded.  Feel free to post your comments and questions and I’ll answer them as soon as possible.

 

Row hard, train smart.

 

LiquidMercury

An English teacher once told me if you want to get people’s attention use onomatopoeia’s, so I just did. Let me say welcome to all that read this and beware, I’m pretty blunt but I like to think I know what I’m talking about. This blog will be all about training, nutrition, supplementation, and a few other random tid-bits here and there.

A little bit about me:

I started rowing as a freshman in high school in Atlanta and have been doing it ever since. In high school I was the first person to stroke a men’s 8+ to youth invites at Cinncy in both lightweight and heavyweight. After looking towards college and some unforeseen family issues I decided to go to school at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) and unfortunately they did not have a team so I was stuck on an erg for 4 years. I attempted to start a team up and actually had a group of people erging plenty and trying to raise funds but ultimately we came up short and the only thing the team managed to do was race at a few indoor races. Since there was no team to compete with at school I had to put my efforts elsewhere. And so I entered a weight room. At 135 lbs I was a bit small for my height (5’10”) and decided as all young males do at one point or another that I wanted to get some muscle and impress the women. So from my freshman year to my senior year I got up to 215 lbs and maintained a body-fat percentage under 12%. Lightweight No More. I could now squat and deadlift over 500 lbs and bench over 250 lbs. Needless to say I now knew what it was like to really sprint and pick up the speed on an erg. Moving on, I now coach middle school rowers in Atlanta and am currently training again on the water. I’m down to 186 lbs and will eventually get down to around 175 where I can cut water and race lightweight (yes I know this isn’t recommended), and have aspirations of eventually competing internationally. Currently I am: a ACE-certified trainer, I have over 100+ clients, I co-own/operate a supplement store, and co-own/operate a nutrition consulting/training firm and have contributed many training articles to forums of various aspects.

Now enough about me and on to what you all truly care about, getting faster, being healthy, and beating your enemies into submission…..on the water via weight-lifting. Today will outline some basic training plans as to what would benefit a rower most and how to incorporate it into your weekly/monthly/yearly training schedules.

Rowing requires many different aspects when it comes to weight lifting. It is a sport that requires power, speed, and balance. Therefore we will approach weight lifting in the same manner and train all aspects of what it is we do in our sport. Throughout the years I have tested on myself and other athletes/clients as to what is most effective and have come to find that breaking training down into micro-cycles works the best. Micro-cycles are training periods that are 6-9 weeks long and are geared towards increasing a certain type of performance.

This relates to rowing like this:

6-9 weeks of power training

6-9 weeks of speed training

6-9 weeks of corrective symmetry/balance training

Rinse and repeat.

Power training is going to be geared towards getting your max’s up, i.e. the maximum amount of weight you can lift for 1 repetition in certain exercises. This is done through a variety of ways, in particular lifting heavy weight, low reps being the best way. The only way you’re going to be able to lift heavier is to lift heavy things, i.e. more weight. I prefer full body training 3 times a week for this. It allows your body to recovery in particular your central nervous system which is already extremely taxed due to the nature of our sport. Lifting 3 times a week is also not going to take away from your water time and isn’t leaving you suffering from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that will inhibit your performance on the water. A basic power routine that I have my clients do is the 5×5. Its 5 sets of 5 repetitions for 3 exercises on each of the 3 days. It would look something like this:

Monday:

Bench

Squat

Bent-over Rows

Wednesday:

Deadlift

Standing Military Press

Power-clean

Friday:

Bench

Squat

Bent-over Rows

The weight would be ramped up over the 5 sets so that your heaviest set is your last set. You’ll be increasing your overall power and breaking your previous 5 rep max relatively soon following something like this. For the specific workout (complete with formula’s, percentages, etc. feel free to shoot me a pm and I’ll explain it in a lot more depth and get you set up on your own).

After the power phase of training you’d move on to speed training. This is the phase that you take the power you have just gained and make it more specific to rowing as well as much more explosive. Without this phase all your new found strength really won’t matter on the water. You have to get it so that your body can fire your muscles quick enough with that power so that it makes a difference. This will be achieved via explosive lifting. There are many different routines that can help achieve this but the bottom line is, lift explosively. Even if you have a heavy weight and it may look as though it’s moving slow, you should be applying your maximum force to move this weight as fast as possible. This will help recruit more muscle fiber as well as increase the capability of your central nervous system to fire your motor units much more quickly. Yet again for specific routines feel free to shoot me a message.

The last microcycle before repeating is the corrective balance/symmetry training. This is possibly one of the most important phases for sweep rowers in particular. As a sweep rower it is most likely that you will be developing imbalances on one side of your body compared to the other side due to the fact that you may be rowing one side significantly more then the other. To correct this, a basic full body routine using dumbbells is the best way to fix these imbalances. Every exercise can be done via barbell or dumbbell, and for correct symmetry problems using dumbbells is going to help most. The key is to lift only as much weight as your weakest side can lift. For instance, if you can only 1-arm row 80 lbs on your right arm while you can do 90 lbs on your left arm, use 80 lbs for both right and left arm movements. This will help bring up your weak side instead of making the imbalance even worse. A basic 3×10 cookie cutter routine can be used for this that you can find on any type of lifting website or magazine. For those who would prefer to limit their gym time to 3 days or so I again offer up my help and will e-mail you premade routines by me that will do all the work you need to be done in 3 days. I personally do not like spending long amounts of time in the gym and would rather be on the water so I have geared most of my routines around that idea.

I hope this has helped you gain an understanding of what type of basic format to follow when lifting for rowing. Next week will be geared on the different ways to increase recovery. As rowers we tax our bodies often and recovery can allow for more optimal workouts as well as less pain/soreness over the course of your training.

Have questions? Feel free to shoot me a pm and I’ll post them as well as the answers in here.

LiquidMercury