I Don't Want Thunder Thighs, or a Big Ass

I saw the craziest thing the other day, and if I would have had my phone with me I might have been tempted to take a photo.


I saw a lady at the grocery store her upper body was ripped, shredded, whatever you want to call it.


She had awesome definition in her arms and shoulders, a very angular clean jaw line, in top shape, fitness competitor type shape.


You could not help but notice that this gal had put in some serious work on her physique.

Then I walked around the corner of the vegetable platform, and much to my surprise the lady had the 'bottom half' of someone who weight 2x as much as her upper body would indicate.

My first though was how sad, and frustrating it must be for this lady, to be in such great shape up top but have a bottom 1/2 severely lagging.

Sad but there is answer and it's not what you think.


I will get to the solution to this lady's problem in a moment; but first let's address the real problem.

More women than I care to count have come to me carrying the myth of the title of this blog.

‘I Don't Want Thunder Thighs, or a Big Ass’

Generally my reply to this myth is, 'Neither do I'.

I am not sure exactly where this myth started, but boy is so deeply embedded in the female mindset that I am sure that it won't be absolved anytime soon.

Unfortunately, one of the ancillary results has been that, this myth has generated a terrible untruth that many women now believe or even worse have turned into a full blown phobia.

1. They are deathly afraid of doing any type of strength training with their legs; and they are convinced that any amount of strength training will result in them having a leg circumference equal to that of professional male body builder, who is eating 10,000 calories per day, taking in 2,000-4,000 mg of steroids per week, and on specific mass building routine.

I promise strength training your legs won’t make your legs look like this


I have found that giving examples is the quickest way to help people understand things.

I will give you an example of one of my female client's recent experiences of lifting heavy in reference to thigh and hip measurement.

This particular client has been deadlifting during the last 3 weeks of her training cycle:

The numbers:

Her deadlift training numbers have increased by a little approximately 20lbs.

Going from 135lbs to around 155lbs. (this a weight that many women would find 'heavy')

During that same 3 week period she has:

Reduced her thigh circumference by 2" each thigh

And reduced her hip/butt measurement by: 1 3/4"

The Truth:

If you read or speak with any of the cutting edge physique coaches, one of their primary cornerstones of any fat loss program is going to be:

lower repetition and high load resistance training exercise.

The plain and simple reason for this is that it forces the body to keep muscle, a very good thing since muscle = metabolism.

The proper methodology would be something to similar to the below. Which is the protocol for my, Big Iron Burn (BIB) Method


Big Iron
1-2 core multi-joint movements performed with heavier weight less reps

Burn
2-4 - Supportive movement performed in a rapid succession burn circuit for multiple cycles.

Paired with Smoke Session-Interval training

This is a rough outline of the programming protocol that I use 100% of my fat loss clients.



What light weight and high repetition lifting will ultimately result in:

The alternative is low weight high repetition training which will usually result in muscle wasting, decreased metabolism, and you walking around looking like you you have a bag full of chewed bubble gum on your legs.

We never wanted to look like this right?

Because all your muscle will be gone, and you be left with fat and skin, where muscle one used to be.

So hopefully this helps you see the picture a little more clearly and will allow you to accept and embrace that strength training your lower body is actually a very good thing.

No let's get out there and do some squats, deadlifts, and heavy lunges and cure that phobia.

So you can have legs that look like this

Enjoy!!

Troy M Anderson

Tempe Outdoor Fitness Boot Camp

I Promise it Won't Make You Fat:

Just when you start to sit back and think that all the old archaic myths, are startin’ to die off, they seem to spring back to life and surprise you.

This is one that I heard from a client the other day, as was told to her by a family member and a by a friend, all on the same day.

It goes something like this:

"Protein has too many calories"

or

"I don't want to bulk up"


or, lastly

"Protein powder will make me fat"


These three myths are generally used as objections to the guideline of consuming 1gram protein / 1 lb bodyweight

First let's took a look the calorie issue, a scoop of protein powder generally has between 80-120 calories per scoop.

Here are some food items that someone may likely be already eating that this could equate to calorically:

-1/2 of a banana
-1 slice of bread
-1 of those little 100 caloric snack packs
-1/2 of a 20 ounce bottle of regular soda

As you can see the bang for the buck as far as quality nutrients are concerned is by far and away on the side of that 1 little scoop of protein.

(While we are on the topic protein a preferable, the source of protein powder is one of the many versions of whey or casseinate protein powders available. They are simply of higher quality, generally taste better, and are more usable by the body than the soy versions)

On last 'food for thought' moment with this first statement, carbohydrate and protein carry the exact same calorie amount per gram.

Next, let's take a look at the myth of protein causing one to become bulky. Let’s look at if from a couple different angles.

First let's define 'bulk' I think we can safely define bulk as taking up more space or becoming 'larger' by volume.

It is also accurate to say that fat takes up a lot more space than lean muscle tissue.

Thus the fastest way to gain 'bulk' would be to stop/reduce exercising and increase/or even maintain nutritional intake. If you take a look around you'll see that most Americans have a pretty good handle on the 'bulking' aspect, we're not so good at the lean muscle part.

There is no relevancy of protein to 'bulking'

While it is true the protein is critical for maintain and building lean muscle; which is exactly what we hope will happen, because muscle is metabolism.

If your thought process is that you will through the simple act of consuming protein gain mounds and mounds of muscle miraculously, you have sorely misled.

Either that or I need to find some of that 'miracle protein powder', I wouldn't mind not having to do any work and have muscle appear on my body through the simple act of drink protein powder.

If you are a woman who is 30, 40, or even 50 yrs old, you have nothing to worry about.

Packing on the muscle, and turning in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s twin sister is not likely to happen, if it was there would be plenty of 25yr old testosterone soaked males that would be loving life as an Arnold look-alike.

The short story is: if putting on heaps of muscle were that easy a lot more males would have some.

The real hang up most individuals have with all this is that they are being asked to significantly change one of their most closely held, highly engrained habits of being emotionally and physically attached to carbohydrate.

They are being asked to perform a caloric swap between carbohydrate and protein in order to get their protein intake up to appropriate levels, many people especially women may need to up their protein intake 50%-200% depending on their current status.

What does this look like by the numbers - take a 160lb women (which just happens to be about the weight of the average American women.)

She is likely only taking in 40-80 grams of protein per day not good.

She needs to be in the 160 gram range.

What does this look like, well let me give you a couple instances of what this might look like in the real world.
(these are only example to show you what this might look like a daily scale.)

It could be 8 scoops of protein powder containing 20grams of protein per scoop.

Or

It could be 4- 4 ounce chicken breast (about the size of your out stretched hand per day.
Or a variety of other animal source lean proteins.)

The goal of this article was to crush one of the long held myths in fitness and to shed some light on how truly valuable protein is in the quest for leanness.

If you work on breaking some of your old habits and work on getting your protein content right. A new leaner body will thank you.

Enjoy

Troy M Anderson

Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

Snake Oil vs Fish Oil

I like cowboy movies, and one of my all time favorite cowboy movies, is The Outlaw Josey Wales.

In the movie Josey is trying escape from his pursuers when he all the sudden finds himself being harangued by a classic snake oil salesman.

What was Josey's solution, spit a big wad of tobacco juice right on the lapel of the shiny white suit of that no good son of a gun.

Well sometimes I wish I could use the same kind of solution that Josey did when I am confronted with the modern day snake oil salesman.

The modern day snake oil salesman that I run into most is involved in the health and fitness supplement industry.

Saling everything from cure all cleanses to 'magic' juices, and all things in between.

Unfortunately, many people purchase these products expecting it to be some sort of miracle cure that will end all their ills.

Unfortunately, most of these products fall well short of the claim. Due to one simple fact they are not a high quality product.

On the other hand the 1 and only supplement that I consistently recommend to 99.9% of my clients, is a far cry from snake oil, and that is fish oil.

This is a product that you almost can’t take too much of; and while it is always best consume the best quality products possible, when it comes to fish oil I take the stance of any type is better than none.

If you choose to go for low price you can almost be assured that you will get what you pay for.

Many times meaning that you will end having to deal with a fishy after taste for a few hours.

Benefits the laundry list of benefits is endless but just in case you are feeling skeptical let me list off a few of the high lights:

Ø Improved cardiovascular health
Ø Improved circulatory function
Ø Improved immune function
Ø Enhanced nerve and brain function
Ø Joint health
Ø Increased glucose metabolism and insulin action
Ø Reduce soreness from physical stress
Ø Proper hormone function
Ø Lower triglycerides and LDL (bad cholesterol)
Ø Reduce bodyfat
Ø Improve physical and sporting performance

Personally I take 8-12 capsules per day.

However I better and more impactful story than that: After 8 months of trying I finally convinced my dad to take some fish oil, he has a chronic back issue, and is far from a picture of health.

That being said within two days of starting to take 4 capsules per, day he noticed that his back felt significantly better. To the degree that he has become a raving fan of the fish oil.

Just wait till I get him up to proper dosage, I can only hope that he keeps taking this small action of health.

I know I am going to do my part and keep sending him product.

So beware of the snake oil

And

Instead opt for some high quality fish oil. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised.

To Watch Learn more about fish oil and 19 other critical factors necessary for improving your health and fitness: Sign up for my 1 Step at a Time Fitness Success course at:

http://www.atscoaching.com/

Enjoy

Troy M Anderson

Tempe Fitness Boot Camp