fitness simplified - amazon s3...gym. we all get this soreness within 48 hours after a training...

Fitness SimplifiedTraining Ebook

By Melvin

Cherian

“I trade sweat for

strength.

I trade doubt for belief.

I trade health for

nothing.”

- Meow*

By Melvin Cherian

* to know more, read about the author J

3Fitness Simplified:

Training Ebook www.getsetgo.fitness

Disclaimer

The manual is not intended for any treatment or prevention of diseases, nor is a

substitute for medical treatment or alternative to medical advice. Reader

discreation is adviced before applying the methods and techniques mentioned in

this book

Copyright: 2016 by getsetgo.fitness. All rights reserved.

This book or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or recorded in any form without permission, except for brief quotations

embodied in critical articles or reviews.

A cup of tea and a bowl full of dessert is how my days used to start and end

back when I was in school and college. A routine that I have involuntarily

followed religiously for over a decade and a half. I am sure you can relate

somewhat here. Most of us have the same routine even today. Years of

hogging on unhealthy food ended up making me fat. Like most, I decided do

get fit. I joined a local gym in my city and jumped straight into the weights

section. The trainer had all sorts of advices ready for me. The common myths

that still hold a strong base in the fitness industry were something I followed

with a lot of discipline those days. I was doing endless repetitions with a light

weight in hopes of being able to cut down body fat and heavy weights – less

repetitions to build muscle. One piece of misinformation that further spoiled

all my efforts was ‘eat a lot’. This is not something exclusive to me. I am sure

a majority of you have passed this stage. This is a mandatory stage and this is

the welcoming part of a novice into the fitness journey.

All that said, did I get any results blindly following what I was advised? I did

not. Sad but true.

Preface



It wasn’t really late by the time I realized that fitness industry is flooded with

pre-conceived notions and myths. But yes, the only thing I noticed as an

improvement was my strength and a couple of veins popping out here and there

on my forearms. Internet, magazines and television only showed those well

sculpted bodies but they never spoke about the kind of work, science and effort

being put into carving those architectures. I was really fascinated with all these

and soon began to put some efforts into understanding the science behind

training, nutrition and well being. Anything you do in life has to be 1.

Appealing and 2. Meaningful. While fitness and bodybuilding was appealing to

me, I wanted it to be meaningful. Eating right and training regularly has to do

more than just aesthetics. A healthier mind and body, focus and balance are the

perks of doing the right things at the right time in the fitness industry.

What I look forward to communicate to you as you read and turn the pages of

this book is the importance of resistance training and how it is a therapy to us.

Just like the ocean which is not just water and fishes, resistance training has an

entire spectrum of pros which needs to be addressed right from the basics. It’s

not just about being in great shape and possessing athletic abilities. This is

going to be more of an experience and learning that I wish to share with you

than just talking all the technical aspects of weight training. As you read further,

you will be learning the technical aspects as well but I am going to try my best

to keep it very basic, supporting all the claims that I make with the help of

science.

-Melvin Cherian



The Beginning

I was 15 when I stepped foot into the gym for the first time. I had been

physically active before that as I used to play soccer at school. When I told

my friends and relatives about my workouts and how good it felt to lift

weights, the first thing I heard from a genius friend of mine was that lifting

weights would stop my growth (height). Sounds familiar right? First myth!

And oh yes, if you haven’t heard this before, man you have been raised in

one super cool environment where everyone was a born scientist. Kidding

aside, now that I have told you it’s a myth let me share my learning about it

with you all.

Your body has long bones. Like your radius and ulna (forearm bones),

humerus (arm bone), femur (thigh bone), tibia and fibula (lower leg bones)

etc. These are the bones that grow in size and length. The ends of these bones

have a growth plate called as the epiphyseal plate that receives growth

signals via your growth hormones. The receiving rate of these signals depend

on your genetics. When your body becomes a fully grown adult body there is

a rise in estrogen (female hormones) in your body which stops the

communication between your growth hormones and epiphyseal plates thus

causing your height

to stop growing. Weight training never causes

you to stop growing. Funny thing is, this

was the first myth I ever came across

and I read about this just last year.

Better late than never.



Now that I had just started with weight training I used to look around and see

some huge bodybuilders lifting some serious weights. I couldn’t wait to pick

up the heaviest possible dumbbells for myself. Some people at different

instances walked up to me and said- “hey you should be doing more

repetitions with light weight as you need to cut down body fat”. I admit, I

did. Did it fetch me the results? No. But that was a good problem to have at

that point of time because I went into reading and researching about facts

some years later. While your training largely plays an inevitable role in your

fitness goals, it is also important to understand that losing fat or gaining

muscle has a lot more to do with energy balance. A well structured nutrition

plan and training regimen is all that needs to be put in place. As far as lifting

heavy or light – to gain muscle and lose fat is concerned, it is a flawed

discussion. When you start to lift weights, your body’s neurological

adaptation goes up and you tend to get stronger and build some muscles soon.

Popularly known as the ‘newbie’ gains. Your muscles understand only labor

and not the number written on the plate or dumbbells. What matters while

you are trying to lose fat majorly is the energy deficit and what matters while

you are looking to gain weight (read muscle) is energy surplus. You will have

a much better idea about these concepts as you read through the nutrition

ebook written by Pratik Thakkar.

“ Your muscles understand only labor and

not the number written on the plate or

dumbbells“



The post training soreness

I remember, when I woke up the day after my first training session I was

extremely sore. I was worried and I thought I did something wrong in the

gym. We all get this soreness within 48 hours after a training session. Ever

wondered what exactly it is? It’s called DOMS (delayed onset muscle

soreness). DOMS was first described in 1902 by Theodore Hough. He said

DOMS is fundamentally the result of ruptures within the muscles. The muscle

cells undergo micro trauma (damage) as a result of lifting weights. Further,

nociceptors (pain receptors) within muscle connective tissues are stimulated

and cause the sensation of pain. Is this normal? Yes, you can’t help it. You can

however reduce the degree of soreness by doing some light static stretches

after your training session or even with the help of a good ice bath and

ensuring muscle recovery by keeping your nutrition on point.

Things I dont feel like doing today

MOVING...



Therapeutic benefits of

strength trainingWhen you ingest any form of carbohydrates it is converted into glucose and

further stored as glycogen in your body. Your body stores glycogen at two

places. Liver and muscle. When you consume a lot of carbohydrates, your

pancreas secrete a hormone called insulin in response to elevated blood

glucose levels. Insulin is responsible to hammer down blood glucose to normal

levels by transporting it to liver and muscles. If these two storage sites are

already full, your blood glucose stays high and insulin keeps spiking but fails

to transport it due to the unavailability of storage sites. Therefore, prolonged

high insulin environment makes the cells insulin resistant and make you prone

to diabetes. How can weight training help in improving insulinsensitivity?



Your muscle cells and liver are basically the storage tanks for glycogen. Unlike

liver, muscles have the property to grow in size. We are going to discuss this in

detail further but let us now understand how weight training improves insulin

sensitivity. As muscles grow in size, they have more room for glycogen

storage. Any movement you make causes your muscles to contract and

generate force. This requires energy. Muscle contraction causes glucose uptake

and hence pancreas have to secrete less amount of insulin in response to blood

glucose. A person having better insulin sensitivity will always have a better

carbohydrate tolerance and never will be a victim of diabetes or insulin

resistance in general.

So being regular weight or resistance training can have such

host of benefits and therefore to calling it

a therapy is completely justified.



Age is just a number

Now that we have addressed one of the many ways

weight training helps us stave off health related

problems, let us also look into the benefits it offers to

people who are ageing.

“Age takes a toll on the body. It breaks us down physically. Let me introduce a

term to you – SARCOPENIA.

Sarcopenia is a condition where in with ageing (typically

beyond 30) your body starts to lose muscle.

It is also known as ARD (age related degeneration). As you age in multiples of

10 post the age of 30, the rate at which muscle loss happens keeps increasing

exponentially. This becomes very evident as you can see buckled joints,

hunched back and a lot of wrinkled skin.



When this happens, the bone health starts to face a major downfall because your

skeletal system is supported by your muscular system. Hence in combination

we call it the musculoskeletal system. The load that the skeletal system starts to

bear with all the muscle loss that has happened causes the mineral density of

the bone to reduce considerably and hence makes you prone to osteoporosis.

Weight training helps in fighting this as it keeps muscles active and growing

and reduces the grade at which sarcopenia might otherwise happen. Muscles are

like those restless kids in a primary classroom who keep jumping here and there

for no reason. Muscle cells are the most metabolically active tissues and they

generate a lot of force. What could be better than this when at your old age your

metabolism is screwed and your strength and functionality drops down. Think

of your body as a mechanical machine which if not used for a long time

becomes inefficient and unproductive. Similarly body follows a set of pre

established rules. If you do not use your muscles, you will lose them. You have

already read about the consequences above.

Consider this example. If you put a 10 year old kid against a 15 year old kid in

a competition that requires physical strength who do you think will win? Yes,

15 year old. If its between a 25 year old and a 30 year old, can you guess who

will in? Think..

No you can’t say who is going to win because now the growth has set in. The

fitness curve starts to stagnate now and drops down as you age further. Here,

weight training plays an important role because it keeps your muscles active

and growing which in turn keeps you physically active and strong. So if you

look like you are 40 but perform like you are 25, you are actually fit. Body

follows the principle – ‘use it or lose it’. If you do not use your muscles (by

living a sedentary life and by not indulging in exercises), your body loses

muscle. And when this happens, your body develops a lot of problems like

lowering of metabolism, poor insulin sensitivity, poor fitness etc. Hence, weight

training can have long term benefits.

Image source: http://waytowellness.co.za



How does weight

training make you stronger,

muscular and leaner

When you lift weights, your muscle cells get damaged and undergo a recovery

process which as an outcome gives out a new and a bigger cell. This happens

because of a kind donor cell which activates while there is a trauma (damage)

to the cell in its vicinity. These cells are called satellite cells. Think of those

movies in which the good guy risks his life to save the life of a beautiful girl.

Satellite cell is the good guy here. The good thing here is satellite cell shares its

life with the damaged muscle cells. It does so by sharing its nucleus with the

damaged cells. Hence, with this integration your muscle cells recover and grow

in size.

Image source: http://jap.physiology.org/content/91/2/534



What happens when you build muscle:

Muscles generate a lot of force. Some generate more, some generate less.

Muscles that produce more force have the potential to grow in size. The more

they grow, the more force they produce hence making you stronger. Fat loss is a

byproduct. With strength and muscles, your body becomes a fat burning

machine. As a result, your metabolism improves which is a positive health

factor.



Weight training and aerobic

fitness

Aerobic fitness simply refers to your heart health and endurance. People have a

misconception that only cardio can improve their aerobic fitness. Does cardio

help? Yes, it does. Does weight training help?Yes, it does even better.

Resistance training or any form of glycotic (anaerobic) training has two

benefits to your body. One is your anaerobic endurance and the other, your

aerobic endurance. When muscles contract, it pushes the blood back to the

heart. Heart receives more blood hence and becomes more efficient at pumping

blood to the body. When you lift weights your body burns glucose extensively

to be used as fuel and as a byproduct forms a molecule called pyruvate.

Pyruvate is one of the main energy sources during aerobic activity and weight

training teaches your body howto produce it better and use more efficiently.



Should women lift weights?

A lot of women have this misconception that weight training would make them

look bulky like men. Hence, a majority of them jump on to just cardio machines

and ignore weight training. Women do not have enough amount of the anabolic

hormone- testosterone, which is a primary driver of increase in muscle mass.

Men have up to 800ng/dl of testosterone. It ranges between 300-800ng/dl of

testosterone while women have up to 70ng/dl of testosterone. Typically ranging

between 15-70ng/dl of testosterone. The 10 times difference in this hormone is

what makes men more capable of gaining muscle and look big unlike women.

That being said, it is also important to understand that women have enough

testosterone to assist recovery and create new cells. Women can weight train

exactly like men do without a second thought.

“Women do not have enough amount of the anabolic hormone-

testosterone, which is a primary driver of increase in muscle

mass. “



A self know-how

While it is important to have a fair understanding of planning your training

schedule, it is also important to self classify yourself into a category that best fits

you in terms of experience, strength and the level of functionality you have

developed over the years. These traits are majorly derived from your activity

history.

A new born baby is incapable of balancing his own body weight until a certain

age because of the spine being in the primary curvature. But, the growth in

strength, coordination, balance and agility is rapid by the time the baby is a 7-8

year old kid. This growth is a function of nature. There is no fitness lifestyle

interference in the process. As you grow up beyond a certain age, you need a

particular lifestyle adoption to keep improving your strength and functionality.

Some of us have the genetic benefits while most of us have developed skills and

strength over time by engaging in different sports. Adeeper look into our activity

history as a growing child gives us a better know howof our body.

I would classify people into 3 categories:

1. Weak

2. Strong

3. Gifted



People who are not physically strong, meaning, those who do not have the

strength comparable to an average level of strength a person of same stats would

have, can be categorized as weak. This could either be because of genetic

disadvantage or because of a poor activity history.

People who are strong would be the converse of the above case. A good

background with sports which taught their central nervous system to utilize their

physical potentials fairly well in the situations that demand them to be strong.

Gifted are the class who dominate the classification because of the genetic

advantage they possess over others. The categorization simple gives you the

wisdom of how to get started. Lifting heavy, looking big and ripped, being

explosive, etc are sure the goals most of us would have. I say, it should be the

goal because the scope of improvement is endless. Fitness is an infinite journey

after all.



How do you get started?

Irrespective of the category you fall into, while giving a start to your workouts

always aim to master your body weight first. This is root of strength training. It

all starts at home. Exercises like push ups, pull ups, body weight squats and

lunges for a good 20-25 repetitions, crunches, tc should be your starting point.

The moment you are comfortable with these, step foot into the gym and start with

weights you find yourself comfortable with.



Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/118782508898316449/



The initial weeks in the gym is when you learn to lift. You should focus on the

basics. Basics would mean the correct form and technique. Once you learn the

movements, the transition from low to moderate to heavy weights can be done

in a safe injury free environment. The pace of transition depends on how well

you have invested a good time learning and feeding the movements into your

system. You can plan your workouts in any one of the following ways:

1. Push-pull-legs

2. One muscle per day

3. Antagonistic (opposing) muscles per day

4. 2 body parts per day

There is no perfect way. Your body responds to stimulus. You can select any

method to train. Abeginner is best suited to a push-pull-leg fashion because the

body gets enough time to recover from the muscle breakdown and soreness. A

push-pull-leg trainingroutine would look like this-

*All exercises done in sets of 3-4 for a minimum of 12-15 reps

Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun

Push Rest Legs Rest Pull Rest Rest

Chest

Shoulder

Triceps

Quadriceps

Glutes

Hamstrings

Calves

Back,

Biceps

Abs



Sample workout plan

Days Body Part

Monday Chest,

shoulder

and triceps

Decline bench press, incline bench press,

over head press, lateral raises, face pulls,

close grip bench press, overhead tricep

extension

Tuesday Rest

Wednesday Legs Squats, leg extensions, leg press,

hamstring , hip thrusts, curls, standing calf

press, seated calf press

Thursday Rest

Friday Back,

biceps

and abs

Deadlifts, dumbbell rowing, lat pull down,

shrugs, dumbbell bicep curls, hammer

curls

Saturday Rest

Sunday Rest

As your training advances, your body learns to periodize the recovery process.

Your body now starts to slowly adapt to the training and learns to recover faster.

This is the time you may consider dividing your training further by doing a body

part from the push-pull-legs cluster on a separate day. This means you would

simple increase the number of training days per week.

Example

As you advance even further and become an experienced lifter, your body will

adapt to all kinds of training splits (in most cases) and hence hit a wall. A wall

beyond which there are huge possibilities of strength and muscle gain. But, to

cross which becomes a task and needs the implementation of scientific training

methodologies. This is when a technique called periodization comes in.

Periodization are of various types but the most studies and researched one is the

Daily undulating periodization (DUP).

Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun

Chest

Shoulder

Triceps

Legs

(Quadriceps

Hamstring)

Glutes

Abs

Rest Shoulder

Calves

Abs

Back

Biceps

Rest



Final notes

The whole idea behind this short ebook was to address the common myths that

circles around weight training and educate you in very basic terms about how can

it be beneficial for you. I hope you have a clear picture of things now and that

you are all motivated and charged to hit the weights. Good luck and cheersJ

If you liked the manual,

please do share it with your family and friends.

You could visit our website www.getsetgo.fitness to make use of the various

tools and turnkey solutions to help you get fit.

If you have any questions join us on

facebook.com/groups/getsetgofitness

facebook.com/getsetgofit

About the authorMelvin Cherian is a Certified Personal Trainer from American College of Sports

Medicine and also a Certified Exercise Nutrition Specialist from Precision

Nutrition, Canada. He is a passionate lifter and hence developed his

understanding into the science of weight training and biomechanics. It’s been

over a year he’s been into the fitness industry and has over 400 transformations

under his belt.

Through this eBook, Melvin has made

an attempt to bust the most prevalent

myths that have been in and around

gyms with regards to weight training,

has also shed light on the major

benefits that weight training offers and

has plan your own training routine.

Melvin says “training is a therapy” He is himself a testimony as he

suffered herniation of L3 and L4 discs but by using proper recovery

methods, was back in the gym within a couple of months.

fitness simplified - amazon s3...gym. we all get this soreness within 48 hours after a training...

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