#011 - How to increase intensity, intense panettone, and perspective shifting schnitzel(?)

and

Dec 04, 2023

Workout Wherever by Mazama Wellness is a location-independent fitness system that offers a dose of travel inspiration.

Our goal is for you to feel more confident and consistent with your workouts and access unlimited workout destination possibilities with our portable exercise equipment and on-demand training videos via Workout Wherever TV.

learn more at workoutwherever.com

This post is best viewed on the website or Substack app!

Increase intensity without adding weight.

A very obvious way to make an exercise harder, and thus force more adaptation, is to add more weight. This is a pretty well known strategy and usually the first one people think of, however it’s not the only one available. If you remember back to the progressive overload post, you can also increase reps, increase range of motion, and play with the tempo to increase the demand put on muscle fibers. Here I'd like to talk about how increasing the range of motion of an exercise puts more mechanical tension on the muscle fibers and thus increases demand, which in turn increases muscle growth.

First off, what is mechanical tension and why is it important? In this context, mechanical tension is the tensile force that is put on loaded muscle fibers. Tensile force is one that is pulling the muscle fiber in opposite directions.

The muscle fiber has to resist this force and actively contract against it and this makes the fiber adapt and grow in order to handle the demand. So mechanical tension is important because it makes muscles bigger and stronger through the adaptation to this force.

As mentioned above, one way to increase mechanical tension and thus muscle mass is by increasing the force applied to the muscle fiber by adding more weight. It is well known that lifting heavier weights or adding resistance increases muscle size. But this isn’t the only way to increase mechanical tension. Another way to do this is to increase the range of motion of an exercise, which puts more tensile force on the muscle fiber, thereby forcing adaptation and increasing its size. Stretching the muscle fiber more fully produces more force - when the muscle fiber works in these end ranges of motion, it increases demand. In practice this means that you need to get a full range of motion in exercises and go deeper in a squat or lower in a chest press. Exercise selection is very important here in order to select exercises where the range of motion can be increased. For example selecting a heel elevated SL squat will provide more ROM than a reverse lunge, thus putting more tensile force on the working muscles.

The takeaway here is that it’s good to use a variety of strategies to increase mechanical tension. That could mean adding more weight or it could mean increasing the range of motion or both. Just make sure that you’re not sacrificing range of motion for increasing weight. I think it’s better to be able to work through the full range of motion even when increasing weight, so small weight increases are key here. I’ve yet to see any research stating whether increasing one over the other is better, but movement quality is always the goal so make sure you’re not sacrificing quality work for more weight. Get that full ROM and reap benefits that not only include bigger muscles, but better range of motion and more mobility.

A Visual Supplement

too long; didn't read? - watch this video.

Perspective Is Everything

I’m currently in the process of re-certifying for my CSCS certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. This is something that I have to do every 3 years and consists of a lot of continuing education. As part of this process, earlier this year I went to the NSCA conference in Munich, Germany. Not only was this a great opportunity to check out Munich, which was amazing, but also hear some talks from very accomplished people in the industry. Folks that train Olympic athletes or are researchers doing a lot of the work that dictates the way trainers coach their athletes and clients. I always come away from these conferences inspired and ready to try some new things.

Oftentimes, the things that I come away with aren’t completely new, but rather they are a new perspective or approach on previously known principles or modalities. Being a trainer is often juggling a bunch of different exercises or programs or strategies, but the specifics are often dictated by a client or athlete’s goals. Figuring out the goal is what allows me to create a clear plan to use all these different pieces of knowledge and perspectives. Asking about goals is the first thing I address with a new client because it allows me some clarity in figuring out what approach I’m going to take with them.

So often I see trainers just throwing different exercises at people, without a coherent plan. And while some novelty is good, novelty for the sake of novelty just exhibits a lack of strategy. Rather than just programming random exercises, it’s smart to use training blocks, which allow training to emphasize specific objectives that will help the athlete or client reach their goals. Training blocks can emphasize speed, strength, power, endurance, balance, stability, core strength, proper technique, or motor control. This could be towards a goal of being a better rugby player or picking up a grandchild. Whatever the goal, there has to be a plan to accomplish it.

This is why I like these conferences and the continuing education. Because without this stuff I tend (as do most people) to get stuck in a routine that changes very little. A small world inside my head that operates one way and forgets all the other perspectives and approaches that are out there. Not on purpose, but probably as a result of mental efficiency. That’s why it’s good to remind yourself every once in a while that it’s a big world out there. It’s similar to going to Munich and eating schnitzel and drinking hefeweizen in a 500 year old establishment. It wasn’t something new, but it’s a revelation in terms of the perspective it gives on breaded pork and a beer. You walk away with a different understanding of the things that already exist in your world, ready to put it to use in your own way.

The Workout High School Forgot

At my high school we had a whole adult jungle gym system. There were adult sized monkey bars and parallel bars that went up and down like roller coaster tracks. There were pull up bars and bars in a sandpit you could jump over or crawl under. It was a pretty complete set up, but I only saw it used on a handful of occasions. I imagine when it was constructed, they had something like this in mind:

Pining for Panettone

Panettone I would order online within the United States if I didn’t have direct access to it locally and 2 recipes I might try to make myself.

I think it is obligatory that my first bite of panettone ever, I hated. I didn’t like how airy and soft it was, and I hated the orange essence and dried fruit. But look at how far we’ve come.

• panettone noun | pan·et·to·ne ˌpä-nə-ˈtō-nē

: a usually yeast-leavened bread containing raisins and candied fruit

• ⭐️ Rating these from Chef Roy Shvartzapel top because the pictures are really doing it for me

• I am obsessed with Goldbelly as a company and this panettone selection looks quite delectable.

• Third, let’s do Eataly. Because why not.

→ As far as trying to make my own, I’m interested, but with so many already prepared for me, I’m almost thinking why bother…?

However, I promised 2 recipes, so here you go.

• This one says it’s Easy - I’ll let you be the judge of that.

• This one doesn’t even try to hide the fact that it is clearly a laborious undertaking. (But worth it!)

—

Thanks for joining us - see you next time!