How to train your delts?

There are namely three parts of the deltoid (shoulder) – the anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (back) head of the shoulder. Many people use completely unbalanced shoulder programs. Studies have shown that seasoned bodybuilders have front delts that are at least five times bigger than sedentary people. But their medial delts are just 3 times bigger and their rear delts are merely 10-15 percent bigger. This isn't surprising, given that many people do unbalanced shoulder training and focus on horizontal and vertical pressing on top of shoulder work. This is partly due to the misconception that side raises are a good isolation exercise for the medial deltoid. Before a modification, they’re not. These studies were done on sedentary people, so athletes with dominant front deltoids can expect even worse results.

In a side raise, taking the force generated by the medial deltoid as 100%, anterior deltoid force is approximately 75% and supraspinatus force is 25%. This means that the supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle) and the anterior deltoid together produce as much force as the prime mover, the medial deltoid. The same holds true for overhead pressing movements. Doing them behind the neck or with dumbbells helps a bit, but they still don't produce balanced shoulder development by themselves.

So how to train the medial delts without involving the anterior?

You should decrease the amount of shoulder flexion (raising your arm as in a front raise). The same goes for not fully extending the elbow. Yes, it's easier on the elbow joint, but you should still aim for 99% extension. This should be sufficient to keep the stress on the muscles instead of the elbow. It's better to do the exercise on an incline bench. Try an angle between 15 and 60° incline. The lower the angle, the more you also involve the posterior deltoid. Doing side raises on an incline brings me to another factor to increase medial deltoid activity, range of motion. The first 30 or so degrees of abduction are produced primarily by the supraspinatus, after which the medial deltoid becomes the prime mover. Now, that's not a bad thing, because the supraspinatus needs training as well, but it means that you need to control the motion at the top.

If you're one of those guys that throw the weight to the side in a dancing motion and then duck under it, you're just straining your supraspinatus and hardly working your medial delts. If you use an incline bench, you can't duck under it, and can focus on muscle activity instead. Another very important factor that determines shoulder muscle activation is that the more you internally rotate your shoulder during shoulder flexion and abduction, the more you involve both the medial and the posterior head while minimizing the involvement of the anterior head. However, in a reverse fly, externally rotating your arm actually increases medial deltoid activation at the expense of the posterior deltoid.

So, for middle and rear deltoid training, I’d advise you to extend your elbow very close to fully, not using the scapular plane, and internally rotating your shoulder. These technique adjustments increase middle delt stimulation, but also increase impingement risk. So, I do caution restraint if you have shoulder issues. Also, you can counter these problems by retracting your scapulae. Shoulder impingement is mainly a concern if your shoulders aren't structurally balanced to begin with and these exercises aggravate that situation. Additionally, I recommend doing shoulder isolation work on an incline, which is generally easier on the shoulder.

For the posterior delts, besides internally rotating the shoulders during reverse flys or low incline side raises, you can train them with any type of pulling motion, such as rows or face-pulls. These exercises hyperextend the shoulder (bring the elbow behind the body). The lats and pecs can't extend the shoulder beyond anatomical position, so the posterior deltoids then become the prime movers.

For front delts, the front raise in the scapular plane with the shoulder externally rotated is a good, risk-free exercise. Unless you're not doing any shoulder presses, you don’t need any front delt isolation work, especially not until your shoulders are structurally balanced. Speaking of structural balance, to train the external rotators, do face-pulls with an underhand grip. Squeeze hard at the top and pull the rope all the way against your face. If you want to isolate the infraspinatus and teres minor, do side-lying external rotations. But remember, reverse flys also train all the external rotators, so unless you have trouble activating the infraspinatus and the teres minor, it's generally sufficient to just do those and face-pulls.

As for reps, all delt muscles are actively involved in maintaining posture and stabilizing the shoulder during practically every upper body movement. As such, they can be expected to have a high work capacity and are correspondingly around 60% slow-twitch dominant. This goes for the entire shoulder girdle, with one curious exception – the infraspinatus provides some oomph for the external rotators and is fast twitch dominant by a small margin. So, a rep-range of 15-25 reps is recommended.

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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We're all about the TRUTH!

Muscle Specific Hypertrophy (Chest)

As we have seen before, there are three types of muscle fibers in the skeletal muscle tissue, and they are present in every one of them. The question that comes to mind is; if there are all three types in each muscle, then how do we decide the rep range for each muscle? Again, this article is based on a generic human’s constitutions of muscle tissue, so your constituency may be a bit different. To decide the optimal rep range for each muscle we see which tissue has the most kind of muscle fibers of a particular type. So, without further ado, let’s see how to maximize our results on our chest gains.

The chest has 60% fast twitch fibers, so medium reps should work the best. The function of the chest is transverse shoulder flexion and adduction, like fly movements. So, for an optimal workout, we should pick exercises that involve transverse shoulder flexion or adduction.

Now, the angle between our arms and our body is one of the main factors which decides which head of the pectoralis major (chest) is worked most, incline for clavicular head (upper chest) and decline for sterna head (lower chest). To isolate our pecs from our anterior delts (front delts), we should perform movements with the shoulder externally rotated. Obviously, the standard fly movements fit the bill here, where we actively try to slightly supinate our hand.

The twist is this, even though the chest is best isolated by exercises involving external shoulder rotation, it is biomechanically more efficient when our shoulders are internally rotated.  So, to maximally stimulate our chest fibers, we should take this into account in our workout. We can’t totally neglect movements which involve the anterior deltoid, that’s why we need pressing movements. 

Therefore, when doing presses, it is best to flare out your elbows as much as you can, and when doing flys, do them with a pronated grip. Rep range should be medium, 6-10. 

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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Which supplements to take and when?

Supplements are an integral part of every fitness enthusiast’s daily life. They vary from everyday protein shakes and BCAA mixes to glutamines powders, creatine monohydrate and casein. For a novice, this world is an enigma. What to take? What not to take?

Today, we will be discussing about BCAA, whey protein and creatine.

Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) consist of three amino acids for quick absorption viz. leucine, isoleucine and valine. Some BCAAs often include Glutamines in their mixes which are good for having during a workout. But do you need it? Depends. If your workout is longer than an hour, yes! If you are doing a rigorous cardio session, yes! Otherwise, no! Why? It protects our muscles from catabolism. Long cardio sessions/workouts lead to catabolism. If this is you, buy a BCAA and sip away!

Creatine is already present in the human body in the form of phosphocreatine. During exercise, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is broken down into Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP) to produce energy. Phosphocreatines convert that ADP back into ATP. The consumption of Creatine Monohydrate leads to the increase in these phosphocreatine stores, thereby allowing you produce more ATP to help your muscles perform better for longer. This directly affects our repetitions in our set, resulting in better technique, lifting more weight or dashing out a few extra reps and ergo, better gains! It also increases the volume of your muscles and contrary to popular belief, if taken in the right way, it doesn’t bloat you.

Whey protein, the Holy Grail of the fitness industry, is probably the most needed supplement all over the world. Why? Post workout, it is the only source of protein which can be readily consumed by the body to stop muscle catabolism, in turn aiding muscle recovery and growth. But how much of it is necessary? Be it a beginner or an elite, one scoop post-workout might be enough, depending on one’s workout and nutrition. The correct amount can only be decided by an able and willing certified nutritionist.

So please take your supplements wisely and don’t overdo them, for nothing can replace real food!

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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How to lose your love handles?

You need to remember that you have got to have your nutrition and workout on point all the time. This article will prove most useful to the people doing weight training. The ones who are doing other forms of exercise would need to break plateaus each time and try to increase their muscle content along with it to keep the skin tight.

The first phase is to bring the fat percentage down significantly, to at least 15 percent. At that point, you will start to see at least two of your ‘abs’. Here, the main focus is on your workout and diet only, nothing else. Consistency and discipline.

The second phase introduces the first main tip. Your waistline consists of a huge part of the lower portion of the latissimus dorsi muscle, also called the ’lower lats’. The wider this muscle is, the tighter the skin will get and the excess belly fat will begin to disappear. Close grip underhand barbell rows, single-handed dumbbell rows or a machine form of such exercises are effective in this case. The key is to do this while maintaining your workout and diet.

The third phase introduces ab workout. Your fat percentage should be down to at least 12 percent. Start doing crunches, leg raises and planks. Integrate this phase with other parts of your training as well as the second phase.

In the last and final phase, the focus is on the obliques and serratus anterior. Your fat percentage should be lower than 10 percent to start this. Start with all twisting exercises and do not, I repeat DO NOT do the rod twists or the side bends. These are useless exercises for this purpose. Do Russian twists, oblique crunches and complete pullovers. Integrate these with the other four phases. This is the last phase and by now, you should not have any excess waistline fat and should have a beautiful model-like physique. All this is easier said than done. But if done properly with discipline and consistency, it is very much achievable.

Remember, do not try to rush from one phase to the other. Slow and steady always wins the race!

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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Why do we need fats in our diet?

Fats are an integral part of our daily diet but prioritizing healthy fats over unhealthy ones is of utmost importance. Healthy fats from vegetable sources can lower risk of heart attack, stroke and other major health problems.

During exercise, your body uses calories from the carbohydrates you have consumed. This is only temporary though, for after 20 minutes, the source of energy becomes fats.

Fats keep your skin and hair healthy. Vitamin A, D, E and K are fat soluble vitamins, without fats they cannot be utilized by the body. Fats also insulate your body. When you consume dietary fats, you provide your body with ‘essential fatty acids’ viz. Linoleic and Linolenic Acid which subsequently aid in a lot of the body’s physiological processes. They are called essential because our body cannot synthesize them and cannot work properly without them. It needs them for brain development, controlling inflammation and blood clotting.

All fats have saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Fats are called unsaturated or unsaturated depending on each one’s quantity. If we consume a high quantity of saturated fats, it raises our LDL (Bad Cholesterol) levels. High LDL increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other major health problems. On the other hand, consuming unsaturated fats instead of saturated fats lowers LDL. Consuming healthy fats rich in omega-3 and omega-6 leads to a reduction in the body’s white fats and also aids in muscle building.

Remember, consuming fats doesn’t make you fat! Consuming excess of anything can make you fat. So, don’t blame fats for that large waistline!

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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Is you trainer guiding you correctly?

Let’s say you go to the gym, go to your trainer and ask him what to do about your ‘weight’ loss goals. He lectures you about your diet and tells you to do some cardio. For cardio, he asks you to do a 1000 crunches, a 1000 leg raises, 500 side bends each side and 500 twisters. Then, he asks you to do some weight training. And the same cycle goes on every day; same exercises, same reps, same weights. You experience weight loss for the first couple of months but a year later, you regain that lost weight. Then, you are not able to lose weight with the same old workout that the trainer has told you to do. The trainer keeps blaming your diet, but you are following your diet strictly; no rotis, no fried food, no rice, only boiled vegetables, boiled meat, boiled daal (pulses) and raw paneer (cottage cheese). If this is you, there is a good chance that you are being ripped off by a bodybuilder claiming to be a trainer.

First and foremost, the pre-requisite for anyone to call themselves a trainer is a certification. If your trainer is a bodybuilder or a ‘guruji’ as they are often called in local gyms, chances are that he only knows bodybuilding at best and nothing else. He will sell you unnecessary supplements like fat burners or even steroids without telling you why you need them. In some cases, they sell steroids even to 15-year-old boys. Is he really a trainer? No way!

Now, let me come back to the situation I explained before. All these exercises are not ‘cardio’. You would have to do 20000 reps of each exercise for them to qualify as cardio. The leg raises and the crunches are for strengthening and conditioning your rectus abdominis muscle or your six pack, which is of no use if you have a stubborn layer of belly fat. And the other two exercises are barely just moving around, at the most I would call them dynamic stretching. Either way, these exercises will not help you reach your fitness goals.

Two simple pieces of advice you need to follow to avoid getting ripped off by a guruji or a google-search expert,
(1) Ask for his certification and ensure that he is certified by a good brand such as Reebok, ACE, ACSM, NSCA, NASM, K11 to name a few. Even a certified physiotherapist can be a good trainer.
(2) Ask questions frequently. If your trainer tells you to just follow his instructions without answering your queries, something is definitely wrong there.

If you follow this advice, 9 times out of 10, you can avoid such fake trainers who are smearing our good name. Another thing I would like to mention is, if your trainer is providing you with nutritional advice, please ask for a certification which clearly states that your trainer is a certified nutritionist. DO NOT follow, I repeat, do not follow any trainer without a certification. Renowned dieticians can also not be relied upon since they simply suggest fad diets which lead you to negative results.

Kshitij Vashisth
Fitविज्ञान

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Deadlift, a blessing, or IS IT?

Deadlift is the king of all exercises as it engages almost all the muscles in your body. It can help you put on massive mass or help you lose all the extra calories without the cardio you hate so much. It also helps in better protein synthesis. So, bigger gains or better shredding, whatever it may be, this is one of the best exercises ever.

Three of its forms are the most famous; the conventional deadlift, stiff-leg deadlift and the Romanian deadlift. The most commonly done deadlift in the one done for strengthening the lower back (or erector spinae). It is the best for a little isolation but in my honest opinion, it is only for mainstream bodybuilders.

No matter what form of deadlift you do, it is essential to maintain the neutral alignment in your lower back and neck at all times. Wrong posture is pretty much the cause of all injuries due to this exercise. Do not EGO LIFT or jerk your weight off the floor. Trust me, it doesn’t have any reward. It only ends up damaging your lumbar spine causing slip discs, fractures and what not.

That being said, it is one of the most rewarding exercises ever. Powerlifters, bodybuilders, athletes, sportsmen, all swear by it, and agree that it is the staple of fitness and in rare cases, the’ backbone’ (punny much?). Even I agree with them, it is non-negotiable exercise, that cannot and should not be skipped in your workout. There are several ways to incorporate it into your workout. Speak to your trainer on how to do the same.

Kshitij Vashisth
Owner, Fitविज्ञान

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Gaining Weight, No BS

I will try to make this post as concise and to the point as possible. For gaining weight, you need to focus on five things; Body type, BMR, calorific surplus, compound exercises and the rep range of the exercises you perform. Volume is also an important factor but is often neglected by most people.

1. Body Type: You need to know whether you have an endomorphic, mesomorphic, ectomorphic or a hybrid body type. Endomorphs are the ones who look big, have a good tendency to put on fat and have a big waist. If you are of this category there is a 99% chance you won’t be reading this. Mesomorphs are the ones who don’t put on fat easily but gain muscle easily and look muscular without much effort in the gym. These people often take their workouts for granted. Lastly, ectomorphs are the ones we call ‘hard-gainers’ as they find it very hard to gain fat or muscle and are generally very slim and long-limbed with a really high metabolic rate.

2. BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): It is the metabolism of your body at rest or the calories your body needs on a daily basis to function properly. The more muscle you have, the higher its value. A high BMR means that you need to eat more to gain muscle and a low BMR means you need to eat less to gain muscle. For example, if you have a BMR of 3000 kcal, you will need to eat at least 3500 kcal per day, this is a bit on the higher side. If you have a BMR of 1200 kcal, you will need to eat at least 1700 kcal. Notice that there is a surplus of only 500 kcal in both people. But the one with the higher BMR is eating 1800 kcal more i.e. 150 percent more than his own BMR.

3. Calorific Surplus: This just means eating more calories than your BMR. This should be just right, not so much more than your BMR that you start gaining fat. But also, not so less that your workout negates the effects of this diet and you gain no weight or start losing weight.

4. Compound Exercises: Needless to say, you need to do exercises that recruit a higher number of muscles, so that your hormone levels are high enough to promote a massive muscle gain post-workout. Also, you need to perform these exercises with the right technique, to ensure enough muscle wear and tear so that you gain a higher amount of muscle tissue.

5. Rep Range: This is the number of repetitions you do in each set of each exercise. A generally suggested rep range for gaining muscle is 6-12 reps, but my personal advice would be to stay in the 8-10 rep range or 10 reps in each set.

"Volume" means the number of exercises and the number of sets you perform of each exercise; here it changes according to your body type and BMR. If you are an ectomorph, you would want to go lesser on the volume i.e. fewer sets and less number of exercises. If you are an endomorph, you would want a higher volume and a mesomorph has to have just the right volume to facilitate necessary muscle gain.

A combination of all these guidelines should assimilate the maximal amount of muscle and lead to a healthy weight gain. A few tips for the added edge, endomorphs should try to be in the 300-500 kcal surplus and ectomorphs can go as high as a 1000 kcal of surplus in their diet, in a few cases even as high as 1500 kcal. The last and most important tip of all, if you want to hit the muscle properly, follow the direction its fibers follow and perform the exercise in that direction.

Kshitij Vashisth
Owner, Fitविज्ञान

For any queries, feel free to email us at fitvigyaan@consultant.com

HIIT, Hit or Flop?

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training (pronounced ‘Hit’). Let us discuss whether it really deserves its pronunciation. The basic format of an HIIT workout is that each round is composed of two time periods viz. the working period and the rest period. Each period in its basic form is equal to 30 seconds.

Now, let’s discuss the science behind these working and rest periods. 30 seconds is the time taken by a general anaerobic cycle, i.e. the working period. Therefore, the workout focuses on the Fast Twitch IIb fibers of our muscles, in turn utilizing explosive movements to dish out maximum calorific burn and developing maximal strength and mobility gains. In a few cases, muscle hypertrophy is quite possible in the long run. An HIIT workout should not be long because it puts too much stress on our body’s organ systems. Therefore, if done for longer than say 45 minutes, it can result in acute cortisol release. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which results in storage of fat. So, you might want to stay around the working period. However, these 45 minutes do not include the warm up and cool down phases of your workout.

It is very important to understand that if not done with proper form, an HIIT workout could result in the worst possible injuries like a dislocated wrist or shoulder, broken ankle, leg or hand. It’s always better to consult your certified trainer on how to do it properly or better yet, do it under the guidance of said trainer.

If you like group workouts, there are a few group workouts which follow the HIIT format. I have come across a few such workouts myself at a number of health clubs. If you are not into group fitness workouts and you are experienced enough, you can always devise a personal plan. Otherwise, you can do a workout under the guidance of a certified trainer.

So, to answer today’s question, HIIT is definitely a ‘hit’!

Kshitij Vashisth

Owner, Fitविज्ञान

For any queries, feel free to email us at fitvigyaan@consultant.com

To heavy or not to heavy? That's the question.

Trainers nowadays offer different kinds of advice regarding weightlifting. And everyone has a different approach. But are any of the approaches wrong? Let’s find out.

As I have discussed before, activities involving short periods of work, involving explosive movements, pushing you to muscle failure (to the point where you’re unable to move, maybe an oversimplification, but you get the picture), are the ones which burn maximum calories in minimum periods of time. So, lifting heavy should give you an optimal result in fat loss, right? Turns out, this is not always the case. It depends on your approach and your goal. In fact, if you’re new to the gym, I would advise against it. Why? Because primarily, your body is not used to the movement patterns in the gym and your muscles are weak. Therefore, lifting heavy is more likely to get you injured. Injuries are BAD for you, word!

Now, let’s take a person who has been a regular at the gym for quite a while. This person can lift heavy, his/her muscles have developed a suitable motor pattern for most exercises and is ready for it. Can he lift heavy? Well, yes, as it turns out, but to lose fat, he needs more volume per workout, meaning more sets, more exercises to aid in optimal weight loss. But then, heavy lifting cannot be done every day. It stresses out the body too much. Yes, your body can adapt to it gradually, but you need a suitable exercise pattern to make you reach that point. But, you cannot be in a caloric deficit state and you need a regular amount of slow, steady state cardio, to optimize fat loss, i.e. walking.

Another approach is to lift a moderate amount of weight, 3 times a week, and lift heavy weight 3 times a week, provided your body has adapted to it and you do cardio again post-workout. There are 2 more ways, but they involve moderate weights and different variations of cardio. Not going into details for now.
The gist is, it depends on your goal, your approach and your choice of whether or not you want to lift heavy.

Last and most important bit of advice is, while doing heavy lifting, please, please, please maintain correct posture, I CANNOT stress this enough, if your posture is incorrect, you are more likely to end up in a hospital bed sooner or later.

Kshitij Vashisth
Owner, Fitविज्ञान

For any queries, feel free to email us at fitvigyaan@consultant.com

Muscle building…is it for everyone?

This is the most hotly debated issue in a fitness centre or a gym. Most people start working out by procrastinating.

Some say that just want to lose some flab, some say they just want to show off their biceps, other say they don’t want a ‘bulky’ body; they just want to stay fit.

What you need to know is, you need a little muscle, a little strength and a little endurance. All of us need a little muscle to be honest; otherwise we’d all lose bone density pretty quickly.

Cardio…which is the best one for me?

In our day-to-day fitness routines, we often get stuck in a dilemma about one thing, CARDIO.

The mother of all worries in the gym, it often has lead to many disputes, I look forward to solving a few of them here.

So, what type of cardio to do? How long to do it? Which shall be most beneficial to your weight loss process?

Whey Protein, Yay or Nay?

This is a hotly debated subject in India, while some people of the urban population do understand about its need, a percentage of them actually takes in too much of it, we shall be addressing that later.

Now the key point being, only SOME people understand about its need.

I will not go so far as to saying that it is an absolute necessity, but it is very beneficial to most health enthusiasts, again, not referring to the people with some medical issues.

So first, all of us need to understand one thing, each of us individuals need a certain amount of protein to merely survive! As a general rule, 0.8 g per kg of bodyweight is needed by healthy adults in their day-to-day lives.

'Weight' Loss

Today I shall be addressing a few things related to this topic, why is it called ‘weight’ loss( a possibility), spot reduction, does it exist or no? Why do we tend to lose fat in a few specific places first, why is this not a rocket science, what to do for it, and the most important question, why are people not able to efficiently lose fat, or in general terms, ‘weight’.

What I shall not be commenting on is unable to lose weight due to medical issues, like hypothyroidism or PCOD, and other issues.