Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

By Tom Nikkola | VIGOR TrainingHealth & FitnessNutritionMental HealthFitness
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Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training episodes

  • Low-Carb vs Low-Fat vs High-Protein: Which diet is best?
    Which is the best diet for building a long-living, lean, fit body; low-carb, keto, low-fat, or high-protein?
    If you're looking for the short answer, it's a high-protein diet.
    Does that mean low-fat or low-carb diets never work? Not necessarily.
    In this article, I'll explain a little of the pros and cons of each diet. By the end, you should be able to see why a high-protein diet is the way to go for almost everyone.
    Before getting to the diets, though, I need to address some basic nutrition science, and tackle the topic of why "calories in, calories out" isn't as simple as your smartphone app would have you believe it to be.
    Calories, Macronutrients, Basic Math
    Obviously, the foods we eat contain calories. You see them posted on packages, restaurant menus, and alcohol bottles. When it’s not labeled, you can find it online.
    We’ve grown to love the idea of counting calories because…well, we can count them. Not accurately, but we’ve been led to believe we can count them with a reasonable amount of accuracy.
    We know that our love handles, saddle bags, and double chins are storage pouches of the calories we ate but didn’t need. And we believe that the way we get rid of them is to simply eat fewer calories.
    To a certain extent, it does work.
    When I was 15 years old, my ski jumping coach told me I needed to lose weight in order to be more competitive. I knew about calorie counts back then, so I decided to eat no more than 500 calories per day.
    I filled up on diet pop and soda water, ate a few ounces of lunch meat each day and some vegetables, and once a week I went to the convenience store so I could splurge on salsa sandwiches.
    Within a few months, I dropped my 5’10”, 154 lb frame down to 137 lbs.
    I looked more like a meth addict than a ski jumper, but the scale said I did a good job with my diet.
    Oh, in case you’re judging my parents, I lived in a dorm at Northern Michigan University, where they had an Olympic Training Center for ski jumping, for my junior year of high school. My parents were horrified the first time they saw me after my “successful” weight loss at a ski jumping tournament.
    And herein lies one of the biggest problems about using only calories as a means of weight loss. 
    You lose as much muscle as you lose body fat.
    And at an extreme, you can cause significant damage to your metabolism, such as diet-induced hypothyroidism.
    The Flaws In Calories In, Calories Out
    At an extreme, like my 500 calorie diet, you can lose weight. It’s a dumb way to do it, but it’s possible.
    More often, though, people are encouraged to follow a long-term, chronically restricted diet to “slowly” lose weight.
    This is just as bad as my asinine anorexic method. But, probably more frustrating because you live in constant deprivation, but don’t see any results from your efforts.
    We’ve been sold the idea that weight loss and weight gain is just about calories for decades now. It goes something like this:
    A pound of fat contains 3500 calories. Therefore, to lose a pound per week of body fat, you just need to eat 500 calories per day fewer than you burn.
    In business, this is called spreadsheet math. Spreadsheet math doesn’t account for any variables outside of the simple formula put into the spreadsheet. Just as businesses don’t grow according to numbers put into a spreadsheet, you don’t lose weight according to formulas either.
    The calories in, calories out equation doesn’t account for the following:
    Calorie counts on food labels and nutrition sites are not accurate.People who estimate the amount of food they eat consistently underestimate their carbohydrate and fat-containing foods, and (from my experience) overestimate the amount of protein they eat.Your resting metabolic rate varies dramatically based on lifestyle and nutrition choices.The calorie expenditure on your favorite piece of cardio equipment, or on your heart rate monitor or movement tracker,
    28 min
  • Gluten Consumption, Babies, and the Risk of Type I Diabetes
    There are no good reasons to eat gluten. There are numerous reasons to avoid gluten-containing foods. This includes babies as much as it includes adults.
    Yet, parents are often encouraged to give their kids cereal once they start eating whole foods. Perhaps, these findings from The Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) will help you rethink eating it, or at least recommending it for young children.
    Based on results of studying more than 80,000 children, researchers in Norway found that gluten consumption at 18 months of age dramatically increased the risk of developing Type I diabetes.
    Type I vs Type II Diabetes
    Type I diabetes doesn’t get as much attention as type II. Of the roughly 23 million people in the US, diagnosed with diabetes in 2016, just under 6% were diagnosed with Type I, while 91% were diagnosed with Type II. The remaining were diagnosed with other types of diabetes.
    Type II Diabetes
    Type II diabetes is largely preventable, and often curable, as it’s more of a lifestyle and diet related disease. Muscle loss from a lack of exercise, and excessive carbohydrate consumption are the main causes of Type II diabetes. 
    Intense strength training and carbohydrate restriction, along with supplementation and/or medication can often reduce or eliminate the severity of type II diabetes. At least, it can be resolved if it isn’t so severe that the type II diabetic has totally worn down his or her pancreas.
    Type I Diabetes
    Type I diabetes is an autoimmune condition, though. The body’s immune system perceives the beta cells of the pancreas as a pathogen and attacks them. 
    Without functioning beta cells, the pancreas cannot produce insulin, and the body cannot regulate blood sugar.
    It isn’t a death sentence, as type I diabetics can inject insulin each day to keep blood sugar in check. However, blood sugar does need to be closely monitored throughout the day, and the diet of a type I diabetic needs to be closely managed.
    Type I Diabetes, Babies, and Gluten
    Type II diabetes isn’t something that happens overnight. It usually takes years of poor diet and lifestyle choices. During that time, people often ignore the signs, such as rising blood sugar levels or insulin resistance, body fat gain, fluctuating energy levels, and other symptoms.
    However, the effects of type I diabetes can occur much faster, and are more significant. Especially when a child develops type I diabetes. It’s not like he or she knows enough to say, “Mom, Dad, I don’t feel right.”
    So, I hope this finding from the research study I mentioned above sends a clear message to parents considering giving their kids gluten-containing foods:
    For every 10 grams of gluten consumed per day at 18 months of age, the risk of developing Type I Diabetes later in life increases 46%.
    The researchers found the average child at 18 months consumed almost 9 grams of gluten each day. Of course, with averages, that means some kids are consuming much more. Scary!
    More Than Just Gluten
    Gluten isn’t the only thing that compromises the health of a baby. The type of delivery, whether the baby is fed breast milk or formula, and the mothers diet and lifestyle during pregnancy also play a role.
    For example, a study published in Nature recently looked at the gut bacteria of 600 healthy newborns, delivered vaginally or through cesarean section. Those delivered through C-section had more gut bacteria found in hospitals, many of which are pathogenic bacteria instead of healthy bacteria.
    More and more research shows that the makeup of the gut bacteria affects the health of the body, and the integrity of the digestive tract. Anything that compromises the digestive tract could allow gluten to be even more problematic.
    Read more: Health Benefits of Probiotics: Your Guide
    Of course, sometimes a C-section is unavoidable.
    I just bring it up because I’d expect babies born through C-section would ...
    7 min
  • Gluten Consumption, Babies, and the Risk of Type I Diabetes

    There are no good reasons to eat gluten. There are numerous reasons to avoid gluten-containing foods. This includes babies as much as it includes adults.



    Yet, parents are often encouraged to give their kids cereal once they start eating whole foods. Perhaps, these findings from The Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) will help you rethink eating it, or at least recommending it for young children.



    Based on results of studying more than 80,000 children, researchers in Norway found that gluten consumption at 18 months of age dramatically increased the risk of developing Type I diabetes.





    Type I vs Type II Diabetes



    Type I diabetes doesn’t get as much attention as type II. Of the roughly 23 million people in the US, diagnosed with diabetes in 2016, just under 6% were diagnosed with Type I, while 91% were diagnosed with Type II. The remaining were diagnosed with other types of diabetes.



    Type II Diabetes



    Type II diabetes is largely preventable, and often curable, as it’s more of a lifestyle and diet related disease. Muscle loss from a lack of exercise, and excessive carbohydrate consumption are the main causes of Type II diabetes. 



    Intense strength training and carbohydrate restriction, along with supplementation and/or medication can often reduce or eliminate the severity of type II diabetes. At least, it can be resolved if it isn’t so severe that the type II diabetic has totally worn down his or her pancreas.



    Type I Diabetes



    Type I diabetes is an autoimmune condition, though. The body’s immune system perceives the beta cells of the pancreas as a pathogen and attacks them. 



    Without functioning beta cells, the pancreas cannot produce insulin, and the body cannot regulate blood sugar.



    It isn’t a death sentence, as type I diabetics can inject insulin each day to keep blood sugar in check. However, blood sugar does need to be closely monitored throughout the day, and the diet of a type I diabetic needs to be closely managed.



    Type I Diabetes, Babies, and Gluten



    Type II diabetes isn’t something that happens overnight. It usually takes years of poor diet and lifestyle choices. During that time, people often ignore the signs, such as rising blood sugar levels or insulin resistance, body fat gain, fluctuating energy levels, and other symptoms.



    However, the effects of type I diabetes can occur much faster, and are more significant. Especially when a child develops type I diabetes. It’s not like he or she knows enough to say, “Mom, Dad, I don’t feel right.”



    So, I hope this finding from the research study I mentioned above sends a clear message to parents considering giving their kids gluten-containing foods:



    For every 10 grams of gluten consumed per day at 18 months of age, the risk of developing Type I Diabetes later in life increases 46%.



    The researchers found the average child at 18 months consumed almost 9 grams of gluten each day. Of course, with averages, that means some kids are consuming much more. Scary!



    More Than Just Gluten



    8 min
  • Gluten Consumption, Babies, and the Risk of Type I Diabetes
    There are no good reasons to eat gluten. There are numerous reasons to avoid gluten-containing foods. This includes babies as much as it includes adults.
    Yet, parents are often encouraged to give their kids cereal once they start eating whole foods. Perhaps, these findings from The Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) will help you rethink eating it, or at least recommending it for young children.
    Based on results of studying more than 80,000 children, researchers in Norway found that gluten consumption at 18 months of age dramatically increased the risk of developing Type I diabetes.
    Type I vs Type II Diabetes
    Type I diabetes doesn’t get as much attention as type II. Of the roughly 23 million people in the US, diagnosed with diabetes in 2016, just under 6% were diagnosed with Type I, while 91% were diagnosed with Type II. The remaining were diagnosed with other types of diabetes.
    Type II Diabetes
    Type II diabetes is largely preventable, and often curable, as it’s more of a lifestyle and diet related disease. Muscle loss from a lack of exercise, and excessive carbohydrate consumption are the main causes of Type II diabetes. 
    Intense strength training and carbohydrate restriction, along with supplementation and/or medication can often reduce or eliminate the severity of type II diabetes. At least, it can be resolved if it isn’t so severe that the type II diabetic has totally worn down his or her pancreas.
    Type I Diabetes
    Type I diabetes is an autoimmune condition, though. The body’s immune system perceives the beta cells of the pancreas as a pathogen and attacks them. 
    Without functioning beta cells, the pancreas cannot produce insulin, and the body cannot regulate blood sugar.
    It isn’t a death sentence, as type I diabetics can inject insulin each day to keep blood sugar in check. However, blood sugar does need to be closely monitored throughout the day, and the diet of a type I diabetic needs to be closely managed.
    Type I Diabetes, Babies, and Gluten
    Type II diabetes isn’t something that happens overnight. It usually takes years of poor diet and lifestyle choices. During that time, people often ignore the signs, such as rising blood sugar levels or insulin resistance, body fat gain, fluctuating energy levels, and other symptoms.
    However, the effects of type I diabetes can occur much faster, and are more significant. Especially when a child develops type I diabetes. It’s not like he or she knows enough to say, “Mom, Dad, I don’t feel right.”
    So, I hope this finding from the research study I mentioned above sends a clear message to parents considering giving their kids gluten-containing foods:
    For every 10 grams of gluten consumed per day at 18 months of age, the risk of developing Type I Diabetes later in life increases 46%.
    The researchers found the average child at 18 months consumed almost 9 grams of gluten each day. Of course, with averages, that means some kids are consuming much more. Scary!
    More Than Just Gluten
    Gluten isn’t the only thing that compromises the health of a baby. The type of delivery, whether the baby is fed breast milk or formula, and the mothers diet and lifestyle during pregnancy also play a role.
    For example, a study published in Nature recently looked at the gut bacteria of 600 healthy newborns, delivered vaginally or through cesarean section. Those delivered through C-section had more gut bacteria found in hospitals, many of which are pathogenic bacteria instead of healthy bacteria.
    More and more research shows that the makeup of the gut bacteria affects the health of the body, and the integrity of the digestive tract. Anything that compromises the digestive tract could allow gluten to be even more problematic.
    Read more: Health Benefits of Probiotics: Your Guide
    Of course, sometimes a C-section is unavoidable.
    I just bring it up because I’d expect babies born through C-section would ...
    7 min
  • More Evidence Sleep Debt Makes You Fatter
    One in three people sleep less than seven hours each night. One in three people are obese. There might be a connection there.
    Although everyone who’s overweight or obese isn’t sleep-deprived, and some people who are sleep-deprived might stay skinny, sleep definitely plays a role on body composition for most of us.
    A new study shows sleep debt causes you to store more fat, even when your diet remains unchanged. It also leaves you less satisfied from your meals, which could cause you to eat more than you need.
    On top of that, a second study just published shows that sleep debt isn’t just a problem for adults. It sheds more light on the impact it has on adolescents, especially girls.
    I’ll touch on these recent findings below.
    Not surprisingly, it's one of the three synergistic health habits I discuss in my book, The 3 Pillars of VIGOR.
    Short-Term Sleep Debt, Body Fat, and Satiety
    The first study looked at the impact of sleep debt during a typical workweek.
    Prior to beginning the study, fifteen healthy, young men spent a week at home, getting 10 hours in bed each night.
    Note: The researchers could only account for time in bed (TIB), not for actual hours slept, to run the study. That’s why I use the unusual phrase “time in bed” instead of hours slept.
    Then, they checked into the sleep lab, where they got 10 hours of time in bed for another three nights. That's 10 days in a row with 10 hours in bed. You might be wondering, "How can I get in on one of these studies?! Ten hours would be amazing!"
    Following their first three nights at the sleep lab, they were restricted to just five hours of time in bed for five nights in a row, similar to the lifestyle many Americans live each week. After those five nights of sleep restriction, they got two more nights of 10 hours time in bed to see if they recovered.
    Rather than looking at the impact the sleep debt had on breakfast the next morning, which is what most research has already reviewed, this group wanted to look at the impact of sleep debt on dinner, the biggest meal of the day for most people.
    Dinner remained the same on all nights, including the nights they got 10 hours of bedtime. So, the only difference in everything was the time in bed.
    The participants blood sugar fluctuations were the same after the nights with 10 hours or five hours of sleep. But their insulin levels were higher on the days following their shortened sleep.
    Without a change in blood sugar, insulin levels increased. Insulin increases fat storage, which the researchers saw based on the lab work they performed.
    In essence, the simple act of restricting sleep caused the participants to store more fat. On top of that, they felt less satisfied from the meals they ate. Given the opportunity to eat more, they probably would have. And, had they eaten more, based on their insulin levels, they would have stored more energy as fat.
    This explains why people can get fatter without a change in diet, or why they can’t lose weight if they try to diet while in sleep debt.
    The other interesting finding was that even after the two additional nights of 10 hours of sleep, their hormone levels had still not returned to normal.
    Teenagers With Too Little Sleep Are More Likely To Become Overweight Too
    Another study, just published in the Journal of The American Medical Association, Pediatrics, looked at the sleep patterns and body composition of 800 adolescents. 
    Not surprisingly, the less sleep they got, the more likely it was that they’d be overweight.
    That shouldn't be a surprise.
    What was a surprise was that those who went to sleep later, or who went to sleep at inconsistent times, were more likely to be overweight, regardless of the difference in hours they slept.
    This is an important finding for parents who think the solution is a later start time for schools. That's probably not going to help.
    The late or inconsistent bedtimes screw up their circadian r...
    8 min
  • More Evidence Sleep Debt Makes You Fatter

    One in three people sleep less than seven hours each night. One in three people are obese. There might be a connection there.



    Although everyone who’s overweight or obese isn’t sleep-deprived, and some people who are sleep-deprived might stay skinny, sleep definitely plays a role on body composition for most of us.



    A new study shows sleep debt causes you to store more fat, even when your diet remains unchanged. It also leaves you less satisfied from your meals, which could cause you to eat more than you need.



    On top of that, a second study just published shows that sleep debt isn’t just a problem for adults. It shed more light on the impact it has on adolescents, especially girls.



    I’ll touch on these recent findings below.



    Not surprisingly, it's one of the three synergistic health habits I discuss in my ebook, The First 3 Habits of VIGOR(ESS) Health.





    Short-Term Sleep Debt, Body Fat, and Satiety



    The first study looked at the impact of sleep debt during a typical workweek.



    Prior to beginning the study, fifteen healthy, young men spent a week at home, getting 10 hours in bed each night.



    Note: The researchers could only account for time in bed (TIB), not for actual hours slept, to run the study. That’s why I use the usual phrase “time in bed” instead of hours slept.



    Then, they checked into the sleep lab, where they got 10 hours of time in bed for another three nights. That's 10 days in a row with 10 hours in bed. You might be wondering, "How can I get in on one of these studies?! Ten hours would be amazing!"



    Following their first three nights at the sleep lab, they were restricted to just five hours of time in bed for five nights in a row, similar to the lifestyle many Americans live each week. After those five nights of sleep restriction, they got two more nights of 10 hours time in bed to see if they recovered.



    Rather than looking at the impact the sleep debt had on breakfast the next morning, which is what most research has already reviewed, this group wanted to look at the impact of sleep debt on dinner, the biggest meal of the day for most people.



    Dinner remained the same on all nights, including the nights they got 10 hours of bedtime. So, the only difference in everything was the time in bed.



    The participants blood sugar fluctuations were the same after the nights with 10 hours or five hours of sleep. But their insulin levels were higher on the days following their shortened sleep.



    Without a change in blood sugar, insulin levels increased. Insulin increases fat storage, which the researchers saw based on the lab work they performed.



    In essence, the simple act of restricting sleep caused the participants to store more fat. On top of that, they felt less satisfied from the meals they ate. Given the opportunity to eat more, they probably would have. And, had they eaten more, based on their insulin levels, they would have stored more energy as fat.



    This explains why people can get fatter without a change in diet, or why they can’t lose weight if they try to diet while in sleep debt.



    The other interesting finding was that even after the two additional nights of 10 hours of sleep, their hormone levels had still not returned to normal.



    Teenagers With Too Little Sleep Are More Likely To Become Overweight Too



    Another study,
    9 min
  • More Evidence Sleep Debt Makes You Fatter
    One in three people sleep less than seven hours each night. One in three people are obese. There might be a connection there.
    Although everyone who’s overweight or obese isn’t sleep-deprived, and some people who are sleep-deprived might stay skinny, sleep definitely plays a role on body composition for most of us.
    A new study shows sleep debt causes you to store more fat, even when your diet remains unchanged. It also leaves you less satisfied from your meals, which could cause you to eat more than you need.
    On top of that, a second study just published shows that sleep debt isn’t just a problem for adults. It sheds more light on the impact it has on adolescents, especially girls.
    I’ll touch on these recent findings below.
    Not surprisingly, it's one of the three synergistic health habits I discuss in my ebook, The First 3 Habits of VIGOR(ESS) Health.
    Short-Term Sleep Debt, Body Fat, and Satiety
    The first study looked at the impact of sleep debt during a typical workweek.
    Prior to beginning the study, fifteen healthy, young men spent a week at home, getting 10 hours in bed each night.
    Note: The researchers could only account for time in bed (TIB), not for actual hours slept, to run the study. That’s why I use the unusual phrase “time in bed” instead of hours slept.
    Then, they checked into the sleep lab, where they got 10 hours of time in bed for another three nights. That's 10 days in a row with 10 hours in bed. You might be wondering, "How can I get in on one of these studies?! Ten hours would be amazing!"
    Following their first three nights at the sleep lab, they were restricted to just five hours of time in bed for five nights in a row, similar to the lifestyle many Americans live each week. After those five nights of sleep restriction, they got two more nights of 10 hours time in bed to see if they recovered.
    Rather than looking at the impact the sleep debt had on breakfast the next morning, which is what most research has already reviewed, this group wanted to look at the impact of sleep debt on dinner, the biggest meal of the day for most people.
    Dinner remained the same on all nights, including the nights they got 10 hours of bedtime. So, the only difference in everything was the time in bed.
    The participants blood sugar fluctuations were the same after the nights with 10 hours or five hours of sleep. But their insulin levels were higher on the days following their shortened sleep.
    Without a change in blood sugar, insulin levels increased. Insulin increases fat storage, which the researchers saw based on the lab work they performed.
    In essence, the simple act of restricting sleep caused the participants to store more fat. On top of that, they felt less satisfied from the meals they ate. Given the opportunity to eat more, they probably would have. And, had they eaten more, based on their insulin levels, they would have stored more energy as fat.
    This explains why people can get fatter without a change in diet, or why they can’t lose weight if they try to diet while in sleep debt.
    The other interesting finding was that even after the two additional nights of 10 hours of sleep, their hormone levels had still not returned to normal.
    Teenagers With Too Little Sleep Are More Likely To Become Overweight Too
    Another study, just published in the Journal of The American Medical Association, Pediatrics, looked at the sleep patterns and body composition of 800 adolescents. 
    Not surprisingly, the less sleep they got, the more likely it was that they’d be overweight.
    That shouldn't be a surprise.
    What was a surprise was that those who went to sleep later, or who went to sleep at inconsistent times, were more likely to be overweight, regardless of the difference in hours they slept.
    This is an important finding for parents who think the solution is a later start time for schools. That's probably not going to help.
    8 min
  • Dumb Advice: Change Your Workouts To Keep Your Body Guessing
    Without question, the dumbest advice any trainer has ever said is...”you need to keep changing things up and keep your body guessing.”
    This ridiculousness is still getting passed around from one wannabe fitness “expert” to another. In reality, it’s flat-out wrong.
    You Need Progressive Resistance
    In every other area of knowledge and skill development, people understand the importance of slowly building upon the experience and skills you’ve developed in the past.
    Fitness is no different.
    For your body to get stronger, fitter, and healthier, you need to methodically add progressive stress or resistance to what you’ve done in the past.
    This fundamental concept is called the SAID Principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. You adapt to the specific physical stressors you face.
    Because my main objective on this site, and in my training program, is to help people build strength and lean mass to support health, fitness, and longevity, I'll use strength development as an example.
    You Develop Strength In 3 Steps
    Think about the first time you did something like a Barbell Reverse Lunge.
    It probably felt awkward. Your legs wobbled like you were drunk. You might have even lost your balance and tipped over.
    Assuming you kept at it, the next week, you probably moved more comfortably. You might have completed more reps or added a little weight to the bar.
    Your coordination and skill improved, making your movement more fluid and efficient.
    The first step in improved strength comes from improved coordination. 
    Then, once you got the coordination down, you were able to handle much more weight. Each week, you added 10, 20, maybe even 30 more pounds. Your strength grew so fast you started to wonder if one of your supplements had something illegal in it.
    This is common in all movements, and especially with novice lifters. Once you've developed coordination, your nervous system starts using more of the muscle you have already.
    The second step in improved strength comes from your nervous system engaging more of the muscle you have to complete the movement.
    You actually have enough strength to lift a car off a child trapped underneath it. It’s just that your nervous system keeps you from using that kind of strength because you’d do a ton of damage to your muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons. The bragging rights of lifting a car won't be worth it if you're confined to a hospital bed for months afterwards.
    That said, you can lift more weight, safely, than your nervous system allows you to in the early stages of strength training. By repeating the same movements over time, it realizes it can handle more weight without injury, so you gain a significant amount of strength without building more muscle.
    Eventually, you'll reach a limit of strength with the muscle you have. At this point, the only way to continue increasing strength is to build more muscle.
    The third step in improved strength comes from building more muscle.
    Unfortunately, most people don't make it to this point. They give up on their program, because they haven't seen results yet. Or, they move onto a different program because they like the idea of variety.
    As I often tell clients, if you want get results, you need to commit for the longterm, and remain monogamous. If you play the field with fitness program, you'll end up disappointed by the results, and end up making the all too common excuse, "Nothing ever works for me."
    As we often tell our grandson Asher, patience is a virtue. You don't get to the third step without getting through the first two.
    VIGOR Training is Training, Not Entertaining
    “Yeah, but Tom, I like more variety in my program.”
    I get it. Our attention spans are so short today that we have a hard time even reading a short message like this one from beginning to end. We crave variety, novelty, entertainment.
    VIGOR Training isn’t an entertrainment.
    6 min
  • Dumb Advice: Change Your Workouts Up To Keep Your Body Guessing

    Without question, the dumbest advice any trainer has ever said is...”you need to keep changing things up and keep your body guessing.”



    This ridiculousness is still getting passed around from one wannabe fitness “expert” to another. In reality, it’s flat-out wrong.





    You Need Progressive Resistance



    In every other area of knowledge and skill development, people understand the importance of slowly building upon the experience and skills you’ve developed in the past.



    Fitness is no different.



    For your body to get stronger, fitter, and healthier, you need to methodically add progressive stress or resistance to what you’ve done in the past.



    This fundamental concept is called the SAID Principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. You adapt to the specific physical stressors you face.



    Because my main objective on this site, and in my training program, is to help people build strength and lean mass to support health, fitness, and longevity, I'll use strength development as an example.



    You Develop Strength In 3 Steps



    Think about the first time you did something like a Barbell Reverse Lunge.



    It probably felt awkward. Your legs wobbled like you were drunk. You might have even lost your balance and tipped over.



    Assuming you kept at it, the next week, you probably moved more comfortably. You might have completed more reps or added a little weight to the bar.



    Your coordination and skill improved, making your movement more fluid and efficient.



    The first step in improved strength comes from improved coordination. 



    Then, once you got the coordination down, you were able to handle much more weight. Each week, you added 10, 20, maybe even 30 more pounds. Your strength grew so fast you started to wonder if one of your supplements had something illegal in it.



    This is common in all movements, and especially with novice lifters. Once you've developed coordination, your nervous system starts using more of the muscle you have already.



    The second step in improved strength comes from your nervous system engaging more of the muscle you have to complete the movement.



    You actually have enough strength to lift a car off a child trapped underneath it. It’s just that your nervous system keeps you from using that kind of strength because you’d do a ton of damage to your muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons. The bragging rights of lifting a car won't be worth it if you're confined to a hospital bed for months afterwards.



    That said, you can lift more weight, safely, than your nervous system allows you to in the early stages of strength training. By repeating the same movements over time, it realizes it can handle more weight without injury, so you gain a significant amount of strength without building more muscle.



    Eventually, you'll reach a limit of strength with the muscle you have. At this point, the only way to continue increasing strength is to build more muscle.



    The third step in improved strength comes from building more muscle.



    Unfortunately, most people don't make it to this point. They give up on their program, because they haven't seen results yet. Or, they move onto a different program because they like the idea of variety.



    As I often tell clients,
    7 min
  • Dumb Advice: Change Your Workouts To Keep Your Body Guessing
    Without question, the dumbest advice any trainer has ever said is...”you need to keep changing things up and keep your body guessing.”
    This ridiculousness is still getting passed around from one wannabe fitness “expert” to another. In reality, it’s flat-out wrong.
    You Need Progressive Resistance
    In every other area of knowledge and skill development, people understand the importance of slowly building upon the experience and skills you’ve developed in the past.
    Fitness is no different.
    For your body to get stronger, fitter, and healthier, you need to methodically add progressive stress or resistance to what you’ve done in the past.
    This fundamental concept is called the SAID Principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. You adapt to the specific physical stressors you face.
    Because my main objective on this site, and in my training program, is to help people build strength and lean mass to support health, fitness, and longevity, I'll use strength development as an example.
    You Develop Strength In 3 Steps
    Think about the first time you did something like a Barbell Reverse Lunge.
    It probably felt awkward. Your legs wobbled like you were drunk. You might have even lost your balance and tipped over.
    Assuming you kept at it, the next week, you probably moved more comfortably. You might have completed more reps or added a little weight to the bar.
    Your coordination and skill improved, making your movement more fluid and efficient.
    The first step in improved strength comes from improved coordination. 
    Then, once you got the coordination down, you were able to handle much more weight. Each week, you added 10, 20, maybe even 30 more pounds. Your strength grew so fast you started to wonder if one of your supplements had something illegal in it.
    This is common in all movements, and especially with novice lifters. Once you've developed coordination, your nervous system starts using more of the muscle you have already.
    The second step in improved strength comes from your nervous system engaging more of the muscle you have to complete the movement.
    You actually have enough strength to lift a car off a child trapped underneath it. It’s just that your nervous system keeps you from using that kind of strength because you’d do a ton of damage to your muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons. The bragging rights of lifting a car won't be worth it if you're confined to a hospital bed for months afterwards.
    That said, you can lift more weight, safely, than your nervous system allows you to in the early stages of strength training. By repeating the same movements over time, it realizes it can handle more weight without injury, so you gain a significant amount of strength without building more muscle.
    Eventually, you'll reach a limit of strength with the muscle you have. At this point, the only way to continue increasing strength is to build more muscle.
    The third step in improved strength comes from building more muscle.
    Unfortunately, most people don't make it to this point. They give up on their program, because they haven't seen results yet. Or, they move onto a different program because they like the idea of variety.
    As I often tell clients, if you want get results, you need to commit for the longterm, and remain monogamous. If you play the field with fitness program, you'll end up disappointed by the results, and end up making the all too common excuse, "Nothing ever works for me."
    As we often tell our grandson Asher, patience is a virtue. You don't get to the third step without getting through the first two.
    VIGOR Training is Training, Not Entertaining
    “Yeah, but Tom, I like more variety in my program.”
    I get it. Our attention spans are so short today that we have a hard time even reading a short message like this one from beginning to end. We crave variety, novelty, entertainment.
    VIGOR Training isn’t an entertrainment.
    6 min

About Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

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Tune into the audio version of my written articles found at tomnikkola.com, read by yours truly. I candidly cover health and fitness,…