AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH MAGAZINE

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ISSUE 81 - 11/06/2005

1. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes."- The Buddha

Success not only requires working smart and working hard, but being able to stick around long enough to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Many people either give up early on or right before success is about to occur. Many people simply give up at the first sign of trouble which just demonstrates clearly that they were not really serious about the goal in the first place. Adversity should be expected on the path to acquiring anything meaningful. In fact with many strength training programs there is a dipping week that usually occurs in week two or three in which the trainee gets weaker temporarily. This is the period in which your body and central nervous system are adapting to the program. Many people panic at this point and switch to another program failing to realize that they were just about to hit a "gains" phase in week four or five which many call the "rebound" week.

Business, is not much different. The first year is always hard. Complaining that things are not happening in the first few months is simply being completely unrealistic. It takes time to make things happen. Your goal in the first year should be to build as much momentum as possible and build a solid foundation to launch off of in year two. The first year is basically a year of trial an error as you come into yourself. Now what would happen if you threw in the towel right before year two? You would miss out on the rewards of all of the momentum and discipline that you applied. Basically, you would be missing the "gains" year and what a shame that is. This is tragic to say the least and also very common. This does not mean that it should take forever. You should have measurable results in the second year and a clear idea of where you are going. The real key is to have the mental toughness and endurance to stick around and keep the fires burning.

Life, like business and training is an endurance event. This does not meant that I recommend marathons as the ideal source of exercise. Far from it. It just means that if you are not healthy, you will not live long enough to enjoy the results of your training, business, and life. You have to treat your business and life for that matter like a periodization program. A periodization program has you cycle between phases of hard training, moderate training, and light training so that you can avoid burning out and make progress every year and peak at the right time. If you train with maximum intensity all year around, you will burn out fast and will go into a deep state of over training. More serious (notice I said serious) trainees are over trained than not which explains why many athletes have lower growth hormone levels than people that do not train at all (more about that in this week's exercise tip). Now you can cycle your training every week as well. For example one intense workouts, one moderate workout, and one light workout. It does not have to be a complicated issue.

In business, I like to hit the first three months of every year as hard as possible. Doing so builds a great deal of momentum and sets you up for the entire year. Of course, you still have to work hard and smart all year long, but if executed properly not as hard as the first three months. Now, if you completely slack off in the first quarter if the year, you have to spend a great deal of time in the second quarter getting the momentum going and by the time you do, there is not much time left in the year. See what I mean? Nail the first three months of every year and then taper off as the year progresses. Or simply work hard for two months and have a back off month in which you put in a moderate effort. Why not work super hard all year around? The harder and longer you work, the more money you make right? True, in the short run. Working super hard for many years will of course work, but how long can you keep up that pace? You do not want to burn out right before you peak and give up.

In a training DVD, by strength coach Jay Schroeder, Coach Schroeder stated that when he worked with Adam Archuleta he had a long run plan of having him peak after college. This is when Adam was still in high school. Jay's attitude was that Adam should be at his best when he has the possibility of being an NFL player, rather than in high school or college where there is not as much on the line. Of course, Adam had to be good in college to get picked and that was taken into account. Jay's plan paid off and Archuleta who Jay states was not a genetically gifted athlete is playing in NFL and is a training machine!

Without a long term vision, you have no idea where you are going. You need to have a clear idea of where you want to go and what you need to do in the present to get there. You also need to be able to pace yourself so that you can stay in the game long enough to enjoy the peaks and survive the valleys.

Live Life Aggressively!

Mike Mahler

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2. HELP THE KATRINA VICTIMS

My friend and top body worker Dianna Linden recently sent me a list of non-profit organizations for helping out the Katrina Victims. Here is the list:

• Operation USA http://www.opusa.org
• Mercy Corps http://www.mercycorps.org
• Oxfam America http://www.oxfamamerica.org
• America's Second Harvest http://www.secondharvest.org

I encourage you to take a look at the above organizations and make a donation to the one that sits well with you. Also if you want to help out animals, make a donation to http://www.bestfriends.org.

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3. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH TRAINING ARTICLE

Designing A Personalized Program

There are plenty of great programs out there such as: 5x5, EDT, HOC, German Volume Training, and PHA. However, just because a program works for others, it does not mean that it will work well for you. Many trainees look for programs online, in magazines, in books etc hoping that they will find the best training regimen. First, there is no best training regimen. No program will work forever. Second, generic programs do not take you as an individual into account. No one is thinking of your lifestyle, stress levels, sleeping habits, and your physiology. Is any of this stuff important? You bet it is. If you work ten hours a day, sleep five hours per night, and eat three crappy meals per day, chances are high that an intense training program such as EDT is not a fit for you. You may only be able to work out two times per week at a moderate intensity and expect to make progress. Moreover, if your testosterone levels and Growth hormone levels are low (applies to both men and women) then intense training may not be a fit for you. Your levels may be low from either working out too hard or inactivity. This needs to be determined to maximize the benefits of a training regimen.

Doctors often state that if you IGF-1 levels are close to 200ng/dl then you can increase it with intense exercise. However, your GH levels may be low due to intense training, high levels of stress, and lack of sleep. Thus, you may have to decrease the frequency and intensity of your training to get your levels back up. You may even be better off taking a week off from training and catching up on sleep. By the way, low GH levels is not something that you should take lightly. Keeping your GH levels in the ideal range of 200ng/dl to 350ng/dl will have a profound effect on your training and well being as GH is an anti-aging hormone. This does not mean that you should start taking GH injections, but it does mean that you should make lifestyle changes to enhance your GH levels. Same goes for testosterone. If you are levels are low (Men below 500ng/dl) then you may suffer from depression, lack of zeal for life, higher body fat, lower energy, and sub optimal or no results from your training regimen. Optimizing anabolic hormones is very important for getting the most out of your training program. Start by making sure that you sleep is up to par. Eight to nine hours is ideal for most adults and seven should be the bare minimum. Think that you are the exception? Fine, do your thing and when you eventually hit a wall or catch pneumonia do not say that I did not warn you. The first two hours of deep sleep is when your body produces the largest amount of GH and guess how much it costs? That is right nothing. Better than spending $1000.00 a month on injections. Try adding a 20-30 minute power nap after your workouts as well to enhance recovery. There are also some natural products that you can take to enhance growth hormone and testosterone. I followed Dr Wong's (http://www.totalityofbeing.com) recommendations in addition to getting more sleep and reducing training frequency and increased my IGF-1 levels by 50% in two months. I went from 182ng/dl to 283ng/dl. Dr. Wong has a lot of great articles on what you can do to increase testosterone, lower estrogen, and decrease inflammation at his site. Check it out and if you are really serious sign up for his consulting services. He is by far the most knowledgeable person on alternative medicine for athletes that I am aware of.

Other hormones that should be measured are DHEA and Coritsol which is generally done via a saliva test taken periodically through out the day. DHEA is another ant-aging hormone that should be kept in ideal ranges and cortisol is an aging hormone that surges during periods of stress. Many of you that are doing well on training programs that are depleting your GH and Testosterone levels are riding off of high cortisol. Eventually you will hit a wall and it will not be a pretty site.

Next, when designing a personalized program you want to focus on balance. I always strive for balance with my clients regardless of what their goals are. Thus, there will always be a major pushing exercise, pulling, Quad, hamstring, and core exercise. I like to focus on exercises that give the most bang for the buck so the focus is generally on compound exercises rather than isolation exercises. Also free weights are always picked over machines unless someone has an injury or a certain body type. For example really tall guys (6'5 and above) may be better off on leg presses than full squats. Or box squats may be a better option. Volume and intensity are dictated by the goal. If someone wants to get bigger, then high volume and moderate frequency is applied. If someone wants to get stronger and not bigger than moderate intensity and high frequency is one way to go. For fat loss, I prefer having my clients do circuit training , PHA, and HOC. Again, all the above has to be personalized by taking someone's lifestyle into account. Sleeping patterns, stress levels, etc. Recently, I encourage clients to take a blood test to determine their testosterone, Growth hormone, estrogen, DHEA, DHT etc levels. And a saliva test to determine cortisol and DHEA. This information is very valuable in designing a program. The more you know about yourself the better. Lack of training progress can occur for many reasons that you may not be aware of without careful analysis. If you are in a stressful relationship or have a job that you hate, that could be playing a major role in lack of training progress. Most trainers look at nutrition and sleep, but I recommend that people go far beyond that to maximize the benefits of training. When you get your blood work done, make sure you got to a holistic M.D. that can give you some meaningful feedback rather than an M.D. that is going to keep you in the waiting room for an hour and then go through your results in ten seconds before he or she says, "see you next year."

I will conclude by stating that you can of course get good results on generic programs. Many people benefit form the free articles that I have on my website. However, personalized programs are the wave of the future. The more personalized the program, the greater chance of success. Do not leave your health to chance. Take charge of your health and treat it like a business. Just as accounting is important in business, keeping tabs on your health is also critical.

Want a personalized program? Click here.

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4. GET THE AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH DVD COMBO PACK TODAY

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6. NEW AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

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7. THE AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH SOLUTION FOR THE ROAD WARRIOR

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8. KETTLEBELL TRAINING INFORMATION PAGE (NEW)

http://www.mikemahler.com/kettlebell_info.html

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9. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

http://www.mikemahler.com/newsletter

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10. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH ARTICLES

http://www.mikemahler.com/articles.html

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11. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH TRAINING JOURNAL

http://www.mikemahler.com/journal.html

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12. RECOMMENDED READING LIST

http://www.mikemahler.com/reading.html

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Until next time.

Live Life Aggressively!

Feel free to email me with your comments and feedback at mahler25@yahoo.com

Mike Mahler

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