We sent a 7 question fitness quiz out yesterday without providing the answers to give people a chance to think about their responses to each question. While these 7 are not the be-all-end-all in fitness knowledge, it will give you a good idea of the awareness you need to accomplish goals.
Let’s see how you did:
Here are the questions (for those that missed it the first time) and the answers….
1. What is the best thing to eat post workout?:
A. Fats only
B. Fats and Protein.
C. Protein only
D. Protein and Carbs
E. Carbs only
Answer:
The best thing to eat post workout is a blend of protein and carbohydrates. These are the energy/building block foods that you’ll need to consume after a workout to begin the repair/replenishment process.
A good choice for this is a protein/carb shake that will be digested and assimilated in the body easily.
As well, depending on what you call a “workout” (more on that later), your next solid food meal can also be “carb heavy” with additional protein.
However, the rest of the meals during the day should focus on high quality fats and lean cuts of protein.
Yup, I said fats. Did that blow your mind? Then you have more to learn…..
2. A well designed fitness program has many variables. Put the following workout variables in order:
A. Duration – how long the session lasts (10 minutes, 1 hour, etc)
B. Intensity – how hard you work during the session (there is another definition of intensity, but we’ll keep that separate for now and just consider intensity to mean “effort”)
C. Frequency – how many times per week you workout
D. Consistency – how many workouts you plan and execute over the weeks, months, years)
Answer:
Like many things that are fitness related, there is usually some overlap to the answers. However, probably the most straightforward answer to this (and in order of priority) is…..
First – Intensity
Tied for 2nd – Frequency and Consistency
A distant 3rd – Duration.
If you want to create change in the body, a certain intensity has to be achieved in order for the body to adapt to the stimulus. So if you are in the “I ride the bike for 45 minutes, possibly flipping through a magazine, 4 days per week and my body never changes” category, well then, that is the reason.
There are two golden rules.
A. If you can read while you are working out, YOU AREN’T WORKING OUT!
B. There are NO FAT SPRINTERS!
(more on that one later).
Frequency and Consistency are important. There’s no question about it. You need to challenge your body often enough that it has to adapt to the demands placed on it. Then you need to repeat that consistently to get results.
Duration is the non factor because you can go as long as you want, but if you always stay under the threshold that promotes change (i.e non-intense training), then there is no physiological reason for your body to adapt to the demands (or lack of) being placed on it.
3. Soy is….
A. generally good for you
B. generally bad for you
C. bad for men, good for women
D. bad for women and men.
E. good for infants
Answer:
Soy is…..
Generally bad for women and men and infants.
Oh my god….did you hear that sound? That was the sound of a million vegetarians regurgitating their tofu patties and soy lattes simultaneously.
Ok – to be a little more specific, for the MOST part, (not every circumstance), the soy products that are commercially available and used frequently in MAINSTREAM products are the ones to avoid. There are certain circumstances where it works, but usually only in small amounts.
Don’t believe me? Type “soy is bad” or “the truth about soy” into Google and see what you find.
So men, if you don’t want your grapes turning into raisins, stay away from it.
Ladies – if you want your hormone levels to stay where they should be, avoid it.
4. You burn more calories during…
A. Strength Training
B. Spinning
C. Circuit Training
D. Jogging
E. Aerobics class
Answer:
All things being equal, you burn more calories during…..
Circuit training (aka – a fast paced high intensity mix of strength training exercises and of speed/agility/quickness/cardio type drills).
There are a million variables with this list and I can hear it all now….
“When I run, I run fast”
“My aerobics class is really hard. We sweat a lot”
“I spin and since cycling is the new, cool thing, it must be good for you.”
Here’s the deal….
What really produces results, (and by results we mean an increase in lean body mass and a decrease in fat mass) is ELEVATING YOUR METABOLISM.
Research shows that long slow cardio type exercises will burn calories WHILE you exercise but not AFTER you exercise. So let’s say you compare calories burned in a spin class vs a circuit training session (and let’s qualify the circuit training by saying I’m talking about credible trainers instructing it…not the kind of trainers that think lifting 3 lb dumbbells will ‘tone’ you). The calories burned during both sessions may be similar…you may even burn more with the spin class (if it is quite intense).
But what will continue to burn the calories later that day and the next day? BAM – circuit training, strength training and anything else where you have to engage your muscles as opposed to just your heart and lungs. This is what elevates your metabolism.
5. Strength training makes women bulky…
A. An emphatic “Yes, always”
B. Usually never
C. It’s 50/50
D. I don’t know, I never lift more than 3lbs
E. About 70% of the time
And the answer is:
Usually never.
You know what does make you bulky? Sitting on your ass having a bag of chips for dinner.
Here’s the deal – when women have the concern that weight training makes them bulky, they have either read about it in a 1980′s Cosmo magazine and have no personal experience with it OR they flip through a women’s bodybuilding magazine and go “eeeewwwwwwww” at the women that are so masculine, they have to shave their backs.
All together now……”eeeeeeewwwwwww”…..
That’s not what we are talking about. A scientifically calculated approach to strength training will yield incredible results for all physique types. The amount of women out there that could actually get bulky from doing a proper program is very minimal. VERY minimal.
And if you think it’s that easy, ask a female bodybuilder how easy it is for her to put on that kind of mass. No woman ever wakes up one morning and says “oh my, where did this 25lbs of lean, ripped muscle come from?” It would take years to achieve it and you have to try to get it.
Strong does not have to mean big or bulky. But half a bottle of wine every night and a crap diet….now THAT is the way to get big and bulky.
6. If you want to reduce your weight and change the shape of your body, the best way is…
A. Lots of cardio
B. Focus on nutrition
C. Strength Training
D. Cardio and Low Carb diet
E. Strength training and nutrition
F. All of the above
Note the question read “reduce weight AND change the shape of your body”….
The answer is….
Strength training and nutrition.
Why not “all of the above”?
A few reasons…
1. If you are training that hard, you can’t be on a low carb diet. It’s not about going LOW carb, it’s about carb (and other nutrient) timing and manipulation.
2. Doing ALL of that, hell….who has time to do all that? We’re talking real world stuff here.
3. If you have done nothing, ANYTHING is good. If you are just getting off the couch and all this is new, you just have to MOVE.
But copious amounts of cardio is not the answer. It may reduce the overall size of your body (because chances are you went from very little activity to a lot more, hence you started burning some calories), but it will not change the SHAPE of your body nearly as effectively as strength training.
So if you want to be a smaller, but still flabby version of your former self, just stick to cardio. If you want to add some nice shape and spend less time exercising, then hit the weights.
The rest is completely about nutrition. That has to be dialed in for success in any program. To be clear…
The best designed program in the world will have mediocre results if your nutrition is not dialed in.
Said another way….
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Ever.
7. Which of the following burns more calories?
A. 20 minutes of interval sprinting (run 20 seconds, rest for 40 seconds, repeat for 20 minutes)
B. 60 minutes jogging
Answer:
So if you’ve been following along, you’ll be thinking that the answer is 20 minutes of interval sprints.
Well….what I can say is that the answer is a definitive……..IT DEPENDS.
The question asked about calories during the specific exercise and that all depends on what you consider “jogging”.
If you run at a fairly fast pace, you could burn more calories during the one hour run.
But the important part here once again is that the intensity is key. The net effect is that the 20 minutes of interval training will produce greater physique and athletic carryover benefits than the jog (again, elevating metabolism).
If you run because you are a competitive runner, then that’s great. If you run because you believe that’s the quickest way to get in the best shape, you have more to learn…..
So there it is.
The comments section is open for anyone to agree or disagree.
Chances are Peak clients did pretty well on that quiz. If you didn’t know the answers (or more likely had different answers) $97 will set you on the path to a proper fitness education.
Yours in health,
Cord
