Latest news with #strengthcoach
CNN
6 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Is chronic back or shoulder tension limiting your movement? An expert explains what to do
Dana Santas, known as the 'Mobility Maker,' is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book 'Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.' That persistent tension in your back, hip or shoulder never seems to fully resolve despite stretching before and after workouts, foam rolling, and even visiting a massage therapist regularly. In fact, sometimes the tightness feels worse after stretching. If this situation sounds familiar, your body might not just be tight — it may be protecting itself through involuntary muscle contractions. Recognizing the distinction between mechanical tightness and protective tension is crucial for anyone experiencing chronic stiffness, recurring pain or short-term mobility gains that just won't stick. Your nervous system constantly monitors your body for potential threats — not just external dangers, but internal instabilities and areas of weakness or injury. When your body detects a risk to physical function, it responds by creating protective tension to limit movement in vulnerable areas. This protective response can be triggered by various factors: poor posture or movement patterns that create misalignment, chronic stress that keeps your body in a heightened state of alert, joint instability that makes your nervous system feel unsafe, or past injuries that never fully healed. Unlike simple mechanical muscle tightness from overuse, protective tension is your body's attempt to generate stability where it perceives a lack. As a mobility coach in professional sports, I am constantly assessing my clients to ensure that we don't overlook areas where protective tension is present. It's important to acknowledge and address it as soon as possible to avoid it becoming counterproductive. Otherwise, what starts as an initially helpful safeguard can evolve into chronic tension that limits movement, creates pain, and resists traditional stretching and soft-tissue release techniques, such as massage and foam rolling. How can you tell whether your stiffness is protective rather than mechanical? In my experience, there are four primary indicators: 1. Areas that feel worse after stretching are a major red flag. If you consistently stretch a tight spot in your back or neck only to experience fleeting relief that gives way to increased painful restriction, your nervous system may be responding to what it perceives as a threat by creating even more guarding. 2. One-sided tension that doesn't respond to bilateral stretching can indicate a protective response. For example, if only your right hip flexor feels tight despite stretching both sides equally, your nervous system may be guarding that specific area for a reason — perhaps due to residual effects of an old injury, pelvic misalignment, joint instability or weakness on that side. 3. Recurring tightness in the same areas despite consistent stretching is another strong indicator. If you've been doing hamstring stretches regularly for months without lasting improvement, the issue may not be muscle length but nervous system protection. 4. Painful stiffness that varies dramatically in intensity based on stress levels, sleep quality or emotional state also suggests protective guarding. Basic mechanical tightness happens in direct correlation with physical activity, abating within a few days. In contrast, protective tension is more chronic and fluctuates with the overall state of your nervous system. If you recognize any of these potential symptoms of protective tension in yourself, see your doctor to determine whether you have any underlying injuries or other pathological issues requiring additional treatment. When you have protective tension, remember that it's a nervous system reaction rather than strictly a muscular condition. You cannot simply 'stretch out' impacted muscles. Too often, traditional stretching can actually increase tightening by forcing deep muscle lengthening that makes your nervous system feel threatened. A gentler, more comprehensive, mind-body approach that addresses your overall nervous system state is necessary to help your body feel safe enough to let go so that you can begin working to reestablish healthy patterns of movement. Regular practices that promote nervous system regulation, such as breathing exercises, meditation and walks in nature, can help decrease stress levels and help your body let go of guarding patterns. Core stability and postural control also play crucial roles in helping your nervous system feel safe. A strong, stable core helps provide the foundation your nervous system needs to allow mobility in other areas. If your deep stabilizing muscles aren't doing their jobs effectively, your nervous system may create tension in other areas to compensate. Sleep quality directly affects your nervous system's threat detection sensitivity. Poor sleep can make your nervous system more reactive, leading to increased protective tension even in response to normal daily activities. For best results, work with a physical therapist or qualified trainer who is familiar with protective tension to determine the most appropriate corrective exercises for your specific needs. Before attempting any mobility work, spend a few minutes focusing on deep, rhythmic breathing to downregulate your nervous system and shift it into a more receptive state. Practice five or six rounds of a stress-relieving 5-7-3 breathing pattern: Inhale for a count of five, exhale for seven and pause for a count of three before the next breath. Your breath directly influences your nervous system: Slow, controlled breathing signals safety, putting you into a parasympathetic 'rest-and-restore' state, while rapid, shallow breathing can trigger a sympathetic 'fight-or-flight' state, triggering more guarding. Try to maintain slow, deep, conscious breathing during any stretching and mobility training. Start with gentle, controlled movements that stay within your comfortable range of motion rather than pushing to your end range. This approach keeps your nervous system from sounding the alarm, showing it that movement can be safe and controlled rather than forced or aggressive. To create lasting results, combine mobility work with strength training for stability. Protective tension often exists because your nervous system doesn't trust that a joint or region is strong or stable enough to handle the demands placed on it. By improving strength and control, you are building the stability your body needs to feel supported. Finally, be sure to prioritize adequate rest and recovery. A well-rested nervous system will be far more willing to release guarding mechanisms and allow functional movement. Remember, your body's protective responses aren't obstacles to overcome: They are intelligent communications about what your inner systems need to feel safe and function optimally. When you honor this wisdom, you're laying the foundation for sustainable mobility and pain relief. Sign up for CNN's Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Nine simple, evidence-based moves to try before calling it quits on fitness
You wouldn't start building a house without laying firm foundations, yet people often focus on fitness minutiae without nailing the basics first. Splashing out on pricey high-tech recovery tools in the absence of a good night's sleep, or spending hours hunting down ' the best exercises ' with time that could be better spent on a simple-yet-effective workout – the former options are shiny and exciting, but the latter deliver the greatest benefits. This is something certified strength and conditioning coach Danny Matranga has repeatedly observed across thousands of sessions, training clients from all walks of life. Worse: when these nuanced interventions don't deliver noticeable results, people's motivation to maintain healthy habits tends to wane. 'An issue that people have is that they don't believe in themselves, and they don't believe they can use food and exercise to reposition themselves for better fitness,' he says. 'I hate when people give up, because there is a bunch of basic stuff you can try first.' Below, he shares the nine things you should try before labelling your fitness a lost cause. Ten-second takeaways: Lift weights two times per week. Aim for seven or more hours of sleep per night. Eat more plants and less processed food. Regulate your stress levels through meditation, mindfulness, nature exposure and managing your behaviours. Drink more water – at least 1.9 litres per day. Spend more time outside, particularly soon after you wake up. Lower your alcohol consumption to within the government guidelines of 14 units per week. If you are looking to build muscle and/or lose weight, aim to consume 1.6-2g of protein per kilogram of body weight each day. If not, aim for a minimum of 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight each day. Sit less and walk more, making conscious decisions to increase your opportunities to move. Try to aim for at least 7,000 steps per day or 10 per cent more than your current daily average, according to your phone, fitness tracker or smartwatch – whichever figure is lower. Tip one: Lift weights As a strength coach, this was always likely to be Matranga's top recommendation, but he has good reason to prioritise strength training. Not only is it the type of exercise he finds clients are most likely to stick with long-term, but it also offers immense benefits disproportionate to the amount of time you spend exercising. 'What you get out of weightlifting is improved strength, muscularity and confidence,' Matranga says. It will also strengthen your bones, tendons and ligaments while improving your mobility, leaving you more resilient against injury. Attempting to exercise without these attributes is an uphill struggle. But establishing a baseline level of strength by lifting weights a couple of times per week will increase physical capacity and autonomy, making exercise a more enjoyable proposition. 'If you can hold on to muscle while managing your appetite, you will grow stronger, rather than just getting smaller, and that can be a big driver of sticking with it,' Matranga adds. He also sings the praises of strength training for regulating blood sugar and appetite. This is because glucose – or blood sugar – is pulled into the cells of working muscles during exercise to be used as energy, which can help prevent sharp spikes and drops in blood sugar levels during the day. In a previous article, I spoke to him about the numerous benefits of weightlifting and how to begin strength training for longevity – a valuable resource if you're interested in giving it a try. You can also find a sample full-body dumbbell workout below. Tip two: Sleep more 'Another one that affects our appetite is sleep,' says Matranga. 'If we get less sleep than we need, everything is harder; saying yes to exercise, saying no to a beer. 'So if, like so many of us, your default programming is not aligned with exercising and healthy eating, trying to do those things in a state of chronic sleep deprivation is incredibly hard.' Science supports this. A randomised control trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that 'lack of sufficient sleep [in this case, five-and-a-half hours or less] may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction'. In short: sleep deprivation made it harder to lose fat, while the study also found that ample sleep – eight-and-a-half hours each night – helped people maintain muscle while losing weight. But how much more sleep do you need? Swerving sleep deprivation by aiming for more than six or seven hours per night is vital, but beyond this, sleep needs can be subjective. 'This is where experimentation comes in,' The Sleep Scientist Dr Sophie Bostock tells me. 'Start with 15-20 minutes of extra sleep in the morning, then if you feel a bit better, consider half an hour.' Tip three: Eat more plants and less processed food 'Fast food and ultra-processed foods are where most Americans get most of their calories,' says California-based Matranga. 'They have lots of calories and very little nutrition. Fruits and vegetables are the opposite. They are very high in micronutrients, which help us function. They are also high in fibre, which is important for feeding our gut microbes, regulating our blood lipids [fats in the blood] and keeping us full.' Fellow trainer, author and fat loss specialist Ben Carpenter says fruit and vegetables can also benefit appetite regulation by replacing other less nutritious foods in our diet. To back this up, he points to research that found that promoting fruit consumption in children and adolescents actually decreased overall calorie consumption and reduced obesity prevalence. Meanwhile, a 2025 study published in Nature found that overweight or obese adults were able to lose significantly more weight on a diet of minimally processed foods than they were on an equivalent diet of ultra-processed foods. Tip four: Manage your stress I recently quizzed longevity specialist Dr Mohammed Enayat on what cost-free behaviours he would recommend for living as healthily as you can for as long as possible. Managing stress – through factors such as meditation, mindfulness and exposure to nature – was one of his four key pillars. 'The human organism is a combination of biological processes and the effects our environment has on us,' he explains. 'If we operate the human body in a toxic environment, we're exposed to bad things and toxins through diet and high stress, and this drives inefficiency and disease within our biology. That's why it's known that stress kills.' Managing stress is one of Matranga's top recommendations, too: 'If you want to live healthily and engage with exercise, you have to ask yourself: 'Is the amount of stress I'm carrying around affecting my diet and exercise compliance?' And if it is, are there things you can do to manage this stress? 'Maybe go for a walk, maybe talk to a counsellor, maybe do some breathwork. Whatever is causing this stress, it is not objectively healthy to carry around. Being chronically stressed is also a great excuse for not exercising, so we want to limit those excuses.' Tip five: Drink more water Like exercising and healthy eating, you probably already know that staying hydrated is good for you. But when a busy day runs away from you, it's not uncommon to find yourself parched come 5pm. Next thing you know, you're reaching for a fizzy drink to quench this thirst. 'Going back to ultra-processed foods, another big issue is that we get a lot of our fluids from calorie-rich drinks,' says Matranga. 'Most people should consume most of their fluids from water, which contains zero calories. It's very hydrating and also satiating, so this is probably the easiest tool on this list to use.' A systematic review of existing research, conducted at the University of California San Francisco, concluded that 'drinking enough water [a minimum of eight cups or roughly 1.9 litres per day, in most cases] can help with weight loss and prevent kidney stones, as well as migraines, urinary tract infections and low blood pressure'. Tip six: Get more sunlight It's widely known that sunlight can top up the body's vitamin D supply, although exposure has to be managed to prevent unwanted adverse effects such as sunburn. But the main benefits of this point lie in the secondary effects of getting outside. Sunlight in the morning can set your circadian rhythm – or your body's internal body clock – on the path to success, improving sleep quality and potentially improving your body's internal functions too. Meanwhile, research has linked nature exposure to improved health. A 2021 narrative review, appearing in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 'found evidence for associations between exposure to nature and improved cognitive function, brain activity, blood pressure, mental health, physical activity and sleep'. On a less scientific level, the act of going outside is also going to increase the amount you move, which is rarely a bad thing. 'I have never met a human who thrives sitting in an office all day,' says Matranga. 'We are organisms that evolved to be social and to be outside. For a lot of us, you might not be the type to go to a gym, but if you commit to going on a couple of 30-minute walks outside each day, that's going to be your exercise.' Tip seven: Reduce your alcohol intake You have likely seen articles on the internet or social media videos telling you what not to eat. Alcohol is the major factor missing from much of this content, in Matranga's eyes. 'It is unequivocally the worst thing we consume consistently,' he says. 'It is a known group one carcinogen [categorised by the International Agency for Research on Cancer ]; it increases your risk of disease; it increases your risk of getting bad sleep; and it has calories that make it harder to maintain a healthy weight. 'A lot of people could make tremendous strides with their health if they went from drinking excessively to just drinking in moderation. Alcohol consumption is the one habit I think both the United States and the United Kingdom have a crazy relationship with, compared to a lot of the rest of the world.' A chat with Professor David Nutt, a leading neuropsychopharmacologist and author of Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health, shed further light on why people struggle to reduce their alcohol intake. 'I think the question you have to ask is why people still drink,' he says. 'The answer is because alcohol is still the best drug or drink we have to relax you.' For this reason, giving it up is not on the table for most people, despite a 2023 release from the World Health Organisation stating that 'no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health'. If this is the case, Nutt recommends sticking to the government guidelines around alcohol consumption to reduce your risk of related conditions such as cancer, liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular disease. 'The current guidelines are 14 units per week. If you can stick within those, the harms of alcohol are relatively minor. Most people who stick within these limits will not experience significant harm,' he explains. 'If you do drink, always have at least two days a week where you don't drink at all, because that allows your liver, heart and blood vessels to recover – but don't stockpile. If you're going to try and stick to the 14 units, don't take them in one go because that's going to be more deleterious to your brain.' Tip eight: Increase your protein intake 'Like eating more plants, this tip relates to the idea that, 'If I eat more of what's good for me, I'll have less room for what's not so good for me',' Matranga says. 'And just like fruit and vegetables, protein is very filling and often contains many other nutrients. 'It fuels our muscles and it costs a lot of calories to metabolise, so I find that if people add protein and veggies to their diet, and try to drop fast food, that little switch has a massive impact.' He recommends animal proteins such as beef, chicken, fish, eggs and yoghurt, as well as vegan sources like tempeh and tofu. Protein also has plenty of benefits beyond weight management, says FuelHub nutritionist Edward Mather. 'Proteins are essential for a variety of key physiological functions in the human body,' he explains. 'They play a critical role in muscle recovery, so consuming adequate amounts will help repair and rebuild muscle tissue following exercise, as well as facilitate the growth and maintenance of lean muscle mass. 'Proteins also provide structural support to cells and tissues, aid the transport and storage of key molecules, play a role in hormonal regulation and are involved in muscle contraction – along with many other things.' But how much protein do you need to eat per day? As a minimum, aim for 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight each day. If you are looking to lose weight and build or maintain muscle, this can be bumped up to 1.6-2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Tip nine: Sit less, walk more Matranga often sees cases where people are walking an average of 3,500 steps per day, then eating 3,500 calories in the same time span. 'People sit so much that for every step they take, they eat one calorie, and that is an untenable mathematical equation,' he says. 'The number one way to fight back against that is to move more, because when you're moving, you're using energy, and you're probably not eating either.' Walking is one of the most accessible ways to do this, providing a low-cost exercise option open to most people. Yet it still offers plenty of benefits. 'Over the last two or three years, there have been a lot of large studies coming out looking at prospective associations between walking and health outcomes like all-cause mortality, which is a fancy way of saying any reason why someone would die,' says Dr Elroy Aguiar, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Alabama. 'These studies are showing that walking, not necessarily in huge volumes, is associated with large reductions in risk of all-cause mortality.' If you are looking for a daily step target to hit, recent research from the University of Granada states that 'if we focus on the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, most of the benefits are seen at around 7,000 steps per day'. However, if this target sounds unattainable, it is worth noting that any increase in your current daily number of steps – ie activity levels – is likely to deliver a net positive effect for your health. To implement this, try taking your current average daily number of steps from your phone, fitness tracker or smartwatch, then aiming to up it by 10 per cent each month until you reach 7,000 or more.
The Independent
21-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Do this expert-approved four-move workout weekly to improve full-body strength, blood sugar and bone density
In the fitness world, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. The advice below can be viewed as one of a select few exceptions. Completing just two time-efficient strength training sessions per week – taking roughly 1 per cent of the 168 hours on offer – will provide the stimulus most people need to make life-changing improvements to their health, fitness and physical capacity. This is what experienced certified strength and conditioning coach Danny Matranga stresses to clients; and he has helped hundreds of them since he started working on gym floors as an 18-year-old. In fact, he adds, less is usually more for those newer to this type of training. 'From just two sessions of resistance training a week, you will have better blood sugar, better bone density, better cognition and better motor control,' Matranga says. 'Physically, you'll have more muscle, probably less body fat, and less pain in your joints. Aesthetically, you'll probably look way better in your clothes – you'll see areas like your arms, thighs, glutes and tummy start to change. 'That's an amazing return from just a few hours per week; you are going to get the most unbelievable benefits from that first hour of exercise. [But after a point], with each additional hour, we get into what we call diminishing marginal returns.' Below, he explains why this is the case and shares a sample dumbbell-only workout you can use to build full-body strength – among a plethora of other benefits. Science says beginners shouldn't train too much 'When people look at the fitness industry, they see people in incredible shape working out six or seven days per week and think, 'Wow, that must be what I need to do,'' Matranga explains. 'But for somebody who is currently doing nothing, or very little, you're actually better off working out one to three times per week.' The reason for this, in his words, is that 'you're only going to make progress equal to the amount of work you can recover from, and a new exerciser can't recover from an advanced routine'. Strength training provides the stimulus for positive physical adaptations; more muscle, less fat, increased physical capacity, better cognition, improved heart health, the list goes on. But these changes don't happen during the workouts themselves – they happen in the time between sessions when you're recovering. Because the strength training stimulus is new to novice exercisers, any amount will act as a jolt to the system, and it doesn't take much to trigger impressive results. But when you give your body more exercise than it can handle, which for fresh exercisers is usually a fairly low threshold, you will quickly hit a point of 'diminishing marginal returns'. In layman's terms: your body will reach a point where it can no longer positively adapt to the volume of exercise you're asking of it, leading to limited benefits relative to the extra time you're putting in. Less really is more, and for newer exercisers, most of the magic lies in the first hour or two of work you do each week. Of course, over time, consistent and progressive exercise can increase your work capacity – a term defined to me by endurance swimmer Ross Edgley as 'your body's ability to perform and positively tolerate training at a given intensity or duration'. When you start to spot evidence of this progress, you may want to consider upping your weekly training volume. But work capacity takes time to develop, so for time-efficient training, two or three strength sessions per week (alongside some form of regular aerobic activity such as walking) offer optimal ROI for those in their first few years of lifting weights. How to use this advice to improve your fitness If you want to implement this advice, Matranga recommends starting with full-body workouts – sessions that recruit every major muscle group; the chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core – twice per week. 'When you're a novice, you can go into the gym and do a pushing exercise and a pulling exercise for your upper body, something like a squat for the front of your legs, something like a deadlift for the back of your legs, and then you can walk away after four exercises having trained every single muscle in your body,' he says. 'The average person wants the most results from the least amount of time in the gym, and I respect that – the gym isn't everybody's happy place. If time is of the utmost importance and you want the most gains from the least number of trips to the gym, total body programmes are very effective.' The gym isn't a prerequisite for this plan of action either. Strength training involves using your muscles to overcome an external load, but as long as this load is challenging enough to stimulate the desired adaptations (more on this below), the body won't mind whether it comes from resistance machines, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands or even your own body weight. A sample full-body dumbbell workout All you need to complete this session is a pair of dumbbells, and you can use it twice per week as your strength training workouts – if you do, complete the dumbbell overhead press in one session and the press-up in the other to bias the shoulders and chest muscles respectively. You can also do it at the gym, in your living room or at the park – your muscles don't care where you are, just that you're giving them a good workout. The common denominator behind an effective strength-boosting, muscle-building, joint-bolstering session is something called mechanical tension. To achieve this, you need to ensure the target muscles are working hard enough during each set to achieve the stimulus needed for positive adaptations. A good way to check for this is, by your last two or three reps, your form should remain immaculate but your movements should be involuntarily slowing down due to the accumulated fatigue in the muscles. If the last couple of reps feel easy, the exercise wasn't challenging enough. This is why Matranga prescribes a goal of 12-15 repetitions, rather than giving you an exact number to gun for – stop when you can't complete another rep with perfect form, rather than hitting the breaks when you reach the listed rep target. If you don't have access to dumbbells heavy enough to feel challenging for 12-15 reps, Matranga advises completing the exercises non-stop for a set amount of time (such as 30 or 60 seconds) or continuing until you feel 'it burning in the target muscle' instead. However, a rep goal of 12-15 per set is his favourite for beginner lifters. This is because a higher target number of reps allows you to challenge yourself with lighter weights, while also practising the movement more times – lifting weights is a skill, after all, like any physical activity. 'In golf, if you wanted to learn how to swing the driver, you wouldn't go to the driving range, swing it one time as hard as you can and then leave,' Matranga explains. 'You would take a bunch of swings, and after a lot of practice, you would eventually start hitting the ball straight. 'For new lifters, I like aiming for 12 to 15 reps because you use less weight, which allows you to practise and rehearse the form while still getting close to failure. Sometimes you get a little bit of an aerobic benefit from a little more reps too, and let's be honest, most people could use a cardiovascular benefit from their exercise.' When you become more comfortable with an exercise and fine-tune your technique, you can then start increasing the weight you're lifting and lowering the target number of repetitions to increase strength, Matranga adds. 10-second takeaways Two weekly strength training workouts per week is enough to trigger impressive results in beginners, including improved strength, joint health, mobility, heart health, body composition and cognition. Beginners will enjoy maximal return on investment from fewer workouts as they need less of a stimulus to trigger positive adaptations, and they are unable to positively tolerate advanced exercise routines. Full-body workouts are the most time-efficient option as they allow you to train each major muscle group (those of the chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core) more frequently. An example of an efficient dumbbell-only full-body workout is the goblet squat, dumbbell Romanian deadlift, dumbbell overhead press and single-arm dumbbell bent-over row, each performed for two to three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions, with 60 seconds of rest between each set.
The Independent
18-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
This PT has trained hundreds of clients and says this is exactly how to ‘change your life' with just 1% of your week
In the fitness world, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. The advice below can be viewed as one of a select few exceptions. Completing just two time-efficient strength training sessions per week – taking roughly 1 per cent of the 168 hours on offer – will provide the stimulus most people need to make life-changing improvements to their health, fitness and physical capacity. This is what experienced certified strength and conditioning coach Danny Matranga stresses to clients; and he has helped hundreds of them since he started working on gym floors as an 18-year-old. In fact, he adds, less is usually more for those newer to this type of training. 'From just two sessions of resistance training a week, you will have better blood sugar, better bone density, better cognition and better motor control,' Matranga says. 'Physically, you'll have more muscle, probably less body fat, and less pain in your joints. Aesthetically, you'll probably look way better in your clothes – you'll see areas like your arms, thighs, glutes and tummy start to change. 'That's an amazing return from just a few hours per week; you are going to get the most unbelievable benefits from that first hour of exercise. [But after a point], with each additional hour, we get into what we call diminishing marginal returns.' Below, he explains why this is the case and shares a sample dumbbell-only workout you can use to build full-body strength – among a plethora of other benefits. Science says beginners shouldn't train too much 'When people look at the fitness industry, they see people in incredible shape working out six or seven days per week and think, 'Wow, that must be what I need to do,'' Matranga explains. 'But for somebody who is currently doing nothing, or very little, you're actually better off working out one to three times per week.' The reason for this, in his words, is that 'you're only going to make progress equal to the amount of work you can recover from, and a new exerciser can't recover from an advanced routine'. Strength training provides the stimulus for positive physical adaptations; more muscle, less fat, increased physical capacity, better cognition, improved heart health, the list goes on. But these changes don't happen during the workouts themselves – they happen in the time between sessions when you're recovering. Because the strength training stimulus is new to novice exercisers, any amount will act as a jolt to the system, and it doesn't take much to trigger impressive results. But when you give your body more exercise than it can handle, which for fresh exercisers is usually a fairly low threshold, you will quickly hit a point of 'diminishing marginal returns'. In layman's terms: your body will reach a point where it can no longer positively adapt to the volume of exercise you're asking of it, leading to limited benefits relative to the extra time you're putting in. Less really is more, and for newer exercisers, most of the magic lies in the first hour or two of work you do each week. Of course, over time, consistent and progressive exercise can increase your work capacity – a term defined to me by endurance swimmer Ross Edgley as 'your body's ability to perform and positively tolerate training at a given intensity or duration'. When you start to spot evidence of this progress, you may want to consider upping your weekly training volume. But work capacity takes time to develop, so for time-efficient training, two or three strength sessions per week (alongside some form of regular aerobic activity such as walking) offer optimal ROI for those in their first few years of lifting weights. How to use this advice to improve your fitness If you want to implement this advice, Matranga recommends starting with full-body workouts – sessions that recruit every major muscle group; the chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core – twice per week. 'When you're a novice, you can go into the gym and do a pushing exercise and a pulling exercise for your upper body, something like a squat for the front of your legs, something like a deadlift for the back of your legs, and then you can walk away after four exercises having trained every single muscle in your body,' he says. 'The average person wants the most results from the least amount of time in the gym, and I respect that – the gym isn't everybody's happy place. If time is of the utmost importance and you want the most gains from the least number of trips to the gym, total body programmes are very effective.' The gym isn't a prerequisite for this plan of action either. Strength training involves using your muscles to overcome an external load, but as long as this load is challenging enough to stimulate the desired adaptations (more on this below), the body won't mind whether it comes from resistance machines, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands or even your own body weight. A sample full-body dumbbell workout All you need to complete this session is a pair of dumbbells, and you can use it twice per week as your strength training workouts – if you do, complete the dumbbell overhead press in one session and the press-up in the other to bias the shoulders and chest muscles respectively. You can also do it at the gym, in your living room or at the park – your muscles don't care where you are, just that you're giving them a good workout. The common denominator behind an effective strength-boosting, muscle-building, joint-bolstering session is something called mechanical tension. To achieve this, you need to ensure the target muscles are working hard enough during each set to achieve the stimulus needed for positive adaptations. A good way to check for this is, by your last two or three reps, your form should remain immaculate but your movements should be involuntarily slowing down due to the accumulated fatigue in the muscles. If the last couple of reps feel easy, the exercise wasn't challenging enough. This is why Matranga prescribes a goal of 12-15 repetitions, rather than giving you an exact number to gun for – stop when you can't complete another rep with perfect form, rather than hitting the breaks when you reach the listed rep target. If you don't have access to dumbbells heavy enough to feel challenging for 12-15 reps, Matranga advises completing the exercises non-stop for a set amount of time (such as 30 or 60 seconds) or continuing until you feel 'it burning in the target muscle' instead. However, a rep goal of 12-15 per set is his favourite for beginner lifters. This is because a higher target number of reps allows you to challenge yourself with lighter weights, while also practising the movement more times – lifting weights is a skill, after all, like any physical activity. 'In golf, if you wanted to learn how to swing the driver, you wouldn't go to the driving range, swing it one time as hard as you can and then leave,' Matranga explains. 'You would take a bunch of swings, and after a lot of practice, you would eventually start hitting the ball straight. 'For new lifters, I like aiming for 12 to 15 reps because you use less weight, which allows you to practise and rehearse the form while still getting close to failure. Sometimes you get a little bit of an aerobic benefit from a little more reps too, and let's be honest, most people could use a cardiovascular benefit from their exercise.' When you become more comfortable with an exercise and fine-tune your technique, you can then start increasing the weight you're lifting and lowering the target number of repetitions to increase strength, Matranga adds. 10-second takeaways Two weekly strength training workouts per week is enough to trigger impressive results in beginners, including improved strength, joint health, mobility, heart health, body composition and cognition. Beginners will enjoy maximal return on investment from fewer workouts as they need less of a stimulus to trigger positive adaptations, and they are unable to positively tolerate advanced exercise routines. Full-body workouts are the most time-efficient option as they allow you to train each major muscle group (those of the chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core) more frequently. An example of an efficient dumbbell-only full-body workout is the goblet squat, dumbbell Romanian deadlift, dumbbell overhead press and single-arm dumbbell bent-over row, each performed for two to three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions, with 60 seconds of rest between each set.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The Army-Backed Move Guaranteed to Build Your Core and Chest
If you want to build a rock-solid core and strengthen your chest, there's no better person to learn from than a U.S. Army strength coach. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Jason Barber, PA-C, CSCS, TSAC-F, has spent over a decade at the World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), where he's helped to consistently qualify more than 10 athletes for every Olympic and Paralympic Games across eight different sports. According to Barber, if there's one exercise he swears by for core stability and upper-body strength, it's the stability ball dumbbell chest press. It forces you to engage your core through the full range of motion while also working your chest, shoulders, and triceps. While it's a go-to for novice lifters working on core control and balance, this move delivers benefits for athletes at any level. "When I started as a young strength coach, one of the biggest things that I always glommed onto was building the foundation," Barber says. "And that core development is truly the foundation. Making our bodies more unstable means that we have to incorporate more accessory muscles and more core stability in order to move the weight that we're trying to move." Hold a dumbbell in one hand and lie back on a stability ball as if you were going to perform a bench press, using your core to keep your butt from sinking down, to start. Press the weight straight overhead while maintaining your balance. Do not allow your body to rotate to one side. Reverse the motion to return to the starting position. That's one rep. Complete all your reps on that side and then switch sides and repeat. "I like adding things like that into programs," Barber adds. "I think it's good for everyone to think about that and think holistically about how they train, not just biceps and triceps and chest. So, I'm a huge advocate for those types of modalities." The stability ball chest press and traditional dumbbell bench press have a similar setup and may look alike, but they activate the body in very different ways. The flat bench used in a standard dumbbell chest press provides a stable base, allowing you to focus purely on pressing power, which means you can typically move more weight. The stability ball version, on the other hand, forces your entire body to work. Your core, glutes, and even legs stay engaged throughout the movement to keep you balanced on the unstable surface, turning a simple chest press into a full-body challenge. 'All of the muscles that are in my back and my hips and my legs, my core, my abdomen, and then even using some more, like, accessory shoulder muscles to accommodate the dumbbell, are being used," Barber adds. "That's a whole-body lift, almost. Whereas before, if we're in the traditional bench, we're pretty locked in, and it's really just a chest exercise.' Although most people who've been lifting for a while assume their bench press weight will translate directly to the stability ball, they're wrong. Because the ball is free-moving, it requires a different movement pattern and a whole lot more control. Below, Barber breaks down the two most common mistakes he sees people make when performing this exercise. "Guys usually pick up too much weight," he says. "It's always good to be conservative first, so that's a big common mistake that I'll see, is too much weight, which puts you in danger." Lying down on a stability ball takes some getting used to. Add dumbbells, and it gets even trickier. One of the most common mistakes Barber sees is lifters arching their bodies over the ball instead of keeping a flat, supported back. This usually means you're either too far off the ball or not engaging the right muscles. To fix it, position your shoulders on the ball—not your glutes or mid-back—to create a stable base and maintain proper alignment throughout the movement. Squeeze your glutes and core to support yourself, and aim to keep the top of your core flat and even with your knees. The Army-Backed Move Guaranteed to Build Your Core and Chest first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 24, 2025
