To better serve our customers

To better serve our customers we have launched Spurling Training Systems. Please be patient as everything is still under construction. We thank each and every one of you for your continued support. Please follow our new page, linked below, for the same great content, and much much more!

Click here to check out Spurling Training Systems

A True Leader

Eric Cressey is a leader in the field of exercise science and strength and conditioning. A good chunk of what I know today is simply from reading his work. It also is a tad ironic that we both attended University of New England. I highly suggest you follow his blog at the link below, and add it to your list of resources for great information on exercise science, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and sports rehab.

Check out Eric's blog here: Cressey's Blog

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Best,

Doug Spurling, BS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Spurling Strength & Speed

dspurling@une.edu

Appropriate time for cardio

I got a great question from a reader this week about cardio. The question asked what is the optimal time to do cardio, before or after a workout?

This question is very individual and depends on the persons goals. However, there are some guidelines that I hope to outline that will let you decide when the appropriate time to do cardio is.

Similar to the structure and design of your program, when you do cardio depends on your overall goal.

Let's first look at someone who is trying to cut or lose fat. Someone who is looking to cut usually focuses more on cardio and workouts that will increase the heart rate. So, for this person it would be okay to do cardio before a weightlifting session or on off days that you're not lifting. The reason for this is, you want to put most of your energy on the things that are focused on your goal. Your focus here is not to bench 500lbs or make the varsity football team, your focus is cardio. So, you want to do it when you have the most energy, off days or before a weightlifting session.

Now, we look at someone who is trying to gain weight or bulk. This person usually has a focus on gaining size, strength and power. They have increased their caloric intake and is gaining weight. They want to do cardio on a regular basis to maintain their cardiorespiratory fitness, but their goal is muscle gain. The optimal time to do cardio for this person would be on off days you are not lifting. This way, you can put all your energy into the lift on those days, and worry about cardio on off days. Also, if you are doing too much cardio while trying to gain size you are pretty much cancelling the two out. A second option would be after a lifting session, however your energy would be pretty low and your body is going to go to your muscles and glucose to get the energy, thus affecting your results of muscle gaining.

People must have a goal, and they have to stick with it. I can't stress it enough. If your goal is muscle size, stop running 6 days a week and start hitting the weights. If you need to drop 50lbs, then cardio is going to be your best friend.

I'm not going to go into what type of cardio is best, and the other key factor, nutrition. I will save that for a later blog. Both of these will affect your results more then the timing of your cardio.

I hope I was able to distinguish between the two options for cardio. If you have specific questions about how to organize your program, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

Enjoy the weekend and the nice weather!

Best,

Doug Spurling

Spurling Strength & Speed

dspurling@une.edu

Back To Basics

Everyday I get a question on what someone thinks of a certain exercise. "Doug, what do you think of the 1 foot elevated push-up, on a bosu ball, with a dumbbell balanced on my back, during a thunderstorm, and the Beatles playing in the background.?" Too many people try to complicate their programs so much that they are no longer effective. That same person that asked the above question most likely skips half their workouts and has a double cheeseburger and a bud light as their post-workout meal.

Don't get me wrong, there is place in a workout for a 1 foot elevated push-up on a bosu ball, but for the average Joe or Jane they need to focus on the basics. If you have not consistently stuck to a designed program for 4-6 weeks you need to go back to the basics. What are the basics?

In my opinion, the most basic program you can do is a full-body program, 3 times a week, with a day off in between each workout. Before you start throwing in all these complex exercises, super-sets, negatives, and all the other things, you need to build a foundation. YOU WILL NOT SEE RESULTS IF YOU DON'T HAVE A GOOD FOUNDATION BUILT!

This full-body program is what I consider to be the most basic of programs, and for a beginner, does an excellent job at building a solid foundation that can be built on.

Program completed: Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Rest: 30-45 seconds

Tempo: 2/1/2

Sets/Reps: 3sets of 10reps

Exercises(In this order):

Squat

Chest Press

Back Row

Shoulder Press

Triceps Pressdown

Biceps Curl

Abdominal Plank

The science behind this program is simple. You take each muscle group, largest to smallest, and choose a fundamental exercise for that group. Keeping the rest periods short adds some endurance to the workout, and the tempo is a pretty standard tempo, nothing too slow or too fast.

Now, is this a program for a elite athlete, or a power lifter? Hell no! If you're EDUCATED on what you're doing, and have been lifting properly is this the appropriate program for you? Hell no! However, if you go into the gym with no plan, shoot the shit with your friends, and come out accomplishing absolutely nothing, this may be a good program to build your foundation. If you go to the gym less than the Red Sox beat the Orioles, then this may be a good program to build your foundation.

A house can't be built without a foundation. If you have your foundation built, then you need a more specialized, periodized program. However, I can guarantee you most of the population out there does not have their foundation built, and doing this program CONSTANTLY for 4-6 weeks will build a solid foundation.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

As always, any questions or comments shoot me an e-mail.

Best,

Doug Spurling, BS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Spuring Strength & Speed

Dspurling@une.edu

What came first the chicken or the egg?

I wanted to share this article with you all one more time. I had yet another encounter of someone mentioning they are throwing away the yolks of their eggs and only eating the whites. Little do they know, all the nutrition is in the yolk. Read the article below and you will see why eating the whole egg is the better choice.

Click here for the truth about eggs

Best,

Doug Spurling, BS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Spurling Strength & Speed

dspurling@une.edu

German Body Composition

Did you indulge in a few too many fruity drinks with umbrellas or friend clams on the beach this summer? Got a few extra pounds that need to be shredded for an upcoming wedding? Is your sport starting up and you need to get whipped into shape quick? If your goal is to get into better shape and shed some baggage I have a program for you.

German Body Composition, GBC for short, will rip fat off your body quicker then you can put a whoppie pie down. In a nutshell, the program is based on short rest intervals, super-setting different body parts, pushing you lactate threshold to the max, and increasing your growth hormone.

Here is what a German Body Composition program looks like:

Day One: Chest and Back

A1. 6 Incline Dumbbell Presses at 45-degree angle
Rest 10 seconds
A2. 12 Incline Barbell Presses at 45-degree angle
Rest 10 seconds
A3. 25 Incline Dumbbell Press at 30-degree angle
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

B1. 6 Weighted Chins
Rest 10 seconds
B2. 12 Bent-over Rows
Rest 10 seconds
B3. 25 Seated Cable Rows
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

Day Two: Legs

A1. 6 Squats
Rest 10 seconds
A2. 12 Lunges
Rest 10 seconds
A3. 25 Leg Extensions
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

B1. 6 Leg Curls
Rest 10 seconds
B2. 12 Romanian Dead Lifts
Rest 10 seconds
B3. 25 Reverse Hypers/Back Extensions
**Rest 2 Minutes
**Repeat 3 times

Day Three: OFF

Day Four: Arms and Shoulders

A1. 6 Seated Dumbbell Presses
Rest 10 seconds
A2. 12 Seated Lateral Raises
Rest 10 seconds
A3. 26 Front/Posterior Raises
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

B1. 6 Dips or Close-Grip Bench Presses
Rest 10 seconds
B2. 12 Skull Crushers
Rest 10 seconds
B3. 25 Cable Pressdowns
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

C1. 6 incline Dumbbell Curls
Rest 10 seconds
C2. 12 Standing Barbell Curls
Rest 10 seconds
C3. 25 Standing Pulley Curls
**Rest 2 minutes
**Repeat 3 times

Day Five: OFF

REPEAT

Seems pretty simply on paper, but with the short rest intervals you will be panting more than a German Shepherd on a hot August day. If your up to it, give this program a try and let me know how it goes for you.

As always, any questions regarding fitness, sports, or nutrition please don't hesitate to contact me. I am always looking for blog topics.

I hope you're out enjoying the final few days of nice weather, because before you know it we will be digging ourselves out of that fresh white powder!

Best,

Doug Spurling, BS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Spurling Strength & Speed

Dspurling@une.edu

Thursday Hodepodge

I finally got a day off from the craziness of the ICU, ER, and rehab center of the hospital. I know I am long overdue for a blog post so I made sure I took the time today to give you guys some good reading. Today is going to be a little hodgepodge of everything.

1. P90x is going great. I have shredded about 30 pounds so far with about 5 weeks left in the program. Yes, I may have lost some muscle size, but I am in the stage in my workout life where I don't need to bench 400lbs and squat mountains. I would rather look good naked. Plain and simple. Once my football days were over, I realized that I didn't have to weigh 295lbs and be bulky, I had no use for it. So now, I am working on getting as lean as possible. I am hoping to get down to about 235 with my current weight being 260. The reason P90x is so challenging for me is because of the massive change. When you train for strength and power, like a football player, you train with real heavy weight. Rarely would you ever see me doing something for more then 6-8 reps. As a result, when Tony wanted me to do 12 reps + on everything, I was a bit thrown off. However, because there was such a drastic change in the program, it caused a drastic change in my body. I encourage anyone who has ever thought about doing P90x to give it a try. I am not selling it by any means, it is really nothing special. However, what got me was the drastic change in pure volume of reps for each workout.

2. I got a question from a viewer about what supplements to take. You hear kids today taking Jack3d and all these other sugar filled products that claim to help in every way possible. The truth is, most of them are crap. The saying that America has the most expensive urine has never been so true. Most of these supplements don't even get absorbed by the body, and end up just getting excreted into or toilet. Thus, that $45 dollar bottle of Jack3d ultimately ends up getting flushed down the toilet with your steak and corn you had last night. For the average Joe and Jane, you only need a few basic supplements. Now, yes a hardcore athlete or bodybuilder may need more, but for the weekend warriors who are just trying to look good this is what I recommend.

A. A good complete multi-vitamin-taken twice daily9(see previous blogs for why)
B. Fish oil
C. 100% whey protein

Those three things with a well balanced diet will produce any results you want as long as the diet and program are followed.

3. For those idiots who think its cool to drink and drive. Follow me around for a day and see the 19 year old girl in a halo brace, the 21 year old guy who has so much brain trauma he can't remember his own name let alone how to go the bathroom or even walk, the 45 year old who crashed his motorcycle after leaving the bar and now needs to spend the rest of his life in wheel chair because both of his legs were amputated above the knee, or the 18 year old girl who has a fractured pelvis and fractured C1 because she was texting and slammed into a tractor trailer. These are things that I see everyday at my job, and I love it. It has made me realize the true value of life, and to take each day as a gift. Finally, nothing is more rewarding then giving that 21 year old a handshake goodbye as he steps up into his moms SUV after receiving treatment for his injuries. Just please, do me a favor, never drive drunk and never text and drive because I can tell you first hand through hundreds of experiences, the outcomes are not pretty.

A little exercise stuff a little life lesson stuff. A little bit of everything on this Thursday. Send me an e-mail with any questions or topic ideas, I would be happy to write about them.

Now get your butt of the couch and go enjoy this beautiful weather!

Best,

Doug