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Ode To Resistance Tubes and Resistance Tube Workouts

By Ed Scow, aka 'The Fit Dad' · Comments

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

How about something a little different today? I’m going to talk about the awesomeness of Resistance Tubes and resistance tube workouts, but to start things off let’s do some poetry.

I have to warn you…

I’ve never written a poem and really don’t like poetry at all. I don’t understand the appeal, but decided to throw caution to the wind and write my own “Ode To Resistance Tubes and Resistance Tube Workouts”

Check it…

O Resistance tubes! How much I do loathe thee,

For whence you are used, you often make my arms want to flee.

The arms you see do burn oft,

But have no fear because, you see, those arms yearn to work.

O Resistance Tubes! How much I do love thee,

For when I use you, I do declare, my abs do feel like newbs.

The core, oh the core!

Every time the tubes are used, the core screams “More! More!”

For when the tubes are used, the core is always working,

Even when it’s the legs that are being tore.

Okay, I’m done.

Before I go further, I want to let you know that this month’s issue of Fit Parent Force Monthly is up and ready for members and it’s awesome (but I admit I’m incredibly biased) and it’s all about Resistance Tubes – meaning every workout is a resistance tube workout!

Now on with the show…

I understand quite well that I am not a poet and should never again attempt to write an ode to anyone or anything.

Hopefully that was fun. At least it’s something different in this world of fake made-for-TV celebrity weddings.

I really do love designing resistance tube workouts and including them in all different types of program design.

They’re easy to use, easy to transport and give you a hell of a workout.

I don't think this dude uses resistance tubes to help his abs...

The really great thing is they’re deceptive.

The exercise you’re doing can feel incredibly simple in the beginning, sometimes too simple, but when you get to rep 6 or 8, the burning sets in, your muscles begin to revolt and your core goes into overdrive to keep you from falling on your face or butt.

The core action is one of my favorite things about tubes because they turn virtually every exercise into a core/abs exercise. They do it by working the endurance/stabilization component of the abs (think planks) rather than the active flexing component (like crunches).

Take the simple Chest Press as an example.

To do the chest press using resistance tubing, you simply anchor the tube to the wall or door, face away from the anchor point and step away a few steps (how far you step depends on the tubes used and your strength/fitness level).

Your feet should be staggered and your upper body should be strong and straight with your chest up and out, shoulders relaxed, stomach braced and facing forward (don’t look at your feet). You should then bend from the shoulders and elbows so your hands are at your shoulders – you should look like you’re doing a push-up, but standing up.

From here, proceed into a regular chest press by pressing the tubes in front of your chest, pause and then SLOWLY return back to the starting position.

Your core comes into play by keeping your body upright. If your core wasn’t engaged, you would fall on your butt because the tubes – if they’re extended far enough –want to pull you back. So your core gets an unbelievable workout just by keeping you from flinging backwards.

Another great thing about Resistance Tubes is the different type of action they provide on your muscles.

Did you notice I put “slowly” in all capitals earlier? I did that because the tubes will try to shorten as quickly as possible (just like a rubber band), but you must fight them on this by going S-L-O-W when you return to the starting position. If you let the tubes do all the work, you remove all the benefit and take a lot of the greatness of tubes out of the exercise.

When you use dumbbells, or do a bodyweight exercise, the weight stays relatively stable in that it doesn’t increase or decrease…the weight is the weight, however with resistance tubes, the farther you stretch them, the tougher you have to work.

Let’s go back to the chest press example. As you press your hands in front of your chest, the exercise will become more difficult because you are stretching the tubes and this makes the “sticking point” of the exercise different than it would be if you were using dumbbells, barbell or your own bodyweight.

Another cool thing with tubes – besides making every exercise an abs/core exercise and working your muscles a bit differently than other modes of resistance – is that Resistance Tubes make moving from one exercise to the next incredibly easy. If the workout is designed in a certain way, you could possibly use the same tubes for every exercise and the only difference would be how far you are from the Anchor Point.

For instance, the chest press may take you farther away from the anchor point than a Rear Fly, and a Lunge with a Row may take you farther than a Triceps Extension.

This makes the total workout time go down drastically, which for busy folks like you and me, is a huge benefit.

Tubes are also crazy easy to transport, which takes the excuse of not exercising while traveling out of the picture. I’ve designed loads of programs using resistance tubes for my traveling clients and they love it.

That’s a bit strong…they probably don’t love it, but they do it because they know that if they don’t there will be hell to pay when they return.

Hopefully all that rambling about resistance tubes coerced you into trying a new wrinkle in your workout plan.

Tubes are easy to find, aren’t terribly expensive and incredibly versatile and should be included in virtually every workout program. One quick note about the price – don’t go cheap because the old adage of “you get what you pay for” holds true with tubing. Go too cheap and they’ll snap on you like drunken frat guys…which is never a good position to be in.

I like Lifeline Fitness resistance tubes (and I don’t get paid for telling you that), but you can find them all over the web at sites like Amazon.com.

Rather than ending this with another poem, I’ll recap the benefits of resistance tube workouts…

Turn every exercise into an abs/core exercise
Many exercises really train the low back
The resistance levels change as you press/pull which makes the exercise different at different points
They make your muscles burn like crazy – in a good way
Incredibly versatile
Make for really quick workouts because you can move from exercise-to-exercise rather quickly
Easy to transport which makes them the perfect option for folks who travel

Alrighty, I’m out.

Talk to you soon!

P.S. – As I mentioned earlier, this month’s issue of Fit Parent Force Monthly is out and ready if you’re a member, and as per this article, it’s all about Resistance Tubes! I had fun designing the program this month and use a 2-12-2 method for the program and it’s virtually all tubes. You’ll see from the videos that these puppies kicked my butt and if they kicked my butt, you’re really going to enjoy them!

If you’re a member, click here to download the program and check out the videos.

If you’re not a member, you should really get on board and join the cool kids because all the cool kids are FPF Monthly members and you know how powerful peer pressure is. No bullying, just slight nudges to get with the in crowd and become a part of the cool clique. Click here to check it out and join

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The Fit Dad Says – The Book!

By Ed Scow, aka 'The Fit Dad' · Comments

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

No fancy headlines, just check out the video…

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Abs Workout DVD and AWESOME Diet Program

By Ed Scow, aka 'The Fit Dad' · Comments

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Howdy!

I’ve been trying to figure out how I can incorporate the way Nolan crawls into a workout program, but just can’t seem to find a way to throw in a break dancing move. He does ‘the worm’ rather than crawl and it is very entertaining. The kid can get anywhere he wants simply by getting onto his hands and knees, rocking, then pushing forward and flopping onto his stomach – which puts him forward about 4 inches, then repeating until he reaches his destination. He’s pretty swift too.

So if you have any suggestions on how to bring that in, let me know because if he keeps doing it his shoulders and low back are going to be super strong.

Anyway, I have a couple quick things to share with you today – both of which I think you’ll like.

First is a new website I’ve been contributing articles to called “Man Of The House.”

This is a new project I’m pretty excited about. It’s mostly geared towards dads, but much of the content can apply to moms as well – including my workout/nutrition content.

One of my more recent columns involves a workout trick used to turn virtually every workout into an abs workout (and is different from what I mentioned the other day).

Click here to give that article a read and then take a few minutes to look around the site and read some other articles. It’s a pretty cool website.

Next, I wanted to make you an offer you can’t refuse… Read More→

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New Abs Workout Program

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

You like abs, right?

Well, you may not like your abs right now, but you like working your abs because…well who doesn’t!

I’m no different. I loves working me some abs, but the problem is it can get a bit stale and boring.

my six pack

So I went into the studio one beautiful afternoon and decided to do some abs workout tinkering.

It was pretty stinkin’ fun. I had a basic idea that I thought would be cool for you to see better results, and get more “feel” from working your abs, but wanted to see if what my brain thought would actually come out and be “doable” in workout form.

My tinkering has seemed to work!

How do I know this?

It’s been 4 days since doing this new style of abs workout program and my abs are still sore! Specifically, my lower abs are sore.

If you’ve worked out for more than a month, then you know how difficult it can be to get that good sore feeling in your abs where you can still function normally, but every so often, if you move just so, you get a little reminder of how awesome your workout was, and that’s the feeling I still have today…

…And it’s awesome!

What did I do?

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Simple Weight Loss Solutions

By Ed Scow, aka 'The Fit Dad' · Comments

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Hey!

I hope your day is going awesome. We’re going to dive into the mental woo-woo stuff for a minute…

I want to present you with a situation that may sound pretty familiar.

Simple Weight Loss Solutions …that aren’t necessarily diet or workout related.

You’re fed up with the way you look and want to make a change. You hate the way your clothes fit, your lack of energy, and you want to be better.

Maybe you’ve figured out what your next move is and you’re excited and ready, but your brain keeps going back to the Negatives.

It keeps pushing you back to the bad feelings – how bad you look in your clothes, how your lack of energy makes it difficult to focus on your workouts, etc.

Sound familiar?

When we have a problem, whether it be weight loss, or whatever, we tend to put all of our focus on the problem (Negative) and not the Solution (positive).

Don’t be “problem oriented,” instead focus on Solutions.

In the situation I presented earlier, the person should have focused on the addition of the good stuff and how good it made him/her feel, not the Negative of the current situation because the current situation is being changed every day and is not permanent …you’re making a positive change. Read More→

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Are Branched Chain Amino Acids Effective?

By Ed Scow, aka 'The Fit Dad' · Comments

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Are Branched Chain Amino Acids Effective?

Are they worth the expense (cause they’re sure as hell not cheap)?

This is what everyone looks like while taking BCAA's

A question I’ve received a lot lately is about Branched Chain Amino Acids and whether they’re worth the cost. BCAA’s are nothing new. I took them about 10 years ago, but evidently they’re becoming more popular.

Some herald them as a “wonder supplement” everyone should be taking, while others poo-poo them as money wasted.

I’m somewhere in the middle, but lean more toward the positive than the negative.

Are Branched chain amino acids effective and beneficial?

Yep.

Are they necessary?

Nope!

Should you take BCAA’s?

Maybe.

How’s that for straddling the fence every which way under the sun!

Let me explain my wishy-washiness and shed some light on the picture.

The reason some say they are supplement’s best kept secret is that they can help prevent muscle loss in times of caloric deficit – like when you’re exercising and eating less with the goal to lose weight.

I believe Branched Chain Amino Acids can help tremendously if you’re actively trying to lose weight, especially the closer you get to your goal physique and trying to lose those final 5-10 pounds and have ramped the intensity up a bit.

That’s when I recommend them.

What I don’t believe is that everyone should be taking them. It’s not that Branched Chain Amino Acids aren’t effective, they’re just not worth it unless you have your nutrition and workout dialed in and know how to eat properly.

For instance, if you have just started to get your nutrition in order and are still trying to replace some bad habits with good ones and haven’t yet set your workout habits in stone, don’t purchase BCAA’s because they won’t do you much good.

Shoving your face with BCAA’s by the bottle when you’re still in the beginning stages of a weight loss plan, is like putting $5,000 rims on a $1,000 car (which I see all the time!)…it’s just plain silly.

Are Branched Chain Amino Acids are effective? Here’s where they are…

If you’ve been actively trying to lose weight, and have seen some success and have hit a plateau, then maybe adding some BCAA’s can help.

If you’re nearing your weight loss goal and want to keep dropping the fat, but are worried about maintaining your muscle mass, then adding BCAA’s could benefit you.

If you’re very active and have trouble maintaining the muscle you have, then you also could benefit from adding BCAA’s.

But, like I said earlier, if you are just starting out and are figuring out how to remove the bad habits on a consistent basis, while also adding the healthy habits (smart nutrition) and sticking to a workout program, don’t do it. Get the rest of your house in order and then, and only then, think about adding them to your supplement cabinet.

If you’ve never heard of BCAA’s or are wondering whether or not you fit the bill about adding them to your supplement regimen, my buddies over at Prograde Nutrition, specifically Jayson Hunter, wrote a killer article explaining a little bit more about the science of them.

To give it a read, head to –> http://elswellness.getprograde.com/bcaa-weight-loss-research.html

Hopefully that article is eye-opening for you and you discover a little more about whether Branched Chain Amino Acids are worth the cost and whether you should be taking BCAA’s – I should, but I’m not…but I probably will be in the near future

And in the art of full disclosure (and per FTC rules), if you end up purchasing BCAA’s from Prograde, via that link above, I make a couple bucks because I’m an affiliate. But I’m only affiliates for people I know and trust and I trust those dudes over at Prograde…but the truckloads of cash and pills they send to my house helps a lot (kidding…I don’t make much and the big reason I recommend them is because I trust them).

Have an awesome day!

P.S. – Way back in the day when I was part of a supplement company (I was selling them), one of the few supplements I saw benefit from in people who were close to their goal was BCAA’s. I saw people try ephedrine, and all sorts of other stimulants, with little-to-no effect. I saw folks trying all sorts of new and fancy “performance” supplements and they didn’t work either. But the folks who had their nutrition in check, their workouts on point and added BCAA’s saw a tremendous benefit.

Hopefully I answered your question of “Are branched chain amino acids effective.” Like I said – I straddle the fence on the issue. I think they can be effective and worth the expense, but only in certain instances.

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