Month: April 2021

If you were looking for a way to absolutely thrash your hamstrings, I mean, if you were looking for a solid swissball hamstring curl tutorial, you came to the right place.

The Swissball hamstring curl is one of the best lower body exercises you can do for strength, muscle gain, and overall health long term.

Yet so many people do it incorrectly or maybe are not at a fitness level where they can perform the movement correctly.

Don’t worry because in this article I will give you the best swissball hamstring curl tutorial on the inter web as well as modifications, how to work it into your exercise program, and more.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the entire article because I want you leaving this knowing exactly what you are going to do to improve your lower body strength, definition, and performance.

Without further ado, let’s curl!

Swissball Hamstring Curl Tutorial

The Benefits

If you are searching the internet for a swissball hamstring curl tutorial then you are probably aware of the benefits of this brutal yet insanely effective exercise.

If not, let’s cover them now very quickly.

I program them in for myself as well as my clients and every time it is a love / hate relationship.

Hate them because wow can they be a doozy at times. Yet love them because they are so damn effective.

The swissball hamstring curl is one of the best lower body exercises for

• developing hamstring strength
• developing hamstring hypertrophy (muscle gain)
• protecting your lower back from injury
• improving your stabilizer muscles in your hips

And much more.

If you are not currently implementing them into your training program, that will have to be changed as of right now.

That is, if you want a pair of strong, bad ass, functional hamstrings that will improve your squat and deadlift as well as protect yourself from future injury.

Sound like something you want? Awesome me too. Let’s dive into second part of this swissball hamstring curl tutorial.

Swissball Hamstring Curl Tutorial

How To & How Much?

The swissball hamstring curl is going to be a staple in your training program from here on out.

Therefore let’s make sure you are confident in how to do them as well as modifications to match your current fitness level.

Below is going to be a short video of the swissball hamstring curl tutorial step by step.

Swissball Hamstring Curl Technique Points

1. Start by laying flat on your back, heels elevated up on a physio ball.
2. Lift your hips and dig your heels into the ball. Think about pushing your hands or elbows into the ground and squeezing your shoulder blades together to assist your hips staying off the ground.
3. While digging your heels into the ball, simply think about bringing your heels towards your butt. Do this in a controlled manner.
4. Once you feel the squeeze in the back of your legs, slowly and controllable straighten your legs back out.

Swissball Hamstring Curl Programming

Frequency ( x per week ) – Perform this exercise anywhere from 1-2x per week.

Sets x reps – Perform this exercise for anywhere between 2-5 sets for 8-20 reps. The lower the reps the more strength focused, the higher the reps the more hypertrophy focused.

Swissball Hamstring Curl Most Common Mistakes

1. Going too fast. Make sure you don’t do the movement at a speed that doesn’t allow you to feel your hamstrings working. Ensure to control the way in as you curl, and control the way back out as you straighten your legs.
2. Not Keeping Hips High Enough. To ensure proper hamstring recruitment, ensure your hips stay elevated. If you have to, bend your arms and really dig your elbows into the ground to prop yourself up onto your shoulders more. Also note * The higher the ball the easier it will be to keep your hips high.

Now that you know everything about the swissball hamstring curl tutorial you need to know, what about matching this exercise to your current fitness level?

Glad you asked, let’s talk about it.

Beginners

If you are in the beginner stages of your fitness career or simply are just new to the movement, I would recommend starting from one of these places below.

First is going to be sticking with the same exact exercise as above simply with a higher elevated ball.

The higher the ball is off the ground, the easier it will be. The lower the ball is to the ground, the more difficult the exercise will be.

Use this to match your current fitness level.

Sock Slider Curl

The sock slider curl is a great variation for those who are either just starting out or who do not have access to a physio ball.

This variation allows you to work from a more stable base being the ground as opposed to stabilizing on top of a ball.

Alt Sock Slider Curl

The alternate sock slider curl allows you to keep one foot closer to your body, which can help tremendously with keeping your hips elevated.

It also helps stabilizes you as well.

Any of these options are a great choice if you are looking to get a pair of bad ass hamstrings while matching it to your current fitness level.

All of the programming applies for the regular swissball hamstring curl tutorial above.

Intermediate / Advanced

As if the swissball hamstring curl wasn’t hard enough as it is, some sickos out there want to make it more difficult!

(Don’t worry, I am one of those sickos. Sickos Unite!).

Below are going to be a few different variations you can throw in to challenge yourself a bit more as well as tax the muscle more.

Single Leg Hamstring Curl

You up the ante by only doing one leg. This is a difficult move without question and will leave your hamstrings crying, in a good way, if that’s possible.

TRX Hamstring Curl

The TRX hamstring curl is great because it keep constant tension on your hamstrings throughout the entire movement.

You have a constant force you are pushing against (aka gravity) and have to stabilize the straps throughout the motion.

You can also adjust it to your fitness level even more by changing the height of the straps.

2 to 1 Hamstring Curl

The 2 to 1 hamstring curl is a doozie. It challenges your muscles, stabilizer muscles, and your coordination / balance system as a whole.

It is almost like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time, except your hamstrings are screaming for mercy.

Once again, all of the same programming would apply for the regular swissball hamstring curl tutorial as far as sets, reps, and frequency goes.

Ready To Put This Swissball Hamstring Curl Tutorial Into Action?

I told you I wanted you leaving this article knowing exactly how to as well as what to do when it comes to the swissball hamstring curl tutorial.

I know you want a set of strong, bad ass, functional hamstrings that can improve your performance in the gym as well as your quality of life outside the gym and I hoped this tutorial did that for you.

My clients have benefited a ton from the information in this article and I know you can too.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop them below.

I program the swissball hamstring curl in tons of my program for the members of The Clubhouse. If you want to join us inside the Clubhouse, feel free to head HERE to check out what that is about.

Until next time, talk soon.

-E

How long should you stay in a calorie deficit?

Don’t worry, I am going to break down exactly what you need to know in this article.

There are certain benefits of being in a calorie deficit, like obviously losing body fat.

Yet there are also inherent drawbacks that come with being in a calorie deficit, like slowing down your metabolism.

In this article you are going to know exactly what to do and what not to do when it comes to how you should stay in a calorie deficit.

All that I ask is you be sure to read every section. Don’t skip around though I know you may want to.

I am going to cover a lot here and that is because I want you leaving this article with a solid plan in place for what you will do moving forward.

Do we have a deal?

Perfect, I knew I could count on you. Now let’s get into it.

How Long Should You Stay In A Calorie Deficit?

Well… It Depends

How long you stay in a calorie deficit depends on so many different variables.

This is why this article is going to be jam packed with information because it really is up to your unique individual situation.

I am going to break things down section by section so you know exactly what it depends on.

How Much Weight You Have To Lose

For starters, how long should you stay in a calorie deficit depends on how much weight you have to lose.

Someone who has 50 or 100lbs to lose not only can, but will have to stay in a calorie deficit longer than someone who has 5lbs to lose.

Why is this?

This is because of a few reasons.

Number one it is simply going to take a longer duration of time to lose 50 or 100lbs than it is to lose 5lbs.

(We will talk about how fast or slow you should be losing weight later in this article, so stick around).

On top of that, we briefly touched on in the beginning that a calorie deficit has both positive and negative side effects.

Now let me make this abundantly clear first and foremost, in order to lose body fat a calorie deficit is going to be required.

There is scientifically no other way to lose body fat. No pills, no cleanses, no fat burning drinks, and no special diets.

A calorie deficit.

But with that calorie deficit can come side effects, especially for someone who only has maybe the last 5 or 10 lbs to lose.

This individual is already quite lean. They have gotten really close to have a relatively low body fat percentage.

If this person were to stay in a calorie deficit for too long, they may start to experience some negative side effects.

Some being

• slowed down metabolism
• Possible loss of period
• Hair failling out
• Low sex drive
• Decreased workout performance

To name a few.

Why is this? Because when you only have 5 or 10 more lbs to lose, you are going to have to go that much lower in calories.

Your body basically then says “Okay well, we don’t have enough calories coming in in order to do these functions of sex drive, energy for workouts, etc, so we are going to cut those out and just focus on surviving”.

Before you ask, no “starvation mode” is not a real thing.

Yet your body will start to dip off some of it’s “Non essential” functions if you are either in a calorie deficit for too long or too aggressive.

Now, someone who has 100lbs to lose, this individual can be in a calorie deficit for much longer of a time and should to be quite honest with you.

They will not experience these negative side effects nearly as much as someone who has 5lbs to lose.

I will also argue it is much more healthy for that individual to be in a calorie deficit for longer so they can improve they body fat levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

Therefore when it comes to how long should you stay in a calorie deficit, it would first depend on how much body fat you have to lose.

The leaner you are, the less time you stay in one. The more weight you have to lose, the longer you can stay in one.

We touched briefly about the “aggressiveness” of your calorie deficit.

Let’s dive into that more right now.

How Aggressive Your Calorie Deficit Is

The second thing that impacts how long you should stay in a calorie deficit is how aggressive your calorie deficit is.

When I say aggressive I basically mean how many or how little calories are you eating.

Eating more calories is less aggressive, eating less calories is more aggressive.

To overview things first, generally the more aggressive you go the shorter duration you would stay in a calorie deficit.

This is for a few reasons.

Reason 1 would be if you actually stuck to the more aggressive approach, you would lose weight faster.

Therefore if you lose weight faster, you would not need to be in a calorie deficit for as long of a time because you would reach your desired body weight.

Notice I prefaced that with “if you actually stuck to it”.

This leads me to reason number 2 which is, the reason you stay in a calorie deficit for a shorter period of time when you go more aggressive is simply because you can’t stick to it for a long period of time.

I am sure you are familiar with this. You want to lose weight, someone tells you to eat 1200 calories, so you go ahead and try it out.

You stick to it for a week, two weeks if you are lucky. Then, you are starving, your cravings are through the roof, you have low energy, so you say f*ck this and go binge.

Because the more aggressive you go the less sustainable it is.

This cycle then happens over and over and over, leading you to never actually see any progress. You can’t actually stick to something for a long enough period of time in order to see change.

Therefore in reality, even though you may think “The less calories I eat, the quicker I will lose weight!”.

In theory I understand why you think that makes sense, yet in practicality in the real world it simply doesn’t play out.

This is why with any of my clubhouse members or online coaching clients I tend to take a more moderate approach that is more sustainable.

This way, they can adhere to it for a longer period of time and see better results.

In the long run taking a more moderate approach is actually a quicker process and will allow you to be in a calorie deficit for a shorter period of time.

Instead of taking 6 months to lose 10lbs, then gain 12 back, then lose 15 lbs, but gain 20 back because you were trying to eat 1200 calories.

You will slowly and sure lose say 20lbs over the course of 6 months, but you will actually keep that weight off forever.

If you want to know how many calories you should be eating in order to lose weight, I have an entirely free calorie calculator HERE.

The next thing to take into consideration when talking about how long should you stay in a calorie deficit is your biofeedback. Let’s touch on that now.

Biofeedback

Simply put your biofeedback just means how you are feeling.

How your energy, sleep, workout performance, sex drive, mood, all of those things encompass your biofeedback.

We touched earlier about how being in a calorie deficit that is too aggressive or too long can possibly negatively effect these markers. Let’s dive deeper into them now.

First let’s talk about a common one that happens amongst women and that is going to be your monthly cycle.

Ladies, if you are reading this and you have lost your monthly cycle, you either have been in a calorie deficit for too long or you are eating too few calories.

Again, the reason this happens is because your body is not getting enough calories to properly have this hormonally system functioning.

Your body is essentially saying that since you are severely under eating, we are going to shut off this process because it is not essential to keep your alive.

Your body has one job, to keep you alive. It doesn’t care if you lose fat or reproduce, it needs to keep you alive.

Therefore if you are not eating enough calories or you have been under eating for so long, you will lose your period.

This is a huge red flag that you need to take some time to come out of the calorie deficit, eat around maintenance for a little while, and take a break.

If you want to figure out how many calories you should eat for your maintenance, you can check out my free calorie calculator HERE .

Another one is a combination of anyone of the following,

• decreased sleep
• Increased irritability / decreased mood
• Decreased workout performance
• Decreased sex drive

To name a few.

Now, it can be hard to tell sometimes if this is directly related to calories because we all have bad days or even bad weeks.

For example if you had one bad workout or one bad week of workouts, I would not say you are eating too few calories I would say you are human.

But if you are having 2,3,4,5,6 weeks of continuous bad workouts where you don’t feel strong, you aren’t getting stronger, you don’t look forward to going to exercise.

Then I would say you either are eating too few calories or you have been in a calorie deficit for too long.

If you have one bad day where you felt more irritable or in a bad mood, again you are a human.

But if you continuously notice it going on for weeks upon weeks, you are either in too aggressive of a deficit or it has been too long.

Again, here I would look to increase your calories to maintenance for a bit and give yourself a break from the deficit.

Side Note

If your biofeedback is off then as you read just now I would tell you to increase your calories in order to get your body in a healthy place.

If your body is not healthy, any physical changes you see will be either short lived or non existent.

Your health inside and out have to work in conjunction.

Yet a lot of times I will tell people to increase calories ad they, for lack of better terms, lose their sh*t.

“But Eric, will I gain weight?! Will the scale go up!?! Will I get fat again!”.

Listen, first off take a deep breath. Woosah.

Second, I am going to shoot you straight.

Yes the scale may go up, but it is not because you are gaining fat.

You are gaining some water weight from having extra carbs (which is not a bad thing at all) and you would be having more food in your stomach.

Both of these things would lead to some weight * gain on the scale. Yet remember weight gain and fat gain are two different things.

You are not gaining fat. You are simply just gaining weight on the scale which if you are in this position where your biofeedback has gone down the toilet, you need that at this point in time.

Remember do what is right not what is the easiest.

Then, when you get your body back into a healthy place, you can look at revisiting the deficit from there.

This time with a less aggressive approach, right?

How Long Should You Stay In A Calorie Deficit : Weight Loss

We have talked about a few different things it depends on so far here in this article when it comes to how long should you stay in a calorie deficit.

What I want to touch on now is something I eluded to earlier in the article which is it comes down to how much weight you have to lose.

Someone who has 50lbs to lose is going to be in a calorie deficit longer than someone who has 5lbs to lose for all of the reasons we mentioned above.

Yet also because the duration will just take a longer time!

Therefore how long you should stay in a calorie deficit depends on the amount of weight you have to lose.

Now, how much weight should you be looking to lose per week on average?

Well,

A healthy rate of weight loss is losing anywhere from .5-1.5 lb per week on average.

A few things I want to make crystal clear here.

Yes, you read that right .5-1.5lb per week. This is because once you start to get over losing 1.5 lb per week, the things you will have to do in order to lose weight that quickly are going to be wildly restrictive and unsustainable.

Cutting out carbs, not going out to eat, eating very few calories, being starving, etc.

This will lead you down that cycle we talked about earlier of eating 1200 calories for 4 days, then binging for 3. 1200 calories for 4 days, binge for 3, over and over and over.

This will lead you to not actually see any real progress.

On top of that, I said “on average”.

An average means you look at things over a long period of time.

Therefore one week you might lose 2lbs, the next week you might lose none.

Yet, over a 2 week span, you would have lost an average of 1lb per week, which would fall right in that amazing progress range.

Side Note

This is where I lose my marbles a lot of the time.

No, you not losing weight for 3 days does not mean you are in a weight loss plateau.

You not losing weight for a week is not a weight loss plateau.

You not losing weight for 3 weeks is not a weight loss plateau.

It just means you are a normal human being and it is apart of the process.

If you want to actually know what depicts a true “weight loss plateau”, I wrote an entire article on that HERE if you want to check it out .

Therefore let’s say you have 35lbs to lose.

If we go by the numbers above, let’s say you lose anywhere from the 1lb per week average.

That would be about 35 weeks.

Now, what I tell every single one of my online coaching clients is to add another 4-12 weeks to that.

Why? Because you know, you are a real human being with a real life and sometimes life happens.

One week you might have a birthday party to go to and you might “only” lose .5lbs. Or you might have a weekend away with your spouse and you don’t track calories or actively try to diet because, well why the hell would you?

So that number may get pushed back a bit, which is 100% okay.

Call it 42 weeks instead of 35.

Now, you may look at that number and say whaaaattt Eric.

Let me say this.

Is it possible to lose weight faster? Yes, for sure. Will you maybe accomplish it sooner? Possibly.

But I am huge on having proper expectations.

If you do not have proper expectations, and you think you are going to lose 35lbs in 12 weeks.

When the 7th week rolls around and you have “only” lost 7lbs then you are going to think you are a failure, you are doing everything wrong, and you are going to quit.

When in reality, you were doing everything perfect!

Therefore if you can have your expectations set up right from the beginning, it makes it a lot easier to stay consistent.

If you stay consistent and you don’t quit, well guess what, you will reach your goal.

You will not reach your goal if you quit though, I can assure you of that.

How Long Should You Stay In A Calorie Deficit : Final Word

I hoped this article helped give you some insight and perspective on how long should you stay in a calorie deficit.

As you saw it truly depends on a few different markers. Yet you now are equipped with the tools and knowledge in order to attack your specific journey the best way possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop them below.

If you are interested in joining hundreds of people crushing it in The Clubhouse, you can head HERE To check out my diet and training programs.

Hope this helped and talk soon,

-E