Lifting for the Love of It!
May 8, 2008
Over the last couple of years I have taken a number of layoffs, for a variety of different reasons. Many times I wonder why I lift at all. The prevailing belief is that lifting must be one’s top priority if one is to be the best at it. That may be true and that is one of the biggest problems I have had. Lifting is not my top priority, it is more like fourth after God, family, and work. Actually work is only ahead of lifting because I need it to support my family, otherwise it would be further down the list. So given the fact that lifting is not everything to me, why do I do it?
I guess what makes this a complicating situation is that I love lifting. I love competing against myself and others in everything. That’s why I have done so many different kinds of competitions. I have done 3 strongman contests, 2 highland games, and numerous powerlifting contests.
Body Part Isolation vs. Complex Movements in Strength Training - Build Real Muscle Instead of Fake!
May 5, 2008
Working as a fitness professional, there is one type of question I get all the time that shows that many people are missing the big picture regarding the benefits of strength training. This popular question usually goes something like this:
"What exercise can I do to isolate my _______ (insert your muscle of choice ? abs, quads, biceps, triceps, etc)?"
It doesn’t matter which muscle someone is asking about, they always seem to be asking how to ‘isolate’ it. My first response to this question is always ? "Why in the world would you want to isolate it?"
The first thing I try to teach my clients is that the body does not work well in muscle isolation. Rather, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain; that is, large portions of the body assist other portions of the body in completing a complex movement. In fact, there really is no such thing as true muscle isolation. There is almost always a nearby muscle group that will assist in some way with whatever movement you are doing. However, this article compares attempting to ‘isolate’ body parts via single-joint exercises to the much more effective strategy of performing multi-joint complex movements.
Dorian Yates Secret: What Lean People Are Doing To Get That Way
May 2, 2008
A consensus has arisen within the bodybuilding world over the past twenty years regarding the exact modes and procedures needed to become lean as humanly possible while retaining muscle mass. Across the nation and the world, bodybuilders are lifting weights, hitting aerobics and eating with discipline in order to melt body fat. While they might quibble over the content of the workout or the food selections, perhaps they’d argue over what was the superior cardio mode, what they wouldn’t argue about was the overall procedures.
The flat-out fact is that a radically lowered body fat percentage can be obtained by anyone who has maniacal discipline: they need to lift weights like a labor camp detainee and blast away at metabolism-elevating cardio with Big Ben regularity. They preplan every bite they eat. If you are that in control of self, environment and life-circumstance and can exert the requisite discipline and denial, you too can achieve a super-low body fat percentile. It requires that eating, exercise and rest are in perfect symmetrical proportion.
Balance Is Key To The Optimum Physique
April 30, 2008
As Purposeful Primitives we understand the need practice two distinct types of training: progressive resistance for the external musculature and cardiovascular training for the internal plumbing. In addition, training need be coordinated with a distinct eating regimen that amplifies instead of retards results. We know and accept these ultra-basic premises but then what?
Physiologically we understand that the optimal time to perform cardiovascular exercise is first thing in the morning while glycogen (emulsified carbs) stores are low in order to force the body to mobilize and oxidize stored body fat. We also understand that early morning cardio is sometimes not possible and cardio during the day is preferable to no cardio at all. Okay, so as Thomas Merton told the Dali Lama in 1965 while discussing the subtleties of purposefully thoughtless contemplation, "So Dali, tell me something I don’t know." In the world of progressive resistance training it’s important to not continually play to your strengths. After you’ve been weight training for awhile biases for and against certain exercises emerge. "I love to bench press?I hate to squat?I love curls?overhead presses suck." The problem is that by allowing these prejudices to take root and become institutionalized physical imbalances occur and down the long road this becomes problematic. Muscle imbalances set the stage for conditional injuries. Too much quad strength in relation to hamstring strength eventually results in problems. Muscles that lie on opposite sides of a limb need to be worked in roughly equal proportion and ignoring one or the other makes the individual far more susceptible to injury than if they’d never taken up weight training at all.
The Importance of Maintaining A Weight Training Log
April 26, 2008
Do you find gyms intimidating? Feel lost while doing your workouts? Tried different programs with no results? Not always sure of want exercises you are supposed to be doing? Or maybe you’re burnt out on the exercises your doing. A weight-training log may be exactly what you need.
Walking into a gym full of big bodybuilders or women built like models can be very intimidating. Having all these beautiful people working out around you can make you wonder if you’ll ever be able to look like that. Well let me tell you a little secret they didn’t always look that good and with a focused plan you too can look that way. Its simple, write down the exercises that you usually do with the amount of weight used and number of sets performed for a period of three weeks. Use a weight-training log. For example if you are doing a three day split that is you divide the body into three parts and train them over three days, write down three workouts for each group. Don’t worry if this takes more or less than three weeks just as long as you record three workouts for each grouping. Now review your workouts after that period and analyze your findings. Were you workouts remarkably similar? Did you use the same amount of weight for the same number of sets? Was your cardiovascular training always for the same amount of time, done the same way? To quote a famous bodybuilder and actor," If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always got", I’ll let you try and figure out who said that. So the next time you have to train, try to improve in small steps maybe a little more weight on the bench press, say 5 lbs. Maybe try a different type of cardio or run on the treadmill for a little longer, say 3 minutes. These small steps will ultimately help you achieve your fitness goals faster than plugging away day after day never improving. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t improve every time. Remember, little steps.
Get Rid of Cellulite, Once and For All!
April 23, 2008
Get Fit At Home With Ailsa : Get Rid of Cellulite
Had it up to here with Cellulite? Want to get rid of it forever, and make your body all lovely and sleek? Yeah, me too, so I when one of my old ‘Gym Boys’ showed me this Exercise years ago, I started doing it al the time, and changed it up a bit to make it work more effectively for me. This is a great Exercise for Women, but I know for a fact that ‘manly men’ do it, too! ha,ha! (Oh, and in case you are thinking something ‘innaccurate’ about the ‘Gym Boy’ thing, that’s just what I used to call all the guys at the gym where I used to work out a lot — it’s a term of endearment, but in no way a reference to anyone I went out with — I either call those guys “that crazy old jerk” or “one of my great old friends”…usually one or the other — sometimes both! ha,ha!)
Get rid of Cellulite once and for all with this very easy and incredibly inexpensive Exercise. It takes about 20 minutes, or so, depending on how many Reps you do (repetitions — ‘Reps’ in Weight Lifting Language…). Pop into www.buildyourownhouse.ca to see pictures of me doing these ‘Anti-Cellulite’ Exercises!
Why You Do Not have Killer Abs or that 6 Pack Abdominal Muscle
April 20, 2008
Ask any woman what is the most attractive part of a male body and most of the time, they will tell you it’s the six pack abs, meaning that your abdominal muscle showing up with beautiful definition. Your abs is considered by many as a sexy muscle and is a symbol of a fit and healthy man. Women are instinctively drawn towards a man brimming with health and fitness because it is a primitive indication that the man is strong enough to protect her and her brood. A rippling six pack abs is one such indication. So is it any wonder that in every gym, you will see men of all ages doing crunches, leg raisers and sit ups religiously in the hope of obtaining the much coveted killer abs? Unfortunately, most men will never get to see their abdominal muscle in its glorious splendor. Why? The following fitness tip will show you why.
Burning Fat
April 17, 2008
The more muscle a person has, the greater their metabolism is, which equates to the faster they burn calories. However, resistance training to build muscle is only one part of the equation. The other parts are cardiovascular conditioning and healthy eating. A lot of men that I have encountered feel that weight training is the only thing they need to do in order to get in shape, but wonder why they can never achieve the definition that comes as a result of adding cardio conditioning and healthy eating. If you are not dedicating enough time to any one of these three elements, you will most likely not achieve the results you strive for. Having said that, this edition’s column is dedicated to the importance of cardiovascular conditioning for fat burning.
Once you reach your desired weight, you only need maintain it, which usually requires you do cardio about three times per week, every other day, for 20 minutes. However, if you are training for a sport, the frequency and duration will be much different. Assuming you are not training for a sport, you will need to put more into your cardio workouts until you reach your desired weight. Since fat is not your body’s first choice of fuel (carbohydrates are), you stand a better chance of tapping into your fat stores if you perform your cardio workouts first thing in the morning before eating. The duration of your workouts should be approximately 45 minutes, four or more days per week for maximum results in order to rid your body of excess fat.
The Secret to Legs with Size, Strength, and Endurance
April 15, 2008
There are countless leg workouts in magazines and books that promise big results. Many are good workouts, but the secret to continued progress is to keep your muscles from adapting, while building on what you have already done. What I mean by this is that mixing and matching great workouts just doesn’t work very well. You do need to change your workouts frequently to keep your muscles growing, but if you don’t plan properly, you could be wasting time.
When you plan your workouts properly, each workout builds on what you accomplished the workout before, so that you keep moving forward, instead of taking steps back each time you change workouts. A good example of this is how many Powerlifters have trained for decades. They begin a training cycle by using lighter weights for higher reps. The first week or two they might do 3 sets of 8 repetitions. The next couple of weeks might be 5 sets of 5 reps. Then they add weight and drop their reps each week until they are ready to test themselves for a single maximum repetition. This is usually done in a contest, with judges and strict rules. This works well if your goal is to lift as much as possible in one lift for one repetition.
Gain Weight Fast With These Ten Powerful Tips! Part -2
April 13, 2008
By the time you finish reading this you will have the basics down to eating to gain weight fast!
If You want to gain weight fast you have to eat right to gain weight! So here we will focus on this crucial yet misunderstood element to gain weight.
Gaining weight fast takes much more than just eating though. In following Parts of this course we will cover:
Lesson 2: Training To Gain Weight Fast
Lesson 3: Rest And Recuperation To Gain Weight
Lesson 4: Planning A Routine For Gaining Weight
Lesson 5: Supplements To Gain Weight
Lesson 6: Answers To Some Commonly Asked Questions about Gaining Weight.
If you would like to receive all 6 parts of this Mini Course to gain weight by email, you can go to here and sign up.
http://www.gainmuscleandlosefat.com
Each one of these jam packed lessons needs to be applied to your gain weight routine if you truly want to gain weight as fast as you can!
Let’s now continue with the rest of my Eating Tips To Gain Weight!
Gain Weight Tip-6: Eat “Power Meals” For Added Energy and To Gain Weight.
