I've been studying and studying for my CSCS exam which has led me to a lot of interesting topics that I could talk about. So instead of just hitting you with one, I'll briefly discuss a few thoughts I have had in my last week or so of studying.
Do something every day
Cartilage in joints has the least amount of blood flow and needs activity to get the necessary nutrients to keep it healthy. My high school basketball coach used to say this to my team all the time, to do SOMETHING even on our days off. Now this makes sense, especially as we all get older.
General Adaptation Syndrome and Progressive Overload
You have to place demands on the body that your body has not felt before to improve. This means you need to add weight, add reps or decrease rest periods in order to get anything out of your resistance or aerobic training sessions.
Stop looking in the mirror
It takes 16 training sessions before hypertrophy (increases in muscle fiber size) to occur. Yes, after a workout you will feel pumped, but go into each session working on gaining strength and the muscle will be sure to follow it.
Training differences between males and females
There aren't any. The only real differences between training males and females are that females should incorporate a bit more prehabilitation to protect the knee joint. Other than that, females have the same potential to build strength as men do. Don't worry, ladies, resistance training won't make you look like a bodybuilder because of the 10x difference in testosterone production that men have. But, the same rules apply: Progressive overload is a must.
That's all I have today since I have to get to the gym myself and tackle a couple of practice exams tonight, along with some finance homework.
If you have a question or comment, be sure to leave it below.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
K.I.S.S.
Many of you have probably heard this acronym.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
With so much information available to us, its easy to over analyze things. So I just want to remind everybody to keep it simple.
One way to keep it simple is with your diet. I read an article yesterday on tmuscle.com called, The Green Faces Diet. Probably the simplest whole foods diet I've seen. You can read the article by following the link at the bottom of this page, but the cliffnotes version was this:
1. If its green, eat it.
2. If it had a face, eat it.
3. If it isn't green and never had a face, don't eat it.
Sounds like it would be terrible. But go to the page and read the list the author gives. Looks like a pretty great idea, where you cut out refined carbs and get tons of great fiber, protein and essential fats.
Simple, and there's no doubt in my mind that it could work wonders for somebody trying to lose some body fat.
Another area where we need to keep it simple, is with our exercise selection. It's easy to pick up a bodybuilding mag and check out a 'roided up lifters program and use it. But the vast majority of people who strength train don't need to directly focus on the lateral part of their quadricep. The vast majority need to get strong all over. What's the best way to do that? Big, compound movements. If you have been lifting for less than 5 years or haven't gained any mass or strength from lifting no matter how long you've been doing it, these exercises, or some progression of them, should be about all you need for a while:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench press
Pull up
Military press
Row
A trainer I've read articles on who I can't recall right now, recommended, to spend 5 minutes at the end of your workout focusing on whatever you want, like your calves or biceps, just so you can work some smaller muscles you may feel need extra improvement. But 5 minutes is the max.
Keep it simple, keep it consistent and progress week to week and you can make improvements in any area of your life, especially in the weight room and with your body.
Got a question or a comment? Leave it below or shoot me a FB message or email.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
With so much information available to us, its easy to over analyze things. So I just want to remind everybody to keep it simple.
One way to keep it simple is with your diet. I read an article yesterday on tmuscle.com called, The Green Faces Diet. Probably the simplest whole foods diet I've seen. You can read the article by following the link at the bottom of this page, but the cliffnotes version was this:
1. If its green, eat it.
2. If it had a face, eat it.
3. If it isn't green and never had a face, don't eat it.
Sounds like it would be terrible. But go to the page and read the list the author gives. Looks like a pretty great idea, where you cut out refined carbs and get tons of great fiber, protein and essential fats.
Simple, and there's no doubt in my mind that it could work wonders for somebody trying to lose some body fat.
Another area where we need to keep it simple, is with our exercise selection. It's easy to pick up a bodybuilding mag and check out a 'roided up lifters program and use it. But the vast majority of people who strength train don't need to directly focus on the lateral part of their quadricep. The vast majority need to get strong all over. What's the best way to do that? Big, compound movements. If you have been lifting for less than 5 years or haven't gained any mass or strength from lifting no matter how long you've been doing it, these exercises, or some progression of them, should be about all you need for a while:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench press
Pull up
Military press
Row
A trainer I've read articles on who I can't recall right now, recommended, to spend 5 minutes at the end of your workout focusing on whatever you want, like your calves or biceps, just so you can work some smaller muscles you may feel need extra improvement. But 5 minutes is the max.
Keep it simple, keep it consistent and progress week to week and you can make improvements in any area of your life, especially in the weight room and with your body.
Got a question or a comment? Leave it below or shoot me a FB message or email.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Deadlift
Every couple weeks I will discuss some of my favorite exercises, as well as exercises that I think work best for certain goals. So to start, I chose my favorite exercise, the deadlift.
I have already mentioned on this blog that this is one lift that everybody should do some form of. The benefits can be tremendous from an athletic standpoint, as well as from a muscle building standpoint.
Athletically, it works your posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings), which is chronically weak in young athletes who are more quad dominant. This will also act as an injury prevention exercise because a lot of knee injuries involving the ligaments of the knee can be prevented by strengthening the hamstrings. The posterior chain can help with speed development, which any athlete should want more of. It will also strengthen the core because of the stabilization necessary while executing the lift.
From a muscle building standpoint, how many other exercises work almost every muscle in your body? Other than the Olympic lifts, which are more technical and harder to learn, I can't think of a better exercise to increase overall muscle mass.
Now if you have never done deadlifts before, you need to find a good coach to teach the lift to you. There are a number of things I would look for while putting somebody in position to deadlift that I will not dive into extensively today, but one thing that I see with my athletes is that they are not able to maintain a neutral spine when going to start the lift. This can be caused by a number of things, like a lack of ankle or hip flexibility. If either of those are the case, then I would give a few corrective exercises to help that area.
As far as programming, beginners can deadlift two times per week. Once you get the form down start with 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps. I really don't like going higher than 8 reps because if form breaks down on this exercise it could be detrimental for days after the training session.
Work your way up to deadlifting your weight for 6-8 reps, then start using more weight and less reps one time per week. Try 5x5 for 4-6 weeks. Then try 10x3 for 4-6 weeks. As long as you keep your form tight and are continuing to increase weight, just keep lifting.
Nothing, in my opinion, gets me more amped up than deadlift day. So when you know you are going to deadlift, get in the gym, crank up your headphones, don't look at anybody else, and be focused on every rep. If you go to a gym that does not allow deadlifts, let them know you will not be back.
As much as I love the deadlift, it shouldn't be the only lower body exercise you use. Be sure to have a single leg exercise every lower body day, or if you are training 3x per week, at least two of those days should have a single leg exercise after the deadlift.
Be sure to leave any questions or comments down below, or hit me up on Facebook and leave them there.
I have already mentioned on this blog that this is one lift that everybody should do some form of. The benefits can be tremendous from an athletic standpoint, as well as from a muscle building standpoint.
Athletically, it works your posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings), which is chronically weak in young athletes who are more quad dominant. This will also act as an injury prevention exercise because a lot of knee injuries involving the ligaments of the knee can be prevented by strengthening the hamstrings. The posterior chain can help with speed development, which any athlete should want more of. It will also strengthen the core because of the stabilization necessary while executing the lift.
From a muscle building standpoint, how many other exercises work almost every muscle in your body? Other than the Olympic lifts, which are more technical and harder to learn, I can't think of a better exercise to increase overall muscle mass.
Now if you have never done deadlifts before, you need to find a good coach to teach the lift to you. There are a number of things I would look for while putting somebody in position to deadlift that I will not dive into extensively today, but one thing that I see with my athletes is that they are not able to maintain a neutral spine when going to start the lift. This can be caused by a number of things, like a lack of ankle or hip flexibility. If either of those are the case, then I would give a few corrective exercises to help that area.
As far as programming, beginners can deadlift two times per week. Once you get the form down start with 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps. I really don't like going higher than 8 reps because if form breaks down on this exercise it could be detrimental for days after the training session.
Work your way up to deadlifting your weight for 6-8 reps, then start using more weight and less reps one time per week. Try 5x5 for 4-6 weeks. Then try 10x3 for 4-6 weeks. As long as you keep your form tight and are continuing to increase weight, just keep lifting.
Nothing, in my opinion, gets me more amped up than deadlift day. So when you know you are going to deadlift, get in the gym, crank up your headphones, don't look at anybody else, and be focused on every rep. If you go to a gym that does not allow deadlifts, let them know you will not be back.
As much as I love the deadlift, it shouldn't be the only lower body exercise you use. Be sure to have a single leg exercise every lower body day, or if you are training 3x per week, at least two of those days should have a single leg exercise after the deadlift.
Be sure to leave any questions or comments down below, or hit me up on Facebook and leave them there.
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