This year has been very humbling. I succumbed to injury quick into the beginning of this year, And it lasted for half of the year. I've been able to train without injury since then, and have been on a good run. I'll dive into what I think was the cause of the injury - the injury itself isn't so important - what it stands for is a roadblock. I have now been lifting for 5 years. For the first 4 of those years I wrote my own programming largely. The last year and a half I've tried 5/3/1, 8/6/3, Juggernaut Method, and GZCL. I did other training during the year, but I was mostly rehabbing and using lighter weights.
I find gauging and maintaining the recovery ability of your body difficult. Not all pains are the same, and to reach as far as you can, you will be willing to take some pain, but that very same pain could end up reversing on you and become more permanent. I think it's a case by case basis. Over the years, I've noticed that using brute strength to throw around weights does in fact injure you, and even if you can recover from it quickly, it can ultimately be your demise. I feel I started lifting weights with very proper form - and I did. As I started using my heaviest of weights though, I noticed my form slipping, but when you are dealing with very heavy weights, your ability to manipulate it will decrease.
I have found that my form in exercises and lifts will increase and decrease over time. You pick up new bad habits, and lose good instilled habits. This all sounds very synonymous with life. Coming back from a shoulder injury lasting half the year, I resumed without training my shoulders. No more raises, laterals pull-ups, rows, or overhead presses for the time being. I mostly trained the squat, and cautiously did some bench press. As time went on, my lifts were going up, but not very quickly, and I wasn't lifting that heavy. My programming had ran its run, and I needed something new. I tried GZCL, and I'm still on it, and very much so like it.
GZCL lifting routine is said to not be a program, but a method. This actually deterred me at first, because I like having linear things to follow. It is quantifiable though, and is just a matter of a 4 week cycle. I don't follow it as described as I am a rebel. I know this in turn breaks the philosophy of periodic training, but my version is just more sped up.
I'm running the program on three lifts: bench press, deadlift, and the squat. I squat and bench press on the same workout, and do it first in the week with a deadlift day following a few days after. This leaves me with 2-3 workouts a week, which doesn't sound like much, but no day is wasted and it accelerates quite quickly.
The things I think GZCL have going for it compared to other programs are that it's more simple with less things to remember and less deviance from training structure. I also think the percentages are just really dialed in greatly, and allows for your body to recover and be ready to execute. It gives mental confidence in gaining much momentum with failure. The lifts I do outside the main three lifts are not something I record. I don't think them important to even name, because I really feel each person should do the lifts that they know won't injure them, and will help sculpt or cultivate muscle in the places that are their specific goals.
I find weight lifting and training to be very different these days then years past. It's no longer a grand discipline to me. I've sort of acknowledged the limits of my abilities, and certain motivations aren't there. There is no longer a veil of incompetence in my mind about all things fitness and weight training related. I'm eager to train. It keeps me healthy.
In the next coming year/years, I'd like to help a greater amount of people in weight lifting endeavors. I think instead of just trying to come up with ideas, I need to just lay things down and let them do what they will and be what they will. So here's to productivity.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Bench Press Technique
The Bench Press seems to be quite different than the other 2 main lifts - the Deadlift and the Squat - which are like each other. Instead, the Bench Press is an outlier, and I will discuss factors which could prevent you from pressing higher weights.
The first thing to nail down on a Bench Press is the desired hand grip width. Choices range from narrow to standard to wide. A closer grip will work the Triceps more, but too close of a grip for your body's proportions will cause shoulder pain and a shoulder (or both shoulders) injury over time. Too wide of a grip is also associated with shoulder pain.
You will commonly see powerlifters bench pressing with a wide grip. This is in order to have a smaller ROM (range of motion), which allows for heavier weights to be lifted (and more records to be broken). Before you jump to conclusions that a wider bench is easier, consider bench pressing 4 or 5 plates on each side. I'm sure it's quite difficult despite grip despite huge ROM changes.
One think that I've learned through lifting over the years is that you should be able to complete high volume comfortably on any given exercise, and that by itself will mean your technique is good or decent enough. The human shoulder is incredibly fragile. If you sat at a computer and didn't use the chair (sat much lower). Your arms would be stretching up, and you might be OK for a few minutes, but then shoulder fatigue would creep in, and if you continued, you'd pop a roto cuff, and it would take a few days to a week minimum to heal. In the same sense you should know when you are damaging yourself in an unhealthy manner.
The grip I've been using on Bench Press until now was too narrow a grip for myself. I've had some chest pain in the past, and assumed a more narrow grip would take more tension off the chest, allow me to strengthen my triceps, and give me a good press. What ended up happening is that I still had chest pain, and I wasn't gaining strength very quickly.
Unfortunately when you think your form is good in a lift, you cease trying to improve it, and you can dig yourself quite a deep hole, and establish a list of bad habits you may never have had to begin with. So recently I saw an elite lifting Bench Pressing, and having seen many of them, their technique does vary but also looks similar to each other. Limb length alone makes lifts look quite different.
The thing I noticed is that although we want a back arch to hit the chest better, lift more weight via slightly reduced ROM, and to have more protected shoulders, is that these lifters don't kill themselves getting the back arch. Even though the Bench Press position prior to benching is said to be uncomfortable, and should be, that you do in fact need to be comfortable in any given lift to execute it correctly.
So a way to get the correct back arch, leg drive, hand grip, and to have your shoulders pinned there's an easy method to use. A strong setup like this will also allow you to lift weights even once you're very fatigued because of the lack of effort necessary to get into a strong position. The first step is to sit on the bench. Then grab the bar exactly where you want to and fix your grip. Now using your feet, slide your torso up the bench (towards the bar and in fact past the bar). Now your head is on the whole other side of the bar, and you can even extend your arms and feel a nice Triceps squeeze to trigger your Triceps ready to fire. Then while keeping your grip fixed, whip your body and push your torso down into the bench (basically without moving your hands, you move your body into the correct place). And as this puts you into correct leverage, lift off should be very easy as you're directly under the bar.
I usually do about 25-35 reps on Bench Press, but using this new method I can comfortably do 104 reps without injury or soreness. Grip width will vary person to person, but I'm using my middle fingers on the rings, and that fills out my chest well, and protects my shoulders and elbows.
The first thing to nail down on a Bench Press is the desired hand grip width. Choices range from narrow to standard to wide. A closer grip will work the Triceps more, but too close of a grip for your body's proportions will cause shoulder pain and a shoulder (or both shoulders) injury over time. Too wide of a grip is also associated with shoulder pain.
You will commonly see powerlifters bench pressing with a wide grip. This is in order to have a smaller ROM (range of motion), which allows for heavier weights to be lifted (and more records to be broken). Before you jump to conclusions that a wider bench is easier, consider bench pressing 4 or 5 plates on each side. I'm sure it's quite difficult despite grip despite huge ROM changes.
One think that I've learned through lifting over the years is that you should be able to complete high volume comfortably on any given exercise, and that by itself will mean your technique is good or decent enough. The human shoulder is incredibly fragile. If you sat at a computer and didn't use the chair (sat much lower). Your arms would be stretching up, and you might be OK for a few minutes, but then shoulder fatigue would creep in, and if you continued, you'd pop a roto cuff, and it would take a few days to a week minimum to heal. In the same sense you should know when you are damaging yourself in an unhealthy manner.
The grip I've been using on Bench Press until now was too narrow a grip for myself. I've had some chest pain in the past, and assumed a more narrow grip would take more tension off the chest, allow me to strengthen my triceps, and give me a good press. What ended up happening is that I still had chest pain, and I wasn't gaining strength very quickly.
Unfortunately when you think your form is good in a lift, you cease trying to improve it, and you can dig yourself quite a deep hole, and establish a list of bad habits you may never have had to begin with. So recently I saw an elite lifting Bench Pressing, and having seen many of them, their technique does vary but also looks similar to each other. Limb length alone makes lifts look quite different.
The thing I noticed is that although we want a back arch to hit the chest better, lift more weight via slightly reduced ROM, and to have more protected shoulders, is that these lifters don't kill themselves getting the back arch. Even though the Bench Press position prior to benching is said to be uncomfortable, and should be, that you do in fact need to be comfortable in any given lift to execute it correctly.
So a way to get the correct back arch, leg drive, hand grip, and to have your shoulders pinned there's an easy method to use. A strong setup like this will also allow you to lift weights even once you're very fatigued because of the lack of effort necessary to get into a strong position. The first step is to sit on the bench. Then grab the bar exactly where you want to and fix your grip. Now using your feet, slide your torso up the bench (towards the bar and in fact past the bar). Now your head is on the whole other side of the bar, and you can even extend your arms and feel a nice Triceps squeeze to trigger your Triceps ready to fire. Then while keeping your grip fixed, whip your body and push your torso down into the bench (basically without moving your hands, you move your body into the correct place). And as this puts you into correct leverage, lift off should be very easy as you're directly under the bar.
I usually do about 25-35 reps on Bench Press, but using this new method I can comfortably do 104 reps without injury or soreness. Grip width will vary person to person, but I'm using my middle fingers on the rings, and that fills out my chest well, and protects my shoulders and elbows.
Monday, August 11, 2014
How To Become Fit and Remain So
It's been 4.5 years since I've maintained a healthy fit lifestyle. It's been said that the first year is usually wasted, the second year spent learning, and the third year and following years are doing things right. I'm sure that can be said for other industries and hobbies. Ironically in the age of information, there is so much content that it becomes a skill to sift through it and find truths.
You may find many weight lifting routines online and in magazines, and you may wonder how you would fare on then and the results you'd see afterwards. Ultimately though, no program will be tailored specifically for your body, experiences, and lifestyle.
As someone who doesn't like to waste time or effort, I decided early on lifting that I wanted to do the barbell lifts, and that learning their technique would allow me to progress and continue my fit lifestyle for the rest of my life. Alternatively spending time on machines, and using too many different types of exercises will not lead to foreseeable gains from utilizing more determination and focus.
Although I'm not a powerlifter, I find the three power lifts to be the most valuable as do many others. They are the Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press. It is more common for people to be the most proficient in Deadlifting over the other two lifts because of the nature of the lift and the leverage you are able to apply. Deadlifts are also the most taxing to the body and its nervous system. For this reason they're performed less ofter than the other two lifts.
A strong squat ultimately decides the strength, stability, and mobility of a person. I feel it's the most life enhancing out of all of the lifts, and that it's smart to program it as your first lift for every workout - if even just for a warm up. I see many people clinging to smith machines, other machines, and walls when performing squats, and I would advise against any sort of handicap if possible. The thought process is that someone will start on machines, learn form, and then transition to free weights (barbells), but that transition doesn't seem to happen with many people, leading me to believe you should never use the crutch in the first place unless you are truly injured.
Lifting is about using correct leverages, which allow you to lift more weight, which spurs even further strength and muscles gains. While on one hand you want to have the knowledge to know the correct cues and body position for each lift, you also want to simply let your body act as efficiently as possible (and simply not take the reigns, or try to force anything beyond what should happen).
You may find many weight lifting routines online and in magazines, and you may wonder how you would fare on then and the results you'd see afterwards. Ultimately though, no program will be tailored specifically for your body, experiences, and lifestyle.
As someone who doesn't like to waste time or effort, I decided early on lifting that I wanted to do the barbell lifts, and that learning their technique would allow me to progress and continue my fit lifestyle for the rest of my life. Alternatively spending time on machines, and using too many different types of exercises will not lead to foreseeable gains from utilizing more determination and focus.
Although I'm not a powerlifter, I find the three power lifts to be the most valuable as do many others. They are the Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press. It is more common for people to be the most proficient in Deadlifting over the other two lifts because of the nature of the lift and the leverage you are able to apply. Deadlifts are also the most taxing to the body and its nervous system. For this reason they're performed less ofter than the other two lifts.
A strong squat ultimately decides the strength, stability, and mobility of a person. I feel it's the most life enhancing out of all of the lifts, and that it's smart to program it as your first lift for every workout - if even just for a warm up. I see many people clinging to smith machines, other machines, and walls when performing squats, and I would advise against any sort of handicap if possible. The thought process is that someone will start on machines, learn form, and then transition to free weights (barbells), but that transition doesn't seem to happen with many people, leading me to believe you should never use the crutch in the first place unless you are truly injured.
Lifting is about using correct leverages, which allow you to lift more weight, which spurs even further strength and muscles gains. While on one hand you want to have the knowledge to know the correct cues and body position for each lift, you also want to simply let your body act as efficiently as possible (and simply not take the reigns, or try to force anything beyond what should happen).
Monday, July 28, 2014
Lifting Routine to Maximize Strength, Muscle, and Recovery - Mercury
Having ran into injuries while strength training, I've focused more on muscle building and general health while still keeping strength, and possibly increasing strength. I've ran into recovery issues despite having a good recovery ability, and I devised a method to streamline a more consistent recovery, which allows you to keep lifting and progressing with less deloads (programmed rest weeks).
To establish an ideal intensity, it's necessary to base a routine off the 1 rep max for each lift. To calculate a percentage number (e.g. 70%) into your 1 rep max (e.g. 225lb bench press[102kg]), you can use a calculator, and type is '.7' multiplied by 225 equals 157.5lb[71kg]. So 70% of a 225lb bench press is 157.5lb.
The routine I made is a full body workout done 3x a week. It's 6 weeks long, and scales from 63-87% of your 1 rep max with sets of 5. Each workout day has the squat and bench press, and deadlifts are done 1x a week (or 1x every other week is recovery is too effected.) The deadlift sets are programmed with the squat and bench press percentages. This way the intensity is uniform across the big three lifts.
I only have 2 work sets for the three lifts, and 4 warm up sets in the same rep scheme (5). The first week, the first work set is 63% and the second set is 70%. Each following workout simply adds 1% to each set, and after 6 weeks (18 workouts), you end up at 80% and 87%, which are considerably challenging lifts, but far more doable after completing the first 5 weeks. The body works through periodization. After this routine, I'll maybe take a week off, and tweak the routine for a different rep scheme and adjust the percentages accordingly. Feel free to do other lifts while doing this routine as long as it doesn't annihilate recovery. I add dumbbell rows, calf raises, hanging knee raises, and weighted pull-ups.
To establish an ideal intensity, it's necessary to base a routine off the 1 rep max for each lift. To calculate a percentage number (e.g. 70%) into your 1 rep max (e.g. 225lb bench press[102kg]), you can use a calculator, and type is '.7' multiplied by 225 equals 157.5lb[71kg]. So 70% of a 225lb bench press is 157.5lb.
The routine I made is a full body workout done 3x a week. It's 6 weeks long, and scales from 63-87% of your 1 rep max with sets of 5. Each workout day has the squat and bench press, and deadlifts are done 1x a week (or 1x every other week is recovery is too effected.) The deadlift sets are programmed with the squat and bench press percentages. This way the intensity is uniform across the big three lifts.
I only have 2 work sets for the three lifts, and 4 warm up sets in the same rep scheme (5). The first week, the first work set is 63% and the second set is 70%. Each following workout simply adds 1% to each set, and after 6 weeks (18 workouts), you end up at 80% and 87%, which are considerably challenging lifts, but far more doable after completing the first 5 weeks. The body works through periodization. After this routine, I'll maybe take a week off, and tweak the routine for a different rep scheme and adjust the percentages accordingly. Feel free to do other lifts while doing this routine as long as it doesn't annihilate recovery. I add dumbbell rows, calf raises, hanging knee raises, and weighted pull-ups.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Bench Press Technique
I've been having a lot of success in Bench Press the past few months, and want to share the technique I've been using. The first thing I realize when I lay down for a Bench Press is that my lower back isn't warmed up enough to execute a good back arch. Leg drive is done by pushing with your feet. I like to use a close grip, which is still at least 12 inches apart. Before beginning to press the bar, or unrack it, I will grab the bar and drag my body underneath it and pin my back with my scapulas as close together as possible. The two positions that make up the Bench Press are the tucked position with the barbell at your chest and the extended position where the barbell is pressed outwardly. More simply they are the up position and the down position.
What I have found recently to work efficiently is to exaggerate the difference between the up and down positions with two horizontal points. When you tuck your arms and bring the barbell to your chest, lower the bar down your body towards your navel, and press the bar, moving it horizontally upwards over your body closer to your eyes.
What I have found recently to work efficiently is to exaggerate the difference between the up and down positions with two horizontal points. When you tuck your arms and bring the barbell to your chest, lower the bar down your body towards your navel, and press the bar, moving it horizontally upwards over your body closer to your eyes.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
How To Start Lifting Weights
Lifting weights is a lifestyle. The three most common and important lifts are the Bench Press, the Squat, and the Deadlift. There are quite a few reasons why those lifts are held in high regard. They allow you to lift the most amount of weight in an effective manner to spur muscle increase, strength increase, and mobility increase. Each of those three lifts emphasize different muscles.
The Bench Press targets the chest, shoulders, and arms. You lay on a bench and unrack a barbell, lower it to your chest, and press the bar to full arm extension. The Squat targets the legs, thighs, glutes, and works the core. You use a squat rack so that you can unrack the barbell loaded with weight directly on to your traps or lower rear shoulders. You step back, sink into a crouch with your hips below your knees, and then stand up with full leg extension. The Deadlift targets the spinal muscles, traps, lats, glutes, lower back, and hamstrings. You set up a barbell on the floor with 45lb (20kg) plates on each side, stand in front of the barbell with your shins touching the bar, bend at the knees and hips, grab the bar, and stand up with your upper back and chest leading the way, and push your hips forward into extension.
So as you can see from above that the three main lifts will cover the shoulders, arms, legs, back, hips, core, and glutes. These are the more important muscles to target for overall strength. A few muscles left out of those three lifts are the biceps, calves, forearms, inner thighs (adductors), rear shoulders, and abs. Any muscle group you would like to devote more work to in an effort to create more development, can also be isolated outside of the main lifts.
The frequency you perform your workout routine with lifting weights will determine volume of reps and sets as well as the intensity of each lift (ability to generate power and closer to maximum strength). For example, if you worked out one day a week, you would need extremely high volume to compensate for the lack of frequency. The intensity will suffer from the amount of workload on that one day, meaning the lifts done at the end of that day will not be attacked with full strength and capability.
After having experienced working out from one day to six days a week, I have found that the less frequent you work out, the less discipline needed, the higher body fat I held, less injuries, and plenty of strength. The more frequent you work out, the more aesthetic you appear from lower body fat percentage, muscle tension, mobility, conditioning, increased skill/technique and increased general health although the disadvantage remains of weaker joints from the repetitive use and lack of recovery.
As for rep ranges, it's often listed at 3-5 reps for strength, 6-12 reps for muscle, but ultimately all rep ranges are important, and you could use lower reps while increasing muscle by increasing total sets and/or lifts. To become good at a rep range, you should keep it in your routine for at least 6 weeks or longer. An example of increasing weight from workout session to workout session is that if you were bench pressing 135lb for 5 sets of 3, you can increase the weight by 5lb each time you do the lift. So the next time it would be 140lb for 5 sets of 3, then 145lb. You keep climbing linearly until you fail/plateau. At that point you can either continue lifting near your highest weight or deload to a lower weight, and climb back up.
Additional tips are to record your workout routines so that you can visibly work towards progress. Good nutrition is to eat clean (low sodium, low fat, low calorie). If you want to increase muscle size, you have to eat in an excess of your total maintenance of calories. If you want to lose weight, you must eat less than your total maintenance of calories. A high protein diet is important in keeping lean, and helping muscles repair.
Working out creates micro tears in the muscle, and resting allows for the muscles to rebuild and recover. So adequate rest is essential, meaning you should try to sleep 7-8 hours a night. Food intake is also essential for recovery. High water intake is recommended for leanness and general health. Muscles may become tight and require stretching.
To achieve progress the quickest be it strength, muscle, or aesthetics, each of your muscles should be in a state of recovery at most times. Each time the muscle is worked by lifting weights, and then recovers by allowing for rest, the muscle is further developed. As you can imagine, if you try to keep your entire body in a constant state of recovery, you will face injuries from time to time. This occurs because high frequency wears down the joints, and without sufficient time to recovery, weak joints will lead to injury, especially when using heavier weights, but the same can be said for even body weight exercises like push-ups and pull-ups.
If an injury occurs in arm or shoulder, many exercises may be off limit, but squats for example could still be trained to fully utilize those micro damage/repair cycles on the muscle to develop it the fastest. Likewise, returning to the three main lifts (Bench Press, Squat, and Deadlift), as you progress in those lifts, the muscles will develop, and the joints will become stronger (Bench Press - Elbow joint, Squat - Knee joint, Deadlift - Hip joint). Making those joints stronger will generally lead to a higher quality of life - and a longer life, and will prevent injuries. So although isolation exercises like calf raises to develop the calves are important, the three main lifts should take presidency.
Your workout routine should feature the three main lifts, and should have isolation exercises, which can be for added work, muscle development, or to have any specialty lifts you would like to include - for instance, weighted pull-ups. Some people may wonder why training your legs is important. I would say knee health and mobility are high benefits.
Hip strength is important for overall power, and both Squats and Deadlifts develop hip strength. The shoulders require proportionate development to ensure no injuries occur. There are three outer parts of the shoulder - the frontal deltoids, the lateral deltoids, and the rear deltoids. It is very common for people to over develop just the frontal deltoids and to neglect the lateral (side) and rear. This is because the Bench Press targets the frontal deltoids, but the other lifts do not target the lateral and rear delts efficiently. For the lateral delts, you can do Lateral Raise, which are standing with a dumbbell, and raising your arm out lateral, leading with your pinky (smallest finger). The rear delts can be targeted in Face Pulls, which are done standing with a cable station, and using a rope attachment from the high pullet, and pulling it towards your face, and pull so that your elbow makes a 90 degree angle.
Another note on recovery is that because we want to optimize and sustain a constant recovery, it should be known that beginners to weight lifting will not be able to being muscles as close to failure, meaning they don't need as much recovery and can train more frequently. Additionally, when you are a beginner, you are lifting lighter weights, and lighter weights allow for faster recovery versus using heavier weights.
So ideally a beginner should use a full body routine multiple days a week (like 3). The high volume will also make for plentiful time to practice the techniques of the lifts. There are three ways to increase the amount of weight you are lifting, and that is by tweaking and improving your technique, building nervous system response to the muscle, or by increasing the muscle size. The easiest of those is to tweak your technique, followed by strength training, and the slowest and hardest way would be to increase muscle size.
This is why you should generally think about your technique in all of your lifts as to how you can improve them therein increasing the amount of weight you can lift, and progress faster. Heavy weight may sound intimidating, but it is the natural progression of increasing weight poundage over time. For example, 405lb may sound impossibly heavy, but imagine lifting 415lb. What is impossibly heavy plus 10lbs? It's not much heavier. The numbers don't matter. What they represent is your ability to display technique and leverage to lift any given weight. So although we think of someone who can lift heavy objects as 'strong' like in a natural power, but heavy objects are lifted through technique
Over time (years), as muscle development becomes more complete, heavier weight is necessary to spur a growth response in muscle and strength. This complicates things because that includes needing more recovery, having a higher chance of injury, and more complicated programming to break through plateaus.
The Bench Press targets the chest, shoulders, and arms. You lay on a bench and unrack a barbell, lower it to your chest, and press the bar to full arm extension. The Squat targets the legs, thighs, glutes, and works the core. You use a squat rack so that you can unrack the barbell loaded with weight directly on to your traps or lower rear shoulders. You step back, sink into a crouch with your hips below your knees, and then stand up with full leg extension. The Deadlift targets the spinal muscles, traps, lats, glutes, lower back, and hamstrings. You set up a barbell on the floor with 45lb (20kg) plates on each side, stand in front of the barbell with your shins touching the bar, bend at the knees and hips, grab the bar, and stand up with your upper back and chest leading the way, and push your hips forward into extension.
So as you can see from above that the three main lifts will cover the shoulders, arms, legs, back, hips, core, and glutes. These are the more important muscles to target for overall strength. A few muscles left out of those three lifts are the biceps, calves, forearms, inner thighs (adductors), rear shoulders, and abs. Any muscle group you would like to devote more work to in an effort to create more development, can also be isolated outside of the main lifts.
The frequency you perform your workout routine with lifting weights will determine volume of reps and sets as well as the intensity of each lift (ability to generate power and closer to maximum strength). For example, if you worked out one day a week, you would need extremely high volume to compensate for the lack of frequency. The intensity will suffer from the amount of workload on that one day, meaning the lifts done at the end of that day will not be attacked with full strength and capability.
After having experienced working out from one day to six days a week, I have found that the less frequent you work out, the less discipline needed, the higher body fat I held, less injuries, and plenty of strength. The more frequent you work out, the more aesthetic you appear from lower body fat percentage, muscle tension, mobility, conditioning, increased skill/technique and increased general health although the disadvantage remains of weaker joints from the repetitive use and lack of recovery.
As for rep ranges, it's often listed at 3-5 reps for strength, 6-12 reps for muscle, but ultimately all rep ranges are important, and you could use lower reps while increasing muscle by increasing total sets and/or lifts. To become good at a rep range, you should keep it in your routine for at least 6 weeks or longer. An example of increasing weight from workout session to workout session is that if you were bench pressing 135lb for 5 sets of 3, you can increase the weight by 5lb each time you do the lift. So the next time it would be 140lb for 5 sets of 3, then 145lb. You keep climbing linearly until you fail/plateau. At that point you can either continue lifting near your highest weight or deload to a lower weight, and climb back up.
Additional tips are to record your workout routines so that you can visibly work towards progress. Good nutrition is to eat clean (low sodium, low fat, low calorie). If you want to increase muscle size, you have to eat in an excess of your total maintenance of calories. If you want to lose weight, you must eat less than your total maintenance of calories. A high protein diet is important in keeping lean, and helping muscles repair.
Working out creates micro tears in the muscle, and resting allows for the muscles to rebuild and recover. So adequate rest is essential, meaning you should try to sleep 7-8 hours a night. Food intake is also essential for recovery. High water intake is recommended for leanness and general health. Muscles may become tight and require stretching.
To achieve progress the quickest be it strength, muscle, or aesthetics, each of your muscles should be in a state of recovery at most times. Each time the muscle is worked by lifting weights, and then recovers by allowing for rest, the muscle is further developed. As you can imagine, if you try to keep your entire body in a constant state of recovery, you will face injuries from time to time. This occurs because high frequency wears down the joints, and without sufficient time to recovery, weak joints will lead to injury, especially when using heavier weights, but the same can be said for even body weight exercises like push-ups and pull-ups.
If an injury occurs in arm or shoulder, many exercises may be off limit, but squats for example could still be trained to fully utilize those micro damage/repair cycles on the muscle to develop it the fastest. Likewise, returning to the three main lifts (Bench Press, Squat, and Deadlift), as you progress in those lifts, the muscles will develop, and the joints will become stronger (Bench Press - Elbow joint, Squat - Knee joint, Deadlift - Hip joint). Making those joints stronger will generally lead to a higher quality of life - and a longer life, and will prevent injuries. So although isolation exercises like calf raises to develop the calves are important, the three main lifts should take presidency.
Your workout routine should feature the three main lifts, and should have isolation exercises, which can be for added work, muscle development, or to have any specialty lifts you would like to include - for instance, weighted pull-ups. Some people may wonder why training your legs is important. I would say knee health and mobility are high benefits.
Hip strength is important for overall power, and both Squats and Deadlifts develop hip strength. The shoulders require proportionate development to ensure no injuries occur. There are three outer parts of the shoulder - the frontal deltoids, the lateral deltoids, and the rear deltoids. It is very common for people to over develop just the frontal deltoids and to neglect the lateral (side) and rear. This is because the Bench Press targets the frontal deltoids, but the other lifts do not target the lateral and rear delts efficiently. For the lateral delts, you can do Lateral Raise, which are standing with a dumbbell, and raising your arm out lateral, leading with your pinky (smallest finger). The rear delts can be targeted in Face Pulls, which are done standing with a cable station, and using a rope attachment from the high pullet, and pulling it towards your face, and pull so that your elbow makes a 90 degree angle.
Another note on recovery is that because we want to optimize and sustain a constant recovery, it should be known that beginners to weight lifting will not be able to being muscles as close to failure, meaning they don't need as much recovery and can train more frequently. Additionally, when you are a beginner, you are lifting lighter weights, and lighter weights allow for faster recovery versus using heavier weights.
So ideally a beginner should use a full body routine multiple days a week (like 3). The high volume will also make for plentiful time to practice the techniques of the lifts. There are three ways to increase the amount of weight you are lifting, and that is by tweaking and improving your technique, building nervous system response to the muscle, or by increasing the muscle size. The easiest of those is to tweak your technique, followed by strength training, and the slowest and hardest way would be to increase muscle size.
This is why you should generally think about your technique in all of your lifts as to how you can improve them therein increasing the amount of weight you can lift, and progress faster. Heavy weight may sound intimidating, but it is the natural progression of increasing weight poundage over time. For example, 405lb may sound impossibly heavy, but imagine lifting 415lb. What is impossibly heavy plus 10lbs? It's not much heavier. The numbers don't matter. What they represent is your ability to display technique and leverage to lift any given weight. So although we think of someone who can lift heavy objects as 'strong' like in a natural power, but heavy objects are lifted through technique
Over time (years), as muscle development becomes more complete, heavier weight is necessary to spur a growth response in muscle and strength. This complicates things because that includes needing more recovery, having a higher chance of injury, and more complicated programming to break through plateaus.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Pull-Up Technique Tip
External rotation of the shoulder allows for the lats to be strongest. The lats are the prime movers in pull-ups. Imagine holding your arm straight out in front of you and tucking your elbow to your hip then rotating outwardly (right elbow towards the right - left elbow towards the left). This both brings your shoulders back and externally rotates them. This is where the lats are strong, and should be the movement you mimic when doing pull-ups.and other lat work (back).
Elbow position should be tucked at all times throughout the movement. If it hovers up and outwards the lats will be weaker. So ultimately this paints a picture of starting the movement with externally rotated shoulders and as you raise yourself by contracting your lats, keep your arms tucked and let off a bit on the external shoulder rotation. Sink back down and open your shoulders again.
Elbow position should be tucked at all times throughout the movement. If it hovers up and outwards the lats will be weaker. So ultimately this paints a picture of starting the movement with externally rotated shoulders and as you raise yourself by contracting your lats, keep your arms tucked and let off a bit on the external shoulder rotation. Sink back down and open your shoulders again.
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