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Muscling Up

Weight loss and muscle toning are not the only reasons people take up weight or resistance training. Bodybuilding is a very popular sport and even if you don’t plan to compete, it can be an immensely uplifting experience. Transforming and sculpting your body into an impressive physique can really boost your self-esteem.

A person’s genetic structure is a prime factor in muscle building. Some males (and females) are blessed with naturally muscular body types. For these people muscle gains through proper training and nutrition are quick. For others, not so genetically gifted, hard work and diligence are the keys.

Lifting weights is only one of the three important parts of gaining muscle mass. The other two key ingredients, equally crucial to success, are rest and nutrition.

One of the most common mistakes is over training. The muscles grow while resting not while working out. When you lift weights you are causing microscopic tears to the muscles which, when properly fed and rested, will regenerate bigger and stronger. Exercising the same muscle groups each day will deter growth not enhance it. A rest period of 48-72 hours is needed for full recovery after a high intensity session.

In order to build mass and power the weight lifted must be sufficient to allow only 6-10 repetitions maximum for 3-4 sets. Merely increasing the weights without ensuring proper form creates the potential for injury. A term often used in weight training is the “one rep maximum” (1RM). To determine your 1RM without piling a ton of weight on the bar, try using the following equation: (weight X reps X .03) + weight = 1RM. Five reps or less is best for accuracy. As strength and size increase so will your 1RM. See “Muscle Building Guidelines” on page 18.

By practicing strict technique you will find that you use lighter weight than expected, increasing safety, and getting better results. Once you have carefully planned out the right weight, make sure your program is well balanced with specific exercises for all the body parts. When inexperienced lifters go for the show muscles like the biceps and chest they create muscle imbalance and lack of symmetry.

Finally, nutrition as in all fitness programs should include complex carbs for energy, protein for rebuilding muscle tissue and water for hydration to ensure the gains you want.

Don’t Resist Resistance Training

Is resistance training really necessary if you are performing a regular cardio boxing or kickboxing program to burn off those unwanted pounds? To answer simply, yes. Cardio is necessary but should not be the only component of your fitness program.

There is a common misconception that you only burn off fat while you’re sweating it out during your cardio session. Educating yourself as to the benefits of resistance training in pursuit of weight loss will help release you from the “cardio, cardio, and more cardio” state of mind. The body’s ability to burn calories is enhanced by adding muscle. The newly developed muscle not only burns off fat at rest, it also has other positive effects such as increasing your metabolism and reducing or reversing the affects of osteoporosis.

• Your body burns off 35-50 more calories per day for every pound of lean muscle you add.

• A strength/resistance training program practiced three times a week increases your metabolism by 12% allowing you to consume up to 230 additional calories per day without increasing your present weight.

• Your metabolism can increase up to 73% by performing as little as 20 minutes of strength training one hour before having a meal.

• A regular resistance program alone can burn up to six pounds a year.

• Strength training can provide additional energy, increasing activity level by 27%, which in turn will eliminate more calories.

• Weight training three times a week increases the metabolism reducing harmful metabolic by-products.

• Working out with weights will improve your overall physique, create higher self-esteem and reduce incidences of anxiety.

Strength training reduces the loss of lean muscle mass due to aging. Between the ages of 20 and 75 the body can lose up to 30% of its lean muscle without some form of resistance exercise.

Resistance Training

Most people looking to get in shape consider resistance training, commonly referred to as weight training. Women often are afraid that if they lift weights they will become muscular and masculine in appearance. The physiological and hormonal differences between men and women will prevent this in most cases. Weight training for women increases muscle tone, strength and endurance. Resistance training for women will also assist in maintaining bone density and help reduce the incidence of osteoporosis.

There are a variety of possible training routines and equipment. There are machines that will isolate the muscles worked and add an element of safety. This is ideal for the beginner to get the muscles working and build confidence. Free weights incorporate balance and recruitment of other smaller muscle groups. Free body exercises, using only your own body weight, can also be very effective. Other equipment, like resistance tubing or exercise stability balls, can provide an excellent full body workout.

When starting out be sure to work all the major muscle groups beginning with the large multi-joint muscles and finishing with the smaller single joints.

Your workouts should be 2-3 times a week 45-60 minutes and include a warm up at the beginning and stretching at the end. Always stretch with warm muscles. This helps maintain your full range of motion and assists in the recovery phase. Muscles don’t grow during the workout; they grow during rest. Proper rest between workouts will allow for better results and less incidence of injuries, strains and sore muscles.

Choose 8-10 exercises that include abs, legs, chest, back, shoulders, triceps and biceps in that order. Keep the sets from 1-3 as a beginner and increase to 3-5 sets as you advance. If your goal is muscle endurance and toning complete 12-15 reps per set using light weight. If your goal is strength and muscle building perform 8-10 reps with heavy weight. The last rep being the last you can complete with proper form. Remember to never give up proper form just to put more weight on the bar.

As a beginner it is easy to get excited when you see your biceps muscle growing or those thighs firming up, but be sure to stick to your program and don’t over-train as it will reverse the positive effects.

Train smart, train safe and include cardiovascular work for lifelong health.

Super-Sets for Fitness

Ever notice when you go through a fast food drive-thru that the friendly, often garbled, voice at the other end of the speaker will ask: “Would you like to Super-Size that order”? Sure you have, and it’s okay to admit you go to fast food restaurants, unless of course it’s every day. If you Super-Size your meals on wheels why not Super-Size your weight training program with Super-Sets?

Very few other types of weight or resistance training can test your limits as much as Super-Set training. Super-Sets will increase your enthusiasm for training while improving specific aspects of your fitness. Initially, you’ll enjoy incorporating SuperSets because they provide variety and challenge from your usual training regiment. After experimenting with them, you’ll want to use Super-Set sessions with regularity because of the way they help motivate you to train with better results.

Super-Sets are a series of reps and sets of exercises, which are carried out without any recovery time and with decreasing intensity. Super-Sets can be an amazing training routine when you are striving for strength and endurance. Using as little as 10 seconds rest can be enough recovery time to restore your body to almost maximum intensity. It is therefore possible to repeat a large number of proper form/technique sets and reps of exercises without incurring a lot of recovery time.

You will be shocked with the quick increase in strength you will gain by incorporating Super-Sets in your training. Try performing a Super-Set of bench presses starting off by pressing an extremely heavy weight, close to your “one rep maximum” (1RM). See “Muscle Building Guidelines” on page 18. When you reach the point of failure, have your training partner remove just enough weight from the barbell so that you can continue lifting. When you are exhausted again, your partner takes off just enough weight so that you can keep lifting. Continue in this pattern of lifting to failure, reducing the resistance by taking off weight, again lifting to failure, until the only thing left in your hands is the bar. This same principle can be used with any exercise, such as bicep curls, flyes, etc.

Train smart and train safe, always have a training partner for Super-Sets.

Muscle Building Guidelines

Many people fight a never-ending battle to shed those excess pounds and trim up. With weight loss issues being so prevalent, there is a great deal of coverage in magazines, books, Internet and media in general on how to lose weight but not as much information on how to gain weight, or to be specific, gain muscle. The person looking to gain a few pounds must consume the right balance of calories, combining carbs and protein, while adopting a muscle building type routine.

Here are some tips for designing your own weight training routine to pack on some pounds of solid muscle. In order to gain muscle growth, which is called hypertrophy, you must be training at an intensity of 7080% of your one repetition maximum. The one rep max, also referred to as 1RM, is important to determine for all weight lifting programs and especially for muscle building routines. For each exercise you are planning to include in your program use the following formula: Weight you are lifting X Repetitions X .03 + Weight lifted = Your One Rep Max. To get the best and most accurate determination of the one repetition maximum use enough weight to keep the reps to five or less.

For example, if you plan to incorporate the bench press into your routine, and if you put 100 pounds on the bar and can lift it 5 times with the 5th rep being the last you can do with proper form, then you take those figures and plug them into the formula: 100 (Weight you are lifting) X 5 (The reps) X .03 + 100 (Weight lifted) =115 pounds (your 1RM). Now multiply that number (115 pounds) by 70%, which works out to be 81 pounds and then by 80%, which is 92 pounds. Round off to 80-95 pounds, which is the weight you should be using to effectively create a weight/resistance program to build muscle. Once you have established the proper weight for each exercise you are ready to start.

Set up a program that allows for 3-4 training sessions a week, with 2-4 sets of 810 repetitions. Keep the routine to basic or compound exercises that use more than one muscle group at a time and ensure that you have a balanced full body workout. Don’t get caught in the trap of concentrating on the show muscles like biceps or chest. Some basic exercises that provide for a great overall workout include: squats, calf raises, bench press, overhead press, bent arm row, bicep curls and tricep curls.

Good luck with your muscling up.

Fitness Circuit Training Routine

In a traditional strength training program a variety of exercises are preformed with the desired result being toning, muscle building or power. Generally 2-3 sets are done with rests of 30-90 seconds between and then repeating the same exercise. This is done to give the muscle group worked rest and time for the lactic acid to subside before using them again.

During spring and summer most people want to get their workout done quickly without sacrificing efficiency, safety or results. If you belong to a fitness club or have a home gym you can drastically reduce your non-productive waiting/recuperating time by incorporating a circuit training routine. If you have a trainer at your club have him or her prepare a personalized workout based on your goals with the equipment available. By arranging your exercises in such an order that you can move from one muscle group to thenext you can avoid waiting and therefore condense the workout time.

There are several types of programs based on this system. You can switch between upper and lower body muscle groups or between pushing and pulling muscle group exercises.

The following routine can be done 2-3 times a week and should be in conjunction with a cardio routine 3-4 times a week in the target heart range for 20-30 minutes. See “Calculating Your Target Heart Rate Training Zone” on page 6.

Circuit Training Routine

• Warm up with cardio in target heart range

• Use the workout chart to record your exercises, weights and reps

• If possible perform the exercises in the order listed below

• Do reps for one minute ensuring proper technique and slow controlled movement

• Immediately move to the next exercise with the only rest to set up; this will save time and keep your heart rate elevated

• At the conclusion of the circuit stretch each muscle group

• Repeat circuit

1. Sit-Ups/Crunches, Floor or With Ball (Abs)

2. Bench Press (Pectorals/Chest)

3. Leg Extensions (Quadriceps)

4. Pec-Flyes (Outer Pectorals)

5. Leg Press or Squats (Quads, Hamstrings & Glutes)

6. Lat-Pulldowns (Lats/Back)

7. Calf Raises (Calves & Ankles)

8. Shoulder Press (Deltoids/Shoulders)

9. Tricep Pushdowns (Triceps)

10. Bicep Curls (Biceps)

Smart Fitness Tips for Dumbbells

Anyone starting out on a resistance/weight training program is wise to use home gyms and machines at the gym as they ensure proper technique and reduce the risk of injury by dropping weights.

As you progress you may want to advance to dumbbells, incorporating an element of balance and increased range of motion. It also provides for a more unique workout that the machines won’t allow. If your fitness club has a full set of dumbbells you’ve got it made. If not and you plan on exercising at home there are two types of dumbbells to consider: a dumbbell set that comes with two hand bars, collars and plates; or fixed dumbbells. The dumbbells with interchangeable plates are fine but invariably a collar will come loose and when one of the plates lands on you it usually leaves a mark, and not just on the floor! Fixed weights are just that, fixed at certain poundage and secured on the handle.

Build your collection by starting out with a few sets of dumbbells of various weights. Keep them light and keep adding weight to your dumbbell rack as you progress.

A workout bench that can be adjusted from flat to 45 and 90 degrees is a bonus but can be pricy. An anti-burst stability ball can be used in place of a bench and can be a useful tool when it comes to abdominal and back exercises, not to mention the increased degree of balance. One draw back when using dumbbells is that if you’re not careful the floor can take a beating and get marked up. Some inexpensive rubber floor matting can prevent this and also reduce the noise.

Exercising with dumbbells doesn’t change the usual resistance training principles. Toning requires 2-3 sets of lighter weights with 12-15 repetitions. Building strength and mass requires 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps with heavier poundage.

Get on the Ball and Get Fit

One of the most popular pieces of fitness equipment is the exercise stability ball. The stability ball was used in Europe for many years in the medical profession to treat back injuries by increasing core strength. About 40 years ago physical therapists in North America began using the stability ball with patients requiring strength and flexibility in the lower back. In the early 1990’s the idea of the stability ball emerged from the rehabilitation field to be utilized as an effective tool for fitness training. They can be found in almost every gym in North America and are fast finding a place in most households.

Studies have shown that 80% of adults over the age of 25 will experience some degree of lower back pain. The solution is to strengthen the lower back by increasing the core strength before the back weakens or to improve your back health if you are already experiencing lower back discomfort. The core trunk area includes the back and the abdominal muscles. Improvement in the functional fitness of older adults has been achieved with as little as two hours a week of training on the ball. The stability ball can replace the traditional exercise bench and add an element of balance and coordination to your workout. The abs, back and trunk are used as stabilizing muscles, meaning that they are worked to some degree on almost every exercise.

Slight changes in body positioning on the ball can either increase the intensity for more advance persons or reduce it for the beginner. Women in the early stages of pregnancy can benefit by working out on the ball to strengthen the lower back to alleviate the incidence of muscle strains and soreness in the later trimesters. As the baby grows, so does the resistance. The muscles will slowly adapt to the increase in weight in the same way you would progressively increase weight in a traditional resistance-training program.

The ball also provides a greater range of motion for flexibility stretches while supporting the trunk and spinal column.

Start with a light warm-up using slow full body movements including all the major muscles and joints. See Chapter Three.

Perform each of the following exercises 1-3 times, 8-12 reps.

1. Abdominals :

Sit on the ball and walk your feet forward until you have the ball in the small of your back. Place your hands behind your head, allow your back to lower backward over the ball until you are parallel to the floor, then contract the stomach muscles and sit up.

Lie flat on the floor on your back, ball in your hands with arms and legs extended straight out. Bring your hands and feet up at the same time in a “jack-knife” movement and catch the ball between your feet and lower it to the floor. Repeat the exercise transferring the ball back and forth from hands to feet.

2. Lower Back :

Lie flat on the floor on your back, legs extended straight out with your heels resting on the ball, arms on the floor out to your side for balance. Tighten the glutes (buttocks) and abs to raise your hips off the floor until your body is straight, lower slowly to the floor and repeat.

Lie over the ball facing down with the ball under the tummy-hips area, extend both legs and arms straight out touching the floor as your points of balance. Raise your right arm and left leg at the same time as high as you can then lower and alternate with the left arm and right leg.

3. Legs :

Place the ball against the wall, turn your back and lean against it with it in the small of your back. Walk your feet forward slightly so that you are leaning your weight against the ball. Keeping your back straight and head up squat down bringing the bottom of your thighs parallel to the ground then straighten your legs pushing yourself back up into the semi-standing position. Try different positions like feet together, shoulder width apart or one legged lunges with one foot forward and one foot back, toe to the floor for balance. Each exercise works slightly different muscles.

4. Chest and Arms :

Kneel with the ball in front of you against your thighs, lean forward over the ball with your hands on the floor walk yourself forward. The farther you move forward, keeping the upper body parallel to the floor, the more of your body weight you are supporting. From there perform push-ups coming down as close to the floor as possible and back up.

Pilates + Stability Ball = Results

The fitness world has gone through many recent changes. The most popular programs involve Pilates and stability ball training. Most people think that these are new breakthroughs and are either interested in getting involved or skeptical about their results or effectiveness. Actually, neither of these programs is new.

Pilates was the brainchild of a man named Joseph Pilates who created his own style of exercises in the 1920’s based on slow continuous movement through full range of motion. The goal is to create functionally developed muscles that are lean and long. With no rest between sets you can use very light or no weights to be effective. This routine is similar to yoga and can result in tremendous increases in endurance, strength and flexibility. The isometric contraction of the muscles allows the participant to increase the intensity without adding weights. This also decreases the incidence of strains to the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments.

Controlled breathing techniques, concentration on proper posture, and core strength with recruitment of the abdominal muscles are features that are also found to be the fundamental basis for the stability ball program.

The stability ball is not new either. It was created in Europe in the 1950’s and brought to North America in the 60’s by those in the physiotherapy profession. By the 1990’s the effectiveness of the ball training with rehabilitative injury programs lent itself to mainstream fitness. With the emphasis on core strength involving the abdominals and back it fills a need in our sedentary society. The majority of these back problems are as a result of lack of exercise and poor posture. The stability ball provides an element of balance, coordination and agility combined with strength and flexibility. See the article titled: “Get on the Ball and Get Fit” on page 20.

Both Pilates and stability ball training can be done by anyone of any age or fitness level. The participant is in complete control of the intensity and can modify it to suit their needs or limitations.

The perfect combination is Pilates on the Ball. All aspects of both disciplines are combined taking the most popular and effective exercises and incorporating them for a full body workout that can revolutionize your current program.

Medicine Ball Training

In the 1940’s and 50’s medicine balls were common pieces of equipment in all gyms. In an effort to modernize fitness equipment and programs technology has, in some cases, taken us away from proven methods. Fortunately fitness research and studies have brought back medicine ball training.

The medicine ball is a common tool used by personal trainers. Medicine ball training provides sport-specific as well as general strength throughout the body to establish balance and coordination to protect your core (abs and back) muscles and connective tissues from reaction movements and impacts. Whether you are playing baseball and reach for a sharply hit line drive or are playing hockey and take a body check, training to be fit for the unstable conditions will make you more likely to handle the stress of such a movement.

The medicine ball is not only useful to athletes, the benefit of strength-balance training can make daily tasks easier and safer. How many people strain muscles as their dog unexpectedly tugs on the leash, reaching to grab a bowl falling off the kitchen counter or unloading groceries from the car trunk? Exercises involving lifting, tossing and catching a medicine ball from a moving, standing or seated position can vastly increase strength and balance as well as reduce incidence of injury.

Medicine balls come in various weights, sizes and material. They usually range from 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) to 7 kilogram (15.4 pounds) and 6” to 10” in diameter. If you are a beginner you should start with no heavier than a 3 kg ball and work your way up. You will be shocked how heavy it is when tossed to you or when it comes flying back at you when thrown against a wall.

Older style medicine balls are made of leather and are non-bouncing. The drawback of these models is that the surface becomes difficult to grip when your hands become sweaty and usually requires a partner to train and toss with. Most new balls are constructed of thick rubber and a textured surface ensuring a much safer grip. The rubber medicine balls also come in non-bouncing and bouncing types. The non-bouncing type will bounce slightly because of the rubberized surface but usually requires a partner to train and toss with. The bouncing variety, which can also be inflated or deflated slightly to your preference, can be used alone and bounced off the wall and floor for a great solo workout.

So take your medicine (ball) and stay healthy.