When many people first start training, they see some results and assume if they do more the will see even more results — wrong! Think about what your physical activity was before you started training; this is your baseline and what your body is used to. Jumping into high gear without letting your body acclimate to the additional stress can be detrimental to your training goals.
This is key for everyone. If you don’t know what you want you aren’t going to be motivated to get the results. Set small, reachable goals for yourself — going overboard with your expectations can backfire. A large part of training is psychological: if you can see the changes and feel the difference you will be much more likely to continue.
Don’t do the same workout every time you are at the gym. Even changing a few exercises here and there may not be enough to make sure you are working with enough enthusiasm and intensity. Try different kinds of workouts. This is especially easy if your goal of training is for improved fitness. Try circuit training; throw in some strength training (it can never hurt;) maybe a high rep routine — endurance style training or lactate threshold; some spinning or palates classes; take up a new sport. Do anything that will make you look forward to your exercise as opposed to dreading it.
Although you shouldn’t make your exercise into a social event, training with a friend is a great motivator (just make sure you are exercising and not talking the whole time.) Try to find someone with similar goals and workout schedule. This goes back to the psychological aspect of training: if you don’t know you have someone to support you, and that someone else is relying on you, you will be more motivated to train.
It is easy to do the exercises that you are best at — people enjoy doing things we are good at. But then you are neglecting the areas that really need work. Try starting your workouts with these “troubled areas” to make sure you give them enough attention. With that said, don’t try to do too much at once. Pick one or two things you want to focus on each workout.
Val salva is when you hold your breath to strain out one more repetition. You feel strong and rigid, but you are raising your blood pressure suddenly, and putting great strain on your heart. This can be dangerous, and if it"s not now because you're young and strong, it will be an ingrained bad habit when you're older and need to change.
One is the first things to master if you lift weights is BREATHING. In fact, some physical activities such as yoga and Pilates have breathing as an integral part of the fitness purpose. So the right way to do any exercise is to inhale before you do the motion and exhale as you lift (or cunch) letting your air out slowly as you work. If you breathe our slowly and continuously, then you probably won't stop and hold your breath!
According to a new British study, a total of seven minutes of exercise a week may effectively help preempt diabetes. Seven minutes of intense and strenuous exercise helps the body regulate and clear itself of sugar. These seven minutes of exercise do not even need to be done all at once. The participants in this study sprinted on a stationary bike for 30 seconds four times a day (They did infact do fourteen minutes a week, but the researchers believe seven will do the trick.) The goal is to all out sprint for the total of the seven minutes. Of course this is not a replacement for other exercise; it is an addition. Check out this link to read more: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-bare-minimum-amount-of-exercise-you-need-to-stay-healthy-its-less-than-you-think-362327/
Before any kind of physical activity a warm up is always a good idea. Warm ups, just like the name implies, will increase the temperature of your body's tissue. This is important because cold tissue is less "willing" to move and will not contract as quickly or as smoothly as "warmed up" tissue. Not only will a warm-up allow you to perform better it will also reduce your chances of activity-related injuries.
Stretching is not warming up, and actually can hurt you. If your muscles are cold and tight, they can't stretch. Chewing gum snaps when it's cold and stretches into goo when it is warm. Save the real stretch for after your work-out.
Warm ups fall into to categories: general and specific. General warm ups are usually longer and utilize basic movement. The goals of this kind of warm up are to increase blood flow and muscular temperature. Common general warm ups include jogging, cycling and jumping rope. A warm up is usually done for 3 to 10 minutes; the duration is directly correlated to the intensity of the activity. Some Olympic athletes are known to warm up for 30 minutes.
Specific warm ups are actions that use the same motion and musculature that will be used during a specific activity. As the name implies these types of warm ups are specific to the following action, and are often the same action but with less resistance. These kinds of warm ups are effective at increasing muscle temperature as well as neural preparedness. Examples of specific warm ups: light bench press before bench press or before pitching, low intensity throwing. These warm ups stress the range of motion before adding the weight that builds strength.
From the specific warm up model and the general warm up model, two other forms of warming up have emerged; The performance warm up and the functional warm up. The performance warm up is a mix of the general and specific warm up schemes usually employed before strength or power training. The warm up starts with a general warm up (jogging of jumping rope) and then moves on to movements that are related to overall sport movements and then to movements that are closely related to that of the activity. Examples would be using the agility ladder then onto skipping and other forms of plyometrics (see below in power section for more information of plyometrics.) This kind of warm up lasts about 15-20 minutes.
The final kind of warm up is functional warm ups. Functional warm ups are ones that, in line with the functional training philosophy, reduce the chance of injury and improve core strength, in addition to the psychological and physiological benefits as the warm ups mentioned above. Although ten minutes of jogging raises your body levels temperature, for most people it is not as effective as 10 minutes of a full body warm up, which are concentration enhanced joint integrity, stability, and movement dexterity.
A good functional warmup: Jog, fast walk, bike or elliptical for 8-10 minutes. Walk 50 yards reaching your leg out in front and touching with your other opposite hand. Perform 15 squats. Lunge walk for 50 yards. Perform 15 squats. Walk sideways bringing first leg out three feet and then leanng down over it to stretch the inside of the trailing leg. Finally, take a medicine ball and swing it up and down and side to side to wam up your upper body.
Many people resistance train to be stronger and some do it to become bigger. You see the distinction I made? Interestingly enough, bigger muscles are not always stronger. If you have ever watched the strong men contests, there are some very large muscular men, but they aren't as big as many body builders. It turns out that muscle cross section and neural pathways have a lot more to do with strength then muscle mass over all. Now, of course with strength does come muscle, just not the same amount. In addition, stronger or bigger muscles can't work for the longest periods of time. You may have noticed only very lean men win the marathon. And, of course, you may have noticed bigger, stronger or more endurance doesn't necessarily make you better at sports or lowers your proneness to injury. Those who do functional training are people who train for specific sports goals or for everyday life. I will talk more about each of the pros and cons of these kinds of physical training and how to do each.
Size: Or known as hypertrophy, is a form of resistance training used to increase mass (not strength) of muscles. Increase in muscle mass happens when it is stimulated by anabolic hormones. For this to happen, certain kinds of stress must be applied to the muscles. Although there are a few methods, they all fit these requirements: 8-12 exercises, 3-5 sets and 8-12 reps done to volitional failure. Make sure your weight is heavy enough, but not heavy enough that you can’t do eight or more with full range of motion – if you haven’t trained like this before than your first work out should mainly be to figure out your weight needed. And here is the hardest part: short rest intervals. This is why most people do not see results; they just rest too much. Your rest intervals should be between 30-90 seconds. The more intensely you are working, the longer your rests can be, but shorter is better. If you are only working with moderate intensity, use only 30 seconds intervals. I use a stopwatch to make sure I know how long I am resting for any weight lifting routine, and I recommend that for everyone whether or not you hypertrophy train. As I said above the muscle gains are due to anabolic hormone response. Stress on large muscle groups creates a larger hormonal response. Because of this, exercising large muscle groups will positively affect smaller muscle groups (i.e. someone who does tricep extensions only will have less results than someone who does tricep extensions in addition to compound leg and back lifts.) This is why employing compound exercises as often as possible is highly recommended for hypertrophy training. Such exercises are: back squats, bench press, bent over rows and deadlifts. Now with all this intense work comes rest. 48 -72 hours rest between workouts are required for each muscle group. But hypertrophy training works best with more training. So hypertrophy training is usually split up between 3 or 4 days. An example would be Day 1: chest and triceps. Day 2: quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. Day 3: Back, shoulder, biceps. Day 4: rest. And repeat. Sometimes days 1-4 can be exercises while day 5 is the rest day. For beginners, rest between every day or two because of the new stresses on your body. In addition to the 8-12 reps and 3-5 sets, pyramid sets (which is when you start with lighter weight and do 12 reps, then add more weight and do less reps and then add more weight and do less reps. For hypertrophy training the reps should start at 12 and end at 8. For other kinds of training it may go lower,) super sets (which is when you switch from one exercise to another with no rest period. When employed in hypertrophy training, the two exercises should workout the same muscle group. Sometimes this set should be timed because you may be able to do more than 12,) and drop sets (you do a full set and then immediately lower the weight and continue with no rest. Although you are doing 30 reps, they are at high intensity unlike endurance training) are also employed in hypertrophy training. The reason why most people do not train like this is because lack of rest days and the intense discomfort involved in hypertrophy training.
For a full Hypertrophy workout, go to the video workout page to see the 3-day, full body routine.
Note: Although hypertrophy workouts almost always employ multiple sets (3 seems to be the magic number,) there is some evidence that shows that one set may be as effective as three sets, as long as it as done with full intensity. In a study with untrained and trained individuals there was very little, if any (0-5%,) difference in muscle gain between individuals that trained with one set versus those with multiple sets. Even with one set programs a warm up set is still strongly recommended.
Strength: Strength training is different than hypertrophy training. As the name implies strength training produces the highest output of force. This type of training requires resistance that makes the body produce its maximal amount of force and employs long rest periods so each set can be done to maximal capability. This means: 6-8 exercises, 3-5 sets, 3-8 repetitions and about 2-5 minute rest periods. Increases in strength are dependent mainly on the nervous system and muscle cross section. The Nervous system is important because it allows the body to produce its maximum amount of force. Basically, we all have the potential, with the exact same amount of muscle as we have now, to be stronger. Our bodies just have to “practice” on producing more force. This “practicing” includes increased muscle fiber recruitment, firing rate and synchronicity. Someone who starts strength training will notice results relatively quickly. The quick results are attributed to the nervous system. As I said before bigger muscles aren’t necessarily stronger; this is where muscle cross-section comes in. Muscle cross section refers to the length of the muscle fibers throughout a muscle. Despite what most people think, a muscle fiber doesn’t always run the full length of the muscle. Strength training improves cross sectional area. Now of course muscle gain does occur, just not at the same rate as hypertrophy.
Similarly to hypertrophy training, compound exercises are implemented in strength training for the same reason: They administer large amounts of stress on the muscle therefore increasing testosterone production. Additionally cross joint exercises recruit stabilization muscles and strengthen them. Additionally, exercises that require body control (to stop you from swaying) also produce better performance. Examples of these are squats, deadlifts, dips, and anything else you have to stop yourself from swaying.
This fitness program is also usually done over the course of more than one day, although it is usually only 2 days as opposed to the 3 or 4 implemented in hypertrophy training. I like to split the two days with upper and lower body, but (as seen in the example below) that is not needed. Also Pyramid sets (see above in hypertrophy training) are used. Unlike hypertrophy training the “pyramid,” can go below 8, possibly even to 3. Additionally, negative sets are used in strength training. Negative sets are controlled eccentric (usually the down movement) movements and spot assisted concentric movement (usually the up.) Negative sets use weight that is greater than what you could lift concentrically. An example of this would be weighted dips. With a weight belt on (or possibly not, if body weight dips are difficult for you) you would start at the top of the dip position and would slowly lower yourself down in a controlled manner. Once you are at the bottom of the movement, stand back up and repeat. You do not push yourself back up with your arms.
A common error in strength training is using too much weight. Make sure you can complete the exercise fully and in a controlled manner.
Example strength training routine:
Day 1:
Front squats
Romanian deadlift
Hamstring curls
Lunges
Pull-ups
Seated rows
Bicep curls
Day 2:
Bench press
Incline press
Military press
Upright row
Front raise
Lateral raise
Dips
Tricep extension
Day 3: rest
Because of the intensity of the workout and the long rest periods, not as many exercises can be done in one session. Therefore, make sure you are rotating between different exercises.
Power: Power training is used usually for specific athletic goals. Power training focuses on the speed of the movement. This kind of training is split up into two groups—One similar to hypertrophy and the other similar to strength. The two groups are Heavy-Low-Rate and Light-High-Rate. For both categories of power training the goal is to move then at high velocities; the acceleration and particularly the deceleration (which isn’t used much in other training programs) place high amounts of stress on the body. If you have ever played catch with a medicine ball, you know what I mean. Throwing a 10lb medicine ball is much harder to do than just pressing with 10lbs and catching a 10lb medicine ball is certainly harder then the eccentric motion of a 10lb press.
Heavy-Low-Rate: 4-5 Exercises, 3-4 sets, 3-6 repetitions. 3-4 times a week. Like the strength training scheme, Heavy-Low-Rate employs low reps and heavy weight. The difference is the near maximal velocity that is used in power training. Many Exercises used are Olympic lifts, such as the power clean from floor (it is like a jumping dead lift but the weight ends up above your shoulders. I would be very careful doing this, and would learn it from a professional before attempting. Here is a link if you are curious what it looks like: Clean and press. Additionally Plyometrics are a common training system used in this kind of training. Plyometrics is used to increase the speed and or power of a specific movement. It is primarily used to increase jump height, but is also used for increase in range and speed for throwing as well as running. It is a form of power training in which where the counter movement is used just before the movement to increase output. For example If I were to jump straight up in the air from a squat position I would not go as high as if I quickly dropped down to the squat position and fired right back up. Common examples are depth jumps, box jumps and rebounds.
Light-High-Rate:7-10 exercises, 2-3 sets, 10-20 repetitions. 2-4 times a week.
Like Heavy-Low-Rate, plyometrics are used in Light-High-Rate training routines. This kind of power training uses less weight than Heavy-Low-rate, but each exercise is done at a faster rate, hence Low-High-Rate. This kind of training is often used in sport related training. Although this training scheme is somewhat similar to hypertrophy in regards to the stresses placed on the muscles, but in Light-High-Rate a higher neural adaption takes place than in hypertrophy. Basically meaning your body gets better at it even without increases in muscle (as we talked about strength training.) For a list of great exercises visit here It is one of the few sites with a comprehensive list of power exercises with detailed explanations. All the below exercises can be found on this website.
Example training routines:
Heavy-Low-Rate:
Clean and press from floor
Split jerk
Hang jump shrug
Hang snatch
Light-High-Rate:
Platform depth jump
Box jumps
Box march (high)
Box lateral jump
Medicine ball seated side throw
Medicine ball sit-up
Broomstick twist
Clap pushup
(The two medicine ball exercises are easier to do with partners but if that is not available you can still effectively use those two exercises. )
Endurance:A muscles rate of force decline governs its ability to work over long periods of time. This means the slower a muscle gets tired, the longer it can work. This is the goal of endurance training. One’s anaerobic endurance is determined and improved through, muscles strength, experience of prolonged stress on one’s muscles, and neural and anaerobic system efficiency. Probably the best example of an endurance athlete is a Tour de France cyclist. He is exposed to long periods of high stress because of the amount of force he has to produce. Additionally, the Tour de France has hills, flats and hills. The diversity of the amount of force needed suggests the cyclist has very efficient anaerobic energy system as well as very strong muscles. Most people do not think that strength is an integral part of endurance training, but in fact it is. For example, if someone can lift 100 lbs and someone else can lift 75 lbs, and both are required to lift 25 lbs, the one who can lift 100 lbs with obviously be able to do it longer because 25 lbs is only 25% of his maximum while it is 33.33% of the one who can lift 75 lbs. As I stated above, each of their respective neural and anaerobic system efficiency will come into play. That is why the best way to train is higher volume. Endurance training should follow these guidelines: 10-15 exercises, 2-4 sets per exercise, 12-25 repetitions, 20-30 second rests, and 3-5 times a week.
Short rest periods are employed so that the body must also use aerobic pathways as well as anaerobic. Anaerobic is used for short time periods while aerobic is used for long ones:
* Short anaerobic - less than 25 seconds (mainly lactic)
* Medium anaerobic - 25 seconds to 60 seconds (mainly lactic)
* Long anaerobic - 60 seconds to 120 seconds (lactic +aerobic)
* Short aerobic - 2 minutes to 8 minutes (lactic/aerobic)
* Medium aerobic - 8 minutes to 30 minutes (mainly aerobic)
* Long aerobic - 30 minutes + (aerobic)
(Lactate is rapidly produced and easily used energy for tissue. Lactate is sometimes erroneously blamed for muscle soreness, cramping and other training inhibitors. It is in fact a very important fuel for your body. Your body produces it during intense training. Training such as sprints and interval training that produce large amounts of lactic acid help the body become more efficient at utilizing and producing lactate acid.)
An example endurance-training program:
Warm up (important)
Pull-ups (most likely assisted)
Squats
Alternating DB press
Romanian deadlifts
Pec-flyes
Seated row
Curls (with weight)
Good morning
Bicep curls
Functional training: Functional training is built on the premise to enhance the everyday activities that we do. I have written about hypertrophy, power, strength, and endurance training, and all of them will get you different results, but to what end? Most people aren’t body-builders or marathoners. When, during one of your Saturday afternoon basketball games, have your teammates asked you to Romanian deadlift 200lbs during the game? My point is that, if resistance training is usually a means for improved fitness and reduce the risk of injury, shouldn’t you do be doing exercises that are based more on everyday movements? Take for instance my previous example of a RDL and its usefulness in our daily lives. Maybe the closest thing you will be doing to a RDL in picking up one of your heavily packed suitcases and a sock happens falls out and you reach down to get your sock. But, the weight of your bag is unevenly balanced, your not grabbing a bar but holding this chunky bag to the side of you, and your bending over, keeping the weight of the bag on your right hip, so your balancing primarily on your left leg, Maybe doing sets of RDLs would be helpful, but maybe a asymmetrical dumbbell RDL would better fit this occasion. Maybe not exactly, but the increased balance learned from the exercise would certainly help. Unless you are going into a profession of Olympic weightlifting and trying to reach your genetic potential in weight lifting, it is a little absurd to be completely focused on strength training. For most people, resistance training should be about making their lives easier and more enjoyable. And of course throughout your day, week, month, you might find yourself cycling, playing recreational basket ball, tennis, carrying a child around, carrying groceries, whatever it is, it varies in the type of muscles used and what they are being used for. Therefore functional training is a mixture of all of the above training routines. You get a little bit of everything, because that’s how your life works. So there aren’t many straight cut training guidelines like other resistance training. However, multiple sets are usually used (2-3.) However reps usually vary with the exercise but are usually between 8 reps - 20 reps. This is because, while strength is still a goal, all out strength in a single plane, such as a bench press, is not the goal, therefore low rep schemes are not generally used. Higher rep schemes are used for muscle building, endurance, multidimensional strength gains, and proprioception in regards to certain movements. There are usually around 12 exercises performed, but like most things concerning functional training, this can change. For an idea of what a functional exercise is, go to this month's Excercise of The Month, asymetrical physioball pushup.
Coming soon: personalizing your wokrout.