OK, you are asking what on earth posture has to do with bodybuilding and health - well everything! The quickest way to improve your physique is with good posture! Just by improving your posture you can look better immediately, check out the photos below and see for yourself. In addition to the visual improvement, good posture can go a long way in helping to prevent back and neck pain.
Some posture problems you can fix by yourself with a bit of work and others will require the help of your doctor, here is one way to tell the difference. Stand in front of the mirror and try to correct the posture problem, can you correct the posture by just flexing and 'contorting' yourself till it looks right? If so, with some work you can learn to hold that posture 16hrs a day, here is how you can learn to hold the proper posture. If you cant seem to correct the posture even looking in the mirror, then you should talk to your doctor.
Here are some very common posture problems and the negative effects that they have on health and appearance:
Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts
How Long to Work Out
How Long to Work Ou First of all, lets separate three activities: weight lifting, cardio and abs. Lets start with the weight lifting, everybody is different but work out too long and you waste your time - working out five hours will not make your arms 5x as big as working out one hour and in fact you might not make any progress at all because you are overtraining. The harder you work out, the shorter your workout needs to be. If you are a beginning bodybuilder and you are doing whole body workouts three times a week then you can workout for two hrs without fear of overtraining; however, if you are advanced and bench pressing four reps at 405lbs then your workout will need to be in the 45 minute range.
When you are doing intense workouts with heavy weights, you deplete your mental and physical reserves of energy and working out more than 60 minutes can be counter productive. If you are really hardcore and want to workout two hours a day even though you are doing intense workouts you can do a split workout where you do one body part in the early morning and an un-related body part in the evening. Once in the weight room you need to stay focused, look at the clock when you start your first rep and make a mental note of when you need to leave. Wear your walkman, keep your head down and stay focused and you can get a great workout in a short amount of time.
When you are doing intense workouts with heavy weights, you deplete your mental and physical reserves of energy and working out more than 60 minutes can be counter productive. If you are really hardcore and want to workout two hours a day even though you are doing intense workouts you can do a split workout where you do one body part in the early morning and an un-related body part in the evening. Once in the weight room you need to stay focused, look at the clock when you start your first rep and make a mental note of when you need to leave. Wear your walkman, keep your head down and stay focused and you can get a great workout in a short amount of time.
How Often Should I Work Out?
How often you should work out depends on your level of experience.
If you are new to bodybuilding, you are still getting used to the exercises and probably have not developed the ability to safely lift heavy weights yet. The best plan for the first half year is to do a whole body workout two or three times a week and keep the weights low so you can always do at least 8 reps.
Your joints need a chance to slowly (months or years) get used to the strain of the weightlifting, start out benching 225 and you are asking for trouble. Patience is the key, the last thing you want to do is get injured and end your bodybuilding career before it even starts.
After about 6 months of lifting weights you will probably cease to make gains in strength, when this happens its time to change your routine to an intermediate training plan. In this workout plan each muscle will only be worked out once a week but it will get many more sets. Instead of doing the working out the whole body in a single day, we will only workout 1/3 of the body and save the other two thirds for our other two workout days. In this way we can workout each muscle more intensely, but less often.
If you are new to bodybuilding, you are still getting used to the exercises and probably have not developed the ability to safely lift heavy weights yet. The best plan for the first half year is to do a whole body workout two or three times a week and keep the weights low so you can always do at least 8 reps.
Your joints need a chance to slowly (months or years) get used to the strain of the weightlifting, start out benching 225 and you are asking for trouble. Patience is the key, the last thing you want to do is get injured and end your bodybuilding career before it even starts.
After about 6 months of lifting weights you will probably cease to make gains in strength, when this happens its time to change your routine to an intermediate training plan. In this workout plan each muscle will only be worked out once a week but it will get many more sets. Instead of doing the working out the whole body in a single day, we will only workout 1/3 of the body and save the other two thirds for our other two workout days. In this way we can workout each muscle more intensely, but less often.
Stretching
Flexibility is very important for everyday activities like walking, cleaning, and gardening. If you lack flexibility you will have to compensate by contorting your body and will end up injuring yourself. Flexibility is also very critical for almost every sport. The further a swimmer can reach their hand before plunging it in the water, the faster they will swim. Gymnastics is a perfect example of a sport that requires incredible flexibility, imagine someone without flexibility trying to do the beam or a floor routine - not possible.
Now lets talk about flexibility in bodybuilding. First, lets get rid of the muscle bound bodybuilder myth who is so muscular they cant scratch their back. Bodybuilding does not make one inflexible, not stretching makes one inflexible. If a bodybuilder (or anyone else for that matter) does not stretch, they can lose range of motion.
"Common wisdom" is that you must stretch before working out with weights, I disagree with this. From what I have seen, the danger of injury from pre-workout stretching is much greater than the lifting weights itself. In my opinion, the best way to keep from getting injured while lifting weights is to do warm up sets at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% of their usual weights before getting started. I would normally do this 5min warm up before my first exercise for each muscle.
Now lets talk about flexibility in bodybuilding. First, lets get rid of the muscle bound bodybuilder myth who is so muscular they cant scratch their back. Bodybuilding does not make one inflexible, not stretching makes one inflexible. If a bodybuilder (or anyone else for that matter) does not stretch, they can lose range of motion.
"Common wisdom" is that you must stretch before working out with weights, I disagree with this. From what I have seen, the danger of injury from pre-workout stretching is much greater than the lifting weights itself. In my opinion, the best way to keep from getting injured while lifting weights is to do warm up sets at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% of their usual weights before getting started. I would normally do this 5min warm up before my first exercise for each muscle.
Making Goals
Know your goal and keep it in mind at all times! If you don't know where you're going then you'll never get there. Are you training to help you with a specific sport? Do you just want to get lean? Do you want to add muscle mass? Write down your goal and be specific but reasonable, here are some examples of the specific types of goals you should be making to be successful in fitness:
Over-training
Over-trainingInterestingly enough, most people I know who are disappointed with their bodybuilding results are suffering from over-training rather than under-training. Its a hard concept to grasp that sometimes you can increase your strength and gain more muscle by working out less! I don't think there is any such thing as under-training, if you only have 30 minutes a week that is a lot better than nothing - you just need to use very strict form to avoid injury.
If you workout a muscle intensely, it can take up to 5 days to recuperate and rebuild it completely. If you work out that muscle again before it has fully recuperated then you are wasting time and effort because you are tearing it down again before it has had time to rebuild. Bear in mind, overtraining is normally just a problem for advanced bodybuilders, not beginners, because advanced bodybuilders have developed the ability to do those grueling workouts where they give 110% effort.
If you workout a muscle intensely, it can take up to 5 days to recuperate and rebuild it completely. If you work out that muscle again before it has fully recuperated then you are wasting time and effort because you are tearing it down again before it has had time to rebuild. Bear in mind, overtraining is normally just a problem for advanced bodybuilders, not beginners, because advanced bodybuilders have developed the ability to do those grueling workouts where they give 110% effort.
How Many Reps?
Many trainers give a really simple answer to this question and end up confusing everyone. There are no simple rules you can apply here, statements like "for mass, use low reps" or "for toning, use high reps" are misleading oversimplifications.
First of all, there is no definite answer to this question. It depends on the muscle being worked out, the person, and the goal. Lets look at the extremes first. A powerlifter is interested in a one-rep maximum lift and the goal of their training is to do just one rep with as much weight as possible. On the other extreme is a marathon runner whose goals is to do about 45,000 mini-lunges as quickly as possible.
First of all, there is no definite answer to this question. It depends on the muscle being worked out, the person, and the goal. Lets look at the extremes first. A powerlifter is interested in a one-rep maximum lift and the goal of their training is to do just one rep with as much weight as possible. On the other extreme is a marathon runner whose goals is to do about 45,000 mini-lunges as quickly as possible.
Focus
Focus is one of the most important factors in the success of a bodybuilder, as important as nutrition or genetics. You need to be 100% focused on your workout or you are wasting your time. Most bodybuilders I see at the gym just go thru their workouts like each set was just something to check off their todo list, their minds are everywhere except on what they are doing. Working out like that will not let you achieve your full potential.
There are two components of focus, what you do during your set and what you do between your sets. When you are doing your set, your mind will be on two things and two things only:
- thinking about what muscles are working
- trying to 'feel' the muscle (more on this later)
Teens And Body Building
First, lets get this out of the way. No bodybuilding will NOT stunt a teen's growth! So is it OK for an 14 year old to be powerlifting? Nope! The American Academy of Pediatrics has some very specific recommendations about teen strength training. One very important thing to remember is that strength training is only a small part of a teen fitness program. For cardiovascular health, bodyfat reduction, balance and coordination it is important to include sports which require lots of running and jumping like soccer, basketball, or skateboarding. Here are some specific recommendations from the AAP policy statement:
Strength gains can be acquired through various types of strength-training methods and equipment; however, most strength-training machines and gymnasium equipment are designed for adult sizes and have weight increments that are too large for young children. Free weights require better balance control and technique but are small and portable, provide small weight increments, and can be used for strengthening sports-specific movements.
Strength gains can be acquired through various types of strength-training methods and equipment; however, most strength-training machines and gymnasium equipment are designed for adult sizes and have weight increments that are too large for young children. Free weights require better balance control and technique but are small and portable, provide small weight increments, and can be used for strengthening sports-specific movements.
Good Form
OK, here are two reasons to use the slow, deliberate form that I preach on my website: #1 you will maximize your strength and mass gains, #2 you will minimize the chance of injury. We are surrounded by a sea of bad-form, everywhere we look are bad examples. At the gym, 80% of the people there are using horrible form. Hollywood movies are even worse, every time you see a bodybuilder portrayed they are lifting some huge weight with jerky, swinging, gyrations. Just say "No" to bad form!
How can I possibly say that my slow controlled form will give you better results than using heavy weights with bad form? First of all, lets look at "time under tension". Using my slow controlled form a set will last about 45 seconds, so the time under tension is 45s. Add another 50lbs will force you to swing and jerk the weights around and the same set will only last about 15 seconds.
How can I possibly say that my slow controlled form will give you better results than using heavy weights with bad form? First of all, lets look at "time under tension". Using my slow controlled form a set will last about 45 seconds, so the time under tension is 45s. Add another 50lbs will force you to swing and jerk the weights around and the same set will only last about 15 seconds.
Expectations
Many people believe the locker talk they hear about gaining 20lbs of muscle in a summer, it just isn't realistic for a natural bodybuilder! The biggest problem is that people want to believe that you can add massive amounts of muscle quickly - you cant! First, lets talk about how people get these unreasonable expectations. Teenagers will gain weight yearly as they mature whether they do bodybuilding or not, sometimes quite rapidly. Many of the anecdotal stories you hear about adding 30lbs muscle in a year are just due to rapid puberty growth spurts, not any specific workout plan or supplement.
When you hear someone in the locker room saying how MegaMassCreatine5000 put 30lbs of muscle on them, don't believe a word of it, they would have gained the 30lbs even if they ate dirt instead. Lets talk about another dirty little secret that leads to unreasonable expectations - steroids. Lots of people use steroids but don't admit it, even to their close friends - Why? Its illegal! Jail term 1-5 years. Many beginning bodybuilders go up to steroid-freak at the gym and ask them - "what are you taking to get so big?" Of course, he isn't about to admit he uses illegal steroids (you never know who is a DEA agent) so he says:
No Pain, No Gain?
Joint Pain
First off, lets clear this up. “No pain no gain” does NOT apply to joints. Joint pain is ALWAYS bad – period. Pain is your bodies alarm system, when it goes off - you better listen to it! If you continue to push hard thru joint pain you will seriously injure yourself and cut your bodybuilding career veeeeeery short. If you have joint pain, stop whatever it is you are doing which is causing the pain! Try different angles, different grip positions, or reducing ROM to make the pain stop. If that doesn’t work, try doing less weight with higher reps or doing a different exercise completely. If you still have joint pain, then you need to see a doctor. Now lets talk about muscular pain.
Bad Muscular Pain
Any muscle pain which is sharp, starts suddenly, or occurs as a bolt of pain is ALWAYS bad and is probably the sign that a serious injury has occurred. Tears an separations would cause this kind of pain. This is definitely NOT what we are talking about when we say "No Pain No Gain"! If you have sudden or sharp, lightning bolt like pain in a muscle, stop immediately and have somebody run to get you an big ice pack and ibuprofen to help minimize the injury damage. Then get yourself to a doctor.
First off, lets clear this up. “No pain no gain” does NOT apply to joints. Joint pain is ALWAYS bad – period. Pain is your bodies alarm system, when it goes off - you better listen to it! If you continue to push hard thru joint pain you will seriously injure yourself and cut your bodybuilding career veeeeeery short. If you have joint pain, stop whatever it is you are doing which is causing the pain! Try different angles, different grip positions, or reducing ROM to make the pain stop. If that doesn’t work, try doing less weight with higher reps or doing a different exercise completely. If you still have joint pain, then you need to see a doctor. Now lets talk about muscular pain.
Bad Muscular Pain
Any muscle pain which is sharp, starts suddenly, or occurs as a bolt of pain is ALWAYS bad and is probably the sign that a serious injury has occurred. Tears an separations would cause this kind of pain. This is definitely NOT what we are talking about when we say "No Pain No Gain"! If you have sudden or sharp, lightning bolt like pain in a muscle, stop immediately and have somebody run to get you an big ice pack and ibuprofen to help minimize the injury damage. Then get yourself to a doctor.
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