When we talk about weight training, I’m going to be specifically talking about bicep curls. Everyone wants to have nice arms and I hope to help you get there by building your size. Yesterday, we discussed the resting time between sets, which has an impact on your size and strength and/or your muscular endurance. I think the lift and lower speed of your repetitions is as equally important.
The gains in your muscular strength and performance are related to the speed with which you lift and lower your weights. If you are looking for strength and size gains, it is critical to control the weight both ways. So many times, I see bicep curls being executed with a bar or dumbbells and their whole body rocks back and forth. Guys, the weight is too heavy!! You are not going to see any improvement in your size or strength. Swallow your pride, drop some weight and control the movement.
To get the maximum results with a heavy load it is best to lift the weight slowly and lower slowly! As you curl, exhale and count for two seconds on the way up, hold, then inhale and lower the weight slowly to the count of 4. When you can successfully execute 8-12 repetitions, then you can increase your weight. This slower speed will have no effect in strength gains or size with lower weights, but may assist your muscular endurance.
When you are doing any kind of strength training and your goal is to build muscle, the length of rest between sets is a very important variable. A variable that is not often addressed. That’s why I’m here to help guide you to get the maximum results out of your workouts!
The length of your rest between sets influences your energy recovery and training adaptations. To achieve the result of maximum muscle strength and mass, you will want to lift heavier weights and have longer rests between sets, say 2-3 minutes. If your goal is for muscular endurance, you should be lifting lighter weights and have shorter rest periods between sets, less than a minute. Resting time for beginners is about 1-2 minutes.
So when your buddy wants to talk in between sets, keep one eye on the clock! Tomorrow we’ll go over the speed of the lift, frequency training and Periodization so you can build muscle.
There are 4 principles of resistance training in which you can build muscle mass. I’ll briefly attempt to explain them here, today. The 4 principles are; progression, regularity, overload and specificity.
Progression, as you can imagine is, continually placing more demands on the muscles and progressively increase the demands overtime, to result in long term gains. If you don’t constantly challenge the body (muscles) they will no longer have a reason to adapt or change. You’ll see faster progression in beginners, than you will with novice resistance trainers. A natural and helpful way to increase the progression, is to increase weight by 5-10% and decrease repetitions. You can also increase weights and increase repetitions, or even add another exercise for that body part.
The second principle is Regularity. Sure it makes sense if you don’t consistently train your muscles you won’t see and muscle gains. The old adage, “Use it or Lose it” is consistent with this principle. Training adaptations cannot be stored. You’ll only see long term muscle strength and performance if training is done on a regular basis.
Principle Overload is the 3rd principle in resistance training. Place greater demands on the muscle, beyond the level which it is normally stressed! Change the exercise intensity, duration and frequency for changes to take place. You can see a further explanation of this on my web page, www.fitnessfromthepro.com!
Finally, the 4th principle is SAID-Specific Adaptations to Impose Demands. That is every muscle should be trained to make specific gains in strength and endurance.
When you are starting a program to build muscle mass, please keep these 4 principles in mind so you can see the gains you seek with the proper demands placed on the muscles!
You probably already know that you cannot spot reduce with exercise. However, when you execute cardiovascular exercises for at least 20 minutes, you can burn fat. Not just stomach fat, adipose tissue that’s stored throughout your body. The best way to see those finely sculpted abs, is to burn stomach fat from your body.
A good, high energy, fat burning interval segment from your interval training is jumping rope! Here’s why, jumping rope is an excellent upper body and lower body exercise, that can improve physical fitness for any athletic ability. Five minutes of jumping rope burns the same numbers of calories as 15 minutes of brisk walking. Ten minutes of vigorous jumping is equivalent to running an 8 minute mile.
An excellent way to include the jump rope, is if you are toning or lifting weights, work on a body part first, finish, then jump rope for 5 -7 minutes. Go back to weight training work on another body part, then jump rope again for another 5-10 minutes and so on. You are efficiently getting your cardio exercise to burn fat, and weight training too.
My only suggestion is, to start out with your chest workout first, because after you jump rope it is not healthy to lay down on a bench. Try incorporating the jump rope in your routine and get ready to burn stomach fat!
Here we are into February, with 6 more weeks of winter…Ugh! There are new people signing up at my gym everyday. This is the “season” for fitness! By March, things will be back to normal. I hear people talk to their friends that this is their 3rd class in a row, or they’ve been at the gym for 2 hours. Whoa, that’s the problem! People jump into the gym and exercise too much, right away. Then they are so sore the next day they can’t walk or move.
When starting any exercise routine, you want to take it slow. Start out with 1 class, lift lighter weights or work at a slower pace on the cardio machines. Don’t try to do it all in one day! Always start with a warm up to get the muscles warm, 5-7 minutes, your actual workout should be about 40 minutes, then end with stretching for another 5-7 minutes. Be sure and lengthen your muscles with stretching.
Yes, there is such a thing of exercising too much. There are exercise junkies who have many other issues, besides exercising. However, start your workout routine in a smart way and don’t exercise too much!
Today our topic is going to be drop sets. You can add this to your list of dumbbell workouts. I like to do drop sets at the end of a body part workout to really fatigue the muscle. You may be thinking, what is a drop set?
A drop set is using the heaviest weight you can lift till fatigue. Then immediately lifting a weight 10% less than your first weight. Do as many reps as you can to fatigue. Reduce the next weight by another 10%, and perform as many reps as you can. Keep reducing your weight by 10% till you physically cannot perform another repetition.
There are no breaks in between each set. Just keep moving from back to back repetitions! Using drop sets to fatigue your muscles is one of the best dumbbell workouts you can add to your routine!
Circuit training is one of those workouts you can include in your fat burning exercises list. This works well, because you get your cardio in and you also tone your muscles at the same time. Circuit training uses the weight/strength training apparatus in the gym.
How these fat burning exercises work, is by moving from machine to machine without resting or stopping in between. For each machine, set the weight that will be challenging enough that you can get 12-15 repetitions. A few things to remember with circuit training:
- Start with the major body parts first, legs, chest, back, shoulders, biceps & triceps.
- Keep in mind the “push/pull” factor. For example: with the chest press, you push the weight away. For the back you’ll pull the weight toward you
. - Do 3 -4 sets around, not stopping in between, except to switch machines.
- For abdominals, use the roman chair, or the stability ball. Keeping your head above your heart! Because, your heart rate will be elevated you DO NOT want to go directly to the floor!
Here are some of the machines to start your circuit: Leg Press, Chest Press, Pullover, Military Press, Bicep Curl, and Triceps Push Down.
When you are weight training with a barbell you may not notice that there is a dominant side. Which is why it is good to alternate with the dumbbells and the barbell. Generally, when doing chest you execute your exercise with both arms at the same time using dumbbells. However, every now and then it is good to do a movement unilaterally, that is, one arm at a time. It changes things up for your muscles, and then you will find out which is your dominant side.
Someone asked me the other day, how to overcome the dominant side and make the weaker side as strong. They were going to use more weight on the left side, than the right. I said NO! Which is what brings me to the unilateral point. Let’s say this guy’s stronger side is his right. In order to make the left side stronger, you’ll want to work one arm at a time. However, start with the left side first! Do as many reps as you can with the left arm, then do the same amount of reps with the right arm. Likewise, if the left arm is stronger than the right arm, you want to start the exercise with the right arm.
This concept works with any weight training exercise, legs, biceps,triceps, etc. Start on the weaker side first, and when that side gets tired, do the exact same reps on the stronger side even if that stronger side can do more reps.
Once again, I find it compelling to remind you, that proper form, proper lifting techniques is imperative!!There are alot of newbies in the gym these days who, admirably, are diligent with their workouts. However, I see horrible form and I cringe. Do I mention to them, that they doing the lift improperly? Do I mention to them about their knees NOT going over their toes when they squat and lunge? This is a little bit of a dilemma for me. I tend to keep my mouth shut and mind my own business.
I do, and am very much a stickler in class, if I see bad form. I don’t want anyone to get injured from an exercise. Plus, I want members to get the results they seek. So if there is incorrect lifting techniques it will be a long time if at all you will see results and you are at risk for injuries! If you are unsure about proper lifting techniques, ask a trainer at the gym!
Fat Burning Workouts
Back in the day, there was “The Slide” or “The Glide”. A big plastic sheet you placed on the floor and you put cloth booties on over your sneakers and would slide side to side. It was a cool workout for a while, but VERY limited. People got bored and it fell to the wayside. So someone has updated the concept, and made little individual nylon type circular pads called gliders. Talk about fat burning workouts!!!
You can put these gliders under your feet and slide side to side, and add some squats! You can lunge forward and backward with the gliders under your feet. Another way to use the gliders is putting them under your hands. Do a push up and slide one arm out to the side, or slide the arm forward, alternating each arm.
There are so many fat burning workouts that can be done using the gliders with all the variations. Plus, another benefit besides fat burning, is toning different muscles in different ways! An alternative to the gliders, is using 2 paper plates!