Archives for 2008

1.  Lifting Weights Decreases Your Chance of Injury

Weight training strengthens the muscles, bones and tendons in your body.  This helps reduce the effects of arthritis and other degenerative diseases.

2.  Lifting Weights Increases Your Metabolism

By training with weights you gain muscle.  This increases your metabolism.  This in turn aides in burning fat.

3.  Get More Out of Life

You will improve your quality of life by lifting weights.  You will be able to participate in many activities until much later in life.

4.  Fat Loss

Every pound of muscle you build burns an extra 50 to 100 calories a day.

5.  You need a break from training

It is not a good idea to train 7 days a week.  You need one day every week where you don't do any cardio or any weight training so that your body has sufficient time to recover from what you are putting it through.  A rest day is just that–a day of complete rest.

4.  Rest aides in the rebuilding process

When you rest you are giving your body extra time to rebuild the break downs that have happened from weight training.  When you lift weights you put a bunch of micro tears in your muscles.  The rest day helps your body to rebuild all of the damage that has been inflicted upon it by the weight training.

3.  Your mind needs a break from training

When you train hard and with intensity it can be mentally difficult.  You have to will yourself to new heights continually.  Taking a rest day gives you a mental break (not just a physical one).

2.  You need time away from the gym to plan

By taking a day off you give yourself time to plan for the coming week's activities.  If you were to train 7 days a week this would not be possible.  Without this rest day you might not plan for the next week at all.

1.  You grow outside of the gym

The rest day you take is necessary to help your body grow.  Your body grows outside the gym, not in it.  The time you spend in the gym is the impetus for the growth, but the time you spend resting is when the growth occurs.  Failing to take the time means your body will fail to grow.

"Genuine training that produces muscular hypertrophy is training that somehow releases growth hormones!  If you release growth hormones you are training your system as well as your muscles.

If your training is intense enough to release growth hormones, things happen and they happen quick.  Think about it.  When you have fatigued your body by training with deliberate reps to momentary muscular failure, that digs into one's reserves.  On top of that throw in a set of deadlifts at the end of the workout, that's very intense, and as long as one isn't over training it is believed that such intensity of training releases growth hormones.  When that happens we grow."

I dare say that I completely agree with Carlos on this point.  I believe that the order of the exercises is extremely important.  Couple that with the intensity of the workout and you create a formula that forces growth to happen.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and I have the pictures to prove that the growth exists.

Carlos then gave me an assignment.  Currently I am doing the same workout 3 days a week.  I have been asked to change up the Wednesday workout to add variety.  I have come up with the following:

Leg press
Standing Thigh Curl
Seated Calf Raises
Front Squat
Quad Blaster
DB Flys
Incline Bench Press
Chin ups
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Bent over barbell rows
Bench Dips
Hammer Curls
Skull Crushers
Seated Bent Over Laterals
Deadlift
Seated Shrug
Reverse Barbell Curls

My idea was to replace each exercise with another exercise that either hits the same muscle but is a different exercise or hits the same muscle from a different angle.  I substituted the DB Flys for the DB pullovers because they both target the ribcage.  I will still use the 3 second cadence on this workout.  It will add some variety to what I am doing and that is a good thing.

I am going to sign off today with a warning.  Beware of redundant fitness programs that are sold to you, but contain only minor variations of what was in your last purchase.  It is all about the money and they want your's.  Resist the urge to buy stuff and if you do buy it, take advantage of the money back guarantee when you discover it is nothing but rehashed information.  You have to protect yourself from unscrupulous people who only want your money and really don't care about whether you are successful with their program or not.