World Fitness Network reader A.J. asked left the following comment on a recent article about squats:
I find it very hard to do a “good” squat because I can’t go down too much. I find that I can’t go down even if I’m not using any weight. I don’t know why, maybe its because of the way that I am built? Is it still okay if I do 1/2 squats? I find that I can go lower if I have a wider stance…so should I increase my stance?
A.J. asks a great question that most people struggle with as they begin squatting. It’s a common experience to realize that squatting all the way down is difficult at first. Half squats won’t necessarily hurt you (if you do them with good form), but they won’t help as much as full squats either.
Why squat all the way:
- Full involvement: The bottom of the squatting movement is where the glute and hamstrings come into play.
- Rebound: The elasticity in the muscles and other tissues helps you to get a slight rebound in the bottom of the movement.
- Knowing your gains: If you always go all the way down, you’ll (more…)
Looking to burn fat with weight training? Tired of typical routines?
Get my metabolic routine here: Fat Burn Furnace!
If you’ve ever been to a commercial gym for a month or longer, you know how it feels to share a gym with other people. A commercial gym is a lot like a community – we all have to share and learn to get along.
If you’re one of those people who has a nice setup in your own home gym, then go ahead and feel free to pass gas wherever you want to, and do whatever you want with your own equipment. For the rest of us who have to share a gym, there are a few unspoken rules.
Here they are:
1. Don’t forget to wipe when you’re done: You might not have heard this one for a very long time. But if you’re one of those guys that sweats profusely all over everything you touch, give it a little wipe with a towel when you’re done. There’s nothing wrong (more…)
This is the time of year that many people already start to give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. In response, I’ve written this post:
Not getting to your destination? Having trouble achieving your goals? You may have a problem that you haven’t considered.
When you are doing everything you possibly can to achieve your goals, but just can’t quite seem to reach them, the problem might be that you are setting the wrong type of goal. Here’s a real-world example that you might see in business:
My goal is to increase department sales by 10% this year.
What’s wrong with this goal?
- You don’t control sales. Customers must buy something for sales to increase, and you can’t control the customers. You can only take actions that will influence their (more…)
Continue reading about How to Always Achieve Your Goals, 100% of the Time
As with all rowing movements, seated cable rows focus mainly on working the lat muscles, as well as working the biceps, traps, and the deltoids (shoulders). When compared to bent-over barbell rows, it has some advantages and disadvantages.
- More muscles involved: This exercise involves more muscles for stabilization and is therefore a more compound movement, and it’s is more slightly more efficient for overall muscle mass. You must (more…)
I spend a lot of time each week reading books about weight training, but there sure is a lot of great info online as well.
The good thing about the internet: Information is free
The bad thing about the internet: Good information takes forever to find.
I guess sometimes you get what you pay for. If you’re not paying the money, you usually have to pay with your time to find the good stuff online. Here are a few readings that I came across this last week.
Straight to the Bar: Mark Rippetoe coaches the Overhead Press. A great YouTube video featuring strength coach Mark Rippetoe coaching the overhead press. Take some pointers from the video and make sure you follow them.
Stronglifts: The stronglifts 5×5 e-book. Great free resource with in-depth info on the most important exercises you should be doing.
Eugenization: Cholesterol is necessary… For building muscle. I know that a lot of people have been saying that saturated fat and cholesterol actually have health benefits. This article says you’ll need cholesterol to build muscle. Is cholesterol really a pre-cursor to testosterone? I’ll have to read more on the subject.
Stronger & Fitter: Why you shouldn’t read women’s magazines. I know, most of you are thinking “I shouldn’t read women’s magazines because I’m not a woman”. This article applies just as much to men’s magazines though, because you’ll be fed a lot of the same crap in those magazines. This is a good read.
Home Calisthenics: What are Calisthenics? A website about how to do body weight exercises at home. Especially useful if you’re traveling and don’t have access to a gym.
The Muscle Building Blog: Resting for Growth. You’ve just started with weight training and you want to work as hard as possible for maximum growth. But is all that extra work really going to help you?
Bradley Simpson: (more…)
Image Credit: neloqua
With the new year a few weeks behind us, now is a great time to look at our New Year’s resolutions and evaluate how we will achieve them. It’s sad, but many people set goals that they will never achieve.
But being lazy is not the only reason that people don’t achieve their goals. There’s another reason why you you’re not getting what you want: You haven’t set the right goals.
It happens all the time. Some people set a goal like: I want to lose 25 pounds in the next three months. Is this really the goal though? Maybe it is, but my guess is that most people with these kinds of goals need to dig a little bit deeper inside of themselves.
Why do you want to lose 25 pounds or increase your bench press by 30 pounds? For many people, the answer might be that they want to look better. So the true goal is to look and feel better, and increasing your bench press or losing 25 pounds is what you believe you need to do to get there, whether that’s actually the truth or not.
So, you need a goal to get you from point A [where you are right now] to point B [where you want to be]. Knowing point A is easy because you’re already there, but clearly envisioning point B will require a little more effort. Think about what you really want to achieve as your goal.
Finally, you’ll have to mentally create the road that connects point A and point B. You’ll need to have a plan that will get you where you want to go. This is a lot like looking at a map before you start driving.
Some people might say ‘Hey, I don’t have time to look at a map because I’m in a huge hurry’. The truth is, you don’t have time to drive around without looking at a map first. You could drive around all day before you find the place you’re looking for. The same is true for your goals.
So here are 5 essential tips that can help you to set your goals more effectively.
1. Simple and measurable: Your goal should be simple enough that you can easily remember it throughout the day. Simplicity and specificity can sometimes be opposites, so you will (more…)
Continue reading about 5 Essential Tips for Effective Goal Setting, Part 1
I’ve been preparing an e-book over the last 5-6 weeks to help the readers of World Fitness Network achieve their goals. The e-book is entitled “3 Months to New You”. It’s a 90 day program to help you change your body type. It will help you do the following:
- Change the way you look and feel
- Become stronger/ build muscle
- Lose fat
- Strengthen your bones and joints
- Get you eating back on track
- Find new energy in your life through lifting weights and eating right
In addition, 3 Months to a New You provides you with a workout plan and schedule that you can fit into your normal life without having to spend your whole life (more…)
Continue reading about Free E-book About Changing Your Body Type: 3 Months to a New You
Image Credit: physicsman
Squatting is the best way you can build overall muscle mass. Period.
There are a lot of people out there who fear the squat. They think that doing the leg press machines or squats on a smith machine will somehow be safer. Using these machines is just like using any other machine in the gym.
The advantage of using a machine is that you really don’t have to know what you are doing. The machine forces you to do an exercise in a certain way and along the machine’s motion path.
While machines might be easier to use, you simply get less benefit out of them. Using free weights is the key to building your base of muscle, no matter what muscles you’re working. The bench press is better than a bench press machine, and doing real squats beats the squat machine or the leg press machine. That’s all there is to it.
Doing squats properly will work about 75% of the muscles on your body either directly or indirectly. And regardless of what others will tell you, squats are a safe exercise as long as you do them right.
In fact, squatting correctly will strengthen your knees and back muscles in a way that makes future injuries less likely. Let’s walk through the squatting movement in detail:
1. Start with the bar: Yes, just the bar. Practice for a while and get a feeling for how this movement should work. Pay special attention to your squat stance, keeping your knees out, keeping the back alignment, (more…)
Loading ...