It’s great to see mainstream news catching up with the science behind exercise. Usually, I complain about how popular media get it wrong. But here’s a story from The Washington Post that confirms what you’ve heard here on worldfitnessnetwork.com for a while. (And of course, I have only been writing about this because I’ve read about the original studies in the scientific journals, so I can’t really claim credit!). You can read past articles here, here, and here. And related to recovery, check here.
I’ve reprinted the original article, which appeared online on October 30, 2009. It’s pretty long but well-written. The bolding of certain statements is mine.
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BY LENNY BERNSTEIN
Washington Post Service
It’s been a long, hard day at the office, and you need a good workout to blow off all that stress. But before you hit the free weights, the stationary bike or the elliptical machine, you spend 10 minutes carefully stretching all those stiff muscles, just as every coach, trainer and physical therapist has advised for as long as you can remember.
You won’t stave off muscle soreness.
You won’t perform better, except possibly if you’re going to do gymnastics or ice-skate. There’s some reason to believe you’ll do worse than if you hadn’t stretched. (more…)
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This is the short version of Darrin’s view on muscle recovery time. To read the longer version, click here. To read Jason’s view, click here.
How long do your muscles need to recover between workouts?
That is one of the most important questions for any lifter – whether a newbie or a competitor. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest to answer.
You’ve probably heard 48 hrs. Or maybe you’ve heard 72 hours. Some people even advocate a full week of rest between working each muscle group.
For this article, we are talking about resting particular muscle groups, not about rest between workouts (unless those workouts hit all your muscles).
In general, you probably need more recovery time than you think.
I’ll give you some scientific and empirical evidence as anchor points so that you can evaluate muscle recovery time for yourself.
To make this easier to digest and act on, I’m going to score each recommendation in the rest of this article into three buckets:
a) tend towards a 2-day muscle recovery period
b) tend towards a 3-day muscle recovery period
c) tend towards a full week to rest your muscles
But all of the recommendations I make interact with each other – you can’t look at just one factor and say “ok, the ideal recovery time is X”. Some guidelines may trump others, so the key is to take this knowledge and start applying the ones that you believe will have the biggest impact on your particular situation. And then test.
One final preamble. We’re talking here about force recovery – the time it takes for (more…)
Continue reading about The Truth About Muscle Recovery Time – Short Version
This is Darrin’s view on muscle recovery time. To read Jason’s view, click here.
How long do your muscles need to recover between workouts?
That is one of the most important questions for any lifter – whether a newbie or a competitor. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest to answer.
You’ve probably heard 48 hrs. Or maybe you’ve heard 72 hours. Some people even advocate a full week of rest between working each muscle group.
I wish I could give you an absolute rule. But I can’t.
Part of the confusion comes from mixing two issues: are we talking about recovery between workouts or recovery between working specific muscles?
For this article, we are talking about resting particular muscle groups, not about rest between workouts (unless those workouts hit all your muscles).
In general, you probably need more recovery time than you think.
I’ll give you some scientific and empirical evidence as anchor points so that you can evaluate muscle recovery time for yourself.
To make this easier to digest and act on, I’m going to score each recommendation in the rest of this article into three buckets:
a) tend towards a 2-day muscle recovery period
b) tend towards a 3-day muscle recovery period
c) tend towards a full week to rest your muscles
But all of the recommendations I make interact with each other – you can’t look at just one factor and say “ok, the ideal recovery time is X”. Some guidelines may trump others, so the key is to take this knowledge and start applying the ones that you believe will have the biggest impact on your particular situation. And then test.
One final preamble. We’re talking here about force recovery – the (more…)
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By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS BurnTheFat High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short, has been promoted as one of the most effective training methods ever to come down the pike, both for fat loss and for cardiovascular fitness. (more…)
Continue reading about Steady State Cardio 5 X More Effective Than HIIT????
Last week we talked about “what are the shoulder muscles” and started on trapezius muscle exercises. If you haven’t read that yet, please do so first. We focused on deadlifts and cleans. For 90% of you, those two exercises are all you need for decent traps. But for completeness, and before we (more…)
Continue reading about Filling Out Your Shoulders – part 2 of 4
Why is it that the world is focusing more and more on fitness, but at the same time everybody seems to be even more out of shape?
Scores of new diets come in and out of the market place that promise us amazing results in a matter of weeks. There’s always some sort of new magical pill which claims to be able to make you “fit”.
Each year, waves of people make a New Year’s resolution to keep in shape and sign up for a gym membership, only to return to their sedentary lifestyle a month later.
The world is constantly in search of the answer. Unfortunately, so many people go looking for the easy fix, the path of least resistance.
The problem is that there is no easy fix.
There is no easy answer.
The truth is that anything worthwhile in our lives requires our effort and attention. Our physical health should be no different. Who do you want to be – the out-of-shape person you’ve been in the past, or the fit and tone person you know you can be?
We Are All Human
Each person is built slightly different, but we all have the same basic needs. Both men and women alike need to maintain certain levels of muscular strength and endurance. We also need to maintain good cardiovascular health and flexibility. Where we differ is in the level, degree, and type of fitness we are trying to achieve.
Regardless of the type of build you are shooting for, you will need to know how properly build your strength, cardiovascular health, and flexibility. For many people, this will mean learning how to lift weights and exercise effectively.
Weights Matter
You may have friends who claim you can get fit without weights. That may be true, (more…)
Continue reading about Why Lifting Weights is Key To Your Health- New Year Approaching
[repost]
Most people do not realize how powerful water is in the healing process.
No, this is not an article about spa therapy, holistic medicine, or anything like that. This is about using simple methods to build muscle and strength as well as maintaining your overall health.
Your body might be 60% water overall, but your muscles are actually 70-75% water. Each time you work these muscles as you lift weights, small tears and rips form in the fibrous muscle tissues. Your muscles grow when these small tears are repaired. Guess what happens if your muscles aren’t able to heal:
Nothing.
Nothing happens at all. That means no growth, no toning, no strength increases… nothing.
Here’s a quick breakdown of why you need water to heal and how to harness its power to help your muscles after a workout.
Got Water?
Not getting enough water has serious side effects. Even a 1 percent change in your body’s water levels can seriously impair your exercise performance. Even worse, your ability to recover goes down the toilet… and the toilet it goes down is one of those water-saving dry flush things that doesn’t quite get the job done.
Some other reasons you need extra water when you lift weights: (more…)
Continue reading about How to Harness the Healing Power of Water for Muscle Health
Getting a good warm up before you attempt any heavy lifting is an absolute necessity. The purpose of a warm up should be pretty obvious from its name. You need to get your body warm and the blood pumping before you start lifting heavy.
Another fact that should be pretty obvious is that your ability to get your body warm will depend on the temperature the place you’re exercising in. If it’s winter time, a cool evening, or if you life in a cold place, then your body will probably require more warm up than it would on a hot summer afternoon.
Why warm up:
Why you need to warm up is a matter of safety. Just to help you visualize what’s going on, I’d like you to think about a rubber band. This will represent your muscles and other tissues. What happens if you stretch a rubber band that has been sitting in the freezer?
The rubber band probably snaps before you are able to stretch it very far. A warm rubber band, on the other hand, can probably be stretched a long ways before it breaks. This is what rubber bands were designed to do, after all. They are designed to stretch, but they can’t do that job very well cold.
The same is true for your muscles. They can’t do their job nearly as well when they are cold, and starting out with a heavy weight before your muscles are nice and warm can lead to injury and muscle tears. Trust me, you don’t want to be like that rubber band that snaps when it’s cold.
Warm ups are even more important for the bigger exercises such as the squat, deadlift, and the bench press. These will require a more extensive warm up, while other exercises will likely only need a a set or two with a light weight to get warmed up.
How to warm up
1. Clothing: Let’s start off with the right clothing. Wearing a sweater or workout pants is a good idea in cold weather until you’re able to raise you body temperature. Consider wearing several small layers instead of one heavy layer. Smaller layers can be peeled off one at a time until your body temperature is high enough.
2. Do static stretches at the end: In case you don’t know what this means, static stretches are those done without movement. The traditional stretches that you are familiar with are probably (more…)
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