This article is a special guest post written by RT from Real Muscle Online.
When you start to learn about bodybuilding and weight lifting you also start to hear a lot of myths. People will tell you all sorts of thing to either make themselves sound expert or to (more…)
How long should you let your muscles rest before working them again? You may have heard that your muscles are ready to be trained again after 48 hours of rest.
Editor’s Note: This is Jason’s take. To read Darrin’s take, click here.
I’d like to set the record straight on that number. If you’re one of those genetic supermen with incredible recovery abilities, 48 hours is probably right for you. For the rest of us human beings, a little more recovery time is probably needed.
Very few people out there have the stamina and experience to be able to handle training every body part 3+ times a week with heavy loads. Think about it, that’s exactly how many times you would train each muscle group in a week if you’re only giving them 48 hours of rest on a consistent basis.
So let’s talk about some numbers that are more down to earth for most of us. In actuality, most people will need somewhere between 48-96 hours of rest for each muscle group. This means that you will need 2 days at the very least, while 3-4 days is probably a better fit for most people out there. (more…)
Continue reading about Setting the Record Straight on Muscle Recovery Time
Weight Lifting 101 is a series of posts for those who are just starting their journey with weight training. If you are thinking about getting started in a gym or training at home, this reading is for you.
For the sake of these postings, I’m going to assume that you have never touched a dumbbell in your entire life. I’m not going to make any guesses about what you do or don’t know, so we will start from the very beginning and build up from the basics. If you are already at the intermediate or advanced levels, stay tuned… more is on the way.
A Time for Change
If you are just getting started, this is a very exciting time! Never again will you experience such a dramatic change in the way you look as in these upcoming months. I say never again because the changes you are about to make should be lifelong changes with principles that you will never abandon.
Thus, you are currently standing at the inflection point in your life. It is this very moment when you can decide to make a change, and the rest of your life can be altered as a result of this decision. Since this is the precise moment that you are changing to a new direction, the following months will show you more results than any other time in your life. After your initial transformation, you will simply continue further and further down this new path that you are starting on today. (more…)
Last week I described a running injury I developed and asked for your guesses about the cause.
Of course, there were many contributing factors.
I’m not a physical therapist or any kind of medical professional. So this is all opinion based, not medically based.
But one stands out, because
a) it was the most significant
b) even the other factors might have contributed, each of them alone wouldn’t have caused this; in contrast, even without all the other factors the main factor probably would have resulted in injury all by itself.
The Main Cause
The main cause was simply (more…)
Continue reading about The Cause Of The Problem – The 3 Percent Rule
- Can you guess the cause of my running injury?
I made a stupid exercise mistake last week. One that could impact my fitness routine for months because of the resulting injury. I want to share it with you, because hopefully you won’t repeat it.
Even though injury is no laughing matter, what I’d like to do is make this into a game of sorts. What I’ll do is first, describe the resulting injury. Then I’ll give you various facts about my exercise, eating, and lifestyle leading up to the injury.
Then you guess what the biggest cause of the injury was.
For some of you it will be obvious but for others not so much. In this case, the injury was from running. But lifters could make the same kind of mistake.
Everyone who leaves a reply will get a prize! And the best answer (based solely on my opinion) will get an even bigger prize.
The Prizes
Everyone who posts an answer in the comments section at the end (by Wednesday), with their guess as to the most direct cause, will get a copy of my ebook called Train Better. This 200 page ebook has some of the best WFN articles consolidated for you.
The best answer, in my opinion, will get Train Better AND will get a copy of my lifting routine Fat Burn Furnace.
Duplicate answers are fine, but if the “best” answer is given by more than one person, then the first person gets the routine.
Ready?
Here’s What Happened (more…)
Should you be training to failure? What does that even mean?
- The last few reps are more important than all the previous reps.
See, for strength and muscle growth, frequency trumps volume, but intensity trumps both volume and frequency. And so the absolute most important thing you can do with lifting is to do so intensely. This is true pretty much no matter what your lifting goals are. This chart shows you why [explained below].
There are a ton of ways to increase the intensity of your lifting (see here and here) but almost all of them involve dancing around with “failure” on your set. There are two basic forms of failure I’ll talk about today: form failure and muscular failure.
Form Failure
Think of form failure as the point where you are no longer able to do the movement with good form. Good form means proper alignment, proper tempo, using the muscle rather than momentum (unless it is a power movement).
This is also very mental – when you “think” you can’t do another one properly, you are probably right. In my experience though, most people fail mentally before they should (but I won’t describe mental failure here).
Here’s an example. Let’s say you are lifting alone. Your target rep count would be 8 for this exercise. You just finished your 7th rep and you are feeling a little shaky but confident you can get one more done safely. So you start the movement. But at the bottom of the move you realize you can’t finish it without sacrificing form. At that point, you’ve reached form failure.
Muscular Failure
Muscular failure is when you (more…)
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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 (more…)
Continue reading about Why Lifting Weights is Key To Your Health- New Year Approaching
How will I ever find time to workout with my busy schedule?
It’s a question that anybody who exercises regularly has had to deal with. Finding time to workout is not easy, it’s unlikely, and quite frankly, you shouldn’t even try to find time to workout.
What kind of advice (more…)
Continue reading about The Only Way You Will Ever Have Time To Workout
