Lifting Lessons With My Dad – 12 Tips

I recently took my family to visit my parents and got to workout with my dad at his gym (Gold’s Gym – wow, their membership fees are really low!).  While coaching him, I was reminded of many tips that I bet you’ll find valuable.   (Dad, you don’t mind do you???)  Let’s get right into the list of 12 Tips and Observations:

1. After Your Warm-ups, Every Set Is A Working Set. Don’t stop at the end of set #2 with “gas still in your tank” so that you’ll have more energy for set 3.  Go all out for set #2.  And then, go all out again for set #3.
2. Old Guys Can Still Lift Heavy – My dad is almost 70 and of course he can’t lift what I can lift.  But there’s no reason to go easy on yourself.  Even if you are “an old guy” you still need to lift heavy – that means heavy FOR YOU.  For me, lifting heavy might mean X pounds.  For you, lifting heavy might mean Y pounds.
3. Cable Machines Are Not “Machines”.  I discourage use of machines.  My dad uses a lot of these newer cable machines from a company called FreeMotion.  They really are excellent.  I even used them for deadlifts (there wasn’t enough weight on the stack for doubles but it was still surprisingly effective).  But most fixed-path machines still suck.
4. Intensity Trumps Volume.  I had to remind my dad, and I’m guessing you can use the reminder too, that it’s better to do 4 exercises really intensely than it is to do 6 exercises without going all out.  30 minutes of intense lifting is better than 50 minutes of moderate intensity.  Of course, you do need to be safe and you can get “too intense”.  But I’d bet you are currently really far away from being too intense. (more…)

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Admitting Defeat

You know, I recently wrote an article over at The Goal Triangle about how you have to fail in order to succeed.  Well, here’s a case in point:  the new email format.  I tried to make things easier for you and for myself, and improve the look of the emails you get, but I “failed”.  It was harder for me to manage, and the html codes ended up triggering more spam filters (meaning many of you never got some really good articles – check your spam folders over the past few weeks to make sure).  So, I’m back to the old format.

Poll Results

You may have noticed the poll taking place on the right side of worldfitnessnetwork.  The previous poll asked what your top fitness goals were.  After hundreds of votes, the top 2 were: #1: build muscle and #2 shed fat.  Probably not surprising given the content I write about!  Be sure to take the current poll (which will be changed to a new poll in February).

The Fight For Your Fitness Wallet

If you are signed up for other fitness sites, you may have noticed a huge increase in sales hype and email volume.

I’m here to give you the straight story about why they are doing this, and how you should respond.

Since most of those guys are sending me information about how I should promote their products, I see their strategy.  Here’s what’s going on… (more…)

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Last week we shared the first 9 of these tips for beginners.  Check them out here:  Top Tips For Beginning Weight Lifting.  This week we finish up with another 10 must-know items before beginning your weight training regimen.

10. Intensity Is Underrated

Whatever your routine is, do it hard.  (After you’ve gotten the form down.)  When I say hard, I mean hard.  Other than your exercise-specific warmup, you should feel like you couldn’t get another rep out of your set.  (This is different from “train to failure” which means you go past the last rep you can do – that’s not something I recommend for beginners.)  Oh, and if you can do 2 more reps than your plan calls for, then you need to increase your weight.

And heavy weight helps your progress.  To get the proper hormonal response from weight training for building muscle, losing fat, and gaining strength you have to really push yourself.

This also means that you don’t skip workouts.  I realize that life happens, and you might have to miss a day.  But with your 3x per week schedule, you can miss a day and make it up to stick to 3x/week.  If you do get to the gym and “don’t feel too motivated”, you need to psyche yourself up.  A short intense workout is far better than a long half-effort one.

11. Rest

There are two types or rest:  in between sets and in between workouts.  For rest in between workouts, that’s taken care of by only going 3x a week (see previous point).  Muscle doesn’t grow during the exercise.  It grows AFTER the exercise and if (more…)

Continue reading about The 19 Weight Training Must-Dos For Beginners – Part 2 of 2

Tired of your current physique?  Looking to build some muscle?  Burn fat?  Gain Strength?

Done properly, weight lifting is the best exercise for all three goals.  Wanna lose fat while you sleep?  The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns at rest.  Wanna look good in a t-shirt and shorts?  Build some curves by adding muscle.  Looking for extra power in your favorite sport?  Strength training with weights helps almost every sport.

But if you’re just starting out (or if you’ve been just toying around at the gym and need to get your butt into a serious routine), you need to remember these 19 things.

1. Don’t Read The Muscle Mags

Ok.  You’re fired up like a George Forman Grill, and ready to become Arnold Junior.  So where do most guys like you turn for advice?  The muscle mags.  But 50% of the muscle mags are pure ads.  And another 30% are ads disguised as articles.  And another 15% is either flat out bad advice or advice inappropriate for beginners.   That leaves 5% of goodness.  And the sad truth:  as a beginner, you won’t know the difference.  Skip the magazines and go for a serious book (see below).

2. Only Full Body, Compound Exercises For Your First 3 Months (No Curls!)

I know you want to do curls.  It’s ok to admit it.  Guys think big biceps are the sign of a real man.  Stop.  If you can’t do 15 chin-ups, you have no business doing curls. What you want to do – exclusively – for the first 3 months are compound movements.  Compound movements are those that involve more than one joint (and thus, recruit more than one muscle group).  Why?  You’ll burn more (more…)

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[Before we get into this very short piece, I'm making the replay of last week's free training teleseminar available for the next 3 days only.  So if you want to listen to it, go to http://www.worldfitnessnetwork.com/more/maycallreplay.html right now.]

Who Are You Calling A Beginner?

Are you a beginner?  Or an advanced lifter?  Or an intermediate? How do you know? Let’s take a moment and define these stages as far as I’m concerned.  It’s important for several upcoming articles I’ll be sharing on (more…)

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It’s axiomatic that the exercises which give you the best results are always the hardest ones to do. If you want a huge back… you row and deadlift. If you want huge legs, you squat… OR… you do THIS leg exercise – that almost no one wants to do because its one of the hardest of them all.

Which one am I talking about? FRONT SQUATS!

In my opinion, front squats are one of the absolute best quad builders. Back squats are a tremendous mass builder as well, but front squats introduce an additional level of challenge because they require flexibility, technique, and core strength because the bar must be held and balanced on the front of the shoulders. As such, the front squat does everything the back squat does and more.

One great advantage of the front squat, especially for someone like me, having previously suffered a low back injury (herniated L4), is that the torso can be held in a more upright (vertical position). Since there is less forward trunk inclination, this removes some of the stress and shear forces from the lower back. At the same time, this upright position is closer to a bodybuilding squat and throws much more emphasis on the quads and less on the hips. It is truly a superb bodybuilding exercise.

There are two styles of front squatting, the Olympic lifting style and the crossed arm style. I find that most athletes, and of course Olympic lifters, use the former, while most bodybuilders seem to prefer the latter. The barbell should generally be your weapon of choice, but for bodybuilders, front squats on the Smith machine are an outstanding alternative. The Smith machine front squat takes some of the balance issues out of the picture, which allows the physique athlete to really focus on working the muscle rather than worrying about balance and stabilization. Be sure to rotate between both versions, however– barbell and smith machine – because long term overuse or dependency on machines may lead to stabilizer weakness or muscle imbalances and variety is never a bad idea in the physique game.  [Editor's Note:  I suggest not even trying this on the smith machine.  Just go light to start with and learn it the right way - Darrin.] Incidentally, the barbell front squat is an outstanding “core” exercise.

A third version of the front squat worth considering is the dumbbell front squat (especially the sumo or wide stance version). These can be performed holding a single dumbbell with both hands on the front of the shoulders, cupped between both hands (goblet squat) or with two dumbbells, one in each hand, resting on top of each shoulder. The limiting factor on these front squat variations is often the poundage, as holding heavy dumbbells can become unwieldy. This can be partially overcome by performing the dumbbell front squat last in a leg workout or second in a superset, or by manipulating tempo and range of motion so the exercise is made more (more…)

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I saw something interesting the other day at the gym.

I saw an average-sized guy in his mid 20’s who was obviously trying to build up some muscle. He looked like he had some padding (weight) on him, but he didn’t look too out of shape. The thing that caught my eye is what I saw him doing.

He was using the cables to do cable crossover flys. I watched as his arms wildly flapped up and down in an uneven way. His upper body lurched forward and downward with each rep as he strained to move the weight at all costs. I watched him move on to other exercises and perform them with a similar style.

Who knows, maybe he really didn’t know how to lift weights. But then again, like a lot of other people out there, maybe he was just too embarrassed to lift the proper amount of weight for his strength level.

If his goal was to avoid looking silly in the gym, he certainly didn’t achieve it. Honestly, I thought he looked a lot more like a monkey trying to figure out how to fly than someone who’s serious about getting in shape. (more…)

Continue reading about I Respect the Little Guy with Good Form

Readers of WorldFitnessNetwork.com are a smart group of people. You are smart enough to know that your training is important and that you lifting weights will help you achieve your goals. You understand things about living strong that most people just don’t get.

And since you are already such a smart group of people, I already know that I don’t need to tell you that you should never workout naked. There’s no need for me to explain why it would be bad if your flip-flopping appendages were to get caught in the weight stack.

You guys are smart. You already get this stuff.

But there are a few other advantages to not working out naked that you should be taking advantage of. Here we go:

1. Warm up clothing: Wearing some extra clothing until your body warms up is generally a good idea, especially if it’s winter time or if you live in a colder climate. This extra clothing allows your body to retain more heat until it reaches the optimal temperature for going heavy on a workout.

Keeping your body warm is especially important for injury prevention. You are much less likely to pull or tear a muscle that is warmer. Wear that sweater at the beginning of your workout until you are nice and warm.

2. Protection: I’m not talking about that kind of protection… this is about why you shouldn’t workout naked… so get your mind out of the gutter. Any commercial gym these days will require you to wear shoes in case (more…)

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