If you’ve been going to a commercial gym regularly, you might have noticed that some guys will crank out a set of 15 reps for an exercise while another guy just does 3 reps on a different exercise. What’s up with that?
The reason you’ll see people using totally different (more…)
Continue reading about The Best Rep Ranges for Muscle, Strength
This is Part 2 of a two-part series that explains how your muscles grow. If you haven’t already read Part 1, please go back and read it first. In this post, we’ll explain the message presented in Part 1 and what it represents.
In Part 1, a short story was told in which I had you imagine that you were the Greek god, Zeus, up in the clouds. Your goal was to push a small tribe of people into building a stronger building. You couldn’t force them to do it. You could only put them in the right situation that would cause them to grow.
Think about your muscles. They react in a similar way. We can’t just tell them to grow, but instead we can create the proper environment that stimulates their growth. As you may have guessed, the people in this story represent the systems within you that cause you to grow; the building represents your body and your muscles.
Strength Progression
Our muscles do not grow spontaneously. Instead, they grow in response to the stresses we put upon them. That means that if we want to see results, we need to lift weights, and this momentarily weakens our muscles.
Remember the people inside their thatched home? They never tried to make a stronger home until there was a need. Once the wind blew and weakened their home, they immediately went to work rebuilding it.
Your muscles work in a similar way. Lifting weights weakens your muscles and creates a response in them to grow stronger. Notice that the people never came out to rebuild the home while the wind was blowing or while the earthquake was raging. They waited for a calm moment when they could go out and do the repair work. (more…)
Continue reading about Muscle Growth: Playing God With Your Body, Part 2
Trying to figure out the perfect routine can be tough. It’s especially tough when you consider the fact that there’s no such thing as a perfect routine.
Instead, you’re going to have to assess your personal needs and decide which muscles to work on which days. A number of factors will go into this decision, such as:
- What your current training level is, i.e. beginner, intermediate, or advanced
- What type of routine motivates you to work out in the gym
- Which muscle groups are lagging or will require special attention
- What type of routine your training partner is on
- How your body is responding to the workouts you have in place
There are many ways you can divide up your muscle groups to achieve the best workout for you. There are so many combinations, in fact, that I couldn’t possibly cover them all here. Instead, I’m going to point out a few principles that can be used as guidelines to help you choose the routine that’s best suited for you. (more…)
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…)
If you want to build a strong body with a toned figure, it is first essential that you know how your muscles grow. Without a proper knowledge of what your body will respond to, you have little chance of making any long-term gains.
I’m going to use a short story to help you visualize how you will stimulate your muscles to grow. As you read this story, think about your own body and how the principles apply. Envision your own muscles reacting in the same way. We will then decode the message and explain the full metaphor and how it applies to you in Part 2.
Building a Foundation
Imagine that you are a god sitting up in the clouds. Let’s say you are Zeus, the great Greek god of the sky. You look down from your cloud each day and see a small tribe of people living out in the wilderness. You’ve been watching them for a while now and decide that these poor little people need some challenges to grow. Hurting them is not your goal; you really like these people and want to help them become stronger.
The little tribe lives in a thatched house with a straw roof. It looks flimsy, as if it could fall over at any moment. Nobody in the tribe has ever bothered to make it stronger because there has never been a need. It stands there just fine… as long as the wind doesn’t blow.
Well, the people simply are not progressing much by living in an old straw house forever. So you lean over the edge of your cloud and blow a little bit. The straw flies right off the roof and a few holes are even blown right through the walls. (more…)
Continue reading about Muscle Growth: Playing God With Your Body, Part 1
- Should women lift like men?
Women often find that they can keep their weight about the same over many years by just eating sensibly and light cardio. But often, in their mid thirties or forties, they start getting “soft”. By only looking at the scale they don’t notice it. But what has happened is that they have slowly lost muscle and slowly gained fat. Their shirts and pants still fit (for the most part) but their body composition is far less attractive. And equally (or more) importantly, they are on a track to become helpless in their older age. Muscle loss is equated to functional loss – and functional loss is a loss in quality of life. Muscle loss in your 30s and 40s is slow enough to not be noticed but once you get to your 60s and 70s and 80s, you may be no longer to lift a milk gallon over your head. Let’s make sure you never get that weak ok?
Should Women Lift Like Men?
This site is geared towards men. After all, I am one.
But we all have women in our lives – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, etc.
So whether you are a woman, or know one, or just play one on TV, this post is for you.
Part 1 of 4
So Should Women Really Workout Like Men?
For the past few years, all the “experts” keep saying how a woman should lift like a man. But is it true?
The answer is yes and no. I’ll boil it down to one (long) sentence for you:
Women can and should do nearly the same exercises as men, but because women have different goals and different chemistry, the ideal program will usually be different than what a man would use.
I’m going to break this series down into 4 parts. And if you post an intelligent comment to any of these, then afterward shoot me an email at support@worldfitnessnetwork.com and I’ll send you (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.
Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache. If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron. But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC. He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics. If you are interested in brands Cameron supports, check out http://cstache.qhealthzone.com .
- Practice good gym etiquette and you’ll avoid the Bad Manners Nanny
We all have to share. Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s money, and other times it’s just plain space. It’s for this reason we have rules; although, occasionally they go by another fancy word… “etiquette.” There are many different types of etiquette; restaurant etiquette, workplace etiquette, and yes there is workout etiquette.
Hey, I’m not going to lie to you, I like our Geico friends “The Cavemen.” Sometimes it’s even fun to act like one myself. Society, however, doesn’t feel so kindly about my friends for the most part. Etiquette ensures that we don’t strangle each other with our socks.
If you read the super fine print on the back of your gym contract then you probably saw some of the common rules on the back. Most of them aren’t a big secret and are listed on every home page of every bodybuilding/gym website known to man. There are however, a few little known rules that even the most active gym goer may not know about. Not only do I work out in a gym but I work and manage at a gym and train people – I know what it’s like, from multiple angles, when people don’t follow these basic rules. The term “basic” implies that the rule will be found in pretty much every gym. Some aren’t as clear-cut. Planet Fitness for example has a “no grunting” policy. I personally think if you aren’t grunting you aren’t working hard enough. Whereas in a football training facility, for example, you hear screams. In that scenario it just depends on location; not quite a “basic” rule then.
I have taken the liberty of enlightening you with most of these rules but, I need to state a few things first. Not everyone has always been a member of a gym, so I will assume that you are a brand new, first day member of a health club. Also, I am aware that if you looked you WILL be able to find more things than I point out. I’m not trying to write a book, just an article. So if you’ve got some more to add, jump into the Comments section. And lastly, I know what it’s like to just be told “what” and not “why” so I will give you the point-of-view I have with some of these too. I understand your reasons, I’ve been there. Just please don’t take anything personal if you are the person I am describing. There is no hostility being thrown, so don’t take it as such. Furthermore, if I DO offend you, it’s probably because you needed to hear it anyways…
Cameron’s Basic Gym Etiquette Rules
(If you see a “more” link, click it to read the rest.) (more…)
Nobody wants to be a fatty. Whether you are now fat, on your way to being fat, or just want to get leaner, there are countless things to keep in mind.
Looking trim and being unfat requires work - here are the tips
With so many tips, I’ll overrule my usual verbose nature and dive in, somewhat tersely, with the 25 Ways To Be Unfat. Each of these could be its own article (or even its own book!). But I’m just giving you a sentence or two for starters. We’ll break these down into 5 categories: Overview, Attitude and Behavior, Eating, Lifting, and Cardio.
Since I focus worldfitnessnetwork.com on weight training and running, you might expect this article to be focused on weight lifting and running, right? Well, for sure, those are both part of the picture to be unfat. But eating habits are the most important factor for getting trim.
Final preamble: these are written for the person who wants to be lean, not super-lean. If you want to get into cover-model shape, there are more subtle techniques that come to play. But if you want to look good enough for the beach, these are for you!
1) 80% of the battle is what you eat – the cliché is true: you can’t out-train a bad diet. Eat smart and you’ll be lean.
2) 10% of the battle is resistance training – training with weights can help by burning some calories, increasing metabolism, and changing your body composition. Even for women. But many guys fall into the trap of building muscles that are still covered in fat. More on this later…
3) 10% of the battle is cardiovascular training - cardio (e.g. running) can help with calories but is only one-tenth as important as how you eat. And too much of the wrong running can burn muscle in addition to fat so you can’t over-rely on it.
All of these are mostly mental; if you learn the right techniques and then have the discipline to act on that education, even when you don’t feel like it, then you’ll win. Your attitudes and behaviors are key:
4) Don’t strive for perfection – getting your psychology about fitness right is most important; until you want to get ultra-lean, you are shooting for a 90% compliance; do the right thing 90% of the time and you’ll get lean.
5) Set goals – if you don’t set targets, it’s hard to know if you are making progress and it’s hard to know when you’ve “arrived” at your destination. Forget complicated goals – keep them simple by focusing on Measureable and Timebound. An example of a good goal for a woman: I will weight X pounds, at less than 20% bodyfat, by July 4.
6) Adjust your social life – avoid other fatties or soon-to-be fatties; who you surround yourself with influences who you become. If you’ve already had a junk-food meal this week, say ‘no’ to the group going out for a Chinese lunch.
7) Keep a log – write down what you eat, when you exercise, what you did, etc. Think of it as your fitness diary. You can do this online or on paper, I don’t care. But keeping a log will keep you on track even on days when you are less motivated.
Eating
8) Eat frequent small meals – eating smaller meals more frequently will (more…)
