New to WorldFitnessNetwork.com?
Download a copy of this 100% free e-book about how to change your body type within 90 days: 3 Months to a New You.

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 mostly all static stretches, such as touching your toes.

Static stretches have not been shown to do anything to help prevent injuries when you lift. In fact, many believe that static stretches increase the number of injuries you have when you lift weights. This may be because weight lifting requires you to keep your muscles tight, and loose muscles holding heavy weights can sometimes move beyond their normal range of motion.

Again, think of the rubber band analogy. The best time to stretch your muscles is when they are already nice and warm after you are finished lifting weights. Take a few minutes at the end of your workout to do your static stretches and lengthen your tightened muscles back out.

3. General warm up: Do some running for five minutes just to warm up your body temperature. You can really pick which type of activity you’d like to do to get your temperature up. Five minutes on the treadmill works fine, so does 5 minutes on an exercise bike. Doing a set or two of fairly light weight squats will also warm up your body very quickly.

4. Dynamic warm ups: The word static means staying still, and dynamic basically means with movement, or motion. Do dynamic warmups and stretches before your workout instead of static stretches. You can check out a decent list of dynamic warm ups here. You don’t have to do all of these, but a few leg kicks, butt kicks, and maybe some high knees should be done before squats/deadlifts at the very least.

If you don’t want to look silly by marching around the gym doing your leg kicks, go ahead and hold onto something and just do one leg at a time as you swing your leg in front of you for 10-15 reps or more. If you’re ever in doubt about your warm ups, make the mistake of doing too much warm up instead of too little.

5. Exercise-specific warm ups: You will need to do 1-2 sets or more of warm ups specific to the muscle group you are about to start working. For example, if you’re going to do the bench press, you might start off with a light warm up set (or more) of 12 reps. Choose a weight that is light enough that you can easily get 12 reps.

Pyramid sets: The idea behind pyramid sets is that you start with a lighter weight doing more reps. Maybe you start with 12 reps on the first set. The second set uses a heavier weight for 10 reps, the next 8 reps, and then 6.

Pyramid rep schemes work best for compound movements like the bench press. They don’t work quite as well for single-joint movements like bicep curls. The point here is that pyramid sets help you to ease into a heavy weight more safely.

That doesn’t mean you have to use them all the time for every single workout you ever do, as sets across (the same number of reps on each set) are useful as well, but pyramid reps are good to keep in mind.

Stretching between sets: There is some disagreement out there as to whether this is helpful or not. If you feel like your muscle is getting a little bit too tight after a heavy set and you’d like to loosen it out a little bit, I see nothing wrong with doing a light stretch for a moment between sets. Others may disagree with me on that, but just don’t go crazy with a deep stretch between sets, and you should be just fine.

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 rep ranges is that some people have different goals. Doing more reps in your weight lifting routine can serve a great purpose, and doing less reps can also be useful.

Which rep range you ultimately decide to use should be based on your goals and what you want to accomplish. Here, we’ll talk about a few points that will help you make the best decision.

Let’s take a look at what each rep range can be useful for:

• 1-3 Reps: Best suited to boosting your overall strength. The focus here is improving the maximum amount of weight possible for a single repetition. You’ll see powerlifters use these ranges frequently.
• 3-5 reps: Best for developing power, meaning that this rep range is good for the combination of both strength and speed. This is particularly useful for athletes training for sports performance. See stronglifts for more on strength training.
• 8-12 reps: This is the magic range touted by bodybuilders as being the most useful for adding lean muscle mass. Your muscles will enlarge the most in this range and feel a “pump” as you workout. Building muscle mass and looking/ feeling better is the focus of this site.
• 10-20 reps: Very useful for building mass in your legs. Your legs generally are able to handle more stress than your arms can handle.
• 20+ reps: Best for endurance. Not great for what you’re trying to accomplish if you’re like most readers of this site.

Big and Strong?

It’s not uncommon for a person to want to build both muscle mass and strength. These two qualities usually go together, but bodybuilders with massive muscles often can’t lift as much weight as a strength trainer with somewhat smaller muscles.

Using the lower rep ranges will make you stronger first, and your muscles will also grow as a side benefit. Staying in the 8-12 rep range will build larger, more massive muscles first, and you’ll get stronger as a side benefit.

You can see where I’m going with this. Bigger muscles aren’t always equal to stronger muscles. In general, your muscles will become bigger as they become stronger, but each rep range has a particular focus. Pick your rep ranges based on your goals.

Small Range Exercises: Your muscles get the most benefit from your workout when you use them through the full range of motion, but not every exercise you do will have the same range of motion.

Simple physics teaches us that moving an object through a greater distance requires more force. For example, when you squat, you move the weight a good distance throughout the movement. But what about when you do a set of wrist curls? How much does the weight move on a set of wrist curls? Probably not as much.

Since some exercises have such a small range of motion, they can benefit from higher repetitions. Exercises such as calf raises, wrist curls, shoulder shrugs, and ab crunches can all work well with a set of 15.

More for legs? Your legs will definitely tire out less quickly than your arms. Try a heavy set of bicep curls. You might feel fine after 7 reps and then totally die out by the tenth. Notice how your performance can fail very quickly with your arms. When you’re doing leg exercises, on the other hand, you might be surprised how many times you can crank out another rep after taking a few breaths.

Arnold recommends 6-9 reps for the upper body, and 12-16 reps for the legs. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Nothing is set in stone

Let me just say that none of this is set in stone. If you want to train 5 reps for your legs and it’s giving you good returns, then go ahead. If you want to try 15 reps on your arms, go ahead. The above rep schemes are just guides that most people agree work for certain goals.

But you definitely should experiment with different rep ranges. The goal of this site is to help you build muscle mass and lose fat first… strength is secondary here.

Still, even if you don’t care how much weight you’re lifting, try a good month with sets of 5 when your progress starts slowing down. Always training with the same number of repetitions can lead to staleness.

Image Credit: itsnickssister

WFN reader Richard asked the following question in the comments to a previous article:

Usually when I do situps/crunches, I would do like 3 sets and with each set I would do a different variation, like either crunches or legs in the air crunches etc etc. But which ab exercises do help burn that unwanted stomach fat?

This is a great question, because men tend to accumulate fat in the stomach area, whereas women get it more in the hips and thighs. Doing situps and crunches to work your abs seems like the logical choice to get rid of that gut.

Trying to take fat off of one part of your body only is called spot reduction of fat, and unfortunately, it doesn’t really work. You can decrease your overall body fat percentage, but there is no exercise that can help you take the fat just off your stomach.

But you know you want it

I understand the desire. The abdomen is the visual center of the body. Since the eye naturally draws first to the middle of the body, a big gut is like a bull’s-eye right on the center of you, while a tight stomach or six pack immediately shows an outstanding physique.

I get the feeling that if all of our fat cells were hanging out around our toes, we wouldn’t be too concerned… or maybe I’m just not realizing how nasty it would look…

But I know what the real question is: how do I really get that six pack?

Here’s the deal:

The rectus abdominus is a layer of muscle that is draped over your mid-section between the pelvis and the rib cage. Getting a six pack requires you to build up those muscles and strengthen them (I know you already know this part, but just in case). Your abs are worked especially in the stomach crunching movements and when they act as stabilizers for exercises like deadlifts.

The next step is to remove the fat that’s covering your six pack. Can you do this with ab-exercises? Well, kinda.

I won’t say that abdominal exercises don’t do anything to lower your body fat percentages. Each crunch you do does expend some energy and burn some fat, but not enough to really make a difference.

Also, each pound of muscle on your body requires more energy for you body to maintain it each day. Each pound is estimated to burn between 20-35 calories per day, depending on your activity levels and which studies you are basing the numbers on.

So, the fact that you are increasing the muscle mass in your abs will also amount to more calories expended. But the abs are a smaller muscle group, so again the results are negligible for fat loss.

A better way:

Here’s something that will do more: use those exercises that do work many of your large muscles together, burn many more calories, and create greater muscle mass to burn more fat. This will help to make the six pack more visible.

Yes, we are talking again about those nice, multi-joint, compound, YWWASWT exercises that I’m always ranting about. This means that one of the best weight lifting exercises for removing the belly fat is one of the exercises that you would expect the least: the squat. Use other big lifts in a similar manner.

From there, it’s a matter of taking the other steps to keep your fat levels in check:

• Six smaller meals a day
• The right foods in the right amounts
• Plenty of water
• Rest and recovery
• Thermic foods
• Cardio

Remember though, you are not a professional bodybuilder preparing for a competition. Your goal is to look good year-round, not just for a weekend or an event. There’s no need for complicated programs of severe carb restriction or extreme cutting programs. Do the simple things first, and worry about the complicated stuff if you ever really come to that point.

Summary:

Your six pack will require two things:

1. Strengthening of your abdominal muscles.

2. Lowering your body fat percentages so that your six pack is uncovered

How about you? What kinds of things were you doing when you were at your leanest?

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 is that for a workout site?

It’s good advice. Because the truth is, if you are looking to “find” time to workout, you’ll probably be looking for a very long time. You have a job, you have to study, maybe you have kids… you’re a busy person, and I seriously doubt that you’re going to “find” the time laying around. No, the only way you will ever have time to workout is if you stop trying to “find” the time and start making the time.

And if you’re not struggling with time for your workouts now, you will some day. Get into the mindset right now that it will be tough to keep the exercise habit at some point in your life (if it isn’t already). Mentally preparing those times of life in advance will help you to deal with them when they finally arrive.

Here’s an incomplete list of ways to make the time:

1. Choose your time wisely: Each time of the day has it’s benefits, but be open to other times, such as the morning. You might not have the same schedule for the rest of your life, and since you’ve already decided to keep in shape for life, you’ll need to keep an open mind.

2. Increase the intensity: Take slightly less rest between sets over time. Also, try supersetting 2 smaller exercises together. For example, go directly from doing a set on your abs to a set of calf raises without resting between. This can help cut the time down.

3. Do some workouts at home: Ab crunches, standing calf raises…. You don’t need a safety rack or setup to do these effectively. Also, abs and calves tend to recover more quickly than other muscle groups, and they will benefit from the greater frequency you can give them by working them at home on the days you don’t plan to go to the gym.

4. Get a home gym: This is a better time saver than just doing a few workouts at home. Not everyone has a place for a home gym, and going beyond the intermediate stage will push you toward a full gym. But basic lifts with a barbell and a rack will be plenty good to get into great shape.

5. Combine weights and cardio: If weight training and a good diet aren’t enough to help you keep your fat levels down, then combining weights and cardio on the same day will save time over working out on separate days. Do your weights first, get a protein shake to hold you over until your next meal, and then do your cardio.

6. Child care: If you’ve got kids, child care can be a real godsend. Some gyms offer it in the evenings as a free service, and it can make all the difference in finding a time to workout. If you have kids or might have them soon, keep this in the back of your mind when you choose a gym.

7. Use TV and phone time: These are great times to do your static stretches. Do them after your workout while you’re still warm to help get your muscles lengthened back out and ready for your next workout. Don’t stretch immediately before a workout, as this can lead to injuries.

8. Involve family & friends: If your significant other complains that they have to compete with your workouts for your time, try to bring them with you. It’s a good time to be together in a low stress (at least emotionally) environment, you help each other out by spotting, learn to work together… All that mushy stuff.

9. Schedule it: Just like anything else in your life that’s important. Make the time, write it in your schedule, let people know…. Do what you have to do.

10. Make it a priority: We tend to focus on things that are urgent in life. Working out is important, but you won’t die immediately if you don’t exercise, so you think it’s not urgent… but you will be slowly dying over the years. Your health is important, and you have to realize that it is also urgent. It affects all the other aspects of your life and your ability to do other urgent things, such as getting good rest, feeling energized, having confidence, getting things done at work… I could go on and on.

You may have noticed above that I said that this is an incomplete list. That’s because you also have great experiences with making the time when life gets busy. Add your items to the list in the comments section below.

If you’ve ever had to work out alone, you’ve been there.

“Can I handle one more set on the bench press? Can I do one more rep, or will I get caught under the bar?”

You might know what your limits are pretty well, but it’s better safe than sorry. Sometimes you muscles just give out a little sooner than you thought they would.

Getting stuck on a heavy set without a spotter can be a disaster. It’s never happened to me because I have a phobia of it, and I will never do a heavy set of bench presses without a spotter.

But I’ve seen it before. I’ve had to run across the gym to save some poor kid who was lifting a weight he wasn’t ready for alone. Having a trainer partner at your side is best, but it isn’t for everybody.

Why you should have a workout partner:

• Spotter: You have a built in spotter every time you come to the gym. No need to worry about getting stuck below a heavy bar that is smashing your chest in.
• Motivation: When your workout gets tough, it’s great to have someone that can help to push you through the end of that heavy set when you feel like calling it quits.
• Routine: The fact that you’re going with somebody else usually helps you to plan out your workouts ahead of time. That way, you’re less likely to just go into the gym and “wing it” without a plan.
• Consistency: Sometimes the fact that you have a partner is what gets you into the gym in the first place. If your partner is dragging you into the gym each day, work on your motivation and ask yourself what you really want to get out of your workouts.

Of course, having a workout partner is the best method for keeping your workouts safe, motivating, and consistent. But again, having a training partner isn’t for everybody.

The drawbacks of a workout partner:

• You’re anti-social: Maybe you just don’t like people, I don’t know… but the reason most of us workout alone is that we just don’t have a friend that goes to the same gym.
• Time conflicts: Fitting workout times into your own schedule is tough enough. Working it out with another person can be even worse, and it sometimes becomes an excuse to skip a day.
• Needs conflicts: You squat with 10 pounds, your partner squats with 300 pounds. Changing the weights on each set can be a real pain. Also, beginners and advanced trainees have different needs and should be on different routines.
• Your partner is a wuss: Maybe your partner is one of those sissies who’s going to try to convince you to ditch the free weights for the machines and quit squatting so that you can spend all your time on your arms (it doesn’t work that way).

Whatever you decide, try to never workout alone. Home gyms are where most of the injuries occur, so be sure that someone is close by to save you in case of an emergency. Hearing a popping noise when you’re all alone under a bar can really suck. If nobody is around, take precautions and have the equipment you need (power rack, collars, etc.)

Meeting people: Don’t be afraid to ask people for a quick spot when you need it. When you do, take a moment to get to know them. It doesn’t have to be a lot, and you don’t have to become “best friends forever”, but taking just a moment to get to know someone can go a long way.

The people that come to the same gym at the same time as you usually make great spotters for the next time you’re in the gym. If you have the same goals, work ethic, and motivation to succeed, and if your schedules work well, you may have found yourself a great training partner.

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 try to sell you something. So for any newbies out there here are four horrible weight lifting myths… busted!

MYTH 1 - Light weights tone your muscles
This is the worst myth of all. I see so many websites where “professionals” are telling their readers to use light weights if they want to tone their muscles. It is an absolute myth.

Muscles themselves do not actually “tone”. Toning is the process of removing fat that is covering the muscles. So if you want to tone your muscles you should still lift heavy so as to gain as much mass as possible, but start fixing your diet and doing more cardio. This is the only way to get toned.

MYTH 2 - You need as much protein as possible
Protein is the hot word when it comes to bodybuilding circles. And what I am about to say now is probably going to get me into lots of trouble. But I don’t care; I am trying to help!

Too much protein is not a good thing. Instead we should be trying to get quality protein from natural and healthy sources. It is a much better idea to have a more moderate amount of quality protein than to have huge amounts of dead, cooked and lifeless protein.

Why? Well protein is made up of enzymes that are in certain shapes. When you heat those enzymes they lose their shape and no longer form proteins as well as they used to. All protein poweder, whey, soy supplements, etc. are heated to massive temperatures to kill the bacteria. It is dead.

Try some natural sources like free range eggs from well fed chickens, raw goats milk that is uncooked and so on. You’ll be surprised at the difference.

MYTH 3 - More sets equals more muscle growth
While this myth can be true in certain scenarios it is not true for the majority of people reading this article. More sets does not mean more muscles. It means sloppy technique, weak muscle contraction and underutilized muscles. What this means is that if you are pumping out eight sets for each exercise you probably aren’t lifting as much weight as you could be. Try cutting back to half that amount of sets and increase the weight.

MYTH 4 - You should do lots of cardio to get cut
Bodybuilders often fall into the trap of getting on the treadmill for hours at a time when they want to lose fat and cut up. This is a big mistake.

The problem with this is that long bouts of cardio burn muscle. All that hard earn mass that you have been busting your guts for will start to burn with the fat.

Instead of long sessions of cardio try fixing your diet and cutting calories. Weight training is, in itself, an excellent fat burner. If you still aren’t seeing the results you are after then get into some high intensity cardio that only goes for 15 minutes or so. This is an excellent way to speed up your metabolism without sacrificing muscle mass.

Conclusion
Bodybuilding is shrouded in myths, lies and deciet. Many of these lies are designed to sell products like protein and steroids. Make sure you always do your research before trying any new exercise or food product and always put your health before muscle gains.

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.

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.

Click to Continue →