Ever see “Lady In The Water”, the M. Night Shyamalan movie? Remember the guy who only worked out with ONE of his arms? Pretty funny filming to make him look all lopsided – one arm huge and ripped, the other arm normal.
- image from about.com
Ever feel like you are lopsided?
I’m sure, if you did curls, you’d find one arm noticeably stronger than the other. (But thank goodness you don’t do curls, right?!?)
Same thing applies to your legs, though you might not be as aware of it.
Even applies to your abs. Yes, your abs. (Try side-planks for 60 seconds and you’ll see that one side tires out sooner than the other.)
Movement Specialists often try to correct movements that we all develop, over many years, to compensate for
- Usage habits, like being right handed
- Physical differences, like one leg slightly shorter than the other, which is common
- Poor form overall in exercises
- Various other things that make me think they are magicians (I’m not a Movement Specialist and am in awe of them)
Without treading on their ground, I’m going to give you one rule to follow whenever you are doing a movement that alternates one side then the other:
Always Do Your Weaker Side First
If you are right handed, this usually means doing your left side (arms, legs, abs, everything) first. And if you are left-handed, your right side is usually weaker.
However, in some people their lower body is “oppositely strong”, so you’ll need to test this for yourself.
How Does This Work?
For example, if you are doing static lunges (where you do one side first, then the other) always do the weaker side first.
Every set. Every workout.
Why?
Over time, your weaker side will catch up to your stronger side. It may never be 100%, but for most people, after 6 to 12 months of this strategy, will find that the weaker side is at least 95% as strong as the stronger side. At least, for the exercises you are doing.
All bets are off for new exercises! That’s because with each exercise, the secondary and tertiary muscles involved, as well as supporting mass like tendons and ligaments, vary. As such, new exercises may call on a different set of support.
And then there’s the fact that structurally you will have differences (like bone length, width, etc) that put one side at a long-term disadvantage.
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About a week ago, I offered to our email subscribers an open Q&A session: “ask your questions and I’ll try to get them answered”. The asking is something we only offer the email list, but RSS subscribers can still see the answers. As usual we had tons of questions. I’m posting most of them here – the rest will await a future post. Note: Please read our disclaimers at the bottom of this page – what I write is for information purposes only and you should always seek professional, licensed advice before starting any exercise program. If you have more questions, send them through http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/contact/ . On to the Q&A!
1) Question – Tyson asks: “How about doing speed runs or short speed bursts 5 times a week? Do you think that would greatly encourage fat loss? Or should i stick to doing speed bursts 1-2 times a week for fat loss?“
Answer: My answer for the typical person is no more than two HIIT (high intensity interval training) sessions a week. Note that I’m saying HIIT, not your typical interval training. I’m not sure which you mean when you say “speed runs”. HIIT is so intense that unless you are a pro athlete, you can’t last for more than about 10 minutes if you are doing it right. Tabata intervals are an example of HIIT (you go for 20 seconds AS INTENSELY AS YOU CAN – REALLY HARD, then take a 10 second break, then repeat, for a total of about 4 minutes). Most people can only do Tabata for about 4 or 5 minutes before feeling like vomiting. Myself included. I only do that once a week at most and only at certain points in the year.
Continue reading about Answers To Your Lean Muscle Questions – 4-21-09
A week ago, I offered to our subscribers an open Q&A session: “ask your questions and I’ll try to get them answered”. I’m happy to say we had ton’s of questions. I’m posting 11 of them here – the rest will await a future post. If you have more questions, send them through http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/contact/ On to the Q&A!
1) Question – John asks: “I am 5′5″ at 125 lbs. My body fat % is 10% and my goal is to increase my muscle mass by 10 lbs (especially pecs) and get ripped (for the abs). I do full body workout with weights 3x every (more…)
Continue reading about Answers To Your Lean Muscle Questions – 2-16-09
I figured I’d spend a few hours scouring the web for some videos that demonstrate good form for three critical weigh training exercises: deadlifts (regular and Romanian), squats, and standing military press. I wanted to brush up on my own form and thought you’d be interested too. I found some (more…)
Continue reading about Videos For Major Weightlifting Exercises
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
Have you ever done a heavy set of bicep curls and noticed a nagging pain in your wrists when you’re done? Maybe you’ve even felt enough pain that you’ve had to cut your workout short.
This pain can affect some people more than others. The good news is that just like anything else, your bones and cartilage can grow stronger with time as they respond to resistance.
Causes
You may have noticed that doing bicep curls using a straight bar or dumbbells will especially give you some wrist pain. We’ll get to how to reduce this pain in just a moment, but first, let’s understand what’s leading to it.
There are two major factors of bicep curls that affect your wrist pain; the first is the angle of your wrists, and the second factor is the torque force on your wrists.
1. Your wrist angle – In order to help you understand why the angle of your wrist is part of the equation, I’d like you to think about one of those karate guys who breaks a stack of wooden boards or bricks. Think about (more…)
Continue reading about Bicep Curls: How to Reduce Wrist Pain
The bench press is one of the best exercises we have for training the chest muscles and triceps. We use the bench press because we can easily add weight to the bar or grab a heavier dumbbell for increased resistance. Probably the biggest drawback to the bench press, however, is that only your arms are moving.
Technically (and I hate getting too technical), pushups are a better movement in terms of total body mass trained. But you already know that trying to increase the resistance on pushups can be a real pain. And let’s be honest, even if pushups are better than nothing when you’re out of town, doing a few sets of 30 pushups won’t have the same mass-building effect as heavy benches will.
The dip
The weighted dip is an excellent movement because it allows for the training of the chest and triceps together in a way that uses a greater mass of muscle from more muscle groups. You’ll notice that you should be able to dip more weight than you are able to bench press for a given number of reps. That should indicate that more muscles are working together to move your body through the full range of motion.
Dips place greatest stress on your “lower chest” and triceps. When I say “lower chest” I’m not referring to the mythical lower pectoral muscle that doesn’t exist, but rather meaning that the upper chest is less involved in this movement for some pretty obvious reasons if you think about how the exercise is performed.
Also, don’t confuse the dips as being a variation of the decline press. The decline press has a decreased range of motion when compared to dips, and dips are generally a superior exercise when compared to the decline press.
When it compares to the bench press, however, dips can really make a great addition chest/triceps routine, and they make a decent replacement for the bench press if you’re not able to bench press for whatever reason.
Proper execution
The first thing you’ll probably notice when you come up to a dipping station is that the grip bars are not parallel to each other, but increase in distance the farther away they are from the base. This is so that you can choose a grip width that suits you best.
- Grip width: In general, a wider grip will place somewhat more emphasis on your chest muscles. A narrower grip will hit your triceps somewhat more.
- Leaning: (more…)
Continue reading about Weighted Dips for the Pecs and Triceps
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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