My Friends Said, What The Hell Happened To You?
At the end of 10 years of weight training I could bench 200 lbs. Eighteen months later I was ripped beyond my wildest dreams and could bench over 400lbs. Let me show you how you can, too.
P.S. (no dope)
Body Image Paradigm:
When I was in my twenties I wanted to be 6’2’, lean but muscular, sandy haired, defined, athletic, and did I mention extremely intelligent, well read, talented, very wealthy and of course respected by men and adored by women.
I am not complaining at 61, but here’s the point, the best any of us can do is realize our potential and chances have it, you will get a lot of what you require out of life, but not without a whole lot of effort.
Do you train with weights, and not have enough to show for it?
Almost all people I have observed use weights like scampering jack rabbits, meaning they throw the weights, jerking them, and pump out their sets as fast as they can to avoid at all cost “the burn”, the very reason they are performing the lift in the first place, and unfortunately not hardly engaging their muscle fibers at all. Most all folks when they train work out in general by grabbing a weight so light that they can lift it repetatively eight, ten, twelve, even fifteen times.
This is like only multiplying ones, fractions, or may be even zeros.
If you can lift a weight consecutively you are not even close to a full muscle contraction, which remains required for optimized muscular activation. From this old trainers point of view, a kind of hurry up, get through and finish up, a fake work out scenario.
What’s so funny or sad, however, is in most cases people remain completely dedicated to this relatively fake workout for years. In other words they go through the motions of the exercise without actually doing it, day after month after year, enjoying no doubt the illusion of training, except for the little problem of making any real or meaningful gains in lean body mass.
Does Your Method of Weight Training Make Sense?
Many years ago I walked in to a gym that I had just joined, looked around to get a feel for the place and observed and was shocked by what could only be called a remarkable work out.
Can you imagine after spending over a decade and a half in gyms being utterly blown away by observing a method of lifting that I had never seen before. I knew it was brilliant the moment I saw it.
The thing that was brilliant about it was how perfect the form, exquisitely slow the cadence, how heavy and demanding the lift, and how focused the concentration, and yes, the guy was mega ripped.
Training Outside The Box:
The revelation is this, when you lift very, very slowly, prolong the movement, drag it out, stop jerking the weights, which is just taking the work of the workout, you really accomplish muscular transformation, especially if the weight is sufficiently heavy so that 3 to 2 reps is all that’s possible. Let yourself feel every inch of the burn through the movement and completely concentrate on your desired transformation. At the moment of a perfect rep you can’t help but feel the increased resistance, intensity, and authenticity of the lift. This is why you are training; it is why you go to the gym.
It’s the real thing!
Check out my next article here on The Gym, Resistance Training and Fitness towards Enhanced Muscularity and Safety where I will reveal static holds training, the mother of all workouts.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Fitness Instructors, Gyms, and Timing Your Workouts
Fitness Instructors:
I recommend that you seriously consider hiring a professional instructor for 12 sessions to show you proper procedures for form and cadence for each exercise. While these rudiments are not enough in and of them selves to advance you generally towards exceptional muscularity they will help, and remain essential to avoid injury.
Like in everything else there are a few excellent trainers and a lot of just get by types.
Who do you choose:
While a perspective trainer looks you over during an initial consultation, you should look them over, too. Look at their body, I am not saying they must be gods, but are they to thin, fat, or poorly developed - if so, this should be a red flag. Do they have good musculature, proportionality and symmetry?
In other words, a trainer should be into training him or herself.
A strong, well-developed, body and personality demonstrates by example passion, knowledge, and skill.
Scan a basic text on resistance training, make a few notes, and ask a few pertinent questions. Have the perspective trainer do an initial free consultation with you and check out the personal chemistry between the two of you. Discuss your goals; see at the very least if the trainer is informative and confident.
Confidence alone indicates that they feel they have a history of good results and satisfied clients. Get references from other club members who have trainers.
I personally never required another to motivate me, but if that’s what benefits you, go for it.
That’s good trainer 101.
Good Trainer, Bad Trainer:
I’ve met too many trainers, especially young ones, that think it’s fun to just beat up their clients with tough workouts. Unfortunately their philosophy remains that they must be great to make you this tired, reinforced too often by clients who believe the sole purpose of a trainer is to act like a drill instructor.
Again, every thing is relative, I am not saying a session shouldn’t be rigorous and challenging, but in my opinion you must find a trainer that understands your issues in terms of medical limitations, physical condition, temperament, age or old injuries.
A trainer should skillfully put you on a long and sustainable injury-free path towards continual development and help you around pertinent health or biomechanical issues.
A sign of a lazy or very limited trainer, and I’ve seen too many, is that their training sessions pretty much revolve around counting your reps and sets for you, often with very little meaningful input, like you’re so rich you need to hire some idiot to count up to ten for you.
Here’s a good rule of thumb. Ask yourself if the trainer you hire is indispensable to the quality of your workout sessions. Is that person educating you and in service to the advancement of each workout?
If you discover that you can work out just as effectively without that trainer, you can, and it’s time to move on.
You should feel that your trainer is essential and that without their support the quality of your workout would seriously diminish. A really good trainer is someone who demonstrates a deep knowledge of biomechanics towards strength building techniques. A serious trainer is worth their weight in gold especially if you’re a beginner; because they will see you through acclimation, enhance your physical performance by tactically incorporating proper form, core stength training, supplementation and proper diet.
Over-worked, Under-worked:
How often do you work a given muscle group?
Over-training your body remains destructive to the fibers in the muscles. Prolonged over-training can cause permanent damage and inhibit attaining the strength and volume you may aspire to. This sort of activity is hard on the immune system, in particular the kidneys as they have the job of filtering toxins secreted from the muscles, which is expressed in your body by some combination of exhaustion and charlie-horse or soreness.
Full recuperation remains the period in which lean body mass is enhanced and gains strength, definition and size. For better muscle development and sustained health, rest each muscle group until they are no longer sore or exhausted. I also recommend you stay out of the gym if sick or generally run down, as a workout at this time will only worsen your condition.
On the other side of things, if you are hitting a muscle group, say biceps, quads, or chest every other day or two, and those areas are not exhausted, tired or uncomfortably tight, that is telling you that your muscles are not recuperating from your workouts because you have nothing to recuperate from. In other words the level of resistance when you train is not challenging your muscle fibers. You are acclimated, you are at a plateau!
Integral to developing great musculature is to learn high intensity techniques with tactical recuperation periods, which I will discuss at great length later in this article.
Resistance training tears down muscle fibers. Lean body mass increases during rest periods. This tactical reciprocity, between training and recuperation, is what advances shape, size, and definition. The repetition of this process, involving each muscle group, over an extended time will transform the look, structure and composition of your entire physique.
While I have identified some critical aspects of getting started in the fitness experience the next part of this post will discuss training programs towards advanced high intensity training for those who may wish their greatest gains in muscle volume and definition. In other words develop greater muscle mass then ever before in relatively short time. Yes, and profoundly exceed your expectations!
I've been sitting on my butt too long, got to get to the gym!
Popeye
.
I recommend that you seriously consider hiring a professional instructor for 12 sessions to show you proper procedures for form and cadence for each exercise. While these rudiments are not enough in and of them selves to advance you generally towards exceptional muscularity they will help, and remain essential to avoid injury.
Like in everything else there are a few excellent trainers and a lot of just get by types.
Who do you choose:
While a perspective trainer looks you over during an initial consultation, you should look them over, too. Look at their body, I am not saying they must be gods, but are they to thin, fat, or poorly developed - if so, this should be a red flag. Do they have good musculature, proportionality and symmetry?
In other words, a trainer should be into training him or herself.
A strong, well-developed, body and personality demonstrates by example passion, knowledge, and skill.
Scan a basic text on resistance training, make a few notes, and ask a few pertinent questions. Have the perspective trainer do an initial free consultation with you and check out the personal chemistry between the two of you. Discuss your goals; see at the very least if the trainer is informative and confident.
Confidence alone indicates that they feel they have a history of good results and satisfied clients. Get references from other club members who have trainers.
I personally never required another to motivate me, but if that’s what benefits you, go for it.
That’s good trainer 101.
Good Trainer, Bad Trainer:
I’ve met too many trainers, especially young ones, that think it’s fun to just beat up their clients with tough workouts. Unfortunately their philosophy remains that they must be great to make you this tired, reinforced too often by clients who believe the sole purpose of a trainer is to act like a drill instructor.
Again, every thing is relative, I am not saying a session shouldn’t be rigorous and challenging, but in my opinion you must find a trainer that understands your issues in terms of medical limitations, physical condition, temperament, age or old injuries.
A trainer should skillfully put you on a long and sustainable injury-free path towards continual development and help you around pertinent health or biomechanical issues.
A sign of a lazy or very limited trainer, and I’ve seen too many, is that their training sessions pretty much revolve around counting your reps and sets for you, often with very little meaningful input, like you’re so rich you need to hire some idiot to count up to ten for you.
Here’s a good rule of thumb. Ask yourself if the trainer you hire is indispensable to the quality of your workout sessions. Is that person educating you and in service to the advancement of each workout?
If you discover that you can work out just as effectively without that trainer, you can, and it’s time to move on.
You should feel that your trainer is essential and that without their support the quality of your workout would seriously diminish. A really good trainer is someone who demonstrates a deep knowledge of biomechanics towards strength building techniques. A serious trainer is worth their weight in gold especially if you’re a beginner; because they will see you through acclimation, enhance your physical performance by tactically incorporating proper form, core stength training, supplementation and proper diet.
Over-worked, Under-worked:
How often do you work a given muscle group?
Over-training your body remains destructive to the fibers in the muscles. Prolonged over-training can cause permanent damage and inhibit attaining the strength and volume you may aspire to. This sort of activity is hard on the immune system, in particular the kidneys as they have the job of filtering toxins secreted from the muscles, which is expressed in your body by some combination of exhaustion and charlie-horse or soreness.
Full recuperation remains the period in which lean body mass is enhanced and gains strength, definition and size. For better muscle development and sustained health, rest each muscle group until they are no longer sore or exhausted. I also recommend you stay out of the gym if sick or generally run down, as a workout at this time will only worsen your condition.
On the other side of things, if you are hitting a muscle group, say biceps, quads, or chest every other day or two, and those areas are not exhausted, tired or uncomfortably tight, that is telling you that your muscles are not recuperating from your workouts because you have nothing to recuperate from. In other words the level of resistance when you train is not challenging your muscle fibers. You are acclimated, you are at a plateau!
Integral to developing great musculature is to learn high intensity techniques with tactical recuperation periods, which I will discuss at great length later in this article.
Resistance training tears down muscle fibers. Lean body mass increases during rest periods. This tactical reciprocity, between training and recuperation, is what advances shape, size, and definition. The repetition of this process, involving each muscle group, over an extended time will transform the look, structure and composition of your entire physique.
While I have identified some critical aspects of getting started in the fitness experience the next part of this post will discuss training programs towards advanced high intensity training for those who may wish their greatest gains in muscle volume and definition. In other words develop greater muscle mass then ever before in relatively short time. Yes, and profoundly exceed your expectations!
I've been sitting on my butt too long, got to get to the gym!
Popeye
.
Monday, June 16, 2008
WHO IS POPEYE?
Who is Popeye?
Hi,
I thought he was a cartoon character, and I turned out to look just like him - just add biceps.
I have national certifications in both nutrition and fitness and am an award-winning trainer. I have been decadent, out of shape, lazy and weak. Conversely, I have also been in top condition, which has helped me understand the challenges inherent in getting myself and others into shape. Like a lot of people, I worked out for years – always feeling confused – because I worked out so hard and had so few gains to show for it. Until one day when I discovered the true meaning of High Intensity Training.
For 10 years I did multiple reps and sets, but never exceeded the ability to bench press more than 225 lbs. In one single year of proper high intensity training I could bench over 400 lbs. Needless to say, my body exploded with volume, shape and definition.
This post: The Gym, Resistance Training and Fitness Towards Enhanced Muscularity and Safety tells you how to transform your body and finally really surprise yourself and become that stronger, bigger, better you that you always wanted to be!
Hi,
I thought he was a cartoon character, and I turned out to look just like him - just add biceps.
I have national certifications in both nutrition and fitness and am an award-winning trainer. I have been decadent, out of shape, lazy and weak. Conversely, I have also been in top condition, which has helped me understand the challenges inherent in getting myself and others into shape. Like a lot of people, I worked out for years – always feeling confused – because I worked out so hard and had so few gains to show for it. Until one day when I discovered the true meaning of High Intensity Training.
For 10 years I did multiple reps and sets, but never exceeded the ability to bench press more than 225 lbs. In one single year of proper high intensity training I could bench over 400 lbs. Needless to say, my body exploded with volume, shape and definition.
This post: The Gym, Resistance Training and Fitness Towards Enhanced Muscularity and Safety tells you how to transform your body and finally really surprise yourself and become that stronger, bigger, better you that you always wanted to be!
Monday, June 9, 2008
The Gym, Resistance Training and Fitness towards Enhanced Muscularity without Injury
Welcome to Resistance Training for Increased Strength and Enhanced Muscularity without Injury. This post is about general information regarding training and how to build enhanced muscularity through resistance training that will exceed your expectations, especially if you are a slow gainer and have worked out long enough to feel that in spite of every effort your muscularity remains modest or even insignificant.
I welcome your feedback, comments and questions at 1gymbum@gmail.com
I welcome your feedback, comments and questions at 1gymbum@gmail.com
Welcome to tips on advanced weight training for increased muscle volume and definition.
WHY NO GAINS IN LEAN BODY MASS
This post is about how to build enhanced muscularity thru resistance training that will exceed your expectations especially if you have worked out long enough to know that in spite of every effort your gains remain modest or even insignificant.
Ask your self this question next time you go to the gym, how many people have you observed that have worked out for years that have produced hardly if at all any noticeable results even though appearances have it that their work outs are ambitious and rigorously demanding.
Before I share any special secrets on how to greatly enhance your physical strength and muscularity the most important issue before embarking on any weight lifting adventure remains that you must understand the importance of form in order to become injury resistant.
DECEPTION BY OBSERVATION
Unfortunately the way most people attempt to figure out proper form is to look around their gym, find some one who looks like they must know what their doing and model there behavior.
This, dear reader, is an enormous mistake!
If you were a trainer or informed you’d be appalled by how the great majority of people work out against them selves meaning towards marginal development and unnecessary injuries.
NO GAINS - - - FOR THE WRONG PAINS
To many gym veterans bench press with continual pain from inflamed rotator cuffs because they never took the time to understand the proper form.
In fact almost all who train for any length of time struggle unnecessarily with injuries that functionally impair them, because nowhere in the length of years of working out do they ever develop their knowledge of proper form.
Training without properly applied form i.e. poor biomechanics is like running with ones sneakers tied together mile after mile day after day continually stumbling bruised and bleeding until the pain and embarrassment exceed the will to continue.
Imagine spending money on a gym membership and working actively to destroy perfectly good knees necks hips and shoulders.
At least in a fender bender you can collect insurance.
AVOID INJURY BY LEARNING AND IMPLEMENTING PROPER FORM.
Form or biomechanics in resistance training is about understanding a given exercise in terms of dynamic movement in relationship to the infrastructure of the body to include muscles, joints, bones, and tendons.
In other words, how various parts of the body function together during all phases of repetitive or singular dynamic movement for the express purpose of avoiding injury and activating muscle growth.
THE ONLY RIGHT PAIN IS THE BURN IN A MUSCLE DURING CONTRACTION.
Good form remains the imperative for assuring as much as humanly possible that there are no injuries from a workout.
It remains plain to see that injuries can send you home and out of the gym, dashing any chance of your desired success for a along time, or even curtail your aspirations permanently.
A WORD ABOUT GYMS
Any gym with sound equipment is better then no gym at all and beats the hell out of all that home machinery, more about that later.
Equipment must be sound, meaning properly bolted, screwed and secured, not necessarily new.
IF THEY CARE ABOUT YOU….
A crummy gym is one with poor management and insufficient or dysfunctional equipment.
One day I walked into a local gym and while checking out the leg press machine I noticed its top weight was 400lbs. Anybody serious and seasoned sees this as a warm-up or mid-range weight. Many ambitious if not even serious men and women leg press way in excess of 400 lbs.
The point being, this management doesn’t understand their own industry, or doesn’t care, it’s just a business, a business they know little about. If they’re that out of touch, don’t give them the privilege of having you as a member.
The quality of the gym is critical as a factor in defining the scope and quality of your experience, i.e. your ability to get a great work out. This is less of a problem in more cosmopolitan areas due to the competition for memberships.
SALES PITCH
Don’t let high pressure sales staff sign you up with extended commitments or protracted training sessions, unless you’ve had a chance to evaluate the trainers, and determine whether you really need one and for how long.
There is a great range of skill and competence among them. Give yourself a chance to find out who is good and what programs you really want before you spend your money. In the beginning you will need a trainer to teach you how to use the equipment and free weights so that you are not injured. I touch on this in greater detail in my next post.
HOME EQUIPMENT FROM TV LAND
I have never seen any home equipment that is remotely comparable to authentic professional gym equipment. To its credit some of it is better then nothing.
If you are sincere and want to get in great shape forget home gyms. They are not designed for serious lifts, even the very best of them!
NEXT
In my next posting here on The Gym, Resistance Training and Fitness Towards Enhanced Muscularity and Safety I want to discuss how to evaluate trainers and explore accelerated muscle development through extreme intensity training.
I look forward to hearing from you at 1gymbum@gmail.com
Best,
Popeye
.
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