Honey, Does This Squat Rack Make Me Look Fat?

August 18, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Weight Training, Women's Fitness, mens-fitness 

Like a good husband assessing his wife’s newest bathing suit purchase, the answer is always “NO!”   Squats and other resistance training exercises will not make you big and bulky.  What they will do is create muscle, which in turn helps you in your efforts to burn fat. As a result, you’ll lose weight and you’ll look thinner and healthier. (see video below)


I spend an hour at the gym 3 or 4 times a week and I see the same people pretty much every time I go. There are those who spend time in the free weight area and those who spend time on the bikes and treadmills. Some do both. But I notice that there is a group of people who kill themselves, some every single day, doing a half hour or more on the treadmill or an hour on the recumbent or stationary bike. And I know they’re telling themselves and maybe even their friends, “I workout every day for an hour and I just can’t make any progress.”

Get Off The Treadmill

Can I please tell you to stop doing it?  Cardio” is a good thing.  It is.  You really should incorporate it into your workout a few days a week.  Tack it on to your workout after you do your resistance training if you like or set aside days in between your resistance training workouts to do your cardio. And do cardio you enjoy!  Get out on a real bike, go for a brisk walk or jog. But if you’re one of the people that is slaving away on the treadmill, bike or other cardio routine every day, because your goal is to get smaller, skinnier, lose fat, BURN IT ALL OFF, please stop, and start lifting some weights.

Resistance Training

The phrase ‘resistance training’ includes weight lifting but does not have to include weights to be resistance training. For example, performing a squat using just your body weight, is an example of resistance training. Pushups, pull-ups, bench press (with a bar or dumbbells or cans of soup), etc. are all examples. What distinguishes resistance training from cardio is the use of sets with rest in between and the fact that each set is performed with an amount of weight that causes you to approach muscle failure after a number of repetitions.

For example, to train your legs, you might do squats with no weight or with dumbbells for 10-15 repetitions, depending on your level of fitness. If you do them properly (see video) and you’re using enough weight (resistance), you should fatigue and not be able to do any more after you squat 10-15 times. At this point you should rest for 2-3 minutes to catch your breath and then do another set of 10-15 reps. If you’re new to this, don’t work to failure. Just work until you don’t feel like you should not do any more reps. What’s happening during a resistance training workout is that you are actually breaking down muscle tissue. That’s why you work almost to failure and rest in between sets. After 2-3 sets of this exercise, you can move on to another exercise and workout in similar fashion (watch the articles list for sample exercises and workouts).

A resistance training workout should last no more than 30-45 minutes unless you are an experienced weight lifter. You can normally perform several exercises for 2-3 sets per exercise and 10-15 repetitions per exercise. At the end of a workout for your legs, your legs will be a little rubbery and you’ll probably experience soreness the next day or so. You should not work these muscles again for at least several days. The reason for this is that muscle growth does not occur while you’re working the muscle. It occurs during the rest period after the workout as your muscles repair themselves and seek to be stronger for your next workout. The cycle of muscle repair is also what causes your metabolism to continue to burn fat long after your workout (which is NOT true of cardio).

Here’s a typical leg workout that might work for someone looking to do just legs in a short amount of time:
Squats - 2- 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions with 2-3 minutes rest in between (gluteus, quadriceps and hamstrings)

Lunges - 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions with 2-3 minutes rest in between sets (same but more emphasis on hamstrings)

Standing Calf Raises - 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions with 2-3 minutes rest in between sets (calf)

Depending on your level of strength and conditioning, you might add 2-3 sets of either a leg curl or a leg extension but if you’re a beginner, wait and see how the basic workout works for you and you can increase your weight or add an exercise next week.

After a day of rest, you can move on to an upper body workout. Watch for an article with some sample upper body workouts. Also, don’t forget to do some cardio AFTER or in between resistance training days.

Consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program to make sure you don’t cause yourself any injury!

For more exercises, exercise routines and workout programs, please visit the workouts section of MyBodySite.com. 

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Super Sets, Giant Sets, Drop Sets

July 9, 2009 by John Cummings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Weight Training 
Looking for a way to spice up your workout and get some intensity back into your program?  Give Drop Sets, Giant Sets and Super Sets a try and you’ll jump start your metabolism, muscle growth and fat loss.  These are also a big help if you’re working out alone and finding it difficult to really “finish” that set without a spot.
 
If you’re new to weight training, you may not be familiar with these terms so lets start with a brief explanation of why you would want to consider a different kind of “set” in the first place. 
 
Sets:  Most people are aware that resistance training with weights is performed by doing sets of an exercise consisting of a specific number of repetitions.  For example, pressing the barbell 10 times (10 repetitions) without stopping is considered a “set” of 10 repetitions.   That’s the no-brainer.  Some of us will do 3 sets like that, with a minute or two rest in between, and then move on to another exercise.
 
For muscle growth to occur, it is advisable to bring the muscle or muscle group to temporary failure (”I can’t do another repetition!”).  For this reason, it makes sense to work on one or two body parts (chest and triceps, for example), to do so to failure and to rest that body part completely for 3-5 days or even a week to encourage recovery and muscle growth.
 
Because it is difficult to push yourself to failure and fully exhaust the muscles, thereby maximizing the muscle growth after recovery, we use many techniques to reach failure:  a partner to push you, drop sets, supersets and even giant sets.  Lets look at each: 
 
1: DROP SETS
The simplest method for achieving total temporary failure on on set of one exercise is a drop set.  Don’t drop the weights. “Drop” refers to lowering the amount of weight you are using while you’re still on the same set.  This works great with or without a partner but is an ideal way to get more out of a set when there is no one there to spot you.
 
Perform a set for as many reps as you are able at a given weight.  For example, you might be doing a barbell bench press at 185 pounds.  If your goal was to finish 10 reps of that weight but you find yourself struggling to get the 9th and 10th rep, rack the bar, drop the weight by 20 to 40 pounds and complete not only the 2 reps you missed but as many as you can to failure. You can double drop if needed to really get it done.  You can do this on every set or just on the final set of a particular exercise.  You’ll really feel the pump.  
 
2:  SUPER SETS
These are as cool as they sound.  Unlike drop sets, you’ll actually do two different exercises for the same body part.  To do a superset for one body part (chest, for example), pick an exercise that you want to start with like a bench press, and work to failure (don’t be afraid to do a drop set to get to failure).  Then, without resting, pick up dumbbells and do chest flyes to failure. 
 
That’s a super set.  By exhausting the overall chest on the bench press and then performing the flye without rest, you recruit other muscle fibers and really get a great workout for that muscle. Try doing three supersets instead of doing 2 exercises that you would just perform three ses of separately.
 
3: GIANT SETS
GIant sets are just a step up from Super Sets.  Instead of doing 2 exercises for a body part back to back, you do 3 or even 4 exercises, to failure on each set without resting.  
 
This is not a technique for the beginner.  If you have not worked out for several weeks or months and gotten totally familiar with your own strengths and weaknesses on each exercise, you’re not ready for Giant Sets.  
 
Here’s a sample Giant Set workout for legs:
 
Giant Set 1:   
 
Barbell Squats:  Use a weight that brings you to failure at 10-12 reps.  Without resting, move to:
Walking Lunges:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 steps each leg.  Without resting, move to:
Leg Extensions:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 reps.  Without resting, move to:
Leg Curls:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 reps.
Rest for 3-4 minutes.
 
That is a giant set.  Two of those will usually seal the deal for your upper legs.  Be sure to warm up first.
 
So, give these “change it up” combos a try and see how they change your muscle growth
Use the MyBodySite.com workout creator to create and log your own workouts.  

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