Mistake Number 5:  Not Properly Adjusting Exercise Machines

Most exercise machines are designed to accommodate a variety of body types and provide a wide range of resistance or weight settings.  Unfortunately, most people never return the machines to their “neutral” setting when they finish with the machine.  Unless you properly adjust the machine before you begin your workout, you won’t get the most benefit from the machine and in some cases, you might actually injure yourself.

Properly adjusting an exercise machine includes paying attention to the following:

1.  Making sure the machine is clean and in good working order. Yes, I know that maintenance is “not your job” but you’re the one that’s going to get hurt if the machine is not working properly so you need to give each machine a critical “looking over” before you get on it.  In addition to making sure the machine isn’t covered in sweat from the guy that just finished using it, you need to also look for obvious mechanical stuff like jammed, frayed, twisted or broken cables, weight plates that look like they might fall, missing or broken parts, and so on.  If you notice something obviously wrong, get the attention of the gym staff so they can put an “Out of Order” sign on the machine.

2.  Making sure you know how the machine moves. If you’ve never used a particular machine before, get one of the gym staff to show you how to use it.  Make note of how the machine moves – especially note the pinch points, where the weights or bar hit, and so on.  You want to make sure that you keep your hands, fingers, and feet away from those areas when you’re on the machine.

3.  Adjusting the machine to your body type. Most machines can be adjusted to fit a wide variety of body types, from tall to short.  Make sure you adjust the seat and the arm or leg rests to your body size and type.  You should be comfortable moving the muscle group that the machine targets through its full range of motion.  If you don’t adjust this properly, your workout won’t be very effective or you’ll run the risk of injury.  A little time spent adjusting the machine can really make a difference in the quality of your workout.

4.  Alignment, alignment, alignment. Make absolutely sure your body is aligned properly on the machine.  If you adjusted it properly in the previous step, it should be.  There should be no sideways motion or pressure on any joints.  Keep in mind that even though the machine might be adjusted properly, your body type might still have problems maintaining proper alignment.  For example, when I was significantly overweight, I used to try to exercise on a stationary bike.  As soon as I got on the bike and bent over to grab the handle bars, the flab around my gut would drop down between my knees preventing me from keeping my legs aligned properly.   The only way for me to pedal the bike was to push my knees out to the side.  Instead of pedaling straight up and down, I was literally pedaling out to the side.  After a couple of minutes, my knees were killing me.  If you can’t physically keep your joints in alignment – for whatever reason – don’t use that particular machine.

5.  Exercise or Weight Level. The last thing to check is to make sure the machine is on the proper exercise level or that you have the right amount of weight on the machine.  You can injure yourself if you assume that there’s a lot of weight on the machine and there’s actually very little.  The same applies if you assume there’s very little weight and there turns out to be a lot.  In both cases, you’re not prepared and can easily sprain or strain something.  If you’re on a treadmill, you can easily get knocked off your feet if the machine unexpectedly starts off at a fast pace.  Make sure you check what exercise or weight level the machine is at and adjust it to where you need it to be.

By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be able to maximize your workouts in addition to reducing your risk of injury.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: exercise, fitness, machines, health, balance, alignment, joints, muscle, workout, exercise mistakes

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Well, according to several studies, here is the recommended technique to use in order to optimize your weight lifting sessions:

• Optimal Number of Reps per Set:  8-15. In order to really work your muscles and promote the release of fat-burning hormones, you should only put enough weight on the bar so that you can perform between 8 and 15 repetitions.  Doing less than 8 reps doesn’t release as many fat-burning hormones and if you can do more than 15 reps, you probably don’t have enough weight on the bar.
• Optimal Number of Sets per Exercise:  2-4. Performing 2-4 sets (composed of 8-15 reps per set) will keep your hormone at a consistent, fat-burning rate.
• Optimal Rest Period Between Sets:  60 seconds. You should rest no more than 60 seconds in between sets.  Otherwise, your muscles begin to cool down and heart rate, as well as your level of fat-burning hormones, begins to drop.
• Number of Seconds to Lower Your Weights:  3 seconds. Many people simply let gravity take over and let the weight drop down to the starting position.  This is dead wrong and can actually lead to serious injury.  You may not believe it but in many exercises, your muscles actually work harder on the eccentric, or lowering, phase since they’re working against the force of gravity and trying to decelerate the weight load at the same time.  Take a full 3 seconds to slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position in a controlled manner.

Are there exceptions to this “formula?”  Of course there are.  If you’re working on building strength, you should focus on lifting heavier weights for a smaller number of reps (usually 1-2 sets of 2-3 reps) and increasing the rest period in between.  However, for people that are trying to build and tone muscle and lose a few pounds in the process, this combination should get you there in the least amount of time.

So what are you waiting for?  Head to the gym and give it a try!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: weight lifting, weights, exercise, fitness, gym, health, weight loss, fat-burning

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The Problem with Lifting Weights

Here’s the main problem with traditional weight lifting…

The main problem with traditional weight lifting is that during most of the range of motion, the weight is being carried upward by momentum, not by your muscles. Most of us were taught to lift the weights in a smooth, controlled motion.  However, once the weight begins to move, most of your muscles take a back seat and are no longer working as hard as they were when you were first trying to get the weight to move from a static position.

Watch most people at the gym and you’ll see what I mean.  When most people do a chest press, for example, they’ll push the weight up as far as they can and essentially lock their arms to hold the weight there for a second or two before bringing the weight back down to the starting position.  Once you get the weight moving, pushing it the rest of the way up actually requires less force with momentum making up the difference.  When you bring the weight down, gravity is doing most of the work and your muscles are simply guiding it down in a controlled manner.

So basically, your muscles are actually working (or “loaded”) for only a short period and not during the entire technique, like many people think.  That’s why most of us tend to reach a plateau where you just don’t seem to build any more muscle even though you might be lifting regularly.

How to Really Build Muscle

We all know that to really build muscle, you have to keep the muscle “loaded,” or under a constant strain, throughout the entire range of motion, not just at the beginning.  Unfortunately, most weight training routines are performed way too quickly pretty much guaranteeing this doesn’t happen.

The solution I found is to combine Isometrics with my weight routines.  Isometrics are static strength-building techniques where a muscle is required to hold a weight load for a period of time without moving.  Here’s a great video that shows how isometrics work:

How Isometric Training Works

www.animal-kingdom-workouts.com – This video explains how isometric exercises are able to build muscle and strength so effectively in so little time.

The “Power-64″ Workout

So here’s what I call my “Power-64″ Workout (yes folks, you heard it here first!) that combines Isometrics with traditional weight training techniques.  Ready?  Here it is:

First, take the length of an exercise’s full range of motion and divide it into 4 parts or stops.  For example, if you can lift a barbell off your chest and fully extend it for about 2 feet, then your 4 stops are going to be about 6″ apart.  Do NOT get too hung up on exact measurements.  Just observe how much distance a single rep covers and divide it into 4 parts by eyeballing it.

Second, lift your weight to the first stop and hold it there for a count of 8 before proceeding to the next stop where you’ll do the same thing.  So during a full rep, you’ll press to each of the 4 stops and hold for a count of 8 at each stop, and then you’ll lower the weights the same way – lower to each stop and hold there for an 8 count before lowering to the next stop.

That’s it!  You’ve got a total of 8 intermediate stops and you’ll hold the weight for a count of 8 at each stop.  8 times 8 equals 64.  Power-64.  Get it?

OK, maybe an example would help.  Let’s take a basic chest press.

In the diagram, I’ve noted the approximate location of the 4 stops between the rest position ( 0) and full extension.  From the starting position (0), press the bar to position 1 (note that this is also position 8 on the way down) and hold for a count of 8.  Next, press to position 2 and hold for an 8 count before pressing to position 3 and holding for another 8.  Finally, press to position 4 and hold for an 8 count.

Now begin the concentric phase by noting that you’re already at position 5 so you’ll hold for another 8 counts.  Yes, that means that you’ll hold the same position (4 and 5) at the top of the exercise for a total of 16 counts.

Next, lower the bar to position 6 and hold for 8.  Then lower to position 2 and hold for 8 before lowering to position 8 and holding for a final 8.  Take the bar back to the position 0.  That’s 1 complete rep.  Try to work up to a set of 10 reps.

Holding the bar at each stop for an 8 count means that 1 rep should take you around 64 seconds to complete.  Your arm and chest muscles should be vibrating at this point.  Because performing 1 rep this way is roughly equivalent to performing 1 SET of chest presses the traditional way.  You’ll be shocked how exhausted your muscles will feel – which means you’ll also be shocked at how much muscle your body will build in response!

Helpful Hints

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• You can apply this technique to all weight lifting exercises. Once you get the idea behind this, it’s really easy to apply it to any other type of exercise.  Whether you’re exercising arms or legs, simply divide the full range of motion into 4 stops.  Then start your exercise and pause at each stop for an 8 count (remember that positions 4 and 5 are the same).  The same applies to bodyweight exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, or pull-ups.
• Hold the top of the technique (positions 4 and 5) for a total of 16 counts (8 for position 4 and 8 for position 5). If this is too difficult, then combine the two positions into one 8 count and work up from there.
• Use light weights to begin with. I know all you guys (and some gals) can bench-press several hundred pounds — but not this way.  Reduce the amount of weights you normally train with by at least half and work up from there.  Remember, lifting weights this way will work your muscles 2 to 3 times harder so start out easy.
• Shoot for one set of 10 reps. I know it doesn’t sound like much but I guarantee that it will take everything you’ve got to complete 1 set.  If you need to rest between reps, take no more than 1 minute.

Try this for a couple of weeks and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: weight training, weights, isometrics, exercise, fitness, muscle, health, building muscle, strength, power, power-64

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Well, I’ve got the answer and as it turns out, the cure to this problem is pretty simple.  If you pay attention to this one principle, your workouts will be much more effective and you’ll begin to notice significant changes in your physique within 3-4 weeks.

Anyone in the medical profession can tell you that the human body is extremely adaptable.  It will usually respond to any kind of physical demand or stress, like a warehouse worker lifting heavy crates for example, by building additional muscle as well as by learning how to use those muscles more efficiently.  Eventually, the warehouse worker can lift heavy crates all day long without tiring – and develops an impressive set of biceps to prove it.

However, when we try to get those same “warehouse worker arms” in the gym, the results are usually not the same, even with all the fancy machines.  Why not?  Well, the human body can adapt pretty quickly to any change in demand placed upon it but once it has adapted, it kind of takes it easy expending only enough energy to meet the new demand.  It’s like taking your car out on the highway.  When you’re just starting out and accelerating, your engine is working really hard.  But once you’ve reached highway speeds, the engine settles down to a more constant level.

So why can the warehouse worker build massive muscle just by doing his or her job (hope you appreciate the gender neutrality )and we can’t seem to do the same in the gym?  Mainly because of the way the warehouse worker’s job is structured, which in turn is related to how often and when their body is subjected to increased physical activity.  For example, they may be sweeping the warehouse first thing in the morning until the first truck comes in to be unloaded.  Then they’re working hard for a solid hour unloading the truck before going back to the office to complete the paperwork.  An hour later, another truck comes in, only this time, the crates are different sizes and weights.

The point is that a warehouse worker’s body does not know when it will be subjected to increased demands since the trucks come in at different times.    It also gets subjected to different loads since some trucks contain crates of breakfast cereal and others contain crates of auto brake pads.  Their body is being subjected to a variety of physical demands and therefore, has to build a “strength reserve” (in other words, more muscle) in order to be able to meet the wide range of demands.

On the other hand, when we go to the gym to do our “usual” workout, our body “knows” that we’re going to do 3 sets of 10 reps using 30 pound weights.  How predictable.  So of course the body only develops enough muscle to handle exactly 3 sets of 10 reps with 30 pounds.  Once it’s done that, there’s no reason to develop any more muscle.

Changing up your routine and subjecting your body to a variety of activities so that it continues to develop is the whole idea of the “FITT principle.”  Developed by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), FITT stands for:

• Frequency – how often you exercise, which includes how often you rest between exercise sessions.
• Intensity – how hard you exercise.
• Time – how long you exercise.
• Type – the type of exercise you choose to do.

If you consider a typical workout routine, most of us have unconsciously kept most, if not all, of these variables constant.  We tend to go through our workout without thinking – and that means we do exactly 10 minutes on the treadmill followed by exactly 10 reps on the leg curl machine set at the exact same weight we did the last time, followed by exactly … (yawn!)

So even though we finish our workout really tired, we really didn’t build any muscle or drop any fat.  Sure, we worked some cardio so the heart and lungs might have improved, but little else.  The real key to success is to change your “routine” so that it’s anything but routine.

You do that by taking any of the FITT variables and changing them from one routine to the next.  For example:

• Frequency – instead of doing 2 hard workouts a week, do 4 easy or medium ones; or instead of going in the evening, go in the morning.
• Intensity – vary the weight or resistance from one workout to another.
• Time – slow or increase your tempo when you workout.
• Type – change the type of exercises from one workout to another.  If you always do shoulders followed by arms, switch the order.

In other words, keep your body guessing as to what kind of activity you’re going to ask it to do on every workout.  Not only will you feel like you got a more intense workout (because you did), but your body will begin to change in exactly the way you want it to change:  more tone and muscle mass in the arms and legs in addition to dropping fat around the waist and thighs.

Although you can change any of the FITT variables from workout to workout, I’d recommend changing them from week to week.  For example, focus one week on strength with heavy weights, low reps, slow concentration tempo, and using compound exercises.  The following week, focus on power with lighter weights, high reps, faster tempo, and using isolation exercises.  The next week, focus on endurance.  After 4-6 weeks of this, increase the amount of weight on each exercise by 5-10 pounds and then repeat the entire cycle.

Just as your body starts getting used to one type of routine, bam!  Hit it with a different one!  Before long, you’ll not only have the body you want, you’ll have the gym “regulars” coming by asking how in the world you did it!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: FITT, FITTR, ACSM, NESTA, exercise, weight lifting, weights, gym, routine, workout, physical, cardio

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I was pretty busy last week.  I had ordered a brand new weight bench from Amazon.com and it finally arrived at my front door.  I opened the box and quickly found that this was going to be a “some assembly required” type of project.  No problem.  I took out my tools and got to work.

After about 40 minutes, I finally had it all put together.  I set it up in the spare bedroom and it looked great.  Now I needed some barbells to use it with.

I did some comparison shopping between The Sports Authority and Academy Sports and Outdoors and settled on a basic set from Academy.  Once I got them home, I realized I would need some sort of mat to lay the weights on so they wouldn’t mark up the floor.  Back to Academy.

With all the required equipment in hand, I was finally ready to start my new strength training program, or was I?

After a couple of weeks, I still hadn’t started my new program.  Something always seemed to come up or there was always something else I needed to get (you need a rack to put the barbells on, right?).  It was about then that I realized that I had been spending most of my time planning instead of doing.

Has that ever happened to you?  For some of us, the real enjoyment seems to be in the planning instead of the doing.  Maybe it’s the engineer in me but I love planning, strategy, design.  Unfortunately, that’s not how you get results.

Sure, you need a plan.  However, putting a plan together is not the goal.  It’s only an intermediate step.  You don’t get rewarded for a great plan.  You get rewarded for actually producing results.

You can’t find a better example of this than in fitness and nutrition.  Instead of just exercising, many of us will buy a book on exercise.  Instead of making better food choices at the dinner table or the buffet line, we’ll attend a seminar on nutrition.

I watched a lecture series by John Bradshaw,  a noted Houston psychologist, on the PBS channel several years back.  He showed a cartoon that really brought home the same point.  In the cartoon, there was a lobby similar to a hotel lobby with an escalator going up.  A sign at the bottom of the escalator pointed up and said “to Heaven.”  Another sign pointed down the hall and said “to Seminar on Heaven.”  All of the “Doers” were on the escalator going up to Heaven and all of the “Planners” were headed towards the seminar.

So which are you, a Doer or a Planner?  Are you hard at work on some grand plan to improve your health and fitness or are you out there actually exercising?  Are you spending all your time researching that new exercise gizmo you saw advertised on TV or are you actually at the gym working out?

There is ALWAYS going to be another new book on exercise, fitness, and nutrition.  There is always going to be a new Ab-This or a Butt-That promising to get you in shape in less time, or with little or no effort.  There is always going to be some detail to add to your plan and if you’re not careful, you end up spending all your time planning instead of doing – and nothing ever gets done.

Don’t fall for the “planning trap.”  Once you decide on your fitness goals, get busy on them.  Don’t plan them, work on them.  While you’re working on your goals, periodically check to make sure you’re still moving in your intended direction – but don’t stop and fall back into planning mode.  If you do, you’ll lose all of your progress, all of your momemtum, and you’ll always be starting over at the beginning.

Doing this means getting comfortable with starting something before you know all of the details.  It’s kind of scary at first but you do have a sense of the general direction you want to go so you’re not totally in the dark.  And of course, you can make adjustments as you go along.  The point is to get moving, build some momentum, and start doing.

The perfect plan for your good health and fitness is worthless if you never get around to putting it into action.

So get on that escalator to good health.  Do just enough planning to set a general direction, then spend the majority of your time taking action.  You’ll be happy with the results.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

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Here’s a quick exercise routine I found on YouTube. Although they make it look easy, there are a couple of points to keep in mind:

1. Don’t use weights that are too heavy.  When it comes to fat burning, it’s better to use lighter weights and do more repetitions.
2. Make sure to “baby” your joints.  This exercise places a lot of stress on your shoulders and knees (as do most of the “old school” exercises).  All the more reason to use light weights to begin with.
3. As with any weight lifting exercise routine, make sure you warm up first.  This reduces the risk of injury.

Once you’ve got these points covered, go work up a sweat and burn off some fat!

Enjoy the video.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: fat burning, weight loss, exercise, weights

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