Don't Be A Comic Book Character
December 1st 2006 11:40
Let's get down to learning how to get the maximum out working out in a gym. Before you ever set foot in your gym you should know what you are going there to achieve and have a fair idea how to achieve it. Sounds basic? I'm not sure very many people get that far in their mental preparation. Many people come to the gym with a confused welter of things they do and these either make no sense or even work at cross purposes. With some observation you can compile a comic book worth of characters who illustrate my point:
First, there is the warmer-upper. This is a guy/gal who doesn't want to strain something so he/she warms up for 20 minutes and then hits the weights for 10. Ok, there is some validity in warming up. I don't think there is as much as some people believe, but this character is afraid of real training and use warming up as a dodge. Warm up with the idea in mind that your best energy should be applied to your lifting.
Next we have the arm-chest crowd. These are usually veteran gym rats who have big arms and chests(maybe back and shoulders) from constant training, but legs which have no idea what training is. You can't help but notice that they look top heavy, like something is wrong. I'm not saying these guys don't work hard. I am saying that you must get your legs involved in the gym if you want overall fitness(And that is what you want.). Your fitness will go as far as your legs take it. Use leg extensions and leg presses from your very first workout. And understand that leg work is work. Still,you should be methodically and rationally forcing them to adapt to larger work loads-more weight and more sets of exercises.
The dilettante is the person who treats the gym like a smorgasboard. They do a few sets of weights and then repair to the cardio where they ride the bikes at a ridiculously slow pace while they read a book or blather away on the cell phone. This person is in denial.He/she has subtly taken the progressive out of progressive resistance.You have to work hard to get results. If what is hard today is as hard two months from now, you have blown it.
You can also see the people who work really hard in one discipline and then try to throw in another for good measure. Aerobics people can often be seen dropping by the weight circuit after a class. They are sending the body two distinct messages: build movement capacity and build burden bearing capacity and do it at the same time. The body has a one track approach. It either builds muscle or it gets rid of muscle. An hour of aerobics is a hour of movement capacity and that's what the body is tuned to. A body repeatedly treated to hour long aerobics classes is being programmed to throw aside muscle. The effect of the weights after an hour of such stress is pretty much compromised.
I say: Pick aerobics or weights and do that all out. Switch later and do that all out. Want to be thinner? DIET and aerobics. Want some shape and bone density? DIET and Weights.(Whoops! I said DIET in both cases,didn't I.)Your servant, as always.
First, there is the warmer-upper. This is a guy/gal who doesn't want to strain something so he/she warms up for 20 minutes and then hits the weights for 10. Ok, there is some validity in warming up. I don't think there is as much as some people believe, but this character is afraid of real training and use warming up as a dodge. Warm up with the idea in mind that your best energy should be applied to your lifting.
Next we have the arm-chest crowd. These are usually veteran gym rats who have big arms and chests(maybe back and shoulders) from constant training, but legs which have no idea what training is. You can't help but notice that they look top heavy, like something is wrong. I'm not saying these guys don't work hard. I am saying that you must get your legs involved in the gym if you want overall fitness(And that is what you want.). Your fitness will go as far as your legs take it. Use leg extensions and leg presses from your very first workout. And understand that leg work is work. Still,you should be methodically and rationally forcing them to adapt to larger work loads-more weight and more sets of exercises.
The dilettante is the person who treats the gym like a smorgasboard. They do a few sets of weights and then repair to the cardio where they ride the bikes at a ridiculously slow pace while they read a book or blather away on the cell phone. This person is in denial.He/she has subtly taken the progressive out of progressive resistance.You have to work hard to get results. If what is hard today is as hard two months from now, you have blown it.
You can also see the people who work really hard in one discipline and then try to throw in another for good measure. Aerobics people can often be seen dropping by the weight circuit after a class. They are sending the body two distinct messages: build movement capacity and build burden bearing capacity and do it at the same time. The body has a one track approach. It either builds muscle or it gets rid of muscle. An hour of aerobics is a hour of movement capacity and that's what the body is tuned to. A body repeatedly treated to hour long aerobics classes is being programmed to throw aside muscle. The effect of the weights after an hour of such stress is pretty much compromised.
I say: Pick aerobics or weights and do that all out. Switch later and do that all out. Want to be thinner? DIET and aerobics. Want some shape and bone density? DIET and Weights.(Whoops! I said DIET in both cases,didn't I.)Your servant, as always.
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