I Pursue the Holy Grail of Fitness
December 13th 2006 11:31
If there is a holy grail in the world of fitness it is in my opinion the quest to add muscle and to simultaneously lose fat. If you read my last post I maintained that the pace of weight training can be manipulated to orient resistance training toward aerobic as well as muscular stress. The flaw in such a proposal would seem to be in regard to muscle growth. It is generally acknowledged that faster movements over longer periods force the body to adapt in ways that militate against bigger muscles. The runner is the extreme example of this process. His/her body, when faced with repeated and long series of movements, begins to catabolize muscle tissue to ease the burden for the future, should similar demands continue to be made.
When you diet and add to it a regimen of running or some proxy you are probably happy after a few weeks that you have lost weight. After a few more weeks you discover that you are weaker and more fatigued than you think you should be. This process of jettisoning muscle tissue when under aerobic pressure is the reason.
Thus many take an all or nothing approach to the problem. Muscle heads are afraid of aerobics during a building phase of their programs and endurance athletes tend to train with weight routines which emphasize high repetitions to avoid creating heavier muscles. I think for the average person who wants both aerobic fitness and bigger muscles the solution is to be found in what order muscle groups are trained. Any but beginner weight trainers and certainly anyone who is serious eventually encounters the need to train more intensely than can be sustained in one workout. If you follow my advice to limit workouts to 30 minutes the whole body certainly cannot be worked sufficiently. To properly divide the body's parts into groups for these "split" workouts is a consideration more important than it may appear.
By dividing the body into groups which can be trained in consecutive workouts, intensity and volume(the number of sets and the weights used in each set) can be increased markedly. This very simply means that the individual muscles can be stimulated and forced to adapt more. In addition, if muscle groups are properly paired, workouts can be rapidly enough paced to enhance aerobic capacity without sacrificing muscle growth.
To pair muscle groups properly is to match them based on their mutual exclusiveness. Back sets can be followed immediately by sets for the calves, for instance. These body parts are so unrelated as to allow one to recuperate while the other is working. The overall system is still stimulated and the heart rate goes up etc. Shoulder exercises can be done with leg work, since they do not hamper one another much. I would pair chest work with hamstring work. Smaller muscle groups should be addressed after the large groups are finished. Do triceps after chest and biceps after back. Because these smaller muscles work as one with the larger groups in their movements, training them first will compromise your ability to work the larger muscles. Add abs on the end of each workout.
With this kind of "split" you can begin to push both your aerobic fitness and stimulate muscle growth. Try for 30 sets in 30 minutes twice weekly. When you reach that level you can be assured that you are improving you fitness and size. Your servant,as always.
Thus many take an all or nothing approach to the problem. Muscle heads are afraid of aerobics during a building phase of their programs and endurance athletes tend to train with weight routines which emphasize high repetitions to avoid creating heavier muscles. I think for the average person who wants both aerobic fitness and bigger muscles the solution is to be found in what order muscle groups are trained. Any but beginner weight trainers and certainly anyone who is serious eventually encounters the need to train more intensely than can be sustained in one workout. If you follow my advice to limit workouts to 30 minutes the whole body certainly cannot be worked sufficiently. To properly divide the body's parts into groups for these "split" workouts is a consideration more important than it may appear.
To pair muscle groups properly is to match them based on their mutual exclusiveness. Back sets can be followed immediately by sets for the calves, for instance. These body parts are so unrelated as to allow one to recuperate while the other is working. The overall system is still stimulated and the heart rate goes up etc. Shoulder exercises can be done with leg work, since they do not hamper one another much. I would pair chest work with hamstring work. Smaller muscle groups should be addressed after the large groups are finished. Do triceps after chest and biceps after back. Because these smaller muscles work as one with the larger groups in their movements, training them first will compromise your ability to work the larger muscles. Add abs on the end of each workout.
With this kind of "split" you can begin to push both your aerobic fitness and stimulate muscle growth. Try for 30 sets in 30 minutes twice weekly. When you reach that level you can be assured that you are improving you fitness and size. Your servant,as always.
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Comment by Adele
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Comment by JohnR/Nomythfitness.com
chest-hamstrings-triceps abs
back-calves-biceps abs
shoulders-quads abs
Put in trapezius work where ever you feel it works best. (Trap work is vital anti-stoop prevention.)
Nothing surpasses the full squat for stress. Always do them and all quad training last. You can do something like triceps after leg curls and stiff-legged deadlifts. Read tomorrow's post for a stupid way to train legs.