Legs and Back=Conditioning
June 28th 2008 13:50
The simplest observation in the gym last week reminded me of the most fundamental principles in using weight training for fitness. I had worked my chest pretty hard with a continuous series of giant sets whereby my chest was hit over and over with very little time to rest. When I finished, I immediately started a hamstring session by taking a couple of dumbbells off the rack and doing a set of stiff-legged dead lifts. As I finished and started to cross the gym I noticed that my breathing was elevated enough that a little voice(which I ignored) began to tell me that I should wait a little before doing the set of leg curls I was intent upon doing.
Then it ocurred to me: I had worked my chest with relatively heavy sets in rapid fire order and I had stimulated less of a breathing response in all of that than in one set of stiff-legged deadlifts. The principle is clear. Big muscles condition the body.
Yet,walk into the neighborhood gym and pause to watch what's going on in the weight training area. There may well be a fair number of people there and virtually none are working legs. I will futher speculate that of those working few are working on any kind of back movements.I remind you that the two biggest muscle groups in the body are legs and back. Much of what is done in the weight area,however, revolves around the smallest muscles.
Arms,of course,and chest absolutely dominate the training of most people.Men trainers often fall into the big arms and big bench press mentality discussed in NMF before. If I wanted to hold a picnic in my gym and spread out the goodies on a blanket where I would be out of the way of the training population I would choose the squat cage.I would be a little bit more of a nuisance if I picniced amidst the back machines, but not much.
Women are not normally to be found doing squats or anything else that trains legs unless its the leg extension machine. Hamstrings? I can't remember a women in my gym working a stiff legged deadlift. They will use the leg curl if its near the other machines. Women working back? A rarity.
This is crucial for a new trainer to understand: If you are going to condition the heart and lungs, you can do it with weight and the best way to do that is to focus your workouts on the largest muscle groups.That means that legs and back are integral to your workouts and never shortchanged compared to the more popular body parts. Your servant, as always.
Then it ocurred to me: I had worked my chest with relatively heavy sets in rapid fire order and I had stimulated less of a breathing response in all of that than in one set of stiff-legged deadlifts. The principle is clear. Big muscles condition the body.
Yet,walk into the neighborhood gym and pause to watch what's going on in the weight training area. There may well be a fair number of people there and virtually none are working legs. I will futher speculate that of those working few are working on any kind of back movements.I remind you that the two biggest muscle groups in the body are legs and back. Much of what is done in the weight area,however, revolves around the smallest muscles.
Arms,of course,and chest absolutely dominate the training of most people.Men trainers often fall into the big arms and big bench press mentality discussed in NMF before. If I wanted to hold a picnic in my gym and spread out the goodies on a blanket where I would be out of the way of the training population I would choose the squat cage.I would be a little bit more of a nuisance if I picniced amidst the back machines, but not much.
Women are not normally to be found doing squats or anything else that trains legs unless its the leg extension machine. Hamstrings? I can't remember a women in my gym working a stiff legged deadlift. They will use the leg curl if its near the other machines. Women working back? A rarity.
This is crucial for a new trainer to understand: If you are going to condition the heart and lungs, you can do it with weight and the best way to do that is to focus your workouts on the largest muscle groups.That means that legs and back are integral to your workouts and never shortchanged compared to the more popular body parts. Your servant, as always.
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