The principle
Not only the variation of exercises, but especially the differences in the number of repetitions for each set in combination with weight, all play an important role. For this reason the Workout manager allows you to choose between differing numbers of repetitions per set, thus making it possible to periodically (every 4 to 6 weeks) train the muscle fibers in totally different ways (power, mass, shape).
Important to know:
• Each set of 4 to 6 repetitions stimulates the muscle fibers mainly in getting stronger (power).
• Each set of 6 to 8 repetitions increases the size of muscle fibers (mass).
• 12 or more repetitions form the basis for improved signal transmission to the muscles, as well as giving specific attention to muscle shape.
Variation in the number of repetitions every 4 to 6 weeks forces your muscles to adapt. Within 4 to 6 weeks the principle of progressive resistance is applied: weight is continuously and proportionally increased.
For example, you add 2 ½ kg of weight each week when bench-pressing. After 4 weeks you will be able to lift a total of 10 kg more when bench-pressing than previously.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Basic Types of Training
It is important for you to be able to distinguish between compound and isolation exercises. These 2 basic types of exercises are used in weight training. The distinguishing features of these two types of exercises provide unique ways to work on our bodies.
A balanced combination of both types will optimize the effect of your training. And such combinations will gain in importance as you advance. A compound exercise involves the use of more than one joint. Such exercises require the use of many different muscle-groups to complete a single movement.
An isolation exercise, however, involves the use of just one single joint and one single muscle-group. A good example of a compound exercise is squatting. When doing knee-bends the hip as well as the knee-joints are used to carry out a single movement. An exercise like leg extensions, however, places the emphasis on the use of one specific part of the upper leg.
Although in both these exercises the thighs are trained, they nevertheless have a different effect. To perform the compound exercise, almost all the muscles of the upper legs are used, i.e. mainly the frontal part of the thighs (quadriceps), but also important muscles of the rear part (hamstrings and buttocks).
To perform the isolation exercise, however, just one single muscle is used without using any of the other muscles. The isolation exercise, then, mainly concentrates on a specific (isolated) part of the thighs.
Understanding the relationship between these combinations is essential for successfully developing your body.
Compound exercises are the backbone of every balanced bodybuilding routine. They contribute towards the development of your muscles in a way which cannot be achieved by the use of isolation exercises alone.
The compound exercises are also most important during the first stages of your development when you are striving to achieve total body development.
A balanced combination of both types will optimize the effect of your training. And such combinations will gain in importance as you advance. A compound exercise involves the use of more than one joint. Such exercises require the use of many different muscle-groups to complete a single movement.
An isolation exercise, however, involves the use of just one single joint and one single muscle-group. A good example of a compound exercise is squatting. When doing knee-bends the hip as well as the knee-joints are used to carry out a single movement. An exercise like leg extensions, however, places the emphasis on the use of one specific part of the upper leg.
Although in both these exercises the thighs are trained, they nevertheless have a different effect. To perform the compound exercise, almost all the muscles of the upper legs are used, i.e. mainly the frontal part of the thighs (quadriceps), but also important muscles of the rear part (hamstrings and buttocks).
To perform the isolation exercise, however, just one single muscle is used without using any of the other muscles. The isolation exercise, then, mainly concentrates on a specific (isolated) part of the thighs.
Understanding the relationship between these combinations is essential for successfully developing your body.
Compound exercises are the backbone of every balanced bodybuilding routine. They contribute towards the development of your muscles in a way which cannot be achieved by the use of isolation exercises alone.
The compound exercises are also most important during the first stages of your development when you are striving to achieve total body development.
Types of Exercises
Because the weights are kept in balance during the movement the so-called stabilizer muscles are stimulated. These muscles stabilize the body while doing basic exercises such as bench pressing and squatting. These muscles are usually smaller and mostly outwardly not visible. However, stabilizer muscles to a large extent determine your body's strength and symmetry.
In many respects dumbbells are superior to barbells. Dumbbells force parts of your body to work independently of each other causing each individual muscle to experience approximately the same weight. With barbells, however, the stronger muscles of a muscle-group often carry the greater part of the weight, allowing the other - weaker muscles - to work less hard. Over a longer period of time this may result in disproportional muscle development within muscle-groups.
It is important to combine barbell exercises with dumbbell exercises.
Machines
In many modern fitness centers all kinds of fitness machines can be found, each one training a specific muscle or muscle-group. Machines ensure that a specific movement is carried out along a pre-determined curve. This reduces the risk of performing it incorrectly. In this way you can concentrate on the weight instead of on the way the exercise is performed. In theory this will make you grow stronger whilst increasing the number of ways in which the body may be developed. In practice, however, it has been proven that fitness machines do not adapt themselves to divergent body types. Another disadvantage is that many stabilizer muscles are not stimulated by such fixed exercises. Fitness machines should therefore only be used to supplement your training, but not as the basis of a balanced body training program.
Cables.
Cable exercises combine some of the advantages of free weights with those of fitness machines. Cable exercises ensure that the muscles involved are evenly tensed during the entire movement. This in contrast to free weight exercises and exercises using fitness machines, during the performance of which the muscle tension varies.
Because of this unique way of stimulation cable exercises also deserve a place in your training program. However, here too it is important to emphasize that the selected exercises should only be used to supplement your total body training program.
Bodyweight.
Exercises which only make use of your own body weight are excellent for use outside of the gym. Many men and women who train at home do these exercises. They are easy to perform and can be done almost anywhere if you have no access to a gym. A lot of these exercises train your muscles as effectively or even better than many exercises using weights. A barbell or dumbbell exercise to train your biceps may serve as a good example. If you pull yourself up on a bar using only your biceps, you will notice that this is much heavier than the barbell or dumbbell exercise. Body weight exercises therefore are an excellent way to supplement your training. By combining these divergent methods of exercising you will have a complete arsenal of exercises and variations at your disposal. Be receptive to variation and diversity! Variation and diversity will ensure continuous development of your body and will prevent boredom.
In many respects dumbbells are superior to barbells. Dumbbells force parts of your body to work independently of each other causing each individual muscle to experience approximately the same weight. With barbells, however, the stronger muscles of a muscle-group often carry the greater part of the weight, allowing the other - weaker muscles - to work less hard. Over a longer period of time this may result in disproportional muscle development within muscle-groups.
It is important to combine barbell exercises with dumbbell exercises.
Machines
In many modern fitness centers all kinds of fitness machines can be found, each one training a specific muscle or muscle-group. Machines ensure that a specific movement is carried out along a pre-determined curve. This reduces the risk of performing it incorrectly. In this way you can concentrate on the weight instead of on the way the exercise is performed. In theory this will make you grow stronger whilst increasing the number of ways in which the body may be developed. In practice, however, it has been proven that fitness machines do not adapt themselves to divergent body types. Another disadvantage is that many stabilizer muscles are not stimulated by such fixed exercises. Fitness machines should therefore only be used to supplement your training, but not as the basis of a balanced body training program.
Cables.
Cable exercises combine some of the advantages of free weights with those of fitness machines. Cable exercises ensure that the muscles involved are evenly tensed during the entire movement. This in contrast to free weight exercises and exercises using fitness machines, during the performance of which the muscle tension varies.
Because of this unique way of stimulation cable exercises also deserve a place in your training program. However, here too it is important to emphasize that the selected exercises should only be used to supplement your total body training program.
Bodyweight.
Exercises which only make use of your own body weight are excellent for use outside of the gym. Many men and women who train at home do these exercises. They are easy to perform and can be done almost anywhere if you have no access to a gym. A lot of these exercises train your muscles as effectively or even better than many exercises using weights. A barbell or dumbbell exercise to train your biceps may serve as a good example. If you pull yourself up on a bar using only your biceps, you will notice that this is much heavier than the barbell or dumbbell exercise. Body weight exercises therefore are an excellent way to supplement your training. By combining these divergent methods of exercising you will have a complete arsenal of exercises and variations at your disposal. Be receptive to variation and diversity! Variation and diversity will ensure continuous development of your body and will prevent boredom.
Progressive Resistance
Exercising can be compared to a new job: imagine that from being an office worker from one day to the next you become a road-worker: at the beginning your body would undergo several interesting changes. You would develop your lower-back muscles by carrying stones in a wheelbarrow and in addition you would develop a firmer grip in your hands, because you would be working with a shovel all day long. In this example, the changed working conditions would result in positive adjustments, but after some time your muscle strength would no longer develop as fast as when you first started out on your new job. A sudden new impulse, however, would again cause new adjustments.
Exercising can be compared to this. Many trainees develop tremendously during the first year, but subsequently hardly achieve any noticeable results.
To force the body to keep on adjusting (and therefore growing) the progressive resistance principle is applied.
We will discuss two applications suitable for your workouts.
Proportional incremental development:
The weight is continuously and proportionally increased. An example of this application is when you add 1.25 kilograms of weight to your bench-pressing exercises every week.
Step-by-step development:
Weight is increased by leaps. Every leap is followed by a certain period without any weight increase, after which another large weight increase takes place and so on. This method is used by very experienced athletes
There are a number of methods which - provided they form part of your training - ensure progress in your workouts. Increase the weight you are lifting. Do a standard number of repetitions and sets every week. Add, for instance, 1 to 2.5 kilograms of weight to your last two sets.
Increase the number of repetitions for each set. Use the same weight for each workout, but try to increase the number of repetitions from week to week.
Increase the number of sets in each workout. Don't forget, however, that by adding one extra set you increase the total load by more than 25%!
Shorten the rest period between the sets of an exercise. Use the same weight, same number of repetitions and same pace during each workout, but shorten the rest taken between sets by for instance 10 seconds. This increases the intensity enormously.
Lengthen the time the muscle remains under tension. Use the same weight and the same number of repetitions, but try to slow down the downward motion. Start with a pace of 3-0-1 (3 seconds to lower the weight, no rest, 1 second to lift the weight). During the next workout slow the pace down to 5-0-1. The following week slow down to 7-0-1 and so on. In practice you often use 2 or more of these methods at the same time.
It is important to know that there are a number of different ways in which you can keep on exercising progressively. A slower development over a longer period of time tends to lead to better and longer lasting results. Try to develop your body as slowly and consistently as possible.
Exercising can be compared to this. Many trainees develop tremendously during the first year, but subsequently hardly achieve any noticeable results.
To force the body to keep on adjusting (and therefore growing) the progressive resistance principle is applied.
We will discuss two applications suitable for your workouts.
Proportional incremental development:
The weight is continuously and proportionally increased. An example of this application is when you add 1.25 kilograms of weight to your bench-pressing exercises every week.
Step-by-step development:
Weight is increased by leaps. Every leap is followed by a certain period without any weight increase, after which another large weight increase takes place and so on. This method is used by very experienced athletes
There are a number of methods which - provided they form part of your training - ensure progress in your workouts. Increase the weight you are lifting. Do a standard number of repetitions and sets every week. Add, for instance, 1 to 2.5 kilograms of weight to your last two sets.
Increase the number of repetitions for each set. Use the same weight for each workout, but try to increase the number of repetitions from week to week.
Increase the number of sets in each workout. Don't forget, however, that by adding one extra set you increase the total load by more than 25%!
Shorten the rest period between the sets of an exercise. Use the same weight, same number of repetitions and same pace during each workout, but shorten the rest taken between sets by for instance 10 seconds. This increases the intensity enormously.
Lengthen the time the muscle remains under tension. Use the same weight and the same number of repetitions, but try to slow down the downward motion. Start with a pace of 3-0-1 (3 seconds to lower the weight, no rest, 1 second to lift the weight). During the next workout slow the pace down to 5-0-1. The following week slow down to 7-0-1 and so on. In practice you often use 2 or more of these methods at the same time.
It is important to know that there are a number of different ways in which you can keep on exercising progressively. A slower development over a longer period of time tends to lead to better and longer lasting results. Try to develop your body as slowly and consistently as possible.
Large Muscles First
Exercise the large muscles-groups first before starting on the smaller ones. This means that the large muscle-groups of the chest, legs and back should be exercised before going on to the arms and shoulders.
Exercising of the larger muscle-groups both mentally and physically taxes your system quite heavily. With these larger muscle-groups many other muscles are involved to help finish the exercise.
Take bench-pressing exercises, for example, for training the chest. To do these exercises you do not only use your chest muscles. Your back and triceps also have to work quite hard to lift the weight. Before doing the bench-pressing exercises you could first exercise some smaller muscles like the triceps and biceps.
Take heed, however: there is a good chance that these strenuous bench-pressing exercises will tire the triceps before tiring the chest muscles. If that should be the case, you will not have trained your chest muscles sufficiently that day for growth to take place.
Moreover, you will probably have strained the triceps, which may even slow down growth!
Therefore, when starting up your workout, do the exercises involving multiple muscle-groups (compound exercises) first.
Exercising of the larger muscle-groups both mentally and physically taxes your system quite heavily. With these larger muscle-groups many other muscles are involved to help finish the exercise.
Take bench-pressing exercises, for example, for training the chest. To do these exercises you do not only use your chest muscles. Your back and triceps also have to work quite hard to lift the weight. Before doing the bench-pressing exercises you could first exercise some smaller muscles like the triceps and biceps.
Take heed, however: there is a good chance that these strenuous bench-pressing exercises will tire the triceps before tiring the chest muscles. If that should be the case, you will not have trained your chest muscles sufficiently that day for growth to take place.
Moreover, you will probably have strained the triceps, which may even slow down growth!
Therefore, when starting up your workout, do the exercises involving multiple muscle-groups (compound exercises) first.
Written Down Goals
If you want to make progress and be continuously motivated, setting realistic goals is one of the best motivators. Many trainees are highly motivated when they begin with a fitness program, but often give up after just a short while. In the long run the absence of clear goals hampers the development of your body.
Long-term goal.
This really consists of the image of your body held on to in your mind over a longer period of time. Visualize your entire body - your arms, legs, chest, shoulders and back - and try to form an image of how you want your body to look. Picture yourself in excellent condition walking along the beach or - if you are a woman - at a party in a sexy evening gown. The point is to visualize yourself as you want yourself to look ideally. Hold on to this image, because it is your long-term training goal.
Short-term goals.
These consist of the realistic and measurable intermediate goals you have to set yourself. Here we are concerned with concrete and measurable goals such as: within the next 3 months I want to lose 10 kg of fat, or within the next 8 weeks I want to gain 2 kg in muscle mass.
It is important not to set unrealistic goals. Please note also that the experience of others does not always apply to your own particular situation. Your own training experience and starting point will ultimately determine how realistic your goals are.
After having trained for a longer period of time, experience will have taught you how to set more realistic goals. Eventually you will reach the point where you are able to more or less control the development of your body. From that moment on you can begin to introduce different phases in your workout schedules. For example, effecting seasonal weight gain (muscle mass build-up) in autumn and winter and weight loss (loss of fat without loss of muscle mass) in spring for the summer.
If you set realistic goals and stick to your workout schedules, you will surpass your own expectations and goals.
It is important to take your training seriously and to organize your workouts carefully. Keeping your exercise log-book up to date. Write down your goals. Think of the parts of your body you particularly want to change and describe the desired change clearly. In other words, don't just write: I want bigger arms. Describe it as follows: within 2 months I want to achieve a 1 cm size-increase of my upper arms.
Each week write down on your printout how many centimeters you have actually added to your arms following the previous week's arm exercises. This is the only way in which you can measure what you are doing.
Measuring is knowing … Remember that many small steps in the end add up to one big step.
Long-term goal.
This really consists of the image of your body held on to in your mind over a longer period of time. Visualize your entire body - your arms, legs, chest, shoulders and back - and try to form an image of how you want your body to look. Picture yourself in excellent condition walking along the beach or - if you are a woman - at a party in a sexy evening gown. The point is to visualize yourself as you want yourself to look ideally. Hold on to this image, because it is your long-term training goal.
Short-term goals.
These consist of the realistic and measurable intermediate goals you have to set yourself. Here we are concerned with concrete and measurable goals such as: within the next 3 months I want to lose 10 kg of fat, or within the next 8 weeks I want to gain 2 kg in muscle mass.
It is important not to set unrealistic goals. Please note also that the experience of others does not always apply to your own particular situation. Your own training experience and starting point will ultimately determine how realistic your goals are.
After having trained for a longer period of time, experience will have taught you how to set more realistic goals. Eventually you will reach the point where you are able to more or less control the development of your body. From that moment on you can begin to introduce different phases in your workout schedules. For example, effecting seasonal weight gain (muscle mass build-up) in autumn and winter and weight loss (loss of fat without loss of muscle mass) in spring for the summer.
If you set realistic goals and stick to your workout schedules, you will surpass your own expectations and goals.
It is important to take your training seriously and to organize your workouts carefully. Keeping your exercise log-book up to date. Write down your goals. Think of the parts of your body you particularly want to change and describe the desired change clearly. In other words, don't just write: I want bigger arms. Describe it as follows: within 2 months I want to achieve a 1 cm size-increase of my upper arms.
Each week write down on your printout how many centimeters you have actually added to your arms following the previous week's arm exercises. This is the only way in which you can measure what you are doing.
Measuring is knowing … Remember that many small steps in the end add up to one big step.
How Much Weight
How much weight should I use? There is a short answer to this most frequently asked question: Every human body differs in strength when compared to others.Therefore you should find out for yourself by trial and error where the limits of your own strength lie. Especially during the first few weeks you will have to try and determine where the limits of your individual muscles lie. It is important to carefully write down for each individual muscle where its limits are when doing specific exercises. An example to illustrate how to determine these limits. Let us take bench-pressing, for example. First do the exercise lifting only the empty bar. The empty bar may weigh up to 20 kg and without any added weights most people can easily do the exercise. Next add on 5 kg discs, one to each side. This will already be quite a bit heavier … nevertheless, with some difficulty you manage to do approximately 10 repetitions. Add a further 2 ½ kg disc to each side. With much difficulty you can now manage about 6 to 8 repetitions. This amount of weight should then be noted on your workout schedule as your maximum bench-pressing weight. This amount becomes your starting weight for the last two sets of your bench-pressing exercises to be noted on your daily printout for your next chest workout.
Next time you do bench-pressing exercises try to increase the weight on both sides by adding on 1.25 or perhaps even 2.5 kg discs.
By taking small steps at a time your muscles will in the long run become much stronger. It is therefore better to take many small steps than a few bigger ones. This slow approach prevents injuries and, more importantly, disappointments.
The joy of weekly successes - even though they may be relatively small victories - will keep you motivated for a long period of time!
Next time you do bench-pressing exercises try to increase the weight on both sides by adding on 1.25 or perhaps even 2.5 kg discs.
By taking small steps at a time your muscles will in the long run become much stronger. It is therefore better to take many small steps than a few bigger ones. This slow approach prevents injuries and, more importantly, disappointments.
The joy of weekly successes - even though they may be relatively small victories - will keep you motivated for a long period of time!
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