If you are looking to tone and sculpt your body, then you will use lower weights and higher repetitions (reps). Increasing your cardio will also help to shed a few pounds of fat covering the lean body that waits to emerge. Toning up requires you to do 12 – 15 reps per set. At a gym they may have a cycle of exercises you can run through a few times to get a great and effective full body workout.
If you are doing 3 sets of curls and at the end of the third set you could still do more, do yourself a favor and increase the weight. You don’t want to just go through the motions do you? Why else would you have on that form-fitting Under Armour gear?
Use Enough Resistance to Fatigue The Muscle
To achieve results from your hard work you need to use enough resistance to fatigue the muscle. If the sets are completed like this; 15 reps, then 13 reps, then 12 reps, that is perfect. You don’t want to lift anymore if it means you have to use your body to cheat and forfeit form.
For the normal person who wants to get a little bigger and increase strength, you will lift heavier weights. Your reps will range from 8 – 12 per set and you may be doing 4 – 8 sets per body part. Focus on exhausting the muscle and feeling it with each contraction.
You might work the upper body one day and the lower body the following day, split up by cardio and repeated. Another strategy is to do a split routine so you can focus on each muscle group separately. Remember they need a break to recuperate because you are focusing on them.
Taking the Time To Repair and Get Stronger Bigger Muscle Fibers
Concentrating on a specific group of muscles will damage the muscle fibers, which is why they need time to repair and get stronger and bigger. Make sure you rest them. Some of us have been giving our muscles a couple of years to rest. I think it’s okay to start your next rep now.
I like to adjust my lifting for the sports I play. If I’m training for baseball, I will take the high cable from the pulley system and slowly swing it like a bat to work the exact muscles I need for an explosive swing. You could do that for throwing or serving a tennis ball too. I have drilled holes in a baseball and inserted hooks or ropes so I can attach it to the high cable of my home gym. Now I can grip a baseball and go through the throwing motion with some resistance.
I have even altered a bat to attach the same way. That’s why baseball players use weighted bats or put a metal donut on the end of their bat. Using weighted resistance can improve your golf swing as well. In fact, you don’t have to be extreme like me. Just the fact that you are in the gym strengthening your muscles is a sure way to improve your sport and well-being. It would be frightening to see what kind of numbers Ted Williams or Babe Ruth would have put up if they were training regularly.
For Strength & Mass: Heavy Weights for Low Repetitions
Okay big boys. If you want to get really big and strong then this is your section. You want to lift heavy weights for low repetitions. Completing 1 – 6 reps are for strength and mass. You want to overload the muscles so they are forced to grow. Like a professional bodybuilder, you also need to give your muscles 4 – 5 days to rest so they can repair and rebuild.
Muscle repair can take as long as 7 – 10 days. The swelling in the muscle tissue occurs during and immediately after lifting. The cleanup crew removes the damaged tissue and leads to the formation of free radicals. We know from the vitamin section that increasing your antioxidant levels can help remove these harmful critters from our body faster. Working different body parts can allow you to keep lifting while other muscles are recuperating, or do some cardio.
Another way to see if you have fully recovered is to wait until the muscles you are planning on working out have recovered from the previous workout. They shouldn’t be sore and they should have their normal range of motion again.
Splitting Your Routines by Body Zones
You are probably going to be doing split routines. This allows you to completely blast your chest one day, your back the next, your legs another day, rest or cardio, your arms and then your shoulders and rest or cardio. That is a tough week but this allows you to completely hit all of your muscles and make them grow. Your training partner can help you complete lifts when you are exhausted by adding a little assistance. That will help your muscles push past any sticking points in your training regimen.
In the old days Arnold and his training partners Franco Columbo and Frank Zane used to work chest in the AM and the back in the PM. If you have the time and dedication, you could hit the gym twice a day. If you have a job, once a day may be all the time you can afford.
Remember that your arms are involved with chest exercises so mixing in a lower body day, abdominal or cardio day will help them rest before you lift. If your arms are still tired and tight from your chest workout, when you attempt to work the arms you will not be as productive, because they are still fatigued. That goes for other exercises as well. Either work your back and shoulders on the same day or put a few days in between their workouts.
You should do 10 – 20 sets per large muscle group and 8 – 14 for smaller groups. You need to be taking in water and carbohydrates to keep the body fueled. Eat often and eat plenty of good nutrition to help keep enough energy in the system. For you teenagers that raid the fridge when you get out of school, nobody gets big and strong eating Ding Dongs and Ho-Hos.
Feed The Machine: Training Raises The Caloric Demands of Your Body
If you train really hard you will raise the caloric demands of your body. You need to feed the machine to make it bigger and stronger. If you don’t have enough nutrition then your body will eventually break down muscle tissue. As I have said before, this is why some guys never get bigger after years of lifting.
Research suggests that there is a window of opportunity to take in large amounts of simple carbohydrates during and especially within 5 minutes of finishing your workout. It doesn’t matter what form it is in either, but sports drinks, energy drinks and fruit juice would be ideal. Liquids are better absorbed in the body because the surface area is smaller. When you eat you have to breakdown food into small enough pieces so your body can utilize it.
This will help replenish the carbohydrates stored in the body, while storing some in the bank for your next workout. Then within the next hour you should eat or drink a good amount of protein to provide the building blocks to allow the muscles to repair and grow.
Consumer Reports found many popular protein powders contain dangerous heavy metals like Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury and Lead, so do some research and choose wisely. Some of these metals can also be found in everyday foods. Skim milk, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, walnuts, almonds, egg whites and tuna fish are just a few examples of higher protein foods to replenish your body’s needs.
Serious bodybuilders consume up to 6,000 calories a day to pack on muscle and drink casein protein shakes before bed to preserve it. They can always lean up by altering their workouts and diet, once they have accumulated the additional poundage. However you have to feed your body with proper nutrition if you are going to make it work and want great results. Good luck and get ready to shop for some new clothes.
*Subtitles by InnerSelf
Excerpt reprinted with permission of the author.
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This article was adapted with permission from the book:
Back At Your Best: Balancing the Demands of Life with the Needs of Your Body
by Dr. Jay M. Lipoff.
“Do You Want To Feel Your Best?” Alleviate back pains, maintain a healthy weight, and feel better and stronger at any age, with simple changes to your normal routine. Here is your easy to follow guide for everything from quality sleep, ending headaches, smarter eating and nutrition, better posture, proper stretching and exercise, and much more. Isn’t it time you were Back At Your Best?!
For More Into or to Order This Book on Amazon.
About the Author
Dr. Jay M. Lipoff is a chiropractor, certified fitness trainer, educator, and nationally recognized expert in spinal injury prevention. He is author of Back at Your Best: Balancing the Demands of Life with the Needs of Your Body). He is an executive board member of the ICA Council on Fitness and Sports Health Science, and hosts a radio segment on Mix 96.1 WVLF-FM on Fridays at 8:20 AM called "Back at Your Best in 5 Minutes or Less." Visit his website at http://www.backatyourbest.com
