Free Weights or Weight Training Machines
Weight Lifting Schedule – How Often Should You Work Out?
Sets, Reps, and Exercises for a Great Workout
Many people have questions about how many sets they should do for and exercise and how many reps as well as how many exercises for each muscle group. The question is very large and the answer is even larger as it depends on what your goals are. How many exercises per muscle group First of […]
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https://ift.tt/2pMHimjHome Fitness Equipment
I have written quite a bit over the last week about what you need as far as home fitness equipment goes but thought I would just round out this week with an overview of what you should have for equipment. So here is what I think that you should try to accumulate over the next while.
Weightlifting Home Fitness Equipment
Home Fitness Equipment
Mats– The most basic piece of fitness equipment is an exercise mat. You need an exercise mat for doing stretching as well as for doing abs and an exercise mat is always good for lying on when you are tired from a tough set or some cardio
Dumbells – Dumbells are those short bars with the weights on them. Who cares about them all matching but you want to probably have pairs of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds and sometimes even a pair of 3 pound weights are good to carry while you are running or doing other cardio. These all come in handy for lots of your exercises
Barbell – This is just a big long bar. The barbell bar weighs I believe 20 pounds although ones at the gym will 45 pounds. Then of course you need weights to put on this bar. Remember that anytime that you are using a barbell you are lifting more and in the case of bench presses or even military presses you can get yourself into real trouble if you do not have a spotter.
Weight Bench – This is the staple of home fitness equipment. There are thousands of benches both good and bad gathering dust in garages and basements across the country, it should be pretty easy to find a cheap bench and you will use this for flyes, bench press, seated curls, tricep extensions, crunches, one armed rows. I think you get the picture this is a great thing to have around.
Cardio Home Fitness Equipment
This is definitely a personal decision as I have written before. A piece of cardio equipment or two is expensive and so there is a lot of thought that goes into whether you are going to buy one or not. Here are the choices though.
Elliptical Trainer – This is the newest most popular type of home fitness equipment. An elliptical trainer will allow you to work out your arms an legs and is very low impact. I know that Paul Plakas on the TV show X-Weighted though is not a fan of the elliptical trainer though, he says that using it just makes you get at the elliptical trainer. I will have to find out what he means by that.
Exercise Bike – These are great in that you can read a book or watch TV comfortably while beating up on your legs.
Treadmill – This will replace running or walking in the Winter and can be changed up by having weights in your hands that allow you to work your upper body somewhat while getting your leg workout in.
Rowing machine – I have never owned a rowing machine but I know that people swear by them. Rowing machines are a great piece of home fitness equipment in that they work almost all of your muscle groups and the equipment is also really easy to store in a closet or under a bed, very out of sight so you do not feel guilty about not working out today.
This about covers home fitness equipment. Anything that I missed? I know that the first article that I wrote talked about using soup cans and stuff but if you really are motivated to get in better shape this Winter then you can either join a gym or get the stuff that you need at home. One way or another I think that home fitness equipment is a key decision in your quest for a healthier future.
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https://ift.tt/2GgeF8BTips to get More Protein in Your Diet
It is important to get protein in your diet. I was looking around for some tips to offer about increasing protein in your diet when I ran across this article by David Monyer on increasing protein in your diet. As you should really be aware most people do not get enough protein in their diet and if you are doing any lifting (also known as resistance training) you need a little more protein in your diet anyway. Read through this and see just how much it helps you learn more about protein.
One problem that I do have though is with the myth that you need 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body per day. I could not stomach 300 or 400 grams of protein a day and think that 150 to 200 grams is the max that anyone should take in per day.
The first thing every bodybuilder needs to know is the importance of getting enough protein in your diet. Although plenty of protein can be consumed in the form of whole foods, bodybuilders typically use a combination of beef, foul (chicken, turkey), fish and protein supplements in powder or liquid form.
Protein in your diet – Content in common foods
- 8 ounces of various steaks: 45g protein, 10g fat
- ounces chicken breast: 40g protein, 2g fat
- 6 ounces Turkey breast: 30g protein, 1g fat
- 8 ounces pork chop: 30g protein, 6g fat
- 4 ounces hamburger (90%): 15g protein, 10g fat
- 1 can chunk light tuna (6.25 oz): 40g protein, 1g fat
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese: 12g protein, 2g fat
- 1 large egg: 6g protein, 3g fat
Using a combination of these excellent foods, you can easily meet your requirements for 3 or 4 of your 6 meals each day. Preparing six meals every day utilizing these foods, however, would cost a lot of time and money!
Protein in Your Diet
This is why supplemental protein comes into play. Protein “shakes” are an extremely convenient, fast and cheap meal to help you get two or three more servings of protein a day. As an added bonus, the better quality protein powders taste excellent! Protein powder supplements come in many different types, formulations, and flavors.
Protein consists of amino acids, which are the very building blocks of muscle tissue. There are 22 amino acids, some of which the body can make on it’s own, and some that must be provided in the diet. The combination of the different amino acids in a protein source is called the amino acid profile. Each type of protein has a different amino acid profile. This is why it is best to eat a variety of proteins sources as well as use a variety of protein powder supplements. The most popular types of protein powders are whey, casein, egg, and soy.
Types of Protein for your Diet
Whey protein is by far the most popular and most heavily used protein supplement. Whey protein is cheaper per gram of protein than most other types of protein. Whey protein is absorbed very quickly by the digestive system and reaches the muscles quickly. Whey protein is best used as the first meal of the day because your body has not had any protein for many hours during the night and you want to get it in your bloodstream right away. Use whey protein immediately following a workout because this is the most important time to take in a large quantity of protein and you want to get to your muscles as soon as possible.
Casein protein is a bit more expensive than whey protein, but is absorbed at a much slower rate. This fact makes casein protein the supplement of choice right before bedtime. A generous serving of casein protein can provide your muscles with a steady supply of protein for 5 to 6 hours as opposed to 1 or 2 hours for whey protein. Casein protein is also an excellent choice if you think it may be a long time before your next protein serving.
Egg protein is not nearly as popular as whey or casein mostly because of its cost. It is, however an excellent supplement with a high BV (Biological Value is used to indicate how much of the protein is actually used by the body) and excellent amino acid profile. I like to add egg protein to my whey and casein shakes for variety or occasionally as a substitute.
Soy Protein, which comes from the soy bean, while popular with vegetarians, is slightly inferior to whey, egg and casein protein. While this may be true based upon its incomplete amino acid profile, it is still an excellent way to add variety to your protein intake, and is recommended as an addition to your overall supplement diet.
Protein supplements are by far the most popular supplement in the bodybuilding world. I suggest purchasing from a name brand to be sure you are getting a quality product. If you are new to bodybuilding and supplements, some of the top selling quality brands are BSN, MuscleTech, Optimum Nutrition, Twinlab, Cytosport, EAS, and the list goes on. I recommend trying several different brands and flavors until you find one you really like. I will occasionally switch brands just for variety and possibly if I come across a good sale.
Protein is one of the basic building blocks of the body so it is an essential part of your diet and can influence your strength but probably not your energy. Your muscles are built with protein and in fact protein is made up of 20 amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and 9 are essential, they cannot be created and must be eaten meaning the other 11 amino acids can be created by our body.
Many times we hear that you need to eat steak for energy but in actual fact as we learned earlier carbohydrates are the body’s favored energy source. I always think of muscles as being made out of protein but really muscles are mostly water and protein so if you think about how people tend to diet they will cut out things like steak and carbohydrates so the body is not getting as much protein and carbohydrates as it needs to burn for energy so it will tend to burn protein and fat in equal parts to get energy. This is great for losing and good for losing fat but it is really bad to lose muscle. One of the ways to stop your body from burning muscle for energy is to do a fair amount of exercise, especially training to increase your muscle mass on a consistent basis.
So what kind of foods contain protein and how much do we need? Full proteins are found in steak chicken and fish and non-full proteins (those without all of the essential amino acids) are contained in lentils, beans, corn, peanuts. A can of Tuna has 20-25 grams of protein and if you look around you can probably get about 80 grams of protein a day comfortably.
One critical thing to look out for is the amount of protein that you eat at each meal. Your body can only metabolize about 25-30 grams of protein at a meal which is only about 4 ounces of steak or chicken. In the past I had taken digestive enzymes with my main meals to help to metabolize more but I now think that this may be a bit of shaky science behind it.
Some bodybuilders will eat 250-500 grams of protein a day but realistically if you have protein in a couple or three of your meals you are doing pretty good. One of the things to concentrate on is drinking a lot more water when you are eating a lot of protein, a lot of water is needed for your body to break down protein so if you are increasing your protein intake drink more water to help take the load off of your kidneys.
There are many ways to get protein in your diet and using the benchmark of just 1 gram per pound of body per day of protein in your diet if you are working out with weights will be perfect in the long run.
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https://ift.tt/2Lb1DbwBodybuilding Myths
There are a lot of myths in bodybuilding. When I was young, I took many things at face value. I just didn’t think there was a whole lot of written material meant to entertain me at best or mislead me at worst.
I eagerly perused bodybuilding periodicals from cover to cover in search of what would satiate my desire to obtain a muscular physique. I spent thousands of dollars on supplements that were probably all worthy of the fate that befell a bottle of colostrum I purchased in 1990.
I chucked that half-used product in to a ravine near where I lived.
Early Bodybuilding Mistakes
So naive was I in my quest for muscle building success that I easily adopted counterproductive training methods along with the worthless supplements. One of these, a protocol claiming to add an inch of arm size in 24 hours, sent my arm training progress backward for no less than two entire months.
It called for any muscle building enthusiast who could devote one long day to the gym to perform biceps and triceps workouts every hour for an eight-hour period. This left my arms so over-trained that they performed about as well as wet noodles for seemingly endless subsequent workouts.
Good Bodybuilding ideas
Seventeen years later, I’m seeing much of the same hogwash I fell for in my youth as it’s reformulated for new audiences. The reason I know this is that I subscribe to a couple of popular bodybuilding newsletters.
I make it my business to keep up with what’s out there and, putting it mildly; some of it’s looking less than scrupulous.
Without mentioning any names or products, here’s a synopsis of some of the possibly dubious presuppositions I’m expected to believe in order to shell out the bucks for today’s ‘hot’ bodybuilding products:
- “Secret” protein formulas from the past can speed up muscle growth.
- Increasing a muscle’s “pump” will cause an anabolic effect.
- Eating liver tablets will increase muscle mass.
“Bulking up” (i.e. gaining fat with muscle) is necessary for muscle gains.
The first on this list would be funny if it weren’t so friggin’ maddening. I’m asked to believe that a mid-twentieth century nutritional guru possessed a since-lost secret formula that accelerates muscle growth.
But what should I expect in an era of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘The Secret’? Many seem wont to believe something vitally important was lost and buried in the historical shuffle.
In the marketing for this secret formula, it’s implied that the guru’s mid-century program went from bodybuilding obscurity to stardom by using a protein formula of precise amino acid ratio balance. Funny thing; when I look up more objective online information about the relationship between this bodybuilder and his mentor, I find the bodybuilder attributes his success to an effective training protocol instead of an esoteric protein formulation.
The Most Important Bodybuilding Trick
This is not surprising to me. As I’ve shared with so many people who’ve noticed my unimpeded muscle building gains: Until you get your tissue breakdown/recovery ratio mastered, everything else is just money-wasting BS. Once you do get it mastered, you might not notice much difference (convenience notwithstanding) between the effects of an exotic protein powder and those of an over-stuffed turkey sandwich.
And now even more marketing buzz is being built around nitric oxide products for their ability to create a ‘pump’ in the muscles. Interestingly, I actually like these products for the value I can extract from them. If you’re doing a photo op, this increased pump can have your musculature appearing just a bit more swollen. Anyone who sees my latest pictures posted on my blog can witness the decent vascularity that’s partially attributable to my trial of this product.
This doesn’t mean, however, that getting a pump will equate to better bodybuilding gains.
Believing so kind of reminds me of the economic fallacy referred to as the fallacy of composition. It’s the mistaken belief that what’s true for the part is always true for the whole. If you consider ‘the part’ as being your workouts during which your arms feel bigger than before you began the training, it doesn’t stand to reason that your arms are necessarily recuperating faster between workouts (the whole).
Remember, full and strength-compensatory recuperation between workouts is what results in muscle growth.
Moving on to the third item on the list: Yes – I’ve even received newsletter advice to buy liver tablets. Damn… I never thought this one would work its way back to the bodybuilding shelves.
The belief that special benefits can be derived from eating specific animal organs is a throwback to nomadic tribes believing they gained courage from eating the hearts of lions. Does desiccated liver contain protein? Sure – but so does a dozen egg whites.
Bottom line: protein synthesis for muscle recuperation will take its sweet time even if you have excess protein in your body – regardless of the source of that protein.
This leads us to the final bullet point mentioned; the bulking up myth.
Many of us thought this died in the 90s, but it seems to be making a current comeback via the Internet.
Personally, I’m frustrated to see so many under individuals being mislead toward excessive calorie intake when they haven’t even conquered the challenge of ‘how to gain muscle’. If you don’t first get an effective muscle breakdown/recuperation ratio in order, excess calories will only bog down your system. Not only can this cause fat gain, it can slow down muscle growth.
Think about it: Your body needs energy for all its functions – including building muscle and digesting/processing food. You definitely don’t want the latter to start competing for energy with the former. That’s a prescription for becoming fat, lethargic, and un-muscular.
Don’t fall for bodybuilding myths
If you want to build a nice physique, beware of what misleads so many into the frustration of plateaus and unfulfilled desires.
Look first at your workout strategy and make sure your tactics are sound. This can prevent you a lot of natural bodybuilding heartache; the kind of frustration that leads to chucking a thirty-dollar bottle of supplements from your backyard into a distant ravine.
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https://ift.tt/2C46CrrWeight workouts at home part 2
Now that you have decided that you are going to start doing weights and doing them at home I am sure that you are starting to think of all of your options and when and how and how oftern. Well I can answer those for you.
The best way to get started lifting weights is to setup a schedule. For most people starting to lift weights the best time to start lifting is Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings or mornings. Mornings have to be the best bet because as we all know the day seems to have it’s own way of breaking up our plans for the evening and consistency in lifting weights is the key.
I find in getting started lifting weights you should do a bit of circuit training. The turbulence training program talks about how to do this but in essence this is what you do. Make sure that you stretch and warm-up and get yourself nice and loose and then do 10 reps of each of the following as one long set.
1. Bench press (for chest)
2. One armed rows (back)
3. Military dumbbell presses (shoulders)
4. Lunges (legs)
5. Curls (biceps)
6. Tricep extensions (triceps)
7. Situps or crunches (abs)
That should take you about 5 to 7 minutes and after that you deserve a bit of a rest. After you have done them all like this once you will be winded but after a 2 or 3 or even 4 minute rest you will be able to go again and do the same thing.
Try to do three sets of this routine. It should not take you more than 20 minutes to half an hour. If you do not know how to do each exercise then go to youtube and find the exercises.
After you have done this I hope that you feel a great sense of accomplishment. Doing weights like this is a great way to get yourself into better shape and after doing this three times a week for a couple of months you are going to feel stronger then you have ever felt in your whole life and your metabolism with be moving faster therefore helping you lose more . Another thing to remember about lifting weights is that any muscle that you gain will force your body to burn a lot more calories just for maintenance so you will have a bit of a double whammy to aid you in your loss.
One last thing. The day after your first few workouts like this your muscles may be sore. If they are very sore then you can take some aspirin to take away the pain but as the day progresses the muscle pain will go away. This is natural but if it is really bad soreness that you are feeling then it is important not to push yourself quite as hard as you did last time.
If this workout causes more then just soreness. There is a chance if you are not warmed up properly that you can pull a muscle. If this is the case I really urge you to go to a doctor and make sure that you are not hurting yourself. Doing weights is about making your self healthier not hurting yourself.
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https://ift.tt/2C2glylStarting to lift weights – Part 1
Now that fall is in full swing and the baseball playoffs are winding down most of our exercise is going to need to take place indoors instead of the outdoors that it is so easy to do in the summertime. There are of course two kinds of exercise, weights and cardio.
First I want to apologize in advance to any hardcore lifters here. Most of this stuff is a bit of a review for you.
Sometimes I think that everyone of course lifts weights on at least a weekly basis. Of course this is not fair as most people, although well meaning, have never lifted weights in their life and are not about to join a gym to start lifting weights this week.
The simple fact is that the more muscle that you have the more calories that you body will need to burn in order to maintain your . This fact alone should make any person looking to lose to start looking at the gyms that they drive by.
The simple fact is that if you have never lifted weights just think of this time between now and the beginning of the New Year as the best time to start warming up to the idea of lifting weights. If you start lifting some kinds of weights at home then you can get stronger, build muscle mass and when the new year comes with all of the gyms giving great deals to join you will have a better idea if you want to join a real gym or not.
First of all I think that it is easy enough to get some light weights that you can start lifting with at home. Either look in the classifieds in your local paper or go to the local pawn shop or used sporting goods place and get some 5, 10, and 15 pounds dumbbells, women can probably get away with 2.5, 3, and 5 pound weights to start with.
So what if you have no weights at home? First of all are all of the regular calisthenics that we all know. You can do things like push-ups for your chest, shoulders and triceps, lunges for your legs, and sit-ups for your abs.
If you would like to start doing weights proper then you have many options. Look around the kitchen and you probably have some heavy bottles or cans that you can do bicep curls with, you have kitchen chairs that you can do front laterals with. There are many options and if you look around I am sure that you can improvise with what you already have.
I will write another article this week about what kind of workouts to do exactly but this week why not just try to find a few kinds of exercises that you can do around the house if you have no weights and if you can beg, borrow, or steal some weights it will make things a lot easier
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https://ift.tt/2L9iuexHardgainers guide to lifting weights
As a hardgainer you know how hard it is to put on muscle. The hours in the gym, the eating, the constant ing yourself on the scale, it is all very difficult to take but you keep trying to gain muscle anyway.
There are a few things that you can do to try to gain more muscle and I believe that if you have a plan even the toughest of hardgainers can still gain a few pounds in a couple of months. As you know most bodybuilders not on roids can only gain about two pounds a month but if you make radical changes then you can gain rather quickly for a short amount of time.
So here are some tips to get better gains in the gym:
Weightlifting Tips for Hardgainers
Tips for hardgainers
1. The key to gaining muscle is to conserve your energy in an almost slothlike style. When as a hardgainer you are doing your workout try to get the most muscle fibers working in the least number of sets and reps.
2. Skip the cardio. Even though you know that you are trying to get yourself in better shape you still want to keep the cardio out of your workout. As you do cardio workouts your hard earned muscle is going to disappear as you lose your fat¦but you do not have any fat to speak of do you?
3. Hardgainers need to mix up the workouts still to confuse your muscles into jumping in strength and mass.
So now I am going to get into some detail. What kind of workouts should you try in order to gain some more muscle? The key I believe in making gains is to break up your workouts and do high low rep workouts that will really shock your muscles.
What you need to do is go to a two day split where you work chest, shoulders and triceps in one workout and legs, back and biceps on another day with two cycles of this a week. A total of four workouts a week is all that you really need.
One of the real problems that Muscle and Fitness as well as other magazines has is the idea that you need to do 20 sets per muscle group. This may be true for a steroid using pro but for normal mortals we can only get away with four to six sets per muscle group. Here is a sample of how you should do a chest workout.
- 1 set of 12 reps of light flat bench to warm up
- 2 sets of 6 reps of bench press at as close to max as possible
- 2 sets of 6 reps of cable crossovers at max
- 2 sets of 6 reps of incline flyes at max .
A few things to note about this is that after the workout you should feel sick from the amount of that you have lifted but at the same time you should not be exhausted as you did only a few reps. This kind of workout will tax your muscles with the minimum really of number of reps for muscle gain while at the same time you should stay away from overtraining with only a few reps and sets.
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https://ift.tt/2LbnJdCDeltoid workouts
I have wanted to write about deltoid workouts for a while now but never quite get to it. Out of all of your muscles your deltoids may be the most obvious to work in your workout. The muscles are very easy to isolate. To work your shoulders you have to remember that your deltoids have three heads, one in the front or lateral deltoid, one on the side, medial deltoid and one in the back posterior deltoid.
Any exercise where you are lifting in front of you works your front deltoid. This includes front raises, pullups and to some degree bench press. To work the side deltoid you can do side raises and there do actually isolate your side of your shoulder really well and make your shoulders pop out, widening your shoulders better than anything else. To work the rear deltoid I have always found that the best exercise is to lean forward and do a flye like exercise where you swing your arms out from underneath to a position right lateral with your upper body, try it out you will really feel this exercise a lot.
One mistake that many people make when working shoulders is using too much and doing to few reps. Try doing three sets of each of three exercises (one for each part of the deltoid) and do 10-12 reps for each exercise.
Take care of your form as well. I also find that most people want to really work their shoulders and will use bad form and swing that more than they should. Do not worry about the amount of that you are lifting instead try to concentrate on keeping the reps very controlled and a little slower than the time that it takes for reps of other muscle groups.
Deltoid workouts can be tough and hurt a lot the next day but in the end your deltoid muscles will make your upper body look a lot bigger so it is worth the effort.
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https://ift.tt/2PPC9GdThe old can stay young with weightlifting – New study says
A new study was released over the last week showing what many older people already know, that training is a very important part of keeping you young.
The study says resistance exercise for people 65 and older can actually reverse important aging effects on skeletal muscles, to the point where they work genetically like those found in people four decades younger.
“We see big improvements … after training,” said Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, an associate professor at the McMaster University Medical Centre.
“Many people were reporting they could pick up their grandkids, they could carry more groceries, it was easier to go up the stairs,” said Tarnopolsky, an expert on muscle diseases and one of the paper’s two lead authors.
There are several reasons for this change and most of it is in the physical changes that take place in the mini powerplants of cells and this, says the good doctor promises to make things better for many people for years to come.
The study looked at DNA expression in the muscle cells of 25 healthy seniors, who had undergone twice-weekly resistance training for six months.
It concentrated in particular on the cellular mitochondria, the “powerhouses” that fuel activity in cells. They are typically depleted in older people, with many of the genes that affect them turned on or off by age. This depletion resulted in a loss of muscle mass and many of the mobility restrictions often found in seniors.
But Tarnopolsky said the genetic “fingerprints” of the exercising seniors actually shifted from their age-altered state to one more closely resembling those found in young men and women in their mid 20s to 30s.
“We improved or reversed to a large extent the … gene signature of aging,” he said.
The reversal was accompanied by a 50 per cent improvement in strength among the seniors.
Starting out about 60 per cent weaker than their younger study counterparts – determined via knee extension capacity – the training seniors ended up 38 per cent weaker after a half year of training.
Tarnopolsky said lifting might remove some of the mitochondria damaged by age-related stresses, replacing them with genetically intact ones. As well, it may turn on genes, switched off by age, that offer muscle cells protection from damage.
This is a very interesting although small study but the ramifications are huge. Anyone that is in there 60s or 70s though should talk to a doctor before beginning a lifting regimen but the effects on your life can be fantastic.
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https://ift.tt/2S42b56Electrical Muscle Stimulators
Years ago I had a friend that was selling Electrical Muscle Stimulators for your abs or any other muscle group you wanted to use it on.
The way that is worked was that you could put it across your stomach and it would send electric pulses through your muscles and help you lose or get a six pack or make you huge.
The claims were not very well proven then and are still somewhat suspect. I do not think you are going to see a Mr Olympia from electocuting himself but anyway I ran into an FDA question and answer about these Electronic Muscle Stimulators that I wanted to pass on:
Consumer Info – Electrical Muscle Stimulators
Q. Why does FDA regulate electrical muscle stimulators?
A. Electrical muscle stimulators are considered devices under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Under this law and the agency’s regulations, the FDA is responsible for regulating the sale of all electrical muscle stimulators in the United States.
Therefore, firms must comply with appropriate FDA premarket regulatory requirements before they can legally sell their stimulators. Most electrical muscle stimulators (EMS devices) that have been reviewed by FDA are intended for use in physical therapy and rehabilitation under the direction of a health care professional.
If a company wants to sell EMS devices directly to consumers, the company needs to show FDA it can be used safely and effectively in that setting.
A. While an EMS device may be able to temporarily strengthen, tone or firm a muscle, no EMS devices have been cleared at this time for loss, girth reduction, or for obtaining “rock hard” abs.
Q. Is FDA concerned about the unregulated marketing of these devices?
A. Yes. FDA has received reports of shocks, burns, bruising, skin irritation, and pain associated with the use of some of these devices. There have been a few recent reports of interference with implanted devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators.
Some injuries required hospital treatment. It is very important that these devices be properly designed, manufactured, and labeled with clear and complete instructions for use and that anyone using them follows the instructions carefully. FDA is also concerned because many of these devices have cables and leads.
If those cables and leads do not comply with electrical safety standards, there is the possibility of electrocution by users and other household members. FDA is currently investigating firms that are illegally marketing EMS devices.
Q. What does FDA regulation accomplish?
A. Firms that market EMS devices are required to comply with appropriate FDA premarket regulatory requirements before they may legally sell their devices.
The firm must be able to demonstrate that these devices are as safe and as effective as similar devices that are legally marketed. Devices may only be marketed for uses that are established for the device or for uses that the firm can support with data.
At this time, FDA is not aware of scientific information to support many of the promotional claims being made for numerous devices being widely promoted on television, infomercials, newspapers, and magazines.
Q. Why should I select an electrical muscle stimulator that is legally marketed according to FDA regulations?
A. Electrical Muscle Stimulators that have not met FDA premarket requirements are illegal, and the FDA has not determined whether or not they are properly designed, manufactured, and labeled to provide reasonable assurance that they are safe and effective.
Q. Does that mean that it’s unsafe to use an electrical muscle stimulator that has not met FDA requirements?
A. Using a product that has not met FDA requirements isn’t necessarily unsafe or dangerous. But it could be. FDA has received reports of shocks, burns, bruising, skin irritation, pain, and interference with other critically important medical devices (e.g., pacemakers) associated with the use of unregulated products.
Unregulated devices also may have safety problems associated with cables and leads that can lead to accidental shock and electrocution by users and other household members, including children.
Q. If I use an electrical muscle stimulator that has met FDA regulatory requirements, will it give me the same kind of effect that lots of sit-ups, stomach crunches and other abdominal exercises will?
A. Using these devices alone will not give you “six-pack” abs. Applying electrical current to muscles may cause muscles to contract. Stimulating muscles repeatedly with electricity may eventually result in muscles that are strengthened and toned to some extent but will not, based on currently available data, create a major change in your appearance without the addition of diet and regular exercise.
Q. But hasn’t FDA cleared electrical muscle stimulators to treat medical conditions?
A. Yes. The FDA has cleared many electrical muscle stimulators for prescription use in treating medical conditions. Doctors may use electrical muscle stimulators for patients who require muscle re-education, relaxation of muscle spasms, increased range of motion, prevention of muscle atrophy, and for treating other medical conditions which usually result from a stroke, a serious injury, or major surgery.
Again, the effect of using these devices is primarily to help a patient recover from impaired muscle function due to a medical condition, not to increase muscle size enough to affect appearance.
Q. Are there any OTC EMS devices that have met FDA’s regulatory requirements?
A. Yes. At this time, Slendertone Flex marketed by BMR NeuroTech, Inc., has been cleared by FDA for toning, strengthening and firming abdominal muscles.
What are your experiences with Electrical Muscle Stimulators and have they worked for you at all?
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https://ift.tt/2pEZJWzHow To Gain Weight Fast
I have been asked before how to gain fast. Most people that are lifting weights at one time or another, usually in the winter, try to bulk up and gain a lot of muscle for the summer, of course there is the diet down afterwards but we can deal with that later.
How to gain fast is a question that many people that are dieting to lose weight think is insane but I know from personal experience that many people would like to gain but do not really know how. I have a former lifting partner who had a really hard time gaining muscle no matter what he tried.
Here are some tips on how to gain fast that I think would help almost anyone.
How to Gain Weight Fast – Eat Lots Of Food
This is probably a gimmie. If you want to gain fast then you have to expect that if your are going to try to learn how to gain that you will need to eat a lot of food to do this but there is a style to the idea that you can not forget.
What you want to do is eat at least six and hopefully up to eight times a day.
The meals should be an average size because as you can remember last Christmas it would be hard to eat a turkey dinner and then two hours later eat another dinner.
Most training magazines have a good idea of what you need to eat but mostly you will want to eat 30 grams of so of protein, 60 grams of carbs and another 30 grams of fats.
How to Gain Weight Fast
Most people try to make a couple of meals based on a can of tuna because it is nice and easy to prepare. This brings up a major problem in eating a lot, and that is preparing the food.
You should try to make up large meals that you can break up into freezer packs to eat over the next few days. You can also premake a lot of rice and of course, it is quick to microwave a baked potato.
When you are trying to bulk up you would likely not want to eat very much candy or junk food as it gets in the way of trying to take in very high quality nutrients.
How to Gain Weight Fast – Get Lots Of Rest
Rest is very important for your body to recover from workouts. In learning how to gain weight you are going to find that you will need to get lots of rest during the day and then at least 8-10 hours of sleep at night to try and rest and recover your body from the very tough workouts that you are doing.
One of the best reasons to get a lot of sleep is for hormone levels. In a test that studied 11 males that deprived them of sleep, during the height of their sleep debt, subjects took 40 percent longer than normal to regulate their blood-sugar levels following an injection of glucose.
The subjects ability to secrete insulin decreased by about 30 percent. A similar decrease in acute insulin response is an early marker of diabetes.
How to Gain Weight Fast – Cut Back The Cardio Workouts
Cardio is a great way to raise your metabolism. Doing lots of cardio is great for weight loss but we are looking at how to gain weight fast and cardio workouts are terrible when you are trying to keep a low metabolism.
Another problem with cardio workouts is that they will use up the valuable energy that you need for your workouts.
In saying this I worry that people will just get chubby by not getting any cardio and I think this would be bad in the long term but for a month or two skipping or radically cutting back on your cardio is not going to hurt and as we will see in the next section you will still be getting some intense exercise.
How to Gain Weight Fast – Do Lots Of Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are the types of exercises that use more than a single muscle group.
Compound exercises are really the key in how to gain fast. Do not waste your time in curls and leg extensions instead of pulldowns, squats, and bench.
- Bench Press – Works Pecs, Deltoids, and Triceps
- Pulldowns – Works Lats and Biceps
- Squats – Works your quads, calves, lower back, and abs
- Deadlifts – Works entire back, hamstrings, Quads
There is a synergy to working multiple muscles and then ending your workouts after this. One bad habit some people have is that they will do a lot of exercises and really drain their bodies and then have no energy left to heal, the classic overtraining.
Compound exercises are exercises will help you gain weight fast, stuff like bench presses, lat pulls downs, squats, deadlifts, and military presses. When doing these exercises you want to stress as many of those muscle fibers as possible so make sure that you do your sets and reps very deliberately, slow and very controlled.
How to Gain Weight Fast – Lift Heavy Weights and Variable Reps to build muscle quickly
Decreasing reps is very important in your quest to gain fast. Most people try to do 8-12 reps per exercise for four sets.
Try instead to do 4-8 reps instead and try to get in an additional set. This means that you will still be doing less reps overall but you will hopefully do more weight overall.
Lets say this is your current and reps for bench press are four sets of 10-12. Try doing four sets of 4-8 reps with long breaks in between and slow reps, maybe 50% longer reps.
Count when doing your reps and have it take three seconds down and three seconds up for each of these heavy reps.
Remember as well that your body will get used to these low rep sets so it is important to change it up occasionally and do higher reps and other styles of forced reps
How to Gain Weight Fast – Think Big
Now that you know all of the physical keys in how to gain weight fast you can look at the mental side in how to gain weight.
One of the best things that you can do in your quest to get bigger is to think about your size and your workouts and visualize. If you know that you can take your bench press from 185 to 245 pounds this month then you can do it.
In saying this I don’t just mean that you have to idly think about improving your bench press but instead you make a plan and really push and at all times visualize yourself doing this and in fact you will be able to in a month if you have put everything together.
There are lots of great examples of people making extraordinary changes to their strength and fitness in a very short period of time just by doing everything right and not getting caught up in the standards of what people think is possible.
Do all of the above to gain fast
So there you have it. If you want that quick gain then over the next month do all of these things right and you should have no problem being up 10 pounds. Watch your weight though as you do not want to know how to gain weight fast, too fast to the point that your body starts to put on too much fat.
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http://ift.tt/1OvjvYuFast Twitch and Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers
I have had a question that is interesting about the difference between different muscle fibers and tried to get a good answer. Here is the differences between fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers and the difference that they make to your workouts and fitness level.
One slightly confusing area of exercise is the idea that a muscle can do both push a lot of once or move many times. Look at the difference between doing a set of squats compared to running or the difference in the leg muscles of a bodybuilder compared to a triathlete.
All types of skeletal muscle are constructed from densely knit fibers. These muscle fibers can be looked at as Fast Twitch and Slow Twitch muscle fibers. Which kind are you looking for when you are doing s? Which ones do you want to have when you are running distance?
Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers (Type 1 Muscle fibers)
Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers Are:
- Smaller in diameter
- Red in color
- Depend on oxidative phosphorylation for their ATP supply
- Are highly vascularized (better blood supply)
- Have more mitochondria
- More myoglobin
Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers (Type 2 Muscle fibers)
Fast twitch fibers are responsible for the speed of muscular contraction, and a fast twitch response is the ability of a muscle to rapidly contract to a specific distance over a short period of time.
Muscle Fibers
Therefore, any training program that conditions your muscles to go from a state of complete relaxation to an immediate state of contraction is a speed training program.
Because fast twitch fibers use anaerobic metabolism to create fuel, they are much better at generating short bursts of strength or speed than slow muscles. However, they fatigue more quickly.
Fast twitch fibers generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, but they get their name because they are able to fire more rapidly. Having more fast twitch fibers can be an asset to a sprinter since she needs to quickly generate a lot of force.
- Larger
- White
- Glycolysis is the source of ATP
- Less vascularized
- Less mitochondria
- Less myoglobin
Say you were to help someone lift a heavy couch up a flight of ten stairs. You would use your hands as grips and let your legs do all the work. On the first step your legs will start to recruit type IIa fibers. By the 2nd or 3rd step your nervous system does not recruit more motor units.
This being the case the first set of fibers rest and more type IIa fibers are recruited. Along with these, a number of type IIb fibers are called into play (to maintain fluent motion up the stairs).
As your journey continues more type IIa and type IIb fibers are recruited until by the last step they have all come into play. Your muscle fibers weren’t twitching at maximum speed until the end of the stairs when they neared failure.
Force and Types of Muscle Fibers Needed
The faster a muscle fiber twitches the greater the force is. At the beginning, the fibers weren’t forced to twitch at maximum frequency to overcome the weight, but at the end they had to produce as much force as possible to overcome the . This is how recruitment is designed to maintain a certain amount of force.
Fast-twitch fibers are activated by their neurons at a rate ten times faster than the rate of activation for slow-twitch fibers. The distribution of fast- versus slow-twitch fibers in the muscles is primarily an inherited characteristic, determined by the genetic coding of each person.
While it is common for a person to have muscles with a relatively even distribution of fast-and slow-twitch fibers, some persons inherit a tendency to a significantly greater number of one type of fiber over the other. These people tend to excel in the sports best suited to their muscular composition.
I have to thank a couple of sites for some of this info. Especially bodybuilding.com and Sports Medicine about.com as well Wiki Answers.
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http://ift.tt/2fMPoDmTransverse Abdominis Muscles
The Transverse Abdominis are a part of your abs that controls a lot of your core strength.
As we are all aware you need to work your upper and loser abs to get a 6 pack but behind all of that six pack muscles is your Transverse Abdominis and these muscles are what keep your gut in as well as helping you stand upright.
One of the problems with working the Transverse Abdominis muscles or TVA as many people call them is that there is not up and down type motion that strengthens them.
As great as the picture here is it does not really tell you the whole story (those pics were just gross) and that is that this muscle is behind all of your abdominal muscles and so when you try to work them it is more of a flexing of them not the kind of exercise that most people do.
The people that really need to strengthen these TVA muscles are people that sit a lot and that do not move around much although all of us in one way or another probably have weak Transverse Abdominis muscles. So I tried to find some exercises to strengthen them.
Once you get the feel of the following couple of exercises you should not have much trouble just doing this exercise standing up anytime.
Transverse Abdominis Exercises
To work your Transverse Abdominis muscles the best way is to lean over and brace your body against your forearms against a table or counter. And after this let your stomach lay loose.
Then suck in your gut (fighting against the gravity) and just keep it held for as long as you can which may be about 15 or 30 seconds. Do this two or three times with a few minutes in between then rep/sets and you will really feel it.
The next exercise would be tougher and that is to get down on your hands and knees and do this same exercise. since you will be working your Transverse Abdominis with even tougher gravity you will find that this exercise will be even tougher. This is the Plank exercise. Most of us have done this in the past or heard of it at the very least.
What can you expect by working your Transverse Abdominis muscles
I am not sure how well these exercises will work for you but you are going to find if you have a flabby midsection then this may make the biggest difference to tighten your midsection.
As I pointed out earlier the Transverse Abdominis muscles are the most over looked muscle in your abdominal area.
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http://ift.tt/1PAhXxEMagic Number of Seconds For Weight Set Length
I just watched this great video from Jeff Cavaliere from Athlean-X. This video shows a sample set for incline bench and give a lot of tips that the fellow, Jesse, is doing wrong.
When you look at the video you will see that the actual motion of the exercise is great and that there are other things at play here, like weight set length.
There are a few things to concentrate on but Jeff is saying that most important things to think about is weight set length, most people have sets that are to short taking only around 30 seconds or so. Getting at least 45 seconds of stress in each set and more closer to 60 seconds, this is more important than the number of reps – so slow down your reps.
Another thing that was very interesting that I learned in this video was something I have always been very conscious of, and that is form and completeness of reps.
Jeff says that what he find people doing is cheating be not doing a full range of motion so that they can get their full number of reps in. This is bad.
Form – Weight Set Length – Sets To Failure
I love this all being pointed out. I tend to find at the gym that I see a lot of people cheating to get the weight that they want, and swinging things to get the reps that they want. If you just remember that you want to lift as hard as you can for 45-60 seconds per set than you will find that by the end of your workout you will be tired, sore, and satisfied that you gave it your all.
I find that I run into the same thing as I go through my workout. I start full of energy but by half way through my workout I am spent. I work every set to failure and then I have no energy left. This leads many people to just lengthen their workout with longer and longer rest times between sets.
There are a few things that you can do to increase your weight set length.
Instead of trying to do these long workouts it is far better to just make sure that you are working each set to failure and if you are worried that you will not be able to finish your workout then go with lighter weights later in your workout. Remember as well to try and get up to around 60 seconds for your weight set length.
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http://ift.tt/2m9zA1jHow Does Strength Training Help You Lose More Fat?
A vast majority of women who exercise regularly do not do it to enhance their flexibility, increase strength, or build muscle.
They do it to keep their body fat percentage low.
But what exactly is the best and most efficient way for women to lose weight? Is it spending as many hours as possible on the treadmill? Running for miles up a hilly terrain?
While these 3 methods are effective in their own ways, there’s a secret fat loss weapon that many women are yet to discover – weight training, which also increases strength.
Yes, lifting weights is the best way to go if you want to lose weight permanently and in the fastest way possible. But how does it work? Well, here’s a look at how lifting weights leads to significant loss of weight.
Strength Training Burns Calories Continuously
The secret to losing weight is burning more calories than you eat. When the body stays in a calorie-deprived state for long, it starts burning through its own tissue for fuel.
Weightlifting helps your body remain at a constant calorie-deprived state by initiating the burning of calories during and long after your workout routine.
Lifting gives you a great burn during exercise where a routine as simple and short as a circuit of eight moves can burn 160 to over 200 calories.
Additionally, studies show that a well-designed weightlifting routine can elevate your metabolism by up to 39 hours after the workout. This is because after a weightlifting routine, muscles need energy to repair their fibers, which they get by burning calories.
The heavier the weights you lift (so big muscle groups like legs), the higher and longer your metabolism rate gets elevated.
Weight Lifting Triggers More Fat Loss
Cardio activity only burns calories during workouts, which means you do not get to burn fat when not exercising. With weightlifting, however, you burn a great deal of calories during and after your workouts.
This translates to more fat burned between sets as well as during the workout itself.
Weight Training Increases Muscle
It’s no secret that weight lifting results in a direct increase in muscle mass. This is why many women steer clear from this form of training due to fear of developing a man-like muscular physique.
What most women do not know, however, is that the more muscle you have to contract, the more calories you burn.
So, if you have a large percentage of muscle mass in your body, you end up burning more calories when you engage in any form of physical activity (be it lifting dumbbells, doing squats, or even the simple act of walking) than someone with low muscle percentage.
Whether you have struggled with weight loss for a while or simply want to tone up fast, strength training can help.
Just make sure to avoid overdoing it and include a proper diet and aerobic training to the mix. This way, you’ll avoid injury and enjoy more profound results.
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