2008 September | Look At My Muscles
Sep 23

You need to find a weekly workout routine that fits best with your physical recovery time and schedule. Some people can recover very quickly from a workout and others need 3 or more days per muscle group. Regardless, you need to have a set schedule of workouts to stay focused and on track.

For the longest time, I did a standard Monday: chest/tris, Wednesday: back/bis, and Friday: Shoulders/Abs/Legs (I’ve always neglected legs). For the most part this routine worked fine. Each muscle group had a full 7 days to rest (except for shoulders which gets hit pretty hard on Mondays, but because I did them on Friday had an extra day to rest). I made big gains in my chest and my back, but not proportionately as big in my tris and bis. I realized that by the time i got to my tris after my chest workout, and the same for my bis after a back workout, they were so tired from supporting my chest/back workout, that their own workout was relatively weak.

After being away from the gym for a few months, I’ve changed up my schedule quite a bit. Instead of being on a day-of-the-week routine, I’m on a day-on/day-off schedule, so I hit each muscle group every six days instead of every seven. I’ve also changed the combination of my workouts to hit each muscle group individually. So on a Monday, I’ll workout chest/bis, Wednesday: back/tris, Friday: shoulders/abs/legs, and on Sunday I’ll start the rotation over again with the chest/bis.

Breaking the workout into chest/bis and back/tris means that when I finish my chest workout, my bis are completely fresh to do isolated weight that’s much heavier than I could’ve done if they had just supported a back workout. And while my physiology requires at least 3 days for my chest or back to recover, my bis and tris are usually good to go to play a supporting role the day after they were worked individually. So far I’m seeing good results with this routine.

Another key, and likely reason that I’m seeing good results so quickly with this routine is that it’s important to change it up every now and then. Your muscles can get used to being worked out in a certain way and without shocking the muscle, it will adapt and not need to grow to move the same amount of weight. This type of plateauing can be broken by changing the order of your exercises, and also the type of exercises you do to work out a muscle group.

Thanks Dan, for the suggestion on the topic.

Sep 20

First let me make it clear that there’s a difference between cheating at the end of an exercise and generally having bad form. I would say that at least 50 percent and usually more of the people at the gym have terrible form and are doing exercises improperly throughout their entire workout. As I mentioned in my abs article, I’ve learned it’s best to leave people and their workouts alone, so I do my best to ignore them and focus on my own routine.

The body for life website has a great flash app that shows how different exercises should be done and what joints should (and more importantly shouldn’t) be moving during that exercise. The most common exercises I see bad form in are bicep/shoulder workouts where people aren’t getting full extension, and are using momentum to get the weight up. In a bicep curl for example, your elbow needs to stay against your side and in the same place throughout the motion. If you elbow is ending up forward of your side at the end of the rep, you’re using your shoulder and ultimately the weight was too heavy for you. Another example that drives me nuts is when people improperly do a tricep cable extension. The pad on the back of the machine is there for you to keep your back against, and your shoulders and head should stay straight. At least half the time, I see people facing the back support, and using their shoulders and upper body weight to move the cable down. In this exercise, your back, shoulders and head should stay straight, your elbows at your side, and all of the weight being moved only with your triceps. If you’re doing it differently, you’re not working out the muscle you intend with the weight you think you’re doing. Bad form spreads out the load of the weight across multiple muscles and the end result is you doing light weight on the intended muscle. Light weight is not going to build muscle mass.

However, if you’re not working out with a spotter to help you pull out that last rep, cheating isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. I almost always workout with a buddy, and he can give my last rep just enough help to get it through, while I keep clean form. But if I’m working out alone doing a bicep workout, and I’m aiming to do 8 reps and if I barely pull out my 7th rep, instead of just setting down the weight, cheating a bit with your shoulder to get the last rep out is essentially the same as having a spotter lightly helping you. For the most part I think a spotter should only be there for safety and very light assistance at the end of a set, but for me it helps mentally to have a goal in mind and achieve it and keep me pumped up for my next exercise.

Sep 16

I’ve seen and tried lots of different approaches to maximize muscle growth in every workout. While everybody has a slightly different physiology, it seems for the most part there’s only one way to maximize muscle growth: lift heavy.

I’ve tried starting light in my first set and adding weight every set, starting heavy and getting lighter as I fatigue, and even doing a pyramid combination. Over the years I’ve realized that the only time that I’m building muscle is when I’m lifting as heavy as I can in every set. Any set that I do that is too light for me is a waste of my time.

For every exercise, you want to do 2-3 sets of 4-8 reps of the most weight you can do, with decent form and no assistance. If you can’t do 4 reps, the weight is too heavy, if you can pull out 9, you were going too light. If you have a spotter that’s helping you with every rep, they’re taking 5-20lbs off your weight even with minimal assistance. Of course it’s good to have a spotter in case you completely fail, and there’s no harm in having you struggle a bit on your last rep on your last set with a light spot, but if he’s doing all the work, there’s no point in you being there at all.

I always see guys doing bench press workouts doing very light weight trying to “tone” (whatever that means), and guys doing 3 plates with a spotter that’s doing his back workout at the same time. Keep a log so that you’re familiar with exactly how much weight you can do. This way you can track your progress and never waste time and energy lifting the wrong weight.

Sep 7

I’ve been going to the gym in some form of regularity for about 6 years now. Most of what I’ve learned in techniques and form have come from trial and error and more recently great mentors. But most people at the gym don’t want to be bothered with my advice (there’s so much out there that it does become confusing and frustrating), so I usually don’t bother engaging people who are doing an exercise improperly or doing one they shouldn’t be bothering with.

One of these that drives me nuts is overweight people that spend so much time and focus on the ab machines. There is no such thing as spot training. By this I mean you can’t focus on an area of fat to reduce. Fat comes off your body in whatever order it naturally wants to, and it’s different from person to person. Unfortunately, the first place fat builds up is in the gut for men, and the hips, waist and upper shoulders for women… even more unfairly, this is the last place the fat comes off.

Understanding that you can’t focus on reducing fat in a specific area, and that you need to just have a strong cardio regiment and reasonable diet to reduce your overall body fat will save you countless unproductive hours in the gym. Focusing on ab workouts in the gym will actually make your stomach look bigger. If you have a belly, the fat that pushes that area out is both beneath and above the abdominal muscles. Because of this, if you increase the size of your ab muscles, it will just make the fat on top of the abs stick out even further. If your overall goal is to just get rid of the gut, focus on reducing calorie intake and burning calories through cardio and an overall weight lifting program.

Sep 6

September 27th will be the final Rosarito to Ensenda bike tour, seemingly bringing an end to yet another mark of my youth. I’ve rode in the event now 6 or 7 times, and I’m going to be sad to know that this will be the last one.

The event has been getting smaller and smaller over the years, and the last event this Spring was almost too small for the San Diego company that hosts the event to cover its costs. Drug cartel activity in Baja California and new passport requirements are the main reasons, and I’m sure the slowing economy hasn’t helped.

Rosarito to Ensenada is a great ride. It’s 50 miles along the coast of Baja California, which has great views and a friendly tailwind. The only stretch of the ride that requires some real flexing is the el tigre, an 800ft climb in less than 2 miles. But the finish line fiesta in Ensenada always makes it worth it, replacing spent calories with $1 tacos and beers.

The event will mark not only the end of an era in cycling fun for me, my wife and my friends, but an end to a Summer that saw far fewer bike rides and wakeboarding trips than summers passed. The bike tour accommodates all types of riders on every kind of bike, so if you have any interest in it, check out their site that has all the information: http://rosaritoensenada.com/

Sep 5

Stretching is an important and often overlooked aspect of weight lifting. Most of us only have time to hit the gym after work, where we’re in a hurry to get home, to the girlfriend’s or somewhere else. With time often short, many people head straight into their workouts without a good stretch routine.

Stretching is important for two reasons. The most important reason to properly stretch before lifting, is of course to prevent injury. Most people only work out a couple of muscle groups per session and it’s important to stretch not only the primary muscles you’re about to stress, but the other support muscles as well. Shoulders should be stretched every time you do any upper body workout, whether it be chest, back, bi’s, tri’s, and of course shoulders themselves. The three heads that make up the shoulder are the smallest muscle groups in the upper body, and the most prone to injury.

For stretching and warming up my shoulders prior to any upper body workout, I do weighted (5lb) large arm circles forward and backward. I stretch my deltoids by holding a 5lb weight, and with my elbow at a 90 degree angle and against my side, rotate my weighted arm out towards the side of my body. Finally using a dip machine, I use my body weight to get a good overall shoulder stretch.

The back is the other set of muscles that you need to stretch even if aren’t going to directly work it. Shoulder exercises, leg exercises, and just about every thing you do can put some pressure on the back. Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, bend down to touch your toes, don’t bounce, and get a good deep stretch. Finding a secure pole (or piece of gym equipment), securely planting your feet, and pulling on the pole is also another good stretch. Using the same position, you can do individual sides of the back, by holding with one arm, and rolling your body up towards the pole.

Stretching isn’t only important to prevent injury, but it also opens your muscles to let them absorb water and protein. You should spend about 10 minutes stretching before you begin your routine, and then stretch the primary muscles you’re working between sets to keep them open and loose throughout the session.

Sep 5

Look At My Muscles is a weight lifting and fitness blog for the average guy. This site will sift through the misinformation and bad advice to bring you the best plan to be in your best shape.