Look At My Muscles - Part 2
Nov 16

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled out a few days ago, and have been on a soft food diet ever since. It’s been an interesting reflection of the foods I usually eat and crave, compared to what’s available and convenient for me to prepare in a soft-food form. I haven’t been to the gym at all, and will probably miss a little over a week of workouts, but as mentioned in a previous post, a break every couple of months can be good for a lifting regiment.

I haven’t checked to see how much weight I’ve lost in the last 3 days, but I imagine by the time I’m eating solid food again next Thursday, that it’ll have been a few pounds. Since soft food isn’t as readily available as most processed and fast food though, I’ve actually been eating pretty cleanly. Protein shakes are the easiest and most familiar food so I’ve been having about 2 of those a day. Otherwise, my wife has been making soups and porridges and then sticking them in the blender. Overall it’s been a very low-calorie, high protein diet that I doubt I would ever be able to stick to if it weren’t a necessity. This experience has shown me how much better I could eat though if i were more dedicated to having a perfect diet.

Nov 2
Focusing On the Core
icon1 admin | icon2 Abs, Cardio | icon4 11 2nd, 2008| icon32 Comments »

My workouts have been a bit all over the place lately. I try to get in at least 2 strong major muscle group workouts (back/tri & chest/bi) with Eric in each week, and by myself I’ve been going almost every day, focusing on muscle groups I’ve been neglecting.

The biggest areas that I’d like to improve are my legs and my midsection. I’ve been spending the most time working on the abs, obliques and lower back and while I’m seeing some good results, core workouts really are the worst. I don’t know if its that the ab muscles produce more lactic acid or what, but they hurt like hell when I work them, and I’m sore and hunched over when they’re recovering.  Legs are also just unpleasant to workout (and recover from) and this is obviously why they’ve been neglected. But hopefully the extra time I’ve been putting in at the gym will pay off.

Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you need to have a low body fat percentage to notice even well developed abs. So along with keeping an eye on calories (particularly fat), I’ve been running on the treadmill for 1-2 miles every other day. Like ab and leg workouts, I hate running (and I have knee problems), but as its become a more regular part of my routine I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve found that the treadmill is one of the best ways to do cardio, because the belt is gonna move at the speed you set it at, and unlike the elyptical or bicycle machines, if you stop running you’re gonna get fucked up. Maybe next Spring I’ll have those ripped abs I’ve always wanted.

Oct 25

Putting on muscle is a pretty straight forward process. You lift heavy weight, take in lots of calories (proportionately high in protein) and you start to grow. The more effort and calories you put into the process, the greater the results. The problem is that in consuming all of these calories, you also end up putting on a good deal of fat. Many bodybuilders sculpt their bodies in cycles. During “gaining” cycles, they take in lots of calories and put on big muscles and then during “cutting” cycles they diet to lose the fat, usually in preparation for competition.

While I’m obviously not a professional, I usually try to lean out before the summer to have more of a ‘cut’ look for the beach, although I’ve never achieved those perfect abs that I dream of having one day. One thing I’ve tried that really sheds pounds quickly is the ECA stack. The ECA stack is a combination of ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin that together create a potent fat burner. Wikipedia has a good article explaining the chemistry behind the stack and recommended dosages. Ephedrine has been linked to heart problems and a few years ago, the FDA banned ephedrine from being sold on the market as a weight-loss drug. It is still legally available though, as long as it’s marketed as something other than a weight loss drug (usually as an asthma drug).

Heart concerns aside, the stack makes you very jittery. Ephedrine alone feels more potent than caffeine, and at the height of the stack, you can be taking up to 600mg of caffeine, which is equivalent to almost 8 redbulls. With all the extra energy, you have plenty to burn at the gym doing cardio, however I’ve found that I can’t lift the same heavy weight. I’m not sure if my lack of strength is directly related to the contents of the stack, or if I’m taking in less calories during a cut cycle and that affects it. In either case, being on the ECA stack feels strange and I’m usually glad when I cycle off of it.

While I’ve always lost weight very quickly with the stack, it seems to take just as much muscle as it does fat and I often end up just looking thin more than cut. It takes me about a month to get back up to my original lifting weight and I ususally gain the majority of fat (and water) that the stack took right back. I can’t really recommend the stack, I just thought I’d share my experiences with anyone who’s thinking about trying it. If you’re particularly overweight, I think it could be effective in bringing your overall size down, but with the heart concerns with the ephedrine it’s still probably not worth it. If you are considering taking the stack, make sure you read up as much as possible on it, there’s lots of information out there.

Oct 2

I often get asked how much time you should spend resting in between sets, and while what works for different individuals will vary, I’ll briefly talk about the science behind it to help guide you towards a rest period that works best for you and your goals.

I thought about writing this article a couple of weeks ago when Costin, an old gym buddy of mine came up to work out with me and my regular gym buddy, Eric. Costin and I and another friend used to work out together religiously. We spent a lot of time in between sets because there were three of us and to top it off, we’d do a lot of chatting and arguing. We’d probably spend about 3-5 minutes in between any given set. So when Costin was recently talking about 75 second rest periods, it sounded way too short to me, although later when i reflected on it, I realized that when Eric and I work out (while we still do a lot of chatting) we probably rest only about two minutes or less — and with Eric over the last six months, I’ve been making some really big gains in strength. This might just be circumstantial, but it’s definitely food for thought.

When you rest less than two minutes between sets, you are using something called the “lactic acid energy system”. This is a medium duration energy source and is the primary energy source used in most body building workouts. If you rest longer than three minutes between sets, you are using more of the “ATP-PC energy system”. This is the most powerful energy system for short bursts of exercise.  There isn’t a switch that turns off one of these systems and starts the next at the two or three minute mark. These systems overlap and work together to handle the workload.

Taking rests that last longer than two or three minutes will use more of the ATP-PC energy system, and allow your muscles to be almost completely replenished to lift another heavy set and max out the muscle. While this rest time will keep you moving big weight, there are other things to consider. By keeping rest periods under two minutes, the lactic acid energy system is not able to replenish the muscles as quickly, but by training with these shorter rest periods during the workout, there will be increased levels of growth hormone in the blood after the workout to promote muscle growth.

So your rest period depends on a few different things, most importantly what feels right to you and what you see the best results with. I think a two minute rest cycle is a good place to start and you can make adjustments either up or down from there. Other things to keep in mind are that smaller muscle groups take less time to recover than larger ones, and testosterone production drops off sharply after 45 minutes, so you want to keep you entire workout within that time frame.

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.

« Previous Entries Next Entries »