Hello Jtrain Fitness readers!
Good news! I'm officially a published author on Elite Daily. You can link to my article by clicking the shortcut below. Be sure to visit www.elitedaily.com and like them on all social media platforms!
Elite Daily Post: we-have-say-when-choosing-our-friendships/664056/
I'll continue to post my Elite Daily Work if it continues to get published. It may not be fitness related, but it might serve as a nice change of pace once in a while!
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
Jtrain Fitness is a Year Old!
Hey guys! This is a late post but I just wanted to make a post about how happy I am that my blog has become a year old as of this past Friday!
Here are some statistics:
Total blog posts - 67
All time views - 8,498
Top 10 countries that read Jtrain Fitness:
1) United States
2) Taiwan
3) Germany
4) Australia
5) Canada
6) France
7) India
8) Ukraine
9) Denmark
10) Finland
Top 3 Jtrain Fitness Posts:
1) Tank Top Theory - http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-science-of-tank-tops-and-maximizing.html
2) Plateau-Busting Techniques - http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/11/plateau-busting-techniques-drop-sets.html
3) Thoughts on Muscle Toning -http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-discussion-on-theory-of-muscle-toning.html
I want to thank everyone who has supported and continues to support my blog. You guys rock. For those of you who enjoy the content, what do you like the most about it? What do you want to see more of? What would you like to see?
Visit www.jtrainfitness.blogspot.com and tell your friends! Send questions to jtrainfitness@gmail.com
Once again, thank you so much for everyone's support. I really have enjoyed it. Here's to another year of bodybuilding / fitness posts!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Here are some statistics:
Total blog posts - 67
All time views - 8,498
Top 10 countries that read Jtrain Fitness:
1) United States
2) Taiwan
3) Germany
4) Australia
5) Canada
6) France
7) India
8) Ukraine
9) Denmark
10) Finland
Top 3 Jtrain Fitness Posts:
1) Tank Top Theory - http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-science-of-tank-tops-and-maximizing.html
2) Plateau-Busting Techniques - http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/11/plateau-busting-techniques-drop-sets.html
3) Thoughts on Muscle Toning -http://jtrainfitness.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-discussion-on-theory-of-muscle-toning.html
I want to thank everyone who has supported and continues to support my blog. You guys rock. For those of you who enjoy the content, what do you like the most about it? What do you want to see more of? What would you like to see?
Visit www.jtrainfitness.blogspot.com and tell your friends! Send questions to jtrainfitness@gmail.com
Once again, thank you so much for everyone's support. I really have enjoyed it. Here's to another year of bodybuilding / fitness posts!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Video Blog: Symmetry During Your Lifts To Improve Gains
Hello again Jtrain Fitness readers! I hope you all are doing well! Today I've made a hybrid video / regular post. I hope you enjoy it!
Today I'd like to discuss a technique / concept I've been implementing into my lifts lately that I think have really improved my understanding of gaining size and aesthetic symmetry during my workouts. It involves fully concentrating on each side of a particular muscle group by performing lifts that fully optimize that side of a muscle one at a time.
When I'm in the gym, I see a lot of people performing lifts with gym equipment (such as barbells and other machines / apparatuses) that recruit the use of both symmetrical sides of your body at a time (i.e., both your left and right arm, left and right leg, left and right shoulder, etc). You may see this in the form of barbell bench press, squats, barbell shoulder presses, triceps push-downs using a v-bar / straight bar, etc.
These exercises are all well and good. They will stimulate your muscles. If you are just starting out with your lifting routine / bodybuilding program, you can see growth doing these exercises with the proper form, consistency, nutrition, and rest.
However, there comes a point and time where you may start to realize that a particular muscle group doesn't seem to be gaining as quickly as other muscle groups, or that you're plateauing despite the fact that you're incorporating plateau-busting techniques like the ones I've discussed in an earlier post. Even worse, you may find that one particular side of a specific muscle group is stronger / more developed than the other. But fear not my lovely readers. I have a theory and some advice that I can share on this topic that may help you.
When you lift, you may feel that your lifts are going great, and they probably are. But you probably don't pay attention to just how symmetrical your stances, lines of drive, and /or the amount of effort one side is giving compared to the other are.
And that is where this concept comes into play. You see, when performing lifts on exercises that require you to recruit both sides of a particular muscle group (left and right side), I can almost guarantee you that one side is outperforming / giving more effort than another side. It may be by just a little bit, but even a little bit means that you are not using both sides to their full capacity. And when it comes to the Jtrain philosophy of lifting, not fully using / exhausting a particular part of your muscle(s) will not give you the most optimal results from a given workout.
So what are some techniques you can use to counteract this and potentially enhance your workouts? First and foremost, see if there are ways you can perform a particular exercise in a way that isolates each side. That is, see if there is a variation of a particular exercise that you can do one side at a time, or that splits equal amounts of resistance across both sides. If possible, do one side at a time. It may be time consuming, but if you're serious about making muscular gains it will be worth it. Try using dumbbells in place of barbells, which will usually allow you to do both sides simultaneously with roughly equal stress / stimulation on either side. Make sure when using this technique though that an equal amount of pressure / force is being exerted and that your dominate side does not lead / initiate the lift more so than the other side.
With some muscle groups (namely the legs), the fact that you are not fully stressing out or generating 100% of the effort in both sides can really hold your gains back. Your body is designed to incorporate multiple muscle groups, and multiple sides of a particular muscle group for efficiency so that you do not overtax or blow out said muscle groups. While this is great from a biological survival standpoint, it does not help with muscular hypertrophy and bodybuilding aesthetics. Having one side more dominant than the other could also potentially lead to chronic health problems from over-domination of one side causing your posture to be thrown out of balance.
So try isolating each side of a particular muscle group to evenly distribute the stress. Make sure you do not overly lead with or put more force into one side during exercises that require you to use both sides in unison. As always, use great form, proper resistance, proper nutrition, proper rest, and lift to fatigue. Incorporating these techniques will help you on your quest to make more gains and become more symmetrically aesthetic!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Today I'd like to discuss a technique / concept I've been implementing into my lifts lately that I think have really improved my understanding of gaining size and aesthetic symmetry during my workouts. It involves fully concentrating on each side of a particular muscle group by performing lifts that fully optimize that side of a muscle one at a time.
When I'm in the gym, I see a lot of people performing lifts with gym equipment (such as barbells and other machines / apparatuses) that recruit the use of both symmetrical sides of your body at a time (i.e., both your left and right arm, left and right leg, left and right shoulder, etc). You may see this in the form of barbell bench press, squats, barbell shoulder presses, triceps push-downs using a v-bar / straight bar, etc.
These exercises are all well and good. They will stimulate your muscles. If you are just starting out with your lifting routine / bodybuilding program, you can see growth doing these exercises with the proper form, consistency, nutrition, and rest.
However, there comes a point and time where you may start to realize that a particular muscle group doesn't seem to be gaining as quickly as other muscle groups, or that you're plateauing despite the fact that you're incorporating plateau-busting techniques like the ones I've discussed in an earlier post. Even worse, you may find that one particular side of a specific muscle group is stronger / more developed than the other. But fear not my lovely readers. I have a theory and some advice that I can share on this topic that may help you.
 |
| Source: Thinkstock |
When you lift, you may feel that your lifts are going great, and they probably are. But you probably don't pay attention to just how symmetrical your stances, lines of drive, and /or the amount of effort one side is giving compared to the other are.
And that is where this concept comes into play. You see, when performing lifts on exercises that require you to recruit both sides of a particular muscle group (left and right side), I can almost guarantee you that one side is outperforming / giving more effort than another side. It may be by just a little bit, but even a little bit means that you are not using both sides to their full capacity. And when it comes to the Jtrain philosophy of lifting, not fully using / exhausting a particular part of your muscle(s) will not give you the most optimal results from a given workout.
So what are some techniques you can use to counteract this and potentially enhance your workouts? First and foremost, see if there are ways you can perform a particular exercise in a way that isolates each side. That is, see if there is a variation of a particular exercise that you can do one side at a time, or that splits equal amounts of resistance across both sides. If possible, do one side at a time. It may be time consuming, but if you're serious about making muscular gains it will be worth it. Try using dumbbells in place of barbells, which will usually allow you to do both sides simultaneously with roughly equal stress / stimulation on either side. Make sure when using this technique though that an equal amount of pressure / force is being exerted and that your dominate side does not lead / initiate the lift more so than the other side.
With some muscle groups (namely the legs), the fact that you are not fully stressing out or generating 100% of the effort in both sides can really hold your gains back. Your body is designed to incorporate multiple muscle groups, and multiple sides of a particular muscle group for efficiency so that you do not overtax or blow out said muscle groups. While this is great from a biological survival standpoint, it does not help with muscular hypertrophy and bodybuilding aesthetics. Having one side more dominant than the other could also potentially lead to chronic health problems from over-domination of one side causing your posture to be thrown out of balance.
So try isolating each side of a particular muscle group to evenly distribute the stress. Make sure you do not overly lead with or put more force into one side during exercises that require you to use both sides in unison. As always, use great form, proper resistance, proper nutrition, proper rest, and lift to fatigue. Incorporating these techniques will help you on your quest to make more gains and become more symmetrically aesthetic!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Monday, June 23, 2014
Nutrition Hacks: Don't drink your calories
Hello everyone!
Welcome to another edition of "Nutrition Hacks", an ongoing series where I discuss some techniques one could use to help them get a better hold on their nutrition and accomplish their fitness goals.
This week, I'd like to talk about a nutrition hack I was introduced to early on in my bodybuilding career. It's a concept that revolves around the idea that someone shouldn't drink their calories. And it's a technique that works really well for initial fat loss.
It's important to eat whole foods for many reasons when it comes to body transformation. One of those reasons is that the act of chewing and eating requires you to invest time and energy. And if you're eating the right foods, you'll get tired of eating and become full before you eat a crazy amount of calories. Also, whole foods are significantly more filling than liquid substances, further decreasing the chances of overeating.
Both of these concepts help in stopping the act of consuming a large amount of calories within a super short time frame without getting full, which can throw caloric responsibilities out of whack.
We all know that super-sugary cola beverages and alcoholic beverages can be very bad for you as far as weight gain is concerned. But it's also important to note that drinks marketed as "healthy" or "nutritious", such as fruit juices and skim milk, can also be detrimental to a weight-loss program. All of said beverages contain hundreds of calories within a small quantity that can be consumed in no time at all and not give your body enough time to give you the feeling of being full....thus leading to overeating.
Here are some examples of how many calories can be consumed by commonly ingested beverages:
*Sodas vary, but can contain around 130+ calories per can.
*Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. One can of beer can be 150+ calories (check how diluted your alcohol drink is for calorie calculations).
*Orange juice contains around 110-120 calories in 8fl. oz, or 1 cup!! A lot of fruit juices are like this and are loaded with sugar.
*Skim milk contains around 80 calories in one cup, so it's easy to jack up the calories if you're using it for protein shakes, cereal, or before bed.
So it's easy to see just how quickly one can pile on those calories simply by drinking something. If you're trying to lose weight, I recommend drinking almost exclusively water, with the occasional zero-calorie drink / unsweet tea as a snack, and black coffee for energy. You can drink as much water as you want and it will fill you up without having any major impact on your caloric goals.
If you're having trouble losing weight after implementing a solid nutritional and exercise routine, try maybe looking at the beverages you are consuming and see if eliminating them from your diet and substituting them with better choices like water helps you to lose more weight!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Welcome to another edition of "Nutrition Hacks", an ongoing series where I discuss some techniques one could use to help them get a better hold on their nutrition and accomplish their fitness goals.
This week, I'd like to talk about a nutrition hack I was introduced to early on in my bodybuilding career. It's a concept that revolves around the idea that someone shouldn't drink their calories. And it's a technique that works really well for initial fat loss.
It's important to eat whole foods for many reasons when it comes to body transformation. One of those reasons is that the act of chewing and eating requires you to invest time and energy. And if you're eating the right foods, you'll get tired of eating and become full before you eat a crazy amount of calories. Also, whole foods are significantly more filling than liquid substances, further decreasing the chances of overeating.
 |
| Source: Thinkstock |
Both of these concepts help in stopping the act of consuming a large amount of calories within a super short time frame without getting full, which can throw caloric responsibilities out of whack.
We all know that super-sugary cola beverages and alcoholic beverages can be very bad for you as far as weight gain is concerned. But it's also important to note that drinks marketed as "healthy" or "nutritious", such as fruit juices and skim milk, can also be detrimental to a weight-loss program. All of said beverages contain hundreds of calories within a small quantity that can be consumed in no time at all and not give your body enough time to give you the feeling of being full....thus leading to overeating.
 |
| Source: Thinkstock |
*Sodas vary, but can contain around 130+ calories per can.
*Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. One can of beer can be 150+ calories (check how diluted your alcohol drink is for calorie calculations).
*Orange juice contains around 110-120 calories in 8fl. oz, or 1 cup!! A lot of fruit juices are like this and are loaded with sugar.
*Skim milk contains around 80 calories in one cup, so it's easy to jack up the calories if you're using it for protein shakes, cereal, or before bed.
 |
| Source: Thinkstock |
So it's easy to see just how quickly one can pile on those calories simply by drinking something. If you're trying to lose weight, I recommend drinking almost exclusively water, with the occasional zero-calorie drink / unsweet tea as a snack, and black coffee for energy. You can drink as much water as you want and it will fill you up without having any major impact on your caloric goals.
If you're having trouble losing weight after implementing a solid nutritional and exercise routine, try maybe looking at the beverages you are consuming and see if eliminating them from your diet and substituting them with better choices like water helps you to lose more weight!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Asking For a Spot / Help in the Gym
So you can imagine how I felt the first day I decided to dive into the gym culture, having never been a part of any kind of athletic team and never really being a part of or accepted into any kind of social groups / gatherings from my peers. I was completely intimidated and worried about how I would look stepping foot inside of a gym having absolutely no experience in that culture whatsoever. In fact, the very first day I tried working out, I was wearing jeans and was kicked out of the gym.
It's because of this that I can understand and connect with someone who is shy and apprehensive about trying to work out for the first time, let alone asking someone for help lifting the weight.
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| Source: Thinkstock |
But for those of you starting out, I'm here to tell you that you should NEVER be afraid to ask for help in the gym. I've personally never run into someone who wasn't willing to help me understand or work on an exercise or piece of exercise equipment. In a gym environment, most people are willing to assist you or give you advice so long as you're open to what they have to say and are polite in asking them.
A lot of people who go to the gym do not consider themselves experts and are often times flattered that you would want their opinion or advice on how to do a particular exercise. For those of you intimidated by the people who DO consider themselves experts and are super intense when they're working out, I want to tell you that those kinds of people are actually the ones most enthusiastic and willing to give advice, because it's something they're super passionate about.
But how do you go about asking someone for help or a spot? It's pretty simple really. If you have a friend with you or see people you know, then obviously they're going to probably be your first choice. But what if you're new and none of your friends want to go to the gym with you?
My advice is to find someone who looks like they are in between sets or not immediately preoccupied with an exercise. If you can find a gym associate (like a trainer) who doesn't look like they're immediately interacting with a client, they are probably your best bet. If you choose to talk to someone who is working out, gym etiquette would dictate that you never interrupt them during a set. If they look like they're taking a break, walk up to them and politely ask if they wouldn't mind giving you a spot real quick. They will almost certainly say yes. Make sure to say thank you every time that person or someone else does this for you. Never lift an unsafe amount of weight without some kind of supervision. Being shy is not worth being injured and putting yourself in harms way.
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| Source: Thinkstock |
If you're looking for advice on an exercise, find someone who you've observed performing that exercise with great range of motion and control with a good amount of repetitions and ask them for their opinion. You could also find someone who has overly developed muscles in the muscle group(s) you're trying to work out, but be careful about that. They might just have great genetics for those muscle groups but have crappy technique / advice, or could just be injecting synthetic drugs to over-exaggerate those muscle groups. If you can, find someone you know who was small starting out, and successfully developed their muscles. Catch them in between sets and ask "hey, what's your opinion on....". They'll be happy to give you advice and you'll meet awesome new friends. Just don't overstay your welcome and let them get back to finishing their workout.
The gym has really helped teach me how to become more social and how to interact with many different types of people. A lot of people are there to work out, but a lot of people are also there to interact with other people. If you need someone to help you push your maxes, or need to learn new perspectives from new people to help advance your lifting / fitness technique, don't be afraid to meet someone new and ask for assistance / advice. I promise you that everyone you ask will be happy to help you out!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Thursday, May 22, 2014
Warming Up
Hello everyone! I'm back again with another Jtrain Fitness blog post! This week I decided to talk about the concept of warming up before workouts. So let's go!
Let me first say that I'm probably not the guy you want to get your information from on this topic. From day one of my bodybuilding career I have ALWAYS dived right into every single one of my workouts head first, cold, and with the most weight I could do. In other words, I don't warm up...ever...at all. I take advantage of being at the peak of my glycogen, ATP, and therefore strength and energy, and do the most compound exercises with the most weight I can do first. I shock my body by going full throttle into my workouts and get that blood pumping fast.
Countless people have warmed me against this, but it's just something that's worked for me. Perhaps it works for me because, while I go straight into my most intense sets, I still make sure to keep in mind the correct form and listen to my body along the way.
I do however warm up one part of my body, and that's my knee on leg days. I've always had a kind of tendonitis in one of my knees, and if that part of my body is not thoroughly warmed up there will be too much pain for me to effectively lift. Therefore, I have to make sure I get the proper amount of blood pumping to my knee to get it ready to lift. If you experience this kind of phenomenon on a particular part of your body, consider warming up with VERY low weight for a very HIGH amount of reps until blood is stimulated to flow into that part of your body.
While I don't really warm up, I do find merit in doing so, and think that it can be very beneficial and even necessary to many people when they workout. Gradually introducing your body to different levels of intensity throughout a particular exercise is a good way to safely prime your body and allow it time to get ready for the next level of intensity on the next set of a given exercise. As I stated above, warming up also allows proper blood flow to be circulated to various parts of your body that can serve as a kind of "liquid cushion" that allows your body to swell to the point that it supports movements in weightlifting exercises (anecdotal claim). This is an important concept for preventing injury and getting the most out of your workouts.
So how can one warmup for a particular workout? Well, it obviously depends on the kind of workouts you're performing and the fitness goals / fitness focus you are aiming for. If you're bodybuilding and lifting weight, I'd recommend using a weight that is light but not non-existent. A weight that you can lift easily but still feel a good amount of resistance to do 15-25 repetitions with. Each of these repetitions should be full and controlled repetitions performed until failure. Aim to feel the blood flowing into your target muscle and making you "full". You could accomplish this over one set, or may need to take multiple sets to warm up with before you feel like your body is adequately primed for full-intensity lifts. If you have tendonitis in a particular joint, do NOT stop warming up until you can lift a given weight with just that particular part of your body (without using the other side) without pain and a full range of motion. I highly recommend not stretching BEFORE a weightlifting workout, as most of my sources and experiences (both credible and anecdotal) indicate to me that having lax bodily structures is a detriment to carrying and handling the weights and movements during a weightlifting session. I've personally always stretched after a workout.
I'm not a cardio or flexibility expert, but with cardio I would imagine that bringing down the intensity of the cardio exercise you choose (running, swimming, biking, jump-roping, etc) for the first couple of minutes / trials would be of some benefit to get the blood going and wake up your cardiovascular system so that it's ready for the full-on motions of the cardiovascular activity you're performing. In other words, do a light / less intense version of a cardiovascular exercise before you start fully getting into it with full intensity.
With stretching and flexibility exercises (like in yoga), I would imagine that gradually performing the stretch, going only slightly further on each stretch would be beneficial and decrease the possibility of getting injured by trying to go too far too soon without working out the tendons and various other pertinent parts of your body before hand. Work out the parts of your body relevant to flexibility as if it were dough, stretching only a little further each time until properly primed for full-on stretches.
All warmups should feel like watered-down versions of the movement you are ABOUT to do. They are kind of like "trial runs" of an exercise before they actually count. The focus shouldn't be on making any kind of gains but rather priming your body for particular movements / fitness objectives.
So keep that all in mind! Warm up if you feel you need to to prevent injury and / or optimize your workouts!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Let me first say that I'm probably not the guy you want to get your information from on this topic. From day one of my bodybuilding career I have ALWAYS dived right into every single one of my workouts head first, cold, and with the most weight I could do. In other words, I don't warm up...ever...at all. I take advantage of being at the peak of my glycogen, ATP, and therefore strength and energy, and do the most compound exercises with the most weight I can do first. I shock my body by going full throttle into my workouts and get that blood pumping fast.
Countless people have warmed me against this, but it's just something that's worked for me. Perhaps it works for me because, while I go straight into my most intense sets, I still make sure to keep in mind the correct form and listen to my body along the way.
 |
| Source: Thinkstock |
I do however warm up one part of my body, and that's my knee on leg days. I've always had a kind of tendonitis in one of my knees, and if that part of my body is not thoroughly warmed up there will be too much pain for me to effectively lift. Therefore, I have to make sure I get the proper amount of blood pumping to my knee to get it ready to lift. If you experience this kind of phenomenon on a particular part of your body, consider warming up with VERY low weight for a very HIGH amount of reps until blood is stimulated to flow into that part of your body.
While I don't really warm up, I do find merit in doing so, and think that it can be very beneficial and even necessary to many people when they workout. Gradually introducing your body to different levels of intensity throughout a particular exercise is a good way to safely prime your body and allow it time to get ready for the next level of intensity on the next set of a given exercise. As I stated above, warming up also allows proper blood flow to be circulated to various parts of your body that can serve as a kind of "liquid cushion" that allows your body to swell to the point that it supports movements in weightlifting exercises (anecdotal claim). This is an important concept for preventing injury and getting the most out of your workouts.
So how can one warmup for a particular workout? Well, it obviously depends on the kind of workouts you're performing and the fitness goals / fitness focus you are aiming for. If you're bodybuilding and lifting weight, I'd recommend using a weight that is light but not non-existent. A weight that you can lift easily but still feel a good amount of resistance to do 15-25 repetitions with. Each of these repetitions should be full and controlled repetitions performed until failure. Aim to feel the blood flowing into your target muscle and making you "full". You could accomplish this over one set, or may need to take multiple sets to warm up with before you feel like your body is adequately primed for full-intensity lifts. If you have tendonitis in a particular joint, do NOT stop warming up until you can lift a given weight with just that particular part of your body (without using the other side) without pain and a full range of motion. I highly recommend not stretching BEFORE a weightlifting workout, as most of my sources and experiences (both credible and anecdotal) indicate to me that having lax bodily structures is a detriment to carrying and handling the weights and movements during a weightlifting session. I've personally always stretched after a workout.
I'm not a cardio or flexibility expert, but with cardio I would imagine that bringing down the intensity of the cardio exercise you choose (running, swimming, biking, jump-roping, etc) for the first couple of minutes / trials would be of some benefit to get the blood going and wake up your cardiovascular system so that it's ready for the full-on motions of the cardiovascular activity you're performing. In other words, do a light / less intense version of a cardiovascular exercise before you start fully getting into it with full intensity.
 | |
| This should be a jog when warming up. Source: Thinkstock |
With stretching and flexibility exercises (like in yoga), I would imagine that gradually performing the stretch, going only slightly further on each stretch would be beneficial and decrease the possibility of getting injured by trying to go too far too soon without working out the tendons and various other pertinent parts of your body before hand. Work out the parts of your body relevant to flexibility as if it were dough, stretching only a little further each time until properly primed for full-on stretches.
All warmups should feel like watered-down versions of the movement you are ABOUT to do. They are kind of like "trial runs" of an exercise before they actually count. The focus shouldn't be on making any kind of gains but rather priming your body for particular movements / fitness objectives.
So keep that all in mind! Warm up if you feel you need to to prevent injury and / or optimize your workouts!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Thursday, May 8, 2014
Video Blog: Leg Training Tips!
Hey guys! Sorry for not posting last week. I decided to take a week off. But I'm back and ready to continue my current pattern of posting video blogs for you! I'm going to try and make a video for each muscle group, and this week I'll be focusing on legs! A link to the video is provided below:
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO
Legs. There are two kinds of people in this world: the people who say they hate doing legs, and the people who lie when they say they like doing legs. Our legs are so valuable for so many reasons, but working them out is one of the biggest chores in the world.
The legs comprise some of the largest muscles in your body, and when working them out you want to focus on working out the quads, the hamstrings, and the calves. Since they are so big, they also use up a lot of energy, and thus when working them out heavily it's easy to lose your breath and feel your energy getting sapped very quickly.
It's this aspect of legs, coupled with the fact that most people aren't going to heavily invest or place high importance on the look of someone's leg aesthetic that add to overwhelming grinding sensation that is felt throughout your leg workouts.
But you need to workout legs. Legs not only complete your aesthetic by preventing you from looking overwhelmingly top heavy, but also, being such a huge muscle group, they stimulate the release of hormones beneficial to bodybuilding throughout your body in large amounts when they are stressed and /or need repair (that's completely anecdotal and may not necessarily be totally true). Furthermore, strong legs can help prevent injury in that area of your body.
I like to make my leg days efficient. I DO NOT SQUAT. Sorry if that upsets you hardcore squat-for-days gym bros. I just don't like any exercise where I need to worry about the form so much more than the actual lift, or doing exercises where one tiny mistake or misstep in form can severely injure you and keep you out of the gym for an eternity. You can hit just as many muscle groups with the same level of stress and intensity over multiple machines as you can with squatting. I do find merit in the squat exercise though, and if that's your thing then by all means keep at it! But make sure you know what you're doing.
My main exercises for leg day include lunges, leg press, leg extensions, hamstring curls, and calf raises. On the quad exercises (lunges, leg press, and leg extensions), I'll start off with one leg on each side and then finish doing the same exercise with two legs. For hamstring curls and calf raises I'll do both legs simultaneously and then drop set....though I've been experimenting with one leg to two leg calf raises.
A lot of people have a hard time growing legs. There are two main reasons I can think of for this. 1) most people hate doing legs and are therefore not consistent with it, and/or 2) they don't put enough stress on the legs. The 2nd point is super important here. Your legs can take a LOT of punishment. A LOT. They are built to withstand a lot of weight and stress constantly. Therefore, you need a lot of weight and stress to get them activated and stimulated to grow / repair them. A lot of people underestimate this weight and are stuck with the same sized legs forever. So go pretty heavy on legs, and get a large amount of repetitions with each set. This has been working for me lately, but of course that's my opinion. You might find that something else works for you.
When doing quad exercises, drive through the heel. Like really drive through the heel. Almost to where you feel that all of your pushing is going through your heel. I've found that this fully pumps, stimulates, and activates the quads. When doing exercises like calf raises, drive through the ball of your foot in the same way. When doing hamstring curls, flex the back of your quads at the end range of motion like you would with bicep curls and let your legs back down slowly. Further stimulation can happen by pointing your foot forward during these exercises to stimulate leg muscles in a compound manner (i.e. turning a hamstring curl and leg extension exercise into a calf exercise as well). On all of these exercises, FULLY flex your target muscle and hold for 1-2 seconds and bring them back down slowly.
To prevent injury, take note on how your knees and legs bend. I've found that where you position your foot, how you twist your shins, and how far out your leg is from the direction the force is being exerted, is important when it comes to stressing the knees. Like shoulders, the knees have a lot of mobility. So they are also very susceptible to injury. one wrong twist of anything below the knees, or leaning your weight the wrong way can stress your knees or, even worse, severely and /or permanently damage structures in your knees. Before you do any exercise involving legs and free-ranging leg movements, take a look and be cognizant of how your knee bends. Many of us have uniquely shaped leg bones and how they flex can be different for everyone. Execute a lift in a way that allows you to get a nice pump and successful repetition, while also taking advantage of how your body naturally moves.
And those are my leg training tips! Let me know if you have any other tips / questions / concerns! I'd love to hear them!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO
Legs. There are two kinds of people in this world: the people who say they hate doing legs, and the people who lie when they say they like doing legs. Our legs are so valuable for so many reasons, but working them out is one of the biggest chores in the world.
The legs comprise some of the largest muscles in your body, and when working them out you want to focus on working out the quads, the hamstrings, and the calves. Since they are so big, they also use up a lot of energy, and thus when working them out heavily it's easy to lose your breath and feel your energy getting sapped very quickly.
It's this aspect of legs, coupled with the fact that most people aren't going to heavily invest or place high importance on the look of someone's leg aesthetic that add to overwhelming grinding sensation that is felt throughout your leg workouts.
But you need to workout legs. Legs not only complete your aesthetic by preventing you from looking overwhelmingly top heavy, but also, being such a huge muscle group, they stimulate the release of hormones beneficial to bodybuilding throughout your body in large amounts when they are stressed and /or need repair (that's completely anecdotal and may not necessarily be totally true). Furthermore, strong legs can help prevent injury in that area of your body.
I like to make my leg days efficient. I DO NOT SQUAT. Sorry if that upsets you hardcore squat-for-days gym bros. I just don't like any exercise where I need to worry about the form so much more than the actual lift, or doing exercises where one tiny mistake or misstep in form can severely injure you and keep you out of the gym for an eternity. You can hit just as many muscle groups with the same level of stress and intensity over multiple machines as you can with squatting. I do find merit in the squat exercise though, and if that's your thing then by all means keep at it! But make sure you know what you're doing.
My main exercises for leg day include lunges, leg press, leg extensions, hamstring curls, and calf raises. On the quad exercises (lunges, leg press, and leg extensions), I'll start off with one leg on each side and then finish doing the same exercise with two legs. For hamstring curls and calf raises I'll do both legs simultaneously and then drop set....though I've been experimenting with one leg to two leg calf raises.
A lot of people have a hard time growing legs. There are two main reasons I can think of for this. 1) most people hate doing legs and are therefore not consistent with it, and/or 2) they don't put enough stress on the legs. The 2nd point is super important here. Your legs can take a LOT of punishment. A LOT. They are built to withstand a lot of weight and stress constantly. Therefore, you need a lot of weight and stress to get them activated and stimulated to grow / repair them. A lot of people underestimate this weight and are stuck with the same sized legs forever. So go pretty heavy on legs, and get a large amount of repetitions with each set. This has been working for me lately, but of course that's my opinion. You might find that something else works for you.
When doing quad exercises, drive through the heel. Like really drive through the heel. Almost to where you feel that all of your pushing is going through your heel. I've found that this fully pumps, stimulates, and activates the quads. When doing exercises like calf raises, drive through the ball of your foot in the same way. When doing hamstring curls, flex the back of your quads at the end range of motion like you would with bicep curls and let your legs back down slowly. Further stimulation can happen by pointing your foot forward during these exercises to stimulate leg muscles in a compound manner (i.e. turning a hamstring curl and leg extension exercise into a calf exercise as well). On all of these exercises, FULLY flex your target muscle and hold for 1-2 seconds and bring them back down slowly.
To prevent injury, take note on how your knees and legs bend. I've found that where you position your foot, how you twist your shins, and how far out your leg is from the direction the force is being exerted, is important when it comes to stressing the knees. Like shoulders, the knees have a lot of mobility. So they are also very susceptible to injury. one wrong twist of anything below the knees, or leaning your weight the wrong way can stress your knees or, even worse, severely and /or permanently damage structures in your knees. Before you do any exercise involving legs and free-ranging leg movements, take a look and be cognizant of how your knee bends. Many of us have uniquely shaped leg bones and how they flex can be different for everyone. Execute a lift in a way that allows you to get a nice pump and successful repetition, while also taking advantage of how your body naturally moves.
And those are my leg training tips! Let me know if you have any other tips / questions / concerns! I'd love to hear them!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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