Browse > Home / Archive by category 'Diet & Fitness'

Mind Over Muscle

August 16, 2008

By Michael Tennesen, Men’s Health, Researched by David Schipper

What surrenders first, the brain or the body?
Feels like the body, doesn’t it? When your stride gets choppy on the running trail or your form goes wobbly in the gym, you tell yourself to go a bit more, but your body won’t let you. So your mind drifts to a hot shower and a cold beer. It’s quittin’ time.

There it is: Your mind drifts. Your body’s got plenty more, and scientists have proved it. Researchers at the University of Cape Town in South Africa have pinpointed where the stop order comes from. It has to do with receptors in the brain called interleukin-6.

“Our brains turn on the pain before we actually run out of fuel,” says Timothy Noakes, M.D., a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town. It’s a safety measure—the brain tells the body to shut down to protect it from injury.

In short, our brains screw with us. They stop us from getting the most out of our workouts, and from losing that last 10 pounds. Guys like Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps have figured out how to fool the brain and body into giving more. It’s a bit more than “I think I can.” But not much. Here’s what the experts say.

RUN ANOTHER MILE
Why you stop: You’re running low on glycogen, the primary fuel source for your muscles. But it’s not the only one. Any body fat you have is available. Your brain knows this, but it’s not telling you.

Keep going: Try this trick from Jane Hahn, a senior editor at Runner’s World magazine. If a runner is in sight, slowly reel him in. “Imagine there’s a magnet attached to him,” says Hahn, “and it’s pulling you toward him.” (Or her. Imagining it’s Scarlett Johansson works well.)

Some practical preparation: Include long runs in your training, no matter how short your races are. “Long runs teach the body to run more efficiently and to use energy stores more effectively,” says Hahn.

BENCH-PRESS YOUR LAST REP
Why you quit: You need an absolute goal. If you think that anywhere from six to 12 repetitions will suffice, then 12 is unlikely. Pick eight or 10, and nail it. Good form is essential—your body uses 32 muscles to lower and lift the weight. As you tire, your form can falter.

Lift more: Start with eight to 10 reps with an empty bar to reinforce your form, says C.J. Murphy, M.F.S., owner and head strength coach of Total Performance Sports in Everett, Massachusetts. Then pull your shoulder blades together and hold your elbows slightly in, not out at 90 degrees. Squeeze your lats and push the bar as fast as you can without losing control. Then lower it under control.

PEDAL FASTER
Why you slow down: You’ve run out of gas.

Speed up: Get off the bike. Bill Foran, strength and conditioning coach for the Miami Heat, suggests simple intervals.

Fours: Run four lengths of a basketball court “as hard as you can, with the goal of finishing in under 24 seconds,” says Foran. Rest 40 seconds and repeat eight to 12 times.

17s: Run sideline to sideline 17 times. The challenge is changing direction. Try to finish in about a minute. Rest 2 minutes; repeat for a total of four or five runs.

Suicides: These haven’t changed since high school. They’re still hard, still effective. Starting at one baseline of a basketball court, run to the near free-throw line and back, then continue back and forth to the midcourt line, the opposite free-throw line, and the opposite baseline. Try to run the whole thing in 30 to 33 seconds, then rest for a minute. Complete six to eight suicides.

SWIM ANOTHER LAP
Why you sink: The burning sensation in your muscles is partly a result of an accumulation of lactic acid, says Shawn Arent, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an exercise scientist at Rutgers University. You reach a point called your lactate threshold, when your body can’t flush it out fast enough and you need to slow down. Any kind of interval training can push your threshold higher, but there’s another trick.

Swim farther: “You’ll send less lactic acid into your muscles if you’re relaxed,” says Joel Kirsch, Ph.D., a sports psychologist and director of the American Sports Institute. Removing the tension in your muscles lets your limbs fully extend and your stride—or stroke—lengthen, says Kirsch. “Check your muscles as you move and ask yourself, ?Are my legs moving freely, or am I pushing them?’ ” If you’re pushing, focus on easing the muscles. At your desk, practice tensing the muscles in your arms and legs, then slowly relaxing them. You’ll get the hang of controlling your muscles, says Kirsch.

DO THAT LAST CRUNCH
Or skip it: “I’d rather see you do 20 good reps than 30 crappy ones,” says Arent. Your abs, like any other muscle, grow in response to increased stress, not continual stress.

Do them well: Three keys to the proper crunch: Focus on lifting your shoulder blades off the floor, not pulling your head up with your hands. Pause at the top of the move and lower your body slowly. Keep your abs tight throughout the exercise. (And try the drawing-in maneuver in Malegrams, page 58.)

Written by admin · Filed Under Diet & Fitness 

Build the Body You Want

August 16, 2008

By Michael Mejia, Men’s Health

Here’s a sign of the times: You can actually hire people to come to your house and organize your closets. They’ll also do your garage, your attic, and the shed in your backyard. These people are tough on pack rats. They ask questions like “Why do you have this box of dog leashes, but no dog?”

My job isn’t all that different. As a trainer, if I see something in a client’s workout-or my own-that doesn’t belong there, I get rid of it. If I see a redundant exercise, it’s gone. Disorganized workout? I organize it. And if I see a client doing a program he got out of some old bodybuilding magazine, I throw the whole thing out and start over.

I can’t come to your gym and fix your workout (or organize your closets). But I can tell you what you need to know to organize your own regimen, based on your goals, your available time, and your experience. I’ll even throw in six sample workouts for beginner through advanced lifters. Now, about those closets . . .

Goals
I assume the closet lady would start by asking, “What do you need this closet to do for you?” Me, I’d ask the same question, substituting the word “workout” for “closet.” Usually, these goals fall into three categories:

Lose weight: If you’re a beginner, start with a circuit routine in which you do 10 to 12 exercises one after the other, 10 to 15 repetitions per set, with little or no rest in between. Do two or three circuits.

If you’re more advanced, try supersets. In these, you do two exercises back-to-back, rest 60 seconds, and then repeat once or twice. There are many ways to do supersets, but for fat loss, I’d like to see you use as much muscle as possible. One way is to pair exercises that work completely different muscles, such as squats and seated rows.

Build muscle: For most men, I recommend exercises that allow you to do eight to 12 repetitions per set. You can do them as straight sets-complete a set, rest about 60 seconds, do the next set of the same thing, and keep going that way until you’ve finished all your sets and are ready to move on to the next exercise.

If you have more experience, try supersets, but not the way you did them for fat loss. Pair synergistic exercises-two moves that work the same muscles. Usually, the first is a compound move to work a lot of muscles, the second a single-joint exercise to focus on one large muscle. So barbell bench presses might be followed by dumbbell flies. Shoulder presses could lead in to lateral raises.

Gain strength: There’s no secret here-heavy weights, low repetitions (usually three to five per set for the most important moves, such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses), and longer rest (up to 4 minutes) between sets. You don’t have to do every exercise this way, of course. Start with low reps on your main moves, then do more repetitions with lighter weights and shorter rest periods on less important ones.

Available Time
This is akin to the closet lady saying, “What’s your budget?” Before I design a program, I need to know how much time you’re going to put in. I’m going to assume everyone is willing to work out 40 to 60 minutes per session.

To me, that’s a finite window, just as your closet is a finite size. If you want to do longer workouts, great, but I usually don’t go in that direction. If I can’t give you a system that gets it done in an hour or less, there’s something wrong with my program. To me, the big variable here is how many days a week you’re able and willing to work out.

Two days a week: No matter your level or goals, do total-body workouts. You want to hit your major muscles twice a week; otherwise, they’ll be completely rested between workouts and will have no reason to grow.

If you’re a beginner, stick to circuits, as I recommended above for fat loss. But if you’re more interested in building muscle than in losing fat, I suggest doing sets of eight to 12 reps, with perhaps a little more rest in between exercises.

Another option for saving time is to do antagonistic supersets. These pair up movements that involve opposite muscle actions, such as situps and back extensions.

Three days a week: If you’re not a beginner, you can adopt a split routine. The easiest to remember is the upper-body/ lower-body split. You alternate between them, so if you’re training three times a week, you’ll do upper-lower-upper 1 week, then lower-upper-lower the next.

If you’re working out four times a week, you’ll do upper on Monday and Thursday, and lower on Tuesday and Friday.

What you do during those split routines depends on your goals (explained above) and your experience (explained below).

Experience
Beginners make gains with just about any type of program, so it’s best to keep it simple and safe-fairly high repetitions, basic exercises, total-body workouts. The more experience you have, the more you’ll benefit from heavier weights and lower repetitions, more advanced exercises and techniques, and split routines.Another issue is recovery. A beginner can recover in 48 hours and do fine with three total-body workouts a week. A more advanced lifter needs to give his muscles more time to recover, since he’s hitting them harder.

Also, the more experienced you are, the less time you should spend on a program before moving on. A beginner can do the same program for 6 to 10 weeks without hitting a plateau. Grizzled iron vets may need to move on every 2 or 3 weeks. You probably fall somewhere in between.

Written by admin · Filed Under Diet & Fitness 

« Previous Page