Archive for the ‘Weight Training’ Category
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
You may have read my post on occlusion training (or Kaatsu training) from a year ago. If not, the basic premise goes something like this:
Occlusion training refers to blood flow restriction (BFR) to small muscle groups like the biceps and triceps, then using single-joint resistance training with 20% of a 1 rep max. The results produced up to a 300% greater increase in strength and up to an 800% greater increase in muscle thickness, over the subjects who used traditional strength training methods.
The initial reported study had noted great results for BFR exercise in small muscle groups using single-joint exercises. For example they measured the results of occlusion training on the biceps after 2 weeks of biceps curls.
At Project Swole, we are more interested in the results on large muscle groups using multi-joint exercises, such as the bench press, squat, or deadlift.
So today’s question remains: does occlusion training increase the strength and size of large muscle groups during multi-joint exercises, when blood flow is restricted from the extremities?
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Tags: bodybuilding, build muscle, gain muscle, kaatsu, muscle gain, occlusion, weightlifting
Posted in Research, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
How Do I Know if I am Overtraining?
Overtraining is not good. Your performance and quality of life will suffer if you are chronically overtrained. Beware!
Navigation
How to Detect Overtraining
Physical Signs & Symptoms
Psychological Signs & Symptoms
Impaired Athletic Performance
Immunological Signs & Symptoms
Biochemical Signs & Symptoms
Contributing Factors
How to Avoid Overtraining
How to Recover from Overtraining
There are plenty of signs be aware of when it comes to your body’s signals about pushing yourself too far. Over training your body will cause you to plateau or worse – regress.
The most common sign of overtraining is the total loss of motivation to train, and exhaustion mixed with some the symptoms listed below.
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Tags: active recovery, exercise, fitness, overtraining, recovery, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
How to Perform the Overhead Press
The overhead press; also known as the press, shoulder press, barbell press, and standing press; is often confused with the military press; and is quite possibly the best upper body exercise known to man. Sure, the bench press gets all the glory, but this is only because it is easier to lift more weight benching than pressing.
In many ways, the overhead press is actually more effective than the bench press at building upper body muscle mass. With the overhead press we are standing up rather than laying down, which already means a better workout for the back, legs, and core. And seriously, massive, powerful shoulders are far more impressive than a puffy chest.
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Tags: exercise, Exercise Equipment, overhead press, pressing, shoulders, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 11th, 2010
How to Perform Shoulder Presses
The shoulder press; also known as the press, overhead press, barbell press, and standing press; is often confused with the military press; and is quite possibly the best upper body exercise known to man.
The bench press gets all the glory, but this is only because it is easier to lift more weight benching than pressing. Shoulder presses can help you build fully developed shoulders, and will keep your shoulders healthy and strong, especially if you spend the majority of time bench pressing.
How to do the Shoulder Press
Add 2-3 sets of shoulder presses into you routine once a week, or at least as often as you bench press. It will keep your shoulders broad and healthy.
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Tags: exercise, exercise technique, overhead press, shoulder press, shoulders, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
How to Perform Overhead Squats
Among the best exercises for strength, size, speed, and power, are squats – no exceptions. Front squats, jump squats, and overhead squats are all great alternatives to the king of squat exercises – the barbell back squat.
Squatting will help you develop powerful legs and a rigid core, have no doubt, but when we get creative we can mix and match exercises for an even more effective exercise that trains the whole body.
Sometimes we must think about our upper body as well and there is no better way to look and feel jacked, than to build massively strong shoulders. And there is no better way to feel sexy as a female, than to have sleek, strong, healthy shoulders. It is also equally important to build structurally invincible shoulders to proactively protect yourself from injury.
Combine everything together that I’ve just mentioned, and you get the overhead barbell squat. Let’s see how to do them correctly.
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Tags: hamstrings, legs, overhead squat, quads, shoulder, shoulders, squat, squats, squatting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 8 Comments »
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Best Shoulder Exercises
Updated: 6/28/2010 – Added more info about high pulls, push press, and overhead squat.
It doesn’t matter how big your chest and biceps are, if you have narrow shoulders you will appear to be weak and puny. Someone will surely kick sand on you at the beach.
For men, wide shoulders will make you look tall, broad, and powerful so that you can be the one defending geeks from sand kicking bullies.
For women, hard toned shoulders will help you appear sleek and sexy. No man alive wants their woman to have soft, squishy or flabby shoulders. Well, maybe some of us do, but not me.
Half of womens’ dresses I’ve seen have built in shoulder pads anyway. How nice would it be to never have to buy dresses with shoulder pads? Actually, don’t some mens’ military outfits have added shoulder padding too? I rest my case.
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Tags: deltoids, shoulders
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 85 Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
How to Perform Front Squats
The best exercises for speed, strength, size, and power, are squats – bar none. Back squats, front squats, overhead squats… they are all great, and will help you develop powerful legs and a rigid core.
Front squats are just about the best alternative to back squats, so let’s see how to do them correctly.
Barbell front squats are just about the same as back squats except the bar is placed across the front of your shoulders, using one of the two styles detailed below.
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Tags: barbell, front squat, hamstrings, how to, legs, quads, squat
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 6 Comments »
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Here we go again! The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is coming out at the end of the month – June 30th if I’m not mistaken, so it is time to examine the developments in the physique of our buddy Taylor Lautner for this, the third installment of the Twilight Saga.
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Tags: gain muscle, jacob black, muscle gain, taylor lautner, twilight, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Martial Arts, Weight Training | 11 Comments »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
I recommend training with bands specifically in the Werewolf Training routines, but also in any routine you might currently be following.
Recent studies investigating the effects of training the bench press with added bands and chains, have confirmed that strength and power increased faster by using bands and chains than by using free weights alone.
The Study
In this 13 week study on the effects of training with elastic tension on the bench press, 11 men in their early 20s started with a 1 rep max (RM) baseline strength test.
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Tags: bands, chains, gain strength, powerlifting, strength, strength gain, strength training, weight traning, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Equipment, Research, Weight Training | No Comments »
Friday, April 16th, 2010
How to Perform Squats
There are many different lifts that a weightlifter can do to increase their strength, speed, and power. All kind of weightlifting is great for your body, but I prefer to not waste time in the gym lifting with tunnel vision, going from machine to machine and seeing little results from my hard work.
Instead, I would rather do 3-4 exercises with maximal intensity to wipe out my whole body in order to reap a maximal anabolic effect. The most well known and most dreaded of these exercises is the squat.
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Tags: Conditioning, leg training, legs, squats, technique, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 8 Comments »
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