Archive for the ‘Weight Training’ Category
Thursday, March 21st, 2013
Why CrossFit Could be Good for Everyone
CrossFit is one the fastest growing fitness programs in the United States, but why has it been so successful?
High intensity interval training, weight lifting, Olympic weight lifting, gymnastics, and rowing have all been around for a long time. However, CrossFit utilizes all of these movements and creates a complete program that takes the best of all the different disciplines.
This might seem overwhelming at first, but many CrossFit gyms allow scaling down to what you’re comfortable with, a trainer always watching you, and usually a two to three week starter program. This allows anyone of any age or fitness level to take advantage of CrossFit.
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Tags: Conditioning, Crossfit, exercise, fitness, health, Weight Training, weightliftig, working out, workouts
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Everything You Need to Know Barbell Complexes
Hitting a plateau can drive you insane. Some people take months just to bump their bench press up by five pounds. A plateau is a good indicator that there’s something about your routine that just isn’t working for you anymore, and it means that it’s time for a change. Adding barbell complexes to your routine is a great technique for breaking plateaus. Barbell complexes are difficult, requiring you to perform several barbell exercises in a row as one set with no rest in between sets.
Benefits of Barbell Complexes
As a form of cardio, barbell complexes have several benefits over traditional cardio workouts. Barbell complexes burn a ton of calories but do not release cortisol the same way traditional cardio does. Cortisol is a stress hormone partly responsible for inducing fat storage in the body. However, barbell complexes release anabolic hormones that help you cut fat, making barbell complexes a great tool for cutting fat while you get out of your plateau.
The time required for traditional cardio can also be a bit of a drag, clocking in at thirty minutes or more. Barbell complexes are very fast-paced, and depending on how many sets you do, you may finish in ten to fifteen minutes – half the time of traditional cardio.
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Tags: barbell complex, cleans, Conditioning, exercise, fitness, Olympic complex, overhead press, snatch, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Conditioning, HIIT Routines, HIRT Routines, Weight Training | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2013
You may have heard about the many benefits of adding weight training to your current workout routine, or perhaps you’ve done your homework and debunked some of myths that were holding you back. Either way, you are about to embark on a new mission – to get PUMPED UP! Or ripped. Or shredded.
In any case, you are probably keen to start trying out weight machines at your gym and pumping iron with free weights and barbells. But before you begin your sojourn into the wide world of weight training it’s not a bad idea to cover the basics so that you don’t end up injuring yourself or others.
Here are just a few common mistakes that you’ll definitely want to avoid:
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Tags: exercise, fitness, mistakes, myths, newbies, noobs, safety, tips, training, workout
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries, Weight Training | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Enhance Sports Performance with Resistance Training
Most athletes do whatever exercises are most beneficial for their sport of choice. Often, the focus of a workout regimen is geared towards the demands of the sport in question.
For example, marathon runners train by running, while cyclists – you guessed it – train by riding their bikes. But whether you play soccer or basketball, you’re big on Parkour, or your idea of a good time includes a kayak and white-water rapids, you may find, at some point that your training sessions are not delivering the results that they used to. Or perhaps you’ve found that you can’t seem to get over a personal plateau with a pure cardio routine.
Whatever the case, you may eventually come to the realization that adding weight training to your efforts could be beneficial to your overall health and fitness, taking you to the next level with whatever form of athletics you prefer. And here are just a few benefits that should help convince you to take the leap and lift some weights.
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Tags: athletes, athletics, fitness, performance, Sports, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Sports, Weight Training | No Comments »
Thursday, July 26th, 2012
HOW TO BUILD A REAL HOME GYM
You might, at one time or another, have considered building your own home gym but gave up on the idea because you were somewhat unsure of how to go about it. Constructing your own home gym is actually simple once you concentrate on acquiring the basic essentials and developing from there.
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Tags: equipment, exercise, Exercise Equipment, fitness, gym, home fitness, home gym, workout equipment
Posted in Exercise Equipment, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
Leg’s Day: A Workout Guide
Here is a brilliant leg training article from the team at JackedPack. If you don’t know, JackedPack is a membership subscription service that sends you a monthly box of the samples of the best in sports nutrition supplements.
You can subscribe for 50% off your first month by using the coupon code SWOLE at checkout.
One of the best feelings in the world is when someone says to you, “Oh my gosh, are those Giant Sequoias or are those your legs?” We hope that all JackedPack members and non-members alike are able to experience the satisfaction and benefits of leg strength and size, and that’s why we’ve dedicated this post to giving our lower extremities the attention they deserve. We want everybody to be squatting school buses and deadlifting beached wales back into the ocean. We have included a stellar legs day workout that incorporates some awesome exercises that are sure to have people singing Sir Mix-A-Lot every time you walk in a room.
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Tags: bodybuilding, build muscle, gain muscle, leg training, leg workout, legs, muscle gain, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Weight Training, Workout Routines | No Comments »
Friday, June 29th, 2012
Any physical activity makes you expend more energy and as a result, if you are an active person, you will burn fat. Normally, the body will transform carbohydrates into energy. However, fat is used as fuel for metabolism and movement.
You could also use thermogenic foods and supplements, such as caffeine and hot peppers, to facilitate faster results, but diet and high intensity exercise are the two top ways to lose weight fast.
Weight Training and Burning Fat
Aside from a sensible diet, your fat loss program should include physical activities such as weight training and conditioning drills. However, the training sessions should implement an appropriate fat loss strategy for optimal results. Training with heavier weights and fewer reps has shown in numerous studies to preserve muscle mass on a low calorie diet, increase strength, stimulate fat burning, and elevate metabolism.
It is a common myth that we should train with low weight and high reps when trying to lose fat – that strategy is just a prescription for strength and muscle loss.
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Tags: burn fat, cardio, fat loss, intensity, intervals, lose fat, lose weight, weight lifting, weight loss, Weight Training
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | No Comments »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Don’t let Your Workouts Get Stale!
Going to the gym and doing the same workout over and over again is a sure way to prevent progress when it comes on to muscle growth. Repetition is a surefire way to make progress… in moderation. Too much repetition will leave you tired, bored, sore, lazy, and overtrained. Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the necessity of having a properly designed fitness program.
Don’t let your progress plateau like this guy. |
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Tags: basics, exercise, fitness, plateau, tips, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Motivation, Weight Training | 4 Comments »
Friday, October 7th, 2011
OK, so the triceps kickbacks are not the king of all triceps exercises, but in a recent study performed by the American Council of Exercise (ACE), triceps kickbacks are ranked 2nd, tied with dips. The very best triceps exercise is the diamond push up.
Don’t underestimate this study just because I grabbed your attention by starting with kickbacks. The study also used legit exercises like close grip bench, dips, and various push downs and extensions. See the table below, and then I’ll explain.
|
Table 1
Average EMG of the Entire Movement (Concentric and Eccentric)
|
Triceps Exercise
|
Combined Means |
Long Head |
Lateral Head |
| Triangle Push-up |
100 |
100 |
100 |
Kickbacks
|
87 ± 26.58 |
88 ± 33.0 |
87 ± 23.7 |
Dips
|
87 ± 19.87 |
87 ± 21.3 |
88 ± 20.0 |
| Overhead Triceps Extensions |
76 ± 16.09 * |
81 ± 21.4 * |
72 ± 16.5 * |
| Rope Pushdowns |
74 ± 22.64 * |
81 ± 32.3 * |
67 ± 15.7 *† |
| Bar Pushdowns |
67 ± 20.48 * |
75 ± 29.3 * |
59 ± 14.3 *† |
| Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions |
62 ± 16.25 * |
70 ± 20.9 * |
55 ± 14.1 *† |
| Close Grip Bench Press |
62 ± 15.88 * |
61 ± 16.9 * |
63 ± 15.5 * |
* Significantly lower than the Triangle Push-up (p < 0.05)
† Significantly lower than the Long Head (p < 0.05)
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Posted in Best Exercises, Fitness Tips, Research, Weight Training | 14 Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
For those who still don’t believe Werewolf Muscle Training works, here is more support of my theory that increased frequency combined with stopping short of fatigue, produces equal if not better results that training a muscle once a week for an hour, with a ton of volume, going to failure on most sets.
The central nervous system is extremely important for performance, and should be stimulated aggressively and frequently, but should not often be fatigued. This also helps explain why you can train muscles when they’re sore… it works just as long as the CNS has recovered.
In this video you will find Christian Thibaudeau from T-Nation. He is way stronger than you or I, and he is just about as ripped as I could ever hope to be. A true inspiration.
“Never Chase Fatigue, Chase Performance”
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Tags: build muscle, build strength, fatigue, gain muscle, gain strength, muscle, performance, strength, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Fitness Tips, Quote of the Day, Videos, Weight Training | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
HIRT and Swolen is a High Intensity Resistance Training routine that you can use to either burn fat, build muscle, or maybe even both. It is a circuit of compound exercises performed back-to-back-to-back without rest (sometimes called a giant set), followed by a taxing abdominal superset.
You can use HIRT and Swolen twice a week with light weight in addition to your standard workout routine, if you are looking to get ripped. If your only goal is to build muscle, then use more weight and opt for 90 seconds rest between sets, but be careful not to overtrain if you are still performing your standard workout routine.
Prescription:
- 5 sets
- 5 reps per set
- no rest during the set, that means no rest between exercise and no rest between reps
- 1 rep means you have to complete each of the exercises back-to-back-to-back once
- Level 1: 90 seconds rest between sets
- Level 2: 60 seconds rest between sets
- Level 3: 30 seconds rest between sets
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Tags: circuit training, Conditioning, fat loss, fitness, hirt, lose fat, lose weight, Olympic lifts, resistance training, weight loss
Posted in Conditioning, HIRT Routines, Weight Training, Workout Routines | 13 Comments »
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Today’s society is keener on converting young athletes into peak performers overnight by just winning competitions. The people behind these young athletes i.e. parents and coaches, fail to understand that there is much more than just winning.
Peak performance is not only about winning a competition or two. The athletes should be able to perform well for a long while in their field of interest.
The training program thus, should comprise of a comprehensive plan that combines various elements pertaining to the body, mind and spirit, so as to improve the performance of the athletes both on and off the court. What are the factors to consider while devising such a training program?
Here are some tips for young athletes to achieve peak performance:
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Tags: athletes, fitness, Kids, performance, Sports, teenagers, young
Posted in Fitness Tips, Kids, Sports, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Eat Right, Train Right and You Can Have it All
A couple days ago I posted the first 5 reasons you are not gaining weight. Here are 5 more reasons you are not gaining weight. Check out the first article if you missed it: 10 Reasons You Are Not Gaining Weight Part 1
Peep these second 5 five items in my list of 10 possible ways you could be sabotaging your muscle building plan.
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Too Much Cardio
To lose fat while maintaining muscle, you’ll want to stick to 2, thirty minute HIIT sessions; and 1, forty five minute endurance session in a week. Adding HIIT like that will help you to elevate your metabolism, which increases fat loss, and will keep cortisol levels in check to preserve existing muscle mass. The HIIT should be a max sprint for an interval of 30-60 seconds, followed by a light jog interval for twice the length of your sprint interval (60-120 seconds).
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Tags: bodybuilding, exercise, fitness, gain mass, gain muscle, mistakes, muscle, muscle building, muscles, strength, tips
Posted in Bodybuilding, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | 6 Comments »
Monday, July 18th, 2011
I am not going to get into a long detailed post today. Instead I am going to supplement my top 6 back training mistakes post with another guest post about back training by expert Mike Robertson. I’m not cool enough to get Mike to post on my website though, so I have to link to the post from another blog entirely.
Find it here: 3 back training mistakes you could be making.
Mike tells you how people go wrong by training without a neutral spine, without a neutral pelvis, and without paying attention to detail. This is just another example of how every aspect of your physiology has to be healthy and aligned, or you risk injury.
About Mike Robertson
Mike Robertson received his Masters Degree in Sports Biomechanics from the world-renowned Human Performance Lab at Ball State University. He is also the president of Robertson Training Systems and the co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training, which has been named one of America’s Top 10 Gyms by Men’s Health magazine in 2009 and 2010.
About Rick Kaselj
Since the guest post is actually posted on his site, this is a lead in to another awesome fitness blogger, a guy named Rick Kaselj who is an expert on sports injuries. Hopefully he will write a couple guest posts for Project Swole soon. I’ve requested some serious rehab / prehab articles and I know if he can find the time to write them, you will be amazed.
Tags: back, exericse, fitness, injury, mistakes, spine, Sports, training, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Plyos, Olympic Lifts, and Dynamic Efforts are not the Only Ways to Increase Speed and Power
Strength coaches around the world prescribe plyometrics and Olympic lifts to increase force production – to build speed and power. Powerlifters around the world utilize dynamic effort lifts – box squats, speed deads, board presses – to increase their speed and power.
We can all learn A LOT from those methods, but there is one constituent of force development that the above methods don’t take into account. Consider reversal and/or starting strength, acceleration, and stretch reflex actions of the muscles that act as the antagonists to the primary sports movement.
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Tags: agonists, antagonists, athletes, concentric, eccentric, force, muscle, power, speed, Sports, strength, weightlifting
Posted in Martial Arts, Sports, Weight Training | 6 Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2011
I finally joined a gym that’s worth blogging about. It is called Powerzone Fitness and it’s located in Hooksett, NH.
Check out their website here: Powerzone Fitness and their Yahoo Local page with a 5 star rating and 4 glorious reviews here: Powerzone in Hooksett, NH
Why is Powerzone Fitness the best gym in NH?
- It is open 24×7. You get in after hours with an access card.
- No one is ever there. Turn the lights and fans on, crank your own music on the radio.
- No crazy meat heads taking up all the machines. It’s like the opposite of Gold’s Gym in Manchester, NH. If you ever go there you’ll know what I mean.
- It is owned by a former powerlifter. That means you can deadlift, lift over your head, and grunt without getting in trouble.
- They supply the chalk. Like using chalk when you deadlift or do Olympic lifts? They have a box of chalk beside the power rack.
- The have a power rack. They have a smith machine too, but they only use it for shrugs.
- Dumbbells up to 120 lbs. Not bad.
- They have a reverse hyper machine! It’s old, but it works.
- Training at Powerzone is like working out in your own personal basement gym, except they actually have all the equipment you could need.
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Tags: Business, gym, gyms, Powerzone
Posted in Bodybuilding, Business, Product Reviews, Weight Training | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Would you rather look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Chris Hemsworth in Thor? Fitness model or super hero?
The Fight Club fitness look comes from eating little food, doing lots of cardio, and lifting light weights for high reps. Is that really what you want? I’m going to guess that most Swole readers would prefer the Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman look.
So how did Hemsworth transition from the fitness look to the super hero look? The simple answer is, lots of protein and heavy compound weight lifting. Just like Werewolf Muscle Training and Swole 3×5.
Let me tell you a little more about the Chris Hemsworth Thor workout.
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Tags: bulk, celebrity, Chris Hemsworth, gain muscle, movies, ripped, Thor, training, workout
Posted in Celebrity, Weight Training, Workout Routines | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Along with pull ups, rowing is one of the best exercises to train the back. The king of rowing exercises is the standing barbell row, but the problem is that too few people perform them properly.
You might see the following common technique flaws in people executing barbell rows:
- standing upright – you gotta bend over just short of 90 degrees
- rounded back – lower back weakness or hip tightness can cause this
- momentum – using the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings for momentum
You can fix all of these issues by changing your barbell row into an inverted row. The inverted row is not a perfect replacement for the barbell row – it removes posterior chain stabilization from the movement and limits the load you can use – but it is a suitable replacement if you need one, and believe it or not it gives us yet another reason to accept the existence of the Smith Machine… OK, maybe not.
Let’s find out why and how to use inverted rows in our training routines.
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Tags: back, back muscles, back strength, back training, exercise, exercise technique, fitness, inverted rowing, inverted rows, rowing, rows, technique, workout
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
How to do Box Jumps
Box jumps are a great exercise for your legs, and can be performed on just about any variable flat surface. They hit your posterior chain – calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings – pretty hard.
Box jumps can be used for cardio workouts, neural activation training (NAT), high intensity resistance training (HIRT), and high intensity interval training (HIIT) circuits. They are often used in CrossFit WODs (Workout of the Day), and are a staple exercise in plyometric training. Plyometrics have a wide range of athletic and real sporting applications; they are used, for example, to increase jumping ability, leg strength, hip drive, and explosiveness.
Box jumps are a simple movement. They require you only to jump from one flat surface up onto another flat surface, then either step or jump back down, depending on the purpose of the exercise.
What if You Can’t Perform Box Jumps?
To excel at box jumps, you have to develop strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination and balance. Without a basic foundation in these core exercise stills, you should not attempt a box jump, and whatever you do, don’t follow the box jump tips at eHow unless you never want to know how to do proper box jumps.
Be sure you are comfortable with bodyweight squats. If you can’t do bodyweight squats then you’ve got a real problem and should not be attempting box jumps.
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Tags: ankles, box jumps, calves, glutes, hamstrings, hips, jumping, knees, legs, plyometrics, posterior chain, quadriceps, quads
Posted in Conditioning, Exercise Technique, Weight Training, Workout of the Day | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 25th, 2011
How to do Chin-ups
Chin-ups are a basic exercise that you were probably taught early in your life, possibly as a kid. They are pretty simple, and fairly difficult, though not as hard as pull-ups.
To perform a chin-up, hang on to any bar, doorway, tree branch, etc… with your arms straight and your palms facing towards you. Using your back and biceps, pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar. It’s that simple.
Chin-ups can be performed on anything that allows you to hang with your arms straight and your knees not touching the floor.
Beginners usually can’t perform many chin-up, if any. This post intends to be a proper tutorial for increasing chin-up strength using optimal chin-up technique.
Proper Chin-up Technique
Now that you know how to perform a chin-up, let’s examine proper chin-up technique.
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Tags: back training, chin-ups, chinups, exercise, exercise technique, fitness, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 3 Comments »
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