The Super-Short Workout and Other Fitness Trends - NYTimes.com

The Super-Short Workout and Other Fitness Trends - NYTimes.com

By Gretchen Reynolds

December 31, 2014 12:01 am
December 31, 2014 12:01 am

Photo

Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times, Willie Davis for The New York TImes and Buda Mendes/Getty Images

The big story in exercise science this year was the super-short workout.

In one particularly
useful study from May, scientists found that three brief sessions per
day of interval-style exercise — consisting of one minute of brisk
walking followed by another minute of strolling, repeated six times —
allowed people at risk of diabetes to control their blood sugar better
than a continuous 30-minute walk.

Just as important, these short “exercise snacks,”
as the scientists called the condensed sessions, were more popular with
the study’s participants than the single, longer walk, the scientists
reported. They liked finishing quickly.

That sentiment likewise explains the popularity of the “Scientific 7-Minute Workout,” which I first wrote about in 2013 and updated this fall with an advanced version and a related app. Similarly, many of you were intrigued by a July study detailing how running as little as five minutes a day
might add years to someone’s life span. “Most people can fit in five
minutes a day” of exercise, one of the study’s authors told me.

But should even that time commitment seem excessive, scientists obligingly developed and tested a one-minute workout
this year, with three 20-second intervals of very hard exercise leading
to robust improvements in the endurance and health of the study’s
overweight, out-of-shape volunteers.

There is naturally a
catch to such truncated workouts, however. In each of these studies, the
exertion involved was intense. The volunteers panted and strained,
albeit briefly. Their strenuous exercise seemed to invoke “more potent”
physiological responses than gentler activity, one of the researchers
involved in the exercise-snacking study said.

A nifty June study helps to explain why. In that experiment,
mice that were pushed to run hard on running wheels developed
distinctly different biochemical responses within their muscle cells
than other animals and these differences translated into larger,
healthier muscles. The study’s lesson, its lead author concluded, is
that sometimes you need to “get out of your body’s comfort zone.” But
only, thankfully, for a minute or five.

Activate The Chest When You Bench Press | NattyOrNot.com

Activate The Chest When You Bench Press | NattyOrNot.com

On paper the bench press is supposed to
be a chest, triceps and shoulder exercise. However, since it’s a
compound movement that involves many muscle group, sometimes one of the
muscles will be lagging and performing less work. Often that’s the
chest. Many people develop bigger arms
and shoulders from bench presses alone, but there chests remain flat
and underdeveloped. In this article we will show you how to activate
your chest when doing the bench press.

1.Lower the amount of weight you are lifting

You ego may hate it, but in order to
learn proper technique you need to lower the weight. If the weight is
too heavy, chances are you will focus mainly on lifting the barbell in
anyway possible. This is called ego lifting and is the reason why your dominant body parts take over. Lower the weight and start working on your bench press technique.

Pectoralis major muscle

2.Grab the bar really hard

When you hold the bar as hard as you can
you are forming a strong base and increase the muscle tension. In this
case that’s good because unlike sports such as swimming lifting weights
is about strength, and tension is required. When you hold the bar harder
you immediately improve your strength because less of it is lost in the
nothingness when you push-up. You will feel tension going down from
your forearms, into your biceps and even in your chest by just holding
the bar tight.

Squeeze!

3.Lower the bar under control

Don’t just let the bar crash on your
chest. Hold it tight and lower it under control. A great deal of people
only care about the lifting part but the negative (lowering) is just as
important since it prepares you for the actual pushing phase. If you are
not tight and don’t lower the weight under control, you are losing
strength. Your joints are also compromised. Be in control of the weight
as much as it allows you.

4.Stick your chest out, arch your back

Excessive arching of your spine is
counter productive. However, you need some of it to stretch your chest
and sort of pre-load it. Stick your chest out, keep your shoulders
pressing against the bench and flex your lats in order to stabilize the
shoulder blades in place. Keep your shoulders tight all the time. If you
let your shoulder lose its tightness, you are putting it in a
compromised position where it’s separated from your torso. That’s
weakness and possible injury may occur. If you do the bench press
correctly, you will feel your lats working really hard to stabilize the
weight, keep the arch and reduce the unnecessary mobility of the
shoulder joint.

5.Don’t keep your elbows too close to your body

You shouldn’t keep your elbows your
elbows too close to your body. Flare your elbows to the sides a little.
This will keep the stretch of the pectoral muscles. If your elbows are
tucked too close to your body, you are sort of reducing the tension on
your chest muscles and placing more of the load on the front deltoids
and upper arms. However, don’t flare your arms too much either because
flared elbows and wide grip will kill your shoulders in a heartbeat. Somewhere in the middle is the best.

6.On the way up imagine that you are trying to bring your arms together

While all other points are important,
this one makes all the difference. When you are pushing the weight up
imagine that you are trying you bring your hands together. DON’T
ACTUALLY DO IT! Just imagine it. It helps if you visualize a spring
being squeezed between your hands. If you do this technique correctly,
it will give you a great chest pump. You can even do it when you are
performing other exercises such as push-ups and dumbbell bench presses.

Combining Bodyweight And Weight Training | NattyOrNot.com

Combining Bodyweight And Weight Training | NattyOrNot.com

Instead of wondering what’s better: bodyweight exercises or weight
training, why not combine both? Bodyweight exercises can build
a super strong upper body and abs, as seen among gymnasts,
while full body barbell exercises build the hips and the legs.
Combination of both is one of the most effective ways to do business on
the muscle exchange market. It saves you money while keeping the value
high. Muscles traders have no choice but to love it.

As we’ve said many times exercises like push-ups, dips, pull-ups,
muscle-ups and their advanced forms such as planche push-ups, front
levers…etc. can really develop a muscular upper body. You can truly
reach your genetic potential
without ever doing a single bench press set or a barbell row. The
classic bodyweight exercises are more than enough to make the chest,
arms, back, abs and lower back as strong as naturally possible.

However, the downside of bodyweight training is that there are no
exercises such as the deadlift, for example, which works 90% of the
musculature in your body at the same time. While movements like the
glute ham raise are cute, the hips can benefit a lot from true overload
that can only be achieved through exercises such as squats, deadlifts
and their friends.

Even the skeletal system benefits from the heavy iron. People who
squat have extremely dense femur bones and overall skeletal system. When
you’re young you may not care about bones density, but sooner or later
we all get worn out. It may be hard to see it right now, but in about 50
years Justin Bieber will be an old man too.

The classical approach to do this gangsta mix is to remove all upper
body exercises you do in the gym, and go there only for squats, Romanian
deadlifts, deadlifts, leg presses…etc.
This will save you a lot of money from gym memberships and
transportation. An example routine would look something like this:

****

Day 1: Upper Body;

Dips – 5 sets;

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Lower body and hips

Squat – 5 sets;

Leg press – 5 sets;

Calves – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Upper body;

Pull-ups – 5 sets;

Horizontal rows – 5 sets;

Back hyper-extensions – 5 set;

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

The above routine does not have weak links. Everything is worked
pretty hard and you’re in the gym only once a week. Of course, there are
many ways to mix things. If you are more advanced, you may add some weighted pull-ups and chin-ups to your gym sessions. Here’s another example routine:

****

Ex. 1 (no squats)

Day 1: Back/Deadlift day

Deadlift – 1-2 working sets;

Weighted pull-ups – 3 sets;

Dumbbell rows – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Chest/Pushing day

Dips – 5 sets; (take a backpack with you);

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Lower body speed training;

Sprints/Plyometrics

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

Ex. 2 (squats and deadlifts)

Day 1: Squat/Leg day

Squats – 5 sets;

Leg press – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Chest/Pushing day

Dips – 5 sets; (take a backpack with you);

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Back/Deadlift day

Deadlift – 1-2 working sets;

Weighted pull-ups – 3 sets;

Dumbbell rows – 5 sets;

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

In order to come up with a routine that works for you, you first need
to set your current goals straight and write a plan that allows
adequate recovery. You may be able to do a lot more than what the
described above routine suggest. However, if you feel you are not
recovering, don’t be afraid to remove a few sets/exercises or add a
couple of rest days as described here.

I never write routines with intention that they will work for
everybody. In fact, I think that most routines I write suck big time,
but I just use them to illustrate the principles I present to you.


FAQ:

What about the bench press?

When you are doing heavy dips, muscle-ups and working on advanced
skills such as the planche, there is about zero need to do bench presses
unless you are a powerlifter or just want to have a really strong bench
press for some other reason. If that’s the case, you should use the
bodyweight drills only as assistance exercises while treating the bench
press as your main lift.

To summarize:

– Bodyweight exercises are the best when it comes to upper body training.

– The hips can benefit a lot from heavy weight exercises like the deadlift and the squat.

– Counting on bodyweight exercises to build your upper body will reduce your gym membership and transportation costs.

– You can use your gym days to do weighted dips and pull-ups.

Rep Ranges 101 – What You Need To Know To Grow | How To Beast

Rep Ranges 101 – What You Need To Know To Grow | How To Beast








The following is a guest post from SJ at www.IgnoreLimits.com.
I really like his style – honest, straightforward advice that’s geared
towards real people (ie. not steroided-up bodybuilders). For more from
SJ, check out his site at www.IgnoreLimits.com.



10 reps?

It seems to be the magic number, if you’ve hired a personal trainer,
read a workout regime in a men’s health or bodybuilding magazine chances
are you were told to do X number of sets, each set containing 10 reps.

Now, here’s the thing…

As a natural gym-goer (aka. Someone who does not ‘supplement’ with anabolic steroids) there’s a far more efficient way to train and progress.



Train in the single digit rep ranges !

If you’re like me – a normal guy with average genetics, looking to
build both size and strength naturally you cannot go past the 4 – 7 rep
range for your major compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead
press etc.)

You’re probably thinking that’s all well and good but…



“What about when I want to get shredded, should I be doing 12 – 15 reps per set?”



Regardless of whether you are in a cutting or bulking phase your
workout does not need to change at all, you won’t get increased
vascularity or striations by performing a higher number of repetitions,
that’s a load of crap. I keep my rep structure the same all year round
and simply manipulate my caloric intake based on whether I want to gain
mass (calorie surplus) or burn fat (calorie deficit).

Performing higher reps when attempting to lose fat is a surefire way
to lose muscle mass, in order to preserve as much mass as possible you
need to lift HEAVY. 



I’m certainly not the first person to advocate lifting heavy for fewer reps…

“If you must use dumbbells for daily training, use heavy ones
with fewer repetitions rather than light bells with numerous
repetitions” – Arthur Saxon, 1906

Now, you may still think high reps are beneficial, but let me tell you they’re far from it.



High repetitions result in increased stress on your CNS, increase in localized inflammation and increased soreness.



This ideology dates back a long way

“Movements or exercises that do not give the muscle the required
resistance, but are the kind that involve a great number of repetitions,
never break down any tissue, to speak of. These movements involve a
forcing process that cause the blood to swell up the muscle, and simply
pump them up”– 



George F. Jowett, 1926

I highly recommend you give low rep training a try! If you’re new to
low rep training it’s worth noting that you will not get the immense
‘pumps’ you may be used to from performing hi rep training.

So you have an idea of exactly what a low rep workout regime may look
like, here’s a sample of the chest workout I performed a couple of
hours ago:



Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

5 sets x 4 – 6 reps



Flat Barbell Bench Press

5 sets x 4 – 6 reps



For an addictive training routine and dietary approach to building more muscle and burning more fat check out my new book “Shredded Beast”.