Fitness advice
Health vs. Appearance
Stephen James
I’m not going against the people who say seeing is believing. You want to be able to look into the mirror after finishing a set and think “I look so much better than I did five minutes ago.” That’s where a lot of the motivation comes from in the weight room. In fact, to be honest the real reason why I started working out in the first place was for the look. I would even stay in the weight room after football or soccer practice trying to push through as many “dips” or “skull-crushers” as I could if it meant my triceps would look a little more intimidating on the field the next day.
As time went on, I realized that I was spending a lot of time working on my body. The issue was even though I knew how to work out, it felt strange to spend so much time practicing something that I didn’t fully understand. Now it’s 2010 and I’ve learned more than enough about the muscular and skeletal systems than I ever thought I would. The only problem is now whenever I go to the gym, I want to approach everyone who appears to lack the same knowledge and toss some suggestions. I won’t because, yes, I would also hate to have some 19 year old kid come up to me and start telling me how to work out.
I see a lot of guys at the gym that walk up to the dumbbells, grab the 45’s and start banging out sets of seven or eight in bicep curls. Then they’ll walk over to the bench and “skull-crush” until they shed tears. Yeah, that’s great… But I’ll see the same guys do this five out of the five days they work out. The big shock: the weight they’re lifting never seems to increase. Quite simply a tragic misunderstanding of how the human body responds to exercise.
No matter whom the person is, muscle fibers need time to replenish and return back to a “fresh” state. If I bench 245 on Monday and then go back Tuesday and try to bench 245 again, chances are I’m not going to do as well. But if I bench 245 on Monday, do a full range cardio workout on Tuesday, and bench 245 again on Wednesday then I should be able to increase weight from that point. It’s the concept that muscles will work hard only to come back stronger than before. This is true, but they need time to return to their healed “fresh” state. As well, don’t be afraid to experiment with different workouts. The more variety in your routine, the better the results are going to be.
This is a concept that a lot of people do seem to be aware of. So if this is all old news to you, please excuse the review. I see so many people who practice the same exercise’s every day, so maybe it’s a matter of finding other physical activities to fill in between.
This brings me to the point I’ve been leading up to from the beginning: the look. It really feels (for lack of a better word) AWESOME to look in the mirror and actually see the improvement you’ve made. For some people that’s fine. But for others it might be time to focus on something new. I’m talking to the people who work out like I used to: all free weights/bench and no cardio/aerobic.
Noticing the change in arm or shoulder size is definitely exciting. It’s almost so exciting that you want to be able to notice it every day you work out. This directly leads to people forgetting about the other exercise’s which aren’t necessarily going to make them bigger. Cardio activity can have such a huge impact on, not just the average person’s lifestyle, but also that of the heavy-weight lifter. People seem to forget that the more strenuous activity your heart is capable of handling, the better lifting sessions will be. Sometimes you feel like your arms can handle another two reps of military press, but you’re panting for breath and you cut the set off there. If the heart doesn’t have to work as hard, more energy is stored and improvement is experienced much faster.
There’s a trend that’s been started which causes people to lose focus on the exercise’s which actually improve health and only concentrate on the ones that improve physical appeal. I became a personal trainer to give people both experiences. There’s no better gift than good health, and the look that happens to come with it is just a monster bonus.
Once again, two subjects that a lot of people do seem to be familiar with but aren’t often practiced. If you fell asleep reading this, my apologies. If this has sparked any new ideas for anyone to improve their workouts, right on.
Stephen has been training in Boston for over a year and had success helping his clients achieve their goals.
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