Fixing fitness
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG IS TO EDUCATE THOSE WHO OPT INTO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IN ORDER TO HELP THEM MAINTAIN or IMPROVE THIS LIFESTYLE.
For those who are new to lifting, a workout split is the way that you divide the muscle groups to be worked (if at all). Generally, those with weight loss goals will normally use a full body workout (for a longer period of time fewer times a week) and will only use a split occasionally in order to maintain strength. For those with other goals, you'll need to decide how many times a week you can lift, what parts of your body are lacking in your goals (whether it is strength or hypertrophy based), and what your goals are.
Generally, body builders and power lifters use any number of splits under the category of "muscle split" dividing muscle groups based on several factors. Some factors include a muscles general region, smaller muscle groups (stabilizers) that aid in the muscles movements (think pectoralis major and triceps), and muscles that work in the opposite direction (agonist-antagonist relationship). A power lifter may use a very simple example split such as Monday - (Chest/triceps), Tuesday - off, Wednesday - (back/biceps), Thursday - off, Friday - (legs/shoulders), Sat/Sunday - off. This is due to the fact that power lifters normally take more time to recover as this sort of lifting stresses your CNS (central nervous system) more than hypertrophy based lifting. A bodybuilder may use what is called an "agonist-antagonist" split. This split works opposing muscle groups (set 1: bench, set 2: bent over rows) in order to achieve a greater stretch of both muscle groups while working its opposite. This might look like; Monday - Horizontal push/pull (chest/back), Tuesday- legs(quads/hamstrings), Wednesday - off, Thursday - vertical push/pull (shoulder, lats), Friday - Arms (biceps/triceps). This split could eventually be condensed to three days and repeated twice a week. A power builder (power lifter/ body builder) may use a push/pull split. This separates pushing and pulling motions into separate days. This may look something like this; Monday - heavy pull, Tuesday - heavy push, Wednesday - off, Thursday - light pull*, Friday - light push, Saturday - off, Sunday - Heavy pull, Monday - heavy push, etc. etc. *Some lifters may make Thursday light push/pull day in order to only do 5 workouts in an 8 day period. You would use Friday as an extra rest day. Thursday could also act as a "stretch" day using light exercises to shred the muscles that extra bit for more hypertrophy.
0 Comments
There are three main set and rep ranges to match the three main goals: 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps for power-lifting, 3 sets of 8 to 10 for bodybuilding, and 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps for weight-loss. Sets of 3 to 5 reps mainly consist the mind learning to recruit more muscle fibers during your lift. Sets of 8 to 10 cause the cells in your muscle fibers to get larger. Sets of 10 to 15 will train a muscle group to failure and will cause you to use more energy than the other two.
However, these are just general guidelines. No professional power-lifters do only sets of 3 to 5 reps during their sessions just as no one trying to lose weight will only work in the 10 to 15 rep range. The 8 to 10 range seems to be a sweet spot for me personally and after a month or so of that, I have one cycle each of power-lifting and higher reps. Sometimes, I use low rep ranges in my compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press) to stimulate testosterone production in my body and then move on to isolation exercises to work a muscle group until failure. Every person needs to try to find the rep range that works the best for their goals. There are techniques such as the 5x5, the pyramid training (see next paragraph), and the most popular 3x10. The pyramid set consists of starting at a weight that you can do for 15 reps, then one for 12, then 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps. This is usually used to gain both strength and muscle and should be used sparingly as training to failure every cycle can severely stress your body. The 5x5 is usually just a strength range but can cause people to gain muscle. The idea is that people can experiment with these guidelines to develop their own set and rep range that work best for them. As far as safety is concerned, beginners should start in a higher rep range (10 to 12) especially when attempting a new compound exercise until your form has been perfected. The best way to do this is to simply google the exercise and the word "form" (EX: proper squat form) and analyze videos until you think you know the key points that you need to remember. Next, before putting any weight on the bar, you need to perform the exercise while someone else watches (or record yourself from an angle that let's you view your form properly) and tweak your form until it's perfect. After you've done this for awhile, you can load a LIGHT weight on the bar and do the same thing. You'll become more in tune with your body and will be able to tell when a weight is too light or too heavy and you'll know, before you attempt a lift, a realistic estimate of how many reps you can do. There are three main goals that people seek to achieve through weight training or other physical activity. These three goals are hypertrophy (building muscle), gaining strength, or weight loss. Many people assume that any body builder will be weak, or that a strength lifter will LOOK weak, but this is not always the case. However, they must develop a workout program that won't leave them huge but useless or small and strong.
The best thing to do before building a workout program is to decide what goals you hope to achieve. For example, you may want to lose body fat and gain muscle mass or you may decide that you want to gain muscle mass and strength. This choice will decide a few things that I'll address in my next blog post. Even within these three, there are many other goals such as toning muscle, improving athletic performance, or increasing health but for our purposes, we'll want to address the main three. If any readers want to know which of the three their goals fit into, they should feel free to submit the question via the question submission form on the home page. Describe what you genius hour project would look like if you could make it the very best it could be.
At its peak, my project could impact the lives of teen athletes in the Kingsford community. I would like to speak to coaches within the school to advocate the use of my website to improve the understanding of sports by student athletes. They could learn more about the sports that they play and how they can better their technique through weigh lifting. This project could be a tool for these teens to break through difficult plateaus and increase their fitness after collecting info from the different blog posts. I'm going to gather information on both the psychology and biochemistry behind human physicality and make this information available. This would include learning about proper weight lifting technique, nutrition, and development. |
AuthorMy name is Conor Getty and I'm a student at KHS. I have always enjoyed being active, as many children do, but I continue to seek out an active lifestyle to lay down new precedents for myself every day. After seeing the effects of a sedative lifestyle, I will work every day to reach a new peak in my life. Archives
June 2017
Categories |