Gym Zodiac

If this offends anyone, I apologize, it is just a joke kind of thing that most of you can relate to the other people you see when working out.  Keep in mind these are all in the context of the gym and try to LAUGH, its an important part of your health too! 


Gazelle - you may as well be attached to the treadmill, you run for hours And never lift weights, but will occasionally switch cardio machines. 

Gorilla - you walk around with your chest pumped up and make lots of noise while lifting and also in between sets, you have great muscular structure but can sometimes be rather unintelligent.  


Cat - you are somewhat spastic when working out, all of you movements look awkward, your form sucks because your back is always arched.  
Raccoon - you wear lots of make-up to the gym and are very nosey, you pick things up, look at them and put them back down; and occasionally you take other peoples food. 

Chimpanzee - the curious one, watches and imitates people's exercises and workouts, and occasionally you will eat a banana post-workout, but only because you saw some else doing so.

Zebra - all you try to do when you come to the gym is blend in. 

Parrot - you fly from exercise to exercise, however, your main objective is talking.


Owl - you always go to the gym late at night when no one is around. 


Wolf - you travel in packs, never come to the gym alone, and you follow the alpha male. 


Frog - the only thing you do in the gym is jump... jump... jump, so much plyometrics. 


Turtle - slow and steady wins the race?, well when you stay on one machine for what seems like an hour, I'm not so sure you are getting a very good workout, try changing things up, for everyone's sake.


Snake - you are very sneaky and sometimes creep around the gym, you aren't necessarily mean or rude, but you usually don't speak to many people, and not many people know you.


Goldfish - you are in your own world, slow mover depending on your mood, big googly eyes and yet you still never see any one waving at you to say hi. 


Human being - you come to the gym to workout, you work hard and get things accomplished, you aren't rude, and only talk to people when appropriate (not during sets!), you enjoy working out and it one of the best times of your day, you come in with a plan of your workout for the day and you get it done and leave. 

Blueberry Bliss

Blueberry Protein Muffins - 4 scoops myofusion vanilla - 1 whole egg - 5 egg whites - ½ cup egg beaters - ½ cup greek yogurt - 1 cup blueberries - 1 tsp baking soda - 4 tbsp milled flax - 1 ½ cups blended oats (food processor until flour consistency) - 3 tbsp cinnamon Makes about 18 muffins w/ the following macros (approximated): Protein: 8g Carb: 8g Fat: 1.5g Calories: 75 1. Mix all dry ingredients into a large bowl. 2. Add in liquid ingredients and stir until makes even batter. 3. Add large spoonful into muffin cups in muffin pan 4. Bake on 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes or until done.

Crazytown, Population: ME. Effects of Stress on the Body

In honor of exams, pop quiz time.  What is the one thing that everybody has, nobody wants, and with time we all get more.  It is dynamic, always changing, and unique to the individual.  It is a five letter word sometimes preceded by a four letter word, haha yep you guessed it, STRESS!

Stress is the major enemy in all of our lives.  Good stress, bad stress, too much stress, not enough stress, stress, stress, stress.  As a bodybuilder and athlete, stress has detrimental effects on my body’s ability to build and maintain muscle mass.  Working out extremely hard is a double edge sword.  Bodybuilders must be cautious of training hard and keeping the workouts to an optimal time and intensity to ensure enough rest post workout and also to avoid complete depletion intra workout.  This is an example of physical stressors on the body, but we all know that mental stressors can be just as difficult, if not worse at times.  Cortisol is the hormone that is often associated with physical and even mental stressors that you experience. 

So, before we can go into detail about how Cortisol can affect your workout and training progression lets learn a little about cortisol and the physiology behind it.  Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands via influence of other endocrine glands secretions.  This secretion of influencing hormones is stimulated by intense physical exercise.   It is important to note however, that intense physical exercise such as heavy resistance training is necessary to produce muscle hypertrophy and physically visible changes in muscle mass.  But the proper and optimal level of intensity need be determined to prevent over training, which could be result of continuously elevated cortisol levels in the absence of proper and adequate nutrition.  Normal when the body experiences physical exertion, it uses fuel sources in the following order, carbohydrate, fat, protein.  However, with intense physical exercise such as heavy weight lifting this order is thrown out the window and is actually reversed.  The more intense the exercise the higher the protein degradation is, thus creating a catabolic effect.  The catabolic effects of cortisol can negated the anabolic effect of resistance training if the athlete is not aware of the intensity of the workouts, proper rest and nutrition.  Being a bodybuilding we basically have this phobia of all things catabolic or anything that will result in less muscle mass than we already have.  That being said, it is important for us to reduce the amount of mental stress we experience so that our training can get dibs, for a lack of better words, on our energy and thus resulting in an overall lower stress and cortisol production within the body. 

Cortisol levels are also the method behind the madness of the infamous post workout shake! Because cortisol is released when the blood glucose level is low and aims to produce an energy source by breaking down muscle into amino acids, you can negate this by eating as soon as possible after you finish your workout.   By eating you are introducing an alternative energy source for your body to derive fuel from instead of catabolism of your muscle tissue! 

I know this is a very, very simple over view of the mechanism of action of cortisol but I try to put into simpler terms so that you can understand and get enough out of the science information before you give up on reading what its about.  But if you have any further questions regarding the topic I would be glad to try to answer your questions.  So, don’t be afraid to ask more questions, but in the mean time just try to stress less! 

Recipes Mania

Sometimes I like to start my day off with a little cardio and then food prep for the next few days.  Today I got creative and whipped up a ton of new recipes on the fly! They turned out amazing so I thought I would share all three of them with you this morning.

Recipe #1 - Sweet Mexican Tilapia

Ingredients:

-       -  Mango Peach Salsa

-       -  1 ½ lbs tilapia

-       -  lemon juice

-       -  black beans 1 can

Directions

1.    1.  Get a bake safe rectangular dish to put the fish in.

2.    2. Put the fish in this dish with a dash of lemon juice in the bottom.  (this is preference but I have found that it keeps the fishy odor to a minimum and also doesn’t allow the fish to dry out).

3.     3. Atop the fish put however much Mango Peach Salsa that you would like.

4.     4. Also for a little extra kick I added Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle spice on top.

5.     5. Bake on 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes

6.   6.   Plate with black means and additional salsa.

Recipe #2 – Almond Crusted Chicken

Ingredients

-       - handful of plain dry roasted almonds

-       - 1 ½ lbs chicken

-       - 1 packet Justin’s maple almond butter

-       - 1 tbsp mustard

-       -  2 tbsp vinegar

-       -  1 tbsp soy sauce

-      -   lemon juice

-      -   4 tbsp water

Directions

1.    1. Use bake safe dish to cook the chicken in.

2.     2. Place chicken in bake safe dish with a dash of lemon juice in the bottom (keeps the chicken from drying out too much).

3.     3. Now mix in a separate small bowl all the other ingredients.  This makes a sauce that you can now pour over your chicken.

4.    4.  Blend up the dry roasted almonds in food processor and drizzle over the coated chicken.

5.    5. Bake on 350 for 25 – 30 minutes.

6.    6.  Plate and server with favorite veggies and glass of water!

Recipe #3 – Broccoli Egg Bake

Ingredients

-       -  4 egg whites

-       -  1 cup broccoli

-       -  ½  red/yellow peppers

-       -  1 tbsp feta cheese (reduced fat)

-      -   1 – 2 tbsp low fat Mexican mixed cheese

-       -  cooking spray

-       -  Bake-able bowl (example: Corning Ware)

Directions

1.     1. Spray bake safe dish with cooking spray.

2.     2. Crack egg whites into a bake safe dish.

3.     3. Pre-steam the broccoli so that it is soft and easy to cut up.  I usually just toss it in the microwave in a covered glass dish so its easy to steam.

4.     4. Chop or mash up proccoli and add to the eggs in the bake safe dish

5.    5.  Also add the peppers and feta cheese.

6.     6. Stir up these ingredients and top with the 2% Mexican mixed cheese (optional).

7.    7.  Bake on 350 for about 15 minutes.

8.    8.  Ready to eat when comes out of the oven! BE careful though its HOT!

Hope you all enjoy these recipes today!

Gym Etiquette/Tips For Your Safety AND Ours

So this was a blog that I was almost sure I wouldn't find the need to rewrite about, however, time and time again adults have proven their foolishness in gym on a regular basis. The sad part is, it's only part foolishness and the other part is either straight up rudeness or ignorance. I like to give people the benefit of doubt so let's pretend they are just ignorant. And if you are those people reading this, just consider yourself briefly educated by the end of this article!

That being said lets start off with some simple etiquette tips. Mirrors. Mirrors are located conveniently in the gym on the walls so you can look at your beautiful self while you workout. Most importantly I recommend their use for being able to concentrate on your form!  I'm sure you can use them to check your make-up and do your hair but do that at home! More importantly next time you step in front of the mirror to watch yourself, be aware of other people.  I realize your ego may not have quite fit through the door when you walked in, but next time leave it in the car! Don't step right in front of people's line of sight in the mirrors!

So this next one I get most heated and amped up about so, excuse my excitement ahead of time.  My biggest pet peeve and what I think to be flat out inconsiderate is coming up to someone and striking up a conversation in the middle of a set! If you've done this to someone before please refrain from doing so in the future. It's for your own safety I assure you.  I have made plenty of friends at the gym, however, it is a gym and I go to work so ideally I am going to workout, not talk, and especially not at the same time.

So one more tip. I realize this I only three tips, but the last one got me pretty worked up so I'll have to think of more later and come out with an etiquette part 2 soon.  This is a tip for all you crazies who come to the gym seemingly not to work out. You will get more done if you don't read while working out, and no in not talking about on cardio equipment. Yes, this has happened, reading a BOOK while lifting on machines. I am all for multitasking don't get me wrong, but for your safety and courtesy to others I think you shouldn't read while on machines.  It results in you staying on machines entirely too long.

Oh and maybe just one more quick one. If you're gonna do karate, kickboxing, Kung-fu, tae kwon do, or whatever that craziness is, at least go in the aerobics room. No one wants to watch your untamed body fly around the gym or make those fake fighting noises. Plus, you're going to hurt yourself or someone else, so do us a favor and go somewhere where you've got a little more room to move!  This doesn't mean in front of the mirrors either! 

Muscle Fiber Type

Moving away from my tendency to speak about the biomechanics of weightlifting and such, I will this time talk about some exercise physiology that I believe you may find interesting.  I’ll say it now, I’m a bodybuilder by day and a nerd by night.  I truly enjoy the science behind the sport.  It intrigues me to see how intricately the body works and how I can change my body by diet and exercise.  Anyways, for this blog I want to talk about the two types of muscle fibers, slow twitch (Type I) fibers and fast twitch (Type II) fibers. 

Why the heck should you care about muscle fiber types right?  Well before I spoon feed you some more information about why the two different types are so great, lets first take a look at some of the basic physiology of the two types of fibers.  Type I are oxidative fibers and exhibit a large capacity for aerobic metabolism.  Aerobic metabolism is most predominant in these types I fibers due to the fact that they have lots of capillaries surrounding them, high mitochondrial enzymes and high myoglobin concentration.  Because these type one fibers are most active during and responsible for aerobic activities we see these fibers in higher percentages in distance runners as opposed to sprinters.  Why?  Because sprinters engage in explosive exercise, this explosive exercise is anaerobic.  Weightlifting is also an example of anaerobic exercise.   Type II fibers are utilized and most active during anaerobic exercise.  These fibers are fast-glycolytic fibers.  Type two fibers are categorized into type IIa and type IIx fibers.  Type IIa are sort of like an intermediate fiber or combination between type IIx and type I fibers and share characteristics with both.  Type IIx fibers, however, differ greatly from type I fibers.  Type IIx fibers have a lower number of mitochondria resulting in them being more anaerobic in powerful as opposed to type I fibers which have a high endurance to stimulus but aren’t as powerful.  The powerful component of both fiber types is result of the Vmax which is the speed of shortening of the muscle fiber itself. 

Now then the question remains, can you convert these fiber type from type I to type II or vice verse to tend to your fitness needs?  We do know that exercise induced changes occur in skeletal muscle and are specific to the type of training that is performed.  The most common example is the muscular adaptation to strength training, which is increase size and force production of the muscle.  This increase in muscular size is most likely due to hypertrophy, which I discussed in a previous blog.  Endurance exercise such as running, does not promote increased muscular size but does increase the oxidative capacity of the muscles used.  So can these two types of training induce the actual conversion of one fiber type to the other?  Recent studies have actually proven that exercise induced conversion of muscle fiber types do happen! Good news for those of us who train. However, most of the studies were conducted concerning endurance exercise and high intensity training (not in terms of resistance training).  However, this is promising research considering that older studies showed no conversion at all! 

Show me the GUNS!

Bicep curls are bicep curls right? Wrong.  All bicep curls are not created equal.  This does not mean one is necessarily better than the other because they are different entirely in what muscles they target within the upper arm. It would be smart and beneficial to you to incorporate all types into your training.

First of all lets consider the musculature and anatomy of the arm, more specifically the upper arm and elbow joint.    What most average gym goers would identify as his/her biceps muscles actual consists of two muscles, the biceps brachii and the brachialis.  In addition to thinking that the bicep is the only muscle that is on the anterior portion of the upper arm, most people also think it is the king of elbow flexion.  However, this is not so.  The brachialis originates on the distal half of the humerus and inserts on the coronoid process and ulnar tuberosity, thus making its sole purpose elbow flexion.  The brachilias is deep to the biceps breachiiThe biceps brachii originates on the surpaglenoid tubercle and inserts on the radial tuberosity.  While the biceps brachii also can perform elbow flexion, the nature of its attachment leads it to have an alternative personality, that alternative personality being the action of supination.  A note which will be important for the duration of the rest of this article will be to picture supination as palms up and pronation as palms facing down.

Now lets relate your daily dose of anatomy of the anterior upper arm to your weightlifting.  The straight bar or barbell is used for all kinds of exercises.  We want to focus on the barbell curl first.  When you curl the barbell in a straight bar curl, your forearms are fixed in a supine position.  In addition to being in a fixed supine position they also have no option of pronation, and cannot deviate from this supine position at all.  The barbell actually acts as a stopping point for extra supination.  Because you are curling the bar for an extended time, say 12 repetitions, your biceps brachii are constantly trying to continue to supinate the forearm even more, but the bar acts as a block to this.  For this reason, sometimes the wrists begin to hurt if the weight is too extensive because the wrists begin to try and counteract this constant supination force and begin to weaken and tire.  Because of the radial insertion of the biceps brachii, to flex the arm it first must act to supinate the arm.  Barbell curls with the hands fixed in a supinated position therefore target the biceps brachii. 

Next lets look at the prone curl.  Because the forearm is pronated in a prone curl this, for all intensive purposes, “deactivates” the innervation of the biceps brachii.  By pronating the forearm the biceps brachii no longer have an optimal line of pull due to the nature of the insertion on the radius.  However, the brachialis has no radial insertion and therefore is not effected whatsoever by the pronation and supination of the forearm.  That being said, when performing a prone curl you are isolating the brachialis when performing the exercise.  The straight bar curl however, does not isolate the biceps brachii because the brachialis will still be involved due to the fact it is not effected by the pronation or supination of the arm. 

The EZ curl bar exercise is more conducive to those who have wrist problems as opposed to using the straight bar.  The EZ curl does not necessarily target the brachialis over the biceps brachii.  By but allowing for only the slight supination of the forearm instead of the extensive supination as the straight barbell curl, there is less tension place on the wrist during this exercise.

So, as far as biceps curls goes, just be aware as with any other exercises that you perform, to change up the type of exercises you do.  Vary your workouts and vary the exercises you do.  This allows you to target all muscles that are involved in the movements of the body.  This is also why you shouldn’t just do your favorite exercises because as I once heard “the best exercises are the ones you aren’t doing”.  Can’t remember where and who I have heard that from but the idea is of the upmost important.  Change your workouts from week to week and be aware of your body position while performing each exercise.

Monthly Update #1

So it has been about one month since I have started my fitness tip/fact and blogging challenge.  It has been difficult some days but more often than not it is fun and I have enjoyed every bit of information that I have written.  I have discovered a new passion for writing and informing about fitness and exercise.  I hope my blogs and tips have helped many of you.  I have stuck with it for one month and will continue to do so for the next eleven.  That being said I want to emphasize consistency within workout and dietary behavior change or continuance.

Yes, starting and initiating a workout plan and dietary plan is difficult.  Maintaining this plan and not  straying too far from the plan will be hard.  However, you need to keep in mind the plan that you devise or devise with the help of a professional should be designed to be able to be maintained long term, and in this case long-term meaning life long.  If fitness was easy, there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic.  Fitness is not a goal but an on going journey.   Being a bodybuilder, competing is the prime example.   Even though we have an off-season and on-season,  and we have goals for a certain show, we constantly strive for improvement and the betterment of ourselves.  My point is that if fitness is your goal, be in it for the long all.  You can't get fit and then discontinue what you did to get fit and remain fit.  There is always room for improvement and if you have gotten comfortable, it’s time to change.  Change in the sense of switching things up, not in the sense of the cessation of your program. 

Change is the major problem with adherence to most health and fitness programs.  With the initiation of a new fitness program, it requires change from what you are currently doing and putting faith into something else entirely, something that you do not know.  We, as humans, innately fear the unknown.  It is a natural characteristic that we have.  Sometimes this characteristic prevents us from getting into troubling situations but it also can get you into some pretty tough situations.   So, I challenge you to welcome change with open arms.  Adaptation to situations and change is essential for maintaining an exercise and fitness lifestyle.  You have to plan things around schedule and be prepared to re-plan many times over when things come up.  But don’t get frustrated and quit all together.  I am doing this blog and posting on facebook for 365 days.  Granted this is no workout program, but for me to type an entry everday, it is a change from what I used to do.  I am doing this to prove a point.  Consistency, stick with it and you will see the results that you want and you will be able to do things you may not have even known you were capable of! Empower yourself and make a difference in your own life!  

The Stiff-Legged Deadlift

Why write a whole article on the stiff-legged deadlift you ask?  Because it is one of the best ways to build the hamstrings and also to better your glute-hamstring tie in, or in laymen’s terms, where your thigh becomes your butt.   Being an exercise science and knowledge fanatic I like to first approach every situation in the weight room from an anatomical and biomechanist standpoint.   This can be problematic at times because I tend to over analyze things, however, it has also help me to incorporate the most proper form and some of the best techniques into my training.

In regards to the stiff legged deadlift lets first take a glance at the anatomy of body during the lift.  The hamstrings are comprised of three muscles: the semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and beiceps femoris – long head.   Where the hamstrings attach to bone is also important to consider when examining this lift from start to finish.  The semitendinosus originates on the ischial tuberosity and inserts on the anteromedial proximal tibia.  The semimembranosus originates on the ischial tuberosity and inserts on the posterolateral tibial condyle.  The biceps femoris originates on the ischial tuberosity and inserts on the fibular head.  If you notice, all three muscles have the same origin on the ischial tuberosity, or what most people identify to be their butt-bone.  It is important to note that these muscles do not insert on the femur or thigh anywhere but cross over the knee and insert proximally to the knee.  Having insertions on the bones of the lower leg will indicate that the calf muscles will also be involved or affected but the hamstring as will the placement or movement of the knee joint.  That being said lets begin to incorporate some biomechanical properties into the scenario.

Simply bending at the hips, or essentially flexing the hips, will use the hamstrings.  However, this movement will not maximize the use of the hamstrings.  To produce maximum tension in the hamstring a maximum and optimal stretch must be produced.  Since we already know that the calf and knee have effect on the hamstrings, this maximum stretch can be done with one simple trick, raising the toes.  If the toes are elevated by simply placing a 2x4 board of some sort under the toes this will force a dorsaflexion at the ankle. By dorsaflexing at the ankle it will stretch the calves and have impact on the hamstring because of where the insertions are located for these three muscles.  Another thing you must consider is the position in range of motion of the knee joint.  While we do call this a stiff legged deadlift, proper form indicates the knees be locked but slightly bent.  This is also relative to the insertions of the hamstring muscles.  By bending the knees a better line of pull is created for the hamstrings.  A better line of pull will allow the muscles to produce a more powerful contraction.

I know it is a lot to take in and makes a rather simple exercise very complex.  However, this exercise is not so simple and should be taken seriously.  I only went of in detail the position of the hip, knee and ankle of this movement and did not address the placement and position of the core during this exercise.  This does not mean however that the position of the core and lower back is not as important.  The placement of the hip, knee and ankle are important to the effectiveness of the exercise on the target muscles; however, the placement and position of the lower back and core are essential to avoid injury.  The back should not be rounded in this exercise especially when being performed with heavy weight.  Rounding of the back and improper upper body posture during this exercise can result in injury.  The best idea for not only this exercise but all other exercises as well, is to start out light and only increase the weight when you can do so with proper form.  By sacrificing form for increased weight you are putting yourself at risk for injury to the joints.  This is no beginners’ exercise by any means and you know whether you should be doing it or not.  If you have no idea what this article was about, I advise you to possibly get a trainer or professional to oversee and help you while performing the exercise for the first time.

Don’t be scared of the deadlift! Incorporate it into your training split if possible!  You don’t have to do it everytime of course, but it is a great alternative to the seated and lying hamstring curl machines, which can get old very quickly!

Sources:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9/hamstring.htm

http://www.exrx.net/Graphics/HamstringPosterior.gif

Kemerly, A. (2008). Biomechanics: Analyzing human movement.

Alcohol

The bodybuilding life of a college student is probably much different from that of the average bodybuilder and also different from the average college student.   Don’t be fooled, us college bodybuilders still have lots of fun.  We are hard workers and very dedicated to achieving our goals.   Lots of eating, sleeping and training.   Can’t count the times I have been made fun of for taking a lunch box somewhere on campus or to a friends dorm.  Also, have turned down parties to sleep! Yep, that definitely has happened after many a hard leg workouts!  Well college life you ask, what about the alcohol?  Yeah, that pretty much out of the picture too.  (Yes, I am underage so of course it should be out of the picture but you get the idea).  So here are my reasons for forgoing alcohol…

First of all I hate the feeling of being hungover.  I can’t workout the next day and if I do it is sub par and well sub par is unacceptable for me when it comes to training.  I like to stay focused on my diet and training and drinking throws a wrench into the mix.  Drinking not only adds unwanted, empty, useless calories to my diet but flat out makes me feel like crap, and who wants that for themselves.  One third of all college students are qualified as binge drinkers.  Binge drinkers being those who multiple drinks (4 or more) in a short period of time.  But first of all, before we go classifying anyone or anything we need to learn some things.  Alcohol, in terms of chemistry, is type of chemical compound.  Ethanol is the alcohol that is present in alcoholic beverages.  Alcohol has adverse effects on the body because of the fact that it acts as a lipid solvent.  That being said, all living cells contain a lipid membrane and alcohol can easily penetrate this membrane and once in the cell can lead to the denaturing of the cell.  Not good things happen.  The ethanol in the alcoholic beverages we drink is not quite as strong to cause sever detrimental effects but is more so about how much you drink and what you are drinking.

While most people know about the effects of alcohol on the brain and liver I would like to address the more uncommon facts about alcohols effects on the metabolism.  Yes that’s right, metabolism.  Alcohol slows the metabolism.  For us bodybuilders this is basically the end all be all of training and nutrition.  By training hard in the gym we are able to boost this metabolism and also by eating certain foods we boost it as well.  With a slowed metabolism we cannot do what we do and be successful.  So, no more “shots, shots, shots” ladies, and fellas.  More like squats, squats, squats.  But anyways back to the adverse effects on metabolism.  As you know, 1g of protein and carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories and 1g of fat is 9 calories.  One gram of alcohol is equal to 7 calories.  This is almost twice the calories of carbs and protein and nearly as much as fat.  Wowzers! . Metabolic interactions occur with fat and alcohol and should essentially be considered as fat in the diet.  Alcohol has also been seen to promote fat storage in the abdominal region or commonly known as the “beer belly”.  Not something you want to take on stage with you if you ask me. 

Alcohol also suppresses the production of ADH (antidiruetic hormone) in the brain causes mild to severe dehydration if water is not consumed in conjunction with.  Most of the time the dehydration is not a huge concern however, with many athletes and bodybuilders the mere thought of lack of water can make you cringe.  Lack of water puts strain on the joints and pretty much every system in the body.  

Nerd Rant... Biomechanical Properties of Weightlifting

Today’s blog may be a little over your head and quite frankly it is a little over mine too but that’s precisely why I’m writing it.  Let me explain.  I am currently a college student immersed in classes, which require studying… lots of studying.  And well I don’t particularly care to study 24 hours per day so I’m gonna kill two birds with one stone here.  I am going to write about some biomechanical principles and apply them to weight training so that you can use them to help your training in various ways.  In doing this it helps me to study by relaying the information but I believe it is information that is very pertinent to training and that everyone could benefit from. So here we go…

First of all biomechanics are mechanical principles that applied to the biological or, in this case, the human body.   For the purpose of this article I am only going to cover the principles concerning motion and the force behind motion, meaning kinematics and kinetics, respectively.  Even more specific I am only going to talk about angular kinematics and angular motion with possibly a little linear things mixed in. 

Angular motion occurs when an object moves around a fixed point.  This fixed point is the axis of rotation of the object.  The distance of that this object is away from the axis of rotation is the radius of rotation.  Most all of your joints, namely your hinge joints, experience angular motion.  For example when the elbow flexes the motion of the forearm occurs about an axis, which is located within the elbow joint, the radius.   Angular displacement then is the angle between the starting and ending points of this object, while the angular distance is the sum of the angular change that the object exhibited while in motion.  You can equate this to the movement at the knee throughout a squat.  For all intensive purposes lets say that you begin a squat with your knee locked out as your starting position.  After initiation of the squat the angle at the knee joint decreases until you reach the bottom of your squat and then return to the standing position.  Since you started and ended in the same position the angular displacement is now 0, while the angular distance is the sum of the angles from the start to finishing position.  Since the foot is essentially fixed to the floor during a squat this wouldn’t be a great example for angular speed or velocity.  The leg extension or leg curl would be a much better example.  You can observe angular speed when you see those crazy guys on the leg extension who look like they are going to take off in flight performing reps so fast.  Angular speed tells us how fast an object is changing angle position but does not give us a direction of this speed.  That’s where angular velocity comes in.  Angular velocity is gives us the angular displacement divided by the time which in turn gives us a directional quality to the number.  So, back to the leg extension.  During the concentric contraction and eccentric contractions of this exercise the speed and velocity of the leg are changing.  It is important to note that space between the knee and the tip of foot would be the radius of rotation about the knee being the axis of rotation.  Dependant on the axis of rotation

While angular motion is much more prevalent and observable in sport, there are some things that are very relevant to weightlifting.  Joints also exhibit a thing angular motion likes to call torque.  More specifically you can examine the bicep curl.  When the biceps brachii contracts it pulls on its insertion, which is across the joint and attached at the radial tuberosity.  This causes the movement of the forearm and creates torque about the elbow joint.  So hypothetically speaking, someone who as a longer radius and ulna would have more torque about his/her joints because the moment arm would be longer and the biceps would have to work harder to move the segment given it had the same distance of attached as someone with shorter limbs.

Moment of inertia can also be applied in the weight room.  Moment of inertia is the sum of the mass and radius of rotation squared.  This is relavtively simple to observe in the gym considering usually you pick things up and put things down.  With a heavier object there is more moment of inertia when holding it and trying to lift it about an axis such as the elbow or shoulder depending on the lift. 

However one thing we want to try to avoid in the gym is momentum.  Good form can eliminate momentum.  Good form was discussed in a previous blog however I will briefly touch on why momentum should be eliminated from lifting as a means to better your training.   I’m sure you have all seen the men or women on the bench press who look like there lifting with their back half way off the bench, or the guy doing curls who is swinging so much he could take off into flight.  This swinging motion is building up momentum throughout segments in the body and adds them up along the way acting as action forces throughout the body.  With the summation of these forces one can probably lift more weight than with good form.  However, in lifting to heavy of a weight via momentum you are greatly setting yourself up for injury.  Usually to gain momentum the body comes out of alignment of proper form and technique and can be injured.  Also, the muscle being worked or joint being used to work a certain muscle be not be able to withstand the summated force along with the weight that is being lifted, once again resulting in injury.  So go lighter with proper form and you and your muscles will benefit, I promise.

That’s all for today lesson in physics, biomechanics and ranting.  Hopefully I got an A on my test too J results to come soon!

Crazy Creatine

So I recently visited my physician and she procedes to ask me what supplements I am taking after the nurse has already asked me.  I’m not sure why she asked but I assume it is because of the rather long list I gave to the nurse.  Vitamin C, calcium, multi-vitamin, fish-oils, milk thistle, chondroitin, and glucosamine.  “Is that all? “, “Oh yeah, and I take creatine and drink a gallon of water at least per day.”  She looked up at me with a sort of surprised and scared look.  “You know that it can be hard on your kidneys, right?”, she said.  Have you ever wanted to pick something up in the doctor’s office and just throw it across the room?  Well this was that moment for me.   I think the worst wrap creatine gets is that it is bad for your kidneys.  True, it can be hard on your kidneys when it is taken in larger than dose recommended amounts and when drinking less that adequate amounts of water.  However, I am a bodybuilder and I know my body probably better than my physician and well lets be honest, I like to take care of it so why on earth would I not drink enough water and take over the recommended amount of creatine??? Please doctor tell me why… I guess it is the same reason why I see doctors who smoke but that is a rant for another blog.

So lets get down to business and explain the science and madness behind the goodness of creatine.   I am no expert so I don’t recommend creatine for everyone, however those who engage in HEAVY weightlifting can greatly benefit.  I also don’t eat much red meat where creatine occurs naturally.  The mechanism behind this is in energy production and utilization.  The depletion of phosphocreatine stores in the body can limit the performance during high-intensity exercise such as heavy weightlifting.  Decreased phosphocreatine results in a reduction in the rate of ATP (the smallest energy unit in the body) from the ATP-PC system (anareboic system in the body).  With the supplementation of creatine the ATP-PC system essentially can continue and produce energy that would otherwise be not as productive without the supplementation.  Creatine supplementation has been studied and has shown to increase muscle stores of creatine allowing for improved performance.  Studies also suggest that supplementation with creatine in joint with resistance training results in increased physiological adaptations within the body.  It has not been specifically proven to increase stationary muscular strength but has been shown to increase fat-free mass and strength used in motive forces.  Eight-week usage of a proper dosage of creatine has not shown to have any known adverse side effects and the long-term effects are unknown.  Supplementation usually consists of a 5 gram dose pre or post workout depending on who you ask.  Creatine loading is also based on opinion or preference as well.  When supplementing with creatine drink lots of water, eight 8 oz glasses is 64 oz but I usually would go with at least 90 oz per day.  This is preference but never any les than 64 oz.   The creatine will promote water retention within the body, however, this can pose as a benefit to the joints as well. Like I said I don’t recommend creatine for everyone because if you are doing heavy weight training there is really no use but it is still important to know what it is and how it works.  If you don’t understand how it works, don’t take it. 

This is a good lesson in “What am I putting in my body and why?”.  If you don’t know why you are taking a particular supplement, stop taking it! Don’t put things in your body that you don’t know specifically what they do and how they do it!

Terminology Defined

The world of bodybuilding and even weight lifting seems to have a language of its own.  Quite frankly I enjoy this fact however, for some it can be quite confusing.  Symbolism is also used quite a lot.  First off let me paint a picture for you so you can visualize this.  The ideal body for a bodybuilder using symbolic terms starting from the ground up: Tree trunks for legs, buns of steel, washboard for abs, dinner plates for pecs, wings for lats, boulders for shoulders, and pipes for arms and I’m sure there are many more.  Not that this has any validity in the construction of the ideal body I thought it would be a good visualization to include.   Bringing me to my next point, terminology.  If you are familiar with simple terms in weight lifting you need be informed so you can properly structure your workout routines and meal planning.

First off, lets break down weightlifting into a pyramid.  Starting at the bottom we have a workout, within a workout we have exercises, within exercises we have sets and within sets we have reps.   A is defined as the mental or physical exertion to accomplish a task.  Lets get real people, when you’re in the gym you are there to physically exert yourself and if you aren’t, well you might want to reconsider what you’re doing at the gym.  Next are the exercises.  Exercises are the different movements within a single workout.  So if you were performing push-ups, pull-ups, overhead presses and squats, these would be the different exercises within a full-body workout.  For each individual exercises you would perform a number of sets for each exercises and so many repetitions within each set.  Putting it all together for example would look like this.  You could perform 4 sets of 12 repetitions of push-ups, which is one exercises within your workout of the previously mentioned exercises.

I know this may be basic knowledge for some but is a building block and one of the most fundamental aspects of training.  A physique is built on the very foundation of exercises, sets and reps.  By altering these very components of your workout you can change the workout entirely and challenge your body to adapt to different types of training.  By varying the number of repetitions you can use different muscle fiber types, fast and slow twitch.  By varying the exercises you can utilize and train specific muscles.  These are only a few basic examples of how using the foundations are key in your fitness and weightlifting. 

I’m sure some people may think my blogs to be quite frank and blunt.  However, I like to think they are simply short, sweet and to the point with no BS.  I live in a world of mostly black and white, not much gray.  I think this is very important when it comes to fitness simply because you’re either doing it right or you’re doing it wrong.  And I believe when you are trying to be healthy you would like to know how to do it right, not how to do it kind of right.   Bodybuilding embodies a life style and either you are or you aren’t.  If you eat right but down exercise, well quite frankly you are robbing yourself, and same thing goes with exercising and not eating right, also robbing yourself.  So I would like to think that you would keep this in mind when training and in your day to day life.  Be great and try to excel in all aspects of your life instead of only parts, thus robbing yourself of your full potential.