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.  

Good Eats

New recipe coming at you.  So sometimes I get bored with the same ole food day in and day out.  However, in trying to reach my goal I still want/need to eat clean so the ability to change ingredients is limited.  This week I had cooked sweet potatoes amongst many other things such as chicken and broccoli (no secrets here).   I got to thinking about the sweet potatoes and wondered if I could make a pancake with them.  Like a good pancake, not a dry gross diet pancake, a REAL good pancake.  Well with this recipe I was definitely pleased…

Sweet Potato PANCAKE

1 scoop vanilla whey (Myofusion)

1 egg white

6 oz sweet potato (baked and then skin removed)

1 tsp cinnamon

1.     1. Puree sweet potato in a bowl by using a fork to whip the sweet potato.

2.     2. Mix in the protein powder, cinnamon, and egg white.

3.     3. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

4.     4. Heat small pan on stovetop and spray with cooking spray prior to adding your batter.

5.     5. Pour batter in the pan and let cook.  Careful not to burn.  Because the sweet potatoes have small  amounts of sugar you can easily get a black looking pancake but not to worry it doesn’t taste bad and your pancake is still good, but to avoid blackness cook on lower heat and flip as soon as possible.

6.     Plate and serve! Enjoy with plain or with your favorite sugar free syrup!  

The Money Myth

It's so expensive to eat clean and eat healthy. False. It is not only monetarily less expensive to eat clean but less taxing on your body as well. If you think eating unhealthier is cheaper and thereby do it simply because it is cheap you may as well swallow your money because there may be more nutrition in the money than in thay mcdonalds fry. Obviously I'm quite biased on the topic only because I think not eating healthy because you have made yourself believe it cost to much, is a down right lousy excuse for being unhealthy.  Now I'm not saying never go out for a meal because that would be absurd. However I am saying if you eat the majority of your meals not out (homemade, not takeout don't get sneaky) it will be cheaper and obviously healthier unless you cook

First off eating cleaner and healthier keeps you well in the sense of not needing to visit that doctor and pay a co-pay or go to urgent care and sit there until you have caught a disease in addition to already being sick. So, let's buy our own food, prepare our meals, eat wherever you want, on the go, on the couch or on the roof, and avoid the drive thru's and expensive lunches out!!

How can it be done you ask? And I say, buying in bulk!! Costco, Sam's, Super Walmart and any other bulk foods store should be additional sanctuaries for the American population.  After all everyone does seem to love food so much right? Just a few examples of how these places can really help out your bank account. I can buy enough eggs to last me about 22 days (4 eggs/day) and enough oats for well over 3 months (1/2 cup per day). That also totaling maybe 25 dollars. Tell me how many times you could go to Denny's on that budget and eat just as healthy and clean. I can also buy enough veggies and FRESH meat (chicken/salmon/tilapia) for a week for also around 25 dollars. Keep in mind that's eating about two or 3, 4-6 oz servings per day. I could go on and on but this blog would become a product list of Costco's website but you get the idea. And yes you have to have a membership at Costco but you end up getting your money back in savings in about 2 weeks. That being said Walmart has no membership and is probably just as good plus or minus a few items.

And on side note, the gigantor box of eggs WILL fit in your average sized refrigerator IF you remove all junk food! :)

Happy and healthy eating to everyone!

Why I do what I do...

To lots of people that don't enjoy fitness I'm sure it seems odd that I bodybuild out of enjoyment. But that is the very reason I got involved, I absolutely loved it and continue to love it from the moment my eyes open in the morning and the second I lay down at night, not to mention all the dreams I have about it too! As you know from previous blogs I am very avid about education in everything I do and bodybuilding has allowed me to excel my fitness to the next level. I know intricate anatomy and physiology does not interest alot of people in the fitness world but I have come to learn that I am one of many nerds in bodybuilding! Nerds, yes! Bodybuilders are educated too! 


For me bodybuilding is not simply working out.  It is a lifestyle that I have chosen to live.  It encapsulates my life.  It is what I do, what I eat, who I surround myself with, how I feel and who I am.  I love the lifestyle I have chosen because it fits me.  I don't advocate it for everyone because I know everyone wouldn't enjoy it like myself.  However, what is important is to find a lifestyle that does fit, and that you do love as much as I love bodybuilding.  Fitness for health is also a perfectly good example of a lifestyle.  If you love that lifestyle, live it! It is about who you are and being true to yourself and that for me is being a bodybuilder.  

Anyways, I bodybuild because I love it, not because someone else wants me to. But you don't have to bodybuild to be fit. Exercise in general I love and is great for everyone. If you find yourself with an external locus of control or external motivation to exercise, STOP.  If you are exercising for any reason besides for yourself, you need to stop and reevaluate what is going on in your life.  Having others to push you or force you to exercise is not setting yourself up for a long term lifestyle goal of being healthy.  It sounds selfish to workout out because YOU want to, and workout when YOU want to, to make YOURSELF feel good.  My reasoning behind this is, if you don't care of yourself, you cannot take care of others.  If you are engaging in healthy activities this is not selfish!  Workout, have fun, and enjoy it! 

Fight for Your Fitness

So this past weekend I was attending a local bodybuilding competition to support many friends who were competing.  I love these shows but I am a competitor so it is probably quite different for me opposed to the average individual.  However, I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at this particular show because I was able to see how bodybuilding can change lives and lead to the betterment of someone’s life.  The announcer was calling out the bodybuilders for the line up at the night show when he began speaking a little bit about one of the gentleman and his story.  This gentleman was in the Master’s division and walked out with a slight limp.  They announcer went on to say that this man had recovered from neck down paralysis and is now an active competitive bodybuilder!! Did he just say neck down paralysis! WOW! What an inspiration! There are professional bodybuilders yes, but this man was greatness if I had ever seen it before.  Overcoming such a tragedy as neck down paralysis is an amazing feat in and of itself, and to continue on to become a bodybuilder, well that is simply incredible.  I was at a loss for words and all I could do was stand up and clap. 

So today, and hopefully for the rest of your life, like this gentleman, you will fight for what you want, fight for what you believe and fight for your life.   I take great inspiration from people who have overcome such hardships and I thought I would share my story with you all too.  Inspiration from victory is one thing, but inspiration from hardship is another.  I also have a picture that I would like to share, I am not sure of the story behind the photo, however, I am sure the picture is telling enough.  

Be great today, and every other day for that matter, and attempt to excel in everything you do!  

Today's Menu

So I made a new one this past week and it was fabulous, not following any recipe just got some crazy ideas to do it and it turned out great!  I usually had it for a midday meal because of the carbs but please try it out and enjoy!!

Chicken Parmesan
- 4 -5 slices of Ezekiel bread
- 1-2 packs of thinly sliced chicken breasts
- 2-3 tbsp Mrs. Dash Italian Medley Blend
- 1 tbsp Vegan Parmesan cheese
- 3 egg whites

Cooking Instructions
1. Grate the bread (works best is you grate it when the bread is frozen) to make bread crumbs.
2.  Mix fresh made bread crumbs with the Mrs. Dash and Vegan Parm. cheese in a bowl.
3. Put the egg whites into an additional bowl.
4. Dip the thinly sliced chicken breasts in egg whites and then coat with the homemade bread crumb mixture.
5.  Put the dipped/coated chicken breasts on a sprayed cookie sheet.
6.  Bake in the oven on 350 degrees or until golden brown.
7.  Wah-la! homemade, healthy, chicken parm!
8.  If you want tomato sauce with it, I leave it up to you to find the one that you like best!

Enjoy everyone!

Inspiration for Perspiration

Ok so today is Friday and it is the end of the week so if you aren’t excited yet you should be.  I give inspirational quotes today as tools for you to use next week when Monday is looking unlike Monday Funday and Monday Bumday.  Being a gym rat I usually get a lot of question like how do you stay motivated what do you do for inspiration and all that jazz.  The simple answer for me is I know what I want and im going to go after it.  However, I realize in the world of fitness and exercise not everyone shares this same go get ‘em attitude and that is perfectly ok!  So that being said I do find that inspirational quotes are helpful and sometimes great in directing your train of thought in a more positive direction.  Here are some of my favorites…

"Always act as though it were impossible to fail." 
- Anonymous

"Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory." 
- Anonymous

"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence." 
- Anonymous

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine

"Fall down seven times, get up eight" -Chinese proverb

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning form failure. - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

Hard work is a two-way street. You get back exactly what you put in. – Unknown

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” William Arthur Ward

Form Storm

The worse thing you want to do while engaging in healthy activities is to get hurt.  You are trying to do your body good by exercising right? Well let’s do it correctly so the body can fully benefit from the work you are doing.  You don’t like getting cheated when spending money do you? Well your body doesn’t want to be cheated when expending energy either.

I’m not your mother so I’m not going to tell you to be careful.  Once again I will give you the knowledge to be smart about your exercise instead.  That being said, form is one of the major factors of injury prevention in exercise.  To be form conscious you want to be sure you are performing the exercises properly in order to put your joints in position of least vulnerability.  The slightest degree of movement astray from the proper range of motion of the movement in question, especially in weight bearing exercises, can lead to negative consequences.  So if you have to go light with better form, DO IT, please.   With proper form you are putting your body in a position to target and sometimes isolate the muscle that the exercise is intended for.  I am not going to list how to perform each and every exercise properly because, well, that would be insane.  However, I suggest you get a book or watch videos online and look at pictures online.  That being said let me clear up a few things about the information on the Internet.  The Internet is the equivalent of a gym.  There are lots of people in the gym, but not all of them are doing things correctly and sometimes even the trainers are misinformed (topic for further argument).  So, be wary of the Internet sites that you are getting your information from.  I highly suggest American College of Sports Medicine (www.acsm.com) or any other accredited fitness organization’s website.  Books on the other hand are a little less subjective in terms of accuracy simply because the book had to be published proofread, edited, etc. and well lets face it, anyone can put anything on the Internet, right or wrong, intelligent or stupid. 

In addition to form, focus is another thing you want to really hone in on when working out.  If you have trouble focusing when working out, then what you are doing in terms of “working out” must be too easy.  The work you are doing should be hard enough to engage your mind on the task at hand but not so hard that you are going to get hurt.  When concentrating on your movements in working out, especially in resistance training it is important to focus on two parts of the movement.  One, when the muscle is shortening, the concentric contraction, and two when the muscle is lengthening, the eccentric contraction.  If these terms don’t make since to you, equate the concentric contraction as the “up” motion and the eccentric contraction to the “down” motion.  Yes, some exercises are performed in a horizontal motion rather than a vertical motion but you get the point.  That being said and contrary to population belief, the muscle damage occurs during the eccentric contraction of the movement.  Why do you want muscle damage? Well this is what makes your muscle grow, respond and adapt.  I use the term grow sparingly for the women who read this article simply due to the fact that I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea about the idea of muscular grow which I discussed in previous blogs.  Anyways, so be conscious not only when raising or lifting the weight performing the concentric contraction of the movement but also when lowering the weight performing the eccentric contraction.  You don’t want to waste your time working out and not get the results you want.  I’m not saying focusing eccentric contraction is going to change your entire physique but I am saying that overall awareness of your body when performing exercise is going to help you to better perform the exercises and thus progress your fitness level as a whole.  

A Beastly Breakfast for Building

Are you hungry when you wake up? Most likely that I'd the case seeing as how your body has been without food for at least 8 hrs! It is important to fuel the body in the morning upon waking. I use the word fuel because I equate the food situation with that of a top of the line sports car and using premium fuel only. Your body is something you want to take care of and you want it to work for a long time right? Ok so let start using premium fuel! So what's premium fuel for the body you ask? Well depending in the time of day of you meal your food selection usually will be different. For the morning however, a nice balance of protein and complex carbohydrates is the perfect choice. Eggs and old fashioned oats should be a staple in your diet even if you are not a bodybuilder. The combination provides a source of lean protein (using egg whites) and complex carbohydrates that creates for an ideal pair. However, I do know that plain ole egg whites and plain ole old fashioned oats can get boring, and I'm only 20. Nobody likes the same thing all the time especially when it's plain to the extreme. So, I will include a recipe that I usually enjoy on a daily basis... the protein pancake. Yes, that's right, PANCAKE!

French Toast Pancakes

Ingredients (makes one serving):

-        2 tbsp cold milled flax

-       ½ cup ground/blended oats

-       12 Capella flavor drops (French Toast flavor)

-       1 tbsp splenda

-       2 tsp cinnamon

-       4 egg whites

-       Pam Olive Oil cooking spray (optional)

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Nutrition Facts:

            Carbs: 30 g

            Protein: 30g

            Fat: 8g

            Calories: 278

Cooking instructions:

1.     Mix all ingredients into a bowl in no particular order.

2.     Spray cooking pan with cooking spray.

3.     Pour ingredients into pan and let cook for 2 – 3 minutes and then flip and let cook for 2 – 3 until done.

4.     Plate and serve!

5.     If you want to enjoy with syrup, you can try Walden’s Farm Calorie Free Syrup.

Tip #1:  If blended oats are too much of a hassle, use whole oats.  If you decide to use whole oats, it helps if you mix all the ingredients and let sit over night to let the oats soak up the whites.  If you let sit over night you may have to add a tad bit of water when cooking.

Tip #2: When dieting for a show you can adjust the amount of oats that you use in this recipe as well as eliminate which ever ingredients that your diet does not allow.

Tip #3: The taste just as delicious without the Capella drop’s and you can use store brand sugar free syrup if you can’t find Walden’s Farm brand.  

How to Stop November Nonsense

Ok ladies… and gents, but mostly ladies, let’s stop the nonsense and start being sensible.  It is time to get off that cardio equipment and hit the weights.  Yes, I said it, get OFF the treadmill and pick up some dumbbells! Why? Because that is the key to achieving the look that I believe you are going for.  Strength training is the key to building lean muscle mass. Weightlifting, strength training, resistance training and bodybuilding may all sound the same however they are slightly different upon close examination. Some are broader than others and include the others in a categorical sense but overall they are very similar.

Me being a critical thinker, it would be hard for me to put faith into something that I didn't know much about or something that seemed, well a little crazy. And that may be what you are thinking now, “No cardio?, yeah she's crazy!". Well actually it's just the opposite. I know this type of article has been done many times over, however, I wish to present the topic with a slightly different approach. I'm not going to preach to you about how much better weight training and resistance training is over cardio, even though it is, I am going to provide you with the knowledge and let you decide for yourself.

For starters, it will be beneficial to begin with a few definitive explanations of terms.  Surprisingly, simple definitions often clear up lots of misconceptions not only in relation to exercise and sport, but in all aspects of the world. Clarity is key.  Weight lifting, described by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is “a system of conditioning involving lifting weights especially for strength and endurance”.  The government’s Center for Disease Control actually recommends at least 2 days of muscle-strengthening activity training the large muscle groups for adults for strictly health benefits.  So why haven’t you done this already?  If you say you do cardio for health reasons, well you should weight lift too.  If you say you do cardio for appearance reasons, well once again you should weight lift too. 

So, you say you don’t to develop big muscles and look like a man. Well there’s good news and bad news for you today.  The good news is that will never happen and the bad news is that you are just now finding this out.  Let me explain from a physiological standpoint why this cannot happen.  In simple terms, weight lifting challenges the muscles causing them to adapt to overcome the load that you have placed on them.  By adapting they can be subject to such forces you have placed on them without failing continually.  This is why you can progressively lift heavier weights with resistance training.  This adaptation in the muscle is called muscular hypertrophy.  Muscular hypertrophy is the increase in muscle cell size.  Increase in size you say?  Yes, increase in size, however, this increase in size is NOT going to make you look large like a man.  Muscle hypertrophy in women (in joint with clean eating which will be discussed in later blogs) will generally give the “toned body” look.  And these muscle cells can only become so large.  In most all human beings with the exception of a very few elite athletes, the formation of new muscle cells, or hyperplasia, does not occur.   You are born with what you have and the type iss usually also determined as well, fast or slow twitch, and there’s really no changing these either.  There is no chance of you developing large enough muscles to look manly unless you take steroids ladies.  Steroids induce muscular hyperplasia.  This is what can cause the bulky “manly” muscles many women refer to, NOT the weightlifting itself. 

It is shocking to me that most women are more concerned with looking to big or manly from lifting weights than the all of the health benefits they can get from doing so.  That being said let me address and lift a few of the benefits of lifting weights and like I said you decide for yourself whether you want to stay on the dreadmill, I mean treadmill, or start pushing around some weight!  According to the American College of Sports Medicine and from personal experience there are physical and mental benefits to strength training.  To start, the reduction in body fat that strength training leads to in joint with proper diet, can lead to many, many other benefits.  With strength training long-term people benefit from reduced blood pressure, reduced discomfort from back pain, increased bone mineral density, reduced risk for many cardiovascular and systemic diseases, reduction of fatigue and decreased depression.  These few examples are like 5% of all the benefits that strength training offers.  I will cite an article at the end of this blog for people who are further interested in the topic and please email me with any questions or if you are looking for further information on the topic because like I said this is only a tip of the iceberg, but I hope it prompts you to think about what you are doing from a fitness standpoint and strive to optimize your fitness program!