Weight Training

It has been some time, years, since I received my personal trainer certification and I have not kept the certification up to date. For that reason, I do not want to offer anything but general thoughts on weight or resistance training. It is important that you do incorporate muscle conditioning into your life. It is highly unlikely that you will bulk up by doing this as it takes great effort, genetics, protein, and time to do so. It is possible to make yourself look bigger if you build muscle under fat. This does not mean that you should skip all resistance training until you lose weight but that you would do more core work or different types of training in the mean time.

The YMCA and the ACSM are two sources I feel confident recommending. A web site that is my favorite for showing muscles groups and specific exercises to work them is http://www.exrx.net/.

Also on TV or DVD my favorites are Cathe and Gilad. Cathe is harder.

I did tell you recently that I would explain the pyramid technique in weight lifting. This is for persons who have been lifting weights for a while and need a change. I feel comfortable saying that a generic reccomendation for weight training is working up to 3 sets of 8-10 reps of an exercise for each muscle group. That is NOT what I do but it is a place to start. The last few reps should be tough, if not the weight is too light. ( I do less but at one time I did a lot more)

If you do the same thing over and over the body adjusts so you have to change weights and reps and exercises from time to time. A personal trainer can advise you.

The pyramid is a muscle challenge exercise and I love it. I have used it most often with bicep or tricep work. You start with a lower weight and more reps and as you increase weight you lower the reps. Let's use a simple bicep curl as an example. If you do not know how to do a bicep curl (and form IS everything) look here http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Biceps/DBCurl.html

OK, this is absolutely arbitrary as I do not know who I am talking to:

have three sets of weight... Lets assume this is a beginner... 6, 8, 10 pounds (two each)

do 10 lifts of 6 pounds (rest 30 sec) [lifts=reps]
do 8 lifts of 8 pounds
do 6 lifts of 10 pounds
do 8 lifts of 8 pounds
do 10 lifts of 6 pounds

Your bicep muscles should be burning a bit. There is a way to stretch the muscle after as well. Please use the resource I have provided, or your own gym personnel for further instruction.

Tune in tomorrow when I will talk about alcohol.... :)