Excercise Tips

[joel]

I thought I would put up this thread for people to share general helpful tips for excercise.

[joel]

The topic of cardio first before weights was brought up in Duncan's Goals thread.

To continue that vein of discussion I'll go further into my explanation. Typically when you refer to a cardio workout you are talking about a minimum of about 20 minutes with a heart rate of about ~80% your maximum.

Nat mentioned needing to get your heartrate going for max muscle growth. I wouldn't say that this is entirely true. I am not sure what you read about it so I can't comment entirely. But for the most part I would say that maximizing your muscle growth has more to do with maximizing the amount of weight or resistance you use in your workout.

So you want your body capable of handling the most it can handle at that time. Some light cardio maybe ~ 10 minutes for a warm-up just to get your circulation up and your muscles a bit warm may help with that. But if you were doing 30 or 40 minutes of cardio, you probably won't be able to lift as much as you could before that.

Your lungs, and heart and muscles will be somewhat taxed at that point. It's actually easy to test out. Try loading up a bench press one day from no prior exercise. Then try loading it up after doing 30-40 minutes on a treadmill. You'll always be able to lift heavier if you start with weights first.

It's still highly recommended you warm-up before any excercise though, it'll help prepare you body and prevent injuries. Even with cardio excercise it helps to do that activity at half the speed or even less for a couple of minutes before you gear up.

[supersuk]

Joels right.

Light warm up to get heart rate slightly up and joint fluids going. Use your energy to lift as heavy as you can for hypertrophy. Also doing compound exercises with heavy weights is just as good if not better than doing cardio for burning calories.

Cardio does have other qualities though, makes your body much more efficient and reduces recovery time.

[se7entse7en]

Yep. Cardio burns calories. That's the last thing a bodybuilder on a bulking phase wants. I think that's a reason why many are doing HIT (High Intensity Training).

It is important to warm up the muscles you intend to use. Doing 10 minutes on the bike, and then jumping into your benchpress is not going to do you any good. eg. Warm up with some light push-ups, or go light on the bench for a set or two before diving into your chest workout.

Since I mentioned it up above, I should probably also say that I wouldn't recommend beginners doing HIT. Stick with 3 sets of 8-12 instead of say... 2 sets of 3.

[nature boy]

hm, i don't remember where i read it, and maybe i'm even referencing it wrong.
good tips.

*when* i was working out, i'd always warm up before going nuts. and even me going nuts was probably waaaay less intense than what some of you guys do.

[joel]

Stretching. I am sure there are a lot of different myths and facts about stretching. I am not really sure what to believe.

Right now, I usually stretch my legs after i do my stationary bike cardio... and usually stretch any used upper body muscles after i finish all the strength training i did for that day, but much less rigorously than i do for my lowerbody.

What are your guys thoughts on stretching? how it should be done and why?

[se7entse7en]

Dynamic stretching before your exersise - helps warmup the muscles. I find static stretching a cold muscle tends to result in a pulled muscle.
Static stretching after you're finished exercising.

I never used to stretch. I've been trying to do more lately though.

[nature boy]

i've been told to always stretch because not only does it warm up the muscles, it allows air into them (or is that the same thing?). having said that, i never used to stretch when i was more active, only before a round of golf because that's what everyone i used to play with would do.

[supersuk]

I dont like stretching too or long warmups much before exercising or a game. Just something light to get the muscles moving and some blood flowing, I find that my muscles work better when cold anyways.

Stretching afterwards seems to help me prevent getting sore the day after.

[joel]

another question.

muscle balance. one pec is bigger than the other what to do? I've moved off using the universal machine bench. and now using two dumbells. there's no long bar at my work gym. is this enough?

[se7entse7en]

From what I've read in the past:
Dumbells are better than a long bar in this regard. Just load them up with the same amount of weight and workout until your weak side fatigues, even if your strong side can keep going.

[joel]

tricking your muscles...

i've heard about people talking about constantly mixing up your workout so that your muscles don't memorize routines or certain motions etc... i've also read articles saying that it's a myth that you'll develop any strength faster by constantly changing your routine. what's the real truth?

[se7entse7en]

I've heard the same thing... to start changing your diet, workouts, etc. when you start plateauing.

When i started plateauing I found it helpful to start changing my focus. Instead of focusing on chest/benchpress, I started working out harder on my squats or deadlifts, or pullups, etc intead. I found that although giving my muscles a bit of a rest (relatively speaking) for a couple of months resulted in some strength loss, when I eventually switched back to them I was able to plough through the previous plateau. YMMV though.

[nature boy]

whatever works for you, i say.

some people say drinking raw eggs will kill you and others say it's the best way to build muscle. when i was in saskatoon i was doing slight workouts almost every morning followed by a raw egg and it built me up really fast.

so whatever works. if you see a plateau in keeping the same routine, then change it up. but if you're still building the way you want by keeping the same routine, why fix it if it's not broke?

[joel]

raw egg? yuck. is raw egg somehow better than if you just ate it hardboiled or fried?