[Sean Grealish co-owner of the Training House Gym experimenting with deadlifts]
If you thought resistance bands were something only stick thin flimsy spiritual types with an allergic reaction to iron and steel tangle themselves up with then you’d be mistaken.
Resistance bands can be used to aid stretching, can help you warm-up, can provide excellent exercise rehab, can encourage full-range resistance (which stimulates more muscle growth) and can help promote explosive strength.
Add them to bodyweight exercises to make moves more challenging and use them in conjunction with weights to create constant tension, and encourage power and speed (as in the picture above).
If using resistance bands particularly with free weights be sure to take special care in attaching them, or if using them similarly to Sean, then make sure your stance is solid and your shoes grip well.
Nicolas Gregoriades is a South African jiu jitsu practitioner who was the first person to receive a black belt from world renowned Brazilian jiu jitsu player Roger Gracie.
In this film by Stuart Cooper, Nicolas shares his philosophies on life, fitness and of course jiu jitsu.
Even if you're not into jiu jitsu it's well worth a watch!
According to a recent BBC article girls exercise concerns were that "getting sweaty was not feminine" and as a result few participated in sport and fitness.
Along with the lack of female friendly physical education classes, like Zumba, being employed in schools a lack of positive female role models was also suggested as the reason.
Enter friend of fizzYcaL and the inspiration for us starting this blog, Sally Moss.
The former Cambridge graduate and UK civil servant swapped the brief case and pinstripes for barbells and dumbbells in pursuit of her bliss...weight lifting. The hobby has led Sally to compete at amateur level, to teach, and to personal train.....and she’s never been happier.
Gubernatrix.co.uk is the home for Sally’s thoughts and musings on nutrition and exercise and is a valuable source of inspiration for anyone, especially women, considering taking up weight lifting.
A great role model for girls as well as guys, Sally believes (and we agree) that being fit, healthy and strong complements femininity!
One of our favourite posts on her blog is the '10 Good Reasons Why Women Should Stay Away From Weights.' She writes:
"1. You might break a nail.
2. You could even bruise a male ego or two.
3. You’ll eat properly and still be able to lose fat. Work of the devil!
4. You’ll look more like an athlete and less like a runway model. Skeletal is sexy, right?
5. You’ll be able to lift heavy things without asking a man for help, thus upsetting the balance of the universe.
6. You will be seen in public without high heels.
7. You’ll grunt, sweat and feel sore. So unladylike!
8. You’ll be proud of your pert bum instead of being self conscious about it like a normal woman.
9. You’ll be more active and confident instead of sitting around looking pretty. What are you, some kind of feminist?
10. You’ll be stronger, leaner and sexier – and we all know where that can lead!"
Encouraging women to challenge their views like this have meant Sally has persuaded a large audience of women of the benefits of weight training.
Another successful vehicle she uses to do this is her ‘Ladies Who Lift’ sessions. These ‘women only’ classes teach and promote weight training in an environment void of machismo and more palatable for ladies.
As Sally says, working out with like minded women is “more motivating and productive than training just with men.”
For details on Sally’s ‘Ladies Who Lift’ sessions visit ladieswholift.co.uk and check out the intro video:
Testosterone improves quality of sleep, speeds the bodies natural repair, increases bone density, relieves depression, increases libido, regulates blood pressure, increases muscle mass, decreases bodyfat, reduces the likelihood of osteoporosis and slows physical and mental ageing.
How do you naturally boost your testosterone levels? Build and maintain muscle.
Here are 5 ways how:
- Incorporate big compound lifts in your workouts. Compound lifts are exercises that engage a number of muscle groups. The more muscles worked at the same time the more testosterone the body produces.
Compound lifts include deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, bench press, dips, rows, lunges and shoulder presses.
- Prioritise your legs when exercising. As the largest muscles in your body your legs produce the largest amount of testosterone.
- Eat foods with high levels of essential fatty acids. These include fish and nuts and their oils. These foods increase the bodies ability to form muscle and therefore testosterone.
- Reduce stress and relax more. Stress creates cortisol a stress hormone which reduces your levels of testosterone.
- Get enough sleep. 8 hours seems to be the consensus and will help improve testosterone levels as well as decrease cortisol levels.
A superset is where an exercise is immediately followed by another, and because there is no rest in between it is considered a single set.
Likewise a giantset is also considered a single set and consists of three or more exercises done back to back with no rest.
Supersets and giantsets are generally concentrated on the same bodypart. For example when working the chest one follows press ups with dips. This adds intensity to a workout without increasing the length of the workout. Handy if you are pressed for time or a stickler for having a healthy fitness-life balance.
As soon as you fininsh a set rest for 5 to 10 deep breaths and push out another couple of reps. To add intensity to your workout add a couple of these mini-sets to the end of each set.
I like weight training but I have a particular love for bodyweight training and feel that its effectiveness is often underrated because of how one progresses and adds intensity.
With bodyweight training one needs to know a catalogue of increasingly complex moves or needs to exercise a little creativity to up the intensity and progress. The same does apply to weight training but often one simply increases the weight.
The best exercise to illustrate bodyweight variation/progression is the humble push-up. There are many variations of the push-up which should be explored.
And I’ve been meaning to post a vid showing the many push-up type exercises you can do but stumbled across ConditioningDaniel’s smartly put together collection.
He’s got 29 variations and my personal favourite is the Towel Push-up. Checkout the vid, make sure to favourite it and throw some of them push-ups into your workout armoury.
Had a few requests to do a tutorial on how to kip-up after posting the quirkees but thought the guy below and this written tutorial does a better job than I could do.
We all have a dominant body side which selfishly takes more of the strain when we are exercising and leaves the other side slightly weaker.
By exercising unilaterally which means using one side of the body at a time we are able to isolate and target the weaker side, improve balance and overall core strength.
The above video by Gubernatrix shows a number of unilateral exercises that you can incorporate into your routine. Not only will they help with imbalances but they are also a simple way of knocking workout boredom on its head and shaking up the routine.
Even the humble push up can benefit. Check out Siobhan English's one arm, one leg push ups.
Statics particularly in a disadvantageous leverage position are “the secret to developing the enormous strength of world class gymnasts." So says Chris Sommer a professional gymnastics coach – Google him!
Statics can develop your weak leaks, core, balance, stability, proprioception and if done sensibly (not with extremes of weight or in too extremes of position) can greatly improve ligament and joint strength.
Here are three popular ways to incorporate them:
1. Static Compound Sets
Typically 6 to 10 set of exercises like dips/chest press (held at the mid/low point), pull-ups (held at the mid-point), handstand/shoulder press (held at the mid to top point).
N.B. a -You’ll need to experiment with each exercise to find the right (safe and effective) spot to hold. b - Recovery is quick so statics can be done everyday but limit them to chest and or shoulders, back and leg compound exercises.
2. Mixing Sets
Doing full or even partial range sets but sandwiching them either side with a static set.
E.g. 1 set of full range dips, rest, then X second static hold, rest, 1 set of full range dips, rest, then X second static hold etc etc.
3. Finisher
Right at the end of a full range of reps to further fatigue the muscles.
[Sean Grealish co-owner of the Training House Gym experimenting with deadlifts]
