Athlekinetix Blog

Foam Roller Core Conditioning (Click to View)

Think foam rollers are just for Self Myofacial Release? Think again. Foam rollers are also an excellent tool for instability exercises such as planks, bridges, crunches and more.  In this video clip, you will see 2 and a half minutes of really intense isometric holds as well as a short series of movements which SERIOUSLY engage the core - shoulders, abdominals, back and hip area.

Michelle Obama’s arms have taken on a life of their own. If Michelle Obama’s arms were a cat, they would be well beyond their ninth life by now. Even the rich and famous are coveting them. Since losing 75 pounds as the spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Kirstie Alley has gained back a startling 85 pounds. Last week, in an interview with Oprah, Kirstie Alley confessed what she really wants is Michelle Obama’s arms. Who doesn’t apparently?

What is so fascinating about Michelle Obama is she is not the stereotypical face of beauty that bombards us on runways and glamour magazines. She is fit and strong, but she is not a size 00. Nor will she ever be. Michelle Obama has shown the world that beauty is about showcasing your strengths and assets. She owns her body and wears it proudly. Michelle Obama’s confidence and comfort in her own skin is her true beauty.

The fact that Michelle Obama is famous around the world for her arms is also telling about fitness. Sculpted arms, especially on women, announce to the world that you are someone who exercises and takes care of your body. Legs, abs, and butt are important too, but toned arms get noticed immediately.

For those of you who also want Michelle Obama’s arms, here are a few things to keep in mind.
First, even if you are the First Lady of The United States, you have to work hard to have killer arms. They do not happen magically or appear overnight. Second, good arms are not just strong biceps. Amazingly toned arms are a result of intense total upper body strength conditioning. Triceps, shoulders, lats, and core are equally important to target in your resistance training program. 

For me, the single best exercise you can do for your arms is push-ups. Push-ups are the most efficient, comprehensive upper body exercise that exists for serious arm strength and definition. Abs are engaged the entire time and your shoulders, chest, and arms are majorly worked.  The variety of push-ups that you can do is mind numbing. Military push-ups, stagger push-ups, incline/decline push-ups, tricep push-ups, traveling push-ups, and push-ups on both sides of the BOSU ball are just some of the push-up exercises you can and should incorporate into your daily fitness program.

The best part of push-ups is they are so intense that a little goes a long way. Start out slowly and build. Before you know it, you will be able to do 50 push-ups without stopping. Your toned arms will make even Michelle Obama stop and take notice.

Gyms are full of experts. Some are paid professionals like personal trainers that actually have to pass a grueling exam in order to be accredited and then continue to keep their certifications current with  continuing education classes. You would think these are the people that would hold the “weight” in the weight room when it comes to fitness advice. Unfortunately, weight rooms in gyms are the one place in particular that expert advice is most often given not by experts but rather by people who think they are experts.

The ‘know it alls’ are the most dangerous types of experts in my opinion. And perhaps the most interesting thing about them is they are the first and loudest to dispense of advice to anyone that will listen. What I particularly like about the ‘know it alls’ is that no subject when it comes to fitness is out of their range of expertise. Weight loss, nutritional supplements, vitamins, periodization, and weight lifting of course are all within their domain.

It makes me cringe when I hear these personal trainer wannabes in action because the people they are talking to are hanging onto every word. There are several problems with taking fitness advice from people who are not trained in fitness. Besides the fact that your body will not yield better results because you followed this advice, the biggest problem people face is they are opening themselves to injury. Just because Joe the Expert has big guns, doesn’t mean Joe has any idea about proper form or what exercises are best for you given your physical limitations and abilities.

In fact, most often in weight rooms, the people with the biggest muscles have the worst form. Is it really worth injury to expose your vulnerabilities to these people? Bad advice even occurs from the well-intentioned exercisers at times. Just the other day, a person who has been a regular hard core exerciser for the past 25 years gave what she believed to be innocent advice to someone about an exciting new exercise she recently discovered and has had positive results with.  This well-intentioned exerciser simply wanted to share the exercise with someone else that was interested in adding it to  their exercise routine. Even though this avid exerciser had done this exercise herself at least 100 times, she had apparently been doing it 100 times incorrectly. By then demonstrating this incorrect form to someone else, she was inadvertently passing bad advice on like a bad chain letter that keeps going and going. The point is the intention doesn’t matter. Bad fitness advice equals bad form and bad form equals injury.

The other problem with being the master fitness expert is that what works for you might not work for somebody else. It is just like with diets. Some people lose weight on a high protein diet whereas others lose weight on a strict vegan diet. Fitness is not one size fits all. By pretending to have the magic formula for building muscle mass, losing weight, or toning problem areas, these pseudo trainers are setting people up for disappointment and failure.

The best advice for when you are at the gym is to pay attention to your surroundings. Notice other people’s bodies and workout routines and use that as fuel for what you want to look like and what you plan on doing to achieve it. But, instead of using these people as role models and experts, go to a real fitness expert and make an exercise plan that is right for you. A personal trainer can tailor a program specifically to meet your needs and goals while at the same time showing you how to properly use the weight equipment and maintain good form in order to prevent injury.

A ‘know it all’ in the gym might be fun to share a protein shake with, but that’s about all.

What does Darius Rucker, lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish and now chart-topping solo country artist, know about fitness? More than you realize. When their album Cracked Rear View dropped in 1994, it was deemed an overnight sensation and went on to become the 12th best-selling album in music business history.

There are several things interesting about this. First, what the world thought of as ‘overnight success’ and the reality behind the success of the album were quite different. Hootie and the Blowfish had been working day and night for 10 years prior to the release of the album at any gig they could in order to play their music, get heard by as many people as possible, and try to make a dime to cover their expenses. This same principle applies to fitness. When people see someone who has lost weight or transformed their body, it is assumed that it happened overnight. What people were not privy to, however, were the hours of sweat and nutritional discipline required daily to make lasting change possible. Hootie and the Blowfish knew that one day they would be successful because they worked diligently to make that happen. Darius Rucker was interviewed and said, “We just believed in our music.” What they were doing for the previous decade before they struck it big was build the foundation for success one day at a time.

The same goes for your body. Change does not happen instantly. But, if you make the choice every day to lead a healthy life and eat right most of the time and exercise hard most of the time, your body will change. Guaranteed. If you believe in your body, like Hootie and the Blowfish believed in their music, you will be the next overnight sensation.

One of the interesting things that made Hootie and the Blowfish unique was it was a combination of pop, blues, folk, soul, and rock. The diversity of the music made it ‘hard to pigeonhole’ and appealed to a wide demographic as a result. Your exercise program should reflect this same principle. If you are a one trick pony, you better throw in some rock and roll and even a little rap once in a while if you want your body to look different tomorrow than it does today. If people around you can pigeonhole you as a runner, spinner, or weightlifter, you are in danger of being in a fitness rut. Keep your workouts unpredictable and shake things up and you will achieve your fitness goals.

Darius Rucker, after Hootie and the Blowfish, expanded his wings as a solo artist and tipped his hat in R&B. This was met with a lukewarm reception from his fans and his debut album bombed. This too will happen to you from time to time in your fitness endeavors. How many competitive athletes go from being phenomenally fit and at the top of their game and then struggle with weight issues when they retire? Hopefully, Charles Barkley you are reading this right now. Or, if you trained intensely to run a marathon and did all you hoped to do and more, but then never ran another mile in your life, Hootie speaks to you too. It is hard losing weight and keeping it off or being at your athletic best and staying on top. Just like Darius Rucker, you will bomb at some point and want to give up.

Darius Rucker didn’t give up and either will you. In 2008, he transformed himself again into a country singer. His first solo chart single “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” went on to become the first number one country hit by an African American artist since 1983. Get out of your comfort zone, try something different with your exercise routine, and set new goals for yourself to train for and achieve. The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If your mind and body crave a change, do yourself a favor and change the way you eat and exercise.

Resistance training is an all encompassing term that includes muscular strength and muscular endurance training. Muscular strength training requires heavier weights and focuses on working your muscles to the point of fatigue. Whereas using lightweight dumbbells in group exercise classes or in your living room is muscular endurance training, rather than strength. Both muscular strength and muscular endurance training should be included as part of a balanced exercise program.

One of the misconceptions of both strength and endurance training has to do with the number of sets and reps that are required to affect change in your body. The old school of thought, and one that is still doggedly adhered to today, is the stereotypical 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps or to the point of fatigue. Muscle fatigue refers to the point when you can no longer perform an exercise without compromising your form. This isn’t a problem with strength training because you are using heavy enough weights and often one set is enough to reach muscle fatigue.

The problem with the ‘3 sets of 12 to 15 reps’ thinking has more to do with muscular endurance training. One of the misconceptions that is still alive and well in the fitness world is that lighter weights  require more repetitions in order to have a training effect on the body. This is simply not true. With muscular endurance training, you are probably never going to get to the point of complete muscle fatigue even with the magical 3 set requirement. This shouldn’t be the goal.

Not only is this type of set training repetitious and boring, it is not a necessary requirement for endurance training. Instead of performing your resistance exercises in a mind numbing trance repeating the exact same exercise three times, focus on working the same muscle group in multiple ways. A big secret here folks is these exercises don’t need to be executed one after the other in order to work the muscle you are targeting.

For example, if you are doing tricep overhead curls, you do not have to do three sets of 12 in order to effectively work your triceps. You can do a set of overhead curls, tricep kickbacks, and tricep push-ups. If you want to do these tricep exercises all at one time you can. But, as long as you include all three of these exercises (or any other tricep exercises you like better) at some point in your resistance training session, this will be as effective as if you did three sets of 12 of the same exercise in a row.

Another rule to remember is that exercises that seem unrelated from each other can actually work the same muscles. For example, lying flat on your back doing ab crunches is not the only way to work your abdominals. Try this on for size at your next workout. Do a series of your typical ab crunches, maybe 20 traditional ones and 20 side to side, and even throw in some bicycles if you want. From this point, continue with your resistance training session as you had planned, but throw in push-ups, planks, and some plyometric exercises and see if your abs are not speaking to you. Remember, the idea of a set number of repetitions in strength training does not have to be repetitions of the same exercise. It is working the same muscle in different ways.
 
The bottom line with muscular endurance training is not to focus on the ‘light weights/more reps’ mantra. Even if you are using dumbbells, if the exercise is so easy that you could do 100 reps with no problem, you are using too light of a weight. Get heavier weights next time or you are wasting your time. Make your workouts challenging and fun by focusing on incorporating creative exercises that target your muscles in more than one way and stop counting sets.

Women everywhere have the same mantra. “I don’t want to lift weights because I don’t want to bulk up.” The new mantra of women should be, “I want to lift weights so my body can be stronger, leaner, and toned.” The problem with women and resistance training is two-fold. The first problem is actually getting women to resistance train in the first place. The second problem then becomes getting them to use weights that are challenging for their bodies.

A study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercises suggests that women are lifting with weights that are too light to affect change. Women are not biologically capable of becoming bulky because of weight training. Using 8 pound dumbbells instead of 1 pound dumbbells is not going to make you look like a male bodybuilder. Resistance training does not mean bench pressing hundreds of pounds. For muscular strength and endurance training, you should be using weights that are challenging enough to fatigue the muscles you are working.

The expression ‘no pain, no gain’ is not a cliché for nothing. Resistance training, if done properly, should not be painful but it should be slightly uncomfortable. If you can do 100 bicep curls at the weight you are using, you are wasting your time. Next time use heavier weights. You should be physically spent after each set and thankful that it is over. If you are not challenging your muscles, you are not going to succeed in changing your body.

If you remain erroneously convinced that heavier weights will make you bigger instead of firmer and leaner, do not give up resistance training entirely. Rather, incorporate exercises into your fitness program that rely on your body weight as resistance instead. Push-ups are arguably one of the greatest exercises ever. They work your chest, shoulders, and core all at the same time. Power Yoga also utilizes your own body weight to complete a series of poses that will challenge your balance, flexibility, and strength.

Cardiovascular training is great for your heart and for burning fat, but strength training is necessary for sculpting and toning your body. Less is not more when it comes to resistance training. Women are strong and powerful beings in all area of their lives. Why should women be afraid to be physically strong as well?

If exercise is beneficial for you, how can there be such thing as too much exercise? Too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. Over-exercising, just like over-eating, is emotionally and physically harmful to the body.

In fact, there is a medical term attached to over-exercising called exercise bulimia. Your body will literally begin to shut down if exercise is done to the extreme. Women experience loss of their periods because of too little body fat, hair loss, osteoporosis, low libido, low body temperature, and debilitating fatigue.

Obviously, exercise bulimia refers to people who really take exercise to far. But, there is a subset of people, most often women, who may not be exercise bulimics but are definitely overdoing it.

We are a society where more is more. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise, just like with most other things, less is more. Exercise should be intense and should be a mixture of cardiovascular and resistance training. Exercise can even be done daily and still be considered healthy. The difference is if you are doing more than an hour and a half hours a day of intense physical exercise, you are doing too much. There are absolutely no physical benefits to be had by 3-4 hours of exercise a day. Your body will start eating up your reserves in order to get nourished which will leave you depleted. You will not build muscle and you will not build speed. After a certain period of time, your body goes into overdrive and you are opening yourself up to injury. In addition, you will cease making strides in your progress because you will hit a dead end in your training.

Exercise should be intense, but it should also be efficient. If done correctly, you should not be able to do 3 hours of spin in a row, or class after class in succession. You should feel spent, satisfied, and done when your exercise class or routine is finished. Changes in your body will occur when you change the way you exercise. Your body will surprise and thank you when you exercise intensely, but in moderation.

The standard way people exercise their biceps in weight rooms and group exercise classes is 3 sets of 12 standard bicep curls in a standing position with dumbbells. There is nothing wrong with this except your biceps will not change their definition by this generic routine.

The bicep muscle actually has different heads. A standard curl just works one of them. Every time you work out the bicep, try doing three or four different bicep exercises to completely fatigue and target the entire muscle. By making small changes to the way you strength train, you will see results.

Try adding hammer curls where you are holding the dumbbells in a vertical position to your body. Another good exercise is going to the opposite side of your body when you do single arm curls. A killer bicep exercise is getting into a squat position and doing your curls while squatting. The resistance will be double and you will be working your legs at the same time. Another exercise is to place your arms at your side and curl from that position instead of in front of you.

Biceps are a very strong muscle. One of the mistakes people make is to use too light of a weight when engaging these muscles. Challenge your muscles with slightly heavier weights than you are comfortable with. As long as you are maintaining proper form, back straight and not arched, you are kicking your bicep routine up a notch for optimum results.

The biggest mistake people make with resistance training is overemphasizing their upper bodies. For optimum results, it is important to balance out all muscle groups. Women, in particular are looking for awesome legs and butts and there is no better way to achieve this then going back to the fundamentals of lower body training. Read more »

The Body Bar is one of the most underutilized pieces of equipment in exercise. By challenging your muscles in a different way, you will confuse and fatigue your muscles. This muscle confusion is what produces results in your body. Doing resistance training in the same way every time yields the same results. Add a Body Bar routine to your workout and reap the benefits today.

Just like dumbbells, body bars come in different weights. For beginners, start with a lighter bar in order to get familiar with the exercises. Any exercise that can be done with a dumbbell, can be done with a body bar. Chest presses are great and even more effective if you lay on a ball or BOSU because than your glutes are engaged as well. Squats, lunges, rows, tricep kickbacks, and overhead presses all can be done with the Body Bar.

What makes Body Bar exercises unique, are not necessarily the exercise, but the awkwardness of negotiating the bar during the exercises. There are stability issues inherent in balancing the bar while performing an exercise. This instability is what takes the body bar a step above what dumbbells can do. Core and stability muscles are engaged in every movement.

All exercises are beneficial, but varying the equipment used to execute those exercises, makes all the difference.