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Rick's Workout Tips Women Need Strength Training Too! Ladies, don't worry about looking like She-Hulk. Women do not produce enough testosterone to create big, bulging muscles like men do without lifting a lot of weight (and usually taking extra supplements). You need to lift weights too to make your muscles strong, lean, and - dare I say it - sexy. If you want long, lean muscles, focus on endurance training - low weight and lots of reps. Pick a weight that you can lift 12 to 14 times, and perform four or five sets of that exercise. Men need to lift real heavy weights for few reps in order to create bulky muscle mass. You Cannot Spot-Reduce Fat. If you've been doing 500 ab crunches a day, but still wonder why you've got that extra tire around your middle, you need to know that you cannot spot-reduce fat with specific exercises. Fat can only be taken off by eating fewer calories than you burn. You have to reduce the fat levels across your entire body - and yes, the midsection is the hardest to lose. It's where your body naturally stores fat. For guys, it's the gut. For gals, it's the hips, thighs, and butt. Keep up the crunches for strengthening those muscles so that when you do lose the weight you have a nice six-pack... but you won't see those abs if you have several pounds of fat covering them. Lift Smoothly! Don't just speed race through your lifts. Lift the weight slowly, and let it down slowly. Take an exercise like the biceps curl, for example. Spend 3 seconds lifting the dumbells, and 2 seconds lowering them. You benefit from both stages of the exercise - up and down. Want to vary it up... spend 10 seconds lifting the weights and 5 seconds lowering (or vice versa). Keep your muscles guessing. Own the Weight. Don't increase your weight until you own the weight you're currently at. If you can do 4 whole sets of 12 reps with that weight, then you're ready to move up... but only if you could lift all that time without losing control of the weights at all. Don't just struggle through those last two reps and call it a day. When you honestly feel that weight is no longer a challenge, then you move up. Focus on Range of Motion. Make sure you can get through the entire range of motion for a lift. If you can't you're done. Stop and rest. Don't get the weight half-way up and call it a rep. If you're still under 8 or 9 reps, you might want to reduce your weight. No Bouncing! Don't bounce the weights - you're cheating. People do it with a barbell bench press all the time. They try to bounce the weight off their chest for a little extra help on the next rep. The weight should come to a complete stop when you're done with that rep. You're not only cheating, you're risking injury. Don't Hold Your Breath. Breath fluidly and easily through the entire range of motion while you're lifting. Exhale when you lift. Inhale when you're letting the weight down.
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