Category: Exercise

Weight training has so many benefits for everyone! It has the potential to keep you young, strong and fit. You can learn about yourself and grow in so many ways. Below is a collection of benefits you will receive if you incorporate weight training into your lifestyle.

Weight training can keep you young and improve your quality of life as you get older. Around the age of 30 your body naturally begins to slow down. One of the side effects of this is a condition called sarcopenia where you begin to lose muscle mass. This particular condition can actually be reversed through weight training. If you build more muscle you will have a greater chance of maintaining your quality of life as you get older as you will have more muscle to lose before it would affect your ability to perform everyday tasks. Weight training is also beneficial in maintaining and improving bone mass and density (possibly preventing osteoporosis), muscle balance and reducing injuries during sport, work and everyday life. In fact training with weights can improve your quality of life at any stage- from young to old.

I think weight training is the best way to lose weight. If you use the right training protocols you can burn fat, build muscle, optimise your hormones for well-being while making the most of your precious time. I have tried many forms of exercise to get into shape, however, I always look and feel better when my exercise regime solely involves weight training (plus stretches afterwards).

You can become a better athlete by using weights. If two athletes have the same skill level, but one is stronger, who would be the better athlete? In most circumstances, if not all I would go with the stronger athlete. Extra muscle mass developed through weight training can give you more strength and power (power = strength + speed). That’s why most top athletes incorporate some form of weight training in there exercise regimes so they can move faster, jump higher and dominate over weaker opponents in contact sports.

Weight training can make you smarter. Knowing how to train and diet to optimise results requires a lot of analysis of literature and experimenting with training protocols and nutrient ratios. The old idea that weight trainers are “all muscle and no brains” is a fallacy, especially for natural trainers who must continually learn and critically analyse all the information that is out there (which is often generated by companies for profit rather than to truly help you achieve your muscle and strength goals). Weight training can help develop thinking skills that can be used to achieve your muscle goals. These very skills, like goal setting can be utilised in other areas of your life too.

Weight training can affect your mood and self- esteem for the better! I know of a lot of students at school where weight training has given them more confidence and provided opportunities to shine in front of their peers. Weight training helped me to be more confident as a teenager. It has also never failed to make me feel better after a stressful day at work, or provide an energy boost before I get back into work again. Weight training is my own special “me” time and my own form of meditation!

Other benefits of weight training are:

• Better sleep patterns

• It can prevent depression

• Can improve quality of life for people who suffer from health conditions like diabetes, cancer and metabolic syndrome.

• Improved posture

• A more active metabolism (burn more calories)

• You can develop skills which can be applied to other aspects of your life like: persistence, goal setting and enjoying hard work.

Although this is not an exhaustive list of benefits it clearly details more than enough reasons to weight train. In my opinion weight training is one of the best ways to improve your quality of life!

Negative or eccentric training is a great training technique to increase strength and muscle mass as it can be applied to increase the weights you use, amp up intensity, increase time under tension and burn body fat!

Traditional negative training involves completing the negative aspect of an exercise with a spotter lifting the weight on the positive or concentric part of the movement (e.g. during an exercise like the bench press you lower the weight by yourself as slowly as possible to your chest then a spotter lifts the weight back to the top of the movement for you). Charles Poliquin, an Olympic and top personal trainer claims using negatives is one of the fastest ways to improve your strength. He has had great success with this technique to help both his male and female clients perform pull ups. If they can’t perform one pull up (pronated grip) or chin up (supinated grip) he gets them standing on a box high enough so they can start at the top of the movement and perform only the negative. The strength gained during the eccentric training transfers over to the concentric aspect of the repetition too. So when they can complete a 30 second negative they are able to perform a proper pull up.

Another effective variation of negatives is to load the muscle with a weight heavier than you are accustomed to using in an exercise (we can be up to 30% stronger during a negative) while having a spotter take most of the weight during the positive part to increase strength and muscle growth. To be on the safe side begin by using a weight that is 5% heavier and go from there.
Others use negatives to increase intensity and time under tension (T.U.T) by completing as many normal reps as possible then getting a spotter to help with the positive movement when they can no longer do it to increase the reps and tension time the muscle is put under. Some recent research suggests that tension times of at least 40 seconds are extremely beneficial for muscle growth. If you consider that a normal set of 10 reps usually takes around 20-30 seconds for most trainers (1 second positive and 1-2 second negative) -adding 2-3 negatives can add up to 10 seconds or more on to the end of a set putting yourself in a way better position to grow!

Negatives can be done by yourself on one arm exercises like concentration curls or one arm triceps pushdowns as you can use the other arm to help with the positive movement when the muscles can no longer complete it. You can also complete partial negatives to develop weak points in any lift too.

Although negative training has been used with great success by many top bodybuilders, the unique stress it provides (during negatives the muscles are activated like they are in fast twitch mode and it causes more muscle damage than normal lifting) can be quite stressful and put a higher demand on the body’s ability to recover and grow. As a result it is only used for short periods of time as a technique to shock the body back into growth.

• A good side effect of the muscle damage caused by negative training is the increase in the body’s metabolism which means you burn more body fat- so how could we get the benefits of negative training on a regular basis without the burn out that could occur with traditional negative training?
  Emphasising or lengthening the time of negatives in your normal sets has all the benefits of negative training and more! I have increased my negatives to 4 seconds with a 1 second positive on most exercises.
  I have found that increasing the time of the negative aspect of my exercises has had these benefits for me:
  · A better mind-muscle connection.
  · Better muscle pumps.
  · Longer time under tension (T.U.T); a normal 10 repetition set now gives me around 50 seconds of tension time.
  · Weights used are lighter which is great for my joints. (It was actually tough mentally to drop the weights I normally lift, thinking I would shrink- but I am so glad I did as the results I have seen have been well worth it).
  · I am recovering faster and can train more often (not trying to lift heavy all the time has meant my central nervous system is recovering faster and in line with my muscle recovery).
  · My metabolism has sped up (I weigh more; have got leaner and enjoying eating more food!).
  · I have increased vascularity and my muscles look fuller.
  · Don’t need a spotter.
  · I am enjoying my training even more than normal!

You can play around with the length of your negatives to see what works for you. Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson (x-rep.com and American Ironman magazine) promote negative accentuated (NA) sets that have a 6 second negative and 1 second positive aiming for 7 reps (49 seconds tension time and believe me it is TOUGH!). On most sets they use a 3 second negative and 1 second positive for 10 reps so they hit 40 seconds (T.U.T) on most sets. The progress these two have achieved with this type of training is impressive as both have amazing physiques (both are drug free too!).

If you haven’t tried negatives before give some of these variations a try. Who would have thought that focussing on the negative could have so many positives!

 

Have you ever wondered how much weight you should aim to lift in the Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift as a natural trainer for your body weight?  Casey Butt Ph.D from WeighTrainer.com has devised equations that utilise data of world record raw lifters from the 1940’s all the way up to 2010.  He suggests that these equations are quite accurate predictors in regards to raw & drug free world champion lifts and that attaining these would put you up there with the very best in the world.  Although this may not be realistic for most he says that typical trainees and hard gainers may reach approximately:

Typical trainer	Hard gainer
67% of predicted bench result	53% of predicted bench result
72% of predicted Squat result	58% of predicted Squat result
72% of predicted Deadlift result	58% of predicted Deadlift result

Casey puts it in context when he says that you need to “accept yourself for who you are and never stop trying to improve yourself – that’s the real measure of success, not only were you ultimately go, but where you came from as well”.   Remember we all have our own genetic limitations and strengths so if anything I think this is a great tool to get you motivated to get stronger and push yourself to reach your potential with real numbers to aim for.  So here are the equations:

Bench Press = 2.6536e-5 x BW^3 – 0.02590 x BW^2 + 8.7356 x BW – 439.90

(Lowered to the chest with no bounce).

Full Squat = 2.5122e-5 x BW^3 – 0.02993 x BW^2 + 11.2575 x BW – 676.60

(Upper leg lowered to parallel or below).

Deadlift = 1.6940e-4 x BW^3 – 0.12449 x BW^2 + 30.3879 x BW – 1776.51

(Conventional or Sumo style allowed)

(You can use a belt with all lifts- no straps for deadlifts).

Now these equations require you to convert kilograms into pounds before putting it into the formula.  Here is an example of how I used it to work out my bench press, squat and deadlift. There are 2.2 pounds per kilo. I weigh 67 kilos so 67 x 2.2 = 147pds.  Then you replace BW in the equation with your weight in pounds.

 

Bench Press = (2.6536e-5 x BW^3) – (0.02590 x BW^2) + (8.7356 x BW – 439.90)

(0.000026536x147x147x147) – (0.02590 x 147 x 147) + (8.7356x147 – 439.90)= 281.77 pd

Now I have to convert this back to kilos- 281.77/ 2.2=128 kg.

Typical would be 128 x 67%=85.67 kg

Hard gainer would be 128 x 53%= 67.84 kg

 

Full Squat = (2.5122e-5 x BW^3) – (0.02993 x BW^2) + (11.2575 x BW – 676.60)

(0.000025122x 147 x 147 x 147) – (0.02993x 147 x 147) + (11.2575x 147-676.60)= 411.3 pd

Convert this back to kilos- 411.3 / 2.2= 186.95 kg

Typical would be 186.95 x 72%= 134.6 kg

Hard gainer would be 186.95 x 58%= 108.4

 

Deadlift = 1.6940e-4 x BW^3 – 0.12449 x BW^2 + 30.3879 x BW – 1776.51

(0.00016940x147x147x147)- (0.12449x147x147) + (30.3879x147-1776.51)=538.5pd

Convert this to kilos-538.5/2.2=244.7kg

Typical would be 244.7 x 72%= 176.2kg

Hard gainer would be 244.7 x 58%= 141.9kg

 

At this body weight my best lifts are:

Bench: 110kg

Squat: 160kg

Deadlift: 200kg (with straps)

Although I am no elite lifter by any stretch of the imagination I am very happy with the numbers and progress I have made over the years. If you are interested in seeing where you are in relation to elite, typical and hard gainer lifters punch in your numbers and see where you stand-  then use your results as a positive tool to motivate you to bigger numbers in the weight room!

For natural bodybuilders it is tough to continually make gains, especially after many years of training. However, it can be easy to get into new styles of training and forget what got you that initial muscle in the first place. Progressive overload with compound exercises for lower reps (5-7) gave me my best gains in strength and muscle during my twenties. After the North Island Champs in Masterton I decided it was time to add this back into my training regime as well as using my favourite techniques like rest-pause, POF, x-reps and volume.

I remember reading an excellent article by biologic labs in Australia (about 4 years ago) where they provided a formula for the relationship between strength and muscle. If you wanted to gain 10 kilograms of muscle you had to:

Increase your 1 rep max Bench by 30kg
Increase your 1 rep max Squat by 40kg
Increase your 1 rep max Dead-lift by 45kg

The article did mention that there are other variables which could affect the accuracy of these figures; however, my first attempt at it four years ago saw definite progress!!

Here is what I aimed for after Masterton- a gain of 2.5 kg. My goals were:

Increase my Incline Bench by 7.5kg
Increase my Squat by 10kg
Increase my Dead-lift by 11.25kg

This was a tough goal (realising I was already in contest condition with only 3 months to go before nationals). I weighed 65.2 kilograms (although I was not as lean as last year). Even so I was determined to give it a go!

Here has been a typical weeks training:

Shoulders & Arms

Exercise Technique Sets Reps

Db Omni Side RowRP/S* 5 2-10
Db raise Vol* 5 10
Db bent raise Vol* 5 10
Dip S* 3 5
DB Curl RP* 2 5-10
DB tri ext SS1* 3 5-15
Reverse Cable
Curl SS1* 3 5-10

Hams, Calves and F-arms

Leg curl Vol 8 8
Romanian Dead-lift S* 3 5
Hack calf raise S* 3 4-8
Calf raise RP* 3 6-15
Lunge (walking) Vol* 1 50+

Chest & Back

BB Incline Press S* 2 5
DB Row RP* 3 4-10
DB Omni Bench RP 3 4-10
Dead-lift S 2 5
Db flye Vol 5 8-10
Chin up Vol 5 8-10

Quads & Calves

Leg press RP 2 10-20
Squat/ Front Squat S 2 5
Leg ext Vol 8 10
Seated calf raise RP 3 10-15
Leg press calf raise Vol 8 10

RP= rest-pause.
S= strength focus.
Vol= volume.

**I still incorporate POF, x reps, XTD, DXO and other intensity techniques. Workouts take around 30 minutes (for this to happen I need to have minimal to no rest between exercises, apart from exercises with a strength focus). I often change the exercises I perform volume or rest pause with, however, strength exercises remain the same.

Regardless of whether I gain 2.5 kilograms or not, I have already noticed I am stronger in all exercises and leaner at the same weight. So if you have reached a plateau and want to put on more muscle, implement some strength training, set some goals and go for it!