“Why are we squatting? I want bigger arms.”
“Well, if you do heavy lifts for your legs, you will produce a greater base of anabolic hormones to work off of later and that will allow you to build bigger arms.”
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I swear I have had this conversation with almost all of my male clients at some point in time. Unfortunately, the advice I gave is dead wrong. Check out why in my review of literature for this study!
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, if there was one exercise tip I would want everybody to know, it is this: when you are performing an exercise, focus on squeezing the muscles that you are trying to challenge instead of focusing on something outside of your body such as moving the weight.
In my last post on the four exercise necessities for building muscle, the first point I brought was that when lifting weights you should be performing repetitions until you cannot perform another one. As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I realize this is very difficult to do, especially if you do not have a trainer, spotter, or workout partner to help you.
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I see a number of papers, books, and articles written on building muscle. In fact, this is probably one of the most frequently discussed subjects within mainstream fitness.
However, a lot of these publications and discussions miss the boat on what actually needs to happen from an exercise-conditions standpoint. And honestly, it is really not as complicated as some sources make it out to be.
It is that time of year again! The kids are out of school, the grill is fired up, and your schedule is PACKED with summertime activities. So long to any idea of getting in some exercise time between now and Labor Day… But wait! You CAN still get your exercise in this summer!
“How?” you ask?
Both group fitness and personal training are great things, right? But have you considered how different they are?
Growing up I was a dancer. In fact, my dance company competed a lot at competitions with other dance companies. What I loved about dance was not learning the technique, or learning the steps, or memorizing the choreography. I loved performing on stage.
And you know what? I won. All. The. Time. Best facial expressions. Best costume. Best role playing. All this, and I still often forgot the ‘real’ dance stuff. I was awful at choreography, memorization, and technique. BUT, I could perform. And that ALWAYS stole the judges’ hearts. (more…)
