Like Fine Wine

June 10, 2007

Long time imaginary reader Serious in Seattle has dropped me another note:

Muscleman,

Your blog is beginning to affect my motivation to go exercise. Frankly, I don’t know how you do it. Just since January, you’ve survived terrible gym music, exasperating slobs, crazed gym ball users, noxious fumes, busted equipment, and idiots trying to fight, not to mention the general circus-like atmosphere.

I’d think it’s tough enough to get psyched for your regular workout, let alone prepare for the daily adventure that awaits you.

So what’s the trick? How do you keep your head in the game?

Thanks,
Seriously in Seattle

Serious, thanks for writing again. I find that weight training is unique among athletic pursuits in the way that the body responds to age. Every running enthusiast, for example, experiences the moment when he’s literally gone over the hill. One day when he’s speeding along the jogging trail, two strapping young lads will blow by him, while casually engaged in conversation.

That depressing, Flowers for Algernon moment, is much delayed in bodybuilding.

I found that I got substantially stronger throughout my 20s. My bench didn’t take off until I was 26 or 27, and I’m still pressing my peak weight more than half a decade later.

I imagine that former varsity athletes in football or basketball look on with jealousy at the youth now dominating their sport. On the other hand, I can go to the gym and be inspired by the guy with a face in its 40s but a body in its 20s.

Even among the professional ranks, bodybuilders peak well into their 30s. Jay Cutler won his first Mr. Olympia last year at age 33, defeating the defending eight time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman, who last won at age 40.

Then again, I do struggle whenever I see a woman at the gym with sharper abs than mine. Now to me, that’s depressing.

1 Comment | Abs, Chest, Motivation | Permalink
Posted by Muscleman

Pain In The Abs

May 13, 2007

Funny thing, abs. (Funny weird, not funny haha.) People obsess about this body part the most, yet nearly everyone tries to get away with doing the least.

Take the ab-jiggler. I don’t know what this gizmo is actually called, but I saw a remarkable infomercial recently. The idea is that you wrap this belt around your waist, and an electric device embedded in the belt jiggles your abs into shape.

Then there’s the high-profile study conducted at the University of Copenhagen, making the case that spot reduction actually works. One of the biggest myths in fitness is that you can burn fat in your midsection by exercising your abdominals. The correct way to think about spot reduction is that it’s like trying to scoop water out of a particular part of a bucket. Fat is distributed evenly throughout the body, and if you want to show off your flat stomach, you need to lose fat everywhere. Not surprisingly, the Danish study has been largely discredited as unscientific and unable to be replicated.

At the gym, you’ll probably find a variety of ab benches and devices that are supposed to help people target their stomach. I question whether such equipment actually improves ab mechanics over a simple floor crunch. Regardless, people seem determined to defeat whatever advantage these machines do provide by performing the exercises as fast as possible. Watch people use these contraptions, and you’ll see heads bobbing up and down so quickly that the activity generates a breeze.

I tried out one of these ab benches the other day just to experience first-hand the machine’s movement. Truth be told, if you crunch up and down in a slow, smooth, controlled motion, you’ll soon feel a painful burn in your abs.

Now what good is that?

1 Comment | Abs | Permalink
Posted by Muscleman

Seductively Simple

February 22, 2007

I’m not kidding when I say that folks struggling with good form should focus first on doing just one clean, quality rep. I can think of a number of bodyweight exercises where this rule applies: crunches, dips and certainly unassisted pull-ups.

Today at the gym, however, I saw another kind of one rep exercise that is most definitely not what I have in mind. It’s the all too familiar group of guys who prepare for bench presses by loading a minivan onto each side of the barbell.

The terrible form, sure to follow, doesn’t defeat just the philosophical purpose of my “one rep” rule. On a physiological level, the only possible benefit derived from singles is the strengthening of ligaments - an advantage clearly outweighed by the increased risk of injury. One rep max lifts grow very little muscle, contrary to the hopes of high school football players and frat boys. Just compare the muscularity between Olympic weightlifters and serious amateur bodybuilders.

Nevertheless, a discussion of muscle biology misses a far more interesting sociological point. These guys load up a bunch of weight so they can lean conspicuously against their barbell and grin idiotically when attractive women pass by.

In fact, I think there is an opportunity here to launch the next innovation in seduction techniques. Go ahead and load up your barbell - stand around - but don’t actually lift at all. The most productive part of the max workout comes from the effort loading and unloading several 45 lb plates anyway. Why find yourself lying on the bench, wasting a few precious seconds, when the next HB 10 walks by? Most importantly, why risk breaking a sweat?

There can be too much of a good thing, however. Just because one rep is too few doesn’t mean that peak muscularity comes from doing 50. The muscle building sweet spot is somewhere between six and eight reps per set (for women, I’ll call it the muscle toning sweet spot). Scientific studies also encourage a little variety in your workout: 6-8 reps to work the explosive “fast-twitch” muscle fibers, 10-12 reps to stimulate the endurance “slow-twitch” fibers.

Either way, you should be using a weight heavy enough that you experience muscle failure by the tenth, maybe twelfth rep. You’re just cheating yourself on multiple levels if you pick a weight with which you can do 30, but simply stop at 10. Regardless, once you enter the 12-15 rep range and beyond, your workout becomes a form of endurance training, not muscle building.

Besides, if you can really do dozens of reps - particularly when it comes to abs – you’re probably not doing the movement right at all.

2 Comments | Abs, Back, Chest | Permalink
Posted by Muscleman

Hard Gainers

February 18, 2007

Although a certain segment of the population goes out of its way to avoid making progress in the gym, hard gainers – or “hardgainers” (an actual fitness term of art) – find their bodybuilding dreams limited by mediocre genetics. Experts in the field estimate that somewhere between 60 and 95 percent of people are hardgainers.

These figures aren’t all that surprising. In any sport, a few elite athletes set the standard for legions of amateurs. And besides, statistically speaking, most people are average.

I, however, would like to advance a new theory. In my estimation, when it comes to building muscle, the problem is that 60 to 95 percent of people have no idea what they’re doing.

Today at the gym I watched a couple younger guys make an absolute mess of their back workout. They performed sets of t-bar rows and barbell rows with their posture nearly ramrod straight, transforming these excellent mass builders into sloppy bicep curls.

Then there are the folks who turn a simple set of abdominal crunches into a chiropractor’s nightmare. Lying on the floor, they wrap their arms tightly around their heads, and yank their chin into their upper chests over and over. I don’t know which is more remarkable – the 30, even 50, reps per set performed this way, or the ability to spend this much energy on abs without tapping even one stomach muscle fiber. Either way, I urge you people, why don’t you start by trying to execute just one clean crunch – fingers behind the ears, chin up, strong contraction in the abs. Just one.

4 Comments | Abs, Back | Permalink
Posted by Muscleman

Brobdingnagian B.S.

February 3, 2007

Here’s another imaginary email from a simulated reader that I found quite interesting:

Dear Muscleman,

What a great post about Arnold. I really enjoyed those classic pictures. I just wanted to comment that I hope you’re not saying we should all bulk up like Arnold. I’m trying to tone up a little, but I have no interest in looking like a bodybuilder. I don’t want to get too big.

Sincerely,

Average in Albuquerque

Average, I couldn’t agree with you more. Like you, I also strive in my affairs to be neither too rich nor too good looking.

In fact, a great many people apparently live in fear that they may wake up one morning with a chisled physique. Almost daily, I hear a group of guys at the gym, leaning against the equipment, chatting about how they really have no desire to get “big.” When I share with co-workers my passion for fitness, the conversation frequently lapses into how they bypass the gym due to the risk of packing on mass.

I believe it was bodybuilding pro Mike Matarazzo who summed up exactly what is requried to get big: 1) freakish genetics and 2) use of anabolic steriods. I would also add to his list tremendous heart, drive and commitment to the sport.

Women especially should stop using outsized muscularity as an excuse for a spotty gym record. In females, low testosterone levels make extreme muscle growth virtually impossible.

Finally, I really haven’t heard a strong case against a powerful physique, even if it were possible for the average man to achieve. What is the downside of broad shoulders, an intimidating profile, a waist and set of glutes that looks great in jeans?

If you’re only going to go through life once, why not do it with big arms?

 

 

3 Comments | Abs, All Time Nuttiest | Permalink
Posted by Muscleman