Categories
Meta
Blogroll
Lifting Weights's Articles
Will Weight Lifting Provide Any Health Benefits?
Those that lift weights can be divided into three different groups. There are some that do strength training merely to look better. They want to look good when they stand in front of a mirror and they want to get looks from the opposite sex when walking down the street. Others lift weights to increase their strength. They are not worried so much about looking good. They just want to feel a sense of pride at how much iron they can throw around. Then there is a final group who is simply are the health benefits that lifting weights can provide.
Today I want to consider those that are in the third camp. What are some of the health benefits that you might experience if you were to embark on a weight lifting program?
Fat Loss
The more you lift weights the more muscle you will add to your body. This will in turn raise your metabolic rate and help burn calories and fat at a faster rate. Muscle is a fat burning machine that we can all put to good use. Now some women are worried that they are going to get big and bulky if they lift weights. This is not going to happen since they lack testosterone in their bodies to enable them to build bulky muscles. Frankly, if it was that easy I would have looked like Mr. Universe long ago but this is not the case. However, it am not loaded up with fat.
Better Overall Health
If you were to incorporate a regular weight training program into your exercise routine then you can have a great impact on various measures of good health. Studies have shown that you can improve you blood pressure, and lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Now it is obvious that you would need to include a reasonable diet along with weight lifting in order to benefit as you should. You cannot eat a pizza every night for dinner and still see these benefits.
More Energy
As your muscle strength increases you will find that you have more energy then you used to have. It will be easier to go up stairs. You will find yourself less tired throughout the day. The very fact that you begin to look better and feel better adds a vitality to your life that you may not have experienced before. It helps improve your attitude and when that changes, it can affect so many areas of your life.
Fewer Injuries
If you do participate in athletic activities weight lifting should help keep you healthier and less prone to injury. Strength training will not only give you stronger muscle but also stronger tendons and ligaments. This will help you avoid injury.
These are just a few of the health benefits of lifting weights. If you have not begun to lift weights yet then you need to make it a priority to include it in your exercise program.
How to Build Muscle Size Like the Old Timers
nd the fifty’s through the seventy’s, we can learn a lot of solid information on how to build muscle size as well as gaining weight from the old-timers. There was a lot more common sense and simplicity when it came to weight training workouts for muscle mass.
Their training techniques differed very much from the ones we know of today, though most of the ones they used then are far more effective. The difference about their training was that they understood the importance of lifting heavy weights to build muscle. Because when you build strength, you are building the foundation for size. Some strength exercises focus on building muscle mass better then others, while others have more of an effect on gaining weight.
Not only did the old time bodybuilders train with different exercises and programs then what we mostly see today, but the way they trained was completely different altogether. They trained HARD. Back then most of these bodybuilders worked out in basements or garages of their own homes. They didn’t have all of the pads, machines, and fancy gym equipment that make training easier and more luxurious that we have today.
In fact, many bodybuilders trained without any racks whatsoever, so in order to do most exercises, they first had to clean the weight off the floor and then get it into position (a clean is an Olympic exercise in which you pick the weight up off the floor and pull it up and get your elbows under it in one quick motion). Can you imagine that before beginning to squat say, 200 pounds, you first had to pick it up off the floor, lift it over your head and then lower it onto your shoulders? Now that’s hard work.
Gyms back then were more like dungeons, and you would only go in for one purpose and one purpose only: to lift weights. The old timers would go in there, concentrate fully on their workout, train hard, and get the heck out. For most bodybuilders back then, there were probably no easy days in the gym. You either give it all you got, or you don’t workout at all.
Since they understood the importance of lifting heavy weights to build muscle on most if not all compound exercises, this made easy workouts virtually impossible. They HAD to concentrate on what they were doing. They HAD to work hard on each rep of each set of each exercise. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t get any stronger, and if they didn’t get any stronger then they knew they wouldn’t get any bigger.
There were few if any supplements back then and steroids weren’t even heard of yet. They didn’t have machines or pulleys or cables. But what they did have was more then average successful weight trainers.
Gains of 10 pounds a month for hardgainers was not uncommon, and many gained 20 to 30 pounds of muscle within just a couple of months without much of a thought. Why? Because they weren’t exposed to the same bunch of garbage that is out there today. They trained with the right knowledge and loads of hard work and common sense.
If you really want results from your workouts, you have got to change your attitude and thinking towards your training. Think of how the old timers trained next time you hit the gym. Go there with a single purpose in mind, and never let your mind stray from your workout. Your results will triple by focusing your mind while at the gym. If you’re just an “average” gym member, you’re going to get average results.
If you really want to know how to build muscle size and add some raw strength, then keep your workouts simple, focus on the compound exercises, and workout with 110% intensity. Next time you’re at the gym, think about how the old timers trained, and your results will improve tenfold.
Muscle Gain
