The Mind-Muscle Connection

Although Training, Nutrition, Cardio and Supplementation should all be viewed as equally important in your transformation goals, I’d rather miss a workout than miss a meal. Timely nutrition is so important in keeping your body fueled and your calorie levels on track.  You won’t see regression from  missing a workout, although a solid workout schedule is necessary for making progress.  Sometimes you experience conflicts in your daily schedule that can’t be prevented.  In cases like this it is more beneficial to sacrifice you workout for the day and still get that meal in when its time.

Thanks to http://sirprofligacy.wordpress.com/  

We’re back from a week of travel, rest and holiday celebration.  Needless to say, a week spent on a plane, in an airport, in a family’s house and out with friends does not bode well for eating healthy and sticking to your plans.  Throw in the “mandatory” holiday meal(s), and the foods included, and anyone is bound to see their progress towards their goals falter a bit. 

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The way I see it, a healthy lifestyle isn’t just eating well or doing cardio 4 times a week.  Living a healthy lifestyle is attention to detail 24/7/365.  Its making the correct choices and planning, so you know what to expect at all times.

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Health and fitness is the only sport where there isn’t a winner and a loser. You are always competing against yourself, trying to beat your old benchmarks, be it a new personal best lift, more muscle or a lower bodyfat, shredded physique. You have this image of your ideal self and you strive to make progress towards that goal every day, in and out of the gym.  This game is on 24/7.  Whether you are eating, working out, sleeping or enjoying some down time, everything you do determines how your body looks, feels and responds.

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In the quest to get bigger, faster, stronger and leaner, lifters turn to resistance training to get them to their goals.  Providing resistance against movements can be accomplished in many ways.  Isometric movements are where the body part is holding still against a force.  Isotonic movements are where the body part is moving against the force.  The overall goal for resistance training is to gradually and progressively overload the musculoskeletal system so it gets stronger.

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Bumper plates are those colored rubber plates that all have the same diameter as 45 lb plates, although they range in weight from 5 lbs to 35 lbs. This is to teach proper form on exercises where the lifter is pulling from the ground, like deadlifts or power cleans. Using traditional 25 lbs plates would make the user bend over farther to get the weight off the ground. The 25 lb bumper plates let the user use less weight than 45 lbs regular plates, but still have the same range of motion. It also provides safety as dropping bumper plates will be more padded than iron weights. The 45 lb bumper plates also have a wider base width than 45 lb iron plates, so there is more stability on ground lifts.

What bumper plates are NOT used for is curling, squating, leg press or any other exercise where the weights dont touch the ground. Just because the weights look like 45 lb plates, it doesnt mean you need to add four of them to each side to make it look like you are lifting four 45 lb plates. Leave the bumper plates for lifters performing ground exercises, and stick with the cold iron weights for everything else.

It is inevitable that throughout the many years of resistance training, years of compressing your joints with piles of weight and exerting your body to repetitious motions designed to tear down the structures that are designed to hold it all together, you will eventually incur an injury that will require more time to heal than just waking up sore the next day and powering through the pain

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Core exercises (also known as The Big 3) are compound exercises that should be included in everyones workout program. Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press are highly regarded as the best muscle building exercises available and although difficult and complex to perform correctly, these exercises yield the best results for lifters.
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