Q&A for: 17-Oct-06
1837. Q:
I really want to expand my workout to include some more complicated compound movements like the clean and press. I have never done it before and it looks complicated. I have been training for over a year and I am fairly strong (in the intermediate category for all of the items listred on the standars link), but I don't want to try something new and be out of the gym for a long time due to an injury. do you have any advice. I know it is prolly very difficult to explain a workout over the internet, but anything would help. Thanks.
A:
As you say, it's difficult to teach or to learn a complex exercise like the clean over the internet. By far the best thing to do would be to get a trainer who can teach it to you (or an experienced lifter who knows the exercise well).
If you have no choice but to learn it by yourself, then I think this page does a good job of explaining and illustrating the clean and this for the press. It's very important to practice for a good while with very light weights -- start with a broomstick. First you'll want learn the motion itself and then you'll want to learn to do it at maximum possible speed. Once you master the broomstick, move up to a standard 45-pound barbell and spend a few sessions there. After that you can start moving up to truly challenging weights.
Don't ever aim to reach muscular failure on power exercises like the clean -- once fatigue starts to set in it's time to end the set -- power exercises are pointless and dangerous when performed tired and at half-speed. Do them in the beginning of your training session before moving on to more 'traditional' weight training exercises. Focus on speed and forcefulness of the execution -- all power exercises are meant to be performed explosively, aggressively. Good luck!
1838. Q:
what does the body burn first, fat or carb?
A:
Our bodies are very complex machines, so it's not as simple as what burns first. At all times your body is using both glucose/glycogen (carbs) and triglycerides (fat) for energy. In general, glucose is the preferred source of energy for the body and it's the one your body relies on most in short high-intensity activities. But the supply of glucose/glycogen in your muscles, blood, and liver is quite limited while triglycerides are available in nearly endless supply (thanks to your body's fat reserves).
So your body is always doing a balancing act between using the very efficient but relatively scarce glycogen versus the less efficient but plentiful triglycerides. In the end it roughly works as you might expect. When you're really stressing your body with intense exercise glycogen will be the primary fuel in the beginning. If you continue with the exercise, as less and less glycogen becomes available, your body will switch to using more triglycerides and your intensity/strength will decrease correspondingly since the 'fuel' quality will be lower.
One thing to note is that just because long-duration exercise uses more triglycerides it does NOT necessarily make it the best or only choice for losing body fat -- check out the discussion in Q&A #402. You may also want to check out Q&A #258.
1839. Q:
If you are lifting heavy weights – but you do not eat enough to prevent some muscle loss – is there a point at which the body will not burn more muscle as it has to maintain a certain muscle mass to continue lifting heavy weights? I remember reading in one of your answers to a question that you said that if you large muscles they will lose more area than your smaller sized muscles.
A:
Once you are a grown adult your body will always, under any dietary or physical condition, be trying to stay in equilibrium. That means your body is always trying to not gain or lose any significant amount of fat or of muscle. Your body is capable of finding this equilibrium in a wide range of scenarios -- it'll eventually stop losing weight and stabilize if you eat only 1500 calories daily and the it'll eventually stop gaining weight and stabilize if you eat 3000 calories daily. So to answer your question, definitely YES, unless you literatlly starve yourself to death your body will eventually reach a point when it stabilizes after losing some amount of fat and muscle (and strength, of course). The degree of these losses will depend on just how little you eat and what kind of physical stress you are subjecting your body to.
1840. Q:
mike, what is your opinion on maximum contraction? how in your views does it compare to 12rep x 4 set exercises? some people swear by them, and they look pretty good, but maybe because they've been training the old fasion way and only recently changed. personal trainers are against this workout, but i think that's because they don't want to lose money (because you can get your workout done so much quicker). I've heard MaxC isn't as damaging to the joints. Adam UK
A:
Static contraction (also called isometric) method of training can be a valuable tool in some instances but it does not make a good training program by itself. Its primary value lies in helping to break through 'sticking points' in exercises such as the bench press. The sticking point is the point in the lifting motion when it's hardest for you to keep moving the weight up. Usually once you clear the sticking point, the remainder of the movement becomes relatively simple. In order to train your muscles to exert maximum strength at that sticking point, you can utilize isometric training by statically holding that position with the regular (or even extra) weight for several seconds, fighting the weight. If you do this for a bench press or a squat make ABSOLUTELY sure you have very experienced and attentive spotters or a safety pins in place to prevent the weight from collapsing on you when your muscles finally give out.
Studies have shown isometric training when used like this and in conjunction with 'traditional' dynamic training results in better 1 rep-max gains than dynamic training alone. However aside from this specific use I'm skeptical about using isometric training too much. You cannot develop overall strength or power by not performing the exercise through the entire range of motion because strength and power are specific to the joint angle. The same reason why isometric training is effective in breaking through sticking points (by fixing the joint angle and training your muscles just for that angle) is exactly the reason why it can't be effective by itself overall (it ignores all other joint angles!)
For the same reason you would sacrificing hypertrophy (muscle size) gains if you only do isometric... Almost all muscles are composed of many different groups of fibers grouped at various angles against each other. Any one joint angle will heavily stress some of the fibers, but not the others. So isometric training simply does not force you to use and stress all the muscle fibers than dynamic training does.
Isometric training can be a useful technique for breaking through sticking points, but it would be a mistake to structure your entire program around it.
1841. Q:
Hi Mike, i have very bad dark circles around my eyes, i know i'm lacking sleep but i know there are some foods or vitamins that by consuming it more often will reduce the dark rings, do you know any food or vitamins i should consume to reduce the dark rings. Thanks
A:
I don't think I can recommend anything other than getting more sleep in this situation. I've heard anecdotal accounts of Vitamin K helping to treat the dark rings, but have no idea how reliable those accounts are. If you would like to give it a try I would recommend, as always, to try and get your vitamins from real foods instead of from synthetic supplements. Many leafy greens are rich in Vitamin K with kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and lettuce being most prominent. Good luck!
1842. Q:
In response to question 1831, I think that those standards on that link are slightly deceptive. I'm in very good shape as an Olympic TaeKwonDo participant, and the majority of my weight is distributed in my legs, because of the nature of TKD. I only have 9% body fat and a very visible six pack. great site by the way!
A:
Thanks, glad you like my site! It's certainly the case for any 'standard' that it will not fit everyone which may well be the case for you as a TKD participant. There's a good chance that your squat strength will be above the average while your bench strength may be below. Another example of a sport's requirements leading to 'non-standard' development may be rowing -- a typical rower will have a much stronger back than chest, while an 'average' trainee will have roughly the same strength in bench press versus pullup.
Tables such as this one are just designed to give an idea of 'average' range of values. Another example of 'average' table which may be considered unfair to strength and power sports participants is the Body Mass Index (BMI) table -- it may show many extremely fit individuals such as yourself as overweight or even obese because it does not attempt to differentiate between fat mass and muscle mass.
It's much more productive to focus on your own goals and progress instead of comparing yourself to any one person or to an 'average'.
|
