Q&A for: 22-Oct-05
788. Q:
Should you exercise the day after your previous workout if your muscles are still sore? One day I exercise, Next day, Is bad to exercise next day?
A:
You should not work out sore muscles, but you can still work out other muscle groups that are not sore. For example, if you had a leg workout and your legs are sore, you can still have a chest workout since it doesn't involve your legs in any way. 'Split' routines are good for situations like this since they stagger different muscle groups throughout the week. You can find some split routines in my Weight Training article.
789. Q:
hey mike, are is there any way to strengthen your grip? im shrugging more then i can hold, and i dont want to use wrist straps
A:
The best way is to keep doing shrugs and deadlifts without straps and pick as heavy a weight as you can so that your grip gives out first. This will underexercise traps or lower back (in case of deadlifts), but it's the surest way to make your grip catch up.
Alternatively, you can use straps to push your shrug or deadlift weights past the grip limitation, but then separately exercise grip by simply picking up heavy dumbbells or barbell and holding it 30 seconds or so to failure. Some people also like farmer's walk exercise which the same thing except instead of standing in one place, you're walking from wall to wall or something like that. Walking gives you a little more focus
Whichever way you choose it'll basically come down to training your grip by holding heavy heavy weight for a period of time (30 second is a good target, but you can vary it anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds).
790. Q:
how namy calories does a crunch burn no one can tell me the exact number please help!
A:
The reason nobody can tell you the exact number is because it's pretty much irrelevant. Counting calories is a poor way of losing fat, especially when it comes to resistance exercise (such as crunch or pushup or any weight lifting) since the idea behind resistance exercise is to burn fat AFTER the exercise is over while muscles are recovering. So I'm not going to be able to give you a number either.
Instead of adding up all the calories you eat verus all the calories you 'burn', you'd lose the unwanted fat much better by setting up a good fat-burning diet for yourself and doing heavy whole-body weight training. Everything you need is described in my fat-loss article. Read it carefully and follow its directions to find the optimal diet and exercise routine for yourself. Good luck!
791. Q:
Hey what is the BEST way to lose the most weight in 2 month?
A:
First you have to decide what you real goal is: lose as much weight as you can in 2 months OR lose as much FAT as you can in 2 month and make sure it doesn't come back? Short-term weight loss is very easy and can be done through any number of ways, both healthy and unhealthy. Losing FAT, on the other hand, and especially making sure it doesn't come back afterwards is a whole other story.
When most people talk about losing weight, they really want to lose fat, but they don't understand the difference which leads to a million fad diets none of which lose fat in the long term. They might lose you 10 pounds of water, 5 pounds of muscle and only 3 pounds of fat in a month and then all the water comes back (as it should), and the fat comes back with a vengeance because there's less muscle to burn it now. So two months later the person weighs the same as before but with less muscle and more fat, making for even poorer and less healthy appearence.
So please don't try to lose 'most weight' in 2 months. Instead try to lose most fat and keep in mind that fat loss should be slow if you don't want all that fat you lost to come back later. A good goal would be to lose around 10 pounds of fat in 2 months and the way to do it is described in my fat-loss article. It'll come down to having a good diet, doing heavy whole-body weight training, and doing some cardio. Please read my article carefully and follow its directions for the best FAT loss possible.
792. Q:
I read somewhere that in order to get a six pack you need to have a fat body percentage about 9%.If u are at this point and u dont have muscles but u are just thin can u get a six pack ?Or do u need to build muscles first and then get it?
A:
The 9% figure is correct -- the six-pack appears somewhere in 9-10% body fat range. It is possible to just be thin and have a six-pack. Some teenage guys have it naturally like that. Some adults with good genetics who are into running can be like that, but it's not something that most adults would be able to accomplish through cardio alone. For most adults the more likely way of getting the six-pack requires at least some muscle mass to facilitate fat burning.
So if you're an average guy with 17% body fat, a small gut, and no developed muscles, your best bet of getting the six-pack would be through diet and weight training. A typical scenario would involve several stages:
1. Go on a healthy multi-meal maintenance diet with weight-training for a couple of months. Your weight won't change, but you will lose a little fat, build a little muscle, and raise your metabolism a bit. You might end up with 15% body fat at the end of this stage.
2. Switch to a fat-burning diet, continue weight training, and very slowly (1 pound/week or less) lose some weight in a few months. End this stage at 12%. The reason this stage has to end typically is that your metabolism eventually slows down and fat loss stops.
3. Switch to a muscle-building diet, continue weight training, and VERY VERY slowly (2 pounds/month or less) gain some weight in muscle. End this stage at 13-14% with significantly more muscle and much higher metabolism.
4. Final assault on the six-pack: switch to a fat-burning diet again, continue weight training, go for slow weight loss again. You will hopefully make it all the way to 10% body fat before your metabolism slows down too much.
If your metabolism shuts down before the six-pack appears in stage 4, then you'll have to repeat stages 3 and 4 again. And so on. So basically you'll be zig-zagging between cutting (losing weight and fat) and bulking (gaining weight and muscle) stages till you hit your six-pack goal. Not all people will be able to achieve the six-pack in the end, but absolutely everyone can significantly lower their body fat in this manner.
793. Q:
How do yuou lose fat around your thighs and butt
A:
Same way as you lose fat anywhere else on your body -- through a fat-burning diet and heavy whole-body weight training. It's impossible to target JUST your thighs or your butt (despite what all the infomercials say), but by losing fat overall you'll lose on in those places too. Please read my fat-loss article and follow its directions. Good luck!
794. Q:
When doing sit-ups, does hooking your feet on something (so they don't move, and so your legs don't extend) decrease the value of the excercise? I can't seem to keep in the same position when doing sit-ups, I find myself moving my feet around.
A:
It doesn't necessarily diminish the value of the exercise, but it does change what muscles do how much work. By keeping feet unanchored, or especially keeping them up in the air (which is how I prefer to do it) you force your front abdominal muscles do almost all of the work. By anchoring your feet, you bring in hip flexor muscles into play by offloading some of the work to them. Neither way is really wrong, it's just a matter of what muscles you want to target. I would recommend doing it both ways.
When your feet are unachored, don't try to do a full sit-up, but instead concentrate on curling up your body, so your shoulder blades no longer touch the floor while your lower back is pretty much immobile -- this emphasizes abdominal action. When your feet are anchored, go for a full situp with straight back.
796. Q:
how to increase number of pushups
A:
The simplest way is to simply keep doing pushups a lot. You can do them 2-3 times per day to failure, which means do as many in a row as you possibly can. Your pushup strength will build up real fast. You could do weight training to increase chest and tricep strength as well, primarily through the bench press exercise, but really it won't give you significantly better results than just doing pushups.
The other big thing is to lose weight if you're overweight. This can make a huge difference if you're significantly overweight and can lose 30 pounds or more. Read my fat-loss article and follow its directions to learn how to lose weight most effectively. But only do this if you're truly overweight.
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