Last week, I saw somebody doing a bridge exercise on a swiss ball, which I thought was a fairly novel idea. It was new to me, anyway. I tried it during my workout in place of my last set of crunches, and I liked it. I mentioned that I wanted to try it with my…
I have just finished my first week back lifting, and I am a little more tired than I expected to be. I chalk it up to the migraine on Tuesday night and not cutting back on the work at all. Last Friday, and this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I did my “getting back into shape”…
This morning I was at the gym working out (my “getting back into lifting shape” workout), and I saw somebody doing a bridge, which is a great workout exercise for your abs but which I do not have currently written into my workout. However, he was doing it on a swiss ball, which I had…
This may seem obvious as a workout tip, but plan your workouts before starting. Figure out what your goals are for the months ahead, so that you can figure out the general types of shorter term goals to set. That way you can set specific goals a week or two ahead of time, and have…
After a layoff of some months without lifting weights, it is inadvisable to just jump right back into it. What I do is spend 2-4 weeks on a specific workout that gets my muscles used to the motions and stresses that are unique to lifting weights and which are much different from pounding out miles…
Gym etiquette is important for beginners to learn, preferably before offending fellow gym-goers. Five tips from ACE (the American Council on Exercise) provide a good starting point. Don’t be rude. Maintain good hygiene. Restack your weights. Stay back when starting a group exercise class. Hire a personal trainer. Read the original article for more details….
Strength News has a video about how not to deadlift. My back starts hurting just looking at that video. The kid should use his legs more, should not bow his back so much, and should not rely on gravity and momentum to lift the weight. If he does that often, he is going to seriously…
This tip is for anybody that has trouble timing their rest when they are lifting weights, either due to being distracted or not remembering when they finished their last set or just not being able to keep track of when to start the next set.
Having finished one phase of my training, the question is whether I should take a little time off before starting the next phase. Two weeks of low-weight, high rep total body workouts, 3 weeks of mid-range reps split into upper/lower (although I skimped on the lower body workouts since I am still running and do…
Mid-day workouts are great. You do not have to get up at 5:30 in the morning in order to have time before work to get it done. You do not have to delay dinner until 8 or 9 o’clock at night due to working out after work. You get the warmest part of the day…