Start Your New Years Resolutions Early!
What are your Goals for 2012? Get a head start and get to it this week. Are you looking to lose weight, gain muscle or just feel better physically and mentally? I would love to hear what your Goals are for 2012.
Happy New Years! I will be in the Boston area celebrating with my friends and family.
Garrett
Do your muscles get sore the day after a workout? Is this good or bad?
I am writing this more for those of you that get upset or feel like nothing was accomplished when your muscles are NOT sore the next day!
Do you need sore muscles the day after a workout to say that you had a good workout or is it necessary to judge a workout based on this?
The answer is “no”. I know that feeling of pain 1-2 days after a workout is a sign that you had a great workout and accomplished something but don’t be too hard on yourself if this does not happen.
There are many factors that determine muscle pain or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). It often depends on what type of training you did and typically occurs with eccentric or isometric training, so it really can depend on what type of training you are doing.
I can say with confidence that eccentric training will cause more soreness or pain the next day. Eccentric contractions involve the lengthening of the muscle and is attained by placing less force than is being placed on it. This is often referred to as a “negative” in the health & fitness world. In this case force is moving the muscle, causing it to lengthen. An eccentric motion moves in the same direction as the weight. For example when you slowly resist against the weight on a bench press movement as the weight comes back down to your chest would be an eccentric contraction or movement. Another example would be slowly lowering the weight as you lower it in a bicep curl. I don’t want to get into what actually happens to the muscle fibers, that is for another post!
If you emphasize Eccentric Training or “Negatives” in your workout then you will typically feel soreness the next day. If this is your goal then it would be a good thing but if you are in a different phase of training then judge your workout on how you feel during and immediately after the workout and don’t worry so much about soreness the next day!
Change your workouts and use different phases of training and during eccentric training expect more soreness!
Garrett
The answer would be Circuit Training! You can get a LOT done in little time. Pick one exercise per bodypart, do your set then move on to the next exercise, no rest in between. When you finish a round of all the exercises take a 1-2 minutes rest then do it again! The beauty of this is that it is also a cardio workout…your heart rate does stay elevated. If your goal is to lose more fat or get your cardio better then try running on the treadmill or jumping jacks for 2 minutes in between circuits. Do this 3 days per week and pick different exercises each day.
You will be amazed at how you feel after 2 rounds. Start with 2 rounds then after a few weeks move on to 3 rounds if you have time. You should be able to do these workouts in 30 minutes or less.
Example Circuit:
Legs - Prisoner or Ball on Wall Squats or Leg Presses - 15 reps
Chest - Flat Dumbell Press or Push Ups - 12 reps
Back - Lat Pull Downs or Pull Ups - 12 reps
Shoulders - Dumbell Presses or Lateral Rasies - 12 reps
Triceps - Tricep Pushdowns or Kickbacks - 12 reps
Biceps - Dumbell Curls or Band Curls - 12 reps
Abs - Leg Raises or Crunches - 15 reps
Cardio - 2 min. run on Treadmill or Jumping Jacks (if you do not have a treadmill do jumping jacks, run up and down stairs or go outside and run up and down the sidewalk or road for a few minutes)
Repeat Circuit…
In addition to being beneficial to the body and efficient with the time, it is a lot of fun and most of my clients love it when we do Circuits! I hope this helps.
