Are You Scared Your Shoulder Pain Might Mean a Heart Problem?
Shoulder pain is linked to heart disease and might even mean a heart attack in progress.
But this doesn’t mean you should panic every time your shoulder aches or you get a twinge of pain in it. (more…)
Why Do Men Slam Heavy Weights with the Seated Crunch Machine?
What is it with middle age men and the seated crunch machine?
They put the pin at the bottom, then yank with their arms and let the weight stack crash at the bottom, rep after rep. (more…)
How to Make Cardio Machines Burn Maximal Fat
Any cardio machine can burn a ton of fat, but not because you pressed a certain button.
Forget the “programs” and instead use a technique that will ignite a fat-burning effect in your body.
(more…)
Are There Ab Exercises that Don’t Target the Abs?
Stop wasting time doing 1,000 crunches a week and camping out by all the abdominal machines; there are non-ab targeting exercises that will shrink your stomach.
To lose fat in the abs, you must create a huge energy deficit in your body.
When your body is depleted of energy, it will dip into stored fat reserves for energy.
Doing ab exercises will not create a substantial energy deficit because abdominal muscles are small and weak.
And small, naturally weak muscles do not need much energy, even after crunching them a thousand times.
If you focus your weight workouts on the legs, buttocks, back and chest, AND, if your exercise routines are intense, you will create a significant energy deficit — a deficit that occurs for hours after the exercise session has ended.
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During this deficit period, the body is in grave need for recuperation energy. It will grab this energy from stored body fat.
If your fat is in the abs, then voila — your exhausted legs, butt, back and chest will dip into these fat reserves.
The result? Fat loss in the abs. It doesn’t matter that your abs weren’t directly exercised.
When the legs are exercised intensely with weights, this creates a need for large amounts of energy both during the exercise and for hours after the workout has concluded.
Shutterstock/MilanMarkovic78
The fat that’s stored in your abs will be used for this energy, to help the legs recuperate, and to sustain the new muscle that has been grown as a result of the exercise.
When I was a trainer I had my clients doing intense squats, deadlifts, leg presses, hamstring curls, leg extensions, box jumps and staircase dashes — and their waists grew smaller right before my eyes.
For an extra punch add pull-ups (work on those!), rows and the bench press.
Shutterstock/Studio Peace
So if you want to get rid of abdominal fat, focus on working the large muscle groups, because these demand the most energy for exercise, and for recovery after the exercise.
And then, they continue requiring energy for maintenance (as long as you keep exercising them intensely with weights). And this energy will come from the fat in your abs.
The only way this plan won’t work is if you start eating like a hog because you think the hard workouts entitle you to it. Eat sensibly and watch the fat come off your abs.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Viktor Gladkov
Strip off Thigh Fat with Burst Training: Get Sleeker Legs
Here’s how to do burst training to get rid of ugly fat in your thighs.
Even if the fat in your thighs is super stubborn, burst training will rip it right out of there. (more…)
Lifting Weights on One Leg: What’s the Purpose?
Many personal trainers have their clients stand on one leg while lifting weights.
Is there really a point to this? Why don’t we see the trainers themselves doing this? (more…)
Strength Training for Skinny Scrawny Legs
Men with leg muscles too skinny usually wear long pants even on the hottest days, to hide those “chicken legs.”
And even women with stick legs may be hesitant to wear short skirts or shorts.
If you suffer from skinny legs, you can make those leg muscles grow.
There are weight training routines that will shape and sculpt leg muscles without bulking these muscles; so women, don’t fear getting big muscles.
I’ll be honest: To get nice shapely legs and increase size of muscles, you must be willing to work hard. But, your legs are worth it, aren’t they?
There are key exercise routines that will do the trick; namely, weight lifting. Again, I’m not talking about bulking muscles; this is strength training.
Key exercise equipment for adding muscles to skinny legs:
Barbell for squats
Leg press
Deadflit
Prone hamstring curl
Seated hamstring curl
Leg extension
There are other exercise routines that can add muscles to skinny legs such as hard sprints and box jumping, but let’s start out with these.
My No. 1 recommendation is the floor leg press, even though you may have heard that barbell squats are the best way to put muscle size on skinny legs.
The thing with barbell squats is that it can take a while to learn proper form, and bad form can result in low back pain or low back injury.
Secondly, if your femur length is at least as long as, and especially longer than, your torso length, squats probably will not feel right for you. If your shin is short relative to your thigh, ditto.
Overall body height is NOT relevant. But try squats anyways and see how they go.
Also, don’t assume that your thin legs can’t lift much weight. Some thin legs can lift a lot of weight.
I’ve seen men with “thin” legs squatting 225 for reps. Hmmm. Could be due to SHORT femurs relative to torso length and especially if the shins are long relative to femurs!
I rarely see men with scrawny-looking legs pressing huge amounts of weight with the floor leg press equipment.
So let’s talk about leg pressing first. You can do this blindfolded. The mistake men and women make, who want to add size to their leg muscles, is that they do not use heavy enough weight.
And they use poor form. The weight should be heavy enough such that you only have enough strength to do between six and 10 repetitions.
Shutterstock/Sjale
Your muscles should be exhausted as that last repetition approaches. Both feet should always be flat on the pressing platform the whole time.
Barbell squats. Once you have some conditioning, the same rule applies: Weight should be heavy enough for six to 10 repetitions. Make sure you squat so that your femurs are parallel to the floor.
Shutterstock/B-Media
Leg extensions. Always warm up with lighter weights for about 10 minutes, several sets, before lifting heavy weights with this exercise equipment.
Shutterstock/Ajan Alen
Weights should be heavy enough for no more than 10 reps. LOWER THE WEIGHTS SLOWLY, maybe for a two-second or three-second count. Don’t let weights just fall.
Hamstring curls. The volume of hamstring curls should be about 75 percent of the volume of quadriceps muscles (front of thigh) weight lifting routines.
Many people neglect the hamstrings because they can’t see them. Use heavy enough weight for 6 to 10 reps.
For prone (stomach-down) hamstring curls, bring foot pad all the way to your butt. Always lower for a two-three-count.
These are the basics for adding muscle volume to skinny legs.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Cardio Exercise: Before or After Lifting Weights?
Should you do cardio before or after your weight workout?
This question comes up all the time in gyms, locker rooms and everywhere else. (more…)
Which Burns More Fat: Leg or Upper Body Strength Training?
The question of which burns more calories – lower body strength training or upper body strength training – comes up every so often.
And the answer is the lower body. (more…)
Want a Bigger Butt from the Elliptical Machine?
Some women actually WANT a bigger butt & think the elliptical will do this, while others fear a bigger rump from the elliptical; both women are wrong.
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is for the first group of people: The elliptical machine will not give you a bigger butt.
The bad news is for the second group: Your butt will not get bigger from using the elliptical machine.
I don’t know where this idea ever came from. Maybe it’s because so many people use the elliptical trainer wrong, in that they lean forward, hanging onto the equipment, their butt sticking way out.
This bad posture while pedaling on the elliptical trainer will not make your butt bigger, no matter how fast the pedaling speed, how long you’re on the equipment, and how high the pedal crank tension is. It just will not happen.
If you actually believe that your butt’s gotten bigger since you began training on the elliptical, this is either in your imagination; or, if you’ve objectively measured a bigger butt, then the increase in size is from some other cause.
Credit: Dreamstime/Orangeline
Because the reason you cannot get a larger butt from the elliptical is very simple:
Elliptical workouts are of the duration type. This is aerobic in nature, and duration-based or endurance-based exercise recruits only slow-twitch muscle fiber.
Slow twitch muscle fiber does NOT grow in size.
When you use the elliptical machine, the slow-twitch muscle fiber in your butt gets targeted.
These muscle fibers are designed for endurance or long duration, and will NOT grow in size.
You don’t see bodybuilders, who want to make their butts bigger, hanging out on the elliptical machines, do you?
For those of you who perform high intensity interval training on this particular equipment, perhaps you’re still skeptical, since HIIT recruits fast-twitch muscle fiber, which does have the potential to increase in size.
However, under the circumstances of HIIT training on the elliptical, you still won’t get that bigger butt.
Fast-twitch fibers only have the potential to grow in size. In other words, just because an exercise routine recruits fast-twitch muscle fibers, does not mean it will make these fibers grow.
If that were the case, then every person who engages in any physical activity that requires short bursts of power or rigorous exertion, would be bulked up.
This includes people who move furniture for a living! Seems to me that most furniture movers are rather wiry in build!
The elliptical machine will not make your butt bigger. If you want smaller glutes, reduce your overall body fat percentage.
If you want larger buns — or at least, a firmer pair of glutes — then do heavy intense barbell squats and other types of squats (such as shown below), plus weighted lunges and wind sprints.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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