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Using machines is vastly different than free weights for a number of reasons: Machines typically move the weight over a fixed path. Free weights require you to balance the weight yourself. This means the same exercise with free weights engages more muscles, but even more importantly, it allows you to develop neuro-muscular coordination. This coordination ...

There are two key concepts to understand when trying to get stronger: Overload. The disruption of homeostasis, where the body must adapt and hypercompensate in order to handle that demand in the future. Recovery. The rest, nutrients, and calories your body needs to support hypercompensation. So yes, you do need to continue to increase weight in order ...

Carbs post workout are a good thing. If you've exerted yourself you have depleted all your quick reserves and you need to replenish them. However simple carbs (like a candy bar, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc) are never a good idea unless you are dangerously hypoglycemic--a condition that diabetics have to deal with occasionally. The processed carbs ...

OK, I am spitting out the law right now so listen up. Homeostasis: your bodies base level of fitness. Disruption of homeostasis: a stimulus of the fitness base level Supercompensation: Adjustment to a higher level of fitness in anticipation of the next training session. There are a few reasons why our muscles refuse to supercompensate after a bout of ...

Burn sugars, replace sugars. The majority of the fuel you will be burning for your resistance workout will be glycogen (=stored sugar). Muscle glycogen (glucose = dextrose) will be a large chunk of that (say 100 g from an intense session), while liver glycogen (fructose) will comprise maybe 1/5 of that. An ideal PWO meal should be easily digested/ broken ...

Your question has two answers. 1) If everything really is equal, then resistance is precisely the same as weight. Force is force, whether it comes from mass being affected by gravity or from tension on a spring or from hydraulic pumps or from a ray gun. 2) What Yevgeniy's answer gets at is that it's ridiculous, within the context of strength training (or ...

http://www.livestrong.com/article/396039-how-to-calculate-cycling-power/ This is actually one of the better estimations, although any of them are basically educated guesses. Without a properly calibrated power meter, it's hard to get a completely accurate reading of watts.

I am not experienced in this, and I don't have a definite answer, but since this has been asked a week ago and there are no answers yet, I will give the information that I found. Looking through PubMed it's surprisingly hard to find information on this. The keywords which yielded the best results were "treadmill backpack". In particular, I found this ...

Hanging doesnt really test your forearm strength, I mean its a part but there are other factors that would influence your "test". Simply trying to hold onto a heavy dumbell would be a better indicator. Note there are different types of grip strength (Crushing, pinch, support). And even the "Farmer's Walk" would only test one type. Its probably easier to ...

Not really. You can get something by paying attention to how you feel riding at a specific speed outside vs on the exercise bicycle, but it won't be terribly accurate. However, I recommend that you don't try to duplicate your outdoor training. You would see greater improvement if you did some intervals instead.

Regarding "...you can only build more muscle-mass (get stronger)...", building muscle-mass (hypertrophy) and getting stronger are not perfectly tied, and you can train differently depending on which is your primary goal; read http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2009/03000/Progression_Models_in_Resistance_Training_for.26.aspx for more about this and ...

Okay - now I'm ready. You work out 3 times a week, your current focus is mostly on your upper body (by looking at your routine) and looking at the exercises/sets/reps, it looks like you workout about 30-40 minutes....one of the issues you're facing is that you 'lack strength' to lift more weight and your goal is to build mass. Let's get to the basics: ...

Reaching a point that you struggle to get past is usually called a plateau, and there are techniques to avoid getting stuck there. For example, one I've used is, once you're stuck at say 3 sets of 12 curls with a 25lb dumbbell with 60 seconds of rest in between sets, you can raise the weight to 30lbs and rest 90 or 120 seconds between sets, then gradually ...