28
"That muscle."
There's a classic quote about the power clean, attributed here to Charles Staley, that applies to your question:
"You know when you run down the field, catch the ball and then hit a defender? It works that muscle."
The deadlift works all the muscles. However, it's not quite the same as the running-jumping-hitting-the-defender athleticism ...
26
EDIT: Since "fit" is a very arbitrary term, I should include my definition, since the asker did not.
From the starting point of a 50kg man, I consider fit to include
gaining quite a lot of weight, mostly muscle
correcting most, if not all, posture imperfections and muscular imbalances
learning proper form in all exercises, and learning how to utilize ...
24
Energy metabolism is not a very well understood system in the sense that while the biochemical reactions are well known, their dynamics is highly variable depending on the individual. I find it disturbing that so many people have their own understanding of how their body work, without any sound reasoning behind it. Below I'll try to give some background ...
24
Lifting heavy isn't enough
The idea that lifting heavy weights by itself causes bulk is a myth. Understanding why is more complicated. First, let's address the specific claim at issue, that women need to stick to 5-pound weights. Kathleen Ekdahl points out that five pounds is too light to even count as weights!
In order to avoid this gain in muscle mass, ...
20
It's called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), but you'll note the Delayed word there. The pain usually shows up 24 hours later and is gone around 72 hours. It's actually not fully understood (2003 analysis in Sports Medicine):
Up to six hypothesised theories have been proposed for the mechanism
of DOMS, namely: lactic acid, muscle spasm, connective ...
18
There was a 2010 study that touched on this a bit, and suggests there's more going on than muscle memory.
Effects of previous strength training can be long-lived, even after
prolonged subsequent inactivity, and retraining is facilitated by a
previous training episode. Traditionally, such "muscle memory" has
been attributed to neural factors in the ...
16
You can gain muscle while losing weight, but really only in specific circumstances, which you most likely don't fall into. You need to be fairly obese to start with, and eating the correct nutrients to support the lifting that you are doing. However, you are most likely not in that category, since you have been training regularly already.
If you are in a ...
15
Yes, combining strength workouts with non-strength workouts will reduce the effectiveness of the strength workouts. Of course, that should be acceptable if your goal is broader than pure strength.
Per Tom Kurz' Science of Sports Training, page 174:
Combining strength exercises and endurance exercises in one workout reduces strength gain without ...
15
Congratulations on opting for a healthy lifestyle. It is way too easy to get into the trap of a sedentary lifestyle. The younger you start getting back in shape, the easier it is with more lifetime benefits.
If you have any medical problems check with your doctor first. (Standard disclaimer, but worthwhile. Even at your age you may have signs of a ...
15
I think you've heard the right idea, but you're misinterpreting it.
Of course high reps builds some strength, but certainly not a whole lot. It's going to take a lot more effort (in terms of joules spent) to increase your 5RM by doing 15-rep sets, than it would to increase it by actually doing 5-rep sets.
Don't think of it as "it does, or it doesn't". Most ...
14
The common wisdom is that the chin up (supinated grip) targets the biceps. It also appears to target the pectoralis major. The pull up targets the lower trapezius more. Source
Ellington Darden also says the chin up better targets the lats because the involvement of the biceps means the arms won't give out as quickly as the pull up, allowing the back to get ...
13
While there are many different ways to approach this question, I think the best approach is from a very high-level as it gives you the proper foundation upon which you can build your exercise routine.
An easy way you can understand how muscles are built is by applying Selye's Theory of the General Adaptive Syndrome. The process can be broken down into three ...
13
Yes, with practice, you could learn to control every toe individually.
The reason it is difficult, is that the part of your brain which is responsible for voluntary movements, the motor cortex, has relatively little area devoted to your toes. Here is a representation of the relative area each body part has in the motor cortex:
The more area devoted to the ...
12
There's no easy answer. It depends on a few variables:
The stress you've exposed your muscles to.
How close you are to your genetic potential.
How good your recovery is.
You (probably, based on your fitness as explained) could do 20 pushups a day, every day, and have no problems. However if you tried to push your 1RM (single maximum effort) bench press, ...
12
First off, ask your trainer how many athletes he or she has trained that have won national, regional, or international titles. Personally, my belief is that unless you have trained someone that's made the Olympic team (or around there), you should probably put your ego in check and emulate what the Olympic trainers are doing.
Training isn't an art project ...
11
The main issue with losing weight through exercise is that your body has mechanisms for counteracting calories burned through exercise. That means that those extra calories you burn from the increased metabolic activity of muscle are likely to be precisely compensated by increases in appetite and decreases in your metabolism. So unless you're rigorously ...
11
Here, I made a list :)
# cm^3 muscle
1 879.65 Gluteus maximus
674.00 Vastus lateralis
599.20 Adductor magnus
580.00 Vastus intermedius
5 531.90 Soleus
461.00 Vastus medialis
458.29 Gluteus medius
323.45 Rectus femoris
306.73 Psoas major
10 262.30 Latissimus dorsi
256.80 Medial gastrocnemius
...
10
Divide your dose. Have some before and some after your workout. Unlike fat and carbohydrates your body can't store protein. If it doesn't get absorbed it gets passed through your digestive tract, your liver, your kidneys, etc. This not only wastes protein/ supplements and money it also taxes your machine by forcing it to process something that it can't ...
10
Forward head posture (called gravity induced kyphosis) is pretty common nowadays. The first thing you should do is begin stretching your neck with an exercise called neck retraction:
You'll be amazed at how great this exercise feels. If you've been stuck in forward head posture for a long time, you'll feel as though your entire upper spine is waking up.
...
9
Recomposition really is only possible or visible when your body is within certain phases of its life.
The Beginner: The beginner is so far untrained, that any regular training will have a significant impact on their muscle mass even when you are eating for losing fat.
The Obese: The obese person has so much fat, that any serious change in diet will cause ...
9
First there is nothing wrong with your muscles shaking. You are making them work and have good intensity. That is great.
Some reasons for the muscle shakes:
Balancing muscles (fixator) that are used to stabilize the lift cannot carry the load. Lifting weights is not overall natural. There are a lot of balancing muscles used that get little to no use ...
9
Having a protein before your workout will allow you to have more energy, resulting in your workouts feeling stronger, but you will not burn as much fat when you workout.
After your workouts, it is commonly accepted that your body acts like a sponge for about an hour while your muscles attempt to collect nutrients to repair what was torn down during the ...
9
Your question is very general, and will therefore only attract general answers, so this will be that.
Fixing posture
While you don't mention this yourself, C.Lange makes a good point about posture in the comments. To elaborate, it's clear from your second picture (shoulders from the side), that your shoulders are slumped forward and your neck has a sort of ...
8
Correct, there is no way to burn fat from a specific location.
Doing more reps of a certain exercise, lets say dumbbell curls, will make your main bicep's "fibers" work more; when the "main" fibers get tired, adjacent fibers are woken up and put to work. So, when you increase the number of reps you force your nervous system to activate more fibers in the ...
8
You are correct to be suspicious of the "one muscle a day" prescription. While that method works fine, it is perfectly possible and very productive to do whole-body exercises every time you work out.
Many Olympic weightlifters do what's called Bulgarian training, which is training five or more days a week, sometimes several times a day. They use whole-body ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
