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"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 ...
28
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, ...
19
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
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 full answer is beyond my scope of understanding; however, there is only one time in a trainer's life where they can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. That's when they are a beginner and are currently obese. Based off of information from Dr. Kilgore in "Practical Programming for Strength Training" we have a couple variables for building muscle:...
14
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 ...
14
Starting from the bottom position is quite differen from 'normal' squats, as you're not using the stretch-shortening cycle. This means your muscles and tendons are not already pre-loaded when you're going up, which will result in the getting up being much harder than it normally would be.
The main benefit of starting from the bottom position is that you'll ...
13
The cheapest way is to build muscle is to do bodyweight exercises. These include venerable techniques like:
Pushups
Pullups
Dips
Situps
Back extensions
etc.
However, I will echo your advisers that the shake weight is crap for building muscle. The only thing the shake weight can do for you, other than make you look ridiculous, is to provide nervous energy ...
13
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 ...
12
Overview
Your supplements are called copious sleep, hydration (with milk if it's part of your diet, water if not), and food. You know--eggs, vegetables, olive oil, meat, butter, greens, starches.
Olympic lifting coach Greg Everett recommends walking, massage, self-myofascial release, and hot baths on rest days as well.
Beyond those, supplements are good ...
12
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 ...
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 factor holding one back is the fear response. Our bodies are trying to keep us safe so we should listen. This article describes the effect you speak of:
Under acute stress, the body's sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for sustained, vigorous action. The adrenal gland dumps cortisol and adrenaline into the blood stream. Blood pressure ...
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
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, ...
11
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 ...
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
Here is an excellent excerpt regarding rest from the Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding written by the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger:
It is important to pace yourself properly through a workout. If you
try to train too fast, you risk cardiovascular failure before you have
worked the muscles enough. Also, you may have tendency to get sloppy
and start ...
10
Getting out of bed is a muscle-building exercise for someone recovering from a coma. Tabatas and other High Intensity Interval Training, or jogging, or walking, or anything can build muscle, if the person doing it is unadapted to the activity. So yes, "cardio" exercise is an effective muscle builder, for a limited amount of time, in some circumstances.
1. ...
10
What
Compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses and chin-ups are better than isolation or machine exercises like curls or leg extensions for building useful strength. You might also have success with gymnastic strength training, like Coach Sommer's Building the Gymnastic Body.
How
If using weights, lift heavy with fewer repetitions will build the ...
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 ...
9
If it helps, I do about 1 hour 3x per week. You might be able to get away with 1 hour 2x per week and still make some gains--albeit a bit more slowly. The key to being efficient with your time is to perform exercises that recruit as many muscles at the same time time as possible. That also means no machines. We're talking free weights here.
A beginner's ...
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