Posts Tagged ‘training’
Friday, September 13th, 2024
Should Athletes Train Individual Muscles or Only Sports Movements?
Personal trainers have to know how to train people from all walks of life. I’ve seen bodybuilders, strength athletes, middle-aged men, obese housewives, trained athletes, newbies, weekend warriors, and about 100 other types of people and athletes. No one routine can be designed for everyone. Sport-specific movements might be prescribed for some athletes, while others might need a beginner’s routine, while others might only want to focus on powerlifting movements like bench, squats, and deads. We need to always be aware of the athlete’s goals when designing a workout routine.
Even in sport-specific niches like football, baseball, basketball, and soccer, or with other athletes such as powerlifters, bodybuilders, strongmen, and Olympic lifters, there is no one-size-fits-all training routine. You can’t take a baseball pitcher and train the pitching motion for 5 hours a day, 7 days a week. It just won’t work. So how do you train athletes who only need a small variety of movements to be successful at their sport?
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Tags: athlete, athletes, bodybuilding, exercise, fitness, Sports, train, training, weak point, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Bodybuilding Myths, Sports | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024
You could be wasting your time with a great workout routine and proper nutrition if you don’t know how to train and eat based on your body type. When I first started training and reading about body types my first question – what is my body type, was hard to answer. It seemed I was the combination of 2 of them so initially, I struggled to categorize myself. Honestly, your body type category doesn’t matter enough for anyone to be stressed out about categorizing the body type but knowing the details of how to eat and train for each type, at least gave me some direction as I set goals for fat loss and strength gains in my earlier years.
Hopefully, this guide will help you find some answers if you ask the question, ‘What is my body type?’
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Tags: body type, Diet, fitness, health, training
Posted in Conditioning, Diet, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | 108 Comments »
Tuesday, July 26th, 2022
Bench presses and curls are two of the first exercises that are learned by new weight lifters. For men, the chest or “pecs” (short for pectorals) are second only to the biceps as the top show muscles in teenagers and young adults. This list of 5 of the best chest exercise will go a long way in building that initial base.
For women, the chest is even more important. Keeping well-built pecs can be useful in maintaining a solid, perky appearance of the breasts.
Serious fitness enthusiasts and athletes know that the pecs are involved in one of the main powerlifting exercises, the bench press. The bench press is one of three exercises, including squats and deadlifts, in a standard big 3 powerlifting competition. For this reason, it is always important for powerlifters to increase their chest strength.
Therefore it seems to me that everyone has a reason to train their chest, including men, women, athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongmen… everyone; and here are the top 5 best chest exercises you should use.
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Tags: chest, chest training, training
Posted in Best Exercises, Bodybuilding, Weight Training | 188 Comments »
Monday, July 4th, 2022
Gain Muscle with Werewolf Training
This training routine is designed for you to gain muscle. That’s it.
If you’ve come here to lose fat, you are better off using the Full Body Fat Loss Routine for Men or the Full Body Fat Loss Routine for Women. This routine definitely has nothing to do with fat loss.
If you came to learn how to bench 700 lbs, you are better off reading Werewolf Training for Strength Gains. Although, truth to tell, you will get significantly stronger following this program.
Use this menu to skip to:
Werewolf training is not designed to get you ripped or “toned” (::barfs::), or even super strong, but you will get stronger anyway. This is much more of a bodybuilding routine than anything else, but with great strength benefits.
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Tags: gain, gain mass, gain muscle, mass, muscle gain, taylor lautner, training, twilight, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Weight Training, Workout Routines | 1,911 Comments »
Wednesday, January 1st, 2020
Ever heard the song that goes:
“Your toe bone connected to your foot bone,
Your foot bone connected to your ankle bone…”
This is an old spiritual song whose chorus is used to teach children about the human skeleton. It can also remind us workout fiends that everything in your body is connected, and if just one of those bones, or organs, or systems gets sick, it can throw off the whole body.
If any single function on your body is not working correctly, it will affect the rest of your body. For instance, these tips will help keep 6 important factors of your body in check and help you improve your fitness in the new year.
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Tags: health, Medical, training
Posted in Health, Healthy Lifestyle, Medical | No Comments »
Saturday, February 16th, 2019
Even if you have bundles of natural talent and technique that can take your far, you can never rely solely on ability, as constantly improving your skills is an absolute must. Anyone that wants to reach the peak of soccer mountain will need to put countless hours of practice in to hone their skills and fitness.
Here are some of the top exercises recommended for improving your soccer skills:
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Tags: athlete, exercise, soccer, Sports, training, workout
Posted in Sports | No Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2018
Millions of hopeful athletes fantasize about the prospect of becoming a professional basketball player. However, NBA recruiters aren’t known for seeking out the best dreamers; they look for the most athletically prepared players.
If you want to maximize your chances of becoming a basketball pro, start living like one. This means having a relentless dedication to changing your diet, improving your body, and tracking your athletic progress. Let’s dive into the best practices for those looking to go pro:
Eat a Diet Fit for Michael Jordan
If one person is qualified to speak about the best diet for peak performance on the court, it’s Tim Grover — the personal trainer of NBA legends like Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, and His Airness himself, Michael Jordan. Over the course of his career, Grover has learned what the ideal diet choices for his clients are. He offers some helpful advice for those who want to get into the game:
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Tags: athlete, basketball, basketball player, Diet, nutrition, pro ball, professional athlete, Sports, training
Posted in Sports | No Comments »
Thursday, May 4th, 2017
Spice Up Your Training Plan
Everyone knows that they should be exercising, yet most people dread the very idea. The sweating and strain aside, working out is just boring. Think about the people you see running or at the gym, they look bored of their skulls. If you are going to keep at any exercise routine, you will need to find some way to combat the mind-numbing madness that comes with it.
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Tags: boredom, boring, change, exercise, fitness, hiking, plateau, running, training, weightlifting, workout, workout routine
Posted in Exercise, Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation | 11 Comments »
Tuesday, April 4th, 2017
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when attempting to gain muscle is to imitate your favorite professional bodybuilder.
If you’ve seen the magazines: Flex, Iron Man, Muscular Development, etc…, you’ve seen the pro bodybuilding routines. These guys train one body part a day, 10 exercises for each muscle group, 6 sets per exercise, 12-20 reps per set, and they put together brutal 6 days per week workout routines, sometimes with 2-a-days.
What they don’t tell you, is that routines written by professional bodybuilders are not going to work for you if you are not either a pro bodybuilder yourself, or an unemployed, juiced up, genetic freak. If you follow these routines, you will overtrain faster than Arnold shows his bare ass in a Terminator movie. At least you will learn how NOT to train, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
My Experience Training Like a Pro
I wish someone told me all these things before I started on some ridiculous pro routine when I was 16. This guy had me using ramps, training 6 days a week, once a day for two weeks then twice a day for four weeks, and focusing completely on machines, cables, and leg presses instead of squats.
What a complete waste of 6 months that was. When I finally confronted a personal trainer about my sore body and lack of progress, he ripped up my routine and set me straight. Thanks Ted!
Here are 10 reasons why you should not train like a professional bodybuilder:
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Tags: bodybuilder, bodybuilding, exercise, fitness, health, healthy, professional, professional bodybuilder, training, weighlifting, weight lifting, Workout Routines
Posted in Bodybuilding, Diet, Supplements, Workout Routines | 25 Comments »
Monday, September 16th, 2013
Having great shoulders really makes you appear sleek and powerful. However, chest and back training does not suffice when attempting to build spectacular shoulders. You must train the shoulders directly, intensely, and often. Be attentive of these 6 common mistakes that people make when training shoulders.
The Top 6 Shoulder Training Mistakes
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Tags: deltoids, exercise, exercise technique, overhead press, shoulder, shoulder press, shoulders, training, Training Articles, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Exercise Technique, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
Your chest is a large and complicated muscle. Considering its size you would think it would be easy to stimulate growth. Do some flat bench, another secondary movement, and your chest starts growing. Unfortunately the pecs are a much more muscle group area than that. In fact it is downright complex.
Training the pectoralis is a major puzzle to most bodybuilders, thinking a couple sets of bench press is all it takes, or going to the other extreme by dedicating a full day to 20 sets of different bench press variations. In this piece we would like to expose the answer to this puzzle by discussing the six most prevalent chest training errors and then providing tips to avoid them.
Read carefully; you will be surprised how many mistakes you are likely making.
The Top 6 Chest Training Mistakes
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Tags: chest, chest training, exercise, exercise technique, mistakes, myths, pec training, pecs, training, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 8 Comments »
Thursday, September 5th, 2013
The Personal Training Attitude
Becoming a personal trainer is something that only a select few are suited for. For one thing, it’s not enough to simply enjoy physical fitness yourself, although that is certainly a prerequisite if you want a career you love. You will need to exhibit specific strengths (pardon the pun) in order to excel in such a field.
You’ll definitely have to be committed to keeping yourself in shape; after all, who wants to listen to a personal trainer that isn’t fit? That’s like trusting a driving instructor that’s never been behind the wheel of a car. However, you also need to have the right disposition. If people want to be barked at and ordered around, they’ll join a boot camp class.
It’s the job of a personal trainer to motivate, not command. You need to be patient and nurturing and employ excellent communication skills. And above all, you have to be passionate about helping others become the best version of themselves. But you also need a fair amount of training under your own belt before you can train others if you don’t want to push them too far or cause undue physical harm. As a result, it may take you a little time to become a personal trainer.
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Tags: Business, dietician, exercise, fitness, industry, nutritionist, personal trainer, personal training, trainer, training
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 5th, 2013
There are two common comments that I hear from people that want to start on a fitness program. They can not afford to go to a gym. They do not know where to start.
Probably the best way to start involves no equipment and very little space. In other words, you can do it at home, in the park, whatever. Bodyweight exercises are just what they sound like; exercises that use your own body’s weight for resistance.
When used with no rest from one exercise to the next, not only can you get great resistance training, but fantastic cardio as well.
Below is an example of a workout that involves nothing but your own will and weight (and maybe a watch). If you are a beginner, do this one time through, three times a week.
For instance, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The next week, try doing it two times through on those days.
Then Four times per session.
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Tags: beginners, body weight, bodyweight, exercise, fitness, health, training, workout
Posted in Fitness Tips, Workout Routines | No Comments »
Friday, August 2nd, 2013
Golf – Real Life Fitness
The sun was starting to burn off the clouds that had been lingering all morning, and was going to make itself known.
Two Pintail ducks land in the lake to the west, no doubt looking for a meal and to cool off. Green grass, lined with some old trees. Overall, it’s a quite early afternoon.
This was my experience at a recent company golf tournament.
I don’t play a lot of golf, even though I have a good time when I do. Recently I was invited to play in this tournament, and they’re usually a ton of fun.
Golf, in and of itself, isn’t exactly intense exercise. However, consider that we played 18 holes, and even while we were using carts, I still logged 18,000 steps on my pedometer.
Throw in the “explosive” nature of your basic golf swing, and you have some muscles being activated.
Because I don’t play on a regular basis, my lower back, and oddly, my left hamstring were soar for a couple of days after.
Golf requires flexibility, core rotation, and explosive strength. Without these, your basic swing goes to pot.
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Tags: exercise, fitness, golf, golf swing, Sports, tips, training, workout
Posted in Exercise, Sports | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2013
You may have heard about the many benefits of adding weight training to your current workout routine, or perhaps you’ve done your homework and debunked some of myths that were holding you back. Either way, you are about to embark on a new mission – to get PUMPED UP! Or ripped. Or shredded.
In any case, you are probably keen to start trying out weight machines at your gym and pumping iron with free weights and barbells. But before you begin your sojourn into the wide world of weight training it’s not a bad idea to cover the basics so that you don’t end up injuring yourself or others.
Here are just a few common mistakes that you’ll definitely want to avoid:
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Tags: exercise, fitness, mistakes, myths, newbies, noobs, safety, tips, training, workout
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries, Weight Training | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 14th, 2012
Want massive forearms?
Aside from freaky traps, lumpy forearms are an excellent way to tell if someone is strong. Forget about pecs, biceps, even legs. If you are hella strong, you will most likely have thick, meaty traps and forearms. In order to get sick forearms, you have to use a variety of grip and forearm training.
Here is an interesting exercise called the Double Rope Climb. This is great training for both forearms and grip. Unfortunately it is Not easy to implement unless you have two strong ropes and something on which to anchor them. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t last long if I tried this.
This is another exercise that could be performed on back day, for conditioning drills, on “arm day” if you have an “arm day”, in a grip training routine, during circuit training, or integrated into a HIIT routine.
Watch out for that rope burn!
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Tags: finger strength, forearms, grip, hand strength, training, videos
Posted in Conditioning, Exercise Technique, Videos | No Comments »
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
If you want a debriefing on my most recent stance on endurance cardio versus high intensity intervals, check out this post:
High Intensity Intervals are Far Superior to Endurance Cardio
Once you understand how useful HIIT training is for fat loss, read about the following routines that you can use to burn fat and get in awesome cardiovascular shape.
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Tags: cardio, cardiovascular, Conditioning, fat loss, fitness, lose fat, lose weight, routines, training, weight loss, Workout Routines
Posted in Conditioning, HIIT Routines, Workout Routines | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 1st, 2011
How to Effectively Combine HIIT Sessions with Endurance Cardio
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please: walking or jogging for hours on the treadmill, peddling for hours on the stationary bike, climbing a mountain on the StairMaster, and plodding away on the elliptical trainer is NOT the best way to burn calories!
We’ve seen a hundred studies telling us that high intensity interval training (HIIT) burns more calories and fat, speeds up your metabolism, and is less catabolic than hours of endurance cardio. HIIT can also be far less boring, will actually help you build more muscle tissue, and increases your resting metabolic rate.
HIIT: Twenty minutes of HIIT cardio improves your VO2 max, burns a ton of calories, increases your metabolism, and maintains or builds muscle tissue all at once.
vs.
Endurance Cardio: Sixty minutes of endurance cardio is not only boring as hell, it also increases cortisol, burns muscle tissue (protein) for energy, and halts protein synthesis.
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Tags: cardio, cardiovascular, endurance, exercise, fat loss, hiit, lifting, lose fat, training, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, HIIT Routines | 11 Comments »
Monday, July 18th, 2011
I am not going to get into a long detailed post today. Instead I am going to supplement my top 6 back training mistakes post with another guest post about back training by expert Mike Robertson. I’m not cool enough to get Mike to post on my website though, so I have to link to the post from another blog entirely.
Find it here: 3 back training mistakes you could be making.
Mike tells you how people go wrong by training without a neutral spine, without a neutral pelvis, and without paying attention to detail. This is just another example of how every aspect of your physiology has to be healthy and aligned, or you risk injury.
About Mike Robertson
Mike Robertson received his Masters Degree in Sports Biomechanics from the world-renowned Human Performance Lab at Ball State University. He is also the president of Robertson Training Systems and the co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training, which has been named one of America’s Top 10 Gyms by Men’s Health magazine in 2009 and 2010.
About Rick Kaselj
Since the guest post is actually posted on his site, this is a lead in to another awesome fitness blogger, a guy named Rick Kaselj who is an expert on sports injuries. Hopefully he will write a couple guest posts for Project Swole soon. I’ve requested some serious rehab / prehab articles and I know if he can find the time to write them, you will be amazed.
Tags: back, exericse, fitness, injury, mistakes, spine, Sports, training, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Do Bodybuilders Have to “Max Out” to Gain Muscle?
You may have seen or heard cliche slogans like “Go heavy or go home.” You may have been asked “How much do you bench?” You may even be impressed by Olympic lifters, powerlifters, and professional strongmen, all of whom regularly use maximum effort triples and singles to prepare for competition, to try to set a personal record, or just as a component of their regular training routines.
Well guess what? None of those sports are like bodybuilding. Sure, Olympic lifters are typically pretty jacked, powerlifters and strongmen are just plain “big”, but very few of them could compete in a bodybuilding competition and hope to win, without first dieting and training like a bodybuilder for several months.
This brings us to the question – do bodybuilders ever actually have to test their 1 or 3 rep max on any exercise? Do they have to lift super-heavy?
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Tags: bodybuilding, building muscle, fitness, gain muscle, heavy, max, max effort, maximum effort, muscle growth, myth, myths, powerlifting, strength, strongman, training, weight lifting, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding Myths | 2 Comments »
