Weight Training Is the Best Exercise for Bone Strength
time.com
time.com
The big thing for me was not having off-limits foods. If I want pizza, I'll have pizza, but I log it and adjust my intake for the rest of the day to get those macros balanced. This kills the "I want it because I can't have it" temptations and has the effect of pushing me towards more naturally-healthy foods, because I can have 2 gigantic chicken breast instead of a piece of pizza, and I know which one is going to satisfy me more.
Without question, weight training has been the best outlet from my professional + social life. for decompressing and preserving my body's well-being, specifically with regards to posture and mental focus over 8+ hour workdays.
Many conservative training cycles later and I'm squatting/deadlifting over 200kg.
Like you, the only sad part about it is how hard it can be to persuade some men and women to take part in the sport. Some people have major hangups about their body image, injuries and discipline.
I don't know if I'd recommend a personal trainer for anyone seriously considering it, trainers aren't cheap and most people aren't likely to stick with weight training. If we're talking weightlifting as a sport, yes you should definitely be working with experts whether trainers or fellow weightlifters.
I'd recommend anyone new to study up on form when you start working out, and maybe ask a trainer at the gym you go to to give you a quick form check.
Please don't be rude in comments here.
Weight training is great, in moderation, like anything else.
You can train both and improve in both to a non-trivial level.
Strong people can get in shape, though. Take a look at crossfit athletes.
Have her try to stick with exercises that are more upright ab exercises. Roman chair is a better choice than sit-ups.
Also, gluteal exercises that don't put too much weight on the back help as well such as leg extensions pushing back with that foot strap on your foot work well.
Anything is better than situps, since situps don't actually work the abs and are murder on the back.
Also doesn't help that Healthcare in US is so ridiculously expensive that a single mistake will cost you months of salary.
I recently went to extremely low reps with the heaviest weight I can lift. My strength is now increasing rapidly, and it's far easier/shorter than slogging along with 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps each. Only downside: I need more rest. I _never_ hold my breath and go to great lengths to ensure my breathing is steady as I do every lift.
Before I tried this I did the best I could to ensure there were no tendon weaknesses and that my joints were in good condition.
The first thing that surprised me was him saying it is a myth that machine exercises are less effective than barbell ones. That's surprising to me.
I found the guide useful, particularly the commentary about sleep and nutrition, but disagree with the author on that quote and relatedly on his exercise programming. The program is hypertrophy focused and the machine exercises are useful for targeting secondary muscles for hypertrophy work, but they're certainly not as good of an overall exercise as the compound movements one does with a barbell. Barbell exercises are more effective both for gaining strength and muscle mass.
Depends on the definition of "effective". Since the eBook is titled "How to Build Muscle", then yeah, machines are just as effective as free weights.
But in terms of building "strength" (picking up random heavy objects), machines will make life a lot more difficult than it has to be.
I always seen the gym as an investment into health as opposed to losing weight or getting fit, although those are nice secondary results.
I have seen payoffs, mentally almost more than physically. Without going into details, I've been in a legal battle for a while (nothing criminal) and lifting is a great way to blow off steam.
Physically, if you "eat right" you see results very quickly at first, and then more slowly as time goes on. Diet is the most important part if you're looking for physical results. You could lift with proper form for years and years, following every program under the sun. If your diet sucks, you're wasting your time if aesthetics if your goal.
If you'd like example of quick results, r/fitness is full of em. This one for example, this fellow seems to have made a whole lot of progress in what he claims is 60 days: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/6gpsxr/well_i_gues...
I also find weight training really helps me deal with stress. I highly recommend it.
For wrist and elbow pain from computer use, however, weight training made it worse for me. At that time I did a bit of googling and for RSI seems like rest and stopping the repetitive motions is best. The exercises irritate the same nerves. To solve the issue, I switch to a trackball instead of a mouse. (To be clear, weight training was miraculous to me when I first started, but for RSI, fix the cause)
Changing my keyboard got rid of the immediate pain I had been experiencing for months. I started weight lifting at around the same time. The only reason I attribute lifting as being part of the solution is that I went back to typing on my laptop again after 6 months.
I now do quite a lot of typing on my laptop (90% of the software I write) and I no longer have any pain in my wrists.
This advise is probably not for everyone, I just offer it up as an interesting anecdote. If you have persistant wrist pain, its probably best to go see a specialist.
This sort of thing is repeated a lot, but isn't this just a correlation? We don't know which way it goes. Maybe sick people get weaker, rather than weak people get sicker. That makes just as much sense.
"Exercise is of interest in treatment of sarcopenia; evidence indicates increased ability and capacity of skeletal muscle to synthesize proteins in response to short-term resistance exercise.[18] A 2009 Cochrane review also found evidence that in older adults progressive resistance training can improve physical performance (gait speed) and muscular strength,[19] which are two key components of sarcopenia."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15107011?report=abstract
It takes you through the basic compound exercises and talks about some important concepts in weight training, highly recommend it.
I worked on this basic program that requires you to go to the gym 3 times a week and basic linear progression got me up to a 400lbs squat for reps at the age of 28. It took about 18 months to get there.
My biggest regret is that I stopped going to the gym, if you do start, please keep going. It's better to go and do something easy than to undo the habit.
1. Basic compound lifts
2. Linear progression
3. 3x5 (StrongLifts also switches to 3x5 once the weights get heavy)
There are some differences, but they're pretty minor and people nitpicking them for beginners are mostly wasting time because it really doesn't matter that much.
StrongLifts is worse off in this regard for the reason that they teach reducing volume once you start running into plateaus in order to artificially progress. "Benching that lift too hard? Well cut out 40% of the volume and keep going!"
Starting Strength fails in teaches the idea of deloading by dropping weight then taking a run at it without changing any of the training methodology which is arguably a reason for the "spinning the wheels" approach you see from several lifters who claim to run the program for months on end upwards and beyond a year. It's also seen as a less ideal program for its poor split on upper/lower volume and really benefits from accessory lifts thrown in when the lifter is capable.... but at that point you might as well just run a better program.
They're decent programs in that they get a untrained individual to put up enough weight to get themselves out of a horribly weak position but they don't teach anything meaningful for long term. Other programs achieve the necessary linear progression that is capable during your noob gains without having stupid programming quirks that lifters need to unlearn when they move onto intermediate programs.
It's not a lifetime lifting regime.
That's ... not made entirley clear, though Rippe does address this.
programs not called perpetuity strength or elite strength or bodybuilders delight.
No, starting strength tells you to take exactly two runs up until your failure weight and then move on to another program, which for many people works very well and allows them to progress far beyond weight they failed at. People who can run an SS linear progression for a year straight are rare, but they exist and they end up in the upper 3s, 4s and 5s for bench, squat and deadlift after their first year.
All 3 of these programs do deloads to handle failure. StrongLifts also starts dropping sets/reps, but that's after deloading repeatedly at which point Starting Strength just says to go do a different program. So no meaningful difference until you have outgrown the program.
> Starting Strength fails in teaches the idea of deloading by dropping weight then taking a run at it without changing any of the training methodology which is arguably a reason for the "spinning the wheels" approach you see from several lifters who claim to run the program for months on end upwards and beyond a year.
That's not running the program. You can't deload and work back up to the same weight repeatedly. You can call that Starting Strength but it's not. You get some number of deloads (3? can't recall) and then move to a different program. Pretty sure Starting Strength coaches will also tell you you're not eating/sleeping/training right if you keep getting stuck at a novice weight.
> It's also seen as a less ideal program for its poor split on upper/lower volume and really benefits from accessory lifts thrown in when the lifter is capable....
Sure, but for someone untrained, this really doesn't matter much. Hence nitpicking.
> They're decent programs in that they get a untrained individual to put up enough weight to get themselves out of a horribly weak position but they don't teach anything meaningful for long term.
They teach you to grow muscle and to learn to push yourself in the gym. Not sure what else a beginner program is supposed to teach.
> Other programs achieve the necessary linear progression that is capable during your noob gains without having stupid programming quirks that lifters need to unlearn when they move onto intermediate programs.
What programs do better?
I think here I have to argue on the side of "done is better than perfect". StrongLifts/SS are both programs with tons of resources, massive communities and scores of Youtube videos with technique, tips and reviews. StrongLifts actually has a very high-quality, ad-free app (supported only by in-app purchases) that tracks your progress, tells you how long to rest between sets and handles the de-load and other programming quirks for you. In-app purchase also unlocks accessory lifts, which the app will then track for you.
Most importantly, StrongLifts/SS will keep the median person with no knowledge of lifting occupied for at least a year while they build up strength, confidence and knowledge about strength training. It gets them into the rhythm of lifting 3x/week, eating and sleeping right. At that point, they may be better informed and more able to separate signal from noise about all the other programs out there that might better suit their needs.
I'd much rather unlearn programming quirks than bad form. Both programs place strong emphasis on learning good form. That's what a lot of the deload and wheel spinning is often about in my experience; you get more training hours under your belt and improve your technique. IMO this is important for people who just haven't lifted that much in their lives and don't have the muscle memory and feel for body position and form that more experienced lifters have.
Anyway, I think his books are unparalleled.
Sorry, but I'm legitimately curious what that image was meant to be and it looks like you linked a thumbnail.
Mid-post edit as the Google Image Search result comes in [0]. Amazing how I was able to find it with a reverse image search. I hadn't heard of the Greyskull variant, and I do 5x5 Stronglifts.
? So go back.
No you won't. You're only spending a few minutes under the bar per day, even if you're a serious powerlifter.
Stronglifts / 3x5 programmes are a good initiation. Once you're initiated, you want to understand the stimulus / response / rest / nutrition relationships, and identify what your specific training and fitness goals, needs, and limitations are.
That's what you end up building a programme around.
The problem with beginners -- in any field -- is that they tend to develop One True Religionism. If you've been doing nothing, then doing virtually anything is better. But that virtually anything can progress in response only up to a point.
That's where the complications come in.
The key point is that your goals determine your methods.
Though the basics remain, for strength: full-body, compound, freeweight movements, with training frequency, set, rep, and inter-set rest intervals selected to address your specific goals.
Similar principles drive other elements of fitness: cardio (if that's your thing), skill-based activities, etc.
They can even be generalised to other domains of life.
TL;DR - keep your squats low and your standards high
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-Traini... "Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week"
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PdJFbjWHEU
[3] http://techzinglive.com/page/1500/268-tz-interview-dr-doug-m...
assuming a moderately active lifestyle (e.g. an hour of brisk walking a day), we're skeptical that exercise has any significant advantage, if any, compared to improved nutrition and non-exercise lifestyle changes (more and better quality sleep, better friendships, etc.).
that being said, exercise certainly isn't bad.
If it doesn't raise your heart rate to at least 100+, it's nearly useless as an exercise. Sure, you'll burn slightly more calories than sitting at a desk, but the benefits are nowhere near actual exercise.
> more and better quality sleep, better friendships, etc.
Sleep quality generally improves with exercise, as long as you're still getting 8 hours. Better friendships are completely orthogonal to exercise/weightlifting.
My parents are 67 and 65 years old; I would say say that daily brisk walking is possibly much more suitable for them (their body) in comparison to weightlifting -- irrespective of your personal definition of "exercise". And I'm damn sure their heart rate easily exceeds 100+ if that's the main variable to control.
If you stop to consider what's going on, it makes a lot of sense. Your body is adaptive. This includes bones as well as muscles. In the same way that you need to add muscle mass in order to lift progressively heavier weight, your bones, too, need to become stronger to support lifting heavier weight. They do this by becoming denser.
My special tip: get some cheap bulk whey concentrate (cheaper than isolate and not really that much more calorific in the wider scheme of things) and bang down enough protein shakes to get your protein up to a reasonable level. I used to do 1 gram per pound of bodyweight per day, but looking back I think that was excessive. You also have to make sure you drink plenty of water whilst on a high protein diet, and obviously don't go into it if you have any history of kidney trouble. But seriously though - training vs training + protein is incomparable. Combine the two and watch your muscles expand.