This is Weight Lifting: 101.
Hello "class", I’m not your professor by any means (as I hope to be learning from you), but for lack of a better term, you can just call me The Doc. So, class, todays lesson: weight lifting 101.
Okay, enough with the belittling and aimless babble that was my piss poor intro to this short little blog, down to business.
So you wanna lift weights! Awesome, but why? To get bigger? Stronger? To impress yourself, or to put on a show for others? See, here’s the deal! Today, society tells us (by us I mean collectively America and all of Western Civilization) that we need to look a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way and to conform to what they commonly refer to as the status quo. I say no thank you! I say be cut from your own cloth, not the cloth of another, and do what you do for you, not for anyone else, and not because you’re being told to do it!
How does this connect to Weight Lifting: 101 you ask? These same talking heads in society tell us weight lifters we need amazing biceps, chiseled chests and shredded abs. Ok, I pose the question against the flow of the norm here, what about Triceps? Back? Legs? What about shoulders, the neck, forearms, and calves? Why only focus on "show muscles" and not on everything else?
Show Muscles are what most people commonly know as the muscles that "should" be developed amongst weight lifters. These muscles are the ones the girls like to grab and squeeze, the ones that people at clubs or bars tend to notice and point out to you, and most simply put, these are the muscles you yourself see each and everyday! I implore you to train everything else as well! Be balanced, symmetrical, be complete! Guys often say they don’t need Triceps development, they don’t compete, they just wanna look good. Newsflash dudes, the triceps account for almost 80% of the upper arm! You need them developed to look good, otherwise you won’t even grow! And chest development is all good from the front or side profile, but from behind you will still look small, and out of proportion, not to mention how weak you would be in comparison to if you just gave your back some training time as well… help develop those stabilizer muscles to push and pull…etc… So, please, train everything!
Rest time is a factor to be considered! Do not over train! Human nature teaches us to conquer, to never quit until we reach our goals! This is true to an extent, but you need to "quit" enough to allow torn muscles to rest and recover, to get ready for the next training day you have in store for them! So be sure to rest enough as well.
Lastly, the diet. All that needs to be said here can be said in 5 easy words: You are what you eat! Be sure to eat enough, but eat clean! Use your head, read the labels, go online or to a library (remember those places, with all the books that MY generation had to deal with before the wave of the internet information super highway) and learn about healthier eating habits! That is all that needs to be said about that!
So, that’s the general idea.
Use good form.
Stay consistent with training, rest and diet.
train the whole body, not just show muscles.
Train for you, and nobody else!
January 4, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Well, said brotha.
January 4, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Thanks amigo! Much more could have been said, but I think I got what I needed to out…