The Right Weight Lifting Routine for You

The Right Weight Lifting Routine for You

Choosing the right weight lifting program for you is extremely important. If you just pickup a pair of dumbbells and start doing bicep curls you’ll have a harder time reaching your goals, than if you take the time to find or put together an actual routine. I’ve been working out for a while but there’re a ton of exercises and routines that I’ve never seen before.

You need to find a total body workout that emphasizes all the muscle groups and aims for balance and results.

Remember that you need to have a workout that changes up every month or so to keep you and your muscles from getting bored. And also keep in mind that more isn’t necessarily better. You don’t need to go to the gym and lift weights for two hours everyday to get results. In fact if you do that you may get fewer results than you think.

Why’s this? Because of overtraining. Below are 4 workout Routines that I recommend:

1. Turbulence Training: This fitness program was created by Craig Ballantyne a fitness expert who writes for MensHealth Magazine. It’s ideal if you don’t have a gym membership and want to work out at home.

2. No-Nonsense Muscle Building: by Vince DelMonte, great for everyone but if your skinny and trying to build serious muscle then definitely check out this program.

3. Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Great for guys who want to gain muscle and loss fat.

4. Workout Pass: Variety is the name of the game at this site. 43 different workout routines to choose from. This site also includes Turbulence Training videos.

Type I vs. Type II Muscle Fibers and Weight Lifting Programs

Most of us know that following weight lifting programs will increase muscle mass. But did you know there’re two types of muscle fibers in your body?

They’re the Type I and Type II muscle fibers. So which one benefits you most and which one benefits the most from weight training? Let’s look at these two questions one at a time.

Both types of muscle fibers have their unique role. Type I muscle fibers are the ones that have the most endurance. While they won’t necessarily help you lift heavy weight they will help you run or bike in a marathon.

Type II muscle fibers on the other hand don’t have as much endurance. They are mainly for strength and lifting heavy weight. These are the muscles that benefit most from lifting weights.

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have found through their research that increasing the mass or size of your type II muscle fibers will led to a significant decrease in fat mass or the amount of fat in your body.

So if your goal is to loss body fat then you can’t neglect the importance of weight training. Unfortunately most people, when trying to loss weight, run for long periods of time and lift weights very little, if at all.

Now remember that balance is important. Type II muscle fibers don’t have as much endurance as type I, so if endurance is important to you then you still need to do endurance training. Just try to do that on days you don’t lift weights.

By separating your weight lifting routine from your endurance training you’ll reap the benefits of both, by gaining strength and endurance.

Proper Diet Enhances Weight Lifting Programs

There should be no mistake, unless you have a proper eating plan you will not see maximum results from your weight lifting programs.

In fact, what you eat could account for as much as 80% of the results you get from any fitness program. Neglecting your diet is a huge mistake. You’ll just end up working harder to get results that you could’ve gotten a lot easier had you not ignored your diet.

Let me give some examples. Let’s say your goal is to build muscle mass but not put on weight in the form of fat. Here’s where diet comes into play. In order to build muscle you need extra calories. So if you’re not eating enough calories in the first place you’re limiting the effectiveness of your weight training.

But, remember you want to gain muscle, not put on fat. This means you’ll need to focus on good fats, complex carbs, and of course additional protein in the right proportions. If you just increase the amount of food and calories you eat, you may end getting to many carbs and to little protein or the other way around. That will increase your chances of putting on fat instead of muscle.

Now, if you want to get lean and cut then you need to reduce your calories by eating less, burning more calories through exercise, or both. But keep in mind, especially if you’re a man, that reducing your calories below 2000 a day may end up reducing your testosterone and muscle.

Weight lifting programs without a proper diet, or a good diet without exercise, isn’t as effective as when you combine the two.

Weight Lifting Programs- Want to get BIG?

Weight Lifting Programs- Want to get BIG? (Probably not THAT BIG!!!)

Weight lifting programs are a key to getting big or ripped. But many guys lift weights and then immediately go over and run on the treadmill for 30 minutes. This is counterproductive.

How many times have to seen a marathoner or runner in general with big ripped muscles? Probably not too often. The reason is, that running and other endurance type exercises cause your muscles to shrink. This makes the muscle fibers more metabolically efficient, which in turn allows the runner to go long and hard without getting exhausted to quickly.

But if you’re trying to build muscle mass then running for long periods of time is only negating a lot of the work you just did with the weights. If your like me the goal is to build muscle mass but stay lean at the same time, if not actually lose some fat.

Here’s the way to do it. Separate your cardio days from your weight training days as much as possible. And instead of running or biking for long periods of time at a steady speed, do interval training for a shorter duration of time.

For instance, if you train with weights every other day, then do cardio on the days in between. Interval training is absolutely fantastic. When it comes to burning fat its far more effective than just going for a long run.

What is interval training? Interval training basically works like this. Suppose you choose to run as your cardio workout. Doing it in intervals means you’d jog at a moderate pace for say a minute, then you’d sprint as fast as you could for about 30 seconds. After the sprint you’d again jog at a slower pace for a minute then sprint again and so on.

The short burst of speed and effort at regular intervals releases a chemical in your body that helps you burn fat.

So, separate your weight lifting programs from your cardio as much as possible. Do interval training for 20 minutes rather than running or biking at a constant speed for a longer period of time.

Weight Lifting Programs- The Gene Wars

One excuse many people make to avoid weight lifting programs is that they don’t have the genetics to get big, or thin, or ripped etc.… take your pick.

Did you know that the quantity of muscle fibers that you have was set at birth? Does this mean that all those excuses are valid?

NO!!!

Of course you can’t increase the quantity of muscle fibers BUT you can improve there quality.

Those guys or girls you see out or at the gym who are fit, didn’t just get that way from genetics. They put in the work. They too hit plateaus and had to be persistent and work through them.

The shape of your muscles when fully developed is also determined at birth. Do you know how many muscle fibers you have? I don’t know how many I have and don’t really care. Do you know what shape they’ll ultimately take if you develop them to there fullest? I don’t know, not yet, but I’m going to find out.

Unless you try to reach your potential you’ll never know the answers to these questions. You’ll just keep making assumptions and excuses. Who knows maybe you do have the genetics to look even better than you’ve dreamed.

The point is, don’t worry about things like genetics because it’s not in your control. What is in your control is whether or not you try to reach your potential.

Choose a good weight lifting program, push yourself, be persistent and always imagine the possibilities.

Workout Pass- 43 Workout Programs