Form. To get the most out of your weight-Ufting exercises, it's im portant to have as close to perfect form as possible. This means that you isolate and use only the muscles targeted by a particular exercise. You shouldn't, for example, use yourback muscles to help perform an arm exercise. You should also Uft slowly, say graduaUy over about 7 seconds, and let the weight downvery slowly overabout 15seconds, so
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that the entire individual repetition takes about 25 seconds , or as longasyoucantolerate. This tends to bemucheasier on jointsand has been shown to be a higher quahty of exercise. Do not fuUy flex or ex tend your muscles while weight lifting. Instead, stop just before you would reach the endpoint of any motion. This is where having good instruction can pay off. Your instructor can critique your form and help you select the right equipmentfor each exercise.
Technique: The Inverted Pyramid System First, a word of warning: Don't embark upon this technique until you have demonstrated perfect form for each exercise.
This wiU ensure maximum benefit and minimize the possibiUty of muscle strain.
The most productive way to performan anaerobic exercise is to tire a particular group of muscles as quickly as possible and keep them tired during the course of the exercise.
Thismaysound a Uttle strange, given that we're aU accustomed to the idea that some athletes workin precisely the opposite manner , warming up slowly and building to a fast finish.
That maybe fine for a sprint, but we're not talking about racing here, we're talking about buUding muscle mass.
By placing maximum demands on your muscles at first, you put yourselfinto the anaerobic (or oxygen-deprived) stateright off.Then bygraduaUy pro gressing to Ughter weights, you force your muscles to work continu ouslyin the anaerobic stateand thereby buUd them.Thisiswhat I caU the inverted pyramidapproach to weight Ufting, and for the purpose of buUding muscle mass, it's far superiorto the old system.
Many weight lifters foUow a regimen that requires 10 repetitions ("reps") of a Uft, foUowed bya rest, another 10reps, another rest, and another 10reps.
The restbetween each set of repsaUows the heart to slow, replenishes oxygen to the muscles, and thereby defeats our cen tral goals.
AnaerobicaUy, you mustcontinuaUy keep yourmuscles de prived of oxygen and force them to develop new metabolic pathways that demand less oxygen.
The ideais quaUty, not quantity, and it's my beUef that youcanaccomplish a morethorough and sensible workout in 30 minutesthan you can in an hour and a halfof conventional, less strenuous aerobic activity.
I use the invertedpyramidsystem, so caUed because I start out with as much resistance as I can handle, and then ease up.
This is how it works: Let's say you're performing curls.
These in volve sitting at the edge of a bench or chair and flexing your arms at the elbows with weights in each hand.
You start with the heaviest
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weights that you can lift 3-4 times without losing good form.
By the time you've lifted them, say, 4 times, your muscles are tired and you can't lift them anymore.
You immediately lift the next Ughter weights and do as many reps as you can (say, 3-4), and so on down through Ughter andUghter weights untilyou get to atotal of about20reps.
You might find that you can getout 21, or maybe you can only manage 19.
That's fine.
The idea is that after the first few repetitions, your muscles are tired and they're working whUe they'retired,which is what stimu lates muscles to buUd more mass.
Exceeding 20 reps by much may be unwise.
This is because anaero bic exercise does damage to muscle fibers, and we want such damage to be minimal so that fuU repair wiU have occurred within2 days, or before you exercise that muscle group again.
Once you've done your reps for a particular muscle group, you don't need to do that exercise again untU the dayafter tomorrow.
You immediately go on to the next exercise.
In this way, you can accom plish considerablymore in a shorter time frame.
The same system applies to anexercise like sit-ups.
Whether you're doing sit-ups withyour legs straight, bent, orwithoneof those sit-up boards, youstart off with yourhands behindyourhead.
If you can't do a single sit-up with hands behind your head, try it with hands at your sides or even pressing them on the floor.
With practice you'U eventu- aUy be strong enough to put your hands behind yourhead.
If you're reaUy experienced at sit-upsand have strong abdominal muscles, you holda plate , a flat weight , behind your head.
You do as manyrep etitions as you can.
Maybe you'U only get5-6, maybe only 2-3.
Imme diately putdown your weight if you're holding one, ortake your hands from behindyourheadand fold them across yourchest.
Now startdo ing the same sit-ups in this fashion.
You do as many more reps as you can, then put your hands at your sides and do as many more addi tional repetitions as you can.
If you get very experienced and find yourself doing40 or more sit-ups, it can getprettyboringand is also a waste of time.
When you find yourself doing dozens of sit-ups, you can get an inclined board or a Roman chair, which is like a sit-up board but is raised about four feet off the ground and permits youto begin with your head belowyour waist.
Again, you foUow the same tactic.
You can also get an abdominal crunch machine with variable resistance (not those with removable weights that take time to change).
They're the best, but they're expensive.
Again, you'd start at high resistance and work down for a total of about 20 reps.
It is hu-
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manly possible to do more than 4,000 sit-ups at one session, but what's the point unless you're trying to impress someone or set a record? Sitting up over a 7-second period and coming down slowly over 15 or more seconds is actuaUy more effective for exercisingyour muscles than doing 3 or 4 or more sit-ups in the same time period, and wiU significantly reduce the total number of sit-ups you can do before muscle exhaustion.
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Cardiovascular exercise is widelyassociated in the public mind with what the popular press calls aerobic exercise.
However, aerobic exer cise as many people practice it , a leisurely jog, a relaxing bike ride, mUd caUsthenics, even a brisk walk, is reaUy of only limited benefit to your cardiovascular system, doesn't buUd muscles, and has rela tively little impact on yourstamina and capacity.
Thekind of cardio vascular exercise I recommend to my patients (and foUow myself) is verystrenuous, operates intermittently in the anaerobic range, and ac- compUshes tremendous things.
Forexample, manyyears ago, before I becamea physician, I usedto goto diabetes conventions.
There wasal ways a group of doctors who would get up in the morning,don their running togs, and go running.
These were peoplewho ran everyday.
I'm not a runner; I work out in the gym every day.
But I do a particu lar cardiovascularworkout on a recumbent exercise bicyclethat I wiU explain.
I would go out with these doctors on their runs.
After a few mUes, peoplewouldstart droppingout.
EventuaUy, I'd be the only one left , and then I'd go another five mUes and come back.
Clearly, al though I was older than most of these people, and not a runner,I had much more stamina.
The stamina was created by this anaerobic car diovascular exercise.
Exercise Harder, Exercise Better Cardiovascular workouts can be performed on a treadmiU, a stair climber, or bicycle.
If you're female, I'd recommend a treadmiU, be cause running impactsyour feetand thus helpsincrease bone density in your legs.
However, if done to excess or with inadequate arch sup ports, the impact can injureyour knees.
If you'remale, I recommend a recumbent bicycle rather than the standard upright bike; it's much more comfortable for men because the seat is luce an ordinary chair.
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IdeaUy, your machine should havea meter that reads the amount of work that you're doingin calories (or joules) perminute asweU asto tal calories (or joules), but certainly you can get a good workoutwith just a mUeage meter.
It is important to wear a pulse meter.The brand thatI like bestiscaUed Polar; it costs about $60, and youwear asensor around your chest with awristwatch-type readout.
If youbelong to a health club that has a treadmiU with a pulse meter in the handlebars, youwon'thave to put oneon your chest, but some sortof pulse meter is essential.
The degree of workout you're getting is measured by how fast your heart works.
If youget evaluated byacardiologist before you startyour exercise program, you should askhim or her what your ini tial target pulse rate oughtto be.Over time,you canincrease it.
There's a formula that we useto specify atheoretical maximum at tainable pulse rate: we take 220 and subtract from it your age.
So if you're sixtyyears old, you'd have atheoretical maximumpulse rate of 160 , that is, in theory, you shouldn't be able to exercise at a faster pulse rate.
Your doctor wiU decide based on your overaU health and fitness level what percentage of this would be a good initial target rate for you , say, 75-80 percent of maximum.
Rarely would a doctor start you out at 85 percent of maximum or higher if you were not in shape.
EventuaUy, you may find that you can get up to and beyond your theoretical maximum , I can exercise at 160 even though my theoretical maximum is 148.1 can do this without having a heart at tack in part because I've been exercising strenuously for forty years.
Don't expect , even after years of this kind of exercise , to getyour heart rate up to or even near your theoretical maximum, or to your target, right after you begin thiskind of workout.
It takes time.
I get to my target pulse rate at the end of about 10 minutesof trying.
To do a reaUy effective anaerobic/cardiovascular workout, you use the same principles as youuse lifting weights.
Start out by selecting a safe, comfortable speed and setting the resistance of yourmachine to the point where your muscles are so tired after about 20 seconds that you can'tgo any further.
As soon as you reach this point, lower the re sistance setting sUghtly and keep going.
For treadmiUs, the resistance wiU be the angle at which you're running uphiU.
So if you're using a treadmiU, you need to be able to setthe incline of yourtreadmiU from the handlebars , you don't want to get off,reset the angle, then get back on.You'U lose your rhythm, regain some of the oxygen in your musclesand heart, and defeatthe point of the workout.
As with the weights, you lower the resistance a Uttle at a time, and
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