Weight Training & Resistance

 

Bodybuilding Over 40 50 & Beyond – How Long To Rest Between Sets

[ Editor's Note: Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]
A lot of my readers ask me how long to rest between sets while exercising. The answer is: It depends on your goals. If you are training to increase strength, I recommend resting a bit longer – up to two minutes for exercises like squats and heavy dumbbell work. But if you want to burn the most amount of bodyfat and gain lean muscle, I recommend resting for very short periods of time. “The Iron Guru” Vince Gironda used to recommend leaving your hands on the bar between sets — now THAT is short rest intervals! He would frequently rest only 15-20 seconds between sets. This is similar to the strategy I use in 7 Minute Muscle — very short rest intervals and very intense training. Smart, short, efficient. That’s the way to go. A good place to start is simply reducing your rest intervals by 10 seconds. No matter what workout you’re using, decrease your rest by 10 seconds between sets. You may not be as strong on the last few sets (if you are training traditionally… if you use 7 Minute Muscle your rest is “built-in” and not an issue.) Over time you will work your way back up to the same amount of sets and reps but done in far less time. This means more work output, which means more muscle if your nutrition is good. This is the best way to train most of the time: Limited rest, intense sets, and short workouts. They are the ones that produce results.
Go here for more information — Short, effective workouts!

5 Tips for Exercise over 40

Workout advice for the over 40 crowd – 5 tips

Really a lot of the advice given for  over can apply to any age bracket and a lot again is just common sense. In doing a great deal of reading on strength training and weight lifting this has multiple benefits for the body and mind. Improving your strength helps with balance for one thing. Consider all the benefits in these articles with a regular workout routine. If you say you ‘don’t have the time, I don’t believe you’ Make time, just  make steps toward some lean muscle. Lean muscle helps burn fat and will enhace how your body look. How your body looks, changes how you feel about yourself.  Here are 5 tips for the fitness over 40 when getting started :

1/ Don’t jump into lifting weights, do a 5-10 minute fast paced walk on a treadmill or other cardio piece to bring up your heart rate. We warm up our cars when they are cold, so why not do the same for us.

2/ Prior to lifting your maximum desired weight, do set first that is lighter, perhaps half the desired weight. Push to do more repetitions. This will warm up the muscle and stir up the synovial fluid that works to lubricate the joint.

3/ Studies have revealed that doing one set of exercises ‘full out’ will yield better results that multiple sets at a lighter less challenging weight.( after your warm up) This means you are working smarter, not longer and pushing yourself.

4/ With increasing your intensity (amount of weight) and strenghtening your muscles, they will require time to recover so off days of rest are required.

5/ Listen to your Body when it tells you something! I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. If you are feeling pain, fatigue, if anything doesn’t feel right then stop. Checking with a medical professional to make sure you are safe to do any exercise programs is wise. This information isn’t just for people wanting to develop strong lean muscles over 40 or 50 but anyone going into a situation where they are changing their activity levels a great deal.

-Training With Weights vs. “Weight Training”-

 

A note from from Jon Benson author of the 7 Minute Muscle:

Just a word of warning: I will be using the term “bodybuilder” or “bodybuilding” to refer to anyone who wants to build lean muscle and burn body fat in this article.That means you. Yep… you are a “bodybuilder.” That does not mean you want to look like a monster on stage and pose in front of thousands of people wearing nothing but your undies. That means you want more lean muscle and less body fat — that’s it. With that in mind, here’s something you have to know: Bodybuilders do not “lift weights” — we “train” with weights. We use weights as a tool like a sculptor uses a hammer and chisel. The object of the game is not to lift some heavy weight from Point A to Point B and back.
That’s weight lifting. “Bodybuilding” is about making the muscle you want to change do all the work. Here’s two ways to do it:
1. Lower the weight and focus: Most people are just concerned with the lift itself.
“Get this weight off of me!” seems to be the unconscious mantra. This will not get the job done. In fact you may end up looking bulky rather than sleek… or just not change at all. Instead, lower the weight slightly, slow the pace down (especially on the descent of the movement) and picture the muscle in your mind doing ALL of the work. Literally put your mind in the muscle. You will be amazed at how different the same exercise feels with this degree of concentration.
2. Contract, hold, release: At the top of any movement, contract the muscle hard. Hold that contraction for a second or two, then release it and lower the weight slowly. This will not only cause faster muscle growth (that is a good thing) but also demand that you use less weight to get the job done. This means your joints — shoulders, knees, and elbows — will last a lifetime.

At 45 my joints are in perfect health. Protect yours at all costs.

Just remember: You are not just lifting weights when you train for muscle shape and “tone” — you are a sculptor. Treat your tools and your body with that degree of care. I cover many more tips on how to build lean muscle and burn body fat faster in my book “7 Minute Muscle”.
Read more about here: More muscle in less time

-Muscle Shaping 101: 5 Tips-

Over the next few days I’m going to be sharing 5 Tips for putting on lean muscle. If you want to put on a 2 lbs or 20lbs of muscle, these 5 Tips will help you do it faster than ever.
Remember: Muscle burns calories at rest… the more lean muscle you have the less bodyfat you’ll have if you eat the way I suggest. It’s as simple as that.
Gaining succcess is about knowing the power of “distinctions”…
Distinctions are the subtle things that turn average into excellence and losers into winners. Often distinctions are so hard to spot that even the smartest people miss them. The men and women who succeed massively rarely miss them.
Jumping into something, beging first off the blocks and never looking back can be the difference between winning ans losing . A savvy start to any endeavor! A start based on one, small, tiny… actually monumentally huge distinction.
The first thing you need to ask yourself when it comes to your weight-training goals is this:
“What small distinctions can I make to turn an average workout into a super-productive workout”?
Again, these are small distinctions… little things that add up to huge gains.

Here’s an example:
When doing a chest press exercise, I have two distinctions that have made all the difference in my chest gains.
First, I turn my palms inward, rather than facing out, when pressing with dumbbells. Obviously this does not work with barbell presses, but I use mostly dumbbells.The result? No rotator cuff or shoulder injuries. This alone has allowed me to train three more months out of each year. That’s how much time I used to lose before an orthopedic surgeon gave me this tip.
Second, when pressing, I explode up. Then I slow DOWN… I always lower the weight slower than I lift it up. This gives me TWO growth factors rather than just one in the same movement, and without one second difference in the gym.

Again… distinctions.

If you want my book on the best distinctions I’ve ever used for gaining lean muscle, then go here:

The 7 minute workout

Think about it next time you plan your workouts.

Want to Workout but Short on Time?

So here’s the million-dollar question:
“What’s the number one reason people do not work out?”

Is it lack of money? Lack of motivation? Perhaps they lack the ideal workout plan?
Nope. It’s TIME. Or rather the lack thereof.

“We know that 50 per cent of the population doesn’t [exercise] and the most commonly cited barrier to exercise is lack of time.” This quote comes from exercise researcher Martin Gibala, a kinesiology professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Gibala put his theory to the test in a study that was published in the Journal of Physiology. In it Gibala compared a group who exercised “traditionally” — 90 to 120 minutes per day — with another group exercising far less: Only 20 minutes per day and only three days per week.
That’s a whopping one hour per week folks.

Did you know that Jon Benson’s “7 Minute Muscle” plan calls for only five 7-minute workouts with resistance training (weights or bodyweight) plus only 9 minutes cardio a few days per week?

And that actually works? Yeah… you bet it does.
If you do the math, that’s about an hour per week as well.
This is the “Level 1″ workout. There are three levels depending on your goals and exercise tolerance.

Find out more here –

Why brief is best!

Back to Gibala’s study:

In just two weeks both groups showed improvement in both exercise performance and oxygen uptake. (Remember, fat burns in the presence of oxygen.)
The kicker is that both groups were almost identical in their improvement. Why? Because the brief exercise group trained with greater focus and more intensity — exactly how Jon suggests you train.
This is just one of dozens of studies that confirm the benefits of shorter but more intense workouts.

However, there is a catch: Train too hard and you will shut down your fat-burning furnace.

Your body perceives over-exertion done over an extended period of time as a sign of pursuit. It can trigger an ancient hormonal sequence that says, “I’m being chased by a tiger! Horde the fat!”
The body literally shuts down what it considers to be unnecessary activity in favor of self-preservation. And guess what? Burning off those hips and love handles is not a biological necessity.

You have to learn when to hit it hard AND when to rest and recover.

Finally, you have to put yourself into the proper mental state in order to see greater results in the shortest period of time.
Jon devotes an entire chapter to putting your mind into your muscle to make gains faster than ever befor in “7 Minute Muscle.” You can read more here –

Brief is best!

Just remember these three key points:

1. Time is the greatest barrier to fitness.
2. Workouts can be short and very effective.
3. The body goes where the mind directs.