• Benefits of weight training
• Different training for different goals (no one is ruled out)
• Aerobic/anaerobic: Is one better?
• Lean Muscle Mass & the Immune System: a note for seniors
• Muscle definition
• Genetics
• Steroids
• Metabolism, muscle mass & your weight
• Muscle mass & common drugs
• Cholesterol: the latest study
• Diet
• Proteins & Carbs
• Losing Weight/Losing Fat
• Selective Reduction: Losing it in specific places
• Supplements
• Discipline

Books
Read for your needs:

• Training for Beginners
• Fitness
• Training
• Food and Nutrition
• Training for Women
• Powerlifting
• Supplements
• Stretching
• Training for the young
• Sports Training
• Steroids
• Physiology of Training
• Fiction

We assume that if you're here reading this you are interested in improvement. Our point of encouragement for you is the undeniable fact that people who attain their optimal weight and level of fitness are respected more -- by others and by themselves! So, come on in, and stay for a few sets.

What kind of training is best? Training can be broken down into two categories: aerobic ("with air") and anaerobic ("without air"). Aerobics are, then, exercise that can be done for a continuous period of time because your muscles' demand for oxygen doesn't exhaust the body's supply. This would include jogging, swimming, dancing, light weight or no weight repetitions of a body movement. Weight training, on the other hand, requires so much oxygen for the muscles being worked that it must be done in limited duration, hence the concept of "without air" or, rather, without a sufficient supply of air for sustained duration. Which gets us to the question of what kind of exercise is best. Is it better to jog or to lift? To swim or to pump iron? Once you understand how your body is affected by each you'll see that the question is a bit disingenuous, often asked in order to justify personal choices. The answer is to exercise in each category. No training program is adequate or balanced if it doesn't include weight training and aerobics. Here's one reason why: There are two chambers in the heart, one larger than the other. The heart is a muscle. Anaerobic exercise strengthens the large heart muscle; aerobics strengthens the smaller one. Should one be trained while the other is not? One would hardly think so. Ultimate fitness, that is, reaching your true physical potential, can only be realized by training in both categories.

Benefits of training with weights (aka, resistance training) Gains in: Strength Endurance Metabolism Fitness Energy Vitality Lean Muscle Mass Immune system Health & more healthful choices Circulatory efficiency Dietary discipline Self esteem Quality of life Losses in: Dependence on others Weight from fat Cholesterol buildup Doctor visits

What kind of diet is best? The kind that keeps the fat off and supports the building of muscle tissue. Everyone's genetic profile is a bit different but that should never be used as an excuse for maintaining body fat. We're coming from a place where fat in any form is ugly, useless and unhealthy. Get rid of it! We don't believe in a 10-day diet, a 90-day diet, or any such marketing concept. If your goal is fitness you have only one way to go: a lifetime training diet. High in proteins. Extremely low in fats (especially saturated) and complex carbohydrates. All carbohydrates are not the same from a dietary standpoint. Some researchers have developed a "glycemic index" of carbos, which is a measure of how quickly a food can spike blood sugar. On the low end of this scale are vegetables and fruit. On the high end, besides the obvious, are many grain-based foods. In this life approach of maintaining a training diet, you read every label and reject saturated fat content above 2% daily average wherever possible. You reject butter, cream, fatty meats. You run like hell when you see the word "cheese". Well, okay, we love pizza, too. But, we're down to 11% body fat so guess what? Our metabolism can handle that rare tomato and cheese pie with toppings. Even the occasional chocolate desert. Once you achieve your minimum healthy weight and body fat percentage and are maintaining it, let your scale tell you how far you can go outside your normal lifetime limits. Non trainers and beginning trainers: Replacing the fatty foods in your diet with lean meats and vegetables is only part of the training diet story. If you're heavier than you should be you're eating too much. It's largely about quantity. You're getting older (we all are) -- you no longer have the metabolism of a teenager (unless you are a teenager). The sad fact is that you don't need as much food. It may be painful to accept but as you grow older you simply have to cut down on how much you eat. Keep in mind that when you lose body fat you will have more blood, oxygen, vitamins and other nutrients for the remaining parts of your body. You'll feel the difference. Weight trainers: Losing fat reveals muscle. Let the world see that six-pack under the belly fat. Be lean.

How do you lose weight? Dropping those pounds of fat you've been carrying around is mostly mental and part a matter of knowledge of food and nutrition. The hardest feat to accomplish is the mental part. It's in the mind-set. If your mind is not truly set to reaching your ideal weight you won't do it. You'll try. You'll do something in bits and spurts. Then that craving takes over. It's only a solid mind-set that can defeat the constant enemy that is temptation. You'll constantly recall the pleasure behind your favorite sweets, cheeses, deserts. You'll resist... but for how long? If you succumb you'll be determining the weakness of your mind-set. You can do it. The reason other people with normal metabolism can do it is not that they have less appetite than you, or a weaker set of temptations. It's because they have developed the necessary mind-set. With that and only with that they can get used to the necessary new regimen. Hungry? Go to chicken and vegetables? Got the munchies? Grab a chunk of carrot. You'll be amazed at how totally a person can become devoted to healthy intake. In fact, it's not uncommon in the training community to develop an abhorrence for sweets and fats. When you reach that stage you'll have solidified the most important mind set for a life of fitness and health. Developing a mind set can be a learning process. Start by figuring out what foods you like that have little fat, cholesterol and calories. There must be something in your current diet that fits that category. To add to that list, see if you can find foods in that category that you can shift to and still enjoy. This is your training diet list. The key to this is to not even try to eat foods you don't enjoy. Then, little by little, start replacing the high-fat foods you're used to with these. Fill up with them so you don't even think about the fatty foods, and, once you find and establish that formula, gradually diminish the sheer quantity of your intake. How far you need to go depends on how far you are from your ideal weight. If you do this and stick with it you are developing that fitness mind-set. Add regular workouts to it and you'll soon be that person you want to be.

How do protein and carbohydrates relate to weight training? We keep hearing about how bad carbohydrates are and how they should be eliminated from your diet. But, we can't figure out how to do that. Why would we want to cut vegetables out of our diets? Right, we wouldn't. It's the difference between simple carbos like sugars and fat, and complex carbos like veggies. Simple is bad; complex is good. You can't, after all, have an entire diet of protein. Ah, that protein. To a weight trainer, protein is gold. Protein is what allows the muscle tissue that is broken down during training to rebuild into greater and stronger fibers. It gives us the bulk and/or the strength... in short, the results of our training. The more the better. Lean, lean meat. Egg, chicken, fish. Veggies.

What about supplements? Yes, they do try to sell you supplements, and among the most popular are protein powders. Are they good? Do they work? We hesitate to do without them. But, we've got a big revelation and if you read this and try it, we want to know how it works for you. In my personal training, no supplement I've ever tried is as effective as one egg about 90 minutes before my workout! The reason, of course, is that it supplies the protein I need during the workout. Having it there, being processed and available for the muscle work, ensures my peak performance. It's a powerhouse of a supplement, if you will. The fact that it makes so much difference even though I'm using protein powder puts the efficacy of the powder into question. Be that as it may, I'm using both. And, more and more people are remarking on my 'condition'. Fitness is apparent. Try it; you'll like it. Weight trainers: We hope you'll try the one-egg supplement idea if (1) you work out in the mornings and (2) either don't have breakfast or don't normally include some form of protein in it. See if it makes the kind of difference in your power and control that it does for me. Just one egg, prepared any way you like it. If you try it, let's say for 5-10 workouts, please participate in the email survey by telling us with how it worked for you. If you've gotten anything from any of this you owe us at least one message. Use the email link above (left column) or the handier one below. Let us know if it made a difference or not, how much difference in terms of an increase in weights, control and/or power. Also include what other supplements you're taking. If enough people participate in this survey, we'll see if there's a consensus and post the results. Thanks.

The hidden benefit of developing muscle There are obvious benefits to developing muscle mass: greater strength, better looks, more confidence, etc. But there's a less obvious connection between your muscle mass and your body's ability to control foreign invaders. Yes, the immune system is directly related to your muscle mass. The more muscle, the stronger your immune system. There can hardly be a better reason to take up weight training! And, this effect gets more important as you age. Do not think weight training is not for you when you're in your sixties, or seventies. That's just when you need it most. If you do it seriously, you'll be doing it into your eighties and nineties. There's no physical reason why you can't and it's the best way to keep your health up to its highest potential. Starting at around age 30, muscle mass in sedentary individuals declines by about 2% to 5% per decade. Caloric requirements and metabolic rate decline accordingly. (see also, Metabolism) The big point is that as we get older we need less food to sustain a healthy life -- and certainly, less consumption of fatty foods. The biggest single problem overweight people have (60% of our population) is paying no attention to this process and not adjusting their intake. It's as though they insist on eating like they did when they were teenagers -- a sort of "hanging on to youth" formula. And, it's a slippery slope that leads to weakness and susceptability to pathogens.

Methodology: Train for your goal If you're a woman and you think weight training is for those guys and gals you see on the covers of body building magazines, forget it. So, you're not interested in a body like Maclish. But, you would like to firm up a bit here, a bit there. You'd like to be in condition, feel better, increase your confidence, keep your boobs tuned. There's no reason not to. The methods of training are goal specific, breaking down essentially into two categories: training for maximum muscle growth and training for general conditioning. In the first you use the maximum amount of weight for a given exercise that you can repeat 4-15 times and keep increasing that amount as your strength develops. In the latter, you use light weights with many more repetitions. Not so it becomes an aerobic exercise, so you want to become exhausted at 30 or 40 reps. This second method may not be only for women, but can include the young and seniors. The important thing here is to enjoy doing it. That means not pushing yourself to a point that it becomes work. It may look like work, but only to the uninitiated.

Selective Reduction (can you remold your body?) Sorry, it ain't gonna happen. But it's the myth that you can spot reduce (lose fat in a specific area) that keeps the health clubs in business. Most people think they can take down their stomach fat by working on their abs. Oh, what a misconception. Or, reduce that cellulite on your thigh with deep leg presses. What a failure to understand. This faulty logic is so ingrained that we know the truth (as we are about to reveal it) will be denied so vehemently you'd think we were trying to get you to change your religion. The prevailing belief in "spot reduction" is a faith. But the sooner you get over it the sooner you'll be dealing with the reality of body dynamics. Fat goes on your body and comes off in a genetically controlled way. That's why our bodies look so different. Some have a tendency to carry extra weight at the stomach, others on the hips, others on the arms. Your genetics are handed down to you from your ancestors to your parents, which is why ethnic origin and nationality seems to produce a common body type. Genetics are like a computer algorithm that determines the order of a set of commands. The gene that controls your body development determines where your body fat is stored, or not. The lucky ones are those whose body fat is equalized proportionately. Unlucky are those whose genes cause fat tissue to build up in an unbalanced way. The unlucky are numerous, indeed. So, some come to the gym to work on that part of the body that they think needs remolding. In working on that one area, they aren't controlling the fat-accumulation there... but they might be taking overall fat off, especially if they combine weight training with a reduction in food quantity and saturated fat. The fat rolls off in the order determined by that gene. Eventually, if you lose enough weight, you'll lose it where you want to and, what do you know? You might start seeing some muscle. So, the big point is, combine your weight training with a proper training diet! and don't--for your health's sake--fall back.

Defining your muscles Some people lift weights and get stronger but see little muscle growth or definition. It's fair to say that all resistance trainers have the common goal of being "cut", that is, developing well defined muscles. Becoming stronger is fine, and so are the beneficial health benefits. But, why oh why, these people moan (mostly to themselves), can't I show muscle like others do? It is a genetic matter to a great extent, but another, very common factor, is fat control. Besides all the obvious implications of fat, it has a tendency in many people to hide muscle. Your inability to define your muscles may simply be a thick layer of fat over them. If you fall into this category and you don't think you're overweight, you think your diet is a healthy one, better start thinking of cutting back on the quantity of food you're consuming. As you cut back, be especially careful about maintaining a balanced diet. Be sure, in your limited quantity you continue to include plenty of protein, complex carbohydrates like fruits, nuts, vegetables. Do your best to cut out anything with high fat content; go to fat-free milk and cheese, if you have milk and cheese at all; and remember that, as we get older, we burn fat at a slower rate and therefore survive --in fact, sustain better health-- with a smaller quantity of food. If you're really working out properly, 3-5 days a week, enhancing your metabolism and cut back on quantity, you're likely to start seeing a difference quickly. Watch your muscles become more defined. You may discover, as I did early in my training and diet adjustment, that you have a six-pack!

Steroids: the tradeoff Steroids are the synthetically developed derivatives of testosterone, collectively known as "Anabolics" or "anabolic steroids". Steroids were first developed in the 1930's by German scientists and used on POW's. Testosterone is perhaps the most important of the male sex hormones collectively called "androgens." Scientific detail: Using cholesterol as a base, the male gonads (testes) produce between 4 and 10 mg of testosterone per day. Testosterone is responsible for the development of secondary male sex characteristics also called androgenic functions. Some examples of these characteristics are increased growth of body hair, beard growth, deep voice, increased production of sebaceous glands, development of the penis, aggressiveness, sexual behavior, libido, and the maturation of sperm. But, the function of testosterone and steroids that is of particular interest to weight trainers is the promotion of the protein biosynthesis which accelerates muscle buildup. Further, it increases the formation of red blood cells, speeds up regeneration, and speeds up recovery time after injuries or illness. It also stimulates metabolism which results in the burning of bodyfat. Pretty good stuff, right? Well, besides legal issues, some of us are either affected adversely by a self-imposed rebalancing of our natural hormones, or are turned off merely by the thought of it. We'd rather not risk unwanted effects and compromises to our health which, often, are not immediately known. The use of steroids is a time bomb.

Metabolism, Muscle Mass & Your Weight The more lean tissue you have the higher your metabolic rate. Muscle mass boosts metabolism because muscle is active tissue that helps convert food into water, heat and energy. Fat tissue, on the other hand, is a passive, stored form of body energy -- something to be burned off when the body is not getting its usual amount of food. The more muscle you have, the more calories it can send to muscle cells to be burned, leaving fewer calories to go to fat cells to be stored -- usually where you don't want it. Several new studies suggest that formerly sedentary adults who do a program of strength training for three months gain about 3 pounds of muscle, or a pound of muscle a month. This increase in muscle mass boosts the metabolic rate by about 7%. The person who does this is reversing decades of the aging process.

Muscle Mass and Common Drugs In an unusual development, researchers have found that the daily recommended doses of ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, etc.) and acetaminophen (aspirin) produced a significant increase in muscle mass and strength during three months of regular weight treaining compared with a placebo. The study was reported at a meeting of the American Physiological Society. The drugs apparently produced intramuscular changes that enhance the metabolic response to resistance training, according to the report. Previous short-term studies showed detrimental results. (from the L.A. Times, April, 2008)

The Effect of Exercise on Cholesterol It has been noted that exercise, while appearing to be beneficial for cholesterol, doesn't really lower it. That paradox seems to be explained in a new study (11/02) by Dr. William E. Kraus of Duke University, who found a heretofore unexpected way that exercise affects cholesterol by turning his attention to the physical structure of cholesterol in the bloodstream. Cholesterol is an essential fat, or lipid. It circulates through the body by attaching to protein particles. It appears more likely to clog the arteries when it is carried by small, dense protein particles than when it is moved by relatively large, fluffy ones. The study finds that people who exercise develop these bigger particles, even if their total amount of cholestol stays the same. A higher amount of exercise improved the effect. Kraus expects the tests for measuring protein particle size may become more frequently done in standard cholesterol testing. If you're into fitness, you should ask for it.