correct range stretch cold muscles tight muscles weight lifting

Just a quick post today about exercise.

I wanted to talk about the range of motion you take your body through with exercises.

I think a lot of people don't know how far they should be taking their range of motion with certain exercises, this is very evident when you look around people in the gym today.

Most common ones I see:

Not going to 90⁰ angle at the knees and hips in the squat
Not bringing the bar/DBs to the chest during a chest press
Bicep curl (not my fave exercise) not straightening the arm at the bottom
A limited range of motion with your exercise = Limited results

Maximum range of motion with you exercise = Maximum results

The Important Of Range Of Motion In Weight Lifting

Back to the squat example I see so many performing this exercise wrong, it's sad as squats are definitely up there in the top 3 exercises you can do.

Bad posture, tight hamstrings and stiff ankle = very restricted squat. These people will only be able to go half way down, if they go lower they will lose balance and come too far forward and the heels come up or vice versa.

Good posture and fully flexible = Perfect squat. Doing this through the full range of motion will allow them to work their muscles and burn more calories on every single exercise, they will have travelled twice as far plus they will reduce their chances of getting injured.

The problem is most people's muscle are too tight and restricted which really limits their motion.

If we put our muscles through the correct range of motion our muscles will be firing correctly and working in the right places, this will ensure we get the most out of our training.

So you should apply this principle with all exercises, if you are unsure of how far to go then look on the internet.

Often the reason that people don't go through the full range of motion is simply because their muscles won't allow it. Tight muscles get to a certain point and say 'Right no more!' and restrict the movement.

Regular stretching, yoga, massage and foam rolling will help you out with these problems. Neck, back and shoulder tightness is extremely common, especially for people who work in desk jobs or who drive around a lot.

One word of warning is when you do your stretches make sure your muscles are warm. If you stretch cold muscles they will be inflexible plus you could end up injuring yourself. I would keep your main stretches for when the muscles are warm and full of blood which is after your session.

Before your session try some dynamic stretches and add some which will mimic the movements you will be making in the session. Exercises like walking lunges, skips, high knees, side to side with the arms moving and heel flicks are good ones to start with.

I hope this advice will help you get the most out of training.

By Jamie Mathew Stedman

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By D. Champigny

Body building requires a lot of time and effort on your part, so you always want to get the maximum muscle gains from each visit to the gym. So it's important to understand how to organize your lifting sessions. If you don't, you probably won't get the optimal results from your body building schedule.

body building schedule, weight lifting sessions

Take the standard full-body workout, done 2 or 3 times per week. To maximize your results from your weight lifting you want to put most of your efforts into the biggest muscle groups, since that is where your greatest muscle gains will come from. And because they're your biggest muscles, you need to hit them when your energy levels are highest - at the beginning of each weight lifting session.

That gives you the order the exercises are to be performed in:

• Legs
• Back
• Chest
• Shoulders
• Triceps
• Biceps
• Abs

Since the goal in body building is to build lean muscles proportionately, the bulk of the exercises performed at each weight lifting session should be compound exercises. A compound exercise is one that focuses on one main muscle group, but rather than isolate that group it also involves 2 or more of your joints and 1 or more additional muscle groups to a lesser extent.

This lets us organize our weight lifting session even further by adding in the exercises for each bodypart:

• Legs - Squats
• Back - Bent Rows
• Chest - Bench Press
• Shoulders - Overhead Press
• Triceps - Lying Triceps Extensions (skullcrushers)
• Biceps - Standing Barbell Curls
• Abs - Weighted Situps

Be sure to check with your doctor and get the go-ahead before starting any exercise program, and discuss the specific exercises you'll be doing in case any existing conditions would be compromised. And whenever possible, always train with free weights. The machines in most commercial gyms may look enticing and you may be able to use heavier weights, but most have the weight traveling along a fixed path.

Because it's the machine, not you, keeping it to the proper path, your supporting muscles aren't involved. This builds 'gym strength', not functional strength. When called upon to use those major muscles outside the gym you stand a much better chance of being injured, since your smaller supporting muscles haven't developed equally on those machines.

There two other factors that enter into body building you'll need to discover to organize your weight lifting sessions, but both are dependent on your own personal physiology. First is the number of sets and repetitions you'll perform for each exercise. Your rep scheme should be based on the type of results you want - lower reps with heavier weights to build strength vs. higher reps with somewhat lighter weights to build muscle mass. Then you can set the number of sets once you know how many reps are in each set.

Second is the number of days per week you'll work out. If you're doing full-body workouts you'll want to hit the gym 2 or 3 times per week, always on non-consecutive days. If your body heals quickly after each workout you may want to go Monday - Wednesday - Friday, while if you find that's too much and you're staying sore between workouts you might want to hit the gym on Mondays & Thursdays.

If you're not doing full-body workouts but doing some type of split-routine instead, again you'll have to figure out what works best for your own body. In any case, by paying attention to what works for your own body, you'll soon know how to organize lifting sessions to meet your body building schedule and goals, getting maximum muscle gains from every weight lifting session you do!