Why strength training saves lives

So yesterday was the LiveStrong challenge in Philly and my mom and I did the ride together. She finished, I didn’t.

Why?

Because I got hit by a car. Riding my bike, following the rules, and got hit by a car.

I’m ok. And I owe it to dedicated strength training.

I got hit, flew off my bike (to which I was clipped in), and landed on the ground about a half inch away from the curb. And yes, I was wearing my helmet!

If I wasn’t strong, and if my bones were weak, I would have easily broken several bones in my body. Seriously. I got up on my own, after I blacked out for a few seconds, and did go to the hospital after being checked out by the event medics. I’m walking, not too well, but I’m still walking and able to get around. I just have a contusion on my spleen and severe muscle soreness on the entire left side of my body. I got a few scrapes too and my neck is sore. My range of motion in my left shoulder is compromised, but should return next week.

I’m thankful that’s all that happened. I feel bad because my mom saw the whole thing happen. Imagine seeing your child get hit by a car and wondering if they’re alive or not since I didn’t get up right away.

But I’ll be ok and back to working out a little next week.

The lesson is: work to be as strong and fit as you can; it will save your life!

No Gym, No Problem

So you don’t belong to a gym or a health club, and you don’t have a home gym. That doesn’t give you an excuse to not strength train! Every time I hear “But I don’t have access to a gym, so I can’t work out” I want to flip out. But somehow I manage to keep my composure.

Seriously though, you don’t need fancy equipment and machines to improve your strength. Your own bodyweight is often enough resistance for you to make drastic improvements and helps with fat loss. If you are able to control your own bodyweight when doing movements, you are, in fact, a strong person!

If you have access to a playground, you can do pull ups on the monkey bars, and swing through the monkey bars as well. Remember playing as a kid, how much fun the playground was, how much strength it took for you to swing from bar to bar? If you start doing pull ups and variations of pull ups in a playground, you will notice your strength improving within a couple of weeks.

Speaking of playgrounds, you can create an entire circuit using things you find at a playground. For example, you can run hard for 3 minutes, stop and do 3 sets of 15 dips on a bench, run again for another 3 minutes, do 3 sets of pull ups to failure on the monkey bars, run again for another 3 minutes, do 3 sets of push ups to failure, run again for another 3 minutes, do 3 sets of planks for 1 minute each, run again for another 3 minutes, do 3 sets of 15 burpees, run again for another 3 minutes, do 3 sets of 30 mountain climbers, run again for another 3 minutes, do 50 bodyweight squats, and finally run again for another 3 minutes. That’s 24 minutes of intense running, plus the cardio you get from moving from one exercise to the next.

To make that easier for you to read:

3 mins run

3 sets of 15 dips

3 mins run

3 sets of pull ups

3 mins run

3 sets of push ups

3 mins run

3 sets of planks, 1 min each

3 mins run

3 sets of 15 burpees

3 mins run

3 sets of 30 mountain climbers

3 mins run

50 bodyweight squats

3 mins run

As soon as my hamstring heals, I’m gonna give it a shot. If you try it, let me know how long it takes you to complete and how you feel about it! Leave comments!

When you have a passion for something…

I just read this post at RossTraining, and the video from Jack Lalanne was absolutely inspirational to me. When you have a passion for something, the rest will take care of itself. You should choose a career in fitness because you love it, not for the money. Securing my clients’ success, helping others become passionate about fitness, and sharing/learning new knowledge will be the most important things to me once I begin training (I have an interview this Friday to become a personal trainer–they’ll train me and help me get certified wish me luck! ) Anyway, check it out, and his other posts as well. Simple, effective workouts and a healthy living philosophy–it’s a great site. I’ll have a real article up for you tomorrow!

Total Approach to Fitness

This is the kind of training that I absolutely love–a multi-dimensional approach to training. I hate programs that focus on one approach or old and outdated methods such as long cardio and isolated, single-joint strength exercises. My philosophy is about functionality, developing the ability to control one’s body, especially balance, and appreciating the art of movement.

I believe that the best way to achieve a fit body is when you take a total approach to fitness, like in this video.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

I Pulled my Hamstring!

So I haven’t really written anything substantial for a while. I’m fighting a cold, but more importantly, I pulled my hamstring, so I’m trying to rest. It’s pretty hard for me to just rest and do nothing, especially because I work at a gym and I have to see my beautiful bike just sitting there in my apartment. It’s tough for me to sit here and watch other people lift and enjoy their workouts.

I learned something interesting today as I was studying for my personal training certification. I have heard about the concept of preloading, but I never took the time to actually learn about it. Until today.

Preloading is when you cause muscle tension in the targeted muscle(s) before you perform a movement when you are lifting weights. So if you were about to perform a bench press, try to make your pecs (chest) tense and hold it for a few seconds before you lift. The science behind this is the tension before actually performing the movement allows for an increase in maximal force production early in the lift.

Why would you want to preload? The problem is that physiologically, it takes a good amount of time for the body to respond accordingly, meaning that maximum force production in a movement is not instant.  Research suggests that preloading leads to development of strength early in the range of motion, which is typically a stage in motion that is ignored in weight lifting programs.

This is an interesting concept that I learned today. When I can lift again, I’ll give preloading a try.