Bigger, Leaner, Stronger: Supplements

        Bigger, Leaner, Stronger: Supplements

      Now that weightlifting is such a cultural norm, you have probably heard of most of the different kinds of things you can take, good or bad. One Idea that has stayed prevalent in the idea of weightlifting is that you have to take a lot of protein, with most of the sources coming from food and from "whey" a powdered substance that is added to drinks that adds protein to the mixture. To quote Michael Matthews, "Using protein supplements such as whey, egg, and casein powders (your three best options) isn't necessary, but its convenient." (Matthews 235) In the rest of the article, Michael Matthews talks about the different kinds of protein stimulants in depth, mostly about powdered supplements. To make a long story short, Mathews describes what the protein is actually doing in your body, and how to stay away from the bad and low quality whey or casein products because they have harmful fillers in them. For my project, I will be using all natural vegan protein, that has no sugar and is high in protein. I have not ever taken protein with a diet before, so i have no prior knowledge on what is the best types of protein and so on but for now, I would recommend the best ranked or best reviewed protein supplement you can find. 

 

         Work Cited

         Matthews, Michael. Bigger Leaner Stronger: the Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body. Oculus Media Group Llc, 2015.

Bigger, Leaner, Stronger: Fueling your body

                 

             Bigger, Leaner, Stronger: How to eat properly 

       An important part of bodybuilding and staying fit in general is to eat healthy and stay fit. In the book Bigger leaner and stronger, the author Michael Mathews sheds light on eating healthy with this quote: "Some people say it's 70 percent of the game, while others say it's 80 or even 90 percent. Well, I say its 100 percent."(Matthew 75) Michael Matthew also says that "the building blocks of a great body are more like pillars than puzzle piece. Weaken one enough, and the whole structure collapses."(Meyers 75) I agree with Mathews points because to become bigger,Leaner and stronger you need to eat good food as "Fuel" to become Bigger, Leaner and Stronger. I start my meal prep with healthy foods, mostly protein based. In the image below, I make Chicken Afritada, a Filipino dish that mainly consists of Chicken, Tomato, Potato and Rice. This meal is lean and full of protein and carbohydrates. I recommend that if you were to start a diet in order to get leaner and stronger, that you prepare yourself foods that will allow you to obtain the right nutrients that your body needs.

Work cited

Matthews, Michael. Bigger Leaner Stronger: the Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body. Oculus Media Group Llc, 2015.

Strength Training: Side-Lying Lateral Raises

Hello everyone! With 2018 approaching quickly many of you have probably developed a New Year's resolution. Resolutions can be anything, but many people choose to focus on increasing their physique. If this is your resolution I can help you! Today, I will be informing you how to correctly execute the side-lying lateral raises exercise, which helps develop the deltoids. 

The deltoid is the main muscle located within your shoulder. This workout will strengthen and will also assist with making the muscle more toned. To do this workout, you must first lie on one side on the floor or a bench, if you own one, and clench the dumbbell with an overhand grip. Remember to prop yourself up off the ground with your elbow parallel to the ground. Next, while inhaling, raise your arm to a vertical position. After that, exhale and lower the dumbbell back to your side ending the rep. Doing 10 to 12 reps is recommended, anything more puts you at risk for injury and can possibly strain your muscles.

                                                              

Helpful pointers and tips: Support your back and avoid a back injury by tightening the abdominal muscles so your back will be supported. Also, having a weight lifting bench is very helpful because it prevents your elbow from becoming sore. Additionally, having a bench allows your workout to be more beneficial because you do not have to worry about balancing. However, doing this workout without a bench strengthens your core and your abdominal muscles. Finally, changing your dumbbell position from either beginning in front of the thigh or behind the thigh helps with working out different areas of the deltoid. Delavier writes "Varying the initial position (dumbbell in front of or behind the thigh) allows you to work all the deltoid fibers" (Delavier 45). This means that switching up your starting dumbbell position will help you strengthen all the deltoid fibers because there are three deltoid fibers in all which are the anterior deltoid, deltoid multipennate or middle deltoid, and the posterior deltoid. So by altering the dumbbell starting location you can work all three of these deltoid fibers.

In front of thigh dumbbell starting position.

Behind thigh dumbbell starting position.

Thank you for reading my blog I appreciate the time you spend reading my posts! I hope this exercise that I have showed you today will assist you in strengthening your deltoids. Hopefully, this workout can help you reach the physical goals that you have set for yourself. Personally, I prefer to do this workout without the bench because it helps strengthen my core muscles along with my deltoids,but what method do you guys prefer?

Works Cited
Delavier, FreÌdeÌric. Strength Training Anatomy . Third ed., Human Kinetics, 2010.

Lifting Day 2

Success at weight training is highly dependent on mental motivation. Where you work out can have an impact on your motivation. Going to a gym vs lifting at home can each have their own benefits. Lifting with other people around can help act as a motivator when seeing everyone around working hard and offers the ability to think about your workouts and change them in the moment. This could also work the other way being that if you were to see people not trying hard, it could toon you out to lifting. Lifting at home has a lot of benefits. One huge benefit is that you can conveniently train whenever you want without a hassle. Another benefit would be that if you were to work with a recorded CD then the motivation of other people working hard would still be there. The problem with this is that it adds cost. Home gyms have a huge short-term cost vs a gym. Machines can easily cost $800-1000, but gyms have a long-term cost that could also be discouraging. Exercises at home can still feel lonely no matter what. The biggest negative of “Home training is often done unsupervised, so there is a greater danger of injuring yourself by using poor technique or the wrong type of equipment, or by lifting weights that are too heavy for you” (Susan Saliba 14). A gym has advisers and trainers as well to avoid injury.

Beyond where you work out, it is hard to stay motivated working out for a long period of time. One reason for this is that you can make more gains your first 6 weeks working out than any other time that you lift. These gains become misleading and turn people off when they stop their drastic growth. Lifting with out people can help become a motivator to keep lifting. Not seeing any gains can also create boredom which is also a good reason to lift with other people, or friends if you were to decide to lift at home.

Do you like to lift at home or at the gym? If you lift at home, do you lift with anybody else? Do you find it as a motivator to lift at the gym with other people? If you have tried both lifting at home and the gym, which do you prefer. What do you think the biggest plus is for doing either one?

Works Cited

Saliba, Susan. The Basics of Weight Training. Weight Training, Mason Crest

     Publisher, pp. 1-64

Strength Training: Hammer Curls

Weight lifting and strength training can provide many benefits such as improve physical health, increase strength, enhance athletic performance, and can even help individuals mentally by improving self confidence. However, if bad techniques are practiced injuries can be endured. Within these blogs I will provide pointers to ensure correct techniques and will also share my experiences  performing these exercises.

The book I chose to use to complete this project is Strength Training Anatomy Third Edition by: Frèdèric Delavier. This book gives exercises that you can perform while at the gym or in your own home. Along with the exercises the book also provides diagrams of what muscles the specific exercise is strengthening and includes instruction on how to perform the exercise properly. While reading this book I noticed that I was practicing poor technique and form while weightlifting particularly while I was doing hammer curls. Throughout this blog post I will inform you how to correctly do hammer curls and how to practice proper form to avoid injury.

To begin start with one dumbbell in each hand and with your feet shoulder width apart. For beginners I recommend to use 15 pound dumbbells or less so you can master proper procedure before moving on to heavier weights. Inhale and lift the dumbbell so it is parallel with your shoulder. After that, slowly release the dumbbell to your side and remember to exhale. Breathing during exercise is key because your muscles need oxygen.

According to the author "This is the best exercise for developing the brachioradialis. It also develops the biceps brachii, brachialis, and, to a lesser degree, the extensor carpi radialis brevis and longus" (Delavier 9). So, this workout is very beneficial because it strengthens multiple muscles in     your arms.

Proper angle to begin hammer curl. 

While I was performing this exercise I learned several things about improper technique and how to prepare yourself for this work out. The first thing I learned is to always keep your elbow at a 90 degree angle as you raise the dumbbell up towards your shoulder (Delavier 8). If you do not keep a 90 degree angle this can lead to elbow injuries because without the proper angle you are putting too much stress on your elbow.

Another thing I learned during this exercise is it is essential to keep a good posture and to tighten your abdominal muscles while doing this exercise. This is extremely important because if you don't you may injure your back from leaning back and using motion to lift the dumbbells.

Finally, I learned that wearing shoes is also very important even if you are exercise in your home. If you are worried about damaging your carpets I recommend that you buy a exercise mat so you can preserve your clean carpets and keep your parents happy.

Overall, I enjoyed performing this exercise because it is beneficial for improving strength and helps build arm muscle. Since dumbbell curls and hammer curls work the same muscles, which exercise of the two do you prefer to perform?

Works Cited
Delavier, Frédéric. Strength Training Anatomy . Third ed., Human Kinetics, 2010.

Weight Training

There are two different ways to approach weight lifting being either the use of freeweights or the use of a weight machine. Both of these have their pros and cons. This is supported by the quote "A huge number of different exercises can be performed with the most basic set of freeweights" (Susan Saliba 12). Weight machines also have there bright side being "They are safer to use because they are designed to hold you securely while training. You can usually life more because you do no have to worry about balance" (Saliba 12). A con to using freeweights may also be that it could be more dangerous, especially if you do not have a spotter, (which I don't) and then can lead to an injury. 

Using a close grip on bench is harder to control the form because mostly works out your triceps. A normal grip is easier to control because it works out a wider spread of muscles being the triceps, chest, shoulders and lats.
Do you think that it's better to just work out with machines instead of freeweights to avoid the risk of an injury. If I were to just use machines to lift, would I still make as many gains than if I were to use freeweights?

Works Cited

Saliba, Susan. The Basics of Weight Training. Weight Training, Mason Crest

     Publisher, pp. 1-64