| The myths as to what works and what doesn’t just keep growing as more and more people attempt fitness programs. And they are spread much like information in a “grapevine”, the information becomes less reliable with each person that passes it on. "What are the best exercises for toning if I don’t want to get bulky?” “How many times per week should I work out? I’ve heard 3 is best” “How many sets per exercise if I want to get bigger? How many exercises per muscle?” Those are just a few of the questions that I hear from inexperienced gym-goers. The information that follows should help you to quickly sort through which of the concepts that you hear have credence and which are just bad advice. Why Your Progress At The Gym Has Stalled In order to optimize the time we spend in the gym, it is important to understand some basic concepts. These will be helpful whether you’ve never lifted a weight, or you’ve been in the gym six days a week for the last 10 years. I make two assumptions here: 1) You desire to maximize your lean muscle tissue while burning stored body fat. You also want a strong body that functions well in daily life, sports, etc. 2) While you may (hopefully) enjoy exercising, you don’t want to spend more time in the gym than is necessary to get the best results. In other words, you have a life – friends, social obligations, work, family, etc. An exercise program, if it is going to be effective, must take into account the following basic principles. Some of the information presented will seem to counter all of the things you believe about exercise. I need you to come to this information with an open mind. You will be rewarded by seeing results you never thought possible, achieved in the most efficient manner. Whether your goal is to gain the most muscle mass possible or to “tone up”, the principles are foundationally the same. Please understand that when I talk about muscle, I’m not talking about “Arnold” here. I’m not talking about circus-freak, steroid-induced bodies. I’m talking about lean muscle tissue, the basis of metabolism. The only physical place in the human body where fat is burned is… that’s right! Muscle. Specifically, fat is burned in the mitochondria of each and every muscle cell in your body. And let’s understand what it means to “tone up”. I put that in quotation marks because there is really no such thing. There is not a set of exercises to get bigger muscles and a different set to “tone” them. What we think of as muscle tone is simply well-developed muscles in the absence of excess body fat in and over the muscles. This is of particular concern to women, since every woman I’ve ever met professionally has told me that she doesn’t want to “bulk up”. But men should pay attention as well. Here is the bottom line: Most people (but especially women) simply do not have the genetics to naturally develop the kind of musculature we see on bodybuilders. To develop that kind of body takes enormous dedication, massive amounts of calories, a very specific, intense exercise program and, more often than not, supplementation with injected anabolic steroids. You will not develop that kind of muscle overnight. And if you’re worried about “bulking up”, and for some reason you decide that you’ve developed all the muscle you want, just switch to a maintenance program. It’s not as though you will wake up one morning after a few months of working out and be ready to compete in the Miss/Mr. Universe Bodybuilding Competition. When subjected to the stresses of strength training, muscles have only three options. They can get smaller/weaker (as when one is overtraining), they can not change at all (as when one does not subject them to enough stress) or they can grow larger/stronger, as when they are correctly stimulated. We don’t work out so that our muscles get smaller/weaker or stay the same. That would be futile. So there really is only one option, whether your goal is to gain muscle mass or to develop muscle “tone”. First, I’m going to give you some definitions or terminology you will need (kind of like “Exercise 101” – If you’ve spent a lot of time in the gym, you probably know the terminology), followed by the universal principles that are required to develop a lean, strong, muscular body (and keep it that way). To learn the best exercise programs that follow these principles and make the kind of progress in the gym you’ve only imagined before, contact me by email at: emPowerFitness@aol.com, or (212) 691-5905. I also present this information, along with debunking exercise and nutrition myths in order to help people understand how to start living in the bodies of they’ve always imagined for themselves in my fitness seminars. Click here for more information! |
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| emPower Fitness Studios. (212) 691-5905 |
| The premier Personal Training Studio in New York City's Greenwich Village |
| Fitness Myths: No Pain, No Gain |
| Greg Rothman, MS PT |
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