Weight Training Blog

I was recently contacted by a representative from Price World Publishing in regards to reading and publishing a review of their latest book titled “Pure Physique” by Michael Lipowski set to be released on March 1st, 2010. The book claims that instead of providing the reader with cookie-cutter workouts, and fad diets that one must follow in order to obtain certain results, the reader will instead walk away with a new found knowledge of how they should make a program work for them, rather than the person working around a program.

I decided to take them up on the offer to review the book because I’m constantly interested in learning and refining more and more about how to better myself both inside and outside of the gym. If I’m able to pick up even one piece of useful information from the book, then I can say that it was time well spent reading through the book.

The book, weighing in at about 213 pages of content (no pun intended), is a good resource for those who are looking to make changes in the way they look, feel, and think about themselves. It aims at providing the reader with the power to listen and understand their own body’s needs and wants rather than reading about what did and didn’t work for someone else.

Although not terribly technical (Which could be a good thing depending on how passionate you are about weight lifting!), Lipowski does a good job explaining why our bodies are the way they are – from fast twitch versus slow twitch muscle fiber types, to fat loss versus weight loss – there is enough information within the covers of the book to arm the novice weight lifter with enough information to put themselves on the right track to success. There are also a few things in the book that I am sure some veteran lifters may not have known, or simply forgot about over the years. Also, I’d like to stress that if you’re looking for a book that will provide you with workout routines and “what next” advice, this book is not what you’re looking for.

I’d like to elaborate and discuss Lipowski’s section on goal setting and motivation as I think that’s something that I haven’t really covered in great detail yet in this blog, and it’s also something that I think a lot of gym-goers don’t really think a whole lot about before going into the gym.

Certainly, people who are going to the gym have some kind of goal. But if you ask them what it is, they will most likely tell you “to lose some weight”, “to get stronger” or “to lose some fat”. Lipowski hits the nail on the head and gives those exact same examples and then some. It’s true – most people who go to the gym don’t have specific goals that can be measured in some way, shape or form; simply put, they are too broad. – so how do they know when they have accomplished them, or when they are close to accomplishing them? The truth is they don’t know.

Lipowski quotes Benjamin Franklin by saying “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” and certainly this quote makes sense when used in this context. By someone not having specific goals, they soon will lose track of where they are, and will eventually lose the drive that they once had when they set off to reach their goal.

Instead of saying “I want to become more muscular” a better goal would be to say you want to see your biceps grow from 14 inches to 15 inches, or to say that you’d like to see your body fat percentage go from 15% down to 12% in two months. Each of these two goals have specific and measurable components that will allow for black and white data that will support whether or not you are on the right track to obtaining the goal.

It’s important to have a goal because by having a goal, you will know what steps have to be taken in order to get to it. Think of it like a business goal of increasing sales by 5%. There are obviously specific actions a business owner must take in order to obtain a 5% sales growth, and with that same logic, you too have to take specific steps in order to obtain your main objective.

Pure Physique was an enjoyable read – it was almost ironic that several topics Lipowski discussed were topics, quotes and sayings that I have already heard about from being around many different gyms over the years. It just goes to show you that the same problems don’t just plague you – they plague many others as well. The book certainly is a good read for those who are starting out – but the most important thing to realize is that the reader must truly be committed to making changes in order to reach their goal regardless of how well any book is written.

If you’re interested in purchasing this book, you can pre-order it on Amazon.com here.

If you’ve been lifting for a while (At least over a year) chances are you may have heard people mention “slow twitch” and “fast twitch” muscle fibers, or at least read about them online or in a magazine article. And if you’re that into lifting that you’re reading this article about the different types of muscle fibers, then you might be on to something worth while.

Basically, fast twitch muscle fibers are responsible for explosive strength that only lasts a few seconds at best, whereas slow twitch muscle fibers are responsible for allowing your muscles to endure a stress for a prolonged period of time. When training, your fast twitch fibers are used last, after your slow twitch fibers have been recruited and exhausted.

It is in power lifting where lifters are concerned with training their fast twitch fibers the most, and nearly ignoring their slow twitch fibers since a power lift (Squat, bench, dead lift) generally only lasts for several seconds at most. Whereas long distance runners are more concerned about training slow twitch muscle fibers as they will come into play when they are running a prolonged race.

The following quote from this article sums up how to train for specific muscle fiber types:

Muscular strength is primarily developed when an 8-repetition maximum (8RM, the maximum amount of weight that can be lifted eight times ) or less is used in a set. When the aim of training is to increase the neuro- muscular component of maximum strength, at least 95% of the athlete’s 1RM and 1 to 3 repetitions should be used. When the aim is to increase maximum strength by stimulating muscle hypertrophy, at least 80% of 1RM should be lifted 5 to 8 times or until failure (Zatsiorsky, 1995).

This latter recommendation assumes that the focus of training is hypertrophy for strength, rather than hypertrophy simply for muscle size. If the aim of training is to increase muscle size (hypertrophy) with moderate gains in strength, then 6 to 12 repetitions should be used (Fleck & Kraemer, 1996). Remember, in order to improve muscular strength, FT -B fibers must be recruited.

This is right on target with what you usually hear in gyms: Workouts consisting of lower reps but higher weight are reserved for those who are trying to build strength, whereas workouts that typically call for 10 to 12 reps are for those who are trying to work on muscle size and shape, and those who are going above 15 reps are focusing on muscle endurance by using oxygen as the muscle’s main source of energy.

The short answer: Yes, it is important.

When you hear people say that they are “counting their calories” you probably assume that they are on a diet in order to lose weight. However, those who watch their calories aren’t just those who are trying to lose weight. Professional bodybuilders also count their calories and take it very seriously in an effort to obtain a certain figure.

A calorie is a unit of energy. One calories is the amount of energy needed to raise one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.

Before you begin counting calories it’s important to identify what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to lose weight, gain weight, or just maintain, and then from there you can determine how many calories you will need to consume in order to obtain those goals.

You can use a calculator such as this one to figure out your basal metabolic rate in order to determine just how many calories your body needs in its current state to maintain its current mass. It’s important to note that these calculators aren’t entirely accurate as they only ask very few questions and normally don’t take into account the amount of muscle that is on one’s frame. This is important to know because added muscle means you will need to consume more calories to keep that muscle around.

Once you figure out what your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is, then you will know that eating less than that will mean you will lose weight, eating that amount of calories will keep you at your current weight, and eating more than that will mean you will gain weight.

Again, this calculation only takes into account how many calories your body needs to simply carry out its essential functions such as breathing, digesting food, thinking, etc. So if you’re more active, it’s obvious that your caloric needs will be much higher.

It’s obvious that counting calories is something that you should do in order to stay healthy, and it will certainly make your goals in the gym a lot easier to obtain because you will not be chasing something that’s physically unattainable.