Friday, February 6, 2009

Advices: Theory of Muscle Shape

Criss Cross Fit make ya Jump! Jump!...And I hate jumping
My counterpart believes in Cross Fit and though I see benefits my focus leans toward a different direction. When I go to the gym, it is usually during lunch and I don't like to sweat (mostly because I only shower every third to fifth day while deployed). Now, I don't want to be a "beach muscle guy" looking in the mirror for half of my work out, I like cross fit's focus on athleticism and 50 Million Ninjas can't be wrong, but being "in shape" does not translate into looking good naked. I profess two ingredients: (#1) Good diet (=50 to 70 percent raw fruit, green leaves and veggies) and (#2) just doing something! The following advices will focus on the latter aspect.

Everyone has a different body type: broad shoulders, sloped shoulders, thin ribcage, small hips, bubble butt, lanky, stocky, athletic, et cetra; therefore I give you advices that are malleable to your body. You have to look at your overall body understand your shape and then decide which muscles and muscle groups you want to work. (Again, cross fit is good because it works large muscle groups leading to higher calorie burns if you just want to slim down).

So how does one asses 'shape'?
E.G.: My rear delts - your shoulders have front, side and rear delts - my rear delts are not as big as I would like because my shoulders and arms tend to slope forward instead of out toward my side. Now, looking straight on, my front and side shoulders are pronounced enough, I think? Therefore I "frontload" rear delt exercises in order to "broaden" my shoulders when looked at from the side. There are two things to look at:

BULK - lift heavier weight and do less reps
DEFINITION - lift lighter weight doing 12 to 15 reps

E.G: I don't want my shoulders or rotator cup to get injured so I do weight that is around 10 to 12 reps and I concentrate on working and keeping that particular rear delt tight throughout the exercises.
E.G: I lift heavy peck exercises for three reasons. (1)My pecks need a little more bulk, (2)shoulders and triceps are invovled in a bench press, be it decline, flat or incline, and (3)definition is formed from pull-ups, push-ups, cross-fit crap, and most of the shoulder exercises I do that are lighter weight.

DO LESS WEIGHT! Focus on full extention and the tiredness of the particular muscle not the ability to throw heavy weight around. This is so important I give it its own spot, here are a few more pieces of nakedness:

>I never rest more than 90 seconds between anything and I try for 60 sec. rests.
>Four sets will maximize the muscle's workout / never do less than three
>Never "max-out" more than once a week
>Usually try to throw in a light weight altering exercise during rests (e.g. If I'm doing squats between sets I'll go do a few dips or pull-ups, just to wake up those muscles and build a little definition while the blood is pumping; "supersets" is a concept that will later be talked about).
>No gym time is complete without working the abs at least a little! and I really mean, just a little.

Bottom Line:
If you eat right, you barely need to work out at all! and you can focus efforts on your Look Good Naked(TM) muscles.

1 comment:

  1. "asses" is spelled "assess"
    that title should go to gluteus maximus workouts
    :)

    ReplyDelete

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