Most people are not big fans of using training journals when they start lifting weights. Why should I they think, I’m lifting weights to get bigger or stronger, not to become a writer. They are extra work and extra trouble and most of us just don’t want to be bothered. Well, after a few weeks of floundering through the weight room without any results may have you changing your mind. At this point you might be motivated to try anything that will help you to show some improvement in your training. Introducing weight training journals, which really can make a difference in your weight training results.

I was never a big fan of them myself until I found out that charting your progress really does help you progress faster in the gym. Her are 6 very good reasons to start using a weight training journal:

1. The biggest key to success in weight training is constant improvement. To know that you’ve improved you need to know how much you were lifting yesterday, last week and last month.

2. You need to be able to analyze your progress to see where you’re improving, where your not and what works to help you improve faster.

3. It is very helpful to be able to take notes while you’re lifting. That way you can make changes next time. If you don’t write it down you’re likely to forget and to keep repeating the same mistakes.

4. It helps you with goal setting. If you don’t know how much you benched last time how can you say you’ve benched more today. With a weight training journal you can chart your progress and can set realistic future goals based on your past performance.

5. It helps you to feel organized and like you’ve got a purpose when you’re in the gym. There’s nothing worse than going forward blindly.

6. Helps to stimulate your competitiveness if you know what your best lift is. Next time you can challenge yourself to beat it.

When you keep a weight lifting journal your workouts will be more organized, more productive and possibly even quicker. You will also be giving yourself positive reinforcement every time you reach one of your goals, even if the goal is just to add 1 rep or 5 pounds to a lift.

Weight training journals also help to make you feel more accountable to yourself. It’s harder to skip a workout when you know you’ve set a goal for yourself in writing. Start keeping a weight training journal today and I guarantee that in 12 weeks you’ll be amazed at your progress and you’ll be glad that you did.



Thanks to Steven Walters for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Women Bodybuilding Posters

eed a bodybuilding exercise program right for your body type. If you try to use the wrong bodybuilding exercise program, you may find it doesn\’t work for you. That\’s because many bodybuilding programs are not designed for very slender people. If you want to gain good, proper weight fast (meaning muscle, not fat), you\’ll need to focus on things like proper posture, stabilizing your shoulders, working on core stability, working on flexibility, working on overall conditioning, and more.

If you have poor posture, you\’ll need to work with exercises that will help align your posture and your body overall. Good posture is going to help you before you even begin. Because many bodybuilders have good posture naturally, their programs don\’t include this information specifically. However, having proper posture can make you look more if it simply because you\’re holding yourself better.

When you are engaging in a bodybuilding exercise program, you also need to make sure that your shoulders are stable. If they\’re not, you could injure yourself. If you injure your shoulders, you could find yourself in pain because you did things wrong. This is something you don\’t want, of course, and assuming the proper techniques will assure that you don\’t have this problem.

Another thing you\’ll need for proper bodybuilding exercise is core stability. Core stability helps protect your lower back by strengthening your core muscles. Doing things wrong could cause you a lifetime of lower back pain. Therefore, if you\’ve been engaging in bodybuilding workouts and you find you have lower back pain, stop. Those workouts are designed for people who already have core stability. Stabilize your core before you begin a weight-training program to help you gain weight. If you don\’t, you\’ll only risk injuring yourself.

The right bodybuilding exercise program will also help make you flexible and focus on the training that\’s right for your particular body type. You are going to need both your lower and upper body flexible. You cannot be stiff before you begin to work out or you can injure yourself. Therefore, you\’ll need to stretch and warm up, again with exercises perfect for your body type, to give you maximum flexibility and therefore lower your risk of injury.

You might also find that you have parts of your body that are more developed than others. This is normal, but it will need to be corrected. You\’ll need to have a bodybuilding exercise program that focuses on all muscles of your body equally so that none are more developed than others. Having parts of your body overdeveloped while the parts are underdeveloped can make the overdeveloped parts work harder and can cause injury. This also slows you down when it comes to getting in your best shape.

In addition to building muscle mass, you\’re also going to need to work on cardiovascular conditioning. Muscle mass is great because it can make you look toned and healthy, but conditioning your heart and lungs is just as important. Cardiovascular exercise is going to help keep you from injury and help keep you healthy while you gain the weight you need by engaging in the rest of your bodybuilding exercise program, where you add muscle. Remember that cardiovascular conditioning is just as important as building visible muscle, though.

You\’ll need to know about many things if you want to engage in a bodybuilding exercise program that will turn your slender frame into one with plenty of muscle. The best program is going to include exercises that will work on everything, from your core stability, to your posture, to stabilize your shoulders, to making you as flexible as possible, and improving your overall conditioning through cardiovascular exercise. Having a ball got physique is great, but if you want this, you\’ll need to learn the right techniques for your particular body type.

Thanks to villenoire for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Bodybuilding Workout Program

Spotting is an important aspect of weightlifting safety, yet it’s not something that is ever taught to gymgoers. Having a spotter gives you security and a little extra help to push yourself harder.

Here are some guidelines and rules-of-thumb, both for spotters and for lifters, that will make you a much better (and much safer) spotter.

1. Ask how the person you are spotting wants to be spotted. Some people, when doing dumbell exercises such as the bench press, prefer to be spotted at the elbows by pushing up from underneath with their elbows in your palms, while others prefer the wrists (pulling up on them). Neither way is necessarily right or wrong, it is a matter of preference.

2. Determine the rep range the person is going to be working in. If you start spotting at five reps and they’re doing ten, you’ve just ruined a set. If, on the other hand, you had to start spotting at five and they said ten, they may be expecting another five forced reps out of you.

3. Never take the weight away from the person (unless they really need it taken away for safety reasons). This is especially true on barbell exercises when you’re spotting on the bar. Do not pull or push so hard on the bar (unless they ask) that it takes the tension off the muscles. Good spotting means you just add enough force to keep the bar moving. When spotting exercises such as curls, spot by placing your hands under the lifters hands and pushing up on their hands rather than lifting on the bar itself. This will ensure you don’t take the weight away as you spot.

4. Find out if the person is going to do any set extension techniques, e.g. negatives, drop sets, forced reps, etc. You should know exactly what’s going on so you can be prepared for it. You don’t want to mistake an intensity technique for muscular failure that requires a spot.

5. Don’t scream encouragement at the person without first making sure they want that kind of thing. It can be very distracting and not everyone likes it or needs it.

6. When spotting on bench press, be sure to wipe the sweat off your face beforehand so you don’t drip on the person during their set (not a nice thing to experience). Also, don’t lean over them excessively. This can be distracting.

7. As well on bench, ask if the person wants help lifting the bar off the rack. Also, do not spot with one arm in a sort of one arm deadlift. This is a poor balance point and the pull is often uneven. This unbalancing can cause failure for the person lifting the weight.

8. Spot around the waist on squats, not on the bar. Lower yourself as they go down and follow them up. Help them rack the bar if they need help but never push them forward if they’re not ready to move.

9. When it is possible for you to spot yourself (e.g. 1 arm exercises, standing on a chair for chins, etc.), do it. You know better then anyone how much help you need. On the other hand, if you have a tendency to go easy on yourself and bail out too soon, get a spotter to force you to work.

10. When spotting on dumbell bench press, do not push inward on the elbows or the dumbells may cave in on their chest. Always push up.

11. There are exercises where you shouldn’t spot people, e.g. deadlifts, hyperextensions, crunches, power cleans, etc. If someone asks you to spot them on these, politely decline.

12. Sometimes a person may ask you to hand them a dumbell on exercises like dumbell bench, incline presses, shoulder presses, etc. Pick up the dumbell with your hands on the weight plate, not the handle itself. If you pick the weight up by the handle and try to hand it over that way, you and the lifter will have to try and somehow trade hand positions on the handle before they can lift the weight. This is not safe at all even with light weights but especially with maximal weights. An easy way to lift a heavy dumbell up to your shoulder level so you can hand it over is to pick it up first on the outside of the plates with both hands, then deadlift it to a standing position. Now rest the handle of the dumbell on one of your thighs, kick that leg up, throwing the dumbell up to your upper chest. Set it in their hand from there.

13. On some machines such as the pec deck, for example, it is better to spot by lifting the weight stack itself (watch your hands!). This keeps the tension on the muscle far better during the set. Do not place your hands underneath the plates, however. Just grasp the weight plates on the sides and push up to help. This should only be used for light help, not for full-power forced reps.

14. When using two spotters (e.g. for heavy squats or bench), have one at each end of the bar and ensure they pull up simultaneously. An unbalanced load can mean trouble.

15. If you need a spotter on every set of every exercise you do, you are either working too hard or not hard enough. On one hand, doing too many forced reps will rapidly overtrain you, while on the other hand, letting the spotter do much of the work will prevent progress. Try doing a few sets completely on your own (without any spot at all) to see if you are actually doing all the work. It is not good to be overly dependent on spotting outside of what is necessary for safety reasons. If you can’t lift the weight by yourself then you shouldn’t be doing it at all. The exception to this is negative training and legitimate forced reps.

16. A good spotting technique is the finger spot. If, for example, you are spotting someone on bench press and the bar is slowing down and almost stopped, use only your two index fingers underneath the bar. This is often more of a mental boost for the lifter than an actual spot. At this point, apply just enough pressure to keep the bar moving. If the fingers aren’t enough, grip the bar and continue to help just enough to keep it moving. This will make the lifter do much more of the work themselves. They’ll either love your spotting or never ask you to do it again!

17. When spotting, ease up as the lifter moves past the sticking point and into the stronger range of motion. For example, when spotting on bench, help just through the sticking point, then, as the leverage improves, reduce your help as the bar comes up, letting up completely as the bar comes to the top. To increase the value of the set, you may even want to lean on the bar a little as it comes to the top (check with your lifter first before doing this). This will help increase lockout power.

18. If you see someone struggling with a weight, don’t run over and yank the weight up. This can be dangerous for the trainer and tends to make people angry. Make your presence known but don’t help until the trainer signals you for help. If you see someone being crushed under a bench press, however, that is when you should run over and help without asking.

19. When spotting, focus all your attention on the set, no matter who walks by or who talks to you. You are responsible for ensuring the safety of the lifter.

20. Don’t spot until it is absolutely necessary. The most productive part of a set is near the end where the lifter is struggling with the weight. By helping too soon, you will reduce the effectiveness of the set.

21. Don’t base the amount weight you use totally on the strength of your spotter. You should be using your own strength for your sets. This is not to say you shouldn’t have a strong spotter, though. Another exception is dumbell spotting where the spotter must hand the weight to you. Obviously, you’ll need to find someone strong enough to be able to do that effectively.

22. Machines that have foot levers to help you get the weight into position can be used to spot yourself. If you can get the coordination right, you can use the lever to catapult the weight out of the bottom position.

23. Spotting is okay for beginners learning form and limitations but only for safety, not for excess reps. This is one of the major mistakes beginning trainers make when starting a training program. Overuse of forced reps, i.e. unnecessary spotting, can lead to burnout and excessive soreness. In these cases, spotting should only be used to keep the lifter safe, not to push them harder.

As you can see, there’s more to spotting than simply pulling on a bar or pushing on the elbows. A good spot should maximize the results and safety of the lifter. Remember these guidelines the next time someone asks you for a spot or the next you ask someone else for a spot!



Thanks to Nick Nilsson for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Body Building Clothing

There’s nothing worse than going to the gym and getting workout advice from someone smaller or less developed than yourself. If you want to learn bodybuilding techniques, the trick is to get them from those who have developed the physiques you’re striving for. You can get bodybuilding techniques from talking to others in the gym that you look up to, you can read bodybuilding magazines and you can read lots of books. However, not everybody’s body responds the same way to all bodybuilding techniques so you should always find what works best for you. By taking all the bodybuilding techniques that you learn and experimenting with them to see what works for you, you should be able to attain every bodybuilding goal you strive for.

Fellow Gym Members

Some people don’t feel right asking other people in the gym for bodybuilding techniques. They don’t want to bother them during their workouts or disturb them when they’re in the zone. You should be able to judge, though, when people are willing to talk and when they don’t want to be disturbed. Most gym members will be more than willing to teach you bodybuilding techniques if you ask. They were once where you are, and they were once inquisitive as to what bodybuilding techniques work and which are a waste of time. Asking your fellow gym members, especially the ones bigger and more developed than you, can be a great way to learn bodybuilding techniques in order to achieve your goals.

Bodybuilding Magazines

Another great way to learn bodybuilding techniques is to pick up one of the many bodybuilding magazines on your local store shelves. These magazines have routines galore, complete with the required numbers of repetitions, sets and how weight you should try it with. Again, however, tailor the bodybuilding techniques to work for your body and skill level. These magazines also have pictures and diagrams which are great for learning the correct form for each of the techniques you’ll learn.

Books

Bodybuilding techniques can also be learned from books written by former and current bodybuilders. If these techniques worked for these bodybuilders, after all, they will surely work for you. Pay close attention to form and the exercises you’re taught and you should see results in no time at all. The great thing about bodybuilding is that the techniques they taught in the seventies and eighties haven’t really changed through today so no matter when the book was published, it should work fine for your bodybuilding efforts.



Thanks to Benjamin Brook for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Burn Fat Build Muscle

e looking to start a bodybuilding exercise program, make sure you do one that\’s right for you. Not everybody\’s body type is the same. Therefore, if you are very slim, you shouldn\’t use traditional bodybuilding exercises, because it\’s likely they will not work for you. They weren\’t designed for people who are very slender. If you want to gain weight, you\’ll need to focus on things like proper posture, stabilizing your shoulders, becoming more flexible, stabilizing your core, doing overall body conditioning, and more.

When you focus on posture and balance, you help align both your posture and your body in general. Before you begin your bodybuilding exercise program, you\’ll need to have proper posture. Because most professional bodybuilders have good posture, their programs may not concentrate on this particular feature. However, if your posture is good, you can look more fit simply because of the way you hold yourself.

When you\’re doing bodybuilding exercise, you\’ll also need to learn how to stabilize your shoulders so as to avoid injury. If you don\’t stabilize your shoulders and hold them properly, you could injure yourself, thus thwarting your bodybuilding exercise program. You\’ll need shoulders that are not injured so that you don\’t live your life in pain because you used the wrong techniques for bodybuilding.

Another thing you\’ll need for proper bodybuilding exercise is core stability. Core stability helps protect your lower back by strengthening your core muscles. Doing things wrong could cause you a lifetime of lower back pain. Therefore, if you\’ve been engaging in bodybuilding workouts and you find you have lower back pain, stop. Those workouts are designed for people who already have core stability. Stabilize your core before you begin a weight-training program to help you gain weight. If you don\’t, you\’ll only risk injuring yourself.

In addition, your bodybuilding exercise program should focus on flexibility. You need flexibility throughout your body, including your lower body and your upper body. If you\’re stiff before you begin to work out, engage in some flexibility exercises before you begin bodybuilding in earnest by using stretches and exercises designed for your body type that will give you maximum flexibility. If you don\’t stretch properly and make sure you\’re flexible before you begin bodybuilding, you could injure yourself.

In addition, you might have certain parts of your body that are stronger than others. Therefore, you\’ll need to focus on building up those parts of your body that are “lagging behind” other, stronger parts of your body. The proper bodybuilding exercise program can help you do this, so that you\’re focusing on every part of your body in equal measure and not unduly strengthening one part of your body while ignoring another.

In addition to your bodybuilding exercise program, you\’ll also need to do overall conditioning. Overall conditioning requires that you add cardiovascular exercise, too. Even though cardiovascular exercise may not help you “bulk up,” it still exercises your heart and lungs, which is necessary for proper health and maximum benefit. In addition, this type of training is also going to help keep you from getting injured while you work on gaining weight by building muscle.

Before you begin any bodybuilding exercise program, make sure you do your homework and choose just the right program for you. You\’ll need exercises that will help you work of posture, core stability, stabilizing shoulders, increasing flexibility, and focusing on overall conditioning, too. If you do things right, you can have lean, sexy muscles, or you can have bulky muscles, as long as you learn the right techniques based upon your body type.

Thanks to villenoire for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Endurance Weight Training