question for alissa and enyone else
 

Muscle does what it's trained to do. Size means size, not necessarily strength. And not all muscle fiber is the same. Bodybuilders train to get their muscles to grow larger (hypertrophy), sprinters train for explosive power, and long distance swimmers and runners train for endurance and power over sustained time periods. To show you how the same lean mass can do different things, take me for example. I'm 5'3" and have 112 pounds of lean mass as of yesterday. A year ago, I weighed exactly the same and had the slightly less lean mass. Last year in the early fall I squatted 315 pounds for 8 reps and could leg press 540 plus the sled for 6 reps. I decided I really didn't like the way my legs looked or what putting up those numbers was doing to my joints (I'm 49), so I don't go over 200 or so on a squat or over about 350 on the leg press. But I still lift to failure: at around 15-20 reps instead of 8-10. I have no idea about what I could bench press, because my aged shoulders just won't do it- I have to use dumbbells. I have slightly more muscle mass than I had last year, slightly lower body fat, but I doubt that I could squat over 300 again now. The difference is in the type of training, and muscle fiber reacts to different training by adapting to the task. One of the ways in which I've changed my training is by adding a lot of plyometic training, both weighted and unweighted, and a lot of weighted balance training. Doing compound lifts (like squats or deadlifts) on unstable surfaces (bosu ball, airflex pad) requires you to use a lot more core and stabilizer muscles, rather than just your quads and hamstrings. You become stronger in more than one plane. But going to failure with this type of training doesn't necessarily produce hypertrophy.

Bodybuilders who are strictly interested in hypertrophy don't train that way, but as a fitness comptetitor, Alissa needs great strength, explosive power, and endurance to get through her routine. She also needs some hypertrophy and symmetry, so that's what she trains for. Not necessarily a 300 plus pound squat.

Another example of the size vs. strength issue: I teach a class in funtional fitness. At the first class, my boss who is a competitive bodybuilder attended, along with several other trainers and gym regulars. One of the exercises was to do a "chest push" with a heavy medicine ball- hold the ball at chest level and thrust it forward as fast and hard as you can. The person in the class who could launch the ball the furthest and fastest for the longest time was one of the trainers who is an amatuer boxer, NOT the bodybuilder with double the bicep and tricep mass. It's the effect of task specific training. :strong:

Hope that made some sense. What was the question? :dunno:

Mel

I just want to say thanks. I have been lifting weights on and off for 5 years. Always stopping for some lame excuse. For the last month I have been lifting consistantly, only after reading this thread have I been lifting to failure. I had not realized I had not reach failure before (and I have had a trainer). I still do not have muscle sorenes the next day.

cac

I am using a Weider Platinum Crossbow to do circuit training. I weigh 217 lbs. When circuit training, to lose fat, do I still lift to failure?? I get so confused and frustrated. I feel as though I am wasting my time because I don't know if I am doing this correctly or not. I just keep doing it though. I'm tired of being fat. I'm 40 years old and I want to be thin and lean. I want to avoid osteoporsis which is very much in my family.

Am I wasting my time if I'm not doing this exactly right? The scale isn't moving. I'm doing weight watcher's and using my points on 'good' foods, not empty calories...but I'm not losing, I don't know if I'm working out correctly. I still don't even understand how often I should be exercising. I've been doing the upper body one day, lower body the next, then abs and back, then lower body, then upper body,etc...Am I not resting each muscle group enough.

I've been working out for a month. I don't notice any difference in my clothes and I'm not losing. As you can see, I'm very frustrated. I just don't want to be fat anymore. :(

Deborah

Deborah,

Muscle burns fat so lifting to failure will give you the best muscle building and it is makes for a more efficient workout. If you aren't seeing results at all, then definitely your workout needs some tweaking. I'd also recommend adding cardio into your workout.

You aren't wasting time, but your results may be slower. Also, make sure you are eating enough protein which your body needs to rebuild your muscles, most people doing weight lifting eat some protein every 3-4 hours.

Deborah Welcome!!

Don't despair, here is what I wrote to someone else not long ago:

Originally Posted by :
Don't despair in only 6 weeks, honestly it takes much longer than that to get in shape and to stay in shape it's a LIFETIME commitment...... Did it take you only 6 weeks to get in the bad shape you were/are in? Nope... I doubt that...

You say you do 45 mins of cardio... Do you work up a big bad ole sweat, I mean it, SWEAT my dear...Feel like your gonna cough up a lung, seriously .... What I've done to kick up my metabolism is to warm up for 5 mins. then go all out for 1 min. slow down for 1, then go up 1 min, slow down 1 min. and so-on, I do this for a total of 20 mins then cool-down for 5 ... You can either put the incline up or run for the harder portion of the workout... This will burn and rev up your engine much more than doing 45 mins at a leisurely pace watching TV or reading a book... This is called HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training, and is much more effective. Try it, you like it!!

Secondly your weight training... You say your are lifting "light"... Go heavy don't be shy with the weights... If you can afford it get a trainer to show you the ropes, but if you can't don't give up... there are quite a few sites that are very very helpful out there here's one that is great and fun to read too http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html...
Now if you're like MOST of the women out there who are scared that weights will make you bulk up dont' be, we don't have the testosterone to do that, and once you get the fat off your muscles, wowow you will look loverly dahlin'...
here is a link to my fav pic of fat vs. muscle... http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/att...achmentid=17582

Well I hope all my rambling has helped... Hope to hear from you soon... I post mainly at the Ladies Who Lift board but I'm all over the place really...

I hope this helps... I agree with Nelie eat every 3-4 hours...

Thanks Nelie. I have another question. I thought that circuit training is supposed to be the best way to burn fat??? I sweat like crazy and by heart rate is elevated appropriately for cardio. Doesn't circuit training include the cardio since I'm keeping my heartrate up?

Thanks for you help. :)

Deborah

I think i missed the circuit training part. I'm really not one to speak about circuit training. If you are exercising all your muscles every day, that may also impede your progresss. Your muscles need a day of recovery to rebuild.

Ilene is exactly right, don't be afraid to lift heavy!

Thanks Ilene. Maybe I'm not eating often enough or lifting heavy enough. I'll try to vamp it up a bit and see what happens. :)

Deborah

Originally Posted by Deborah1963:
I am using a Weider Platinum Crossbow to do circuit training. I weigh 217 lbs. When circuit training, to lose fat, do I still lift to failure?? I get so confused and frustrated. I feel as though I am wasting my time because I don't know if I am doing this correctly or not. I just keep doing it though. I'm tired of being fat. I'm 40 years old and I want to be thin and lean. I want to avoid osteoporsis which is very much in my family.

Am I wasting my time if I'm not doing this exactly right? The scale isn't moving. I'm doing weight watcher's and using my points on 'good' foods, not empty calories...but I'm not losing, I don't know if I'm working out correctly. I still don't even understand how often I should be exercising. I've been doing the upper body one day, lower body the next, then abs and back, then lower body, then upper body,etc...Am I not resting each muscle group enough.

I've been working out for a month. I don't notice any difference in my clothes and I'm not losing. As you can see, I'm very frustrated. I just don't want to be fat anymore. :(

Deborah

First question that comes to mind is: are you doing any cardio? Fat doesn't 'turn into' muscle - you need to burn off the fat so you can see the muscles that are developing - and you do that with cardio.

Circuit training is really popular right now - I think that's largely due to the Curves phenomenon at this point. Lots of gyms now, including the one I go to, have responded to that by introducing circuit areas set up similarly to Curves. For me, however, I much prefer working one or two at most muscle groups every day with the weekends off like I am now! I'm in a rather nice routine - the first 30 minutes of my workout is weights, after which I do 30 minutes of cardio - High Intensity Intervals. Here's an example of my Precor Elliptical workout:

5 Minute Warmup
Level 1 - 1 1/2 min.
Level 2 - 1 1/2 min
Level 3 - 2 min

20 minutes of intervals - mellow interval is always Level 3...all-out one minute, jog/rest for 1 minute at level 3, going up in levels in the all-out.

Level 5 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 5 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 6 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 7 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 8 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 8 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 9 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 9 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 10 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min
Level 11 - 1 min
Level 3 - 1 min

Cooldown 5 min (unless I'm TOTALLY wiped out, I'll do this last five minutes to a very fast-paced motivating song - like Metallica's "Fuel" or Linkin Park "Faith")

Level 2 - 2.5 min
Level 1 - 2.5 min

Then I'll finish up with some Pilates (usually the Hundred, single leg lifts, double leg lift, curl-up, that kind of thing) and stretching then I'm outta there...

If I get there early and the tanning booth isn't broken, I'll spend 8-10 minutes soaking up some artificial rays - wakes me up in the morning!

But ANYway...if you're not losing fat, IMO the first things to look at are in this order:

1) Diet - Calorie level - even though the popular mantra these days is "maybe you're not eating enough food!" I think what is more important is taking the calories you SHOULD be eating a day (you can get an estimate at the BMR calculator here ==> http://www.room42.com/nutrition/basal.shtml ) and dividing them up into 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day, keeping track (at least initially and periodically) in Fitday or journaling of what and how much you're eating - remember you can get fat on healthy food if you eat too much of it (most veggies excepted of course!)

2) Cardio - frequency and intensity. I do cardio pretty much every day, because I go to the gym every morning unless I'm sick or traveling. Sunday is 'optional' but to tell you the truth, I inverably go hit the gym when I get up!

So I say...add in some cardio and check your nutrition first... :)

L2L! Wow...you sound so amazing and are throwing around terms I have never heard of! I am so a newbie! :lol:

Do you have any books or articles or websites you used to learn so much...or did you pick all of it up in the gym?

Also, when you do a specific exercise, like the hammer one you described, then don't do it for a while, do you find that you can still go back to the weight you used the last time, or has your strength deteriorated a little so you need to drop down some? Or do all of you exercises work the same muscles so that they are always at the same strength or increasing? :?:

Originally Posted by 3kidsworthlosin4:
This is totally off the topic but I was wondering if you ladies and gents could help. This seems to be a place of very knowledgeable people. Anyways for the last 3 evenings I have been getting horrible Charlie horses in my right leg. I was wondering if I am lacking something that I need or if I am working my leg muscles wrong or right I guess. I eat usually 2 bananas a day and I eat yogurt usually everyday. I cannot stomach milk so I take viactive and I also take a multivitamin. I really do not know what could be causing them because I have been feeling better everywhere else on my body then I have in years. So any thoughts or suggestions would be so great.
Thanks, Kearie

Kearie, I love your name and avatar...:goodvibes:

I'm sorry about the charlie horses...they are horrible stuff! Two things to think about...are you getting enough water? Being dehydrated seems to make it worse. Are you sleeping with tight sheets or your toes pointed? That can cause them, too.

Hope they get better...and it never hurts to talk with a doctor!

Originally Posted by gatsby:
when someone says i throw or run like a girl i say "i sure hope so"

:lol3:

That is PERFECT! :) Love that, Gatsby!

I carry around the sheets with descriptions for my exercises, and a list of weights I'm using...and I figure, who cares! ;)

The fact that I'm in the gym, as overweight as I am, is an anomaly in itself...but I'm doing it anyway. Just today I noticed that the super fit girl from the basketball team working out near me (I work at a college and use the college gym) was using the same dumbell weights as I was...we even traded off a couple times. And she's super skinny. There definitely is something to Meg's "we've been carrying around all this weight and that makes us stronger than we appear" thing! :yes: