The 2 Types of Strength Training

There are two different genres of muscle training. What are they called? Body weight training and free weight training. Both take a long time to get really good at, and both take a long time to build muscle with. So which one is better? Let's talk about this, and you can decide as I share my opinion as well.

So the differences, what are the difference? Body weight tend to strengthen connective tissue and focus more on that than deep muscular strengthening.

   Weight training hammers the ligaments pretty hard, don't get me wrong here, and you're just as capable if not more so prone to tearing a ligament during a weight training session.

   With my own experience from the gathered thoughts of others who have done so as well has made obvious that connective tissue is broken down more in body weight than in weight training. My days I've done 1,000+ push ups workouts I've been very sore in my frontal deltoids and the edges of my shoulders where the muscles connect to bone and each other.

   In the days of heavy weight training with barbells and dumbbells, I've experienced a deep almost bruise like muscular soreness deep within the muscle tissue focused in the center of my targeted muscle tissue. This is what breaks your muscles down fully and causes a large boost in testosterone and makes them grow more than in body weight because with the time under tension, you can stay in the same rep range and just increase the weight which you cannot do with body weight. Thus resulting in a harsher muscle fiber breakdown. Your muscles will grow larger and harder to support heavier weight.

   Now, bodyweight exercises, they truly focus on the connective tissue of the muscles as equally as the muscle fiber. To gain size in body weight, you work with time under tension. You ligaments with resistance that isn't your own body weight tend to beef up and get used to things as they're under the stress for a specific amount of time and your muscles are on overload.

   With body weight, you have to increase the time under tension, so 500 push ups vs 1000 push ups, is say ten minutes of push ups all together vs 20 minutes of only push ups all together.

   It's like friction on a rubber band, let's pretend the ends of a rubber band is the connective tissue in your muscles. You put a ten pound weight on this rubber band and swing it around until it snaps in the middle, thus mimicking what weight training does.

   But now, you take a bunch of small lead weights, and put them on the rubber band which come to out to be say five pounds. You swing the rubber band many more times than with the ten pound weight and it snaps at the ends. You take out the middle piece and it's frayed and torn up and has little tears all over, this is what bodyweight is like because the time under tension. There is a heavier focus on the connective tissue verses the inner tissue. It breaks it down, indefinitely, but gives a more resistant and hard strength that keeps the muscles from tearing like your chances are higher of in weight lifting.

   There are very difficult movements in body weight that will tear your muscles apart I do guarantee, and I have been just as sore after as after weight lifting. What are these exercises? Ones with added resistance and the very difficult compound movements.

   Weighted pull ups, weighted push ups, one arm pull ups, pistol squats, one arm push ups, so forth. These things are very hard on the muscle fibers.

   The other difference between weight training and body weight training is body weight is easier on the joints and free weights are harder. Body weight is what your body is meant to do but just with many many more repetitions, and free weights are your own weight plus added resistance when advanced thus causing more joint pressure. 

   But with your time and work, both offer stronger joints, harder muscles and ligaments, a healthy heart, and tougher bones.

   So it's up to you to decide what's best for you. I've seen people get incredible results off of both, weights tend to add more mass. Body weight adds mass, but is mostly toning. All is good on the contrary though. So good luck!

  -The Fitness Cookie

Leg Workout

I am adding yet another workout routine with body weight. This will be the last one I have to offer as it is from the top down. Otherwise email me. My email is in the blog description.

   Not to mention do these exercises in desired sets until you reach the recommended reps.

Beginner:

.50 squats

.40 lunges each side

.30 Bulgarian split squats each side

.20 jump squats

.75 calf raises

Intermediate:

.80 squats

.10 pistol squats each side

.45 lunges each side

.40 Bulgarian split squats each side

.35 jump squats

.100 calf raises

Advanced:

.100 squats

.55 lunges each side

.20 pistol squats each side

.55 Bulgarian split squats each side

.50 jump squats

.50 1 leg calf raises on each side

Very advanced: 

.140 squats

.40 pistol squats each side

.70 lunges each side

.65 split squats each side

.75 jump squats

.100 1 leg calf raises each side

My workout:

.60 pistol squats each side

.100 lunges each side

.75 jump lunges each side

.15 jump pistol squats each side

.100 jump squats

.200 squats

.400 1 leg calf raises each side

Safe training! 

-The Fitness Cookie

Resting Time

I'll make whoever is reading this happy by saying that becoming fit requires adequate rest. Proper sleep, and proper time away from working out specific muscle groups after you break them down. 

Every muscle group you work out needs at least 36 to 48 hours rest between a thorough break down. Now some people may have the ability to do a lot, and be able to work the exact set of muscles out again the next day but that's because their body response is so used to that that it's no more than day to day living. 

   But even the best of the best need rest. Everyone has their muscular tissue break down limit. And so you need to rest and let those fibers come back together and bond stronger.

   Now another thing is, if you work out, you need to get at least 8 hours of sleep. 10 At the most as an option. Studies show that sleeping too much is bad for your health. But sleep is a recharge of the body, your eyes take up to 50% of your daily energy, so the other 50% is going to breaking your body down. And at the end of the day when you're spent, you need rest to bring your 0% to 100%. Some days when you're sore, like days off and such, it's a good idea to not workout and let things rejuvenate further.

   Get your rest.

Exercise No. 32 90 Degree Push Ups

Another one of the hybrid body weight exercises that I enjoy teaching. It provides a lot of stress and causes the body to become stronger and grow.

   The 90 degree push up is a combination of a handstand push up and a planche push up. But, to make things a little different between the two other than the combination of both, you are moving your entire torso at a ninety degree angle of which it's name comes from. Maybe later on I'll post about the 180 degree push up... But going on with the subject, there are a few things you need to know prior. Right? Can't just start this cold.

So some quick things that you need. A good handstand, a good handstand push up, a good bent elbow planche of any kind I'd say that lasts about five seconds, and at least one straddle planche push up.

   Now when you do the ninety degree push up, you start out in a full handstand, or a straddle handstand, whichever you like, and as you come down in the push up, you become parallel with the ground.

   Now requirement for control is immense in this movement because you are flattening into a planche position as you do a handstand push up while you remain free of touching the ground.

   Now that you've learned to decline into the press slowly, it's time for the difficult part. The push up itself.

   When you are in the planche position, your full bent elbows will now start to extend at your push up, you will move your body as if you are pressing from a tuck planche into a handstand but this time it is from a full or straddle planche. When you come up gain the full handstand and straighten your elbows.

   Good luck!

-The Fitness Cookie

Mass Depletion Before Fast Progression

This is a different kind of subject. People would think, "But aren't you supposed to gain mass to progress?" Yes and no. It depends on where you intend to go with this. For those of you looking to gain mass for strength, you will gain mass as you deplete fatty tissue. But for those of you looking into nailing the more abstract kind workouts, you actually become light from those when you start.

   I don't really think there's much else about that, other than that your body's response is to get lighter before it nails something then when it's good at that you variate in harder ways and then it decides to put on mass... Here's a cool picture.

About Water

This is an important subject to cover. So starting with a question, do you drink a lot of water? If so, then you'll gladly understand the point I'm getting across here.

I discuss matters on account of water with a lot of people who claim to be dehydrated, and claim to hydrate with energy drinks and sports drinks ninety percent of the time. Now believe it or not, that's not ever good for you if you're replenishing with that kind of fluid more than ten percent of the time. Now there's the question, why am I saying this?

   Listen here, scientific studies and living proof shows that if you consume sports and energy drinks on a daily basis, the sugars in there make it very hard to lose weight, in fact it even makes you gain weight if anything. Why? Energy and sports drinks contain many many more sugars than needed and the body puts those into storage.

   To be completely honest with you, energy drinks aren't good for you. There have been several cases where those have caused people to have raw kidneys and see more blood in their urine than they ought to. I'll have a set of links at the bottom of this post.

   Concerning more of this topic, we've been drinking water for thousands of years before energy drinks came along and if not, humans were stronger then than now because we weren't taking in such depleting toxins from our day to day diets due to food science and manufacturing for preserving and so forth.

   Don't get all weirded out on me thinking I'm one of those oddball naturalists because I'm not, I'm merely stating facts. But let's get to water why not?

   Water is excellent first off because it's what our body's are mostly made of. It leaves no residue, and it cleans us out. Other than having to make frequent tinkle breaks, it also keeps you regular in your digestion which is beyond important.

   As well as you don't have to drink a specific amount of water a day. So many glasses is strongly recommended due to that's usually what people need, but only drink what you need to replace. People like myself who lose a lot of water due to heavy respiration and frequent if not constant perspiration in the afternoons drink up to a gallon a day because well, that's what we need to replace it all.

   Water also flushes out your kidneys and liver. It's a natural cleaner, and if you're drinking purified water, that takes in toxins on the inside of your body and leaves with them once it leaves the body.

   Also you need to have a bit of salt in your diet to retain water. Because believe it or not, you do need some to retain enough water to keep hydrated. Salt is like insulation for water. Now don't take this to the extreme, but a bit of table salt, and a little in your food is good. Some people are sensitive to it and retain too much water.

   Water is natural and the best thing for the body, there's a reason we can't live without it. So use water as the supporting bulk of your hydration, not just sugary beverages. Don't get me wrong occasional sports drinks for the heavy athlete are not bad, but in excess it isn't good for you and that's what I'm pointing out here.

   Now to mention carbonated beverages are among the dehydrators like alcohol and so forth. A carbonated beverage has a lot of sugar, a lot of sodium, and the air inside of it, more of like the carbon monoxide inside of it isn't the best thing for your digestive system since your body is already expelling that like crazy.

   Now athletes that train heavily, so I've read the idealistic thing to do is drink sports drinks because they overcome a condition called hyponatremia which is over consumption of water without proper sodium which helps retain it.

   But to entirely honest with you, that's not really completely necessary chugging a Powerade every ten minutes. For those of you that train intensely, or more than an hour at a time, hourly between rest periods, you can have something to do with a little peanut butter, a bit of dehydrated fruit, or crackers. Just a small snack between and it also allows for the energy release that comes from carbs. It's all something to think about, but throughout the day, water is the best alternative you could go for, and those of you that don't train so hard, sports drinks are not your best bet. And energy drinks with caffeine additives are just bad all over. Read up, give it some thought. This is my idea on things, I hope you enjoyed the post.

-The Fitness Cookie

Links: http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-drink/sports-drinks-vs-water

   http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/6-reasons-to-drink-water

Planche Tips: Full Planche

So occasionally there would a be a few things to keep in mind when you're doing a planche. The full planche especially, so that way you can train it right and get it with good form. Because generally speaking, those who just train straddle planches had to worry about form and hip position and things of the like, but if doing a full planche, that usually means you've mastered the straddle planche but maybe there are some set backs from keeping you from doing your full planche as good as you could be doing it.

When performing this one verses a straddle planche, pay attention to arm positioning and angle. This is incredibly taxing on your frontal deltoids. Your arms generally speaking for this one to work well need to be straight. Every muscle in your arms is under tension as well. So both sides, triceps to hold your arms back and biceps for support to keep your arms from hyper-extending. If your elbows bend too far back in the planche you need to train your biceps to contract a little more than you have been.

   Your arms lean forward a lot further, so you should actually be closer to the ground in your full planche. Nothing like a maltese, but that same mindset. Street style as I've heard with your hands back is not a way to start learning full planches. Acquire fingertip status or side ways positioned palms.

   Your back shouldn't be arched whatsoever. Because that either means you are doing a hanging planche, or you are in a extroverted handstand position as I like to call it, or just that noob planche that everybody does when starting out and coming down from their handstands.

   Also there's a form concern I've been noticing in these. People will keep a straight back, or a slightly bent back. If you want it to be a full form full planche though, pay attention the picture and if you notice, in the perfect form, your hips should look bent in the back, but the front of your body is straight. I've been training that way and have seen dramatic improvement.

   So keep in mind as you work and practice this move. Fingertips or hands sideways when learning,  arms at a more dramatic angle so your hands sit further back, and work to keep the front part of your torso as straight as possible because that is the best form.

   Training right is how you learn best. Good luck.

-The Fitness Cookie

How To Be Happy So You Can Exercise

There's a famous saying I see on the internet all of the time. "You don't have to be great to start, you have to start to be great." But what if you're not content with that? Well then, I can offer some answers to that question myself to the best of my ability.

To be happy to begin with, you might have to stop some bad habits when you being working out. Luckily bad habits can be easily broken when good ones are started. As far as I can tell personally.

   Unhappiness is a bad habit. Happiness is a good habit. So to get happy enough to workout, simply tell yourself you can do it and that you will enjoy it. That simple.

   Once your force yourself to be happy with what you're doing despite loss of motivation and such you can still get through the tough times because it's something that makes you feel good and usually people who start to enjoy exercise find it to be an outlet for anything wrong.

-The Fitness Cookie