Oct
9
Reader Q&A - Muscles worked while biking
Filed Under Biking, Building Muscles, Work Out | 4 Comments
This question came in yesterday from a reader in Oregon.
I know biking is good cardio, but it also seems to be good resistance exercise as well. I can feel the muscles in my legs working hard while I bike. Can you tell me which muscles those are and do I still need to do a legs workout if I bike?
That’s a great question and I’m going to answer it in three separate parts.
Is biking a resistance exercise?
Well, all exercise is resistance training to a certain degree. Even walking consists of pushing myself forward using my legs which means my muscles are working against a certain resistance. However, compared to other cardio workouts, biking is indeed a decent resistance exercise for your legs. It’s not quite as good as swimming for the whole body, but it does involve a lot of pushing, which is good.
Which muscles does biking exercise?
Biking works out most of the muscles in your upper legs. That involves the Glutes, Hamstrings, Vastus Lateralis, Rectus Femoris, Vastus Medialis and the inner thigh muscles. In fact, most of the work involved with biking is done by your upper thighs, which push your leg down over and over. There is some lower back involved, but it’s relatively minor.
Do you still need a leg workout if you bike?
I would say so, yes. Biking is a nice repetitive exercise, but it doesn’t use the same controlled form and weights. You may not want to do a leg workout on the same day that you bike, just to avoid the risk of overstraining your legs, but you will still want a good controlled leg workout using weights or machines. It will make you a better biker.
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Jun
7
Reader Q&A - Bulk up exercises?
Filed Under Building Muscles, Reader Q&A, Work Out | 8 Comments
NOTE - I have a few more questions to answer, so will be doing that for the rest of the week, and then it’s back to the normal 60 in 3 series next week.
Today’s question comes from a reader in Asia who asks about bulk up exercises, or exercises that make your muscles larger. To be honest, I don’t know much about this since bulking up was never one of my goals. So I did a bit of reading and came up with the following:
High Weight, Low Reps
Essentially, bulking up uses the same exercises as normal fitness workouts. The only two big differences I found were in the weights used and the reps. People who want to bulk up typically do a lower number of reps with much higher weights. So for example, where I usually do 10 reps per set, they would do 5 reps but with 50 to 100% more weight.
This is an important tip for women by the way, who typically avoid weight workouts because they’re afraid they’ll bulk up. A normal fitness workout with sets of 10 to 15 reps will NOT bulk you up. It will simply make your muscles look more toned and defined. You’ll lose the flab without putting on huge muscles.
Protein, The Basic Building Block of Muscles
One other note for those who are trying to bulk up. Your diet is going to be slightly different. Building muscles takes a lot of calories, especially protein. It’s actually difficult if not impossible to build muscles while losing weight. So make sure you have the correct goal in mind when you design a fitness routine. If you’re looking to build big muscles then you’re going to be adding protein to your diet and not doing as much cardio.
Summary
Again, always know what your goals are before you design your fitness routine. Are you trying just to lose weight? Are you looking to tone up? Bulk up? These are all different goals and require different diets and workouts to achieve. For you folks looking to bulk up, it seems like the basics are low reps, high weights and lots of protein.
If there are any body builders out there who know more about this than I do, would love to hear your opinions and advice. Please feel free to add information in the comments.
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May
22
How To Design A Work Out - Part 2, the exercises.
Filed Under Building Muscles, Exercise, Gyms, Work Out | 2 Comments
Yesterday we talked about creating a simple three day workout routine. We used each of those days to work on two areas of our bodies. Today, we’re going to talk about the specific exercises to pick for those areas. We’re going to use our Monday as an example. We chose to work on legs and upper arms on Monday.
Mix It Up or Not?
If you’re going to have a workout that combines different areas of the body, you’ll want to decide whether or not to mix and match. That means, are you going to do all of your upper arms exercises followed by all of your legs exercises or will you mix them so that you’re doing one leg exercise followed by one upper arms exercise and so on? Personally, I prefer the mix and match method. It lets me rest a specific area while still maintaining a quick work out routine. I can do a legs exercise and then follow it up with an upper arms set. My legs get to rest but I don’t have to stop working out. However, what you end up choosing is up to you. Remember that the ultimate goal is to end up with a workout that you like, not one that I like, so try it out either way and see which way you prefer.
Picking Out Exercises
there are hundreds of possible exercises for each area of your body. In fact, even individual muscles have different exercises associated with them. So how do you pick among all of these? Well, you want to try and find exercises that work out the major muscles in the body area you’re working. You also want to find exercises that work a number of muscles together if possible. That way you get a more complete workout. For example, let’s start with the upper arms.
Upper Arms
There are two major muscle groups here, the biceps and the triceps. The biceps are those things you use when you curl your arm. The triceps are the muscles you use when you push your arm out. There’s also a smaller muscle group called the brachialis. Each of these muscle groups can be exercises in various ways, and each of these ways has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, we’re on a limited time schedule here and we really don’t want to spend multiple hours at the gym. We’re interested in a good workout that makes the best use of our time. So we’re only going to focus on the biceps and triceps and we’re going to pick out two exercises for each that will work out the majority of the muscle group.
For the biceps, I’m going to pick out dumbbell curls and concentration curls. For the triceps, I’m going to pick one arm triceps extension and the standard triceps extension . Notice that, while I work out the major muscles, I’m also using a lot of the smaller muscle groups. These exercises will also workout my wrists, lower arms and shoulders. This is part of the reason why I usually prefer free weights over machines, because I tend to use more of my muscles to stabilize myself while working out with free weights. However, your preferences might be different. Feel free to explore the site I’m linking to here. They have a number of other exercises for each body part you can pick from.
Legs
For the second part of our workout, we’re going to take a look at leg exercises. The legs have a number of muscle groups and we’re going to try and get to most of them. If you take a look at the muscle directory, you’ll see that they’ve chosen to further divide legs into thighs, hips and calves. Again, we’re going to try and pick exercises that work out the majority of the leg at the same time. Looking through the possibilities, I’ve selected lunges, squats, seated leg curl and the single leg calf raise. Again, feel free to peruse the exercise directory, research books or just ask your fellow gym goers for other good leg workouts. The exercises I picked may not be the ones you like.
Sets and Reps
Now that we know what we’re going to do, we need to figure out how many times we’re going to do it. I would recommend two sets of each exercise with ten reps in each set. A rep is a single instance of an exercise. So if you did one lunge, you’ve done one lunge rep. A set is a number of reps. So a set of ten is ten lunges without a break. Doing two sets of ten means doing ten reps, taking a short break and then doing another ten. You can do both sets of each exercise consecutively, or you can switch between exercises. So you can do both you bicep curls sets one right after another, or you can do one, then do a set of lunges or triceps extensions, and then go back to do your second set of bicep curls. Again, find the method that you like best.
If you’re looking to bulk up you may want to do less reps per set and workout with a higher weight. If you’re looking to tone up without adding a lot of bulk, something most women are looking for, try less weight but more reps. So for example, if an average bicep curl set is 10 reps at 20lbs each. Someone who is interested in big muscles will do 5 reps of 40lbs, while someone who is interested in a toned but not bulky body will do 15 reps with 10lbs. Make sure that you pick the right eight for your reps. That means you really shouldn’t be able to do many more reps after you’ve hit your goal number. If you’re aiming for 15 reps per set then you should pick a weight with which you can do 15 reps, but not much more than that.
Total workout
Eight exercises, two sets of each, ten reps each set. If you do the math, that means 16 sets or 160 reps. It sounds like a lot but at a reasonable pace, this should take you about 20 to 30 minutes.
Now go ahead and try building your Wednesday and Friday workouts yourself. Don’t worry if they don’t come out quite perfect. Just try them out and see how they feel. You can always changes things around later. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Disclaimer
Got to add this one. If you feel pain during your workout, or if you have any kind of medical issue, please consult with a doctor. I’m hoping to help you get healthy here, not get you hurt. Weight training is an essential part of any healthy life style but it can hurt if you do it wrong. If you’re not sure how to do something, ask. This is why you picked out the gym with the friendly trainers and customers, right? So you can ask them questions if you need to.
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