Divide And Conquer

There are countless ways to structure a weight training plan and one of the most popular and effective training systems is the "Split" program. The classic Split system usually includes three sessions per week, but it's important how these workouts flow and interact with one another.

If you're going to utilize this type of routine, make sure you don't train the chest and shoulders on back to back days, or too close to one another. In fact, getting them as far apart as possible is preferable. This is because in many chest exercises the anterior deltoid (and sometimes even the small rotator cuff muscles in the back of the shoulder) is recruited into the work to assist with the stability and balance of the movement. All of the stress from these chest movements followed closely by isolated shoulder movements too soon afterward can create too much pressure on the shoulder capsule which can increase the risk of injury.

The anterior deltoid is a relatively small muscle that can be easily over-trained, leading to injury.

An easy solution is to throw your leg workout in between your upper body days. Dividing your workouts into a split such as chest/back on Monday, legs on Wednesday and arms/shoulders on Friday will give you plenty of rest in between sessions so that over-training and injury will be less likely to occur.

Employing this kind of classic "Split" routine into your overall resistance training program can increase strength and power by focusing on progressively overloading these particular muscle groups one at a time, then giving them plenty of time to recover and grow until they're hit again. Give it a try!

Cardiovascular Training: The Heart of the Matter

There are many reasons why we go to the gym: weight loss, sport-specific training, strength training, functional training, general health and more. And while everyone’s specific goals may be different, there are certain components to an exercise regimen that can benefit almost everyone. For example, cardiovascular work is one component that can have a valuable place in almost any circumstance.

It doesn't get better for structured high intensity intervals than RPM classes.

Most people associate cardio with weight loss; and there’s good reason for that as it’s essential to a successful weight loss program. For example, caloric balance can be extremely important in weight loss, and caloric expenditure is a major part of caloric balance. One way to help that caloric balance is through burning calories via cardio. Cardio helps to burn large amounts of calories in a short amount of time – especially if it’s done with high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT, like Les Mills’ RPM class, will consistently get the heart rate up to a range of about 70-85% with spikes of 90+% of the maximum HR – and the higher the heart rate the more calories are burned.

However, these calories burned are a side benefit. The bigger benefit of cardio is the strengthening of the heart. The heart is, after all, a muscle and it needs to be trained just like any other muscle needs to be trained in order to get stronger. If living a long healthy life is a goal for you, then getting the heart to be healthier should be a priority.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States. This is no coincidence considering the amount of people who live sedentary lifestyles and make poor nutritional choices. Cardio training can go a long way toward reversing that trend. This doesn’t mean cardio is only beneficial for sedentary individuals – it’s also beneficial for all fitness levels. With consistent cardio work, it is shown that the size of the left ventricle, the part of the heart that pumps fresh blood to the rest of the body, increases in size and strength. As a result, its ability to get more nutrient-rich blood to the tissues in the body also increases.

Jump rope can be an excellent form of HIIT.

How can this help you aside from having a stronger, healthier heart? For endurance athletes, strengthening the heart is paramount for long-distance events. Cardio, especially HIIT, can also be advantageous for strength training. The more nutrient-rich and oxygenated blood that is quickly transported to the muscles, the more energy those muscles will have to work with – a stronger, more efficient heart means quicker opportunities for fast-twitch muscle fibers to do their job as explosively as possible. More efficient oxygen and nutrient uptake to the muscles can also help the athlete who is concerned with explosive power gains, agility improvement or sports performance enhancements.

This doesn’t mean everyone should integrate cardio into their workout routines to the same degree. There are many variables that will determine how often cardio should be part of a specific regimen. For example, individuals who are interested in losing body fat could include cardio in some form nearly every day. It might be tempered back for others with different goals – but they can still benefit greatly by making it a part of their larger program.

So don’t neglect working out the most important muscle you have – the heart!

The More Muscle, The Merrier The Calorie Burn

Standing biceps curls, triceps extensions, standing heel raises. All of these isolation movements are quality exercises and all have a place in a training program. But what if you wanted to get more muscle involved in a given movement so you can blast more muscle fibers, burn more calories and force quicker, more efficient adaptations? If that sounds appealing, try integrating more Compound Movements into your routine.

Basically, a Compound Movement is one that involves using multiple joints and multiple large muscle groups in one exercise. Classic Compound Movements include: squats (hips, knees, ankles), bench press (elbows, shoulders, wrists) and Turkish get-ups (utilizes nearly every single moveable joint you have) and many more.

There are a myriad of benefits to Compound Movements. First, more muscle fiber recruitment means greater adaptations in strength and greater balance and coordination with multiple muscle groups being employed. Not only are the prime movers (the main muscle in the movement, i.e., the pectoralis major in the bench press) working hard, but so are all the synergistic and supporting muscles around those joints to keep things stable and balanced. During the bench press, the pectoralis major receives assistance from the anterior deltoid (shoulder), triceps brachii (back of the upper arm) and even the latissimus dorsii (the “wide” part of the upper back). All of these work in unison to provide balance and stability within the movement itself.

Second, more muscle fiber recruitment means more calories burned. Compound Movements, due to their multiple large muscle groups involved, will get your heart rate up higher than will isolation movements like quadriceps extensions. Just compare how much harder you work trying to accomplish a walking lunge as opposed to a seated quad extension. The difference is drastic. Take advantage of that contrast! Compound Movements make for great exercises in cardio-strength sessions meant for dropping body fat while toning and keeping lean muscle on your frame.

Third, Compound Movements are a time-saver. A squat will not only work the quadriceps, but will also hit the gluteals and hamstrings as well. If you have limited time, the squat can cover your bases when it comes to getting work in for several different muscles that would have been worked separately otherwise.

Get multiple joint/muscle group exercises involved in your routine and you can be sure you’ll see faster results as you move toward your fitness goals.

The 40/40 Club

There are a few 40/40 Clubs that I can think of off the top of my head. One is the 40/40 Club in Major League Baseball that only players who've hit 40 homers and stolen 40 bases in the same season belong to. There's also the insanely hard 40/40 Challenge put on by Fitness Anywhere, the makers of the VERY INCREDIBLY AWESOME TRX Suspension Training System. That calls for 40 Atomic Push-ups and 40 Rows. It's killer.

But there is one more 40/40 rule that's not nearly as cool. This one has to do with Americans and how much they eat and how much they (don't) move. This 40/40 club is infamous because it states that the average American consumes about 40% more calories and burns about 40% fewer calories per day than they actually think they do. That's a double whammy if I've ever heard of one.

That's a massive swing - an 80% swing! It would be one thing if most people were very, very active and consumed 40% more cals than they think they do (and there is probably a good portion of the population that does exactly that), but combine that with the fact that most people are sedentary...well, that's a recipe for disaster. And it is, in my opinion, THE REASON for the obesity epidemic in America. You can't have that kind of misinterpretation of your caloric/energy balance and not pay the price.

This is why being active is so important. This is why you can't move enough. This is why burning calories is of utmost importance. You've gotta turn your body into a furnace for burning fuels - and those fuels are calories from the food you eat. And then once you get the fuels under control enough so that you're giving your machine (your body) the right amount of fuel, you'll achieve all of the fitness goals you've ever wanted. But it takes control of both sides of that caloric balance coin for this to happen.

Livestrong.com and other websites like it give you the ability to track your food AND your workouts. They can give you a MUCH better understanding of where you are, where you've been, and what more you can do to keep your day in line when it comes to calorie consumption and expense.