All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
(A 450-Pound Bench, 20-Inch Arms, 6% Bodyfat and a Red Ferrari)
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Hang onto your hat, socks and the seat of your pants; the countdown has begun -- ten... nine... eight. Just a reminder, lest you forget: Christmas is this Sunday and the first day of the year is the following Sunday. Some of you are saying, "Hellooo, bomb brains, everyone knows that," while some of you are jotting the dates on the palm of your hand in indelible ink. Sunday... hmmm... hafta remember that one.
I got socks, underwear and a tank top at Wal-Mart for Laree for Christmas. She’ll flip out, she loves surprises. Nothing but the best for my baby! I expect we’re all a little tied up these days running around like a bunch of bodybuilders without their 110-pound barbell set, so I’ve gone through my Top Secret Files and chosen four recent queries from ya’ll to answer as best I can. Makes for good late-night reading under the blankets with a flashlight and a handful of cookies.
Questions, questions, questions:
Q) Up here in Canada we want to know what you think of warming up, stretching and cooling off for training.
A) I, as a weightlifting musclebuilder, paid no attention to warming up prior to training until recent years. As a young man I’d walk into the gym and train with an instinctive understanding that you must get the weights rolling and build up momentum as you proceed. I let my spirit and enthusiasm carry me along, slugging it out from the first set, persuading, inspiring and prodding myself through the thick of the workout and slowing down as fatigue and waning desire entered my bones.
It has always been my concern that the delay in aggressive action presented by passive stretching and warming up would hinder my mood, thwart my enthusiasm and swallow up my available time, energy and focus for training. Outta my way, I’ve got serious work to do!!
Specific pre-game warm-up and stretching is important for athletes preparing to vigorously engage in their sport. Ball players, track and field participants, wrestlers, powerlifters and so on must have warm, flexible muscles and joints and an increased and sustained heart rate for explosive action, peak performance and lower risk of injury.
The pre-workout limbering I employ these days consists of lighter weights for higher reps of the same exercises I’m about to practice. Within the lighter sets I’m able to loosen and stretch out the kinks and locate possible areas of joint, tendon and muscle difficulty. Through the manipulation of the reps I can challenge the hang-ups, modify the exercise groove to accommodate my needs and determine an efficient training approach.
I seek to achieve the healthy stretching the strong, athletic body needs through the practice of full range of motion within each exercise. I don’t exercise one muscle exclusive of the muscles around it. Rather, I train my body as a system of inter-related and cooperating muscles, seldom performing isolated-muscle training techniques. I use non-cheating body thrusts and body rhythm to engage the muscles as a functioning body. This training methodology contributes to a synchronized, well-stretched, fully engaged and total functioning flesh and blood machine. More fun, more stimulating.
Moderate aerobic training has been profitable for me in the past -- raising the core temperature of the body, preparing the mind for the dynamic training ahead and serving as an investment in one’s training to add to one’s confidence and sense of achievement. Of course, lest we forget, there’s the cardiovascular value of the aerobic exercise as well.
Another popular warm-up scheme I have endorsed and still do is working the midsection as my first input of the training routine. This not only accomplishes the needed (and oft neglected) torso development, but also serves to warm and limber the body and ready the mind for some tough training. Note: 15 to 20 minutes of midsection work well performed can easily be more aerobic, more muscle-demanding and more interesting and fulfilling than 15 to 20 minutes on the stationary bike or the treadmill.
I train till I drop and let cooling down to happen naturally, as I re-enter my normal life patterns. Moderate temps in my neck of the woods do not expose me to frigid air or monster heat and I'm not required to engage in demanding physical activity post workout. I feed the body a Bomber Blend, take 'er easy till a shower puts me back on track.
Q) I am 80 years old, lifted a long time ago and am looking for a simple weight training course. Can you help me?
A) Good thinking; you will do wonders to increase your muscle and system strength and improve your attitude by returning to weight training. First thing I’d do is review the list of basic barbell and dumbbell exercises available to you with the equipment you have on hand: curls, presses from a flat or incline bench (avoid any exercise standing with weight overhead -- lower back danger), one-arm rows, lying and seated overhead triceps extensions, side and front lateral raises, pullovers, shrugs, deadlifts for reps, squats and calf work with dumbbells in hand -- a short list to remind you.
Take your time to once again familiarize yourself with the exercises and the concept of lifting, recalling its benefits, demands and satisfaction. During the first days of re-acquaintance, determine the exercises you like and can do. Form a logically balanced routine from the selection -- you are better equipped to do that than I, having no specific knowledge of you. Start slowly and with light weight and stay in the 10-rep range. Consider three workouts a week beginning with some crunches and leg-raises (5-10 minutes) to strengthen the gut and act as a physical and mental warm-up.
You will experience in the early days limited range of motion, limited strength, stiffness, soreness and fatigue. Your first job is attaining reasonable conditioning by patiently persisting without undue mental or physical pressure. Have fun, shun disappointment and be grateful for everything you can do. That you’ve chosen to explore and revive your exercising habit is marvelous and encouraging. You’re back.
Do one exercise for each muscle group in the following order: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps and legs. Work up to two or three sets of 10 reps of each. You might want to split your routine into two parts to allow you more time for each muscle group or shorten your gym time: chest, back and shoulders on day one, and arms and legs on day two, alternating the workouts through the days, weeks and months ahead.
In time you will become stronger and more familiar with yourself and the exercises, your training capacity and your devotion to good health. With this inevitable progress and increased knowledge, you’ll become able to vary or expand your workouts to suit your desires and needs. Look out. There’s a new kid on the block.
Eat right and be consistent and be positive and be strong. This stuff works. An added note: This ad hoc advice is suitable for any fitness lifter returning to the gym after a substantial layoff.
At some point, if you are growing in interest, you might enjoy my book, Brother Iron Sister Steel, for general and specific exercise straight talk suitable for all ages. Read, apply, learn and grow. See our online store.
Q) I'm doing a presentation on the positive and negative effects of being a pro bodybuilder. Can you give me any input?
A) Not a whole lot of positives other than the precious character accomplishments a person gains from pursuing any tough goal intensely: discipline, persistence, perseverance, order, personal fulfillment, courage, life-understanding. There is also the engagement of a true challenge and the swell physique achieved, and the special satisfaction of both. The trainee grows in many ways in the process of competition, the backstage experience, the good and bad personal contact, and the entertainment skills one engages in to display his wares before an energetic and admiring audience.
Training to compete professionally on a national level is tough and requires a great deal of dedicated time and resources. It is, thus, costly. And, unless one becomes a top national contender, there is little financial remuneration. This would come from prize money, product endorsements, seminars, writing for associated fitness magazines or a possible muscle-magazine contract.
A few champs go on to write a book (The Bomber) or display entrepreneurial skills enabling them to capitalize on their name and fame (Zane, Labrada) or engage in the deed of high-end personal training (Ferrigno, Platz). Gym ownership is a direction many famed bodybuilders have chosen (Grymkowski, Haney). Tough work! And, you know how rare it is to make it in Hollywood... or politics (Arnold).
Training for serious competition is not necessarily healthy. An aspect of training to become a champion in today's world that must be considered is the use of muscle- and training-enhancing drugs. They're illegal, dangerous, destructive and expensive.
The best one can gain from weight training for competition is humility and a love for the activity of musclebuilding and life around oneself. Oh, yeah... the cool body.
Q) Why do numbness and the weakening of extremities seem to be associated with weight lifting and what does one do about it?
A) When training with weights to become bigger, stronger and faster we are basically and with good intentions overloading the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments. This overload is healthy when applied systematically and sensibly, and proper nutrition and recovery time are provided. Of course, impatience and bravado possess us and we press on with witless might. It’s the nature of the beast and injuries of all sorts surround us. Don’t ask me what to do to avoid the consequences; I’m too busy wrapping my elbows and blasting it.
Training often causes inflammation in already troubled regions, thus leading to pain, weakness, numbness, lack of circulation, etc. I think you're dealing with nerve impingement somewhere between your brain and the affected area -- elbow, wrist, mid-back, cervical region. A good and proper doctor might be able to identify the problem, its origin, and a plan for correction or symptom alleviation.
See a well-recommended chiropractor and continue to train judiciously. My personal advice is to be aggressive, not passive, in seeking injury repair unless you’re comatose. Caveat: that's me. I have twangs and twinges and numbness just about any place you point, but they're okay. I suspect I'd have some other dings and pings and pangs in other places if I didn't exercise hard. The great muscle and might tradeoff.
A diligent student of chiropractics, especially associated with sports, knows the body better than most general practitioners and can manipulate the back and spine region for realignment and relief of pain, apply deep muscle massage to needed areas or determine what your next best step would be in fixing things -- orthopedist, neurologist, astrologer, veterinarian, vegetarian, acupuncturist, regular MD, mortician, taxidermist. They won't prescribe pain killers or muscle relaxants or anti-inflammation meds.
Remember, any advice I give is "what I would do if I were you."
I hear the rumble of warming engines echoing from the hollows of over-sized hangars. Tonight a bunch of us winged-whackos are gathering in the sky beneath the moon with Christmas lights trimming our fuselage and struts. Drives the guys in the towers crazy, something about air traffic controls and other mumble-jumble they try to impose upon us free-flying ironheads. I say, "Get a job, ya bums," and tip my wings to the left and right till I’m out of sight.
It’s Christmas, after all.
Merry Christmas... God’s peace and blessings... Dave
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