Some underlying Principles - II

Drive only as far as you have gas in your tank!
When I started exercising for the first time, I picked up the heaviest weight that I could lift. And after just three reps I couldn’t go any further! This is hardly going to help anybody! So how do I choose what weight to lift!

Ideally, I should have chosen a weight which would allow me to do sets of 10-12 reps for the upper body muscles and 14-16 reps for the major leg muscles. If with a particular dumbbell I find I can do 20 biceps contractions, it is too light – not enough to stimulate muscle growth. If I can do only 6 reps, it is too heavy – can lead to wrong technique, injury and incomplete sets.

And drive all the way as far as the gas in your tank can take you!
Well, in case I find that I have picked up a lighter weight, do I stop at the 10-12 reps limit or do I continue till I can?

Whenever we use weight which we can lift more than just once, we use less than the maximum possible strength of our muscles. In other words, we use some muscle fibers, not all, for one rep. soon they get fatigued and our muscles calls the reserve fibers to help the ones that get fatigued. Gradually, as we progress through our reps, those fibers that get fatigued are replaced by those that were not being used, till we have fatigued all the fibers and can no longer lift the weight any more. So, whether we pick up a lighter weight or a heavier weight, keeping going till we fail is important!

That is the reason, keeping a log of the weights that we lift for each exercise is important – we can easily determine which weight to start with.

To hit a sixer (home run) swing the bat fully!
All exercises should be done through their longest range of motion (with certain exceptions to avoid injury). Every rep should first stretch my muscle to its longest length possible, and then contract to its shortest length possible. This constitutes a complete range of motion.

Why should I do a complete range of motion every time? So that I use up all the fibers of my muscle for the exercise, giving the muscle maximum stimulation.

What if I am not able to go through the complete range of motion during my reps? Stop. You are using too heavy weights. Take a lighter weight and see that you can do 10-12 reps with the weight, each rep going through its complete range of motion. Whenever you can no longer go through the complete range of motion, there is no point in continuing!

Not just swing the bat fully, but swing it perfect!
A perfect technique is as important as a perfect contraction. If our technique isn’t perfect, we risk inuring ourselves. Also, if I use a less than perfect technique I will not be exercising the target muscle properly. For example, if I plan to exercise my biceps and I lift too heavy weights, I might simply be using my shoulder muscles to help out my biceps! So that becomes inadequate training for both the biceps and the shoulders!

Making only a particular muscle group work, with little or no help from other muscles, gives us a better estimate of how strong the particular muscle is and also prevents any asymmetry in growth of our muscles.