I have been eating mare fruits and veggies and less fast food. I have been losing weight. I also have been hitting the gym pretty hard. I have been going 4 times a week and lifting heavy. It has taken its toll on me. If you are hitting the gym and dieting you are stressing your body and you need to watch yourself for injury.

This week I injured my back and shoulder lifting weights. I am pretty careful to lift safely, but since I am using allot of energy to lose weight, I didn’t realize the stress it puts on my body.

Your body takes time to adjust to a new diet. When your body is adjusting it causes stress on your body. Energy that normally would be used to move is now going elsewhere. Starting a new exercise routine causes similar stresses. You body needs time to adjust to the new levels of work out. Combining a new diet and new exercise doubles (may be more) the stresses on your body. When your body has that much extra stress you are open to injury. You don’t want to hurt yourself and end up not being able to work out for a week or two.

My recommendation is to keep it simple for the first few weeks of a new diet and workout routine. Take your time and ease into your workout routine. At first, don’t push yourself too hard. I would say do 60% of what you could do and work up from there. Take 3 of 4 weeks to work up to the level of exertion you desire. When you are adjusted, and then step up the intensity. You’ll know when you are adjusted when you can workout much longer without becoming exhausted.

Don’t end up like me and hurt yourself. You don’t want to be out of the gym or off the treadmill for a week. You especially don’t wan to lose momentum when you are first starting out a new routine. So take it easy and ease into your new diet and workout. Your body will thank you.

Permanent Link  |   Del.icio.us  |   Cosmos  |   Digg  |   Slashdot

The wrists are often overlooked by weight lifters.  Having weak wrists can prevent heavy lifting in other areas and lead to injury.  If you are having trouble in upper body lifts it may be do to weak wrists.

To build up your wrist strength you may want to try doing wrist curls and/or reverse curls.

Reverse Curls
Use a flat bar.  Grip the bar with palms down, so you are looking at the back of your hands.  Now perform a curl. 

Wrist Curls
You can use either a flat bar or dumbbell for this lift.  Rest you arm, palm up, on a flat bench with your wrist hanging off the edge.  Curl your wrist up and back down. 

These exercises may seem simple, but they can dramatically increase your arm strength.  Try adding them to your arm workout.  I bet you will see dramatic size increase in your forearms and increased strength in your normal curls.

Strengthening your wrist may actually improve your bench press as well.  Many times people think they can’t lift much on bench, but in actuality its their wrists that can’t hold the weight.  This many not be true in all cases, but if you are just starting to work out it may be that your wrists are weak.

Permanent Link  |   Del.icio.us  |   Cosmos  |   Digg  |   Slashdot

The shoulder is a compound muscle; it takes several motions to work the entire shoulder.  This exercise is a bit complicated, but will hit the entire shoulder.  When I was wrestling in college I used this lift to rehabilitate from a torn rotator cuff.

Perform a front shoulder raise.
Once your arm is straight in front of you, slowly swing your arm to the side until it is straight out.  Lower your arm to your side slowly.
Raise your arm straight out to the side until it is sideways. 
Once your arm is sideways perform a curl until your arm is bent upward at a 90 degree angle.  Now perform a shoulder press. 
Once the press is performed, uncurl your arm straight out to the side. 
Slowly swing your back inward until it is straight out in front of you. 
Finally, slowly lower your arm down from in front of you.

By performing all these motions in once exercise you are working the entire shoulder.  This exercise is not designed to pack on the muscle, but it will strengthen the shoulder as a whole.  The shoulder is composed of many small muscles that enable it to rotate in different directions.  This exercise is designed to strengthen all of those.

By adding this lift into your workout you will see greater control in all your shoulder lifts.  You may even see a greater range of motion as well.  This lift is also great for rehabilitating an injured or weak shoulder.

Try to use a lighter weight when performing this exercise.  You may be able to shoulder press and/or front lift a lot of weight, but the small muscles that control side to side movement will not be able to handle as much weight.  Experiment with the weight, starting low, to see what weight is appropriate.

Permanent Link  |   Del.icio.us  |   Cosmos  |   Digg  |   Slashdot

If you are looking to firm up your lower body, try this new squat. 

Stand with legs a little bit wider than shoulder length apart.  Grasp a dumbbell in both hands and let it hang down between your legs. Your arms should be extended and hanging comforably.  Squat down until your legs are about bent about 90 degrees, then return to standing position. Repeat this until you begin to feel fatigued.

This type of squat is designed to tone and firm your lower body, without increasing your leg and butt size.  You want to use a light weight, not enough that it is hard to hold or squat.  Optimally, you want to do this exercise for at least 4 sets with at least 15-20 repetitions in each set. 

After a few weeks you should start to notice you legs and butt firming.  This squat is ideal for toning your entire lower body.  I recomend adding this exercise to your leg wourkout routine.

Permanent Link  |   Del.icio.us  |   Cosmos  |   Digg  |   Slashdot

1. Lie flat on a bench, feet firmly on floor.
2. Make sure that your butt, back, shoulders, and head are firmly positioned on the bench.
3. Press the dumbbells straight up above you. Your elbows should be slightly bent and your palms should be facing each other. In this position the dumbbells should be touching each other (or pretty close).
4. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, slowly lower the dumbbells away from each other in an arc. Lower them until a comfortable stretch is felt in the chest area.
5. Raise them along the same arc back to the starting position. (Another way to understand this exercise is to imagine you are hugging a tree.)

- This chest exercise can also be performed on an incline bench and a decline bench.

Permanent Link  |   Del.icio.us  |   Cosmos  |   Digg  |   Slashdot