The Whartons' Complete Strength Book - The Complete Resource for Muscular Balance and Stability

Part I

Active-Isolated Strength Training

Notes for Athletes

RECONNECTING WITH THE MIRACLE OF YOUR BODY

We work with athletes every day, and we know one immutable truth about you. Your body is a miracle. Not only is your body astonishing in its complexity and efficiency, but it works hard—through a series of valiant compensations—to overcome every abuse and any neglect it suffers. Throughout your lifetime, it constantly tries to bring itself back to perfect function and form. When it’s injured, your body rallies to heal. Where there is imbalance, it adjusts to counterbalance. When you limit your caloric intake, it lowers your metabolism. Where your body has a weakness, it recruits other muscles to get its job done. Your body is designed to get it right. Toward that end, it responds dramatically to training. That’s the good news. The great news is that it’s never too late to put exercise into your life or to fine-tune an already good training program.

Recently, we were discussing physiological and psychological strategies for running the punishing 26.2 miles of a marathon, specifically after that notorious twentieth mile, when fatigue sets in and one’s thinking becomes a little vague. (This is a nice way to say, “You’ve bonked!”) We all agreed that the marathon is a strategic race. The runner must think his or her way through the course, setting up a sort of master command center in the brain from which decisions and adjustments can be made regarding such matters as stride, pacing, body carriage, route, focus, hydration, nutrition, and pain. But what happens when fatigue causes confusion and crossed signals in the master command center? Phil says his body just takes over. It knows what to do. His muscles are trained and imprinted with “knowledge” on a cellular level. And his instincts are already set on “cruise control” to finish the race. At that moment in the marathon, when his ability to think and make decisions is (ever so slightly!) impaired, Phil trusts his body completely. They’re partners and know each other well enough to know the job will get done. It’s an interesting way to look at the mind-body connection.

The partnership between an athlete and his or her body comes from experience and knowledge. Training is always more effective if you understand how the body works, so settle back for a basic anatomy lesson as we introduce you to the wonders and miracles under your clothes.

AN OBSCENELY SHORT VERSION OF ANATOMY 101

Of all the tissues in your body, by far the majority—some 40 percent of your total mass—is muscle. Simply put, muscles’ jobs are to move you and to “brake” you to stop you from moving. Muscles are neatly packaged in sheaths or capsules to help them hold their shapes, retain their lubricants, and keep them from sticking to each other. They are organized and attached to a rigid frame—approximately 206 bones in your skeleton—either directly or by tendons. Those 206 bones are attached to each other by superbly engineered interlocking systems called ligaments. Where two bones adjoin but need to move (such as in your knee), the two ends of the bones will be covered with a smooth elastic covering called cartilage, which provides a frictionless joint and absorbs shock. Muscles are fired—contracted to move—by signals from the brain that are transmitted through the nerves. Blood flow brings nutrients and oxygen to muscles, and carries away their waste. Organs such as the brain, liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines have specific functions to keep everything working and balanced. And skin keeps it all from spilling out onto the ground. Basically, that’s your anatomy.

Now that you have the general idea, let’s go into some real detail and apply that information to training principles that will help you get stronger faster.

The first step to any good training program is to make the decision that you are going to do a better job at getting fit. Tell yourself:

1. You’ll be better able to predict the results of your workouts.
2. You’ll have more control over your training processes.
3. You’ll achieve efficient results in minimum time.

DESIGNING YOUR ACTIVE-ISOLATED STRENGTH WORKOUT—PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

This book is a training guide and a catalog. Take a few minutes to get comfortable with how to use it.

The rest of this Part I gives you tips, cautions, terminology, advice on equipment, and some encouragement about your goals. Schedules for long and short workout programs, and a sample log for your workouts, can be copied and adapted to your personal needs and available time.

Part II catalogs thirty-five specific exercises. They are numbered for your reference throughout the book. The list has been organized to coordinate with five body Zones, as follows:

Zone

Workout Regions

Exercises

1

Upper Legs, Hips, and Trunk

1-15

2

Shoulders

16-25

3

Neck

26

4

Arms, Elbows, Wrists, and Hands

27-30

5

Lower Legs, Ankles, and Feet

31-35

When you select your sports and/or occupations in Part III, you’ll have a handy guide for your workouts. Often, all five Zones are listed, but some activities may concentrate on only three or four Zones. That information always precedes the Coaches’ Notes in Part III.

Part IV will school you gently and entertainingly in the role of an athlete. Diet, performance, incentives, and rewards are all important. Reinforce your hard work and determination with a new and satisfying self-image. You will have earned it!

THE BASICS OF DESIGNING YOUR PROGRAM

Before you begin designing your personal Active-Isolated Strength program, decide what you want to accomplish. Perhaps you want to slim down and tone up. Perhaps you want to train for a specific sport or activity. Perhaps you want to sculpt and bulk up. Active-Isolated Strength makes each goal possible. Customizing the program to suit you is a simple matter of modifying the routine to give you the workouts you need to get a specific job done. There are three variables you can modify:

Weight

The weight of the object you lift.

Repetitions (Reps)

How many times you lift the object after you pick it up.

Set	A specified series of reps that begins when you pick the weight up for the first time and ends when you put it down for the last time.

THE WHARTON “BAM”

When we’re looking at an overview of a good general-base strengthening program, we see it in three distinct phases. We call it BAMMING an athlete:

B: Building muscular strength (at least a month to get started).

A: Attaining proficiency and musculoskeletal balance (at least six months, although you’ll see results more quickly).

M: Maintaining structural integrity (for life).

Although there are no hard-and-fast time lines, you’ll know when you move from one phase to the next. The first phase is an adaptation phase: your body adjusts to the increasing demands, and you develop discipline and get used to your equipment. Although the gains you make are significant, they’re not as finely tuned as they will be in the second phase. During the attaining phase, you really begin to achieve the results you’re after. You adjust each lift until you find power, strength, and balance to give yourself the body you want. You’ll stay in this phase until you’ve discovered that “perfect” place, where everything works just right. In the final phase, maintenance, you’ll adjust your workouts to hold on to the fitness you’ve achieved. This is the easiest of the three phases. Once you’ve hit it, you might even find yourself able to ease the intensity and frequency of your workouts (although we bet you’ll love working out so much that you won’t want to).

TO SLIM DOWN AND TONE UP

Light weights.

Eight to twelve reps.

One to two sets.

How much weight is “light” for you? Select a weight you can easily handle. Start with 3 to 5 pounds and see how that feels. Lift the weight for 8 to 12 reps. If the last lift takes no effort, then the weight is too light. You need to increase the increment of the weight slowly until you find your magic number. When you feel mild exertion on the twelfth rep, you’ve got the right weight to begin. Don’t think you can make up for light weight with increased reps or more sets. If the weight is too light, you can lift it forever and all you’ll do is burn a few calories. Another thing to remember is that you’re stronger in some muscles than in others. One weight might not be sufficient for your purposes. For example, your quadriceps might be more powerful...