I’ve been working on the arm-bar and planche exercises for a long time. I talk about them on this blog quite a bit. My strength at the planche has been slowly improving, so I’m confident enough with it now to post a video. Basically I go into an elbow planche, and then slide forward and off the elbows, holding fulling extended with straight legs for about five seconds.
What Is Weight Bearing Exercise?
People often ask me about exercise without using weights and weight machines. What exactly is weight bearing exercise?
The bones in the human body are as alive as any other tissues. Bone is laid down in the same direction as mechanical stress. In other words, as you use your body, your skeletal frame, your bones build, and become more dense. Just like muscles, if you don’t use them, they will weaken.
In fact, interestingly enough, this is a big problem for astronauts. When they are exposed to the weightless environment of outer space, their bones actually shrink up to 2% per month, and they return brittle and weak. They actually develop Osteoporosis over a very short period of time.
Why do I mention astronauts? Well because people that are bedridden because of an injury, or just people who don’t exercise much, tending more towards the sedentary lifestyle, exhibit these same symptoms of Osteoporosis, albeit over many years.
So weight bearing exercise, opposing the force of gravity, is an important part of your fitness routine, be it running, rowing, or lifting some weights. My personal favorites are body weight exercises, that use only the weight of the body to stimulate and build muscle and bone.
In researching for this article, I found a very good piece on the subject What’s G Got To Do With It? You can all search google for terms like “astronaut osteoperosis”, “astronaut bone mass”, “exercise bone density”, etc.
what muscles are where?
If you’re interested in learning the names of various obscure muscles in the body, this site on muscle anatomy is pretty good. Learn the anterior from the posterior deltoid, the biceps from the triceps, and even the trapezius from the risorius.
It’s also good because it has rollovers that highlight the muscles and give the name. It’s great for quizing yourself on the names too.
new york’s most famous gym
We wrote back in November about New York’s most expensive gym.
This does it one better. Well, at least New York’s most famous people train there. That’s Sitaras Fitness, for those not in the know. It won best personal trainer gym in 2007. It’s basically your upscale gym for folks who really want the pampering, and sweet surroundings.
Creatine, Protein + Supplements
People have asked me about supplements. First, a caveat, I’m not a nutritionist, so ultimately you should consult one, or your doctor, for proper recommendations.
Second, let me throw my bias on the table. I prefer to avoid the chemicals and supplements if at all possible. My take is that ultimately good nutrition, and a balanced diet are in the end the best ways to achieve your training goals.
Creatine is a hot supplement among fitness folks. I confess to having little experience with it personally, so I’ll just quote from ACE (American Council on Exercise):
“Several studies suggest that ingestion of 20 to 25 grams of creatine monohydrate per day for five to six days improves muscular performance during activities that require short periods of high-intensity poer and strength…”
They also note however some possible side effects like liver + kidney damage if you consume a lot, stomach cramps + diarrhea, and weight gain. They specifically don’t recommend it for those doing endurance exercises as the weight would hurt your overall performance.
And on to the Protein question. Protein, protein, protein. Everyone’s obsessed with it, yet we only need 12% of our diet as protein. And there are all sorts of plant + carb combinations that make a good protein for us. So why all the worry. Well you can read Michael Pollan’s book, or just go by his simplified motto: “eat food, mostly plants, not too much”. What he’s distilling into this little sound bite is the fact that many of the diseases we face are caused by not doing one of those. Instead of food, eating processed food. Instead of mostly plants we eat sugary stuff, and too much protein. And instead of not too much, we eat much too much. That’s not to say that we should eat a little more protein if we’re training, ACE recommends increasing that 12% to 18%.
But vis-a-vis the protein supplements, be aware that too much protein can be a problem.
“Consuming too much protein can be physically harmful. Extra protein must be broken down metabolically, and the waste products must be excreted from the body, placing additional strain on the kidneys.”
“Protein consumption in and of itself does not increase muscle size. After the growth years, muscles must be stimulated by progressive resistance exercise to increase their size and strength. In fact, even though American adults ingest plenty of protein, they lose more than one-half pound of muscle every year unless they perform regular strength training”.
Do some reading folks, there are a lot of myths out there…