Health Habits

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Posts Tagged ‘weight lifting’

Occlusion / Kaatsu Training: The easiest and fastest way to build muscle mass OR health club kink?

July 6th, 2009

You gotta love the Japanese.

They start with a little of this:

Add in a little of this:

image credit: Roger Hargreaves

And end up with this:

Occlusion or Kaatsu training.

What is Occlusion or Kaatsu Training?

In a nutshell, Occlusion Training involves applying a tourniquet of some sort (Researchers use a pneumatic tourniquets similar to a blood pressure cuff) to the proximal portion of one of your limbs to restrict blood flow (partially or fully) while you perform low intensity exercise.

And why would you do that?

According to this recent study:

Low intensity occlusion (50-100 mm Hg) training provides a unique beneficial training mode for promoting muscle hypertrophy.

Training at intensities as low as 20% of 1 rep maximum with moderate vascular occlusion results in muscle hypertrophy in as little as 3 weeks.

A typical exercise prescription calls for 3 to 5 sets to volitional fatigue with short rest periods.

The metabolic buildup causes positive phsiologic reactions, specifically a rise in growth hormone that is higher than levels found with higher intensities.

Occlusion training is applicable for those who are unable to sustain high loads due to joint pain, postoperative patients, cardiac rehabilitation, athletes who are unloading, and astronauts.

In fact, during the study, test subjects saw some pretty startling results:

Lactate increased
Growth Hormone increased
Norepinephrine increased
IGF-1 increased
Noradrenaline increased
Myostatin decreased
One rep maximum strength increased
Isometric strength & torque increased
Isokinetic strength & torque increased
Muscular endurance increased
Cross-sectional area of the muscle increased
Slow twitch fibers changed into Fast twitch fibers

And all you need to turn yourself into a muscle-building Kaatsu warrior is some bondage gear and the ability to ignore the stares and giggles of your fellow health club members.

So, what do you think of that?

I may come back and expand this post with more data in the next few days. I just received a full copy of this latest study and I am poring over the details. But, I couldn’t wait to share this with you.

Looking forward to the comments.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Train your Chest

May 13th, 2009

A couple of months ago, I posted an article on 1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Squat.

Today, we move on to the chest.

And just like last time, I am pretty sure that I will omit something, so feel free to let me know what I missed and I will add it to the post.

1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Train your Chest

In an attempt to organize the million and one ways that you can train your chest, I decided to organize all of these different lifts into different categories.

Movement

Press

Fly

Unilateral / Bilateral

1 Arm Push-Up / 2 Arm Push-Up
1 Arm Press / 2 Arm Press
1 Arm Fly / 2 Arm Fly

Stance / Body Orientation / Position of Load

Vertical Body Posititon – Standing / Kneeling / Sitting upright

Horizontal Body Position – Supine – Flat Bench
Horizontal Body Position -Supine – Incline Bench
Horizontal Body Position -Supine – Decline Bench

Arm Angle - Close Grip v.s Wide Grip, Elbows tucked tight to the torso or flared out to the side
Position of Weight relative to Pectoral – ex. Presses to the Neck v.s a press where the bar contacts the body at or even below the nipples

Press to the Neck

Grip – Pronated, Supinated or Neutral Grip

Equipment

Barbell
Dumbbell(s)
Kettlebell(s)
Bodyweight only
Weighted Vest
Band(s)
Medicine ball, sandbag, log, tire, rock, person or any other extreme implement
Machines – Smith machine, Pec Dec, Chest Press machines, etc….
Cable weight machines
Benches / Boxes / Stability Ball
Stability balls
TRX / Blast Straps / Rings & Chains

Range of Motion

Full range of motion
Extreme range of motion – ex. cambered bar chest press

Partial range of motion – board presses, partial presses in the power rack or those partial range presses some guys do to make themselves feel strong

1 and 1/2 reps – lower the weight all the way down, come up half way, lower again and then lift all the way back up
Focusing on a specific range – i.e focusing on the lockout of a bench press puts the emphasis on the triceps instead of the chest

Tempo or Speed

There are a number of different systems for classifying lifting speed. For simplicity sake, I will stick with the basics: fast, moderate, slow & pause
Different speeds of motion can be used for the different portions of the lift: descent, bottom, ascent, top
You can mix and match the different speeds with the different portions of the lift depending on your training goals
Most benchers lower the bar fast, neglect to pause at the chest, and then lift the weight as fast as possible.
Powerlifters (in competition) have to pause at the bottom of their bench presses.
Personally, I prefer to lower my weights slowly, pause at the bottom to minimize the stretch shortening cycle, and then lift as fast as possible.

Weight of Load as a % of 1 Rep Max Lift

Your 1 Rep Max Lift is the maximum amount of weight you can successfully lift with good form.
If you are lifting for strength, you will likely choose a load that is close to your 1 Rep max. A lower percentage load is used when you are performing high reps for muscular endurance or for low reps and high speed in an attempt to develop muscular speed.

Lifting Surface

This category is primarily employed by the Bosu or “functional training” crowd. Most lifters choose to keep their foot on solid ground as it allows them to generate maximum force. However, challenging you balance with various tools/techniques can have some carryover effect to the stabilizer muscles and overall athletic coordination. So, if you’re interested, here are some options:

Balance disks - standing cable or band work gets even harder
a Bosu – pushups on the bosu
a foam roller – I know a guy who performs chest presses while lying on a foam roller to open up his rib cage & thoracic spine. Not sure if I am buying it, but he swears by it.
a stability ball - in place of a standard bench

Training Volume

Depending on your training goals (power, strength, hypertrophy, endurance, speed), you can choose a variety of reps per set, sets per exercise and total sets/reps per workout

Rest Periods

This category refers to the length of the rest periods taken between sets.
Short rest periods are used as a tool to develop the trainees anaerobic energy system.
Long rest periods are used to allow more complete muscular and/or nervous system recovery.
And as with tempo and load percentage, there is an almost infinite number of positions in between.

Putting it all together…

If you mix and match all of the options that I have listed above, you can probably come up with more than a million and one different ways to train your chest.

Just don’t try doing all of them in one workout.

And like I said, I have probably missed a buch of different techniques, so feel free to comment and I will update the post.

Have fun.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Squat

March 18th, 2009

This post is for that guy at the gym who avoids squatting because:

They hurt his back
They hurt his knees
They hurt his shoulders, wrists, neck, ego…
Squat only focus on his quads
He’s trying to focus on his vastus medialis
Squats are overrated
He’s not a powerlifter
He’s not a bodybuilder
He’s not a football player or sprinter or skater or…

Well, you get the idea.

Just for that guy, I am going to outline all of the different ways that you or him can squat.

Note: I am pretty sure that I will miss something, so feel free to let me know what I missed and I will add it to the post.