By David Tepera, January 29, 2020
As you know, the Ageless Muscle team frequents many gyms. It’s quite often we observe people misusing the weight equipment, which can ultimately lead to either hurting themselves or not really getting any true benefit.
I would like to share a few weight lifting tips that we see most common. First, for whatever reason, people think to lose “love handles,” they must perform multiple sets of side bends while holding weight.
Guess what? The only thing you accomplished was building your obliques muscles and NOT burn any fat in that area. So, what this means is you made your waist wider and more-blocky. It’s like the worst possible exercise to build a smaller waist.
Listen, the only way to make your waist smaller is in the kitchen. Yes, you should perform abdominal exercises to help build a strong core, but not side bends.
Another bad no-no is pulling the lat bar behind the neck all the way to your shoulders. Huge no-no because you’re over-rotating your rotator cuff and putting unnecessary stress on the neck. The safest range of motion is to pull the lat bar to the front of the body right below the chin. Just squeeze your traps along the range of motion and you’ll feel the difference.
We see the leg press machine abused way too often. Remember, place your feet up high on the platform, so that your knees will not flex over your toes. If not, you’re putting stress on your patella and achilles tendon which will result in injury.
Look, I understand if you’re not familiar with the gym, the above explanations probably didn’t make any sense to you. But, I have a strong presence of gym readers who’ve been asking for help, and we take pride in educating people all over the country.
I cannot express the importance of weight training, especially as we get older. It’s fantastic if you’re out walking, riding a bike or performing some type of cardio, but it’s a must to incorporate weight resistance.
Weight training is our path to the fountain of youth. I don’t care how old you are, weight training is a game changer. Our oldest clients are in their late 70s, and now have more energy than over the past 15 years.
I know the weight room can be a scary and intimidating, but don’t let that stop you.
We’ve created a friendly family environment at Ageless Muscle. Even though we are professional athletes, our gym is for people like you, who want to just be educated and train safely.
Ask for a tour at your local gym, along with no more than two or three personal training sessions. If you don’t gel with your trainer or gym, search and seek others.
The biggest lesson of all is to understand the no-nos, and keep it safe.