[Moon Boots]

Originally Posted by katmetal

Some light stretching before playing would be beneficial. It sounds like you are tensing up when you play, focus on being more relaxed.

I'm sure that would help. I'll try and focus on that this week.

Originally Posted by Sean

So right now are you just doing...

• Sit ups
• Leg Lifts
• Bicep Curls
• One Arm Rows (newly added)

...?

Correct.

Originally Posted by Emo_Rachael

It is very important to strengthen your lower back if you are doing so many sit-ups/leg lifts. Also, if you are doing bicep curls, you should really be doing something for your triceps as well. And if you are doing one arm rows, which work your upper back, you should be doing push ups or something else for your pecs. Basically, what I'm getting at is the idea of reciprocity. If you work one muscle/muscle group, you've got to work its opposite/complementary muscle. Make sense?

Ah. I think you've just pointed out a major issue. I'm only working on very specific muscles at the moment so some of my muscles are much more developed than others. No wonder my back ended up aching!

Hmmm...now I'm confused again. It now seems that I need a much more varied workout, or else I could end up damaging some of my weaker muscles.

I seem to remember something called `compund exercises`, I'm assuming that's what I need to do now?

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Moon Boots

I seem to remember something called `compund exercises`, I'm assuming that's what I need to do now?

Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups. Isolation exercises isolate single muscle groups. Typically if an exercise involves more than one joint then it is a compound lift. If it only involves one joint it is an isolation lift. Things like bench press and rows move at both the shoulder and elbow, therefore they're compound lifts. However, bicep curls only involve the elbow. Therefore its an isolation exercise.

Since you can lift more with compound lifts then tax the body more and cause the release of more growth hormones. Therefore its best to focus on compound lifts.

COMPOUND LIFTS

* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)
* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)
* Pull-ups/Single Arm Rows (back, bicep)
* Squats (legs, lower back)
* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)
* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)

[Pre-Ex-Girlfriend]

From what I understand, compound exercises still only work one major muscle group, they just involve more movement. But yes, a more varied workout for sure. An easy back exercise is what I like to call "Supermans." Simply lie on your stomach and raise your arms and legs in the air. Hold it for a few seconds, lower your arms and legs, repeat 10-15 times. You can start with just one arm and its opposite leg if you like, instead of all four limbs at once. It's a similar exercise to the back extensions already mentioned, but it's much easier to do at home. Another easy one that works both your abs and back are planks.

[Moon Boots]

Nice. I'll try incorporating at least one of those compound exercises into each workout day routine and do a different one each time to make sure that I get the balance right between my different muscle groups.

Seriously, I'm glad I started this thread.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Emo_Rachael

From what I understand, compound exercises still only work one major muscle group, they just involve more movement.

Compound exercises involve more muscles, and the difference is not just more movement. The bench press involves the pecs, shoulders, and triceps. The pecs may be the prime mover, but shoulders and triceps are syngergists. Likewise, other muscles (such as the biceps) act as stabilizers. Likewise, rows involve back, biceps, and rear deltoids.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia on Weight Training

Compound exercises work several muscle groups at once, and include movement around two or more joints. For example, in the leg press movement occurs around the hip, knee and ankle joints. This exercise is primarily used to develop the quadriceps, but it also involves the hamstrings, glutes and calves. Compound exercises are generally similar to the ways that people naturally push, pull and lift objects, whereas isolation exercises often feel a little unnatural. Compound exercises generally involve dumbbells and barbells (free weights), involving more muscles to stabilize the body and joints as well as move the weight.

[thesteve]

Planks are great...brutal...but great.

during my short stint with the rowing team at UCSD we did planks regularly. Our coach called them "the Bridges of Madison County" because "there's a lot of drama involved". We were supposed to be able to hold them for 2 minutes at a time.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Moon Boots

Nice. I'll try incorporating at least one of those compound exercises into each workout day routine and do a different one each time to make sure that I get the balance right between my different muscle groups.

Here's a breakdown I post in another thread. It should work just about all of your major muscle groups.



Day 1: Chest Shoulders and Triceps

• Compound
• Push Ups - Chest, triceps and shoulders
• Dumbbell
• Bench Press - This is the classic chest exercise. It also works the triceps nicely.
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press or Arnold Press - I prefer the Arnold Press. Either will give you a nice workout for your front deltoids.
  
• Isolation:
• Dumbbell Lateral Raise - This will work your side deltoids (shoulder muscles)
• Dumbbell Fly - This is another good one for the chest. Since you can't do lots of weight on the bench press, you might want to do an extra set of these.
• Dumbbell Pullover - This is another chest exercise. I don't do it myself, but you might want to add it to give your chest an extra exercise.
• Tricep Extensions or Kickbacks or Overhead Tricep Extensions - These are all good tricep exercises. Do which ever exercise you're able to do about 7 repetitions.

Day 2: Back and Biceps

• Compound
  
• One Arm Rows
• Isolation
• Bicep Curls or Preacher Curls or Hammer Curl or Concentration Curls - Once again choose the exercise which you can do about 7 reps with the weight you have. Each of these exercises works your biceps and arms slightly differently. So you might want to rotate through them.
• Shrugs - This works your upper traps. Your upper traps are a nice looking muscle which doesn't get worked much in day to day life. So developing your traps is a good way to give your body an athletic appearance.
• Forearm Curls - This is for some extra forearm work (duh!). Depending on which bicep exercise(s) you do, you might not even need this one.

Day 3: Legs and Abs

• Squats - This is one of the best exercises for releasing growth hormones, but its also not a very popular exercise. If you do this one, you'll probably need to be creative to find ways to increase the weight (backpack full of books).
• Lunges - This is another good leg exercise for you.
• Single Leg Calf Raises - Once again, you'll probably need a backpack full of books to really get some good resistance for this one.
• Crunches - For your abs
• Twisting Sit Ups - For the obliques

[Moon Boots]

I know this thread is older than the dinosaurs now, but considering that you were all so helpful I'm guessing that some of you might be interested in how I'm getting on. In the first post I said that I weighed 110lbs before I started training but I was converting from stones to pounds and messed up. I meant 133lbs (so no, I wasn't a malnourished field mouse ) the second weight that I wrote was also wrong, it should have been 154lbs instead of 132lbs.

Anyway, I kept at it and 3 months after starting this thread I had reached 163lbs. But in order to get extra protein I had been eating a lot of fat (from all of the sausages, milk etc.) and for the first time in my life I was a little chubby. 4 weeks ago I slashed my calorie intake (halved it to 1500 a day) and started doing some cardio. I've kept it up and I've gone from a 34" waist all the way down to a 30" waist in the space of a month. I'm now 152lbs with much, much lower body fat than before. It's been nice to have my fast metabolism fighting on my side for a change

I think I've lost a bit of strength over the last month, but aesthetically the results have been fantastic! Without all that fat covering everything up you can really appreciate the difference that all of the hardwork is making. I've set myself a target weight of 170lbs by the end of next year, and to help me along the way I bought a 8KG and a 10KG TKO dumbbell, I can't wait for them to be delivered.

Training for muscle mass can be really frustrating at times, but when you suddenly notice progress it makes it all worth while, I think.

Jason