Are you lifting enough weight?
February 26, 2010 by Brian
Filed under Tips & Hints
After a diccussion last night with Tammy about max weight lifting and potential, I found this gem…
Are You Lifting Enough Weight?
If you lift weights, have you ever wondered whether you’re doing it right? Specifically, are you lifting enough weight? According to a study done by the University of Michigan, many of us aren’t. Researchers took beginners (both men and women) through a series of moves, allowing them to choose their own weight. After assessing their 1 rep max (the general standard for choosing weight), they determined that most chose a weight well below what was needed to stimulate muscle growth.
Are you guilty of going too light? If so, you may not be seeing the results you’d like. Learn more about why lifting heavier weights could change your entire body.
Why Lifting Heavy is the Key to Weight Loss
You know that losing fat involves increasing your metabolism. What you may not know is that muscle plays a huge role in raising metabolism. A pound of muscle burns about 10-20 calories a day while a pound of fat burns 5 calories. That means any growth in your muscle tissue is going to help you burn more calories all day long. In fact, strength training has all kinds of great effects on your body like:
- Increasing resting metabolic rate so you burn more calories, even while at rest.
- Making you lean and slim–muscle takes up less space than fat so, the more you have, the slimmer you are
- Strengthening bones and connective tissue, which can protect your body from injuries in daily life
- Enhancing balance and stability
- Building confidence and self-esteem
However…this only works if you’re using enough weight to stimulate that muscle growth. In other words, if you can lift the weights you’ve chosen (for most exercises) more than 16-20 times, you might not see the kind of fat loss you would if you increased your weight.
So, why don’t we lift more weight? For some, lifting weights is scary, especially if you’ve never done it before. The machines…the dumbbells…the people who seem to know what they’re doing…it’s enough to make anyone skip weights altogether. Aside from that, there are other fears that invade our minds, such as:
- It feels weird. The goal of weight training, if you didn’t know, is to lift as much weight as you possibly can (with good form!) for the number of reps you’ve chosen. In daily life, we typically don’t push ourselves to fatigue in anything we do, so this idea may not only feel foreign, it may feel downright miserable. That’s one reason it’s best for beginners to gradually work towards that.
- Fear of injury. Because our muscles burn when we challenge them with resistance, people often feel they’re injuring themselves when they lift. And injury can be a real fear for beginners since injury can occur if you max out before your body is ready for it. Taking it slow while still challenging your body will help protect you from injury.
- Confusion. When you haven’t lifted weights before, you may not know what’s too heavy and what’s too light. It may take some time to get a feel for your body and what it can handle.
- Fear of getting bulky. There’s still a tired old myth running around that men should lift heavy and women should lift light to avoid getting big and bulky. Women hear this: Lifting heavy weights will NOT make you huge–you simply don’t have the testosterone levels to build big muscles. Lifting heavy weights WILL help you lose fat.
- Fear of pain. The other thing about lifting weights is the psychological factor. The discomfort level associated with training to fatigue is pretty high…if you haven’t lifted weights before, you may not be able to overcome that discomfort enough to lift as heavy as you’re capable of. Again, this is one reason it’s best to err on the side of caution (if you need to), while always working towards more challenge and more weight.
These fears often keep people lifting the same amount of weight for weeks, months or even years. Most of these fears are unfounded, if you take time to ease into a weight training program and work (slowly) towards the muscle fatigue that will make your muscles grow.
“Core Training”
November 28, 2009 by Brian
Filed under Tips & Hints
Gosh I love Mark Rippetoe! Read the attached article for a true understanding about “core” training. Stick to the basics, ie. the lifts to build true “core” strength. Then stick a knife in those Swiss balls, and turn off those infomercials promising a strong “core” with some silly device! Oh yeah, the site is a keeper for great info…stay strong everyone!
Brian
http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/resources
Comprehensive Bodyweight Workout List
So you think you are too busy to work out?
Ever want to figure out a workout to do on the road or at home? Travelling at work and can’t make it to the gym? What about on vacation and you feel guilty from too many margaritas and you want to hit it hard at the beach. Well here is the comprehensive bodyweight workout list from Shane Skowron. It is an amazing resource that I thought I would share with the FirePower CrossFit community.
Click here :
Comprehensive CrossFit Bodyweight Workout List
After School Kids CrossFit @ The Dog Pound!
September 22, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under CrossFit, News & Events
It’s back!! FirePower’s after-school fitness program for super kids ages 14 and under!! It’s a fun and fast paced program for kids who want to grow up healthy, strong, and confident to tackle the challenges they face in sport, play and life.
Tuesdays: Big Dawgs, Ages 9 to 14
Thursdays: Power Pups, Ages 5 to 8
.
8 weeks: October 6th to November 26th
4:15pm to 5:00pm
$120+GST
10% discount for 2nd child,
Payment to be made at the gym – required to confirm spot.
A fun, fast paced program for kids who want to grow up healthy, strong, and confident to tackle the challenges they face in sport, play and life. The FirePower CrossFit Super Kids program uses randomized, functional exercises, performed at high intensity.
We take every opportunity to improve coordination and increase confidence in even our most awkward children. FirePower’s Super Kids often perform workouts with a time component, moving quickly from one exercise to the next, creating the intensity to improve cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, power, speed, flexibility, agility, accuracy, balance, and coordination.
Daily themed workouts include skills challenges, and obstacle courses where they will push, pull, run, throw, lift, climb and jump. Team play and sportsmanship is highly stressed in all activities.
WOD – Thursday June 25th, 2009
Heather on the handstand
Warm up
PVC pipe drills
thrusters
overhead squats
snatch
push press
3 rounds of cindy and 2 minutes of dot drill
WOD
guys start at 65 pounds and then work up to heaviest load you can manage
gals start at bar or 45 pounds and then add weight every round. It doesn’t have to be much, but add weight!
The penalty for putting the bar down, or not completing a round is 25 burpees. Burpees to be completed after the WOD.
Enjoy!
Taking the Fear out of eating FAT
WOD – Saturday June 20th, 2009
Warm up
George and his team finish ESAR race
20 jumping pulls ups
row 500
2 bear crawls
PVC pipe drills
5 turkish getups
Skill/Strength
Front Squat to be completed after the WOD
3-3-3-3-3
WOD
“Helen”
3 rounds for time of:
400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings
12 Pullups
“How Did We Get Here?” by Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal Preview – video [wmv] [mov]
WOD – June 11th, 2009
Warm up
Run 400 m
The Burgener Warm up
20 burpees
5 minutes of skipping
Skill
Learning The Snatch
WOD
“Kelly”
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24/20 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20/12 pound ball
Post time to comments.
High Hang Snatch by Mike Burgener, CrossFit Journal Preview – video [wmv]
WOD – June 7th, 2008
FirePower is closed
“Sunday Bodyweight Workout”
5 rounds:
Max dips in 1:00
Rest 1:00
Max ring pushups in 1:00
Rest 1:00
For the dips you can find a bench or a picnic table as a sub. If you have rings use them.
Post reps to comments
“Squat Depth” by Mark Rippetoe – video [wmv] [mov]
Are your joints popping and cracking? Maybe it is the foods you are eating.
Read more on Nightshades and Inflamation
WOD – June 5th, 2009
3 rounds for time of :
15 calorie row
20 burpee box jumps 20 inch
25 push press 95/65
20 tire slams
Where should I be looking to improve?
10 general physical skills (GPP)
WOD – May 30th, 2009
3 rounds for time of :
20 ring push-ups
1 tire flip
20 box jumps
1 tire flip
20 kb swings 70/55 (black or red)
1 tire flip
20 wall balls 20/12
1 tire flip
2o double unders
1 tire flip
20 sit ups
1 tire flip
20 sumo dead-lift high pull 65/45
1 tire flip
A bunch of the FirePower Crew is off to tackle the Emergency Services Adventure Race in a couple weeks, so good luck to them! CrossFit is great general preparedness program for Adventure Racing. When you do an adventure race, you generally don’t know the distances or how long each discipline will take, and you have a vague idea on how long the race will take, for example 5 to 8 hours or 24 to 36 hours in a longer race. CrossFit has allowed you to cut down on the pure volume of the training that you have to do, and still be competitive in longer races, remember it is quality and intensity that matters! In adventure racing like CrossFit, you don’t have to be a superstar at any one discipline, but if you want to do well, then you should be generally good at all of them: Paddling, Mountain Biking, Trekking, and Navigation. You never really know what you are going to get, so you have to be ready! This WOD is some great race training, but doesn’t negate the fact that if you are going to do a race you should do some specific training for your race, and actually get out in a boat and paddle, and spend some time in your saddle on you bike so that your butt doesn’t hate you. See you at FirePower!
