Should I lift weights or do aerobics first?
The answer to this question depends on what your goals are. If gaining muscle is your main concern than you should lift weights first while you are full of energy. You don’t want to get tired doing aerobics and not be able to give your workout your all. If you want to build stamina and endurance you should do aerobics first. You may want to consider doing aerobics on the days when you are not weight lifting.
Be careful not to overtrain by working out every day of the week. Taking a day off once in a while is good for the body also.
Correct Exercise Order for Growth
When working out it is best to train larger muscles first and smaller muscles last. Training large muscle groups (thighs, chest, and back) will take a majority of your energy; therefore you need to train your large muscle groups when you are at your strongest.
Smaller muscles (biceps, triceps, and forearms) should be trained after larger muscles because they don’t require as much energy to train. If you train smaller muscles first then you will not have enough strength left to train your larger muscles.
For example: If you train your biceps first, then you will not have enough strength in your arms to train your back muscles.
The order of exercises really helps in your development of a great physique.
How to Lift Weights Safely
1. Warm up before you lift
Take 5 to 10 minutes doing some light aerobic exercise before you workout. By doing this your muscles will become warmed up. Warming up you muscles makes them more limber and less susceptible to injury.
2. Do a warm-up set for each exercise
Start by performing 8 to 10 repetitions of each exercise before you do each exercise. This will get you in the groove for each exercise.
3. Lift the weight slowly
Don’t go balistic when you lift the weight. You could throw yourself off-balance and drop it on yourself. A good rule of thumb is to take 2 seconds to lift the weight and 2 seconds to lower it.
4. Don’t hold your breath
Holding your breath is bad for your blood pressure. Holding your breath makes your blood pressure rise high. When you exhale you could pass out and hurt yourself.
5. Use proper form
Be careful when performing exercises. Don’t swing the weight around. Use controlled movements.
6. Cool down
After working out take 5 to 10 minutes to cool down with some light aerobic exericse. This gives your body a change to come back down to normal. Your blood pressure comes back down, and your breathing slows down.
7. Give yourself time to rest
After working out a muscle group, take 48 to 72 hours to recuperate. Working out more than this, will cause overtraining so that you won’t grow.
Why Warmup before working out?
1. Proper warmup helps prevent injuries. You need to sweat a little, but don’t get fatigued by the warmup.
2. Increases the removal of lactic acid accumulated during previous workouts.
3. Increases the efficiency of contracting muscles. Some light stretching is good to get limbered up.
4. Research suggests neuromuscular coordination is enhanced by warming up.
5. Improves coordination of individual exercises. (doing a warmup set of an exercise before hitting the heavy weights)
6. Increases heart rate and speeds blood circulation.
7. Increases oxygen reserves to the muscles.
Be careful not to warm up too long because you don’t want to use up your energy for warming up instead of getting an intense workout. A good rule of thumb is to elevate your heart rate, sweat lightly, and have an elevated body temperature. 10-15 minutes on the treadmill is good to get your body warmed up. Perform one light set of each exercise before you start adding heavy weight to the exercise. This will help with your form.
Stretching is another important part of warming up and cooling down. Stretching will help you get a full range of motion for the exercises that you are about to perform. Stretching also helps after the workout by stretching out the muscles that you just pumped up.
Rest to Gain Muscle
Most people live very hectic lives and they don’t get the rest or sleep that they need. If you are training hard then you need rest to recharge your batteries. You can’t be at peak efficiency after staying up until 1:00AM and getting up at 6:00AM the next morning for days on end. There was an article in the 1970 Ironman Magazine written by Arthur Jones the creator of Nautilus workout machines. The article stated that Arthur Jones could add 1/2 inch to any highly motivated bodybuilder. Arthur Jones basically took some of these bodybuilders in and told them to sleep and rest for the next 3 nights and days. After the 3 days and nights most of the bodybuilders had already gained 1/4 inch on their arms. Most bodybuilders overtrain. By simply resting the bodybuilders were able to get their muscles to recuperate and grow. Apply the following rules to your routine to make your muscles grow.
* Get 10 hours of sleep per night if you are a teenager
* Get 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night if you are an adult
* Schedule a 15 minute nap in the middle of the afternoon(I know most people can’t do this, but try)
* Keep vigorous activity on your days off to a minimum
* Take a week off after 6 months of steady training
If you get the rest you need your muscles will grow.
