Do you have lower back pain? Think that your only option is drugs with horrible side effects. Charlee Atkins may have an answer to your lower back problems without the need for expensive drugs or other medical intervention.
Channel Dad Bryon Lape reads an article from Men’s Health Online by Brett Williams covering Charlee Atkins‘ 4-move series to build strength in the lower back. Quite often back problems are caused by weakness or muscle imbalances. Charlee Atkins is a fitness personality on Instagram. Review her 4-move program and try it for your lower back pain.
Want to read Brett Williams’ article on Men’s Health Online? Here is the direct link: https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a32755302/lower-back-strength-workout/
Charlee Atkins video of the 4-move series to build the lower back can be seen on her Instagram feed via this link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAJRhy0HLEh/
Charlee Atkins on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charleeatkins
Charlee Atkins on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charleeatkins/
Do you go all out in the gym? Does this sometimes lead to an injury that keeps you at home for a week or two, and then you injure something else when you return?
Or perhaps you are like many people who have been stuck at home while their gym was closed by the Government. Returning to the gym after 2 months and trying to pick right back up from where you were can lead to some injuries. Take your time and listen to your body.
Channel Dad Bryon Lape reads an article by Jenn Sinrich on the Muscle and Fitness site. Jenn’s topic is 14 secrets of people who never get exercise injuries. In the controlled environment of the gym or training facility, it is very important to not do things that lead to injuries. Use these 14 secrets and stay health post training.
Want to read Jenn’s article for yourself? Here is the link to the Muscle and Fitness site: https://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-tips/14-secrets-people-who-never-get-exercise-injuries/
Only a few moments after getting back from the gym and finishing the second half of a pre-workout review, the US mail delivered a shipment to Channel Dad Bryon Lape from RevUp nutrition.
It is time for an unboxing!
Included in this shipment from RevUp is a container of Lemonade flavored BCAA mix. Channel Dad Bryon Lape does a live taste test of this new flavor of TuneUp. Good Stuff!!
Channel Dad Bryon Lape has several RevUp Nutrition reviews on his channel and more will be coming soon. Have a favorite flavor or supplement from RevUp that you want Bryon Lape’s opinion on? Be sure to leave a comment below or send him a Tweet. His social media information be given below.
The political nonsense of the Democratic Party seems to know no bounds. With the governors of several states trying to out do one another in the tyranny Olympics, St. Louis County Executive Director Sam Page has decided to sue the House of Pain gyms around St. Louis. The business is hurting and they opened back up to members. The gym had been open on a limited bases to police and fire fighters. Staying in shape helps the immune system. Working out is one of the best things to do.
Many people think strength training and endurance training are completely different and incompatible, in particular with regard to running. This isn’t true, but a balance between the two types of training need to be balanced. What are the guidelines to determining what to do and when?
Channel Dad Bryon Lape reads an article by Danielle Zickl on the Runner’s World website. She gives some information from a team of doctors lead by Kenji Doma, Ph. D, who reviewed nearly 100 studies to figure out how to balance leg day with running. Use this information as a starting point and adjust based on your fitness goals, nutritional needs, daily schedule, and body recovery ability. Remember everyone is a little different.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder tried Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) on patients who had high blood pressure, but were otherwise in good health. The results were astonishing with all of them lowering their systolic by 12mm. More research is being conducted, but it does look promising for those needing to expand their lung capacity without doing 30 minutes of aerobics.
Channel Dad Bryon Lape reads an article on Get Pocket by Sarah Sloat. Are you a couch potato who needs to get moving? Could IMST help you accomplish your fitness goals? Listen and learn.
There are three types of mindsets that can be found in the gym. The ones who exercise. The ones who workout. The ones who train. These are not individuals, they are motivation, goals, and style. They are a mindset that drives, controls, contributes to the individual. Some will see these are the same, but they are very different.
Gotta Exercise
Those entering the gym with a mindset to exercise are there against their will. Perhaps a doctor has told them to lose weight or get in shape for health. These individuals walk on the treadmill and talk or read. There is no focus on what they are doing.
Results?
Even when they exercise for years, there is little to no change. They may lose a few pounds, have slight improvements in their blood pressure, or a better endurance system, but overall nothing really happens and they may get fatter. Drugs will become a permanent part of their lives to control the health issues they have. Filled with processed wheat products and sugar, their diets also reflect their lack of commitment. Eventually they stop going to the gym, but keep paying because “one day” they will return.
Wanna Workout
When a bit more commitment and focus is applied to the Exercise Mindset it grows into Workout mode. These individuals come in two varieties: the Fearful and the Crazy.
It is an interesting consequence of the modern world that the Fearful Workout Mindset is dominated by women. Though it has been demonstrated for decades that it takes incredible genetics and drugs to get bulky, these women believe the myth and fear the free weights. They will do their cardio for a long time and then do some like work with weights. Depending on where they start, they will see some results then hit a plateau and stay there. Why? Because they are afraid of lifting heavy like they should. “Don’t want to be bulky.”
And the Crazy?
These are the men and women who flock into CrossFit and WOD/WOW. They will do cardio to warm up, stretch, and then start slinging weights around like they are toys. Injuries start the arrive when they really push through barriers. Their routines are either always in flux or are long and filled with everything. If 10 sets of curls are good, doing 20 sets must be better. Right broh?
The Workout crowd also have interesting diets. No carb. Low carb. No carbs after 6. All carbs for breakfast. Paleo. Veg. Whatever is popular this week. Read articles in four different magazines and combine them. The over analysis can become addictive. What are the goals? Hard to tell. Each week brings a new idea, challenge, goal, level, etc.
Must Train
The last mindset is the most intense and consuming. Every action is calculated to a particular goal. There is no waste or time for fooling around. Some will measure every meal; others will just listen to their needs. Routines come in a variety of flavors: low rep/long rest/heavy weight, high rep/short rest, 4x, pyramiding, 5×5, German Volume Training, speed reps, partial reps. It matters not what they use, they all get results.
The Training mindset keeps records of every routine, daily measurements of weight and body fat, and self reflection (sometimes quite literally in the mirror). Everything is reviewed to see if it is pushing toward the goal. Doesn’t matter if the goal is one rep max improvement, new personal record, bodybuilding, power lifting, reduced run distance time, jump higher or further, or fitting into a particular clothing size. The goals are as various as the individuals with the Mindset, but the drive is the same. It is not something they have to do. It is something they must do. Nothing else matters but reaching the goal.
One might conclude that the Training mindset would burn an individual out due to the intensity. A few do. A very few. The mindset to Train, to be Better, to reach Goals, to go Further, becomes a lifelong companion. Once a goal is reached, another is set. Some goals have urgency, while others are more long term. The Train mindset is all consuming, but it empowers the Individual to keep Succeeding, to keep Reaching, to keep Going. It is the best Mindset to have. It is the only Mindset to have.
Want to be Better? Want to have More? Want to do More? Want to Reach? Let the Training Mindset in.
Europe had several periods of Renaissance starting in the 12th century. It is the Italian Renaissance of the 15th century with which many are familiar. During the later period, a person who had expertise in several areas of study was called a Polymath. The common term that later came to use was Renaissance Man.
Computer Nerd
Over the years my areas of study and interest has been varied. In high school, as I was too shy to ask girls out, computers became my first interest. Though we didn’t own one, I knew several people who did and my school in Maryland (Smithsburg High School) had an Apple ][, while my high school in Germany (Patch American High School) had Atari 800s. Friends had these as well as Vic 20 and Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. Through all these varied machines, I learned aspects of BASIC. I also learned a bit of PILOT and LOGO. Thousands of lines of code were written on paper and never typed in. I made my own adventure games and even a few graphics ones. Mid-way through my senior year I finally got over my nerves and asked a girl out on a date. Thus a second subject of study entered my life.
My major in college was Computer Science. One does not get much more nerd than that, do they? College focused and channeled my analyzing skills and matured my coding practice. My interest in Math also expanded and it nearly became a minor. Learning from where various formulas that I had learned over the years derived open a new world. Math explained so much about the underpinnings of the Universe. Women remained unsolved, even after I met my wife.
My Own Beer
In the early 90s I took a job at the University of Tennessee in the Library Systems department. Though I went there to offer my skills for their various development needs, my world would soon expand into the area of homebrew beer. The first few batches were nothing to write home about, but with more practice and research, I was soon being asked questions by those who got me started. When I moved to Marion, Ohio to work for Macola Software, there too I had homebrewers who had been at it for years asking me how I did things. True, I was still using extract, but the recipes were mine and showed my talents for cooking. Over the years my expertise would expand to amateur judging and all grain. I even had Charlie Papazian answer tweets and get me started as the Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner. If you want to while away some time talking about beer, I’m all ears (and mouth).
Lift Them Weights
I was first introduced to lifting iron in 7th grade gym class. I wouldn’t get another fix for a couple more years when my dad brought a used weight set home. In 1983, the move to Germany meant they went to storage and I lifted very little. I would not start lifting seriously again until the summer of 1990.
The second foray into weight lifting slowly grew into an obsession. The first catalyst was purchasing a copy of Muscle and Fitness. Though I had little variety in equipment, the magazine had ideas I could adapt and meals gave me ideas on what to eat. Eventually, I was eating a great deal more and taking the occasional weight gainer. Weider’s magazine had information on many areas and I was an adept student.
My first gym membership came in 1994. Here I had access to lots of free weights and great machines. Over the next few years I would gain 20 pounds, mostly muscle. I hovered in the mid-190s in weight for years, but I never did get to body weight on bench press, squat and dead lift. Most of the routines I was doing were of the higher, lighter weight variety.
Time passed and we moved a few times more. Gym memberships came and went, though I did buy 200 pounds of dumbbells along the way. For much of that time, I thought there not much left to learn about weight lifting. About two years ago, I again starting reading Iron Man Magazine. The writers had changed since my last subscription and many of them were in their 40s and 50s. As joints were no longer up to heavy lifting, the routines reflected a switch to higher volume with less rest. Starting what I could at home, I rebuilt muscle and drop some weight. A membership at a new gym was soon added and my journey from 200 to 217 began.
Over the course of this year, my knowledge expanded into the area of StrongLift’s 5×5. After some prodding my a co-worker, I finally gave it a try. As I was used to lighter weights, I started low. Eventually though, I would hit body weight on dead lift, with squats closed behind. As for bench, my left shoulder needs more strengthening before that will happen. 135 pounds offers a very good workout at 5 reps and 3 sets.
Nutrition has also expanded in knowledge and I’ve dropped my body fat from 28% to 20%. The struggle becomes tougher here though and the goal is 15%. I’m collecting all the knowledge I can to get lower without sacrificing the muscle I’ve gained.
And women?
I have learned much there too and what I know I cannot share. Their quirks no longer frustrate and I’ve turned it into entertainment. Motivating people is still difficult.
Long way nerd
The journey over over 30 years has taken this nerd a long way. Yeah, I’m still dorky and those who know me don’t hesitate to remind me. I can still talk your ear off, especially about computers, programming, beer, fitness, nutrition, cars, the weather, the law of cosines, the beauty in Calculus…..
Though I’ve been recording my workouts for over a year, it wasn’t until I started using the Multi-Year application on my iPhone that I started to see some more improvements. I installed this application a few weeks ago and have been using the Big 6 program.
Once installed, the Multi-Year asked a few questions: weight, height, age, diameter of the wrist and diameter above the ankle. It uses these various measurements to determine where to start. A long read through the website will tell you want it does with all that information. No worries. Let’s go.
Being 6’5″, 215, and 45 years old, my strength pretty much sucked. For many days, the charts showed be below above average. Not fully sure what that mean (see long website pages for that). I charged my macros, thanks much to My Fitness Pal, and my strength started to climb and my body fat percentage slowly dropped. So did the pounds. Within two weeks, I was done nearly 5 pounds. When the weight started to come back on a bit, it was all muscle. This past week my body fat percentage dropped before 21% for the first time. Excitement.
Having returned to weight lifting more than a year ago, it is quite wonderful to finally be up to below average. My new charts looks like this:
The need to change workout routines differs between people. Some like to do the same routine for months, sometimes for years. There is debate as to whether the body adjusts and stops responding or not. For me, I get bored, so switching every 6 to 8 weeks is a requirement. It is time to address the leg routine and make some changes. The previous routine served well.
What to do?
Looking through several issues of Iron Man Magazine did yield several interesting ideas. As the previous routine was built on articles by Steve Holman, a different author may provide new insight, new ideas. The May 2013 issue, the one with Samantha Ann Leete on the cover and her awesome interview and pictorial inside, contained the winning routine. I’ll write more about the lovely Samantha later.
The article by Roger Lockridge is titled “30 in 30” and aims to add 30 pounds to your squats in 30 days. That is some tall claim. When I first read the article in April (that’s when the May issue arrived), I was more into Steve’s routines, so there was no impetus to install it into the workouts. The time for change has now come.
The routine is brutal with rest periods of only 1 minute or 90 seconds, depending on the exercises being performed. It is centered around the squat, duh, using the leg press as a method to really burn the leg muscles. Leg curls and extensions are first used to warm the muscles, not as a pre-exhaust, and then as a finishing super set. The calves too get their our exercise at the end.
My gym does not have a seated calf raise, so standing raises are used as a substitute. Here is the routine I’m following every 4 days.
Leg extension (warmup) 2×20
Seated leg curls (warmup) 2×20
Squats (light to heavy to 1 rep max)
Light 2×10
Heavier 2×5
Very Heavy 2×3
1 Rep Max 2×1
Super set
Leg presses (feet high, close) 3×15,12,10
Leg presses (feet low, wide) 3×15,12,10
Super set
Leg extensions 3×25
Leg curls 3×25
Calf raises 4×20
Rest for a full minute between warmup sets and 90 seconds between work sets. This isn’t a power lifting routine, so don’t let your heart rate drop.
