Why Weights are Good for Women

Super-trainer Alwyn Cosgrove is getting more attention for his new book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women," which he co-wrote with Lou Schuler and Cassandra Forsythe. I wrote about the book recently.

Now, a good friend just wrote about the book over at her U.S. News and World Report blog On Fitness. Katie offers a great rundown of the key points in Alwyn's book.

Rule No. 1

There's an old saying that says if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. That can -- and does -- apply to many facets of training. But here's where it applies most -- form.

I learned this lesson yet again a little more than a week ago when I was doing squats. I went up in weight and on my third set got to the bottom of the movement and realized it was going to be tough going getting back up. So I panicked a bit and lost proper form in an effort to just get the weight up. I immediately felt it in my lower back, which I'd allowed to round.

Today I squatted for the first time since then. I paid attention to my form the entire time, starting the movement by sitting back, not bending my knees, keeping my shoulder blades together and stomach braced. And even though my back still has bothered me a bit in recent days, I was fine and felt great after the workout.

Accentuate the Negative

The Washington Post has a nice story on the power of "negatives," or the lowering phase of a lift.

Real Effort Creates Real Success

Why do so many people apparently think they can get results from half-assed efforts?

Last night at the gym I watched a trainer put a woman through sets of dumbbell bench presses. The woman had 9-pound dumbbells that she handled so easily she was able to have a conversation the entire time with her trainer.

Only when you put forth real effort, when you actually challenge your body, will you see results. It's then that your body responds -- and changes. Otherwise, what's the point?

Train Like Tomorrow's NFL Stars

Tomorrow the NFL begins its annual combine in Indianapolis, where hopeful draftees will run through drills like the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle run and bench press. You can watch it on the NFL Network (if you have a cable company other than Time Warner, which is what I'm stuck with).

According to the schedule, the real stuff begins Saturday morning, when tight ends, kickers and offensive linemen start running drills.

It's killing me that I won't be able to watch -- there are few places you can find this much athleticism on display.

But the combine's drills are good for more than just future pro cornerbacks. They're good for us. As Men's Health pointed out a while back, becoming proficient at the combine's drills will help you in plenty of sports beyond football.

And think about this -- the 20-yard shuttle run or the L drill could easily become your interval training.

Yet Another Reason to Lift

I was trying to catch up on some reading over the last few days and came across this in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (the November 2006 issue): A study says "older men can complete a high-intensity resistance exercise program resulting in spikes in testosterone that may attenuate age-related muscle and bone mineral density loss." The testosterone spike from heavy lifting, something approaching 80% of the one-rep max, was similar for young, middle-aged and older men.

So go lift some heavy weights.

A Better Warm-up, Part 2

Just as with lifting, you want to run through a warm-up before cardio that prepares you for what you're about to do. And that's exactly what I did yesterday before my cardio work. (My cardio involved running an arrow drill -- sprint five yards to the top of the arrow, shuffle about five steps to the left side of the arrow, back to the point, then shuffle to the right, back to the point, and then backpeddle to the start -- three times in a row with a minute rest between each set of three. There were seven sets of it, followed by three of a bodyweight circuit, both from the latest Men's Health. Then I was done, all in less than 30 minutes with the warm-up included.)

So I do things like jumping jacks, skipping, lunges and high-knee running in place. A warm-up like this also stretches the muscles, but does so in a dynamic manner instead of static manner, something Bill Hartman explained not too long ago. Experts believe that static stretching, the kind where you stretch and hold a muscle, can actually weaken the muscle, something you obviously don't want before a workout (it's fine afterwards).

Here's a great video from the James Madison University Strength and Conditioning Program showing a dynamic warm-up. It's fairly easy to do modify many of these so that they work standing in place, which makes them easier to do in a gym.

As we get older, injury prevention begins to become even more important. And dynamic warm-ups can play a big role in helping you stay injury free.

One of the Best Exercises Ever

I love the deadlift, which says a lot considering what it did to me once.

It's one of the best exercises because it works nearly everything, especially the often-overlooked posterior chain, which includes the glutes and hamstrings. You get power for nearly every sport from the posterior chain. Some of the best trainers will tell you that the deadlift is a great move to include in your training -- but only if you do it right.

And that's what I once didn't do. Well, actually more than once. When I first started deadlifting, I didn't understand well enough how to do it. Looking back, it's fairly clear that my core wasn't strong enough either. So one night at the gym, with what most would consider a modest weight, I went to pull the bar up and could've sworn I heard a pop from the left side of my lower back. I could barely straighten up enough to put the plates up and walk out of the gym.

My biggest problem was that I was rounding my lower back on the pull, a common mistake.

But it didn't stop me from deadlifting, after a break, of course. Simply put, the benefits were too big to walk away from. So I worked with Marco Ferdinandi, the sports performance director at Velocity Sports Performance in Manhattan, on my form. With each pull, I concentrated not on how much I was lifting but on my form. I worked on my core more than I ever have, too.

Today, I felt great after my last deadlift. The weight I'm pulling is still awfully modest compared to many guys, but I'm moving up.

If you want to try it, wikipedia.org has a good explanation of the move, and at T-Nation.com Eric Cressey has a great article on it.