Workout Download: Want
more information on this workout?! The downloadable workout version
includes my personal
training tips +
explanations on all the exercises listed.
more information on this workout?! The downloadable workout version
includes my personal
training tips +
explanations on all the exercises listed.
For this week’s plan download (meal plan & 5 workouts):
When I first began weight training, my “thin” arms were actually a feature I didn’t like. My scrawny arms made me feel weak…both physically and emotionally. It’s quite interesting how out external appearance…more specifically our perception of our physical self can influence how we feel on the inside and vice versa. I wasn’t a weak person, but I felt so because of how skinny I was. I love that weight training can help us not only appear strong and healthy, but also feel that way!
Gym Style Details:
Top: Lululemon
Shorts: Nike
Tip of the Day: Concentric versus eccentric. Concentric muscle movement occurs when the muscle contracts or physically shortens, such as when we curl a dumbbell. On the contrary, eccentric muscle action is the physical lengthening of a muscle. Let’s go back to the bicep curl example. In order to move the dumbbell, we contract/shorten the bicep, but the force of gravity is at play, which is causing a physical pull to extend the arm and release the tension on the bicep. When we control this eccentric movement, we are working the targeted muscle in a beneficial way. This is also referred to as negative resistance training. You may have seen me discuss “focusing on the negatives” on this blog, and this is exactly what I’m referring to.
Why should you implement this? We all understand that exercise and weight training causes literal muscle breakdown and given proper rest and recovery, we can build up those muscles to see results. These micro tears occur during the eccentric portions, which is why I like to focus on this part of the movement.
How can you implement this? Use a weight that allows you to control the entire movement. I like to stick to the 3 second negative release. I’ve included pictures below of two movements to help demonstrate this. In my head, I count 1-2-3 on the negatives before I complete another rep.
If you follow my Instagram & Facebook pages, I shared some exciting news yesterday! I’m getting set up to hop onto YouTube to begin sharing content such as health and fitness tips, workouts, motivation, and snippets of my life. I would love to hear what else you guys would like to see!
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Other fitness/nutrition programs you may be interested in:
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Question – The workouts you post daily, is that all you do when you go to the gym each day or is that just portion of it? Doing the workouts, what is the general time frame it would take someone to see results/muscle changes?
Hold a dumbbell in one hand, and extend your arm straight overhead. Keeping your elbow pointed out, bend elbow and slowly lower your hand behind your head. Straighten your arm by extending hand back up. Slowly lower your hand back down in front of your face with elbow still pointing out. That is one repetition. Repeat for the 10 repetitions before switching to the other side.