Fast and Furious Fitness

All,

It’s always great to try out new, and tougher exercises. Changing one’s exercise routine up a bit is something I’m a huge advocate of (I’ve covered this in previous posts as well), primarily because it forces your body to continually adapt to “different” stresses, thus growing stronger, but also because it keeps things interesting, and when something’s interesting, your far more likely to keep at it than if it’s the same old boring drill, day in and day out.

But, somtimes, the reverse is true as well i.e. going back to the basic exercises (not that you can’t change the basic exercises up, but most of us including myself tend to include a lot of different exercises sometimes, rather than variations of the basic ones), and working them HARD, concentrating on perfect form, and concentrating on making each rep better than the last. This holds especially true for “bad” days, or perhaps just days where you feel fatigued, and don’t really feel like doing a whole bunch of exercises in your routine.

I did this today - my workout today was primarily squats, and bridging (several variations of this). I was initially going to go ahead and do my normal routine (which includes a variety of abdominal exercises, as well as pushups), but I just wasn’t feeling “right” while doing my squats. My form was off, I wasn’t being able to concentrate well enough - and I natually got a lesser number of repetitions than I would normally in a given period of time. Tried doing Sumo squats, but my form was horrible on those as well. And as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve been having some slight stomach trouble for a while (I won’t detail what exactly was going on - but suffice it to say my stomach felt a bit bloated, and gassy) - so that was another thing (I’ll post more on that one later - an upset stomach can really screw up your workout big time).

At that point, I decided I had two choices: - a) end the workout there, or b) take a couple of exercises, and REALLY focus on them. And being the exercise-a-holic that I am, I natually chose option b).

I went back and redid the Hindu squats, focusing on good form on EVERY rep. Did the same with the jumpers, but then instantly moved on to some stretching exercises for the thighs. REALLY worked those into the ground (instead of my other squat/lunge movements, which are a bit more advanced) - and then went on to the bridging. I concentrated hard on each variation of the bridge (there are several I’ve learnt, and believe me, done right, they are a workout unto themselves). Nothing fancy after that, except for some more stretches - but boy was I hammered at the end of the workout - and that too in a good way.

This also ties into mastering a specific exercise (I’ve written about that as well in the past, but I’ll let you use the search function to find it) - there are many, many ways to make the same exercise tougher, and more intense. Very few people manage to master an exercise at the highest levels - and if you can master more than a couple of exercises (agin, look for the post on “Mastering an exercise”), let me know - you’ve really got something at that point.

So, that’s something to chew upon for today - incorporate this principle every so often in your workout, and let me know how it goes!

As always - get fit - FAST!!

Rahul

Yup, I know I haven’t updated this thing for months, once again. . .A LOT of things have been happening in my life, and I just haven’t been able to spend as much time online (on the blog) as I’d have liked to - though that needs to change for sure. Anyhow, let me quit with the excuses here though, hehe, and jump right into the swing of things again. . .

So, I’ve been training hard for the past few months, despite my absence online, and I’ve been trying out a few new exercises as well, which I’ll be sharing with you shortly. Before that though, what I wanted to talk about today was that no matter how good one gets at an exercise (and it’s variations), you’ll find that there’s ALWAYS something to learn. I think I’ve covered this before is previous blog posts - but, I’ll go over it once more today.

First, I’ll start off by explaining why I’m saying this. As I was doing my Hindu squats today, I noticed that I wasn’t going up all the way today on the upward part of the movement. Now, the difference in range of motion was slight to be honest, and I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it if I wasn’t training in front of a mirror (which I am these days, because I’m training in my bedroom). But, I noticed I was going only about 95% or so on the upward part of the movement.

(BTW, that’s another tip - it’s sometimes a good idea to exercise in front of the mirror, not so you can admire yourself, but more to observe your form, whether your keeping back straight while doing the squats, etc etc. I’ve found this helps me a lot on “bad” days, when my form just seems to be off.)

My form and range of motion was correct on the way down (which is what most people emphasize) - but I ended up not concentrating as much on the thighs on the way up (instead concentrating more on the swing of the arms that bring one up), and thus wasn’t going up all the way. One should definitely concentrate on “dropping” down with control, however, one should also make sure that the legs are straight when one ends the “up” part of the movement, and not “almost” straight.

Sounds too little to be worried about, I know, but there’s a difference between doing an exercise in good form, and letter perfect form. And those of you that do work out regularly will instantly relate to what I’m talking about here.

It’s human to err - we’re not robots, and do end up concentrating on one part of the movement more than the other sometimes. But, the important thing is to note where one’s erring, and make sure one does all one can to make sure one’s form is perfect (or as close to perfect as it can get).

So, I’ll end on that note for today. Hopefully I’ll get around to updating the blog on a regular basis as I used to a few months before - touchwood on that one!!

As always - Get FIT - FAST!

Rahul

PS: To those who did sign up for the site - there have been quite a few users that have done that - a big thanks!