Exercise of the Week: Pull Ups

Pullups Bodybuilding.com

The Mystery of Muscle Fibre Types

We often hear about fast and slow twitch muscle fibres. They are often whispered about in the gyms or talked about by the know it all bodybuilder in the locker room. Well, what the heck are they and do I really care?

Lets go through both types and how they impact your training.

Slow Twitch Muscle Fibres. (Type 1 Muscle Fibres)
These muscle fibres are better at using oxygen when you train therefore are better at continuous, extended muscle contractions. Slow twitch are given this name because they do exactly that... fire slowly, enabling then to last longer before they fatigue.
So if you are a long distance runner then you are realying heavily on this type of muscle fibre.

Slow Twitch Muscle Fibre Features:

• smaller in diameter
• red in color
• depend on oxidative phosphorylation for their ATP supply
• are highly vascularized (more veins for better blood supply)
• have more mitochondria
• more myoglobin

Fast Twitch Muscle Fibres. (Type 2 Muscle Fibres)
These muscle fibres are actually anaerobic in function and are responsible for the speed at which a muscle fires. The fast twitch response is the mechanism that rapidly contracts the muscle fibre over a sort distance or period of time.
These muscle fibres are great for explosive movements such as sprinting.


Fast Twitch Muscle Fibre Features:

• larger
• white
• glycolysis is the source of ATP
• less vascularized
• less mitochondria
• less myoglobin

Everyone has a mix of these muscle fibres in varying amounts. This is why some people are born better at different types of sports such as distance running compared with sprinting. Some of us a build for speed and power and others for distance and stamina.

Cheers,
Bouncelife.

Exercise of the week: Hanging Leg Raise

Hanging Leg Raise Bodybuilding.com

Exercise of the week: Alternating Kettlebell Press

Alternating Kettlebell Press Bodybuilding.com

7 Steps to Busting Through Plateaus

Good day,

Today I want to talk about plateaus and how to bust through them and continue to make gains in your training.
At one time or another we have all hit a wall or plateau in our training. Whether it was with losing weight, gaining muscle or some marker for improvement for your specific sport.

Here are 7 Steps to help you bust through any plateaus that you encounter in your training.

1. Use different training techniques for increasing training intensity. 

• Drop Sets, FST-7, GVT, Negatives, 21's and supersets. 

2. Head to the gym with a specific plan in mind. 

• This means that you won't be standing around scratching your head trying to figure out what exercises to do. It also means you can visualize your workout throughout the day.

 3. Set a time limit for your training session.

• Make sure to set a limited time to spend in the gym so that you hammer each exercise with short breaks and keep the socializing to a minimum.

4.  Have your favourite training music on hand.

• Put your headphones in and crank up the tunes that you like to train to. This will help you keep in the groove and push through the mental barriers that face you each workout.

5. Keep a training log.

• You should be tracking all of your workouts so that you can improve your performance on every single outing. If you lift a certain amount last week you should be aiming to increase it this week.

6. Change sets, reps, rest periods and exercises frequently to keep the body guessing.

•  We all get into a rut at times. Make sure to always keep the body guessing so that things are fresh. If you were resting 60 seconds between sets the last few weeks, change it to 30 or throw in a superset or drop set to really shock the muscles.

7. Use proper supplementation to really get the most out of your workouts.

• Be sure to use a pre-workout protein shake (preferably isolate), and creatine.
• Drink the pre-workout formula that gives you crazy energy for your workout.
• Get a good post workout protein shake (preferably  isolate) right after, add your glutamine and whatever recovery supplements you use.

Plateaus are just short annoyances that tell you that you need to change things up!

Cheers,

Bouncelife