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Lynne Brick's Fit Tips ArchiveLynne Brick's Fit Tip #28, 2008 —
Train Like an Olympic Athlete
(Please click here to view the video that accompanies this fit tip!)
Did you see the 4 X 100 m freestyle relay race with Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones, Garrett Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak? Their amazing race finished with a final reach to the wall, just .08 of a second ahead of the French team to capture the gold medal. A phenomenal moment in Olympic history! Did you also see Katie Hoff capture the silver in the 400 m freestyle as well as Mariel Zaqunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward who swept in fencing? Again, phenomenal efforts!
Each of these outstanding competitors has many things in common:
Dreams - Goals Focus Determination Training Preparation Extra-ordinary Effort
What separates the good athletes from the great athletes to make them extra-ordinary? Just that little EXTRA! The EXTRA drive, the EXTRA hour of practice, the EXTRA coaching, the EXTRA reach, etc. Just add a little EXTRA to your workouts and you can train like an Olympic athlete. Heres how especially when you strength train.
Strength training means you make your muscles work harder than they normally do utilizing the overload principle. In other words, for true strength training, the weight or resistance should "feel" heavy each and every repetition. The heavier the weight, the higher the overload. You should only need to do 6-12 repetitions. Heavy Resistance + Fewer Reps = Strength Training
Often times, I see many women in the clubs who seem confused. Muscle endurance training (using a lighter weight with many repetitions) will not yield the same result as strength training. This is especially true in BodyPumpTM classes where we do 50-60 repetitions of the same movement such as a bicep curl or chest press!
Try this with a bench press or leg press:
- Be sure your weight is heavy, even with your first rep
- Get someone to spot you, especially as you complete your last two reps
- Your spotter can also motivate you to complete all of your reps
- Train slowly and with purpose
- Breathe! Exhale on exertion
- Push yourself (EXTRA effort) so that by the 11th or 12th repetition you need to slow down to take some deep breathes to focus your mind so you can complete your set
Remember the 80-20 rule. You gain 80% of your results in the last 20% of your effort! Give a little extra effort to gain big results: Health benefits of strength training. Go for the gold and add that little EXTRA to each and every strength training workout!
P.S.
Please click here to view the video that describes this fit tip. All you need is a video function. It is "white listed" and not spam.
You Go Girl!
Resources:
www.LynneBricks.com
www.drblayney.com/Asclepius.html#hygiene
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