Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

Anyone wondering about my fitness background/what I'm trying to get in shape for, refer to the "Get me in shape for Club Soccer" thread. Suggestions welcome both here and there.

Friday May 26:

Late at night: 15 min on exercise bike with medium/high resistance setting. 10 "lifts" of 25lb freeweight with right arm; left arm too weak too accomplish this. Need to get lighter freeweights. Beat: My 120 lb dad is stronger than me. 15 more min on exercise bike, same setting. Bed.

May 27: Wake up at noon (doh). Breakfast of 2 hardboiled eggs, 1/2 grapefruit, 1.5xbowl of organic whole grain oatmeal with lowfat milk, and small plate of berries. Exercise: 15 min on treadmill at 6.6 mph (gotta start somewhere, right?). More to come.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

May 27th (cont): Did 15 minutes on bike and 10 right handed freeweight "lifts". Lunch: Salmon, potatoes with a bit of plain nonfat yogurt, bowl of salad, vegetables with hommus, and glass of white wine.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

What is a "lift"? Bicep curls?

Skip that crap, learn how to squat and deadlift, and also do bench press, barbell row, pullups, dips and military press. Go to the sticky and look up the Starting Strength guide. I actuallt rhink some strength would help you.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

A million lols at working out twice in two days and exercising one muscle total. And not even biceps, just one bicep.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

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10 right handed freeweight "lifts".

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Could be the best workout ever.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

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A million lols at working out twice in two days and exercising one muscle total. And not even biceps, just one bicep.

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Uh, sorry, I'm not a fitness expert. . . if you have any suggestions, those would be appreciated. Remember that my main priorities for my sport are definitely endurance and lower body. (I've actually been doing leg curls, FWIW).

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

go in the back yard and practice dribbling as fast as you can for as long as you can. just do repeats. practice juggling too. if you can find a good wall practice blasting a ball at it and trapping it for a few hours.

of course the best is to find some ppl that play pickup soccer and do that all day.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

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A million lols at working out twice in two days and exercising one muscle total. And not even biceps, just one bicep.

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Uh, sorry, I'm not a fitness expert. . . if you have any suggestions, those would be appreciated. Remember that my main priorities for my sport are definitely endurance and lower body. (I've actually been doing leg curls, FWIW).

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DO THIS:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

This will be great for you since it has you squatting heavy three days a week. If you don't like it, check out something like crossfit, which is what smileyEH always recommends for all around fitness.

Don't lift weights with the mindset that you're trying to improve endurance, that is the job of cardio. You need to be fast, quick and explosive on the soccer field, and that will be accomplished by doing heavy weights for few reps and not going to failure. Repeat, do not go to failure.

There is also a program designed by Westside Barbell (i think?) that incorporates fast, explosive lifting with lighter weights on one of the workout days. I believe Kobe Bryant was a client of theirs, although I could be wrong on that. Point is, fast lifting is very beneficial. Their program is probably for more advanced weightlifters though.

If you have more questions, ask. You seem pretty weak for an athlete if you can't lift a 25 lb dumbell with one hand (a curl might be sorta hard). What exactly were you trying to do that you couldn't?

Do you have heavier dumbells? If so, watch this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...ting&hl=en

and start doing squats with a dumbell or two in your hands.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

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... and not giong to failure. Repeat, do not go to failure.

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Is this advice for this specific case or general weight lifting training? If it's specific then when should you and when shouldn't you? And either way, why not? Thanks.

Re: Health & Exercise Log: College Athlete Shape or Bust
 

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... and not giong to failure. Repeat, do not go to failure.

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Is this advice for this specific case or general weight lifting training? If it's specific then when should you and when shouldn't you? And either way, why not? Thanks.

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I'm sorry, I'm really just a parrot. I know just enough to be dangerous, ya know what I mean?
ALso, keep in mind that I don't care for bodybuilding, but more for strength.

I'll give a couple probable reasons:
Form breaks down, which is very bad for many exercises.

It can lead to injury, and the broken down reps are not really the same movement. "Body English" is often required for failure reps, which means it's an entirely different movement. You're not just training your muscles, but also your nervous system, which tells your muscles when to fire. Not going to failure helps you train your body to coordinate your muscles.

You can work out more often if you don't go to failure. Going to failure may get you that sweet burn, but that does not necessarily translate into strength gains. It will also make you more sore, for a longer period of time, which may deter you from working out in a couple of days.

You won't be as tired after workouts.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but I don't feel like searching the internet right now. A lot of the differences in opinion among weightlifters stems from the goals they have.

Bodybuilders probably get benefits from going to failures, but I'm pretty sure olympic lifters rarely go to failure. One has bigger muscles than the other, but the other is stronger.