Critique my workout tips

[thirddan]

"10. If your muscle doesn't hurt the next day, you aren't working hard enough."

this is very wrong...

soreness is not a good measure of the effectiveness of your workout...its more likely a sign of poor recovery, or that you are doing something you haven't done in a while...

[jah7_fsu1]

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In random order...
1. It's better to work out in the morning than at night.

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False. The best time to workout is the time that fits your schedule best...testosterone is higher in the morning, but it is harder to get in pre-workout nutrition (and a host of other things) in the morning as well. If you are a morning person and are "up" enough and it fits, this works. It is not "better" than at night by any means all things being equal.


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2. It's better to work out 5 days/week than every single day.

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This depends on what "working out" is. I'd say it is better to lift 3 or 4 times a week than 5. I would say based on goals it is better to exercise in some form every day (like if I'm trying to lose fat a walk on an "off" day.)

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3. Drink a lot of water while exercising.

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Consume the same amount as you consume throughout the day (which should be pretty steady) and adjust based on heat. Drinking to much water during workout will negatively impact your performance...so will drinking to little.

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4. To build some muscle, it's better to do both heavy lifting AND cardiovascular exercise.

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To build muscle you need to create damage to your muscle fibers and give them time to recover. Cardiovascular exercise can be adjusted given what your goals are.

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5. Even if you just want your upper body to look good, by building muscle to your legs, you get faster result with your upper body.

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You should train all muscle groups regardless of what you "want" to look big. Again, goal dependent, you can scale certain exercises back if you are like trying to specialize something, but the majority of people will never need to specialize something.

6. First, you need to gain weight, or have to have extra weight in order to turn the extra into muscle.


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7. When you lift, lift slow.

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When you lift, try to maximize force. F=MA so accelerate as fast as possible (especially on the concentric portion). Always control the weight, but lift as fast as you can while under control.

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8. When you lift, don't lift all the way but stop right before it gets to the top.

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This one is exercise dependent. You could possibly injure yourself by following this advice on numerous exercises, but some this might not be horrible.


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9. Regular push ups and sit ups are pretty ineffective way to build muscle.

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Pushups and variations of the pushup are some of the best exercises a person can do. I can give someone a full upper body workout for the front and back with pushup variations. The majority of people will be fine with situps, but it may hurt some people.

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10. If your muscle doesn't hurt the next day, you aren't working hard enough.

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Soreness is a poor indicator of growth. I can hit you with a baseball bat and you will be very sore, but I doubt you get ripped from it. Soreness should not be a goal of any workout, it is just a by product of some types of exercise and is by no means neccessary to gauge a "good" workout.

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11. Instead of doing different types of exercise every day, work on the same part of your body extensively for weeks(?), and then move on to the other part of your body.

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This is a good way to see gains very very slowly. Why are you not applying your advice with number 5 to this? I'm not against split routines (although they won't be neccessary for numerous people reading this forum), but to say just train your chest or legs for a few weeks and then something else is a waste of time.

[Soh]

Great response. You say more than "your tips are somewhat wrong," so it helps.

Question about pushups. Currently, the only thing that I'm doing right now to build my upper body is by using dumbbell. If I want to add pushups to my exercise, should I do it before or after dumbbell workout?

Thanks.

Soh

[theblackkeys]

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8. When you lift, don't lift all the way but stop right before it gets to the top.

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8. Never heard of this

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This is true. In any exercise you shouldn't be locking out your joints. You will hear people say that you only get the full effect of the lift by doing it to lock out but it is plain wrong and bad for you. Lifting to near the full extension but just short is far better for you.

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why?

[jah7_fsu1]

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Question about pushups. Currently, the only thing that I'm doing right now to build my upper body is by using dumbbell. If I want to add pushups to my exercise, should I do it before or after dumbbell workout?

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Depends on the way you are doing your pushups and your goals. If you're working upper body you can just incorporate them right in with your dumbell work, I have no idea what you are doing. Keep in mind, I don't think you should shoot for X amount of pushups a day or any crap like that. Pushups are just an effective chest, triceps, and shoulder builder (that can also work your core well).

[Soh]

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I don't think you should shoot for X amount of pushups a day or any crap like that.

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Well, that's exactly what I was trying to do [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but how do you do pushups without daily target numbers? When I do dumbbell workout, I have a goal like 3 sets of lifting dumbbells for 10 times straight.

[jah7_fsu1]

Well I meant more like, I don't think you need to do 50 pushups a day or whatever. Your pushups should be high quality and of course you can do them in sets and reps like anything normal. Countless variations exist on pushups (serratus pushups, dumbell pushups, tricep pushups, feet elevated pushups, explosive pushups, etc times a ton) and just plug them into your regular training.