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Incorporating a few classes here and there in your exercise program regimen, does it really work. This is a simple question, yet the answer varies across the board. It depends on what your fitness goals are. If you want to gain muscle mass too much cardio classes might not be ideal, but I tell you what, participating in on of them once in a while is a great way to boost up your cardiovascular system and recover quickly.
If you want to sculpt your body more and look ridiculously striated, a cardio type class should definitely be part of your routines. Not even it will help you stay away from the treadmill and elliptical trainer for one hour, like some of you use them for. And I hate to say this, but staying on these equipments for more than 1 hour will only hinder your triglycerides build up by releasing more fat hormones, thus gaining weight rather than losing. Trust me, it's a lot of physiological changes here, you can go to www.bodybuzzfitness.com and read the article "Why avoiding cardio and focusing on weight training will help you lose more weight" Anyway, you get the point right.
It took me a long time to develop this kind of physique that I have and I still incorporate some form of cardio class in my hardcore training. If you haven't done so, go ahead and give it a try at least once every two weeks or twice month and see what happens.
Check this link for my thought about Zumba : http://www.bodybuzzfitness.com/FitNews.html
When it comes to exercise performance this question is asked on a consistent basis. Is machine better than free weight? or if free weight is really the way to change the body? In this short article you'll learn that there is no right or wrong answers to any of the approach. However, the advantages that free weight offers in terms of conditioning one's body and developing stabilization muscles and a stronger core is incomparable to machine equipment.
Machine Equipments
For a beginner who has never touched any weight equipment before, starting with machine equipment can be advantageous. The beginner will get a sense of where his/her muscles are located. When he moves in a plane of motion most likely a sagital
plane, he will soon realize some of the stress that is put on his body. Imagine if someone can barely squat his own body weight or merely execute a few push ups correctly with proper body form, contracting his gluteus
maximus
, involving the core muscles, keeping the entire body parallel to the ground, maintaining a neutral spine, and then you have this person doing free weight right away. That could be disastrous, the good approach will be to do more corrective exercises using biomechanics
(how forces, both internal and external affect the way you move and how your body reacts against any objects due to such force production).
Most machine equipments are fixed, it's sort of like having a fixed mortgage, the interest rate will stay at 6% no matter if its 5 or 10 years unless if you refinance the house. Most machine equipment works the same way, your range of motion is usually fixed, you isolate a particular muscle more, usually the prime mover, the muscle that's doing most of the work, and it will stay like that for 5 or 10 years unless if you change to another machine that allow better range of motion and challenge your central nervous system more.
Machine equipment can be very good for rehabilitation purposes and low back pain issues. Having a disc problem in the lumbar region of your spine (your lower back) perhaps could limit you going into spinal flexion
or spinal extension, depending on your problem. A machine with a lower back support could be beneficial at first to get the muscles around that area stronger before you move to free weights.
The point here is this: Machine equipments have their own place and their own rules, and are definitely in my opinion not the best way to be conditioned, stay conditioned and getting significant amount of results, although, they could be very safe and useful for a certain period of time.
Free Weights
Let me ask you a question. The last time you sat on your chair, did you use a machine to help you sit? What about yesterday when you picked up that box from the ground up or reach in the cabinet above your head to get some spice to add to your flamboyant salad recipe, did you use a machine to help you get it? Don't get me wrong here, I didn't see you doing any of these activities, but I will attest that the answer is a big NO.
The reality is this, we move by using our own body weight with the joints in the body that allow us to move. Even though we don't move in all the planes periodically (sagital
plane: cut your body in 1/2 from front to back, Coronal/Frontal plane: cut your body in 1/2 from side to side, and transverse plane: cut your body from the waist line), but we use the sagital
plane every single day for 365 days a year. Where am I going with this? You bet it's coming your way, "Free Weights"
Free weights allow you to mimic many movements that the body encompass daily, giving the fact that these exercises are executed in a safe environment, with proper body mechanics. Free weights allow you to challenge your central nervous system more and recruits so much more muscle fibers in one particular muscle group, and force you to use your abdominal region in may exercises that you perform. It is not a coincidence that individuals who use free weights are usually better at performing many daily tasks and their reaction time is better. Using free weights you can also isolate a particular muscle area just like a machine equipment will do. However, the force production of that muscle, the use of neuromuscular
signal transmitters, sensory nerves, impulses and the reaction of the core muscles (center of the body) will be totally different, hence, giving free weights an unparallel
match.
As great as free weight exercises look and sound, one can easily injure a joint, pull a tendon, torn a ligament, and tear a muscle if the application of correctness
, safety, proper education of joints alignment, and how forces are applied at a given time are not understood. Listen! I am not trying to scare you here but the worse case scenario that can happen using free weights is finding yourself in "the emergency room or death". Yes! free weights will send you to a nice trip to the hospital if you don't have the knowledge to apply and use them well, and dying if you are stubborn enough and too egotistical to listen to a professional helping you realize what to do. I'll give you a quick tip here, exercise is not just exercise, there's a lot of science that is applied to it, so next time you pick up a free weight and have no idea what you are doing or think you know what you are doing just because you saw it in a magazine, if I were you I would think twice.
The point here is this: Using free weights will always challenge the human body and the human mind in ways that can be inexplicable. Free weights should be used properly and safely with some form of basic knowledge about corrective exercises and exercise mechanics otherwise many unwanted injuries and complications will settle in.
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