I told her while the sauna-like heat and humidity had a little something to do with it (she was taking Bikram Yoga classes where the temperature of the room is set at a little over 100 degrees F), I had a sneaking suspicion the real reason why she was losing weight more rapidly taking yoga than jogging had to do with the asanas, or postures, that she was required to hold during the roughly hourlong class.

Assuming the various positions taught by the instructor and holding them for extended periods of time required flexibility, strength, and balance.  Tracy, who didn’t care to lift weights in the gym (like many females, Tracy was worried about “bulking up” the way guys do; read my previous post for an explanation of why this shouldn’t ever be a cause for concern), had incorporated a bit of resistance training to her workout regimen without even realizing it.  

Lifting your leg, holding it in the air, and resisting the pull of gravity is lifting weight.  Your leg is the weight. 

Tracy was building muscle and increasing her resting metabolic rate as a result.  Even though she quit jogging entirely, Tracy still managed to lose weight and at a much faster rate!

Why do I bring this up?

Well, a team of researchers led by Kenneth Walsh, a professor of medicine at Boston University’s School Of Medicine, have proven in an experiment with genetically altered mice that muscle tissue formed as a result of resistance training helps increase metabolism and promotes the burning of fatty tissue. 

Their findings, published in the February 2008 edition of Cell Metabolism, provide further proof of something I’ve been telling clients and friends (like Tracy) for some time now – lifting weights, incorporating some sort of resistance training, builds muscle and improves a person’s resting  metabolic rate.  The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest (at rest, meaning when you’re not exercising).

Walsh and his team of researchers began by deactivating the gene responsible for muscle tissue growth in mice.  The genetically altered mice were then fed a high-fat, high-sugar diet (junk food essentially), and after several weeks, all of the mice – you guessed it - had become really fat.  Walsh and company then took one group of overweight mice and turned the gene back on.  In just two weeks, the mice that were able to build muscle tissue had shed the excess weight without any increase in physical activity!

Lift weight.  Lose weight.  Plain and simple. 

So if you’re looking to shed a few extra pounds, try incorporating a little bit of resistance training before or after hopping on the treadmill, and you’ll really begin to see some results!

(You can check out the earlier post here.) 

Their number one concern: getting “big” the way guys do.

Bottom line for those of you who haven’t read the previous post: not gonna happen.

Well, now there’s a brand new book out called The New Rules Of Lifting For Women: Lift Like A Man, Look Like A Goddess that expands upon the topic in significantly more detail (for those women still unconvinced).  

The book, by Lou Schuler, Cassandra Forsythe, and Alwyn Cosgrove, contains a more in-depth refutation of the commonly held yet wildly inaccurate belief that women shouldn’t lift weights lest they transform overnight into some sort of muscle-bound man-woman.

The book, which seems to be getting a lot of favorable reviews thus far, also delves into proper diet and nutrition and includes detailed descriptions and color pictures of recommended exercises and workout routines. 

Here’s a link to the Amazon page where you can purchase the book.

(Beneficial if done correctly, that is.)

The Lat pull down primarily targets the Latissimus dorsi shown here:

Rockin’ And Rollin’

The single most common form-related no-no I see in the gym: rocking back and forth , bending at the waist and using momentum to cheat, thereby allowing a person to put up more weight; likewise, leaning back and using one’s own body weight to help pull the bar down (see picture).

It’s cheating, plain and simple, and in the long run a person who doesn’t observe proper form while exercising won’t receive the full benefit of working out in the first place, in this case, realizing significant gains in muscle strength and tone. 

In order to isolate the target muscles properly, eliminate extraneous movement: bouncing, rocking, swinging.  This applies to all exercises, not just the lat pull.  The key here is using a slow, controlled movement throughout, resisting gravity over the entire range of motion. 

Ideally, the only muscle (or muscles, in the case of compound exercises*) that should be moving is the one being trained (and of course, the opposing muscle group when the muscle is relaxed**).  

Chin Downs

Lat pull downs are very similar in motion to chin ups.  However, there are some guys who insist on doing Lat pull downs by pulling the bar down behind their neck, so that the exercise really resembles a chin down more than a chin up.

During the contraction, or positive phase of the exercise, the bar should be kept moving in a vertical plane perpendicular to the floor, i.e., straight up and down.  At the end of the full range of motion, the center of the bar should be below the chin, just touching the upper chest, with your head and neck in a neutral, relaxed position (See pictures below).  The entire movement feels natural.

Pulling the bar down behind the neck requires a forward craning of the neck and head with the chin tilted downwards towards the chest.  It feels awkward and unnatural and puts a lot of unnecessary biomechanical stress on the spine (which curves slightly to accomodate the motion)and the shoulder joints which, over time, can lead to serious injury. 

Now there are many who will disagree with me, saying that it feels fine to them; that’s how they’ve done it for years and years.  Still the risks outweight the benefits.  If you’ve been doing it for awhile, consider shaking things up a bit and try something new.  At the very least, if you are going to stick with the behind-the-neck method, use cables or a Lat pull machine that doesn’t use a single bar.

If you’re just starting out, observe proper form at all times, even if that means sacrificing weight in the beginning.  Make it a habit, and don’t let your friends or other, more experienced gym goers convince you otherwise.

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*A compound exercise is one that requires movement about more than one joint.  The Lat Pull Down is a compound exercise because it involves movement at the elbow and shoulder joints, recruiting both the biceps muscle and the latissimus dorsi muscle.  The Bench Press (see previous post) is also a compound exercise.  The Bicep Curl, however, is not.

**Best illustrated with an example: the biceps and triceps are opposing muscle groups.  Contraction of one of the opposing muscle groups results in an elongation of the the other.

It’s something I enjoy doing.

So from time to time, I’ll be jotting down useful hints and tips, pointers, and answers to questions that come up frequently. 

One bit of advice I’d like to share with you as you embark (or re-embark, as the case may be) on your journey to improve your level of physical fitness:

Keep an extra set of workout clothes with you at all times.

Yup, that’s it.  My one piece of advice for you. 

Find an unused duffle or gym bag, and pack it with an extra set of athletic shoes, gloves, a spare workout towel, an extra bathtowel, lock, an outdated ipod if you have it (they do tend to become obsolete quickly, don’t they?), and anything else you regularly lug with you to the gym, and stick it in the trunk of your car or if the option’s available to you, leave it in your personal locker overnight at the gym.  Make it a habit to pack the bag every time you use it.

(As an added bonus, if you get in the habit of always packing the bag when you’re done with it, you won’t leave your dirty, stinky gym clothes in your gym bag overnight nearly as often.)

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called up one of my friends and asked him/her if they wanted to go to the gym, and -wouldn’t you know it? - they don’t have their workout clothes on them.  Happens all the time.  Sometimes it’s nothing more than a lame excuse, (and a fairly transparent one, at that) other times they actually did forget to pack their workout stuff.   Either way, having your workout clothes on you means that any time you feel like going to the gym,  you can, even if it’s not terribly often that the mood strikes you. 

Workouts don’t have to be long.  If you find yourself with some free time during the day, running ahead of schedule with your errands or with an unexpected cancellation in your work day, why not use that time to hit the gym?  Health professionals agree that just 20 minutes of brisk walking every day can add up to significant gains in terms of a person’s overall level of physical fitness.   

It’s really a great tip, so I’ll say it again:

Keep an extra set of workout clothes with you at all times.

Seems like a bit of a no-brainer stated simply like that, but you wouldn’t believe how big an impact this one simple habit can have on reducing your personal gym delinquency rate. 

So until next time,

Have fun, be safe, workout smart, and stick with it!

She smiles.  I smile back.  There’s a sale – 25% off – through Wednesday on cookie dough-flavored protein bars.

She waves my card through the scanner – beep! – everything checks out. 

She looks at me and says, “Enjoy your workout!”

“You too,” I reply (like an idiot) then pass through the turnstile.

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Someone please tell me I am not the only person who does this.