The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (129 page)

If your ailment is something other than the common cold or the flu, consult your doctor.

Now that we have seen how a flu or a cold can throw a wrench into your progress, let’s see how we can prevent them from affecting us during the flu season or during any other season for that matter.

While it is still unknown why the cold and flu season generally comes during the winter months, it is known that you have to let the virus into your system in order for it to affect you. Therefore, it is only logical that we implement a two-fold prevention approach:

Prevent the virus from infiltrating your system
. Keeping in mind that cold viruses spread by human contact, that they get into your system through the mouth, eyes and nose, and that they can remain active for up to three hours, you can accomplish this by doing the following:

• Keep your hands away from your face

• Wash your hands with anti bacterial soap frequently throughout the day (especially as soon as you finish your workout at the gym).

Maintain immune system operation at peak efficiency levels at all times
. Remembering that excessive exercise, a bad diet, and losing sleep are all catabolic activities, do the following:

• Avoid overtraining by using the principles advocated in this book.

• Maintain a balanced diet as described in the nutrition chapter and avoid processed foods that contain high levels of saturated fats, refined flours or sugar since these types of foods lower the immune system function.

• Get a healthy dose of sleep a day (anywhere from 7 to 9 hours depending on your individual requirements).

So remember, stay healthy by following the tips above, and if you get sick, then “don’t beat a tired horse” as former Mr. Olympia Lee Haney used to say. Rest until you get better! If you don’t you will end up more seriously ill and this will take you out of the gym for a longer period of time.

Appendix I

Anatomy Charts

FEMALE MUSCULAR AND SKELETAL ANATOMY

Addendum

Exercise Technique and
Why Some Exercises
Give You Better Results

PROPER EXERCISE TECHNIQUE

Learning proper exercise technique is the backbone of every fitness program. If you train improperly you will not stimulate the intended muscle, and will risk major injury as well as receiving little or no results. When you learn to use proper exercise technique you will receive twice the results in half the time, guaranteed! We see people in the gym day in and day out who have no idea how to properly train their muscles. Some of them are professional bodybuilders, some are professional athletes, and some are even certified fitness trainers. Unfortunately, the ones who really suffer the most are people like you who rely on these role models for wisdom and guidance. We will show you the proper exercise technique to use for optimal results. Just remember to utilize your newfound knowledge. Like the old saying, “Feed a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” We expect the same of you. We don’t want you to read this book once and forget everything you’ve learned. We want you to learn and utilize that knowledge to achieve astounding results.

Applying proper exercise form and technique is without doubt the most important component of any fitness program. Without it, many setbacks will occur. First, the musculature you intend to exercise will not be stimulated as efficiently as possible. Exercise should not be focused around just lifting barbells and weights. It shouldn’t just be about how much you can lift. Optimum fitness is about the quality of exercise, the quality of your form and how you maintain that form, especially during heavier lifting. Proper exercise technique coupled with the Zone-Tone principle that we presented in
Chapter 1
will bring you the most astonishing results with the minimum amount of sets. Why? Because as we have already discussed, one properly executed set is equivalent to five sets of “just going through the motions” type of exercise.
It comes down to this; if you want to get the most out of your workout, keep the intensity high without sacrificing proper form
. Neglecting to focus on proper form quickly leads to no results, while practicing perfect proper form equals incredible results quickly!

WHICH EXERCISES ARE THE BEST FOR FAST RESULTS?

In weight training, there are a variety of exercises that one can choose from to sculpt the body of your dreams. Results in bodybuilding or body sculpting are generally measured in body composition changes; increased muscle mass or tone, depending on the goal, along with decreases in body fat. The speed at which such changes are acquired depends on the training protocol used, the nutrition plan followed and the amount of rest that the trainee gets. In order for a training protocol to work at peak efficiency, not only must it be periodized or cycled but it also must include exercises that give you the most stimulation in the minimum amount of time.

Different exercises provide different levels of stimulation. Exercises like leg extensions, while excellent for sculpting the lower part of the quadriceps, produce less of a stimulating effect than an exercise like the squat. The efficacy of an exercise really depends on the exercise’s ability to involve the maximum amount of muscle fibers and also on its ability to provide a neuromuscular stimulation (NMS). Neuromuscular stimulation is of crucial importance as it is the nervous system that ultimately sends a signal to the brain requesting to start the muscle growth process. How do we determine what the stimulation factor of each exercise is?

THE NMS CLASSES

In order to rate what the NMS of each exercise is, we borrowed the Class rating system used for classifying the speed of DSL systems (the technology used to achieve high speed connections to the Internet through your phone line) and tailored it to fit our purpose. In this system a Class 1 technology has lower speeds than a Class 2 technology. Therefore, in our exercise rating system composed of four classes, a Class 1 exercise yields the lowest NMS (this class is composed of variable resistance machine type exercises) while a Class 4 exercise yields the highest NMS and is therefore the hardest but most stimulating one. In each class we may also have subclasses such as Class 1a and Class 1b. A Class 1a exercise will yield less NMS than a Class 1b.

Class 1a exercises are composed of isolation (one joint) exercises performed in variable resistance machines (such as Nautilus) where the whole movement of the exercise is controlled. These type of exercises provide the least amount of stimulation as stabilizer muscles do not need to get involved since the machine takes care of the stabilization process. An example of such an exercise would be the machine curl.

Class 1b exercises are compound (multi-joint) movements performed in a variable resistance machine. An example of such movement would be the incline bench press performed in a Hammer Strength machine. Since the movement is a compound one, more muscles get involved and therefore the neuromuscular stimulation is higher than that offered by a machine curl. However, the fact that the machine takes care of the stabilization issues limits the growth offered by the exercise.

Class 2a exercises are composed of isolation (one joint) exercises performed with non-variable resistance machines. An example of such exercise would be the leg extension exercise performed in one of those leg extensions attachments that come with the benches that are sold for home gyms. These attachments lack the pulleys and the cams that would make the exercise a variable resistance exercise. Therefore, the muscles need to get more involved in the movement, providing better stimulation.

Class 2b exercises are composed of basic (multi-joint) exercises performed with non-variable resistance machines. An example of such would be the bench press unit that is attached to the Universal type of machines or a leg press machine that contains no pulleys or cams that would make the exercise easier. Since there are no pulleys or cams to make the exercise easier as you lift the weight, the NMS is higher.

Class 3a exercises are isolation (one joint) exercises performed with free weights. An example of such exercise would be a concentration curl performed with a dumbbell. It is still not very clear whether a multi joint exercise performed on a machine offers the same amount or better NMS than the one offered by a free weight isolation exercise. However, for the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that the free weight isolation exercise provides more stimulation as stabilizer muscles come into play (especially if you do the exercise standing up).

Class 3b exercises are multi-jointed basic exercises performed with barbell free weights.

Class 3c exercises are multi-jointed basic exercises performed with dumbbell free weights. The barbell exercises provide less NMS as the movement is more restrained as opposed to dumbbells where the weights can go in all directions unless all of your stabilizer muscles jump in and constrain the movement. Because of this, dumbbells provide the highest NMS in this category.

Finally, Class 4 exercises are free weight exercises where your body moves through space. In other words, any exercise where your torso is the one moving, such as squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, close grip chins, pushups, lunges, and dips, will provide the most stimulation possible and therefore, the fastest results. Haven’t you seen at the gym how many people do great amounts of weights in a pulldown machine but have trouble doing pull-ups? The reason for this is that in order for you to perform these type of exercises you need to be capable of not only carrying the added resistance but also involving your bodyweight as well. Therefore, many muscles are called into play in order to perform this feat. Performing dips, chinups, squats and deadlifts you are really hitting every single muscle in your body! These exercises not only give you fast results, but they also create functional strength; in other words strength that can be used for your daily activities. If you are great at performing pull-ups and you go to perform a pulldown you’ll see how easy the task of performing a pulldown is. As a matter of fact, depending on your pull-up strength, you might be able to lift the whole stack in most pulldown machines. However, the reverse is not true. While you may be very good at performing pulldowns you may not be able to perform many pull-ups as the strength gained in the pulldown exercise is not as transferable as the one gained in a pull-up. Again, the reason for this phenomenon is NMS.

CONCLUSION

Now that you know what exercises are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck, my recommendations are as follows:

• If you follow the normal
14 Day Body Sculpting Workout
stick to Class 3 and 4 region exercises.

• If you follow the
Advanced 14 Day Body Sculpting Workout
you can get away with having 1/3 of your routine composed of lower class (Classes 2 and below) exercises.

Remember that convincing your body to shape up is not an easy task. However, it becomes an impossible one if you choose exercises that do not provide a significant NMS effect. Therefore, always choose exercises from the higher classes in order to show your body that you mean business.

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