Importance of Exercise

In the above video, Dr. Mike Evans talks about the benefit of exercise as medicine.  I don't deny the value of modern medicine, but there is no substitute for positive lifestyle changes.

An Incomplete List of Strength Training Rules

• Warm-up.  A good guideline is to do about 5-10 minutes of aerobic exercise and then a short calisthenic circuit (push-ups, body squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, ect.).  The more reps in a set the shorter the warm-up needs to be, the heavier and more intense the set, the longer the warm-up.
• Work the entire body.  I often see women doing endless crunches, and men doing nothing but bench press and curls.  If this is done for an extended period of time it may be worse than doing nothing.  Not working other muscle groups is not only ineffective, but will ultimately lead to injury.
• Your workout should focus on major compound exercises (exercises that use multiple muscle groups). Big muscles and big movements first.
• The five best exercise for strength development:  Variations of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, and dead-lifts.
• There are no bad exercises, just bad application.
• Over time vary reps, weight, sets, exercises, and the order of exercises.
• If you can lift a weight for more than a minute straight you are not using enough weight.
• Push yourself.  You can't spell workout without work.  For the first six months of training you should be adding weight and/or reps almost every workout.
• Rest is an important part of working out.  Muscles repair themselves and grow at rest, not while you're working out.  Listen to your body and take time to rest your stressed muscles.
• Every exercise should have a purpose.
• Ladies:  Don't worry about bulking up into the incredible hulk.  Gaining muscle mass is influenced by several factors other than lifting, among them:  testosterone and diet.  Any given man will have at least 10 times the testosterone of any given woman.  Female body builders train a lot, diet specifically to gain mass, cut down to little body fat, and take as many, if not more steroids then the men.  Also, it takes time to gain significant muscle mass.  Logic states that if you thought you were gaining too much mass, all you would have to do is stop and so would the gains to mass.  Finally, muscle burns fat and chances are, if you weren't gaining muscle, you'd be gaining fat instead.
• Keep a log of exercises sets, weight, reps, how you're feeling, etc.
• Train your weaknesses.
• Don't over-complicate working out.  Just remember to work opposing muscle groups.
• Something is always better than nothing.
• Learn the exercises, check and re-check form, make sure you can feel the targeted muscle working.

Good luck and keep training.