KICKIN' BUTT

Before getting into this week’s post, the technical term Resistance Training used by health professionals needs to be defined correctly. When talking about resistance Training, people usually think about strength training, which can be used to improve endurance in the muscle and power when performing a certain activity. But today the prescription of resistance training is a growing trend because when combined with aerobic and flexibility training in an exercise program, it has been shown to reduce risk factors related to many diseases, injury prevention and general health. When you are doing weight training, whether in a gym with the machines and weights or a fitness class, you are actually doing resistance training. Resistance training is what everyone refers to as weight training.

Did you know that resistance training is exercising against any resistance? Does it equal to any exercise using weights or bodyweight? If you are bored with going to the gym to do weights is there any other way to include resistance training in your exercise program? Is it always alright to do it in a class?    

There are three types of muscle contractions,  concentric (closing the angle of a joint, example, bending your arm), eccentric (increasing the angle of a joint, example: standing up from being seated), and isometric (no movement, when doing the plank from Yoga). These are included when performing resistance training and important to maintain muscle strength, joint mobility, bone mineral density, muscle mass or body composition, especially within aging, and a form of injury prevention. In order to create an effective resistance training program, the fitness world is coming up with new training methods to motivate and grab the attention of those that hate weightlifting in a gym using all the types of contractions even without extra weights. But no matter what new class or type of training you choose, you are still performing it against a resistance. But little do people realize that some new types of programs just might have the opposite effects on physical health.  

One of the latest fads in the fitness world is Boot camp classes or sessions of functional training. Most of the exercises included in functional training, which are the exercises included in boot camps, came from what is done by the preparation of professional athletes for maximal performance. The career of an athlete always presents risks of injury. But through their basic phase of training in the periodization, while preparing for competition, they strengthen their core and bodies using all the types of contractions through resistance training and specific sport training, and maintain it during their competition season minimizing injuries. So should people searching for a healthy lifestyle exercise like the elite athletes when they themselves are physically unprepared due to the life that is lived today?

Yes, functional training or the boot camp can be an effective way to include resistance training in the exercise program. But what is happening is that most are injuring themselves and creating other physical problems, because most lack body and core strength. It is also the fault of the professionals that are conducting these classes because they are not paying attention to details of correct posture, positioning and execution of the exercises given, and may not have the education to do so. Just like a weight training program, there should be a general progression from light and easy exercises to more complex and higher intensity exercises which is lacking in most of these camps and functional training programs.  

So those of you who need something different then a gym to weightlift, just remember that even though you aren’t actually lifting weights, new classes proving to be motivating, hard, and of high intensity, will mostly consist of resistance training. Boot camp classes and functional training, without the proper fitness assessment and the prescription of an educated exercise specialist (not a two day course wonder), could in fact be negative to improving your body, health and preventing you from your results.  

Articles Consulted:

Resistance Training for Health. Pollack and Vincent Research Digest. 1996

Resistance Training for Health and Performance. Kraemer, et al. Current Sports Medicine Reports. 2000.

THE STRONGEST LINK

Most enhancing performance aids in sports and exercise have been discovered accidentally. When proven to produce unfair or prejudicial results, they have been restricted for common use and banned for sporting events. But as the popularity of becoming better, faster, stronger, more physically fit and perfect the existing research of products, usually for medicinal use, have been found to have alternative uses other than treatments. So today, especially in sports and the fitness world, there is always the search for substances to improve performance and appearance.

One of these are peptides already, discussed in “Where’s the Beef? Meathead!”  described as simple bonds of less than 50 in number that connect amino acids. But why is this novelty becoming so important for treating certain health conditions? What is its use for exercise and sports? How popular is it becoming? Does it have effect for exercise and resistance training? Is it banned in sports?

Drugs made from peptides are becoming popular because they are short-acting and less toxic to the body because they bind to specific cell surface receptors (hormones) affecting their function without the reaction with other molecules and receptors in the body making metabolism run smoothly. But they cannot be consumed orally because they are inactivated by the enzymes of the digestive system starting with the saliva. Right now administration is through injections or IV, but research is being done to develop other routes such as through the skin or through the nose (spray).

Due to the minimal effects the use of hormonal peptides as an ergonomic aid for exercise and sports performance is increasing. They are also sometimes difficult to detect. Naturally these peptides are released into the bloodstream by the cells of the endocrine and also have effect on the nervous system.

The types of peptides that are of interest to resistance training are those that come from the Human Growth Hormone. The research and development of these types of peptides are important for health conditions such as cancers, obesity and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers because they bind to the receptors of the pituitary and hypothalamus. These peptides are known to have effects of stimulating the natural GH in our bodies and produce effects on the brain, feeding behaviour, modulate sleeping patterns, protein synthesis, improve muscularity and body composition, and insulin sensitivity which may cause the results desired by resistance training.

The types of exogenous hormonal peptides that are being studied and developed with similar effects to the ones in our bodies are the Growth Hormone Releasing Peptides (GHRH), the SARMs (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators), Growth hormone variants, Insulin Growth Factors and the product from it Mechano Growth Factor (MGF). ies used to stimulate the use of the Growth hormone. But as mentioned before researching and producing them externally are being used for treatments without undesired side effects of medications.

This is why they are popular for resistance training and sports because they have beenproven to promote protein synthesis, anabolic effects and muscle repair resulting in muscle hypertrophy, increasing power, strength gains and also weight loss due to inhibitory effect of somatostatin and reducing insulin sensitivity without affecting the liver and other organs. Due to some of the effects it producesm they have been banned from professional sports even though it is still difficult to detect some of the substances.

 

You may not know it, but you might even have knowledge, or even used some of these peptides, because they have been out there a long time. Some of them include insulin, the oldest and first discovered peptide, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCH), leptin, recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), Ghrelin, Myostatin to name a few which is not new to the weightlifting world. But the research is only beginning now to discover their uses and benefits to the medical world. But be careful for even though they don’t present major side effects, there is still a bad side to these indetectables. 

Note: I hope that some readers are able to acknowledge the information that is being given by this post, for this has been a subject that has taken the most time to research about and definitely not a lot of information about.

Articles Researched:

Classification status of peptide-based performance and enhancing drugs. Medsafe. 2013.

Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARM’s) as Function Promoting Therapies. Bhasin & Jasuja. Current Opinion Clinical Nutrition Metabolism Care. 2010.

Selective androgen receptor modulators in preclinincal and clinical development. Narayanan et al. Nuclear Recept Signal. 2008.

Insulin-like growth factors. Derek Le Roith. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997

Growth-hormone releasing peptides. Ghigo, et al. European Journal of Endocrinology. 1997

Research on mechano growth factor: its potential for optimising physical training as well as misuse in doping. Goldspink. Br. J. Sports Med. 2005.

PEAK YOUR CURLS

The Bicep Curl is one of the mainstream exercises and included in all weight lifting programs for male and female. But it is also one of the exercises that you see most people doing wrong and cheating on, not using the full ROM, completing it too fast causing the rocking of the upper body, and using weights that they really aren’t able to handle if the exercise was done properly.

There are many variations of the Bicep curl, but which variation affects this muscle group more? Which is right, using the full range of motion or a minor portion of it? Does rocking back and forth really help? What is the correct position and posture to do this exercise?

First of all the Bicep muscle group is composed of the long head and the short head of the Bicep brachii, the coracobrachialis, and even though the muscle brachioradialis inserts in the radius bone, it is activated when most of the bicep curls are done.

So what are the positions and execution that this muscle group can be worked on? Like most exercises for limbs it can be done standing or seated. The standing position should be feet slightly apart (less then shoulder length) and arms should be naturally beside your body in anatomical position (hands in supinated position or facing forward). Your shoulders should be pulled back and open with your chest held up high. In this position you bend your elbows and the hands (palms up) go up towards your shoulders without moving the upper part of your arm. The movement without weights should be the same as with weights. So with dumbbells or barbell your elbows should be pointing straight down and the palm of hands should always be in supinated position.  The seated position is the same, with the only difference that you might never see the barbell used, because the legs are in the way. The ROM should be bending your elbows until the weight reaches your shoulders then back down where the elbows are almost fully extended.

In gyms you see the bicep curls being done with the elbows pointing outwards. But if you really look at the men who execute the movement in this way, you will see that their anatomical position is different to an average person. This is due to more than normal developed back and shoulder muscles which makes it difficult for them to keep their arms straight down by their side. For them it will have an effect, but for a person with regular anatomical position of the body, it can cause injuries when elbows are pointing in any direction other than straight to the back of your body.

If you ever do feel your shoulders or elbow, the ergonomics of how you do the biceps curl could be wrong. Injuries related to the wrong execution of the bicep curl could lead to inflammation of the tendons of the elbow or tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) and even shoulder injuries. Proper positioning of the wrists are important and also the core and lower back strength.

There are many variations of exercises, and most of them use all of the muscles of the biceps. Most of the exercises such as hammer curls, concentration curls, low pulley curls, and even reverse curls (also activates the muscles of the forearms) are a risk for injury because they activate the brachioradialus, when added with incorrect technique. Machine curls and preacher may be an even higher risk because there is big tension at the lowest point of the weight with the extension of the arm, with possibility of affecting the shoulder. High pulley curls and barbell curls are considered safe and used as a strength exercise related to the rehabilitation of these muscles.

 

If you want bigger and better guns always include the dumbbell curls, hammer curls and curls on the high pulley, but remember letting your elbow advance forward, even if it is just a little, will compromise the full ROM and produce less tension on your biceps. And if you aren’t making any further progress, try loaded negative reps. So keep the right posture and technique for massive guns.