Avoid Stretching Before Workout?

Yes and no. It depends on what type of stretching you are thinking of. If you have in mind the most well known, classic type of stretching, where you stretch to a certain degree and then hold for a certain number of seconds, that’s the static stretching. It’s the stretching you want to avoid before your weights training routine.

But if you thought dynamic stretches then you hit right on the spot. Dynamic stretches are those where you bring a muscle to a stretched position for a very short period of time, such as in arm and leg swings, rotations. This is the type of stretching you should do before your workout as a part of the warming up routine.

As soon as you are finished with the training session make sure you stretch passively the already trained muscles. Yes, I am talking about the type of stretching, which you should avoid upon beginning of your workout.

And why you should avoid it? Static stretching causes your muscles to relax, thus making them more prone to injuries. That is the main reason. You shouldn’t fear injuries due to your muscles being relaxed once you’re done with your workout because you are not going to do anything that might put your muscles in danger. That’s why you do static stretching at the end. And as a matter of fact you do it in any other part during the day except right before weights training session.

How Fast Do Our Muscles Grow

Guessing for the answer of this question is actually what almost all of us would do. Including me until I read about the study, done by U.K. scientists, in which study they discovered that it takes as little as 3 weeks to see noticeable growth of a muscle.

What happened was the researchers closely monitored people who did leg extensions for four sets of seven reps 3 times a week. They found that the athletes gained on average 0.2 percent muscle mass a day.

If you ask me that’s huge. Think about it for a moment. If you train certain muscle group 3 times a week that’s 156 workouts a year. If this muscle group grew with 0.2 percent a day that makes for more than 70% increase. Now, tell me if you wouldn’t like that?

Of course there is no such thing as constant and steady muscle growth, but still if you ask me I’d be content with even half of that increase in a single year.

In conclusion this study is another strong vote for the “train each muscle group 3 times a week - intense” concept, which is becoming more and more a staple in the sport of bodybuilding.

Are You Losing Fat Or You Are Losing Muscle?

You know what the difference is between weight loss and fat loss. The firs one means you’re losing weight – fat and muscle. The second one means you’re losing fat, but keeping your muscles. And the second option is the one you should be aiming at.

But, how can you tell if you’re losing both fat and muscle or mainly fat? There is a way. Before you start you need to know not only how much you weigh, but also how much you lift and for how many reps in the basic, multi-joint moves.

Here is how it works. Take bench press for example. Say you weigh 200lb and you bench press 235lb for 10 reps. Now, take the bench press number and divide it by your body weight. Write down this result.

As you are losing weight keep recording what weight you use to bench 10 times. To check if your weight loss comes from mainly fat loss or fat and muscle, divide the 10 reps bench press weight by your body weight just like you did in the beginning. If this number is dropping – you are losing muscle tissue along with the fat.

This means you need to correct your meals and exercise. In regards to the exercise you need to lift heavy weights to challenge the muscles, which in turn means they need to stay as big as they are in order to be able cope with this weight next time they experience it.

Another Vote to the Protein Shake Close to Workout Time

You already know about the so called “metabolic window”. That’s the 2-hour period right after the workouts when your body assimilates nutrients twice as fast as during any other times. This is also the time when you are less susceptible to storing the carbohydrates as fat.

In a recent study seventeen men were divided in two groups – one group drank protein shakes immediately before and after the workout, the other group – 5 hours outside of workout time.

What the researchers discovered was after just ten weeks the group who had protein shakes on both sides of their workouts gained twice as much muscle, compared to those who had their shakes wide apart.

The conclusion: Drinking a fast digestible protein shake should be a priority prior to your workout to help your muscles, fueling the training session. This way you will use up less of your own muscle during an intense session and more of the nutrients in your blood stream.

Also, down one protein shake right after it to immediately stop the catabolic process, induced by the pain levels and the micro tears of the muscle fibers, and to start rebuilding the damaged tissues right away.