Monday, November 28, 2011

Skipping the Basics

Plenty of lifters believe that doing isolation exercises like chest flies and leg extensions is the only way to make their muscles grow. But basic moves such as bench presses and squats force several muscle groups to work together, imposing more stress on your body for bigger gains.
"Your body reacts to all that stress by having the anterior pituitary gland issue more growth hormone to compensate for the extra effort," says Allen Hedrick, C.S.C.S., head strength-and-conditioning coach at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Of course you need variation, but don't abandon basic moves in favor of intermediate isolation exercises.
Fix it: Write down the exercises in your routine to see what percentage of them are compound moves. "If it's not in the range of at least 40 to 50 percent, then you're doing too many isolation exercises," says Bell. Sourced By: Yahoo Health

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