Talk to your doctor before starting a strength-training program. Set a workout schedule that allows you to exercise at least two to three times per week on the Bowflex.
You want to work different muscle groups on separate days, giving each at least one day of rest between workouts. For example, set chest and back muscles on Day 1, legs on Day 2 and arms on Day 3. For leg workouts, perform squats and hamstring curls with the machine.
Squats are done straddling the bench with the grips in your hands sitting on your shoulders. Sit back to the bench and back up. Find the resistance levels that cause your muscle to nearly fail within one set, according to the Mayo Clinic. Fail means you are barely able to complete the last repetition, if you are able to. The goal is to find the resistance level for each of your major muscle groups so you can perform 12 to 15 repetitions in the set. For example, a seated bicep curl is performed facing the resistance rods.
The Bowflex provides resistance when curling up and keeps tension on the way down. If you are unable to do 12 reps, go to a lighter resistance rod. Start slowly and give yourself time to work up to heavier resistance levels. Increase resistance when you can easily finish the set. Focus on your form when using the Bowflex. While everyone wants big arms, the focus usually falls on the biceps—but the triceps are equally as important.
And when it comes to things like the bench press or the pull-up, strong triceps can really up your game in these areas. Furthermore, strong triceps help to also stabilize your shoulder joints and are an essential ingredient when it comes to some functional fitness needs. Examples of this include basketball, volleyball, and tennis. The French press is another excellent tricep exercise, but it comes with its own nuances that make it perfectly complementary to the tricep extension.
However, we can go even further than that when it comes to activating particular muscle fibers. The tricep is made up of three heads, and the long head is the most important when it comes to the perceived size of the entire muscle.
While tricep extensions do train all three heads, they place an emphasis on the two shorter ones. The benefit of the French press is that it places more load on the long head of tricep, giving you extremely well-rounded arms.
The leg press is one of the best all-round lower body leg exercises that one can do. It hits the quads, hamstrings, and glutes—which are already some of the biggest muscles in the body. While leg day oft goes ignored, well-built legs look good on absolutely everyone and arguably have more functional fitness benefits than upper body strength. If you want to run faster on the treadmill or increase your vertical for your pickup basketball games, the leg press is a good movement to add to your workout roster.
While some people might be intimidated by the technicalities of good squat form, the leg press holds its own while also providing similar benefits. While the leg press emphasizes the quads, leg curls are terrific for isolating the hamstrings and improving their strength and flexibility.
Strong and flexible hamstrings mean greater overall strength, balance, and endurance. Calf raises activate two muscles: the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles. The former is what gives your lower leg that teardrop shape, while the latter lies underneath it. These muscles are essential when it comes to pointing down your toes and raising your heels.
Stronger calves mean a greatly improved ankle stability. This is a great way to improve your performance when running since your push-off is stronger. Other sports such as skating, soccer, and tennis will also see improvements since these activities require you to be able to turn on a dime.
Along with improving your balance as well, strong calves can help to prevent any nasty ankle injuries from incurring either in daily life, or when playing sports. A terrific pulling exercise, not only do lat rows activate the lats, but they also engage the biceps and triceps.
The latter two serve as stabilizing muscles in this movement. Having a strong back is essential for balancing out a strong chest. Much like the exercise above, lat pulldowns also serve to primarily engage the middle back lats and core.
However, while the focus is on the middle back, lat pulldowns do a whole lot for your entire back. The close versus wide grip is also an important distinction.
Much like in pull-ups, a wider grip will engage more of your back and lats than a narrow grip will. Using a closer grip will allow your biceps to take more of a load, which is great for us since this is also a bicep day.
Training your chest and by extension, the front delts too much without giving the rear delts enough attention can result in a rounded posture that looks anything but good.
A wider elbow positioning with this move will engage your rear delts, traps, and upper back to a greater degree. When it comes to looking good, there are few muscles that can match the aesthetic dimensions of having big biceps.
Outside aesthetics, biceps are functionally useful anytime you try to pick something up. This all occurs within individual muscle cells known as myofibers. This means that you are not actually adding muscle; you're just making them bigger.
So the next time your buddy brags about how much muscle he's gained you can deflate his ego a little bit by proving him wrong.
Too bad you can't deflate his muscles a little too, right? We know that protein synthesis is responsible for making your muscles look like inflated balloons, but what provides the stimulus to cause the muscle to adapt this way? The answer should be obvious - strength training!
A research review in , performed by renowned muscle hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, found that research points to three main mechanisms that cause muscle hypertrophy: 1 mechanical tension, 2 muscle damage and 3 metabolic stress. Let's take a look at what causes each of these and how they affect muscle hypertrophy. Mechanical tension refers to the amount of force tension that is developed by your muscle fibers in response to a stimulus. This is referred to as external force.
It should also be noted that not all muscle fibers are used during an exercise, and if a muscle fiber is not used, it has no incentive to get bigger. The good news is that using heavy weights will force your brain to recruit more muscle fibers in order to create enough tension to handle the monstrous loads you are imposing on them. This doesn't mean you need to use maximal loads however.
According to Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, the premise of mechanical tension's ability to stimulate muscle growth is that when resistance is applied to, and sensed by, a muscle, there is a concurrent chemical signal sent to the brain that results in an increase in protein synthesis, which is the basis for muscle hypertrophy.
Muscle damage is simply the breakdown of muscle tissue. When your muscle breaks down your body builds it back up even stronger than it was before. Your body is pretty smart, isn't it? It is caused predominantly during eccentric contractions. During an eccentric contraction, your muscle elongates while exerting a braking action to resist the pull of external forces.
This causes small tears in the muscle. When extreme loads are used, this braking action is often referred to as "negatives," and is often employed by bodybuilders. Metabolic stress is an accumulation of metabolites such as lactic acid and inorganic phosphates, among others. This is primarily a result of training to exhaustion. It works similar to muscle damage induced cell swelling except that it causes an influx of plasma cell fluid into the muscle cells.
Just as with cell swelling caused by muscle damage, this also increases protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown. Again, both are necessary to increase muscle mass. Are you starting to see the theme here?
To recap, in order to increase muscle mass you must synthesize more protein than you are breaking down. Anything that prevents you from breaking down muscle protein is a welcome added bonus.
Protein synthesis is stimulated by mechanical tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress. The primary way for any or all of these to happen is by using moderate to heavy loads during resistance exercise and working to exhaustion. As previously mentioned, strength training is the primary stimulus for increasing protein synthesis.
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