Heat Trap

The body has a brilliantly simple cooling system – it sweats. Evaporating sweat cools the skin.

High relative humidity shuts down the cooling system. Humidity is water in the air; high humidity means that the air’s water content is approaching the maximum. Water vapor exerts pressure. When the water vapor pressures in the air and on the skin are similar, the sweat does not evaporate. It beads and rolls. Rolling sweat does not cool; it hits the ground and goes to waste.

Avoid outdoor exercising on a hot and humid day. Hot weather  alone isn’t a threat to safety – you’ll sweat, the sweat will evaporate, and evaporation will cool the body. High humidity, however, will cause heat to be trapped inside the body. Trapped body heat creates stress that may cause problems like thirst, tiredness, grogginess, and visual disturbances. Worse, heat illness may happen. Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat strokes are the major heat illnesses.

When the air temperature is 80 degrees or less, there is little chance of heat illness. Around 85 degrees and less than 60% humidity, exercise can safely take place. At 90 degrees, exercising is dangerous anyplace with more than 30% humidity – which means outdoor exercising in Philly on a hot summer day is a really bad idea.

Of course, The Training Station is always a safe place to exercise!

Coordinated Effort

It is normal for an exercise to feel better in one limb than its opposite, or stronger on one side than the other. A one-arm press, for example, may feel stronger in the left arm than the right. A side-lying exercise may feel stronger on the left side than the right.

We have approximately equal amounts of muscle tissue in any set of limbs and in similar sides of the body. Apparent strength differences are not caused by different quantities of muscle tissue.

Neuromuscular coordination is the reason for perceived strength differences. People can coordinate movements in some limbs and sides better than other limbs and sides. This is probably due to the amount of time a limb is used – the heavily used limb will likely be the more coordinated limb.

The above notwithstanding, there are real strength differences between similar limbs. But those differences will be very small – perhaps no more than a 5 pound strength difference between any two limbs.

The weak-feeling limbs will gradually become better coordinated.

Don’t Dance

Good weightlifting requires the feet to be still. More to the point, they should be pushed into the floor or footrest.

A prone, supine, or seated exerciser may easily move his feet. But the torso would inevitably lose some of its stillness because moving feet are not connected to the ground, which helps brace the torso. The limbs do almost all of the actual moving during seated and lying strength exercise; they cannot apply maximum force if the torso is not still. Limbs are levers anchored in the torso – the limbs lose leverage whenever the torso moves even slightly.

Fatigue is the great enemy of still feet. A tired lifter often moves his feet and will even thrust a leg into the air. His limbs lose strength and power just when these qualities are most needed.

The sound way to lift is to apply more force to the ground through the feet. Stop dancing and you’ll probably grind out a few more reps.

Water Rowing

It’s hard to get water moving, but it’s not hard to keep it moving.

Without a doubt, speeding-up is harder to do than anything else on the Water Rower. And if you’re already moving fast, then speeding up is very difficult.

You’re best bet is not to hold back. Go all out until you reach the desired speed. Then relax into the easier rhythm of movement that will sustain the speed.

By the way, 500 meters is a standard unit of length in rowing. The Water Rower can be set to give you a 500 meter time. The smaller that number, the faster you’re rowing.

Don’t Spin Your Wheels

A Physical Activity Guideline for Americans is to do 150 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity per week. At less than vigorous intensity, also known as moderate intensity, that number increases to 300 minutes. This means that moderate intensity exercisers should spend a lot of time in the gym.

If you like taking it easy in the gym, remember that doing so will cost you time. If you don’t spend the required time, you won’t gain the benefits of exercise. You would just be spinning your wheels at the gym.

I think its best to exercise at a vigorous intensity. Good results come from exercise at that intensity. Most people have little time to excercise, so little that only vigorous intensity exercise would give them benefits.

Work hard at the gym. You may as well get the results that you came for.

How Hard Is the Shoe?

The midsole is the most important part of a shoe. Sandwiched between a shoe’s upper and outsole, the midsole is what you stand on.

Midsoles are made of thermoplastic foam. The foams have varying degrees of hardness. Hard foams offer more support than do soft foams. Soft foams have better cushion than hard foams.

It is important to buy shoes with the appropriate amount of hardness. Hard shoes sometimes irritate people that don’t really need hardness. Soft shoes may not well support the unstable foot and ankle system.

The Training Station understands all of this, and more, abut sneakers. If you need the right pair, we’re the folks that will find it.

More Bars in One Place

Here at The Training Station, we offer a variety of different bars, each serving a different purpose, to cater to your lifting needs.  Below is The Training Station’s guide to knowing how to distinguish each bar from the others as well as how to know when to use which bar.

POWER BARS:
The York power bars are often found racked on a bench press or the squat rack and they weigh 45 lbs.  Use these bars for the slower power lifts:  the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift.

OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING BARS:
The Training Station offers two different types of weightlifting bars:  A 44 lb bar for men (distinguished with a blue stripe on the sleeves), and a 33 lb bar for women (distinguished with a yellow stripe on the sleeves.)  In addition, the women’s Olympic weightlifting bar is slightly shorter in length than the men’s weightlifting bar, and is also smaller in diameter to accommodated the smaller grip of female lifters. The Olympic Weightlifting Bars are used for fast, dynamic movements such as the Snatch, the Clean & Jerk, and derivatives thereof.

The men's Olympic weightlifting bar (top) is slightly longer and and greater in diameter than the women's weightlifting bar (bottom.)

5 ft. STRAIGHT BAR:
The straight bar weighs 25 lbs. and is used for exercises requiring a barbell shorter than the standard 7 ft. power bar.  For example, barbell bicep curls or overhead lunges would be suitable exercises for the straight bar.

The 5 ft. Straight Bar is distinguished from the power and weightlifting bars by it's shorter length as well as the rubber-rimmed sleeves.

EZ Curl Bar:
The EZ Curl Bar is the only contoured bar at The Training Station and weighs 25 lbs.  It is distinguished by the contours and is used for exercises such as barbell bicep curls, preacher curls, and various tricep exercises:

The contoured EZ Curl Bar.

OLYMPIC DUMBBELL HANDLES:
The Training Station’s Olympic dumbbell handles are great for customizing the amount of weight on a dumbbell.  The fixed dumbbells go up to 100 lbs; however, should you wish to lift heavier dumbbells, just add weight plates to each end of the Olympic dumbbell handles for a customized dumbbell.

Olympic dumbbell handles.

Do The Best With What You Have

Photo from GeekPhilospher.com

Your workouts will be different because you will be different. There will be days when you feel rested, energetic, and upbeat. There will be days when every act feels harder than it should feel.

A workout will be really good when you feel really good. When you’re not feeling so good, you may not perform as well. Effort is what makes a workout good, not performance. Your best effort for that day — not some other day when you felt really great — is what matters most. If today you ran 10-minute miles, even though you are normally a 9.5-minute performer, then you had a good workout, if the best you had was 10-minute mile speed.

I’ve seen members look dejected after workouts; disappointed that the workout wasn’t as good as some other workout. That’s like an athlete feeling disappointing because he doesn’t equal his own record, each race!

There will only be sometimes when you have your absolute best stuff. But you will always be able to put out a good effort.

Run!

Don’t forget about the Training Station’s Saturday Morning Drills tomorrow morning at 8:00 am at the Piazza! Come out and complete an aerobic run and some sprint drills with a group of ALL LEVELS.  The Drills are free for Training Station members. Non-member fee is $10 which includes all day access to The Training Station.

Bench Press Clinic

Want to learn how to bench press, or get some tips on how to press with better form? Drop by the Training Station this Saturday, May 8th, at 9:00 am for our Bench Press Clinic. Phil will explain and demonstrate how to bench press and will critique each attendees’ form.

Clinics are $10 per person.  Members and non-members are welcome!