An excerpt for my upcoming book, consistency is the common ingredient in mostly all successful difficult endeavors. For bodybuilding, essential of course. We all know and want to be consistent, so it is important to identify the main villains that interrupt, postpone or even terminate our ideal routine and then deal with them accordingly. below are valuable tips on avoiding to of the most notorious, injury and illness, may it prove as useful to you as it is to me and my clients.
THE ENEMIES OF CONSISTENCY
The most profound element of any training program or worthwhile endeavor is consistency. consistency though, has many enemies: illness, injury, lack of motivation, lack of results, boredom and prioritizing.
A. Illness can be prevented in many cases. It does take diligence though. To prevent catching a bug, or to kick its ass once you get it, follow the advice given here. The effectiveness of the immune system and following the bodybuilding menu and supplementation recommendations are directly proportional. That means the better bodybuilding diet and supplementation, the better the immune system. It is basically this: eat small balanced meals every 3 hours, take a multivitamin and mineral, take additional anti-oxidant vitamins, drink 1 oz. Of water per pound of body-weight, supplement with amino acids and l-glutamine between meals. Following this protocol will have you working or working out while everyone else is out from the latest bug to go around. In the past decade glutamine has become a proven supplement that boosts immune system and recovery. It should be priority right after the multivitamin. 3-5 grams of glutamine 2-4 times a day and the recommended dose of aminos with it will do the job.
B. injury- for a person just trying to get in shape and not participating in any sports, stay Away from sports. Yes it sounds counter-intuitive to avoid sports when pursuing health and fitness. A very high ranking physical therapist and trainer defined sports like this: any activity that challenges the bodies ability to hold itself together. If you play sports, its inevitable that your injured. The absolute safest method for improving health and fitness would be controlled, brief resistance training combined with brisk walking. Performing lifts slowly and controlled is the safest form of exercise there is, the problem with lifting injuries comes from poor form, ill advised movements, not paying attention to existing injuries.
Proper form is something that cannot be learned by reading the machine or exercise instructions. It will show you the start and finish but it will not talk about rep speed, body alignment, joint position, arc of movement or even seat position. So find a quality trainer, (half wont know) to just show you the basic settings of your most used machines or check out my channel on youtube as video is better than print for exercising.
Some movements should not be done by certain individuals, due to body structure, past injuries, goals and flexibility issues (which can be corrected) . A great example of this is the bench press. The most over rated and joint destroying exercise in existence (another story) If your trying to look good for the summer, why are you performing power cleans and handstand pushups? A certain training method has been a boon for physical therapists and orthopedic surgeons everywhere.
If you listen to your body, it has a lot to say. Say its shoulder day, you slept in bad position, shoulder is tweaked, your workout should be adjusted or even postponed. If you come into the gym with an injury incurred while playing a sport, being clumsy, acting stupidly etc. , adjust your workout. There is a saying that tell my clients, if it hurts don’t do it. Also, “work around it, not through it” That means if your elbow hurts on certain triceps movements Dont do them. If you do it you must work in the range of motion that doesnt hurt the joint At ALL, even if its a 2 inch movement. So pay attention to any nagging aches or pains that are normally not there. If you are playing a sport pay particular attention to any unusual pain or restricted motion. Restricted motion is good sign that that spot is a potential injury site.
