I've been a trainer for 7 years and I can confidently say the following - both personally as someone who walks his talk and professionally as someone who studies and APPLYS appropriate information that works for my clients:
1) What you think and what you eat has MUCH more significance over the results you see from you training program - no matter how "good" the program is.
2) You cannot build muscle without raw materials. When seeking an anabolic response to exercise, you must have adequate nutrition on board to allow your cells to grow. Notice I did not say that you need to eat a lot of protein!! Rule numero uno with nutrition is this: Dead food = dead bodies!! How alive do you think commercial whey protein garbage really is??
3) Work hard, rest hard. This specifically addresses the questions being asked in this post. If you hurt, you are injured. If you train your body to failure with poor posture, improper technique, compensation, etc - you are training to fail (read this again!!). If you train your body when it is weak and injured - you are training your body to become weaker!! If pain = NO GAIN!!
4) Stretching makes you weak!! If you hold a muscle on stretch for 20-30 seconds you are telling your nervous system to down-regulate/inhibit that muscle. THis is a bad idea prior to lifing any type of weights or doing any type of athletic events. You should only strectch tight muscles at the right time and for specific reasons. Stretching in general has not shown to be effective for improving performance or reducing injury in sport...reread the first sentence and you will understand why.
5) Working out on body building machines (Nautilus, Cybex, Hammer Strength, etc) is a great way to build big ole dumb muscles but always creates the stage for many muscles imbalances (ie injury and pain) down the road. If you do use machines, apply them intelligently and be very carful not to overtrain dysfunctional movement patterns (ie pec deck, leg curls, ab machines, etc). Remember YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO REPEATEDLY!!!
6) If you isolate a muscle, you must integrate that muscle back into a functional motor program. For example, if you strenghen your legs on a leg press then you need to do something that replicates your sport or work activities like shooting a basketball or picking up boxes.
7) Doing 300 ab crunches by lying on your back on the floor is ineffective at best and in many cases dangerous. Your abdominal mucles are fast twitch muscles and respond to load, tension, and speed of movement - not endurance of repetition. You cannot spot reduce fat on you belly by exercising the muscles underneath - otherwise people that chew gum would have ripped cheeks!!!
That is all for now my people...I'll check back to see what you all think
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