Are you as strong, flexible, and physically fit as you would like to be? If you are, good for you. However, if you want to make some improvements, here’s one piece of advice: Try to improve a little bit at a time.

The only way to walk a mile is to take 1 step at a time. The only way to improve your fitness level is to take it 1 step at a time.

• Pick 1 aspect of fitness (aerobic, strength, flexibility) you want to improve first.
• Pick an activity that you enjoy. Your more likely to keep doing something you like.
• Set a 1-month goal that you think you can reach. For example, plan to walk for 10 minutes at lunch 3 days a week, or stretch for 5 minutes each morning.
• Start today. Keep a record of what you do.
• When you reach your first goal, reward yourself! Then set a new one.

Consistency brings success. Each success may be a small one, but small successes can quickly add up to physical fitness that will make a big difference in your life.

How hard should I exercise?

Nice and easy does it. Exercise does not have to be intense to be of value. In fact, if you exercise too hard, you get less benefit than if you go at a moderate pace.

Above all, listen to your body. If the exercise feels too hard, slow down. You will reduce your risk of injury and enjoy the exercise much more.

Try the “talk-sing test” to determine your ideal exercise pace:

• If you can’t talk and exercise at the same time, you are going too fast.
• If you can talk while you exercise, you are doing fine.
• If you can sing while you exercise, it would be safe to exercise a little faster.

Your exercise is most effective when you can talk, but not sing, while doing it.

How Often should I Exercise?

Most studies show that exercising for at least 30 minutes a week is what it takes to improve fitness. However, sometimes it’s easier to make exercise a habit if you do it every day.

With aerobic exercise, harder is not better, but longer is. Although you can get good fitness benefits from as little as 10 minutes of aerobic exercise per day, extending your exercise time will increase your rewards. This is true for up to 1 hour of exercise per day. Beyond that, there may be diminishing health returns and increasing risk of injuries.

Warm Up and Cool Down

For the first 5 minutes of your exercise routine, start out slowly and easily so your muscles have a chance to warm up.

End your exercise with a little cool-down period. If you’ve been running or walking quickly, gradually slow your pace, then do a few light stretches to improve flexibility.

Drink some extra water before and after exercising.

Overcome Barriers to Exercise

There are 6 barriers to exercise are all easy to overcome

1. No time?
   Try shorter periods of activity spread out throughout the day, such as three 10-minute walks.
2. Too tired?
   It’s often lack of exercise that makes you tired. Exercise gives you energy, try it.
3. Embarrassed?
   Many people are, especially at first. Be proud that you’re taking care of your body.
4. No partner?
   Yes, it’s more fun to exercise with a friend. If your regular exercise partner quits, find another one. You could also join a fitness club, take a class, or exercise to a video.
5. Bad weather?
   Too hot, too cold, too wet, too windy-it never seems right for exercise. Lots of people exercise come rain or shine. Try a variety of indoor and outdoor activities.
6. Too costly?
   You had to let the fitness club expire. You can’t afford a mountain bike. You panic at the price of running shoes. It all costs money, but can you afford not to exercise? Try a low-cost option such as walking instead of driving.

Exercise CAUTIONS

Moderate exercise is safe for most people. To be safe, start slowly and gradually increase the intensity of your exercise. However, if you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, talk with your physician before beginning an exercise program.

• Do you have heart trouble?
• Do you have undiagnosed chest pains?
• Do you have high blood pressure?
• Do you have arthritis or other bone or joint problems that might be aggravated by improper exercise?
• Do you  have diabetes? You may want to talk with your physician about how increased exercise affects your insulin needs.

Men over age 40 who have been inactive or who have 2 or more risk factors for heart disease* and who plan to start a vigorous exercise program (running or fast bicycling or swimming) may wish to talk with their physician about any possible risks.

*Cholesterol over 200 mg/dl, blood pressure over 140/90, smoking, diabetes, or family history of heart disease before age 45

Across the country, people are tuning up their old bicycles or buying new ones to get around town and run errands. And why not? Bicycling is inexpensive, fun and offers numerous health benefits.

Like walking and jogging, bicycling is a form of aerobic exercise. Bicycling offers the added benefit of being low impact, which equates to less stress on the joints. Before you start riding, a few cycling precautions will go along way to making your ride more enjoyable. First, invest in a high-quality helmet, pair of gloves and bicycling shorts. Also, a comfortable, gender-specific bicycle seat makes it easier to take long rides. When it comes to more specialized gear such as clip-less pedals, they are recommended only if you are planning to ride more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time. As for the bicycle itself, make sure you get a cycle that fits both your leg length and your torso/arm reach. And before a ride, gentle stretching will help prepare your muscles and joints. After the ride, when your muscles are warm, is the time to focus on flexibility and increasing your range of motion. Here are a few handy stretches:

Gluteal Stretch

1. Lie on your back with your left foot flat on the floor and right ankle placed on top of the left knee. Reach forward with both hands and hold the back of the left thigh.
2. Gently bring your left knee toward your chest as far as you can without causing pain. You should feel a stretch in the buttocks area.
3. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat on the other leg. Perform the stretch at least 2 times on each side.

Quad Stretch

1. While standing next to a chair or wall, bend your outside knee and bring your heel toward your buttock.
2. While holding the ankle of the bent leg, gently extend your hip back and up so that you feel a stretch down the front of your thigh.
3. Hold the position for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat on the other side. Perform the stretch at least 2 times on each side.

Shoulders, Arms and Back

1. With your arms and hands shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent and feet directly below your hips, place your hands on your bike or a stable surface in front of you.
2. With your arms slightly bent, gently move your chest downward between your arms and shoulders until you feel a stretch across your chest and shoulders.
3. Hold the stretch for about 30 seconds and repeat 2 times.

Handling the bewildering nature of weight equipment consists of two points.

• First, relax. With a bit of practice, weight training contraptions are actually
  easy to operate.
• Second, be happy that you decided to take up weight lifting in the 21st
  century. Back in the 1800s, fitness enthusiasts lifted furniture, boulders —
  even cows! Although we personally have never tried hoisting farm animals
  over our heads, we feel confident that today’s weight training
  devices are a major improvement.

In this and the next few articles, you will discover the basic strength-building tools found in health clubs and home equipment stores. You will also receive a detailed account of the pros and cons of each equipment category:

• Free weights (dumbbells and barbells)
• Machines
• Rubber exercise bands and tubes

And, with a little guidance, you decide which type of equipment is right for you.

• Should beginners stick to machines?
• Do barbells build bigger muscles?
• Can you get strong without using any equipment at all?

Please Check out the rest of this article at the pages below.

Getting Comfortable with Free Weights
Using a Weight Bench
Don’t Be Afraid of Weight Machines!

Making weight machines work for you

Like every machine ever invented, from the Cuisinart to the calculator, weight machines provide advantages over the low-tech contraptions that came before. Here are some of the ways that weight machines can top dumbbells and barbells:

• Weight machines are safe. Your movement range is limited and the
  intended pattern is preset, so you need less instruction and supervision
  than you do with free weights.
• Weight machines are easy to use. Machines don’t require much balance
  or coordination, so you can get the hang of an exercise more quickly.
  Also, you’re more likely to use proper form because the machine provides
  so much guidance.
  Machines don’t guarantee good form. You can still butcher an exercise
  on a machine, which can lead to injury or at the very least cheat your
  muscles out of a good workout.
• Weight machines enable you to isolate a muscle group. In other words,
  machines enable you to hone in on one muscle group to the exclusion
  of all others. For example, very few free weight exercises isolate your
  hamstrings (your rear thigh muscles). Usually, you can’t exclude other
  muscles — such as your front thighs, butt, or lower back — from getting
  involved.
  On the other hand, numerous machines can isolate your hamstrings.
  This feature of weight machines is helpful if you have a particular weakness
  or are trying to build up one body part.
• Weight machines help you move through your workout in minutes.
  You put in the pin, do the exercise, and then move to the next machine.
  This process also makes working out with a friend, who is stronger or
  weaker, easier — you don’t have to load or unload weight plates off a
  bar. But keep in mind that you do need to adjust each machine to fit
  your body. In Chapter 5, we explain how to adjust machines.
• Weight machines challenge your muscles throughout the entire
  motion of an exercise. Many (although not all) modern-day weight
  machines compensate for the fact that your muscles aren’t equally
  strong throughout a particular motion. Consider the triceps kickback
  exercise, shown in Chapter 14. This exercise is relatively easy at the
  start, but by the time your arm is halfway straightened out, your muscle
  is being challenged a lot more. By the end, your triceps again have
  better leverage, so you finish feeling strong.
  Use a kidney-shaped gizmo called a cam to manipulate the resistance at
  various points throughout your exercise. When you’re at a weak point
  during the exercise, the cam lightens the load. When your muscle has
  good mechanical advantage, the cam gives it more work to do. This way,
  your muscles are working to their fullest throughout the motion.
  Otherwise, you’re limited to a weight you can move only at your weakest
  point, as you are with free weights.

Examining specific weight machines

Countless ways exist to put the various elements of weight machines together. Here’s a look at the varieties of machines.

Weight-stack machines
Traditional weight machines have a stack of rectangular weight plates, each weighing 5 to 20 pounds. Each plate has a hole in it; to lift 50 pounds, you stick a metal pin in the hole of the weight plate marked 50. When you perform the exercise — by pushing or pulling on a set of handles or levers — the machine picks up the plate marked 50, plus all the plates above it.

Weight-stack machines save time because changing the amount of weight you’re lifting is easier.

Plate-loaded machines
Plate-loaded machines fuse traditional machines and free weights. They have a large frame and protect you from dropping any weight on the floor, but they aren’t attached to a stack of weight plates; instead, you place any number of round weight plates onto large pegs.

Some of these plate-loaded machines are gimmicky. They offer no benefits over traditional machines — unless you happen to enjoy carrying weight plates around the gym. However, we do like the plate-loaded machines that let you work each side of your body separately. We also like the varieties that have “free-floating” levers. Instead of forcing you to move through a fixed pathway, the machines let you move any way you want. These machines mimic the feel of free weights (for the most part) while retaining most of the safety benefits of a weight machine.

Hydraulic and air pressure machines
This machine category doesn’t have a weight stack either. Hydraulic and air pressure machines have a series of pistons that create resistance by pumping oil, gas, or fluid. These machines are fine — some are very well designed — but some exercisers don’t feel motivated when they use them because a
weight stack isn’t moving up and down or steel isn’t clanging. (Some people have quirks about working out.) All you hear is a sound that’s similar to a can of hair spray in action. Gyms that offer 30-minute circuit programs often use these machines.

Electronic machines
These high-tech contraptions may be the future of weight machines. Some varieties have computers built right in. You swipe an ID card into the machine, which automatically sets the resistance based on your last workout. As you do your set, the machine sends you technique tips. Other electronic systems attach to regular weight training machines. You punch in a code and the machine retrieves your personal information.

The advantage of electronic machines is the storing of your information. This feature is great for beginners, who may be too overwhelmed to remember how much they lifted last time. These systems also run a variety of extensive reports so you can analyze your training in depth. For instance, you can compare your progress on the leg press to your progress on the leg extension. Serious athletes may find this information useful.

However, what’s new isn’t always better. Electronic machines slow down the pace of the gym and remove some of the human element involved in working out. Instead of interacting with the staff and other members, you interact with a machine.  Also, if the system goes down, the repair process generally takes longer than it does with your basic weight-stack machine. And, the electronic systems aren’t connected with free weights, so computer-dependent lifters may be discouraged from experimenting with dumbbells and barbells.

Cable machines: A different breed
Not all machines use a cam. A class of equipment called cable machines uses a typical round pulley. A cable machine is a vertical metal beam, called a tower, with a pulley attached. You can adjust the height of the pulley to move it close to the floor, up over your head, or anywhere in between. Some cable machines
have two towers. Cable machines are more versatile than Nautilus-type machines. Clip a new handle onto the pulley and you instantly create a new exercise.

Consider the triceps pushdown. Pressing down with a rope feels considerably different from pressing down with a V-shaped bar. You may prefer one attachment to the other, or you may want to use both for variety.

Bands and Tubing
Giant rubber bands and rubber tubes provide a muscle resistance workout for just pennies. These inexpensive items can’t make you as strong or measure your progress as precisely as machines and free weights, but bands do challenge your muscles in different and effective ways. For example, because bands don’t rely on weight or gravity for resistance, bands provide a challenge during both the up and down motions of an exercise. With most free weight and weight machine exercises, on the other hand, you typically feel most of the resistance during the lifting portion of the exercise, because gravity assists in the lowering portion.

Rubber bands and tubes are also convenient and portable. (You can’t exactly pack dumbbells in your overnight bag.) If you don’t have access to machines, bands are a great supplement to free weights because they allow you to do exercises that aren’t possible with dumbbells and bars. Chapter 24 shows you ten exercises that you can perform with bands and tubes.

Sure, you could lie on the ground and lift free weights, but many exercises come to an abrupt halt when your elbows smack against the floor. As a result, your muscles won’t get a chance to work to their fullest through a full range of motion. (Your elbows may not feel so great, either.)

Benches come in a variety of designs. While weight benches come in four different varieties, some benches adjust to serve all four functions.

• Flat: A flat bench looks like a long, narrow piano bench, only with
  padding and metal legs.
• Vertical: A vertical bench looks like a formal chair — with the seat back
  straight up. You wouldn’t want to sit in one of these at the dinner table,
  but they’re quite comfortable for weight lifting. The back support prevents
  you from straining your lower back muscles during exercises that
  you perform while sitting up. The dumbbell shoulder press uses this type of bench.
• Incline: The seat back of an incline bench adjusts so you can lie flat, sit
  up straight, or position yourself at any angle in between. (The angle you
  choose determines which muscles are emphasized.) See Chapter 12 for
  an example of the bench in action with the incline chest fly.
• Decline: A decline bench slopes downward so you’re lying with your
  legs higher than your head. Weight lifters primarily use a decline bench
  to strengthen the lower portion of the chest muscles.

  Most lifters don’t do much decline work because getting in and out of the
  position is awkward, especially when you’re holding weights. We describe
  a few decline chest exercises as “options” in Chapter 12. Keep in mind that
  you should always use a spotter if you feel that you need extra assistance.

Recording information in your log

Some people benefit so much from recording their weight routines (and cardiovascular workouts) that they jot down information daily. Other people find the paperwork annoying and prefer to keep a log for, say, one week every couple of months as a reality check. No matter how often you use your log, jotting down many or all the following details is a good idea:

• Your goals: At the start of each week, jot down specific workout goals such
  as, “Push extra hard on back and biceps,” or “complete eight push-ups.”
• The name of each exercise: We’re talking specifics. Don’t just write
  “chest”; write “incline chest fly” or “vertical chest press.” This way, you
  know whether you’re getting enough variety. Plus, you’re forced to know
  the name of each exercise. We know people who’ve worked out for years
  and still refer to the dumbbell shoulder press as “that one where you
  push the dumbbells up.”
• Sets, reps, and weight: Note how many repetitions you performed and
  how much weight you lifted for each set. Suppose that you did three
  sets of leg curls — first 12 reps with 30 pounds, and then 10 reps with 40
  pounds, and then 7 reps with 50 pounds. You can note this by writing “3”
  in the set column, “12, 10, 7” in the reps column, and “30, 40, 50” in the
  weight column.

• How you’re feeling: We’re not asking you to pour out your emotions like
  a guest on Oprah. Just jot down a few words about whether you felt
  energetic, tired, motivated, and so on. Did you take it easy, or did you
  act as if you were in Basic Training?
• Your cardio routine: Record how much cardiovascular exercise you
  did — whether it was a half an hour walking on the treadmill at 4 miles
  per hour or 15 minutes on the stair climber at level 6. Also, note whether
  you did your cardio workout before or after you lifted weights.
• Your flexibility routine: Record the amount of stretching time and how
  your stretches felt. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can record the names
  of the stretches or come up with names for your standard stretching
  routines.

Analyzing your workout log

choose to record your information. Watching your progress over time also gives you a big boost. If two months ago you could barely eke out 10 repetitions with 30 pounds on the leg extension machine and now you can easily perform 10 reps with 50 pounds, you know you’ve accomplished something.

Not only does a diary keep you motivated, but also recording your workouts helps achieve better results. If you’re dedicating plenty of time to your weight training but aren’t getting stronger or more toned, your workout diary may offer clues as to why you’re not seeing results. Scrutinize your diary and ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I getting enough rest? Maybe you’ve been lifting weights every
  other day, but your body actually needs two rest days between workouts.
  An extra day of rest may give you more oomph when you lift.
• Am I working each muscle group hard enough? Your log may indicate
  that you’ve been neglecting a particular muscle group. Maybe you’re
  averaging only four sets per workout for your legs compared to six or
  seven sets for your other body parts. Perhaps that’s the reason your leg
  strength seems to be lagging.
• Am I getting enough variety in my workout? When you flip through
  your diary, maybe you see the words biceps curl three times a week for
  the past three months, but you rarely see any other arm exercise. Maybe
  you’ve fallen into a rut. Add new exercises or vary the number of sets
  and repetitions you’ve been doing. Or mix up the order of your exercises.
• Am I lifting enough weight? Maybe you never write down the words
  “tough workout.” Perhaps picking up the 10-pound dumbbells for your
  biceps curls has become such a habit that you forgot to notice that
  those 10-pounders now feel light.
• Am I doing my cardiovascular exercise before my weights or after?
  Maybe you’ve been stairclimbing for 30 minutes before your weight
  sessions — and, therefore, are pooped out before you even lift a single
  weight.

Download the Planned-Diet Workout Log

Working all of your major muscle groups

Be sure that your routines include at least one exercise for each of the following muscle groups. (In Part III, we show you precisely where each muscle is located.)

• Butt or buttocks (glutes)
• Front thighs (quadriceps)
• Rear thighs (hamstrings)
• Calves
• Chest (pecs)
• Back
• Abdominals (abs)
• Shoulders (delts)
• Front of upper arm (biceps)
• Rear of upper arm (triceps)

For general fitness, the preceding muscles should be your highest priorities. If you neglect any of these muscle groups, you’ll have a gap in your strength, and you may set yourself up for injury.

If you avoid training any particular muscle group, you also may end up with a body that looks out of proportion. You don’t need to hit all your muscle groups on the same day — just make sure that you work each group twice a week.

Doing exercises in the right order

In general, work your large muscles before your small muscles. This practice ensures that your larger muscles — such as your butt, back, and chest — are challenged sufficiently. Suppose that you’re performing the dumbbell chest press. This exercise primarily works your chest muscles, but your pecs do require assistance from your shoulders and triceps. If you were to work these smaller muscles first, they’d be too tired to help the chest.

On occasion, however, you may specifically want to target a smaller muscle group, like your shoulders, because they’re lagging behind in development compared to other parts of your body. If that’s the case, you may want to design a program where you do shoulder exercises first one or two days a week for several weeks to build them up. In general, follow the rule of training larger to smaller.

In order to perform your exercises in the right order, you need to understand which exercises work which muscle groups. Many people do their routines in the wrong sequence because they don’t realize the purpose of a particular exercise (the purpose isn’t always obvious). When you pull a bar down to your chest, as in the lat pulldown (see Chapter 11), you may think that you’re doing an arm exercise when, in fact, the exercise primarily strengthens your back. So, make a point to understand which muscles are involved in each move that you do. In addition, studies show that concentrating on the specific muscle that you’re working and visualizing it becoming stronger increases the effectiveness of your training. You definitely want to make sure that you’re focusing on the right muscles to get the best results.

When choosing the sequence of a workout, imagine your body splitting into three zones: upper, middle, and lower. Within each zone, do your exercises in the following order. Feel free to mix exercises from the upper and lower body. It’s a good idea to train your middle body or core stabilizer muscles last as they stabilize your body during all the preceding exercises and help to prevent injury.

Upper body

1. Chest and back (It doesn’t matter which comes first.
2. Shoulders
3. Biceps and triceps (It doesn’t matter which comes first.)
4. Wrists

Middle body

You can perform your abdominal and lower back muscle exercises in any
order you want.

Lower body

1. Butt
2. Thighs
3. Calves and shins (It doesn’t matter which comes first although we prefer
   to work our calves before our shins.)

Some novices think that free weights are only for advanced weight lifters. Not true. Beginners have as much to gain from using free weights as those guys and gals who look like pros. Beginners can become stronger, improve muscle definition, and increase muscle endurance just like more experienced weight trainers.

Knowing the value of free weights

A friend of ours was lying on a weight bench holding two dumbbells over his head when his cat hopped on the bench. While trying to shoo the cat away by squirming around, our friend kept the weights overhead for so long that he tore a rotator cuff muscle. The point of this story isn’t to scare you away from using free weights. In fact, the best approach to strength training combines free weights and machines. Just know that barbells and dumbbells require plenty of concentration. Free weight training is perfectly safe. Here are several good reasons to use dumbbells and barbells:

• Free weights are versatile. With barbells and dumbbells, you can do literally
  hundreds of exercises that work virtually every muscle group in
  your body. Flip through Part III of this book, and get an idea of just how
  handy barbells and dumbbells are. Most weight machines, on the other
  hand, are designed to perform only one or two exercises.
• Free weights give your muscles more freedom to move. Suppose that
  you’re lying on a bench pushing a barbell above your chest (this exercise
  is the bench press, shown in Chapter 12). You can press the weight
  straight up over your chest, or you can move your arms a few inches
  back so you’re pressing directly above your neck. Or you can position
  your arms anywhere between. All these movements are perfectly legitimate
  ways of doing the exercise and working your pecs, and some
  motions may feel more comfortable to your body than others
• Free weights involve several muscle groups at once. For example,
  chest press movements (Chapter 12) work your chest, shoulders, and
  triceps. However, when you perform these movements with a barbell,
  you also call on your abdominal and lower back muscles to keep your
  body still and to keep the bar balanced as you press the weight up. With
  the equivalent weight machine, you don’t have to worry about holding
  the bar still, so your abdominal and back muscles don’t get much work.

Making the choice, knowing the difference: Dumbbells versus barbells

You can perform many movements with both dumbbells and barbells. For example, while sitting on a bench, you can either press a bar overhead  or press up two dumbbells. Which is the better option? Actually, both have their benefits.

Dumbbells and barbells both pose a bit more risk than weight machines because you need to stabilize your own body while performing the exercise, instead of relying on the machine to keep your body in the correct position. But if you follow the safety precautions outlined on Planned Diet, you should have no problem.

Choosing dumbbells
Dumbbells come in pairs, and at most health clubs, they’re lined up on a rack from lightest (as light as 1 pound) to heaviest (upward of 180 pounds). By the way, the super heavy dumbbells are mostly for show, considering that about .0000001 percent of the population is capable of lifting them.

Dumbbells come in many shapes and materials. Some have hexagonal ends so they don’t roll around the floor. Others have contoured handles so they fit more comfortably in your hand. Dumbbells are made of shiny chrome and gray steel. Others have rubber coating, so if some yahoo drops them, the weights won’t dig a hole in the floor the size of Australia.

Dumbbells allow each arm to work independently. If one side of your body is stronger than the other — a common phenomenon — this imbalance is apparent when you’re working with dumbbells. Your weaker arm may start wobbling or may poop out sooner than your dominant arm.

Using dumbbells helps correct strength imbalances because each side of your body is forced to carry its own weight, so to speak. By contrast, if you use a bar, your stronger side may simply pick up the slack for your weaker side.

Pumping iron with barbells
Like dumbbells, barbells, also called bars, come in a variety of designs. The most popular model is a straight bar. At most gyms, these bars weigh 45 pounds and are 6 or 7 feet long. (However, many gyms have bars in a variety of weights, sometimes as light as 15 or 20 pounds. If you’re not sure how much a bar weighs, be sure to check with a staff member.) If you want to lift more than 45 pounds, as most people eventually do, you choose from an array of round plates weighing 11⁄4 to 45 pounds and slide them on either end of the bar. (The plates have a hole in the center.) For example, if you want to lift 75 pounds, you slide a 10-pound plate and a 5-pound plate on each end of the bar. Some plates have additional holes cut in either side to make them easier to pick up and carry; the holes function like built-in luggage handles. These plates are a brilliant invention and have probably helped prevent many accidents and backaches.

Be sure to use collars at the gym and at home. Collars, cliplike or screwlike devices, temporarily secure weight plates on the bars. The collars prevent the plates from rattling around or sliding off the bar as you push or pull the barbell. Mirrors have shattered from runaway weight plates. Some health clubs require that you use collars.

In addition to straight bars, most health clubs and equipment dealers have a number of exotic-looking bars with various twists and bends in them. The most common is a W-shaped bar about 3 feet long called the EZ-Curl, which is designed to make certain triceps exercises more comfortable. Some gyms and equipment stores also have an array of straight and EZ-Curl bars with weight plates welded to the ends. These barbells are convenient to use because you don’t have to slide weight plates on and off. If you want to switch from 75 pounds to 85 pounds, you simply put the 75-pounder back on the rack and pick up the 85-pounder. No muss, no fuss.

These welded bars are often shorter and less bulky than the traditional bars, so they’re more comfortable for many arm and shoulder exercises. However, you typically won’t find these fixed-weight barbells weighing more than 150 pounds. For many barbell exercises — particularly certain chest and leg exercises — you may need a lot more weight than 150 pounds. With traditional bars, you can pile on up to 600 pounds (not that we expect you to do this right away).

Some dumbbell exercises just don’t feel as good as when you use barbells. Any seasoned lifter can tell you that nothing is quite like doing the bench press — the quintessential meat-and-potatoes chest exercise. Many lifters gain a great sense of satisfaction from being able to press so much weight. Even though the dumbbell chest press is a perfectly good exercise, it may not deliver quite the same amount of satisfaction (probably because you can’t lift as much total weight). For example, if you can do the dumbbell chest press with a 20-pound dumbbell in each hand, chances are good that you can lift at least a 60-pound barbell because your weaker side always limits you, and it’s more difficult to coordinate moving two separate units, instead of one single barbell.

• Height
• Weight
• Resting heart rate
• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol levels
• Waist measurement
• Body composition
• Body mass index
• Blood glucose levels

All these factors give important metabolic indicators of your overall health. Recording the above information helps you track your progress and see proven, documented results, even when you may not be seeing your waistline decrease or biceps increase as quickly as you want. When you do a weight training program consistently, you’ll see improvement in three areas:

• Body composition
• Body mass index
• Blood pressure

All three of these improvements reflect overall in your health. Most fitness facilities offer fitness assessments for their members for a fee. Some clubs include these assessments as part of your introductory membership package.

Research studies tell us that being fit to lower your risk of disease and to improve your quality of life is more important than simply being thin. For example, in a landmark study conducted at the Cooper Institute of Research, people who were both fit and overweight had a lower risk of disease and greater longevity than people who were thin and inactive.

The term strength testing is somewhat of a misnomer. Strictly speaking, your strength refers to the maximum amount of weight that you can lift one time — also called your one-rep max. For example, if you squeeze out only one shoulder press with 45 pounds, that’s your one-rep max for that exercise. In general, it’s not such a hot idea to go around testing your one-rep maxes, especially if you’re a beginner. Some veterans like to go all out sometimes, but they typically test their one-rep max for just one or two exercises in a given workout. Pushing to the max places a lot of stress on your body parts and can cause extreme muscle soreness even in experienced weight lifters.

When you strain or pull a muscle, you actually overstretch or tear the tendon, the tough, cordlike tissue at the end of the muscle where the muscle tapers off and attaches to the bone. A strain can happen when you push up the bar too forcefully during the bench press or stand up too quickly out of the squat. Strains are often accompanied by a sudden, sharp pain and then a persistent ache.

A sprain is something different altogether. This injury happens not to a muscle but to a joint, such as your ankle or wrist. When you sprain a joint, you’ve torn or overstretched a ligament, the connective tissue that attaches one bone to another. You may feel pain and throbbing and notice some swelling and bruising. You can sprain just about any joint in your body; ankles and wrists seem to take the most beating.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the healing process may take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months. If your injury doesn’t appear to be healing, see your doctor. Some of the common injuries caused by lifting weights include the following:

Torn rotator cuff: The muscles of your rotator cuff are often injured during bench
presses and shoulder presses. You may have torn your rotator cuff if

• You feel a persistent ache or a sharp pain deep within your shoulder
  at a specific point during the exercise.
• You’re unable to raise your arm in front of you and over your head.

If you’ve injured your rotator cuff

• Stop performing any exercises that cause you pain or soreness in
  that area.
• Skip all overhead pressing movements for as long as your healthcare
  provider recommends that you rest. You shouldn’t exercise
  while you have any pain.
• Lighten up your load on the bench press to a weight where you
  don’t feel any pain.
• Limit the distance you move the bar.
• Or skip the exercise altogether.

Review your form: Make sure that you’re not bouncing the weights up
and down or taking the exercise past your natural active range of motion
that you can control.

The rotator cuff exercises shown in Chapters 13 can help prevent injuries
to these muscles. These exercises are a must if you lift heavy weights, if
you lift regularly two to three times a week, or if you participate in a sport
that uses the upper body, such as tennis, rock climbing, or swimming.

Sore knees: Pinpointing the source of the problem can be difficult with
knee injuries because the injury can come in so many varieties and have
so many different causes. Often, the injury is caused by something you
did outside of the weight room. Still, certain weight training mistakes,
such as those described in Chapter 9, are likely culprits. Runners, walkers,
and cyclists can ward off many common knee injuries by performing
quadriceps exercises.

• If any leg exercise causes you pain, skip it or modify it by following
  our instructions. Some people try to protect their knees from injury
  by wrapping them in yards of bandages. We don’t love the idea of
  knee wraps unless you’re into some serious power lifting. A wrapped
  knee may mask a problem that needs immediate attention.
• To help protect your knees, make sure that you strengthen both
  your front and rear thigh muscles — the muscles that support your
  knee joint. Stretching is also helpful to keep all the muscles that
  surround the knee loose and limber.

Sore wrists: Some people injure their wrist muscles by bending their
wrists too much when they lift weights, so pay attention in Part III when
we describe the proper wrist position for various exercises.

Lower back pain: If you have a history of back problems, you can just as
easily throw out your back reaching for an apple in the fridge as you can
pumping iron. But because the weight room constantly challenges your
ability to stabilize your spine and maintain good form, it increases the
risk of triggering an old injury — or developing a new one.

Always take precautions for your lower back when you lift weights. One
key preventive measure is to pull your abdominals inward. By tightening
your abs, you create a natural girdle to support and protect your lower back.

Overcoming Injuries

We don’t yet have a cure for the common cold, but we do have a reliable remedy for most minor sprains and strains: RICE, an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. RICE is most effective if you begin the process within 48 hours of injuring yourself. RICE includes the following four components:

Rest: Stop performing activities that aggravate your injury. (Notice that
we didn’t say stop all activity — that’s rarely the solution.) Wait until
you’ve had two completely pain-free days before doing exercises that
involve the injured area.

Ice: Contrary to popular belief, ice, not heat, helps reduce the pain and
swelling of most common injuries. Ice your injury for 15 to 20 minutes, 3
or 4 times a day, for as long as you feel pain. You can apply ice with a
store-bought pack, a plastic bag full of ice cubes, and even a package of
frozen strawberries. But don’t allow ice to sit directly against the skin.
(You may end up with ice burns.) Instead, wrap whatever is holding your
ice in a thin towel.

Throw out the berries after they’ve been used as an ice pack a few times.
The thawing and refreezing renders the berries less tasty than they
would’ve been before.

Two areas may not respond well to icing: your neck and back. These
injured areas may be so sensitive to the cold that you may tense up. If
that’s the case, a moist heating pad or wet, warm towel is best for treating
the injury and allowing your muscles to relax.

Compression: Put pressure on the injury to keep the swelling down. Use
a damp elastic bandage or buy a special brace or wrap for your knee,
elbow, or wrist. Wrap the bandage tightly enough so you feel some tension
but not so firmly that you cut off your circulation or feel numb.

Elevation: Elevating your injured body part drains away fluids and waste
products so swelling goes down. If you’ve hurt your ankle, you don’t
need to lift it up over your head. You only need to elevate it higher than
your hip so gravity assists the blood flow downward. Propping up your
ankle on several pillows or books does the trick (pillows will be more
comfortable, of course).

Sometimes RICE isn’t enough to treat an injury. If the pain is truly excruciating or is bothersome for more than a few days, your injury probably needs more aggressive treatment and possibly medical attention. If you experience excessive swelling, discoloration, or bleeding, you may need a trip to the emergency room. Use your judgment. If you see a bone fragment sticking out of your ankle, don’t simply stick an ice pack over it.