weights

[Fencingrocks41]

hi, for christmas, i got weights to train my biceps and stuff... So this is my question:
Does anyone know any practices?
AND How many times a day should i do that practise?
AND: Will it pay of ?



thx




greetz... Carlos

[The0ne]

same here!! Did you get a becnh press thing and a bar etc.?? The big ones I do are bench press, curls, and millitary press, it would take a while to explain the exercises over the internet, but if you look them up you should get a good amount of info on how to do them. One time a day is enough, just push yourself hard enough that one time. It's also good to allow 24 hours before you exercise a muscle group again so a good plan is arm, and chest work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with Leg work Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (if you want and/or don't have a tournament!), take sunday off, you do need SOME rest! And yes, it definately pays off!!!!

[Fencingrocks41]

THX!!
no, i dont have a bench..
Just weights that you can attatch to one of the two bars i got.. someone i know showed me a way to train the biceps, triceps and brest muscles so i'll geuss i'll be doing that for a while..
And thx for the good idea of changing exercises every each day or less..
But how long do i have to do such a practise? 30minutes? an hour? Because everyone tells m that I should build it up: first practise with light weights and then , if your ready, heavier weights..



Greetz Carlos

[thyme_daniels]

i do free weights for school, 3 sets of 10 reps, alternating between bicep curls and tricep extentions. i also do the same for lat pull downs, but that is a machine, and i do the weights 2 times a week. you could probably do 3 of you wanted to.

[Indy4ever]

Sorry kiddies, but as it works out simply randomly picking up weights and heaving them in any direction is a bit ignorant. I am afraid you are going to have to do research about what exercise routine you want to follow, and what will get you optimum results for the amount of effort you put in. This will be made infinitely more complicated by the fact that everyone says different things.

As a fencer you will not want to be doing high intensity weight training, eg heavy weights and low number of reps. This doesnt encourage speed or good reaction times.
What you will be wanting is low weight, high number of reps (about twenty for whatever weight you are lugging), which is more suited to your type of sport. I amdit, you wont come out of it looking like rambo, but your body will be more toned and you will be stronger, and more able to endure the rigeurs of footowrk.

MAKE SURE that when you work out one muscle group you do the one opposite it as well, eg biceps and triceps: if you dont do this you are simply asking for an injury.

You will also want to concentrate on your lower body as well, since lungeing and fleching is very, very important. For this you may not even need weights. Simple things like going for a run and squat jumps will get you moving at explosive speeds.

Training itself is very simple. Spend about half an hour every two to three days heaving each weight for a set number of reps for about 10-15 reps. Make sure each weight is about the maximum you can manage for that number of reps. Do two or three sets, with a two minute rest in between. Start low, with two sets, then work your way up to three. Don't train every day - weight training works by causing micro-damage to your muscles that your body repairs, making you stronger. If you work out constantly your body cant repair itself and you run into difficulties and injuries.

Another problem is diet - if you spend your whole day eating twinkies you will simply cause yourself heart problems and, more importantly, negate any training you do, leaving you as fat and ugly as you were when you started. Stick to a healthy diet and your body fat will decrease, making you a better athlete in general.

If I knew everything about this I could write a book, but even if i did it would only disagree with what someone else says. All I can tell you is to do some research about what you should do, how you should do it, and what kind of diet you should follow - maybe go to the coach at your club and ask his advice. If you arent training with fencing in mind (because you only fence for fun) that is fine and you can ignore a lot of what i have said.

Most of all, be careful and make sure you are doing exercises properly - if you dont you risk injuries like you have never imagined from strained muscles.

[The0ne]

I may be mistaken but I thought that high weight/low reps built explosive "fast-twitch" muscle, the throwers on my track team do alot of this kind of thing for shot put, discus etc., and low weight/high reps built "slow-twitch" muscle. I figured that explosiveness would be a good thing to work towards, but I could be wrong

[cowpaste]

My experience has been that nobody agrees on the proper way to lift weighs. I wish I could say, "Just experiment and see what works best." Sadly, this is not really possible, since improvement (or crapification) of your fencing could be due to so many things.

[Delmont]

From my own personal exp the best way to get faster is to do light to meduim weight with a preset number of reps as fast as you can. And beat that time. Or alternately do as many as you can in 15 or 30 seconds. You'll find you can do more/faster and your speed will increase. High wieght low reps builds bulk muscle while low weight lots of reps tones down the muscle. You want to do a combo of both. At least this is how it has always been explained to me and it seems to work well enough.

[bezerker]

Just chiming in on this topic because it comes up about every six months at our club and I have been recently reading on the subject.

Indy4ever makes some good points, especially about the research.

One decent book for weight training I found is from the "Dummies" series of books entitled "Weight Training for Dummies".

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

You might also try searching (google or your favorite onine bookstore site) for plyometrics. Silly looking exercises but they do work well and are touted as being a good bridge between power and speed.

There are basically 2 kinds of training with weights you might want to focus in on. "Strength Training" which usually focuses on increasing weight with lower repetitions, and "Power Training" which focuses on light to medium weight with a greater number of repetitions. A Typical training program might focus for 4 weeks on "Strength Training" and the 4 weeks on "Power Training". 1 week break and then repeat.

As stated in previous post, working opposing muscle groups is important. It is also important not to overwork one muscle group. Usually, training programs will alternate days. So a 4 day training program might do upper body (shoulder, back, chest, bi's/forearms, and triceps) on days 1&3 and lower body (lunges, squats, leg press, leg curls and abs) on days 2&4.

Diet is ultra-important when doing any type of training especially weight training. You should consult a nutritionist, dietitian, or your doctor before starting a program. Your results will be much more positive if you combine the two.

Too much bulk cuts down on flexibility so remember to incorporate a good stretching routine into your workout and don't go overboard on the strength training.

As it was already pointed out, the amount of information available on this subject is staggering and often conflicts. Write out your goals, do some reading and research and put together a multi-week plan (12 - 16 weeks is typical). Keep notes on you workouts and tweak things until they work for you.

HTH,

JS