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NOTE: All articles in BetterU News are written by Nick Nilsson -
http://www.fitstep.com/ unless otherwise credited.

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Five Exercises You MUST Avoid If You Want To Stay Injury-Free These exercises are commonly seen yet, if you do them, you stand a good chance of hurting yourself. Find out what they are and why they can injure you.

All exercises are not created equal. Some exercises are good, some exercises are great, and some exercises are an injury just waiting to happen. Knowing which exercises to avoid can save you many months if not years of pain and frustration.

1. Upright Rows

The Upright Row exercise is done to develop the shoulders and traps. Holding a barbell or dumbells in front of your with a close, overhand grip, you pull the weight up to your chest, keeping it close to your body, leading with your elbows.

The Upright Row is one of the most harmful exercises you can expose your shoulders to. The problem with the exercise lies in the position your arms must be in in order to perform the movement. This position is called "internal rotation." To demonstrate internal rotation, hold your arms straight out to the sides with your palms down. Now rotate your hands forward as if you were pouring out a glass of water in each. To do the upright row, the arms are bent at the elbow then internally rotated.

Internal rotation itself is not necessarily bad for your shoulders. The problem comes when you raise the arms up and add resistance in that position. Every time you raise the weight, a small tendon in your shoulder gets pinched (known as impingement) by the bones in the shoulder. This may not hurt immediately; it may not even hurt for a long, long time. The problem is the tendon will gradually become worn down and damaged. You may not even know you have a problem until one day the tendon snaps!

Instead of upright rows, stick to exercises such as dumbell presses, military presses and various raises. They are far safer for the shoulders.

2. Behind-The-Neck Pulldowns

This exercise is done to work the muscles of the back. While the exercise itself is actually effective for working the back, the problem with the exercise lies in what it can do to your shoulders.

In the previous exercise, I talked about internal rotation of the shoulders. The problem with the behind-the-neck pulldown lies in "external rotation." Going back to the arms out to the side example, instead of pouring water forward, rotate your arms backward so that your palms are facing up. It's basically the opposite movement to internal rotation.

To do the behind-the-neck pulldown as normally instructed, you must externally rotate your shoulders as much as possible. This is a very delicate position for your shoulders. The supporting muscles of the shoulders (known as the rotator cuff) are not in a good position to stabilize the joint and injury to those supporting muscles can result, which can lead to further injury in the connective tissue of the joint.

On top of that, since most people do not have enough shoulder flexibility to get a straight line of pull behind the neck, they must bend their neck forward to even do the movement. This can result in neck strain on top of shoulder strain.

This information also applies to the behind-the-neck pull-up exercise. The mechanics of the movement are exactly the same, the only difference being you're pulling yourself up instead of pulling the weight down.

Stick to exercises that are in front of the body, such as front pulldowns, close-grip pulldowns and pull-ups to the front.

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Close_grip_pulldowns.htm

3. Behind-The-Neck Shoulder Presses

The Behind-The-Neck Press gives us the same shoulder issues associated with the Behind-The-Neck Pulldown. To do the movement, you must maximally externally rotate the shoulders. Again, this places the shoulders in a very vulnerable position, which can easily result in strain in the Rotator Cuff muscles.

Also, as with the pulldowns, most people simply don't have the necessary shoulder flexibility to get a straight line on the movement - they must tilt their head forward to get the bar behind it, adding greatly to the possibility of injury.

Stick to the military press and the dumbell press for your shoulder pressing movements.

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Seated_db_shoulder_press.htm

4. Stiff-Legged Deadlifts On A Bench

The Stiff-Legged Deadlift, properly done, is actually a very good movement for the hamstrings, glutes and lower back. The problem comes when, in an attempt to increase the stretch on the hamstrings, the exercise is done standing on a block or bench.

To get the most stretch on the hamstrings and to protect the lower back from injury, an arch should be maintained in the lower back during the movement. It's extremely difficult to maintain an arch in the lower back when you are stretching down as far as you can towards the floor with a barbell pulling you down.

Without the arch, as a natural result, the spine will flex and the supporting muscles of the spine will relax. This places much of the tension of the exercise directly on the connective tissue and bones of the spinal column rather than the supporting muscles, which are stabilizing the spine. In an effort to get more stretch on the hamstrings, you instead compromise the support structures of your lower back.

To get more of a stretch on the hamstrings without standing on a bench and compromising your lower back, have a look at the technique in the following article:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9.htm#hams

5. The Sit-Up

If you enjoy having a pain-free lower back, the regular floor sit-up is a good exercise to avoid. When you do a sit-up, the mechanics of the movement and position of your body throw much of the torque of the movement onto your lower back. Your hip flexors pull directly on your spine in order to raise your torso off the floor when you do the exercise, leading to strain in the lower back area.

To top it off, the abdominal muscles (the real target of the exercise) are only worked isometrically. This means they don't actually contract and move, they just work to hold the torso steady while the hip flexors do the pulling. This is not a very effective abdominal exercise.

You will be far better off performing direct abdominal-training movements such as crunches, ball crunches, cable crunches, etc. These exercises directly target the abs without throwing excessive tension on the lower back.

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Crunches.htm

An excellent exercise for the abdominals that is similar in look to the regular sit-up but focuses on the abs is the Abdominal Sit-Up. You can read more about it here:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9-ab-tip.htm

The exercises you do have a profound effect on your training and your health. Be sure to choose exercises that will help you move forward towards your goals and not set you back through injury.

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Secret Training Tip #478 - Braced Incline Curls; a New Biceps Blaster Learn how a simple technique that you can use in the gym or at home can instantly transform the Incline Dumbell Curl into an exercise in extraordinary biceps.

The Incline Dumbell Curl is an excellent exercise for building the biceps. It places a great stretch on the muscles at the bottom of the movement and results in a strong contraction at the top. I've found a way to make it even better!

Bracing your upper arms when you train your biceps is a great way to increase the strictness of the exercise, ensuring you are placing more tension on the target muscles while keeping you from cheating on the movement. When applied to the incline curl, bracing can not only increase the strictness of the exercise, it can add a dimension to the exercise that cannot be found any other way -- you can actually turn the exercise into an incline preacher curl!

To do this exercise in the gym, you will need a power rack or Smith machine (there will, of course, be a link to pictures of how to set-up and perform this exercise at the end of the article).

Set a flat bench in the rack and set an Olympic bar to about 6 inches above the level of the bench. Place the bar back against the uprights of the rack to keep it from moving as you'll be leaning back into the bar during the movement.

Pick up two dumbells and sit on the bench with your back to the bar. Sit about 6 inches in front of the bar. Lean back
into the bar and brace your upper arms just above the elbow against the bar. Don't rest them on the bar - brace them
against the bar. This is very important as if you rest them on the bar, you will lose much of the tension of the exercise. You may need to adjust where on your arm you place the bar - it can also be placed higher up on the arm if the lower position is uncomfortable.

Starting with your arms straight and stretched, begin the curl movement with both dumbells. Keep your upper arms
against the bar at all times as you curl the dumbells. The bar will act as your pivot point for the curl, forcing maximal tension on the biceps throughout the movement. If you are doing this in the rack, be careful you don't bang the dumbells into the side safety rails. This exercise can also be done one arm at a time.

Squeeze your biceps hard at the top, then lower the dumbells back down under full control. When you come to the bottom of the movement, let your arms fully extend while still maintaining tension in the biceps. This will stretch them
out fully as well as giving you the most tension on the next rep (trust me!). After several reps of this exercise, you should feel a very strong pump in your biceps.

This exercise is excellent for increasing the tension on the biceps through all aspects of an incline curl. Give it a try the next time you do your biceps!

To view pictures of this exercise, go to:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue24-biceps.htm

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ADD up to ONE-HALF INCH of muscle on the arms in one day? Believe it or not... it works! Upper arm size and development is one of the most popular (if not the most popular) of all muscle groups among "iron game" enthusiasts. It is no small wonder that we are constantly looking for that "secret exercise" or (even more exciting) a "secret routine" that will increase upper arm size dramatically. Look no more. Click here now to learn more!

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How I Gained 25 Pounds in One Week This is a story of how I personally went from 192 pounds to 217 pounds in bodyweight in only 7 days. Learn every little secret technique I used to accomplish this mind-blowing weight gain.

It started as a challenge to myself. If I took all the knowledge I had about weight gain and put it to work all at once, how much weight could I add to myself in one week? What would my upper limit be? I had some vacation time coming up where I could do nothing but eat, sleep and train so I decided to do it. This is my story...

I knew from the start that this weight gain certainly wouldn't be all muscle. In fact, it's impossible to gain that much weight in muscle in only one week (unless you're a baby elephant!). I was going to gain a combination of muscle, water and most likely some fat as well. That rapid of a weight gain, however, was going to force a lot of nutrients into my muscles quickly, resulting in some permanent muscle gains.

To start my maximal weight gain adventure, I first had to set myself up for it by dieting down. Why diet down to gain weight? Your body adapts most rapidly to extreme changes in environment. I knew I wanted to gain weight quickly, therefore I had to first subject myself to a restricted-calorie diet. When I would reverse my goals and begin to feed myself again, my body would react by rapidly sucking up every available calorie and holding onto it.

To further set myself up, the diet I went on was a two-week carbohydrate-restricted plan, much like the Atkins Diet. For two weeks, I ate less than 30 grams of carbs per day, sticking to meats, eggs, cheese and vegetables. This cleared out all the glycogen I had stored in my body as well as reducing the amount of water I was carrying (water attaches itself to carbs in your body - when you clear out the carbs, several pounds or more of water will be flushed out with it). It was kind of like squeezing out a sponge - you can fit more water into a sponge that's been squeezed totally dry than a sponge that's already moist.

It's important to note that I didn't restrict my water intake at all. That will give you exactly the wrong effect. If you restrict your water intake while dieting, your body will actually hold onto more water. If you give your body plenty of water, it will have no reason to hold onto every drop you give it and will flush it out regularly.

For training during this phase, I did three high-intensity cardio sessions per week for about 20 minutes each. This cardio was extremely tough and designed to burn as many calories as possible as quickly as possible. This would make my body extremely hungry for nutrients and ready to absorb as much as possible. I did high-volume, high-rep weight training (12 to 15 reps per set), 6 sessions per week with very short rest periods to further set up this effect.

After 2 weeks of this training and dieting, I was ready to start my weight gain. On Saturday evening, after my final training session for the week, I weighed in at 192 pounds.

On Sunday morning, I woke up and immediately took my first serving of creatine and glutamine. My focus on this day was to eat as much as possible, load up on creatine and glutamine and drink as much water as possible. Both of these supplements are excellent for forcing water into the muscles. Taking creatine alone can result in a 5 to 10 pound increase in weight over the loading phase of 5 days. To further maximize this effect, I had been off creatine for 3 months prior to this.

I took 4 servings of creatine and glutamine this day, along with eating as much as I could (for example, eggs, oatmeal, meats, potatoes, fruits, rice, etc.) and drinking buckets of water. I would continue loading creatine for the next 4 days, taking glutamine only after each workout from then on rather than with my creatine loading. I would start my weight training program on Monday. I was going to be doing a very demanding program, doing 12 total-body training sessions over the next 6 days.

My theory with doing multiple total-body training sessions is this: every single bodypart was going to get as much breakdown and stimulation as possible to maximize the amount of nutrients being taken up over my whole body. I would do more sets for the larger parts like chest, back and thighs and fewer sets for the other smaller parts. Every part would get worked twice a day for six days straight. This type of training is not appropriate for a long-term program as it would rapidly lead to overtraining in a matter of weeks. This was a one-week shot for me and I was putting everything into it.

After taking my creatine, I made breakfast, which consisted of 10 eggs and a bowl of oatmeal that would feed a family of 4. For flavor, I mixed in some fruit yogurt. To gain weight effectively, you really need to eat big.

I got to the gym for my first session that day and weighed myself. I had gained 10 pounds in the first day. Not a bad start! All that eating, drinking water and supplementation was paying off. My body was extremely primed for gaining.

My training session lasted about 45 minutes, during which I worked every bodypart. After the workout, I immediately took a mixture of whey protein (40 grams), creatine (5 grams), glutamine (10 grams) and Tang (sugary powdered drink mix) as well as some vitamins and minerals (multi-vitamin, calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, and an anti-oxidant). It's critical to provide your body with nutrients and raw materials to rebuild with as quickly as possible after training otherwise your body will just be breaking itself down.

I got home and set to work making lunch, which consisted of 2 large chicken breasts and a big bucket of spaghetti and meat sauce. Several hours later, I had a couple of cans of tuna, a sandwich and some ice cream. Please note, these meals are just samples of what I ate and not specifically what you should eat.

All during the day and evening, I was constantly drinking water. When I say constantly, I mean I got up every 10 to 15 minutes and drank a full glass of water over the course of the whole day. I was very well-hydrated, which is extremely important for weight gain. If your muscles don't have enough water, they simply can't grow.

My evening training session was also a total-body workout. At this point, my body was so flooded with carbs and water from having come off a low-carb diet, everything I did was giving my muscles an incredible pump. I was focusing on heavy weights for sets of 6 to 10 reps during my sessions and stretching out thoroughly after.

After the workout, I had another supplement and vitamin mix then went home. I had 4 eggs and a bowl of cereal for a post-workout meal, then a protein shake right before bed. I mixed up a protein shake and set it beside my bed so if, in the middle of the night, I woke up, I could drink a protein shake. This would provide extra calories and protein and reduce the amount of time I went without food during the night. And believe me, with the amount of water I was drinking during the day and during my training, waking up during the night was a given!

I repeated this type of schedule over the next days, continuing with my creatine loading, food loading and water loading. By the end of the second day, I had gained 15 pounds of bodyweight. By the end of the third day, I was up 18 pounds.

When I finished my creatine loading after the fifth day, I began taking a protein shake first thing in the morning instead. Taking protein immediately upon waking is the best way to start the day. It instantly reverses the catabolic state your body is in after fasting during sleep.

My training was going well and my body was sucking up everything I was putting into it. My strength gains were rapid and my fat gains were actually quite minimal. I was in the home stretch now. On Saturday afternoon, I went over to a friend's house and had a huge meal of Shepherd's Pie, which is basically a big pile of ground beef, potatoes and corn. Great weight gain food.

I went to the gym that night for my final training session of my weight gain week and tipped the scales at 217 pounds. In only one week, to give you an idea of the amazing strength and size gains I got, I was able to increase the amount of weight I could bench press for 8 reps by 30 pounds and I had added a full inch to my arms.

The best part is, this rapid weight gain was excellent for stretching the fascia of my muscles, giving them more room to grow (see link below for more information on fascia and stretching the fascia for increased muscle growth), leading to permanent gains in muscle size and potential muscle size.

Using all the knowledge and techniques (and appetite) for weight gain at my disposal, I had gained 25 pounds of bodyweight in only one week!

[Fascial Stretching - How Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth]
http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue10.htm

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Serious lean muscle gains without the bodyfat - scientifcally proven information. Build serious lean muscle in record time with a proven muscle building nutrition plan and discover exactly which bodybuilding supplements work and which are no more than pure marketing hype, by sports nutrition and supplements expert Will Brink. Editors Note: I have been reading Will Brinks' books and articles for many years and he has been right on the money every time. This book is definitely worth getting! http://www.fitstep.com/goto/muscle-building-nutrition.htm

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Why We Get Fat - Hunting Big Macs and Gathering French Fries Are we doomed by our genetics to gain fat? Is your inner caveman causing your waistline to expand? What can we do to work with our ancestry and not against it?

It is important to know why we get fat. Once you know the underlying reasons behind fat gain, you can take that information and apply it to fat loss. Knowing why something happens is the first step towards changing the result.

The one major reason we get fat is that we put in more than we burn off. This may be an overly simplistic view but it's also a very liberating one. It shows you that if fat gain is not that complicated, fat loss is not necessarily that complicated either.

But what are the origins of our body's amazingly efficient fat storage mechanisms? In a nutshell, why do we gain fat so easily?

Your Inner Caveman

Our earliest ancestors did not go to the supermarket to hunt for food. They didn't point at a cave drawing with a Big Mac on it when they were hungry. They did not sit at a desk all day. They didn't drive everywhere they went. In fact, fast food had to be chased down before it outran you!

The daily life of the earliest humans, whom we owe our genetics to, was consumed with getting enough food to survive. In order to eat, they had to either hunt it or gather it. As you can imagine, this burned a lot of calories.

With the start of agriculture, people no longer had to hunt down or forage for their food. They could stay in one place and grow it. Animals were domesticated. They could sell this produced food to others in return for other goods or services. This is known as the Agricultural Revolution and it was the start of our society as we know it.

Agriculture became the primary means of food production in the world. The story changes during the 1900's, however. As we progressed as a society, manual labor was no longer required of most people. Machines were starting to take over more of the hard labor jobs. This led to less and less physical activity by a growing number of people. It was the start of the modern obesity epidemic.

To sum it up: these days food is plentiful and easy to get and physical activity is no longer a part of daily life.

Thank Your Ancestors

The human body of 50,000 years ago when we were hunter/gatherers is exactly the same as the human body of today. Our body had successfully adapted to continuous cycles of feast and famine. How did it adapt? It adapted by developing extremely efficient fat storage capabilities.

By storing large amounts of fat whenever possible, the body would protect itself against the inevitable famine to come when food was scarce. By storing up large amounts of energy, our ancestors could survive the harsh conditions and thrive. In winter conditions, it would often come down to survival of the fattest, not fittest.

Our bodies are still programmed with this desperate need for storage even though, due to highly available food supplies, we don't really need it anymore. This is the reason you can often put on fat quite easily but have a hard time taking it off. Your body is protecting itself against the famine that it thinks is coming.

Compound this need for storage with reduced physical activity and readily available, calorie-dense foods and you have the recipe that has resulted in rampant obesity in our society today.

Diet = Famine

If you've ever been on a diet you've probably experienced that quick weight loss when you first start then the gradual slowdown and sometimes complete stop in progress that comes after a few weeks.

You can thank your ancestors for this one too. When you dramatically reduce your calories, such as when you begin a diet, your body starts using up the stored fat quickly. Your metabolism is still high and you are losing weight.

The trouble is, your body can't distinguish between the lack of available food known as famine and the voluntary reduction in food known as dieting. To your body "diet = famine." After a short period of time, your body will go into a panic state. You are losing your energy stores too fast and your body will do everything it can to slow down or put a stop to it.

-The first thing that will happen is that your metabolism
will slow down. You won't burn as many calories during the
day, regardless of how much you are eating or exercising.

-The next thing that will happen is that your body will
step up its burning of muscle tissue. Muscles are very
metabolically active and require a lot of calories to
maintain. Your body knows this and, in its effort to
reduce the drain on its energy supplies, will start
destroying muscle tissue. Your body will metabolize your
muscle into energy in order to hold onto its fat stores.

This vicious cycle will continue every time you further reduce calories in order to compensate for a slower metabolism. Your body will slow your metabolism down even more and destroy more muscle tissue to reduce energy usage.

How do we avoid this problem? There are a number of ways to approach it:

1. Reduce your calories slowly. If you are trying to lose fat, don't slash your food intake rapidly. This will throw your body into a panic, causing it to grind your metabolism to a halt.

2. Mix up your caloric intake. Don't eat the same things in the same amounts every day. Eat a little more on some days and a little less on other days. It's what you do in the long term that will really affect your results.

3. Exercise. Since most people don't actually have to exercise as part of their daily life, you must take the initiative and make it a point to exercise regularly. It helps by burning calories and giving your body the stimulus to preserve muscle mass (it's the old principle of "use it or lose it" at work).

4. Reduce your intake of processed foods. Your body is not readily equipped to efficiently process Twinkies. Try to stick to foods that are closer to their natural state, such as whole grains, lean meats, etc.

Remember, your body is an extremely efficient fat-storing machine but, with the right knowledge, you can very easily work with your biology and not against it and get the results you want.

If you're interested in learning more about how to burn fat, I highly recommend the following eBooks:

"Burn the Fat - Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto
http://www.fitstep.com/goto/burnfat.htm

"Diet Supplements Revealed" by Will Brink
http://www.fitstep.com/goto/fat-loss-supplements.htm

"Ultimate Weight Loss Revealed" by Brad Callen
http://www.fitstep.com/goto/ultimate.htm

"Burn Fat FAST!" by Jesse Cannone
http://www.fitstep.com/goto/achieve-fitness.htm

For more information and fat-burning tips, check out the following articles from past issues of BetterU News:

What Do You Mean Low-Intensity Training Isn't The Best For Fat Burning?
http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue7.htm

10 Things You Can Do To Lose Fat Without Even Trying
http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue10.htm

3 Part Article on Protein and Fat Loss
http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue6.htm

Boost Your Metabolism:
http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue17.htm

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