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Don't forget the rest of the body...

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One of my pet peeves are people who ask me questions like:

"What's a good exercise to get rid of my fat around the hips?"
"What's going to get me a six-pack look, like what ab workout do I need?"
"My arms are small, and I've been doing curls forever, what's it going to take for me to get them bigger, high reps & low weight?"

People, people, people...it takes more than just an exercise, or a section-of-the-body routine-only, to get what you want.

Personally, let me tell you from experience my successes & failures...

In high school, I did the following, mainly because I didn't know any better, and I didn't have the wonderful resource of the internet to perhaps get all my stuff from, in learning how to train for sports:

5:30am: wake up, do 20-30 minutes of a cross-country ski machine
6am: do 15 minute abdominal workout, doing upwards of 525 total reps of various exercises combined within this time frame, on average
6:15am: do some squats, bench, and curls with a sand-filled, plastic weight set & rummage sale bench.
6:45am: get ready and go to school for Open Gym
7am -7:30am, work on shooting drills in the gym, even doing a 'Heavy Trainer' basketball routine by shooting a weighted basketball, followed by regular shots with a regular one. I would only do close range shot with the heavy ball to work on my touch. When I went to the regular ball, it would literally feel like a balloon to me.

That was pretty much a steady routine of mine for 5 days a week. Let me tell you what it did:

The XC ski machine DID help my 'wind' at the end of a practice or game. I wasn't fast in the beginning, but from what I know now, my recovery ability was perhaps slightly better than my faster counterparts, so when they were slowing down, I was matching or beating their speeds & efforts. I noticed this primarily when I was 2nd to last on my team in 'Crushers' at the end of a 30 second or 1 minute bout of them my sophomore year, and went to being 2nd or 3rd on the team to finish them my junior year. Anyways, knowing what I know now, maybe a jump rope routine would have had me better off, because that would have made playing defense a hell of a lot easier with more body control & foot quickness. I had endurance, but I wasn't really quick enough right away in the early portions of a game or practice, when everyone else who was faster was kicking my ass.

The weight workout was crappy, I'll just leave it at that. I didn't know what to really do with this. We had no coach to lead us or develop a program, and all the football guys were doing a pyramid style program of squats & bench presses (mainly just bench presses), based on an old weight program from a former HS player from our school that was on a D-II national championship team in the 1980's.

The ab workout DID get me a six-pack, however, my lower back suffered miserably, especially my senior year, due to an overly-strong abdominal wall, and weaker-then-heck lower back area. It would take me until college to realize the importance of balancing things out in a routine.

So, in general, too much of one thing will certainly make you lack in another area, big-time, if you don't watch it.

I don't know if its a 'proven' statement or not, but I truly believe, after seeing many misapplied programs for college/high school athletes, and just general people for strength training, that total body programming for your strength workout is essential to do. You have to get the whole body working together as a whole unit, in order to do the entire job of what you want accomplished.

Want big arms? Push & Pull with your chest & back exercises.

Want toned legs? Squat & Lunge. Quit swinging away mindlessly on a hip machine.

Do you want, I hate to say it, a 'strong core'? Twist & Bend, Squat & Lunge, Push & Pull. Your core is engaged for stability & action for all 6 movements.

Movement-base your exercises & your entire routine, don't body-part them out in excess. Keep it well balanced, and your body will love you for it.

Have you ever stopped to think that animals never have to worry about excess body fat, or working a problem area?

Don't they squat, lunge, push & pull, bend, & twist in their own movement patterns, to some extent?

Does a lion stop & do curls?

Does a tiger stop in the forest & do endless crunches?

Does a bear stop & do sets of pull-ups on a tree?

Bottom line: Be an animal, and move like one.

Ponder on that, if you can.

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