Figure 17:. Incline bench press. 116
Figure 18:. Leg extension. 118
Figure 20:. Lat pull-down. 120
Figure 25:. Shoulder press. 126
Figure 26:. Leg extension. 128
Figure 28:. Biceps curl 130
Figure 31:. Dumbbell lateral raise. 134
Figure 33:. Incline dumbbell press. 138
Figure 35:. Abdominal crunch. 142
Figure 36:. Incline bench press. 144
The images in Figure 1 and 2 were created by Udo Buffler. Julia Suchoroschenko created the image on the front cover, the images in Figure 3, 4, 6, and 7 and all portraits and illustrations of training exercises in this book (Fig. 5, Fig. 8, and Fig. 11-36).
List of Tables
Table 1:.. Intensity of effort: the four degrees. 41
Table 2:.. Studies that found no significant difference in strength gains as a result of performing a greater number of sets (Carpinelli, 2002, p. 322). 61
1 Survival of the fittest? How much and what kind of exercise our body needs
For thousands of years adapting to the demands of one’ s environment and living conditions was the best one could do in order to survive. Those best suited to their environment and its particular demands on physical activity had the greatest chances of survival (and of passing on their genes). For thousands of years being the fittest meant being able-bodied and powerful. It meant coping with an environment by covering large distances every day looking for water and food, collecting whatever could be eaten, hunting and killing prey while avoiding being eaten at the same time. Therefore, those who were fast, strong and enduring were the fittest and had the best chances of surviving.
Today things are different. They have changed tremendously and are almost reversed. Those who best fit to their environment will not walk for miles each day. They are more likely to work in a factory or an office, carry a notebook instead of a spear and a meal-to-go instead of the prey they have hunted. They use contemporary methods of transportation like cars, taxis, planes, trains, busses, and the underground, which require almost zero physical activity from the passenger while travelling from one place to another. And this kind of modern, effortless transportation is not limited to roads and streets. It is also available within buildings. For example, there are elevators, escalators, assembly lines and other devices that transport items or people. Basically, hardly any physical activity is needed to be well-equipped for our modern world.
For the contemporary consumer food does not have to be picked from trees, much less hunted, killed and skinned. It is available in all kinds of variations from all around the world and in all seasons. Some kinds of food, especially fast food, are available 365 days a year 24/7 and can be ordered by a mouse click (which is physical activity, too, but not exactly intense) or a phone call and are delivered to our door step if we wish so. Instead of having to follow our prey for miles to finally hunt it down with intense effort, all we have to do is get up from the armchair and walk to the front door where we receive the ready-to-eat food. In terms of physical activity we have come a long way (or rather just the opposite) from what our ancestors had to do in order to survive.
The consequences of these changed living conditions are obvious. Unless we provide for it ourselves, we are tremendously lacking physical activity and, even worse, we lack resistance. Our muscles atrophy when there is no need for them to contract against an appropriate resistance. And this is a rational thing for the body to do. Why waste a lot of energy on maintaining resources like muscles when they are not needed?
Figure 1: Lack of physical exercise causes negative adaptation and regression
In our modern world we are deprived of two things we desperately need in order to be healthy: physical activity in general and intense muscular contractions in particular. And we must clearly understand that the two are not the same: There is a difference between low-intensity aerobic activities like walking or jogging and intense anaerobic work like resistance training. Physically, our body benefits from both kinds of activity.
By simply increasing the amount of physical activity, like walking and running, we can improve our general well-being but it will not do much in terms of keeping our muscles from atrophying and keeping our bones dense. The solution to this problem is very simple. We have to do both. What we need is physical activity on a regular, preferably daily basis and regular workouts with a proper degree of intensity to stimulate muscle growth or at least keep our muscles from atrophying.
The World Health Organization recommends walking at least 10,000 steps per day for maintaining or improving health. It needs to be said that even though this is a reasonable rule of thumb, this number was chosen arbitrarily. Today, most people walk 5,000 and 6,000 steps per day on average whereas just a century ago our ancestors were likely to walk between 10,000 and 20,000 steps on an ordinary working day (which was basically every day).
Increasing our daily walking range is very simple. All we need to do is take the stairs instead of the elevator, park our car further from the office entrance, or leave the car in the garage when our destination is within walking distance. It is well documented that even small increases in physical activity will have a positive effect on health. And generally speaking: the more physical activity, the better.
However, and this needs to be pointed out very clearly, this “the more, the better” approach cannot be applied to muscle training. However widespread this misconception may be, modern science has proven repeatedly that training stimuli need to be specific in terms of intensity, volume, duration, and frequency. To be effective, training has to be prescribed like medicine.
The more, the better?
The concept of “the more, the better” may be