Items related to The Complete Book of Butt and Legs
A comprehensive follow-up to the sleeper hit The Complete Book of Abs, this book is the definitive resource fo shaping and strengthening the lower body. This book features tips and workouts from some of America's top strength and conditioning coaches and is lavishly illustrated with more than 300 action photos.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Kurt Brungardt has been a writer and personal trainer in New York for the last eight years. He is the author of the best-selling fitness classic The Complete Book of Abs. He is also the host of one of the top-selling exercise videos, Abs of Steel for Men. He has written for and been featured in many exercise magazines and newspapers, and has appeared on numerous national talk shows. Kurt has trained a wide variety of clients ranging from athletes, actors, and models to businessmen and -women and senior citizens. He is a member of Strength Advantage, Inc. His body appears on the cover of this book and on the cover of The Complete Book of Abs.
Mike Brungardt is on the board of directors of Strength Advantage, Inc. He is strength and conditioning coach for the San Antonio Spurs. As a member of Strength Advantage, he has given seminars at clinics for fitness educators in schools and health clubs throughout the country. He has worked with such professional athletes as ski racer Beth Madsen (1990 Rookie of the Year) and basketball all-star David Robinson. He specializes in the mental and motivational aspects of sports performance and is also coauthor of The Strength Kit. He has been involved in the consulting and design of a wide range of fitness facillties. Mike graduated from Central State University of Oklahoma, where he wrestled and played baseball. He has nine years of coaching experience at Northwest High School, in Grand Island, Nebraska, one of the most successful athletic programs in the state of Nebraska during the eighties.
Brett Brungardt, a former strength and conditioning coach at the University of Houston and at the University of Wyoming, is on the board of directors of Strength Advantage, Inc., a fitness consultation firm that advises professiorial and college athletes, coaches, and corporations in desiginrig fitness programs and facilities. Brett is the coauthor of The Strength Kit, a manual for planning strength and conditioning programs for all levels: scholastic, collegiate, and professional.
He is the autbor of numerous publications in the area of fitness. He has an M.Ed. in exercise science from the University of Houston and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Mike Brungardt is on the board of directors of Strength Advantage, Inc. He is strength and conditioning coach for the San Antonio Spurs. As a member of Strength Advantage, he has given seminars at clinics for fitness educators in schools and health clubs throughout the country. He has worked with such professional athletes as ski racer Beth Madsen (1990 Rookie of the Year) and basketball all-star David Robinson. He specializes in the mental and motivational aspects of sports performance and is also coauthor of The Strength Kit. He has been involved in the consulting and design of a wide range of fitness facillties. Mike graduated from Central State University of Oklahoma, where he wrestled and played baseball. He has nine years of coaching experience at Northwest High School, in Grand Island, Nebraska, one of the most successful athletic programs in the state of Nebraska during the eighties.
Brett Brungardt, a former strength and conditioning coach at the University of Houston and at the University of Wyoming, is on the board of directors of Strength Advantage, Inc., a fitness consultation firm that advises professiorial and college athletes, coaches, and corporations in desiginrig fitness programs and facilities. Brett is the coauthor of The Strength Kit, a manual for planning strength and conditioning programs for all levels: scholastic, collegiate, and professional.
He is the autbor of numerous publications in the area of fitness. He has an M.Ed. in exercise science from the University of Houston and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Proper Technique. The Body
Proper technique is essential to have a successful training program. It is important for two reasons:
First, it provides the optimum results in the least amount of lime. Second, proper technique decreases the chance of' injury during training. This chapter contains important training principles essential for complete lower body development.
The Complete Butt and Leg Philosophy
To achieve successful lower body development, you need to train and condition all the muscles in your lower body. An unbalanced approach in lower body training will cause muscular imbalance and/or weakness. This can lead to structural problems and can also increase chance of injury during sports, exercise, and other favorite activities.
The lower body is a system that works synergistically. in most movements, one muscle group acts as the prime mover, another group works in an assisting capacity (secondary mover), while a third provides stabilization. If you don't train for development, one or two of' the muscle groups will not perform optimally and overall performance will suffer. To achieve your full potential you must train not only the entire lower body, but the whole body, with a balanced program.
STARTING OUT
The most frequently asked questions when beginning a training program are: "What should I do?", "How much should I do?", and "Where should I start?" There is no single, correct answer to these. Every person is different. You must intelligently- experiment to find the answers. Let's address these questions separately.
"What should I do?" You should include exercises that will train all the muscle groups in the body. This book targets the lower body but by no means should You limit your training to the legs and butt only.
"How much should I do?" When starting out you should do just enough to promote fatigue, no more. Your total exercise volume (sets and reps) should be minimal, perhaps no more than one set with fifteen to twenty repetitions for each selected exercise. This will eliminate the negative physical and mental effects of excessive muscular soreness and will decrease the potential for injury from fatigue and lack of concentration.
"Where should I start?" The following two principles will help you determine a proper starting place:
¸ When learning a new exercise, use minimal intensity (if possible) and perform it while you are fresh.
¸ Once you have mastered the exercise technique, increase the intensity (weight) gradually until you can no longer perform the movement for the prescribed number of repetitions, or until you have a breakdown in proper technique. After this happens, drop back to the previous, lighter weight. This will be your starting point. When experimenting with finding a starting weight, perform no more than three sets per exercise, per session.
This may sound tedious, but remember that technique is the key to success. Be patient; proper execution of your exercises is not only safer, but the results will be greater in the long run.
The Basic Principles
OVERLOAD AND PROGRESSION
For a muscle to get stronger it must be overloaded. Overloading means subjecting your muscles to more stress than they are accustomed to. Overloading muscles can be accomplished in two ways, both progressive. First, add volume. This is done by increasing the repetitions per set, adding sets, or by adding additional exercises for that muscle group. Second, increase the intensity of training: this can be accomplished by increasing the resistance (adding weight or doing a more difficult exercise) or by decreasing the rest time between sets and exercises. These forms of progressive overloading should be done separately (either increase volume or intensity), but may on occasion be done Simultaneously. When both are (lone simultaneously, YOU increase the chance of overtraining.
FULL RANGE OF MOTION
It is important to perform all exercises with the prescribed full range of motion. This is especially true for sports performance. Most performance skills are dynamic (in motion); therefore your muscles need to be strengthened throughout their full range of motion. To do this you must maintain resistance on the muscles throughout the prescribed range of motion.
SPEED OF MOVEMENT
The speed at which you do an exercise is an important part of a successful training program. Generally, movement should be slow and controlled through the negative (eccentric) phase. The positive, or concentric, phase of the movement should he as explosive as possible without creating momentum, keeping constant tension on the muscles.
As you reach advanced levels of training, it is important to vary the speed of the exercise to achieve peak development. The basic concepts behind speed of movement are described on pages 107-08.
CONSTANT TENSION
During a movement you must maintain constant tension on the muscle, feeling its contraction throughout the full range of motion. Do not let momentum take over; feel the muscle do the work at every phase of the movement. In addition, when using a machine do not allow the weight stacks to touch, as this would eliminate constant tension.
CHOICE OF EXERCISE
Selecting exercises is a key component in the design of any training program. The following criteria are essential when considering which exercise to choose:
¸ Specificity (training for specific results)
¸ Injury prevention, or muscle balance
¸ Available equipment
¸ Goals
¸ Time
WORKOUT LENGTH
The length of a training session is dependent on sets and reps, what type of exercise you do, how much rest time you take, and what your goals are. Another variable that determines workout length is intensity. High intensity work will increase the need for recovery time, possibly increasing total workout length. Depending on your goals you may spend anywhere between ten minutes to two hours working out your legs. Part 4 ("The Routines") offers a wide variety of routines to fit your needs and goals.
FREQUENCY OF TRAINING
Frequency of training is dependent upon many variables, including your recovery time, your level of experience, your work or competition schedule, and your goals. Recovery time is important because strength gains and muscle growth occur during these periods. If recovery time is not adequate between workouts, your strength gains will not be optimal, and the result could be overtraining.
EXERCISE ORDER
There are many factors to consider when choosing exercise order. Your individual weak areas, sport-specific routines, and personal level of fitness are some of the considerations.
Generally, exercises are completed in an order that moves from the highest energy expenditure to the lowest, especially when starting out. Or another way of explaining it: Work from the largest muscles to the smallest muscles.
THE ROUTINES
To a large extent, the problems of exercise order are already worked out for you in the routines in part four. But as you progress, you will reach a stage when you must decide what variations you need in order to get peak results. You will have to determine your own genetic strengths and weaknesses, how you want to look, and then will have to choose the exercises that will accomplish this fine-tuning. As with everything else in life, at some point you will be left alone to face the truth about your butt and legs. But have no fear, you won't fall into the butt abyss. Chapter 26, "Creating Your Own," will guide you safely through this existential experience!
WARM-UP
It is always important to warm up your body before exercising. This prepares your body for action in two main ways:
1. Warming up increases muscle blood flow and increases general muscle metabolism. This makes the muscles perform more efficiently.
2. Warming up allows the muscles to contract with more force and with greater speed due to an increase in muscle temperature. If the muscles are warm, contraction will be optimal. This reduces the chances of injury and positively affects performance.
When a warm-up for strength training is undertaken it should proceed from general to specific. For a specific warm-up routine, refer to pages 99-102.
BREATHING
As in all exercise, proper breathing is essential. The breathing technique to use for resistance training is as follows:
1. Inhale before the start of the negative contraction, when you are moving against the least resistance.
2. Exhale during the last two-thirds of the positive contraction.
For example, when performing the Squat you would inhale before you lower your body and exhale as you raise back up.
INTENSITY
Intensity is a complex subject. For our purposes, intensity means the amount of energy output it takes to complete an exercise. Intensity can be increased or decreased by choosing easier or more difficult exercises and by adding or subtracting weight. In each workout you should aim for an intensity level that will produce muscular exhaustion in the prescribed number of repetitions.
VARIETY
Variation is often the most neglected training principle. People get comfortable in a routine and don't want to change. We, are creatures of habit. But the body thrives on both structure and change. You will start on a routine and get hooked into the structure of it. This will be a growth period. You will see gains in one or more of the following areas: strength, endurance, and/or body appearance. But after a period of time, your body will adapt to this routine and plateau. This means it's time for a change. The body wants something new. It needs a...
Proper technique is essential to have a successful training program. It is important for two reasons:
First, it provides the optimum results in the least amount of lime. Second, proper technique decreases the chance of' injury during training. This chapter contains important training principles essential for complete lower body development.
The Complete Butt and Leg Philosophy
To achieve successful lower body development, you need to train and condition all the muscles in your lower body. An unbalanced approach in lower body training will cause muscular imbalance and/or weakness. This can lead to structural problems and can also increase chance of injury during sports, exercise, and other favorite activities.
The lower body is a system that works synergistically. in most movements, one muscle group acts as the prime mover, another group works in an assisting capacity (secondary mover), while a third provides stabilization. If you don't train for development, one or two of' the muscle groups will not perform optimally and overall performance will suffer. To achieve your full potential you must train not only the entire lower body, but the whole body, with a balanced program.
STARTING OUT
The most frequently asked questions when beginning a training program are: "What should I do?", "How much should I do?", and "Where should I start?" There is no single, correct answer to these. Every person is different. You must intelligently- experiment to find the answers. Let's address these questions separately.
"What should I do?" You should include exercises that will train all the muscle groups in the body. This book targets the lower body but by no means should You limit your training to the legs and butt only.
"How much should I do?" When starting out you should do just enough to promote fatigue, no more. Your total exercise volume (sets and reps) should be minimal, perhaps no more than one set with fifteen to twenty repetitions for each selected exercise. This will eliminate the negative physical and mental effects of excessive muscular soreness and will decrease the potential for injury from fatigue and lack of concentration.
"Where should I start?" The following two principles will help you determine a proper starting place:
¸ When learning a new exercise, use minimal intensity (if possible) and perform it while you are fresh.
¸ Once you have mastered the exercise technique, increase the intensity (weight) gradually until you can no longer perform the movement for the prescribed number of repetitions, or until you have a breakdown in proper technique. After this happens, drop back to the previous, lighter weight. This will be your starting point. When experimenting with finding a starting weight, perform no more than three sets per exercise, per session.
This may sound tedious, but remember that technique is the key to success. Be patient; proper execution of your exercises is not only safer, but the results will be greater in the long run.
The Basic Principles
OVERLOAD AND PROGRESSION
For a muscle to get stronger it must be overloaded. Overloading means subjecting your muscles to more stress than they are accustomed to. Overloading muscles can be accomplished in two ways, both progressive. First, add volume. This is done by increasing the repetitions per set, adding sets, or by adding additional exercises for that muscle group. Second, increase the intensity of training: this can be accomplished by increasing the resistance (adding weight or doing a more difficult exercise) or by decreasing the rest time between sets and exercises. These forms of progressive overloading should be done separately (either increase volume or intensity), but may on occasion be done Simultaneously. When both are (lone simultaneously, YOU increase the chance of overtraining.
FULL RANGE OF MOTION
It is important to perform all exercises with the prescribed full range of motion. This is especially true for sports performance. Most performance skills are dynamic (in motion); therefore your muscles need to be strengthened throughout their full range of motion. To do this you must maintain resistance on the muscles throughout the prescribed range of motion.
SPEED OF MOVEMENT
The speed at which you do an exercise is an important part of a successful training program. Generally, movement should be slow and controlled through the negative (eccentric) phase. The positive, or concentric, phase of the movement should he as explosive as possible without creating momentum, keeping constant tension on the muscles.
As you reach advanced levels of training, it is important to vary the speed of the exercise to achieve peak development. The basic concepts behind speed of movement are described on pages 107-08.
CONSTANT TENSION
During a movement you must maintain constant tension on the muscle, feeling its contraction throughout the full range of motion. Do not let momentum take over; feel the muscle do the work at every phase of the movement. In addition, when using a machine do not allow the weight stacks to touch, as this would eliminate constant tension.
CHOICE OF EXERCISE
Selecting exercises is a key component in the design of any training program. The following criteria are essential when considering which exercise to choose:
¸ Specificity (training for specific results)
¸ Injury prevention, or muscle balance
¸ Available equipment
¸ Goals
¸ Time
WORKOUT LENGTH
The length of a training session is dependent on sets and reps, what type of exercise you do, how much rest time you take, and what your goals are. Another variable that determines workout length is intensity. High intensity work will increase the need for recovery time, possibly increasing total workout length. Depending on your goals you may spend anywhere between ten minutes to two hours working out your legs. Part 4 ("The Routines") offers a wide variety of routines to fit your needs and goals.
FREQUENCY OF TRAINING
Frequency of training is dependent upon many variables, including your recovery time, your level of experience, your work or competition schedule, and your goals. Recovery time is important because strength gains and muscle growth occur during these periods. If recovery time is not adequate between workouts, your strength gains will not be optimal, and the result could be overtraining.
EXERCISE ORDER
There are many factors to consider when choosing exercise order. Your individual weak areas, sport-specific routines, and personal level of fitness are some of the considerations.
Generally, exercises are completed in an order that moves from the highest energy expenditure to the lowest, especially when starting out. Or another way of explaining it: Work from the largest muscles to the smallest muscles.
THE ROUTINES
To a large extent, the problems of exercise order are already worked out for you in the routines in part four. But as you progress, you will reach a stage when you must decide what variations you need in order to get peak results. You will have to determine your own genetic strengths and weaknesses, how you want to look, and then will have to choose the exercises that will accomplish this fine-tuning. As with everything else in life, at some point you will be left alone to face the truth about your butt and legs. But have no fear, you won't fall into the butt abyss. Chapter 26, "Creating Your Own," will guide you safely through this existential experience!
WARM-UP
It is always important to warm up your body before exercising. This prepares your body for action in two main ways:
1. Warming up increases muscle blood flow and increases general muscle metabolism. This makes the muscles perform more efficiently.
2. Warming up allows the muscles to contract with more force and with greater speed due to an increase in muscle temperature. If the muscles are warm, contraction will be optimal. This reduces the chances of injury and positively affects performance.
When a warm-up for strength training is undertaken it should proceed from general to specific. For a specific warm-up routine, refer to pages 99-102.
BREATHING
As in all exercise, proper breathing is essential. The breathing technique to use for resistance training is as follows:
1. Inhale before the start of the negative contraction, when you are moving against the least resistance.
2. Exhale during the last two-thirds of the positive contraction.
For example, when performing the Squat you would inhale before you lower your body and exhale as you raise back up.
INTENSITY
Intensity is a complex subject. For our purposes, intensity means the amount of energy output it takes to complete an exercise. Intensity can be increased or decreased by choosing easier or more difficult exercises and by adding or subtracting weight. In each workout you should aim for an intensity level that will produce muscular exhaustion in the prescribed number of repetitions.
VARIETY
Variation is often the most neglected training principle. People get comfortable in a routine and don't want to change. We, are creatures of habit. But the body thrives on both structure and change. You will start on a routine and get hooked into the structure of it. This will be a growth period. You will see gains in one or more of the following areas: strength, endurance, and/or body appearance. But after a period of time, your body will adapt to this routine and plateau. This means it's time for a change. The body wants something new. It needs a...
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherVillard
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0679754814
- ISBN 13 9780679754817
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages304
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