How to prioritize your training hours to best meet your fitness goals. Slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers have different uses. Is one better than the other? Photo by Baileigh Dabdoub. Most people know there’s a difference between fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle, but not many people know what the difference actually is — and if they do, they probably apply it to running, not weightlifting. The truth is, fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers have a big impact on resistance training, high-intensity interval training, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, and pretty much every other type of training.
Your muscle fiber composition (specifically the ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch muscle fibers you have) profoundly impacts your ability to sprint, run, jump I’m willing to bet that if you put a cross-country runner and a 100-meter dash sprinter in a weight room, this would happen:
This is a classic example of fast-twitch versus slow-twitch muscles at work. In this post, you’ll learn all about the two main types of muscle fibers as they relate to resistance training, plus whether it’s possible to get better at one type of lifting when you have a genetic predisposition to the other type. You’ll need one kettlebell, a glute loop, a long band, and about 40 minutes.  Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash. Free Functional Workout Warm-up:
2 Rounds
3 Rounds
2-3 Rounds
All you need is one kettlebell to work up a good sweat. Free Kettlebell Workout
Perform three rounds for quality:
For when you just really, really can’t muster up the will to work out. Rock climbing in California's Santa Monica Mountains. Let’s face it: Sometimes the gym is the last place you want to go. It’s true even for those of us who actually enjoy the sweating, burning muscles and heavy breathing.
There are a lot of reasons you may not want to hit the gym on any given day. Maybe you don’t feel like interacting with people. Maybe you haven’t been feeling motivated in your usual workout setting or you’ve run out of ideas (shameless plug for Smarter Sweat programming here). Maybe you simply don’t feel like it, but know you’ll feel better if you just do something to get your body moving. The fun thing about exercise, though, is that it doesn’t have to feel like exercise. There are countless ways to get active and challenge your body without dragging yourself to the gym when you’d rather not. Here are five killer workout ideas that can get you out of your typical gym environment (and possibly out of your comfort zone). It’s all a marketing sham.  Lifting weights won't make you "bulky," but it will make you strong, fit, happy, and empowered. Women lifting weights: We realize there is a stigma around this topic. Although it’s becoming more common to see women weight training, many still shy away for the fear of “bulking up.” So let’s address the elephant in the room.
The age-old fitness goal of most women tends to be: “I just want to build lean muscle and tone up”. Let us let you in on a few secrets. First, we already busted the “lean muscle” myth. All muscle is lean. Second, lifting weights will not make women bulky, manly, or big — lifting weights will make women lean, strong, and fit, though. Here’s our take on why everyone should stop believing that lifting weights makes women bulky, and why all women should lift weights. Goodbye, HIIT. Hello, MISS. Image by Csaba Nagy from Pixabay. I say it all the time: One of the best things I ever did for myself was to stop working out every day. Seriously, I sound like a broken record, but I can’t stop saying it because I know there are so many others out there who, like me, feel an overwhelming obligation to go nuts in the gym — or do nothing at all.
The all-or-nothing mindset kept me bound for years. I battled with guilt when I felt like I didn’t “go hard” enough in the gym, and I sparred with even more guilt when I skipped a workout because I was too tired to do whatever intense session I’d written for the day. So there I stayed, in an endless cycle of working out hard every single day (and sometimes twice a day), or doing nothing at all, because I thought that low-intensity workouts weren't worth it. |
About Smarter SweatSmarter Sweat is a fitness company built from the ground up by fitness experts Amanda Capritto and Ashley Phantz. Amanda and Ashley are both dead-set on cutting through the clutter of the fitness industry and providing raw, real, utterly honest information about fitness and wellness. Archives
February 2021
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