Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights_ - Alex Hutchinson [45]
If you’re a bodybuilder trying to sculpt a Schwarzenegger-esque body, these sorts of adjustments won’t be enough to replace the highly specific exercises that you can do at the gym. Similarly, if you’re really trying to maximize your strength and power, the weights and machines at the gym allow you to do a wide variety of exercises targeting different muscles while controlling the exact weight, which you simply can’t duplicate at home. But for general strengthening, either for fitness or as part of your conditioning for a sport like tennis or basketball, you can get all the challenge you need from a mix of push-ups, pull-ups, crunches, chair dips, squats, and other body-weight exercises. And the price is right!
Can lifting weights fix my lower-back pain?
It’s the classic moving-day injury. You’re hoisting a dresser or grabbing one end of a sofa, then—bam!—you throw out your back, and your bad lifting technique leaves you unable to straighten up for a week. So it may come as a surprise to hear that a promising solution for chronic lower-back pain, according to a series of recent studies from the University of Alberta, is lifting weights. A whole-body strengthening program dramatically outperforms aerobic exercise for those whose nagging back pain lingers for many months, according to the researchers—and the more you lift, the better.
By some estimates, two-thirds of adults will suffer from lower-back pain at some point in their lives. Many sufferers are diagnosed with “non-specific” back pain, which means their doctor hasn’t been able to identify a specific physical problem like a slipped disc or muscle imbalance as the cause. There’s no shortage of commonly prescribed solutions, from bed rest and acupuncture to spinal manipulation and radiofrequency denervation, but none have emerged as reliable cure-alls.
Earlier studies have established that not lifting anything neither cures nor prevents this type of back pain. In fact, it can trigger a downward spiral where inactivity makes you weaker, which worsens your back pain and causes you to become even less active, says Robert Kell, a professor at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus. “People with back pain have a hard time getting through the day, because they get fatigued and are no longer able to maintain their spinal stability,” he says. “If you can increase their strength and endurance, they can complete their normal activities without losing their posture.”
Since each person’s “non-specific” back pain may stem from a slightly different combination of weaknesses and imbalances, Kell uses a 16-week program that targets muscle groups throughout the body. In two studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, he has observed more than 25 percent improvement in measures of pain, disability, and quality of life compared with controls and with subjects doing aerobic exercise. A third study, whose results were first presented at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in 2009, divided 240 volunteers into groups who lifted weights between zero and four times a week. Those lifting four days a week decreased pain by 28 percent, compared with 18 percent for three days a week and 14 percent for two days a week. (Non-exercising controls decreased pain by just 2 percent.) “It’s much like the exercise recommendations for the general population,” Kell says. “If you can make time to do a little bit, like 20 minutes twice a week, it will help. If you can do more, it gets better.”
Nonetheless, this one-size-fits-all approach has limitations, according to University of