GYM101- Intro to working out. Part 3: The muscles

Totally jobless at home, so putting more posts...

The reason for all these posts is to put fundaes to junta on gymming rather than suggesting a routine. If you understand what and how it works, you can be more confident about your workouts.

If you want to know how muscle is built, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy


The body has several muscle groups. A usual classification is into majors and minors....

Major muscle groups:
1. Legs
2. Back
3. Chest
4. Shoulders

Minor muscle groups:
1. Triceps
2. Biceps
3. Forearms
4. Abs

Most commonly, beginners are suggested to work majors when they first hit gym. This is because minors are under stress when majors are worked out- minor muscle groups have to support the load when you're working majors.
There are a lot of fundaes on this, like division into agonists, antagonist and synergist, depending on the way each muscle is worked when during a certain exercise. It is good to know these too, but can be postponed for a later stage. To put in a nutshell, agonists are main muscles responsible for a movement while antagonists act in the opposite movement- like biceps and triceps when you bend or straighten your elbow. Synergists are the side muscles that help in the movement. Usally, the antagonists support the movement. If you're more interested, check this- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agonist_(muscle)

Any muscular action should happen about a joint. There is either flexion- decreasing joint angle or extension
- increasing joint angle. For instance, the triceps are worked when the elbow joint is extended and the biceps are worked when the elbow is flexed.

Muscles can only take contraction, i.e. they are very good at pulling, not good at pushing or stretching. When you flex your arm, the biceps are contracted and triceps are extended, hence your biceps are worked out. The opposite when you extend- the arm has to be pulled by the triceps when extending, hence triceps are worked.

In any proper exercise, the muscle has to be properly extended and contracted. If you're doing a biceps curl, you have to straighten your elbows completely and then bend them completely and compress the biceps muscle as much as possible.


Conclusion:

1. You grow muscle when you put it under a lot of stress first and then allow it to recover and then build more muscle. So, workout in the gym for a max of one hour, and then rest each muscle group for atleast 72 hours for majors and 48 hours for minors.

2. Muscles take time to recover grow. Don't work out for more than 4 days a week. In extreme cases, if you have great recovering ability, you may go 5 days a week, though it is not advisable. 3 days a week is a good start for beginners. Do cardio for 2 more days a week and take complete rest for 2 days.

2. The minors are synergists to major muscle group movements. So you don't need to work the minors when you're just beginning.

3. Identify the agonists and synergists for a certain movement. See if you're really working the agonist. If you're not sure, ask someone who knows. It is always the best thing to ask the coach or someone who really knows.

4. For best results, do complete movements. Straighten the joint completely and then compress the muscle at the other end. Don't take this literally, but understand the implications.

5. This is for a later stage, but if you do opposing movements alternatively, like pushing and pulling, you allow the muscles to recover while you're working out. Don't take this for granted, but do remember this.

Very very important:

Your muscle, recovery period, endurance limits and your strength have a lot to do with your genetics. You can see a lot of gifted guys- big and strong, in the gym. They have huge muscles when they haven't really worked out properly. A lot of such guys say arbitrary things about how you need to work out. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. Whatever worked for them worked because they're already naturally strong. Ask someone who has proper fundaes or better, look in wikipedia or youtube.

GYM101- Intro to working out. Part 2: basic terms

Some basic terms you need to know/understand before you workout.


Pump: The best part of working out in a gym- the feeling you get after you've done a nice heavy weight- your muscle feels very tight and strong, feels like blood's rushing through the arteries, your mind feels totally empty, life feels very peaceful, you feel high... Arnold compared this to cumming (if you know what that means) in a very famous video called "PUMPING IRON"

Sets and Reps: Say you did 15 pushups. Then got up, and after  2 min did another 12 pushups, and after 2 min rest again, a final 10 pushups. Then you say you did 3 sets of pushups, 15 reps in first set, 12 reps in second set and 10 reps in the third. Reps are those you do continuously, without any gap. Between sets, you usually take some rest ranging from 1 to 5 minutes.

Volume: Refers to the amount of workout you do, not the weight. If 'A' does 10 reps of 30kg and 'B' does 5 reps of 35kg, A is said to have had more volume in his workout. Usually, bodybuilders have a lot of volume in their workout while powerlifters and weightlifters have relatively low volume.

Intensity: Refers to how much you're doing with respect to the maximum you can do. Say  2 guys, A and B, can both do a maximum of 50kg of bench press for 10 reps. If A is doing 10 reps of 40kg and B is doing 10 reps of 45 kg, B's workout is more intense than A's.

"Bodybuilders usually go for low intensity, high volume workouts. Weightlifters and powerlifters go for very high intensity, low rep workouts" - Many say this, but beginners are advised not to believe this statement.

Failure: 'A' is doing pushups. 20 pushups- a little pain. 30- more pain, but still possible. 35- A can hardly do more pushups. 37- He tries his maximum to get up, but his muscles can't support anymore. That's called failure. Some muscle groups like the abs or the calves are usually worked to failure. Bigger muscle groups like chest, shoulders, legs, back are not.

Plateau: When you start working out, you'll start to feel an increase in strength. You keep following a routine and you progressively keep increasing the load, say 2.5kg per week or two. You can do this till a point but not indefinitely. When you can no longer increase the load, or when your strength stops increasing, you're said to have hit a plateau- No more increase in performance. Hitting a plateau is not really a big deal and it happens to everyone. All you need to do is change your workout routine ( more on this later).


Fatigue, Overload: You go to the gym, do some 3 sets of 25 pushups each. Then some 5 sets of 5 pullups each. Bench press, 4 sets of 10 reps each, with weights you can handle, and then some dumbbell presses and then may be some barbell curls for your biceps and then a lot of crunches and leg raises for your abs and then some other thing- you've 'overloaded' yourself. Refers to having a lot of volume and a lot of exercises with a considerable intensity. Overloading does help when you hit a plateau. When you overload, your body feels completely drained out, that's fatigue.

When you're leaving the gym, you shouldn't feel all drained out and tired. Instead, you should probably be feeling slightly more energitic, not physically, but mentally, since you've got some hormones secreted during your workout. DO NOT WORKOUT IN THE GYM FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. More time in the gym does not mean more muscle, but actually, if you train too long, you end up losing muscle.


Overreach, Overtrain: Overreach is kind of similar to overloading, except that you have higher intensity and relatively lower volumes. You should be feeling all pumped up after you overreach. Refers to pushing your limits or doing very intense (heavy) workout. Overreaching is very good if you do it once in a week or two and take proper rest after that. A significant improvement in performance can be seen if you overreach on a couple of practice sessions and then take a week off. The week off is for recovery. Recovery period after you overreach may very from days to weeks, depending on your ability to recover.
                                       Overtraining is entirely different from overreaching. Overtraining is a mental and hormonal state. That state when your mind says "Just f**k off dude, I'm not going to the gym" and you keep giving up on weights that u're supposed to do peacefully. Happens when you overload or overreach for a long time and don't allow for recovery. Recovery period for overtraining may be several weeks to months.


Will put my next one soon. Keep visiting.

GYM101- Intro to working out. Part 1: Introduction

There are a lot of websites on workouts and this is not like those. Almost all of them are by foreign experts, not Indians, and definitely not by or not for students. This post is exclusively for Indian students.

I'll keep posting stuff on workouts in this blog every now and then. Obviously, I cannot put everything a beginner needs in one post. Will take some time, so keep visiting. 

The differences between us and the Pros- ( You can skip this part)

1. Recovery- A pro body builder or lifter does very few other things, hence takes a lot of rest after each workout. Students don't have this luxury. Especially going to classes in hurry, skipping breakfast, staying out late night, not getting enough sleep and the most important, sitting for long hours in classes in a very uncomfortable position, all these are things that are not supposed to be done.

2. The diet- pros don't eat rice and idli and dosa, they take high protein food. Indian diet, more specifically south Indian, has a lot of fat and sugars and relatively low protein content. The food we take doesn't help much in recovery or in building mass.

3. Intensity- Pros go with a goal whenever they workout. They have a well planned workout and don't pick whatever weight they find. Most students who start working out in the gym probably start because of wrong reasons- reasons like "my friends go there", "I wanna build a 6-pack", "I wanna build huge biceps".. and most are really not ready to go the hard way. I've seen many people go with full intensity in the first few days and then drop out and things like that.



Now some very basic stuff, things to be done even before you get into a gym.

Body fat:
                                  If you have a lot of fat in your body and you start working out, you just put on fat but not muscle. Many big guys feel they've got some muscle when it's really fat. This is not something I'm guessing, it is suggested by pros- loose your fat before you start working out. The best way to loose your fat is cardio- jogging, quick walking, swimming, skipping, treadmill.. all of them would help. Will soon post more on this.

Basic strengthening exercises:
                                 Try doing some pushups and chinups. If you can't do pushups or chinups, you really have no business going into the gym. Check out youtube videos on how to do pushups or chinups. Many guys just give up when they have to do pushups or chinups and instead do dumbell exercises for biceps or some other arbit muscle- doesn't help. For some 2-3 weeks before you go into a gym, do a lot of pushups, chinups, free hand squats (again, check in youtube) and a little stretching. A couple of sets of abs workouts would also help. Don't go too heavy, just take it easy. This is only to get your muscles ready for other exercises.

Tune your mind, set your goals:
                                The biggest mistake many make- they go to a gym but really don't know why they're there. Old people go to a gym to get some cardio. Fat guys go to loose fat. Athletes may go on endurance training. Some go for fitness, some go for strength, some for endurance, some (like me) go to get some peace of mind and some to build muscles. You need to be clear about why you're going- your workout has a direct bearing with what you want to achieve. For God's sake, don't go into a gym just because your friends are going.



@ Beginners who want to start working out in a gym:
Work on the three things I've mentioned. Will put my next post soon. Cardio is very very important, especially for beginners. It increases the effectiveness of your body to use stored fat and also reduces the resting heartbeat and increases blood circulations... forget all that, JUST DO IT. Will try to put a post on how to do proper cardio workouts....
THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to do when you join a gym is to know the gym coach. Never hesitate to ask him what or how to do.
Good Luck

Education vs career vs interest

Different people hold different opinions on these stuff. I'd focus more on students getting into an IIT.

I dare to say that half of the students in IITs have no clue what they're doing there. Most mug for a course only to get a nice grade, not to learn something. What surprises me is these people go on to work as the best engineers from the country.


The government of India has invested a lot of cash into the IITs. But what happens is, there are too many people who're not into engineering. Just too many guys get finance jobs and stuff. A lot go to get an MBA. The basic reason for establishing these IITs is not justified. And the government doesn't seem to worry about it.. instead, they put more IITs. I've read this line a lot of times, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?". Putting more IITs to train more people to get into some financial institutions or to work for some American dumpyard is really not worth it.

Now the students. I've seen some guys who take a lot of pride in saying they're non-geeky IITians.. they think they're cool coz they bunk classes and they don't mug for exams and stuff. I say, they're stupid. What the duck is that guy doing in an IIT if he's not really interested? He can do something more useful, or atleast more economical than wasting 4 years of his life in a place that forces him to do what he doesn't want to.

And the more painful part- this guy who came into an IIT just because his parents forced him to , or as in a case mentioned by a friend, for "extra credentials in his resume", he has actually screwed the life of a guy who might be the next Abdul Kalam. Forget the Abdul Kalam part, atleast a guy who's genuinely intersted doesn't get a chance because of these ********s. 4-5 years pass by and this guys doesn't realize that what he's being taught is "the most important" stuff he needs to know to work. Many don't care to answer this simple question, "Why am I even here?"

The IITs have a good tradition, help in developing the guy's personality, blah blah blah.. They're really good. But they are no fun parks. Not places where a guy comes to spend 4 years of his life and then go do something he likes to do. Everything put into these guys, the cash from govt, the facilities, the effort from Profs, all is just wasted when this guy gets a nice score in CAT.

The irony: Most of the so-called "smartest people in the country" have absolutely no clue about what they're doing for 4 of the most important years of their life

IITJEE 2010

I was reading a regional newspaper today and I could see two coaching institutes put a full page ad. And then I turn a couple of pages and there's something printed about some toppers from AP. There was a special mention of an institute from Patna that has got all of its students qualified in the JEE. The institute is special coz it's not a corporate coaching institute, but teaches backward(economically, I guess) students. Also in the newspaper was a breakdown of the number of seats in each IIT and then the number of students from each region who qualified and all... nothing very unusual about all that. But I read something that seriously shocked me.

A guy whose AIR was less than 20.. he says he is really interested in the civil or administrative services. A guy is interested in business, probably something in the real estate side.. Some guy has absolutely no idea of what he wants to do in life. A girl wants to do an MBA.
Here are some students who are allegedly some of the smartest in the country. The so-called "cream" of the country.. and they don't know that they don't need a B Tech or they don't need to screw 4 years of your life learning what an engineer needs to know if he/she wants to get an MBA. If I wanted to get into the civil services, I'd definitely be learning stuff related to that and wouldn't even want to write the JEE. If I wanted an MBA, I'd have gone for a degree in management, not in engineering.

It doesn't end here. I know that what you would've wanted in life wouldn't always coincide with what you are. But these "wonder kids" say they 'want' to do something that's no way related to engineering, and yet love to get into an IIT. I'm really surprised to find people like this- they can't realize that 4 years of mugging at some IIT would do very little to contribute to what they're going to be, and yet they emerge as the "toppers" in a national exam that's supposed to test a student's (whatever).
The only line that came to my mind when I read all that.. "What the Duck??!!!!"

More arbit stuff.. around 470 thousand students appeared for the JEE... and 80 thousand were from AP.. more than 1 out of 6....

Latest... I don't mean to offend someone, but this stuff seriously sucks...
Another topper's statements..

"I had dreamt of entering IIT from Class VIII,” he said. “I worked hard to realise my goal for the last five years. I am delighted that I made it to the IITs. It is a dream come true."

Just didn't want to put the name.. To think about getting into an IIT.. makes sense. I'd love to put an app to MIT or Stanford, obviously because there are a lot of resources and oppurtunities. But "dreaming" about getting into an IIT for 5 years.. bulls**t. what's more.. this guy "wants to join IIT-Mumbai but has not decided which stream to opt for." This is just an example. Again no offense intended, but this is how most people out there are like. Dream about getting to a place but clueless about what u'll do there....

I can only wonder.. these guys are almost 18... ready to vote, to decide who leads the country. Yet the actions look so immature. Would love to see some comments.


P.S: No offense intended against any individual, only against the people, as a group, and against the system :P

Insti Politics and the country..

Hostel elections, Insti elections..... Two guys contesting for gen sec( probably one gult and another northie as I've seen)(For non- IITM junta.... all students from central and North India are called Northies, from south, we have Gults(Telugu), Tams(Tamil), Digs(Kannada) and Mallus(Malayalam speakers)...). Before nominations are filed, the aspiring guys talk to each other... Two Northies won't contest, coz that'll split Northie votes they say. Two Gults won't contest for the same reason. And then there is something I heard recently, the worst that could be. A guy who was just too enthued to contest for some sec in a hostel (I guess it was Ganga, may be Godav also.. one of the two) had to drop out because some senior didn't like it. And that senior wants some other guy to contest. And this first guy knows the second guy is too dumb and that he'll have no support at all but still he drops out. I'd love to speak a lot on this issue, but because it was a senior involved, I dare not comment on it.

Now, nominations filed. Campaigning starts. No one says in his campaigning that he should get vote because he's a gult or a non-gult. But then there are his friends... They spread this talk.. "Dude, he's a gult. Vote for him and we'll get hazzaar benefits." "Dude, don't vote for that gult guy. All gults will get coordships n coreships. We'll get screwed. If you vote to this guy, I'll get you a coordship." That's how it happens. Most people don't even look at the manifestos. They vote because they fear they and their friends won't get any coordships and if their candidate wins, they can peacefully get a coordship even if they cup with their application.

Then, there are soap boxes. In our hostel we had these secretaries(seriously, I still don't know how they've become secretaries. Except this sports-sec, I felt all others just didn't deserve to be). When they're expected to moderate the soapbox, they start favoring the guy they support. They answer questions this guy was asked and they ask those who ask questions to stop asking crappy questions. Then comes the guy who's against the guy they support. Now they don't answer any questions directed at him, but instead say none of his friends should answer questions directed at him. All you see in a soap box is some shit, partly due to those arbit secretaries and partly do to arbit questions asked and the bulbing of the contestants completes it.

Scene shifts to the hostel computer rooms. There's a queue and you see these arbit guys standing there telling junta whom to vote for. Now, there are a lot of guys who have no idea about the guys contesting. These guys are told in the last minute that some contestant is good or that he's gult or non-gult or some crap and obviously that contestant gets the vote. But officially, no such thing should be happening from 24 hours before the election time. Now there are these "politicians" in the insti, who I think are totally jobless and have no work other than screwing things up. These guys direct people to vote for one guy or the other. There are these famous guys who are said to be responsible for a group of voters who were supposed to vote for one guy but voted for the other in the last moment. And then you also hear that most of these political meetings happen in tifanys and outside Sharav(girls' hostel in insti) and that the expected result may change overnight if someone has very good contis in sharav...

Then elections are done. Some win, and that implies some lose. There are treats. All guys who supported this candidate get some nice treat somewhere. Winners do spend quite a fortune I heard, some 10k or more... The question now is, why all this pain for elections? Is it out of enthu that a guy contests in elections? Or is it to get something nice in his resume? For fame? Or for the money?

After a couple of months, probably after a sem,  we have these allegations that some particular secretary has kulted a lot of cash from hostel funds, that some sec has done nothing except going around with girls and all this crap. How many secretaries do we have who've done their work properly-whatever they've mentioned and without kulting cash?
Well, forget all this.. Shit happens. Nobody's perfect.....

Now, look at the politics in the country. IIT junta are supposedly more 'educated' the others and one expects that elections here and the candidates would be proper and there won't be all this arbit campaigning, kulting and all. But that's not happening. We know that the guy who's going to win isn't going to work properly. Still, these guys are elected and then the same guys who voted for him some months back start complaining this guys isn't doing any good.

We cannot stop a sec in a hostel from kulting some 10k from hostel funds and we talk about the country. A lot of us attend these EMLs(Extra Mural Lectures) when its by some well known Indian Civil Service guy or when its on politics or something like this... But we do nothing in our own insti. And outside, in the 'real' world, its not some 21 year olds who're running for these elections. It's not just something beside a bullet in your resume when you're talking about elections for assembly or parliament. And there, they go as far as killing people if absolutely necessary. Looking at elections in insti, isn't it very obvious that politics in the country is bound to be much worse. Before coming here, I thought politics are the worst and could be a lot better than it is right now. Now, after witnessing what happens in insti, I feel that we're very lucky, that our political leaders are very good and this is the best we can get.

Where is the problem? Is it the system? Well, democracy is the best they say, or they say it's the worst but we know nothing better.
Is it the leaders? I don't think so. Each year, here in insti, we have new guys contesting and everytime it looks the same.
Is it the voters? What else do you expect when all these "clever", "educated" guys act like a bunch of fools when it comes to elections?
Is it with the law that doesn't punish these crappy practices? No way, our insti can't stop a simple guy from going to a hostel and asking them to vote for some guy, right in front of the hostel warden, during the election, in the queue. How can something happen in a country as big as this?
Maybe these are more questions that don't have an answer....

And I'd love to see comments from my readers. These thoughts I present here keep bugging me and I find no solution to many of them...  would love to see some comments

The lab report, the quiz and the assignment

My third entry for the day... And a lot more to come very soon....

We have a lab this sem. A single credit lab, with some 10 experiments. I'm not sure about the percentage of marks for the experiments, but let's say it's 50%. That makes it 5 marks for each experiment, i.e. for each report. Usually, very good reports get a 8.5 or 9 out of ten while give up reports get around 5-6. The difference is at max 4 marks, and just 2 marks in the total weightage for the course. This is some background info...

Almost 50% of the people in the class copy someone else's report. The need to copy a report arises only when you're afraid you're not going to score good marks and u'll end up putting a bad grade ( since it's a lab, the worst may be a C). So, it just means, there are a lot of students here who are scared of losing two marks- who would do any damn thing, almost beg their friends to give their report, just for two marks. And being a friend or a batchmate or a hostel mate or whatever, people, out of courtesy hand over their reports when asked.

So then, in one of the best institutes in the country, there are people who are scared to death for just 2 marks, who are too lazy to write it in the week's time between the experiment and report submission and who really don't mind begging their friends to do a favor, just to get a good grade. And everyone expects these "bright minds" to help develop the country. Bullshit.

The same in an exam. In the worst case, that guy's going to cup in the exam. And when it comes to assignments, everyone knows it's just 2-3 people who do it and everyone else just copies. What's the whole point in having quizzes, assignments and lab reports? Can't a guy clever enough to clear the JEE write a simple lab report- he knows what he did, he just needs to explain that. A small effort before the exam can get him a good grade..

Now the bigger question- Why do junta join IITs? There are too many people who hate going to classes and who learn a topic just because they have to pass the course. The pride that a guy took when he cleared the JEE to come to an IIT, what's it all about? Just clearing an exam? When he always wanted to get the best education in the country, why's he running away from it when he's got the chance? I belong to one of the worst batches at IITM... in this semester, 3 out of 4 professors in our department said our batch is the worst, hopeless... Why is it that a guy who took n pain to clear the JEE doesn't even care to do what he wanted to do? May be some questions aren't supposed to be asked.........