RICHARD SEYMOUR'S/FIT SCHOOL..THE AVERAGE JOE'S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WEIGHT TRAINING

This site has always been geared towards advanced trainers, however I realize there is a demand for quality information on the basics. The nuts and bolts of weight training and its advantages. The past four years of my life have been developing and perfecting the training principles and program I call H.I.G.T- HIGH INTENSITY GROUP TRAINING. In my opinion the best of the best. However for the beginner I will stick to the basics. Here goes....Weight lifting exercises are an essential part of any health and fitness program. But exactly what weight lifting exercises should you use for your unique goals?
It can be a problem to find proper weight lifting information that is relevant to your individual needs. This is mainly because there are literally thousands of different exercises available for you to do.Just check on the Internet and in magazines - there are indeed thousands. The unfortunate fact is that with a lot of these exercises you are simply wasting your time. For anyone to make positive gains in both health and fitness, the weight lifting exercises you do and how you perform those weight training exercises will determine your success or failure.
There are of course many sites and discussions about weight lifting exercises on the Internet for more experienced hard-core body builders, but very few seem to cover the basics of weight training exercises as well as the more in-depth information.
That's what we hope to do here and on the specific exercise pages you can find near the bottom of this page.
It's very important that beginning weight lifters and body builders as well, receive an accurate description of all weight training exercises and what they can expect once they start weight lifting.
Proper weight lifting will help anyone regardless of age to be able to build up and shape up muscles & improve muscular endurance.
Weight lifting, when done properly will increase your lean muscle. An increase in your lean muscle due to consistently performing weight training exercises will help you to improve your metabolism.
When you increase your metabolism, you'll burn more fat. Regardless of what you've read in magazines or seen on infomercials, the only way to increase your metabolism is by adding lean muscle through weight training with key weight training exercises!
Weight lifting can also help to increase the tendon, bone, and ligament strength. It can also help to improve self-esteem and confidence.
All of this, plus much more, is a result of consistently using weight lifting in the proper manner. Weight lifting exercises will have a very positive influence on your physical performance, metabolic efficiency, physical appearance and reducing your risk of injury.
If you are at all concerned about decreasing body fat, preventing the onset of disease, slowing down the aging process, increasing physical performance and your appearance you need to be using the proper weight lifting exercises on a consistent basis.
When beginning any exercises your success will in the end depend on a number of very important aspects. Your genetic make up will go a long way to determining your success and results.
The reasons are numerous and include your natural levels of testosterone and growth hormone and the ratio of slow to fast twitch muscle fibers in each and every muscle in your body.
Increasing your lean muscle and strength, which in turn helps you to build a better body and improve your health, can be attributed to setting a specific goal then striving to achieve it.
Before picking up any weights and performing any exercises, doing any aerobic activity, or taking a single nutritional supplement, you have to create a goal for what you want to achieve.
By and large, everyone, regardless of the ultimate goal will need to do weight lifting, some aerobic exercise and have a very good nutritional plan.
Recognizing your own specific goals and unique needs before beginning any weight lifting exercises is the first step towards fast, dramatic changes.
Poor or unfocused weight lifting won't do a thing for you. You have to stay focused on your goal. It's common for beginning body builders to work numerous different body parts through numerous different "rep" ranges throughout the course of a workout.
The first way to stay focused is to develop a plan. You should know exactly what it is you'll be doing, what exercises, rep ranges etc. before you get to the gym.
But be careful not to over-train with any exercises. The most beneficial workouts will usually take you no more than one hour to complete. After that, you basically start going backwards.
Your testosterone and growth hormone levels will begin to decline dramatically after about 60 minutes or so of weight lifting.
In addition an anti-catabolic hormone known as cortisol begins to rise if you perform resistance exercise for extended workouts and your muscles may start to catabolize their own tissue in order to provide the necessary energy to continue.
Over-training can also lead to injuries and long-term soreness.
Proper nutrition is also essential for determining your success or failure. Without sufficient calories and nutritional supply, even the best and most carefully put together training program and exercises won't work.
In general you should try to aim for 15 times your body weight in calories, divided up into 6-8 meals per day. You need a minimum 1 gram of quality protein per pound of your body weight.
Most of your carbohydrates should low Glycemic Index Carbohydrates except for the first meal following your weight lifting session. These carbohydrates should be high glycemic so you can get a surge from the sugars in order to force the proper nutrients to where they are needed the most.
Flax seed oil is also essential and should be taken daily.
Contrary to popular belief, you do not grow when you are in the gym, but when you are away from the gym. Weight lifting is hard on your central nervous system and without proper rest and recuperation it's very hard to maintain proper intensity, so good rest is very important.
"Everyone knows someone who performs numerous exercise sessions week after week, month after month, even year after year and never makes any gains.
Doing the same exercises and program over and over will actually decrease your chances of reaching your goal.
You must learn how to progressively improve and fine-tune your exercises and weight lifting efforts for maximum results.
It's important to understand all phases of weight lifting, nutrition, and supplementation and how it all fits together. This is basically defined as linear method of periodization.
Periodization is the regulation of exercises, nutrition, and supplementation into basic workable units.
Every exercise session and all exercises have to have some sort of meaning. There should be a definite training goal in mind. Your goal for particular exercises may be to perform one more repetition than last time, or to lift five more pounds.
The problem is that many weight lifting exercises don't have a specific purpose that will lead to the short or long-term goals of you have.
Your goals are the end result while periodization is how you get there. All exercises, nutrition, and supplementation chosen have to fulfill a purpose related to your ultimate goal.
For any weight lifting exercises to be effective there has to be a recruitment of a number of different training sessions that consist of different types of weight lifting exercises. This periodization cycle must have specific meaning and purpose.
Over the complete term of any weight lifting program there are many different cycles including initiation, foundation, maximal strength, recuperative and accumulation cycle, hypertrophy phase, basic strength, peak phase and a transition phase.
This is a very important aspect of weight lifting that many coaches and personal trainers overlook. Certain cycles are intended to prepare the muscles for an upcoming training session.
Other cycles are designed around shocking the body into new growth and adaptation. This shock can come in many forms and can range from taking a week off to a high volume training cycle.
Each cycle is designed with one specific purpose. The length of time for each cycle will vary.
Without taking the time to develop a solid foundation any gains will not be possible regardless of the weight lifting exercises you use.
Periodization can be designed a number of different ways and all are intended to bring out the highest level of success with all the weight lifting exercises you do.
A lack of structure is why many are destined to fail with the weight lifting exercises they do. Without periodization you'll be "spinning your wheels" for years.
Coming across exactly which weight lifting exercises you should do for the best possible physique development results can be a problem.
If you don't use the proper weight training exercises in the proper manner and use these same weight lifting exercises to maintain or improve your lean muscle you will lose more than one-half pound of muscle every year of your life after about age 25.
This has been proven in many studies.
So unless you use safe and effective weight training exercises your muscles will gradually decrease in size and strength over a period of years resulting in poor health, poor physical appearance, low energy levels etc.
Hopefully this gives you some good information on the basics of weight training exercises develop a massive, strong and visually appealing physique that you've always wanted.
But if you are serious about changing your physique and health for the better you may want to take a look at some very exceptional fitness & exercise information that involves the best weight lifting exercises you can possibly do. That is simply my H.I.G.T program that I have outlined on the pages below this article.