Welcome to Greatweightlifting



GWL Logo SmallHi, my name is John, I am the owner of Greatweightlifting.com the 100% free informational weight training website with everything related to weight training, bodybuilding, building muscle, weight loss, workout routines, bodybuilding supplements, diet and nutritional advice, bodybuilding book reviews, weight training motivation and so much more.

This is my personal weight training and fitness website that I created back in 2007, all content is created in my own free time and from my own knowledge and experience of weight training. I created the site because I’m so passionate about weight training, I have been lifting weights since I was 14 years old, staring with a small set of dumbbells and a very basic bench press. I’m now 26 and my passion for weight lifting remains strong, I lift weights 3 times a week (full body routine) at my local gym, I do this 52 weeks of the year and I love every minute of it!

I am also studying towards a personal trainer qualification, and spend a lot of my free time reading up on all things weight lifting/bodybuilding. So I’m using the practical knowledge from my 10+ years of weight lifting and from the personal training guides to help provide my site visitors with 100% free and accurate weight training information. To read more about me see my about John page.

Cottage Cheese Benefits For Bodybuilders



Cottage CheeseAnybody who lifts weights should know the importance of protein consumption as part of their training, and one of the best natural sources of protein is cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is regularly consumed by weight trainers due to its high content of casein protein and low caloric content, making it the ideal food to consume before bed.

But why is cottage cheese such a good choice for those of us who train with weights and what is in cottage cheese that makes it such a good bodybuilding food? I have created a quick list of cottage cheese benefits below:

 

  • High in Protein - Cottage cheese has a high protein content, making it the ideal snack between meals for all those trying their best to build muscle
  • Contains Casein Protein – Cottage cheese is high in casein protein, casein is absorbed slower in the digestive system, which means protein is available in the body compared to whey protein, this makes cottage cheese the best source of natural protein to consume before bed time.
  • Low Fat – Most cottage cheeses are low in fat, which is obviously a good thing.
  • Low in Calories – A low number of calories per cup is good for those looking to lose weight whilst at the same time increasing muscle mass. If however you are trying to bulk you could always buy normal cottage cheese and eat it with wholegrain bread :-)
  • Low Cholesterol – Cottage cheese is low in cholesterol, which is good news for your heart.
  • High Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) – Riboflavin helps stimulate metabolism and assists in the digestion & absorption of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
  • High Vitamin B12 – Cottage cheese contains a high amount of vitamin B12, which is required for normal function of the brain, nervous system and formation of blood.
  • Low liquid Content Compared to a Protein Shake – The amount of liquid in cottage cheese is low in comparison to a casein protein supplement, which means you hopefully wont need to get up in the night :-)

Cottage Cheese Vs Casein Protein Shakes

I’m sure a lot of supplement companies will tell you that their casein protein is the best supplement to consume before bed time, don’t get me wrong, casein supplements do a good job of keeping your body in an anabolic state during sleep there is no replacement for cottage cheese.

Life in the Gym



Life In The GymJust a quick post for all you gym lovers out there, about life in the gym. I was in the gym yesterday and just finished my first set of barbell squats.

As I was getting some much needed rest a friend of mine came up to me and said that his friends have been moaning to him, quizzing him on why he wants to go to the gym most evenings and lift weights, why on earth would he want to get bigger and stronger, why he doesn’t drink much anymore. I can relate to what he is talking about, I sometimes get asked this question and I’m sure you do sometimes:

 

“Why do you spend your life in the gym, why don’t you hang out with us anymore?”

Great question: why would someone want to spend their evenings pumping iron, getting stronger, fitter, more athletic, increasing their overall well-being, when they could just sit on the couch and watch mindless television!

Why should we bother eating the right foods to maintain a low body fat percentage, and consume large amounts of protein so we can build muscle, especially when we could just go to a bar and drink the night away!

Most people will put a downer on it because they think you are “obsessed” with lifting weights, obsessed with looking big, like there is something wrong with you, like you are a loser for wasting your life in the gym. My response is always the same:

“Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe dedicated.”

After a few years of lifting weights or “obsessing” I’m sure your friends will change their attitude!

Happy lifting!

10 Ways To Improve Grip Strength



Deadlift Grip StrengthIf like me you have been lifting weights for years you may sometimes feel like your being let down by your grip strength. Often when I do deadlifts, pull ups or any other pulling exercise I find it’s usually my grip that gives before my muscles.

To try and combat this I sometimes use lifting straps, whilst this does help when I lift heavy it doesn’t really improve my grip strength. Using lifting straps too often will make you become reliant on them not allowing your grip strength to improve naturally. Because of this reason I don’t use lifting straps if I can help it.

To improve my grip strength I perform a number of techniques that allow me to improve my forearm strength. Here is my top 10 list of the techniques I use to improve grip strength:

Hand Grip Position

1. Use  the proper pulling grip – Make sure you grip the bar or piece of equipment properly, with your thumbs over the bar and aligned as shown in the picture on the right. make sure you grip the bar low in your hands, as close to your fingers as possible.

This is how you should grip a bar whenever you perform a pulling exercise such as deadlifts, rows or pull-ups and its important because it stops the bar slipping down your hands which can create calluses.

The image on the right indicates the correct grip position, which is closer to the fingers. Note: this grip position only applies to pulling movements, for pushing movements (such as bench press) you should place the bar where the red cross is located.

2. Chalk the hands – Chalk improves your grip and keeps your hands dry, often when you lift heavy weights, as in deadlift, your hands will begin to sweat. Chalking your hands helps keep them dry, but its useful if you chalk your hands as the weight gets heavy, don’t chalk from the start of you become reliant on it, thus weakening your grip strength. Most gyms wont allow chalk, if they don’t you can use what I use, liquid chalk, which can be purchased from Amazon.com for under $20

3. Grip the bar hard – This may sound obvious but try to keep a constant strong grip on the bar at all times, gripping the bar as hard as possible will actually improve grip strength. When you grab the bar hard your knuckles will turn white, this is an indication that you are gripping hard, make sure you keep this grip throughout the pulling exercise.

4. Hold the bar to finish – When you have performed the last repetition you should hold onto the bar as long as you can, often when I am performing deadlift or pull-ups I will hold the weight in my hands for about 10 seconds. So in the deadlift when I have finished my last rep I will hold the bar at the top for about 10 seconds before lowering it back to the ground.

5. Use a thicker bar – Using a thicker makes your forearm more involved in the exercise, if your gym doesn’t have a thicker bar you can always purchase some fat gripz from amazon, these things are fantastic, they clip onto an Olympic bar making it thicker, just remember that using fat gripz you wont be able to lift as heavy as normal. Amazon.com sell these for under $50, I don’t personally own them but I have seen reviews on youtube and they seem like a very good idea

6. Use a Powerball – A powerball is a device powered by your wrists, it uses a gyroscope to move the ball, I own one and must say its very tough to use, if you can get over 15,000 reps that very good. You can buy these from Amazon.com for under $35

Plate Pinching7. Plate pinching - Put two cast iron plates together so that the smooth side is facing outwards on both sides, then grip the plates hard and stand up straight. The aim is to keep hold of the plates for as long as possible as your grip strength increases you should be able to handle more weight, this is what a lot of strongmen do to improve grip strength.

Some people prefer holding a weight plate in each hand at the sides of their body, whilst this is effective its not as good as holding two plates together in front of you, as show in the image on the left. By holding the smooth sides of the plates in front of you allows for a greater weight to be help, making the exercise harder but also improving your grip strength at a faster rate.

8. Barbell Shrugs – Holding a heavy barbell through a set of barbell shrugs is good for grip strength, the grip is similar to overhand deadlift and requires concentration.

9. Rack Pulls – Rack pulls is a great exercise for increasing grip strength, simply set the safety pins in the squat rack so they are about inline with your knees, now place the barbell on the safety pins and load it with the appropriate amount of weight. Now begin to pull the weight up into the standing position, this movement is basically the top half of the deadlift.

Towel Pull ups10. Rope or towel pulls – Using a thick rope or a towel to pull a weight is a great way to improve grip strength, for example if you do back rows on a machine and often use cable handles, substitute them for the triceps rope. Likewise wrap a towel around the chin up bar in a way that enables you to pull up using the towel, both these methods rely more on your grip thus improving grip strength over time.

Full Squat vs Half Squat



Full Squat Vs Half SquatThere is continuing debate as to how you should perform barbell squats, some people believe you should half squat whilst others believe you should full squat. I am a big believer in full squats and over the last few years have been performing full squats in my workout routines, I have seen better strength gains in my leg muscles an increased also flexibility. However, some people say you should perform half squats, as full squats are bad for your knees, some also say full squats are bad for the back.

With this in mind I thought I would write a page explaining the differences between full squats and half squats. First though I think you should understand the importance of including barbell squats into your workout routine.

Reasons to Squat

There are many reasons why you should be including squats into your workout routine, below is a list of what I feel are the most beneficial reasons, for a list of 100 reasons to squat checkout EliteLifts.com page

  • Mass Builder - Performing barbell squats is a pure mass builder, this compound exercise involves several muscle groups: The quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, back etc, in terms of intensity the barbell squat is up their with deadlifts and I recommend to include it with your workout program if you want to put on size.
  • Good For The Knees – Over time, squatting will greatly increase the mobility of your knee joints (if done correctly), this is because the surrounding muscles, ligaments and tendons become stronger and protect the knee.
  • Growth Hormone – Squatting causes a big release of growth hormone, because squatting is so demanding on the body it has to release a lot of growth hormone to cope with the stress. This will of course apply to other compound exercises, such as deadlift, barbell bench press etc – See a study here on growth hormone release: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12905088
  • Strengthens Your Core - Squats provide a high contraction of the core muscles, which will help improve your posture and balance long term.
  • Improves Balance & Coordination - When you perform full squats your quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteus contract, over time the strengthening of these muscles will improve balance in the legs.

Full Squats

Full Barbell SquatsFull squats are when you perform the full range of motion, when the hips go at least parallel with the floor (or just below), some people like to go ass to ground (ATG) and that’s fine providing you have the flexibility to do so, if you don’t have the flexibility to go ATG then go as low down as comfortable, as long as its at least parallel.

I think the biggest reason people do not perform full squats is because they believe its bad for the knees, sorry to say but this is wrong, full squats are actually better for the knees than half squats and that’s because full squats provide a full contraction of the hamstrings, glutes and quadriceps muscles, allowing you to drive up to the start position using momentum in the leg muscles and not from the knees.

But don’t just take my word for it, here is a quote regarding full squats from the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NCSA), position paper, 1991:

“The full squat must be considered the cornerstone exercise, because it quickly stimulates overall strength increases in both men and women. Neglecting this exercise retards overall physical development and prevents the athlete from achieving optimal performance. Exercises that use a more complete range of motion at the knee joint may increase rather than decrease knee stability of the medial collateral ligaments and other ligaments.”

Half Squats

Half SquatsHalf squats are when you stop before your hips are parallel to the ground. The problem with only performing half a squat is that when you drive back up from the bottom of the movement you are not fully activating the hamstrings and gluteus to lift the weight, therefore the momentum of the weight is stopped by the quadriceps and knees, placing undue stresses and shear forces on the knees.

Secondly, because the hamstrings and glutes are not as involved it causes imbalances between the hamstrings and quadriceps. The hamstrings are supposed to act as the antagonist of the quadriceps during a squat, but because the hips do not go below parallel this never actually happens. So if you were to continue training half squats for a period of time you would begin to see muscle imbalances between your quadriceps and hamstrings, which will also reduce your flexibility.

Here is a quote about half squats from Dr. Mark Rippetoe: Strong enough, Thoughts from thirty years of barbell training, 2007:

“The fundamental misunderstanding here is about what we’re trying to accomplish when we squat. The quadriceps are not the only muscles that are supposed to be involved in the exercise. The hamstring muscles on the back of the thigh attach at the front of the tibia, at the bottom of the knee, wrap around it on both sides and pull back on the knee from below it as they get tight. The adductors connect the groin area of the pelvis to the medial (inside) aspect of the femur, and these muscles also pull back on the knee when they tighten, but from above the knee and toward the inside. Both of these muscle groups tighten from behind the knee as the torso leans forward, the knees travel out to stay parallel to the feet, and the hips reach back of correct depth, balancing the forward pulling stress from the quadriceps and the patellar tendon around the ront of the knee. But they only exert this balancing pull when they are stretched, in the full squat position

So why would anyone want to perform half squats? Well half squats can be useful for strengthening your legs at the top of the movement and can really improve strength in your thighs. Also if you have a sticking point at the top of the movement half squats can really help with this as you can load the bar with a lot more weight.

Conclusion

Now you have all the facts I hope you will consider performing full squats when you next enter the gym. If you have been performing half squats for a long time or have never squatted before you will need to start light and work your way up.

Rest Between Sets, A Critical Muscle Building Factor!



Rest Between SetsI was working out in the gym the other day when I noticed a young guy, probably about 18 or so, he was barely resting between his sets and appeared to be lifting quite heavy weights for his size. I spoke with him and asked: “why are you getting minimal rest between your sets?” to which he replied: “Cos im trying to get a good pump so I can build muscle!”.

It amazes me why people get confused by the amount of rest they need between sets, so I created this page to help those looking for the real answer.

So How Much Rest Should You Have?

Lifting weights is demanding on the muscles, bones, nervous system and cardiovascular system, once you have completed a set you need a short rest to recover all of these systems. You may have heard many theories on the amount of rest time required, such as 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 seconds etc, but the amount of rest you need between sets is actually down to you.

That’s right, only you will know how much rest is required between sets, because it will depend on many factors, such as: Age, fitness level, recovery level, time of day, nutrition, energy levels, intensity of the exercise, the exercise performed, room temperature, humidity, your goals etc. All of these and many more factors will determine how much rest is needed between each set.

I know the above doesn’t give you much to go on, but there have been scientific studies showing that rest times of between 60-90 seconds appear to recover up to 90% of your muscles capacity to do the work. So it would appear if you stick to this range as a starting point you can’t go wrong.

Too Little Rest Vs Too Much Rest

Rest Between Sets StopwatchYou have to remember that too little rest is just as bad as having too much. When you don’t rest enough between sets your muscles will have too much blood and lactic acid in them, this will cause you to fail too early during your set. When you fail too early in a set due to lack of recovery its not your muscles that are failing, its the fact you cant get any more oxygen into the muscle, which means you will not build muscle as effectively as when you are rested.

When you have too much rest your heart rate will have slowed near to its normal pace, also your muscles & joints will have cooled down. When you begin the next set your heart rate will spike and your muscles & joints will have to quickly warm up again, this is bad for the heart and also putting you at a higher risk of injury.

Rest Between Sets For Hypertrophy

If your main goal is hypertrophy (also known as building muscle), you should aim for a long enough rest period so that you can begin the next set to momentary muscular failure, this means you complete the exercise until you physically cannot contract the muscle any more. A typical repetition range for hypertrophy is between 8-12 repetitions for each set.

Rest Between Sets For Endurance

If you are trying to lose weight, increase your cardiovascular or muscular endurance levels, then make sure you get the minimal amount of rest between sets to keep the “pump” going throughout the workout. Doing this will keep your heart rate up and vastly improve your muscular endurance, whilst making your body a calorie burning machine. A typical repetition range for endurance is between 12-20 repetitions for each set.

Rest Between Sets For Strength

If your main goal is to increase your strength you should aim for the maximum optimal rest between sets. The rest time for strength training will be the highest rest time compared to all other training types. A typical repetition range for increasing strength is between 3-5 repetitions for each set.

Pass The Time!

During your rest period you should be taking in some much needed oxygen, I personally find it helps about 10-20 seconds after my set if I just take a few deep breaths, this helps me mentally prepare for the next set. I also drink small sips of water if I feel I need it, I don’t drink water for the sake of drinking water and you shouldnt either. Also I don’t do any stretches between sets, doing so can make you weaker and more prone to injury when you perform the next set, so don’t do it, stretching is for after the entire workout! see my section on the importance of stretching for more info.

Lastly I just want to say that you should not spend your much needed rest time chatting to your friends or browsing the web on your cell phone, as nine times out of ten you will take a longer rest period than needed. Stick to staying focused, if it helps purchase a cheap heart rate monitor with a countdown timer on it, this way you can see your constant heart rate and use the countdown function to give you an idea of your rest times.