If history has taught us anything, it is that when a business concept exhibits the potential for growth, companies and industries spread like a virus to expand and exploit the opportunity. From the meager beginnings of muscle-bound bodybuilders, steel barbells, medicine balls and once-a-day vitamins, the health and fitness industry has transformed into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut. Health and fitness professionals, such as personal trainers have evolved from spandex and headbands to being highly trained sales and marketing snipers. The trainers working for them are there puppets, and are making sure that your cash is their target.
How Lactic Acid Training Works: Is designed to force your body to produce a lot of Lactic Acid in the target muscles and keep it there .Research has shown that the presence of Lactic Acid can cause an increase in both growth hormone and testosterone secretion by the body. These are two of the most anabolic (muscle building) and lipolytic (fat burning) hormones in the human body.
* Lactic Acid Training causes your muscles to fail due to lower cellular pH (the acid lowers pH, which is the acid-base balance in the blood. When it’s gets too low, your muscles are unable to contract effectively) and not due to contractile failure (the point where your muscle fibers are too fatigued to continue). Not being able to push to contractile failure protects the muscles from excessive breakdown, which is critical to preserving muscle mass under reduced-calorie conditions, i.e. dieting.
* Lactic Acid Training also burns quite a lot of calories during the session itself. This is because of the very short rest periods and high volume of work. This, in turn, keeps your heart rate in an aerobic conditioning zone even during the rest, further increasing the benefits of the training.
* Increased Growth Hormone levels also increase the use of fat for energy during recovery after intense exercise. This means your body will be burning fat in order to help you recover from your training!
* As well, high-rep Lactic Acid Training trains the Type 1 muscle fibers (endurance-oriented), developing and multiplying the cellular energy furnaces known as mitochondria, which rely greatly on fats to supply energy to your cells. This means your body will become more productive at burning fat even while at rest.
* The high volume of the training you will be doing will also help to stimulate Growth Hormone production. Higher training volume has been shown to produce a better Growth Hormone response than lower-volume training.
* The high-rep qualities of the training helps to develop circulation in the muscles by increasing the number of capillaries (tiny blood vessels) feeding the muscles. More circulation means more nutrients which means easier muscle growth down the line!
Put all these amazing benefits together and you’ve got one incredibly powerful training technique!
How To Do It:
The basic execution of Lactic Acid Training
1. Pick one single exercise, using a weight you can get around 20 to 50 reps with.
2. Do as many reps as you can until your muscles are burning so strongly and are so flooded with lactic acid that you can’t move the weight. You will probably have to drop the weight pretty quickly by this point!
3. Rest 20 seconds.
4. Now do another set with the same weight. You will probably only be able to get 8 to 10 reps with that weight, even if you just did 50 reps with it a few seconds ago. The short rest period means the lactic acid hasn’t had time to fully clear and you will fail due to lactic acid build-up in the muscles rather than true muscular failure (which is what we want).
5. Rest 20 seconds then do another set.
6. Repeat this for a total of 6 to 12 sets per bodypart, depending on the program requirements and which bodypart you’re working.
Whether you already row or are considering rowing to keep in shape, lose weight, cross-train for another sport, compete on the water or rehabilitate from injury or surgery, rowing is the complete exercise for you.
Arms, legs, chest, back, abs—even your mind. Your whole body gets a complete workout from the efficient, rhythmic motion of rowing. Rowing is such a great exercise in so many different ways.
* Low-impact (easy on the knees and ankles)
* High calorie burner (because it uses so many muscle groups)
* Great for joint health (joints move through a wide range of motion)
* Upper body (completes the stroke)
* Lower body (the legs initiate the drive)
* Works the back and abs too!
* Superb aerobic fitness (great for cardiovascular fitness)
* Relieves Stress (for overall health and well-being)
This is different from the rowing you may have done as a kid in a rowboat. The difference lies in the sliding seat. Your legs compress and extend with every stroke—in addition to the more obvious work being done by the back and arms.
Legs: You begin each stroke with your legs compressed and your shins vertical. You initiate the drive with the powerful muscles of your legs, and finish with your legs fully extended. Rowing promotes both strength and flexibility through this wide range of leg motion.
Arms: At the catch, your arms are outstretched; at the finish of the stroke, they have pulled the handle into your abdomen. As with the legs, this range of motion promotes both strength and flexibility.
Core: chest, back, abs: At the start of the stroke, the power of the legs is connected to the handle by means of the arms and the core muscles of the body. Then the back is more fully involved as it swings open through the middle of the stroke. Finally, the body is stabilized at the finish by the abdominal muscles.
