How Muscles Work - Back to the Basics

I am pretty sure that everybody knows that your muscles are used for powering your body, they supply the force that moves you arms and legs and other body parts. Usually bigger muscles mean more strength and smaller muscle mean less strength. But how exactly do your muscles work, what are the mechanics that allow your muscles to move your body parts so effectively?

In this YouTube Back to the Basics Video I go over the names of the basic Muscle Groups, I talk about how a muscle applies force (Contracts or Pulls) on your body to make things like limbs and joints move and I go over the positions muscles can be in (Contracted - Extended or Stretched - Neutral or Rested).

I also go over the importance of having a balanced workout program so that your muscles are built evenly and do not create an imbalance that could negatively effect your posture and/or flexibility.

Please enjoy this Back to the Basic video about How Muscles Work:

Finding the Time to Workout - Get Fit Over 40 Video Requests

This Video Request is  from Roman who asks about finding time for workouts and how to make your spouse or "better half" understand the importance of gym time or fitness time.

Here is Roman's original email request:

"Hey! Just a question for a driver. I haul heavy construction equipment and work anywhere from 12-14 hour a days. And that leaves 10-12 hours for family, life and ME time. Now ME time is currently at 4 am most mornings.

How do you make it work Mike? I know you are as busy or more busy than me. Tell us how you make use of your time and how you make the puzzle pieces fit everyday.

I am 42 and have been trying to use your website and ideas to make a change in my life. I would like to lose fat and later on put on some muscle. I'm 6'7" and currently weigh 261. From my biggest weight of 290. So I have lost 29 lbs so far, by logging what I eat and trying to get strength/cardio in 5 times a week.

How about some time tips, and making your better half understand what our goals are here.

Thank you SO much for what you are doing, and know that you are touching peoples lives. Bless you and your work, take care. 

Roman"

If you have a Video Request question you would like to ask me, I will do my best to give you an answers, just send me an email using this link...

Watch my YouTube video below for my answer to Roman's question:

Reasons for Doing Movemeber- Get Fit Over 40 Video Requests

This Video Request is another one from Chris who seems to have a bit of an interest in facial hair... That's OK,we all have that one thing :)

Here is Chris's original email request:

"Hey Mike,

I have another questions for you:

What is your main motivation and drive to do a charity event like Movember each year?

Do you like doing Movember? and having a mustache?

What do other people think about you doing movember?

Thanks,
Chris."

If you have a Video Request question you would like to ask me, I will do my best to give you an answers, just send me an email using this link...

Watch my YouTube video below for my answer to Chris's question:

Build Wide Shoulders - Muscle Target Zones

Another new video series I am starting that will be named "Muscle Target Zones". These fitness videos will focus on individual muscle groups and I would consider them to be more advanced videos, although people doing basic workouts that want to target a weak or problem area can also benefit from these video.

In this first Muscle Target Zones video, I'm featuring Shoulders, for me shoulders have always been an area that I need to do extra work as I do not naturally have broad shoulders. To offset my shoulder deficiencies I make sure to do a few more exercises and a few more sets. In this video I show you some of my favorite shoulder exercises that have helped me to overcome my naturally narrower frame.

Some of the exercises I show in this Muscle Target Zones video are:

• How to properly warm up your shoulders and prevent and correct shoulder injuries.
• Shoulder Press using a straight bar and dumbbells.
• Shoulder Raises or "flies" in the rear, side and forward positions.
• Upright Rows using a pulley system and also dumbbells.
• Shoulder Shrugs using dumbbells.

Watch my Targeted Shoulder YouTube Workout Video:

April 2014 Update Video - Gained 16 Pounds - Time to Lose the Fat

Back in early January I made a video where I talked about my 2014 New Years goal to gain some more muscle. I even did some "before" posing photos so I would have something to compare to once I had put the muscle on.

Up until now I have never tried to see how much muscle I could put on, I have been more into keeping leaner and not so worried about being bulky, not that I want to be bulky now but a bit more muscle would be kind of nice. In the past I have been keeping my calories low and mixing together cardio with some weight training which is a great way to maintain weight and even build some strength over time, but it is a very slow and round about way to actually gaining serious muscle.

My new approach for the "muscle bulk" was to eat a bit more than I needed, but not too much as I didn't want to get fat! I also cut down my cardio by limiting my CrossFit workouts to 2-3 days per week and I increased my weight training days to 3-4 days per week. My weight training was geared towards very intense workouts with a lot of workload to really trigger muscle growth.

So here we are now, about three month later and so I thought it was time to show you the results of all this very hard work and I have to say I am very pleased. I started out at 182 pounds (8% body fat) and I am currently right around 198 pounds (10.5% body fat), I was even up to 204 pounds at one point but cut the food back just a bit as I was feeling a bit too fat at that weight.

Now it's time to get back down to a leaner body weight but not lose all the muscle I worked so hard to gain, I plan to do this by limiting my calories to around 2500 per day. I currently burn anywhere from 3000-3500 calories per day so I should lose at least 1 pound per week if not a bit more. I will add in one Intermittent Fast day per week that should balance off a planned cheat day I will allow myself each week so I can limit my food cravings.

This weight cut of around 8-10 pounds should take me around 2 months and if all goes well I may even put on a pound or two of additional muscle.

So stay posted for my update in early June when I should be the leanest and most muscular I have even been :)

Enjoy the rest of my Before and After photos followed by my YouTube Video...