July 15, 2018

In this newsletter . . .

Beginner
exercise choices

So how were the exercises selected? With just a few tweaks, they’re about the same routine as the beginners’ program at Ed Yarick’s gym, from way back in the 1950s, my first gym membership.

Why Yarick’s? Well, superstars like Steve Reeves trained there. And some of the strongest men in the world lifted there. You couldn’t ask for a better trainer/coach than Ed Yarick.

Your first workout at Yarick’s was really an orientation, doing one set of about 12 reps of two exercises per body part. You learned to exhale on the push or pull of a movement; you inhaled on the return. (More about that at the end.) And you controlled the weights in a steady up and down motion. No swinging or cheating them up, as many young beginners will do by using more weight than they can properly handle.

In the half-century since Yarick’s, I’ve never discovered a better way to introduce beginners to weight training. Some call it “old school,” and that is just the opposite of “cutting edge,” which can get a little cute and gimmicky.

So if the old ways were so darned good, why did I bother to tweak them at all? In the old days, cardio usually wasn’t a part of the training. Sixty years ago, most new gym members were skinny young guys who just wanted to put on muscle. So you pumped iron and ate like a horse.

Times have changed

There are still skinny guys today. But these days far more beginners have the opposite problem: they’re too fat. The sedentary life has taken its toll. Reasonable cardio, added to pumping iron, helps trim them down.

The trick is to do enough cardio to exercise heart and lungs, but not so much that it becomes catabolic. In other words, you want to build muscle, trim fat, and not neglect your cardiovascular system.

Another tweak is that in Yarick’s day the vast, vast majority of beginners were young men and a few young women. Because of their youth, they could be pushed faster, harder. At Yarick’s your first workout was one set per exercise. The second workout, it was two sets. Then three at the third session. That ended week one. Starting week two, the quest began to lift ever-heavier weights and pack on muscle.

Today, many beginners are seniors. Pushing them like you would a 16-year old is crazy. You’re likely to discourage or even injure them. Allow their progress to be gradual and they’ll be fine. So you push, but push gently. See what I mean here. And it’s absolutely free.

More on Yarick breathing

Have you ever heard of the “Valsalva maneuver”? Even many fitness buffs may not know what the term means, but unknowingly practice it, or something like it. You’ve probably seen this many times in the gym: a guy (it’s usually a man) doing a heavy bench press; he is holding his breath and red in the face, looking like his head is about to explode in a do or die struggle to get that very last rep. He may not know the term for it, but he is practicing the Valsalva maneuver.

When we lift or push something heavy there is a natural tendency to hold our breath. Some coaches even teach it as a way of increasing intra-abdominal pressure, thereby providing more back support. But it can have dangerous consequences—especially for seniors.

Blood pressure skyrockets when chest cavity pressure increases as you hold your breath. Dizziness or fainting can result, and even a stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, or retinal detachment is a possibility. Some lifters will tell you the dangers of Valsalva are exaggerated. And I’m sure there are younger lifters who use it to their advantage and get away with it. But my advice is don’t do it. Breathe!

Ed Yarick showed me the basics. He would say to beginners: Don’t hold your breath. Exhale as you push the weight away from you or pull it toward you. Inhale as you return the weight to the starting position. This developed a rhythmic breathing pattern. You didn’t ignore the man who showed Steve Reeves the ropes.

Most trainers today tell their clients not to hold their breath, which is good. But most don’t make as much of an issue about exhaling during the pushing or pulling phase of a lift. They just say, “Don’t hold your breath. Breathe.” And that’s certainly a plus. But Ed Yarick’s instruction to emphasize exhaling during the exertion part of a push or pull was even better.

Breathe the Ed Yarick way. Make it a habit.

Happy mid-July,

Logan

Senior Exercise Central

Your comments and questions are always appreciated. Simply click on the "Reply" bottom.

Sincerely,

Logan Franklin
The Gray Iron Fitness Newsletter
www.senior-exercise-central.com