In this second weightlifting article I want to start by hoping that you are not feeling to sore from your first workout, you will make short term gains regardless but you will want to have interest in doing weights over the long term. Today I want to go over the benefits of strength training as well as go over the Tuesday/Friday workouts.

There are many great benefits to doing weight training. The first benefit is that extra muscle mass will burn more calories allow you either to eat more food or lose fat quicker. The second benefit is that you will improve your posture and the way you move on a daily basis as you will get rid of those little aches and pains caused by weak core muscles. And finally you will feel better about yourself because of the changes that YOU are making to your body.

Here is the 2nd Day of a Two day split

Upper Back Exercises

Bent over Rows, to do a row you hold a light weight in your hand and put your right knee on one chair and your right hand on another chair now with your back straight raise you left hand parallel with your body and slightly back so that the stress is on your upper back muscles. Do three sets of ten repetitions of this with each arm. Read the rest of this entry »

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So after a not very restful sleep and a Tylenol 3 for pain I woke up this morning to a bit less pain then last night but I am still kind of immobile and sore.

I went to the clinic this morning and the doctor says that I have a sprained back. I now have a filled prescription for an anti-inflammatory and  a muscle relaxant.
I will be out of commission for about three days and the doctor said that I should take it easy for a while after that. So I am going to be worrying more about stretching and isometrics and give the weights a break, sad for me because I really felt that I was getting in the groove of my workouts.

I am still thinking about how I hurt my back and it was a classic case of leaving my back exposed while I was warming it up. As you have probably heard in the past you should lift with your legs not with your back, I was not doing that.

Here is exactly how I wrecked my lower back. Instead of using 25 pounds or so doing one armed rows on the bench, I crouched down to do rows on an angle with just 15 pounds per arm but because of the angle that my back was relative to the weights I was putting a lot of pressure on my lower back instead of stressing my upper back muscles.

I guess we live and learn but I did not really want ot go through any kind of back problems. I had some problems with my knees many years ago and first resorted to riding a bike to strengthen the muscles around my knee, now it looks like I will need to do the same with my core, strengthening my core of my abs and my back are now a real priority.