The Four Cornerstones Of Fitness Training

[stevehawk1]

Although many people seem to believe that fitness training is purely a physical sport, this is wrong on so many levels.
The knowledge required in order to be successful in this area is just as important as physical strength, and there is no better place to get said knowledge than from reading.
I have been training for 7 years now and while practice in the gym did teach me a lot of things, it is through articles and journals that I learned the best information.
Things such as training practices, nutritional information, proper form, safe use of supplements, etc, all came from reading.
This article will be quite short but will teach you about the 4 most important lifts which you should be doing. Let’s get started!

It is an undisputed fact that the best lifts for building mass are compound ones. These lifts incorporate multiple muscles into them at the same time, allowing you to not only build mass and strength but also to increase your natural levels of growth hormone and testosterone, two important hormones related to muscle building.
Their opposite, isolation movements, only use a single muscle and while they should still be incorporated into your workouts, they should not be made your main focus.

Out of all of the compound movements that exist, 4 are considered to be the very best. These are:

• Deadlifts – Works pretty much all of your posterior muscles including your hamstrings, your back, your traps, and your glutes.
• Squats – The best thing you can do to build big and powerful thighs.
• Bench Presses (flat) – Want a big chest? This is your go-to exercise.
• Military Presses (standing) – Great for building big shoulders especially from the front

It is my recommendation that these lifts are done every single week and not cycled as the results they bring are just phenomenal.
You should know however that these lifts are some of the hardest you can attempt and many people will bring up excuses as to why you shouldn’t be doing them; deadlifts ruin your back, squats ruin your knees, etc.
The truth is that these movements are perfectly safe to execute as long as you do them with proper form and many of the people bringing up said excuses are simply too lazy to do them.
That’s all for this write-up guys; I hope you have learned something new! If you have anything to add or wish to ask something please don’t hesitate in order to leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!

 

[CrazyOldMan]

My training is generally centred around the 3 core powerlifting movements, and has worked well for years.
I love the whole deadlifts are bad for your back myth. After close to 24 years of weight training I have noticed that any trainers who have been doing weights over 10 years without deadlifts or similar compound back movement have bad backs, no exceptions at all. Most training this long who have always done deadlifts or similar have no issues. Truth is your back will have problems if you let it become a weakness, lots of ab work and nothing for the lower back = weak lower back = painful back issue, simple really.

 

[plugeye]

those four cornerstones aint enough for the body
only 1 pulling movement? need rowing or pullups, which i believe is much more important than bench press

 

[CrazyOldMan]

I don't think it was intended as the sole exercises, it is supposed to be cornerstones so core movements to build on.
Rowing and pull ups are good movements to go along with deadlift to strengthen the back, they won't build the chest, shoulders and triceps like bench of course, this is why balance is so important.
There are numerous great exercises out there but variation and balance are key. This from someone who's been doing the same run 3 times a week for over a year.

 

[Goldfish]

Although many people seem to believe that fitness training is purely a physical sport, this is wrong on so many levels.
The knowledge required in order to be successful in this area is just as important as physical strength, and there is no better place to get said knowledge than from reading.
I have been training for 7 years now and while practice in the gym did teach me a lot of things, it is through articles and journals that I learned the best information.
Things such as training practices, nutritional information, proper form, safe use of supplements, etc, all came from reading.
This article will be quite short but will teach you about the 4 most important lifts which you should be doing.

4 most important lifts for strength-oriented training =/= 4 cornerstones of fitness. That's a bit of a let down.

Let’s get started!

It is an undisputed fact that the best lifts for building mass are compound ones.

Actually, that's highly disputed. Compound lifts are an efficient way to train lots of muscles at once, but most of the time individual muscles can get greater overload in isolation. A combination of the two seems to yield the best hypertrophic results.

These lifts incorporate multiple muscles into them at the same time, allowing you to not only build mass and strength but also to increase your natural levels of growth hormone and testosterone, two important hormones related to muscle building.

Last I checked, the evidence indicated that these hormones do increase during compound lifts, but the level and duration of the increase doesn't seem to be sufficient for a significant impact on hypertrophy or force production.

Their opposite, isolation movements, only use a single muscle and while they should still be incorporated into your workouts, they should not be made your main focus.

I would agree that isolation exercises should generally be used around compound exercises rather than in place of them.

Out of all of the compound movements that exist, 4 are considered to be the very best. These are:

• Deadlifts – Works pretty much all of your posterior muscles including your hamstrings, your back, your traps, and your glutes.
• Squats – The best thing you can do to build big and powerful thighs.
• Bench Presses (flat) – Want a big chest? This is your go-to exercise.
• Military Presses (standing) – Great for building big shoulders especially from the front

You chose well.

It is my recommendation that these lifts are done every single week and not cycled as the results they bring are just phenomenal.

These movements should be done each week, but cycling through variations of them may be appropriate. You might focus on front squats for a while, then high bar back squats, then low bar back squats, then squats with chains, etc. Depends on so many factors.

You should know however that these lifts are some of the hardest you can attempt and many people will bring up excuses as to why you shouldn’t be doing them; deadlifts ruin your back, squats ruin your knees, etc.
The truth is that these movements are perfectly safe to execute as long as you do them with proper form and many of the people bringing up said excuses are simply too lazy to do them.

No exercise is "perfectly safe," nor is any exercise program. Yet abstaining from exercise is definitely not safe. There are risks in everything. We aim to perform these exercises (and all exercises) as safely as possible, but the potential for injury is always there. In saying that, compared to other sports, the frequency of injury when using safe technique in the weight room is very low.

I used to consider people who don't squat or deadlift lazy. I don't think that's true anymore, though. The more I learn about motivational psychology, the less I'm convinced laziness is even a thing. Overgeneralising, people will tend to do what they consider the most realistically valuable use of their time, and will avoid what they don't consider valuable. What we normally call "lazy" is when we rank something as highly valuable, and another person does not. If they believed that it was worth their time to do something, most people would do it, or at least dream of doing it (if they don't know how to actually do it). People do things because they have sufficient reasons to do it, and they avoid doing things because they have sufficient reasons not to do it. So, if you believe that deadlifts are bad for your back, and you don't understand how they can benefit you, you probably won't do them, given the choice. If you believe that they actually give you a stronger, healthier back and will improve your experience of daily living, then you probably will do them, given the choice.

That’s all for this write-up guys; I hope you have learned something new! If you have anything to add or wish to ask something please don’t hesitate in order to leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!