Tag Archives: Muscle Failure

ASK A TRAINER: Am I a Workout Wimp?

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zzzzzzzz lift and bitch 033Hi Fitbabe,

I just found FFG’s blog recently, and I’ve obsessively read the entire archive.

My question for you is about using your muscles to failure. I’m pretty new to resistance training, and I rarely experience muscle failure. Even still, even without the max-effort that brings muscle failure, I am sometimes so sore the day after a resistance workout that I have to switch up my training plans (this usually happens when I do squats/lunges one day and plan to run the next day but find my legs too sore). If I were really pushing my muscles to failure I think I might not be able to get out of bed! Am I missing a step in helping my muscles recover? Or are they just not strong enough yet?  Or am I just being a wimp? Continue reading →

The Sausage Finger Diet, and other Crazy Ideas

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My sausage finger is now ready for amputation.

My sausage finger is now ready for amputation.

I instantly trust the take-charge doctor who enters the room without looking at me. No time waster, he focuses on the bloody hand laid open on a metal table. After prodding the deep cut in my middle finger for ten seconds, he makes a dramatic announcement: “three stitches.” The nurse who preps me for the minor surgery is annoyed, for I have bled profusely, dripping onto the dark gray mat by the reception desk before leaving a detective-worthy trail to the examination room. In her eyes, I am nothing but a biohazard, and a stupid one at that. Continue reading →

Four Failures

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ONE:

I will never forget my first time. I sat rigidly on a small black chair with a short back, faced the expansive mirrored wall in front of me, and gripped a 15 pound dumbbell in each hand. I raised the weights into position beside my shoulders, and paused, looking intently at my reflection in the mirror. Then I began to lift the weights overhead, making a sweeping arc while breathing in and out as I had been taught. Continue reading →