Buy Bendaroos

Assuming you have no physical restrictions, you absolutely must perform the squat or dead lift if you want to pack on the maximum amount of muscle in the shortest time.

That said, the squat can be a dangerous exercise to do if you don’t know how to perform it the right way. Here’s 10 top tips to help you;

1. Make certain you have a good safety setup
When you squat you must either do the movement inside a power rack, or you need two or better still 3 spotters. (One either side and one behind you – and they need to know what to do and when to do it.)

It’s vital you have some way of safely racking the bar if you fail on a rep. If you use the power rack, which is the best option as you can train alone, set the pins about 2 inches below the bottom position of the squat, so you can rack the bar if you can’t come out of the hole.

2. Never squat with your heels elevated
This is really bad for the knees. If your ankles aren’t flexible enough for you to squat with your feet flat on the floor, work on your flexibility.

3. Sit back as you go down
Most people lean too far forward as they squat down. Keep your back straight and stick your butt out to squat down correctly. This will feel a bit odd at first, so practise it without any weight and then use the technique with light weights until you get used to the feel of it.

At first it will feel as though you’re going to fall backwards, but stay with it. Squatting this way is much safer for your knees and back, and helps you to keep the weight of the bar off the front of the foot.

If you can visualise it, imagine that you’re squatting between your knees.

4. Make sure that your knees don’t travel too far forward as you go down.
Sitting back as you descend will help you here. The reason is to keep stress off the knees.
Ideally you don’t want your knees to track forward of your feet. Depending on how flexible you are this may not be possible, but try and keep forward travel of the knees to a minimum.

5. Keep your weight mostly through your heels.
You should feel able to wiggle your toes – don’t do that, but the point is that if your weight is on the front of the foot, you wouldn’t be able to wiggle them. Again, this is better for the knees.

6. Don’t wear knee wraps
Wraps hold the knee joint in an unnatural position. I made my own knees much worse by wearing wraps, and as soon as I stopped using them, my knees got much better. Contrary to popular belief, squatting is not bad for the knees if done properly – in fact it’s good for them!

7. Keep your back flat
An absolute must – If you allow your back to round, you’re setting yourself up for a serious injury.

8. Lead with your head as you come up and focus your eyes on a spot on the wall opposite
This will help you to keep your back straight, and keep the stress of the weight evenly spread on the legs and back.

9. Position the bar on your trapezius muscle, not on the vertebrae at the top of your neck.
This means that the bar is a bit lower on your back than you may be used to, but it’s much safer for your back to have the bar balanced on a muscle rather than on your backbone.

This will also help your balance as you get used to sitting back as in point 3.

If you do shrugs you can build muscle on your traps, which will cushion the weight of the bar. Shrugs also give you that freaky look at the back of the neck that a lot of bodybuilders crave!

10. Increase the weight in small manageable increments.
If you added a measly 2 pounds to the bar each week, then you’d have added 100 pounds to your squat after a year. And I guarantee you will have radically changed your body in the process!

It’s important to keep your form textbook as you add weight to the bar.

To sum up, if you squat consistently and add weight to the bar in manageable increments while keeping your form tight, you can build your perfect body faster than you ever dreamed possible.

Squatting also will make your upper body muscles more responsive to weight training exercises, so do not neglect the squat. Make it or the dead lift the cornerstone of your weight training routine.

Good luck.

So you want to get better in your sport, and are enthusiastic about entering into a new training program. You have many goals that you want to accomplish: getting stronger, gaining a little muscle, improving your speed, and getting in great shape for your season. Like most people you want to start working on these things right away, but are unsure how to do them all at once.

A critical, yet often overlooked starting point is to map out a yearly training plan. To do this, you will need to analyze which goals are most important for your situation. Then, you will need to look at the upcoming year to identify periods when you can train full-time, part-time, or not at all. Finally, you will put these two topics together to outline a schedule that is unique to your situation. In this article we will pass along some sensible training guidelines to help you devise your own individual plan.

What can I work on in my training?

There are many fundamental physical skills you can develop through training. The following is a list of the main areas that athletes should focus on.

Gaining Muscle - The number one goal of almost every male athlete in this world is to have more muscle mass. Although gaining muscle usually makes you somewhat stronger as well, for our purposes we will consider them to be separate goals.

Training to get bigger is a major stress on the body, and any time this is a priority it will limit the amount of work you can safely do on other goals.

Getting Leaner/Losing Bodyfat - This is the number one goal of most female athletes, and goal #1A for males. Athletes who are actively looking to get leaner need to be careful that they do not take this goal to the extreme and lose muscle gains they have built up in previous phases of their training.

Increasing Strength – Strength is the foundation of creating powerful sport movements, and is simply how much weight you can lift with proper technique. Strength can vary from one region of the body to another. For example, you may have strong legs but a weak core or upper body.

Improving Speed – Speed specifically refers to your ability to sprint in a straight line from Point A to Point B with no changes in direction.

Improving Agility & Quickness – Technically, this is different from speed. Agility refers to your ability to stop and change direction. Quickness mostly refers to how fast you can react to a situation, specifically within the first couple of steps.

Building Explosive Power - Power is simply strength displayed at fast speeds, and sports revolve around powerful movements. From baseball pitchers throwing fastballs, to slap shots in hockey, to driving the ball off the tee in golf, and countless other skills, power is critical to improving your game.

Improving Balance & Athleticism – Balance and coordination have no place in a bodybuilding workout, but they are critical skills for any athlete. Balance is usually displayed on one leg in progressively more challenging environments. Athleticism can be thought of as efficient, coordinated movement in a sport skill, and requires practice and repetition. These two goals go very well together in a training program.

Increasing Flexibility – Flexibility, as many people are already aware, refers to a muscle’s ability to be lengthened. Most athletes simply need to be flexible enough to properly perform skills in their sport, and to keep from getting hurt.

Often times there are only a handful of muscles that are tight on any individual, and targeting those muscle groups can make a major impact. Identifying which areas are too tight, and applying an aggressive stretching program to loosen them up can further improve athletic ability.

Conditioning/Building Speed Endurance – Getting in shape allows you to play your sport longer without fatigue. This skill comes and goes pretty quickly, and is often best trained right before a season begins (the pre-season phase).

How to determine where your focus should be

To really figure out which of these areas to focus on in your training, you should go through a full series of skill tests to find your own unique strengths and weaknesses. For every category mentioned above, there are some simple tests you can complete to judge whether you are advanced, adequate, or below average at a particular skill. Once you have done this, it is time to look in the mirror and confront the weaker points of your skill set.

No one wants to dwell on what they aren’t good at. It is much easier to flaunt your strengths and try to build them to the highest level possible. But as an athlete, your value is always going to be judged by your weakest link.

You may be the strongest player on the field, but if the other team is running past you all day, that strength is never going to matter. You could be the fastest player on the field, but if your balance and coordination are poor you likely will never be able to harness that speed to use to your advantage.

Once you learn what to target over the coming year, and are comfortable with the idea of training to eliminate your weaknesses, then you are ready to begin mapping out what to focus on at different times of the year.

Organizing your calendar by In-Season, Off-Season, and Pre-Season blocks

Your next step is to begin writing out your personal schedule for the year. To do this, get or create a blank calendar that covers the next full year. On the calendar, you will label each week of the year as one of the three categories defined below.

First, look to find any time of year that you are playing a sport full-time (meaning when you have games and practices almost every day of the week). These periods should be labeled “In-Season”. These training periods may consist of some moderate training to work on one goal at most, but there isn’t much you’ll accomplish during the in-season phase. Most of your energy should be devoted to your sport, and you may end up doing little or no training at all. In-season training is usually very limited, and it is not the ideal time to focus on the more time-consuming training goals.

Next, take the four week period before your main sport, and label it “Pre-Season”. If you consider more than one sport to be a top priority, you will need to do this for each of them. These times will allow for intense training to occur, but they need to be specifically focused on the immediate needs of your upcoming sport.

All other times should be labeled “Off-Season”, and these are the ideal times to work on your goals. Hopefully this consists of at least 4 months out of the year, because this is when you can truly make a significant difference in your athletic abilities.

Looking at your upcoming year, you should now have each week labeled either in-season, pre-season, or off-season. You are now ready to begin placing your goals onto the plan.

Tips on putting your plan together

You’re plan is almost complete. The final step is to determine when to work on each goal, and how many you should focus on at a time. The following is a list of general recommendations for how to organize your long-term program.

1. Focus on the greatest priority immediately, then work your way down your list of goals.

Your test results will help you to determine what your #1, 2, and 3 goals of development should be this year. Jump on the #1 goal as soon as you can.

If you are in an off-season phase right now, this is a perfect time to begin improving your greatest weakness. If you find yourself in a pre-season or in-season phase, you can still devote time to developing your most glaring need. You will, however, be limited in how much energy you can devote to this goal.

The only time you should consider holding off on your top priority is if you also need to gain muscle, which usually makes sense to work on first during the off-season..

2. If you need to gain weight, do this at the beginning of your off-season.

Gaining muscle requires a high volume of heavy weightlifting. This puts a huge stress on your body, which will limit any other work you can do. This is definitely not a pre-season or in-season goal, and ideally should be done first in your off-season.

It should come first because it is the foundation for other skills you may want to develop. More muscle improves your potential to build strength, power, speed, and even getting leaner (the extra muscle raises your metabolism, which burns more calories).

3. Speed and agility fit best in the off-season.

Both of these skills require a long-term commitment to see true benefits, so any time you have a two to three month stretch it is a good time to train for speed and agility.

Two goals you should not work towards at the same time as these are gaining muscle, and developing your conditioning. Speed and agility training require your body to be ready to move at its fastest speed. High levels of intense weight training will make you sore on a regular basis, making it hard to move fast. Getting in shape can detract from building speed and agility because it requires long distance, slow-paced activity. This also wears down your body, taking away your ability to move at your 100% top speed, a requirement for getting faster.

4. Conditioning goals fit best in the pre-season.

Unless you have a significant conditioning weakness, save this for the pre-season phase. Also, you may build a high level of conditioning during your season, depending on the sport and the philosophy of your coaching staff. Basically, getting in shape is not something to really focus on in the off-season unless it is a serious weakness in your game.

This is also a good phase to lower your body fat levels, if necessary. It goes hand in hand with conditioning because this type of training burns plenty of calories. Assuming you are following a nutritious diet plan, a serious conditioning phase is almost guaranteed to get you leaner.

5. Lowering body fat can be improved year-round with a focus on proper diet.

Unless you are in drastic need to drop significant weight, say 20 pounds or more, then this goal should come through adjustments to your diet and living an active lifestyle. By working hard on any other fitness goal you should stay active enough to burn calories, and streamlining your diet to eliminate unwanted fats and sugars will help drop extra body fat.

I would not recommend trying to gain muscle and lose body fat at the same time. They are in many ways opposite goals. Almost like trying to open a door by pushing and pulling it at the same time, their effect will mostly cancel each other out.

You can focus on getting leaner during any season, but you must be careful to still take in enough calories to maintain your active lifestyle. Lowering your food intake too far will constantly make you feel sluggish, which leads to decreased performance in either your sport or your workouts.

6. Flexibility, balance, power, and strength goals can also be improved in any season.

The beauty of these four goals is they can be developed a little at a time, requiring a smaller time and energy commitment. If any of these are top priorities for you, then definitely spend some extra time building up your area of need during the off-season. Otherwise, it is best to work on all of these a little bit at a time all year long to continually take baby steps towards being great in all four areas.

7. You can work on more than one goal at a time only if you have the time and energy to do so.

Some goals, like gaining muscle, or making significant gains in speed, strength, conditioning and power require plenty of time and energy. You can’t do them all at once, but if you are willing to commit roughly 10 hours per week to hard training you can accomplish two of these at a time.

The question you have to confront is whether you are truly willing to go through the intense training, and stick to it consistently enough to build two skills at once. Think long and hard before doubling up on your goals, because very few athletes are capable of showing this level of dedication.

Some other goals, like flexibility, balance, athleticism, and getting leaner through proper diet are not as intense. You most likely can work on these while tackling one of the more intense goals listed above.

8. Your plan is only a general guide, and it should be revised often.

Once you have completed your plan, it is important to remember that this is only a rough beginning. Your original estimates on how long it will take to achieve each goal will not be perfect. Expect to have to extend some goals over a longer period of time than you initially expected. If you work hard and follow a great program, perhaps you’ll have the opposite problem of reaching a goal faster than expected.

Either way, just realize that every month or so you should take a fresh look at your training plan, and make the appropriate adjustments.

Where to go next

Putting down your goals on paper in a clear timeline will bring clarity and focus to your workouts. It is unfortunate that so few athletes take this very simple step in controlling their own destiny. You can get an advantage on the competition by using this tool to train smarter than they are.

After you complete the year, the logical next step is to get re-tested to see how you’ve progressed. Since all great athletes are constantly looking to improve, you will likely find more things you want to work on in the next 12 months. As this process repeats itself over and over, you will see yourself developing into a well-rounded player with no weaknesses in your game.

If your home suffers from wet soil conditions or frequent flooding or standing water from even the smallest amount of rainfall, maybe you should consider installing some underground drainage piping or catch basins. There are several options for a homeowner to choose from and we will cover some them in this article.

You must first determine if the water condition is due to a heavy clay soil that will not allow water to penetrate and seep into the ground below perhaps or is the water coming from an overflowing nearby brook or stream. Does the water stay a few days and then disappear or does it take weeks to evaporate? These are two entirely different situations. Standing water that steadily drains by itself may indicate poor soil conditions that simply does not absorb water quickly. Re-grading this area may shed the water away from your home further protecting your foundation and basement. The use of longer downspout piping to move water away from the house will also aid in this effort.

If the water simply sits in a puddle for days and days, you may be a candidate for some yard drainage piping. A long trench filled with a perforated pipe and stone and ending at daylight is called a French Drain. Usually the trench is about one foot wide and the stone stays exposed at ground or lawn level. This allows not only the standing water on the grounds surface to drain down through the stone and into the perforated piping but any water in the soil will also migrate to the stone filled trench and drain the area as well. Removing the top water and the underground migrating water will result in a much drier yard area.

There are available today several types of plastic/poly catch basins intended for use in residential lawn areas. They will support a lawn tractors weight but not a car. If you have a low area that ponds water you may start your drainage the piping with a catch basin set slightly below the elevation of the surrounding lawns. Basins range in diameters but an 18 inch or 24 inch basin is fairly common.. These will rapidly take on water much quicker than waiting for the water to seep down through the stone and into the perforated piping. By connecting the perforated pipe to the basin you are taking away water through the French drain trench and the catch basin all at the same time. Make sure the pipe you select is capable of carrying the amount of water you are getting in an average rainfall. Four and six inch perforated pipe comes in large rolls which is easy to roll out and back fill. Eight inch and larger diameter piping comes in ten and twenty foot lengths These need couplings to assemble together and are nowhere near as flexible as the smaller sizes. Curving trenches is a snap using the roll piping.

Filter fabric is required in all French drain installations. Both four and six inch sizes are available with a fabric sock thereby saving the labor to wrap or cover the pipe. If you are using the wrapped pipe, a small amount of stone is placed along the trench bottom, graded on a slope to the low end of the trench and the pipe then rolled out in the trench. Trying to keep the pipe centered in the trench as much as possible, carefully add stone to cover the pipe and anchor it in place. Once the pipe is covered, back fill the trench to grade level.

The easiest way to determine the slope of your trench and piping is to use a simple level and rod available for rent at all rental stores. After mounting the level on the proper tripod and making sure the level itself is level using the three screws on the bottom of the level and the bubble level on the base of the level, place the rod on the top of the catch basin and read the numbers in the cross hairs of the level. Most rods used today are metric measurement and are very easy to use. Notice the rods between the feet marks are only from one to 10. There is no 12 on the stick. The one foot distance is broken up into 10 tenths and 100 hundreths. If the horizontal cross hair is on the 3 foot plus a large 2 plus 4 of the little black hash marks. You are reading 3.24 feet. Each side or edge of a hash mark is one, so 3 full marks is 6 and so on. Now take a measurement at the end where the pipe is going to come out to daylight. Perhaps fifty feet away or so. Now be careful here. This measurement is going to be higher or longer than your last one as it is lower in elevation. You read 7.46 feet on the stick. Now deduct the 3.24 from the 7.46 and you see you will lose 4.22 feet in elevation over the fifty foot distance. Doing rough math for every twelve and 1/2 feet of trench you will drop your pipe approximately one foot. Over the entire length the pipe will drop 4.22 feet. The.22 feet (3 inches) being made up in the last length of pipe at the end. Soooo if we started with a measurement of 3.24 on top of the basin and the basin is 12″deep we should read 4.24 at the bottom of the pipe at the basin itself no matter what size pipe you are using. It is the bottom that matters not the top. Now every 12 1/2 feet add one foot to the measurement to determine the pipe bottom elevation at that point. 5.24, 6.24, 7.24 and so on. Once you get used to doing this work, it is easier to do your math adding the stone thickness you are using under the pipe (say 4″) and just measure to the earth while the machine is digging the trench. Then by placing the 4″ of stone the pipe will always be on proper elevation grade. Just check every once in awhile to assure everything is correct.

If you are using a catch basin in your drainage system, that should be installed first. Excavate the hole to the required depth so the top of the catch basin is slightly below the surrounding area. Over excavate a few inches and place some stone below the basin. This will provide both a solid base for the basin and some additional sump area for water to gather underground. Placing some base stone in your trench, attach the pipe to the basin and roll the pipe out 20 feet or so. Now back fill the basin and pipe making sure there are no humps in the piping as you go. If the pipe is allowed to go up and down, it will trap water. Some slight left and right alignment is fine but keep it as straight as possible. Now proceed with the rest of your trenching and piping work. A word of caution here. If your trench at any time exceeds four feet deep, you must install shoring to hold back the banks of the trench. If you were kneeling down to join two lengths of piping or to remove a large stone and the bank caved in on your back, you will quickly suffocate and die. Don t take chances! If you are filling your trenches with pure stone, it is a good idea to use a plate compactor every foot or so to push the stone into place leaving no voids. Trenches are seldom perfectly straight sided and any voids left behind will cave in and make your trenches sink later on. If done correctly, the trenches should be as stable as the original ground only much drier.

Lastly, if water is being retained on top of the ground due to subsurface rock that will not allow the water to drain, heavier equipment is going to be required to excavate the drainage trenches. Piping laid flat will still conduct water as long as the end of the pipe comes to daylight. Water will seek it’s own level and the pipe will provide a sluice or passageway that is much easier for the water to escape than seeping through cracks in the rock. If an area simply wont allow a flat or downward condition for the pipe, a machine mounted hammer may be required. Generally you would excavate the entire trench if possible, rent the hammer for a day and do all the rock removals at once. Make sure you protect your open trenches from pedestrians, animals or children from falling in a ditch. It is your responsibility.

Pete

Your Friendly Building Inspector

http://www.Wagsys.com

BICES-Building Inspection & Code Enforcement System Software