 "Photo: Elizabeth Sorrell")
 "Photo: Elizabeth Sorrell")
 "Photo: Elizabeth Sorrell")
 "Photo: Elizabeth Sorrell")
 "Photo: Travis Turner")
With Spring Break right around the corner, many HSU students are going to put their rain coats in the closet, shake the dust off their swimsuits and take off for sunny weather. With that in mind, there is no better time to get in the gym and shape up that perfect “beach bod” with the Lumberjack Iron Workout.
Toning up the arms and shoulders is a good start to getting your body beach-ready. Strength and conditioning coach Drew Peterson has the perfect blend of lifts that work several muscles in the upper body.
“Your body is made to transfer energy not isolate it, so you need to start with workouts that target several muscles,” said Peterson of a main philosophy in the HSU weight room.
In order to transfer and not isolate that energy, Peterson suggests starting your workout with a push-lift, and finishing it with a pull or isolation exercise. For example, start your workout with bench presses and follow it with some dumbbell curls or bent rows.
“We call them beauty lifts. Triceps and biceps workouts are to look pretty; beach workouts,” said junior HSU football player Kevin Duley. “If you start with bench press, you will see more results after other triceps and biceps workouts.”
Peterson and Duley both warn that solely doing isolation exercises (i.e. bicep curls, lateral pull, bent rows and push-ups) will not give you those sculpted arms you’re striving for.
“We always see guys coming in here making the same mistake of doing all isolation exercises. You need to do push-lifts and isolation exercises to see results,” said Peterson.
Strength and conditioning assistant coach Angela Dendas trains the women’s soccer and basketball teams here at HSU. She informs the ladies out there that lifting is not just for guys.
“Girls are always hesitant to lift because they think they’re going to get bigger, but that won’t happen,” said Dendas. “Women don’t have the testosterone it takes to gain that muscle mass.”
Women and men develop the same amount of muscle strength per square inch, but men have 30 percent more muscle in their upper bodies, said Peterson. So with the help of some bench press and lat-pulls, the ladies can get that toned shape to their arms and shoulders just as well as any guy in the weight room.
For ideas on how many sets and reps, Peterson set up an online workout sheet based on personal lifting ability. With an easy, three step entry of your best power clean, bench press and squat record, an electronically made workout sheet will appear with a weekly lifting schedule. The program can be found on HSU’s strength and conditioning website under “Conditioning Programs.”
Typically 3 sets of ten repitions is a good base to start off with when your just beginning to lift. Getting into the gym three times a week is the best way to see those results. Lifting weights increases muscle mass by causing little tears in the fibers, and when they fix themselves they increase in size and strength.
So when you decide to get in the gym and pick up those weights, always remember Peterson’s guiding weight room principle: “transfer not isolate.” Start with bench presses to get all those upper body muscles going and follow through with isolation exercises.
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