MSI Press Blog

One of the first things I learned as part of my fitness training -- and am still learning -- is that when it comes to physical fitness development of any sort, slow is better than fast. That came as a surprise to me, especially since I have been impulsive and near-hyperactive my entire life. Doing things fast comes naturally. Doing them slowly does not--and frustrates me as well. However, I now understand that I MUST do fitness activites slowly for a number of reasons: to avoid injury to let your muscles fully experience the activity not to confuse cardio training with muscle training to get the full benefit of each activity  to build muscle faster -- more time under tension Try it. Lift 20 pounds rapidly 20 times. Then lift 20 pounds slowly 20 times. Slowly is harder to do; it taxes your muscles more; it build muscles faster. (Though with faster, you can live more weight or do more repetitions.) A length of 2-6 seonds between repitions seems to optimal. What you...

So, after a bit of hiatus because of that pesky roatotr cuff overuse that made my trainer suggest I leave off some of the more strenu ous arm activity, I returned to yoga. Suerprisingly, yoga requires a good deal of arm strength. (This has been a surprise to me: my arm strength is not good enough to get me easily through a one-hour yoga class, but it is good enough to get me rather easily through a two-hour rock climbing class. Boy, the myths are being vividly revealed as I continu with training.) One of the things I have learned is something I suppose every athlete knows, but, then, I am not and have never been an athlete, so I would not be aware of it. That is the best knowledge (and not really a sexret at all): no matter what it is you want to do, however impossible that seems, just start small and keep on going. That happened with leg presses. I struggled at first, just 18 months ago with 10 pounds, and I stayed around 30-40 pounds for months. Now, surprisingly, I can do 24...

Pacific Edge Gym Teaching Room In accordance with my planned approach to developing ninja capabilities, two weeks ago I enrolled in a rock climbing class. One of the things I had learned from watching the stories of competitors on American Ninja Warriors included seeing how many of them were either rock climbers or spent time at rock-climbing gyms. Good climbing depends on feet, not arms. In fact, with feet properly placed, one can hang by one arm for a very long time and feel little strain. Shoes should fit snugly and have bottoms that create friction in order to use feet more effectively. The "climber's triange" -- toes and ball of foot -- indicates where a climber should place his ore her weight when climbing. (After scaling the wall in the gym three times, my toes were really sore! I gave them a nice bubbling session in my foot massager afterward.) I thought I would have to build arm and shoulder strength. I never thought I would have to build toe ...