{"id":227,"date":"2010-06-04T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T21:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leanmeanvirilemachine.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2010-08-01T09:32:06","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T16:32:06","slug":"forearm-exercises-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/04\/forearm-exercises-a-cautionary-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Forearm Exercises: A Cautionary Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"forearm<\/a>Boy, how things change.<\/p>\n

It seems like just yesterday I was a member of the \u201cpseudo-bodybuilding\u201d fitness philosophy of isolating every muscle and, ideally, adding resistance from every angle individually. As a result, I spent a lot of time in the gym and saw mediocre results.<\/p>\n

Two of the exercises I made sure to fit in on \u201carm day\u201d were wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. With forearms being as long as upper arms it would be madness not to devote forearm exercises solely to them, right? After all, we\u2019ve all heard the horror stories of guys who neglect certain muscle groups on their bodies and as a result look like sideshow circus freaks, right?<\/p>\n

How to Spend a Lifetime in the Gym and Have Nothing to Show For It<\/strong><\/p>\n

In those days, the only non-isolation exercises I did were bench presses (flat, incline, and decline), dumbbell rows, and lat pulldowns. It would be years later before I even attempted barbell squats or deadlifts. They just seemed too damned scary to me compared to the safe-looking Nautilus machines. Little did I know that I was wasting my time and picking up bad habits.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today. I have fully embraced The Pareto Principle – that 80% of results comes from 20% of effort – in all health, fitness, and wellness-related areas. The \u201cmeat and potatoes\u201d of my weight lifting routine consists of squats, presses, and deadlifts. Nary an isolation movement to be found.<\/p>\n

My Perspective, Right or Wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

My current philosophy boils down to this: the human body has been forged over many millennia by the forces of evolution to procure food, escape danger, assert dominance, and attract mates. It is as true for other animals as it is for us, but each species has its own unique way of doing it, each uniquely adapted to its environment.<\/p>\n

Unlike most other animals, the environment to which we are adapted is long gone. We have given up hunting and gathering on the African savanna for sitting in cubicles under fluorescent lights, staring at computer screens. We no longer eat food from the earth, but food from factories and laboratories. And our bodies are suffering as a result of both.<\/p>\n

In order to return our bodies to the state of health, attractiveness, and vitality that seems to come so easily for all animals but ourselves, we must learn how our bodies are best used. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 I\u2019m not advocating that we all strip off our clothes, stop shaving, and head out into the woods to live off the fat of the land. On the contrary, I believe that the quest to push ourselves, to improve ourselves, to go where no man has gone before (if I may quote Star Trek), is one of the most uniquely human characteristics of all.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019ll never get there by eating \u201cfood\u201d from boxes, cans, and bags containing more chemicals than actual food. Low fat to low carb to anything else, if you\u2019re eating crap, you\u2019re going to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Neither will we get there by doing the \u201csafe\u201d isolation exercises. And if we do, we might as well bring a sleeping bag to the gym, cuz it\u2019s gonna take a long time.<\/p>\n

How to Exercise\u2026 the LMVM Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you hit the treadmill every night for a half hour of steady jogging while you zone out to \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d on TV, get your ass outside instead. Do a ton of walking, a little bit of sprinting, and, what the hell, run a 5K every now and then for good measure.<\/p>\n

If you do your squats on a Smith machine, get out from under that thing and head over to the squat rack. Make sure the bar catchers are set up. Start with no weight if you need to. Have someone spot if necessary. Just get more in touch with the mechanics of your body and how to effectively use it.<\/p>\n

And for God\u2019s sake, ditch the forearm exercises. Up until the last few years, we relied on climbing up and over things and lifting heavy objects off the ground to strengthen our grips. In other words: get your pull up<\/a> on, get your deadlift<\/a> on.<\/p>\n

When you use your body the way it has been designed to, you will get the automatic payoff of increased strength, higher energy levels\u2026 and you\u2019ll be a sexy beast on top of it all!<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy, how things change. It seems like just yesterday I was a member of the \u201cpseudo-bodybuilding\u201d fitness philosophy of isolating every muscle and, ideally, adding resistance from every angle individually. As a result, I spent a lot of time in the gym and saw mediocre results. Two of the exercises I made sure to fit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14,42,32,46,17,40],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exercise","tag-confusion","tag-deadlifts","tag-pareto-principle","tag-pull-ups","tag-resistance-training","tag-squats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}