I Kicked my own Butt!

This weekend I decided to workout at Bally. I hadn't been to Bally since I started working out again. The main reason being that the YMCA is just so much closer and easier to get to after I drop the girls off at school. The second main reason being I noticed I get lazy at Bally. They have lots of equipment to choose from, my favorite of which happens to be the Cybex Unilateral equipment. On this equipment, you use weighted plates to add resistance. These machines make me feel strong, but the fact remains that any machines remove much of the stabilizing factor that helps tie together all movements. Meaning, free weight exercises are the best whole-body exercises, in this example, because free weights require stability, which recruits more muscles and muscle fibers for any given exercise. Your stabilizer muscles help you balance the weight and your body. They are hardly recruited when performing weighted machine exercises. So, although I really like the Cybex equipment, I am aware that free weight exercises are superior. This knowledge doesn't make me less lazy, though.

Equiped with this information, and determined to have a kick-butt workout, I decided before I ever stepped foot in the gym that I would first complete my chosen free weight exercises before using any machines. This was the key to my soreness factor! Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) kicked in the day following my chest and back workout, and again this morning, following leg day. I haven't felt this sore in months! The soreness and inflammation are predeterminant factors that clue me in to muscle growth and development. My body is working hard to get stronger for the next workout! So, what I learned is that a variety of exercises will result in more muscle recruitment, a better workout, DOMS, hypertrophy (more muscle) and, in time, weightloss.