The Evolution of Weight Lifting
Guest post by Brett Warren
Change in the world of strength training seems to evolve at exponential paces. Maybe we don't notice it on a day-to-day basis – one session at the gym is never very different from the day before – but step back for a moment and contemplate how far we've come.
Our history of exercise for the sake of building muscle dates back two-and-a-half millennia. Milo of Croton, a 6th century BC war hero and famous wrestler in Ancient Greece, was said to have carried a newborn calf on his back every day, until it was fully grown. That's not unlike adding weights to our lifts as we progress in the gym.
By the 2nd century AD, evidence exists of rudimentary dumbbells. Egyptian hieroglyphs depict men lifting and tossing bags of sand. A rod supporting two church bells became a dumbbell in old Europe, replacing stones as the primary lifting object. In Persia, meels developed an ancient version of the clubbell.
Still, 2,500 years of development can't even compare to the progress we've made in the last century. (Of course, with all the focus on things like heirloom crops and romanticism about returning to traditional ways of life, someone today might make a killing opening a gym that features stones and meels instead of machines!)
By the 1960s, gyms began to open in the U.S., and weight-resistance machines were developed. Nautilus machines opened the door for regular exercisers to engage in weight training, building strength without trying to emulate the hulks in popular films like Pumping Iron.
Unfortunately, with the progression of more accessible weight training came the development of a sedentary American lifestyle. Before a half-century ago, most of our jobs required us to move around. Even people who never considered exercise as an end-unto-itself were able to stay in shape, through the movement required by their daily tasks.
Conversely, it's easy today to sit at a desk all day (even writing blogs about exercise!), eat a few less-than-healthy meals, and then veg out in front of the TV all night because we feel crummy from not moving around enough! For many people, especially with office jobs, incorporating weight training into their lives requires going out of our way to some degree.
But it's not just in the gym where change happens. Our lifestyle carries over to every moment of our day, from when we open the fridge in the morning to when our head hits the pillow. And fortunately, it's in that holistic approach to training that evolution has really sped up lately. We know more today about how to build muscle mass than ever before in history!
A few key things we've come to learn in recent years:
- The kitchen is more important than the gym.
It goes without saying that you can't just eat right, sit around all day, and build muscle. But you also can't build muscle mass if you're not feeding them properly. It's been said that 80 percent of body sculpting work happens in the kitchen. Eat chicken, brown rice, whole grains, fish, egg whites, potatoes, and plenty of produce. Shoot for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, every day. Pass on the pizza, beer, and ice cream!What we've learned in the last 20 years about the importance of avoiding processed foods, in favor of whole foods, makes a bigger difference in the gym than any other development.
- Understand the science.
When muscles grow, it's called hypertrophy. You know the 'pump' you feel after working out? That's a temporary boost, called 'transient hypertrophy,' due to the accumulation of fluids in the intracellular spaces of our muscles. We want to create chronic hypertrophy through long-term weight training, which requires consistent workouts. Once a week won't cut it for sustained muscle growth.
- Challenge Yourself
To make our muscles grow, we have to confuse them! If your body becomes accustomed to a lift, it'll stop growing. Switch things up and slowly add weight to your reps. Your body will adjust and build more muscle. Bring a notebook to the gym to help with this, and don't worry about looking silly. Keeping track of your weight and reps will not only help you progress, but it'll serve as motivation to stay on course. The big thing to remember: You can't just stick with one routine and do it for longer and longer. You won't get results. You've got to vary your regimen!
- Rest Up
It's funny how our society doesn't always realize the value of something until we start to miss it. With our 24/7 lifestyles, sleep has never come at such a premium. But it's also never been so important. Your muscles grow while they're resting. Take at least one day a week off from your workout routine. And get that eight hours of sleep every night – it'll pay off in the results to your physique.
Try telling a weight lifter 100 years ago that the keys to success include eating their vegetables and sleeping, and you'd likely get a laugh! But there's a reason that records keep getting broken. We're evolving more all the time.
Brett Warren is a fitness and weightlifting enthusiast from Boston, Massachusetts. He is passionate about nutraceutical science and loves his job developing workout supplements for Force Factor. Brett's extensive background in biochemical engineering means he's one scientist you don't want to mess with. When Brett is not crushing it in the gym or working at Force Factor, you can find him spending time outdoors with his family.
