Elastic Rebound.

• By vishwa on Training

• November 1, 2010

It is interesting to note that even fat tissue can help us to lift more weights. You would have probably observed individuals(beginners) who are fat are somehow able to lift more weights relatively to skinny individuals(beginners). Any tissue including fat helps by providing elastic rebound. The fat tissue they carry helps them to brace up their body to lift more weights. Fat helps them virtually to blow up their body to lift the weight. For example, take the squat and imagine a skinny guy going through the motion, he/she literally has neither muscle nor fat to brace up and push the weight, and now visualize a fat guy lifting the weight, he with ease goes rock bottom and brings up the weight without any effort, for his fat belly is pushing against his thighs to come up by providing elastic rebound when he is perfroming the eccentric part of the lift.

Now, don’t be of the idea that as fat is helping to lift more weights, you can get fat to lift more weights. A saner approach would be to build muscle, for muscle provides a far better elastic rebound compared to fat. Muscles contractile ability helps to provide a better bracing of your body than fat tissue. Unfortunately, building muscle demands more time and energy; whereas, gaining fat is extremely easy. I believe it is the same with life: It takes oodles of strength to build your character, but hardly takes few minutes to destroy it. Forgive me for digressing from the topic, but I believe what I have stated about life is really true.

Build muscle, for it helps to brace your body tightly to lift heavy, as lifting heavy weights is of paramount importance. To read why it is important to lift heavy do read my previous blog entry titled Thought For The Weekend. Now, imagine that you are really buffed with a huge back, thick and powerful shoulders, and thighs like tree trunk and now that you are deadlifting very heavy: Your back, thigh, and the entire shoulder girdle are all bracing up to lift the bar up. Every muscle fiber is contracting to its fullest potential to complete the lift. Now, consider you being a fat slob and morbidly obese and now imagine to lift the heavy bar up. What do you think the result would be? Chances are that you would tear your muscles all over the body causing severe pain, break your back, and die of a heart attack.
Listen to me, and build muscle, as it will also protect your joints for a lifetime. I believe you would all by now know how important is to have healthy joints. I know nobody would like to be debilitated by ailments like arthritis and osteoporosis, for it will hamper your mobility which is truly important to lead a healthy lifestyle when you are old. I believe we need to take precautionary measures and plan rightfully to lead our retired life blissfully. The insurance we require is to lift weights, as they provide the right cushioning we require for our joints and when you are lifting weights try to lift heavy, for you will reap the benefits for sure.