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| The Road to 100 Fit Tip #19, 2008 —
The Eyes Have It
Wherever you look is where your energy tends to go. In golf or tennis, you are supposed to look at the ball and address all your focus and energy at the ball. If you look up in either sport before striking the ball, your energy will follow your eyes and you will almost certainly miss-hit the ball. The same is true when you are weight training. Your energy will go where you are looking. That is why it is important to focus on where you want to direct the weight during each exercise. Start by looking at the starting point of the resistance (not the weight itself, but the resistance) and follow it with your vision through the entire movement of the exercise.
Use this technique whether you are using dumbbells, cable machines, pin-loaded machines or a straight bar. With many cable exercises and dumbbell exercise, you can follow your hands through the movement. This is the starting point of the resistance. With straight bar exercises, you would follow the bar. With pin-loaded exercises, you should follow the handles. Sometimes you will need to use your peripheral vision and follow both hands at the same time, as in flat-back dumbbell flies or bi-lateral (two-sides) cable exercises.
(To see a video representation of this concept,
CLICK HERE. The video is easy to open, requires no download and will not affect the performance of your computer in any way.
You can also use a mirror as a mirror reflects your energy back at you. For squats, where the bar is not visible, you should use a mirror and focus on the movement of the weight, first looking straight ahead as you squat down and then looking up as rise out of the squat.
For both pin-loaded and plate loaded leg machines, you would focus on the feet unless you can't see them, as in the case of the prone leg-curl or some squat machines. In that case you would focus straight ahead.
So the eyes have it. Where the eyes go, your energy will follow.
Answer to last week's fitness quiz:
What is an erythrocyte?
A Red Blood Cell
Answer to last week's Question of the Week:
Again, What would you not take money for? (These are REAL people and REAL answers!)
KS: No one could give me enough money to switch places with me when I am sitting outside on a warm sunny day with a dog in my lap, a bottle of beer in my hand, and an equally relaxed husband at my side, those moments are priceless.
VK: Of course my family, friends, and pets. As for possessions, I wouldn't sell my pictures or albums for anything. Those are memories that are irreplaceable.
This week's fitness quiz:
What is the top male cosmetic surgical procedure?
This week's philosophical Question: Again, What would you not take money for?
(Selected answers will be published. All answers will be posted on the Uncle Vic Message Board. Please answer in two sentences or less. Please include your first name or if you wish to remain anonymous, your initials)
Corny Joke of the Week:
What do bees do with their honey?
They cell it.
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