After doing weight lifting/bodyweight exercises for a couple of months now I think I need some clarification on a few things I'm doing:
1. When I do leg raises (ie. laying on my back, legs straight up in the air, bringing them down near the floor slowly, then back up) I find that my lower back hurts a lot. I feel it in my abs, but my lower back muscles burn a lot more than my abdominals. Am I doing something wrong? I'm trying to keep my back as straight as possible, but the back still burns.
2. The weights I'm using now are ginormous (Bow Flex Selecttechs). They're not particularly heavy at the moment, just huge in size. They're definitely over a foot long and I'm finding it very hard to do bicep curls correctly with them.
With more compact weights I start with the weight in my hand, palm facing my thigh. As I bring the weight up towards my shoulder I twist my forearm so that my palm is facing my shoulder, but due to the length of these weights I can't start twisting it until it's more than half way to my shoulder and the diameter of the weight keeps me from actually being able to bring the weight right to my shoulder.
Is it as effective to keep my forearm and palm facing towards my body the entire time (ie. not twisting the forearm and weight at all)? Does it work the same way, or does that twist need to be there for it to work the bicep properly?
3. Squats. Is there any benefit to going much lower than normal sitting height? Are you supposed to try to get your butt as low to the floor as possible?
4. Calf raises. I've been doing weighted calf raises with one foot on a step (just toes and ball of foot) and other foot off the stair altogether. I don't actually notice that I'm improving much in this exercise. I find it really, really hard and I feel like my form is usually way off, that my ankle leans one way or the other sometimes and that different parts of my calf are being worked each lift because my weight is shifting around so much because I'm balancing (even though I do hold onto something for balance).
I'm thinking of switching to using BOTH legs at once for the calf raises on the stairs. OR doing them just on the floor. I recently saw an example where calf raises were done on the floor, first with toes pointed outwards, then with toes pointing forward, then with toes pointing slightly inward. What would I be better off to switch to, the two-legged raises on the stairs or the floor calf raises?
Lots of questions, I know. But help!
PS. I'm not looking to bulk, just build a bit of muscle and tone.
1. When I do leg raises (ie. laying on my back, legs straight up in the air, bringing them down near the floor slowly, then back up) I find that my lower back hurts a lot. I feel it in my abs, but my lower back muscles burn a lot more than my abdominals. Am I doing something wrong? I'm trying to keep my back as straight as possible, but the back still burns.
2. The weights I'm using now are ginormous (Bow Flex Selecttechs). They're not particularly heavy at the moment, just huge in size. They're definitely over a foot long and I'm finding it very hard to do bicep curls correctly with them.
With more compact weights I start with the weight in my hand, palm facing my thigh. As I bring the weight up towards my shoulder I twist my forearm so that my palm is facing my shoulder, but due to the length of these weights I can't start twisting it until it's more than half way to my shoulder and the diameter of the weight keeps me from actually being able to bring the weight right to my shoulder.
Is it as effective to keep my forearm and palm facing towards my body the entire time (ie. not twisting the forearm and weight at all)? Does it work the same way, or does that twist need to be there for it to work the bicep properly?
3. Squats. Is there any benefit to going much lower than normal sitting height? Are you supposed to try to get your butt as low to the floor as possible?
4. Calf raises. I've been doing weighted calf raises with one foot on a step (just toes and ball of foot) and other foot off the stair altogether. I don't actually notice that I'm improving much in this exercise. I find it really, really hard and I feel like my form is usually way off, that my ankle leans one way or the other sometimes and that different parts of my calf are being worked each lift because my weight is shifting around so much because I'm balancing (even though I do hold onto something for balance).
I'm thinking of switching to using BOTH legs at once for the calf raises on the stairs. OR doing them just on the floor. I recently saw an example where calf raises were done on the floor, first with toes pointed outwards, then with toes pointing forward, then with toes pointing slightly inward. What would I be better off to switch to, the two-legged raises on the stairs or the floor calf raises?
Lots of questions, I know. But help!
PS. I'm not looking to bulk, just build a bit of muscle and tone.