I wrote a story on Weight Training for my high school newspaper

[jcool20010]

I'm the sports editor for our newspaper, and we're a high quality publication. We're finalists for the Pacemaker Award (heisman trophy of high school journalism)

Anyways, we did a Health-centered issue, and I wrote the story on weight training. Tell me what you guys think.


It requires hard-work, dedication, sweat, tears and if you work hard enough, vomit.
Otherwise known as lifting weights.
Professionals have been debating anything and everything involving this sport for countless years. Arguments over functional training vs. isolations, two-a-days vs. three-a-week’s, heavy weights vs. high repetitions and whether boxers or thongs are better for lifting in.
We’re here to clear up some of that confusion.
Except for the underwear part.
Weight-training is one of the healthiest things you can do for your body. It’s great for everybody. Yes, even girls. You won’t get “bulky” or “huge.” Professional bodybuilders try to get that huge, it won’t happen overnight on accident. However, if you don’t lift properly, results will be barely visible at best.
Corey Ratzlaff, director of personal trainers at the Northwest YMCA, has a secret though.
A secret that no one else seems to know.
There is no perfect answer.
There is no perfect way to train, no perfect coach and no specific guidelines you always have to follow.
“It’s based upon the clients goal. Most people [here] are just wanting to get in shape, so we have them train movements that they use in everyday life,” Ratzlaff said. “If you train a movement, it will help the person in everyday life, whereas if we do just a specific muscle or muscle group, it might help you a little, but it’s not as efficient as training a movement.”
Movements. Movements like standing up, pulling yourself up onto a tree branch, pressing something off your chest or lifting a box off the ground.
“[We train] anything that mimics the movement of a person does, whether it’s getting out of a chair or an athlete trying to improve their vertical jump or balance and coordination,” Ratzlaff said.
To train these movements you need to do exercises that mirror everyday activities. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, power cleans, military presses, pull-ups or lunges. In real life, to get out of a chair you wouldn’t curl yourself up or “leg-extend” you would push with your leg muscles.
All of them.
So logically, you should train all of them.
“If you don’t have all the time in the world, you should do multi-joint [lifts]. They’re a lot more efficient [for building muscle] throughout the body,” Ratzlaff said. “If you’re looking for fat loss you’re looking for multis too. Far and away they are more efficient. Just doing a bunch of bicep curls will do very little for fat loss and overall muscle strength. The bottom line is that it’s all about multi-joint activities.”
However, Ratzlaff said doing the multi-joint exercises using free weights can be a little more dangerous than isolating muscles on the machines, so you need to pay extra attention to technique.
“Technique is everything. We place a ton of emphasis on technique. It’s all about making the most of what you have,” he said. “If you do [an exercise] wrong you’ll be causing more harm to your body than good.”
The biggest debate that rages on regarding weight-lifting is whether a body-part split or total-body workouts are better.
First, lets figure out what each is.
An example of a body-part split would be on Monday doing a chest workout, Tuesday doing a legs workout, Wednesday doing arms, Thursday doing legs, Friday doing back and Saturday doing abs. You hit each muscle group less-frequently, but each time you hit it, you hit it hard.
A total body workout would consist of doing two sets of chest, two sets of back, two sets of legs, two sets of arms, and two sets of abs. A typical trainee would do this workout three times a week. You hit every single muscle three different times throughout the week, but not quite as hard.
What’s better you ask?
Neither.
“There are so many ways to train, some of the experience I’ve had is that split-programs are more effective for an average client,” Ratzlaff said. “But I’ve seen total-body workouts do wonders for others, it’s all about how hard you work and how your body reacts.”
The final straw in this puzzle is nutrition.
That’s right, Oreos and orange juice for every single meal of the day won’t assist you in building muscle, losing fat, jumping higher, or running faster.
Nutrition is vital to your success, period.
“In order to be really effective you have to put diet and exercise together. They go hand-in-hand,” Ratzlaff said. “If you don’t use both together you’ll do ok for a while, but you won’t be able to take that next step. It doesn’t matter how hard you exercise if you eat crappy. You’ll be better for it in the long run.”fficeffice" />

[ParanoidAndroid]

I liked it.

One thing, though. If you're going to mention nutrition, at least define "good nutrition". As a HS senior, I can assure you that the average teen knows nothing about nutrition, and you may need to explain exactly what it means to eat right.

unless there was another article in the issue re eating right.

[jcool20010]

Originally Posted by ParanoidAndroid

I liked it.

One thing, though. If you're going to mention nutrition, at least define "good nutrition". As a HS senior, I can assure you that the average teen knows nothing about nutrition, and you may need to explain exactly what it means to eat right.

unless there was another article in the issue re eating right.

There are several articles on nutrition in the issue.

Thanks on the compliment!

[Lost Dog]

Nice.

Any underwear is fine, but, never squat in boxers. By the time you feel yourself lowering into painful territory, it's too late... ouch.

[Hunter]

Nice job - well written!

[Steve-O-68]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

Nice.

Any underwear is fine, but, never squat in boxers. By the time you feel yourself lowering into painful territory, it's too late... ouch.

Let's not talk about his underwear. :p

Good stuff J.

[jcool20010]

Originally Posted by Steve-O-68

Let's not talk about his underwear. :p

Good stuff J.

Will I ever live that down?

[LisaS]

good job - but watch the metaphors - esp. mixed metaphors

The final straw in this puzzle is nutrition.

[Steve-O-68]

Originally Posted by jcool20010

Will I ever live that down?

Probably not.

[Simon C]

Originally Posted by LisaS

good job - but watch the metaphors - esp. mixed metaphors

the last piece of the puzzle?

hmmm... time to read the article!

[Simon C]

Good stuff!

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by LisaS

good job - but watch the metaphors - esp. mixed metaphors Quote:
The final straw in this puzzle is nutrition.

[jcool20010]

That version was completley unedited, so some of that easy stuff is gone now.

[Alcoholiday]

it's a good article, but from a grammatical standpoint, i would work on combining some of the sentences. Example:
[/quote]
Corey Ratzlaff, director of personal trainers at the Northwest YMCA, has a secret though.
A secret that no one else seems to know.
There is no perfect answer.
There is no perfect way to train, no perfect coach and no specific guidelines you always have to follow. .[/quote]

change to:

Corey Ratzlaff, director of personal trainers at the Northwest YMCA, has a secret though.
This secret is, there is no perfect way to train, no perfect coach and no specific guidelines you always have to follow.

see, a secret is something that someone doesn't know already. So saying a secret that no one knows is like saying a dead corpse. The content was good, but it seemed kinda choppy.

keep up the writing though! i'm just being nit-picky.