Are you sick and tired of picking up that latest body building
magazine off the shelve, opening it to the latest program on the
current bodybuilding star and discovering that he is using a six
day split program that has you in the gym for four hours and
day!!
What it won’t tell you is that the guy is a professional and
probably doesn’t have to hold down a steady job, pay off a
mortgage or raise a couple of kids.
The thing is you don’t have to train like an athlete to put on
muscle, all you need to do is follow these action ideas below
and you will start making big gains fast without spending all
your time in the Gym.
Lets have a look: 1/ Back to Basics - To build muscle you must
train short and with intensity, you only have a limited amount
of energy per session. Tests reveal that blood sugar levels drop
dramatically after 20 minutes, so exercise selection is crucial.
Compound multi-joint movements have to be used as these offer
more training stimulus, are more functional and heavier loads
can be lifted. Examples of compound movements include squats,
bench press, dips, and chin- ups. Performing three to four
exercises with high intensity during a session are what is
needed.
All the main structures of the body are worked hard during this
time, remembering that as you get stronger in your upper body
exercises i.e. Dips, Lat Pull downs, you will also add size to
your upper arms as well as your shoulders.
Working on these big compound movements has a knock- on effect
throughout the whole body; there is no need for specialization
techniques or isolation movements.
The thing is, the whole body is worked hard, rest and
recuperation is allowed to take place and at the next exercise
session we push out a few more reps than before with the same
weight, then we have gotten stronger i.e. more muscle.
2/ Perform One Set Per Body Part - Having performed one set of
an exercise to total failure then it should be near on
impossible to generate the same force and intensity for another
set.
If you are able to generate the same force and intensity for
this second set then the first set was not worked hard enough.
If you give the first set 100% effort and work it to total
failure (You cannot move the bar after the last rep) there is no
more requirement for further stimulation.
Therefore you need to do one set per exercise, remembering to
complete the training session in 20 - 30 minutes so to have the
most stimulus as possible and then move on to the next exercise.
Current research shows that single set training is as beneficial
as multiple set training, decreasing the chances of over
training and saving energy for other lifts required during the
workout.
Because you are doing one set per exercise, you will have to
work it hard and to total failure.
3/ Cycle Your Strength Training - The development of muscle and
strength is interrelated so the exercise session will have to be
designed so that increases in strength are equal to increases in
functional muscle.
Cycling intensity through changes in repetitions and poundage’s
throughout your training program is an effective way to maintain
progression and avoid training plateaus.
4/ Don’t Train To Long - Training itself causes the breakdown of
muscle tissue. When a person trains very intensely cortisol is
released into the blood stream, which causes the breakdown of
muscle tissue.
The amount of cortisol released is highly dependant upon the
length of training time.
Therefore to minimize this effect training should be completed
in the absolute minimum time required which is no longer than 20
to 30 minutes max.
Your blood sugar levels are also dropping by this time, so do
what you have to do in this time and get out of the gym, go home
and grow.
5/ Don’t Cheat - Do not cheat on your reps! Every strength-
training trainee runs into this problem sooner or later and it
will grind your gains to a stand still. There are many ways to
increase the intensity of your sets and the weights used in
order to maximize results.
Cheating to increase your weights actually takes strain off your
muscles and places it on your joints, which is
counterproductive.
Now that you are armed with this information, you wont need to
spend all of your time in the gym, by all means workout hard
while you are in there but when you are finished go home and
grow and enjoy life.
Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks
Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit
http://www.maximumfitness.com right now for your ‘free’ muscle
building e-course.
Imagine if you will a horrific dream where you are trapped on a crashing plane full of terrified passengers who know the end is any second away. While oxygen masks and beverages shake and spill, the chaos of this moment somehow ceases to faze you, because the deep and helplessly frozen state you are in cannot be lifted, even in the most severe of circumstances. This intriguing and compelling moment graces the opening scene of Zach Braff’s Garden State, a film of realization, suffering and love, and leads into one of many symbolic and metaphoric moments that consist of a young man’s struggle to overcome emotional hardships and a dysfunctional past. During each major sequence of events that take place throughout the story, the visual aspect presented to the viewer plays a significant role in understanding the meaning and intent of the director’s vision. The design of this film is one of the most important elements used to convey thematic symbolism and appropriate mood of each moment with specific techniques such as lighting, color, and structure. It leaves the viewer with a deeper understanding of the character’s internal thoughts and feelings, and creates powerful mise-en-scene during each of those large, turning point moments. Through effective design, each phase of the main character’s progression towards change is symbolically represented, and helps to illuminate the mise- en -scene that attaches emotional impact to the narrative of this poignant film.
The film’s story is centered on the life of Andrew Largeman, (Zach Braff), a psychologically repressed New Jersey native struggling to make it as an actor and part time waiter in Los Angeles. After several attempts at reaching him to no avail, Andrew’s
father leaves the message that his mother has died on his voice recorded answering machine while he lies in bed one morning. Having little apparent reaction, he returns to his home town and goes through the motions of the traditional funeral, and runs into family friends and burnt out high school classmates with lethargic boredom. For the first time being home since a number of years of estrangement, Andrew struggles with facing past and present failures, including a distant surface-level relationship with his father (Ian Holm), and everyday reminders of just how unimportant and pathetic his acting career is turning out to be. During a session with a local neurologist for headache symptoms, Andrew wonders about the effect the plethora of anti-depressants and mood stabilizer medications he has taken for as long as he can remember might be having on his life. Upon reaching the decision of stopping all prescription drugs, he becomes acquainted and amusingly intrigued by a talkative, happy go lucky girl named Sam (Natalie Portman), who struggles with her own failures and insecurities. Through the growing relationship of these two very different but somewhat alike loners, Andrew and Sam find comfort and strength in one another’s company and conversation. A series of crazy, emotional, and humorous events adventures between the two misfits lead to Andrew’s emotional enlightenment and acceptance of his adolescent shortcomings, guilt, and lifelong anguish. With the visual design of each of these moments, viewers are given the chance to experience the film through Andrew’s point of view by appropriately shaping the look of each scene to fit what he is feeling. While Andrew’s life takes turns for the better, the design and mise-en-scene fit accordingly, and portray an effective vision that is aesthetically present and helpful to the experience of this film.
One of the most expertly used tactics in creating meaning in this film is how design is used to depict so literally the tone of Andrew’s life prior to his emotional changes. The colors used in several of the opening scenes are stark whites, grays, and dark blues with little energy or depth. These colors tell the viewer with little or no dialogue whatsoever about his state of mind and the life he leads. One of the first opening scenes, following Andrew’s dream of being a passenger on a crashing airplane which served as a metaphor for his life, is a shot of him lying unmoving in a white bed, in an all white room. The closed frame of the shot shows how trapped he looks in his own room, or perhaps his own life. The vision or implication that is portrayed to a viewer is that of how a mental hospital or prison might look. This scene is followed by quite a few scenes of the same nature, with dark and murky colored lenses, closed frame shots, and stark open spaces with characters spaced far apart. In most of these shots, including one of him stuck in traffic alone and another standing at a distance from his family at his mother’s funeral, the viewer is seeing Andrew alone, staged away from other actors and focused in on so it is clear to see the sad, expressionless looks on his face. Mise-en-scene is effectively reached in a scene of showing Andrew, alone on a strange couch after a night of rolling on ecstasy, with a dark blanket covering him. The smoky, gloomy air around him can be seen by sun peering through holes in dark posters that cover the windows. As Andrew slowly wakes up, alone, the viewer is shown the nature of his life; under the influence of something that is preventing him to feel real and sober life experiences.
The developing relationship between Andrew and Sam is the most vital motive for change in Andrew’s life, and that is seen quite obviously as the design takes new form. When first introduced to the character of Sam, the viewer is exposed to a laid back and nervously cheerful personality; the polar opposite of Andrew’s. Everything about the two characters is dissimilar, down to their different colored clothing and body language. The first scene of the two together, which takes place in an almost empty hospital waiting room, conveys the different comfort levels of the characters as Sam comes over to sit as close as she can to Andrew in the large space, while he sits stiff and edgy. As their conversation progresses, his body language becomes more fluid and inviting. As Andrew is shown Sam’s world through a visit to her house, the viewer is also entering a different world from which they started. The tone shifts from drab and stoic, to bright and welcoming by orange walls and colorful curtains that Andrew at first feels out of place by, but eases into eventually. As they enter her room, the same vivid orange dominates the surroundings accompanied by girlish dolls, bright lamps, and sentimental trinkets that symbolize her innocence in opposition to Andrew’s. The warmer lighting surrounding Andrew and Sam while together continues as their relationship progresses, and the staging becomes noticeably closer. Their growing emotional attachment is seen through different aspects of lighting and distance, especially in a scene while they are swimming late on a very foggy night in a pool full of other people their age. While Andrew swims alone at an opposite end, a shot taken from above shows Sam swimming towards him from the other end of the long pool. They then are slowly zoomed in on, illuminated by the warm light of the bottom pool light, that frames their two heads shown, gradually moving closer to one another. This scene conveys the mounting closeness that is taking place, and its effect on Andrew and his previous way of life.
Another important relationship that contributes to Andrew’s momentous internal change is the lack of communication with his father. The house Andrew grew up in is large and empty looking, with the same bleak colors as seen in the opening scenes of the film. The space between them, while they talk face to face for the first time in years, represents their emotional distance and the fact that they barely know each other. There are three scenes where Andrew and his father interact, the first two being alike in nature. The first takes place the day after the funeral, when they are forced to see one another for the first time in years. Andrew remains standing close to the door as they begin talking, while his father sits behind a large desk. Neither one moves much at all as they continue a forced conversation. The second shows the two in the kitchen, spaced purposefully a significant distance apart showing the father, this time, close to the door. Through the archway leading to the living room, all that is seen is white and pale gray tones of furniture and window light; the same color of the light that dominates the scene. The third takes place towards the end of the film, after Andrew has undergone considerable emotional transformation through his time with Sam and the absence of his medications. This scene starts out with the same distance between the two characters, but drastically changes as they begin a real and deep conversation, and ends with the two characters sitting close enough to touch. The lighting changes to a warmer quality that makes color show in both of the character’s faces. The last interaction between Andrew and his father creates mise-en-scene that leaves the viewer with a new emotional attachment to the two characters who are building a new relationship.
Garden State is a film that is realistically honest and sends the viewer on a passage that is touching, dark, and comedic all that the same time. The way that writer/director/ and star Zach Braff’s vision is intriguingly apparent through the concepts of lighting, design, and mise-en-scene makes viewers empathize and identify with the main character, and the number of diverse and affecting situations he finds himself in.