Re: Workouts

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/16/03 3:46:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,

qwbw48a@... writes:

> I lift weights to play baeeball, and it's important

> for me not to bulk up, while maintaining muscle tone.

What do you mean by " tone " ? Muscle tone is a state of partial contraction

due to recent exercise. I'm not aware of any benefit to the body of tone-- that

is, tone induced by exercise-- except pure aesthetics. For example, if

you're on the verge of having a six-pack, you might have a six-pack after you've

done situps, which would fade away after a while.

(As an aside, I don't mean that tone doesn't play important roles, such as

maintaining posture or the integrity of smooth muscle, but that has nothing, to

my knowledge, to do with exercise.)

I assume you must be using " tone " in a colloquial sense to refer to something

else. Strength or endurance perhaps?

I don't play basketball, so I don't know much about what is required for it.

If I were to guess, I'd think you'd need primarily aerobic endurance,

followed by agility/velocity, specifically velocity in the abdominal area.

Sometimes

at the gym I see basket ball players do situps extremely quickly, while

holding a basketball and twisting from side to side with the b-ball held between

both hands in front of them.

I have a friend on a college basketball team, and he has tons and tons of

practice which do not involve weight training, and only lifts purely for the

looks of his biceps, which he does after practice. Apparently they don't

recommend a specific weight training routine for the team. On the other hand, I

have

a friend who plays college football, and their team has an official coach just

for the player's weight lifting.

Could you elaborate on your needs and goals for weight lifting?

Thanks,

Chris