In this weeks “Reader Mail”, Chris or T.C. asked the following:
“Would you like to have a separate area of the forum that simply gave descriptions of most of the exercises we could think of? That way, if you were trying to plan your own workouts, or simply wanted to check on how to do a movement, you could refer to that area of the site.”
They then asked us to let them know…
I think that this is a GREAT idea! “Testosterone” is quickly becoming a place where individuals from a lot of disciplines come for basic, straightforward information. It seems to me that such as area would be a very natural extension of the Mission of the guys at “T-Mag”.
So…I’ll get things started…and if you want it guys, flood this thread by PLACING YOUR “YES!” VOTE for an Exercise Demo Area!
I concur with this plan of A-C-T-I-O-N also. Methinks it would be a very, very helpful addition.
With that being said, there are quite a few exercises and quite a few variations of each (in many cases). Therefore, if the good ol’ dudes at T-Mag could give Exercise Descriptions for the vast majority of exercises–while listing possible variations (i.e. cable, hands pronated, scott bench, etc.)–I think that would be an absolutely excellent and worthwhile venture.
Well, after searching through the archives here, you’ve got about 95% of all exercises, so putting together an area with these descriptions in one location would probably be a good idea. At least a lot of the legwork (photos and descriptions) has been done, it’s just a HUGE cut and paste job to get the thing started at least.
There is always a problem with categorization of exercises - exercises like cleans and push presses just don’t fit into any easy category other than total body power exercises. Therefore, a search feature would be important for this area.
How would new exercises get added? Who would do this?
Overall though, I think it is a good idea, but I also think it might take some of the newbies away from the initial articles that contained the exercises. But it might also attract more people to the site for this exact resource.
I think this would be a great idea, I work as a trainer at a gym and I’ve started my own photo collection (digital) with descriptions so that I can put them in my client’s programs.
I would be happy to contribute any of the pics I’ve currently got in the archive as well as donate my time to take more if it would help.
On a copyright question, if I were to donate pics would I be able to use other pics from this archive for my clients rather than taking all my own? It would save me quite a bit of time. . . plus of course I would reference them.
But I have to agree with Jason. There are soooo many articles with photos/discriptions of various exercises. Why not a specific “exercise discription” search feature?
However that, it’s the content of the articles that contain the exercise discriptions/list that I feel is important. You know, to show newbies how to apply said exercise in a program.
If someone actually wants to spend the time to put this list together, than go for it.
I definitely support the idea. In fact, I started training two years ago and without T-mag, I won’t have gotten to where I am today. But sad to say that I avoided some of the excercises because I couldn’t figure out how to do them and didn’t want to risk injuries for not doing them correctly.
Actually, if I may add another suggestion, perhaps, a simple animated gif might be quite helpful for some of the more complicated moves. I was going to suggest short movie files, but that is just to much work for you guys. Animated gifs is a good compromise. What do you guys think?
I definitely support the idea. In fact, I started training two years ago and without T-mag, I won’t have gotten to where I am today. But sad to say that I avoided some of the excercises because I couldn’t figure out how to do them and didn’t want to risk injuries for not doing them correctly.
I know most of the readers are seasoned trainers, but this new feature would help beginners tremendously, and might encourage them to try them in the gym!
Actually, if I may add another suggestion, perhaps, a simple animated gif might be quite helpful for some of the more complicated moves. I was going to suggest short movie files, but that is just to much work for you guys. Animated gifs is a good compromise. What do you guys think?
I would definitely like some sort of animation (gif or mpeg) for some exercises. I also think this is something that could fall under another category on the left (Home, This Week’s Issue, etc.). Have lists of links to the exercises, but also have a search so that you can search by body part worked (chest, legs, etc.), sport (football, powerlifting, badminton, etc.), purpose (strength, power, speed, etc.), and other ways of categorizing lifts.
And for any other lifts you have yet to photograph or tape, lets get some hotties doing the lifts. No reason not to pander.