Stretching Tips To Avoid Injury
November 8th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Before fitness strength training, one must give importance to doing warm-up or stretching exercises to prevent accidents or to enhance the output during the training. There are also a number of precautionary measures and tips to serve as guidelines when doing fitness exercises.Here are your options.
1. To increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries, stretch before and after a firm workout.Everyone knows that stretching before a workout is beneficial, but what most people don’t realize is that stretching after a workout can increase flexibility.
2. Hold your stretching position for more than 60 seconds to increase flexibility. While holding your position for 20 seconds is enough for warm ups, holding each position for at least 60 seconds will develop the body’s flexibility.
3. Do not go into a stretching position then immediately return to the relaxed position, and do it repeatedly. This is more appropriately termed as bouncing while in a position.When stretching, hold that position for several seconds, and then slowly relax. You may do this exercise repeatedly this way. Bouncing or forcing yourself into a position during stretching can strain or damage some joints or muscles.
4. Work slowly in increments instead of immediately proceeding to doing the hardest exercise or position.
5. Make sure that you have stretched or warmed up all muscle groups.The neck always seems to be neglected during a workout. Stretching the neck muscles can be as simple as placing the palm of one’s hand against the front of the head and pushing it.Repeat for the back and sides of the head.
6. Stretch regularly to continually increase your range of movements and your level of flexibility and strength.
7. Workout considering only your capabilities and not of others.Do not force yourself to do exercises that you are not yet capable of just because there are people who can do it. Increase your limits slowly.Don’t ignore your body.You should consider reducing the range of motion for those days where you’re just too tired.
8. Learn to rest. Rest in between sets and stations to make sure that the body has enough time to recover its energy.Also, it is advisable that you don’t work the same muscle groups consecutively for two days.The muscles grow during the period when you rest and not when you are working out.
9. Do aerobic exercises to strengthen your heart.Aerobic exercises are those physical activities that much oxygen for fuel.This will include exercises such as running, rope jumping, or swimming.
10. To increase intensity for longer periods of time, it could help listening to music.You can use mp3 players, CD players or lightweight am radio receivers for this.Wear a headset so others are not disturbed by music while exercising.
Apart from preventing injuries and increasing one’s limit, it is also said that stretching is good for a tired body and also for a stressed mind and spirit.
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Fitness Workouts For Busy People
November 8th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
If you haven’t already discovered the numerous benefits of interval training then please do yourslef a favor and read this article and see for yourself why interval training is quickly becoming the number one personal workout program for both it’s fat burning potential, it’s ability to build muscle strength and it’s cardiac benefits.
No other workout gives you the same benefits such as the ability to build muscular strength and endurance, burn fat and a good cardio workout.
Interval training entails the back and forth of two different cardio exercises that typically provide different results and are of varying intensities like jogging and sprinting. The great thing about interval training sessions is that they're typically very short but they pack a lot of punch for being such short workouts since you're sprinting for literally half of the workout.
You can do interval training pretty much anywhere so long as you're allowed to stretch out your legs into an all out sprint every now and again without bothering anyone… After you've finished your stretching and warm up routine, you can begin your interval training workout by jogging. My rule of thumb is that you should be able to carry a light conversation with someone for this to be considered a light jog. You'll do this for two minutes and then you'll pick it up a notch…
All you're going to do is go back and forth between jogging and sprinting for 20 minutes in 2 minute intervals. So you'll jog for two minutes and then you'll sprint for two minutes! Jog and then sprint. Jog and then sprint. Jog and then sprint. All in two minute intervals. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Interval training gives you a ton of benefits in a fraction of the time it would take you if you were to replace interval training with individual workouts that accomplish the same results as interval training - build more muscular legs, burn fat, burn calories and a cardio workout.
Give interval training a try today and escape the monotony of another marathon session on the treadmill or stationary bike.
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Get Up and Walk to Lose Weight
October 3rd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Majority of overweight people understand that they need to change their lifestyle. They must observe correct diet alongside with regular workouts.
The trouble is, dieting entails a very powerful resolution, and workouts need restraint. Worse, exercise require that the subject to devote a considerable amount of time per day to endure the steps essential to trim down his weight.
Not everybody manifests such determination. Not all can show of such self-control. And not everybody can spare such time for fitness and weight reduction workouts.
Fortunately, there is a more sensible option.
Walk to Lose Weight
Any specialist, and gym trainer, and any medical professional will be fast to inform you that walking- indeed, plain and simple strolling- is the better workout you can do to shed weight and to maintain a well and healthy body.
Consider this fact: 30 minutes of continuous walking each day will help you lose an average of 20 pounds per year.
Professionals keenly prescribe that an individual should be able to walk at least 10,000 steps each day. 10,000 steps is approximately equivalent to 2 kilometers. This may sound like a daunting task, duty especially if we consider that it is a daily obligation.
On the other hand, you don’t need to go out of your place to walk 2 kilometers to the following town. You can achieve those 10,000 steps without even departing your place. Simply pace within your room, without stopping, in an hour or so, and you will get the equivalent of 2 kilometers without having to find a bus ride home.
Taking a walk to lose weight is a sensible and convenient kind of exercise that will not only assit us shed weight, but will also provide our heart a good workout. Walking will assit strengthen our cardiovascular system, making us more resilient to diversity of heart sickness.
Walking aslo teaches our metabolism to sustain an efficient tempo. Metabolism is the solution to weight reduction. Metabolism converts calories into usable energy. A healthy metabolism will mean fewer calories to build up as fat. A slow metabolism will mean more calories that will give rise to extra weight for our bodies.
Walking will guarantee that our body’s metabolism will forever continue healthy and efficient.
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Build Muscle Mass Fast & Get Ripped…
October 3rd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
What if by making a few small changes in your nutrition and eating habits you could add up to a 50% gain in muscle mass and loose up to 18% extra fat.
Well you could be robbing yourself of these gains just by not eating correctly and at the right times. You see by eating at the right time you can catapult your body into a fat burning anabolic state which will not only help you gain more muscle but also loose more fat at the same time.
You will be surprised at how easy it is to make a few simple changes in your eating habits and times and the gains that you will get from these very small changes.
In a recent study in the U.K it has been shown that eating irregular meals promotes fat gain. It all comes back to our body’s “will to survive” mechanism. When you skip or prolong a meal your body will automatically go into saviour mode and start storing extra fat to be used at a later date. Consequently your next meal also stores a lot of extra fat.
By eating smaller meals more frequently you can not only counter this effect but also put your body into an anabolic state, which will also increase your base metabolic rate. In plain English this leads to higher fat loss and more muscle gain.
A haphazard supplement program coupled with a haphazard diet will make building muscle and loosing fat a next to impossible task no matter how you train
Why would anyone put in all that effort in their training and not back it up by proper nutrition and eating habits? Lack of knowledge would be the most likely answer.
Ideally you should be eating 5 or 6 smaller meals a day that are low in fat, with high protein and medium carbohydrate.
Here is an example of my Meal plan each day
Meal 1: 6AM
1 packet of Ny-Tro PRO-40 mixed with 16 ounces of skim milk and 1 serving of Micronized Creatine
Meal 2: 9AM
2 servings VP2 Whey Isolate mixed in 10 ounces of skim milk
1 large apple
Meal 3: 12PM
2 grilled chicken breasts
1 Serving Rice
1 cup of low-fat Yogurt
1 serving VP2 Whey Isolate in 8 ounces skim milk.
Meal 4: 3PM
1 packet Ny-Tro PRO-40 mixed with 16 ounces of skim milk and 5 to 10 grams of GL3 L-Glutamine
1 large banana
Pre-Workout
2 Dymetadrine Xtreme
1 VyoPro Protein Bar
Meal 5: 6PM (Post-workout)
2 servings VP2 Whey Isolate combined with 1 serving Creatine HSC mixed in cold water. (This is an important meal and is designed for an insulin spike at just the right time to increase creatine and amino acid uptake by the muscle cells.)
Meal 6: 7PM
8 to 10 ounces of lean round or flank steak
1 large serving of rice
1 medium baked potato
1 large green salad
Meal 7: 10PM
1 packet of Ny-Tro PRO-40 mixed with 9 ounces of skim milk
1 large banana
3 to 5 grams of GL3 L-Glutamine
(Mix the Ny-Tro PRO-40 and GL3 in a large bowl into a smooth pudding. Slice the banana on top and eat. It’s a dessert.)
I take my meal plans from the Max OT training program, which can be found at
