Fitness Tips - Health and Fitness Articles

Variety in Your Workouts is Key

Posted by Administrator - 03/06/08 at 01:06:03 pm

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Exercise is annihilation that gets you moving. Examples cover a active walk, dancing, aerobics or armchair aerobics, carriage and chopping wood, gardening, arena basketball, appropriation weights, and bicycling. Exercise helps a being to break physically fit, giving him or her strength, adaptability and ability to do agreeable activities.

Without exercise, even the simplest things of accustomed activity can become harder and harder to do.

Exercise does added than access a person’s all-embracing energy. It aswell lowers claret sugar, claret burden and cholesterol. It reduces accident for affection disease, diabetes and stroke.

Exercise relieves stress. It strengthens a person’s heart, anatomy and bones.

Regular exercise helps insulin to plan better, improves claret apportionment and keeps joints flexible.

If a being is aggravating to lose weight, exercise and advantageous aliment choices can advice accomplish this goal.

There are three types of exercise: aerobic exercise, backbone training and adaptability exercises.

Aerobic exercise works anatomy and increases affection and breath rate. Thirty account of aerobic exercise a day for at atomic 5 canicule a anniversary is the recommended bulk from the American Affection Association.

However, if an alone has not been appliance and is just starting out, it’s best to activate with 5 to 10 account a day and gradually plan up to 30 account a day.

Strength training is usually done several times a anniversary to advice physique able basic and muscles, and makes accustomed affairs — such as accustomed the advantage or the babyish — easier.

With added muscle, a being burns added calories, even at rest. Backbone training can be done during a strength-training chic or at home application weights or adaptable bands.

Flexibility or addition contest advice to accumulate joints adjustable and abate a person’s affairs of accepting an abrasion during added activities. Gentle addition for 5 to 10 account helps one’s physique balmy up and get accessible for aerobic activities.

photo credit: RianaZaire

Should I Warm Up Before Working Out?

Posted by Administrator - 18/03/08 at 05:03:19 am

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photo credit: whyld

From the research I have done, the answer would be ALWAYS WARM UP.

Warming up should never make you tired or fatigued in any way, but you should strive to break a sweat and rush blood into the muscle groups you’re about to start training. Warming up your muscles with some light lifting, stretching, and/or cardio not only helps to prevent injuries, but can also enable you to lift the heaviest possible weights you can during your workout.

Before weightlifting, warm up with a lighter load. For bodyweight lifting and exercising, such as pull ups, warm up by doing the routine from a position that makes the range of motion easier. For an exercise like a push up, warm up by doing push ups from an incline. To do an inclined push up, just put your legs up on a bench, sofa, etc. Stretching during warm up lifts can also be beneficial. Your range of motion can be increased temporarily which can help prevent injury.

As your workouts become more advanced and your muscles become stronger, you should be sure to increase your warm ups.  Your body will need more time to prepare for the lifting of heavier weights.  For example, if you plan on benching 315 lbs. five times, you may want to warm up with 135 lbs. 8 times, 185 lbs. 6 times, 225 lbs. 4 times, 275 3 times, and then you can “start” your workout.

Don’t let your mind fool your body.  Warming up the right way will keep your body protected from injury, increase your lifts, and WILL NOT make you tired or lift less.

The bar slants to one side when I bench press. Is there something wrong with one of my shoulders?

Posted by Administrator - 17/03/08 at 09:03:29 am

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Don’t focus on just one of your shoulders when you bench press. Odds are, if you’ve been around weights for a while, both of your shoulders are messed up.  Poor posture could also be the culprit which is guilty for making your bench pressing motion come out uneven. Also, if one side of the bar is higher than the other throught your benching motion, you may have a rotator cuff injury on the other side.

A good stretch for the shoulders before working out your upper body can be to place your forearms against a door frame and to lean forwars.  Hold this position for 15 - 20 seconde and then repeat.  You can do this forearm stretch several times each day, not just at the gym.

To strengthen up your rotator cuffs, try lying on your side with a dumbbell in the hand of the arm that’s facing up.  Bend your elbow to around 90 degrees while keeping your elbow against your side.  Rotate your shoulder backwards to make your forearm rise and your knuckles point to the sky.  From here, rotate back down to where your forearm is now parallel to the floor.  Congrats, you just completed one rotator cuff strengthening repetition!  Try to do three sets or 10 - 15 reps for both shoulders.  Rest in between should be 20 seconds up to a minute.

Hopefully, after a few weeks of performing these stretches, you will notice your bench press barbell straighten out when your performing your benching motion.

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