Category Archives: Fitness

The New Rules of Specialization: How to Add Muscle Mass

Source: http://www.bornfitness.com/the-new-rules-of-specialization-how-to-add-muscle-mass/

Building muscle doesn’t just “happen.” You must force growth by using this proven technique that will add size to any stalled workout program.

Beginnings suck.

Sure they are exciting — in theory — but learning a new skill or practicing a new habit can be incredibly frustrating. With time, practice, and lots of effort, you see rapid improvements and rewards for your relentlessness.

When it comes to building muscle, oftentimes the opposite is true. …

The Curious Case of Why People Fear Protein

Source: http://www.bornfitness.com/why-people-fear-protein/

Sometimes you need protection from certain foods. Other times, it’s the foods that need protection from us.

While protein is known as the king of muscle-building and an essential component of fat loss, it’s also surrounded by numerous safety concerns. Specifically, many people fear protein. While it might be hard to believe in an age of Paleo-based, meat-eating frenzy, the average American still loads up on significantly more carbs and fats. And it’s likely not a coin…

Cooking 101: How to Navigate a Grocery Store

Source: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2015/11/16/cooking-101-how-to-navigate-a-grocery-store/

This is an article from NF Rebel Chef Noel.

For some of us Rebels, a grocery store is a lot like a video game dungeon. It’s dark, wet, oozy, and full of giant spiders…Okay, well maybe not the spiders part. But sometimes it feels that way.

It reminds me of a level from Legend of Zelda! Whenever you, Link, entered a new dungeon, whether it was the Deku Tree or the Water Temple, after wandering around for some sh…

How To Choose A Fitness Trainer

One of the biggest obstacles to staying on track for fitness is losing motivation. People are just starting an exercise program can find themselves quickly tired of the same routine. Keeping exercise appealing and maintaining a good fitness perspective is key to long-term success.

If you have to watch the exact same episode of your favorite television show every day for the rest of your life, you would probably be banging your head against the wall by the end of the week. You would change the channel, pick up a book, or do anything you could to avoid something you once enjoyed.

Yet, many people starting on a fitness program feel compelled to follow the same routine, day after day after day, and consequently fall off the exercise wagon due to sheer boredom.

That is why, most people would want the services of a fitness trainer in order to provide them the different portions of the fitness program in a more livelier style.

Fitness trainers are actually those who are expert in analyzing and creating a fitness program that is right for you. They are the ones who will calculate your appropriateness to a certain program with regards to your “fitness level,” create the program according to your specific needs, and keep you stimulated and inspired by giving you activities that will not bore you.

But then again, as with other entities included in the fitness world, not all fitness trainers are created equal. They may vary from the different trainings that they have, the health education they have acquired, and the skills that they have learned.

How To Choose A Fitness Trainer

Hence, it is important to consider some factors that will determine if a certain fitness trainer is right for you. Here is how:

1. Certification

Like any item or product, the quality is sometimes measured and determined through the certification that goes with it. Hence, before you choose your fitness trainer, it is important to verify if the trainer is duly certified by a highly regarded fitness association.

It is also best to choose a trainer that has a CPR certification or first aid qualifications.

2. Education/Trainings

Be sure to choose a fitness trainer who had acquired an adequate training and education as far as health and physical fitness is concerned.

Even though it is not necessary, trainers who have acquired education connected with health or any other related field will definitely have an edge over the others.

3. Knows how to give the right attention

A good fitness trainer should know how to provide his or her client an undivided attention whenever their session is going on. In this way, the trainer will be able to focus more on the details that needs attention and immediate considerations.

4. Knows how to track development

It is best to choose a fitness trainer that knows how to track his or her client’s progress as far as fitness is concerned.

In this way, the trainer will be able to generate new activities and trainings designated for a particular result of the client.

5. Good Personality

Since you will be dealing most with your fitness trainer, it is best if you will look for somebody with a pleasing personality, somebody whom you can be comfortable. It is best to hire the services of somebody whom you can easily get along with.

Boiled down, the services of a fitness center and the contributions it can give you while working out on those belly fats, are, indeed, one of the best help that you can get from a professional person who knows what he is doing.

Hence, it is best to choose the best person who can give you the best services that you need so that you will never get bored again.

Yoga Pilates Basics

Pilates were invented by Joseph Pilate in the early 20th century. Yoga Pilates can prove to be of great help if all the necessary rules related to Pilates exercises is followed properly. Yoga PilatesYoga Pilates Basics is a regimen of exercise that can be equally beneficial and enjoyable. Very simply, Pilates is the contemporary part of the older Yoga movements. The number of Pilates exercises can be as many as five hundred exercises that can be performed by using only five chief instruments. Each pose of yoga has great significance similar to its Pilates equivalent. The important yoga Pilates basics that one must master are movement to and fro from center and revolving around center.

Yoga Pilates Basics

Maintaining good health and proper well being is the chief point of proper and regular practice of yoga Pilates. Regular action will definitely leave a deep, positive impact in your physical as well as mental life. After some days of practice you will find that your body’s flexibility is enhanced. The stretching that is involved in Pilate yoga helps in lessening the threat of injuries.

One of the biggest benefits of Pilates exercises is that your body’s balance is improved. With the passage of time, your body aches will reduce to a great extent as well. With regular exercise, the muscles are strengthened, resulting in the stimulation of your endurance, stamina and your energy level.

One great thing that you will experience as a result of Pilates yoga is that you will find that your body and mind is much more relaxed compared to how you felt before. Pilates yoga involves certain breathing patterns that help a person to calm down and relax, resulting in sounder sleep.

Now days Pilates are often prescribed by specialists like osteopaths, physical therapists, chiropractors and many holistic practitioners as a principal, practical taming process. Pilates indeed rank first in the western chart of fitness. The viewpoints of Pilates teachers and Yoga instructors are somewhat the same on the workings of the exercise. Many consider Pilates to be yoga on the machines while others see it as neuromuscular education or strength conditioning.

Basically Yoga and Pilates are reciprocally supportive: Yoga gives Pilates litheness and mobility while Pilates offers constancy and mobility in the movement. When united with Yoga, Pilates doctrine augments the practice by bringing central stabilization into light as well as training and substance for yoga postures (particularly in the strength to seize). Since Pilates is more about length and potency, Yoga helps to amplify the litheness capability.

Many people whose job demands sitting at a desk or driving almost 8 hours a day, gain a lot from Pilates Yoga. With easy ideas of figure and postural doctrines, it will support the backbone and unlock the oomph channels. It edifies consciousness and centering, suppleness and mobility. It is a coordination of associated exercises that are also helpful separately.

Dancers and professional athletes practice the Pilate form of exercise. This helps them to achieve flexibility of body and gain strength. Recently this form of exercise has become very popular among celebrities and models for keeping fit. There is no harm in practicing yoga Pilates. In fact, it is considered to be safe even when practiced during special conditions like pregnancy.

Going to the Gym for the First Time

Going to the Gym for the First Time? Here’s What You’ll Need to Know.

You’ve been thinking about it for quite some time now. You know you need to get your butt to Going to the Gym for the First Timethe gym and start working out. You know you’ve gotten yourself out of shape and an hour or so in the gym three or four days a week sure wouldn’t hurt.

Ok, so you’ve finally done it. You went down to the local fitness club and spent 2 weeks pay on a one year membership. You even went to the local K-Mart and got yourself some new exercise outfits. Now you’re ready to go and get in shape. But before you do, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make your time in the gym productive, enjoyable and most of all, injury free.

Going to the Gym for the First Time

WARM UP FIRST: this is very important to not only get your blood flowing but to minimize the risk of injury. some good warm up methods include walking on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes starting out at a slower pace then working up to a more brisk pace halfway through. Perform 10 minutes or so of stretching exercises such as toe touches, hurdlers stretches, twisting at the waist and reaching your arms out fully in every direction. before you do any exercises that involve using weights (biceps curls for example) do one set with half (50%) of the weight you’ll be using to prepare the muscles, tendons and ligaments performing the exercise to better handle the heavier weight.

START OUT EASY: when you first get to the gym and you are ready to hit the weights, select an amount of weight at first that seems almost too light but still provides some resistance for each exercise. Remember that proper form, posture and technique are far more important than how much weight you are using. Also, you must give your connective tissue (tendons and ligaments) time to strengthen in order to help prevent injury from the heavier weights you’ll be using later. You can always increase the weight as you go when you can do so without compromising proper form, posture and technique.

When you first get on the treadmill, stationary bike, stair climber or elliptical machine, remember that your heart probably isn’t going to be in the kind of shape to go all out and for this reason you should take it at a slower pace for a while. Each week, pick up the pace and the length of time spent on these machines a little at a time. This will give your heart time to build up to faster paces and longer periods. Remember, your heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it needs time to adjust to the stresses placed on it during exercise.

KEEP AN EXERCISE LOG: one of the best ways to monitor your workouts as well as your progress is to write out your exercise program, stick to it and write in the weights you use for each exercise, and when you’re ready to increase the weight on any exercise, write it in.

On the treadmill or any other cardiovascular machine, write in your speeds and length of time spent. when your ready to make increases, write them in. in this way you not only are able to stay on a structured program ( which is far more productive that having no system ) but you can also keep track of the progress you are making and see how much progress you have made since you began. When you see that you’re making good progress as you go, you will become more motivated to stick with it.

COOL DOWN: after you’ve completed your workout, take 10 minutes at a slow pace on the treadmill. This will let your body cool down a little slower and a slower cool down is easier on your heart than if you cooled down quickly. During this time, you can reflect on the workout you just performed and feel the sense of well being that exercise gives you.

Now that you know a few things that will help to make your gym experience a more productive, more enjoyable and more injury free one, you are ready to go and start working on getting the body of your dreams, the right way.

Safer Senior Fitness

Mini Guide To Safer Senior Fitness

No Pain. No Gain – is so not the rule for good senior health and fitness!

For seniors who already have pain that they are trying to heal, the prospect of purposefully Safer Senior Fitnessadding even more pain and discomfort makes taking physical exercise seem like a bad joke and totally unreasonable.

The idea that we should feel pain after we exercise may be good for military boot camps that want to create soldiers out of young men, but as seniors, there should be a way to work around extreme exercise… and there is!

Safer Senior Fitness

Here is a useful mini guide explaining ways to safer, pain free senior fitness how you can actually enjoy your daily physical exercise…

Swimming is popular activity that is highly recommended for no pain, with gain exercising. Being in the water relieves muscle tension, pain and swelling from arthritis, and lets your body perform resistance exercise with little tension on your joints.

It is still possible to overexert yourself and feel sore the next day, but the water makes the chances of a successful and painless workout much more possible.

Some hospitals have even built swimming pools or co-opted with gyms for pool use because swimming is such a beneficial way for seniors and those undertaking physical therapy to regain strength and fitness.

There are a few ways to make sure that you are in the right environment to engage in a no pain with gain workout. Professional gyms that employ certified instructors are a great place to start and senior fitness classes are now becoming very popular.

Silver Sneakers offer classes made specifically for seniors at various levels of fitness and ability. Many instructors will also offer modifications for exercises. If the modification information is not readily available, ask the instructor or fitness manager for it.

As long as your doctor has approved the activity or class, the instructor should be able to offer ways to keep pressure off the knees and wrists, or recommend alternate exercises for those of you using walkers or wheelchairs.

Wellness centers and weight rooms should have personal trainers on hand that can recommend the proper weight for circuit training and lifting weights. If a fitness instructor does not have this information, then consider taking a different class or going to another gym.

Luckily, many doctors and fitness enthusiasts are beginning to support seniors in the re-done no pain, no pain approach. Yoga, for example, purports that no one is supposed to feel pain during any of the postures being used.

In other words, a posture done within a person’s own abilities will not be painful – after all, yoga exercises are designed to improve the body not to cause self-injury!

The benefits derived from the different types of yoga are numerous: not only does it help you improve your flexibility, focus and stamina it also helps maintain your overall general health.

Besides finding places which can offer you the proper modifications to their classes and machinery, from a mental wellness attitude, finding something enjoyable which you like to do and that is physical will also diminish any pain philosophy.

If you pick a physical activity that you consider fun, you are not likely to associate it with a need to create discomfort. For instance, if you go dancing then you should end the night feeling both rejuvenated and exhausted by the fun, not the pain, you have experienced.

Even just taking a little walk can do wonders for your fitness and general well being… not only does it revive you it may motivate you to continue exercising.

The only potential drawback to doing something that you enjoy is that you tend not to think about how much you are working your body during the exercise. Try to keep tabs on how it is feeling and remember when your body tells you it’s had enough – stop and rest!

As gentle and safe as the new workouts for senior fitness are, a little soreness can still result from any physical exertion.

Counteracting soreness with some yoga or stretches will take away some of your knots and kinks. Drinking plenty of water before, during and after exercise also helps to keep sore muscles at bay.

The traditional, tried and tested remedy of a relaxing warm bath is still a favorite way to help your body alleviate any soreness until it gets accustomed to your new pain-free senior fitness program.

What is Muscle Building Food?

In the bodybuilding world, you may hear about “muscle building food.” What exactly is “muscle building food?” Is this food that actually builds muscles for you? “Muscle Building Food” is essentially food that aids in building muscles. It does not, by any means, build the muscle for you.

What is Muscle Building Food?

Most “muscle building food” is high in protein. Protein is essential to bodybuilding, because itWhat is Muscle Building Food? aids in muscle growth, and it quickly repairs any damage done to muscles during workouts. Protein also has the ability to enhance your body’s natural pain relieving hormones, which enables you to workout day after day, with minimal pain. The benefits of protein go on and on, but all you really need to know is that it is essential to your bodybuilding program.

Foods that are considered “muscle building foods” include eggs, beans, meats, poultry, fish, and dairy foods. Your diet should contain all of these foods, but you must use caution. Some of these foods, such as an abundance of meat and dairy, can also quickly put on body fat, which is not what you want. You must determine how many calories you need to consume daily, based on your own personal needs, and make sure that you are not consuming more than that in food.

Because of this, “muscle building food” isn’t the only thing that you need. You also need protein supplements. If you are a bodybuilder, you cannot get the amount of protein that you need simply from the “muscle building food” that you eat. A good whey protein supplement is recommended, and you will hear a great deal of discussion and debate concerning protein supplements in your local gym.

There is a great deal more to “muscle building food” than just eating the food. The time of day that you eat the food matters as well. You will hear many theories and recommendations concerning this. The first step is to make sure that you and your muscles have enough energy for your workouts, which means that “muscle building food” needs to be consumed before workouts, including protein supplements. It is suggested that you consume pre-workout food and supplements about one and a half hours before your workout, so that the food has time to digest.

“Muscle building food” must also be consumed after a workout, preferably within twenty minutes, to prevent your body from going into a catabolic state. A carbohydrate is recommended, as well as more protein supplements. If you fail to eat within twenty minutes of a workout, and your body goes into a catabolic state, your body is essentially breaking down other muscles to replace what the muscles you have worked lost during the workout, which kind of defeats your purposes.

One thing is certain, if you are serious about bodybuilding, you must be serious about your diet, including “muscle building food,” and you must be serious about protein supplements as well. Other issues that should be important to bodybuilders include the intake of vitamins and minerals, water, and of course, adequate sleep.

How to Choose the Right Fitness Center

How to Choose the Right Fitness CenterIn reality, you really do not have to spend a lot of money on expensive health club or fitness centers memberships, treadmills, or the latest fitness gadget to get moving.

However, some people find that if they make a monetary investment, they are more likely to follow through on fitness.

Fitness centers are, basically, built to provide people the proper fitness equipments, trainings, and other devices needed to keep an individual physically fit.

However, not all fitness centers are created equal. In fact, there are fitness centers that require their members to sign some contracts, which in the end will not be easy to cancel. Hence, it is important to know the characteristics of the fitness center that will work best for you.

How to Choose the Right Fitness Center

Here is a list of some tips that you can use:

1. Make your mind up on things that you need

Before you choose a fitness center, you should first know what your needs are as far as physical fitness is concerned. This will determine the kind of fitness center that you will find.

For example, if you are so much into sports fitness rather than the typical physical fitness activities like aerobics, then it would be better to choose a fitness center that has sports facilities and not just treadmills.

2. Do not forget to shop around

It may sound so cliché-ish but it really pays a lot to a person who shops around before deciding on something. Hence, when choosing fitness centers, it is best to do some shopping first and get to compare the prices, charges, and the facilities available in a health club.

In this way, you get to choose the best and yet affordable fitness center you could ever find.

3. Consider your budget

It does not necessarily meant that just because you have plenty of money, you will eventually give in to a fitness center that you have first encountered.

It is best that you have a budget to follow so that you will know where to focus your finances before you decide on signing-up for a fitness center.

Just remember, you want to work out for your body and not working out something that you will soon be in debt just because you forgot to stick to your budget.

4. Know where your money goes

If it makes you sweat and lose those fats and cellulites, fine! Just be sure that whatever kind of fitness center that you have chosen, it is important to know that you get what you have paid for.

5. Be wary of the physical attributes and characteristics of the center that you wish to enroll in.

Make sure that the fitness center that you have chosen is clean, properly ventilated, and complete with all the amenities that you need.

Be sure also that the equipments that the fitness center has a re all in good working condition. Never use fitness equipments that appear to be worn out already. This will only cause more harm than good.

All of these things are boiled down to the fact that a fitness center does not have to be a perfect fitness center. What matters most is that the fitness center that you have chosen is good enough to generate good results in your body.