Resistance Training Principle #14: How Stretching May Increase Your Risk of Injury!

Stretching May Increase Your Risk of Injury
We’ve all stretched before, but did you know that how, when, and for how long you stretch can dramatically alter the results you see?  After 20 years in the fitness industry, and teaching thousands of trainers,  I’ve found that most clients are not stretching effectively, and that the is being compounded by many trainers who continue to promote outdated methods of stretching.First, I would like to differentiate between stretching (in the traditional sense) and mobility, Range of Motion training, and dynamic movement. While the goals are often similar, the methods used to accomplish these goals and the resulting performance is usually quite different.

What You Can Learn From Cavemen

Caveman

How would you like to be naturally lean, muscular and energetic? To effortlessly maintain a low body fat, rippling muscles and picturesque health?

Mark Sisson, an athlete, coach, and student on a lifelong quest for exceptional health, happiness, and peak performance (his words), penned the book, “The Primal Blueprint” to show you how to do just that.
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4 Ways To Burn More Fat

4 ways to burn fat

There is nothing quite as frustrating as seeing your results fizzle out.

This is a common place to end up, usually after a few months on the same exercise routine. In the beginning your body responds to your routine with lost pounds and gained muscle tone, then one day all results screech to a stop.

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Resistance Training Principle #4: Weight Train on Alternating Days

Weight Training Alternate Days
You may be surprised to learn that you don’t get stronger when you weight train.  You actually get stronger during the rest periods between your workouts.  At a cellular level, when you weight train, your muscles experience microscopic tears.  The body responds to this “micro-trauma” by sending blood and nutrients to the muscles to help them heal.  And that’s exactly what they do.  They respond by getting stronger.  So, it’s important to avoid working the same body part (to failure) multiple days in a row.  Otherwise you will not recover properly and miss out on one of the primary benefits of doing resistance training.Each specific muscle requires at least a day rest in between a hard training session.  So, if you’re following a full body routine, you’d want to weight train on say, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  If you were doing a split routine, you could work out your lower body on Monday and Thursdays and your upper body on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Resistance Training Principle #2: Failure is Your Friend!

Post2 - Failure is your friend

If you are scared of failure, I have 3 words for you…Get Over It!  In life, and especially in Resistance Training, failure is a good thing.  In fact, it is a necessity for continued improvement (just like life).  To paraphrase Hans Selye, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”!In fitness, we often call this failure “momentary muscle fatigue”, or “momentary muscle failure”.  A good exercise set will finish once you hit momentary muscle fatigue.  This is the point during a set when you absolutely cannot do another rep with perfect form.  If you can perform more reps, rather than just stop, you should perform the extra reps to hit momentary muscle fatigue and next time, increase the resistance by 5-10% so you can hit momentary muscle fatigue within the suggested repetition zone (the number of reps will vary depending on your current program phase and training goals).

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Cardio Principle #9: Quit being a statue!

Cardio Principle #9: Quit being a statue!

The body does not respond very well going from inactivity to very intense activity.  The cardiovascular, musculo-skeletal, neurological and metabolic energy pathways need to be gradually stimulated in order to perform at an optimal level.  In other words…you need to WARM-UP properly to get the most out of your workout!

Muscles that are warm have a much better ability to extract and utilize oxygen to produce energy.  As muscles warm up, the enzyme activity level is increased.  This means that fats and sugars are broken down more rapidly, and more energy and less lactic acid (the burning sensation) will be produced.  This will enhance your performance and increase your ability to burn fat!

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Cardio Principle #5: Cross Train

Cardio Principle #5: Cross Train

If running (or cycling, swimming, walking, etc.) is the only cardio activity you do, your running muscles will continue to get stronger and stronger, but the muscles that are neglected will get weaker.  The end result of this is a muscle imbalance and ultimately injury…which defeats the purpose of exercising in the first place!

Now, the pessimists out there are probably saying, “Great!  That’s means I shouldn’t even bother exercising!”  If that was the first thing that popped into your mind.  Stop.  Give yourself a swift smack…and then call me.  We have a LOT of work to do! ;-)

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Cardio Principle #3: Calculating Your Heart Rate Zones

Cardio Principle #3: Calculating Your Heart Rate Zones
Knowing YOUR unique HR zones is one of the fundamental pieces of information that EVERY person who does cardiovascular exercise should have.  This can’t be stated more simply.  If you do cardio, YOU NEED THIS INFORMATION.  Without it, EVERY workout you do is merely guessing.  You are taking a random approach to fitness.The truth is, you may see some results.  Many people do.  However, the amount of time and effort you spend getting those results will be WAAAAAY longer than necessary.  Plus, with all this effort, you may not even achieve the level of results that are possible (or that you actually want).

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Are You Lazy?

55-lazy2

I know a lot of lazy people.

People who would rather spend the day planted on their couch than anywhere else.

People who choose take-out over home cooked, every night of the week.

People who would rather have a root canal than go do a workout.

Sure, I know that we all have our occasional lazy day on the couch, but lately it seems that more and more people are turning laziness into a career.

What about you? Check if the following describe you:

  • You are habitually inactive.
  • You’d rather be a passive observer than an active participant.
  • You’re a master excuse-maker.
  • You find shortcuts in order to avoid the long haul.

If that’s you, don’t get down on yourself. There are many legitimate causes of laziness. Here are just a few…

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The Top 7 Reasons to Exercise

Young women playing beach volleyball

Summer has arrived and along with it the dreaded bathing suit season.

Whether you can’t wait to bare it all on the beach, or if you’re still working toward a weight loss goal, exercise is the key to looking and feeling great in summer months.

But why else should you exercise? Here are the top 7 reasons to exercise this summer: [Read more...]