Exercise Helps

First exercise improves your mood.

A workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help you calm down. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out. You'll also look better and feel better when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.

Secondly exercise combats chronic diseases.

Regular physical activity can help you prevent or manage high blood pressure. Your cholesterol will benefit, too. Regular physical activity boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol while decreasing triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly by lowering the buildup of plaques in your arteries.

Thirdly exercise helps you manage your weight.

Trade some couch time for walking or other physical activities. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Turn off the TV and take a brisk walk.

Fourth exercise boosts your energy level.

Regular physical activity can leave you breathing easier. Physical activity delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. In fact, regular physical activity helps your entire cardiovascular system the circulation of blood through your heart and blood vessels  work more efficiently..

Fifth exercise promotes better sleep.

It might help to boost your physical activity during the day. A good night's sleep can improve your concentration, productivity and mood. Physical activity is sometimes the key to better sleep. Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. Sixth exercise can put the spark back into your sex life.

Physical activity to the rescue. Regular physical activity can leave you feeling energized and looking better, which may have a positive effect on your sex life.

Seventh exercise can be fun!

Take a ballroom dancing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail. Push your kids on the swings or climb with them on the jungle gym.. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and go for it. If you get bored, try something new. If you're moving, it counts!

Exercise while sick?

If you are exercising consistently you will probably run into this problem from time to time. According to the American Council on exercise, the average adult has two to three respiratory infections every year.

There is a rule I found that people tend to follow called the "neck check." If your symptoms are all above the neck, like a runny nose or a sore throat, then you're okay to exercise. Of course you should always listen to your body and take the intensity of your workout down a bit if your regular pace feels too strenuous.

If you're suffering from congestion or low energy, exercise often helps you feel better. A brisk walk can unclog your sinuses better than an afternoon on the couch. And gentle exercise will rev up your circulation, to counteract that sluggish, rundown feeling. But this is definitely a personal decision. You're the best judge of how you feel and what your body can handle when you're sick.

However, if you have any symptoms below the neck, such as body aches, chills, stomach problems or diarrhea, then I advise you to take it easy until you're feeling better. And if you are running a fever, no matter where your symptoms are, put off exercise until your temperature returns to normal.

Washing your hands frequently, eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and getting an adequate night’s  sleep will help you better prevent getting sick. If you can find some room on your calendar, be sure to schedule a little "me time" to relax.

One more thing: If you exercise in a public setting, like a gym, please consider your fellow exercisers and think about how contagious you might be. If you can't get through a single set on a weight machine without coughing or sneezing, you have my permission to stay home with a box of tissues and some hot tea!

workout schedule

Are you having problems designing your workout schedule? Here are some helpful tips I found that you can follow:
 Be realistic about your current fitness level and choose goals, classes and activities that are appropriate. If you can’t remember the last time you put on running shoes, start slowly to build both your strength and stamina without injuring yourself or burning out.
 Invest in one or two sessions with a personal trainer. He or she can help you establish reasonable goals and present options that you may not have considered.
Start gradually. Do up to 30 minutes of cardio work mixed with strength training three times per week or more. Also incorporate flexibility exercises into your workouts. Continually evaluate your progress and set new goals.
Develop with a qualified trainers help a weight-lifting program that meet your specific performance goals.
Be sure to work the entire body consistently and balance opposing muscle groups.
 Rotate your cardio work on the days you rest form weight lifting. Cross-train with a variety of activities instead of just one. You’ll challenge different muscles, prevent injuries due to overuse and avoid burnout.
 Aim for a heart rate within your training zone. Subtract your age from 220 and multiply it by 0.6 and 0.8 to determine the lower and upper limits of your training heart-rate zone. You will not achieve cardiovascular benefits unless your heart rate reaches that zone.
 Schedule time in your calendar to work out. If you have got it written down, you will be more apt to keep the appointment.
Follow these helpful tips and it will be hard not to improve your fitness level.

shorter workout

Ever see people spend hours and hours at the gym? I recently read an article in Mens Health that shows that you can get a great workout in just about 15-minuets. The reason is you do not need separate workouts to build strength, pump up muscle, and burn fat. All you need is a smart, adjustable circuit workout. Here is the formula you can use
goal                   reps                     circuits                              rest between circuit
strength               5                               3          do 1 set                        60 seconds
muscle building     8-12                         3          of each exercise            45 seconds
fat loss                8-12                          4         with no rest                     none
                                                                        between sets

1.) Decline pushup: assume a pushup position, but place your feet on a bench. Your body should form a straight line from your ankles to your head. Bend your elbows and lower your body until your chest nearly touches the floor. Pause, and push back up quickly.

2.) Bulgarian goblet split squat: Cup the end of a dumbbell with both hands. Stand upright with your back foot on a bench. Lower yourself as close to the floor as you can and then push up. Switch and repeat.

3.) Dumbbell row: Holding a pair of dumbbells, bend at your hips and knees until your torso is almost parallel to the floor. Let the weights hang, your palms facing behind you. Bend your elbows and putt the weights to the sides of your torso. Pause and lower them slowly.That is 1 repetition.

4.) Barbell rollout: Load a barbell. Kneel and grab the bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip, shoulders above the bar. roll the bar forward, extending your body (dont let your hips sag.) Use your abs to pull the bar back. That is 1 repetition.

core exercises

The previous blog talked about how core exercises are good for you and I only gave one example of an exercise that would help. The few exercises listed below are with the use of weights and machines whereas the one exercise in the previous blog post is done by using your body weight and having to hold yourself up without falling. Here are a few more that you may also like to try at the gym with weights that will strengthen your core.

Here are three more ways to train your core.
1.)  Single-arm incline dumbbell bench press: set a bench to a slight incline. Hold a dumbbell straight above your shoulder with one hand. Rest the other hand on your midsection. Knock out a set of bench presses, and then switch hands and repeat. The unbalanced load forces your abdominal muscles to work harder to keep your torso in a stable position.

2.) Standing Lat Pulldown: Attach a triangle handle to a high pulley cable, step back, and pull the handle to your chest. Standing up forces your lats, lower back, and glutes to work together to stabilize your spine and pelvis.

3.) Offset Overhead Reverse Dumbbell Lunge: Hold a dumbbell straight over your right shoulder. Step back with your left leg into a lunge, and return to the staring position. do all your reps., switch sides, and repeat. Holding the weight on one side challenges the muscles that keep you upright. Holding it high forces your lats and abdominals to stabilize your spine.

core training

I recently read an article in Mens Health Magazine that talked about core training. It said that Ab training is easy; core training is hard. Core training works your abdominal muscles along with your lower back and draws in your glutes, hamstrings, and everything in between while an exercise like the crunch works a tiny amount of muscles through minuscule range of motion. Even your lats are involved; the connective tissue at the bottom of your lats play a crucial role in stabilizing your spine and helping transfer force between the muscles in your upper and lower body when you row, climb, or pull. Core training isn't the answer to every fitness question. When researchers try to correlate core stability with athletic performance, the results are underwhelming. Burt good strength coaches include core training in their programs anyway; they know it's important for back injury prevention, if nothing else. Stability of your lower back depends on the endurance of the supporting muscles. Spinal instability leads to injury. Injury can be a career killer for an athlete, and just plain deadly for an older adult.

So now you may ask the question: what can I do to train my core?
Here is one example I found: Assume a push-up position, with your arms straight. Lift your right arm and left leg simultaneously, and hold that position. Concentrate on keeping your body still-- don't let your hops drop or your torso rotate. Keep holding. A little longer. Wait.. okay, you lost it. No problem. Just repeat by lifting your left arm and right leg. And hold that. If you do this exercise, unless you're a recreational acrobat, you're probably going to be sweating and shaking. If you train like that for 10 minutes each time you go to the gym, it will be hard not to get lean.

Sport Drinks

Most people have had a Gatorade, All-Sport, Powerade, or some type of sport drink before. They see the commercials of athletes drinking them and therefore drink them as well. However, not all people really know what is in them or what they do for athletes. 
Sports drinks are beverages which are designed to help athletes to rehydrate, as well as restore electrolytes, carbohydrates, and other nutrients, which can be depleted after training or competition.
Presently, many electrolyte sports drinks are available in the market.  The only difference for sports and exercise nutrition is in the quantities and the timing of the nutrient and food intake for balanced eating.
So the question is why do athletes use sport drinks in some circumstances over water?
Sports drinks help in rapid replacement of fluid and electrolytes that lost during sports, exercise training or hard physical labor. Also, they help with muscle recovery and soreness, preventing dehydration, and supplying stamina and raised endurance during strenuous exercise.
Sport drinks are mainly of three types: 
Isotonic sports drinks: They contain similar concentrations of salt and sugar as in the human body. 
Hypertonic sports drinks: They contain a higher concentration of salt and sugar than the human body. 
Hypotonic sports drinks: They contain a lower concentration of salt and sugar than the human body.
Among all sport drink most sports drinks are fairly isotonic, having 4 to 5 heaped teaspoons of sugar per five ounce (13 and 19 grams per 250ml) serving. They never have a pH similarity with carbonated soft drinks.
If you would like to read more about sport drinks I found a good website where they have more information. 
http://www.sweetadditions.net/food-drinks/sports-drinks-nutrition-facts-are-they-healthy

About Abs

I wanted to talk about abs today. I feel that everyone has a different view on how to get the best abs. Some say just do a thousand crunches and you will be good. Well nobody I know can sit there and just keep pumping out crunches. Even if they could, crunches do not work all of your abs. So the question is who do you listen to?
For me, I just try to vary all the ab workouts you can do. I do not really listen to all those advertisements or even think about buying a machine to have at home. I feel for you abs, anything you can do with your own body weight is sufficient. The most important thing that I could tell you in this whole blog is to breath while you are working your abs. Most people forget to breath when crunching their abs. They start to feel the burn and that is all they think about. Therefore they stop breathing. DO NOT STOP BREATHING!! Another thing to focus on is controlling the movements. For example, if you are doing sit-ups, you should not be rocking back and forth, control the movement up and have a slow controlled movement down. At times, the downward movement also referred to sometimes as negatives can be more effective than the upward. Therefore, it is sometimes easier when starting out to use a friend to hold your feet or use a machine you can stick your legs in if you are at the gym.
One last thing to note is that your abs are also muscles. Therefore, they need rest also. As a result, you should not be doing abs everyday if you want to get them to pop. They need time to grow and rebuild just as you other muscles do.

Gaining Weight

Personally I have always had an issue with gaining weight. Ever since I could walk I was always involved in sports and very active. I have always had the taller leaner athletic body, but after high school, wanted to start putting on more size. I found this to be very difficult. It felt like I could eat anything and everything and not gain a single pound. Has this happened to any of you? If it has and you found a good solution feel free to leave a comment.
Just now after about four years of trying to put on weight here and there I have started to have a little success with the help of my roommate. I have found, that two weight gainer shakes a day ( one in the morning and one after you workout ) is one step. Beyond that, it is mostly about what you eat. I used to just eat a lot and not really think about what was good to eat. I would go out to restaurants or eat a lot of fast food thinking that maybe fattier foods would help. That is not the case.
Eating healthier foods was definitely the trick. I started eating a lot more fruits and vegetables. Also, instead of 3 big meals a day. I now have 6 meals of medium size. Basically I try and eat all day long. Being at college allows me to do this because I have a lot of free time to cook and plan my meals out. Try to always have one or two sides along with either your fish or chicken or steak. This will help add to your meal. Something very easy that is good for you that I always have for lunch as another side are Almonds. Good luck if you are trying to gain weight! Start eating healthier and more often!

X-Sport Review

X-Sport Fitness is a workout facility that I am a member of. There are so many reasons that I like X-Sport over other gyms that I have been to. First and foremost I like that they are open 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year! This is almost unheard of for most places. This past year I went on Christmas day! Almost no businesses are open on Christmas, but X-Sport is. So if you are a person that loves to workout and does not like to take a day off, you do not have to if you belong at X-Sport.

Another plus side of X-Sport is that they allow you to freeze your pass. I am a college student at Illinois State University and there is no X-Sport down here. So when I go away to school, I can stop my pass when I am away and do not have to pay for the months that I am there. Then when I go back home for a month for Christmas it is perfect because I can unfreeze my pass for the one month and then re-freeze it. It is very convenient.

Beyond those two perks, the gym itself is very nice. They have two kinds however, one is an express gym that has the basic weights and cardio machines and the other is the full gym. The full export offers cardio, group exercise, XShop, Tanning, Child's Play, XSport Cafe, Basketball, XSport Spa, Pool/ Whirlpool, and Rock Climbing Wall.  XSport offers quality educational programs, state-of-the-art equipment, certified personal trainers, plus a professional staff committed to help our members reach their goals.

Overall XSport is a great gym and I love going there. If you have one by you I would recommend checking it out. One thing to note, if you do not need the basketball court, tanning, pool and extra amenities, they offer a membership for just the express gym that is cheaper.

Dead-lifts and pull-ups

Today I worked out back. I tend to do a rotation of four days for the different muscle groups. For example, Day 1 chest and triceps. Day 2 is back and biceps. Day 3 is shoulder and traps. Day 4 is legs. I feel one of the best two exercises you can do for your back is pull-ups and dead-lifts.
I like to start with pull-ups because I tend to need the most strength for them to get all the reps in that I want. After a good warm up of cardio its a good idea to use the lat pull-down machine if available and go very light weight just to get the range of motion and warm up the muscles you will be using in pull-ups. Its not a good idea to just jump into them because you can easily pull a muscle. After pull-ups I vary the other exercises and change up the routine each week just so my muscles do not get used to the same routine. Switching up your routine is necessary in order for muscle growth. So after a few more back exercises I finish with dead-lifts.
When performing dead-lifts make sure that you use good form. One extra piece of equipment to have in your gym bag that can be helpful for power lifting are straps. Lifting straps are great because they allow you to lift a lot of weight and focus on the muscle (in this case, your lower back) rather than on holding on to all that weight. Another useful thing straps are very helpful for are the lat-pull-down machine. Again instead of spending a lot of energy gripping the bar, you can use that energy and focus on pulling those elbows down to your sides and getting perfect form.