How do I choose the correct weight for my goals?
It’s a trial and error game to be fair and if your executing each set…
Explore ways to get fit and lead a healthy lifestyle or find a workout.
It’s a trial and error game to be fair and if your executing each set…
This classic piece of weight training equipment is essential to the world of fitness and…
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Testing your strength is a good way of monitoring progression, the Press Up fitness test will primary test the Chest & Arm muscles, specifically the Pectorals Major, Minor and Triceps Brachi muscles together with stabilizing shoulder and core muscles. The Press Up or Push Up exercise depending how you refer to the exercise is a functional and compound exercise recruiting more than one muscle group. This make it a very metabolic exercise, great for developing strength and burning calories.
This strength test is a relatively straight forward test of muscular and physical strength and endurance, especially the chest, shoulders and triceps which are the prime movers in this exercise.
This test has been performed with time limits of both 1 and 2 minutes in which the participant must complete as many press ups as possible with near perfect technique on each reputation. This test is popular in the army other military institutions in which you must complete as many press ups in 2 minutes, this requires good strength and endurance and is no easy task. I however would suggest performing this test in one minute if you are looking at strength and power testing and go up to 2 minutes for an insight to strength and endurance testing.
Another method is to perform the test until absolute failure, the point in which the subject is unable to complete any more repetitions. This is likely to happen within 2 minutes for most individuals anyway which test you use is down to personal preference and how relative each one is to the subjects goals. The normal values at the end of this article is for this test version, to fatigue.
Personal trainers are not just exclusive to celebrities and the rich, far from it. Just…
Maybe you do and maybe you don’t, maybe it’s a waste of time and maybe it’s just hopeful thinking but either way, with the right thought process, making new years resolutions can be the difference between starting and not starting. If you never start, you’ll never know.
Sometimes making a new years resolutions can seem like hopes and dreams and if you don’t stick to it, then ‘oh well’. The key is to turn your resolution into a definitive goal, it needs to be;
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We all know what personal training is, or at least we have a fair idea. Well personal training is not always conducted one to one, in fact it’s becoming popular to train in small groups of 3 to 6 people. This has some oblivious advantages including reduced cost, great fun, opportunity to workout with your friends or other like minded individuals together with the close attention of your trainer.
One of the most used excuses for not exercising and working out has to be ‘ I don’t have enough time’ Well, with an attitude like that you’ll never get in your workout gear!
Time is the most precious commodity we possess and it’s never we don’t have enough of it, just we don’t know how to get the most out of it. The truth is we get done what we WANT to and make time for what we WANT to. The truth about the seasoned excuse “I don’t have time to exercise” is not that at all, it’s that you have-not made it a priority. If you did, you’d be in your running shows and already out the door and back before your procrastinating self has finished telling you why you should be working out yet you’re still arguing you don’t have enough time, not today!
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We’ve all done it right, gone to do some sit-ups and put our feet under a bar, bench, radiator or anything to fix our feet in place so we can perform a true ‘sit up’.
It’s a common sight in most gym’s, I know I’ve seen it many times, however. If you’re doing sit-ups like this, you’re doing them wrong. Fixing the feet enables you to pull harder with the hip flexor, in turn, this puts increased stress on your lower spine, essentially this allows you to sit up without bending your spine. What happens from this action is that the effort required from the hip flexors is increased while the effort required from the abdominals is decreased, precisely opposite to why most people would perform the sit-up exercise with restricted feet.
Overall the sit-up is one of the least effective abdominal exercises, because, during the sit-up exercise your abdominal muscles spend very little time under tension, even when performed unrestricted. It’s your hip flexors which start the movement, followed by some abdominal activity before finishing with momentum making the exercise ineffective at stimulating the rectus abdominals, our primary core muscle and the one responsible for flexion of the spine gets minimal stimulus.
The same is accurate with straight leg sit-ups which put enormous pressure on the lower spine, requiring a considerable effort from your biomechanically disadvantaged hip flexors. This will cause lower back discomfort and likewise stimulate the abdominals for a minimal amount of time during the movement.
If you’re guilty of the above, your probably wondering what it is you should be doing. To start with as mentioned, sit-ups are an in-effective exercise and there are plenty of other exercises especially for beginners which are much more useful such as the crunch or abdominal curl exercise.
Personal training is a great choice for anyone wanting to achieve any health & fitness…
Why do people always say you should exercise in the morning? It’s not just a myth, it’s actually much better for you and if you’re going to do it, you might as well get it out of the way, right?
Well sure, that’s right but it’s more than just getting it out of the way, it’s about setting you up for the day, it’s about feeding your own needs, nurturing yourself and making yourself more productive. Many Successful people all exercise in the morning, normally for at least an hour and considering their the CEO’s of major companies they still find the time. They find the time because they’ve planned it and it’s part of their routine, that’s the important part, routine. To get something to be part of your routine you need to make a habit and to do that you have to repeat what you do until it sticks. In Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think she discusses habits that both successful and everyday people do before breakfast, exercise is normally part of most peoples get up routine.
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Most people would like to lose a few pounds and it really comes down to lifestyle, those that are able to manage their weight have a better and more productive lifestyle than those that struggle! Lifestyle is the activities we do, the things we do, and the food choices we make. Hands down one of the best ways to manage weight issues is to become more active and more than that its about training your metabolism to fire up earlier, to do that you’re going to need to get up & eat!. Yes eat!
Do you believe every fitness & group exercise session is full off super slim athletic…
The idea of working out first thing might seem to some like a horrible idea and far away from where you want to be, tucked up warm in your bed! however, research shows that when you exercise in the morning, you’ll be more likely to stick to it and create a habit for a lifetime. This will transform your health, improve your happiness, mood, outlook & overall well being. There’s also something really quite rewarding from getting up and completing a workout before most have had breakfast! If that’s not enough, the whole routine of getting up early and getting to it might surprise you just how much you can actually achieve before breakfast.
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When you go to sign up at a gym, the question you need to ask yourself is; “what do I want to gain?’. For some, a gym might suit them, if you are relatively self motivated and able to plan your own workouts, you’ll be able to socialise and use expensive gym equipment. If, however you have specific goal, are not very motivated and struggle to find the willpower to workout. Don’t waste your money on an expensive gym contract, you know what is going to happen and the only one who gains, is the gym. The whole point is that YOU gain, YOU benefit and YOU reach your goals.
Weight training is this super scary, underworld activity performed by huge muscle bound men and looking at a dumbbell is enough to build huge muscles! The truth is, as any man will know who’s tried to gain muscle, it’s not quite so easy.
Weight training is an excellent way to reduce body fat, tone up, firm up and increase muscular strength and fitness. If you are a women concerned about using weights for your workout or to lose weight, it’s time to think again, it’s one of the most effective methods to stimulate weight loss and maintain your desired weight.
The difference between the huge weight lifters and women wanting to lose weight and tone up. When it comes to training it’s all about freqancy & intensity or more simply reps, sets & weight. Its how we train not the training that will dictate muscle size, tone and strength.
Glutamine has a reputation within the health, fitness and “bodybuilding” industry as being a fundamental…