An oft-forgotten benefit of exercise is its effects on bone health. As adults get older, bones become more brittle and develop pores. While women are more likely to develop osteoporosis, this condition is also common in men, as is osteoarthritis.
Interestingly, the worst thing you can do when you develop osteoarthritis or osteoporosis is to become less active. An abundance of research has demonstrated that resistance training is effective for…
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If you’re seeking to get stronger, build muscle, reduce your risk of injury, improve your posture, or just generally feel better, weightlifting is an effective means to accomplish these goals. Sometimes walking into a gym for the first time can be overwhelming with so many machines and stations available. Here are some helpful tips to get you started, as well as a sample program you can follow in your first…
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Gyms are great. I love putting on gym clothes, walking to my car, driving 20 minutes, finding a parking sport, doing 30 minutes of cardio, performing a weightlifting circuit, and then heading back out in the cold to drive home again (it’s really cold where I live right now). Since I have so much time to kill in my life, I try to take a one hour workout and turn…
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Hopefully you guys are all ready to feast your heart out. Since I don’t want to be a party pooper and rob anybody out of their Thanksgiving food glory, I’d like to provide some quick holiday eating tips on how to eat like a king at holiday dinners while minimizing fat gain. Here are my tips for holiday eating outlining what you should be doing the day…
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While women and men tend to differ in body size and composition, as well as hormonal characteristics, they do not differ in measures of relative strength, nor do they differ in their responses to exercise. The same weight loss principles, therefore, apply to both sexes.
Is There a “Best Weight Loss Program?”
Much debate exists regarding the best weight loss programs. Advocates of Atkins, Paleo, Ideal Protein, and other low-carb…
Running requires endurance and flexibility, but strength also plays a significant role in running performance — especially for women. Because women carry the majority of their weight in their hips and lower body, strength in these areas can enhance their running stride and efficiency, while minimizing fatigue and injury.
You can improve both muscular strength and endurance in the gym through resistance training. To improve endurance, however, you first need…
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The goal of building muscle in weight lifting is known as hypertrophy. Different than simply increasing strength or power, hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the muscle’s contractile area as a result of greater contractile proteins and a greater number and size of myofibrils in each fiber. Unlike maximal strength training, hypertrophy is best-achieved with just moderate loads. Therefore, to build the most muscle, you don’t always need…
We’ve all likely heard of the concept of periodization with respect to planning our exercise programs. For those who haven’t, periodization is the systematic variation in volume and intensity of exercise in order to reach a high level of performance at the right time of the year. Originally developed by Dr. Tudor Bompa to allow rowers to “peak” during the most important competition of the year, the common exerciser can…
In his book, “The Essence of Bodyweight Training,” Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist Juan Carlos Santana regales of the time he and his fellow coaches designed and implemented one of the most successful conditioning programs ever for a large high school in Florida. Several of the athletic teams at this high school went on to win championships that year, and Santana was lauded for his fitness contributions. There was just…
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As I write this, the rain is coming down so hard on my Pacific Northwest home that I fear it will collapse. The atmosphere’s just abysmal and the sky’s so dark, in fact, that I flipped on the news to make sure my clocks weren’t wrong. Yes, it’s actually 7:30 AM and not the 4:30 AM it appears to be. Weather like this really gets me down, and whenever the comforting…
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Has your workout routine become boring? Are you not impressed with your current results? Perhaps it is time to modify your training. There are many ways to change how an exercise is performed to better suit it to your needs. I have found that by using several training techniques I am able to maximize my time and results in the gym. Working out is more fun and as a result…
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Use these exercise guidelines to structure your workouts and achieve your desired fitness goals.
Aerobic Training
Aerobic Training has many benefits, including weight loss, increased stamina, and decreased risk of heart disease and other chronic health conditions. Aerobic training is also the core of many exercise routines for women as many women prefer fat burning over muscle building.
Generally, aerobic training should be performed at a level between 60% and…
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Contrary to the common opinion and the impression that is given by many infomercials and ads about weight training workouts, many common exercises are not primarily designed to lose weight. Find out about the most common misconceptions in this article.
In general, weight lifting does not necessarily burn a lot of fat. Heart rate and overall fat burning capacity is relatively low, because many weight lifting workout routines address only…
You may have heard that “your body expends an extra 50 Calories per day for every extra pound of muscle you gain”. When I first heard this statement, I felt a bit suspicious because if it was really true, then all weight lifters would have an easy time losing body fat. I did some research and found out that this statement is not entirely true because the number of extra…
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Have you ever noticed that professional athletes wear heart rate monitors when they train? I figured that since the pros are doing it, there must be a good reason for it. Here are my reasons why I wear one and why you should wear one too:
The Heart is the Most Important Muscle
I’m sure if you have been working out for a while, you are familiar with the concept…
