Archive for September, 2011

Belly Fat Exercises Explained

Let me guess – you’re tired of buying bigger clothes to hide your belly and now you want to know what is the best exercise for how to burn belly fat . Well, sorry to disappoint you, but there is not one exact exercise that will get you wearing tight shirts and pants again. It doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself with every exercise in the book but it will take some work.

Eat, Drink, and Lose Belly Fat

I know you don’t want to hear that you have to eat right, but yes you have to eat right . The other day I heard a personal trainer on the internet say, “If you eat like the average person, then you will look like the average person.” Seriously what is it that you want? If its being able to put on the pants that are 2 sizes smaller than what you wear now. It’s not going to come by scarfing down fast food everyday. It doesn’t mean you have to eat like a rabbit, in fact you would be surprised by the foods you can eat.

Recently I read an article about a 40 year old woman that lost 141 pounds in 18 months and she said a big reason why she had gained so much weight over the years is because of all the cokes she was drinking. She did the math and said she drank over 260,000 calories or 74 pounds a year in soda. That is about 6 pounds a month. Are you a big coke drinker? By simply getting rid of sodas out of your diet, you can start losing an extra 6 pounds per month .

Best Exercise For Belly Fat

If you’re tired of the old routines then you’re going to like this as it’s going to take more than one exercise to get rid of that belly . Mixing up exercises back to back is a great way to start burning that gut faster. The fitness trainers call this Super-Sets. Let me give you an example. You can mix up Crunches with Dumbbell Squats. Get on your back and do 20-50 crunches and without resting get up and grab some dumbbells and do 20-30 squats. This is just an example, make sure to talk to your doctor first before you decide to do this.

Your physical ability will help you determine the reps and weight you should be doing . What this does is keep your heart pumping and causes you to sweat more. It’s like interval training cardio with resistance training and these are both needed to lose belly fat and losing it a lot faster.

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What To Eat After A Workout

I just got back in from a really good, quick workout, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer a question that I recently got asked on my blog about exercise nutrition and what we’re supposed to eat after a workout .

This question is from Natalia. “My question is with respect to post-exercise nutrition. I frequently play tennis at nighttime and finish my game around 10 pm. My games typically last for an hour and a half or a couple of hours, and given that I finish my workout/game so late, what sort of post-exercise meal would you suggest?”

Well Natalia, and for everyone else who has the same question, you want to keep it as simple and as liquid as possible . The last thing you want to do is go to bed on a full stomach . That is only going to bog you down and leave you with a poor night’s sleep, which means you will wake up in the morning feeling terrible. What you want to do is go to bed feeling slightly hungry – not starving, but slightly hungry. This will allow your body to spend its energy on all the regeneration that it has to do during the night. During the night is when growth hormone is discharged and the body’s cells are repaired. If you have too much food before you go to bed, that energy is taken away from the repair process and is used for the digestive process, and that is not what you want.

So, having said that, what I am having after my workout is a green juice . In it I have kale, collard greens, parsley, lemon, apple, and carrot. A lot of people might say, where’s your protein? Where is your carbohydrate? Well, it’s all in there. Green vegetables, anything green is your highest source of amino acids and amino acids make up proteins. You can also find this by following a raw food diet. So I am getting my meal in a liquid form, a very simple form in amino acids, so my body can assimilate them very quickly. Also, there are very simple sugars because any time you juice, you remove the pulp which results in a tall glass of simple sugars that can reach the muscle cells that much faster to refill your glycogen stores. That is very important because with post-exercise nutrition there is a window of opportunity of about 30 minutes where you need to get something in, and preferably liquid. So the sooner you can get the liquid into your body the better – first of all water, and then simple sugars back into your body in a liquid form are you best options .

For the athletes that I work with I really try to make sure that they are getting in some type of sports drink , preferably a home-made, natural sports drink right after they come off of the field or the ice, or out of the gym – whatever it may be. Remember the crucial time – 30 minutes. During the 30 minutes after you finish your workout, you need to get some liquid nutrition into your body. It’s going to help you recover a lot faster by giving you the energy your body needs .
A green smoothie is another option if you don’t own a juicer . A smoothie that I often make after a lot of my workouts or games is banana, a scoop of almond butter or other nut butter. I’ll throw in some raw cacao, some flax seed oil or some fish oil to get in some healthy fats. I’ll throw in some ground flax seeds to get in some good fiber and bulk, and I’ll blend it all up with water or some rice milk. The end result is beautiful. You can throw in some hemp seeds for a nifty source of protein, or even whey protein if you use that – whatever is good for you. In this smoothie you get the amino acids, the health fats, and the carbohydrates that your body needs right after a workout .

So, I hope that answers your question Natalia, and for anyone else who was wondering what to eat after a workout or wondering what to eat late at night after a game. Liquid nutrition is the best, right? You don’t want to go to bed on a full stomach . Keep it simple, keep it light, and make sure you pack in quality nutrition and you’re going to recover a lot faster and your performance is going to go through the roof with a high energy diet.

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Highest Vertical Jump in the World

Highest Vertical Jump in the World:  Do You Compete?

Should you want to jump higher, it’s hard resisting researching the highest vertical jump in the world. Not surprisingly, should you want to jump higher, you sometimes need to aspire for something!

The highest vertical jump in the world is attributed to Kadour Ziani, an enormous 5 feet! Keep in mind that even a jump forty inches, or more, is viewed as really remarkable, given that Michael Jordan only topped 48, and very few prime basketball athletes being able to surpass 50.

Don’t give up, even though you can only jump a portion of the height of the highest jump. Naturally, it’s a serious record. Even well below these stats, you’re nevertheless an amazing athlete, let alone the certainty that training and practice can help improve your jump by quite a few inches ultimately.

You may want to look at Plyometrics.  It is the latest technique that will help help to increase those inches.  If you’d like  jump higher exercises, have a look at the How To Improve Vertical Jump blog.
Great information and facts, and continually fresh posts.

The greatest suggestions you could be offered would be to refrain from thinking about what the highest vertical jump in the world is. Stop being concerned about how you match up to legends. Begin concentrating on yourself, and readying yourself emotionally for the journey in front of you. You can actually improve your vertical jump when you truly force yourself and trust anything’s attainable.

 

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Simple Tips To Help You Run Faster

Very often, the question at the front of every beginning runner’s mind is “how to run faster?” That’s a good question, and luckily there are some relatively easy tweaks any runner can make to immediately improve their running speed. These small adjustments will allow you to run farther, faster, and with less effort. This in turn, will help prevent injuries, and will allow you to fully enjoy your run. Read the running tips below to help you reach your running speeds :

Check your form

So crucial to faster running is proper running form with a slight lean forward and tall posture . Both of these “leans” are used to facilitate forward motion, and should not be overly exaggerated. If you look at most of the best runners in the world, you will notice that their body position seems to be straight up and down, with their head above their hips. Your arms should swing front to back, not across your body. Any side-to-side motion throws your body out of alignment, and limits your forward motion…reducing your speed .

Increase your stride rate

Stride rate and length will also improve your running speeds . Your stride can be lengthened by learning to apply greater force off the ground. Stride rate is generally easier for beginning runners to increase right away. Try to land on the mid-foot, instead of the heel. When you land on your heel, with your foot far out in front of you, your foot is in contact with the ground much longer, thereby decreasing your stride rate per minute. In order to maximize your stride rate, focus on your forward motion, and attempt to minimize the time your feet are in contact with the ground.

Relax your face

Your jaw should be relaxed, and your cheeks should appear “bouncy” . This is the hardest technique flaw to fix, and will require quite a bit of conscious effort on the runners part. The best way to practice this is to just focus on your cheeks during your long runs. You should be able to feel your cheeks flop around when you run…if you cannot, make a conscious effort to relax them. Relaxing your cheeks will also help keep your shoulders down. Your breathing technique will also be helped by doing this .

Control your breathing

Proper breathing included breathing in from your nose and out from your mouth . Shoot for two strides per inhalation, and two strides per exhalation. This will help get you into a good rhythm, and will help prevent the infamous “side stitch” that can seriously hinder your running performance.

I hope these running tips will help you become a faster runner!

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What Are Some Options In Home Gym Brands?

Home Gyms unlike Pilates Power Gyms have been on the market for several decades, and the positive consequence is that diverse home gym makers have anticipated and then satisfied their particular consumer niche. Several home gym makers concentrate on creating top of the line products, while others are recognized for delivering well-built and economical home gyms for folks who basically wish to stay healthy. This article intends to offer a speedy review of the main gym companies while concentrating on each manufacturer’s unique talents.

Gold’s is most likely best identified for their gymnasiums along with their iconic t-shirts. What the majority of consumers might not realize is that this company also markets residential exercise equipment. Nearly all Gold’s home gyms tend to be rather simple machines with the inevitable choice of common exercises, although these devices are exceptionally crafted. If you are recently embarking on an exercise system, or your home gym would be just for manitaining your shape instead of weight training, a Gold’s home gym will probably be an economical and wise purchase.

Bowflex home gyms became well known due to a string of long running video ads, as a result a large number of buyers have heard of them. Bowflex has concentrated primarily on the newest and best technologies in residential fitness, from its breakthrough power bar technology during the 80s to their current SelectTech adaptable dumbbells. Bowflex home gyms have always been solidly made and the prices are typically perceived as mid-range. Bowflex equipment is optimum for a purchaser who is quite certain about the particular product he desires and the amount he is prepared to pay for it.  Keep in mind that Boweflex home gyms are more expensive than the Pilates Power Gym, but than again they do work a larger variety of muscles.

Proform home gyms aren’t designed for the casual user. Their home gym products are very well constructed utilizing cutting edge technology and high quality supplies. Subsequently, they are furthermore relatively high-priced. Proform gyms are intended for targeted body sculpting movements, so they are considerably more handy for a body builder instead of average folks who just would like to preserve their fitness level. Proform’s top selling model, the Fury, has six pulleys arranged in in three positions which allow the user to concentrate on particular muscle groups.

A weekend weight lifter may naturally balk at the selling price of a Proform gym, yet if you plan to achieve a beautifully sculpted form, this manufacturer could have the machines you are searching for.

Each of these makers provides a complete range of machines to allow for diverse capabilities.  However, none of them compete with the Pilates Power Gym that targets the fast growing Pilates niche. Each business has an area in which they specialize. Finding the home gym company who caters to your priorities may simplify your home gym shopping experience.

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