4 Ways to Breathe Properly and Reap the Benefits

Breathe in. And out. Breathing, oxygen is the foundation of our entire existence as air-breathing animals. Yet, we rarely pay attention to it throughout the day. I’m here to bring the importance of breathing back into your life! Breathing properly has an incredible amount of benefits, including:

A larger lung capacity
Lower blood pressure
The ability to relax emotions and stress
The ability to relax muscle tension, cramps, and pain
The ability to push your exercise and strength farther
Improves posture
Elevates mood and keeps you calm and refreshed
Fights off fatigue

Breathe (Photo credit: PhotoLab XL)

Now those are just some benefits of breathing deeply and properly, the list goes on and on. Breathing is also a large part of meditation, where you can learn more about here. Okay, Alana, these are great benefits!

So, how do we breathe properly?

There are several different techniques for different situations, but in most circumstances, it is important to breathe deeply. Breathe deep in through the nose and out through the mouth. Depending on the situation, it is good to have your exhale be audible (such as when you are meditating or working out).

1. Breathing 101. Like I said, in through the nose, out through the mouth. When you inhale, make sure that your belly expands. Once your belly expands, fill your chest. It is good to inhale and hold at the top for as long as you comfortably can, then exhale through the mouth. This is the proper technique of breathing to get those benefits we talked about above. It helps to massage those inner muscles as well.

English: Animation of a diaphragm exhaling and inhaling (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Breathing for meditation. Again, if you want a more in-depth introduction or guide to meditation, go here. Otherwise, let’s go through a short version. We are going to do the same breathing (in through nose, out through mouth), but this time we are going to count. This helps focus the mind and concentrate only on breathing, which is a great practice for meditation. So, inhale for 4 counts, hold the breath at the top for 4 counts, and exhale for 4 counts. Do this for a few minutes. After a few minutes and you’ve gotten into a rhythm, expand your breath farther by using the count of 5.

La méditation (Danse Odissi, musée Guimet) (Photo credit: dalbera)

3. Breathing for working out. Believe it or not, breathing for exercise purposes is similar to the above techniques. But with working out, we want to exhale more forcefully. Often, when we exercise, we tend to gulp up short little breaths, and even hold our breath during a tough exercise. These are NO-NOs! If you want to get stronger, faster, and more capable, here’s how to do it: breathe in when you’re in the less stressful part of the exercise, and then exhale forcefully (so that others can hear it) out. This dramatic exhale focuses you and pushes you to complete the exercise. Make sure your inhales are deep–your muscles need oxygen, and if you deprive them of it, they will not work properly or as effectively!

Chris breathing through leg press

4. Breathing for stress relief. I know we allll need this one, so pay attention. We are going to do the same breathing techniques as above, but slightly changed to fit our needs. Let’s practice this breathing technique three times: inhale very deeply, fill up that chest and expand the tummy. Hold it…now exhale out forcefully making an “ahhh” sound. As you exhale out loudly, I want you to slump your shoulders with the force of it. So you’re bringing your inhale up, your posture nice and straight, then letting it all loose with a loud, stress-releasing exhale.

[Exhalation] Tomoe Shinohara as Sayuri (Photo credit: edmundyeo)

Keep in mind all the benefits this deep breathing can give you, and try to practice proper breathing at least ten minutes a day. If you are strength training, definitely put this to use if you want a better workout! If you keep practicing, you will notice your posture will become more upright, you will feel more relaxed, and in charge of your life!

Feel free to comment with any questions you might have. Cheers!

Feb072013

Beginner’s Guide to Supplements

This post is essentially a direct email to a close friend of mine that I brought more into the world of fitness last year before I moved. One of my former pupils is now helping him but there are always questions that need to be answered. This response to one of his questions is going to be used as the topic of this post as a result of his request. It is, therefore, to a certain degree catered to his personal needs. I could have just told him to go to Amazon or Bodybuilding.com to read product reviews, but that wouldn’t be very nice, would it?

Disclaimer: The following is to a certain degree my opinion and personally professional way of explaining some very complicated matters. Although I have knowledge based on formal education and years of experience and experimentation, the language used may not necessarily be technically or scientifically accurate. It is merely a useful means to explain complex processes and ideas in a way that everyone can understand, visualize, and implement. If you have an issue with the way I do what I do, please send us an email. Thank you =)

Note: This will not be very in-depth. For more specific questions, please message us. We will answer ALL questions.

I am going to break this into a few sections. First, I will be dealing with general vitamins, minerals and similar products that relate to nutrition and dieting. Then I will go into three sections that highlight pre, intra (or during), and post workout related supplements. If you are looking for anything about proteins, skip to the post workout section.

Vitamins and minerals are an important part of the operation of our body’s various systems. Common vitamins such as A, B, C, D, and E are very beneficial for our health. While we can obtain them from certain foods and even our environment, sometimes a multivitamin will provide us with a consistent intake. Also, anti-inflammatory and pro-health supplements that are found in nature, such as turmeric and curcumin are low risk options. For more information about those, check out Monica’s Health Mag.

I recommend a few “multivitamins.” First, Kirkland has one of the only USP verified products on the market and it is very affordable. Emergen-C is a different means of consumption (a powder that is mixed in liquid) but you need to be aware that it is believed that it can be harmful to the enamel on your teeth. For those that are training hard, Universal Animal Pak is a more serious product that contains 11 pills in one “half-serving.”. I would recommend those products over other brands for performance and value.

Creatine: This is an organic acid that is present in vertebrates. That means that is a natural compound that is already inside of you! It’s purpose is to provide energy to various parts of your body, mainly your muscles. For anyone questioning taking creatine, please recognize that it is not a high risk product if taken properly and it can have positive results on your growth and development when paired with an effective physical fitness routine. I would recommend taking Optimum Nutrition’s Micronized Creatine Powder. It is a simple monohydrate, more natural and basic essentially. Try to take it in six week on and off cycles, performing a loading stage the first week and a maintenance stage for the next five. In the loading stage, take one scoop (teaspoon) with every macro or major meal, and one heaping scoop post workout. (Realize that many pre/intra/and post workout supplements also contain creatine.) During maintenance, take a scoop post workout.

Pre-Workouts: Many of these products contain various vitamin b, amino acids, and what I will refer to as aerating compounds. They essentially get more air to your blood and provide you with a placebo effect pump up feeling. I am not the largest supporter of these products and the massive amount of them that exist. They conveniently affect everyone differently. Even if it only makes you think that it is working, that might help your workout. They can potentially reduce lactic acid buildup, allowing you to perform more repetitions and further tear your muscle fibers before fatigue sets in too far. I recommend Cellucor C4 if you want one that tastes better. MusclePharm Assault is another one that tastes alright and is more effective. If you want a better value, try Jack3d. Try to stay away from lemonades and fruit punches, they usually taste worse. Usually stick to one scoop, but follow directions. I like to take these on an empty stomach, but I have a sensitive stomach so it’s up to you.

Intra-Workouts: Again, I am even less of a fan of these products. They are very similar to pre-workouts, but they provide you with more carbohydrates and electrolytes to help you maintain endurance based strengths throughout a workout. These are more useful for longer workouts. I recommend Cytosport’s Cytomax. Ask for flavor recommendations, but they are all relatively good in terms of taste. Take one scoop for an hour-long workout, or two for a two-hour long workout. Make sure you double your amount of water if doubling scoops.

Post-Workouts: Protein supplements are the reason this article was written. I recommend that you eat a gram of protein for every pound you want in your goal weight. I want to weigh 225 pounds again, so I shoot for at least 225 grams of protein a day. Sometimes that can be hard to achieve on a certain budget or with time restraints. Protein powders provide a reasonably priced and very dense protein serving, and they usually have other vitamins, minerals, and amino acids as well. Thus, you can quickly hit a protein goal by making a shake with these powders. I prefer eating real foods for protein, fish being my go to.

Nevertheless, if you are looking for a more complex and tasty product, I recommend Cytosport’s Muscle and Monster Milks. BSN’s Syntha-6 is a good value, mixes well, and tastes alright. For the purists out there, I would stick to Optimum Nutrition’s Isolated Whey Protein and Isolated Casein Protein. Now, it is up to you, but do not try the crazy flavors like Cookies n’ Cream. They are awful. Stick with chocolate or vanilla, depending on your preference. Moving backwards, whey protein is derived from the process of making cheese while casein is more so derived from the milk of mammals directly. Whey breaks down and is processed faster, so I usually take it during the day. Casein processes slower but is still protein packed so I usually take it before going to sleep. Get both if you’re super serious, or whey if you’re starting out easy.

A post for dieting and nutrition will be made in the future and it will go more into depth of how these products can fit into your diets. For now, here are just introductory tips and product recommendations.

Cheers!

Jan302013

15 Minute High-Intensity Workout — No Excuses

I don’t care how busy you are. You have 15 minutes. You do. Don’t lie to yourself. So if you don’t have time for your own full workout, try this one. Only 15 minutes. Extremely simple. All you need is a timer. You could use your phone if it has one too. You can get some of your family to do it with you–it will make it more fun (and entertaining) this way. Most everyone can do it, unless you have a significant injury. Just try it! It gets you working, your heart rate up, hopefully sweating, and your core/legs strong. So here it is…

1 minute mountain climbers

1 minute russian twists

1 minute lunges

Meaning, you perform 1 minute of mountain climbers, 1 minute of russian twists, then 1 minute of lunges. And REPEAT FIVE TIMES. Take as little rest as possible. If you do so, you will have completed a very efficient, high-intensity, muscle-burning workout.

With the mountain climbers, I want you to go as quickly as possible. Keeping the pace up is one thing, but you also need to try to get those feet as close to the hands as possible to complete a good exercise.

With the russian twists, make sure you are doing complete rotations. This means that it’s not just your hands moving side to side, but also your shoulders. You’re doing a complete twist from either side. Once you’ve mastered that rotation, try to get a solid speed going.

With the lunges, if you have enough room you can do moving lunges. Otherwise, place your hands on your hips, lunge forward with the right, bring it back to center, then lunge forward with the left. This way, you stay in the same spot, but still get the full extension of the exercise.

Good luck, work hard, and sweat often!

Jan252013

Supplement Review: Optimum Nutrition Platinum Pre-Workout

It is time to write this review because I have officially decided to stop using this product for health concerns. Honestly, I cannot say for certain if this is having negative side effects on me, but I believe that it is.

A little history: I have been using Optimum Nutrition as a major supplement provider for the past five years. I have consistently gone back to cycles of their Isolated Whey Protein (Chocolate) because it is affordable in bulk, mixes well with milk and water, and is one of the more natural proteins in its class. I also only use Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder in cycles for the past four years. I have never had any issues with these two products, obviously.

As a result, when I found out that they recently released their own Pre-Workout, I was excited. I bought it immediately and said as soon as my MusclePharm Assault and 1MR are finished, I’ll start a cycle with it. Well I did just that and was immediately not impressed. I got the Raspberry-Lemonade, 30 servings, which has recommended use of 1 scoop for average training and 2 for intense. It’s a rule that you only try the half serving the first time around with a new supplement so I did just that.

It tasted awful! Really was one of the worst tasting pre-workouts ever, and I have tried nearly all of them (not every flavor of all of them). The weirdest part was that is was spicy. I have a tongue disorder that causes my tongue to be extremely sensitive and this burned my tongue worse than chili peppers. This was extremely painful and the sensation lasted for quite some time. Within three days of starting using this I ended up in the emergency room with what was diagnosed as gastritis. Looking back, I truly believe that this was the cause of the gastritis, which essentially ruined my last two months of 2012 and even carried into 2013. I believe if I did not buy this product, I would not have had my health issues that led to me missing work, Christmas, and weeks of working out.

Now, I have no issue with ON over the incident but as of tonight, despite having servings left, I will stop taking it to see if my stomach issues and digestive problems go away. If they don’t, maybe I’ll finish the load. If they do, I’ll give it away to someone who might not have as sensitive a stomach. I highly doubt any other supplement that I am taking is the cause since I have used them for the last five years with no issues.

As for its effectiveness, it is hard to measure but I never felt any sensation of extra blood or oxygen flowing through my veins or body during the cycle. No tingling in the lips or mouth. No extra pump in muscle groups and no noticeable decrease in my lactic acid build up.So unfortunately, ON, from a professional opinion, I have to give your Platinum Pre-Workout a 2/10. It is somewhat affordable and mixes well, but tastes awful and has little to no effect on a workout, either pre, during or post. The rating does not even include what I think it did to my health. No hard feelings on potentially ruining a ton of progress that I made and my two favorite months and holidays of the year.

Jan242013

Bodybuilding.com Review

I know what a lot of you are thinking. Bodybuilding? We don’t want to be bodybuilders. But this is a huge misconception about this phenomenal online resource. Let me tell you from some experience why you need to go to www.bodybuilding.com and see what they have to offer. Disclaimer: I have no official connection to the website and I am doing this simply because I think it can help any readers that are interested in being HEALTHIER!

I have it bookmarked on my Chrome bookmark bar and this is why.

1. Store: Obviously, they need to make serious money to stay in business because it is a massive operation, which I’ll say more about later. If you are interested in taking supplements, keep reading… if not, I won’t force anything on you because I have mixed feelings about supplements. The website gives user reviews on every product, a massive selection of supplements, and very competitive prices. I buy ALL of my supplements from Amazon or this website. What I love the most is the promotions they have. Free shaker cups, t-shirts, gym bags with the purchase of your supplements and on top of all that… they send you a ton of free samples depending on the size of your order. Last time, on a $100 order, I easily got $25 dollars of free supplements (mostly good ones) on top of two free shakers and a drawstring bag. Just saying, you can do your unbiased research and get a great deal.

2. Bodyspace: This is the workout world’s equivalent of MySpace. It is a social media medium in its own way, but it’s very useful. I have a Bodyspace but I have never used it. Nevertheless, I can tell you that you can track progress in terms of measurements, body fat and weight, and other goals. You can set goals and work towards them. You can even post your own workouts for others to use… and so much more. The best part is that out of the million users nearly all of them are friendly, motivating, and supportive because if they aren’t, they aren’t welcome. It’s free, by the way, and has literally changed thousands of people’s lives for the better. Just go on and ask those people, and check out their progress.

3. Articles: Free fitness articles, free recipes, free workouts, free information that competes with any magazine out there. Fitness professionals (some that I like more than others) provide you with great information born from brutal experience and education. They have everything from a book worth of protein powder recipes all the way to interviews with really fascinating people.

So those are my three biggest reasons that you should check the site out if you’re interested in any fitness related goal. Nutrition, workouts, motivation… they have everything and more, go check it out.

Okay, Bodybuilding.com, time to hire me!

Jan222013

Where Did My Arms Go?

It’s the third week in January and I haven’t focused on my arms in the gym once. Add that to the fact that we haven’t really really worked out since mid-November-ish and it’s been months since I’ve touched my arms. Now, are arms a body part that I enjoy working out? Not entirely, and I don’t think that they need the same amount of focus that other body parts need.. but should anything be neglected? Of course not, so it almost had to be done. With a recent chest-back workout that left me sore and somewhat sore shoulders, I knew I would have to be very careful and not cheat with any motions. Considering they’re one of my weakest body parts, due to neglect and injuries, it wasn’t awful. Here’s how it went.

Working Out (Photo credit: Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)

6:22 – Warm up superset: chinups 6-7 reps/tricep dips 8-9... 90 degrees on all my reps, no full range of motion but hitting my contractions right

6:28 – main superset 1: iso incline pinky offset curls/incline iso cross-body extensions… alternating a 30 and 45 degree incline, 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps, to failure

6:43 – main superset 2: ez bar preacher curl/horserope cable tricep push downs… 4 sets increasing weight and decreasing reps, to failure

6:53 – main superset 3: iso seated hammer curls/seated overhead dbell extensions: 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps on the curls while decreasing weight and increasing reps with extensions, to failure

7:07 – main superset 4: standing iso reverse curls/flat ez bar skullcrushers… 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps with a drop set for the last set of skullcrushers, to failure

7:23 – (Running a little long, realize cardio is out of the question) main superset 5: cable iso lowering achilles curl/cable no grip iso tricep kickback… 4 sets of maintaining weight at 1-2 setting until failure

7:37 – tricep cool down: over the top horserope cable presses... 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps with a drop set at the end, until failure

7:44 – bicep cool down: arm curl machine, bilateral… 4 sets until failure with decreasing weight and increasing reps

7:49 – finished, 4 minutes of boxing on the bag with gloves to finish up, maintain some discipline and get the heart rate up a little bit

English: an exercise of triceps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, it was good enough and since I never feel like I get a good arm workout, I wasn’t at all disappointed that I felt like I didn’t get a good arm workout. Try to work opposing muscle groups sometimes to really reach great contractions and full stretches during your “rest” periods. Supersets are a great way to keep you moving, shorten your workout, and push yourself harder. Just be careful committing to one when the gym is busy because you might have your equipment or machine taken, no questions asked.

At the gym for an hour and a half, pretty long for just arm strength training but sometimes you need to take it slowly when you’re getting just back into your routines so you don’t get hurt. Especially when working on one of your weaknesses. Also, remember that there are many ways to grip a dumbbell when working biceps, neutral/thumb offset/pinky offset. It could be a little detail you can adjust this week and work some different muscles. That’s the tip of the post!

Jan182013

Priorities: Putting Your Health First

Sometimes it feels as though we live in a sad world. A world where money and material wealth comes first. A world where personal relations get shoved aside. A world where should-be-top-priorities such as health gets ignored in the dust. Working as a personal trainer, this last one can bother me the most. Here’s why:

People whine and complain about prices of the gym, personal training, or exercise equipment. They complain that the money could be elsewhere spent and that the time working out could be used doing something else more important. I’m certainly not saying that you need a gym or personal training to be healthy (although it does help), but instead towards the overall sentiment about the importance of getting into shape and maintaining your fitness.

My trainer shirt … and Sajah

So let’s say you suggest you could be doing something else with your time rather than exercising. Alrighty, let’s look at the building blocks of life. Health…hmmm…if you take away health, it is seeming to my eyes that everything falls apart with it. Take away health, and what do you have? Seriously. Sit on that question. Don’t just brush it off, I want you to think about it. Think about all the other bills or activities you pay for and balance it with the necessity of life: being healthy. If you aren’t healthy, you aren’t going to live the quality life you could.

And then we meddle over to the topic of money. It’s often the biggest excuse I hear. Not enough money for a gym membership? Hmmm, okay, let’s examine that. I want you to take a look at all your entertainment bills–television, cable, internet, etc. I am confounded to think that television (which is equal or more to gym membership cost per month) could weasel its way to be more important than the building block of life–HEALTH. Re-examine what you spend your money on. It could be that you know (deep down), the only way you will get into a continual exercise routine is if you subscribe to a gym. Step up, cancel unneeded entertainment services, put your health first, and sign up.

Health (Photo credit: Tax Credits)

Now, say you’re borderline obese or diabetic, and have a strong dislike for working out. In fact, the only way you workout is if you are held accountable by someone else. Or, say you’re a person open to working out and exercising, but unsure about how to start. In both situations, a personal trainer would be dandy. I have one client who will not exercise unless she knows she’s coming to see me. She knows I’m waiting for her and despite how tough the workouts may be, she shows up each day. And she has gone from borderline obese down to overweight.

Often you find, “Personal training? There’s no way I could afford that.” Don’t be so quick to write it off. Many gyms have discount deals and some even have scholarship forms you can fill out to get a discount. They want you to sign up, so give them the chance to make it easier for you. Let’s take a look at the other side of the situation. Why do you think you can’t afford that? Perhaps because you spend your money on other things. I find so often, it is–ironically–that people go out to eat too much, causing them to be more unhealthy, racking up the restaurant bills and stopping them from hiring a personal trainer to change their life. Because that is what normally happens.

Personal Training Overlooking Melbourne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This may sound like a lecture, but it is a plea. A plea for you and/or your loved ones to realize the importance of health and make it a priority over other things like entertainment or dining. So look at your account book and balance the budget to fit getting healthy and active in this year.

Jan152013

Fitness Glossary: Part 1

So, we have tons of ideas for new posts. We could probably write enough in one day to last for a few weeks based off our ideas. With us getting in better shape (Alana slower than I unfortunately due to her injured ribs) there are going to be (hopefully) more posts about working out! Our workouts, workouts you should do, etc. Before we get into that we have to make sure we’re somewhat on the same page, so I want to throw a short and surely not complete glossary of terms that would be found in posts about our workouts.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: Despite knowing the “technical” terminology for most exercises and matters fitness and physically related, I often use my own terminology; so I’ll try to make it clear when that occurs.

Isolated: An exercise that involves one joint movement.
Exercise: A physical (or mental) activity that increases a specific aspect of physical (or mental) fitness
Fitness: A major factor to your level health and well-being
Iso: Doing reps with a single body part (i.e. using one leg at a time on the knee extension)
Reps: aka repetitions, the amount of properly executed times you complete an exercise
Sets: A full amount of reps within an exercise without taking rest
Compound: An exercise that involves two or more joint movements.
Push: generally chest, triceps, shoulders, body parts that are used to bring something away from the center of your body
Pull: generally, back, biceps, forearms, body parts that are used to bring something towards the center of your body
Hypertrophy: Increasing muscle mass or size
Atrophy: a decrease in muscle mass or size
Assisted: An exercise that generally involves your weight or the weight you are trying to move being decreased by an outside force
Barbell: That really long, typically five to seven feet, straight piece of cylindrical steel
Dumbbell: The weight that has fat sides on both ends and fits in a single hand
Body weight: Completing an exercise that doesn’t involve added weights, i.e. pushups and pullups normally
Close grip: Having a narrow grip, keeping the weight closer to the body
Wide grip: Having a grip with a greater distance than shoulder width, keeping the weight further from the body
Normal grip: a grip that is typically shoulder width apart, very neutral
Cable: The apparatuses that allow you to attach various grips to a hook that is attached to a cable
Circuit training: A series of exercises that immediately follow one another, is almost always a great source of cardio
Super set: Completing two exercises one after another with little to no rest
Giant set: Completing three exercises in succession with little to no rest
Monster set: Completing four exercises in succession with little to no rest
PR: personal record, the only number that matters since we never compare ourselves to anyone else. PERIOD
Range of motion: The amount of distance that you cover in a certain rep of an exercise depending on the muscle you are trying to build. For instance, when doing a squat, a full range of motion is typically bringing the line from your butt to your knees to a parallel with the floor
Weight: the amount of poundage or kilos or stones that your body is or that your body is trying to move
To failure: When you perform the maximum amount of reps possible, any further reps are incomplete and thus failing
Strength training: Lifting heavily (relative to what you can and should lift) with full range of motion and taking the longest rest intervals to increase your power
Hypertrophy training: When you lift slightly lighter than strength training for more reps with full range of motion but take shorter rest than in strength training
Abduction: lateral movement away from the center of the body
Adduction: lateral movement towards the center of the body
Active rest: When you maintain activity during rest periods, i.e. jumping rope between sets of bench press
Aerobic: you can talk while working out, getting your heart rate somewhat high and activating those lungs to a certain degree
Anaerobic: out of oxygen, you’re pushing it so hard that you’re lungs and respiratory system can’t keep up with you, this is not for beginners
BMI: aka body mass index, a useless number that should be removed from existence, don’t give it any attention
Carb: Carbohydrates, your major supplier of energy and something that you should not keep out of your body because of some crazy diet plans that exist
Carb loading: taking in an absurd amount of carbs in order to maintain energy throughout intense periods of training (I usually carb load in the morning, just me)
Protein: the good stuff that comes in fish, meats, powders, and tons of other forms, you need it to perform protein synthesis and repair the muscles that you tear apart while training. You can supposedly only take in so much per meal, but try to eat your body weight (or the body weight that you desire better yet) to reach your goals
Fat: Something that can’t be neglected, you want to burn it but make sure to eat some healthy fats too in order to protect yourself, think avocados
Calorie: The energy value of food, a unit expressed through heat, you want to burn these in a caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, you want to create the opposite caloric deficit in order to gain weight (they say 3500 equals a pound)
Positive: the concentric phase of a motion, a muscle shortening or contracting, i.e. the upward motion of bicep curls, typically good to do these slow or explosively, but controlled
Negative: the eccentric phase of a motion, the muscle lengthening phase of a contraction as it stretches, usually good to do these slowly
Cross-training: switching up your routine and spicing it up by adding variety, think mixing yoga with a nice bike ride one week and then doing a swim after a strength training session
Cool down: Making sure that you do a nice easy exercise to allow your body to get back to its normal standing form, preventing it from being shocked and increasing your chance of injury
Injury: Actually hurting something seriously, tearing a muscle, breaking a bone
Hurt: You’re in pain, but it’ll go away without major trouble, like a headache
Standing: Your normal state of being
Ectomorph: You were born with a small build and will have trouble gaining weight, which usually is an ectomorph’s goal
Endomorph: Born with wide hips and a larger frame, fat stores itself around your organs and is really hard to burn, but not impossible
Flexion: bones on both sides of a joint come closer together, i.e. bicep curls (Lower arm to upper arm, no fancy bone names here)
Flexibility: ability to move joints in a full range of motion, everyone should really try to increase their flexibility, this is normally neglected
Interval training: don’t confuse this with circuit training, this is normally associated with one sort of exercise, imagine sprinting for thirty seconds, then walking for two minutes and repeating this a bunch of times instead of just jogging for twenty minutes at the same pace
Lactic acid: to not get into scientific terms, this stuff prevents you from going all out and doing an endless amount of reps, as you reach an anaerobic level, your body can’t keep up with removing the lactic acid that builds up in your blood
Metabolism: A complicated scientific process that involves tons of different factors for every person, but if you want to lose or gain weight, you have to regulate your metabolism through proper exercise and diet. If you want to lose weight, don’t just do a bunch of fat burning exercises and eat nothing… focus on increasing your metabolism instead
Muscular endurance: Making sure that your muscles have the endurance to sustain longer periods of activity, i.e. that guy can bench 250 lbs one time and 150 lbs five times, you can bench 250 0 times but 150 lbs ten times, he probably has you beat on muscular strength but you win for muscular endurance
Elliptical: Cardio based machine that reduces or tries to eliminate impact on joints
Treadmill: cardio based machine that does not reduce typical joint impact
Recumbent bike: the bike that is parallel-ish to floor and has a back, reduces lower back pain and increases focus on hamstrings and glutes
Upright bike: The other bike in the gym that hurts your lower back and has broken foot straps all the time, focus on quads
Quads: Your quadriceps, those huge muscles in the upper front part of your leg, my favorites

I could probably keep doing this for hours and hours. So I’ll stop here and make this fitness glossary part 1, with the other parts to come.

Jan122013

How to Keep in Shape with an Injured Lower Body

You don’t have to be an athlete to know how much lower body injuries (ie: knees, ankles, feet, etc.) are a pain in the tush. Perhaps you’re not even into fitness, but somehow you’ve sustained an injury. And you think, uh oh–how can I stay in shape if I can’t use my lower half? Now I’m not suggesting you’re paralyzed or anything, but if you have a torn meniscus, you better not be doing any running or leg work. Chris and I have had our fair share of lower body injuries, torn meniscus, bruised gliding plates, sprained ankles, the list goes on. However, fitness-buffs and athletes that we are caused us to search around and get creative in order to stay in shape and not melt into a puddle of jelly.

You may not think you can get a cardio workout just with your arms, but you can. Some of my friends may remember during my injury, me puffing red in the face with jelly arms after one of these specific workouts excluding the lower body. So let me share some tips.

1. Arm cycle. Look around in your gym. You see that older-looking machine that nobody ever seems to use? The one with nowhere to put your feet, but pedal-looking things for your hands. Go and sit on it. It’s an arm cycle. And it’s a hell of a workout and a great upper-body strengthener and toner. Start at 30 minutes. Set it to whatever level desired. Then each day you use it, turn it up 2 minutes until eventually you reach 60 minutes. It’s tough and sometimes hard to keep going, but it is a machine that will keep you in shape.

3. Seated boxing workouts. Now when I injured my knee, I was out for a long time–very frustrating. And while doing the arm cycle was keeping my cardio in shape and also my muscles in shape, I wanted variety. Chris offered this seated boxing workout and it kicked my butt, but made me very strong. This is for ones wanting variety or those without an arm cycle. Try this one out:

Sit down on a chair, back straight, shoulders back. Have two dumbbells in your hands, could range from 3 to 10 pounds. I would definitely start with 3 pounds or 5 pounds. You may think, oh I can lift way more than that, but just wait for what you will be doing.
Start shadow boxing for 1 minute using the dumbells
After 1 minute is up, pick up the dumbbells (or you can get heavier) to do curls for 1 minute.
Done with the curls? Back to 1 minute shadow boxing with dumbbells
After that minute, put down your dumbbells and get yourself on the floor for 1 minute of push-ups.
Rest for 1 minute
Do the same last 4 exercises again–that’s one set
Do 3 sets of this.

It may look like nothing. But go ahead and try it, it is an excellent workout. Be sure to have water nearby when you do so. Stay hydrated during your rest periods. It is a high intensity workout that takes no longer than 25 minutes, typically.

Otherwise, you can do your typical upper body strength workouts (chest, triceps, back, biceps, shoulders, core depending) seated. This way, there is no pressure on your lower body and you can get your muscles in shape.

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions! And don’t forget to focus on healing too!

Jan112013

Drop and Give Me Ten: How to Do a Proper Push-up

Usually when non-fitness people (whatever that means) hear the word “push-up,” they cringe in fear and run away. So stop! Don’t run! The push-up is a wonderful exercise for strengthening your body and you can literally do it almost everywhere. You don’t need any fancy equipment or gym, you don’t even need a proper ground–you could do it in the mud, if you preferred.

However, when people bravely attempt the push-up, their form is often wrong. Not only will this not give you the proper exercise, you can injure yourself if not positioned properly. So let’s get through this and do it the right way. There are various forms of the push-up, but I’m showing you the basic push-up.

Alright, find yourself an area on the ground where you have room to fully extend. Start on your hands and knees and face the floor. Extend your legs, your toes/top of the foot should be the floor. Now, have your hands shoulder-width apart (or a little bit wider). It’s a good thing to stack your shoulders right above your elbows and wrists. This ensures joint and bone stability, so that nothing simply gives out. So now you’re in the starting position!

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can’t describe how extremely important it is to have your body rigid like a plank. I don’t want to see your hips drooping or raising above the rest of your body. It should be a direct line–think graphs. If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong and if you continue to do so, it’s going to throw your body out of whack.

Now it’s time to try the actual exercise of lowering yourself as close to the ground as possible. Keep your elbows in as you slowly, keeping the hips in line with the body, lower yourself to the ground (without actually hitting it). Check your form out–is your body a straight line still? What about your neck? So often, people think they’re doing the push-up properly, and you see their neck drooping. Just because your neck can hit near the ground, doesn’t mean you’re doing it properly. So as your whole body is coming down, make sure your neck and head stay aligned with your body. It’s extremely important for the exercise and the health of your body.

Line art drawing of push up. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now the tough part is coming back up. Keeping your form pristine (see above), use your chest muscles to push yourself up to starting position. This means your head and hips are still aligned with your torso and legs. And there you go. Congrats. Do 4 sets of as many as you can do. It will be extremely difficult at first, but the more you do them, the stronger your chest and arms will get. And ladies, I want to see you doing these too! It’s important to build our upper body. I do them, so can you.

Deutsch: Liegestützender Mann in gelben Shorts. Animiert. Verzögerung 0,2 s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now there is a variation of the push-up for those who need it:

Knee push-ups. These are for those who are too weak and need more practice for the regular push-up. On this one, instead of resting on your toes, rest on your knees. Even though you are on your knees and hands, you still need to extend your body so that it is like a straight line and you are bring your torso down, not just your head or your shoulders.

Keep it up and work on those pecs! You will get to the regular push-up, and once you do, keep good form and get strong! Hey, maybe even make it a Resolution to get to a certain # by each month. Good luck!

Cheers!