RSSAre You Hydrated?
Feb 22
This is a great way to find out if you need to drink more water or not. It is easy! Go pee and see what color your urine is and match it up to this chart to determine if you are hydrated or not.
Terminology
Jul 01
Too many people think they know what they are talking about when it come to exercise. They use catch words like “endurance” “power” and “strength” but do not understand the real meaning behind those words. After reading this, you will gain a better understanding of exercise terminology that will hopefully help boost your workouts and achieve your goals faster.
Muscle Imbalance: Alteration of muscle length surrounding a joint
Muscular Endurance: The ability of of the body to produce low levels of force and maintain them for an extended period of time.
Hypertrophy: Increase in size of the muscle.
Atrophy: Decrease in size of the muscle.
Agonist: Muscles that are the primary movers in a joint motion. (Prime Movers)
Synergist: Muscles that assist prime movers
Antagonist: Muscles that act in direct opposition of the prime movers.
Stabilizers: Muscle that support the body while the prime movers and the synergist perform the movements patters.
Neutralizers: Muscles that counteract the unwanted actions of other muscles.
Power: The ability to exert maximal force in the shortest amount of time.
Strength: The ability of the neuromuscular system to provide internal tension and exert force against external resistance. (Recorded as 1 rep max)
Strength Endurance: The ability of the body to repeatedly produce high levels of force for prolonged periods
Neural Adaptations: An adaptation to strength training in which muscles are under the direct command of the nervous system. (For your muscles to contract and keep contracting…they must receive a signal from your nervous system. If a motor unit (a neuron and all the muscle fibers it innervates) stop firing, you will not be able to lift that weight.
Time to Stretch!
Jun 16
Challenges, Fun, Speed and Agility No Comments
Stretching gets over looked a lot by many people and athletes who are trying to achieve an optimal level of fitness. The reason why flexibility training does not get much attention is because people do not fully understand the concepts of stretching. The main reason why flexibility training is so important is because it will fix muscle imbalances, decrease joint dysfunctions, and decrease overuse injuries. According to Micheal Clark (President and CEO of the National Academy of Sports Medicine) states,
Today’s society is plagued by postural imbalances, primarily owning to sedentary lifestyles caused by the advancements in technology. More people today are spending time in office-related jobs, which require individuals to sit for long hours. More than ever before, flexibility training has become a key component in developing neuromuscular efficiency and decreasing these dysfunctions. (140)
In addition, knowing what type of stretches to use before, during, and after your workout is crucial for correcting muscle imbalances and increasing neuromuscular efficiency. Here are some tips that will help you the next time you workout…
1. Ballistic Stretch: This type of stretching involves bouncing and skipping movements. This of movement is more of a general warm-up to increase the body’s temperature before you start your workout or activity. Arm circles, skips, and bouncing during your stretch are considered ballistic.
2. Static Stretch: Is the process of passively taking a muscle to a point of tension and holding the stretch for a minimum of 20 seconds (Clark, Lucett, & Corn 2008). Static stretching is the most widely used stretch that you see in fitness today. However, the best time to static stretch is after your workout or activity. The only time you should use static stretching before your workout or activity, is if you are really tight in a specific area and you want to loosen it up a bit more.
3. Dynamic/Movement Prep Warm-up: Is lengthening the muscles using force production of your own body weight. The reason that I also call it “Movement Prep” is because you are preparing the body for the movements that you will use during exercise or competition. This type of stretching should be executed right after a general warm-up (jog, jumping jacks, jump rope, etc.) and before your workout or competition. Some basic dynamic warm-ups consist of body-weighted squats, lunges, multiplanar lunges, push-ups, dips, figure skaters, etc. 1 set of 6-10 reps is enough for you to get warmed up.
4. Active Isolated Stretch (AIS): The process of using agonist (prime mover) and synergist (assist the prime mover) to move the joint into a range of motion. AIS is somewhat like static stretching but, in AIS you are stretching the muscle for 1-2 seconds and then relaxing. You would want to perform 1-2 sets of 5-10 reps of a stretch. AIS should be done before your workout or even during your workout to help clear up lactic acid.
5. Self-Myofascial Release (SMR): Also known as “Foam Rolling” this stretching technique focuses on the neural system and the fibrous tissue that surrounds and separates muscle tissue. This fibrous tissue sometimes sticks to the muscles and forms adhesions or “knots”. Using a foam roll (or softball, tennis ball, golf ball, etc) to apply gentle pressure (your bodyweight) to a muscle that might feel tight. Roll around that specific muscle and try to find knots or tender spots. Once you have located knot, apply pressure for a minimum of 30 seconds or until the pain goes away. The best time to SMR is after your workout or competition; however you can also SMR before you workout to loosen up muscles that might be extra tight.
So stretch dam it! Correct those muscle imbalances and stay injury and pain free
“Yin Yang” Workout of the Day (WOD)
Jun 14
Building muscle, Cardio health, Challenges, Fun, Losing Fat No Comments
Complete this workout as fast as possible (AFAP) for time. After you have finished your workout, record and post your times.
Run 400 meters
21 Thrusters (squat to overhead press) 30 lbs dumbbells
21 Pull ups
21 Burpees
21 Sit ups
Run 400 meters
15 Thrusters (30 lbs DB)
15 Pull ups
15 burpees
15 Sit ups
Run 400 meters
9 Thrusters (30 lbs DB)
9 Pull ups
9 burpees
9 Sit ups
This workout should not take more than 25 minutes to complete. If you cannot do pull ups, you can regress the exercise to jumping pull ups.
The Best Core Exercise
Jun 12
Building muscle, Challenges, Fun, Speed and Agility No Comments
The fitness world goes through these phases in which certain exercise and theories get the most attention. Today, core training receives the most popularity among people who are trying to shape up their mid-section and achieve 6-pack greatness. However, the core is comprised of muscle located in the center of the body that stabilizes the body when it is in an upright position. When you walk, run, jump, squat, and lift weights you are using your core muscles. These muscles also control the head, neck, ribs, spine, and pelvis (Dominques & Gajda 1982). In addition, achieving a strong core will allow for greater neuromuscular efficiency, an increase in functional strength, and leads to improved performance on and off the field.
I believe that the best exercise to train your core is the overhead squat (OHS). The overhead squat is a very physically demanding exercise that not only challenges your core but, also every muscle in your body. If you have never done an overhead squat before, you must first start out light and focus on maintaining proper form throughout the whole exercise. A good way to practice is to start out using a PVC pipe or a broom stick. Using a wide grip, extend the bar over your head slightly behind your ears by retracting your scapula (shoulder blades) and maintain that position. Set your feet into a good squatting position while keeping your torso upright and your eyes focused straight ahead. Now, take a deep breath and hold it as you descend as deep as possible making sure that your heels are flat on the ground and your hips pushed back. When you are ready to ascent from your squat, stand up slowing and exhale while keeping your chest upright and your heels still flat on the ground.
Practice makes perfect! The more OHS you do will lead to greater flexibility, strength, and core strength. It is also a great way to correct a lot of muscle imbalances you may have, which will help you prevent injuries from occurring and allowing you to move more efficiently.
Finishers
May 30
Building muscle, Challenges, Fun No Comments
Finish your workout by doing a “finisher”. Take any multiple joint exercise (squats, push up, jumps, burpees ect.) or a combination of two multiple joint exercises and ladder down from 10 reps down to 1 rep. After you finish the prescibed amount of reps, you get that amount of rest in seconds. For example, after you have completed 10 push ups, you get 10 seconds to rest. After 10 seconds of rest you should be doing 9 push up and after that, you get 9 seconds of rest and so on. However, when you get to the reps of 5 – 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 …there is no rest in between those sets.
Heres how it goes…
10 push ups 10 squat jumps…10 second rest
9 push ups 9 squat jumps…9 second rest
8 push ups 8 squat jumps…8 second rest
7 push ups 7 squat jumps…7 second rest
6 push ups 6 squat jumps…6 second rest
5 push ups 5 squat jumps…no rest
And then 4 – 3 – 2 -1 with no rest in between
Incorporate a finisher at the end of your workouts will benefit the “afterburn” effect/EPOC (excessvie post oxygen consumption) witch will allow you to burn more calories hours after you have completed your workout.
