Friday, October 06, 2006

Fitness and Exercise Can Prevent Diseases

Exercise reduces the chances of developing health problems. If you are suffering from obesity and diabetes, immediately plan an exercise schedule. Exercise and fitness programs are useful in managing your blood sugar levels. Adhering to an exercise program is necessary if you need to see results.
The most common heath problem in America is high triglyceride levels (high cholesterol). This problem is closely associated with other problems such as strokes and heart attacks. So to prevent this proble m, it is better to pursue a wholesome diet. At the same time a regular exercise schedule is required too.
Nowadays people prefer to stay indoors due to the various entertainment devices at home. No activity has led to obesity. Parents must encourage their children to take up sports like basketball, volleyball and other exercises. Most of the Americans have become health conscious and are engaged in diverse sports types like swimming, aerobics, sports, running etc.
Brisk walking has become a ver y easy form of exercise today because it does not require any training. Volksmarch is a very popular activity in Germany where many people get together and go for a long walk in the evenings. They also enjoy eating together. So, go out and start exercising to stay healthy and fit.

So What Is The Exact Number Of Sets I Should Do?

There is no set formula for any one person. What works for you might not work for me. What works for an 18 year old will almost certainly not work for a 50 year old! The truth is that it is trial and error. You will have to find the "sweet spot" in your training that allows you to stress your muscle fibers but also allows you to come back on your next session and blast them again. As a very general rule and depending on age and experience, hitting each muscle group twice a week should be something to shoot for. But if you are not making gains, take a look at both the number of sets you're doing and the frequency that you're working a group. Remember, sometimes less is more!

Bodybuilding Basics Why Can't I Get Bigger?

"I'm so frustrated! I cannot get any bigger and I'm not getting stronger!" Sound familiar? Maybe you've said it yourself. You go to the gym religously, spend hour after hour doing bench presses for your chest, rows and pulldowns for your back, barbell curls and tricep extensions for you arms yet nothing is happening. Or at least not what you were hoping for when you started bodybuilding.

Here's a true story:
Some years ago I was approached by a gym buddy who asked me what my thoughts were on his training. His frustration was over the fact that in over 3 years of working out and lifting weights, his physique had changed only minimally and his lifts were not much better than when he had started. I had been watching him and sometimes working out with him for a couple of years so I was aware of his training style: On chest days he would typically start off with some warm-up reps and then would get started on the flat bench. He would usually pyramid up from a starting weight where he wo uld do 12-15 reps and typically would finish at about 4 reps on his sixth set! Then, he'd usually go to the incline bench, grab the heaviest weight he could handle for 5 or 6 reps and would do another 4 sets with that. He would then go to an incline chair and do more incline dumbbell flyes. After this, he would further blast his poor chest muscles with pec deck, decline and sometimes cable flyes. By the time he was done with just his chest, he'd spent almost an hour and typically had done anywhe re from 18 to 24 sets! What this guy didn't need was advice, he needed a REST! He was so overworking his chest muscles that by the time he came back to work them the following session (sometimes only 4 days later), they could not possibly recuperate/recover from the blasting he had just given them. If this guy had been in his 20's he might have had a chance but the fact that he was in his early 40's only made things worse. This story perfectly illustrates one of the main reas ons why people have such a hard time building muscle: Overtraining.

Muscles grow by being subjected to stress. You lift a weight, stress the muscle and if all goes well, in time that muscle will grow to accomodate the stress being put on it. But the muscle does not grow while you are in the gym. That is when you are actually breaking down the muscle. The growth/repair comes when you give your body enough time to repair the muscle that has been worked thereby allowing it to grow. Overtrain ing occurs when the muscle is put under too much stress and the recovery time is not enough for it to repair itself. Another example of a specific muscle being overtrained is the biceps/triceps group. Too many times, I'll get to they gym, start my workout and see some guy doing biceps. Set after set after exhausting set. I'm done with my workout and they're still doing curls. It is unnecessary and counterproductive.

Aerobic exercise - Heart And Health Benefits

Aerobic exercise has a lot of heart and and other health benefits. Aerobic activity offers a wide variety of benefits to overall fitness and health. The visual improvements are great, but the long term, more important advantages occur on the inside. Together with cardiovascular efficiency, metabolic changes will take you another step closer to achieving ultimate fitness. You know aerobic exercise causes your body to burn calories, a percentage of which come from fat, depending upon (among other things) duration and intensity. But did you know that you continue to burn fat even after your workout is over? After training, the body needs to replenish muscle glycogen, and fatty acids help to manufacture adenosine tri phosphate(ATP). Basically, fat is used to partially refuel the body for its next burst of energy. The more intense the exercise, the more the body has to replenish, and the more fat it will use to do just that. Now as far your heart goes, aerobic exercise lowers your resting heart rate, increases stroke volume and improves the efficiency of the heart. A trained heart doesn't have to work as hard to deliver blood to the various parts of the body and can pump more blood with each beat than an untrained one. Aerobic training can also lower blood pressure, which in turn decreases the risk of heart attack.
It is recommend that your aerobics sessions should be at least 15 to 20 minutes in length. Although beginners should take it easy when first starting aerobic training. Beginners should start off doing 5 to 10 minutes of aerobic training and try to gradually increase the amount of time at every new workout when it feels comfortable to do so.

Aerobic Exercise


Aerobic exercise:

It is very important and it is very much necessary to be fit and fine.Aerobic exercise can be any type of exercise that causes your heart rate to increase and makes you breath harder than normal.But don’t worry, you don't have to join any “aerobic” classes to benefit from aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is a very useful tool in fat burning too.

The body has two sources of energy :

sugar and fat.Sugar or glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle and is the easiest from of energy for your body to use. Glycogen is the bodies preferred source of energy. Fat on the other hand, requires more work to be used as energy.
Why? The problem is that fat can be broken down only as long as oxygen is available. Oxygen must be present for your body to burn fat for energy, but not to burn glycogen. In the initial stages of exercise, oxygen is not available.
It can take minimum of 20 to 35 minutes of constant exercise before fat is fully available to the muscles as fuel. How efficiently your body burns fat will depend on your current condition.Exercise, particularly aerobics, enhances the development of capillaries to the muscle which in turn improves the blood flow wherever it’s needed. With better blood flow and improved oxygen uptake by the muscles, your body becomes better adapted at building muscle.
This is the most leading reason why you shouldn't neglect the aerobic part of your training.