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January 8, 2018 by admin 1 Comment

Develop A Fit Body With Plyometric Exercises

Plyometrics used to be thought of as exercise that was reserved for experienced athletes only. These days, this training technique has become a popular form of exercise for people of all ages, including children and teens. So what exactly is plyometrics you might ask? It is the execution of exercises with rapid stretching and shortening of muscles that are designed to increase the explosiveness of muscles as well as to increase muscular power. These exercises require bouts of jumping and hopping – incorporating exercises that are exerted with a certain amount of force. Most exercises require the use of more than one muscle group and are great for the larger muscle groups.

The Advantages Of Plyometrics

As with any form of exercise, it is always advisable to check with your physician first before starting any new kind of activity. It is imperative that the plyometric exercises are executed correctly due to the impact that these exercises have on joints during these explosive moves. For beginners, keeping it simple is best. A simple session of one to three sets of six to ten repetitions incorporating one upper body and one lower body exercise is a good start. Research has found the following about plyometric training,

When used with a periodized strength-training program, can contribute to improvements in vertical jump performance, acceleration, leg strength, muscular power, increased joint awareness, and overall proprioception.

Agility is one of the main advantages of plyometrics giving rise to the increased ability to maintain the correct body positioning while executing a series of movements that require quick changes in direction. Some sports that plyometric exercises mimic include tennis, football, skiing, basketball, and volleyball. Many of these sports activities use plyometric training when preparing for competitive events, such as the Olympics. This type of training leads to improvement in vertical jump performance, joint protection and muscle strength, and may help to control body weight. In this day and age, where finances are in short supply, using plyometric exercises has the added advantage that minimal equipment is required. Most of the exercises use your own body weight, thus eliminating the need for expensive equipment.

Points To Remember

Because of the nature of these exercises, there are certain points that need to be remembered when taking up this form of exercise. According to the experts,

The most effective plyometric programs emphasize the quality instead of the quantity of jumps.

When you perform a move correctly, you get the most benefit out of doing it with the least amount of injury risk. For the beginner, it is best to ease into the moves and only move on to more difficult exercises once the proper technique has been mastered. Always ensure that the surface you are landing on is either grass or a padded gym mat on a wooden floor. Another point to remember with the technique is not to allow side-to-side motion at the knee and to always use proper landing technique with all jumping moves – this means landing from toe to heel and using the entire foot for even distribution of impact. Getting enough rest between training sessions is another vital point to remember. Due to the nature of the exercises your muscles need time to recover fully before your next training session. It is recommended that there be at least a 48-hour rest period between sessions.

While plyometrics is not for everyone, it could add variety to your workout and take you up a notch when you hit a plateau. By adding some plyometrics exercises to your routine, you add fun to your workout taking it from monotonous to a dynamic and exciting activity.

 

Filed Under: Fitness News Tagged With: exercises, plyometric

January 8, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Take The Boredom Out Of Physical Fitness – Novel Ways To Get Fit

When you think about fitness the first words that come to mind are usually gym, sports, sweating, out of breath. For many the gym can be a very daunting place while for others gym may be a boring way of getting fit. Take the boredom out of your normal workout routine and do something different for a change. Take a mundane job that you might not like and turn it into a great workout.

Exercise At Home

Many people may feel that working out at home is not an option because it is far too easy to slip back into old habits but there are many ways to burn calories at home that you might not even realize. Vacuuming is something that many of us have to do so why not turn it into a calorie burning workout. Slip on your headphones and crank up the music then use your vacuum to perform lunges each time you move forward and backwards. You will give your glutes, hamstrings, calves, hips and quadriceps a good workout that you will surely feel the next day. Lunges have many benefits and according to American Council on Exercise

…are one of the most effective lower-body exercises and are right up there with squats, step-ups and quadruped and four-way hip extensions.

Strengthening your large muscles groups has been found to speed up metabolism, which is essential if your aim is to lose weight. Lunges are also a great way to tone and firm up those parts that most women complain about, particularly the butt and thighs. Vacuuming also burns 43 calories in just fifteen minutes and up to 170 calories in an hour. Add sweeping and mopping into the mix and you are looking at burning an additional 82 calories per fifteen minutes and these two house chores can also be turned into a more intensive workout with a bit of imagination.

Your Garden Will Love You

Gardening may seem like a punishment for some rather than a means to a great workout but not only will you feel great about getting a workout but your garden will love your workout too. Jeff Restuccio, author of “Fitness the Dynamic Gardening Way” suggests turning your gardening into a structured workout. Alternate between heavy and light gardening activities, exaggerate your motions and increase your range of motion and you will be able to burn a good number of calories within one hour of gardening.

You can use up 500 calories an hour that way (official counts put gardening activities at the 100- to 200-per-hour calorie-burning level).

There are many other advantages to gardening when it comes to fitness and you can even encourage your family into participating and getting a bit of a workout too. If your garden has a large lawn then opt for cutting the lawn with a push mower as opposed to a ride-on version. You will be getting an aerobic exercise, thus, toning up your legs and arms, and most experts say that walking is a good form of exercise so why not kill two birds with one stone with this chore?

Numerous Other Chores

There are numerous other chores that can be adapted in and around your home to turn it into a workout. Polishing floors can be turned into a fantastic workout for your core, legs and arms with an adaption or two from the normal way of polishing them. All you need to do is strap a cloth to each hand and use circular motions start applying the polish. The bigger you make the circular movements, the better the workout for your arms. The next step would be to place a cloth on each foot and slid your way across the floor. Your core will be needed to hold you upright and to prevent you from falling over. Your glutes remain tight throughout this workout and you will automatically engage your hamstrings and inner thigh while skating across the floor. The kids are bound to love this one too – what child doesn’t like to slide across floors? This is similar to skiing, which is ranked at number 25 according to physical difficulty. Experts say that skiing,

… is an effective cardiovascular and strength-building workout. It primarily exercises your lower body, but your core and upper body will benefit as well. Downhill skiing puts you in a semi-squat position most of the time which relies heavily on the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and gluteal muscles. Because of the lateral motion involved, the abductor and adductor muscles are also used.

While skiing across your polished floors might not burn the same amount of calories as snow skiing would, you still have the potential to burn around 450 calories.

Mundane Can Be Fun

Nobody ever said that you had to take up a sport to get some exercise. As a promotion for the 2014 Winter Olympics, a campaign was launched in Moscow to promote the Olympics as well as to get everyone involved in a sporting lifestyle. For this campaign that lasted a month, members of the public were allowed to ride the subway for free as long as they did 30 squats in front of a vending machine first. This might not be such a bad idea as a means to get people exercising in everyday life.

Another novel way to exercise is to take a tour around your city on foot. You are bound to find interesting places that you might not have otherwise found and I am sure that places you have seen many times before will give you more insight simply by seeing it close up and from a different angle. Exercise should be enjoyable because when you enjoy something you will want to do it time and time again. Look for different ways to incorporate exercise into your mundane, everyday activities and you could be fitting in extra exercise time or you could simply be getting exercise that you thought you never had time for. Start a trend among your friends. Find who can come up with the new ideas for workouts using mundane chores and activities and you could start a new revolution of exercise that could be a hit.

Filed Under: Fitness News

January 8, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Exercise Your Body, Exercise Your Brain

As we get older we lose some of our capacity to do certain things – hear, see and remember. This decline can be an extreme worry for some with memory loss causing the greatest concern among most older adults. Aging adults have been told to continue exercising not only because it is a preventative means against age-related illnesses but now researchers have found that it is also a means of staying “mentally sharp” as well.

The Research Studies Relating Exercise With Being Mentally Sharp

Over time, research has shown the tremendous advantages that exercise has for the body. We feel more alive, are able to do more, have more energy, are more alert and our bodies respond better during recovery from illness. Overall, exercise is good for you and there is a reason why it is recommended that we participate in exercise at least three times per week.

In one particular study, sedentary adults between the ages of 57 and 75 were divided into two groups, one being the control group and the other the physical training group. The training group underwent aerobic exercises three times a week for an hour at a time for a period of twelve weeks. Their aerobic exercises were done on treadmills and stationary bikes. Before, during and after the twelve week period assessments of cognition, cardiovascular fitness and resting cerebral blood flow measurements were done. The study was led by Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., founder and chief director of the Center for BrainHealth, Dee Wyly Distinguished University Chair, and the results?

This research shows the tremendous benefit of aerobic exercise on a person’s memory and demonstrates that aerobic exercise can reduce both the biological and cognitive consequences of aging.

The exercise group showed increases in memory performance and this study also showed that as memory improved so did the blood flow to the hippocampus of the brain. The hippocampus is the region in the brain that is affected by Alzheimer’s disease indicating that with exercise the effects of this particular ailment may be reduced.

Brain Games Can Help

It is well known that participating in games that stimulate the brain are very beneficial and the reason for this is that while exercise increases blood flow to specific areas of the brain, brain games or complex mental training stimulate blood flow to the whole brain. According to Dr Chapman, combining both physical and mental exercise should become a way of life.

The combination of physical and mental exercise may be the best health measures to improve overall cognitive brain health. We have just begun to test the upper boundaries of how we can enhance our brain’s performance into late life.

Keeping the brain healthy and strong as well as keeping the body healthy and strong will most certainly be beneficial to us no matter which way we look at it. Training from a young age is also more beneficial since the things we learn at a young age are carried with us throughout our lives. Exercise not only affects our bodies on a molecular level but on a behavioral one too. We feel better when we exercise and our bodies just seem to work better after we exercise. You can wake up feeling stiff in the morning with loads of aches and pains but after a session in the gym or participating in some form of exercise, your body feels looser and the aches virtually disappear. The proof is in the pudding and researchers have given us proof. Now it is up to you to put that proof into practice. A fit body and mind may help you keep old age at bay.

 

Filed Under: Fitness News

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