Exercise Advice
Drink Water
A young male athlete's body is about 75% percent water, while a young female athlete typically boasts about 70% percent. Nearly two-thirds of the water shows up in the muscles, while the rest can be found in the bloodstream.
Men and women both, may find themselves "in a constant state of dehydration." Generally, athletes wait for their sense of thirst to signal that it's time to drink. However, thirst is sensed only after dehydration has started.
More importantly, once you are dehydrated, it may take as much as 48 hours to properly re-hydrate. Therefore, so many athletes, unknowingly, are in a constant state of dehydration. As blood volume becomes diminished, blood flow along with oxygen and other nutrients to the muscles is significantly reduced, rendering them less functional. So, DRINK A LOT OF WATER!
Time Between the Sets
Many people don't know how much time do they need to rest between the sets. Other people think that they know, and finally there are some people who do know it. So, we will try to explain how long you have to wait before you do your next set.
There is no certain amount of time as some say. You might hear numbers such as 20 seconds break, 40 seconds, 1 minute. However, every single person, every single body is unique, therefore you must feel if you have rested enough, usually it's somewhere between 1-2 minutes. But it also depends on how intense your exercise is and how many reps you do.
When you put your weight down after the set, listen to your heart beat, check how fast you are breathing, how tight your muscles are at the moment. And rest till your heart beat decreases a little, till you are not breathing as heavily, and your muscles are not so tight anymore.;
DO NOT stand or seat on one spot. Walk around the gym, so your heart and breath will calm down faster and can start doing your set. As soon as your heart beat is steady and you don't take your breaths as often - you are ready for another set. Take your weight, make sure you have a good grip on it, take 3 control breaths and .... off you go.
time bewteeen exercise
Stretching Time
There are a few different opinions on when you should stretch. Most of those opinions will say that you should stretch right after work out to avoid soreness the next day. But all of us gym addicts know that if you work out regularly, you almost never get sore. In our opinion, it’s not a good idea to stretch right after work out and here is why:
The muscle is composed of subunits called fascicles. Fascicles are bundles of individual muscle fibers. Each fiber is one elongated cell that may extend for the length of the muscle. Each muscle fiber cell has several nucleii (unlike most cells, which have only one), and is segmented into distinct sectional bands. Within each muscle cell are numerous myofibrils, which also extend for the length of the muscle cell. Sarcomeres are the basic contractile subunit of myofibrils.
A muscle cell does not necessarily go back to complete relaxation right away. It can remain contracted through a series of stimulations. This process, called summation, increases the total force of muscular contraction. When the stimulus is great enough, many sarcomeres in many fibers are "recruited" and the muscle contracts. Therefore, we can lift or push varying amounts of resistance, cells are recruited, and to a greater or lesser extent. At the end of your work out. your muscle is very tired, you feel that you can't lift for a much longer time, or your muscle will just fail. Muscle failure occurs at the point where the maximum number of fibers are being stressed to their limits.
And now imagine that right after work out you are stretching the fibers that are already pretty much stressed to the limit.
As a result, you might end up slowly damaging your muscle tissues, instead of benefiting them with a good stretch.
Stretch before the work out, but make sure you warm up properly first. Stretching "cold" muscles is not a clever idea. You can stretch after workout, but you must let time pass a little. About 2 hours is enough. So, you want to stretch, perfect, excellent, great - Stretch BEFORE or about 2 hours and more after work out.
Changing Exercises
Not a bad idea is changing exercises every occasionally. Your body gets used to same movements and pressure and soon stop growing that fast. When you feel that your muscle doesn’t get tired enough from increased amount of sets or you simply see no growth, change exercises to alternative ones.
* Note that such basic exercises like Flat Bench Press, Squads or Barbell Biceps Curls (straight bar) shouldn't be change. These are classic exercises which shouldn't be changed around, when every other exercise should be changed around these.
Man exercising
Food facts
If you want to hit your peak, don't be lured into a low- carb diet. Starchy foods are essential for energy, muscle building and even brain power.
Protein might build muscle but no amount of steamed chicken will get you lean on its own, no matter what anyone else says you need carbs after training. The chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen all break down into glucose, our essential fuel.
If you feel fatigued after training, with heavy legs and low motivation , it's often because you're in a carb depleted state.
Stabilise sugar levels
Your body stores some unused sugar as glycogen in the liver and muscles, but converts the rest to fat. Low Gi carbs oats, beans and wholemeal bread avoid that fat storing process by breaking down slowly for a steady rise in blood sugar. The food standards agency advises a third of your daily calories should be starchy two slices of toast and a sandwich gets you halfway there.
Aid digestion
Low carb diets cause bad breath and low energy but the real curse of Atkins dogma is constipation. Carbs are only source of fibre they're a physical bulk that gets things moving. Your best is bran, one bowl off All Bran contains 10.3g of dietary fibre, well over half your daily needs.
You could also take a supplement to help assist with the breakdown of food (digestion). We would definitely recommend that you contemplate using Digestech from Onnit.
Mix of Organic Foods
Fitness trends
Back to Basics
Body weight training requires no fancy expensive equipment, merely, well, your own body weight. The American College of Sport and Medicine’s worldwide survey of fitness trends for 2015 has listed squats, lunges, press ups, burpees and planks as the No1 fitness trend for the year.
Just because no machines, Dumbbells or weights are required does not mean it's easy. These movements are some of the most efficient ways to get in shape and strengthen muscles.
High intensity training
Our lifestyles can be very demanding so when training, focus on the intensity. Lots of research suggests that high intensity training is one of the best ways to train and the quickest ways to get results.
Workout 1 example:
Burpees
Mountain climbers
Star jump
Three circuits 10 reps first round, 15 reps second round and 20 reps third round. Non stop no rest.
Workout 2 example:
Skipping
Press ups
Medicine ball squats
Renegade rows
Plank
Lunges
Burpee
Follow a tabata protocol (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest). Go through each exercise once before repeating the entire circuit. Rest two minutes before repeating. Aim to complete three rounds of the circuit.
Post-exercise
After a hard workout why not try using a foam roller or a new roller called the Ridge foam roller. The cylindrical contraption comes with variously shaped ridges so when you sit or lie on it and roll back and forth the ridges massage your muscles, loosening the fibres. This technique is called Trigger Point Therapy (TPT) and feels good afterwards for anyone who exercises.
Man with high Testosterone