Alot of questions are asked about stretching--when is the best time to stretch and what stretches should i do before and after a workout or activity. There are numerous benefits to stretching but you need to make sure you are doing the correct stretches at the correct time or you will end up injuring yourself.
Flexibility is the ability for a joint to achieve a full range of motion with the proper balance of elasticity and plasticity. Elasticity is the ability of your muscles to return to normal length after being stretched. Plasticity is the ability of your muscles to achieve a new and greater length after a stretch without a return to normal length.
A 5-10 minute warm up should always be done prior to any activity or workout. This allows time for you to increase your body temperature and blood circulation to your muscles. In turn your workout production will increase.
Prior to exercise the best type of stretching is dynamic stretching. Dynamic streching can consist of butt kicks, walking lunges, skipping, and high knees just to name a few. This allows you to slowly increase your body temperature and increase flexibility while warming up your muscles. You NEVER want to perform any weight lifting or stressful activity without properly warming up.
A 5-10 minute cool down is also advised. This involves light continuous activity between 40-55% or your max heart rate, the theoretical maximum number of times your heart can beat in one minute (you can find this by subtracting your age by 220). For example a 16 year old would have a max heart rate of 204 (220-16=204). Cool downs have been shown to decrease soreness dramatically and increase blood flow to rid the muscular system of metabolic waste products.
After a workout or activity you should engage in static stretching. Static stretching is the stretching most of us are used to. An example would be touching your toes and holding that stretch for 20-30 seconds. Static stretching is NOT recommended before you workout or perform any activity. The reason static stretching is NOT recommended before exercise OR BETWEEN SETS when working out is that is causes that muscle to completely relax and is counterproductive to then attempting to immediately use that muscle and expect signifigant results. It is very similar to taking a sleeping pill before you try to keep yourself awake and study. It is not so much as dangerous as it is to counterproductive to your goal of achieving maximal benefit from working out or exercise. Static stretching makes it more difficult to lift the weight or perform an exercise. Save your static stretching for after your workouts or exercise. Static stretching will decrease muscle soreness and decrease muscle tightness for hours or days to follow.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Gaining Weight
To gain weight you have to know how many calories you are taking in and how many calories you are burning each day. You have to take in more calories per day than you are burning to gain weight, it is the only possible way!
Here is how you calculate how you can gain or lose weight: Take you current weight and multiply it by 10. This will roughly give you your resting metabolic rate (How many calories your body will burn a day if you layed in bed and did nothing). Next you need to multiply it by your activity level (close estimates): 1.4 if your sitting most of the day; 1.6 if you are on your feet most of the day; 1.8 if your on your feet lifting or exercising daily (Athletes). This will equal your weight maintenence or how many calories you are burning per day.
There are 3500 calories in a pound. This means you have to take on an additional 3500 calories a week to gain a pound. This breaks down like so: To add a pound per week you need to take in 500 extra calories PER DAY (500 cal. X 7 days= 3500). To gain two pounds per week you need to take in an extra 1000 calories per day (1000 X 7 days=7000).
So here is an example: If you weigh 150 Lbs and you want to add 1 lb a week: take weight (150) multiply it by 10=1500 (Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR). Multiply 1500 by 1.8= 2700, this how many calories (roughly) you will burn a day with your RMR and athletic activity. So to add 1lb per week a 150lb person would have to consume 3200 calories a DAY (2700+500=3200)
It is only healthy to gain 1-2 lbs per week, so do this by eating the right foods (links below). Try to eat every 2-3 hours, which will probably consist of you eating even when you are not hungry. I tried to make this easy---good luck!!
Here are a couple good articles that have on what foods to eat to gain weight.
http://www.gainingweight.info/weight-gaining-foods/
http://www.gainingweight.info/healthy-high-calorie-foods-to-gain-weight/
You have to TAKE IN MORE CALORIES THAN YOU BURN!
Here is how you calculate how you can gain or lose weight: Take you current weight and multiply it by 10. This will roughly give you your resting metabolic rate (How many calories your body will burn a day if you layed in bed and did nothing). Next you need to multiply it by your activity level (close estimates): 1.4 if your sitting most of the day; 1.6 if you are on your feet most of the day; 1.8 if your on your feet lifting or exercising daily (Athletes). This will equal your weight maintenence or how many calories you are burning per day.
There are 3500 calories in a pound. This means you have to take on an additional 3500 calories a week to gain a pound. This breaks down like so: To add a pound per week you need to take in 500 extra calories PER DAY (500 cal. X 7 days= 3500). To gain two pounds per week you need to take in an extra 1000 calories per day (1000 X 7 days=7000).
So here is an example: If you weigh 150 Lbs and you want to add 1 lb a week: take weight (150) multiply it by 10=1500 (Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR). Multiply 1500 by 1.8= 2700, this how many calories (roughly) you will burn a day with your RMR and athletic activity. So to add 1lb per week a 150lb person would have to consume 3200 calories a DAY (2700+500=3200)
It is only healthy to gain 1-2 lbs per week, so do this by eating the right foods (links below). Try to eat every 2-3 hours, which will probably consist of you eating even when you are not hungry. I tried to make this easy---good luck!!
Here are a couple good articles that have on what foods to eat to gain weight.
http://www.gainingweight.info/weight-gaining-foods/
http://www.gainingweight.info/healthy-high-calorie-foods-to-gain-weight/
You have to TAKE IN MORE CALORIES THAN YOU BURN!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Why Resting Your Muslces is Just as Important as Lifting With Them
Lets start off with one of the most important things about building muscle......REST! To make sure you get optimal growth and benefit from each workout session you have to let your muslces rest and recover. Every time you work out you tear your muscle fibers apart. On your off days when you rest, you are allowing your muscles to repair themselves by growing bigger and stronger. If you keep working out with out proper rest you are essentially tearing and tearing and tearing your muscles with no time to repair and grow. This is very counterproductive to the goal of building muscle, strength and power. Muscle growth comes from your rest days NOT the days you workout. Your muscles need anywhere from 48-96 hours of non use (2-4 days) between days that you work them out. How long you should rest your muscles depends on the intensity of your workouts. For instance if you hit your chest hard on a monday you should not workout your chest again until saturday. Any amount of time less than that you are risking overtraining and anything less than that you are risking undertraining. Listen to your body, if you are not sore and feel good to hit your chest again thursday go ahead. If you are still sore or feel like your chest is not fully recovered wait another day or too.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The Real Scoop on Protein
I get alot of questions on what exactly protein is used for. There are alot of misconceptions that i hear so let me give you the real scoop on protein.
Protein helps repair tissue and muscle that you tear apart during workouts. Eating protein does not build muscle! It is the stimulus of exercise (weighlifting) that ultimately builds muscle. Protein is also your bodies last choice for energy. In fact protein supplies very little of energy to the body, around 5-15% during rest, and it actually decreases during exercise! This is because during exercise there is an increased need for carbs (body's first and main source for energy) and fat (second used source of energy by the body) as fuel.
Athletes need around 1 gram of protein per pound that they weigh (150 grams of protein a day for a 150 lb. person) to make sure muscle repair is optimal. Remember protein is your body's last choice for energy after carbs and fat, it is only mainly used for muscle repair. Eating alot of protein will not give you more energy to lift!
Here is a list of protein sources you should be consuming the most often: beans, grilled chicken, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, turkey, mixed nuts, steak, peanut butter, cheese, and shrimp.
Protein helps repair tissue and muscle that you tear apart during workouts. Eating protein does not build muscle! It is the stimulus of exercise (weighlifting) that ultimately builds muscle. Protein is also your bodies last choice for energy. In fact protein supplies very little of energy to the body, around 5-15% during rest, and it actually decreases during exercise! This is because during exercise there is an increased need for carbs (body's first and main source for energy) and fat (second used source of energy by the body) as fuel.
Athletes need around 1 gram of protein per pound that they weigh (150 grams of protein a day for a 150 lb. person) to make sure muscle repair is optimal. Remember protein is your body's last choice for energy after carbs and fat, it is only mainly used for muscle repair. Eating alot of protein will not give you more energy to lift!
Here is a list of protein sources you should be consuming the most often: beans, grilled chicken, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, turkey, mixed nuts, steak, peanut butter, cheese, and shrimp.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Why should I take Creatine?
Creatine can be very benifical for athletes that weight train.
Here is the background of how our body's energy systems work and why creatine supplementation can be very important and beneficial. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the source of energy for all muscular contractions. ATP is the body's energy source, like gasoline for a car. How quickly and efficiently a muscle cell produces ATP determines how much work the cell can perform before it gets tired. There is a very small amount of ATP stored in the muscle, so ATP must constantly be regenerated.
One source of ATP (energy) that our body makes is called Phosphocreatine (PCr). PCr itself cannot be used as an immediate source of energy, but can quickly restore ATP. This PCr system is the first energy system our body looks for to replenish ATP. It is ONLY used for high intensity, short duration activities such as sprinting and weight lifting.
The ability to perform repeated exercises or movements at peak efforts is largely dependent on PCr storage. Assisting PCr stores through the supplementation of Creatine Monohydrate (creatine powder you buy in stores) can INCREASE the amount of work that can be done in repeated efforts at high intensity. Basically this means that through creatine supplementation you can lift more and recover quicker between sets!
If you are under 18 make sure you get your parents and doctors permission before any type of supplementation use. One side effect of creatine use is dehydration so make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day and during exercise when using creatine.
Here is the background of how our body's energy systems work and why creatine supplementation can be very important and beneficial. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the source of energy for all muscular contractions. ATP is the body's energy source, like gasoline for a car. How quickly and efficiently a muscle cell produces ATP determines how much work the cell can perform before it gets tired. There is a very small amount of ATP stored in the muscle, so ATP must constantly be regenerated.
One source of ATP (energy) that our body makes is called Phosphocreatine (PCr). PCr itself cannot be used as an immediate source of energy, but can quickly restore ATP. This PCr system is the first energy system our body looks for to replenish ATP. It is ONLY used for high intensity, short duration activities such as sprinting and weight lifting.
The ability to perform repeated exercises or movements at peak efforts is largely dependent on PCr storage. Assisting PCr stores through the supplementation of Creatine Monohydrate (creatine powder you buy in stores) can INCREASE the amount of work that can be done in repeated efforts at high intensity. Basically this means that through creatine supplementation you can lift more and recover quicker between sets!
If you are under 18 make sure you get your parents and doctors permission before any type of supplementation use. One side effect of creatine use is dehydration so make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day and during exercise when using creatine.
What Do I Eat Before and After Training?
Nutrition is the most important thing for athletes when training. What you eat before and after your workouts are just as important as the workout itself. If you do not eat the right foods before you may not have enough energy to get the full benefits from your workout. If you do not eat the right foods after, you will not give your muscles what they need to grow and recover.
The 3 macronutrients that give you energy are Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins. Your body uses your carbohydrate system first for energy, then it turns to fats, and lastly protein. Contrary to popular belief protein gives you VERY little energy! Protein builds and repairs tissue and muscle while carbohydrates provide energy for working out. Energy levels will decrease if carb intake is limited or if carb stores in the body are low.
About an hour before a workout you want to consume the following foods that will give you lasting energy for your workouts: Oatmeal, Raisins, Pasta, Strawberries, All bran cereal, Apple, chocolate milk, Low fat yogurt, skim milk, Beans, Peaches, and Peanuts.
Immediately following your workouts your body needs a blend of carbohydrates and protein. You need to choose fast absorbing carbs to reach your bloodstream quicker to replenish your energy levels. You also need to consume at least 30 grams of protein to help repair your muscles you just tore apart. Right after your workouts these are some of the foods you should pick to consume: Protein shake, A turkey, grilled chicken, tuna or steak sandwhich on a bagel or white bread. Also, low fat yogurt, cottege cheese, and bannanas are great as well. Try to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (ex. If you weigh 160 pounds, you need to consume 160 grams of protein per day).
Remember muscle is built on the days you do not lift, so make sure you eat well on your "off" days as well.
The 3 macronutrients that give you energy are Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins. Your body uses your carbohydrate system first for energy, then it turns to fats, and lastly protein. Contrary to popular belief protein gives you VERY little energy! Protein builds and repairs tissue and muscle while carbohydrates provide energy for working out. Energy levels will decrease if carb intake is limited or if carb stores in the body are low.
About an hour before a workout you want to consume the following foods that will give you lasting energy for your workouts: Oatmeal, Raisins, Pasta, Strawberries, All bran cereal, Apple, chocolate milk, Low fat yogurt, skim milk, Beans, Peaches, and Peanuts.
Immediately following your workouts your body needs a blend of carbohydrates and protein. You need to choose fast absorbing carbs to reach your bloodstream quicker to replenish your energy levels. You also need to consume at least 30 grams of protein to help repair your muscles you just tore apart. Right after your workouts these are some of the foods you should pick to consume: Protein shake, A turkey, grilled chicken, tuna or steak sandwhich on a bagel or white bread. Also, low fat yogurt, cottege cheese, and bannanas are great as well. Try to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (ex. If you weigh 160 pounds, you need to consume 160 grams of protein per day).
Remember muscle is built on the days you do not lift, so make sure you eat well on your "off" days as well.
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