Archive for the ‘fitness training’ Category
Becoming flexible involves maximizing your range of motion and stability. Flexibility training helps to increase blood flow and it also reduces the risk of potential injuries. There are three traditional stretching exercises that will help improve flexibility: static, dynamic, and isometric/PNF. These techniques should be incorporated into your workout routine.
The most common form of stretching is known as static stretching. It is taught to children in gym class and refers to the practice of stretching to your maximum capacity, holding for a brief period of time, and then releasing. Static stretches help improve circulation and prepares your muscles for an upcoming workout.
Dynamic stretching involves using weights, which can also include your body weight as a factor. This type of stretching method can be harmful as it is possible to tear muscles or tendons if proper care is not exercised. An example could be lunges, where you use your body’s weight to stretch the muscles in the leg.
Isometric/ PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) is just a ten dollar name for putting tension on your muscles and then relaxing. This type of stretching best prepares you for heavy exercise. This method frequently uses a partner to help create tension on the targeted muscle group. The most common example is lying on your back with one leg in the air. The partner will push your leg towards your body until it causes tension on your hamstring. You then try to push your leg back down as your partner provides resistance. When a partner is not available you can use exercise ropes/ cords that stretch and can provide resistance.
No matter how you exercise, flexibility training should become a natural part of your routine. It helps to protect the muscles and joints during physical fitness activities and can maximize your performance levels.
Matt Adler
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/physical-fitness-flexibility-training-83392.html
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Reading through the short article, I pondered all of the New Year’s resolutions I had made in the past and how many I actually followed through on. After a wee bit of tough digging and thorough navigation through the corridors of the almighty brain, I came up with no more than a handful. A number so small, the public announcement would be all too embarrassing. I will say this much, I can count them all on my right hand.
Again, after reading through the article it made me ask myself why I never thought about applying the thought process of formulating a Resolution. The article display’s the acronym as M.A.T., I know it as S.M.A.R.T.!
Specific – A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six “W” questions:
*Who: Who is involved?
*What: What do I want to accomplish?
*Where: Identify a location.
*When: Establish a time frame.
*Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
*Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, “Work on my Jiu-Jitsu.” But a specific goal would say, “Establish a more aggressive guard.”
Measurable – Create concrete standard for measuring progress toward the each goal you set.
To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?
Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.
Realistic – To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be.
Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal. It also forces accountability!
With all that said, I would strongly encourage you to publicly state our goals in front of others. The act of sharing our goals with others adds social pressure for us to achieve them. Plus, when others know them they can help provide support for us to achieve any and all of our BJJ and fitness goals.
Jay Pages
When it comes to exercise, the word ‘intervals’ puts fear in many peoples minds. Intervals are sometimes misunderstood but adding them to your exercise program can help you burn fat and get in shape quicker.
Intervals are not for everyone. To begin performing intervals, you should be in good condition and a physical from your doctor is highly recommended.
What are intervals?
The easiest definition would be periods of high intensity exercise followed by recovery periods of low intensity exercise.
Here’s an example. You are following a walking program and have been walking briskly for thirty minutes a day, four days a week. You feel pretty good but would like to lose weight a little quicker.
Intervals might be perfect for you. Begin your regular walking program and, after five minutes, jog for ten, twenty, thirty seconds or more. Your heart rate will begin to increase and your breathing will pick up after this period, return to walking briskly until you have completely recovered. You then begin to jog again.
In the beginning you may only want to perform two or three of these short jogs. That’s fine. Do what’s comfortable for you. Later, as you become more accustomed to this routine, you can add more jogs or increase the length of time you jog or both.
During each period of jogging, your heart rate has increased. When you stop jogging and continue walking, your heart rate will be at an increased rate for a minute or so. This is an added benefit. During aerobic exercise you want your heart rate to increase, which makes it stronger and makes you healthier.
Intervals work great on a treadmill. You can increase the speed for however long you want, or you can increase the height, so you are walking at the same pace only going uphill.
This is interval training at a low level but you still get benefits from it. You can follow a similar routine in your other aerobic exercise as well.
For instance, if you are riding a bike for exercise, every so often pedal faster until you begin breathing heavier, and then return to riding as before.
You can see that interval training is not only for athletes. It’s one of the fastest and most effective means of reaching a top level of fitness and decreasing body fat.
Do these three or four days a week and watch your fitness level go up while your pounds begin to disappear.
Ian Williamson
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/interval-training-your-key-to-fitness-53334.html
Fitness Trainer – Using the Strength Ball Training book as your guide, develop greater strength and stability and enhance your sport performance with a Swiss Ball (pump included) and 6 lb. Medicine Ball.\r\n\r\n More Info About Fitness Trainer – Swiss Ball, Pump, 6 lb. Medicine Ball, Strength Ball Training Book\r\n
Fitness instructor Tracie Long presents a challenging workout series based on strength-training and corework. This collection presents all four programs in the series: BETTER BURN…BETTER BUNS uses a medicine ball to sculpt and strengthen the lower body; ENDURANCE FOR MOVEMENT requires hand-weights and a stability ball for a cardio routine that tones muscles and increases endurance; FINDING YOUR CORE targets the abs while improving posture and balance; and STRENGTH IN MOVEMENT tones muscles and increases energy through aerobic intervals.
Under the surface, every body is built the same. Each of us has an athlete’s body buried down there somewhere – and we all have the ability to move like athletes. Some of us are just ahead of others in terms of our fitness progress. However, with appropriate nutrition, sleep and exercise, everyone can jump and move just like athletes do. This is how life is meant to be played, and our bodies are built for exactly this kind of movement!
Before you begin a training regimen, it is important to determine your specific training goals. Are you a professional athlete training to increase your level of performance? Are you a general health-and-fitness enthusiast who wants to slim down and feel great? Are you a physical laborer who wants a permanent solution for your back pain so you can start feeling strong and healthy again? Are you seriously overweight, and ready to make and stick to a life-changing commitment?
Only after you have determined your major health and/or fitness concern can you begin working toward that goal. For example, it wouldn’t be very productive to train like a bodybuilder and put on a lot of nonfunctional muscle that weighs a ton if you had a goal to compete as a professional boxer. It is essential to identify your primary goal and remain focused on it without getting sidetracked into a training agenda that will only detour your success.
You must be specific when you design your training program, ensuring that it will accomplish the specific things you desire from it. Be clear and precise with your goals. Have a realistic timeframe. How much time are you willing to commit to this exercise program – per day, per week, per month? What is the best time of day to fit exercise into your busy schedule? Determine a time that will work, and adhere to it – no excuses. Admit honestly how far you are from achieving this goal, so you can gauge how long it’s going to take to get from your starting point to that goal.
The most important thing is to design a program that is specifically tailored to your needs. A general one-size-fits-all plan, or one created for another individual, will not necessarily work for you. Your level and ability are different from others’, as are your goals. So don’t look to train like anyone else, and don’t expect others to train like you.
Once you’ve identified your goals and designed a program to help you accomplish them, all that’s left is to begin!
Scott White
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/setting-fitness-training-goals-57660.html
Golf fitness exercises focused on the core can improve your golf swing. Learn how core exercises and golf exercises are a key to increasing club head speed. Some of us may have an idea about what core training entails. Swing coaches and golf fitness trainers talk about it in relation to the swing, but what actually is the core?
When the question is asked, “What is the core?” The most common answer is, “Your abdominals.” The core can be defined as the region of the body that incorporates the hips, abdominals, obliques, and lower back.
The definition of the core indicates that it is an anatomical region of the body. The top of your chest to your hips is the easiest way to think about the core region. This part of the body includes numerous muscles in each of these defined regions. Think about all those little back muscles that your doctor speaks about when you are injured. Those muscles are part of the core. When you see those infomercials for the “latest and greatest” abdominal machine, those machines are supposedly going to give you that “six pack.” The muscles of the “six pack” are part of your core. These two regions of the body are the easy parts of the core to understand, but what about the other parts?
The general definition of the core indicates that it encompasses ALL the muscles between your chest and lower body. Keeping this definition in mind, what other muscles would be incorporated in the core region? Probably the easiest way to do this is to create a mental image of the body and then look at what muscles are in this region of the body.
The hips are part of the core, and all the muscles in this region of the body are part of the core. The muscles within the hips contain the hip flexors, hip extensors, adductor complex, abductor complex, gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, origin of the hamstrings, and origin of the quads. Quite a few muscles, wouldn’t you say?
Currently, we have the muscles of the hips, low back, and the “six pack,” but there are more. We can essentially factor two more muscle groups into the core region. Probably the most under recognized muscles in the core region are termed the “deep stabilizing muscles” of the spine.
The easiest way to think of these muscles is the following: Think about “peeling away the top layer of your abdominals (the “six pack”) and the top layer of your lower back muscles. Underneath these muscles would be another group of muscles that function to stabilize the spine. The number of muscles in this region of the body is numerous. The names of a few are: transverse abdominus, erector spinae, and spinaleus. Again, these are just a few of the muscles in this region. If we were to name all of them, it could easily fill this whole page.
We have one final group of muscles that comprise the core region, and they are on the sides of the body (the place where we quite often develop those “love handles”). You now know where these muscles are, and we anatomically describe these muscles as your obliques. The two major muscles in this region are the external and internal obliques. In addition, you will find other muscles within this region such as the serratus.
At this point you should have a good understanding of the core region, the muscles groups of the core, and the specific muscles contained within this region. Now we move on to the functioning of the core in regards to golf.
First question, why are these muscles so important to golf? Before we answer that question, let’s look at this region of the body in a little more detail.
A vast number of muscles comprise this region of the body as we know at this point in time. Some of you probably have some first hand experience with the muscles of the core. If you have ever had a lower back injury, you know what I am talking about.
What we need to understand at this point, before entertaining the question of the core’s involvement in the golf swing, is the following:
Realize that all of the core muscles function as a unit, meaning they work together to essentially stabilize and move the body. The movements that this region of the body is involved in are vast. Any movement other than probably lying on your back utilizes the core the cores in some way, shape, or form. Let me explain this thought. We know that the core region is involved in stabilizing the spine, right? Well with that thought in mind, your spine needs to be stabilized in any upright posture you place your body. For example, as I am writing this article, I am sitting at my computer. For my body to maintain this “seated, upright position” my spine must be stabilized. The muscles of the core region perform this activity.
When we begin to talk about the body moving is where we can really see the core becoming active. Just think of some simple activities like walking, bending over to pick up a newspaper, etc. All of these activities are utilizing the core to stabilize the spine, bend, turn, rotate the body, and transfer energy from your feet to the upper body. The core is integrated as a unit and involved in almost every movement that you perform in your daily lives. I hope by this time you can see the importance of the core when it comes to human movement. Now let us move on to a topic of more interest to all of us, and that is the golf swing.
Looking at the golf swing, the core region of the body is considered “the engine of the body.” It is responsible for the balance, stability, and rotation required to swing a golf club. From address to follow through, this section of the body plays a large part in the execution of the swing.
If you have an understanding of what muscles comprise the core region and their importance when it comes to human movement, then you will undoubtedly see the importance of the core as it pertains to the golf swing. This little discussion has probably provided you with the understanding that there is more than “meets the eye” when discussing the core region. The next step in this process is the implementation of core exercises within a golf fitness program. These types of golf exercises will benefit your golf swing in many ways.
Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly working with professional golfers, most notably Masters and PGA Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs go to http://www.seancochran.com
Sean Cochran
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/golf-fitness-core-training-to-improve-your-golf-swing-725125.html
Fila’s 1st fitness shoe. From the 1987 Archives. Leather, imported.
Although the heavy bag is one of the oldest, most valuable pieces of training equipment, it has oftentimes been not appreciated due to its commonality. Fitness manufacturers are all the time working hard to bring out new, innovative products into the market to meet today’s growing demand. As new products are developed, unfortunately old training tools such as the heavy bag are often forgotten. Notwithstanding these developments, the heavy bag continues to be the most sport-specific and effective training tool available. To learn and to practice punching with power and speed, there is no alternative to hitting the heavy bag.
A heavy bag workout generally consists of three or four rounds on the bag. Amateur boxers compete with 2-minute rounds while professionals compete with 3-minute rounds. Certain trainers intensify bag sessions by reducing the rest between two rounds to 30-seconds. Some trainers recommend increasing the length of the round. For example, certain professionals hit the bag for 4-minute rounds. The logic is if a fighter can hit the bag for 4-minutes, a standard 3-minute round should become easier. This theory sometimes proves counter-productive. As round length increases, many trainees learn to pace themselves throughout the longer round. Instead of maintaining a continuous intense pace, these fighters conserve energy for the longer round. During competition, these fighters will be unprepared for an opponent who maintains an aggressive, furious pace.
It would be better to increase the intensity through short, yet highly intense punch-out drills. A punch-out drill simply consists of a string of all out punches thrown in rapid succession without rest. During punch drills, the fighter will throw non-stop punches. These drills are absolutely intense and you will essentially be performing high intensity interval training on the heavy bag. This rigorous style of training will prepare you to throw explosive combinations with enormous speed and power. Punch-out drills are commonly referred to as the Olympic Drill because these drills have been used at several Olympic boxing camps. There are hardly any drills that can match the intensity and effectiveness of these brief punch intervals. One important thing to remember is these drills should not replace traditional heavy bag work but practiced alongside.
Another option to traditional heavy bag work is power boxing that involves brief full-speed boxing rounds. Each round should last 60 to 90 seconds with an emphasis on maximum power. The power boxing routine will begin with three traditional rounds of bag work focusing on skill development. Practice multiple combinations, moving left to right, and right to left integrating head movement and combination punching. You should rest not more than one-minute between rounds. Finish with five punch-out drills. Each drill will consist of one non-stop combination, thrown with maximum speed and power. These routines will greatly intensify a heavy bag workout. Avoid restricting yourself to traditional heavy bag training. Remember that you can achieve numerous benefits with short, intense drills on the bag. Draw out a weekly time-table balancing intensity throughout the week. One session can be geared more towards skill development while another can emphasize power and anaerobic endurance. Do not under-estimate the heavy bag as the heavy bag is perhaps the most effective, sport-specific conditioner of all.
Sarah Johns
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/heavy-bag-and-fitness-training-689430.html
