Martial arts are not just about kicking butt or defending yourself from would-be attackers. There are numerous ways that martial arts practice impacts your physical and mental health. Martial arts can help improve fitness, coordination, self-esteem, discipline, and of course self defense skills. If nothing else, a rigorous kickboxing class is a great cardiovascular addition to your weekly workout schedule.
Here are six ways to improve your life by adding martial arts training to your routine. (more…)
Every athlete worth their salt has hit a plateau. You all know the feeling — suddenly gym sessions feel less productive, gains slow to a crawl, and you start to feel stuck.
Often, the natural response is to train harder and longer, assuming that plateaus can just be powered through, but pushing your body harder when it might actually need to slow down is asking for injury. Injuries aren’t fun for anyone, but if you’re preparing for a competition, race, or big game, it can be a death knell for your training.
Why Am I Hitting a Plateau?
While some plateaus are part of the natural training cycle, others are due to improper training. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in your own drive and push too hard for too long. The result is a burned-out athlete whose body is breaking down instead of building up.
Avoiding bad training habits seems like it should be common sense, but it’s easier said than done. Everyone wants to be the best, and you get there by training, right? So what’s the difference between pushing and pushing too hard? And how do you toe the line without long-jumping over it?
Unfortunately, there’s no perfect formula for everyone, but with an updated training strategy, it’s a little easier to navigate the minefield of training fatigue. As with most athletic advice, this comes with a strong dose of “listen to your body.”
Plateaus and training fatigue generally stem from overdoing it every time you’re in the gym or under-recovering after you go home. (more…)
Nootropic, or “brain booster supplements”, are gaining more and more popularity these days. As we have realized over the last decade, caffeine included in pre-workouts, or taken in the form of coffee or energy drinks have a profound benefit on our workouts. We notice greater focus, drive, intensity and endurance where we should be feeling fatigue and defeat. Caffeine is just one of many “brain boosting” supplements that will help to make you into a machine in the gym.
These nootropics have tremendous benefits both in and out of the gym. By enhancing your cognitive function you will experience greater mental performance, memory, have increased focus and superior energy. While you may not think that mental function is important for lifting weights, just remember that most lifters will tell you that creating the mind-to-muscle connection is crucial to busting through plateaus and pushing it to the next level. (more…)
So, you want to train at home. Great! Having your training on tap is going to make your life easier and your workouts more frequent. But, if you plan to train heavy in your garage, you had better make sure that you set it up right. In this article we pace you through the key steps required to set up a heavy duty Olympic style gym in your garage.
We’re assuming here that you have at least the size of a single car garage or basement to work with and that you have the freedom to install flooring and wall mirrors.
The first you need to do it is to clear out your potential workout space. Get rid of it all so that you have a blank space to work with.(more…)
I started taking pre workout supplements for women after a job change. The only time I could make it to the gym was 5:30am. I’m not a morning person! It was hard to find energy to work out to my full capacity.
For real gains, you’ve got to train hard! Pre workouts helped me do that.
Despite how popular they are, not every woman should take pre supplements. And if you do decide to give yourself that extra boost, you need to make sure you are taking it correctly. To get the best results, make sure you know these 5 facts about pre workouts for women first.
Squeezing a workout into a busy day can be near impossible, but whether because we need the reliable rush of endorphins or because our resolve cannot be challenged, we end up fitting it in there. Despite all the days where we don’t feel 100 percent, completing a grueling workout can turn around our mood for the better. As fitness becomes a habit and a lifestyle, the question shifts from “Will I work out?” to “How will I work out?”
Now, designing a routine takes a lot of research and effort, but if you’re not careful, you’ll overlook a very important step. Before you can maximize your workout, you have to know what equipment is available to you, and before you know what equipment is available to you, you need to know where you’re working out. Ultimately, your choices are an outside gym or creating one in your own home.
2017 presents changes for corporate organizations in terms of employee health and wellness trends. After all, health is an indispensable ingredient that directly impacts a worker’s level of productivity in the workplace.
With so many goals and challenges that companies need to tackle, companies regardless of size and nature need to invest in various strategies that are aimed towards holistically improving employee health. If you are a business owner, manager, or a member of your organization’s HR department, here are 4 trends you need to look out for this year.
However, it’s important to put in mind that no matter the health and wellness strategies you adopt for your workers, what matters most is that they cater to their every need and integrate with their current lifestyles. Let’s get started, shall we?
With the summer in full swing, it’s only natural that more and more people are taking full advantage of the long daylight hours by spending plenty of time outside. A natural source of annual encouragement for an increase in activity is certainly a good thing, especially for those of us who are serious about health and fitness.
On the other hand, those inspired to begin a fitness-training program during the summer months ought to be keenly aware of how to build a proper training foundation to ensure their continued progress while also avoiding deterrents like an injury or training plateau. Dale Parducci, a fitness coach and personal trainer from North Bergen, New Jersey, offered a few common-sense tips for summer fitness training. (more…)
It is said that you have to spend money to make money, and in the case of business promotion this is generally (but not always) true. Even products that practically market themselves, like the iPhone or iPod, have massive advertising campaigns behind them to ensure that every person on the planet wants to run out and buy them. Of course, you don’t need to spend the millions on advertising that Apple does.
If you’re a personal trainer or you’re running a fitness business (creating workout DVDs and selling related merchandise or running your own gym, for example) you can find means of promotion that don’t necessarily require you to buy air time for advertising on a global scale. What you should do, however, is explore several different avenues of promotion so that you can reach out to the largest possible segment of interested consumers. And here are a few great ways to do just that.
Are you in the gym day in and day out, but feel like you just are not seeing results like you used to? Well, it is completely possible that you might be overtraining, which is a lot more common than you might imagine.
Overtraining means that you are training so hard your body does not have the time to rest and recover, as it normally should. This condition can lead to a slew of negative side effects, like muscle atrophy, motivational loss, and mood swings.
Overtraining can even diminish the results that you worked so hard to earn, so it is imperative that you never let this happen to you. Stick to the following tips and information to ensure that you never over train.(more…)
Knee pain can impact many people, especially if you’re the type of person that rarely skips a workout. That sort of dedication is priceless when it comes to achieving your fitness goals, but it can also be detrimental to your health. Many people who are that committed to their fitness often continue to push themselves long past when they should stop and rest. Knees are some of the first casualties of an overactive lifestyle or improper form.
Given that, how can you tell the difference between when you need to take it easy and when you can just keep going?
The Type of Pain
First of all, no type of knee pain should be completely ignored. Pain’s function is to let us know that something is wrong and to compel us to avoid that behavior in the future. However, different types of pain indicate different things. (more…)
Strength training is a popular, effective and growing form of exercise which aims to use different apparatus in order to strengthen and refine your muscles. Often relying on body weight and muscle control, one of the benefits of strength training is that it teaches users to get to know how their bodies and muscles work and to focus on how different muscles work together to initiate movement. One of the best bodyweight grip strength exercises, and arguably one of the best back exercises is hanging.
As with any form of exercise, different moves and sets develop popularity, based on their perceived efficacy. A form of strength training called ‘hanging’ is one such exercise. Below we’ll take a look at what hanging is, and why it’s a good thing to integrate into your routine.
Some of you might have raised a few eyebrows when you read the title of this article, after all, who associates horse riding with weight lifting? Well, you should have a real think about that – can you imagine the strength it requires to not only mount a horse, but stay on one and control it as it gallops away? Here are a few key pointers to consider when strength training as an equestrian.
We all know that going to the gym not only makes you feel better, it makes you look better too. Even if you don’t have a chiseled 6-pack, massive guns, or lady-swooning glutes being a gym goer can give you a more shapely body, higher energy and mood levels, and help you be enjoy life to the fullest.
But there’s another aspect of being fit and healthy that’s not discussed often:
The scent of your natural pheromones (or your natural body odor), can actually become more attractive to the opposite sex.
If you don’t know what they are, or you imagine sleazy internet ads promising you they’re the secret to attracting gorgeous women… then you’ll probably roll your eyes. But on a scientific level, it actually makes sense.
What are Pheromones?
First of all, the word “pheromone” actually comes from the word “pherein” – which means “to carry”.
The second part, “mones” is from the word hormon(e).
As you already know by now, hormones (e.g. testosterone), are responsible for pretty much all the important functions of the human body… from regulating sleep, our testosterone balance, and even our moods.
Of particular interest is testosterone, which is an androgen, and typically what pheromones are derived from.
The most interesting part about all this, is that pheromones are actually derivatives of testosterone. And because they are released in sweat, there are steps you can take to actually make your pheromones all the more “attractive” – especially to women. (more…)
Paintball is a wonderful activity that challenges both the body and the mind. If you are looking for a way to have fun and get healthy, you should think about playing paintball at least once a week. When you schedule a weekly paintball game, you will enjoy a host of benefits that improve your life. Keep reading to discover five benefits that you will experience when you begin practicing paintball once a week.
With childhood obesity on the rise, more and more parents are looking for ways to keep their kids active and fit. The process starts at home with fridges and pantries that are devoid of the fat- and sugar-laden, processed foods that populate store shelves these days. Instead, parents must work a little harder to provide nutritious and balanced meals that will give kids the energy they need to face each day without the spike and crash that comes from soda and sugary snacks.
But of course, diet is only part of the equation when it comes to the health of your kids. You also need to get them outdoors and running around if you want them to remain active and fit throughout their childhood and beyond. So here are just a few ways to pry them away from their video games and social media and get them on track for some physical fun.
Everyone knows that they should be exercising, yet most people dread the very idea. The sweating and strain aside, working out is just boring. Think about the people you see running or at the gym, they look bored of their skulls. If you are going to keep at any exercise routine, you will need to find some way to combat the mind-numbing madness that comes with it.
If you are one of the 46 million baby boomers today in America, do you think you get enough exercise? Chances are that many of you don’t. While we may not wish to think about getting older, to help our golden years be as happy, long and healthy as possible, it’s never too late to make some life changes and prepare for what’s ahead.
Staying active helps to improve balance, makes us stronger and is good for our heart. It can also help older adults stay independent and prevent many health problems that come with age. Even for those seniors with limited mobility, there are still muscle strengthening and aerobic exercise that they can do.(more…)
Running can help achieve that fit body you’re aiming for. Today, we will explain to you how running can be good in the battle for weight loss!
Many people strive to have a body that will impress. However, the path going there isn’t a simple battle. Many challenges will hinder you from making progress. The first thing that you should ask yourself is, are you up to the challenge?
Although running sounds like a simple exercise, its benefits will amaze you. Running has many advantages including better health, uplifted emotions, weight loss, and improved focus. (more…)
Away from the annoyances of a crowded gym, a workout space at home is a sanctuary that can be tailored to your every whim and desire. You can give the soulless house music a miss, mute the mindless chatter, skip waiting lines and travel times and really focus on what matters – getting fitter.
Creating the ideal home gym depends on your goals, but there are some must-haves whatever pre-conceived designs you have.
