Working Out for Extreme Fitness

Many people think about building muscles as abandoning life outside the gym and devoting hours in the gym like a monk in a monastery. Perhaps the only way to chisel the body into a hot muscular physique is by toiling hour by hour over the rusty iron day in, day out and year in, year out.

This need not be so. Although hard work is truly required, extreme fitness demands one to be a slave of the iron weights. Full-body work outs can make one progress and it easily fits in one's schedule. This is very convenient if one is looking forward to achieving extreme fitness but finds it hard to hold on to a single work out routine.

Genuine full-body work outs done by athletes with an aim in mind makes for maximum muscle contraction using heavy weights, makes room for full recovery so one can actually grow and continue to train hard plus it also prevents burnout which is inevitable due to excess training.

So if one is ready for extreme fitness, here is all there is to know about full body work out:

Full-body work out is a time saver. The biggest plus about having the whole body trained all at once is probably having to go to the gym less frequently; perhaps around two to three times for every seven days would be enough.

Another advantage of working out the entire body all at once is that one need not spend two or more hours of strenuous exercise in the gym for every session; one only spends one hour in the gym for every session. So that's just three to four hours per week in the gym right? With full-body work outs, it is all about the quality of exercise one does for session and not the quantity, nor even the amount of time you allot per session.

Full-body work out boosts the cardiovascular system for extreme fitness. One must allot two to four sets for every body part into the one hour session. Jam packed with exercising, each one hour session then gets the heart and the rest of the cardiovasular system pumping and up to speed in a flash.

Now feeling pumped up, next find out what rules does one have to follow when engaging in full-body work outs:

Training commences only once every two to three days. This is so easy isn't it? What is great about this is that there is time spared during rest days so that one can indulge in a few cardio exercise sessions instead of depending on cardio execises one normally does at the end of each work out session which after all, are not at all very effective.

Heavy lifting is strongly advised. Contrary to popular belief, especially among athletes. It is not true that it is good to get trapped on training lightly than one actually could so as to conserve energy for the other body parts that will come later in the routine. What is true is that one cannot achieve optimal progress if one is not training heavy, no matter which program that person is doing.

One exercise only per muscle group. This is very easy to follow and is also important. Doing basic exercises which are also intense means you do not have to do another different exercise for that body part.

Keep work out short. Resistance training affects the natural homones of the body connected to muscle building. Intense exercising boosts the testosterone levels and long work outs increase those of catabolic cortisol. Sixty minutes of work out allows you to get the best of both worlds.

Now with this convenient and powerful work out regimen, one can now truly experience extreme fitness.

Safety Tips For Joggers

A frequent error that joggers or runners make is that they become so preoccupied in their physical activity that they fail to be alert and pay attention to their surroundings. The following are a series of personal safety tips for joggers and runners:

- Jog or run with a known companion.

- Jog or run in a familiar area.

- Do not jog or run in a heavily wooded, poorly lighted or secluded area, particularly if jogging or running alone.

- Don't wear radio or recorder earphones.

- Do not jog or run after dark.

- Do not jog or run near bushes, which can provide concealment.

- Wear bright colored clothing to improve your visibility.

- Vary your route and pattern of jogging or running.

- Carry pepper spray or high decibel battery powered personal alarm device when you jog or run.

- If followed, go to the nearest residence, open business or group of people.

- Carry your motor vehicle and/or home key with you.

Defense Against Dogs

Joggers or runners often encounter what either may be or appear to be an unfriendly dog. If such an encounter does occur, the following measures are encouraged:

- Stand very still and attempt to be calm.

Carry some canine repellent just incase you are approached by a attacking dog.

- Don't scream at the dog and run.

- Be aware of where the dog is. Look in its general direction, but don't stare into its eyes. This can be considered an aggressive challenge to a dog.

- Let the dog sniff you.

- In a low voice say, "No, Go Home"

- Back away slowly until it is out of sight.

- If a dog does attack, try to "Feed" it your workout jacket or other item of clothing.

- If you are knocked down or fall, position yourself into a ball and keep your hands over your ears and face.

- Try not to scream or roll around.

Exercise and Pregnancy

Prescribing a medication for pregnant women is a complex process.  

Before obstetricians and gynecologists decide which dose of which drug can best treat a condition without putting any harmful side effects on the mother and the baby, they consider the patient's age, general health, the number of months before delivery, tolerance for medications, and any other drugs the pregnant patient may be taking.  

Prescribing exercise on pregnant women has to be just as scientific and precise. The type, intensity, frequency, and duration of a "dose" of exercise are all critical. One person's healthy, vigorous workout could be hazardous to another. These dangers may be greater in pregnant women because they are more likely to have strains and other serious side effects for the would-be mother.  

However, if exercise will be implemented and carried out in a normal, average range, exercise will not have an effect on the overall condition of the pregnancy and especially on labor or delivery.  Pregnancy  

Quality prenatal care should be given to a mother during her pregnancy. She should be prepared for the normal delivery of a healthy baby. Complications should be prevented at all costs.  

All of these things are boiled down to the fact that a pregnant woman should be cared in such a way that she will not be compelled to do vigorous work but should not also stay in bed and be inactive until she gives birth to her baby.  

Consequently, a pregnant woman's condition varies in relation to the growth and development of the baby in side her womb. Therefore, it is necessary that proper health guidance be provided by her physician during her visit.  

Moreover, it is important to keep the pregnant woman's life active in order to promote good health, not only for her but also for the baby most importantly.  

Physical conditions like blood pressure, weight and health status is usually monitored during the pregnant woman's visit to her doctor. For this reason, it is significant to note that exercise can be the number one factor in order to keep these aspects in good condition.  

As the health experts contend, adequate physical and emotional information is needed by a pregnant woman to prepare herself for delivery. She needs practical health messages in keeping herself and the baby healthy.  

Hence, for mothers or would-be mothers who are not yet aware why they should exert some effort in engaging into moderate, normal exercise, here is a list of some of its benefits so that you will be able to understand the reason why pregnant women have to exercise regularly:  

1. Defiance against fatigue  

As muscle becomes fatigued, it produces less force. To accomplish a task like climbing the stairs, for example, or shoveling snow, more units of muscle must be called into play to back up the wearied muscles.  

The tired muscles are both less efficient and less effective. Hence, this will just put more strain on the pregnant woman because of the weight that is continuously adding up each day. That is why tired muscles will usually result to leg cramps or sore muscles.  

What every pregnant woman must know is that exercise improves the condition of the muscles and their ability to work longer without fatigue.  

2. Reduce backaches   

Even when you sit or stand, some muscles are working, and such relatively easy postures can tax some muscles and cause fatigue. The muscles of the lower back, for example, can be exhausted and worn out by the effort of keeping erect when a pregnant woman stand still for several hours.  

With exercise, a pregnant woman can correct this error by developing her posture.  

3. Increase the amount of oxygen   

Work and exercise rely on glycogen, a substance produced by the body from complex carbohydrates and stored muscles and liver. The supply of glycogen in the muscles determines and limits the duration of activity. Exercise depletes the glycogen in the muscles and leads to tiredness.  

However, when glycogen is depleted by strenuous activity, it is replaced in quantities greater than before, as if the body recognized the need to lay in a larger supply of fuel.  

Hence, oxidation is essential for converting glycogen to the energy that pregnant women need to wiggle a finger, flex a muscle, or practice the lungs and heart for some blowing action during normal delivery.  

These are just some of the many benefits exercise can bring to pregnant women. Besides, nothing is completely wrong for a pregnant woman doing some moderate exercises. The only important thing to remember is that before starting an exercise program, whether pregnant or not, it is best to consult your doctor. As they say, doctors know best!

Can Women Get Bulky From Lifting Weights?

Strength training or weight lifting is the lifting of weights and/or resistance in a prescribed manner as an exercise or in athletic competition. Notice I said weights and/or resistance. It doesn't have to necessarily be a weight plate or a dumbbell. There are numerous TV reports, magazine articles, radio shows that explain all of the benefits of lifting weights, yet so many women seem to not be “hitting the weights” for one reason or another. One very good reason is that they don’t know how much lifting weights will actually change their body (more so than even running or any of the other cardiovascular activities). Another reason is that a lot of women are confused about what to do exactly (what exercises, how many repetitions, how many sets, etc.).

This article will help shed some light on why it is so important that every woman be involved and adhering to a strength training program.

You actually might be involved in a strength-training program right now. Even if you are, I want you to really pay attention to what we're going to cover for the rest of the article.  I'm sure it is going to have you thinking differently about why you should be lifting weights from now on.

We're going to talk about why developing a strength training program will ultimately help you lose weight, add some muscle tone, look better and feel better about yourself. We will go over some "myths" about strength training and the real facts behind them. So, whether you're new to strength training or you've been doing it for years, pay close attention.

Let's first clear up some of the misconceptions about strength training and the truth behind these myths. This first myth is the "biggie" and it has prevented many women from strength training. It sounds a little something like this; "I don't want to lift weights because I don't want to get bulky."

 Let's explore that myth a little. When you think of weight lifters, you probably think of body builder's, right? You think of the men and women on ESPN parading around in little swimsuits with big bulky muscles popping out all over the place.

There are three reasons for this:
1.)These people are an extremely minute percentage of the population.
2.)That is their livelihood and they spend 4 to 5 hours a day in the gym.
3.)Most of them are using performance-enhancing drugs (steroids, etc.) to look like that.

So if you can get that image of the "bodybuilder" out of your head and think in terms of the average everyday person, you will see why the myth about getting bulky is just that, a myth!


What we're going to talk about next is simple. When you lift weights your body builds muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn (even at rest).   The more calories you burn the less you weigh. Let me give you an example of this that might make it a little easier to understand.

Let's say two women are sitting on the couch watching some T.V. Woman #1 strength-trains 3 times a week, but woman #2 does not. After an hour of watching T.V goes by, who will have burned more calories? The common answer to that would be that they both burned the same (almost nothing), since they were just sitting and not moving.

But the actual answer would be that woman #1 burned more calories, and I'll tell you why for one simple reason. THE MORE MUSCLE YOU HAVE THE MORE CALORIES YOU BURN!! Now you might say to yourself, "But if I lift weights, my muscles will get bigger, I will appear big and bulky, and wind up weighing more." This is also a myth.

That myth being one of the most popular in the world of exercise, which is, "muscle weighs more than fat."

That's like the old joke, "What weighs more--10 lbs. of steel or 10 lbs. of feathers?" Hopefully by now you know that the answer to that question is that they both really weigh the same.  10 lbs. is 10 lbs. no matter what it is made of. Let's examine this point in a little more detail.

Muscle is much more compact than fat. It actually takes up less space than fat does because of its density. That makes sense, right? Fat, on the other hand, is very soft and jelly-like and occupies more space than muscle does.

Let me give you another example to clarify this a little more.

If you were to take 10 lbs. of fat and 10 lbs. of muscle and roll each of them into a ball, the 10 lbs. of fat might be the size of a bowling ball. In comparison, the 10 lbs. of muscle would be about the size of a baseball. Now let’s use this as a real life example using woman #1 and woman #2 in an example again. Let’s say for arguments sake, both women are 5' 5" tall and both weigh 140 lbs. Woman #2 does not lift weights or do any kind of strength training. Her dress size is a size 12. Woman #1on the other hand, lifts weights and follows a strength-training program each week.  Her dress size is a size 8. If these women were standing side by side people would definitely think that woman #1 weighed less than woman #2. But in reality they both weigh exactly the same.

How can that be?

Think of what I said before, muscle takes up less space than fat. Of those 140 pounds that each woman weighs, what’s the percentage of fat and muscle on each woman? I would venture to guess that woman #1 has a very low body fat percentage and woman #2 has a much higher body fat percentage. How did woman #1 get such a low percentage of body fat?  Two words—STRENGTH TRAINING (in addition to cardio exercise and eating healthy, but this article is just touting the immense benefits of strength training).

That brings up another good point I’d like to make. The weighing scale is the worst indicator of losing FAT. It will tell you that you’ve lost weight, it’s great at that. But what if you lose 10 pounds of fat and replace it with 10 pounds of muscle?  Will you have lost weight? According to the scale, NO! Will you have lost FAT? Absolutely, and I guarantee that your clothes will be a lot looser on you and you will look a lot better. If you can do one thing with your scale I would recommend throwing it in the garbage, or at least getting rid of it.

Well all right, you say, "I'll lift weights, but I'm only lifting light weights and doing lots of repetitions."

This is another mistake a lot of you are making. This is not the ‘wrong’ way to lift, but it is certainly not the only way to go about strength training if your goal is weight loss. There is and should be a place in your fitness program for higher repetitions, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you do with weights.

Women do not have enough of the male hormone, testosterone, to get big muscles. You probably couldn't even get big and bulky if you tried to. So, is it all right for you to lift heavy weights with fewer repetitions? ABSOLUTELY!!

Let's take a moment now to recap some of the main ideas to take away from this article:

•Lifting weights will not make you bulky (it will make you leaner and more toned).
•Muscle is more compact and denser than fat and actually takes up less space than fat.
•The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn (even at rest!).
•Every good strength training program should include light weights with more repetitions and heavier weights with fewer repetitions.

Easy Steps To Avoid Depression

There seem to be so many people who are depressed that we really should take a look at the causes of depression in the first place. The factors that contribute to depression are well-known, and well-researched, but what causes it is not quite understood. New studies have uncovered some of the factors that contribute to the probability of people developing depression.

Stress

Stress takes the first place prize. It's true that any stressful environment or situation can lead to depression. It can be anything such as social stress, getting a job, relationship difficulties, worrying about money, staying up late, lifestyle out of control, pressures of school and getting good grades. Other events that could cause depression are: death, change of job, moving from one place to another; even the fear of the unknown can cause depression. The list is endless. While these events cannot be avoided, we must come up with an effective stress coping mechanism to be able to thrive even in stressful situations because they are never going to go away. Stressful situations just keep changing.

Drinking and Drugs

People who take drugs and alcohol are more prone to depression. When these substances are used at a young age, they can effect a a person's brain in negative ways. These substances help make the person feel good temporarily, but in most cases, people become addicted.

Drugs release dopamine in the pleasure center of the brain. For example: delicious food boosts dopamine release by about 50 percent. Sex, on the other hand, doubles this number. However, drugs can increase dopamine release anywhere from four to ten times. This unnatural high almost certainly leads to depression after the high goes away. This substance is the surest way to fry brain circuitry.

Drugs make a person depressed more than it makes him happy. This effect will spiral downward until the person doing drugs will want more and more of the substance to break the cycle of depression that follows each high and so the addiction is born.

Not Enough sleep 

Studies show that up to 40 percent of adults do not get the proper amount of sleep per day and among students, up to 71 percent complain of sleep disorders and lack of sleep.

Sleep is essential to a person's health. During sleep, the body repairs itself and reorganizes thought. Lack of sleep contributes to a lack of coherence in brain waves. This scenario often leads to depression. Sleeping during the day and staying up late also interferes with the body's natural rhythms. This can lead to a sense of depression.

Here are few ways on how to prevent depression.

Sleep is a vital part of preventing depression. Balance your life with enough rest and exercise everyday. Most people require seven to eight hours of sleep per day.

Keep some regularity in your life. Orgaize your activities so they can come at expected and regular times. If your weekly, daily or monthly routine is set then your body has time to get used to the activities. This will lead to a reduced chance for depression to set in.

Don't push yourself beyond your limits. Keep stress in check and try to avoid stressors if you can. If this can't be done, then try to deal with the stressors in a manner that minimizes the damage it causes.

Sunlight and exercise can help the brain to function a higher level. Make time to enjoy the sunlight and try to stay active in the daylight when possible.

Keep away from alcohol and drugs. They may seem attractive, but all they really do is cause havoc in a person's life.

Make at least one warm meal daily a priority. Good eating habits and good health are important when keeping away from depression.

Have fun every day. Nothing takes the load off of depression like some good old fun time. Social activities such as chatting, joining a support group sports, and other hobbies can do wonders towards healing a stressed out and busy mind.

Depression can be avoided and treated and it can be fun doing so. Follow the above mentioned tips for a brighter and happier disposition each day. You will look and feel better for it!

5 Secret Ways to Show Your Love to Your Partner

There are many ways to express love to your partner other than quoting the actual words "I Love You." Usually the fire in relationships dies down after a while and the feeling of your heart pounding with the excitement of being with your significant other is not felt nearly as often, or even at all.

So, how do we get back that love, passion and warm feeling that wraps around us and penetrate our thoughts in the beginning of a relationship?

Many say actions speak louder than words so below I have listed 5 secrets of seduction to help you show your partner how much you truly love them:

1. Flirt

This is a light-hearted seduction with the intent of conveying love! Why not send a sexy text message or email while you are at work? This reminds the other person that you are thinking about him or her. It also increases the intensity of love so that you actually look forward to seeing each other when you return home from work.

2. Candles

According to Feng Shui, the seduction candle is red and the ingredients are musk, patchouli, pine, cedar and juniper. This secret of seduction can put back the romance in your relationships. Why not fill your room with scented candles and turn off the lights just to relax in each others arms? The extra effort goes a very long way!

3. Food

It is said that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," however this is also thought to be the secret of successful seduction of women too. Show your love by setting up a surprise dinner for two. Add flowers, soft music and incense to create a seductive love nest. Aphrodisiac foods such as oysters, chili, chocolate, figs, honey and walnuts are said to aid in the stimulation of your loved ones hormones.

4. Love Letters and Poems

Why not leave a love note for your loved one? This can be posted in the bathroom or kitchen before you leave to work. You could also leave a nice love poem under the pillow so that your partner finds this at night before bedtime or first thing in the morning. Or send a hand written love letter to their work address. This will stir up the feeling of love in the privacy of your bedroom as well as in your relationship. Inspiration can be taken from music or love poem books.

5. Get Away

There can be a lot of distractions in your relationship such as work or children. There are many short vacations available for the weekend or just for a day. You may arrange a trip to the Health Spa or a Hotel so that you are in a different environment than usual where you can both relax and concentrate on each other.

Using the five techniques above to show your significant other just how much you truly love them will certainly spice up your love life, strengthen your relationship, and keep you and your partner happy for years to come!