Saturday 2 April 2011

When should I exercise? Morning, noon or night?

There's no actual better time to exercise, you can exercise at anytime of the day that you prefer. Exercising in the morning can be a great way of starting the day as you get the heart pumping and blood circulating through your body after having spent a few hours asleep with no activity. And it also gets exercising of your to-do list for the day. It takes away the chance for you to "put it off for later". Exercising in the afternoon could be very hot and you have to make sure you're even more properly hydrated because of the heat. My favorite time to exercise is at night as it's not so hot. But anytime of the day is a great time to exercise.

How do I have a healthy lifestyle?

A healthy lifestyle is something that definitely can't be forced. You can be successful at it for awhile if you force it, but in a lot of cases, you'll end up back where you started. You can start by taking walks and gradually build it up to a regular exercise routine, after you stick to your exercise routine for awhile, you'll realize some pretty big changes in yourself. You'll naturally have less of an urge to eat stuff like chips and even soft drinks, instead your body will crave healthy stuff like vegetables and water. A diet plan in that sense is not even necessary as you'll be more in tune with your body and you'll naturally be consuming healthier food. But if having a diet plan is a must for you then add the diet in after having stuck to your exercise routine for at least two weeks. Never do it all together or it might be too tough to maintain. A healthier you is a process that should be gradual so that it can be maintained.

Sunday 20 March 2011

How to get started with Tabata Protocol

Before I started doing the Tabata Protocol for hindu squats, I did 200 hindu squats daily. And even then I am always breathless by the time I'm done with it. I think this protocol is great because no matter how fit you are, you'll always finish the exercise breathless. This is because tabata is not about a certain weight or a certain number of sets or reps. As you get better, you end up doing more reps for each set and its an exercise that really grows with you. No matter how fit you get, you'll find that the 4 minutes of tabata has been as intense as the first time you ever did it. However, the intensity of this workout might be scary at times and cause you to shy from doing it, so start out slow with one session of tabata a week and slowly build it up. However, before you start this, do consult your doctor regarding your current physical condition and the intensity of this workout.

Update on Maltese pushups

I've realized that these pushups are really great, have been able to stop doing bicep curls yet my biceps have grown a bit. Still working towards the full planche pushup so check back for more updates!

Gain lean muscle mass

Before we go into "how" to build lean muscles we should first look at which groups of people have lean muscles and which have bulky muscles so we can have an understanding of what we should do to achieve lean muscle growth. When I say lean muscles which group of athletes springs to mind? Gymnasts for one have great looking lean muscles. And when I say bulky muscles, bodybuilders pops straight into my head. Very simply, if you want to have bulky muscles, do what the body builders do. And if you want lean muscles do what the gymnasts do. I don't mean you have to do what the gymnasts do exactly, but basically using body weight training is enough if you want to build lean muscles. Weights are more effective if you're into the big muscle thing. But if you want lean muscles, you don't even need weights to do it. I'm not saying that weights won't help, but they aren't necessary.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Gain muscle mass

Gaining muscle mass in theory is pretty simple. You need to provide your body with a reason to build more muscle mass, simply said it means that you have to use heavier weights to tell your body,"hey, I need to lift heavier stuff so I need more muscle to do so." For example, when I first started doing 50 pushups in a day I realised that my muscles were growing bigger, but when I progressed to doing 200 pushups daily, I realised that my muscles weren't growing any bigger! Why? Because there's a big difference between muscle strength and muscle endurance. Regardless if its 10 pushups or 200 pushups, obviously my muscles have the strength to lift my body, so it doesn't increase in mass, it just increases the muscles ability to endure that weight for longer. And lets face it, although it might be a personal achievement to do loads of pushups in a day, how does that help you in your daily life? So if you're trying to gain muscle mass, you have to continuously increase the load to tell your body to give you more power (strength training). And of course, sufficient rest and nutrition is important as well. For me I give my muscles 36 to 72 hours to rest before doing strength training again. Regular pushups getting too easy for you? Checkout my home workouts section here.

Trying to build chest, biceps, triceps and back?

I've been doing a variation of the maltese pushup as I'm trying to progress to a full planche pushup. It's a killer on the upper back, chest, biceps and triceps. And it works your core pretty well too. Will be continuing with these and will update you guys on how I'm getting along with the planche pushups. Check back for updates. =)