Ab work

One of the biggest myths about ab work is that you should be doing ab work everyday.  This could not be farther from the truth! Abs are a muscle group and just like every other muscle in your body after a workout your abs need a few days of rest.  Exercising breaks down your muscles and tissues so that proteins in your body will repair and rebuild the muscles to make you bigger and stronger.  The process of rebuilding muscles only happens during the days of rest where you are not exercising that specific muscle group.  If you continue to work the same muscle group everyday you are not giving your muscles any time to repair and rebuild.  This will actually have the opposite of your desired affect on the muscle.  One sign that your muscles need rest is if you become sore after a workout.  This is your body's way of telling you, "give this muscle group a break while it grows."  You should never exercise a muscle group that is sore!
To maximize your ab training you want to make sure you hit all the parts of your core muscles.  A strong core is important to developing overall body strength and balance.  Test show that athletes with a strong core are less likely to have injuries.  The core muscle groups are the pelvic floor muscles, transversus abdominus(front abs inside the obliques), multifidus(Deep muscles in the back), internal and external obliques(outside abs above hips), rectus abdominus(front ab muscles), erector spinae (sacrospinalis) especially the longissimus thoracis, and the diaphragm.  There are many exercises to work all parts of your core.  Remember to train hard and rest so your muscles will rebuild and become stronger!

The truth about eating late

Does eating later in the night really make you gain more weight?  Say it aint so!!!  I am person who loves nothing more than a delicious late night snack, so I have struggled with this problem question for awhile.  To my relief a lot of people say a calorie is a calorie no matter what time it is consumed.  However after a doctor visit that I weighed in at the highest I had ever been, my doctor asked me about what and how late was I eating.  After I told him about my late night snacking, he told me about many patients of his that have lost weight from cutting their stomach off at 8 o clock.  Ever since I have been on a search for the truth.
Many dieticians believe that since your metabolism slows down later in the evening, any calories consumed are not being burned as fast so the remaining calories are stored as fat.  A pioneer in the nutrition field Adele Davis gave her advice to "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and, dinner like a pauper."  Like most of you out there Im thinking, what about dessert?  Which is exactly the problem.  Another health and nutrition expert Jaime Mass agrees with the calorie is a calorie idea.  The problem is studies suggest that most people consume half or more of their daily calories after dinner. 
Many of the foods we consume late are usually for the wrong reasons.  When I think about all the late night snacks Ive had, maybe only 2% of them were healthy and because I was actually hungry.  All the other times were simply because I wanted something delicious to eat and satisfy my sweet tooth.  Another reason is because for some reason I couldn't sleep so I was bored and used eating as an activity.  Lastly  after a long stressful day sometimes the only thing in your mind to get excited about is that left over chocolate brownies from some holiday that you plan on devouring after dinner.

So Ive made my decision that after dinner I am simply cut off!!! I know that once I look in the fridge one snack leads to another which leads to another.  So when I think about what I can have for a snack and I glance at the fridge I remember o quickly look away and remind myself, nothing good can come from opening that refrigerator!  Do whatever works for you but make sure it works!

What is worse for an athlete Cigarettes or Marijuana

Even though both substances are very harmful to your lungs and can severely affect your training, I have known some great athletes who smoke either cigarettes or marijuana or both.  I have listened to many debates about which is more hazardous to your health and training without coming to any set answer.  The only thing each side was able to agree on is that if you want to be in the best shape possible, don't do either.

However, for those of you looking to quit and cant decide which one to quit first here are some interesting facts to help you make your decision.

Marijuana contains THC which is a bronchial dilator.  This means its opens up your lungs to clear out anything hazardous like smoke and dirt.  Cigarettes contain nicotine which does the opposite and makes it harder to cough anything up.

When equal amounts of Marijuana and Tobacco are smoked, Marijuana deposits four times as much tar as Cigarettes.  This is because Marijuana joints are unfiltered and are more deeply inhaled.

In a study at the University of California San Francisco frequent Marijuana and Cigarette smokers went through test using a spirometer.  This device measure air flow when breathing in and out.  The experiment also measured individuals lung capacity (how much air your lungs can hold) and air flow rate (how quickly you can blow out air).  With Cigarettes there was a straight relationship showing the more Tobacco the individual used the worse he did on all of the experiments.  The same could not be said about the Marijuana users who actually showed an increase in air flow and lung capacity up to a certain level.

Both Marijuana and Cigarettes are shown to cause throat irritation, coughing and tar build up.

Remember the best way to stay fit and healthy is to refrain from both so stay smoke free my friends!

Morning Workouts

What are the benefits of working out in the morning?  Is it really that necessary to lose even more sleep in order to work out in the morning as opposed to just working out when you get home from work?  There are many reasons morning workouts can greatly increase your weight loss and increase your fitness.

1.  Gets workout out the way- Working out in the morning ensures that you actually do your work out rather than blowing it off or forgetting.  When you procrastinate on working out many times you end up not working out that day at all.  It also can create conflicts with other things that might pop up during the day that require your attention

2.  Amps your metabolism- When you work out in the morning your heart rate and metabolism is moving faster for the rest of the day.  So you are naturally losing more calories when your not even doing anything at all.  The elevations in heart rate and metabolism also breakdown any food you eat quicker therefore, burning more of the calories you consume.

3   Positive attitude- For many people working out in the morning puts them in a good mood for the rest of the day.  It gives a sense of accomplishment leaving you feeling good about yourself and what you have already achieved.

4   Becomes exciting- After you develop a routine and begin to work out in the morning regularly it becomes easier and exciting.  Your morning workout will become something you look forward to doing as an escape.  This might be the only time during the day you get to yourself so you will begin to cherish that sweet free time to release any tension or stress.

Mike Tyson Work out

Mike Tyson has always been an inspiration to me for not only his skill in the ring, but for the work he put in outside the ring.  His dedication and discipline to perfecting his craft has inspired me throughout the years. Maybe he can do the same for someone else, so here is his daily workout which he did 6 days a week! Remember to take at least one if not two days to let your body rest!

4am: get up and go for a 3 mile jog
6am: come back home shower and go back to bed 
10am wake up: eat oatmeal
12pm: do ring work (10 rounds of sparring)
2pm: have another meal (steak and pasta with fruit juice drink)
3pm: more ring work and 60 mins on the exercise bike (again working those huge legs for endurance)
5pm: 2000 sit-ups; 500-800 dips; 500 press-ups; 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell and 10 mins of neck exercises
7pm: steak and pasta meal again with fruit juice
8pm: another 30 minutes on the exercise bike then watch TV and then go to bed.

 Before jogging in the morning, Tyson did a lot of stretching followed by 10 jumps onto boxes and 10 bursts of sprints, then he went jogging. At 12pm he sparred. At 3pm he focused on mitt work and heavy bag work inside the ring. He warmed up for his ring work with light exercises such as skipping, shadow boxing or speed ball. At 5pm Tyson did 10 quick circuits, each circuit consisting of: 200 sit-ups, then 25-40 dips, then 50 press-ups, then 25-40 dips, then 50 shrugs, followed by 10 mins of neck work on the floor. Tyson said that the shrugs is what built his shoulders up to help him punch given his short arms. 


No matter how lazy Im feeling, this video always makes me want to get up and train!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIiej3l9BXg

Cardio Work

Training for soccer it is important for me to get a lot of Cardio work in before the season.  The drills I usually do involve jogs mixed in with a few sprints.  This is much better for you than just jogging long distances at the same speed.  Long distance running can wear on the joints and has been know to lead to tendonitis.  Plus I like to incorporate variety in my routine so it dosnt become boring.


Exercise #1  Start at a football or soccer field at one corner facing the short side 

* Lightly jog two laps around the field as a warm up and then get a good stretch*

Lap 1- SPRINT the first short side, then JOG the long side, JOG the short side, JOG the long side until you end up where you started.

Lap 2- SPRINT the first short side, then JOG the long side, SPRINT the short side, JOG the long side

Lap 3- JOG the short side, SPRINT the long side, JOG the short side, JOG the long side.

Lap 4- JOG-the short side, SPRINT the long side, JOG the short side, SPRINT the long side.

Congratulations you have just finished one circuit!!

Try to see how many circuits you can do and then try to improve a little more each day.  If you feel like you cant do anymore you can even rest by walking one of the sides and include that in your routine.  The point is to push yourself and give your maximum effort so that everyday your are improving.

High Intensity Training

High Intensity Interval Training is a great way to improve your glucose metabolism and burn fat.  High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT is a cardiovascular workout combining short periods of extreme physical intensity followed by medium or low intensity period.  The formula for the ratio of high intensity exercise to medium or low intensity exercise can vary depending on the athletes desired goals and physical ability.  I go for a 1 to 3 high intensity to medium intensity ratio during my work out for 30 minutes.  To give you an example, I get on the treadmill and put it on a setting where im giving 90-100 percent of my effort for 30 seconds.  After that 30 second period I switch the setting to a lower level where I am only expending about 50-60 percent of my energy for a minute and a half.  After the minute and a half period I repeat the process for about 30 minutes.  HIIT workouts are sure to help you raise your heart rate and help you burn more fat! See how many intervals you can do and try to increase that amount a little bit each day.

POF

When doing reps the amount you do should always be to POF which is point of failure.  I usually do 3 sets of an exercise with the weight set so im getting about 15 reps before POF on the first set.  Really push yourself!  When you think its all you've got, push for just one more rep and than ones more.  Really motivate yourself to the point where you can someone holding a gun to your head and saying "give me one more rep or ill shoot you."  Imagine that every time you feel like quitting until you really cant do anymore and you have to quit halfway through your rep and congratulations you have reached Point Of Failure!  Go to POF every set and you are sure to get a good workout worth being proud of.

Getting the beach body

With the warmer weather fast approaching, the question on everyone's mind is how to obtain that ripped summer body as quick as possible.  I would be less than truthful by acknowledging this was not on my mind as well.  One problem I often encounter is my love affair with food.  I absolutely enjoy eating foods and usually the worst ones and at the worst times.  Who among us can say they yearn for some delicious warm gooey brownies right before bedtime with a tall glass of cold milk to wash it down?  However,  it may seem that there is barely anything you can eat that would be classified as "healthy."  Also what about the unhealthy foods that we cherish so much and cannot seem to keep from taking more than just a few bites although though we know how bad they are for us?  Are you saying that I will never be able to enjoy these delicious foods again in order to be fit and healthy?  Are there any types of diets for people that have an extreme sweet tooth?  These are all questions that come across my mind daily as I attempt to work myself into the sound and fit body I want.  I will share my experiences such as the positives and negatives in hopes to share just what it takes to get "ripped."