Tips of the Week #1

 What You Need to Know to Improve Your Bench Press

If there is one question that we've all heard at the gym it's: "How much can you bench?" It's the most common question in the gym. No wonder why bench pressing is the most performed exercise in a gym. So let's get this out of the way; I bench 330lbs for a one-rep max.

The bench press is the most known exercise in and outside of the gym. Everybody knows what bench pressing is. Powerlifters, bodybuilders, gym rats, football players...etc., everybody trains on the bench press. It helps boosting the performance of an individual in many sports.

It's a great overall upper body exercise, to gain strength and of course to built a nice chest. Now there is one more reason for it's popularity. It's the Ego! The Squat and the Deadlift are powerful exercises too, but they're too hard, making them less popular.

The muscles involved when bench pressing are mostly the pectorals, triceps and shoulders.

Let's view several ways that will improve your bench press dramatically:

1. Do the bench press as the first workout of the week. You will be properly rested and full of energy.
2. Train heavy! Increase the weight, lower your reps to a maximum of 5 instead of your usual 8 to 12 reps. Do more sets. Between 7 to 12 sets of 3 to 5 reps each.
3. Don't work to your max too often. Once per month is enough, and make sure you have 72h of body rest before performing it.
4. Train with a partner! It would be a tremendous help have a spotter and it's good for motivation.
5. Take more rest than usual. Around 3 to 4 minutes between sets.
6. Workout the rest of your muscles! To become stronger with the bench press you need powerful shoulders, triceps, and lats.
7. Eat! You need to increase your protein and complex carbs intake. This will assist in muscle growth and recovery.
8. Rest! Train your chest no more than twice a week. Don't overtrain.
9. Set a reasonable goal. Keep a journal of your progress.
10. Work on your form! Bad form = injuries and lack of muscle growth. It's that simple.
11. Have some variety in your chest workout! You need to work every angle of your chest for best results. Experiment different exercises to assist your bench press.

The bench press is a fundamental exercise. But don't fixate on it.

The Effectiveness of Core Training

Core Training for a Better Well-Being.

Core training includes exercises from your abdominal muscles, your lower back and hips, up to your shoulders muscles. The muscles of the core run the length of the trunk and torso.

Core exercises should be an important part of your fitness programs. More than often those exercises are neglected during workouts.

What Are the Benefits of Doing Core Exercises:

• Having strong core muscles will make it easier to do most daily activities
• Increase range of motion
• Reduce back pain
• Reduce muscular imbalance
• Getting a better posture
• Help prevent injuries
• Improve coordination
• Develop endurance and strength

Core training exercises are for everybody. For example, a person working behind a desk will benefit tremendously from core training. Different levels and techniques will be applied depending on the individual. There is a plenitude of exercises, so working the core can be far from boring. Core training is the best way to stabilize the body in motion and space. Building a strong core will help you reach your fitness goals faster. Yoga and Pilates are a good examples of core workouts.

Core training will give a major boost to any athlete, from a runner to a martial arts artist. The athlete will improve his/her overall fitness performance, thus being beneficial for his/her sport.

Core training can be executed with or without equipment. Equipment such as: barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, kettlebells, TRX, resistance bands, and stability balls can be used during the workout. Equipment brings a more dynamic training to the workout.

There are a lot of little muscles in your torso that only get worked from certain angles. You should always use a variety of exercises. Movements performed can be similar to a specific sport.

Core training should be included in your weekly workouts 2 to 3 times a week. It should include between 3 to 5 exercises. There are tons of videos and books out there which can provide you with large amount of information on how-to exercises.

Don't forget, having a strong core is essential for a better fitness lifestyle.

Diets: Mistakes and Myths #2

M&M #2: You Should Starve Yourself to Lose Weight WRONG!

I cannot count how many times I have heard people talking about losing weight and the only logical way was for them to starve themselves. They at that point tell you that it's OK, because they're on a "diet". They obviously want to lose weight at a very fast pace and in their eyes, dramatically cutting down a big amount of calories is the way to go. Let me make it clear: Nobody should ever have the feeling that they need to starve themselves to lose weight. Ever!

It is logical to think that in order to lose weight we need to lower our caloric intake, but there is a correct way to do so. Starving yourself won't help you with that. I can assure you 100% that starving yourself to remove those few pounds will only bring you two results: 1.) you will only harm your body (even if you can't see this happening), and 2.) the weight that you lost during that starvation diet will come back twofold. Losing weight is important but not as nearly as much as being in good health.

Let's Talk More About the Health Issues from Starvation and the Non-Productivity of It

During that starvation process a few symptoms will occur:

1. Lack of energy resulting in fatigue
2. Lack of concentration
3. Dizziness
4. Stomach pain
5. Difficulty to get warm
6. Depression 
7. Mood swings

Now that's what you can feel and see. With starvation, obviously malnutrition occurs, and this will bring a whole new set of health issues that you won't feel or see at first. Let me paint you a picture.

The body needs a certain amount of calories to function properly, even when dieting. If the number of calories drops too low, here's what will happen: 

Your body will enter a survival mode; it will grab onto anything that it can to find to use as energy. After the body's glycogen stores are exhausted, the body will break down fat. But fat can't be converted back to glycogen. The body will then break down protein and tissues (muscle and bones). The minimum that your body needs to function won't be filled anymore. Within a certain amount of time, serious health issues will appear. For example the size of the muscles around your heart will reduce, leading to low blood pressure and a slow pulse - if this continues, it will lead to heart failure. Your lungs will be affected, and your kidneys (dehydration, electrolytes imbalance) and liver will also reach failure. All that doesn't sound like fun, especially when good weight loss results can be achieved without going through that starvation diet process.

Those crash/starvation diets will result in "yo-yo" dieting. The weight lost will be mostly water weight and lean muscle mass. And as previously explained, all this will come back to haunt you. You will have lost a few pounds but you will have the look known as "Skinny Fat". To maintain a proper diet you need to have a healthy balance of eating. Other posts will be about different diets and goals. 

But on average you need to follow a few rules during a weight loss diet. You need to adjust your diet for the long term. Short starvation cycles will never work in the long run. You need to eat to lose weight. Crazy? Absolutely not. You need to eat five small meals per day. Why is that beneficial when wanting to lose weight? You are boosting your metabolism - you're in what's called a thermic effect. It's like leaving the engine on all day, so your body keeps working and working. This keeps your metabolism in high gear. One other rule of weight loss is exercise. Working out burns fat. Plain and simple.

In conclusion: Eat five times a day, eat protein (complete) in each meal, eat whole wheat carbs, veggies and fruits, low fat, stay hydrated all day and exercise 3 to 4 times a week. Stick to these guidelines and you will be on the path to a better healthy life style.

The Importance of Supplements

An Approach to Supplements 

Dietary supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry. The popularity of supplements has grown in the past decade. In today's world, our eating habits have changed. A lot of people aren't getting the proper nutrients because of poor eating habits. Those bad choices contribute to an increase of fat, too much sugar consumption which leads to a lower intake of vitamins and minerals. Also, let's not forget, stress is a bigger factor in today's life. When a person is stressed the body has more needs for vitamins and minerals.

Supplements are not just for athletes. There are many benefits to using supplements properly. A lot of physicians will recommend dietary supplements. Actually, a recent survey shows that 60 - 75% of the physicians in the US use supplements themselves, and that 79 - 91% of them will recommend them to their patients.

Supplements are valuable tools that can enhance your life. A lot of people can benefit from them: pregnant women, seniors, children and teenagers, vegetarians, athletes, people with eating disorders, people with medical conditions - in other words: Everybody.

Supplements are neither a medication nor a food; they "supplement" our diet. They don't substitute for one! They bring essential nutrients that our body needs. Can we get everything we need from food without taking supplements? Yes. But, to accomplish this, one would have to consistently eat a large amount of different types of food, and it's very unlikely to assume that people will follow a well-balanced diet. So the simple answer is NO.

So what to take for supplements? Well, the simple answer will be: What do you need? As previously explained above, different groups of people have different needs. This can become a little bit tricky when deciding what supplements to add to your daily food consumption. Not knowing what to take, what we need, how much to take, and with maybe limited knowledge in this domain. I won't establish any supplements description in this post. Several posts will be created for different supplements and the need of their use.

I will at least suggest one to you: Take a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement. Studies have shown and recommended that multivitamins and mineral supplements should be taken daily by men, women, and children. The Harvard School of Public Health supports the daily use of vitamins to protect ourselves from many diseases. A lack of essential nutrients will make our bodies more susceptible to illnesses. The Council for Responsible Nutrition has shown that taking daily multivitamins will boost your immune system, reduce stress, improve bodily function, improve mental health, decrease the risk of heart disease and colon cancer, and it has anti-aging benefits.

Talk to your doctor about multivitamins, and together you can decide which one is the best for you. You can also go to a trustworthy supplements store and talk to a qualified person.

So now that you have learned all of this, what are you waiting for? 

Diets: Mistakes and Myths #1

M&M #1:  You should eliminate a certain group of food when dieting. WRONG!

A lot of people think that being on a diet means eliminating a lot of nutrients. They often eliminate several groups of food and eat primarily one or two. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function properly. Studies show that an average woman should eat no less than 1200 calories per day. For an average man it's around 1800. However, these are just general numbers, but it should be said that an active person will require more calories than a sedentary person.

Your body needs calories from different types of groups of food to ensure that the body's nutritional requirements are properly fulfilled. (energy your body needs to pump blood, breathing, keeping your body warm and the energy needed for the functioning of all the essential organs)

People tend to follow what they read in magazines, books, and what they see on TV. We're also taught by the makers of those well-known Fad Diets to eliminate certain essential food groups. Fad Diets are those hundreds of popular crash diets that promise you rapid weight loss results. Most of the fad diets out there are unhealthy and can lead to serious healths problems. But let's put the fad diets on the side right now, they will have a post of their own.

There are six classes of nutrients your body needs to function correctly:

1. Carbohydrates
2. Fat
3. Proteins
4. Vitamins
5. Minerals
6. Water

A proper diet needs to include all of the above. The use of this food pyramid created by the USDA can be a helpful guide when creating your meal plan. 

 The current recommended daily balance on nutrition is approximately:

• Carbohydrates: 58%
• Proteins: 12%
• Fat: 30%

Note: These are the recommendations for an average person. When talking about dieting for a purpose and/or a goal these recommendations will change. Specific diets can be followed to promote weight loss, to enhance an athlete's performance, for the purpose of weight gain, and also to maintain a stable body weight.

The Benefits of HIIT

What's HIIT? HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It's a cardio exercise performed at a high intensity level for a short period of time. It's a great cardiovascular exercise, but best of all it's an unbelievable fat burner. That's right, you will burn MORE calories doing LESS cardio. You don't believe me?

Let's check out the stats:

Studies have shown that a person performing HIIT training will burn 9 times more calories than somebody performing traditional cardio. It's also been shown that 2.5 hours of HIIT will produce a similar change when compared to 10.5 hours of your old jogging session.

HIIT is becoming more and more popular, and it's easy to see why: you burn more calories, get an intense workout, get results and of course, all that in a short period of time.

Let's look at a few benefits of HIIT:

-You will improve your athletic performance.

-Burn fat without losing your muscles; that's extremely important. Your muscle won't catabolize.

-HIIT has a direct impact on your RMR (resting metabolic rate). This is the measurement of calories burned when the body is at rest. Basically your body will continue to burn fat following your workout. Studies show that you will burn up to 100 calories more per day during the first 24 hours after exercise because your metabolism stays elevated.

Now all this comes with a price. You are going to workout harder than you're used to. Intensity is the key. Because HIIT has to be performed at a high intensity level and is so effective, you should only do it for 7 to 20 minutes tops, depending on your fitness level.

The guidelines for a good HIIT session:

• Always warm up for 5 to 10 minutes at a moderate pace. Cool down for 5 minutes.
• HIIT should be done 2 to 3 times a week max.
• Never do a HIIT session first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.
• HIIT is not for beginners, people out of shape and people with cardiovascular problems.
• HIIT should last 7 to 20 minutes (that does not include the warm up and cool down) .

Creating a HIIT program:

First: You can use any cardio equipment you want. Treadmill, Stationary Bike, Elliptical, Jump Rope and Stair Master.
This form of exercise interfaces between a low intensity level and a high intensity level. There are several parameters to take into consideration when performing HIIT.

1. The number of repetitions
2. The speed/intensity
3. The rest period and the duration

Progression is important. Several routines can be created. Here are 3 typical phases:

1. The 1:2 The low intensity period is double to the high intensity one.
2. The 1:1 The high intensity period is equal to the low intensity one.
3. The 2:1 The high intensity period is double to the low intensity one.

For example let's take the 1:1 phase:

-Warm up for 10mns on the treadmill at a low intensity.

-30s at low intensity (Fast Walk)

-30s at high intensity (Sprint)

-Repeat 9 times for a total of 10 minutes.

-Cool down for 5 minutes.

You should be between 85% to 90% of your MHR (Maximum heart rate) during the high intensity phase.

To calculate MHR subtract your age from 220. For example, for a 28 year old: 220 - 28 = 192. Now to determine for 90%, take 192 x 0.90 = 172.

Like I said earlier, HIIT should be performed 2-3 times a week maximum, and yes, you will burn more calories than with traditional cardio. But I didn't say that you should not do any traditional cardio anymore. Cardio is great! You should still add in some cardio and spread it out during the week; just obviously not on the same day that you have your HIIT session.