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Product of the Month DEC’09

December 11, 2009 By Kyle Leave a Comment

The Book of Muscle

The Book Of Muscle is the real deal. The first half of the book goes in depth on the mechanics of your muscles on the skeletal system. It teaches you how your muscles work so that you can have a better understanding of how to train.
The second half of the book includes some great stretches followed by three 6 month workout routines. That’s 18 months of progressively more difficult workouts shaping your body into Greek God’s.
I have just completed the intermediate workout and I can say that I feel stronger and harder then I did before, with less time each week in the gym!
Buy it here.

Filed Under: Old Posts Tagged With: book, muscle, Products

Post Natal Recovery

November 27, 2009 By Kyle 1 Comment

So you have just become the new mother of bouncing baby boy or girl. The last 9 months has been damn hard work except for eating whatever you want, whenever you want. Now that baby is out it’s time to start looking after yourself again. It is very important to start exercising as soon as possible and by this I don’t mean 5km runs, I mean slow and steady reintroduction to physical activity. Sorry did I say it’s very important? I meant YOU MUST make time for exercise after your birth.

Your child will require you to be at your top physical condition over the next 15-20 years as they grow up. It is very important to your child that you are healthy and that you pass those healthy living methods onto them. So here is a step by step guide of what you should be focusing on in the months after your pregnancy in the way of exercise.

gift_from_above

Weeks 1 – 6

Your abdominals have been stretched from carrying your baby and your pelvic floor from the child birth. The exercises I list below are also suitable if you had a cesarean.

TVA Breathing. This exercise will repair your TVA (Transverse Abdominal) and pelvic floor and prepare them for future exercise.
- Start lying on your back with your knees bent like you are about to do some sit ups.
- Breathe out deeply expanding your stomach. The first 2/3 of the breath should expand your stomach and the last 1/3 should expand your rib cage.
- Breathe out sucking your stomach in. Imagine sucking your belly button through to your spine. At the same time imagine squeeze your pelvic floor (like you are holding on for number ones AND twos).
- The breathing may feel backwards, but this is actually how we are meant to breathe.
- You should feel your muscles tense in your lower abs.
- Hold your tummy in for 5 seconds before breathing in again and restarting from the start.
- Remember to squeeze your pelvic floor as well.
- Repeat this 10-20 times.
- Take a short rest and then repeat the steps 5 times. So 5 sets of 10-20 reps.
Toe Taps. Once you have mastered your TVA breathing move onto this exercise.
- Start with 10 TVA breaths to get your TVA activating fully.
- Keep in that position as you move onto Toe Taps.
- When you breathe out and squeeze your tummy, lift one foot about 5cm off the ground keeping your TVA activated (tight).
- Hold for 5 seconds before slowly lowering.
- Take another deep breath in expanding your tummy.
- On your next breath out repeat the process with your other foot.
- Remember to squeeze your pelvic floor as well.
- Repeat 10-20 times.
- Like the TVA Breathing repeat 5 sets per day. You only need to start with TVA Breathing on the first set.
Outdoor exercise like walking
Water based exercise (provided any wounds have healed) like swimming or water aerobics
Indoor exercise like yogo and pilates
For the best recovery I would recommend doing your ab exercises plus swimming or walking everyday if possible.

Weeks 7-12

Now your abdominals will have began healing up nicely. If you haven’t moved on to Toe Taps, now is the time. We will introduce two new exercises and your range of other exercise available will increase.

Supine Hold with pelvic tilt. Add these new exercises on top of your toe taps.
- Lie in your TVA breathing position on your back,
- Keeping your shoulder blade and your feet on the ground, lift your hips up by squeezing your glutes.
- Hold this position for as long as possible. As a long term goal aim for 60 seconds.
- Repeat this exercise 5 times with a short break in between.
- Oh, and remember to squeeze that pelvic floor.
Mini Crunch. Now your abs are healing nicely we’ll at the exercise to give them some more strength.
- From the TVA Breathing position try to lift your head and shoulder blades off the ground.
- Keep your head tucked.
- Your hands should be sliding along the ground to your feet.
- This is a very small movement, you should be aiming to produce a large contraction in your abdominals.
- Hold for 5 seconds be lowering back down in a controlled manner.
- Repeat 10 – 20 times with 5 sets total.
You may now include other outdoor exercise like bicycling and power walking and indoor exercise such as light aerobics and light resistance training

Weeks 13+

From this point you may ease yourself back into any previous exercise you were doing before your pregnancy. If you weren’t exercising before hand now is a great time to start. There are plenty of young Mother’s fitness groups around as well as plenty of classes you can attend to get the ball rolling. Group fitness is a really fun way to get into a fitter lifestyle.

Filed Under: Old Posts Tagged With: mini crunch, post natal, post natal exercise, post natal recovery, pregnancy, pregnant, supine hold, toe taps, tva breathing

The Benefits of Exercise: Reduce Chance Of Heart Conditions

November 24, 2009 By Kyle Leave a Comment

This is a new series or articles that I will be running. The reason is that I think a lot of people think going to the gym or training is simply to improve physical looks. While this is some peoples goal, if you are healthy inside your body will reflect that naturally. And that is why we as humans are attracted to muscles, tight butts and nice curves, because typically this is a sign of a healthy body. That however is another topic entirely. This first article will cover the fact that your heart health benefits a lot from training and exercise.

A few notes about heart related illness:

Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) is usually found in people who are overweight, physically inactive or have a lot of salt in their diet.
- It can also be exacerbated by high stress levels from work and other activities.
- Exercise is crucial in weight loss and is proven to help you manage stress knocking out 3 of those factors.
Cardiovascular Disease is caused by a breaking off of plaque in an artery. The plaque is usually caused by high bad cholesterol which is caused by really poor diet.
- It kills one Australian every 10 minutes.
- Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, diabetes and being overweight all contribute to the likeliness of getting heart disease.

Best types of exercise to improve heart health:

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Cardio): HIIT involves short intervals of hard and medium intensity whether it be on a treadmill, cross-training, punching bag or outside. The idea is that the short bursts of super intense training will keep your heart rate elevated even through the medium intensity parts. Pushing your heart rate up high will force your heart to grow stronger. Increasing heart strength is crucial in lowering blood pressure.
Steady state cardio such as walking and cycling is excellent to get your heart pumping, especially if you are sitting around most of the day at work which your heart unchallenged.
Play a sport. Not only is this great fun, it is also a good way to make new friends and find other people with the same fitness goals as you.

Best changes to diet to improve heart health:

Try not to add too much salt to your food. Avoiding pre packaged, frozen and take away foods are a really easy way to lower your salt consumption.
Eat a balanced diet, including food from all the food groups in appropriate proportions.
Keep alcohol to a minimum, avoid binge drinking.
Quit smoking. Not really diet related but definitely worth mentioning.

Filed Under: Old Posts Tagged With: cardio, cardiovascular disease, featured, high blood pressure, HIIT, hypertension, LISS

Fitness Myths Busted!

October 14, 2009 By Kyle 4 Comments

With the resources of internet at the tip of our fingers, information is very easy to come across. However, how do you know what is real and what is just recycled from other websites? I have decided to write an article on it, I will tackle one diet myth and one training myth that really bug me.

Myth 1: Eating 6 meals a day ‘speeds up’ you metabolism

The eating 6 meals a day or eating regular meals to lose weight is one of the oldest myths in bodybuilding and weight loss. Unfortunately it is regularly propagated in books and all over the internet as a must when trying to lose weight.

The majority of studies done on meal frequency have shown no improvement in body composition (ratio of body fat to lean tissue) or higher thermodynamic effect in higher frequency meal diets. Instead what a lot of these studies have found is that breakfast is simply a must for improving memory, testing, nutrient levels, weight control and muscle protein synthesis.

On the other hand at over 100kg’s my required protein intake to build muscle is 140g – 200g (1.4 – 2 x kgs) per day and seeing as recent studies state that I can only absorb 30g of protein in each meal, I need to eat 5 – 7 meals per day to reach those protein requirements. Eating regular meals also keeps blood sugar levels elevated, therefore providing constant energy throughout the day. It has also been shown to reduce hunger levels during the day, however from personal experience I feel fuller eating 5 larger meals rather than 6 or 7 smaller meals.

So what do I do? I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. The meals are always around the same time with the snacks being placed in when I get hungry (Morning Tea, Afternoon Tea or Supper). As for what you do, do what is convenient. Don’t try to move heaven and earth so you can eat your 6 meals of chicken and rice a day. Instead aim for consistency in when you eat and how much you eat. Following this will allow you to reach you goals.

More can be read on this topic in an excellent article by Alan Aragon.

Myth 2: Bench press is key to upper body development

Go into a gym on a Monday night, any gym around the world and you will find someone using the bench press. Monday is unofficially known in gym circles as ‘International Chest Day’ in which most gym goers train their favourite body part for the first day of the week. It’s kind of strange how you then don’t see them until next week… and how their upper body sucks.

I’m not trying to say bench press is useless, it just needs to be prioritized correctly. The muscles of the back (upper, middle, lower trapezius and latissimus dorsi) are the largest muscles in our upper body. Working on these muscles will build a truly impressive physique. The muscles of the back (specifically the rhomboids, lower and middle traps) serve to keep our shoulder blades retracted and out posture upright. Strengthening these muscles with pulling exercises will counterbalance the bad posture we get from slouching, bending over desks, pushing open doors etc etc.

Now doing bench press (which is another pushing exercise) compounds our bad posture even further. So if you are training only bench press for you upper body you are going to end up looking like one of our neanderthal ancestors. We therefore need to ensure that we do at least enough pulling exercises to counter our pushing exercises.

I know I have strayed a little off topic, but as you now understand, bench pressing alone will only building an impressive slouch. For true upper body strength and looks, don’t forget to pull :)

Bad Posture

Filed Under: Old Posts Tagged With: fitness facts, fitness myths, metabolism, posture, workout