Not Your Average Fitness Tips

Archive for September, 2010

A proper stretching routine can be a great addition to any training program.  In fact, I’d argue that muscular flexibility workouts should be a part of everyone’s life, exerciser or not.  In my opinion, the best stretches for flexibility are included in a PNF stretching routine.  PNF stretching is also known as isometric stretching or contract-relax stretching.  I learned about these flexibility stretches from Pavel Tsatsouline’s Relax Into Stretch.

Muscle Tension

Muscle tension is the primary thing preventing the average person from doing a full split.  Pavel has a great test: put one leg to the side at a ninety degree angle and then repeat with the other leg.  In essence, you can do a split with each individual leg, but when you try to do both at once, your body simply won’t let you.   What happens is that based on previous experiences, your nervous system doesn’t let you stretch your muscles beyond a certain point.  This reflex causes your muscle to stiffen resulting in muscle tension. Continue Reading…

Every once in a while, I like to physically challenge myself by trying to do as many pushups and pull ups as possible.  These are two functional exercises that incorporate the most basic of movements: pushing and pulling.  However, many people are challenged by how to increase pushups and increase pull ups.  I’d like to discuss the grease the groove technique that I learned from Pavel Tsatsouline’s The Naked Warrior.

Before I get into the background and specifics, I’ll get right to the bottom line.  Grease the groove is an amazing technique that can help you improve exercises like pushups, pull ups, or even bench press and squats.  And the secret ingredient is…

PRACTICE

Let me say that again three times in case you missed it…practice, practice, practice.  Big secret, right?  Well, in reality, practice does make perfect. Continue Reading…

I’d like to take time to review daily vs. weekly intermittent fasting weight loss approaches.  A refresher on intermittent fasting: you go for short amounts of time without eating, allowing you to cut calories without sacrificing your favorite foods.  Intermittent fasting has personally allowed me to lose a significant amount of fat while still enjoying foods like pizza, hamburgers, and ice cream.  A side effect is that it’s helped reduce my dependency on food and has actually helped me focus on eating healthier overall.  I still like to have a cheat day once a week which is fine because intermittent fasting ensures that I eat at a weekly caloric deficit. Continue Reading…

A lot of people that are beginning an aerobics routine wonder about their target fat burning heart rate.  However, they fail to consider that you don’t actually burn the most fat in the so-called fat burning zone.  So, how did this myth perpetuate itself?  Simple, there is some truth in the statement but it’s been skewed by people who want to make exercise easier. Continue Reading…

In my opinion, forearms and hands are some of the most underrated muscles in the body.  While forearm, grip strength training, and hand strengthening exercises won’t necessarily add mass or build impressive looking muscles, these types of workouts can help develop functional strength.  General forearm strength is required for a number of different lifts.  If you’re forearms aren’t strong, they can be a limiting factor.  Additionally, once you start doing forearm exercises, you might be surprised to find that your other lifts actually improve.  Hand and grip strength can help with everything from a simple activity like carrying a suitcase to any number of sports such as wrestling, martial arts, football, and baseball. Continue Reading…

A common question that probably goes through your head is how often to change workout routine.  There are a variety of reasons as to why you might like to change your workout routine, but I’d like to go further and say that you absolutely need to change your workout routine after a certain amount of time.  Even by switching up little things, you can provide your body with a great muscle confusion workout. Continue Reading…

Have you ever looked in the mirror, stood up really straight and flexed your abs?  Compare that to slouching over and sticking out your stomach.  Which one looks better?  It’s pretty obvious that your abs look their best when properly flexed.  Want a neat trick to help your abs look like this all the time?  Then start doing breathing exercises to get your abs to look like Bruce Lee abs.  The stomach vacuum exercise and Farmer Burns stomach flattener are two unique exercises to help you tighten your stomach.

Before I describe these exercises in detail, let’s get something out of the way.  These breathing exercises will not help you get six pack abs.  Sorry, you’re going to have to lose body fat through diet and exercise before that happens.  A good six pack abs routine that includes core exercises like planks and renegade rows (like this free Abs Blueprint report) will help tighten abs, but for abs to be really sharp, the only cure is high intensity exercising combined with a fat loss diet. Continue Reading…