Showing posts with label bodybuilding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bodybuilding. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Gym Is For Everyone!!

A lot of people have misunderstanding that weight training (or commonly call gym in Malaysia) only for those who want to gain size, weight, and be muscular. No, no, this is wrong! Weight training is for everyone, and it suit for both male and female. May be you don't like to be "king kong" or "Hulk", but bear in mind that it not as easy as you think to be muscular and gain size. It need few years effort and discipline, and a lot (really a lot) of supplements and diet (no curry, no mee, no 2 bowls rice, no buffet!).

Okay here is light article from TheStar.com.my that tell you the advantages of adopt exercise to your lifestyle. I duplicate a copy of the article here, in case the link broken in future.
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Exercise your right to love life

There’s nothing like physical activity to make you feel better.
DO you feel exhausted and stressed out by the time you get home? Do you refuse to do anything but sit and relax? Well, try not to do that!
Did you know that by exercising at a moderate pace for as little as 30 minutes a day, you would feel a lot better mentally? It has been proven that exercise improves the appetite, improve your mood and even relieve depression. Not only that. You will also feel that it is easier to sleep at night!
And yet, many Malaysians shy away from exercise, which explains why one out of four Malaysians is overweight and 7% of the adult population is obese. (Overweight = BMI = 25; obese = BMI = 30.)
In our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, exercising and being physically fit seem to take a backseat. The more convenient our lives get, the lazier we become!
It has been proven countless times that regular exercise is vital for good health.
Such inactivity is one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in Malaysia, the most common form of the disease, usually occurring after age 30. Today, nearly 1.2 million people in Malaysia have diabetes and about 650,000 people will be diagnosed this year alone (Source – http://www.diabetes.org.my/article.php?aid=110).
Inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance and other factors that trigger other kinds of diseases.
One of the simplest and most effective ways to bring down blood glucose levels, cut the risk of cardiovascular disease (which is currently affecting 5% of Malaysians) and improve overall health and well-being is physical fitness and exercise. (Source – http://cureresearch.com/c/coronary_heart_disease/stats-country.htm)
If you have not exercised for a very long time, start by exercising 15 minutes two to three times a week. You can increase your workout duration and intensity once your body gets tuned to it. Remember, endurance is not built in a day.
It is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling the onset of any kinds of diseases.
Before embarking on any exercise plan, especially if you have been a resident couch potato for an extended period of time, do consult with your family doctor. If you have cardiac problems, your doctor may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Generally, the best exercise plan should include both cardiovascular and weight training exercises. Such a plan will help burn calories and increase the muscle to fat ratio, which will then increase metabolism rate and gain or lose weight.
Exercise doesn’t have to be a rigid activity that you dread. Your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk neighbourhood walk, walking the dog or simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The important thing is that you keep moving and work those muscles. Every little bit really helps. However, lifting that can of carbonated beverage is not a form of exercise!
With improved fitness level, you’ll feel much better and better yet, you will be able to keep up and spend quality time with active friends and family!

Taking part in family sports activities such as badminton, riding the bicycle or even planning a day of picnic and swimming at the beach with your family members will not only help you and your family stay physically fit, but also strengthen family ties.
In addition to exercise, it’s also important to eat the right things. A complete and balanced nutrition consist of a complete and balanced nutrition plan.
So what is a complete and balanced nutrition plan?
Complete nutrition is a diet with all the needed vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, and essential fatty acids.
A balanced nutrition consists of an appropriate consumption and distribution of macronutrients – which are fat, carbohydrate and protein – essential in providing energy, building body tissues, and controlling body processes.

As important as having to eat right, it is equally hard to ensure that your daily dietary intake consists of complete and balanced nutrition, especially amongst individuals who lead busy lifestyles.
A great way to ensure that your body is receiving complete and balanced nutrition every day is through the consumption of nutritional supplements.
As there are many types of nutritional supplements available in the market today, the important thing is to choose one that suits your lifestyle and taste buds.

Eating the right foods can keep your organs healthy and even keep your teeth and bones strong for later on in life. In addition to this, eating right will also help to provide you with the stamina you need in order to exercise better.
Eating healthy, giving your body proper fluids and exercising is the only answer to living a productive and quality lifestyle.
Fitness coupled with eating right is an important way to maintain great health, but more importantly it can help you enjoy and love life better!

This article is courtesy of Abbott Laboratories.

Why exercise?
THE benefits of regular exercise include:
Fewer aches and pains
Increased overall energy levels
It can help reduce stress levels
Exercise keeps organs, like your heart, healthy
It burns off unnecessary fat in your body and keeps your weight down
Exercise can help increase brain activity
Playing team sports can improve your social life

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Workout Tips For Abs

Best way to get abs development (synonyms with six-packs) is don't do situps! This exercise uses hip flexors and can cause lower back pain. Crunches are far better then situp.

Crunches
Crunches
For more detail description, visit Crunch at wikepedia.com

Except for crunches, you may use a variety of exercises, including decline situps, flat V situps (flat V situps example), leg raises, weighted situps and turning movements into your ab routine.

Example of decline situps
decline situps
For more detail description of decline situps from MuscleAndStrength.com

Advice: You should not work your abs every day. Your abs are just like any other muscle group if you are working them to exhaustion (which is the best way to develop muscle tone), they’ll need about 48 hours of recovery time between workouts.

Extra: When doing pumping, wide-grip give you best exercise for creating the "V" shape.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

What Is Whey Protein?

Whey protein basically is a by product when manufacturing cheese. While the original whey (not go through additional process) nutrition fact consist of major carb and fat. Refer to link below for detail nutrition facts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey

The Whey protein is protein process from whey, thus call whey protein. There are several methods to process whey, 3 major methods are concentrate, isolate and hydrolysate. Hydrolysate is the best way to extract protein from whey but the process is expensive. Thus both concentrate and isolate (better if compare to concentrate) are common process use by most supplement manufacturer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey_protein

The Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein (or Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard) is protein process via isolate method (major content). While the manufacturer claim their proprietary stack include major content of whey protein from isolate process (Microfiltered and Ion-Exchange) and minor of concentrate process (Ultrafiltered). And very minor whey peptides, or whey protein process via hydrolysate method, label by Optimum Nutrition as HydroWhey Hydrolyzed Whey Peptides. All this process is to remove fat, cholesterol, lactose and carbohydrates, while increase the protein quantity per weight ratio (as high as 79% protein).

Link: Official website of Optimum Nutrition

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

How Your Body Burned Fat??

I come across this article at bodybuilding.com (my favorite site for bodybuilding info), and feel that I should share with everyone, since this is truly benefit to all human being. So, this is my very first article about bodybuidling.... on this blog.
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How Your Body Burned Fat?

Body fat storage is controlled by many different factors ranging from diet to hormones to receptor density. Of importance to this article is receptor density. Without diving to deep into the nerdy science stuff, a receptor can be looked at like a lock that a key (i.e. a hormone) fits into.

Activation of the alpha1 and beta-receptors is lipolytic (causes fat breakdown) while activation of the alpha2 receptor is anti-lipolytic (blunts fat breakdown). Stubborn fat (eg: your stomach/abs) areas have a high density of alpha2 receptors, making it harder for fat breakdown to occur in that area.

In order to burn stubborn fat we must override the inhibitory effect of the alpha2 receptors. Now that we know the cause of stubborn fat areas we need to learn how to burn the fat!

Stored Triglycerides-Body Fat We Want To LOSE

While all cells contain some fat, it is mainly stored in muscle (intramuscular triglycerides) and in adipose tissue (body fat). Adipose tissue is the body's main fat storage site and the fat we all want to lose.

Adipose tissue is divided into individual cells called adipocytes. These adipocytes hold stored triglyceride (1 glycerol molecule bonded to 3 fatty acids) droplets, which serve as a source of energy for the body. These droplets make up 95% of adipocytes' volume. In order for this storage of potential energy (60,000-100,000 kcal) to be used and to LOSE BODY FAT (everyone's goal), it must be mobilized through lipolysis (the breakdown of triglycerides).

Lipolysis involves splitting the triglycerides into a glycerol molecule and 3 separate fatty acids (FFA). Once the fatty acids diffuse (exit) from the adipocytes, they bind to plasma albumin (in chinese 白蛋白, a protein in the blood) in order to be transported to active tissues where they can be burned. In order to lose body fat, the fatty acids must be burned! (This is why we need constantly have sufficient protein to body thus to help you reduce fat and increase lean muscle)

Transport Of FFA To Be Burned!

Blood flow is of prime importance to the transportation of FFA away from adipocytes and through the circulation to active tissues where they can be burned. This is especially important during exercise where energy requirements are heightened.

Low blood flow could cause the accumulation of FFA within adipose tissue resulting in less available FFA to be oxidized and a greater chance of FFA to be turned back into triglycerides. What is the best way to increase blood flow? Exercise! (This explain why you eat protein only won’t reduce your fat, and you trust slimming without exercise is nonsense.)! In addition to this certain supplements can also increase blood flow (eg: Caffein). Increasing blood flow throughout the body will assist in losing weight by transporting FFA to where they can be burned. (And this is the reason why exercise make you slim down. The more you move, the more FFA burned)
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Full article at: Stubborn fat stack - making your trouble areas disappear (Bodybuilding.com)