One of the fundamental principles of exercise prescription, specifically resistance training, is the principle of exercise order. Which exercises do I do first? Which do I do last? Does exercise order really matter? From personal observations in the weight room, it would seem to many it doesn’t matter. However, if you want an effective exercise program you must consider the order of the exercises.

Multi-joint Exercises

As a general rule you should perform complex multi-joint exercises first in your exercise routine while you are fresh. Typically, multi-joint movements require more skill and energy to perform. Such exercises include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and pull-ups. Nothing annoys me more than seeing someone perform bicep curls until their head explodes, then go right into lat pulldowns (notice, lat pulldowns, not pull-ups…anyone who does pull-ups knows better than to work their biceps beforehand).

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Such is the case when using the pre-exhaustion technique. For example, perform a set of dumbbell flys to exhaust the

pectorals then going directly to a set of bench press. In this case, however, you are pre-exhausting the larger muscle group, not the smaller muscle group.

Single-joint Exercises

Since single-joint movements typically require less skill to perform and are not as taxing on the body, perform them after multi-joint exercises. Performing single-joint movements at the end of a workout session will ensure a more efficient and effective routine. Of course, there will be exceptions, which should be addressed on an individual basis.

Note: Agility drills & Olympic lifts have been excluded from the discussion of exercise order. However, typically agility drills & Olympic lifts, respectively, should be performed before multi-joint exercises.

Chad Anderson, CSCS operates a personal training, fitness programming, and consulting business while also holding a full-time position as a senior personal trainer at a commercial health club. He holds a BS degree in exercise science with a minor in nutrition and is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. You can visit his website at http://www.afitsolutions.com

AK Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

High Blood Pressure – Exercise – Risk of Death

Here’s the simple truth – if you have high blood pressure then regular exercise will significantly prolong your life.

Moderate exercise is a critically important part of maintaining good health. People who are physically active are less likely than their sedentary counterparts to develop chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other heart or cardiovascular disease.

There is a strong link between physical activity and death rates. In particular, physical activity is associated with a reduction in the risk of death due to heart disease.

The amount of physical activity that you undertake will predict your risk of early death even if you have multiple heart risk factors or if you already have heart disease. (Risk factors include having high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol and smoking).

Many of us the the Western World have a high risk of heart disease because of our lifestyle habits and our body weight.

Many good research studies show at most risk tend to be more sedentary. Could this be you – do you fit this description? If you do then for goodness sake do something about it .. Now!

A

recent research study looked at nearly a thousand American adults below retirement age. They followed these people for eight years and collected a huge amount of data about their health and their lifestyle.

The study found that those with risk factors for heart disease were about thirty percent more likely to die than the rest of the population. They were also more likely to live a sedentary lifestyle.

Taking regular light or moderate exercise reduced the risk of early death by a dramatic amount.

What’s the message?

We should all be more active. If you have high blood pressure, are overweight, have diabetes, a high cholesterol or are a smoker (or more than one of these risks) – then you need to increase your level of exercise … and start now. Your life, quite literally, depends on it!

Dr Gordon Cameron is a doctor based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has a special interest in blood pressure treatment.You can discover how to lower high blood pressure and about the problems of low blood pressure treatment by visiting Dr Cameron’s websites.

He has also written about using acupuncture for high blood pressure.

High Blood pressure online encyclopedia.

Power walking is the new jogging. It is seen as a safer alternative to running with similar health benefits but at a lower intensity. In thirty minutes you can burn up to 250 calories and give you a great cardio-vascular workout. It sounds too good to be true! In fact, I think it is. Its supporters claim it is less likely to lead to injury than running but I would argue that the advice given to power walkers can lead to long-term problems.

Walking is a natural activity that the majority of us can manage from an early age until the end of our days. But what should be an easy, natural activity has been transformed into a ‘proper exercise’ by creating a technique that increases the amount of effort required. Let’s look at some of the advice.

1. Keep your head up, back straight and body aligned. – How would you follow this advice? I see people tightening their backs and fixing their posture. How do you know if your back is straight? If you knew how to align your body it would already be aligned!

2. Stride out, but don’t lengthen your stride so much that your knees lock, which can lead to injury. – Any attempt to stride out will land your foot in front of your body increasing the stress on your knees. Whether running or walking your feet should land under your body and your head.

3. While walking with hand weights or weighted gloves….. – What does walking with weights added to your arms or legs do to your body dynamics? How does it changes your normal walking

or other activities? You will build muscles to be used in a way that is not your natural movement. You can even buy weighted vests!

4. Pump your arms. – This action is generally done with the shoulders raised adding tension to the neck.

Do you need to do any of these actions to walk? Are they going to aid free, natural movement? On the contrary, they are most likely to interfere with breathing, movement of the joints and the action of reflexes that would coordinate the activity for you. I admire the commitment of the many people I see power walking whilst I’m out running but I firmly belief they would be far better either running or just going for a ‘natural’ enjoyable walk and still keep fit anyway.

I see people who use power walking with tight back and stiff joints through getting into the habit of applying too much effort in all their activities. Excessive muscle tension can lead to a reduced awareness of your own body resulting in biomechanical difficulties. If you walk tall (without trying to tighten your back) and let your and swing from your shoulder joints and your legs from your hips it makes for an enjoyable activity.

Roy Palmer is a teacher of The Alexander Technique and has studied performance enhancement in sport for the last 10 years. In 2001 he published a book called ‘The Performance Paradox: Challenging the conventional methods of sports training and exercise’ and is currently working on a new project about The Zone. More information about his unique approach to training can be found at http://www.fitness-programs-for-life.com

GA Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

My name is Greg Ryan. I am a fitness expert, professional bodybuilder, personal, trainer to movie stars, former employee of Kathy Smith and over 50, 000 hours of paid personal training sessions under my belt. For the last twenty years I have been able to continually make progress, stay consistent and have some fun in my quest to be in better shape. One very important technique you need to learn is how to monitor your heart rate. I have been able to keep my body fat low for years because I am efficient, not because I know it all.

Here is what I mean:

Low Body Fat Technique #2: Work your heart smarter not harder!

One of the most neglected parts of any workout program is not making the most out of your cardiovascular training time. Cardiovascular training is when you exercise your heart at a certain level of effort. Something is better than nothing, but just going through the motions just to say you’ve done it, is not working smart.

One of the most important and effective things you can do to lower your body fat is to monitor your heart rate as you exercise. How do you do that and what is the right rate for you?

You do that by taking your heart rate during your workout. While performing your cardiovascular workout begin by taking your

pulse at the eight minute mark and then in ten minute increments there after.

How you determine your heart rate is to complete the heart rate zone formula:

220-age x 60-85 % – Target heart rate zone.

The simplest way to do this is to determine your heart rate zone top number and bottom number. Second divide both numbers by six. This will give you to small numbers to make sure you strive for in a ten second period. If you are too low, beef it up. If you are too high, you will burn muscle. Stay in the zone and you will be surprised how the body fat will start coming off.

But, you have to push yourself. You can not slack off on this. Just getting on the treadmill for a nice little stroll only satisfies the mind and not the body. Do not neglect this part of your workouts. It could make or break your success.

The goal is to maintain your heart rate in the zone for 20 to 40 minutes.

START LOSING WEIGHT THE RIGHT WAY FOR GOOD TODAY! FREE MINI COURSE click here http://www.resolutions.bz – Discover the common sense way to lose weight with out dieting that the doctor’s DON’T want you to know. Greg Ryan is a best selling author, former employee of Kathy Smith, and high profile fitness expert.

Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

The Arnold Press, also known as the rotational shoulder press, isolates the deltoids with little other muscle emphasis, with exception of the triceps. It’s a good idea to start out with a light weight when first attempting this exercise, until your muscles get used to the movements.

This exercise can be performed sitting or standing. It may be beneficial to perform this exercise sitting with adequate back support to reduce the chance of injury.

To begin, take a dumbbell in each hand and bring them up to your shoulders as if you had just curled them. Your back should be straight and your head should be facing straight forward.

From this position you should begin rotating the arms out away from your body, while simultaneously lifting your arms up over your head. By the time you are halfway through the movement your elbows should be pointing away from your body.

At the top of the movement, the arms should be extended without locking the elbows. From this position, retaining a fluid movement, reverse the procedure and return to where the dumbbells are level with your shoulders in front of your body. Continue with the exercise until you’ve reached the designated rep completion for your set.

John Gibb manages http://www.weight-lifting-4u.comThe site dedicated to weight lifting.

Many people spend the majority of their workout time building non-functional muscles that rely on hinges and bolts to function properly. That’s right – I’m talking about working out on weight machines. Weight machines have a strong application towards: 1) helping to provide stability and support for a weak muscle (i.e., just starting into an exercise routine or coming off a long break); 2) helping to provide a safe motion when balance is a factor (i.e., individuals with neuromuscular deficits); or 3) assisting in fitness maintainance during an injury (i.e., performing leg extensions when rehabilitating a sprained ankle). The rest of the time, people who work out on weight machines are simply building muscle that has no significant functional application. By this, I mean that none of the small, stabilizing muscles have to work to support the major muscle groups that are exerted during a repetition on a weight machine, because the machine is providing the stabilization. Therefore, the major muscle groups are strengthened, but when an individual is no longer supported by the weight machine, they simply have a muscle that can provide a strong contraction with little to no support from the other stabilizing muscles. While this is completely counterproductive for an athlete, it can also cause injury to the average fitness enthusiast.

Take, for example, the machine shoulder press, an exercise in which you sit your butt in a back-supported chair and press overhead two handles attached to a lever. Normally, in an everday situation, if you were to press a weight overhead, or exert a force in that direction, you would not be in a seated position and the item you are pressing overhead (i.e., a milk crate, a child, a basketball, etc.) would not be supported by a lever. Furthermore, the machine moves straight up and down, whereas a free object moves in countless planes of motion (i.e., up and down, side to side, around, etc.). The absence of multiple ranges or planes of motion basically means that you are getting a very strong contraction from the deltoid (the main “overhead presser”), while completely ignoring the rotational muscles (i.e., the rotator cuff), the stabilizing muscles (i.e., the neck), and the supporting muscles (i.e. the feet, legs, hips, torso, etc.). So let’s say you’re out playing catch and throw a baseball. The deltoid is able to produce a very strong force, but if the rotator cuff, or other supporting muscles such as the low back, are not in the same shape, you’re either going to tear your rotator cuff or throw your low back out. And that, my friends, is why weight machines can often cause more harm than good (not to mention the fact that they burn up to 1/4 the calories of the exercises I’m going to talk about next).

I’d like to briefly introduce you to functional exercises, the alternative to working out with machines. The best way to think about functional exercises is to picture the primal man or woman (we’re talking caveman type). Functional movement patterns simulate many of the same movements our “primal ancestors” would have had to perform in order to survive in an unpredictable environment, whether tracking a wild animal (or being chased by one!), lifting objects such as logs and rocks, or fighting via swinging, throwing, and pulling (such as a bow). Let’s split these functional movement patterns into seven basic types.

-Squatting: Involves bending at the knees and the hips, while keeping the back straight, and lifting a weight

from the ground or pushing a weight that is placed on the back or chest. Imagine your primal ancestors squatting down and lifting a heavy rock to dig for grubs, or using the legs and hips to lift a heavy log up onto a primal structure. Exercise examples: Barbell or Dumbbell Squat, Squat to Press.

-Bending: Involves flexing and extending at the waist, preferably in a standing position. Often, this type of movement would have been combined with a squatting, lifting, or rotating motion, such as hoisting a heavy rock out of a field. Exercise examples: Medicine Ball Overhead or Side Throw, Deadlifts.

-Lunging: Involves stepping forward with just one leg, and bending that leg down. This motion would have been used for either traversing terrain (i.e., carrying hunted game over a log), or stepping into a throw (such as hoisting a spear). Exercise examples: Walking Lunge, Barbell or Dumbbell Weighted Lunge, Medicine Ball Lunge with Twist.

-Pushing: Involves using the arms, chest, and shoulders to force a weight out and away or up from the body, an action that might have been used, for example, when herding animals, pushing a plow, or hoisting a weight overhead. Exercise examples: Standing Cable Chest Press, Push-up, Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press.

-Pulling: Involves using the arms, chest, and shoulders, as well as the legs, to drag or pull a weight towards the body. This type of motion would have been used to pull heavy game animals, row a watercraft, pull a bow, or quickly pull onto a tree branch for safety. Exercise examples: Standing High, Mid, and Low Cable Rows, Pull-ups.

-Twisting: Involves turning and rotating with the torso to apply a force, and would have usually been combined with most of the other primal movement patterns for actions such as pulling, pushing, or lunging. For instance, a twist combine with a lunge and push would comprise a throwing motion, such as hoisting an object like a spear or heavy rock. Exercise examples: Medicine Ball Throws, Cable Torso Twists, Medicine Ball Woodchoppers.

-Gait: Involves moving over terrain, whether walking, jogging, or sprinting. This action would often have been interspersed with other movement patterns, such as walking to track a wild animal, sprinting to hunt it down, then twisting, lunging, and pushing to throw or thrust a weapon. Exercise examples: Sprint to Medicine Ball Throw, Dumbbell Lift and Press to Power Skip.

As you can see, there are countless ways that these movement patterns could be combined to design a workout routine, but there are only a few *optimum* choices. A personal trainer is equipped with the knowledge to put these movement patterns together into a routine that allows for the ideal balance between muscle groups, efficient caloric burning, fat utilization, and metabolic boosting, and injury avoidance. Imagine how much fitter you could be by incorporating all these patterns into your routine, while only using weight machines now and then for some of the reasons mentioned in the beginning of this article.

Head trainer Ben Greenfield runs the online training website Pacific Elite Fitness, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sport Science and Exercise Physiology, as well as certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Personal Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA-CPT & CSCS). For over 6 years, Ben has coached and trained professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes, and helped hundreds of individuals achieve their personal fitness goals. For more information on online personal training and fitness, contact Ben at elite@pacificfit.net.

www.pacificfit.net

IL Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

Health and nutrition experts continually advise us that the more we exercise the healthier we will be. In magazines, the doctor’s office or on television we are never far from information showing us how to exercise, what to eat and how to lose weight. One constant rule, in the expert’s opinion, is that regular physical activity is an essential element to successful weight loss and fitness maintenance.

There are a few tried and true strategies that will help you to stay fit and trim. Most of all, as you plan your personal fitness goals, be reasonable and keep them within reach. Setting unrealistic ideals will only lead to failure.

Keep these tips handy and from time to time check the list to confirm that you are staying on track.

1. Get active and stay active. This will be the most important step to achieve. It is so easy to find reasons not to exercise. Just remember a little light to moderate activity each day will bring great results. Once maintained, even a daily walk will become second nature and you may find yourself actually looking forward to your exercise time.

2. One size does not fit all – understand your own unique body type and find out what works best for you. Set realistic goals for yourself and stay on track. Each day will bring it’s own reward as you feel fitter and energized.

3. Plan a week ahead – Keep a log of your exercise or activity and put it a prominent place like the fridge or notice board. Chart your progress and thoughts in a notepad

and make note of encouraging comments you receive from friends and family.

4. Eat small portions of food and eat often. Do not put your body into starvation and deprivation mode – it will only lead to bingeing. Try to keep an accurate daily food diary. You will be surprised how much good food you can eat and still stay trim and fit.

5. Add a few more extra cardiovascular activities to your day. Whenever possible walk instead of using the car or walk around the block at lunchtime. You will be surprised how many calories you can burn over the course of a week just by adding 10 – 15 extra minutes of daily activity.

As you start to feel more energetic and vital you will begin to see how setting realistic goals will help you to successfully maintain your fitness level long term. Keeping the weight off and staying in shape can actually get easier with time. From all the information available we all know how important it is to stay active and keep fit – so stick with it!

Spas in Canada ©2005

For more information please go to Spas in Canada

Canadian Health Spas offer the ultimate spa experience.

A. Kocsi is co-founder of Spas in Canada. After many years enjoying spas in Europe and drawing upon her knowledge of the corporate world along with an successful career in Public Relations and International Marketing Spas in Canada was was created.

The Spas in Canada website provides a place where premier spas and industry professionals provide useful information to all spa lovers everywhere.

Contact email: spas@spasincanada.ca

GA Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

Terry Hershey Park is a great park like area which runs for miles and miles along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou. It’s a great place to walk, run, take your dog, mountain bike and just generally enjoy the outdoors and we’re fortunate to have such a large open space within the city limits of Houston for exercise and fresh air.

As I was finishing up a run this morning in this park and passing a group of walkers, one called out to me asking what time it was. I called back that I was sorry but I didn’t know the exact time. The group seemed suspicious of my answer and then I noticed that they were staring at the watch like appendage on my wrist. Then it sunk in: they reasonably thought that my heart monitor was a watch and I was just being uncooperative in not answering them. I raised my wrist and pointed at the monitor and pleaded with them that it was just a heart monitor, not a watch. They still seemed put off and weren’t buying my explanation.

So it seems there are still a lot of people out there who aren’t familiar with a heart monitor. But you should be. This is a simple device, which normally consists of an elastic band that wraps around your body near the rib cage and holds a device that snuggles close to your heart to read your beats per minute and then sends a signal to a watch-like device on your wrist. Strap into the device and put on the wrist receiver and you have a

continuous digital readout of your beats per minute by just glancing at your wrist.

The heart monitor is an extremely useful piece of exercise equipment and if you are serious about exercising you will want to wear one during your various exercise routines. Listening to your heart will tell you a lot about your fitness level. What heart rate range are you normally training in? What is your standing or resting heart rate? How many beats per minute do you drop as you recover from strenuous exercise in the first minute, and thereafter? The list of useful functions of a monitor could go on.

A rough guide to your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220 and some suggest that you should use a slightly higher figure than 220, say 225, if you are a man. This is only a rough guide and there are more sophisticated ways to gauge your estimated personal maximum heart rate. Once you have a feel for your max heart rate, a monitor is going to tell you how strenuous a workout you are getting at any one point in time. This is incredibly valuable information. The heart monitor is invaluable for circuit training and interval training. Generally speaking, getting your heart rate up is going to give you a more complete workout and burn more calories. As always, check with your doctor before starting a workout program and discuss your target heart rates with her.

Listening to your heart will pay huge fitness dividends.

This article is sponsored and published by getfitsource.com/blog

AK Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.

Whenever you read about exercising, you often see the caution from an author about talking to your physician before you start any exercise program. This is sound advice, as long as you don’t take it too far. Because of this common caution, many people seem to think that physicians are experts on exercise. That isn’t usually the case.

Most physicians are trained in working with diseases and how to cure them. They don’t know much more about putting together a proper exercise program than the average, educated adult.

If you have an existing medical condition, or you’ve been told you have certain risk factors (such as: being a smoker, or being excessively overweight) you definitely should talk to your physician before you start an exercise program. But, talking to them, and getting exercise program advice from them, are two different things.

If you have a good physician, he or she will probably give you clearance to exercise and tell you if there is anything you need to be careful about. They may suggest you have an exercise physiologist or an experienced trainer design and supervise a sensible program. If you have a severe medical condition, they may suggest that you join a supervised exercise program such as a cardiac rehab program at a medical facility or hospital.

It seems to me that too many people use the

need for talking to their physician as an excuse for not starting an exercise program. They just can’t find the time for an appointment, or they don’t want to pay for an extra visit. Well, if you’re generally in good health and see your physician for regular check ups, you probably don’t need to check in with them before starting an exercise program. Of course if it’s been a long time since you did any exercise, you’re over 65, or you have a specific medical condition, it sure would make sense to at least call your physician and tell them what you want to do.

In almost all cases, the benefits of a sensible exercise program far outweigh the precautions you may need to take. So:

Everybody knows that lactic acid accumulates when we exercise at a high intensity, but there is much more to lactate than that. It plays an integral role in many of the body’s metabolic processes.

1. Lactic Acid is Always Present

It’s always being produced. At rest your lactic acid levels will be about 1 millimoles/liter (mmol/L). As exercise intensity increases so does the production of lactic acid. It’s not until you pass your anaerobic threshold that it reduces your efficiency. For most people this is approximately 4 mmol/L, or 70-80% of their VO2max.

2. Not Just Oxygen Deficiency

It is commonly thought that it is the lack of oxygen that causes the increased production of lactic acid. Whilst it is a contributing factor, it is the absence of the “carrier molecules” NAD (nicotinomide adenine dinucleotide) and FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) that have a much greater effect. They play the important role of transporting hydrogen into the cells for use in the production of energy. If they are not around, the hydrogen joins with pyruvate to produce lactic acid.

3. Lactic Acid as Fuel

Lactic acid is usually removed from the muscle tissue within 30 minutes after exercise. It is used by liver, heart, and kidney as a source of energy. The liver can also convert it back into glucose, where it is released into the bloodstream for muscle use. It can also be converted into

glycogen for storage.

4. Fatigue and Lactic Acid

Most people know that increases in lactic acid causes a decrease in your ability to perform but few actually know how this occurs.

Firstly, you’ll have a decrease in energy. The increase in hydrogen reduces the production of ATP (energy) by inhibiting key ezymes involved in its production.

Secondly, your muscles won’t be able to contract as often or with as much force. For a muscle to contract we need calcium to attach itself to binding sites within the muscle. The more calcium attached, the more forceful the contraction. The problem occurs because hydrogen competes with calcium for bindings sites.

5. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is the pain you feel in the muscle 24-48 hours after exercise. It was once thought that lactic acid caused this but it has now been proven wrong.

It’s the excessive mechanical force which results in damage to the muscle or connective tissue. The body responds by repairing it and this stimulates sensory nerve endings which results in pain. This is why it usually occurs when you first start an exercise program, or when you train at an unusually high intensity.

Ray Kelly has a degree in Exercise Science and has worked in the fitness industry for 15 years. For more information on health and fitness, go to: Fitness, Weight Loss, and Heart Attacks!

AR Fitness Tips – diet plan, exercises, weight loss and gain muscles latest information.