via mensfitness.com

The science behind fitness and health is wild, crazy and ever changing. One minute a study supports a particular claim, then next it’s the worst thing you could humanly do to or for yourself. Sometimes you’ll even find the same questions looming around the industry with mixed reviews, perspectives and findings. In efforts to calm the madness, each week here at MensFitness.com we’ll scour the Internet, tap into forums and ask our friends on Facebook and Twitter about what question in fitness we can get some firm answers to.

This week, we explain how much you should be working out.

Q: How often should I train per week for different goals?

A: Whether you want to put on size, cut down and get lean, add strength, or just maintain, the amount of times per week that you train can be a direct correlate to your results. As a general baseline, if you’re looking for any sort of results, I’d strongly recommend that you don’t spend any less than three days per week in the weight room. You won’t be accomplishing anything by training less than this, and your weekly training volume will simply be too low, which won’t have lasting effects on strength, muscle volume, or caloric burn. But let’s get more specific.

When training for fat loss and cutting, focus on doing 3 to 4 workouts per week. Fat loss workout programs often involve total body training, large movements, and a lot of energy expenditure to kick start the metabolism. That’s a lot of effort, and can run your energy stores thin if you don’t give yourself adequate recovery time. Put a day of complete rest or light cardio in between each weight training workout, and you’ll make good gains.

When training for size, look to increase your total weekly volume. In this case, our muscles have a “quota” they need to hit weekly so that they each receive a sufficient amount of training to promote growth. Usually the protocol used is a muscle group isolation split, which often calls for 4 to 5 workouts per week. My favourite split is Day 1 – Back, Day 2 – Chest, Day 3 – Legs, Day 4 – Shoulders, Day 5 (optional) – arms.

When training for strength, remember to focus on the big 3 movements. Squatting, deadlifting, and bench pressing target the most major patterns of the whole body. 4 days per week can do the trick when adding in a day for isolations, weak links and specifics. Strength training requires a lot of heavy sets, and heavy sets can have a greater impact on fatiguing the nervous system. That said, recovery time is vital.

Of course, interval training, cardio sessions, and a proper diet all have effects on results, especially regarding bulking and cutting. We do have to remember not to go overboard. Some common signs of overtraining are lowered strength, lowered body temperature, poor sleep quality, increase in body fat/water retention, and susceptibility to illness such as colds, flu, and digestive problems. It’s all about balance, and rest is just as important to your results as pumping iron.

About the Trainer: Lee Boyce

Lee Boyce, CPT is a strength coach based in Toronto, ON. A former Kinesiology Major, Lee competed as a sprinter and long jumper at the National level. His work has been featured in many major magazines including Men’s Health, Musclemag, TNATION, and also on national television. For more on Lee, check him out at leeboycetraining.com, @coachleeboyce and Facebook.

Increasing your fitness level is a great goal. It may seem difficult if you have not exercised regularly, but you can achieve it with the right information. The fitness tips here are going to assist you in reaching your fitness goals. This will make you healthier and make life more enjoyable!

Don’t focus on just using crunches to strengthen your abdomen. Through university studies, it has been shown that 250,000 crunches only burns a pound of fat. Simply doing only crunches means that you aren’t getting as much of a workout as you need. Vary your abdominal exercises for superior results.

Grow your own garden. Gardening is a great workout. Weeding, digging, and being on your knees working the soil is required for a good garden. Gardening is only one thing that can be done at home in order to stay in shape.

Resistance training will build muscle and shape your body. Strength training is a great way to increase your metabolism. This means your basal metabolic rate will be higher. Be sure you give each muscle group a day of rest before working it again.

Daily exercise is the most tried and true path to fitness. Doing this means that there is a purpose to your hard work. It’s best when you begin working out on a daily basis. You will want lighter exercise on occasion so that you can provide adequate rest for your body.

When you are working out, wear comfy clothing. At some gyms you may find are more like fashion shows than a place to exercise, and you may feel pressure to dress accordingly. Make sure that you wear clothes that are comfortable when you are working out. Good workout attire will help you pay attention to getting into shape and not how bad the clothes look or feel.

Do some workouts in the privacy of your own home. You can do things like sit-ups, push-ups and other exercises while you are at home. Invest in a a few dumbbells, elastic exercising bands and an exercise ball. All you need for a good cardiovascular workout is a jump rope.

If you want to maintain a high level of fitness, you’re going to have to make sure you’re flexible. You need to incorporate a stretching program into your fitness routine to ensure that your body stays limber. This will help keep you agile and also help to prevent injuries from happening to you.

The single most forgotten aspect of working out is quality stretching. You can help all of the muscles in your body truly circulate when you stretch before and after each of your workouts. Additionally, tight muscles can be unpleasant. Make time for stretching after each workout to ease muscle soreness and improve your flexibility.

Simple rule for working out to build your body: Fewer reps with heavier weight will build more muscle mass. Begin by selecting a muscle group, such as the chest. To begin, light weights to warmup. 15-20 repetitions ought to be simple with this amount of weight. The second set should involve weights for which you are only able to do 6-8 reps. Add 5 more pounds, and then repeat the reps for your third set.

To add a relaxing element to your fitness program, consider spending some time in a steam room or sauna. Saunas are excellent to use after a grueling workout. In addition, they provide you numerous health benefits. If you have sore muscles, you will find the sauna to be very soothing.

When cycling, slow and steady wins the race. If you pedal to fast you will exhaust yourself very quickly. A steady pace will help to build endurance and, eventually, reduce fatigue. Also, this pace can help you feel when an injury is coming, so that you do not strain or tear any muscles.

Keep a fitness journal. This journal can boost awareness and measure your accomplishments over time. Your physical life might actually hang in the balance of exercise, so treat fitness with that level of urgency.

A vital fitness tip is not to exercise when you’re sick. When you are ill, your body needs time to heal and recuperate. Exercising strenuously during this time can hinder the natural healing process. Your body won’t be able to endure and build muscle at this time. So, halt your workouts until you have recovered. While you are waiting, get plenty of rest and eat well.

Count your reps down instead of up. Instead of counting upwards from zero, try counting down from your chosen number of reps. It will make your workout seem shorter and easier because you are allowing yourself to think in lesser amounts. If you count down you will be more motivated.

Make sure you plan out every day out of the week so that you have time set aside towards exercising. When you lead an unorganized life, it’s far too easy to be forced to eat unhealthy things from a vending machine, fast food chain or to forgo working out. By scheduling your day ahead of time, you can pack a healthy meal and still have time to exercise.

Being fit is the best thing you can do for your health and wellness. If you have not exercised regularly during the past, you might feel overwhelmed, but this is possible if you get the right help. Use what you learned from this article to reach all of your fitness goals.

via aaceipi.org

Although I always enjoy a good cardio workout, I often steer clear of strength training. That’s because it’s probably my biggest weakness, fitness-wise, so I know I should do more strength training–not less.

Thankfully, I’ve recently discovered rock climbing, which provides a great workout for both your arms and legs. It also helps to improve flexibility (another weak spot for me). And even though it seems pretty stationary compared to say, running, after climbing for a few hours you’ll definitely break into a sweat (and burn over 700 calories an hour!).

I had my first rock climbing experience at Chelsea Piers in NYC where I tried belaying, a technique in which you wear a climber’s harness and a partner helps prevent you from falling too far.

I would love to say that I mastered every climb, but the truth is I was utterly exhausted after three hours, and had to repel back down halfway through my last climb.

But I did learn a lot, and, now that I (sort of) know what I’m doing, I’m determined to go back and try again, and maybe even try bouldering, which is rock climbing without the rope and harness.

Here are a few facts and tips I picked up along the way:

Knots matter. Before I could even start climbing up the wall, I was given thorough training instructions on how to tie a figure eight knot. This is what secures the climber’s harness to the climbing rope, so it’s important to master this one!

Be aware of numbers. Rock walls aren’t colorful just for fun. The colors indicate different paths climbers can try, with each trail having a different level of difficulty. Levels can range from 5.1 to 5.15.

Beginners can try only grabbing holds of a certain color, but placing their feet anywhere. More advanced climbers can try only using one color for both their hands and feet.

Remember to communicate. It’s important for the climber and belayer to be aware of what the other is doing, and tell each other what they need. For instance, the climber will say “on belay,” and wait until the belayer says “belay on.” The climber will say “climbing” once they are ready, and begins when the belayer says “climb on.”

Chalk it up. You should have a chalk bag attached to your harness. The chalk helps you grip the holds better when your hands start getting sweaty.

It’s not all about the arms. In the beginning, I thought I would primarily be using my arms for climbing. I quickly learned that the smartest way to climb is by using a lot of leg strength to push yourself up, rather than pull.

Don’t overexert yourself. Try to make a bunch of smaller moves, rather than several big ones. Stretching for bigger moves will use up more energy than necessary.

Be creative. Rock climbing is like a puzzle; you need to figure out where to put your hands and feet in order to get to the top in the quickest and easiest way possible.

Take advantage of the rock wall itself, not just the holds. Try putting your hands on the same hold, if possible, or switch feet by shuffling one to the other if necessary.

Take a break. Don’t be afraid to just let go of the wall and “hang” if you’re getting tired. It’s not a race to get to the top.

“Sit” back and enjoy the ride down. When you’re ready to come down, lean back and come down in a seated position. Try to keep your legs fairly straight, with your feet flat on the wall (you can “bounce” off it).

via news.health.com

Ingredients

1/2 cup Quick Oats
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Ground Flax
1/2 cup All Bran Buds
1 cup All Purpose Flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup apple butter
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup apple cider
3 apples, finely chopped or diced (Granny Smith, or other tart firm variety)

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Thoroughly mix dry ingredients with a fork.  Add eggs apple butter, sour cream, and apple cider.  Blend well on high speed until mixture achieves a smooth consistency.  Stir in chopped apples and set mixture aside.
Prepare a muffin pan by either spraying the cups with baking spray, or lining the cups with muffin liners.  Fill cups approximately 3/4-full with mixture and bake approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool and enjoy.  Recipe makes 12-15 regular sized muffins, or 4-6 jumbo muffins.
Nutritional info:
Serving size:  1 regular muffin
Calories:  180
Fat:  4
Fiber:  5
Protein:  4

Related posts:
Low Fat Apple Cinnamon Muffin Recipe
Healthy Orange Muffin Recipe Kids Will Love
Healthy Blueberry Muffin Recipe

This post originated at Live Fit Blog, which is written by Greg Hayes. To read more about using healthy snacks and other simple tools to improve health and lose weight, check it out.Delicious Apple Cinnamon Bran Muffin Recipe

Raw Food Weight Loss Diets

There are two basic principles behind raw food weight loss plans.  These are:

The process of cooking degrades the nutritional value of foods.
Typical Western diets have an “acidifying” effect on the body, which can be reversed by eating raw foods, which are alkaline in nature.

A natural extension of the movement to buy organic, it seems intuitive that eating raw foods should be healthier than cooked foods.  The logic goes that if eating organic foods is healthy, then those found in their natural (i.e. raw) state should be more stable, and cooking or further processing disturbs that delicate balance.  Furthermore, it’s well known that many popular nutrients are destroyed by cooking, which further bolsters the argument in favor of raw food diets for weight loss.  Its a well-known fact that vitamin C isn’t very stable to cooking, and the same goes for vitamin A.  Similarly, water-soluble vitamins are frequently leached from foods during water soaks or boiling, which only strengthens the case against eating cooked foods.  Unfortunately, as is so often the case with such arguments, the case is much more complicated that it originally appears.

A recent paper on calorie content of raw foods vs cooked foods explores the question of how cooking impacts the calorie content of food.  The question of calorie content is usually studied at the point of consumption, rather than looked at from the perspective of cooking method.  The question that should be asked should go something like:  How does the the number of calories in broccoli differ if I eat that broccoli raw, as opposed to simply boiling it in water for 15-minutes.  However, this gets at the heart of the raw food diet, because its hard to argue against the empirical evidence, which shows that people who follow a raw food regimen tend to lose weight.  But are they losing weight because the diet is inherently healthier, or is it a function of simply calorie restriction?

With this singular fact in mind, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that researchers found a positive correlation between cooking and calorie content; meaning that generally speaking, cooking a food will increase the calories available to the consumer, when compared against the same foods, served raw.

Anthropologists have long-theorized that the human brain is the single differentiating factor between us, and our less advanced counterparts within the animal kingdom.  But from the perspective of energy consumption, the brain is a pig, requiring vast amounts of energy relative to other processes.  Observational research on other primates shows they spend far more of their time chewing their food, for the express purpose of breaking it down by mechanical means to extract the greatest number of calories possible.  By contrast, humans harnessed fire, which greatly improves our capacity to extract the greatest number of calories from every bit of food we consume.  We no longer have to sit and chew tubers for hours on end — we cook our food to reduce the workload on our dietary systems, then move on to other tasks.

With all of this as a backdrop, its hardly surprising that raw food dieters tend to lose weight.  The simple expedient of “going raw” effectively restricts the calories available to the consumer.  While its certainly true that some nutrients are lost during the process of cooking, most studies show that the net gain in nutrient-availability, dramatically overshadows the losses incurred during cooking.

While I suppose one could argue that, in today’s world, we consume far more calories than needed anyway, going raw also goes against my sensibilities, in that one ends up wasting a larger percentage of food, through digestive inefficiencies.  For myself, raw seems to be a form of self-imposed calories restriction, which can be done without going raw.  So for now, I’ll stick to the plan of keeping my overall calorie content low by modulating portion size and dietary choices, leaning toward reasonable portion sizes, lean cuts of meat, and vegetable-rich, well cooked foods.

Published November 2011.

References

“Metabolic vitamin B12 status on a mostly raw vegan diet with follow-up using tablets, nutritional yeast, or probiotic supplements.”  Donaldson MS.  Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2000; vol. 44, pp. 229-34.  Abstract.  Accessed November 2011.
The Science Behind Raw Food.  Accessed November 2011.
“Cooking And Cognition:  How Humans Got So Smart”  LiveScience.com.  Accessed November 2011.
Photo credit

Related posts:
Make Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss Work For You
My Choice Of Foods For Weight Loss
Portion Size Control vs Calories On The Menu — What Works For Weight Loss?

This post originated at Live Fit Blog, which is written by Greg Hayes. To read more about using healthy snacks and other simple tools to improve health and lose weight, check it out.The Pros & Cons Of A Raw Food Weight Loss Diet

A User’s Guide Healthy Walkable Neighborhoods

When my wife and I purchased our home; 12-years ago now, we had a handful of criteria that a potential home had to meet.  Like most people I know, those were primarily location, affordability, and square footage.  We wanted a home that gave us a semblance of privacy, so row-houses were out of the question, and convenience wasn’t really high on the list.  At the time, high speed internet wasn’t even available in our community, so that wasn’t even on the table.  Now, the housing situation has changed completely, as have our needs.

Many housing experts believe that community design plays an important role in the rising incidence of obesity in the U.S.  Urban design experts determined long ago that the best plans for building healthy neighborhoods would separate housing from industrial and commercial interests.  At the time, pollution, noise, and traffic were high on the list of concerns – for good reasons.  The result of this arrangement has been the evolution of the suburban lifestyle, where homes are separated from convenience stores, restaurants, and jobs.  It helped birth the drive-thru, and ultimately helped popularize fast food, since families started spending more time in cars.  But as industrial pollution has steadily declined, and noise ordinances have gained favor, many of those concerns have abated.  Meanwhile, Americans are spending greater amounts of time in their cars, and long commutes are considered one of the leading causes of belly fat.  So what should we look for in urban design today?

Urban Spaces

New ideas on community design attempt to blend access to simple conveniences with housing to create walkable communities.  In the new model, neighborhoods are built around a central convenience store or strip mall, and drive-thru’s are a thing of the past.  Housing units are broken up into blocks of similar types, with areas dedicated to apartment-living, townhomes, and traditional residential houses, and each type has designated green spaces for playgrounds and outdoor activities.  The idea is that residents should be able to get home, park their vehicles, and not have to get back in their car until they return to work the next day.

Proximity To Work/Amenities

By most standards, I live in a relatively small community, and yet my commute to work is still approximately 30-minutes, 1-way.  That wouldn’t be so bad if other amenities were near our home, but sadly, our current house isn’t close to much of anything.  Homes constructed within walking, or even cycling distance of the workplace offer advantages in reduced transit times and lower overall transportation costs.  Living that close, I could even incorporate exercise by jogging or cycling to work, and even a short distance done daily can become significant.  The number of calories burned running a mile adds up, done day after day.  In our community, there are neighborhoods within a 10-minute drive, or a 20-minute bike ride, or my workplace.  That could cut 40-minutes per day out of my car ride, which translates into nearly 3.5 hours/week of my life each week.  Throw in the occasional stop on the way home and we’re easily into 4-hours each week in a car, and that doesn’t even consider weekend activities or short trips into town.  As I approach the big 4-0, I also start to think about the longer-term needs to have a housing located in areas that provide independence even into retirement, where walkable neighborhoods take on a whole new meaning.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has incorporated design elements of walkable neighborhoods into their requirements for public housing reconstruction and development, so the advantages of such neighborhoods are being recognized.  A handful of neighborhoods in my community have started adopting these principles, and finding homes located within a 10-minute of my workplace is relatively straightforward.  However, communities that consist of homes within walking distance of corner markets is a more significant challenge.  A few years ago, my wife and I looked carefully at a new development that offered promise, but that development has encountered problems, so it would appear neighborhoods having that design aesthetic aren’t ready for prime-time in this area.  Having said all that, we’re looking.  There are too many reasons for us not to take it seriously.

Photo Credit

No related posts.

This post originated at Live Fit Blog, which is written by Greg Hayes. To read more about using healthy snacks and other simple tools to improve health and lose weight, check it out.What Should You Look For In Healthy, Walkable Neighborhoods?