Increase Bench Press

How to increase your bench press

Let’s first look at some tips for how to increase your bench press. When it is time to workout, we are all guilty of maxing out just to see, “How much we can bench.” Or how many times do we run into someone and once we find out that they exercise regularly ask them “How much they can bench?” So let’s get into it and see how we can improve our bench press.

Stronger Rotator Cuffs

One of the most overlooked muscles is your rotator cuff. One can say that the rotator cuff plays a major role when it comes to benching. Have you ever noticed your shoulder area seems to hurt at times before you come to failure? Most of the time this is due to a weak rotator. Work out the rotator cuff and you’ll decrease the risk of muscular imbalances, shoulder pain, and getting stuck in a serious plateau.

Stronger Triceps

Strong triceps are also a must if you are seeking to increase your bench press. A great method to increase the strength of your triceps is by doing a close-grip bench press. It will help simulate the movement of the bench press, while putting more emphasis on the triceps and it will help increase the range of motion of the elbow joint during the “lock out” phase.

Nutrition and Supplements

There are a few supplements that are a must have if you’re looking to make an increase in any lifting regiment, including a stronger bench press. They are a high-quality multi vitamin and fast acting whey protein to satisfy your muscles after a grueling workout. I would also look at incorporating the use of Nitric Oxide before hitting the gym which will help with an increase in muscle pump as it aids in the expansion and contraction of blood vessels.

In terms of nutrition, take a look what you’re currently eating and make sure you are taking in enough protein, carbs, fat, and calories.

Back

So as you may have noticed this blog hasn’t been updated in ages. I was doing volunteer work abroad and didn’t have much time. I’m back now and hope to get back into this blog.

Will Squats Make My Thighs Bulkier

I am looking to help dispel the myth for females that doing squats and lunges will make their thighs bigger.

Here are some of the questions I’ve heard asked from females:

What kind of exercises should I be doing for slimming my thighs if squats and lunges are making them bigger?

Squats are making my thighs bigger, what should I do?

The fact of the matter is that you are limited as to what you can change about your muscles. You can either grow larger or shrink. Many people misunderstand what muscle toning is. What it really comes down to is you are losing body fat which in turn will help you see your muscles as you get to a lower body fat percentage. No matter your sex or goals, you’ll primarily be doing the same exercises and training methods. The only difference is in how much weight you use, how many reps, the type of sets you do and finally how many calories you take in (more if you’re building muscle, less if you’re trying to lose fat).

If you do squats or lunges without adding weight or with low weight, you will eventually reach a point where your muscles will not grow larger. If you want your thighs to lose fat or to look more ‘toned’ than low weight and higher reps is the way to go. Your thigh muscle will grow slightly thicker and stronger.

So in the end, it’s not the squats or lunges which are making your thighs look bulkier but instead the way you are performing your exercise. Remember to do cardio (look at HIIT) and to squat/lunge with minimal weight.

Yoga breathing exercises equals stress relief

We all have a tendency to collect more than we really need. Some of us are collectors to the extent that we have a totally cluttered life. A lot of us carry emotional baggage which hampers us down the rest of the day. It gets to the point where you mind becomes fluttered. You get stressed and overwhelmed with everything that you need to do.

There are many causes of stress in life including anxiety, fear, uncertainty, etc. Stress effects us all and when one is over stressed it tends to make you perform subpar (of course there is good stress as well). You may be asking yourself why this matters. If you continue to get anxious and stressed it can cause you sleep lose, deterioration in health, difficulty in your ability to enjoy life and be happy…

The ability to recognize and manage your stress is essential is being able to help you achieve your life goals and heart desires.

This is where doing something as simple as yoga breathing exercises can help alleviate some of your worries and anxieties. The best part about these yoga breathing exercises are that they are simple, quick,  and free. Not only that but yoga breathing exercises can be performed by almost anyone in almost any location at virtually any time.

Your breath is your connection to life and is the essence of yoga. If you can learn how to control your breath correctly, you will be able to use your energy more efficiently. As you learn how to establish control and balance over your emotions you gain more out of your life.

The following yoga breathing exercises are amongst the ones my students regularly say give them the maximum benefit in releasing stress and tension. They are simple to do and can be practiced anywhere, anytime of the day you wish to feel calm and focused.

Yoga Breathing Exercise #1
Diaphragmatic Breathing
You can practice diaphragmatic breathing while you are  lying on your back, sitting in a chair or even standing up. Place your left hand gently across your upper chest and your right hand across the navel area. Relax your belly and chest. Keep your mouth closed. Close your eyes and take a deep breathe in through your nose. Your belly, chest and clavicles are not involved. You should feel the diaphram contract upon inhalation and release once you exhale.

Better understanding of yoga breathing exercise of diaphragmatic breathing

Practice yoga breathing with the video for yoga breathing exercise of diaphragmatic breathing.

Do this for approximately three to five rounds of exhaling in and out and then slowly open your eyes. Stay still for a few moments before reengaging in your daily activities.

Yoga Breathing Exercise #2
Watch The Breath

Sit yourself into a comfortable position and close your eyes. Start to become aware of the way you are breathing – observe the movement of air in and out through your nose.

Let your yoga breath guide you to find a natural rhythm and continue to listen and observe your breathe for a few minutes.

These two yoga breathing exercises should help relieve some stress and leave you with a feeling of tranquility.

Bryan Clay wins the gold in decathlon!

Bryan Clay becomes the first American to win the gold in the decathlon since 1996.

The Decathlon is a strenuous event that takes place over the course of two days with a breakdown as follows:

DAY ONE DAY TWO

100 m dash 110 m high hurdles
Long jump Discus throw
Shot put Pole vault
High jump Javelin throw
400 m dash 1500 m run

Muscular Strength is an important skill to have and weight training is a one of the ways to go about it. Strength gains will help in the throwing events, such as javelin and shot put, while muscular strength in your calves will help in the jumping events. Muscular gains in both your upper and lower body as well as your abdominals help to maintain your form when you are fatigued.

The problem with developing a weight training routine for the decathalete is that due to the sheer number of events that the athlete must train for, fitting in the time to lift weights can prove difficult.
According to an interview by Mens Article with Clay:

MEN’S FITNESS: With 10 events to prepare for, what is the decathlete’s training strategy?

BRYAN CLAY: We usually try to touch on each event at least twice a week, with some variation of two or three events a day.

However, with a well planned schedule, one should be able to fit in weight training as well. The most important thing to remember though is that rest is key and one should not skimp out on it.

Other key factors needed to be a successful decathlon athlete:

Neuromuscular - The coordination of specific movements into a motor pattern to enhance the body’s ability to efficiently apply force. This includes hand-eye & hand-implement coordination. This aspect is the most important to an athlete and should take priority in training, because without technique there is no performance. Not only that, but the necessary coordinated usually is what takes an athlete the longest to train.

Muscular Endurance – The ability to sustain muscular contraction over a period of time (sustained aerobic work)

Cardiovascular Endurance – Efficient utilization of oxygen over a sustained period of time.

Flexibility – Enables the body’s lever system to apply force over an increased range of motion. Athletic performance will be enhanced, plus the incidence of injury will be reduced.

Mental Toughness – As you can already tell, training for the decathlon is a grueling affair. One needs determination, discipline, desire and perseverance among other traits to truly succeed. One can have all the other necessary qualities (as outlined above), but if you are not mentally prepared, you will have a short career.

digg story

Bryan Clay – Javelin Decathlon U.S. Olympic Trials 2008

Bryan Clay – Pole Vault Decathlon U.S. Olympic Trials 2008

Vitamin Beer

As most people know, drinking alcohol leads to depletion of Vitamin B. Well, here comes a beer enhanced with vitamins that supposedly not only increases your nutrient intake but also helps to ease hangovers.

Fred Matt, one of the brewers, says Stampede Plus is aimed at active, healthy consumers. However, the company is somewhat silent on what exactly is in the vitamin beer, aside from letting you know that it’s made from “pure, mountain spring water, the choicest Germans hops, and malted barley grown in America”. If you are curious, feel free to visit their web site; just beware that loud music blares out… I ended up waking my fiancee up!

Fred Matt has hinted that vitamin B might be one of the key ingredients in several interviews.

“Essentially when you drink your alcohol, you are depleting vitamin B and what we’re doing is putting vitamin B into the beer, and so you wake up the next morning and you feel a lot better,” he said.

However, most beers, depending on the brewing process, often contain any number of vitamins and minerals, like folate and vitamin C. Additionally, beer tends to be a good source of vitamin B due to it’s high content of brewers yeast. The reason the final product lacks vitamin B is due to the fact that during it’s production, the filtering process as well as the alcohol reduces the activation of these vitamins.

Perhaps then home brew will be rich in B vitamins! I have actually always wanted to brew my own beer and perhaps will do so now. Anyone want to help?

Jessica Simpson Drunk

Carli Lloyd – Score!

Carli Lloyd is a U.S. midfielder whose pregame warm-up involves mentally preparing, hydrating, and stretching.  Her training warm-up involves 100% focus before and during practice, getting a good warm-up in and stretching a lot. Carli Lloyd went from forgettable to immortal, hitting a pile driver in the 96th minute that settled into the Brazilian net, and gave the Americans a 1-0 victory and a gold medal that at times seemed beyond the realm of possibility.

Congratulations to the U.S. Female Soccer Team!!!!

Carli Lloyd #11

Track and Field Disaster

We’re going from mediocre to bad to what we can now consider a down right disaster for the USA track.

Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay misconnected on the final pass in preliminaries of the 400-meter relay Thursday. Then, Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams did the same thing for the women’s team.

kaboom

Both teams were gold-medal contenders. Is it me or does anyone else find it a bit pathetic that we couldn’t even advance into the finals? I remember in 2004 in Athens when everyone was giving the Dream Team crap after they didn’t bring in the gold. How come we aren’t coming down as hard on our track team?  I mean we just lost another two chances for the U.S. track team to turn around what is already a disappointing Olympics on a relay that is as routine as making your bed or brushing your teeth.

Digg This

Runner’s Knee

Jogging is perhaps the most common and practical exercise that anybody can be do anywhere and anytime. Statistics shows that their are more people who jog or run than their are people going to aerobic classes or visiting the gym. The problem is many of these people do not realize the high impact jogging has on their knees.

The knee is a very complex joint. It includes the articulation between the leg and thigh (tibia and femur) and the knee cap (patella). The most common pain associated with the knee is known as patellofemoral pain, or runner’s knee, a catch-all for jogging-related knee pain. One of the most common causes of runner’s knee is excessive pronation, or rolling in and down, of the foot. This syndrome is now often called the patello-femoral pain syndrome.

Another common injury associated with jogging and particularly running is what is known as shin splints, which painfully appear at the front and inside of the leg, are caused by running on hard surfaces, overstriding, muscle imbalance, or overuse.

Early Treatments
Runner’s knee can be further aggravated by simple overuse. If you have steeply increased your mileage recently, you might consider holding back a bit. Stop doing any activities that hurt the knee, and don’t start again until you can do them without any pain. If you really have to exercise, select other forms of exercise which will give your knees a lower impact or strain, exercise such as swimming would be a better and advisable choice.

Treatment for shin splints includes changing running technique or insertion of an orthotic device in the shoe.

Use the R.I.C.E. formula:

Rest: Avoid giving impact on the painful knee. Most people will temporarily switch to a non-weight bearing activity, such as swimming.

Ice: Apply cold packs or ice wrapped in a towel for short periods of time, several times a day.

Compression: Use an elastic bandage such as a simple knee sleeve with the kneecap cut out or knee guard that fits snugly without causing pain.

Elevation: Keep the knee raised up higher than your heart.

In the end the key is to stretch, increase training gradually, use proper running gear and have proper running form. This should help you with avoiding many of the common injuries, particularly runner’s knee, that is associated with jogging or running.

Also don’t forget to add some tunes to your iPod. Check the following for ideas for a running playlist.

More Diet Tips

Eat Your Breakfast
Not to be cliche but breakfast is the most important meal in the day! The majority of people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off eat breakfast every day. Researchers at the National Weight Control Registry analyzed data on nearly 3,000 people who had lost an average of 70 pounds and kept the weight off for a year or more. 85% of the subjects said they eat breakfast at least six or seven days a week. Only 4% said they never eat breakfast.

Add Some Almonds to Your Diet
You may have heard that nuts are fattening. But in fact, nuts can be a great weight-loss food. For one thing, they digest slowly and therefore satisfy your hunger longer. Not only that, nuts are a source of monounsaturated fats – and most nutrition experts believe that these fats (which are found in olive oil and almonds) actually help people lose fat, improve insulin resistance, reduce cholesterol, and lower blood pressure.

Researchers in California conducted a study of overweight and obese subjects. Half of the participants consumed 84 grams of almonds each day, and the other half did not. Both groups consumed the same amount of calories. The result? Those in the group that ate almonds achieved substantial decreases in weight, fat mass, body water, and blood pressure, as compared to those who did not eat almonds.

Almonds are also considered to be a superfood. For more information on almonds as a superfood, check out fitfaq.

Also, realize that not all almonds are created equally. For optimal results, you’ll want to get raw, unsalted, unroasted. Check the label and remember that moderation is key!

Drink Diet Drinks… and Gain Weight!
During the past two decades, the number of people who use artificial, no-calorie sweeteners has more than doubled. At the same time, the prevalence of people who are overweight and obese has also increased dramatically.

Here’s even more evidence that diet drinks can make you gain weight:

The International Journal of Obesity published a study showing that when a group of rats drank an artificially sweetened liquid, they consumed three times more calories than another group of rats that did not get the sweetened liquid. Both groups had the same access to food.

Please understand – this is not to say you should never have a diet drink. Just don’t go overboard! Replace some of those diet sodas with a cool, refreshing glass of water. You’ll thank me later!

Omega-3
There is some evidence to suggest that omega-3 can assist weight loss, by regulating blood-sugar levels and balancing appetite, although more research is needed. (Check my blog in the near future for a more in depth look at omega-3).

For more information in the meantime on the studies, check out the following: Omega-3 Fish Oil for Weight Loss and Omega-3 Fish Oil & Weight Loss.