AB TRAINING WITH SWISS BALL

Adding Swiss ball training to your workouts for the abdominal region will you increase muscle tone, balance and mid-section function.
The Swiss ball differs from your machine training in the fact that it creates an unstable environment. This unstable environment activates your nervous system to get excited and produce more electrical activity. The Swiss ball strengthens stomach muscles by making them the main focus. The abdominal muscle that are worked out using the Swiss ball are the same muscles uses to support the body and provide stabilization, these muscle are known as you core. The ball helps to focus the workout on the core muscles while at the same time helping to maintain balance while doing the exercise.
This also enhances reflexes since all of the muscles must work together to maintain balance. As the body’s balance improves, the alignment will also improve and hence the focus on the core muscle group.

There a number of mid section exercises that you can perform with the help of a swiss ball, thus it keeps the interest going and at the same time getting the results. Below is a list of some exercises that can be done using the swiss ball:

1. Normal Crunches
With ball in the middle of your back, and feet resting on ground, with toes pressed against the wall, crunch your abs up. Perform the movement slowly to have maximum effect.
2. Back Arch
With the ball in the middle of your back and your arms at your side, reach back and touch the ground. Hold that position for 10 seconds and slowly return to center.
3. Leg Extensions
With the ball in the middle of your back, extend one leg straight out and hold for 5 seconds. Use your arms for balance.
4. Back Raises
With your stomach on the ball, lie face down with your hands on the ground. Raise your shoulders and arch your back up as high as you can, then slowly return.
5. Sideways Crunches
Lie sideways and relax your upper body. Bend your upper body and slowly return.
6. Rowing
Sit on your knees with placing your forearms on the swissball in front of you. Now let the ball slowly roll in the forward direction keeping your back arched. Feel the stretch on your abs as you move forward and then slowly come back to resting position.

HAPPY CRUNCHING :)

GETTING BACK INTO SHAPE

Not many people hit the gym 12 months an year. It is quite natural to loose some stamina and strength during that time. However getting back to the gym after a layoff and starting right from where you left off is not a wise thing to do.
One should be cautious in his/her approach and should initially start with only say 75% of the intensity that you think you can actually perform your workout sessions at. Going full blast in the first go can actually cause harm. What this means is that during the initial days (or weeks) of a comeback, you're able to do more damage to yourself than your body can cope with. Out body adapts to the routine of an intense workout by making itself ready to recover from physical stress and also coping with the waste products that intense workout produces. when you take time off from gym, this capacity of the body decreases more in proportion to the loss in muscular strength and hence chances of not recovering are more, causing muscle damage.
This mechanism of gradually easing into your old workout schedule applies to diet also. Our body has this great adaptive mechanism in the sense that it fine tunes itself to the daily routine. Increasing your diet overnight us counter productive. The body actually adjusts itself to what your diet by producing a different array of enzymes to match what you eat. If you gradually adjust your diet, it can keep up with the changes. The idea is to trick your body into thinking that nothing's out of the ordinary by making consistent, almost imperceptible changes. If you shock it, it fights back. e.g: If you were to drastically change your diet, it is high likely that you get a bad stomach. This is the fightback mechanism of our body.


So go easy on your workout initially and when you feel your body is ready to cope with the stress, its time to go harder.

SLEEP PLUS EXERCISE

Having a good sleeping pattern and an equally good workout schedule goes a long way in boosting one's overall health. Today we will discuss how these two are interrelated, and positive effects of one on the other.

It is no surprise that after a good workout session, body is naturally tired and it helps in having a good quality sleep. Studies have shown that people who have a low daily schedule of low physical activity show a better sleeping patter when they start exercising regularly. This is primarily due to boost in the amount
of time spent in slow-wave sleep, the phase of sleep believed to be the most restorative. They also
report waking up less often during the night. Hence when they wake up, they are refreshed and more active. Also research shows that people start falling asleep faster and longer than before they has started exercising.

Also, it is a well known fact to build muscle, giving your body rest is a must to allow it to recuperate.if you aren't getting enough sleep, then proper rebuilding of your muscle is less likely to occur. It is also shown by research that consistent lack of sleep can result in over-training which impedes both performance and fitness goals.

Hence both of these are opposite sides of a coin, you need them together to have a cumulative positive effect on your body. Rather than looking for those magic supplements available in market to reach your dream physique, having a good lifestyle can actually take you places.

ABS workout

A nice video to get the movement ryt while doing crunches.

BREATHE EASY

Proper breathing is one of the most basic practices that we all should follow while doing our workout and often which is neglected. People often follow an incorrect breathing pattern or they tend to hold their breath. Whereas breathing incorrectly can lead to fatigue and over exertion, not breathing at all leads to higher blood pressure in veins and can result in hypertension. HOlding your breath during resistance training can be particularly harmful, as it pushes the blood to a higher pressure which may lead to giddiness because of lack of oxygen supply to muscles.
As a basic rule of thumb, breathe in during the negative part of motion and breathe out during the positive tough motion. e.g: while doing bench press, breathe in while lowering the bar near to your chest and breath out as you push it back. Another example can be taken that of crunches, in which you exhale when you lift your shoulders up from the ground and inhale when you lower them back to ground. Breathing in enables you to take in oxygen and supply to all bodyparts, preparing it for the tough positive motion. As you exhale, back it up with all the force. The breathing pattern particularly helps in getting those last repetitions done.
Breathe in through the nose but when the workout gets more demanding, this might not bring in enough air. If needed, breathe through your mouth. Deep and proper breathing can result in a slight competitive edge and you will yourself experience the difference. Breathe easy and breathe right. Most importantly njoy your workouts!!!

NEWBIE'S GUIDE

Almost all the crowd that hits the gym floor have a purpose in common, to add muscularity. The final goal might vary from individual to individual but this common agenda of adding lean muscle mass is universal. Those who come for fat loss are indirectly aiming at gaining muscle and thereby loosing fat. So we can say that this principle is generalized to a large extent.
However people usually have a aim but not the knowledge to progress towards achieving their goal. They want to build muscles, but don't know the basics of muscle building. Muscle building depends on three major factors:
1. Your workout: To induce muscular growth by breaking muscle tissues.
2. Nutrition: To repair damaged tissues and build new ones.
3. Recovery: Time for muscle to recover before it gets ready for next onslaught.


Beginners often face a dilemma of which exercises to perform, and more often than or not end up copying some muscular guy having a chiseled physique in their gym. This is one of the gravest mistakes you can make as a beginner. One should stick to the basic set of exercises rather than jumping to compound movements which are very specific in nature.
e.g: Pull ups, push ups, bench press, shoulder press and squats for the basis of almost all strength training programs. As these exercises focus on more than one muscle group, this set of exercises is a good platform to get you interested in body building.

I already explained kinds of workout that can be followed in one of the earlier posts. However as a beginner one should stick to all body exercises for 4-5 days before moving to muscle specific exercises. This should be done to acclimatize your body before putting a particular muscle under fire by training it over longer period of time.

One can start with the following schedule:

Schedule 1
1. Pull ups - 3 sets ( assisted if can't be done on own)
2. Bench Press - 3 sets
3. Bicep d/b curl - 3 sets
4. Crunches

Schedule 2
1. Push ups - 3 sets
2. Lat Pulley - 3 sets
3. Overhead d/b press - 3 sets
4. tricep push down - 3 sets
5. Free Squats

For the first week, you can alternate with this schedule. These are basic exercises involving each muscle group and most of them focus on more than muscle group. One can also go for a little variations such as inclined press instead of bench, barbell curl in place of d/b curl etc. However don't take much time in completing this set. Ideally you should be done with your workout in 40 mins including warm up. Avoid taking too much rest in between your sets. As a rule of thumb, go for the next set when your breathing comes back to normal. Take a sip of water and get back to the set.
Just make sure you warm up before you start with any kind of workout. Warm up is essential to avoid injuries. The warm up can include 5-10 mins of cardio, shoulder rotation, neck rotation and some basic stretches.


Remember great bodies are not made overnight. It takes a lot of patience, discipline and hard-work to achieve it. Don't go for any shortcuts. Don't go for too heavy weights. Weights which challenge your muscles are sufficient to induce growth.

happy gyming......

ROPE SKIPPING : YOUR INSTANT GYM

Rope skipping is one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most effective exercises one can do. It provides you with a complete body workout in the sense that it involves cardiovascular activity, hand-eye coordination, muscle toning, agility and endurance. Also the rope can be carried anywhere and can skipping can be performed almost anywhere. This way one can always have some kind of workout, even when traveling where gym facility is not available.

If correctly performed, it is a great calorie burner, with 15 min session of skipping rope at a moderate intensity of 60 skips/minute burning around 150 calories. This is equivalent to a 15 min running drill on a treadmill at approx 10km/hr. Since it's a good calorie burning exercise, it naturally helps in loosing weight. In addition, like other cardiovascular activities, this is good for heart. Skipping lowers the cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

It also tones your upper body with shoulders and forearms in action during the skipping routine. When the rope is weighed these muscles are stressed more, hence muscle building formation takes place. In strengthening upper body skipping is considered as more efficient than running.

Skipping ropes is a great exercise for improving coordination and agility. Both the upper and lower body have to work together in synchronization or else you get all tangled up with the rope. Many athletes use the skipping rope not only to improve the stamina but all coordination of their footwork.

However to avoid injuries, skipping should be performed in the correct manner.The posture should be erect with shoulders relaxed and arms slightly bent. Upper body movements should be kept to minimum and wrists should primarily be responsible for rope skipping. Landing softly on toes also helps in skipping in a smooth manner.
While skipping, knees should be slightly bent and arms should be relaxed.

Skipping rope can be fun and at the same time, it provides a fantastic body workout. THE USP: It is easy and can be performed almost anywhere.