Tuesday, October 2, 2012

How to make exercise safe and effective



I found the following article on the first web site that helped me develop my interest in alternative medicine. http://www.mercola.com/

This information can give you a basic understanding on the different aspects of fitness.

This information is provided by Mercola.com, the world's most visited and trusted natural health website. You can keep current on all the exciting new natural health news by subscribing to the free weekly health newsletter at Mercola.com.
Making Exercise Safe, Fast, Effective For Any Age, Body or Schedule

By Dr. Ben Lerner

When helping to prepare Olympic athletes for battle, we have very few weeks and very little time each day. Time always seems to be against us. However, working with Olympians became great training for working with non-Olympians. Why? Most everyone feels they have little time for fitness in today's fast-paced world.

In preparation for life or the Olympics, you need a program you can quickly put into any schedule, yet is super-duper effective and totally safe. Injury is not an option for potential medalists or busy people.

This week's column illustrates how to get the greatest bang for your buck, meaning how to get more from your workouts while spending less time and optimizing injury prevention.

How to Stand: Perfect Posture = Perfect Technique

All exercise and stretching, as well as all movement in life, needs to be performed as close to Perfect Posture as possible. God designed the body using all of the vast, highly technical laws of science, mathematics and physics in order for your "Body By God" to best deal with gravity. When maintaining your posture, the muscles, joints and bones are at their strongest and most stable. This will allow them to be able to withstand large or repetitive forces without suffering injury.

Perfect Posture

    * The head is up and back so the ears line up over the shoulders, and the arc (lordosis or reversed "C" curve) in the neck is maintained
    * Shoulders are rolled back in the joints
    * Upper back flat and not arched or humped
    * Belly button is out and hips back so you have an arc (lordosis/reversed "C" curve like the neck) in your lower back called the "weight lifter's arch"
    * Knees are slightly bent to provide shock absorption

Remember to maintain this posture during all stretches and exercises. Any exercise or stretch that calls for a disruption of posture means it is unhealthy, or you are doing it wrong.

How to Stretch

 
Due to sitting, driving, working on the computer, getting out of shape and the effects of gravity, certain muscles get too short or too tight. This can create an injury during lifting or cause you to develop joint pain and degeneration over time.

To compensate for the natural muscle shortening that occurs due to our modern, unnatural lifestyles, stretching is critical to perform before, during and after every workout.

Short Muscles and Their Stretches

Hamstrings: While standing, put your foot up on a chair or bench. Keeping perfect posture (head up/shoulders back/weight lifter's arc in your back), bend down slightly toward your foot, making sure to keep your head and shoulders up. You should feel a stretch in the back of your leg and calf.

Calves: Stand 2-3 feet away from a wall and lean against it while keeping your back and legs straight so you are bending forward at the ankle only. You should feel a stretch at the Achilles tendon and calf muscles.

Chest Muscles/Front Shoulders: Stand by a wall or in a doorway and put your hand against it at eye level. Move or lean forward, away from your hand, until your arm is straight and being pulled back enough to cause a stretch in the chest and shoulder muscles. Change the level of your hand to below the waist and above your head in order to perform this stretch at three different angles.

Front of Neck: Roll your shoulders back, pull your chin in and then roll your head back so you are looking up at the ceiling behind you. This is done to stretch the front of the neck. The muscles and ligaments in the front of the neck get tight due to the forward head posture created by driving, watching TV or sitting at a desk or computer.

Hold all stretches for 10-15 seconds, back off slightly, take a deep breath in, and then let it out while you repeat the stretch for another 10-15 seconds. Each time you go back down while breathing out, you should be able to stretch farther. Do each stretch at least three separate times to achieve the maximum benefit.

How to Breathe and Count While Lifting

Breathing: Breathe in on the eccentric contraction (while you are lowering or releasing the weight) and breathe out on the concentric contraction (while you are lifting the weight).

Counting: Count "1, 2 ... " on the concentric contraction (when lifting). Count "1, 2, 3, 4 ... " on the eccentric contraction (when releasing or lowering the weight).

Resistance Training

 Muscles placed under "resistance" become stronger, leaner, and better developed. Muscles adapt to whatever force you apply to them. Or don't. If you consistently put a strain on a certain muscle group, it will adapt by getting more physically powerful, have more tone and it will change its shape. If you consistently do not put strain on your muscles, they become weaker, flabbier and shapeless.

To be healthy, lean muscle mass must increase and fat must decrease. While aerobic exercise will cause some resistance to the set of muscles being used, it is not enough. Resistance needs to be applied throughout the entire body so you remove fat and increase leanness in all or most of the muscles.

Resistance exercise occurs when you apply sustained or repetitive strain (resistance) to muscle. The most effective way to create resistance against the muscles and thus produce predictable results is a properly applied weight-lifting program.

The Language of Resistance Movement Through Weight Training

The world of resistance weight training brings with it its own unique and special vocabulary. Such terms need to be defined before a proper understanding of the weight resistance program can occur. They include the following:

   1. Repetitions (or Reps): In the vernacular of weight training, a repetition is defined as how many times you do the specified exercise. If you lift a weight 12 times, that is 12 repetitions, or "reps."

   2. Set: A set is how many separate times you perform the repetitions of the exercise. For
instance, three "sets" of 12 repetitions is performing 12 repetitions, three separate times.

   3. Failure: Doing an exercise until "failure" means performing a "set" until you literally cannot perform even one more "rep."

   4. Quick Set Programs: These allow you to get a workout in for an individual body part in as little as three minutes. This is the ultimate way to perform resistance training. These routines can be as simple and as short as you need them to be in order to fit them into your schedule or level of motivation on any given day or week. This program can also be performed more or fewer times per week, dependent on how quickly you desire to make changes to the muscles of your Body By God. This actually creates the possibility of knowing you will not only exercise consistently this week, or for the next 90 days, but forever.

Due to the type of adaptation the body must make while performing Quick Sets, you are able to create significant changes in the composition (body fat percentage and muscle tone) of a body part within three minutes.

Busy moms, overworked businessmen and businesswomen, or students on a tight time schedule can still be extremely effective in their lives and get in shape all at the same time. Using the Quick Set Programs for three-minute body parts, many patients, clients and friends -- including me -- have been able to maintain busy schedules, a high quality family life and find plenty of leisure time while still being in the best shape of our lives.

These routines can be used to increase the intensity of your workouts, shorten your workout times, and very safely speed up your results. They are designed so anyone can perform them and make great changes to their Body By God on any level. Whether you are a retired grandma or an aspiring Olympian, there is a plan for you.

Types of Quick Sets

    Decline Set

    * Pick one exercise and do it for 8 -- 12 repetitions until failure
    * Rest 5-6 seconds
    * Lower the weight by 5 -- 20 pounds and do the exercise again for 6 -- 8 repetitions until  
      failure.
    * Rest 5 -- 6 seconds
    * Lower the weight by 5 -- 20 pounds again and do another 6 -- 8 repetitions until failure

    Pause Set

    * Pick one exercise and do it for 8-12 repetitions until failure
    * Rest 5-6 seconds
    * Using the same weight, do the exercise again until failure
    * Rest 5-6 seconds
    * Repeat this process until you cannot do the exercise for more than 1-2 repetitions

Even with exercising each body part 1-2 times a week, your total time investment can be as little as 4-8 hours of resistance exercise for an entire month. Not much to ask to keep the only body you will ever have well.

    Dr. Ben Lerner, Dr. Greg Loman and Dr. Rob Schiffman have three of the largest chiropractic centers in the history of the chiropractic profession. Their organization, Teach The World About Chiropractic, teaches a high-tech, vitalistic chiropractic approach to wellness care. They also teach a God-centered lifestyle through Dr. Lerner's New York Times best selling book, Body by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living.

    To find a chiropractor they have trained, visit their provider page on their Web site, or e-mail them.

    Another wonderful group of chiropractors are those associated with the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance. You can find chiropractic physicians close to you by going to their site.

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

After meeting Dr. Lerner earlier this year, I'm convinced he is an authentic leader in the health field. He is incredibly fit and nearly made it into the Olympics as a wrestler. His passion is to improve other people's health.

Through his work with thousands of patients he discovered a proven pathway to build health instead of merely treating disease, which is a major part of my vision for this Web site.

His book, Body By God: The Owner's Manual for Maximized Living, is an excellent resource for anyone looking to improve his or her health through the following principles:

    * Maximizing your life
    * Nutrition
    * Exercise
    * Stress management
    * Time management

Visit Mercola.com for health news and information you can really use, and sign up for the free twice weekly Mercola e-newsletter today at www.mercola.com

You can sign up for Dr. Mercola's newsletter at his web site.  http://www.mercola.com/

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