Preliminary Isometric Tension Improves the Effectiveness of Dynamic Work by up to 20%
February 18, 2007
Are you looking for a simple and effective way to increase your strength? This article will show you how to incorporate isometrics into your training regime to increase the strength of your favorite lifts.
Soviet research, dating back to the sixties of the 20th century, points out that isometric training preceding dynamic work may increase its effectiveness by up to 20%. This is called the “immediate after effect” of isometric training. When the reverse sequence of training was tested (dynamic work preceding isometric work), results actually deteriorated.
According to Mel Siff’s “Supertraining”, the after effect occurs immediately after the preliminary isometric tension. Strength continues to increase and peaks between the 10th to 20th minute. To maximize the strength boost, I recommend performing isometric holds 15-17 minutes before the hardest sets of dynamic work. Doing so will synchronize the strength after-effect peak with the hardest part of the training session. Example: consider a training session that consists of high-volume Bench Presses and Deadlifts. Iso-Bench-Presses should be performed 15 minutes before the hardest sets of Bench Presses and Iso-Deadlifts should be performed 15 minutes before the hardest sets of Deadlifts.
How To Improve Your Golf Swing Timing
February 18, 2007
Golf swing timing is a key factor in being able to repeat a mechanically sound swing for 18 holes. In fact it is true to say that correct timing is everything. This is the main reason why golfers need to concentrate when taking a shot.
Golf swing timing has to do with the way the golfer controls their body and swiftly gets his muscles and body organs to swiftly respond to commands from his brain. Actually the identical situation any athlete or performer finds themselves in.
Interestingly enough many athletes and performers have got exercise sessions worked into their program where they condition their bodies to maintain the highest levels of performance. Yet golf swing timing is a situation that is as demanding and in many cases more so, than the situation faced by many athletes. Still many amateur golfers expect their body and muscles to respond without any exercise or muscle conditioning in preparation for their golf swing timing.
Of course it does not happen and this is the reason why many amateur golfers continue to struggle with their golf game, hardly improving over a number of years. Most professionals on the other hand, take a lot of time and care to condition their bodies and muscles for the perfect golf swing timing. The results always show.
Positive Energy
February 17, 2007
Cultivating positive energy: Most of us who study Yoga have been taught that an abundance of Prana (vital air or vital energy), can be found at the ocean, lakes, large open fields, and in the mountains.
Although the air is different, this same energy can be found where people assemble for a positive reason. For example: when people assemble to meditate or pray.
You can feel it in your home, at a church, mosque, temple, shrine, ashram, seminar, martial arts hall, etc. This is when people bond in a mass for the common good. The energy can be used to help humanity and our little planet for the best. You can project this energy outward by acts of kindness every moment of your life. This is not to say, you allow yourself to be abused. You can be kind to everyone who comes into your life, without becoming a "doormat."
You have influence over a limited number of people who you see in a day. Why not make every contact a harmonious and positive experience?
Some examples would be:
Stop making foul gestures, becoming angry, and swearing when another driver on the road has irritated you.
Wheel Chair Ramp
February 17, 2007
Some people order fomr various companies when in need of Wheel Chair Ramp. Others just try do build their own wheelchair ramp, thus trying to save some money or for variety of reasons. In any case you want your Wheelchair Ramp to be the best it can to suite your needs.
Here are few questions that you can ask yourself before you either build or order a Wheel Chair Ramp from a company.
What weight capacity am I looking for this Wheel Chair Ramp to be? Is this going to be good for doorway thresholds and raise landings? One probably would like the Wheel Chair Ramp to have a 600lbs. weight capacity because Electric Wheel Chairs can be very heavy.
Do you need one that bridges gaps over steps, curbs and raised landings? Perhaps you can ask the company if they have the ramps available in different sizes for your various needs.
Is the new Wheelchair Ramp going to be sturdy and dependable? For the smaller Ramps a good question is are they lightweight and can be transported without much efforts?
How to Pick a Good Personal Trainer
February 16, 2007
One of the major benefits of the YourBestBodyNOW Program and several other programs like it is that you can lose weight and meet your fitness and weight loss goals even if you have neither the time nor money to get a personal trainer.
At the same time, if you do ultimately decide to hire trainer at some point, I want to make sure that you are going about it in a way that will bring you the absolute maximum benefit. I wouldn’t be a good fitness coach if I did anything less.
There’s no doubt that getting a good personal trainer has many benefits, including but no limited to:
- Speeding up the learning curve
- Great source of motivation
- Getting increased results
- Having a training partner to hold you accountable
At the same time, it is a HUGE mistake to simply rely on any old trainer to help you to consistently get the results that you desire. I can’t tell you how many people pay tons of money for expensive personal trainers and get little to no results after months and months of working with these people.
Improve Your Golf Swing Fundamentals And Watch Your Game Transform
February 16, 2007
Most golfers are aware that by focusing on the golf swing fundamentals, one by one, they stand the best chance of dramatically improving their game. This is because the golf swing fundamentals make up the golf swing which is at the heart of the game of golf.
Golf swing fundamentals are to be found in the three segments of a proper golf swing which are the backswing, the downswing and thirdly the impact and follow through.
The backswing is one of the important golf swing fundamentals because every shot begins here. If the backswing falls short, so will the resulting hit. At this stage, focus should be placed equally on body rotation and club and arm extension.
Moving to the downswing as another golf swing fundamental, this movement actually starts in the legs and the hips, rather than the arm. There should be a clear transfer of body weight from back to front with the knees, thighs and hips all beginning to move forward. This should be the correct movement in every proper golf swing.
The impact and follow through are the golf swing fundamentals that complete the entire swing. At impact the body weight should be on the outside of the forward heel and the inside of the rear foot.
How to Relax During a Fight
February 15, 2007
I received a returned video from a well meaning, but severely misguided, former customer. This is a rarity since over the past 2 plus years and hundreds upon hundreds of videos shipped; I can only count 3 returns. One was unopened, one included a note that the recipient thought the videos would be something else, but he intended to buy the rest of the videos we offered, hmmm smells a little fishy (incidentally, this person has been banned from buying anything from us again). And lastly, this well-meaning person. The note inside prompted me to write this article. He identified himself that he was an orange belt in Krav Maga and that he has been instructed to "relax" and be loose during a life or death struggle. Now, I have not trained in Krav Maga nor do I know anything about the modern version of it. My focus is on the "relaxing" strategy; which I have heard from a variety of different "experts" during my 30 plus on the mat.
How Proper Calorie Fragmentation Improves Body Composition?
February 15, 2007
It is a well-established fact that calories control everyone’s bodyweight. No matter how many meals a day you have, it is the calorie balance in the end of the day that matters. If you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you will lose weight. It won’t matter if these calories come from chocolate, bagels, meat, eggs, fruit or whatever else.
Calories control bodyweight.
What about body composition? The two major components of body composition are lean body mass and fat mass. Suppose you just lost 10 pounds of bodyweight. Does it matter how many of those 10 pounds were fat and how many muscle? Sure, it DOES matter. While calorie balance controls bodyweight, other important factors influence the proportions of fat and muscle that you gain or lose! These factors may improve or make worse the way you look naked.
One of those factors is calorie distribution (or calorie fragmentation). Bodybuilders, as the group of people most concerned with their body composition, have been spreading their calorie intake into smaller and more frequent meals for decades. Originally they believed that doing so “raises one’s metabolism”. Science has never proved this belief. Recent findings reveal that there is no metabolic advantage of eating smaller and more frequent meals.
A Bad Golfer & Common Mistake You Will Find Every Time
February 14, 2007
Fascinatingly enough a bad golfer is consistent enough with his/her consistent mistakes and poor play, that it promotes even more bad golf and frustration.
Actually a bad golfer ignores or is unaware of what has to be the single most important aspect of the golf swing. This is the setup or positioning before the swing.
It does not matter how good your swing is and how much correct technique you have used. If you do not pay attention to your swing, you are a bad golfer and it will clearly show when you have hit the ball.
All great golfers are aware of how important the setup is and you can be sure that many bad golfers are not. If you setup correctly for a shot, chances are extremely high that you will hit a good shot. So important is your setup that even if you swing poorly in a good setup position, you are bound to at least hit a reasonable shot.
A good setup will enable you achieve a good posture and the sort of balance that will help you maintain balance and inevitably control throughout the shot.
Tanita Body Fat Monitors
February 14, 2007
An ordinary scale can tell you your weight, but what does that say about your health - not whole a lot. In order to give you better idea of what your weight really means in terms of your overall health, there are body fat monitor scales that not only look at your weight, but how much of that weight is fat. Indeed, one of the most popular brands of body fat monitor/ scales is Tanita. They offer such combo scales that “provide detailed body composition analysis: weight, impedance, body fat %, body mass index, fat mass, fat-free mass and more.” These numbers give you a much better idea of your general health than the singly weight number you get with regular scales.
The Tanita body fat monitors work by sending a safe, low-level electrical pulse (50 kHz) through the body, that you won’t even feel. The scale has a easy to read digital screen that displays body-fat measurements in 1% increments and weight in either 0.2 pound or 0.1 kilogram increments, with a max of 600 pounds or 136 kilograms. The body fat scale is capable of storing information about two individuals. The information may be accessed by tapping a button and then stepping on the scale. The scale, of course, will then give you your weight, followed by the additional body-fat composition as a percentage. The devices are the size of a standard scale and come with a 3 year warranty.
