What You Should Know About Stretching

Before starting a fitness program, you must give importance to doing warm-up or stretching exercises to prevent accidents or to enhance the output during the training. There are also a number of measures and tips to serve as guidelines when doing fitness exercises. This will help prevent injury to your muscles and joints during and after your workout. Here a few stretching tips you should take into consideration:

1. To increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries, stretch before and after workout. Almost everyone knows that stretching before workout prevents injuries during the exercises, but only few people know that stretching after workout, when muscles are still warm, can increase flexibility.

2. Hold your stretching position for more than 60 seconds to increase flexibility. While holding your position for 20 seconds is enough for warm ups, holding each position for at least 60 seconds will develop the body's flexibility.

3. Do not go into a stretching position then immediately return to the relaxed position, and do it repeatedly. This is appropriately termed as bouncing while in a position. When stretching, hold that position for several seconds, and then slowly relax. You may do this exercise repeatedly this way. Bouncing or forcing yourself into a position during stretching can strain or damage some joints or muscles.

4. Work slowly in increments instead of immediately proceeding to doing the hardest exercise or position.

5. Make sure that you have stretched or warmed up all muscle groups. For some people, even if they have strong bodies, they tend to neglect the neck when working out of stretching. Stretching the neck muscles can be as simple as placing the palm of one's hand against the front of the head and pushing it. Then, do the same to the sides and the back of the head.

6. Stretch regularly to continually increase your range of movements and your level of flexibility and strength.

7. Workout considering only your capabilities and not of others. Do not force yourself to do exercises that you are not yet capable of just because there are people who can do it. Increase your limits slowly. Listen to your body. There are days when your body may be too tired that you may have to consider reducing your range of motion.

8. Learn to rest. Rest in between sets and stations to make sure that the body has enough time to recover its energy. Also, it is advisable that you don't work the same muscle groups consecutively for two days. The muscles grow during the period when you rest and not when you are working out.

9. Do aerobic exercises to strengthen your heart. Aerobic exercises are those physical activities that much oxygen for fuel. This includes cardiovascular exercises such as skipping rope, running or swimming.

10. Music may help you when you want to train for longer periods or to increase your intensity. You can use mp3 players, CD players or lightweight am radio receivers for this. Just make sure that you brought your headset with you so you wouldn't disturb people who don't prefer music while exercising.

Stretching is an essential part of your workout. Aside from preventing injuries and increasing your overall flexibility, it is also said that stretching is good to alleviate stress and promote relaxation.

Choosing the Right Exercise For You

When choosing an exercise, don't just go with what is popular.
You should choose what works best for you.  What you hate
doing, the cost of membership fees, and whether or not to
buy equipment are all things you need to consider as well
as answer.

Keep in mind that if you choose something that you don't like to do,
you aren't going to keep doing it for a long period
of time.  Give it some thought - if you don't like
jogging, you aren't going to get up at 6 AM and go
running.  If you can't find something you like to
do, choose something you hate the least, which will
usually be walking.

Walking is good exercise because it suits all levels
of fitness.  Anyone can start a walking program at
any time, it's normally the intensity and duration
that differs.  Walking is also a social exercise,
as it isn't difficult to find a training partner
to chat with while you exercise.  Walking with a
partner will also make time go by faster.

No matter what exercise you choose, you should
start at a low level of intensity and build it up
over a period of weeks, which is essential to the
longevity of your exercise program.  If you start
off too strenuous, you could end up with an injury
which will require time to heal.

If you are really in bad shape, you can start
off by walking for 10 minutes each day.  Then
increase it by 5 minutes every 2 weeks.  To make
things more interesting, you should try walking
a different course every few days.  You can also
roster a different friend to walk with you each
day of the week.

If walking isn't your thing, then you may want
to try a fitness center.  They have loads of
variety and normally have trainers on hand to
answer any questions you may have.  When you
choose a fitness center, keep the service they give
you a priority in your choice.

If they aren't willing to treat you well before
you join, then they certainly won't after you
join.  You should also make sure that the equipment
they use is well taken care of.  It's easy to
find out, as all you have to do is listen to the
machines.  If they squeak a lot or make noise,
then chances are they aren't in good condition.

If you are a social person then you should look into golf
or tennis. Both are good social activities in most areas,
and you can even meet new friends.  Tennis is great for fitness
although it isn't for someone who is just starting
out.  If you haven't exercised in a long time,
then golf may be the best activity for you.

Extreme Fitness & Body Building

Most people think about building muscles as abandoning life outside the gym and devoting long hours in the gym every day. Perhaps the only way to chisel the body into a hot muscular physique is by toiling hour by hour over the rusty iron day in, day out and year in, year out.

This isn't always true. Although hard work is truly required, extreme fitness demands one to be a slave of the iron weights. Full-body work outs can make one progress and it easily fits in one's schedule. This is very convenient if one is looking forward to achieving extreme fitness but finds it hard to hold on to a single work out routine.

Genuine full-body work outs done by athletes with an aim in mind makes for maximum muscle contraction using heavy weights, makes room for full recovery so one can actually grow and continue to train hard plus it also prevents burnout which is inevitable due to excess training.

So if one is ready for extreme fitness, here is all there is to know about full body work out:

Full-body work out is a time saver. The biggest plus about having the whole body trained all at once is probably having to go to the gym less frequently; perhaps around two to three times for every seven days would be enough.

Another advantage of working out the entire body all at once is that one need not spend two or more hours of strenuous exercise in the gym for every session; one only spends one hour in the gym for every session. So that's just three to four hours per week in the gym right? With full-body work outs, it is all about the quality of exercise one does for session and not the quantity, nor even the amount of time you allot per session.

Full-body work out boosts the cardiovascular system for extreme fitness. One must allot two to four sets for every body part into the one hour session. Jam packed with exercising, each one hour session then gets the heart and the rest of the cardiovasular system pumping and up to speed in a flash.

Now feeling pumped up, next find out what rules does one have to follow when engaging in full-body work outs:

Training commences only once every two to three days. This is so easy isn't it? What is great about this is that there is time spared during rest days so that one can indulge in a few cardio exercise sessions instead of depending on cardio execises one normally does at the end of each work out session which after all, are not at all very effective.

Heavy lifting is strongly advised. Contrary to popular belief, especially among athletes. It is not true that it is good to get trapped on training lightly than one actually could so as to conserve energy for the other body parts that will come later in the routine. What is true is that one cannot achieve optimal progress if one is not training heavy, no matter which program that person is doing.

One exercise only per muscle group. This is very easy to follow and is also important. Doing basic exercises which are also intense means you do not have to do another different exercise for that body part.

Keep work out short. Resistance training affects the natural homones of the body connected to muscle building. Intense exercising boosts the testosterone levels and long work outs increase those of catabolic cortisol. Sixty minutes of work out allows you to get the best of both worlds.

Now with this convenient and powerful work out regimen, one can now truly experience extreme fitness.

5 Inspirational Weight-Loss Quotes

Here are a few diet quotes that may give you some inspiration while trying to lose weight:

The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live. - Socrates

"Never trade what you want the most for what you want at the moment"

In this age, we believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest! --Henry Miller

"Its not about how good you are but how bad you want it."

Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork. ~English Proverb

Extremely Low-Calorie Vegetable Chicken

Ingredients

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
1 lemon
1 pinch garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Squeeze juice from 1/2 lemon onto chicken. Season with salt to taste. Let sit while you heat the oil in a skillet over low heat.

When oil is hot, put the chicken on it. Turn over about 5 to 10 minutes and sprinkle the rest of the lemon juices on it. Add pepper and oregano to taste. Sautee for another 5 to 10 minutes or until juices run clear.

Actual Cooking Time: 10-20 minutes
Number of Servings: 1

Calories Per Serving: 105

Low-Fat Alternative to Pasta

If you're at all like me, one of the hardest things about maintaining a diet is cutting down on Italian food, especially pasta. What makes pasta fattening is the calories in the noodles, which come from the carbs. Although spaghetti sauce can be fattening, there are alternative ways to cook it. There's only one low-calorie alternative to the noodles, though, and that's spaghetti squash.

Sphagetti squash is a type of squash (obviously) that if you cut in half and carve the insides out gently, they will come out similar to noodles, about the size of angel hair. You get about 5 cups of noodles from one squash. A cup of spaghetti squash is only 42 calories, whereas a cup of regular noodles is over 450 calories. 1 cup of spaghetti squash also only has 10 carbohydrates, whereas a cup of regular noodles is around 106, which is 35% of your daily recommended intake.

The difference in the taste between the two is that spaghetti squash tends to be sweeter, while the textures of both are relatively close. If you have the right sauce, the sweet taste of the squash might add to the taste. I think that sauce with less salt works best when eaten with spaghetti squash.

Preparation

Place spaghetti squash in boiling water and cook 15 minutes. Prick in four places with a fork and continue cooking another 30 minutes.

Remove squash. Let cool for 5 minutes, then cut in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Using a fork, pull out the strands of "spaghetti". Add sauce and enjoy!


Serving size: 1 cup
Number of Servings: 5

Calories per serving: 49

Calories per 1 cup of regular spaghetti: 250

Thats a 200 calorie difference!

Weight Loss Tip: Eat at Home to Lose Weight

You would be amazed if you really knew how high in fat most dishes are at your favorite resturants and fast-food stores. For instance, even the "low fat" items in Mcdonalds are packed with calories. The Premium Grilled Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich is 530 calories, 17 grams of fat, and 52 carbs. You can make your own chicken sandwich at home on wheat bread for half the calories!

Plus, most of the dishes not only at Mcdonalds, but in most chain stores, are loaded with trans-fat, which is the worst of all fat, contributing to heart disease, obesity, and high cholesterol, according to the FDA.

If you must eat out, like it's an extremely important occasion (your wedding, perhaps) go to calorieking.com to find out the the nutrition facts for the meals at the resturant. Just keep in mind that calorie king doesn't post trans-fat facts, so don't over-do it.

Low- Fat Baked Salmon

Salmon is one of the best foods you can eat if you are trying to lose weight. Salmon is low in fat and high in protein, which helps you build lean muscle. Here is a low-fat and delicious salmon dish

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs Fresh Salmon Fillet
1/2 Tsp Dill
1 lemon

Preperation

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Put fish on foil-lined baking sheet. Spray sheet with non-fat cooking spray.

Bake 10 minutes for each inch of thickness. Salmon should be opaque but not dry.

Serve salmon with lemon wedges


Actual Cooking Time: less than 15 minutes
Serving Size: 4 oz.
Number of Servings: 6

Calories per serving: 133

Find Your Ideal Weight

You can use this BMI calculator to find your ideal weight.

A BMI under 18.5 is considered underweight 18.5 - 25.9 is normal, 25 - 29.9 is overweight. Anything over 30 is considered obese.

Low-Calorie Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is a low-calorie vegetable soup recipe thats only 119 calories per bowl. Eating soup is a great way to lose weight because the warm liquid makes you get full quicker than hard foods.


Ingredients

1 14oz. can chicken broth
1 11 oz. can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail
1 cup water
3 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 large potato, diced
1 14. oz. can diced tomatoes
1 bunch endive, cleaned and sliced
1 cup fresh corn kernels
creole seasoning to taste

Preperation

In a large stock pot, combine all the ingredients. Season with pepper and creole seasoning. Bring to a boil and season for 30 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.


Actual Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Number of servings: 6

Calories Per Serving: 119

Easy Weight Loss: Don't Drink Soda

Well, maybe you can drink soda, but only if its diet. A 20oz. bottle of regular soda (the size sold in most vending machines) is a whopping 250 calories. For someone whose not on a diet (takes in 2,000 calories a day) that's one-tenth of their entire calorie intake for the day, on something that isn't even filling! The calories in soda are called empty calories because they have no nutritional benefits.

Soda is also packed with sugar. Most soft drinks have around 39grams of sugar in a 12oz. cup, which is 4 tablespoons of sugar. This isn't only bad for your figure, it's bad for your health.

Although replacing all soda with water would be the healthiest alternative, you can drink diet soda instead. It has less carbs, less sugars, and above all, zero calories. There's absolutely no reason not to switch, but a hundred reasons you should.

Just think about it: If you cut one regular soda a day out of your diet, you would be cutting out 1,750 calories a week (250x7=1,750). Thats about a pound every 3 weeks, or 13 pounds a year.