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How to Workout your Back

January 31, 2013 By

The back muscle is one of the hardest muscle group to target simply because we can’t really see where our muscles are flexing. so we can’t target different areas. Also doing back workouts properly is extremely exhausting and will drain most of your energy. 

In order to workout your back properly and for results to be seen, you must remember to workout with proper form, because without proper form, you will not develop any new muscles nor are you training anything. If you’re working out your back wrong, you are just wasting precious energy you could be using to do them right.

A very easy sign to spot that you are not doing it right, is when your back is in pain and also when you keep working, but there are absolutely no results.

The following workouts are just suggestions you can use to include in your daily routines, doing all the exercises listed might result in damaging your muscles and over working it.

Dumbbell Pullovers – To do a dumbbell pullover you will need a workout bench and a dumbbell, first lie down with your back straight and on the bench, then hold them dumbbell with both hands right above your face and slowly move the dumbbell from the front of your face to the top of your head, while doing this your elbows should be a little bent. Once the dumbbell reaches the top of your head, move it back to the front of your face and repeat.

This is a great exercise to include at the beginning of your routine because it helps you stretch your upper body muscles and warms everything up. You should aim for a heavier dumbbell because you are holding it with two hands. Once you figure out what weight you want to use this exercise will help workout your pecks, upper abdominal muscles, shoulders and back at the same time.

You should be aiming for 8 reps, and once you start feeling comfortable doing 8 reps you can increase the weight until you feel that you can barely hit 8 reps. You only need to do one set if done properly.

Push Ups – To complete a proper push up you much place your hands on the floor, shoulder width apart. While your back is straight and legs are straight. Now lower yourself down to about 1 inch from the floor and push yourself back up, while keeping your back straight.

Many people think that push ups are just for working the chest and arms, but it also targets your back muscles and will help tone your back muscles. You should try to do as many as possible throughout the day. You can do some while watching tv, you can do some before bed or even when you wake up.

Try to do as many as possible and each time try to increase the amount done.

Dumbbell Row – To do a dumbbell row you will need a workout bench, the bench will help you position your back better and will also allow you to gain better leverage allowing you to lift heavier weights. First, you put your left knee on the bench while resting your left arm on the bench as well, while keeping your back straight. Now reach down with your right hand to pick up the dumbbell and pull it up until your elbow just passes your back, drop it all the way back down and repeat.

This exercise will help you target uneven workouts, if your dominate side is bigger, this will allow you to even out the muscle tone. This should be added to near the end of your routine because it allows you to push yourself and also use the bench to keep perfect posture.

Aim for 6 reps and do two sets with each arm, remembering to workout both arms evenly is very important if you want to look as symmetrical as possible. If you can complete the 6 reps with ease, you should increase the amount of weight used.

 

Filed Under: How-To

Why You Shouldn’t Hit On Her When It’s Raining

January 31, 2013 By

Bad weather may be damaging to your mojo, says a new study from the University of South Brittany in France. If you’ve ever struck out with a great pick-up line on a cloudy day, the research suggests that overcast skies might be to blame for your lack of success with women.

Earlier studies have already proven that people are generally in better moods on bright, sunny days, so the researchers at South Brittany decided to test the scope of how weather can affect men’s ability to successfully flirt. Specifically, they wanted to look at how a woman’s approachability was influenced by dreary weather. Their approach was simple: they recruited five attractive men to use the same pickup line on 500 random women and gaged the results. All of the encounters occurred outdoor on a spring day and they recorded whether the sky was sunny or cloudy.

The study found that of the 500 women approached by an attractive guy on a sunny day, 22% were willing to give out their phone numbers. On cloudy days, the men were considerably less lucky when it came to scoring digits—rejections increased by 8%. On days with lousy weather, only 14% of the 500 women approached agreed to give out their numbers.

These results beg the question, did the sun improve the men’s confidence and boost their chances with the opposite sex, or did the sun improve the women’s mood and make them more open to meeting potential partners? Likely a mix of both.

“The presence of sun improved each woman’s mood and made her more receptive to courtship requests,” suggests Nicholas Guéguen, Ph.D, and study author. Guéguen is a professor of Behavioural Sciences at South Brittany, and references various studies that demonstrate how situational cues can subconsciously alter a person’s mood. It seems that the positive environmental influences of a sunny day are enough to sway more women to say ‘yes’ when asked for their phone numbers by men vying for a date.

If the weather refuses to act in your favour, here are a few other tips to increase your chance of getting a woman’s phone number: touch her arm, approach her in a place where either flowers or romantic music are in your surroundings (or both!)

Women are 15% more likely to respond positively to being hit on if the man breaks the contact barrier (unaggressively!) by lightly touching her forearm or shoulder while talking with her. Men who ask out women in an environment containing fresh flowers are 30% more likely to successfully get a phone number, according to a study in Social Influence. Similarly, women who were approached in a room where romantic music is playing are almost twice as likely to agree to a date, says Psychology of Music.

So, to increase your success rate when it comes to asking out women, pay closer attention to your environment and surroundings. Science has proven that nice days improve your chances of scoring a phone number, so take advantage of the next beautiful day to strike up a conversation with a beautiful woman.

Filed Under: General, Women

The Early Birds Burns More Calories

January 30, 2013 By

The thought is simple, after a long night of rest, your body is in it’s peak optimum condition, therefore it is revealed that if you do exercise in the morning before your breakfast, you can burn your existing body fats 20% more efficient.

Simply by working out before you eat in the morning you will burn 20% more calories and fat than you would after eating. Many people believe that the rule is you must try to burn the calories after you eat, so you can control your body weight.

The truth is, the fat that has settled in your body is harder to get rid of. By waking up early and working out right away you are burning the fats that have settled rather than the fats that you have just ingested. Since your body has been fasting, your body will absorb most of the nutrients of the foods you eat, which is why it’s recommended that you take a higher dose of protein after a workout to improve muscle recovery.

After burning the existing fats and calories in your body, you are now free to enjoy a nice protein enriched meal after your workout, not only will it help you recover faster, it will also help you stay full for longer. The trick is to have your bigger meals at the beginning of the day and have a tiny meal prior to sleep. This is because the body will burn the calories that you have just ingested through daily routines as simple as walking, jumping or even lifting something. At night when your body is resting, it converts all the left over calories into fats which is now harder to get rid of, so if you have a bigger meal for breakfast and tiny meal for dinner, while working out before your breakfast. You will see a change very fast.

Many of you would believe that you would actually have a bigger appetite after a night of fasting and working out, but research shows that is false. There were a group of active men who were told to either exercise prior to breakfast and after. Results showed no increase in appetites and the ones who exercised prior to breakfast burned their body fats 20% more effectively.

 

Filed Under: General

How Eating Less Can Improve Your Brain Function

January 30, 2013 By

You are what you eat, but sometimes less is truly more. Are you a forgetful person or looking to improve your memory? Most of us know that eating fewer calories is beneficial to your body and physical health, but scientific evidence also suggests that a low-cal diet may be good for your mind as well.

An Italian study has found that eating less can improve your memory and ability to learn. The study, conducted by the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome, focused on caloric restriction in relation to how well lab mice could perform in various cognitive tests.

The assessment focused on a protein called CREB1, which has previously been linked to a person or animal’s memory strength as well as capacity to learn. CREB1 is recognized as a key ingredient in certain brain functions. The results of the study found that by reducing a subject’s diet by 25-30% the production of the protein CREB1 was increased in the brain.

The 25% decrease in diet works out to about 600 calories per day in the average human diet. If you’re interested in boosting your own memory, an easy way to begin reducing your diet by 25% is to cut out desserts completely. Eating lighter meals is a simple and healthy way to attain this goal as well, but if you usually snack on dessert after a meal that is an obvious first choice for calories to be cut.

A recommended habit to help you resist the temptation of after-dinner snacks is to drink tea (or even coffee) after each meal. The study also demonstrated that caffeine can boost the production of CREB1; so even if you struggle to reduce your diet by 25%, you may be able to achieve similar results with improved memory if you incorporate a bit more caffeine into your routine.

Other foods that have been reported to increase memory and cognitive function are avocados, which stimulate blood circulation necessary for optimal thinking power, and fish, which contain the omega-3 fatty acids crucial to a healthy nervous system. Blueberries, whole grains, and tomatoes are among the other foods believed to increase brain function and memory.

Habitants of Okinawa, Japan stop eating once they are 80% full out of a cultural tradition; interesting, Okinawa has the world’s largest population (per capita) of people over 100 years old! It seems there may be even greater hidden value to constraining your caloric intake, but science has yet to pin it down.

Filed Under: Food, General

Staying Healthy with Tuna

January 29, 2013 By

Not only is tuna easy to include in your food, its actually very good for the human body. It’s great for people who want to lose those extra unwated pounds or just for who ever may enjoy it.

Tuna is ideal for body building or great for after workouts, its loaded with protein and minerals while only containing the healthy omega-3 fats. The calories in the tunas are also extremely low considering the amount of protein that it supplies you with.

The tuna you eat is contributing to your healthy hearts as well, because the omega-3 fats are lowering the bad cholesterols in the heart and helps you maintain cardiac function, and also helps prevent bloodclots from forming. The omega-3 will also better your eye health because omega-3 prevents the body in the eye against macular degeneration, which will help you extend your good vision for a longer period of time.

Tuna is also recommended to be consumed for those who suffer from type-2 diabetes, of course, because the content of omega-3 fats are abundant in tuna.

Here are some quick recipes for your tuna:

Tuna Sandwich

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread
1 can of tuna
2 tbsp of mayo
1 stalk of celery
1 leaf of lettuce
2 slices of tomato
pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Cut the celery into little tiny cubes
2. Strain the liquid from the tuna
3. Mix tuna, mayo and celery together
4. Make sure you mix everything throughlly and add a pinch of salt to taste
5. Toast your bread, add a slice of lettuce then tomato, your tuna mix and top off with another piece of bread

***If you’re looking for a lighter sandwich you can also try to replace the mayo with either olive oil or hummus.

If you also want to increase the amount of protein in your sandwich try to dice some hard boiled eggs up and mix it into the mixture as well.

Another very good tuna dish is the Tuna and Avocado salad:

Ingredients:

1 can tuna
1 avocado pitted and peeled
2 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 green onion chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt
pepper

Instructions:

With this ingredient you can choose to either leave the tuna water in or you can strain it out.

1. Place the tuna in a bowl
2. Dice up the Avocado
3. mix avocado into the tuna bowl along with the rest of the ingredients
4. salt and pepper to taste

*** You salad may vary depending on if you added the tuna water, it could more more watery vs not adding the tuna water.

Filed Under: Food
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