Why should we strength train?

Want to reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently? Strength training to the rescue! Despite its reputation as a "guy" or "jock" thing, strength training is a key component of overall health and fitness for everyone.

Use it or lose it

Muscle mass naturally diminishes with age.

If you don't strength train or do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you'll increase the percentage of fat in your body," "But strength training can help you preserve and enhance your muscle mass — at any age."

Strength training also helps you:

• Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.
• Control your weight. As you gain muscle, your body begins to burn calories more efficiently. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to control your weight.
• Boost your stamina. As you get stronger, you won't fatigue as easily. Building muscle also contributes to better balance, which can help you maintain independence as you age.
• Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, including back pain, arthritis, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
• Sharpen your focus. Some research suggests that regular strength training helps improve attention for older adults.

Consider the options

Strength training can be done at home or in the gym. Common choices include:

• Body weight. You can do many exercises with little or no equipment. Try push-ups, pull-ups, abdominal crunches and squats.
• Resistance tubing. Resistance tubing is inexpensive, lightweight tubing that provides resistance when stretched. You can choose from many types of resistance tubes in nearly any sporting goods store.
• Free weights. Barbells and dumbbells are classic strength training tools.
• Weight machines. Most fitness centers offer various resistance machines. You can also invest in weight machines for use at home.

Think Fit!

Workout of the day!

Dynamic Stretches

• Lunges 8
• Lateral Lunge Squat 8
• Toy soldiers
• Warrior Lunge

Warm up

• Walk 4-5 min

Workout (intervals)

• jog 4-5 min (6)
• Sprint (30sec.) All out! (6)

Cool Down Walk

• Plank (60sec.)
• Flutter Kicks (60sec.)
• Crunches (30Sec.)

Weight Loss!

From MSN Health & Fitness...Exercise is vital in the formula for weight loss, but is there a magic number? Working out daily for just 30 minutes as opposed to an hour can suffice when it comes to losing weight. A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Physiology found sedentary men who worked out daily for 30 minutes lost more weight (7 pounds) over a period of 13 weeks than those who worked out at the same intensity (5 pounds) for an hour. The researchers conclude shorter exercise sessions led the men to burn calories without the need to replace them as much.

Bodyweight Burn!

https://www.t-nation.com/training/bodyweight-burn

Go After What You Want!

Do Your Squats!

1. Squats obviously help to build your leg muscles (including your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves), but they also create an anabolic environment, which promotes body-wide muscle building. 

   In fact, when done properly, squats are so intense that they trigger the release of testosterone and human growth hormone in your body, which are vital for muscle growth and will also help to improve muscle mass when you train other areas of your body aside from your legs. 

   So squats can actually help you improve both your upper and lower body strength. 

2. Functional Exercise Makes Real-Life Activities Easier

   Functional exercises are those that help your body to perform real-life activities, as opposed to simply being able to operate pieces of gym equipment. Squats are one of the best functional exercises out there, as humans have been squatting since the hunter-gatherer days. When you perform squats, you build muscle and help your muscles work more efficiently, as well as promote mobility and balance. All of these benefits translate into your body moving more efficiently in the real world too.

3. Burn More Fat

   One of the most time-efficient ways to burn more calories is actually to gain more muscle! For every pound of additional muscle you gain, your body will burn an additional 50-70 calories per day. So, if you gain 10 pounds of muscle, you will automatically burn 500-700 more calories per day than you did before.

4. Maintain Mobility and Balance

   Strong legs are crucial for staying mobile as you get older, and squats are phenomenal for increasing leg strength. They also work out your core, stabilizing muscles, which will help you to maintain balance, while also improving the communication between your brain and your muscle groups, which helps prevent falls – which is incidentally the #1 way to prevent bone fractures versus consuming mega-dose calcium supplements and bone drugs.

5. Prevent Injuries

   Most athletic injuries involve weak stabilizer muscles, ligaments and connective tissues, which squats help strengthen. They also help prevent injury by improving your flexibility (squats improve the range of motion in your ankles and hips) and balance, as noted above.

6. Boost Your Sports Performance -- Jump Higher and Run Faster

   Whether you're a weekend warrior or a mom who chases after a toddler, you'll be interested to know that studies have linked squatting strength with athletic ability.1 Specifically, squatting helped athletes run faster and jump higher, which is why this exercise is part of virtually every professional athlete's training program.

7. Tone Your Backside, Abs and Entire Body

   Few exercises work as many muscles as the squat, so it's an excellent multi-purpose activity useful for toning and tightening your behind, abs, and, of course, your legs. Furthermore, squats build your muscles, and these muscles participate in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, helping to protect you against obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

   
   
   

Workout of the Day-4/27/2015

Interval, Legs & Core Warm-up Walk 1-lap on track Light Stretch Agility [High Knee, Toy Soldiers, Carioca, Back Peddle, Knee Skips] 10yds Interval Sprint 400m/20Push ups/20 Flutter kicks/20yd lunges Rest 2min and Repeat 5x Jog 1 mile Situps 60 Cool Down & Stretch

Belly Dancing is a great way to shrink some inches and have fun!

Control What You Eat

The most accurate way to control

caloric intake is to control the size of

food portions and thus the total amount

of food ingested. One can use standard

household measuring utensils and a

small kitchen scale to measure portions

Portion Control

of foods and beverages. Keeping a

daily record of all foods eaten and

physical activity done is also helpful.

To estimate the number of calories

you use in normal daily activity, multiply

your body weight by 13 if you are

sedentary, 14 if somewhat active, and

15 if moderately active. The result is

a rough estimate of the number of

calories you need to maintain your

present body weight. You will need

still more calories if you are more than

moderately active. By comparing

caloric intake with caloric expenditure,

the state of energy balance (positive,

balanced, or negative) can be

determined.

What Fitness Is All About!

Physical fitness is the ability to function
effectively in physical work, training,
and other activities and still have
enough energy left over to handle any

emergencies which may arise.

The components of physical fitness
are as follows:

• Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurancethe
efficiency with which the
body delivers oxygen and nutrients
needed for muscular activity and
transports waste products from the
cells.


• Muscular strength - the greatest
amount of force a muscle or muscle
group can exert in a single effort.

• Muscular endurance - the ability of
a muscle or muscle group to perform
repeated movements with a
sub-maximal force for extended
periods of times.

• Flexibility-the ability to move the
joints (for example, elbow, knee) or
any group of joints through an
entire, normal range of motion.

• Body composition-the amount of 
body fat a person has in comparison 
to his total body mass.

Improving the first three components
of fitness listed above will have
a positive impact on body composition
and will result in less fat. Excessive
body fat detracts from the other fitness
components, reduces performance,
detracts from appearance, and
negatively affects one’s health.
Factors such as speed, agility, muscle
power, eye-hand coordination, and
eye-foot coordination are classified as
components of “motor” fitness.