Tag: Fitness Regimen

Importance of Circuit Training in Men’s Fitness Workouts

Post author By admin
Post date June 22, 2012
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Numerous studies show that regular exercise not only improves overall health, it can also add years to your life. One of the best men’s fitness workouts is circuit training, which combines strength training and endurance training. Men who incorporate circuit training into their fitness regimen can benefit significantly from it.

What is Circuit Training?

A circuit training program combines groups of cardio exercises with strength training exercises, performed at a fast pace with little to no rest period before moving on to the next group of exercises. One circuit or group of exercises can consist of anywhere from 6 to 10 exercises. You can tailor the intensity of your workout to suit your fitness level.

Why is Circuit Training Important?

Men often favor one type of exercise over another. For example, some men may focus on bodybuilding or strength training and neglect their cardiovascular health. Circuit training ensures that men’s fitness workouts develop not only their muscles but also their endurance.

Benefits of Weight Training Exercises

Here are a few reasons why men should use a circuit training routine:

Ideal for beginners: If you are starting an exercise program for the first time, circuit training can help ease you into your fitness regimen. Circuit training conditions the entire body and prepares you for more advanced fitness programs. Keep in mind that you can vary the intensity of your workout.
Convenient: Circuit training allows you to get a full workout in a short span of time. You can even design a circuit training session that requires little or no exercise equipment. You can incorporate exercise routines that utilize only dumbbells or your body weight. If you are pressed for time, simply ramp up the intensity of your workout. You’ll get a full exercise in as little as 15 to 20 minutes.
Improved fitness level: A circuit training session consists of a mix of exercises that use different muscle groups. Because of this, circuit training can help men develop bigger muscles while improving their endurance and cardiovascular health. Circuit training also aids in weight loss. It can help you burn up to 30% more calories.
Eliminates boredom: If you lift weights or work out on a stationary bike day in and day out, it’s very easy to get bored. Circuit training in men’s fitness workouts keeps your exercise sessions fresh all the time. The variety of exercises helps keep you interested and motivated. By changing the exercises with each session, you’ll always be eager to keep working out.

You can also change the intensity level of your training session. By eliminating the possibility of boredom, you’ll be more likely to continue with your fitness regimen in the long run.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Benefits of Weight Training Exercises

Post author By admin
Post date September 12, 2011
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Once confined to bodybuilders with huge muscular physiques, weight training is now gaining acceptance from men who want to bulk up their body and women who want toned muscles and stronger bones. People who go to the gym or work out at home find it beneficial to add weight training exercises to their fitness regimen.

While fitness experts recognize the importance of cardio workouts, the consensus in physical fitness these days is to include strength training for overall fitness. Cardio workouts increase the oxygen levels in the body and helps burn fat.

However, weight training exercises are also important if you want to firm up your abdomen, thighs, arms, and hips. Cardiovascular exercises can cause your body to sag, but when accompanied by weight training exercises you will have a wonderfully toned and firm body. Strength training exercises offer the following benefits:

* Improve your muscular strength and endurance- Weight training exercises will make you stronger and help your muscles work longer.

* Improve functional capacity and ability- Working out with weights will improve your coordination and balance and help you avoid injuries. For example, you’ll find it easier to climb stairs and reduce the risk of falling.

* Lower blood pressure- People who lift weights experience normal blood pressure levels.

* Prevent osteoporosis- Studies show that strength training exercises lower the risk of osteoporosis especially in women. Lifting weights will help make your bones stronger.

* Increase your resting metabolic rate- Weight training exercises help raise your metabolism. Because muscles burn more calories than fat, if you have more muscles your body will burn more calories throughout the day.

* Improve psychological wellbeing- When you exercise, you will feel good about yourself. This will increase your confidence and self-esteem.

* Reduce lower back pain– People who exercise have less body fat and stronger core muscles. This helps minimize the risk of lower back pain.

Choosing a Weight Training Exercise Routine

For all-around physical fitness, your workout program should include exercises for cardiovascular endurance, strength training, and muscular endurance. You should also include routines to enhance your body’s flexibility.

Weight training exercises for men and women differ slightly. Women usually work out with lighter weights and lesser sets. Also, men go through weight training exercises to bulk up while women prefer to tone their muscles without putting on too much bulk.

You can do weight training exercises at home if you do not have access to a gym. When working out at home, you will need basic exercise equipment such as dumbbells, weight bench, resistance bands, etc. Some weight training exercises like leg extensions and lateral pull-ups require exercise machines that you can find in a gym. You may want to buy some exercise equipment for your home gym, or do other weight training exercises that will work out the same muscles without the use of an exercise machine.

Weight Loss Exercise

Jack Lalanne Dead at 96

Jack Lalanne

Jack Lalanne, one of the originators of the fitness movement has died but left a fantastic legacy to help people to look after their health and concentrate on their fitness as one of the cornerstones of a great life.

Here is a great article from the Globe and mail today talking about Jack Lalanne and what he taught and meant to those in the fitness community.

Jack LaLanne, who died on Sunday at age 96, was regarded as the father of the modern fitness movement. Dressed in snug jumpsuits, the television fixture preached a balance of exercise and healthy diet and inspired millions. The Post spoke to fitness gurus about the top lessons learned from LaLanne’s legacy.

What was the Jack Lalanne Legacy?

1. There is no excuse for not exercising. Long before Nike told everyone to “just do it,” LaLanne was relentless in his pitches, using a drill sergeant’s bark and cadence. “Jack inspired the world with his no-nonsense approach to exercise,” says Maureen Hagan, fitness instructor and VP of operations at GoodLife Fitness Canada. “Many of us will recall Jack showing his TV viewers how to exercise in the kitchen, using a chair and lifting soup cans as dumbbells. His ‘no excuse, just do it’ attitude inspired the world to at least try exercise.”

2. Weight training is a key component of a fitness regimen. “He popularized the whole notion of fitness before we recognized it as a crisis situation,” says Christa Costas-Bradstreet, physical activity specialist at ParticipAction, the national not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting active living. When LaLanne first began recommending weights in the 1930s, he said that physicians opposed his advice, warning it would cause heart attacks and lower sex drives. “People thought I was a charlatan and a nut,” LaLanne said in a posting on his website. “Time has proven that what I was doing was scientifically correct — starting with a healthy diet followed by systematic exercise, and today everyone knows it.”

3. Fitness is for everyone. “He taught that physical activity was something for all ages, irrespective of socio-economic status and ability,” Costas-Bradstreet says. LaLanne invited women into his health clubs, and also encouraged the elderly and the disabled to exercise. “I share the great passion for bringing women into the gym environment that Jack LaLanne pioneered,” says Craig Ramsay, author of Anatomy of Exercise and trainer on Bravo’s Thintervention.

4. Practise what you preach. When LaLanne was 42, he did a record 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes. When he was 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf — while handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. Late in life, he continued to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. for two-hour workouts. “He himself was a role model,” Costas-Bradstreet says. “Only 7% of Canadian children and youth are meeting Canada’s physical activity guidelines and 15% of adults. We absolutely need role models, particularly for kids.”