Tag: Health And Fitness

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Weight Loss Exercise

Weight Training Accessories






While weight training is very important for overall health and fitness, lifting heavy weights can put a lot of stress on your body. Even when maintaining the correct form and technique, accidents or injury may happen. That is why many strength training instructors recommend the use of weight training accessories. Accessories for strength training can make your workout safer and more comfortable, thus enhancing the effectiveness of your workout.

Lifting Gloves

A good pair of lifting gloves is one of the most basic weight training accessories that you need. Lifting gloves help make your strength training exercises more comfortable. They can help you avoid blisters and calluses. Gloves can also help prevent your sweaty hands from slipping off barbells or dumbbells while lifting.

Gloves for weight training are usually made of leather or synthetic rubber such as neoprene. These materials are breathable and prevent sweat and heat from building up inside the gloves. Lifting gloves that are machine washable are ideal for easy maintenance and hygiene.



Weight Lifting Straps

Another important weight training accessory is weight lifting straps. Straps can help you avoid dropping the barbell. These weight training accessories are worn on the wrist and wrapped around the barbell or dumbbell to help you maintain a good grip on the bar.

Weight lifting straps can be helpful if you experience pain when doing arm curls or if you have sweaty hands. However, some experts discourage overusing weight training straps as your natural grip may grow weaker if you rely too much on them.

Wrist Wraps

Wrist wraps are different from weight lifting straps. Wrist wraps help support the wrist when doing presses, such as bench press or military press. These weight training accessories help prevent wrist or elbow pain that sometimes happens during pressing movements.

Wrist wraps are inexpensive weight training accessories and can help prevent wrist and elbow injuries.

Joint Straps

If you have weak or injured knees or elbows, straps may be able to keep your joints from becoming hyper-extended. Wrap the joint straps around your knees or elbows to prevent injuries. Knee wraps can be helpful when doing squats and are especially helpful for power lifting.

Weight Training Belts

Weight training belts help to protect the lower back as well as the muscles of the entire upper torso. This popular weight training accessory also supports the sides and prevents twisting or bending incorrectly. Weight training belts are particularly helpful when lifting your maximum weights.

Fitness experts discourage frequent use of a weight training belt, especially when lifting weights below your maximum. Limit the use of a belt to your heaviest sets when doing deadlifts or squats. Keep in mind that you do not need this weight training accessory when doing curls or rows.

Proper Use of Weight Training Accessories

Weight training accessories can help make your workout safer and more comfortable. However, you must learn how to use these accessories correctly. Get the advice of a gym instructor on the proper use of strength training equipment and accessories. When used in the right way, weight training accessories can enhance your workout.



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Weight Loss Exercise

Fit over 40 review

How can you be Fit over 40

Last week I turned 40 and as part of the process of reaching another one of those ages with a 0 on the end I decided to take a look at what I should do differently with my health and exercise.

Yes, I know, age is just a number and it is more important to treat your body well, but there are health and fitness issues that will make a difference in exercise, for example we produce less testosterone naturally as we get older so it is more difficult to gain muscle.

As I was looking for information I ran across an eBook called Fit over 40. Fit over 40 is a very interesting eBook written by Jon Benson and Tom Venuto. The reason that this book is interesting is that it is not just a do this, do that, eat this, don’t eat that, type of book. Instead this book is big on motivation and shows you a better way to reach your goals. The way the book uses is through example.

Here are the three sections of Fit over 40

Fit over 40 reviewFit over 40 Part one

Jon Benson describes his struggles and successes and how he was able to transform his body and health. And further Jon lays outs some great principles

  • BodyWorks: Strength Strategy
  • Inner Fuel: The Taste of Health
  • I Can See The Valley: New Hills, New Horizons
  • Begin and Believe
  • Post-40 Training Tips

Fit over 40 Part two

This is the exciting meat of this book. Now that we have a basis for looking at how it looks and feels to be fit Jon Benson takes us through biographies of 52 people over 40 that have a great health and how they got that way, some were very sick and some were healthy but the important thing is all of these people are people that we can really relate to in one way or another. This way we do not have to look at pro athletes as an unreachable standard of how to get in great shape.

Fit over 40 Part three

This is where Tom Venuto of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle fame kicks in. Tom Goes through the five pillars of Anti Aging:

  • Pillar 1: Weight Strength Training
  • Pillar 2: Aerobic Training
  • Pillar 3: Learning To Be Flexible
  • Pillar 4: Lifelong Nutrition
  • Pillar 5: Recovery and Renewal

After going through this and helping us realize what a big part the mental game is in getting fit we now have a well rounded process for getting, keeping, and improving lifelong health.

Conclusion of Fit over 40 Review

Fit over 40, I believe is a great read and reference book for almost anyone over 40 years old. In comparing Fit over 40 to Burn the Fat Feed the muscle, I find that this book is less in the actual workout regimen but is much better in role models. It is always easy in popular culture to find the freaks, the people over 90 that do triathlons, or the young kid that swims the English Channel. But what about the rest of us? How about the people to old to be pro athletes (although the book has a couple) but still young enough to be incredibly fit and healthy?

Any day that you are having motivation problems you can come back to this book on your computer and read about someone that is just like you and has overcome what you are struggling with.

I really recommend Fit over 40 to keep your motivation and for $39.00 it is a great value.

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The rewards of a healthy lifestyle



In my travels across the internet I just found this great post from a guy who has ben living a great new healthy lifestyle and wrote a nice long post about how it has made him feel.

Life is about learning from mistakes that have been made and being better: Health and Fitness

Sometimes I forget about the great changes in peoples outlook from having a great workout, or haveing a great eating day. These are things that really make us appreciate how we have made these changes for ourselves. Sure it is nice to get compliments from frineds and coworkers about how much better we look, but it is even more importnat that deep down we are really happy about what we have done for ourselves.