The Chicago Tribune has done some research on the Coconut Craze.

Liz Applegate, director of sports nutrition at the University of California-Davis, thinks coconut water is fine to drink for hydration — if you like the taste.

Applegate takes issue with some of the health endorsements including weight loss and heart health claims.

It would be nice to see this kind of scrutiny given to all nutritional claims made by big business:

Most of these sites that promote and sell coconut oil originate from coconut-producing countries, including India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Instead of research studies, you’ll find articles written by coconut oil advocates — including Mary Enig, vice president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a controversial organization that is critical of “traditional diets” and extols the benefits of saturated fat.

Unstable Surface Training (UST) has moved from being used almost exclusively in rehabilitation to becoming common place among personal trainers and strength coaches. One can’t go to a gym and not see somebody training on a Bosu ball, stability ball, wobble board or foam pad. It’s so popular entire books have been written on this type of training. But do not be fooled by its popularity.

UST is not popular because it works, but because of a tremendous media campaign. The fitness industry is always looking for something new. They know here’s huge money in marketing a piece of equipment and/or workout program.

Performing exercises on unstable equipment can be challenging no doubt, but research has not shown that the type of balance, and core stability developed through UST will transfer to any sports skill. Performing exercises on unstable equipment will make an individual proficient at performing resistance exercises on unstable surfaces but will not improve sports performance. Is UST training even necessary?

Researchers from Appalachian State University compared trunk muscle activity during stability ball and free weight exercises. The stability ball exercises utilized were the quadruped, pelvic thrust and ball back extensions. The free weight exercises were the squat (SQ) and deadlift (DL). During all exercises muscle activity was collected using electromyography (EMG).

During the study trunk muscle activity during SQ and DL’s was equal to or greater than which was produced during stability ball exercises. This was true even when 50% of the 1 rep max was used during SQ and DL. The role of UST is again shown to be in question.
(Journal of Strength Conditioning Research 22:95-101,2008)

Most people who workout love training their arms; rarely do you here of somebody skipping their arm workout. You never see somebody walking around with large muscular legs and skinny arms. In fact, it’s just the opposite. This is in no small part due to the fact that no other body part exemplifies strength and development, and is the envy of others like a muscular pair of arms. In the following article I walk you through one way to properly bang your your triceps to new growth.

All too often, a personal trainer or instructor will isolate a particular muscle so much that it becomes detrimental to the workout. You may be asking, “How can you isolate a muscle too much? Isn’t that what all the magazines say to do?” Yes, that is what a lot of magazines tell you to do, and I agree it’s good to isolate the muscle being worked. I’ll even go one step further and say that it is not only good but also absolutely necessary for optimum muscular growth. However, many instructors and fitness enthusiasts are so concerned with isolation exercises that they’re neglecting form and function.

How does form and function relate to triceps training? Let’s look at what the triceps actually do. The triceps extend, or straighten, the arm. For example, without your triceps it would be virtually impossible to grab a beer from the fridge. That would truly be a tragedy. Without triceps, your arm would be in a constant flexed state. This having been said, exercises that stress movement only at the elbow (such as triceps pressdowns) are solid movements. However, I am starting to see less and less multi-joint movements used in workouts. Examples of multi-joint movements for the triceps would be close grip bench presses, dips and a few others. These exercises involve not only the elbow joint but the shoulder joint as well.

9 Weeks to Bigger Arms

Despite the years of research and mountains of data, there still is no definitive answer to whether stretching is worth your time and effort. Proponents argue that stretching prevents injury, diminishes delayed onset muscle soreness and improves athletic performance. Some go as far as to say that regular stretching can help speed recovery from workouts and improve blood flow to the area being stretched. Opponents will argue that stretching can actually cause injury, and does nothing to improve performance or prevent delayed onset muscle soreness. In fact there are many experts who not only believe stretching does nothing to improve performance, but that it can significantly hinder it. Each side can site numerous studies to support their claims.

Because there is so much conflicting data, should we even bother stretching? The answer is a resounding “yes”. Especially if you lack normal range of motion in your joints. Our bodies are a feat of engineering that man, in all his wisdom and brilliance, cannot replicate. For example, as we grow and develop into adults, we are provided with a certain degree of flexibility governed by our genetics. This flexibility allows us to have a normal range of movement around a joint. This range of movement is crucial to the health of our joints. Training, injuries and the natural aging process all will diminish flexibility and the range of movement we started with. Flexibility is not only lost or gained in the muscle, it’s also determined by tendons, ligaments and other connective tissue. It is this relationship between bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc., that took millions of years to perfect through evolution. Any disturbance between the structures in our joints can lead to hindered performance or serious injury.

No matter which side you take, and no matter what the reason, the data is conclusive on one point: It’s much more effective to stretch muscles that are already warmed up. A warm-up is light to moderate activity lasting 10 – 15 minutes before the actual workout begins. Warming up drives blood into the muscles and synovial fluid into the joints, thus reducing stiffness. If you warm-up first, you’ll make much more progress than if you stretch cold.

To evaluate whether you are developing a restriction around a joint, and to see a list of stretches in their proper order go HERE.

The New York Sports Clubs shares some tips to get your body in golf shape for when you attack the links this summer.

Big Bertha – Driving power from your legs and arms will increase your yards. Grab your driving club and get started:

Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder width. Bending at the hips and knees, lower into a squat and hold the position. Hold the club with both hands in front of you, parallel to the floor. While holding the squat, bend the elbows bringing the club to the chest at an angle, press out and repeat with the angle in the other direction. Continue pressing in and out at a diagonal for 30 times, working your way up to 75.

Caddy Shack – For stamina to walk the course, follow this move to get your heart rate up and cardiovascular system conditioned:

Place three tees on the floor about two feet from each other in a line. Starting on the left of the first one, hop over each with a dbl hop between them. When you get to the end, hop back to the starting position. Try to continue hopping for 30 seconds, working your way up to a minute.

Hole in One – Core strength is imperative to drive the ball down the green. Try this core strengthener to get that hole in one:

Sitting on the floor with your feet flat on the ground, grab a golf ball in your right hand. Lean back slightly, lifting your feet off the floor a few inches holding yourself stable by contracting your stomach muscles. Holding that position, gently lower right leg as you slightly lift the left and pass the ball through the legs to the left hand. Switch the legs and pass the ball back to the right hand, through the legs. Continue for 20-30 repetitions.

Back Nine – With all the swinging and bending, a golfers low back is a must to strengthen

Lie on your stomach, legs out straight and arms straight at your side. Lift up your head and legs at the same time, keeping your spine in line with your head. Hold the position with your low back and glutes for 3-5 seconds and release. Start with 8-10 working your way up to 15.

Club House – When your game is over, before hitting the showers or clubhouse, make sure to stretch

On all fours, round your back so you feel your spine open, lifting up your belly button to the ceiling, tucking your glutes and head under. Hold for 3 seconds. Reverse the move by lifting your head to the ceiling and curving your back under, tail bone to the ceiling.

There you have it. If your game still stinks, then it might be time to pick up another hobby!

Men’s Fitness.com has three tips to how you can shed pounds in a quicker amount of time:

1.) TRY CARDIO BETWEEN SETS
Go about your weight workout as normal but instead of resting between sets, perform light cardio such as jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, or hitting a heavy bag for between 60 and 90 seconds.

2.) ALTERNATE INTERVALS
Perform a set and then do some highly intense activity for 15 seconds, followed by a 45-second easy bout for recovery. Then go back to the weights for another set. You can pair your lifting with any kind of cardio — a treadmill sprint, intervals on an exercise bike, or with a jump rope, etc.

3.) TRY A CIRCUIT
Start with compound movements, followed by isolation lifts. For instance, do a squat, followed by a lunge, hamstring curl, and leg extension. Do not rest until after the last exercise and then rest two to three minutes. You’ll get an awesome pump while burning lots of calories.

To read the entire article, click here.

The most important thing to remember is that your diet must be sound. You can run 100 stairs in between every set on the bench, but if all you’re consuming outside of the gym is fatty, processesed foods, you’re not going to drop the weight.

That said, the article does highlight a couple of nice techniques to try if you’re getting tired of your current routine and can’t seem to lose that stubborn weight. I would warn, however, that if you’re trying to pack on size, continuously doing cardio between sets will zap your strength and therefore gaining muscle will be a challenge. For hard-gainers, resting between sets is the better way to go if you’re trying to bulk up.

If you’re a hard gainer, you’ve likely tried all kinds of workouts trying to add size to your frame. But as Men’s Fitness.com points out, your problem probably lies somewhere in between working out too much and not eating enough.

MF.com highlights three exercises to do for all hard gainers, as well as some dieting tips to help pack on the muscle.

WORKOUT
Perform these exercises three days per week, resting at least a day between sessions. Vary the sets and reps, too. On Day 1, complete five sets of five reps for each lift, resting two minutes between sets. On Day 3, do four sets of 10, resting 90 seconds. On Day 5, do three sets of 15 reps with 60—90 seconds’ rest in between.

1.Squat
Set up a barbell on the supports of a squat rack. Step underneath the bar, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and let the bar touch your upper traps. Grab the bar with your hands as close together as is comfortable. Nudge the bar off the rack, take three steps backward, and stand with your feet a bit wider than shoulder-width apart and toes turned slightly outward [1]. Take a deep breath and bend your hips back as far as you can, keeping the arch in your lower back. Then bend your knees and lower your body as far as you can (try to squat to where your thighs are at least parallel to the floor) [2]. Explode back upward to the starting position. That’s one rep.

2. Clean and Press
Set a barbell on the floor, crouch down, and grab it with hands shoulder-width apart. Your lower back should be in its natural arch [1]. Explosively stand up and shrug the bar, coming up onto the balls of your feet. As the bar rises to chest level, flip your wrists over so that your palms face the ceiling and your upper arms are in the bottom position of a shoulder press [2]. From here, press the bar straight overhead [3]. Reverse the motion to return the weight to the floor. That’s one rep. If you feel your back is rounding when you pull the weight off the floor, perform the exercise by starting with the bar at just above knee height, and “muscle” the weight up from there.

3. Pullup
Grab a pullup bar with an overhand grip, hands outside shoulder width. Allow your body to hang [1]. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar [2], and then lower yourself back to the starting position. That’s one rep. Depending on how many reps you need to do, you can add weight using a belt or holding a dumbbell between your feet (you may need to do this on the five sets of five day). You can also use an elastic exercise band to help you perform more reps (such as on the 10- and 15-rep workout days). You can get a jump stretch band that works great for this at elitefts.com.

Check out MF.com’s tips for eating for more muscle.

The mechanics of a golf swing can cause a variety of injuries. The most common area golfers experience injuries is the lower back. Other areas golfers complain about are the shoulder, or more specifically the rotator cuff, the left elbow, and the left wrist (for right handers). Unfortunately, there is little data available about the seriousness of injuries as a result of playing golf or how to reduce them. However, if we apply what we know from other sports through research and empirical data, I have seen many golfers not only decrease their risk of injury but improve their game.

What golfer in their right mind wouldn’t want to improve his game? As a matter of fact, golfers, more than participants in any other sport, are fanatical. There are more than 20 million golfers in the US and most of them are obsessed with their abilities on the course. They will drop $700 on an iron and $400 for a driver. Many will pay thousands of dollars to belong to prestigious country clubs. Many more will spend hundreds of dollars during the golf season on balls that they’re eventually going to lose. But the average golfer won’t spend a dime on improving his biggest asset to his game: his body. I cannot imagine owning a $2,000 set of clubs and not doing anything to ensure I could use them to their fullest capacity.

To be successful at golf, you need functional strength, flexibility, endurance (ability to hit the club well, over and over), coordination, finesse and timing. You can’t find these aspects of the game in a pro shop. I don’t care how much you paid for your Big Bertha Fusion Irons or your balls that claim to go 20 to 40 yards farther than ordinary balls; if you lack the above, you’re going to be another frustrated player.

Golf: Reducing your isk of injury and improving your game.