Category: Xternal Fitness (Page 42 of 43)

Work a desk job? Your shoulders and chest could be suffering

May 24, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Being a writer, the majority of my day is spent sitting at a desk and starring at a computer all day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining – I love my job. The only problem is sitting at a desk all day is apparently limiting my gains in the gym, and now I am complaining.

I stumbled onto this article at MSN.com about posture in reference to your shoulders and chest. Human instincts tell us to slouch forward while typing or reading at a computer and with that, our heads also come forward, putting more weight on our neck, upper back and shoulders. Our chest is also affected:

If your shoulders are slumped forward for long periods of time, your chest muscles become shortened. That is, since these muscles attach to your upper arms, the distance they need to extend when you slouch is less than when your shoulders are drawn back. Over time, the chest muscles adapt to this position as their natural length, pulling your shoulders forward. As a result, many of the shoulder’s stabilizers are overstretched, which makes them weaker.

Now why the hell are we going to log so much time on the bench press if we’re just going to waste that effort the next six or so hours sitting behind a desk? The article recommends doing “10 standing shoulder retractions every hour when working at a computer.” Stand and pull your shoulder blades together – while also keeping your head and shoulders above your pelvis – for 3 seconds. This movement forces your chest muscles to extend, which prevents them from becoming permanently shortened.

The article also gets into ways to strengthen the muscles around our shoulders (i.e. rear delts, rotator-cuff, scapular), which we tend to ignore because we don’t see them when we look for gains in the mirror. Doing some of these recommended exercises will in turn grow the muscles will can check out in the mirror, as well as keep our posture straight so that doesn’t effect our workout gains. Plus, as a general rule of thumb, you should always be working out the surrounding muscles in every group, not just your shoulders.

Chest, General fitness, Medical Issues for Men, Men's Health and Wellness, Workout programs, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

Decoding food labels

May 8, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

A sad fact in the food industry is how companies are getting away with using complicated terms and numbers on labels. These companies are basically confusing or misleading the public by highlighting words like, “low fat!” or “less sugar!” when the truth of the matter is these food products are still hiding dirty little secrets.

Besides cutting out sugary sweets, sodas and fast food, we must go a step further in our quest for a healthy body and start learning how to read labels. Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight, meaning we’re choosing to eat unhealthy meals, or are being fooled by what is being called “healthy” food.

Check out Men’s Heath Nutrition Label Decoder. It’s an interactive tool to help you learn how to read a label and how to differ between insoluble and soluble fibers, fructose, glucose and lactose sugars, and why not all fats are bad for you.

Cholesterol, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

Mastering the Pull-up

April 25, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

As a beginner – or even if you’re experienced – nothing can be more embarrassing than jumping up on a bar and only banging out one pull-up. In fact, the average person approaches the pull-up bar like he or she is about to steal something, looking around to see if anyone else is watching before hammering out a sloppy, uncontrolled couple of sets.

Well, stop it, because you’re only hurting yourself by not maximizing the value the pull-up can bring. Your latissimus dorsi (back) is the biggest muscle in your body and if you want a V-shape torso, the pull-up can’t be viewed as the red headed stepchild of your workout any longer.

Here is an article from Men’s Health magazine dedicated to mastering the pull-up. It has a step-by-step guide on helping you improve add reps to your pull-up routine. It doesn’t matter if you can do 0 to 1 reps or 8 to 12, this article should help you maximize the benefits of the pull-up.

Here’s a taste of what the article offers. For the entire column, click here.

Your Best Effort: 0 TO 1
The problem: You’re not strong enough to lift your body weight.
The fix: Turn your weakness into an advantage with heavy “negatives.” Doing only the lowering portion of an exercise with a heavier weight than you can lift is a fast way to build strength.
How to do it: First, a couple of definitions.
– Chinup: This is the same movement as a pullup, but you’ll use a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Because your biceps are more involved, it’s a little easier than the pullup.
– Neutral-grip pullup: Again, it’s the same basic movement, but you’ll grip the parallel bars of the pullup station so your palms are facing each other. This is harder than a chinup, but not as hard as a pullup.
Now follow the workout schedule below, using this method of performing negatives: Place a bench under a pullup bar and use it to boost your body so your chin is above the bar. Then take the prescribed amount of time — either 5 to 6 seconds or 8 to 10 seconds — to lower your body. Once your arms are straight, jump back up to the top position and repeat. Rest for 60 seconds after each set.
Week 1: Chinup : 3 sets : 5–6 reps : 5–6 seconds
Week 2: Neutral- grip pullup : 3 sets : 5–6 reps : 5–6 seconds
Week 3: Neutral- grip pullup : 2 sets : 5–6 reps : 8–10 seconds
Week 4: Pullup : 2 sets : 5–6 reps : 8–10 seconds

Back, Bodybuilding, Exercise, Specific workouts, Uncategorized, Weight training, Workout programs, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

Keep it simple with your diet

April 17, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Anyone who has taking the time to do the research on getting into shape undoubtedly has come across general rules to dieting. Mike will often post on how important your diet is to either losing weight or packing on muscle. Dieting is the key to everything. Having the best workout plan and following it perfectly will crumble under a poor diet.

What people tend to have trouble with as far as dieting goes is that they think of it as a diet. Diets don’t work. Think of the way you eat as a lifestyle change and you’ll be more apt not to binge and have poor habits. If staying in shape and looking your best is worth it to you, nobody should have a problem with a complete lifestyle change as opposed to trying gimmicky diets.

I found a solid article at MSN.com about how to control your cravings. One of the general rules in the article is to eat approximately every three hours. As it’s detailed in the article, it can’t be stressed how important it is to continuously eat throughout the day. Eat four to six meals every day so that you don’t have spikes in your blood sugar, which causes you to binge it and grab anything and everything in your site (i.e. junk or fast food). I know, people work. But don’t use that as an excuse. Fight through it and find a way to bring small snacks to continuously eat throughout the day. Your optimum health depends on it!

Click here to check out the MSN.com/Men’s Health article.

Diets, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

10 Foods Tough to Digest

April 3, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Ever feel like your stomach is about to explode even after having a healthy meal? Ever have heartburn or a mild case of irritable bowl syndrome? Well it could be the specific foods that you’re eating on a daily or bi-daily basis.

MSN.com posted a recent article containing 10 foods that are tough for your body to digest.

The 10 (not in any specific order):

– Fried chicken nuggets
– Spicy food
– Chocolate
– Citrus juices
– Mashed potatoes
– Raw onion
– Ice cream
– Broccoli and raw cabbage
– Beans
– Sugar-free gum

I definitely agree with broccoli and beans being on this list. Frequently after workouts I’ll combine chicken with broccoli and beans over rice. Afterwards my stomach blows up like a bowling ball for several hours. It’s interesting to now get confirmation on why that happens.

Click here to read the entire article with brief descriptions of why these foods are tough to digest.

Diets, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Xternal Fitness