Momentary muscular Failure

Failure typically occurs when you can't continue the positive movement- the lifting portion- despite your best effort. After several seconds of trying to push or pull the resistance, you lower the resistance under control and stop the exercise. Besides your positive strength, you also have a negative level, which can be worked to failure. I'll talk about negative training in my next blog. And there's a type of failure that entails your lifting and lowering form, which I will explain. Strength inroad. Most of the time, you want to perform HIT sets with a 20 percent inroad into your starting level of strength. Here's what I mean by that: Let's say that you could do 1 repetition with 100 pounds on a leg- extension machine. A second repetition would be impossible. That means 100 pounds is your starting level of strength in the leg extension. If you reduce the weight by 20 percent, you work with 80 pounds. That feels easy at first. But with each repetition, you make a deeper inroad into your starting level of strength. By the 10the repetition, your temporary level of strength is 81 pounds- just enough to lift the 80 pounds. You fail on the 11th repetition. Thus, after 10 repetitions with 80 pounds on the leg-extension machine, you've reduced your starting level of strength to 79 pounds of less. You made at least a 21 percent inroad into your starting level of strength. A 20 percent inroad is a good place to start, all though you may find you do better with more of less weight. So in the leg-extension example, you might find you can do too many repetitions with 80 pounds and would get a better set with 85. That's a 15 percent inroad. Others may not get to 10 reps with 80 pounds and would perform a better set with 75, which is a 25 percent inroad. Recovery ability. This is describes the wide array of chemical reactions that must occur inside your body for your system to compensate from the stress of the workout and get you back to your previous level of size and strength. Your goal, of course is to supercompensate and make adaptations to the workout that allow you to grow bigger and stronger. I want you to understand this right now. ( Your recovery ability does not increase in porportion to your ability to get stronger ). What this means is that as you get stronger, you must do less overall exercise. Because this is the opposite of how most lifters go about things, it's important to understand this concept from the start. Less training. Ever try sprinting as fast as you can for a quarter of a mile. which is one time around a typical high school track? You'll be lucky to make even 300 yards at an all out pace. In fact, perhaps only one man, Olympic champion Usain Bolt, has actually been able to sprint a quarter-mile 400 meters. Going for failure on an exercise is similar to sprinting as far as you can. A HIT workout is the equivalent of 8-10 of those all- out sprints. In fact, Usain Bolt sometimes trained that way. But I guarantee you, he didn't do it often- especially if his sprints were in the 45 second range. This is a fact of nature: The harder you train, the less you can stand. So as you train harder, you must do less. Richard Gayle BNR Fitness

How Much Weight Am I Lifting in a Push-Up?

Push-ups. I bet you love, or love to hate them. This weight-bearing exercise is fantastic at sculpting your shoulders and arms, building up your pecs (and for us ladies, giving us a little lift!), and making your back look just incredible. But, they’re not easy! So, I understand why when Tony Horton or Shaun T tells you to knock out a set of push-ups in P90X or INSANITY, you groan. And, after a few sets of these grueling exercises, perhaps you’ve started to wonder: How much weight am I really pushing here? What percent of my body weight am I lifting? Can I do push-ups on my knees instead? And, if I need to do them on my knees, should I bother doing them at all? Articles published within the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research revealed that men lifted about 66.4% of their body weight with each rep when they did a push-up on their toes. On their knees, they lifted about 52.9% of their body weight. In other words, a 180-pound man will lift 119.5 pounds per rep doing a regular push-up and 95.2 pounds doing a push-up on their knees. Women lift slightly less of their body weight per rep, but the difference is negligible. Want to determine approximately how much you’re lifting? Put your scale on level ground and place your hands on it and do a push-up on your toes. Have a friend read the number on the scale if you cannot. Then, repeat the exercise, but this time, do the push-up on your knees. The number you see is approximately how much body weight you’re lifting though the number will vary depending on your arm position (i.e. military, diamond, wide, etc.) How to do the perfect push up: Whether you’re on your toes or on your knees, it’s important to have the proper form. To do a perfect pushup: 1. Get into plank position and make sure your hands are aligned with your shoulders but just wider than them. Tighten your core. 2. Lower your body until your chest almost touches the floor, tucking your elbows in as you do. When you’re at the bottom, your arms should be at 45-degree angle. Keep your back flat and do not let your back or hips sag. If you can’t do a push-up on your toes yet, don’t give up! You’re still getting a great workout. For the few of you who want to make your push-up harder and lift more of your body weight, here are some tips from easiest to hardest: 1. Slow it down. By taking more time to do each repetition, you increase the time that each muscle must stay contracted. 2. Bring your hands and feet closer together to move your center of gravity forward and make your shoulders, pecs, back, and triceps do more work. Tighten your core to protect your lower back. 3. Change the angle. Place your feet on a stable surface – such as a plyo box or weight bench – and keep your hands on the ground. This puts more of your weight onto your shoulders. 4. Move away from a stable surface and do your push-ups on a medicine ball or balance ball as demonstrated in P90X2. These exercises will not only challenge those muscles groups but also force you to tighten your core to stay balanced. 5. Forget push-ups. Do handstands instead.

You are WHAT YOU EAT...

It may be a cliche, but it is abundantly true. While you were growing in the womb, every cell of your body was created by what your mother ate and since then each of your constantly regenerating cells has been created by what you eat. You are, quite literally, what you eat. Since you can choose what you are made of, what do you want that building material to be? Do you want to be made of fillers, additives, sugars and chemicals, with free radicals running amok through your body like degenerate criminals vandalizing your cells? Or do you want to be made of lean protein, healthy fats and nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains, with and abundance of phytonutrients and antioxidants to fight against those free radicals and other invaders? We've all heard of those foods called " healthy," "wholesome" and "superfood". I BNR would like to call the "Power Foods" because they wield and incredible amount of power to keep you both slim and healthy! The foods you choose influence your weight and body-fat level. The more Powerfoods you include in your diet, the closer you will be to your healthiest weight. Powerfoods fill you up with nutrient-rich goodness, fiber, protein and healthy fats, which work together to keep you feeling satisfied. They also keep your digestive system functioning the way it should - nutrients are passed into your body, while fiber and waste products are eliminated out. When you eat junk food, or when you diet and don't feed your body what it needs, it reacts by telling you to eat more. If you keep feeding your body more nutritiously empty foods, it tells you to eat more still. This vicious cycle causes you to become overweight and eventually obese. When you feed your body the nutrient-rich foods it needs, it says: " finally!" and lets you go on with your active life. Losing weight is not difficult when your diet is made up of Power foods. If you can't turn back the clock, you can as least eat foods that help you look and feel much younger than you are! Richard Gayle BNR Fitness

Protein The Building Block of Muscle

After oxygen, sand is the most abundant element on Earth. It's everywhere, in every crack and crevice. It even gets into your own cracks and crevices after a fun day at the beach. Well you can think of Protein the same way. After water, protein is the most common substance in your body. It makes up about one-fifth of your muscles ( the rest being primarily water ), but that's only a small part of your protein connection. " You find a little bit of it in every cell of your body, including in your organs, hair, nails and skin," says Tara Gidus, RD, CSSD, team in Nutritionist for the Orlando Magic. It was a great discussion on Skype Thanks for returning my messages Tara. Most Nutritionist, physiologist, and doctors refer to protein as " the building block of life" because without this important macronutrient your body wouldn't be able to build any part of itself at all. You probably haven't thought of protein this way before, but its rather crucial to your existence. - Protein constructs and repairs body tissues, and not just the muscular kind but cartilage, bones, organs, and connective tissues - Protein produces the enzymes that digest food - Protein is found in antibodies that keep you healthy by resisting diseases - Protein regulates body processes such as water balancing,oxygen and energy transportation,and making muscles contract OPTIMUM PROTEIN With so much going for protein, you might start contemplating raising cattle in your backyard, lol. But you can consume too much of a good thing-there's only so much protein your body can process. "once your body has enough for what it needs to rebuild muscle, it breaks down protein and stores it as BODY FAT! Generally, for healthy people, following a high-protein diet is fairly safe in the short term. But eating too much protein can potentially exacerbate liver and kidney problems for anyone who may already have trouble eliminating the waste products of protein metabolism. Whenever your body breaks down protein into glucose, it needs to remove both nitrogen and ammonia from the molecule ( the ammonia being a by- product of the process). Both of those actions require fluid, which is why it's important to remain hydrated when eating a high protein diet. So what's the best formula for safe and effective protein? In my understanding and the Dietary Reference Intake ( DRI ) recommendation for daily protein for men is 0.8 grams for every kilogram ( 2.2 pounds ) of bodyweight or 0.36 grams per pound. Athletes who strength-train need 1.6 to 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is twice as much as the DRI fro protein, That's roughly 0.72 to 0.77 grams per pound. If you feel you have money to burn, and feel like doubling or tripling that number, then know this; YOU ARE JUST WASTING YOUR TIME. YOUR BODY CANT PROCESS MORE THAN ON GRAM OF PROTEIN PER POUND OF BODY WEIGHT EACH DAY. EX: If you weigh 190 pounds, then between 136 and 146 grams of protein is optimum. Thats about 584 calories worth of protein, since every gram of protein contains 4 calories. Thanks, Richard Gayle BNR Fitness

Hydration Danger Zones

OVERHYDRATION It's hard to imagine that water could be bad for you, but just like everything else, too much water at the wrong place or the wrong time can actually be harmful. Moderation is the key, even when we're talking about water. When considering your water intake, you must also consider overhydration.. Hydration is a delicate balance between fluids and minerals. The concentration of sodium and other minerals ( collectively know as electrolytes ) in the bloodstream must fall within a very narrow range, or it can affect muscle contractions. That includes the most important muscle: your heart. When you take in too much water relative to the amount of electrolytes in your body, the result will eventually be a condition called hyperhydration or hyponatremia. The problem is that the blood has become too dilute, which is just as dangerous as dehydration. During dehydration there are high levels of electrolytes without enough fluids. Surprisingly, the symptoms of dehydration and hyperhydration are basically the same. Hyperhydration occurs more frequently than you might think, particularly in endurance events like marathons and triathlons. Not nearly as well documented is the possibility of bodybuilders hyperhydrating due to high intakes of purified water combined with very low food and sodium intakes during a cutting diet. While no occurrence of hyponatremia have been documented in strength trainers not participating in another sport, you should be aware that very hight intakes of purified water over and extended period of time may put you at risk. Whether you're training for and endurance or preparing for a strength-training competition, you can avoid hyponatremia with a few simple precautions. If your training for your first competition, don't cut all salt out of your diet ( though, as a general rule, most of us could et away with a lot less then we currently take in). If the day is cooler or less humid than you expected, compensate by drinking less than you'd planned during the event. So I will leave you with this last important Thought!!! When you are dieting for make weight prior to a competition, don't overdo the water. Drink water with minerals in place of purified water, or don't remover all the sodium from your diet. As long as you are eating, your risk of hyponatremia is remarkably diminished.