Fitness Experts Bar

Dr. Michael Webster is an Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology and Director of the Laboratory of Applied Physiology at The University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of 27 national and international peer reviewed professional manuscripts and has lectured to professional audiences throughout the United States as well as six different countries.

Dr. Webster is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and has been certified with the ACSM as an Exercise Specialist since 1988. He has organized ACSM workshop and certifications for more than 10 years, thrice in Mumbai. He recently completed 6 years of service on the ACSM Health Fitness Instructor workshop and certification sub-committee and he is currently a member of the ACSM certification examination development committee. He serves as a manuscript reviewer for Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, Journal of Applied Physiology, European Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and the Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

BAR is proud to host Dr.Webster during his visit for the workshop conducted by BAR during the month of May. Please contact BAR for further details.

The quest to develop a stunningly fit, lean and attractive body is a long, slow journey. It’s not something you achieve overnight by popping a few pills or strapping an electric gizmo to your belly.

When you look at someone with an incredible body as a finished product, you often tend to dismiss the long journey and hard work it took to build that body. Unless you were side by side with that person in the gym (and in the kitchen), observing the work involved, it’s easy to attribute such a chiseled physique to genetics or give credit to a supplement (they just took product XYZ - overnight abs). What you don’t see or appreciate are all the months and years of sweat and hard work.

Getting in shape is a lot like a construction project. First, there must be a picture in the mind. Then the vision goes onto paper as a blueprint. It takes months just to lay the foundation. More months of work will follow. On a daily basis, it doesn’t seem like much is happening. You look in the mirror and appear, for the most part, the same as you did yesterday. But sure enough, the small improvements are slowly accumulating like compounding interest in the bank. One day, you look in the mirror and “suddenly,” your blueprint has become reality.

The body of a fitness pro or bodybuilding champion is no more likely to be built overnight than a high rise is to be built overnight. It’s not physically possible. Accepting the idea that any type of pill, powder, drug, supplement or machine of any kind will make it happen sooner than nature intended is pure folly. You can’t force it.

Growth and development of any kind always requires time. For a baby, it’s nine months. For corn, I believe it’s about three months. If you were an expectant mother, would you want to hurry the process? Could any new development in nutrition or medical science speed up this wonderful miracle even one iota? If you were a farmer, would you try to harvest your crop before it was ripe? Would you dig up your seeds to see if anything was growing down there?

The answers are obvious. If only we would adopt the same patient, nurturing “mother’s” or “farmer’s mindset” towards getting in shape, then no one would waste their money on “fast abs” or “exercise in a bottle” or any such silliness ever again. We would understand that one must sow first, then reap the harvest, but that you can’t sow and reap in the same season.

If you ever get frustrated with your rate of progress (and who doesn’t), just remember; success is always guaranteed to the persistent. Nothing can stop someone who knows what they want and is willing to continue paying the price until they get it. It just takes time.

Become the architect and builder of your own dream body. You WILL build the body you want eventually if you’re patient enough and you refuse to quit. And set your goals HIGH! Create a fantastic blueprint. Michelangelo said,”The greatest danger is not that we set our goals too high and miss them, the greatest danger is that we set our goals too low and we reach them.” Envision a castle - a veritable Taj Mahal of a body! There’s nothing wrong with building castles in the sky, as long as you patiently work at putting the foundations underneath them. There are very few unrealistic goals; only goals with unrealistic deadlines.

So keep laying those “bricks” - every day - one at a time - and sure enough, eventually, you’ll build yourself a palace.

 by BASU, TRAINER - NATIONAL CRICKET ACADEMY, TAMIL NADU CRICKET ASSN.

There are many knowledgeable people out there who can offer you some great advice on how to achieve your goals, but you also need to be aware of some of the major myths that exist in the fitness world. So make sure you are not falling for the following common myths, or you will likely see your progression begin to slow and could even set yourself up for injury.

Myth 1: Your Friend’s program will give you the same results
this is a very common notion among gym goers, who constantly ask fellow gym partners what kind of program and diet tricks they use, thinking that if they do the same, they will see the same results. Granted, it may be a very good program and you may see some results with it, but remember that you have a different physiological makeup than every other guy in the gym, and your body will respond to various training protocols in a different manner. So your best bet is to incorporate some aspects of this “workout’s regimen into your program, but play around with the techniques and figure out what works best for you.

Myth 2: You don’t need to work out your legs if you jog
It seems like when you walk through a gym these days, everyone is huddled around the free weights doing arms, while there is no one to be seen at the squat rack. Men often decide to forgo any leg training and just concentrate on their upper bodies. They figure that since they went for a run that morning or did some interval training on the bike the day before, they have already worked their legs enough.

The truth is that working your legs will indirectly help your upper body grow. Your leg muscles are incredibly large; when stimulated, they release a large amount of testosterone — the primary anabolic hormone responsible for muscle growth — throughout the body. Thus, you will benefit your upper body on days you don’t even work it out.

Also, having a strong lower body is the best basis for the rest of your training. Otherwise, it is like trying to build a house without a foundation — not very effective. So be sure you don’t pass up your leg training sessions any longer.

Myth 3: In order to see results, you must push yourself to your limit during every workout
one of the key factors to getting stronger is rest. If you are going to the gym day in and day out, and pushing yourself to the max, you are likely not recovering from your workouts and not getting any stronger. It is when the body is resting that it can repair itself and rebuild so that it is stronger the next time around. If you work out again before your body has recovered, you will only break the muscle down further, causing you to become weaker rather than stronger.

Incorporating some easy or “off” days into your workout plan will give your body the time it needs to recover and will give you a psychological break. You will find that you are better able to stay motivated and you will greatly reduce your chances of overtraining and injury.

Who said you are too old for exercise. In fact, the basic recommendations concerning exercise are no different for older adults than they are for younger adults, Experts have come to recognize the tremendous benefits of exercise in older people, especially strength and cardio training.
“A lot of the weakness that most people attribute to ‘old age’ is actually from disuse,” Being Fit can actually prevent common accidents in the elderly such as falls and the resulting hip breaks, since exercise increases muscle strength and balance. “Strength in the elderly is tremendously important,” “It can mean the difference between being bedridden and being able to move around freely.”

If you’re an older person and the notion of getting fit doesn’t appeal to you, try to think of physical activities that you used to do and get back into them. Just getting moving will help. Start gardening or go dancing. Don’t let age prevent you from doing the normal activities you used to do.

To cut a long story short “Exercise is medicine. It’s the best medicine we have for reducing the risk of serious medical conditions, for prolonging our lives, and for making them better. There’s just no pill that compares with it.”

Your muscles naturally atrophy with age, meaning that you have to work specifically and scientifically than you once did to get in shape. Bones gradually get weaker with time, which increases the risk of a break.

Your body changes with time and you have to understand that you need that much longer time to adapt to any new exercise regime. As a result middle-aged and older men need to take it a little easier on their bodies than they did in high school. But that’s not what always happens. The biggest problem for older guys who exercise is that they don’t realize that their bodies have changed, Your body can’t adapt as well to a sudden increase in exercise and doesn’t bounce back as easily afterwards. If you’re planning on starting a new activity, gradually increase your exercise a month beforehand

Men’s competitive natures can get them into trouble, A lot of middle-aged men want to compete with the guy next to them on a fitness machine at the gym, or to engage in contests to see who can lift the most. But pushing yourself too hard, for no good reason, is silly and dangerous.

Paying attention to pain should be the cardinal rule of exercising. The whole notion of no pain, no gain has to be thrown out. Pain, especially in older men, is an important sign that something is wrong.

No person of any age should ignore pain during exercising, especially if it is sharp and acute. But older bodies are much more at risk than younger ones, since they are not quite so resilient.

There’s a psychological component to the way some men ignore an injury. A lot of guys don’t want to acknowledge that they’ve been hurt to their wit end. There’s a lot of emphasis on ‘playing through’ pain. But that just isn’t a good idea, because you run the risk of developing a chronic injury.

With a few exceptions, you can still do anything you want. But the exercise you choose, and how much you do of it, depends on your current physical condition. If you’re already exercising four or five times a week now, your body will be better prepared for shifting into something new. But if you’re someone who is getting into exercise after a long break or perhaps for the first time in your life this would be a recommended dose.

• Aerobic exercise 20 to 40 minutes, two or three times a week

• Strength training two or three times a week, alternating days with aerobic exercise

What about contact sports? They’re okay as well, up to a point. Anyone playing a contact sport, including basketball, has to remember that he’s putting himself at an increased risk of injury, because you can’t control what other people are doing; you can’t prevent the risk of getting elbowed or knocked over.

There are a few cautions. If you have a medical condition, such as heart disease or diabetes, check with your doctor before beginning to exercise. Arthritis can be helped tremendously by exercise, but you should consult with an expert to see what exercises you should do and which ones you shouldn’t. Also, keep in mind that certain medications, such as beta-blockers, can artificially control your heart rate, meaning that you can’t use beats per minute as a gauge of your exercise. If you’re not sure if you need to see your doctor, see your doctor. I think that everyone, no matter what the age, should talk to their doctors before beginning a new exercise program

Most important, make sure that you’ve found an exercise that you really enjoy doing. If you don’t like it, you’re pretty likely to stop.

Article courtesey: Mr.Shanker Basu, founder of BAR

EVERYONE BENEFITS FROM BREATHING SQUATS

Digestion and elimination are further facilitated by the full squat as a result of both pressure changes in the abdominal and thoracic cavities and improved motility of organs. Whenever you repeatedly perform the full squat, a pressure wave is created by the thighs compressing the abdominal viscera and by the action of the diaphragm as you breathe. This pressure wave coupled with the mechanical action of the thighs literally mobilizes the viscera and pumps blood and lymphatic fluids as well as mechanically aiding the intestinal system. By using “Breathing Squats”, you can also facilitate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS is also called the anabolic or digestive nervous system because it regulates these activities. Implementing PNS stimulating activities like breathing squats are probably more important today than every because modern life is not only stressful, we are eating a tremendous amount of processed foods that contain nervous system stimulants such as caffeine and sugar. Caffeinated foods, beverages and many processed foods in general are powerful stimulators of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which acts as the functional antagonist to the PNS. Too much SNS activity results in poor recovery from exercise, poor digestion and poor elimination Try some breathing squats: Standing with good upright posture, take a deep belly breath and simply begin the squat from the hip, lowering yourself as far as possible (no load on the body!) or until your torso rests on your thighs. As you lower your body, slowly release the air through your nose; take four seconds to lower your body as you breath out. At the bottom of the squat (torso resting on thighs if you can), pause for a second and begin inhaling through your nose. Make sure that you rise for four seconds, with a brief pause at the top before breathing in as you lower for the next four count. As you become more efficient, slow the squat down to six, or even eight seconds. Slower squats will be even more energizing to the body, as slow movements allow chi (also called Prana or life-force energy) to move faster through the body. Try starting your day with a few minutes of breathing squats and build up to as many as 100 in a row. Progress slowly so you don’t get muscle soreness and so them in a quiet area where you can relax and focus on your breathing. In just a few days, you will notice improved vitality and, you may find your bowel habits improving too!

Article courtesey .. Mr.Shanker Basu, CEO Maverick gym and Founder of BAR