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What Is A Fitness Tracker?

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Technological advancement has given rise to many smart applications that not only improve efficiency
but also make tracking and monitoring of different activities easier. It’s always important to monitor
your progress as far as your health and fitness regimen is concerned. A fitness tracker is therefore that
application or device used in tracking and monitoring fitness goals.

It measures metrics such as distance run or walked, rate of heartbeat, calories consumed and sometimes even the quality of your sleep. Most of these tracking devices are wirelessly synchronized to a smartphone or computer for the purposes of regular data tracking and reporting.

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In many cases, people have fitness goals or targets, whether monthly or on a daily basis, that they hope
to achieve. Monitoring the progress of your fitness regimen can be a challenge especially if you are not a
certified fitness trainer or health practitioner. Fitness tracking devices give you the capability to monitor
your progress and determine how far you are from meeting your targets, or if indeed you achieved or
exceeded them.

Most of them are wearable and can also serve as regular digital watches. Some people wear them as accessories because of their fashion forward designs. These devices have become so main stream that some firms have decided to use them in encouraging consumers to live healthily.

The electronic fitness trackers are basically an advanced version of pedometers. Apart from counting
steps, they also use accelerometers to determine distance covered, graph general physical activity and
calculate calorie usage. In some cases they also keep track of and graph quality of sleep and heart rate.

As you go about your fitness routines, there are various activities that you engage in such as walking,
running, swimming, jogging, bike rides and normal house chores. It is important that you stay true to
your goals and monitor your progress because that is the only way you’ll be able to achieve your
objectives.

A fitness tracker is an ideal way to easily monitor your activity with great accuracy. You can imagine it to
be an electronic finger on your pulse, measuring your vitals on a regular basis. These trackers have made
use of the latest technology to enable fitness enthusiasts monitor their activities and keep track of their
progress. Most people spend so much time on their smartphones or tablets which is why fitness trackers
are synchronized with these devices for report displays.

Trackers can also be connected to social media apps like Facebook but one has to be careful since there are some instances when private information has ended up in the internet and public domain. There are different trackers available in the market and people can therefore make buying decisions based on prices, functionality and personal style.

HIIT It Hard

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Think Working Out And Getting In Shape Requires Spending Hours In The Gym Each Day? It Doesn’t … Discover How To Quickly Melt Your Extra Fat, Build Muscle, And Get In The Best Shape Of Your Life With Short Workouts That Take Just Minutes!’

How to Melt Fat and Optimize Performance With HIIT Workouts Think working out has to be hard? Think again! HIIT workouts appear to do the impossible by helping you to burn more calories than a 40-minute run in a quarter of that time!

Better yet, they also build muscle, improve athletic performance and give you more energy. They’ve been transforming the lives of people all around the world and if you want to achieve one of those ‘cover model physiques’ then this is probably just what you’re looking for.

Ready to get started with the most highly effective and efficient workouts on the planet? Then let’s get started! Along the way, we’ll discover that there’s a lot more to HIIT than just the basic alternating speeds; you’ll learn some advanced techniques like cardio acceleration, fartlek training, speed drills, concurrent training, metcon, tabata, finishers and more.

Below are the chapters that you are about to explore:

  • Chapter 1: Cardio Training, Then and Now
  • Chapter 2: The Science of HIIT, Understanding Your Body So You Can Get More Out of It
  • Chapter 3: How to Start HIIT Training With Running
  • Chapter 4: Tips for Better HIIT Results
  • Chapter 5: Concurrent Training and Using Kettlebells
  • Chapter 6: Advanced HIIT Protocols – Tabata, MetCon and Cardio Acceleration
  • Chapter 7: Creating Whole-Body Circuit Routines

Muscle Fiction

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If you’v been training, here’s a short list of bodybuilding fiction.

1. 12 Rep rule

Most weight training program include this much repetitions for gaining muscle. The truth is this approach places the muscles with not enough tension for effective muscle gain. High tension e.g. heavy weights provides muscle growth in which the muscle grows much larger, leading to the maximum gains in strength. Having longer tension time boosts the muscle size by generating the structures around the muscle fibers, improving endurance.

ficton

The standard prescription of eight to 12 repetitions provides a balance but by just using that program all of the time, you do not generate the greater tension levels that is provided by the heavier weights and lesser reps, and the longer tension achieved with lighter weights and more repetitions. Change the number of reps and adjust the weights to stimulate all types of muscle growth.

2. Three Set rule

The truth is there’s nothing wrong with three sets but then again there is nothing amazing about it either. The number of sets you perform should be base on your goals and not on a half-century old rule. The more repetitions you do on an exercise, the fewer sets you should do, and vice versa. This keeps the total number of repetitions done of an exercise equal.

3. Three to four exercises per group

The truth is this is a waste of time. Combined with twelve reps of three sets, the total number of reps amount to 144. If your doing this much reps for a muscle group your not doing enough. Instead of doing too many varieties of exercises, try doing 30 to 50 reps. That can be anywhere from 2 sets of 15 reps or 5 sets of 10 reps.

4. My knees, my toes

It is a gym folklore that you “should not let your knees go past your toes.” Truth is that leaning forward a little too much is more likely a cause of injury. In 2003, Memphis University researchers confirmed that knee stress was almost thirty percent higher when the knees are allowed to move beyond the toes during a squat.

But hip stress increased nearly 10 times or (1000 percent) when the forward movement of the knee was restricted. Because the squatters needed to lean their body forward and that forces the strain to transfer to the lower back.

Focus on your upper body position and less on the knee. Keep the torso in an upright position as much as possible when doing squats and lunges. These reduces the stress generated on the hips and back. To stay upright, before squatting, squeeze the shoulder blades together and hold them in that position; and then as you squat, keep the forearms 90 degree to the floor.

5. Lift weights, draw abs

The truth is the muscles work in groups to stabilize the spine, and the most important muscle group change depending on the type of exercise. The transverse abdominis is not always the most important muscle group. Actually, for most exercise, the body automatically activates the muscle group that are needed most for support of the spine. So if you focus only on the transverse abdominis, it can recruit wrong muscles and limit the right muscles. This increases the chance of injury, and reduces the weight that can be lifted.

A Look on Diet Fitness

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Many people nowadays are very much conscious about their own health and fitness. In addition to that, these people, and many others as well, are now having that desire to sculpt their bodies to achieve that magazine-cover look. As a result, gyms, health spas and other fitness centers have proliferated all over to cater to the needs of the fitness buffs and aficionados.

Even on television exercise machines, weight loss products, and other paraphernalia to improve fitness have more or less gained control over the airwaves and made their way into the households. But exercise is not the only way to build that body beautiful. It also entails certain amount of responsibility on the foods one chooses to eat. Being healthy and fit requires one to observe diet fitness.

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Diet fitness is as essential as exercise itself. Diet for fitness provides the essential nutrition one needs to restore worn-out muscles and for healthy growth. Diet fitness should never be taken for granted. With the popularity of keeping fit, many different views, methods, programs and dieting strategies have been formulated by many professionals. Among these are high carb diets and high fat diets. Whih one is more effective and which one should one choose to follow?

First thing to know would be the fundamental differences between these two diet approaches. As the name implies, high carb diets concentrates on taking in carbohydrate-rich foods while high fat diets endorses fat-rich foods. High carb diets are utilized to glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a glucose complex that provides large amounts of energy ready for use in anaerobic exercises.

Fats, on the other hand, is well-nown for being the richest source of calories. It actually contains 2.5 times more calories than carbohydrates and proteins alike. Studies also show that it takes the body 24 calories to metabolize carbohydrates while it only takes 3 to burn down fat. So which one to follow? A person can follow a high carb and low fat fitness diet or the other way around. It is absolutely not recommended to follow both at the same time; unless of course if you want to gain body fat.

But then diet fitness is not all about losing fat, one must also consider his diet in order to keep fat away. Research shows that sustainable loss of weight can only be achieved on a diet which suits the individual food preferences, lifestyle, medical profile and satiety signals.

Diet programs all over can help you shed off excess pounds, but only one diet can help you stay sexy, and it is the one that satisfies you most. Other important aspects of having a fit diet are moderation, balance and variation. One must be careful not to leave out important nutrients and other substances necessary for healthy body functioning. health organizations are clear about the amounts of nutrients an individual should have in the body.

Low fat high carbs, high carbs low fat; the question is not which diet program will work out but which is it that will work for you. Striving for a sexy and healthy body does not have to burden an individual, diet fitness does not have to mean sticking to the same kind of food for life. One may even try to be adventurous and try out new foods out there. Who knows? one may even discover spinach interesting.

10 Things You Should Know About Stretching

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Before fitness training, one must give importance to doing warm-up or stretching exercises to prevent accidents or to enhance the output during the training. There are also a number of precautionary measures and tips to serve as guidelines when doing fitness exercises.

Here are some of them.

stretching

  1. To increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries, stretch before and after workout. Almost everyone knows that stretching before workout prevents injuries during the exercises, but only few people know that stretching after workout, when muscles are still warm, can increase flexibility.

  2. Hold your stretching position for more than 60 seconds to increase flexibility. While holding your position for 20 seconds is enough for warm ups, holding each position for at least 60 seconds will develop the body’s flexibility.

  3. Do not go into a stretching position then immediately return to the relaxed position, and do it repeatedly. This is more appropriately termed as bouncing while in a position. When stretching, hold that position for several seconds, and then slowly relax. You may do this exercise repeatedly this way. Bouncing or forcing yourself into a position during stretching can strain or damage some joints or muscles.

  4. Work slowly in increments instead of immediately proceeding to doing the hardest exercise or position.

  5. Make sure that you have stretched or warmed up all muscle groups. For some people, even if they have strong bodies, they tend to neglect the neck when working out of stretching. Stretching the neck muscles can be as simple as placing the palm of one’s hand against the front of the head and pushing it. Then, do the same to the sides and the back of the head.

  6. Stretch regularly to continually increase your range of movements and your level of flexibility and strength.

  7. Workout considering only your capabilities and not of others. Do not force yourself to do exercises that you are not yet capable of just because there are people who can do it. Increase your limits slowly. Listen to your body. There are days when your body may be too tired that you may have to consider reducing your range of motion.

  8. Learn to rest. Rest in between sets and stations to make sure that the body has enough time to recover its energy. Also, it is advisable that you don’t work the same muscle groups consecutively for two days. The muscles grow during the period when you rest and not when you are working out.

  9. Do aerobic exercises to strengthen your heart. Aerobic exercises are those physical activities that much oxygen for fuel. This includes cardiovascular exercises such as skipping rope, running or swimming.

  10. Music may help you when you want to train for longer periods or to increase your intensity. You can use mp3 players, CD players or lightweight am radio receivers for this. Just make sure that you brought your headset with you so you wouldn’t disturb people who don’t prefer music while exercising.

Apart from preventing injuries and increasing one’s limit, it is also said that stretching is good for a tired body and also for a stressed mind and spirit.

 

Top Exercises to Use With HIIT

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HIIT is high intensity interval training. By now, most of us will know what this term means and be familiar with how to go about using it. Simply put, it means that you are going to be alternating between periods of high intensity (normally at around 90-100% of your MHR) and periods of relatively low intensity and recovery (at around 70% of your MHR).

What this does, is to deplete your stores of glycogen and ATP, so that the only way your body can get the energy it needs to carry on with the low intensity training is to burn fat. You thus burn more fat both during the workouts and also continuously after the workout has finished! 

But HIIT doesn’t just have to mean running. Actually, there are a number of different exercises you can use in order to burn more fat and build more muscle and these work perfectly when combined with a HIIT workout.

Here are some great examples:

Kettlebell Swings

The kettlebell swing is an exercise that involves swinging a kettlebell up in the air and then letting it fall back down again. The momentum generated by this allows you to continuously exert yourself and ultimately, it’s a great way to provide a cardio challenge that burns fat while at the same time challenging and building up your muscles as well.

This is the perfect example of ‘concurrent training’ and will not only burn more fat but also tone and build muscle and generally help you to see amazing results.

Pull Ups

Pull ups are very well suited to HIIT, as long as you can perform enough of them with good technique. When you start to tire, you can always try to use a bit more momentum, at which point they become ‘kipping pull ups’ like those taught in CrossFit classes.

High Knees

If you can’t get outside to run, then another way to burn a lot of calories with a similar motion is to perform high knees. Stand on the spot, hold your hands up high and then run so that your knees hit your hands.

Tuck Jumps

Jump up in the air and then hug your knees in toward your chest each time you reach the apex of your jump.

Jack in the Box

Here, you squat down into a huddled position and then jump straight up in the air and kick your hands and arms out like a starfish. This not only challenges your legs to deliver a lot of explosive power but also involves your entire body in the movement!

Clapping Push Ups

HIIT works best when you involve your fast twitch muscle fiber. Fortunately, clapping push ups are a type of exercise that do exactly that thanks to their plyometric nature. These are much harder and more ballistic than regular press ups and can be used to burn through calories as a result.

Other CV

Of course running is just one example of a CV workout. Just as good is rowing, swimming, bike… Try them all and see what works best for you!

Weight Loss Tips That Will Work Well for Women

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There is a lot of information out there on how to lose weight. Unfortunately, this information very often does not take into account our individual differences or our unique biology. If you are someone who has a slow metabolism, then you will burn fewer calories than someone who has a very fast one.

If you are someone who is very tall, then the amount you need to eat is different than it is for someone very short. Even more extreme though are the differences between men and women and the strategies that work best for each. If you are female and you are trying to lose weight, then here are some tips that you might not have read before…weight

Lift Weights

The biggest tip that every woman should know when it comes to weight loss, is that they should try weightlifting or another form of ‘resistance’ training.

In other words, women should drop the over-reliance on cardio exercise and start lifting weights!

Many women worry about this because they think that they are going to get ‘too bulky’ and that the resultant look will be unattractive.

In reality though, it is actually very hard to become bulky and especially for a woman. What’s more likely is that added muscle mass will simply speed up your metabolism (muscle is what we call ‘metabolically active’) and that will allow you to burn fat at a faster rate.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons that men lose weight faster than women!
At the same time, lifting weight will help women to gain the right proportions, to tone up and to increase their tone and definition in order to get rid of things like cellulite. It will even increase the production of fat burning hormones!

The fastest way to get a more attractive body as a woman is to lift weights.

Consider Other Lifestyle Factors, Medications and Conditions

Hormones play a large role in fat burning and muscle mass and the biggest drivers here include testosterone and estrogen.

So, women are at a disadvantage already when it comes to burning fat but things get more complicated still when you consider the other factors involved: things like the menstrual cycle for instance which causes hormones to fluctuate at different times of the month.

More of an issue is the role of contraceptive medication which can cause weight gain or weight loss depending on how the body reacts.

Then there are conditions like polycystic ovaries which only affect women and like hypothyroidism which is more common for women. If you find it very difficult to lose weight, consult your doctor.

And make sure that you are eating well and getting all of your nutrients in order to support your body’s metabolic function and hormone balance.

Finally, note that these hormones also impact on emotional eating – which studies confirm to be a larger issue for women versus men. Keep this in mind and try to maintain your emotional state while avoiding temptation as far as you can.

Top Tips That Will Make Eating Healthily Easier

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If you want to lose weight, then you need to start eating less and more healthily. Many of us are not the size we want to be and the primary reason for that is that we eat too much and we eat too much of the wrong things.

The problem is that it isn’t as easy to fix your diet as you might initially expect. Eating right means that you need the money to spend on fruits and vegetables (that tend to go off in no time at all) and you need the time to prepare all the food and clean up afterward.healthily

If you’re going to start eating healthier then, the smart thing to do is to think ahead and to make this as easy as possible so that you don’t get caught out by a lack of time, motivation or space. Here are some ways to do that…

Get the Right Appliances

If you want to make cooking in the kitchen easier, then there are a ton of appliances and gadgets that can help you to do just that.

A great example is a blender or a food processor. This can be used to mix fruits into a smoothie, or to mix vegetables into a soup.

Either way, this will give you a ton of highly beneficial nutrients in an easy-to-eat form factor that will only take a few minutes to prepare.

Another good example is a dishwasher. This will wash up your plates and dishes for you after you’ve eaten, meaning you’ll need to spend less time washing up after you have finished and can spend more time cooking and preparing your food as a result.

Learn the Right Recipes

Of course being able to cook quickly also comes down to having the right recipes. This is why it’s very much spending some time to learn meals that are quick and easy to prepare while still containing lots of highly beneficial nutrients and being low calorie.

Cook in Bulk

Common advice is to cook at the start of the week and then simply heat it up to eat during the week. This is a nice idea but the reality is that most of us don’t want to give up an entire Sunday to cooking.

A better solution then will often be to cook at the usual time but to prepare larger batches. This way, you’ll have spare food that you can enjoy on other evenings.

You can even freeze some for further in the future. Crucially, this process doesn’t take any longer than cooking the usual portions.

Eat Consistently

One particularly important tip is to try and eat more consistently during the day. That means eating a relatively samey breakfast and lunch. While this isn’t as exciting as eating fresh and original meals every day, you’ll still have the evening to do that.

For breakfast and lunch though, you’ll now be able to get your food faster without having to count calories or learn new recipes.

How to Manage Stressful Situations

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Stress is a common feeling that every human being experiences. As we all know from experience, stress can impact your life negatively and it should, therefore, be dealt with properly. Stress may be unavoidable but how it is handled is our choice. Managing stressful situations is all about taking charge of your thoughts, lifestyle, emotions, and the way you handle problems.

When faced with a stressful situation at work or in your personal life, it is very common to worry, panic and be fearful which can result in poor performance and inaction. To avoid this, here are a few tips that can help you manage stress.stressful

Determine the Sources of Stress in your Life

Identifying the sources of stress should be the first step before you know how you will deal with them. It can be easy to identify the major stressful situations like moving from home, changing jobs, or losing a loved one, but identifying the day to day stress can prove to be hard. In order to recognize your true source of stress you should look into your attitude, habits, and excuses.

Take Care of Yourself

You will be able to handle stress better if you are in good physical and mental shape. Looking after yourself by having fun, building time for relaxation, exercising, eating healthily, and attaining a balance between your personal and work life is important.

Be a Positive Thinker

Positive thinking makes one feel confident and in control. You should envision a positive outcome to a stressful situation and focus on your successes rather than your failures. Focusing on obstacles that you have overcome also helps you feel in control.

Connect with Others

Social engagement is the most efficient and quickest way to reduce stress and to avoid overreacting to both external and internal events that you recognize as threatening. Expressing what you are feeling or going through to a person that you know will understand you can be very helpful. You should, therefore, reach out to friends and family more and connect with them regularly in person.

Accept Things You Cannot Change

Some sources of stress in our lives are unavoidable and can’t be changed. The best way to cope with such stress is to accept things the way they are. Acceptance may prove to be difficult but in the long run, it is a better way than trying to fix a situation that you can’t change.

Practice Forgiveness

Accepting that we all live in an imperfect world where people make mistakes is a good way of perceiving things. Let go of resentments and anger by forgiving and moving on with your life.

The Body of a Fighter

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When we say ‘body of a fighter’, we are not really referring to boxers. Boxers tend to have a higher body fat percentage and more rounded look. Rather, we are talking about martial artists who tend to look highly honed and lean. These are fast and powerful fighters that look healthy and mean.

They also tend to have certain features that are more dominant than others. As well as low body fat, they tend to have large triceps, pecs like armor plating and ripped mid-sections.fighter

How to Develop Speed and Power

The most important principle to keep in mind when looking to transform the body is ‘SAID’. This stands for ‘Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands’.

In other words, the challenges you face the body with will trigger changes that make it better able to cope with those same challenges in future.

Thus, one of the best ways to get a fighters’ body is to hit a punch bag. This is a great way to develop hand-eye coordination, to build muscle in the shoulders, pecs, abs and triceps and to burn fat through ‘concurrent training’ (cardio with added resistance).

To get started, find some combinations and throw these repeatedly until you are too tired to continue. Remember to use your hips and legs to drive the punches forward.

Combine this with lifting heavy weights using compound movements. This will train the entire body in unison while demanding maximum muscle fiber recruitment and coordination from the body.

Diet

On top of the correct training, it is also crucial for a fighter to eat the right diet. This should be a diet that is high in protein to support muscle synthesis, as well as complex carbohydrates and fats to provide a steady supply of energy for training.

As is always the case, simple carbohydrates such as cake and chocolate should be left out – as these provide no benefit for the body while encouraging weight gain!