If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: a well hydrated muscle does not tear! It’s like a wet sponge, it can stretch and it can lengthen. You can stretch and stretch, but if the muscle is splint, it will never reach a new length. It’s like stretching a rope with a knot in the middle. When you bunny tape two fingers together, you wrap them tight to protect the injured finger. Fascia does the exact same thing with your muscles. Not only does this restrict blood flow, but usually results in nerve compression. Compression of the nerves causes energy leaks, misfiring of the muscles, and synergistic dominance, all of which increase the risk of injury.

Wash your hands before and after the gym. This way you are keeping the equipment cleaner when using it and rid your hands of excess germs before heading home. Also, feel free to utilize the hand sanitizer that is provided; it should be your best friend! I know, I know, I shouldn’t advise you to skip out on the gym. However, if your immune and energy systems are depleted your workout will not be very efficient. Also, when you come to the gym ill, you run the risk that you may pass on your sickness to other members. You can see how that easily turns into a flu snowball! Play it safe: drink your fluids, rest up and see how you feel the next day.

With respect to females, there is a lack of adequate testosterone, one of the key hormones responsible for an increase in muscle size and growth as compared to men. Females have 15-20 fold less testosterone than males. According to the Essentials of Strength and Conditioning, most females are not capable of an increase muscle size beyond 20%. It is highly unlikely without artificially-enhancing substances; if it occurs, it is a genetic oddity. With respect to males, it is extremely difficult to accomplish NATURALLY despite adequate testosterone.

I grew up playing Baseball. In the game of baseball, you fail more than you succeed. A hitter who gets a hit 3 out of 10 times is considered an All Star. Meaning they failed 7 times. Failure is a part of the game and it’s necessary to achieve success. Babe Ruth, one of the greatest hitters who ever lived said, It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. Every Strike brings me closer to the next home run. For years I’ve been trying to increase my max bench. For whatever reason, bench press is like my arch nemesis.

Health, Fitness, Athletics. These have always been central themes in Pulse Fitness Owners’, Tim and Erin’s, lives. Members of several different commercialized “big box gyms” over the years; they noticed that anonymity and being unaccountable for sticking with a program led to large numbers of drop-outs. They rarely saw the same faces in the gym from one day to the next and were left feeling unsatisfied with the whole environment.

We have nearly three decades of research directly linking endocrine disruptors to negative hormonal effects and disease. Yet, there are no laws preventing companies from using these chemicals in their products. Your best bet is to be aware and avoid them at all cost. Obviously, I can’t list a thousand chemicals. Most importantly – Before you buy anything, research every ingredient. If you’re standing in the store holding a product and there are too many ingredients for you to look up on your phone, then it has endocrine disruptors in it. Don’t buy that product!!! EWG.org is a great resource that rates thousands of products.

Have you ever been in the gyms in Scottsdale or on the golf course and felt discomfort around the top of your shoulder or in your elbow, maybe it goes away quickly, maybe it lingers for a few days and then goes away or maybe it comes and goes with varying levels of pain and discomfort from being annoying to be unbearable? So, what the heck is going on in there? One of the more common injuries that gym goers, golfers and tennis players alike can suffer from is Bicep Tendonitis, now what causes the tendonitis can be different from person to person, however, the most common cause is from overuse or repetitive motions like a golf swing. It can develop over time or can result from a direct injury to other structures as well as a rotator cuff tear or a shoulder impingement.

If you have questions about what your daily values should be, you should reach out to the coaches and make nutrition consult with Coach Megan. As more and more time and studies are being committed to fuel metabolism and how it all breaks down, one thing is becoming clear from the get go. Pre-and Post workout nutrition is vital to being successful, having proper meals and/or protein supplementation is what can make the difference in anyone’s exercise goals. So, please give your body fuel 20-45 minutes before your session, and then get ready to kick that morning’s as…phalt, yea asphalt because you’d be hitting the pavement running, that’s what I was going to say.

In one study, Richard Isaacson found that as a little as six months of a healthy diet with lots of fresh vegetables and light on carbohydrates can reduce memory decline, speed up mental processing, and enhance inhibitory control and attention. Dr. Lisa Mosconi, the founder and director of the Nutrition and Brain Fitness Lab at New York University Medical Center, found that a higher intake of vitamin B12, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, along with consuming foods high in vitamins, E, A, and C, and high in fiber positively affected glucose metabolism in the brain In addition, people who consumed foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium had lower brain volumes than people who ate healthier.

Everybody sets goals and makes choices with the intent of being successful. People typically do not start exercise programs and make the decision to change eating habits with the intent of failing, but people often do fail. If you want so badly to succeed, why do you fail every time? Why do exercise routines not stick? Why does it seem so hard to stay away from the extra glass of wine, the popcorn after dinner, or the insatiable chocolate habit? The answer may lie in your addiction to dopamine and the inhibition of your prefrontal cortex by your environment and bad habits.

Even under a “hardcore” strength routine women gain muscle mass much slower than men does. When women do gain bulk it is not a bad thing, muscle mass can help with injury prevention, reduce the risk of falls, increase bone strength which will lead to a reduction of fractures. Weightlifting also has been shown to decrease the likelihood of type 2 diabetes and have positive effects on blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

What makes a great coach? Adaptability! Every single person is different. What motivates and works for one, won’t work for another. You could explain a concept to 10 different people 10 different ways and each way will only make sense to 1 person. It’s complicated. Great coaches have a natural ability to adapt to the communication style of each individual in order to motivate everyone. That doesn’t even mean what they say. 10% of our communication is verbal.

What happens? You continue to step on the scale every day watching the number go down, then maybe up and then back down, and you get frustrated with yourself and begin to doubt that you can ever achieve that 20-pound goal. This brings me to the first reason the scale is your enemy. Your weight is going to bounce all around, especially in the beginning of any new program and diet. So many things go into what the scale will read from day to day, what you ate, how much water your drinking, did you just workout, did you miss a workout, the point is that number can be incredible skewed from day to day and it will rarely tell you the whole story.

It will move with compensation if you let it, but a good training program requires proper movement, which teaches the body how to move without compensating. Compensating actually takes a lot more effort. Although, this wouldn’t seem like the case if you’ve been doing a movement incorrectly for a long time and then force your muscles to move and engage in the right pattern. At first it will seem much, much harder, but eventually you’ll become much, much stronger and more efficient.

The problem with fad diets is exactly that they are a fad and not sustainable long term. How many times has a family member or friend told you about their newest diet, or weight loss program. They will be all excited, and won’t mention that this is the third diet they have done? So why do you keep changing diets? Cause these master cleanse diets do not work, you are losing mostly all water weight and muscle which is what you do not want to be losing. Fad diets come and go with various promises, but again the reason so many exist is because none of them can be kept long term, stop dieting and instead learn what a proper daily meal plan is for you.

The Navy Seals have what they call the 40% rule. Basically, they say that when your mind starts telling you to stop, you really have only reached about 40% of what you’re actually capable of. For those of you that feels content not pushing yourselves, The CDC states, “physical activity can have an impact on cognitive skills and attitudes and academic behavior.” So even just being active can have tremendous benefits in other areas of your life.

Many of us have heard the phrase “one size fits all” well in the gym that phrase is most definitely not true, what works for one person may not work for another, and when it comes to the squat it is no different. One person may be able to squat with proper form, heavy weight and go very deep; while another person may only be able to get to 90 degrees of knee flexion. So which one is right? Well both, the whole “ass to grass” motto some like to say is not only wrong it can also be extremely dangerous.