Weight Training – Right Exercises, Right Schedule
Weight training, or resistance training, is arguably one of the most effective forms of exercise regardless of your fitness goals. Used in combination with sensible diet and aerobic exercise, proper weight training can help you build lean muscle, lose unwanted fat or both.
Getting Started
If you’re not sure where to start, below is a sample beginner’s weight training schedule. At this stage in your development, it is only necessary to exercise each muscle group once per week. And to avoid “exercise fatigue”, this program only has you lifting weights three days per week. Remember, your muscles don’t grow when you’re working out, only when they are recovering between workouts.
Identifying Your Correct Exercise Form
Included below are some common, and generally safe, weight training exercises for you to perform for each body part. As a weight training beginner, it might be advisable for you to perform these exercises on a machine rather than attempting to use “free weights” (dumbbells and barbells). This is assuming that you have access to such machines, such as through a gym membership or at your local high school. Arguably, free weights have numerous advantages over machines for the more advanced weight lifter. However, as you are building your strength and learning proper exercise form early in your weight training program, using machines at this stage in your development will make things easier and safer.
Weight training exercises are typically expressed in “sets” and “reps” (or repetitions). Reps refer to how many times you lift (or push or pull) the weight. A set refers to a group of repetitions. So, when you are to perform three (3) sets of 15 reps, you should raise and lower the weight 15 times and then rest for a few moments. Then repeat this cycle two more times.
Following a Sample Beginner’s Weight Lifting Schedule
MONDAY – Chest and Triceps (back of upper arm)
Machine Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Machine Triceps Pushdown: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
TUESDAY – Rest
WEDNESDAY – Back and Biceps (front of upper arm)
Machine Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Machine Curl (or Barbell Curl): 3 sets of 10-12 reps
THURSDAY- Rest<
FRIDAY – Thighs and Calves
Machine Leg Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Machine Calf Raise: 3 sets of 12-15 reps
SATURDAY / SUNDAY – Rest
Most advanced weight lifting programs recommend taking a set to failure, which means performing as many reps as possible in any given set. At this stage in your weight training development, it is not advised to go to this extreme. If the program above recommends 8-10 reps for an exercise, the muscle being worked should feel very tired by the 10th rep, but not completely exhausted.
Use this guideline to select the correct weight for each exercise. If at the end of the last recommended rep you feel as though you could still do several more reps, add a few pounds. Conversely, if your muscles become too fatigued to finish the last recommended rep, remove a few pounds.
In all, stick with the above beginner’s weight training program for two weeks. If done faithfully, along with proper diet, you will notice significant improvements in your strength and possibly your weight.
Until the next article….”Be Your Best”
Why choose Medicare Supplemental Medical Insurance?
Medicare Supplemental Medical Insurance is a perfect solution for those who wish to spend their retirement life peacefully. Financial issues and lapses can really cause deep worry. No senior citizen deserves to worry on their finances, especially for healthcare after years of toiling and hard work.
With Supplemental medical Insurance you can enjoy the same benefits as normal supplement insurance. It fills the gap that Medicare leaves behind, and covers the spaces that are left open. Thus you need not worry on the 20 % that Medicare plan does not cover. For the medical expenditures that are not covered by Medicare, the supplement insurance can handle making your life totally stress free.
Supplemental Medical Insurance rules and regulations are very simple to understand. You do not replace the original plan, but just support the original Medicare plan and fill in the gaps. It is a smart support system that can help when Medicare fails. You can choose to continue the same physician in both the policies and yet enjoy a wide variety of policy options. The Medigap options depend on factors like the age of the customer, the present health condition and requirements and the assessment of future health, the finances etc. You must choose amongst these options after considering your budget limitations and your health requirements as well.
Of the 10 standardized plans, Plan A is the most basic medical supplement policy. It covers the coinsurances as well as the first three pints of blood of the year. Plan B includes all the benefits covered by plan A and furthermore too. Plan A has the lowest premium. The most widely covered plan is Plan F which includes all the possible coinsurance like skilled nursing facilities, deductibles, and other charges as well. It is one of the most comprehensive plans that offer full coverage and good for those who do not wish to take risk in times of emergency.
Weight Training and Self Esteem
Weight training can build a persons self esteem dramatically. Once you start seeing the results you will start to feel better about yourself. You will find yourself not just looking in the mirror but admiring what you see there. The more you see improvement, the better that you will feel about yourself. And that’s not all just because of the muscle that you are seeing.
A big thing with weight training is that you have set goals for yourself, that you know you have to work for. There is nothing easy about exercise, diet, or weight training. You have to work for what you want, but trust me, it’s well worth it. At one point in time, my goal was to be able to bench press 300 pounds. You can only imagine the feeling I had inside once I reached that goal. Now I’m shooting for more. Each time I reach a goal, my confidence grows. Everyday, I know that I am improving myself, and everyday, I feel better about myself.
Another way that weight training and fitness improves your self esteem is the attention. Once you start improving your physique, you will notice that you will be getting more attention. People who normally wouldn’t have talked to you in the past will come start the conversation with you. The more you improve, the more attention you will get. You will start getting alot of compliments and that alone will start to build your self esteem. The added attention and compliments help to build your confidence and make you feel better about the way that you look.
Now this is a process and doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and effort. You have to want it, and want it bad. It’s not going to be given to you. If you want to feel better about yourself, then exercise, fitness and weight training can help you do that. There are some free advice sites out there that will help you get the body that you have always wanted. But again I say “help” you get there. It will not be given to you, it will take a lot of work, but, it is well worth it. The choice is yours, and only yours, to make. Are you tired of looking down on yourself because of the way that you look? Well, do something about it. It’s your decision, you have to take the first step. So let’s get started.
Best Treadmill for Home
Buying the best treadmill for home use is a particularly tricky affair; it should be designed to provide power yet still be energy efficient and should be light weight without divorcing it from stability. It should be affordable, reliable and dependable. There are a number of features that should be considered before selecting a treadmill for personal use and in this article, we will discuss the most important of these.
For starters, the design of the machine is very important. Very few people can afford to devote a whole room to their treadmills, which is why most machines designed for private use are made to look sporty, sleek and take up minimum possible space. They are foldable or feature collapsible frames so they can be conveniently stored in a cupboard or the garage after your workout is complete.
The best treadmill for home use should employ lightweight composite materials and polymers to restrict the weight of the machine from exceeding 250lbs. The control panels are also designed to facilitate use in the house, they feature LCD screens that display information about the workout and quick buttons that are easy to understand and use. A good treadmill must have an optimum work area to size ratio. Most of the width and length of the machine must be devoted to the running surface. This will help save space without constricting your movement as you work out.
The best home treadmill should have a wide running surface that allows you to continue your natural stepping motion while a longer tread allows you to maintain your stride length, as you would while running on a track. A treadmill with a small work area means that you would have to change the way you run, which would result in you putting your entire weight on places other than your original pressure points. This may result in muscle and joint pains, over-exertion of a virgin pressure point may result in damage to ligaments and tendons which can be extremely painful and may result in temporary disability. The best treadmills for home feature shock absorbing mechanisms that not only protect from injury but also provide comfort while running.
Your machine must be able to give you a workout that best suits your requirements, home treadmills usually come with about 5 to 9 preinstalled workout programs, these programs are designed by physiologists and are generally able to satisfy the average consumer. However, for a more personal touch or to manage a workout more suited to your needs, machines with user-customizable workout programs are also available.
The best treadmill for home should feature preinstalled workout programs that are designed to concentrate on cardiovascular exercises or weight loss; they adjust the speed and incline of the machine to best suit the projected goal of the workout plan.
At the gym, an Instructor can always observe your workout and physical indicators and tell you when you are over-exerting yourself, that luxury is sacrificed when working out in the house. To avoid any inconvenience, treadmills designed for use in the house come complete with pulse and heart rate sensors that may be in the form of attachable electrodes or sensors built into the hand rails; these monitor your pulse and heart rate. Some of the finer models have an automatic shutdown function (that can be disengaged through a manual override) that stops the machine when it senses that your physical indictors are reaching unsafe limits. After you have taken a break and feel freshened up, you can continue your workout again.
It is important for the best treadmill for home to have necessary safety measures to avoid any accidents in case of improper use. This is especially important for houses in which children or the elderly may reside. The models targeted for use inside houses feature emergency kill mechanisms to protect the user and those around them from accidents. These are very important to consider when buying a treadmill for use in the house, it is not a toy and children should be instructed on how to use the machine properly, if they are to be allowed to use it.
The best home treadmill should have an emergency kill key which is a simple yet effective safety feature; the machine does not work until a key, specific to it, is inserted into its port. The key is attached to a lanyard that the user wears. In case of a fall, the key disengages and the machine stops immediately.
These are the features to look out for when buying a treadmill for use at home. However, it must be kept in mind that the definition of the best home treadmill is relative to your needs. Evaluate your needs and then see which machine meets most of your requirements. That will be “your best treadmill for home use”.
The Top Benefits of Installing Pool Safety Fence
There’s really no reason for you to second guess whether or not you need to have your own pool safety fence. Not only will having one provide you with tons of benefits, it wouldn’t also grab you of anything you wish to enjoy in your pool area. To convince you even more, here are some of the top benefits you can get from having your own pool safety fence.
First and most importantly, if you are residing in Melbourne, then you are provided with the top quality services you can get out of pool fencing Melbourne. Regardless of who end up hiring, you will be provided with the best quality of work at the shortest possible time. You will also be getting your money’s worth.
Other than this, hiring the best fencing contractors to do this kind of job for you will automatically provide you with the protection and safety that you need. Since money cannot be measured in relation to your safety, you will definitely be able to realize how important having one is. If you have kids, then all the more should you consider pool fencing Melbourne as soon as possible?
But other than getting the kind of service and installation that you deserve, saving up on the cost for this kind of job, having the kind of protection and safety that you need for yourself, your children, and your whole family, you will also benefit in such a way that you can even make your pool area look even more stylish.
Some fencing contractors wouldn’t just limit their services to actual installation. They can adapt your ideas and play around it to provide you with the nicest, most stylish kind of fence you truly deserve.