I thought that folks may find these videos on how to prevent sports injuries very useful. For those of us that lead an active lifestyle, injuries are, in fact, more common place than we care to admit. When these injuries happen we can lose a lot of very valuable training time….so please, take the time to gain some great advice on how to prevent them from happening in the first place:

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Below are what I consider to be the Top 10 Myths you hear everyday from guys in the gym giving advice on weightlifting:

1. You can get as big as a pro bodybuilder without taking steroids; it just takes longer. – Despite what many of the magazines say, all professional bodybuilders use either steroids or steroids in combination with other growth-enhancing drugs.
2. In order to get really big, you have to eat a super-high- calorie diet. – Well, that’s true; you’ll get really big if you eat a super high-calorie diet, but you’ll look like the Michelin Man’s fraternal twin. However, if you want to get big, lean-tissue wise, then super-high-calorie diets are probably not for you unless you are one of those very few people withmetabolicrates so fast you can burn off these calories instead of depositing them as fat.
3. If you eat a low-fat diet, it doesn’t matter how many calories you take in, you won’t gain any fat. – The bottom line is, if you exceed your energy requirements, you’ll gradually get fatter and fatter. It’s true that eating a diet rich in fat will pack on the pounds quicker for a variety of reasons, the most significant being that a gram of fat has nine calories as opposed to the four calories per gram that carbohydrates and proteins carry.
4. The more you work out, the more you’ll grow. – No, no no. This is one of the most damaging myths that ever reared its ugly head. 95% of the pros will tell you that the biggest bodybuilding mistake they ever made was to over-train–and this happened even when they were taking steroids.
5. The longer you work out, the better. It just isn’t necessary to do 20-30 sets for a body part, or even 10 sets like many ‘experts’ would have you believe. In fact, research has shown that it’s possible to completely fatigue a muscle in one set, provided that that set taxes a muscle completely.
6. You don’t have to be strong to be big. – For a variety of reasons, people, even those with an equal amount of muscle mass, vary in strength enormously. It might have something to do with fast-twitch/slow-twitch muscle ratios, or it might have something to do with the efficiency of nerve pathways or even limb length and the resultant torque. But it is still a relative term. To get bigger muscles, you have to lift heavier weight, and you,not the guy next door, have to become stronger — stronger than you were.
7. The training programmes that work best for pro bodybuilders are best for everyone. – You see it happen every day in gyms across the country. Some bodybuilding neophyte will walk up to a guy who looks like he’s an escaped attraction from Jurassic Park and ask him how he trains. The biggest guy in the gym likely got that way from either taking a tremendous amount of drugs and/or by being genetically pre- dispositioned to get big. Follow a horse home and you’ll find horse parents. The guy in your gym who is best bodybuilder is the guy who has made the most progress and done the most to his physique using natural techniques. He may still be a pencil neck, but he may have put on 40 pounds [19kg] of lean body mass to get where he is, and that, in all probability, took some know-how. That person probably doesn’t overtrain, keeps his sets down to a minimum, and uses great form and concentration on the eccentric (negative) portion of each exercise repetition.
8. You can’t build muscle on a sub-maintenance calorie intake diet. – It may be a little harder, and it may require a little bit more know-how and a little bit more conscientious effort, but it can be done. The fact is, the obese state in humans and animals is not universally correlated with absolute levels of caloric intake and neither is the accrual of lean body mass. The ability to realize changes in lean/fat ratios is regulated by components of the automatic nervous system working in concert with several endocrine hormones; this is called nutrient partitioning.
9. You can’t grow if you only work each body part once a week. – If you work out — work out intensely– then it can take 5- 10 days for the muscles to heal. Although the following should be taken with a grain of salt when determining your own exercise frequency, a study in the May 1993 issue of the Journal of Physiology revealed it can take weeks for muscles to recuperate from an intense workout. The study involved a group of men and women who had worked their forearms to the max. All of the subjects said they were sore two days after exercising, and the soreness was gone by the seventh day, and the swelling was gone by the ninth day. After six weeks, the subjects had only gained back half the strength they had before the original exercise! By no means am I advocating that you wait two months between workouts, but I am trying to prove the point that it takes muscles longer to heal than what you might have previously thought. For some people, especially natural bodybuilders, waiting a week between body part workouts might be just what the doctor ordered for size and strength gains!
10. You can’t make gains if. you only train with weights three days a week. – Although you probably couldn’t find a single steroid- assisted athlete who trains only three days a week, there’s absolutely no reason why a three-day-a-week routine couldn’t work for many natural athletes. As long as your routine attacked the whole body and you worked to failure on each set, you could easily experience great gains on this sort of routine. However, you need to pay even more attention to your diet if you only train three days a week, especially if your job involves little or no physical activity, and you like to spend your idle time eating. Ignore those who say three- day-a-week bodybuilders are only ‘recreational lifters’. Think quality and not quantity.

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iFitness

Some of the features that you get with iFitness are:

iFitness App for the iPhone

• over 300 unique exercises (more than any other application)
• clear images of people doing every exercise & full text instructions
• 175 (and quickly growing) number of video instructions for each exercise
• cleverly designed logging feature to record and track your progress
• ability to add your own exercise and track it
• exercises ordered by body region they target (abs, arms, back, etc), exact muscle they workout or the equipment they use
• ability to create MULTIPLE customized workouts
• 20 routines with varying goals (weight loss, strength, ab definition, golf program, etc)
• ability to email workout logs to yourself in csv and pdf format
• add custom photo for exercises from iPhone’s camera or photo library
• graph your workout results to give yourself the encouraging boost you need
• stop-watch timer to keep track of your resting time between sets
• weight monitor/bmi calculator/measurements recorder to keep track of your progress and graph the results
• FREE unlimited backup & restore to iFitness server to keep all your iFitness data secure
• ability to track MULTIPLE users
• Supports imperial and metric units (e.g. lb/kg)
• Full iOS4 multitasking support

I can’t say enough about this app. I love the timer, it makes sure that I take my minute break…not more. I love the routines, especially when I am on the road and have to improvise. Moreover, I love the videos, because I don’t always know the proper way to do every exercise…or, just want to check that I am in fact doing it correctly. Really helped with the ab crunches on the a ball, because with the video I realized I wasn’t going back far enough…what a difference when I did  them properly.

Nutrition Menu

Some of the features in this app include:

Nutrition Menu for the iPhone

FOOD FEATURES:
✓ Over 42,000 restaurant menu items of 356 USA and some Canadian restaurants (see website for list)
✓ Over 51,000 entries for common foods like apples, meat, frozen meals, etc
✓ No Internet communication means fast access to information
✓ Nutrition info includes calories, fat, carbs, fiber, serving size, protein, cholesterol, sodium, and sugars
✓ Shows Food Score
✓ Add your own custom foods
✓ Put your popular foods in the Favorites
✓ Search feature
✓ Updates nutritional values when you change quantity

EXERCISE FEATURES:
✓ 149 built-in exercises
✓ Add your own custom exercises
✓ Activity Score Caculator
✓ Put your custom exercises in the Favorites
✓ Calculate calories burned by exercising based on your weight

JOURNAL FEATURES:
✓ Shows daily summary with progress bars
✓ Breaks down calories in a pie chart
✓ Shows all foods and exercises for a day

I love this app, well, because I was really one of the first apps I ever used . I have watched it get better and better with every update and I have become very comfortable with it. Also, I have all my favourites saved in it. If I got another Calorie Counter App, I would have to start all over again. It is not the most popular calorie counting app in the App Store, but it my favourite.

What are your favourite iPhone Fitness Apps, leave a note below and share. Actually, they don’t have to be iPhone Apps, if you have any Fitness Apps that you want you share, please leave a comment below.

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I guess it would be helpful for those reading if I start right up front by saying I am in no way an affiliate or distributer of the P90X program in any way, shape or means. There is no business relationship between us. If any thing comes up in the form of a Google Ad on the sidebar it is pure happenstance based on Google trying to match my keywords with their ads.

So, with that out-of-the-way, lets begin.

First I would like to say that it was my wife who introduced me to the P90X program. I had heard of it but was not very interested…, like any other program that you have to buy…, I am not very interested. I figure I have enough knowledge and fitness experience to design my own workout routine that I enjoy and can change as I see fit. But this program, or aspects of it intrigued me. I tried the AbRibber X workout at the end of my regular straining sessions and it was brutal! It is an excellent 15 minute Ab workout and I highly recommend it.

So, that led experience led me to give the program a try. I gave it a good 3 weeks. I will say that the workouts are good, very challenging, core training…all the good stuff. But, in the end, it just isn’t for me. It comes across as a little too aerobic-y for me. I would not take this as a reflection of the P90X program. However, it is really just a reflection on me. This is not the kind of workouts I enjoy. I like weights, heavy weights and running. That feels real to me, I can change my routine as much I want whenever I feel bored. I can do more with less weights for longer workouts or do less with more weights for shorter workouts. It just works for me and it is what I enjoy…which, by the way, is the most important part. If you don’t want to get out of bed at 6:30 am to do your workout because you don’t enjoy it…you won’t be working out for long. So, that was what I was starting to experience with this program…I didn’t like it.

However, my wife loved it! She stuck with it and finished the whole program with amazing results! She is a hard-body, no doubt. Her experience was completely different from mine. She does not consider herself a fitness guru and wanted a program that she just had to follow and would get results. P90X delivered that in spades. Now of note here, she didn’t get all crazy into the nutrition guide (she eats well already) or the shakes and supplements. She just ate as she normally did (which is really, really good) and followed the program religiously. Again, her results were amazing. She is very happy with the P90X program and continues with the P90X Plus, the 10 minute workouts and other version of the regular P90X program. She will be the first to tell you that it is hard. When you workout with this program you know it! But if you stick with it you will get amazing results.

So, in the end I don’t know if I have really told you anything. Most of these programs all work if you follow them as they recommend. It really comes down to what you enjoy; what will get you in the gym; what will get you moving and working out. For me, I like to control, play and modify my program. For my wife, she wants structure and somebody else to do the theory work of a what is a well-balanced  program to follow (one-less thing to worry about in the day, type of thing). Lastly, the hardest workout I found in the whole program was the YogaX…that kicked my butt!

Have you used the P90X, please share you experience & results with our readers.

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May is American Stroke Month. After cardiovascular disease and cancer, strokes are the 3

by Steve Jasper

Although the recent plight of rocker Brett Michaels has been getting more press than May being National Stroke Month, the two are directly related. This makes a great opportunity to talk more about strokes, and how they can be avoided.

Thanks to the pervasiveness of this Information age we currently live in, health concerns and the information surrounding it spread nearly as quickly as the diseases themselves. For example, you probably recall the widespread hysteria in the United States regarding the Swine Flu. While there were no more death tolls than our regular seasonal flu, the sensationalization of the topic kept it in the news for months. While on one hand, the rapid spread of information can be a boon to preventative medicine, the spread of incorrect or inaccurate information can be detrimental, or even harmful.

Thanks to the rapid information delivery of the internet, and the various media outlets reporting on these issues, we know more about heart disease and strokes today than our parents or grandparents ever did. Many of you reading this article may have had a friend or relative- or even yourself- suffer from a stroke. It is important that you first understand what the underlying factors are that cause a stroke, and how you can take steps to prevent one from ever occurring.

Some people naturally have a greater risk of stroke than others. The factors which put you at risk for a stroke fall into two categories: factors you can control, and those which are unfortunately out of your control. Family history plays a large part in determining your level of risk. Men, and people with immediate relatives who have suffered strokes, are both more likely to suffer an attack than others. Also, African Americans are at a much greater risk than any other ethnicity. Unfortunately, there isn’t a concrete explanation for why this is true. It could be that due to higher rates of hypertension and diabetes, African Americans exhibit a greater hereditary risk, according to the National Stroke Association. Pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, in addition to obesity, excessive smoking and/or drinking can all multiply your risk of a stroke.

Avoidable Risk Factors:

• Excessive Smoking
• Excessive Drinking
• Hypertension/High Blood Pressure
• Obesity
• Inactive Lifestyle

Unavoidable Risk Factors:

• Age – As you get older, your chances for stroke increase
• Prior Strokes – The chances of suffering a subsequent stroke increases
• Family History – If you have immediate relatives who have a history of strokes.
• Race – African Americans are more likely to suffer from strokes.

While you might not be able to change your heredity, there are measures you can take to help stave off stroke risk. The National Stroke Association estimates that out of the 700,000 strokes that occur each year, 600,000 could have been prevented by simple lifestyle changes. One of the best and easiest prevention tools is to simply employ a good exercise routine.

Generally, when people are asked what their biggest obstacle towards a more active lifestyle is, the most popular answer is “not enough time.” That’s why one of the best ways to stay fit is with home gyms and home aerobics programs. It’s hard to come up with excuses when you have your own workout routine in your basement or garage. In addition to this, many people feel uncomfortable in public gyms for various reasons. It’s no surprise that lifting weights or exercising in your own home is more comfortable than wiping off a stranger’s eerily sweaty stains from the exercise equipment. If you can combine this lifestyle change with others, such as eating better food, drinking less alcohol, and quitting cigarettes, you will dramatically improve your chances for fighting off a stroke.

Unfortunately, all too often, perfectly healthy people succumb to strokes as well. That’s why it is important to be able to recognize the symptoms of stroke. When a stroke occurs, the sooner you act, the better your chances for recovery. Someone suffering from a stroke will exhibit an inexplicable numbness or tingling sensation on one side of their body, slurred speech, blurred vision, and difficulty with motor control.

Sometimes it’s difficult to prevent the things that hinder our health. But like the old adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We need to keep doing our part to spread awareness about the risk of strokes. If we can educate the public on how to live healthier lifestyles, then we can succeed in stemming the effects of this nationwide killer.

Steve Jasper is not a medical expert. All of the statistics cited were from the National Stroke Association and the American Heart Association. If you have any serious medical concerns, please consult a qualified medical professional. Steve is a contributing blogger from Gymsource who writes an all topics related to fitness equipment and more.

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By Alexia Krause

It’s pretty obvious that the workout regimen and strength training of a mixed martial artist is gravely different than that of your average day-to-day gym goers. A MMA fighter has to build a body that can both take and outlast the punishment of the sport. This is much different than average gym goers who are usually looking for a healthy workout just to maintain their physique. However, this doesn’t mean that a MMA workout can’t fit in with the workout routine of an average person.

One of the biggest differences in a fighter’s workout routine is that it focuses on the whole body in one session rather than the different sets of muscle groups. Most people workout legs and back one day and arms and chest the other. Fighters, on the other hand, need their bodies to work as one complete unit. This is done in one session of a strength training regimen of dead lifts, squats, and chest presses.  An exercise you don’t always see in the gym is jumping rope.  Based on this fact, it would seem that most people don’t consider the fact that jumping rope requires all aspects of the body to be moving in order be done correctly.  Mixing this exercise into a workout routine adds enormous value to your level of endurance while sharpening reflexes and reaction time.

Even things as simple as the training gear that MMA fighters use separates them from the rest of the gym pack. Fighters use MMA gear as part of their workout, while most people working out wear nothing more than old shorts and ripped shirts. This shows that not only do fighters workout differently, but they use the best equipment they can to maximize their workout and simulate the actual conditions that will exist in the ring.

This doesn’t mean that average gym-goers can’t maximize their own workout. By adding aspects of the MMA fighter routine into their workout 2 or 3 times a week, an average person can build up a higher level of endurance and strength than they would normally be accustomed to achieving. This may not get them ready for the cage anytime soon, but it will definitely make their workout more effective.

Alexia has been blogging on-and-off over the last few years.  She has a true enthusiasm for writing articles related to mixed martial arts and fitness. As a result, she joined up with MMA Industries- retailers of highly popular MMA gear and MMA clothing. Alexia currently resides in Long Island and continues to promote the virtues of MMA as a sport and fitness vehicle

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I

A somewhat unfortunate thing about building muscle is that there is no definite “right” or “wrong” way to go about it. You can train wrong and still build muscle. That’s right you could be doing it all wrong and still be seeing results. But, at some point that will stop. Moreover, you are not maximizing your efforts.

How NOT to warm-up

Let’s use the Bench Press as an example here. For sake of description we’ll say that 275 is the maximum for 3 reps. Here is how most people do a bench workout.

They load the bar with 135 pounds and do about 10 or 15 reps. They’ll rest a few minutes and then go to 185 pounds. Here they do another 10 reps. Then they go to 205 pounds and do about 10 reps. After a little rest, they go to 225 pounds and do 7 or 8 reps depending on how good they feel.

So far that is 4 sets. Now throw on 20 pounds to 245 and do about 7 reps. That’s set number 6 and they haven’t even started to build muscle yet. From here they take the 10′s off and put on some 25′s. At 275 pounds the barely knock out 3 reps.

Can you point out the mistakes here? They warmed up. No question about that, but they did so at the expense of strength and overload. In other words, their technique for warming up resulted in poor or inadequate muscle fiber stimulation and overload due to premature muscle fatigue.

Warming up the right way

Here we are going to take the Bench Press and show you a proper warm-up technique that will allow you to lift more weight on your heavy sets. Remember, more weight – more overload – more muscle.

Again well use 275 as your heavy weight. If you typically warm-up and train like I pointed out earlier the 275 will feel a lot lighter this time.

• First Set: 135 x 12 reps (warm-up)

These should be good smooth reps. Not too slow and not to fast. Your main goal is to increase blood flow and get the feel of the movement and the weight. After this first set you should rest about 2 minutes.

• Second Set: 135 x 10 reps (warm-up)

Same weight as before. Rhythm should be a little faster this time. Not much faster. Rest about 2 minutes.

• Third Set: 185 x 6 reps (warm-up)

This should be a deliberate set done at a moderate pace. This is the next step in weight acclimation. It should feel light and 4 reps should be very easy. Rest about 2 to 3 minutes before the next set.

• Fourth Set: 225 x 3 reps (weight acclimation)

You should follow the same rhythm as in the last set. 3 strong reps. Rest 2 minutes before next set.

• Fifth Set: 255 x 1 rep (weight acclimation)

That’s right, just 1 rep. The purpose here is weight acclimation. This should be a strong, powerful and deliberate rep.

• Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Sets: 285 x 4 to 6 reps (muscle-building)

These are the muscle building sets. Very important. These are the only sets that produce muscle growth. All the sets leading up to these heavy sets are merely warm-up sets and are treated as just that and nothing more.

Notice we went to 285 instead of 275. Warming up properly and doing less reps as you progress during warm-up and weight acclimation allows you to use heavier weight during the most important muscle building sets.

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