Press Ups (and their variations )

Press Ups

Press ups one of my absolute favourite exercises, similar to sit-ups, they can be done almost anywhere  (however, I prefer to my press ups on surface with some resistance like a carpet, due to the fact that it stops you from slipping about as much) . They are one of the best ways strengthening many muscles in the upper body, this is probably why they are so popular and well known. Primarily they improve your definition in yours arms, but like all weight free exercises they take a lot time to make any real . This is because you are doing a simple movement with no added resistance to the muscles (weights) so you are only moving you body mass worth of resistance.


Press ups are great for working many parts of the upper body, again this is partly why they take a long time to see any results as all the weight is spread across these muscles. The muscles that press ups work include:

Pectoralis major

Deltoids

Triceps brachii

Serratus anterior

Abdominal muscles

Coracobrachialis

So as you can see press ups are a good way to get toned as they work many muscles with a light weight so it burns a lot of fat in these areas. Sport stars also do press ups as they strengthen the upper body adding to weight and power, which will help the performance of the competitors


How to do a push up


There are types of push up related exercises you need to be able to do in order to perform and do push ups and there variations at a workout level.

1. The first: (I know it can be sexist to say, but it is simply what I have learnt it as and it is traditionally the female version of the exercise) The Girl Push Up or The Knee Push Up. For this exercise you simply get down on to your hands and knees, with your legs crossed and feet elevated in the air. Next you bend your arms and gradually lower your self down and back up, if you cannot go back up yet do not get put off, keep practising and it will come.
2. Once you have mastered the first stage and can do about 25 reps, you should move on to a elevated push up. This is the same motion but only standing, leaning forwards, with your hand on an elevated surface such as a park bench instead of the floor. Again bend you arms, lower yourself and attempt to go up and down, if you cannot get up just go as far as you can.
3. The final stage is a full press up its self, you then go to the floor after mastering the second step, get into the first position but extend your legs back and keep your feet on the floor. You then lower your self up and down by bending your arms.

Tips


A few tips I would recommend would be to work on form rather than speed, it would be better to do 5 really good push ups than 25 rushed ones. Essentially this means get your feet central, back straight, go nose to the floor, keep shoulders square and lower your self evenly. Another tips would be lots of low sets are best for building size, I intend to hold a push for about 2-3 seconds.


Variations

• Triangle base- hand form a triangle shape and are played under belly button on the floor. These target the triceps a lot more and are a lot more difficult to complete
• Single hand (supported and unsupported)- move the arm doing the push up directly under the opposing arms shoulder and grab the wrist with free hand, then lower yourself spread legs wide for balance. For the unsupported method is the same other than the free hand on wrist, so all the weight is on that targeted arm. These add move weight to one arm as they are not having to share the weight.
• Press ups and turn- after each push up rotate to one side, put one foot on top of the other and lift the arm on the same side as free leg into the air and extend other arm, then do the same on the other side. These add bulk to the exercise and work to tire the muscles further.

This Post will also become added to the pages in the exercise series so be sure to check it out there for future reference.Thanks for reading, if your new or old please check out the older posts to see if there is anything you have missed or if something catches your eye. If you like what I am doing please drop a comment, plus one this post or the blog, add the blog to your reading this and follow me on google plus, if you have any suggestions or ideas do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.  More posts coming soon so please read again - work hard and peace!

Jason

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My weight loss journey - Insanity begginning

Welcome to 5.14 fitness,

This post is the second in which I talk about my journey from being very fat , to just the right weight. I went from a BMI of 27 to 19.8 in two years, and so have gone from very overweight to below normal weight. I can not really determine an exact time when I lost it all, but will tell you everything I did.

If you haven't read my introduction to this, then please do so- as it might really help you.
Carrying on from my last post, I was at the beginning of my journey, and I had just discovered about Insanity: the workout DVD that really packed a punch. I was ready to go, start this exercise daily, and get fit,however; I had to cross a bridge that was difficult to get across. I had already managed to overcome the laziness and disbelief, and decided to do the workout. Now I had to tell everyone else I was doing it...

This may not be the same for you, but I live in a family where I feel embarrassed quite easily. I have two sisters who will tease me, and a dad who will tease the most. Despite the fact it was my family, I did not know how to tell them I wanted to do Insanity. I felt to embarrassed to say so, and really didn't know the reaction that will happen. For me, it took a lot of guts to go and tell them.
So this is how I did it: my sisters were doing some dance video in the lounge, it was some sort of fitness DVD for dancers.  I was lucky, because this meant someone else was doing what I wanted to do- so I wasn't alone.
Just to add, I was going to do Insanity in my living room, as that is the only space big enough in my house to do it.
Anyway, I suggested I wanted to do Insanity, and went and did the first episode ( the test ) with my sister. Surprisingly, I started doing Insanity without anyone really asking me why or teasing me about it. This was really good as it made me relaxed when doing it, and now I had started, I couldn't bail out.

So Inanity is about £100 and you get about 10 DVDS in the pack, as well as free gifts and bonus videos. Despite this, I decided not to pay £100 , and streamed the videos on my laptop, which I then plugged into the TV. This meant I got it for free, and all I did was type which Insanity video I wanted into Google.
Here what the creator of Insanity, Shaun T, says about it:

When I created the INSANITY workout, I knew it would produce insane results in 60 days, but I wasn't sure if anyone 
was brave enough to try it. Turns out...there are a lot of crazy people out there. Crazy enough to actually enjoy doing 
the world's most insanely tough workout. To like the feeling of being drenched in sweat...of going balls-to-the-wall for 
a full 45 minutes of muscle-searing exercise. Is INSANITY hard? Oh, yeah. It really IS the hardest workout ever put on DVD. It's totally crazy...but it's going to get you crazy-good results.

I started Insanity with a fit test, where you jot down various result to see what kind of fitness level you are at. Things like push ups and so on. I performed these quite badly the fist time, but I may have done better, as I had no other results to compare mine with. 
After the fit test, I had the first day of high- interval training to complete. It was going to be tough, and it was going to hurt. But I was going to do it...

Next post - my first week at Insanity

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Why We Need To Know How To Size Down

Welcome to 5.14 Fitness,




So this post is again to be on something that I have not really touched on before: sizing down. We spend all our time trying to get bigger and stronger, but when do we want to get smaller and weaker.


Why do we want to put on size? To make us look more aesthetically appealing or attractive. To get stronger to be able to perform better in sports or activities. It could also be a pass time hobby, some people exercise or try to get bigger simply because they enjoy the challenge.


How do we put on size? We lift heavy weights, doing many sets of  low reps. This works on power as the muscles are being asked repeatedly to explode against a heavy resistance. We also eat lots of high calorie foods to provide us with the energy and fuel that our muscles require to grow and complete the exercises set.


So why am I talking about sizing down? How could this ever be desirable? Have you ever seen an sport star that has retired and has got fat? Examples lots of (real) footballers such as Alan Brasil or Paul Mercer others include a lot of former American footballers or rugby player, boxers etc. It is often sport stars that relied on power and required size to perform to their maximum throughout their career.


It is often the case that if you do not size down efficiently after you have finished with body building you will get fat. And you will have to stop body building at one stage for one reason or another; whether it be old age or injury etc. So to be able to size down properly, you need to have practised. You need to have the knowledge to be able to work down and cut down on size.


In the next posts to follow, I will explain exactly how to size down. Check the pages for some new ones as I am also planning to add some more parts the series I have started. Remember to check out other posts, all following is returned, please plus 1 and add the blog to your reading list. In addition all comments and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading please come again- work hard and peace!


Jason

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My weight loss journey - introduction and beginning

Welcome to 5.14 fitness,

Today's post is the start of a few that chronicle how I lost  a lot of weight over the past couple of years. I thought that writing this down would give those who want to lose weight a look at what really happens to an everyday guy - not some body-builder who 'claims'  he lost 10 kg in 1 month, This is really for anybody who wants to see a genuine weight loss journey, what I did, and how I did it.  This is real, and is not fake. Just to add, I did not go on a diet at all through this process.

To begin with, I will give a low down on what happened. About two years ago, I was very overweight, and did not look good at all. I was definitely 'fat', and I had a very big belly that you could see in whatever I was wearing. I would say my BMI was around 27, which is quite deeply in the overweight category , and 3 away from obese.
Over the next two years, I did more exercise, eat more healthily , and now I am a lot different.

To start with it, I am now at a normal weight, and I have a flat belly, as opposed to the big belly I had before. I now have a BMI of 19.8, which is a vast improvement from 27 or so. I now need to put on more weight to become healthier, and my BMI is in the low end of normal weight, which is very good.
I am now bombarded with people telling me how thin I have become, and demanding I tell them how I became "so thin" . Personally, I feel they over- exaggerate a bit, but I am very self concious so I Ill never really know.  There are still some people out there who call me fat, but all of them are people who knew me back then. Maybe they are still trying to use the leverage they used to have over me, or maybe they are just trying to make me feel like I have made no progress.
Nevertheless, I know, and I am constantly told, that I have lost a lot of weight, and the facts back up the point that I am now at a very healthy weight.

So, there was a bit of information about how I was then, and how I am now. The change was quite big, and , to be honest , there was not a certain thing that I did that was the reason I lost the weight. In other words, I cant find out what really made me lose weight, but I will tell you everything that I did. There was also never a time that I realised I was not fat any more- it was a very gradual process.

The first thing I did was gather hope. I had been on diets before, and they had never worked. I had cut off from chocolate for 4 months ( God knows how I did it ), and that did not work. So I knew I had to do more than just eat better- I needed to go be active. I needed to get up and do some exercise- whether it was strenuous or not. I needed to eat healthier food, not eat less.
So hope was key in spurring me to do these things. I need determination, something that would let me believe that I could do it - I could lose weight. This epiphany came to me whilst I was watching TV, and I saw some Teleshopping. A workout DVD was being advertised, and it persuaded me easily to go and start it. It gave me promises, that I would lose weight by the end of it. It gave me a clear view of what I would be doing. It also could be done in my house, which was the only place in which I had room to do exercise. Outside, the world was there and people I knew- so I didn't want to start jogging or cycling.. The workout DVD offered everything I wanted- results, weight loss , and the feel good factor.

This workout DVD was about to change my life, and cause me to start losing weight and becoming healthy. It would take up an hour of my day, everyday. This workout DVD was "Insanity".
Insanity is the name of the DVD, and it involved two months of incredibly high intensity exercise- hence the name.

In the next post, I will carry on my journey, and tell you all about insanity and what happened whilst I was doing it.

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Eating To Suit Your Needs

Welcome to 5.14 Fitness,







So over the last few weeks I have been suffering from a touch of what is internationally renowned as Man Flu , consequently I went to see a doctor just as a precautionary measure to be prescribed with medicine etc.  However, I was told simply to eat oranges as these were the best things for some one in my position ( they contain a lot of vitamins with will help fight the cold ); and this got me thinking...




We need to eat to help us perform the activities/tasks that we do as it provides us with energy that we need to: move and to think.


So if I was a long distance runner why would I eat fatty foods? Correction ideally I would not eat a lot of this food group. What is the point. I am a long distance runner which means I need lots of slow releasing energy to help me run for a long period of time; it also means I need to thin and light in order to be able to run with as little resistance as possible, this is what is meant by optimum weight (see previous post on body types for more detail). Fatty foods, as you might have guessed are high in fat, which again is common knowledge that the more fat you consume the fatter and heavier you become, however as we have established you need to light to be a long distance runner so this is no use for me.


In fact the ideal food for a person who does long distance running is something like pasta or cereals as they contain lots of carbohydrates which do release energy slowly for a long period of time. Therefore carbohydrates are ideal for long distance running or any sport that requires muscular endurance or cardio vascular fitness as they are perfect for, to put it simply, keeping you going.


The moral of this post is to think carefully about your activities/lifestyle and diet to see if they match. Think about what skills are required for your sport and see what food group/groups provide the best answers to your tasks. A model for this is a car: you need to find the right fuel to put inside your car, there is no point in putting petrol in a diesel car after all. So your sport would be the car and the fuel is food, make sure you pick the right fuel. This is proven to improve your sporting performance as you have all the correct nurturance to do what you need to do.

Thanks for reading, if your new or old please check out the older posts to see if there is anything you have missed or if something catches your eye. If you like what I am doing please drop a comment, plus one this post or the blog, add the blog to your reading this and follow me on google plus, if you have any suggestions or ideas do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.  More posts coming soon so please read again - work hard and peace!

Jason

 

     

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Article- Does Exercise Really Make Us Smarter?

Welcome to 5.14 fitness, 

I came across an article when surfing the web which really caught my attention. It debates and answers the question that is - does exercise help us become smarter? I thought I would share it with you- as it is very interesting to read.   The article comes from the New York Times, as part of the 'well' section. 

Enjoy!

Exercise seems to be good for the human brain, with many recent studies suggesting that regular exercise improves memory and thinking skills. But an interesting new study asks whether the apparent cognitive benefits from exercise are real or just a placebo effect — that is, if we think we will be “smarter” after exercise, do our brains respond accordingly? The answer has significant implications for any of us hoping to use exercise to keep our minds sharp throughout our lives.

In experimental science, the best, most reliable studies randomly divide participants into two groups, one of which receives the drug or other treatment being studied and the other of which is given a placebo, similar in appearance to the drug, but not containing the active ingredient.

Placebos are important, because they help scientists to control for people’s expectations. If people believe that a drug, for example, will lead to certain outcomes, their bodies may produce those results, even if the volunteers are taking a look-alike dummy pill. That’s the placebo effect, and its occurrence suggests that the drug or procedure under consideration isn’t as effective as it might seem to be; some of the work is being done by people’s expectations, not by the medicine.

Recently, some scientists have begun to question whether the apparently beneficial effects of exercise on thinking might be a placebo effect. While many studies suggest that exercise may have cognitive benefits, those experiments all have had a notable scientific limitation: They have not used placebos.

This issue is not some abstruse scientific debate. If the cognitive benefits from exercise are a result of a placebo effect rather than of actual changes in the brain because of the exercise, then those benefits could be ephemeral and unable in the long term to help us remember how to spell ephemeral.

Studying this issue, however, is difficult. There is no placebo for exercise and no way to blind people about whether they are exercising. They know if they are walking or cycling or not.

So researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign came up with a clever workaround. They decided to focus on expectations, on what people anticipate that exercise will do for thinking. If people’s expectations jibe closely with the actual benefits, then at least some of those improvements are probably a result of the placebo effect and not of exercise.

The scientists had seen this situation at work during an earlier study of video games and cognition. Past research had suggested that playing action-oriented video games improves players’ subsequent thinking skills. But when scientists in the new study asked video-game players to estimate by how much the games would improve their thinking, the players’ estimates almost exactly matched the gains seen on cognitive tests after playing. In other words, the cognitive benefits of playing video games appear to be largely a result of a placebo effect.

For the new study, which was published last month in PLOS One, the researchers repeated this experiment but focused on exercise. Recruiting 171 people through an online survey system, they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning program performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking, including memory and mental multitasking.

The other volunteers were asked the same questions, but about a regular walking program.

In actual experiments, stretching and toning regimens generally have little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills. Walking, on the other hand, seems to substantially improve thinking ability.

But the survey respondents believed the opposite, estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking. The volunteers’ estimates of the likely cognitive improvements from gentle toning averaged about a three on a scale from one to six. The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.

These data, while they do not involve any actual exercise, are good news for people who do exercise. “The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect,” said Cary Stothart, a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University, who led the study.

If expectations had been driving the improvements in cognition seen in studies after exercise, Mr. Stothart said, then people should have expected walking to be more beneficial for thinking than stretching. They didn’t, implying that the changes in the brain and thinking after exercise are physiologically genuine.

Of course, this study was small and involved a self-selected group of people who happen to like completing online surveys. Some said they exercised, others said they did not. None claimed to be familiar with the science related to exercise and the brain, but it is impossible to know if people were being forthright.

Still, the findings are strong enough to suggest that exercise really does change the brain and may, in the process, improve thinking, Mr. Stothart said. That conclusion should encourage scientists to look even more closely into how, at a molecular level, exercise remodels the human brain, he said. It also should spur the rest of us to move, since the benefits are, it seems, not imaginary, even if they are in our head.

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30 day workout- rest of week

Welcome to 5.14 fitness,

HI, today I am posting about the rest of the 30 day workout. If you do not know what I am talking about, the check out the previous post all about it.
This post will round up the workout plan, and give the full plan at the end.

For Friday, I repeat the Monday workout , as it works the chest, arms , abs and shoulders. It is a good all-round workout, and it is my favourite out of all the workouts. I do the workout the same as I do it on the Monday.
For Saturday, I repeat the Tuesday workout,however; sometimes I can be quite busy on a Saturday, in which case, I do it on the Sunday.

So there it is- the full workout plan for the month. I will post weekly about how the plan is going, as I am in the second week at the moment. I can see results in my abs already, although I might just be imagining it! The plan should be done 5 or 6 times a week, but doing it for 5 is fine- the plan on bodybuilding.com does actually say to do so.
Remember to do cardio for 6 days, whether it is just walking or running.

So here is the full plan-

Monday:

Abdominals:
Long arm crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Reverse crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Janda sit up
3 sets, 12 reps

Jackknife
3 sets, 12 reps

Extended plank
3 sets 45 seconds

Rest of workout:

Dumbbell bench press:

3 sets, 20 reps , 60 second rest

Incline Dumbbell press:

3 sets, 20 reps, 60 seconds rest

Bench dip:

4 sets to failure, 60 second rest

Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise:

4 sets, 15 reps, 90 second rest

Tuesday:

Abdominals:
Long arm crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Reverse crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Janda sit up
3 sets, 12 reps

Jackknife
3 sets, 12 reps

Extended plank
3 sets 45 seconds

Rest of workout:

Dumbbell bent over row
4 sets, 12 reps, 1 minute rest

Bench press
3 sets, 20 reps, 1 minute rest

Straight arm dumbbell pullover
3 sets, 12 reps, 45 second rest

Dumbbell shrug
4 sets, 12 reps, 30 second rest

Wednesday:

Abdominals:
Long arm crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Reverse crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Janda sit up
3 sets, 12 reps

Jackknife
3 sets, 12 reps

Extended plank
3 sets 45 seconds

Rest of workout:

Bench press
3 sets, 20 reps, 1 minute rest

Bench dips
4 sets to failure, 60 second rest

Hammer curls
3 sets, 12 reps, 60 second rest

Preacher curls
3 sets, 12 reps, 60 second rest

Thursday:

Abdominals:
Long arm crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Reverse crunch
3 sets, 12 reps

Janda sit up
3 sets, 12 reps

Jackknife
3 sets, 12 reps

Extended plank
3 sets 45 seconds

Rest of workout:

Bench press
3 sets, 20 reps, 1 minute rest

Dumbbell squats
3 sets , 15 reps,  60 second rest

Flat bench lying leg raise
3 sets, 15 reps, 60 second rest

Incline dumbbell press
3 sets, 20 reps, 60 second rest

Friday:

Repeat Monday workout.

Saturday:

Repeat Tuesday workout

Sunday:

Rest day

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