Why Core Exercise – Jeff Mims
I came across this article by Jeff Mims which covers the importance of core strength and core based exercises in your fitness regime. I am a strong believer and lover of core strength and although I don’t carry the superficial 6 pack effect, I focus on the strength and flexibility of my transverse and oblique abdominals to assist with an old lower back injury and maintaining good posture. When we have a strong base and supportive trunk, ease of movement becomes part of that pain-free lifestyle we aim for and decrease the risk of future injuries. Jeff explains the importance and some misconceptions of aesthetic ab strength.
Why Core Exercise By Jeff Mims
I’ve come across many clients who don’t seem to understand just how very vital core strength and flexibility are in virtually every athletic undertaking. Those that have been convinced of its importance rarely seem to fully grasp what I mean when I talk about core-focused workouts.
If you’re goal is to improve your sports performance or functional strength, you absolutely must improve your core strength. So many insist that isolated resistance training is plenty, but the reality is that lifting weights from various stationary positions is not going to greatly increase your functional strength because you rarely need strength in those positions in most sports or activities.
Another popular misconception is that isolated strength is what wins athletic events, including fighting and martial arts. This couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when it comes to martial arts. Power, agility, and conditioning create winners, not isolated strength. Power and strength are not at all the same. To get these you need core and lower body strength as well as coordination and excellent balance.
So the next question is, “What exactly comprises core?”
I’ve heard countless people refer to “core training” as working their abs doing situps and/or leg raises. What happened to the lower back and the hips? What about the upper legs, not to mention the obliques. The core is comprised of the entire trunk of the body, not just one muscle set. Many of these same people know that working their arms means doing both their biceps and triceps. They need to work on both the pulling and pushing muscles in the arms. They also know that they must work their shoulders (and chest/back) to really benefit from arm strength.
Many people that practically live at the gym (especially men) are so enthralled with their arms, they seem to forget that they spend most of their day on their legs, and their core muscles are constantly employed in some capacity to keep them upright, even when sitting. The stark reality is that in most common activities arm strength means virtually nothing if the person can’t keep his or her balance or generate power through his or her hips and legs.
Hopefully we’ve at least partially established that core is crucial for generating power, keeping on balance, and improving posture to alleviate back and hip pain. So what isn’t core training about? While core training will help you get in better shape and lose weight, the thinking that doing situps and nothing else will help you burn fat in your abdomen is a total fallacy.
Certainly any exercise is better than none. But if anything, situps alone will cause your abdominal muscles to grow and make your midsection appear larger. What’s needed in order to lose weight is a balanced exercise and fitness program. Situps are a good start, but they are not nearly enough. The individual needs to build muscle and burn calories to reduce overall body fat. It is not possible to target a specific area for fat burning.
Copyrgiht 2008 Jeffrey M. Mims is the founder of http://FitDaily.Com. For more information and free daily workouts go to http://www.FitDaily.com. Source
Read the follow up on Core Stabalisation to get a clearer understanding on the anatomy of it all………
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Tags: Core Strenth, Fitdaily.com, Jeff Mims
Dancers are constantly searching for new moves and elements to their dance which are unique and in some cases creating the illusion of defying gravity.
Nathan Trasoras is only seventeen and showed up on So You Think You Can Dance performing a charming and graceful solo to Daphne Loves Derby’s “Pollen and Salt”….. The highlights of the solo for me is his control and shift of weight maintaining his centre of gravity coming out of his pirouettes….. strong and breathtaking. Here’s a quick take on the centre of gravity:
The centre of gravity of any object is the point at which the object will balance. For a dancer, balance and centre of gravity come hand in hand. To balance in weird and wonderful ways, on one leg, one arm or en pointe we must be aware of our centre of gravity and it must be directly above the area of contact with the floor.
In this case Nathan goes from a strong upright position in his pirouettes maintaining a solid double into a long lunge. His centre of gravity is counteracted by the force from the floor through the ball of his foot and as he changes his body alignment, vertically | to horizontally — his centre of gravity remains constant. After his first example of this control, Nathan goes ahead and nails 10 more pirouettes coming out into the same controlled lunge! ahh.. beautiful. He is continuously shifting his body weight, making the moves unpredictable and leaving us guessing….. I am noting this example because of his age and mature dance ability, gaining control like this is something dancers are constantly trying to achieve to enable that freedom of movement and innovative choreography possibilities.
There are thousands of dancers working on their ability to entertain us and exceed their skill levels everyday and I’m inspired by this!
Filed under: Dance, Video | 1 Comment
Tags: ab strength, centre of gravity, Dance, force, Nathan Trasoras, pirouettes, So You Think You Can Dance, SYTYCD, torque
In reflection of our own health, this article and Michael Jackson’s tragic passing by cardiac arrest reminds us of why we must do our best to ensure a healthy heart. Health.com reports here that although cardiac arrests are more deadly than heart attacks, heart attacks are “common in those with heart disease, high blood pressure, people who are obese, and those with diabetes” and can still result in death.
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Heighten Your happiness
We all want to be happy. Happy people have a better quality of life! US studies show that the happier you are the more successful all aspects of your life will be. Happy people (compared to unhappy people) are more likely to marry and remain married, more likely to volunteer, make more money and above all live longer and healthier.
You may be reading this, content with your life, but what can we do to heighten our happiness, ensure endless sources of joy and experience complete satisfaction, well…..
- Chill with optimists
Optimism can be learned to a degree but about 50% of our happiness is in our genes and the other 50% is influenced by external sources such as careers, relationships and health. So although we can’t alter the way we were born we can influence the other 50%! Positive people have a ‘reserve of happiness’ to call upon during stressful down times and they are the perfect influence on your search for eternal pleasure. Hangout with the ones who always see the good side of a situation, people who believe in themselves, others and those who smile a lot!
- Laugh your ass off
Literally, Studies show that laughing has benefits such as boosting your immune stystem and reducing food cravings. Giggling for 15minutes a day burns calories and promotes weight loss. Ha ha! Laughing is an aerobic exercise and works the diaphragm increasing our bodies ability to use oxygen. I love that feeling when you laugh so hard your stomach hurts… ROFL during funniest home video show is a great workout and takes the focus off negative thoughts and stressful emotions, therefore, a great distraction.
- Address your health issues
Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois’ Pyschology department says people who are as happy as a clam all the time are likely to be less healthy than those who are moderately happy. Why? because they’re always in such high spirits that they are less likely to notice potential symptoms of illness hence less likely to get checked and pay consequences later when their health fails. So being happy is a benefit to our health as long as we don’t let it mask niggling health issues. Smiling with symptoms?….. get checked.
What things do you like to do to heighten your happiness? I love walking in the fresh sea air with the warmth of the sun on my skin, my lungs can feel the difference and my immune system appreciates the vitamin D fix…. aside from the health benefits, IT FEELS GOOD!
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R.I.P Michael
“The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work.” - Michael
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Gaga, What a legend! A friend of mine linked this to me…… he said, “look out for the demonic growl”.
You may wonder why it’s posted on my blog, thinking what does this have to do with health and fitness and she sure aint dancing. But just to remind you, thinking happy thoughts boosts your immunity and this vid gives me happy thoughts, She’s working those ‘be different’ muscles and we’re all about discovering muscles we never knew we had, so enjoy!
A lil crazy, a lil genius, a lil off the wall and I love it!
Filed under: Music | Entertainment, Video | 2 Comments
Tags: entertainment, lady gaga, music, poker face, Video
Curiosity Cures
I know I have many questions about my body, dance, new scientific or medical research and fun facts. I guess I’m at an age where analysing every piece of information that sniffs my brain cells is a daily, hourly, sentence by sentence occurrence and sometimes all my googling in the world isn’t satisfying. I want to make mini posts about a topic I may come across in conversation with my friends or family or from surfing the net and if any of you happen to find great links or are pros on the subject then you can update my post with your own research or opinions…. It’s a curiosity and a willingness. Lucky I don’t have a cat.
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Well I never!
This may be a useless piece of information to some but I now have a wonderful, scientific fact of an excuse to NOT wash my hair.
I have curly hair, that needs to be prepped before any public viewing and washing it is just the beginning of steps to fresh, bouncy curls. If ya’ll see me with some flat oily zig-zags this is why:
US scientists have found that dirty hair absorbs seven times the amount of ozone gas (than clean hair)…. a ground level ozone (composed of three atoms of oxygen) and a respiratory irritant. The natural oils absorb ozone gas but does this mean my hair absorbs the gas before my lungs do?? If it can clear the air around us we’re on to something here!
Not having the time to wash our hair may not be a problem anymore but if your not into the slick greasy look maybe you could walk around with English Ivy wrapped in your braids or keep a Peace Lily Plant in your office, they’re both in the list of top 5 plants that improve indoor air quality.
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Greens and Beans and fresh365
I recently discovered blog fresh365. ‘A collection of vegetarian recipes. Focusing on seasonal, organic and local products.’ Man, what a visually stunning blog! I am not vegetarian but am a huge fan of the flavours and I love the salt and pepper tofu recipe, the pictures make my mouth water and miraculously make me crave lentils. I made it as a side but ended up eating more of this than anything else. It’s tasty and if your not a bean or green person give it a go, you might surprise your taste buds and enjoy it…
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Food intolerance adds kilos?
According to research of the Middle East Journal Family Medicine, people who are having trouble losing weight on diets where they monitor kilojoules and calorie intake had more success shedding the kilos when they cut out foods to which a intolerance test said they were sensitive too. According to Oxygen Magazine the average weight loss during this research was 16.8kg in 12 weeks!
The theory is that intolerance causes the weight gain because the body can’t handle these foods and in an attempt to dilute them the body retains water trying to flush away the foreign nasties. As well as the water retention, the inflammation caused by your immune system as part of the intolerance reaction boosts fat storage.
If you are unsure of your sensitivities to certain food groups go for a test at your local allergist. Your GP can direct you to one or do as I did and google.
Turns out I have an intolerance to tuna and cheese. Inflammation of my excema and blocking my pores are my consequences to eating these foods. I learned of my intolerances after having an update on my allergy test to see if my severe anaphylactic allergy to nuts had improved since I was a kid… sure enough it hadn’t but I’d gained some new sensitivities to two of my favourite foods! I’ll follow up this post with my personal experiences on my allergy to nuts and how I have substituted the omega-3s and protein.
I’m curious if anyone had any before and after moments where the food intolerances affected their ability to lose weight…..
Filed under: Health, Nutrition | 3 Comments
Tags: food, intolerance
