TRULY HELPFUL: Supportive Communities #8 of 2nd post

Fitness goals are hard to achieve—even for athletes, personal trainers, and bodybuilders! It may look like they have it all figured out, but they don’t. Their successes are often due to their support teams: coaches, communities, and friends. It is absolutely possible for anyone and everyone to achieve their goals if given the right support and tools. In this lesson, you will learn the value of having a support system so you can stick with your goals long term.

A study done by psychology professor Dr. Matthews at the Dominican University of California measured the likelihood of successfully achieving a goal with and without the support of a friend. Her research found that people who updated their friend on their progress once a week had a 70% chance of achieving their goal! People who kept their goal to themselves only reached their goal 35% of the time. If you’re able to gain the support you need and have a motivational, engaging community, you are more likely to achieve and maintain your goal over time.

Supportive communities can take many forms, from online lifestyle applications to in-person workout groups. Let's learn what types of supportive fitness communities exist and how you can begin to lay out your support network to increase your opportunity for success.

Online Fitness Community

PumpUp is a fitness-based virtual community whose slogan is “become the best version of you.” This free mobile application is an inspiring community of individuals who encourage each other in their fitness journeys through sharing and commenting on each other’s goals, progress photos, and status updates. Remember those progress photos that you took from the “Tracking Progress” episode? This is a great place to share them and be surrounded by encouraging, supportive, real-life people. The application also offers an exercise builder, where a user can select their target muscles, available equipment, level of difficulty, and time they have to workout. The application uses those details to build a workout to the user’s specifications. For those who want an extra level of support, there is an option to hire a certified coach for a small monthly fee.

Other online support communities include:

• Bodybuilding.com
• Lose It!
• MyFitnessPal

In-Person Fitness Communities

Many gyms have various clubs and fitness classes and groups that offer users a supportive community. If you prefer to see your support team in person on a frequent basis, getting connected with a fitness community at a local gym or community center may be a good place to start! Many gyms also offer customized personal training.

The Support of a Friend

If you’re fortunate to have a friend or family member who is supportive of your health, let them in on your journey. Tell them your goals and ask for their support. Most people will be excited and offer to check in with you to see how your progress is going.

Summary

Having support is extremely helpful when working toward a health-and-fitness goal. Research has proven that people are more likely to achieve their goals when they have the support of other people. In our last lesson, we will review all of what we have learned, and put together each step of the process of setting and achieving fitness goals!

Homework: Find a supportive community or friend, and tell them about your goal.

Cheers to your health.

Way To Track Progress #7 of 2nd post

Get your phone out and get ready to take some progress photos—you’ll want to see how much progress you have made a month from now! So far, you have learned how to shape workouts toward specific fitness goals and how to adjust your diet toward those goals. Now we will focus on tracking progress so you can know if your diet and workout program is effective. For most goals, you’ll want to measure progress on a weekly or monthly basis.

How to Measure

It is important to measure your goal in a way that is relevant to the most important factor of your goal. For example, if your goal is to increase your endurance, it makes sense to measure your progress to show that—perhaps do a timed 5k race every month to compare your results to the last race.

Here are a few helpful hints on what to measure, based upon your goals:

• For a weight loss goal, measure your weight and BMI (i.e., Body Mass Index).
• For an endurance goal, measure your speed over a long distance.
• For strength gain, measure your maximum weight on a specific lift.
• For weight gain, measure your weight and body circumferences using a tape measure.

Some people find it helpful to track additional “bonus” measurements because it allows them to see more specific information. Here are some optional measurements you can take:

• Progress photos (front, side, and back) allow you to see body composition changes over time.
• Some people measure body fat percentage to know exactly how much of their weight is body fat. This is usually most helpful for competitive athletes who need to minimize body fat, but anyone can do it. Using fat-pinching calipers is the cheapest way to measure your body fat. When trying to lose weight by dieting and eating healthy, many people can see a decrease in body fat percentage of about .5% each week if they are willing to work hard.

Let’s Celebrate

When you see that you’re making progress toward your goal, you should celebrate! Seeing results means your hard work is paying off. Experts recommend that you celebrate in a healthy way that will not pull you off track from your goal. This could be telling a family member about your progress, allowing yourself to purchase an item you've been wanting, or if you’re brave, you can post your progress on social media!

Summary

When you work toward a goal, you will need to measure your results frequently in order to see how your body is changing. The measurements that you take need to be specific to your goal and measured in a way to quantify your progress within that area. Once you begin to see results, it’s important to reward yourself, to reinforce the healthy behavior and celebrate!

In the next lesson, you will learn about setting goals. Your homework today is to take your progress photos, and I’ll see you again soon!

Cheers to your health.

How to Set and achieve fitness goals #Eating to Support a Goal #6 of 2nd post

Here’s a shocking secret: the biggest factor in seeing results toward your fitness goals isn’t how much time you spend in the gym or training. While training is important, diet is the most important factor to seeing results! The body needs to be fueled correctly in order to recover from workouts and function at its prime. When you’re eating correctly, your body will feel energetic, strong, able to think clearly, and recover properly from workouts. The Basics Food is composed of three macronutrients, or “macros” for short: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Each of these types of macros has a different function within the body: proteins are the building blocks of muscle, carbohydrates give the body energy and help the brain to think clearly, and fats give the body long-term energy and help with hormonal balances. If you’re not eating a good balance of the macros or if you’re not eating foods from natural sources, you’ll notice your body respond with some signals. These are: fatigue, hunger, cloudy thinking, or a change in body composition. A healthy diet includes foods from each of the macro groups. That means in every meal, you should eat a source of protein, carbs, and healthy fats. You’ll also want to choose foods that look the way they are found in nature: plants, meats, and minimally or non-processed foods. You can jump on the fast track to your goals by following a macro-ratio diet, which gives you the ideal ratio of each macronutrient, based upon your goals, that will be most effective to both fuel your body and provide it with the macronutrients it needs. Keep in mind that these ratios are suggestions and may need to be adjusted to your specific needs:

Here are a few examples of food that fit within each macro group. Carbohydrates: Vegetables Fruits Potatoes Beans Rice Oatmeal Whole wheat bread/pasta Proteins: Chicken Fish Lean beef Greek yogurt String cheese Lentils Beans Fats: Nuts Nut butters Seeds Oils Cheese Avocados Eggs Chia seeds How to Eat to Achieve Your Goal The average person needs 2,000 calories a day to have enough energy to meet their needs and maintain their current weight. This number will vary depending upon your height, weight, and how active you are. You can use this calculator to estimate how many calories you need per day. Keep in mind that you may need to fine-tune your calorie intake based upon how you feel: If you feel tired or grumpy, eat more carbohydrates. If you feel hungry or forgetful, eat more fats. If your body has a hard time recovering from workouts, eat more protein. If you’re feeling consistently stuffed, try trimming off some calories. It will also be extremely helpful to begin logging your food to ensure that you’re eating within the correct calorie range. The easiest and quickest way to track calories is to use an application, such asLose It! or MyFitnessPal, where you can record every meal to see an overview of your calories for the day. Summary Diet is the foundation of any type of fitness goal. Without a healthy diet, the body can’t recover as effectively and progress will be much slower. A healthy diet should be made up of natural food sources, and each meal should contain each type of macronutrient. To make sure you’re eating the right amount of calories for your goal, it will be helpful to use a calorie calculator and log your food intake. In the next lesson, you will learn how to track your progress so you can know without a doubt that you are on track for your goal! Cheers to your health.

Top way to Gaining Weight #5 of 2nd post

Gaining weight can allow the body to look larger, fuller, and in some cases, become healthier. It’s valuable to know how the body can gain weight so you can use that to your advantage, should it be applicable.

Eat More

Of course, in order to gain weight, you will need to eat more calories than you burn. Most people who are looking to gain weight want to gain lean mass, meaning that they would prefer to gain muscle than fat. Diet is the biggest factor in determining if the body will gain muscle or fat. In order to gain muscle, it's helpful to eat healthy (we will learn more about this soon) and choose foods that are high in protein, as protein is the main building block of muscle.

Lift Heavy Weights

In order to gain weight, and assuming that you want much of that weight to be muscle, you’ll also need to lift heavy weights in the low-repetition range. This means lifting at 90-100% of your maximum effort. That means that on every lift, you should be close to muscle failure. It may be helpful to have a spotter when you lift weights this heavy!

Building powerful muscles is done by completing three to six repetitions. This type of lifting allows the body to develop its larger, powerful muscle type, calledfast-twitch muscle. Remember to get a lot of rest—at least eight hours a night—to allow for muscle growth and repair. If you would like a basic framework for designing your strength-training plan, customized to gaining weight, check out the previous lesson ("Building Strength," Episode #4) and swap out the higher repetitions for the lower.

Supplements

While most people can gain muscle and weight without the use of supplements, many athletes choose to use supplements to help them gain weight and nourish their muscle growth. The most common supplement (for anyone, not just weight-gainers) is a post-workout protein shake. Different protein powders have different absorbency rates within the body. A good type of post-workout protein is a whey isolate protein, which is absorbed into the muscle quickly after a workout. Some athletes also choose to use a whey casein protein at nights, which is a slow-released protein that is released over the course of many hours and can provide the muscles with a constant, slow source of protein throughout a night’s sleep. Aside from protein, some athletes use creatine, which is an amino acid that causes a slight bloating that draws more water and nutrients into muscle, to nourish growth.

Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Another weight-gaining supplement is a testosterone booster, which stimulates the body to release more if its own testosterone and increases muscle growth and recovery. Illegal steroids are sometimes used by people looking to gain weight quickly, and come with many serious health and legal risks. Please keep in mind that some athletic programs test for the use of creatine, hormone boosters, and steroids. Before you take any type of supplement or performance-enhancing drug, it’s important to do your research and understand the risk of side effects of each.

Summary

In order to gain weight, the body will need to consume more calories than it burns. In order to convert food into muscle, you should lift very heavy, low-repetition weights. While supplements are not required to gain weight, many athletes choose to use them to maximize their weight and strength gain.

In the next lesson, you will learn recommendations of how and what to eat in order to support your specific fitness goals.

Cheers to your health.

#4 OF 2ND POST Setting and achieving fitness goals(list of thing)

Building Strength

by Krishnasai

The body is a paradox: in order for it to become stronger, it must first be broken down. Similar to endurance training, muscles grow when the body needs to adapt to changes. This lesson will focus on how strength is built and give you a framework for designing your strength-training program.

Muscle Science

Muscles are made of up of building blocks called fibrils. These fibrils get small micro tears when the body is challenged beyond its normal range of strength. An example of this would be during a weightlifting session at the gym. The body strains to complete the lift, and that strain is what cases the micro tears. If you’ve ever woken up after a challenging weight-lifting workout and had a hard time moving, that’s due to these tears (and likely, some lactic acid buildup). When the muscle repairs itself, it grows back stronger and ready for more challenges.

Build Your Strength-Training Program

In order to gain strength, you will first need to develop a strength-training program. The best way to build strength, of course, is to lift weights! We will walk through program design step by step right here, right now. Time to get your flex on!

Step 1: Plan how many days per week you can go to the gym. If you’re not sure, three days per week is a good place to start. Plan on spending about 45-60 minutes at the gym in each session.

Step 2: Determine what body part(s) you would like to workout on each day of the week. Keep in mind that your muscles will need 24-48 hours to recover post workout, so give them a break before training them again. Many people like doing a split routine. Here’s an example:

• Day 1: legs
• Day 2: chest, shoulders, arms
• Day 3: back, obliques, core

Step 3: Select about six different lifts you would like to complete during each workout. This can increase as your body adjusts to lifting.

Step 4: The order in which you complete your lifts matters. Order the lifts by starting with the ones that work the largest muscle groups (for example, the quads) first, and then working to smaller muscle groups after (for example, the calves).

Step 5: Use a basic framework for building strength. Plan on completing three sets of each specific lift, and complete 8 to 12 repetitions for each lift. Be sure to take about a one-minute break between each set before moving on to the next.

Step 6: Be sure to include a five-minute warm up before you begin lifting, and a five-minute cool down/stretch at the end.After all, you’ll want to first warm up the muscles that you will be using during the lifts, and stretching afterward will reduce muscle fatigue.

Step 7: Write down your entire plan, including each day and the full week, on your phone or a planner. That way, when you go to the gym, you can follow the plan as a roadmap and know exactly what to do. If you’re not familiar with the gym, you may use this exercise library to look up how to do each lift with proper form.

Here’s an example leg day workout that follows the basic framework we just covered:

Warmup: one-minute jump rope, two minutes of body weight squats, three minutes jogging on treadmill

• Squats with barbell, three sets of 12 repetitions (one-minute break between each set)
• Deadlifts with barbell, three sets of 12
• Leg extension machine, three sets of 12
• Seated hip thrusts with barbell, three sets of 12
• Donkey kicks with no weight, three sets of 12
• Calf raises with barbell, three sets of 12

Stretch: quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves.

Summary

The body will become stronger as it is challenged through strength-building exercises. When lifting weights, the muscles often develop micro tears. Once those tears repair, the muscles grow stronger and larger. In the next episode, we'll learn about gaining weight.

Cheers to your health.

Episode #3 of 10 2nd post Setting lists and achieving fitness goals

Building Endurance

by Krishnasai

Never Miss A Genuine Content

The body is an incredible tool that will allow you to do almost anything if trained properly. Building endurance is a process that takes time and offers great rewards: being able to climb a mountain, complete a marathon, or set a new record in a 5k race! There are two types of endurance: cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance. In this lesson, you will earn about each and the framework for building workouts to increase your endurance.

Cardiovascular Endurance

Cardiovascular endurance improves the body’s ability to workout longer or more intensely. It is primarily focused upon improving the efficiency of the heart and oxygen delivery system—hence the name cardiovascular. Activities that cause the heart rate to rise and remain elevated for an extended period of time will improve this type of endurance.

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance is the ability of your body’s muscles to endure aerobic exercises for long periods of time. The primary focus within muscular endurance is conditioning the muscles (not the heart) to endure fatigue. Muscular endurance allows muscles to perform for longer periods of time.

The Science behind Building Endurance

The SAID principle is an acronym that stands for Specific Adaptations from Imposed Demands. Essentially, this principle states that any time you place a demand upon your body, the body responds by changing itself to accommodate that demand. The body becomes more efficient at meeting the demands of endurance by:

• increasing stroke volume of the heart. This means that the heart has the ability to pump more blood through the body’s arterial system per minute, leading to better oxygen delivery.
• increasing the lactate threshold, so the body can workout longer and harder before the onset of lactic acid within the muscles.
• creating more blood cells to deliver oxygen to the working muscles.

How to Train for Endurance

Expect to spend about 12 weeks training in order to see improvements in your endurance levels. The most important factor in endurance training is time: your workouts will need to be at least 20 minutes in length and will need to become progressively more challenging in length and intensity as you progress every week. You can use this basic framework to build your endurance training plan. Use each week of the plan as an outline:

Weeks 1-3, the focus will be to build a foundation of endurance: plan on 20 minutes of cardio, three days per week. Here’s an example of what that could look like:

Monday—20-minute run (or any type of cardio)
Tuesday—20-minute bike
Wednesday—rest day
Thursday—rest day
Friday—20-minute run
Saturday—rest day
Sunday—rest day

Weeks 4-8, increase cardio sessions to 35 minutes, three days per week, and add in one strength-training day per week at the gym, for improving muscular endurance. Focus on the moderate- to high-repetition range (12-20 repetitions) for lifting. For help with designing the strength-training day, check out the next lesson. Here is an example of what Weeks 4-8 could look like:

Monday—35-minute run (or any type of cardio)
Tuesday—rest day
Wednesday—strength-training day at the gym, one hour

• Six different lifts
• Three sets per lift
• 15 repetitions per set

Thursday—rest day
Friday—35-minute run
Saturday—35-minute run
Sunday—rest day

Weeks 9-12, increase cardio sessions to 45 minutes, three days per week, and continue with one strength-training day per week at the gym

Summary

The body adjusts to the demands placed upon it by sending signals to the body to make internal physiological changes that allow the body to build endurance. To apply these principles, you can increase your overall time spent engaging in cardiovascular exercises and lift weights in the mid- to high-repetition range. Expect to spend about 12 weeks training to increase your endurance. In the next lesson, you will learn how to build strength.

Cheers to your health.

how to reduce Healthcare bill.#2

Today's Post:Episode #2 of 10.

Weight Loss

by krishnasai.

In this episode, you will learn how to develop a workout plan shaped toward the goal of losing weight. There are two primary ways to burn fat during a workout. Both are proven to be effective and efficient.

let's begin:

Burn, Baby, Burn [Goodbye, Body Fat]

The first way to lose weight is to burn overall calories. That means doinganything active will have an overall increase on your caloric expenditure, and the more calories you burn, the more weight loss you will see over time. It’s important to do an activity that you enjoy, as it’s the most certain way to stick with it long term.

Losing a pound of fat is equivalent to burning approximately 3,500 calories. Of course, your diet is a major factor in seeing weight loss results. If you’d like more details on calories, diet, and behavior change, after this lesson concludes, you can check out my other course next: Weight Management

What Does a First Date Have in Common with Losing Weight?

They both make the heart rate increase! The second way to lose weight is to monitor your heart rate and workout in the “fat-burning zone,” which is between 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. The body needs oxygen in order to transport fat from storage to be converted into energy. This heart rate range offers the ideal amount of oxygen uptake through your breathing to maximize fat loss.

To find 60-80% of your max heart rate range, follow these steps:

Step 1: Find your maximum heart rate by following this equation:

220 - your age in years = your maximum heart rate

example: 220 - 30 (years old) = 190 beats per minute maximum heart rate.

Step 2: Find the range that is 60-80% of your maximum heart rate, by multiplying using the ratios below:

Maximum Heart Rate x .60 = low end of range for max fat burning

Maximum Heart Rate x .80 = high end of range for max fat burning

example: 190 X .60 = 114 beats per minute (low end of range for max fat burning)

190 X .80 = 153 beats per minute (high end of range for max fat burning)

114-153 beats per minute is the ideal fat-burning range

So, how do you measure your heart rate? Many cardio machines at the gym will estimate your heart rate using sensors. Another option is to manually check your pulse on your wrist (below the thumb). For 10 seconds, count your heartbeats, starting with “0.” Take that number and multiply it by six to find your heart’s beats per minute. If your heart rate is above 80% of your maximum heart rate, you can decrease your workout intensity to lower your heart rate. If you are below 60% of your maximum heart rate, you can increase the intensity to speed up your heart rate.

Build Your Workout Program

A good place to start building your workout program is by following the outline below, based upon your fitness level.

Beginner:

• Start with two to three days of cardio per week, any activity that increases your heart rate.
  Examples: weightlifting in the high-repetition range, walking, swimming, Zumba, etc.
• Aim for 20 minutes of activity in each workout.
• After the first week, increase your workout time to 30 minutes of activity.
• After three weeks, increase your cardio to 45 minutes per session, and aim to workout three to four days per week.

Intermediate:

• Start with four to five days of cardio per week
• Aim for 30 minutes of cardio in each session.
• After the first week, increase your cardio to 45 minutes per session.

Summary

For weight loss, it will be valuable to do any activity that you enjoy. This will allow the body to burn calories and over time, lose fat. You may also choose to workout in the “fat-burning zone” of 60-80% of your maximum heart rate, in order to optimize the amount of fat that your body burns during a workout. In the next lesson, you will learn about building endurance.

Cheers to your health.