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9 Ways to Speed Up Your Metabolism
It's good to be young.When you're young, you look better, feel better, work better and recover better. An important reason for this is what's under the hood -- a high-performance engine in the form of a fast metabolism.A fast metabolism confers many benefits. It helps us utilize consumed nutrients faster and more efficiently (that is, burn calories faster), which in turn results in enhanced overall energy and greater muscle mass. A faster metabolism is also linked to better hormonal balance, improved circulation, and faster removal of toxins, all of which are key markers of general wellness and youthful vitality.While we're on the subject, let's dispel a couple of myths about metabolism. A faster metabolism will not necessarily help you lose weight or even excess fat. There is only one way to do that, and it's by adhering to a daily caloric deficit. You need to take in less calories than you burn, on a consistent basis.Similarly, it is not possible to "reset" your metabolism, as so many fad diets and exercise regimens promise to do. There is no exotic berry or stringent detox protocol that acts as a magic button to default you to your original metabolic factory setting. Your metabolism will tend to slow as you get older, but whether that decline is gradual or an alarming plummet off a cliff is up to you. You can, in fact, support metabolism just as you would cardiovascular, hormonal or mental health. Let's take a look at a few simple, natural lifestyle changes that will support metabolic activity and even tune it up a bit. 1Eat Small Meals Throughout the Day Eating one or two huge meals a day is a little like yo-yo dieting in microcosm. The result is a kind of binging and starving that plays havoc with your metabolism, causing it to alternately rev way up and then sputter out. A better approach is to keep your metabolism whirring along productively, hour after hour, by consuming smaller targeted meals throughout the day. Don't wait until you're ravenous to eat something; that will just tempt you to overeat. Shoot for three main meals consisting of appropriate measured portions, interspersed with healthy snacks -- a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts, a high-quality protein bar. And don't skip breakfast! 2Lift Weights This is kind of a chicken-or-the-egg situation, in that each makes the other possible. A faster metabolism will more efficiently deliver nutrients to stressed muscle tissue, helping it recover and grow. Increased muscle mass, on the other hand, raises metabolism potential because it requires (and burns) calories by just existing. Certainly more so than body fat.Weight training, then -- especially the kind of high-volume compound movements most closely linked to muscle mass gain -- kicks off a kind of virtuous cycle in which the exercise itself raises caloric demand and metabolic rate, while increased muscle mass is in itself metabolically expensive to retain. Numerous studies have shown that people middle-aged and older can increase quality of life -- whether functional strength, heart health or even cognitive ability -- by engaging in weight training. A lot of that increased wellness may be due to manifesting greater metabolic efficiency compared to that of their more sedentary peers. 3Eat Protein at Every Meal Dietary protein's effect on metabolism is twofold. Protein is the perfect thermogenic food in that it requires more calories than carbs or fats to digest, absorb and process. At the same time, that ingested protein provides the amino acids that muscle tissue requires to recover and grow. Decreased muscle mass, as we've seen, is a marker of declining metabolism. This is true of older people and also people on calorie-restricted diets, who experience slowdowns in metabolic rate as they shed muscle mass.Make an effort to add protein to every meal, whether it's oats and/or eggs at breakfast, chicken or fish added to salads or pasta at lunch, and cuts of lean meat at dinner. Protein snacking or supplementation, in the form of high-quality protein bars or protein powders, is well indicated too for keeping your basal metabolic rate clipping along at a high gear throughout the day. 4Raise Your Heart Rate Challenging your body with intense physical exercise increases blood flow to the limbs and muscles, while ramping up demand for energy in the form of stored glycogen. So you literally increase your metabolic rate every time you workout. You'll accomplish this when you do the weight training cited above, and also with cardio training.Now we're not talking steady-state plodding along, which your body quickly acclimates to, reducing metabolic benefit. We're talking high-intensity interval training, sprints, even a competitive game of pick-up basketball. These exercises involve quick and intense bursts of activity which will boost metabolic rate both during and after the exercise interval, as your body recovers. Remember: sedentary behaviors are the enemy of a high-functioning metabolism. 5Drink More Water Every biochemical transaction in your body takes place in a watery environment. This includes the conversion of fuel to energy. Staying properly hydrated has long been linked to more efficient calorie burning, whereas mild dehydration can slow your metabolism.The common recommendation is to drink eight 8-oz glasses of water a day. This increases during intense exercise, especially in any kind of heat, during which you should shoot for about a liter of water per hour. You may also want to drink a little bit more if you're consuming naturally dehydrating substances such as the one cited next. 6Drink Coffee or Green Tea Before there were ultra-sophisticated pre-workout formulas, there was a popular pre-workout performance optimizer called a cup of strong black coffee. You don't have to be an elite athlete to know that strong stimulants affect energy expenditure.In the case of coffee, the caffeine in it will increase metabolism (along with heart rate), while also triggering the body to release neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, which helps regulate the way your body processes fat.Stimulant sensitive? Try green tea instead. The EGCGs (epigallocatechin gallate) in green tea may inhibit the breakdown of fat-burning norepinephrine, supporting fat utilization for energy. Green tea also contains a small amount of caffeine (which may work synergistically with EGCGs) and may also have positive effects on your gut microbiome, which would also support nutrient uptake. 7Take a B-Vitamin Complex B vitamins generally (and B-12 or cobalamin particularly) are known as the energy vitamin. This is because the Bs play vital roles in biochemical reactions at the mitochondrial cellular level that turn food into fuel. Vitamin B12 -- which is found most commonly in animal products like meat, dairy products and eggs -- helps cells turn fatty acids into energy. Vitamin B1 (thiamine) and B2 (riboflavin) also help cells metabolize carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Each also helps to support healthy brain and nervous system function. Interestingly, a deficiency in one B vitamin can negatively impact absorption of other B vitamins. 8Stand Up The ever-lengthening amount of time we spend sitting every day is literally killing us. Prolonged sitting or other sedentary behavior has been linked to increased risk of diabetes, poor heart health, weight gain, depression, dementia, and multiple cancers. It's bad for your metabolism, too, as it inhibits blood circulation, leads to decreased muscle mass, and lowers resting caloric burn rate.One of the best things you can do for your health is to simply get out of your chair. If you must spend extended time at your desk working, set your laptop on some kind of elevated surface and work standing up. Make a point of walking somewhere, anywhere, even if it's to another office, every 30 minutes or so. Use stairs as opposed to an elevator whenever possible. Get a bicycle and try to use it in place of short car trips. Turn off the TV and go for a walk. Simply standing up and stretching periodically can have a significant impact on your overall health -- and your metabolism. 9Get Sufficient and Regular Sleep Proper rest, as we always say, is the foundation for peak wellness. It is during sleep that your body repairs and rebuilds muscle, performs cellular clean-up, removes metabolic wastes and toxins, and repairs the cellular mitochondria that are responsible for creating the energy that muscles require during exercise. Lost sleep is associated with elevated levels of cortisol during the afternoon and the evening, which can impair insulin release, resulting in reduced nutrient uptake. Not getting enough sleep also reduces leptin levels, the hormone that makes us feel full, while increasing ghrelin, the hunger hormone. So get your eight hours and try to keep your sleep schedule as regular as possible.The articles featured herein are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Specific medical advice should only be obtained from a licensed health care professional. No liability is assumed by ProSource for any information herein.
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8 Ways To Optimize Your Time In The Gym
“I just don’t have the time.” Whenever you talk to someone who could probably benefit from getting more exercise, this is far and away the most likely response you'll get.And the thing is, it's true. We're all in a bind when it comes to time. We work all day, maybe we've got a side hustle too. We're picking up the kids from school; we're running errands; we're trying like heck to maintain some small semblance of a social life with those near and dear to us.Maybe this is why some of the most common click-bait on the internet focuses on a very specific theme: Six-Pack Abs in Six Minutes A Day. 10-Minute Strength Workout. 8-Minute Chair Workout for Weight Loss.We can't vouch for any of these miracle training regimens, but we appreciate where they're coming from. There just isn't enough time. Time-Optimized Training This concern with available time isn't limited to people who want to sell you a Magic Weight-Loss Vibrating Belt. It's also one of the hottest trends among reputable gyms and trainers across the country. Their clients want shorter optimized workouts and classes that are designed to be efficient and effective in a briefer amount of time. And they're willing to pay for it, whether that means expensive one-on-one training, trendy classes, or the latest wearable fitness tech.Again, some of these fitness options are more hype than substance. But at their core is a philosophy containing a kernel of truth: A short, sharp, hyper-focused, high-intensity workout will confer more benefit than a slower-paced workout that takes up more time and offers plenty of opportunities for rest.To achieve the former, you don't necessarily have to shell out big bucks for a celebrity trainer or get on a wait list for a popular class. You just need to approach your daily workout with common sense. Here are eight ways to make your workout shorter, more efficient and more productive. 1Have a Detailed Plan Every Time You Walk Into the Gym We see this all the time, especially when two or more people are training together. What should we do today? I don't know, maybe leg day. Oh man, I'm not up for leg day. Look, the bench press is open, let's start there.This sort of lackadaisical approach to training is a recipe for failure. If you're wandering around, trying a little of this and a little of that, you might as well go home. Instead, you should have a specific split (i.e. back/biceps/forearms or chest/shoulders/triceps) you want to do, working knowledge of how exactly to work those body parts maximally, and an eye on the clock to minimize rests.You should also have a contingency plan in place for when particular machines or pieces of equipment are occupied. You should know exactly how to modify your routine (what to switch with what) so that you can keep working without a hitch. You do not want to be standing around while someone finishes up. Or trying to work in with someone who's pace is considerably more casual than yours. Always be looking ahead to the next piece of equipment, making sure it's available, and knowing what to do if it isn't. 245 Minutes or Less is Best In the Dark Ages of physique training, guys would be on the gym floor for ninety minutes, two hours, lifting massive volumes of aggregate weight at a leisurely pace. Golden era bodybuilders would clock in on the floor from eight to ten in the morning, and then COME BACK in the evening for some more work.Kudos to those guys, but their plane of existence is not yours. Even if you had that kind of time. The harsh truth is, a workout of more than 45 minutes is probably counter-productive. After forty-five minutes, you've already shredded all the muscle fibers you're going to shred, and you're just postponing recovery and squandering growth potential. You're flooding your system with stress hormones like cortisol that have negative effects on protein synthesis and fat gain. You're increasing your chances of injury. And, frankly, your rest intervals are probably too long anyway.Forty-five minutes is ideal for a workout consisting of eight different exercises, three sets each, with twenty to thirty seconds of rest between each set. Or some minor variation of such, which we'll get into. In the gym, pace is just as important as volume. Keep it moving. Then shut it down and start refueling and recovering. 3Emphasize Compound Movements Want to get more done in the gym in less time? Work more muscles. Isolation movements focused on your delts or your calves have a place in your regimen, but when time is a factor you want to dial in the Big Daddies of multi-joint movements -- bench presses, deadlifts, squats, and rows. All of these exercises work multiple muscle groups, build both mass and functional strength, and even improve balance and coordination.Also, it's a good idea to move these high-impact exercises to the beginning of your workout when you're fresh and your energy levels are at their highest. 4Steer Clear of the Treadmill Is there a machine in the gym that offers less benefit for your fitness-club buck than the treadmill? We don't think so. Yes, theoretically you do derive some cardiovascular health benefit from plodding along on the treadmill. But you'll gain the same benefit with a fast-paced, high-velocity weight training session. And that weight training session will help you gain muscle mass, while steady-state cardio chews up muscle mass, spares body fat, and undermines your metabolism. Worse yet, your body acclimates to it very quickly, so after a while, you're not even burning much in the way of calories, never mind fat.The truth is, you're better off doing cardio outside the gym, maybe twice a week. Run some sprints. Find a sports field or event arena near you and climb some inclines or stairs. Simply going for a walk offers much the same cardio benefit as sweating on that noisy machine. If you want to do cardio in the gym, invest in a class. Kick boxing, high-intensity interval training, a dance aerobics class, heck, even yoga all offer better cardio and fat-burning benefits. And they're more fun, too. 5Employ Supersets The key to time-optimized training is to reduce the amount of time you spend at rest. One way to do this is to utilize supersets. A superset is essentially a workout routine in which you do two exercises, targeting different and contrasting muscle groups, back to back without any rests in between. This is a time-efficient strategy that will significantly build both strength and endurance.Good examples of superset pairings include bench presses and rows, bicep curls and tricep push-downs, dips and pull-ups, leg curls and deadlifts. You can find many more online. Do five blocks of exercises working opposing muscle groups in thirty minutes and you'll walk out of the gym feeling like you just went to war. 6Put Down the Phone It's a common theme here, but still a universal truth. Unless you're a brain surgeon on call or have small children at some kind of unique risk, you can be off the phone for forty-five minutes. Leave the phone in your car. Or, if you need it for music, set up your music before you hit the floor and slip the phone into a common arm-band-type phone holder so you don't have easy access to the screen. Tiktok can wait. 7Avoid Rush Hour We're big fans of home gyms. If you own your own home and have a suitable dedicated space -- extra room, basement area, garage -- for working out, by all means do so. You can assemble a highly versatile training set-up with relatively few pieces of equipment and eventually save money compared to what you'll spend on a gym membership over the years. You'll also have good motivation for actually using that equipment, since it will be staring you in the face every day.Not everyone has this opportunity, however, so the next best thing is to schedule your gym visits in off hours. Don't feel that you have to join the 5pm-to-7pm masses jostling for gym floor space and queuing up for the squat rack. Early morning workouts afford greater access to equipment and get your day off to a vibrant, positive start. Since you're focused on shortening your workout, lunchtime is also a possibility and will help you avoid the dreaded midday slump. 8Train With A Friend And no, not the feckless gym tourist referenced in #1 above. Finding a workout partner at your basic level of development, who shares your determination, is the gift that keeps giving. That person will push you when your pace slackens, inspire you to make a greater effort, and, if need be, shame you into going to the gym when it's 12 degrees out on a February morning. The articles featured herein are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Specific medical advice should only be obtained from a licensed health care professional. No liability is assumed by ProSource for any information herein.
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10 Common Gym Exercises And How to Do Them Wrong
If you're the kind of regular gym visitor who really likes hanging out in the gym, but would really rather not see any physique or strength increases, today you're in luck.We spend A LOT of time in gyms and we see all kinds of people doing all kinds of wrong things, ensuring that their workout efforts are mostly in vain. And today we want to share some of their secrets.Ready? Here we go. 1. Standing Barbell Curl:Use your back and elbows to gain leverage. Seriously, watch some guys do standing curls and you'd think they're dancing the limbo. They're cocking their hips forward to get the bar moving and then quickly shifting their elbows directly under the bar to gain even more leverage. It's like they're trying to pass beneath the bar rather than lift it. And their biceps are strictly along for the ride. This is a good way to get little benefit from the exercise and maybe throw out your back.How to Do It Right: First of all (and this will be a recurring point), if you can't do the exercise correctly, you're trying to lift too much weight. Take some plates off the bar, Tarzan. Okay, now keep your hips stationary and your elbows firmly entrenched at your sides as you lift the bar. Make sure your back is straight. Lift the bar slowly. Picture a clock. If the bar starts at 9 o'clock, lift it to about 11 o'clock. You want to keep tension on the bicep. If you lift it all the way to 12 o'clock, you're resting at the top. Now lower the bar just as slowly. Don't lower it beyond 9 o'clock or the weight gets unsupported and you again risk injury. 2. Squats:End your squat high then harness momentum by bouncing out of it. Squats are the great equalizer. There's nothing as humbling as loading up the leg press machine with stacks of plates and then struggling with two 45-lb plates in the squat rack. Squats are also the source of great contention among gym rats. Many will tell you that parallel squats are bad for your knees, but we're here to tell you the opposite. If you end your squats too high (i.e. with your thighs not reaching parallel) the force of the barbell never transfers to your hips, meaning your knees are doing all the work.How to Do It Right: No one is impressed by the number of plates on the bar if you're doing quarter reps. Control the weight, move slow and easy. Going to parallel is not only safer on your knee joints, it engages more muscle fibers in your quads, hamstrings and glutes. Reach the bottom, pause, and rise up slowly. Employing a bounce at the bottom for momentum will, again, risk injury to your knees and your back as well. 3. Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye: Tap the weights together at the top of each rep. Satisfying, isn't it? That little ding as you bring the dumbbells together over your head? Maybe it's because each time you do it, you're resting. You're removing the stress from your pectorals, allowing your chest to rest at the top instead of getting a maximal contraction. How to Do It Right: We're taught to quantify our workouts in terms of reps, but the real metric that matters is time under tension. With flyes, you need to raise the dumbbells to the equivalent of 11 o'clock and one o'clock, pause where you can still feel the effort in your pecs, and then lower them. Here again, don't overdo the depth on the negative end to a point where the weights are poorly supported, which opens the door to injury. 4. Bench Press:Arch your back and move your legs a lot. You would think, with all the attention people pay to bench presses, they'd do them with better form. But no, the mistakes are legion. As that last killer rep approaches, you see the butt rise up off the bench and the feet start moving. That guy's really working, right? Maybe, but none of that stuff is helping. In fact, he's wasting power and squandering leverage.How to Do It Right: When you prepare to bench press, drive your feet into the ground just like you would before a squat or deadlift. Anchor your glutes to the bench. Keep them like that and you’ll tighten your lower body while boosting stability and strength. While we're on the subject, keep your elbows close to your ribs as you press the weight up. This reduces the pressure on your shoulders and puts the load on your chest and triceps. 5. Dumbbell Lateral Raise: Swing the dumbbells all the way down in front of your hips and rock them back up. Lateral raises are meant to work a relatively small area, the middle deltoid head. So if you're hoisting 45-pound dumbbells, chances are you're cheating on your raises. Bringing the dumbbells all the way down to your sides between each repetition allows your muscles to rest at the bottom. If you bring the dumbbells down in front of your hips until they touch one another, you're extending further into the range where the middle delt isn't activated, and you're probably shifting your hips forward on the ascent to add some momentum to your raise.How to Do It Right: First of all, choose a more realistic weight and bring the dumbbells down to your sides. Hold them about six inches away from your sides, and then, without swaying or moving your body to help, lift the dumbbell out and up, only using your deltoid muscle to power the move. Bring the weights slowly and deliberately back down to your hips. 6. Bent-Over Dumbbell Row: Bring the dumbbell up by simply bending your elbow. Terrific! You've turned a shoulder exercise into a bicep exercise. Think about the action of your back muscles during a row. If they're stationary, if you can't feel tension in them, you're not working them. If you're bringing the dumbbell up to your flank by simply bending your elbow, you're basically calling on your biceps to do the majority of the work. Now, think about what happens to your back muscles when you shift your shoulders back and shoulder blades inward. That contraction is what you want. How to Do It Right: To engage your back in the exercise, you need to make sure your shoulder is moving along with your elbows. Establish this mind-muscle connection by visualizing your back muscles engaging on each repetition of a row, gliding inward toward your spine. Imagine you're trying to pinch a pencil between your shoulder blades. Once you start doing rows correctly, you'll soon be increasing the weight you can handle, while increasing the size of your lats and rhomboids. 7. Seated Cable Row: Lean forward and backward through each rep. You watch some people do cable rows and it looks like they're rowing sprints for Yale varsity crew. They're leaning as far forward as they can, then leaning excessively back the other way as they pull the handle toward their abdomen. You're not trying to beat Princeton. You're not trying to work your lower back and legs, either. The point of the seated cable row is to build strength and size in your upper back.How to Do It Right: To activate your upper back, you want to control the movement, staying upright throughout. As you bring the handle toward you, flex your upper back, which will pull back your shoulders. As you lower the weight, don't allow your upper body to follow the handle forward. Just let your shoulder blades shift outward and your elbows straighten. You should feel the tension in your lats, your rhomboids and to a lesser extent in your lower trapezius. 8. Dumbbell Lunge: Get your knee way out past your toes in the bottom position. You know you're working hard if you're getting super deep into each lunge and pushing your knee way out ahead of you. Right? Well, no. Actually you're taking too short a step forward into your lunge and then compensating by listing forward in an unsupported position. Along the way, you're subjecting your front knee to needless shearing forces and strain. Lunges are an excellent body-weight bearing exercise that emphasizes balance and posture, but not so much if you're in an ungainly position that you keep falling out of.How to Do It Right: Make sure you step out deeply enough and that you keep your hips shifted back. At the bottom of a lunge, your front knee should be in a 90-degree angle, and your back knee should be elevated an inch or two off of the floor. You should feel this in your quads, hamstrings and glutes. 9. Triceps Cable Press-Down: Lean over the bar as you push it down. Triceps cable press-downs are not a bodyweight bearing exercise. This is one we see all the time. People ambitiously popping the pin in under a huge stack of plates and then bearing down on the handle with all their weight. If you're leaning forward and shifting your shoulders over the handle as you finish each repetition, you're not letting your triceps take on the bulk of the workload. How to Do It Right: This is one exercise in which having access to a mirror really helps. You may think you're keeping your elbows motionless, but chances are they're revolving in little circles as you try to gain leverage. Lock your elbows in place at your sides and try to keep your spine as vertical as possible to isolate the tension on your tri's. 10. Seated Barbell Press: Slide forward so your lower back isn't in contact with the pad. This is a very common cheat. The seated barbell vertical press (or military press) is a high-volume exercise that isolates a small muscle group. Your delts. By sliding your lower back away from the pad behind you, you're trying to get leverage over the weight by engaging your upper pecs, essentially turning a vertical seated press into an incline press. Whenever you see some guy doing vertical presses with super-heavy dumbbells, this cheat is probably in play. How to Do It Right: Simple. Use lighter weights and keep your back pressed tight to the vertical seatback behind you. You'll start building those bowling ball delts you're seeking and your lower back -- no longer unsupported and subject to the risk of strain -- will thank you.The articles featured herein are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Specific medical advice should only be obtained from a licensed health care professional. No liability is assumed by ProSource for any information herein.
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