Keeping Your Body Active and Mobile

Now perhaps the most important way to protect your body and mind against Aging: working out!

That’s right: body and mind. Your brain’s primary purpose is to move your body and a huge amount of your grey matter’s real estate is dedicated to exactly that job. If you want to keep learning and creating new connections in your brain, then nothing will compare to staying active and exercising. What’s more, is that exercise stimulates the release of countless necessary neurochemicals including dopamine and serotonin.

It has been shown to greatly improve memory and to boost the IQ too. Meanwhile, the benefits for the body are huge. Staying active can help to improve heart health and prevent the likelihood of heart disease. It can also
improve your looks, combat diabetes, prevent depression, keep your bones stronger (especially if you train outside and get lots of sun) and much more.

More importantly, as we discussed in the introduction, staying active is actually the best way to prevent the loss of mobility that will leave us hunched and in constant pain in old age. So the question is, how do you stay active in the right way to combat age-related health issues?

One Rule: Move!

Get up right now and stand with your feet slightly apart and toes facing for-ward. Now try to squat all the way down with your heels flat on the floor.

Can’t do it?

This isn’t just a problem for the older population  it’s something that 90% of guys and gals in their 20s and 30s can’t do either. But you should be able to do it. Squatting is one of the 7 primal movements – it’s a fundamental ability that we should all have.

How about touching your toes?

The problem is that most of us spend 8 hours a day sitting in an office in the same position. That position involves having our shoulders hunched forward, neck craned down and legs bent. This causes muscles like the quadriceps and pecs to shorten and tighten, while our hamstrings and glutes become weakened and flattened. The longer this goes on, the more serious the problem becomes.

Eventually we might even develop a pelvic tilt. Is it any wonder that you can’t move at all when you’re older? So the key is not to start some ‘gentle exercise’. Rather, the key is to get really active and to push your body. It should be able to handle it but you need a trainer who can teach you to get started gently and to gradually increase the difficulty while keeping one eye firmly on mobility.

Read books like Becoming a Supple Leopard and you’ll see that we age best when we use our body through its full range of motion and keep on doing so. Weight-lifting is actually a great choice of exercise for older individuals as it teaches movements like the squat and the dead lift with good technique to ensure that you have full range of motion.

This is even more important if you do have a fall or accident  as this is what will very often serve as the catalyst to many more problems. If that happens, then you should see a chiropractor or physiotherapist and then follow the advice they give you to strengthen the area and prevent knock-on effects throughout your body. Of course, if you have existing complaints then you may not be up for squatting and lunging just yet.

In that case, you may want to start with some gentle cardio in the meantime which will help to provide those a fore-mentioned health and brain benefits in the short term. Good options include most low-impact forms of exercise, such as swimming, walking (or power walking), the recumbent bike and others that don’t involve hitting anything with force. Just make sure that the goal is always to work your way up to-ward more complex moves.

Bodybuilding That Fits Your Unique Body
Everyone’s body is different, so it only makes sense, not everyone should train their bodies the same way. Any professional will tell you the key to successful bodybuilding is to know your body, know your limits and know how your body will respond to certain conditions. That being said, to help optimize your bodybuilding workout, you need to determine your body type.

Everyone falls into one of 3 categories: ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. By discovering the category that best fits your body, you can help find the lifestyle that will work best for you. Before engaging any lifestyle changes, you should always check with your doctor.

Ectomorphs are people who naturally have little or no fat (the lucky ones). Usually, ectomorphs body types are tall and have longer limbs as well. Due to their build, most ectomorphs will choose endurance sports, like running. But, if you fall into this category, you can still become a world-class bodybuilder.

To begin, ectomorphs will need to up their calorie count and eat more throughout the day, but in smaller proportions. You should try to increase your intake by at least 500 calories per day to help put on the weight. When we say eating more, it doesn’t necessarily mean eating anything you want. You will need to have a high calorie healthy diet if you want to be successful at bodybuilding.

If you are an ectomorph, you should cut most of the cardiovascular activity from your workout, and focus mainly on intense weight training. You don’t want to overtrain, but you should get to the gym every 3 – 4 days for a hard full-body workout, which involves all muscle groups. It may be difficult for ectomorphs to gain muscle mass, but with a lot of hard work and dedication, it can be accomplished.

Mesomorphs are the people everyone envies. These are the people you see who eat lots of junk food, yet still have great bodies! One trap mesomorphs easily fall prey to is the mindset that because they can skip workouts or eat pizza, without any visible effect, they think it’s not affecting their bodies at all.

However, this is not true. Good genes may have given you a good body, but things such as heart disease will still effect you just as easily as anyone else. Mesomorphs shouldn’t need to change the amount of food they eat. But, if you fall into this category, make an effort to eat healthy foods, and lots of good carbohydrates instead of junk food.

Then you workout, you may choose to do a full-body training session, but it will probably be more beneficial for you to target and define muscles in specific areas. Endomorphs also have no problem gaining muscle mass. However, unlike mesomorphs, these people also have no problem gaining weight. Diet control is the key to successful bodybuilding for endomorphs.

Eat smaller meals, spread out throughout the day, and cut out the junk food. Be sure to drink plenty of water, and try to stop eating for the day about 3 hours before you go to bed. Endomorphs shouldn’t have any problem becoming muscular, but they need to hit the gym for lots of cardiovascular workouts, if possible, on a daily basis. It will help melt the fat from your body, so you can begin to see the muscles you are working to define.

Whatever your body type, bodybuilding can be the perfect sport for you. If you are sensible about your habits, and dedicated to the sport, you will find definition and muscle growth can be accomplished. When you know the facts about bodybuilding, you can use them in your workout plan to give you a healthier and more productive workout.

You can train your mind to follow the truth about bodybuilding, just as you can have discipline regarding the training of your body. Discipline on two levels; body and mind.

The Difference Between Powerlifting and Bodybuilding

Its not surprising that many people think power lifting, and bodybuilding, are the same thing because many of the goals are the same. However, power lifting is actually a sport evolved from bodybuilding, and is of relatively modern origin, with the first formal competitions occurring in the mid 1960s. This sport is open to both men and women.
If you are involved in bodybuilding, you can benefit from power lifting, and vice versa.

The main difference comes at the competition level. When power-lifting, your goal is to lift as much weight as possible, while in bodybuilding, your goal is to look as big and well defined as possible. Powerlifting competitions are divided into 3 parts: the squat, the bench press, and the dead weight lift. When power lifting, the winner is determined not by how big your muscles look, but rather, how much total weight you lifted.

Competitors are placed into classes determined by things such as age and experience, and are asked to lift in each of the three competitions.Regardless whether you’re a powerlifter or a bodybuilder, you’ll want to eat a healthy diet. It’s not enough to just eat enough calories in a day to optimize muscle building; you also need to eat the right foods. You’ll want to stay away from bad carbohydrates, such as potatoes, and fried foods.

Instead, your diet should include lots of pasta, green vegetables, and protein. If your body type requires it, you may need to cut back on certain foods in order to lose weight.Keep in mind though, powerlifting is not a measure of body fat or how well your muscles are defined, so packing on a few extra pounds won’t effect how the judges view you.

Having less body fat, though, will promote a healthier lifestyle altogether, and you will be able to feel better in the gym when you are weight training, if you cut the junk food out of your diet. You will want to maintain a regular workout routine at the gym, just as you would if bodybuilding.

While workouts are very important, it’s also necessary to give your muscles some time off to rest, so they can recover and build in between workouts. You should also consider taking a full week off every 8 -12 weeks. This method is encouraged by many trainers, and has been found to be beneficial for most people because it reduces stress, allows your body to breathe, and helps you stay committed to your sport.

If you enjoy competitive sports, such as powerlifting, you can find it to be both beneficial to your health and rewarding. To get the most out of it, you should set goals for yourself before each competition, and focus on competing against your own goals instead of simply beating the other powerlifters. If you’re dedicated to your diet and training and if you keep a positive attitude, you can succeed and enjoy the powerlifting world.