Plyometric Training - What Is It All About?

Plyometric training is a form of intensive exercise involving muscle stretching and contraction. Plyometric training exercises utilize controlled high-impact and powerful movements. These usually include jumping and hopping using objects as obstacles. It evolves from a training methodology created in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. It was done originally through shock training that became popular because of the dominance of the Eastern European athletes in the world of sports. Today, plyometric training is adopted by major sports events such as basketball, martial arts, volleyball and other mainstream sports competition.

Benefits of Plyometric Training

Plyometric exercises equate the movements used in such sports as volleyball, tennis, skiing, basketball, football, and boxing. It is responsible in the physical conditioning among the professional athletes. In following appropriate plyometric workout, adolescents and children can also largely benefit from these exercises. Plyometric jump training develops the muscle that is primarily responsible in improving vertical jumping. Plyometric training also trains the central nervous system in handling explosive movements involved in performing high jump. The increase in mobility is due primarily to the development of the reactive strength achieved through plyometric exercises. The strength gained by this exercise also ensures the maximum result in vertical leap.

Common Plyometric Exercises Beneficial in Attaining Effective Results

Plyometric training provides exercises to benefit the upper and lower body through established plyometric drills:

The Medicine Ball - The objective of this exercise is to increase upper body strength. This is performed by lying with the back on the ground. An assistant will drop the so-called "medicine ball" towards the chest, and using the pre-stretched muscle throws the ball back. It is a high-intensity exercise, which should be performed only after the required basic conditioning.

Press Ups and Hand Clap - This exercise is performed by bringing both hands up from push-up position and clapping them in the air. The pre-stretching happens when the hands are brought back to the ground while the chest does sinking motion supported by upward action.

Bounding and Hurdling - This plyometric training is running with oversized strides and spending extra time in the air. The one-leg bounding is done to increase the intensity. This is best performed using the stairs steps and rises.

Drop Jumping - This plyometric exercise is performed by dropping oneself to the ground coming from a high platform, and immediately jumps upon touching the ground. The pre-stretching is achieved by the drop-down force that provides the leg muscles.
The Common Equipment Used in the Plyometric Training Program

In achieving the goal of plyometric training, the person involved performs exercises combining the ability in allocating speed, strength, endurance, flexibility, and coordination. The enhancement of the exercise is made by giving the maximum capacity of the person in stretching the muscle such as fast running and high jump. Wide range of plyometric training equipment is useful for training in order to assist the person in performing specific skills such as plyo boxes, jump testers, training materials, jump soles, hurdles, jump harness, plyo blocks and other plyo exercising products.

People that are benefited by Plyometric Exercise Program

Athletes are doing the plyometric exercises in order to enhance the power of their body. Many of these athletes, including their coaches, sought to implement improvements to the power for the purposes of revitalizing their performance. Sports involving bounding, jumping, and hopping exercises have utilized the essential training methods of explosive plyometric programs. The explosive reaction of the person involved is enhanced through energetic muscular contractions using rapid eccentric contractions.

To avoid any physical injury, it is always best to consult your doctor before starting any Plyometric training program.

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The Complete Guide To Beginning Body Building

You spend 4 hours a day, 6 days a week in a gym trying to perfect your body. You find that you are striving more and more for noticeably chiseled physique with little results.

All around you people are trying to attain a firmer more defined body. You're one of them. You're the guy who's at the gym so often everyone knows your name. Which also means everyone knows that despite your effort, you are not achieving the desired effect.

So you're ready to quit, give up. You've tried everything. Except this. You're thinking no way can an internet book help you, but really it's the answer you've been looking for.

Thinking back, you know you'be heard the basics of body building somewhere. Maybe your high school or college PE classes. If you could just remember, you'd have the information you need to get started on a program that will really work.

Now that you know it's available, you're dying to get you hands on any reading material you can on the subject.

Look no further. I recommend 'The Complete Guide To Beginning Body Building'. This new ebook is the guide to everything you want to know and it laid out for easier understanding.

Starting out may not seem simple at first. There has to be life changes made to accomidate your changing body. From what you eat, to your workout plan, even the amount of sleep you get, makes a difference in your body building success. You may actually be so full of information that there's conflicting ideas on what approach to use. This book lays out the facts and offers tips on getting started on that body builder physique right away.

This isn’t your typical book that you can get a copy of at your nearest book store or at your local library or the Internet. In fact this book is so detailed that it has been referred to as the “Body Building Manual.”

Once you have this book, you won't have to look to a trainer any longer. You'll have everything you need to start your own weight training program centered around you and your specific body.

There is a basic knowledge one needs to begin a body building program. These things include: understanding exercise terms and how body building works. You will also learn more detailed aspects such as tailoring your workout to fit your body, how to change your eating habits, and understanding the use of supplements in your diet.

Interested? By ordering online, you can actually be reading this book now. You do not have to wait for your mailman to deliver it 7 to 10 days. Ordering is as easy as clicking a link and you will be downloading and reading 'The Complete Guide To Beginning Body Building' in an instant. 


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5 Tips to Build Muscle As Fast As Possible

Learning how to build muscle fast is easy, putting it into practice is the hard part. Most people think that if you lift more, you will gain more muscle mass. This simply isn't the case.

Building muscle has just as much to do with diet as it does with training, if not more.

You can't build muscle without a calorie surplus, just as you can't build muscle without resistance training.

To build muscle fast, you have to optimize your diet as well as training regimen. Here is how to do it.

1. Avoid Low Carb Diets

While low carb diets are great for cutting fat, they won't help you with gaining muscle mass. You need carbs for fuel so you can exercise more efficiently.

Carbohydrates are important before training sessions, and immediately after training sessions. Carbs are your muscles primary fuel.

By consuming complex carbs you restore glycogen stores within your muscles[1] for further activity and fullness. This is a major factor in how effective a training session is.

2. Avoid All Alcohol

Alcohol, even in small amounts, can have major effects on sleep, and recovery. In a study conducted in 1980, alcohol in small doses (0.8 g/kg) before bedtime, suppressed plasma growth hormone by 70%-75%[2].

If you add in the effects of dehydration and release of cortisol, it's nothing but a recipe for disaster.

3. Get More Protein

There is a lot of confusion surrounding protein these days. One article says your not eating enough, the other says your eating way too much.

So what is the key?

For moderately active, and highly active adults, it is reasonable to consume around 2-3 grams of protein for every kilogram of bodyweight.[3]

Studies show that too much protein intake has an extremely low chance of negative side effects. Plus, protein is essential in so many bodily functions.

4. Lift Heavy Weights

Protein alone cannot build muscle. To really add-on size, you must lift heavy weights. Or use your bodyweight to achieve the desired resistance.

In the gym, you could focus on lifting 6 sets of 6 reps with a heavy enough weight to reach failure in the last couple of sets. This should be enough to make some serious gains.

5. Switch-up Your Workouts

This doesn't necessarily mean changing the exercises. Vary your sets and reps, rest time, and intensity. This will help you break through those dreaded plateaus.

I hope this list helps you in achieving your desired physique. But this can only help you if you continually take daily action. Avoid analysis paralysis, and just get to work.

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How Many Calories You Should Eat To Build Muscle?

To add muscle mass you must eat more calories than you burn every day. Start by adding 500-1000 calories a day. However, adding muscle to your body is not simply a matter of adding calories. You want the calories to be a good nutritional balance and that requires a bit more math.

Foods fall into three basic categories. They are proteins, carbohydrates or fats and dietary ratios are indicated in that sequence. One of the most common ratios for muscle building is 40/30/30 which means your diet should consist of 40% protein, 30% carb, 30% fats.

Proteins and carbs contain 4 calories per gram while fats contain 9 calories per gram.

To determine how many calories of each food type you need to consume, take your total calories, multiply it by the appropriate percentage and divide that by the calories per gram.

For example, if you have determined you should eat 2,725 calories a day to gain 1 pound of muscle a week and you are following the 40/30/30 guide you calculate:

40% from protein = 1090 calories (2725 x.4) = 272 grams of lean protein (1090 / 4)

30% from carbs = 817 calories (2725 x.3) = 204 grams of carbohydrates (817/ 4)

30% from fats = 817 calories (2725 x.3) = 91 grams of fats (817 / 9)

The exact protein/carb/fat ratio that works best for you may vary from the 40/30/30 model depending on your fitness and activity level as well as your current weight and age. If you don't get the results you want, can start adjusting the numbers, but don't have your fats level drop below 20%, and remember the numbers must total 100%.



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Does Chromium Picolinate Promote Weight Loss?

Chromium picolinate is sold as a standalone supplement or also included in diet pill compounds promoting weight loss. Proponents of chromium picolinate claim that it reduces insulin resistance, which increases weight loss. While it's well known that the chromium mineral is needed for glucose to be utilized by insulin, supplementation with chromium would really only be necessary if the subject were deficient in that mineral. As it stands, it is extremely rare for a person to be chromium deficient in a first-world country.


Chromium picolinate is the combination of chromium and picolinic acid. Purportedly, supplementation with chromium aids the body in burning fat over muscle when there is an energy deficit and fuel is needed.


Pouring over the research done in regards to chromium picolinate is no small task. While one study (Althuis MD, Jordan NE, Ludington EA, Wittes JT (2002). "Glucose and insulin responses to dietary chromium supplements: a meta-analysis". AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION 76 (1): 148-155.) claimed there was no significant difference in insulin resistance, another study cited that the first study was flawed.


I counted 10 more studies, found mainly through PubMed, that confirmed Chromium Picolinate's ability to decrease insulin resistance.


I then narrowed my search and looked only for Chromium Picolinate studies that researched weight loss specifically. There was one in particular that supported a change in body composition (it was not body weight or body mass index, but rather fat composition of the body). Just as quickly, I found another study stating that absolutely no change in body composition was found when supplementing with chromium picolinate.


At the end of the day, it'll be up to you to decide if you'd like to try supplementation. It is key to monitor your changes, measure carefully, and keep an open mind. Don't conclude that it will work (or won't) before you try it, or that's likely the result you'll get. Chromium picolinate remains a small unknown, though the tides are starting to turn in its favor apparently.

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5 Fitness Gym Hacks

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts are always looking for a leg up when it comes to maximizing their time spent in the gym. Sometimes it just takes experience to learn the ins and outs of the gym, but in this case allow me to impart some knowledge.

Here are the 5 Fitness Gym Hacks:

1. Bring a Water Source With You

Hydration is one of the most overlooked wellness measures in our culture. Our lives are so busy and full of distraction that stopping to take a sip of water can easily be forgotten. Training yourself to drink water consistently throughout the day is a tough enough habit to adopt. Forcing yourself to drink water periodically while at the gym is a good place to start.

When you go to the gym, bring a water bottle with you. Don't leave it with your coat or keys, take it around with you to each workout station you go to, this will help you to remember to drink. I recommend taking a sip or two between every workout. An even better way to force yourself to drink is to buy a nice water bottle from the store. If it is a nice bottle that you paid money for you will be much more likely to remember to take it with you wherever you go. For extra performance, fill your bottle with a BCAA powder mix for an intra-workout boost to your muscular performance.

2. Wear One Extra Layer

Whether you're going for a detox workout or just trying to burn more calories, wear an extra layer of gym clothes than you would normally. Wearing an extra layer, like a sweatshirt top, sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, or a hat, can increase your body temperature while you workout. This can help you sweat more in the gym and burn more calories. If you're working out after a weekend of drinking or eating and want to clean up your system, sweating it out with an extra layer can be the best way to get your body feeling good again. Psychologically sweating more at the gym can be good too, you will feel that you worked much harder while you were there.

3. Superset your Exercises

If you have two exercises on your list that you can do on the same machine or bench it can sometimes be best to superset these exercises so that you save time and increase the intensity of your workout. When you do a superset, you combine two different exercises that you do in succession. For example, if you were to superset bench press and pushups you would do your reps on the bench press, then right after get down on the floor and do 10 pushups. The benefits of supersets are great, you increase the intensity and effectiveness of your muscles, so your body learns to work harder and grow stronger, and it can actually save time and increase the efficiency of your work outs. If you did an entire workout of 6 different supersets, you could do 12 different exercises in about the same time it would take you to do 6. This is a great technique for those days when you have limited time in the gym, but you still want to get as good a workout as possible, just do a couple of supersets and in 30 minutes you'll feel like you just worked out for an hour.

4. Give Your Workouts a Title

Planning out your workout before you get to the gym has its obvious benefits. Instead of getting to the gym and staring at the equipment for five minutes before you decide what you want to do, having a plan means you can walk in and immediately start hitting the weights. Well, here's an even more simple hack to add to your workout plan, name your workout. "Get Big Day," "Weekend Detox," or "Hump Day" are just simple examples of the titles you can give. What a title does when you put it at the top of your workout plan is it gives you a purpose to your workout. When we go to the gym with a purpose or goal in mind we tend to work the hardest, get the best results, and enjoy our workout the most. It's simple psychology but something I'm sure most of us don't already apply, when workouts begin to become monotonous and ordinary is when we tend to lose interest. Next time you write a workout, throw a title at the top of your list and see how it changes your habits.

5. Break Your Routines

Routines are great. They get us into the gym, help us figure out what to do when we are there, and generally make our lives easier. However, over time routines can cause stagnation in personal improvement both inside of the gym and outside of the gym. In the gym, repeatedly doing the same exercise routines every week can result in reduced muscle adaptation and growth in as little time as five weeks of repetition. Having routines in your lifestyle that you carry on for months at a time can also result in similar effects for your psychological and physiological health. Overcome routines and muscle growth stagnation by simply recognizing when you've been doing the same types of workouts or exercises for a while, and change it. For life routines, changing the route you take to work or the time you go to bed can have a great impact on the path of your day.

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