Good old H2O and stay hydrated

Why is water important? simply put - water is life and protection, you spend the first 9 months living in water (amniotic fluid) the human body consists out of 70% of water, muscle size is directly influenced by water levels, a guy wath big muscles, its means his muscles abilty to hold more water/glycogen is just greater than a smaller guys muscles, therefore the pump that we chase while training, that is to stretch the fascia's of muscle bellies to hold more water/glycogen - muscle size...

Hydration is of utmost importance, even when you are not training!
Most of the processes in the human body relies on water(blood) to happen, transport of oxygen, transport of food to muscle, transport of toxins from inside the body to the outside of the body. hydration is very important in everyday life, even more so when you train or live an active lifestyle, when you train your body goes through many chemical processes, breaking down of fat,  swapping out sodium for potassium in working mucsles, transportation of oxygen to working mucsle and transporting of carbon dioxide.

Power in muscle is directly linked to water levels in body...if body looses water (dehydration) muscles cant work optimal...water is critical while doing any type of training. ..keep hydrated at all times...

Drink water is hard for many of us, specially the optimal water intake 3-4l a day...

Ways to up water intake
- immediately apon waking up down a glass of water (dehydration happens during the night)
- carry a bottle of water with you and sip from time to time ( youll start drinking without even knowing) the body loves water so it will go into auto pilot)
- drink water with each meal ( will make you eat less and help with nutrient transport throughout body and digestion.
- sip on water between training sets or take regular water breaks to hydrate
- water is your friend and if a healthier lifestyle and weight loss is your goals when you must get well akwainted ;-)

Hydration benifits

- excretion of toxins from within the body
- carrier of oxygen en nutrients to muscles amd organs
- involved in chemical processes in the body, uptake of oxygen and swapping of carbon dioxide,  breaking down of fats
- many vitamins are water soulable so water is need for process to be complete
- fights commen colds and flue
- optimal function of organs(kidney, liver,  heart).
- directly linked to performance in sport, amd training, a well hydrates athlete will pwrform better than a dehydrated athlete.

Stay hydrated,  stay healthy....

ladie ladies ladies

This is an usual respons i get from females training with weights -' i dont want to build muscle, or i dont want to become to muscular, no ill rather just do cardio' sounds familiar. the truth is.. its not that easy to build muscle at all specialy for the ladies, due to the fact that women has very little/ low levels of testosterone in relation to men, which is the primary hormone for building  muscle.

If females train the testosterone levels increases slightly, but not sugnificant enough to make you build mucsle like a man, just the right amount to help with body toning, fat burning, and faster recovery.

Doing weight training in combination with cardio will aid in your fat burning goals twice as fast as just cardio alone! let me break it down- your body burns glycogen while you train with weights, the energy sourse that follows when glycogen stores are empty is lipolyses (fat), so for those who dont train, you burn glycogen on the treadmill, not fat, but if you weight train first and then hit the treadmill, the body has all ready burned up all the glycogen in the muscles, so only sourse of enery left is lipo ( fat), so now you hit the treadmill and the energy your body is consuming comes from the fat stores and not the muscle stores.

So to weight train in combination with cardio is a must, due to the fact that you burn fat more direct this way, it also helps to shape and tighten the body, it provides more strenght for everyday living and activities outside the gym...its helps with bone density and calcium uptake wich is crutual for women...more muscles being active in body the more calories the body burns even while resting...due to a higher matabolic rate in the body...

Weight training is female friendly...its safe and fun and challenging...its not all muscle and veins...its over all wellness and good health...strong health functional muscles. ..

getting started

First thing before beginning any new program being a beginner or an advanced trainer, is to set goals, the more specific the better, long and short term goals.

What do you want to improve ( cardiovascular fitness, muscle tone, overall fitness) which ever the case, get a clear goal in mind and keep track with your progress, this will not only help you keep on track and eliminate pointless nonsence which is counter productive and time consuming.

So my advice is to get a clear picture and plan in mind before you start, to help you set your plan in motion.
Get some help , ask questions if you are not sure, if you are realy struggeling get a personal trainer or ask an instructor at the gym.

If you havent trained in a while, go for an accesment at your gym, get yourself checked, dint go into anything blind, you might feel strong and healthy, but as soon as a new stressor is added to your life style, a whole new picture come into play, so check blood pressure, blood sugar levels, fitness level, like i said, the more you know and the more info you have to be included into your plan, the better and more aquirite your plan will ultimatly be.

When starting out, take it slow, use the firt week of the program to see where the problems are, where  you are not sure, where can you inprove things or where are things that you want to change, so the first week is to be set out for trail and error, so your plan can go smooth and as stable as possible.

Take your time, this is a new shock to your body, so give your body time to react and get use to the new stress, nothing works over night, so be patient.
Don't go at it at fast past, ease into a new program, your body needs to reprogram itself and rewire its motor funktions to the new moves provided by a new program, so take it slow and give your body the time its needed to program itself to do the moves proper and with good form.

So my tip for any new program- take your time
                                                     - set goals (long and short term)
                                                     - ease into a new program
                                                      - go for an accesment ( risk screening)
                                                      - ask if you know, rather be sure than sorry

anatomy 101

To fully understand training or to get the most out of your training, you need to know something bout muscles, how they work, why do they  react certain ways, why this exercise will work and not that one. the more you know bout how the macanics work, the easier your training and mind muscle connection will become.

Quick lesson- a muscle needs to fully contract and extend in an exercise...meening a full range of motion...from the longest relaxed point to the fully smaller harder contracted point... called flexion and extention through full range of motion...

Therefore...a weight being used must be of such nature that an exercise can be performed with propper form and full range of motion...too much weight and body will compremise and call more muscle groups into play...this is a good and a bad thing...good thing-strenght increase...calorie expenditure is higher...higher testosterone and gh levels
Bad thing...bad form and heavy weight = injury and over training...central nervouse system overload...poor recovery...

So if a programme tells you 4 sets of 10 reps...the weight must be heavy enough so you struggle on the last 2 reps of each set...then the weight is right for that specific exercise. ..if you can go far over the specified reps acquired then weight is too light...if you cant complete set with propper form then weight is to heavy...

Too many times ego gets in the way of developing decent muscle and just moving weight from point a to point b...
Leave the ego at the door and train to reach your desired goals...that was the plan from the beginning wasnt it?

Recap: train with full range of motion (fully extended to full contracted)
Use weights that make you complete sets with propper form while working to almost failure on last to reps of each set.
Train to impress yourself not people standing around...