What Causes Muscle Growth?
October 14, 2007
In order for muscles to grow, three things are required:
1. Stimulus - exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause microscopic damage to the fibers.
2. Nutrition - after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores of fuel.
3. Rest - it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the microscopic damage and grow.
Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength.
This will deplete the muscle’s energy stores and cause microscopic damage to the muscle tissue. During recovery, these stores of glycogen and phosphocreatine will replenish from carbohydrates and creatine ingested as food or supplements. Amino acids supplied in the diet will trigger the protein synthesis that repairs the damaged muscle and lead to the creation of bigger muscle fibers.
To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher levels of training intensity otherwise the improvement process will grind to a halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic principles and rules are clearly followed. Subsequent articles in this series will examine these principles in detail.
Why Goal Setting Is Extremely Important To You. 11 Compelling Reasons
October 13, 2007
Why Goal Setting Is Extremely Important To You. 11 Compelling Reasons
by: Terry Vermeylen
Do you want to be happy and successful in the future? Then set goals. People live successful, happy and living meaningful lives because they have taken the time to set goals. Below are 11 compelling reasons why goal setting is extremely important to you.
Goal setting helps us realize what we really want to accomplish in life.
Goal setting helps us to commit and take the necessary steps to make our desires a reality.
Goals setting give us direction and purpose.
Goal setting reduces the clutter in our mind and makes it clearer as to where we are heading.
Once we commit goals to paper or a computer, it makes them more tangible, specific and concrete.
Goals that are written down can be easily reflected on, changed, admired and analysed.
As you change you can change your written goals.
Once goals are written down they can be broken into manageable parts.
Goal setting allows us to look at our present, past or future and learn from mistakes.
Stress Reduction Tips for Parents
October 12, 2007
The best way to reduce your stress is to really know what it IS, that is making you stressed! So sit down for a minute and think about last year. You can look at a calendar to remind yourself of events, or appointments. This may jog your memory, such as realizing that taking your kids to the doctor can stress you out. Stress can also grow from your surroundings. Are you disorganized? Are your drawers and closets filled with clutter? Do you waste a lot of time searching for items?
? Determine your stressors (flip through last year’s calendar, talk to your spouse, look around your house, etc) ? List them (if you can) in order of what stresses you the most ? Divide them into categories (related topics, i.e. meals, errands, carpool, clutter) ? Determine how often a particular thing makes you feel stress (daily, weekly, monthly).
Now you should have a pretty good idea of what makes your blood boil. So your next step is to:
Get proactive
Diabetes Awareness: Ill Wait til it Hurts
October 12, 2007
By the time many type 2 diabetics (and often their doctors) realize action is necessary, the disease, with its destructive high blood sugars, has been silently damaging their body for years.
Complications to the blood vessels and tissues of your eyes, feet, heart, kidneys, and other organs, are likely well underway.
You visit the doctor because you feel bad, and you wish to feel better. You react to the symptoms of perceived illness. This is understandable, but does not allow much room for prevention or early detection of diabetes.
Of course this idea, "Don’t see the doctor ’til it hurts," comes from our "busier-then-ever" lifestyles. But to blame, to point fingers after the damage has started is as pointless as is the leaping bungee-jumper’s complaint that his equipment has just failed. It’s a little late to talk about why. Some problems are better prevented.
If you have type 2 diabetes, you know most of the time you don’t feel very bad. You might think that because you don’t feel very bad, it isn’t very serious, and you don’t have to do anything about it just now. “I’ll wait ’til it hurts” …You couldn’t be more wrong.
The Most Under-Rated Aspect of Weightloss
October 11, 2007
If I were asked, “what is the most difficult thing many people find to do when they start a weight-loss program?”, I would have to say right near the top of the list is this - they don’t drink enough water!
Few people realize at first just how essential water is to the success of their weight-loss program. In fact, the essential place of water in our diet extends to everyone - whether they want to lose weight, gain weight or stay the same weight! We all know we can’t live without water, but just why is it so important? Well there are many reasons. Read on and discover why water can help your loss weight and why it is your essential life-force.
Apart from 60-70% of your body being composed of water, water has an extensive range of functions essential to life.
. Assists digestion, absorption and assimilation of food. If you don’t drink enough water you can’t get the full benefit of nutrients in the food you eat.
. Assists excretion of waste from bowel and kidneys. If you don’t drink enough water you get constipated and put your kidneys under stress.
Affirmations & Affirmations
October 10, 2007
Affirmations & Affirmations
by: Arthur Buchanan
One-way to be sure that you get what you want, is to practice playing the affirmations game. The great thing about this game is that if you play it enough you are assured of victory! I hope you understand the significance of that statement!
I have never seen someone use affirmations that did not get what they want. How do we go about playing this game? Well it’s like this, anytime something happens in your life that’s bad, try and look for the good in the situation and then make a positive affirmation out of it. Let’s say you wreck your car.
You never really liked that car anyway but and here comes the material for the affirmation. (YOU had full coverage on this vehicle and now you get another for $5oo, because that is all your deductible is. So you make up a positive affirmation over the wrecked car. I am glad I wasn’t hurt in the accident but I also get a new car for $500 to replace the older car I had which I hated, man am I lucky!
Know Your Bodybuilding Supplement - Tribulus
October 9, 2007
Tribulus terrestris is a herb that comes from a plant found in Asia. It has been used in the past by many cultures for the treatment of liver, kidney and cardiovascular diseases. It has also been used as a diuretic and to treat infertility. In recent years strength athletes in eastern Europe are reputed to have used it to enhance performance.
It is believed to enhance testosterone levels by encouraging the production of lutenizing hormone. Studies have shown that when lutenizing hormone levels are increased, the natural production of testosterone also increases.
It is difficult to assess the validity of tribulus as a muscle growth enhancer because none of the studies carried out have appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Its proponents do suggest that it can prove useful when stacked with 100 mg of DHEA and 100 mg of androstenedione but this takes us into the equally uncertain territory of prohormones which we have covered in a separate article.
If you do wish to experiment with tribulus you can take 750-1250 mg per day divided between meals. Some people experience stomach upsets but this can be minimized by taking it with food. There’s no guarantee that tribulus terrestris will help you grow bigger muscles but many users report a much improved sex drive!
Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.
Creating A Tithe Account
October 8, 2007
Almost every spiritual and religious teaching exhorts its followers to donate a portion of their income to the support of the community and the common good, both as a way of ensuring (and insuring) the community’s ability to care for its own and as a way to allow the tither to realize the extent of and to express gratitude for their own success. Although each religion and sect has its own idea of what constitutes a proper tithe (usually around 10% of the participant’s earnings), the concept of tithing is a wise and long-standing tradition - one that each of us should be encouraged to add to our lives.
Giving “cleans out the pipes” of energy flow so that more can flow through, and it helps us realize our own abundance in the midst of our fears of scarcity - through giving to others we realize the true nature and scope of our own blessings by recognizing that we had that amount to give, over and above what we required for ourselves. But what about those who consider themselves “spiritual” but belong to no particular religion, or those who do subscribe to a particular religious tenet but, for whatever reason, attend no church or temple? How can they reap the benefits of tithing? One possibility is the creation of a tithe account.
Motivation: What Life is All About
October 7, 2007
Motivation: What Life is All About
by: Gene Castelli
Gene Castelli from Columbus, Ohio writes: We think of the word “motivation” and its derivatives, and a picture comes to mind of the athlete being “motivated” to win, or the actor finding his “motivation” for the role he/she is playing, or being spell bound by a great “motivational” speaker. What we often don’t remember is that every single aspect of life is guided by motivation or the lack of (often quickly followed by another term “failure”).
Motivation is not an overcoat we throw on when we feel we need it, it is a constant every day situation we practice from the most mundane task to the most specific life changing task we could ever imagine. It is quite possibly the most powerful force (other than love) that makes us what we are today. To motivate your children, you need to understand what motivation is.
Staying with the sports theme, we all have seen the movie scene: the coach and his players in the locker room, and the coach is giving a rousing speech about winning and whips the team into a frenzy and they whoop and holler and go out a door onto the field and win the game. Now, set that same scenario, the same coach, same speech, same chants of “Win! Win! Win!” and the players run out through another door and into the pool. Why? Motivation without direction is frustration.
Healthy Diet Answers: Want Fries With That Mister ?
October 7, 2007
Yes, my healthy diet has at times suffered at the hands of fast food, I admit it ? I am addicted to fast food ? it makes me feel good, it makes us all feel good, that’s why its everywhere and thats why the fast food chains make millions.
But let’s face it, it’s not that simple to be disciplined and no one’s going to go to a restaurant with friends and tell the restaurant that they can’t eat that rice because its white rice and it’ll send my blood sugar levels sky high and release insulin into my body, can I have basmati instead ? ? well, maybe just the hardcore diet enthusiasts.
So what to do about fast food nutrition ? well, I am going to give you my five most important principles for choosing food generally, but also quick things to look for when you’re out in order to complement your healthy diet:
1. Find Out How The Food Was Cooked. It’s not the actual food that matters, it’s the way it was cooked. Little things like this can make a world of difference.
