HOW TO PREVENT CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME

Medical professionals all over the world have reported that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is one of the most common injuries being sustained today. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an overuse injury caused by repeatedly flexing the wrist or maintaining the wrist in a flexed position. This means that your wrists are constantly bent in such a way that the palms of your hands are facing you, even slightly, like if you were to bend your wrists to type on the keyboard.

People often bend their wrists to type, but, unfortunately, that’s totally the wrong way to go about it. Again, maintaining or constantly bending your wrists in that position can lead to a very serious injury, which can often lead to surgery, and you don’t want that, do you?

PIANO PLAYER

The best way to type on a keyboard is to do it like the expert piano players do, with their wrists in a neutral (not bent) position. Some people might think this contrary, but this is the most natural position for your wrists to be in. After all, you don’t naturally bend your wrists and form your fingers into a claw while walking do you? No, and if you do, you really should read on to see how you can correct that.

PREVENTION

The best way to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is to maintain your wrists in a neutral position for as long as possible. Don’t bend them if you know that you don’t need to. If you have trouble doing this, then get a few tools to aid you. Adjusting the arms of your chair, for example, to the correct height, so that when you rest your elbows on them, your wrists are exactly where your keyboard is without needlessly bending them. There are also other readily available tools on the market that can help you maintain this position comfortably as well.

STRETCHING

As with your other joints when you play sports or exercise, you should stretch your wrists when you work them often, even when you maintain them in the neutral position. Every once in a while, when you want to naturally take a 1 minute break to stretch and rest your eyes from the computer monitor, you should also take a few seconds to stretch your wrists as well.

STRETCH 1

Bend one of your wrists such that the back of your hand is facing you and your fingers are pointing up. Hold it in that position for 10 – 20 seconds, then perform the stretch with your other hand.

STRETCH 2

Bend one of your wrists such that the back of your hand is facing you and your fingers are pointing down. Hold it in that position for 10 – 20 seconds then perform the stretch with your other hand.

STRETCH 3

This one tackles your fingers, which also shouldn’t be neglected. Simply open your handas and outstretch your fingers to the farthest they can reach, hold them there for a second or two, then make a tight fist. Do this with both hands simultaneously 10 – 15 times.

BALL SQUEEZE

Squeezing a tennis ball or any other similar object from time to time during the work day is also a wise idea to strengthen your hand, fingers, and wrists. During one of your 1 minute breaks, pick up the ball and just squeeze on it. You can make a game of it. Try squeezing it quickly over and over, or just hold the squeeze for as long as you’re comfortable. Do this every once in a while with both hands.

WRIST CURLS

If you’re always stuck at your keyboard all day at work, then you should really integrate wrist curls into your regular weight lifting routine. I took this into account when designing my simple, but effective dumbbell home workout, and you should too. Simply follow the video below and maintain proper form with a weight that you can handle comfortably. This exercise will strengthen your wrist so that you can maintain them in the neutral position comfortably for extended periods of time, and with much reduced risk on injuries.

REVERSE WRIST CURLS

Since your wrist can bend in two directions (upwards and downwards), you should strengthen them the same way. Again, you should integrate reverse wrist curls into your regular workout routines as well if you’re always stuck at a keyboard all day. Follow the video below and maintain proper form with a weight that you can handle comfortably.

WHAT IF MY WRISTS ALREADY HURT?

If your wrist already hurts, you can still follow all the pieces of advice in this article. Maintain your wrists in the neutral position using a tool of your choice (your chair’s arms or something else), then regularly stretch your wrists and strengthen them with a tennis ball or something similar. You can also still do the wrist curls and reverse wrist curls with a much lighter weight. They’ll still serve to strengthen your wrists and help in their recovery. When your wrists feel better, you can increase the weights and turn rehabilitation into prevention!

SURGERY

Some people who have had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for a while but didn’t do anything about it often continue to aggravate the injury and need surgery. If this is you, then please, take the surgery or risk losing the use of your hands forever. When the surgery is done, you can follow the advice in this article to rehabilitate and strengthen your wrists.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a serious injury in the modern, technologically dependent world, but there are very simple steps to prevent it. Hopefully, if you have been having problems with your wrists lately, you’ve followed the advice in this article, and are on your way to better wrist strength and health! If you are, or have additional questions about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and your wrists, please leave a comment below as I’d very much like to hear about it!

THE SECRETS TO LONGEVITY

Below is a picture of Sylvester Stallone from his upcoming movie, The Expendables. For those who don’t seem to realize, the man is 64 years old. Not bad for an old man. There’s also this extraordinary video I created an article for recently about a man in his 60’s performing gymnastics techniques most people less than half his age (including myself) can’t do.

Living an exceptionally long and healthy life isn’t restricted to a select genetically gifted few people in this world. Sylvester Stallone clearly can’t be classified as one, despite appearances. During his youth, when one would expect him to look his best ever, his physique didn’t nearly resemble what it does today. Just check out the first Rocky movie and compare it to some of his more recent features (barring Cop Land) to see the difference. This is all the result of hard work and consistency, which literally anyone can achieve.

It’s actually as simple as following the most common pieces of advice found in such articles as the requirements to be physically fit and the cost of physical inactivity, but here are the most important rules that you need to know:

1. MAINTAIN NORMAL BODY WEIGHT

What this basically means is that you shouldn’t carry around too much excess body weight that your body can’t handle for too long. There are actually plenty of user-friendly ideal body weight calculators online that you can use like this one. Just keep in mind that these are never exact, and should be used as only a sort of estimate for you to create a target weight for. For example, if you are a heavily muscled bodybuilder, you might way over 50 pounds heavier than what these calculators say, but have very little body fat.

The best way to determine your current body fat percentage would be to go to a gym and have a professional check your fat percentage manually with a body fat caliper. Try to aim for below 20% at first, then try to lower it more and more until you’re satisfied. Just remember that body fat percentages below 5% are very dangerous for most people. Too much body fat should definitely be avoided, but you should also be wary of having too little.

2. EAT BREAKFAST

Eating breakfast truly does help one maintain one’s weight. This is because, when you fuel yourself up with the right sort of foods the first thing in the morning, your body will be immediately energized for the day, and you’ll be more mentally adjusted for the next meal. Fueling up your body properly this way will help keep it strong, and at the same time lessen or even flat out remove any cravings for bad foods that you may have throughout the day, allowing you to keep to a healthy diet plan. This is actually a very crucial step to achieving rule #1.

3. SLEEP NO MORE THAN 7-8 HOURS EACH NIGHT

It’s also not a good idea to sleep in every day. Every once in a while is fine, if, for example, you stayed up really late to finish an important project for work or school, then made up for it with a 12 hour sleeping period. Doing this every day, however, will just make your body more and more sedentary, and will continuously weaken it over time. Unless you’ve got some legitimate medical problem you can attribute this to, your body shouldn’t need more than 8 hours of sleep each night.

If you do feel that it should, perhaps you’re subjecting yourself from some sort of stress every day, whether physical or mental. The best advice would be to lessen or totally eliminate the source of the stress to save yourself in the long run. No amount of sleep can reduce your stress if you just experience more and more of it every day. Stressing yourself out too much definitely will not lead yourself to a longer, fuller, and healthier life.

4. DO NOT SMOKE

And any illegal or non-medical drugs for that matter. I really don’t think I need to explain this one. Just don’t do it, and if you’re already smoking, please quit right now. It’s for your own good, I promise.

5. EXERCISE

The human body is meant to move and be active. This is why it’s built the way it is, with two arms and legs, a plethora of muscles, the capacity to be trained to perform amazing feats of strength, speed, power, endurance, flexibility, and so on. In order to achieve a long and healthy life, you need to train and strengthen your body constantly. You shouldn’t allow it to grow too sedentary and weak over time. This is basically the equivalent of just letting your car sit in your garage forever and allow it to accumulate more and more rust each day. Your body is the same, and if you take care of it and keep it strong, it will make you feel better than ever.

Now, I don’t mean that you should suddenly become a super athlete or look like Sylvester Stallone (but it would be nice if you shot your goals this high). I just mean that you should do yourself and do your body a favor by exercising regularly and engaging in all sorts of physical activities. If you don’t have a sport or physical activity that you currently perform, then I’d suggest weight training. You can start out with the simple, but effective home workout, or the dumbbell version, then work yourself up to more difficult programs after you feel you’ve progressed enough.

There, now that wasn’t so bad now, was it? The hard part is actually keeping this up literally every day of your life. What about junk food, alcohol, or any of that party stuff? Notice that I didn’t really touch on those things very much in the five magic rules. This is because, yes, you can indulge in those every once in a while if there’s a party of sorts. Eating at a buffet or drinking beer with your buddies once a month or even once a week shouldn’t hurt you if you followed all of the above rules the rest of the time. Your body fat percentage, for example, won’t suddenly balloon to 10% more after just once beer or one deluxe hamburger. Just don’t indulge in these things every day and you’ll be fine.

These rules to longevity aren’t actually secrets, but they’re things that I find most people forget easily because they take them for granted. Hopefully, I managed to help you keep these things more in check and possibly grant you ten more years in life. For an expanded explanation on the topic that focuses on the diet rules, please check out my earlier article, how to live longer.

THE PREDATORS WORKOUT

I recently had the chance to watch the movie "Predators".Great action movie, but I personally feel that it kind of pales in comparison to Arnold’s 1987 classic.The writers and director obviously wanted to make it bigger and more exciting than the original, but failed to make the story become totally engaging. The star of the film, Adrien Body, while a great actor, is also no Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that’s something that was probably eating at the back of my mind during the entire film.

But while Brody is no Austrian Oak, he nonetheless still worked tremendously hard to build a very impressive physique for this film. Entertainment.gather.com has a great article about his transformation:

“When asked about how he prepared for this action hero role, Brody noted that he was doing a "challenging" six days a week of training and diet. He was also shooting for the movie 12 hours per day. Brody said during preparation he wasn't drinking alcohol, wasn't consuming any refined sugars and was having no sex. He said he did all that he could to harness a "ferocious" mentality and persona for this character"


While Brody never revealed the specifics of the workout he used for “Predators” (as far as I know, though I’d love to be proven wrong), Entertainment.gather.com suggests that he might have used a Scrawny to Brawny workout,as published by Men’s Health, when Brody made the cover of the magazine because of how he buffed up his physique for the 2005 version of King Kong:


“Adrien Brody achieved results for our December 2005 cover in 3 weeks. For you, Mejia suggests a training schedule of 8 to 12 weeks, although the same discipline is required. Just avoid these two mistakes.

1. Lifting too much. "What you really need is less volume but more intensity," says Mejia. This strategy actually simplifies your workout--only four exercises every session. For the first three, do five sets of five reps. Rest no more than 2 minutes between sets. For the last exercise, do two or three sets of eight to 12 reps, as this targets smaller muscles in your core or shoulders.


Monday: Squat, barbell incline bench press, pullup, weighted situp 
Wednesday: Hang clean and press, deadlift, dip, side-lying external rotation 
Friday: Front squat, dumbbell bench press, bent-over row, back extension


2. Eating too little. To build new muscle, you need calories. "Guys don't eat nearly enough, says Mejia. "They're reluctant--rightfully so--about putting on body fat."


To avoid that, "you must count calories," says Mejia. Figure out your body's optimal caloric intake, then add 300 to 500 calories to that total to determine how much you need to pack in every day.”

PREDATORS MOVIE TRAILER:

Check out more information, complete with pictures for each exercise you need to turn from scrawny to brawny like Adrien Brody over at Men’s Health.com!

All images used in this article are taken from IMDB's amazing Predators page.

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, DUMBBELL HOME WORKOUT

As a follow up to one of my earlier articles, the simple, but effective, home workout, I was asked to create a dumbbell version. To start off, the program that I will recommend here is primarily for those who are beginner weight trainers, meaning those that have been training consistently for less than one year, those that have been lifting weights for quite a while now, but are usually on and off and were never really consistent in their past routines, or those that are absolute beginners.

WHAT'S THE WORKOUT SCHEDULE?

There are two sets of workouts that I will recommend, Set A and Set B. You should perform the Set A workouts twice a week, and the Set B workouts once a week. Ideally, the schedule would Set A performed every Mondays and Fridays, and Set B every Wednesdays. If you can’t do the workouts with exactly that schedule, then feel free to adjust it to your needs, with hopefully the same spacing in between workout days. As much as possible, don’t try to do the workout for three days straight during a single week, as your body won’t be able to rest properly. You’ll tire and stress yourself out more than you’ll be making yourself fit.

WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?

Again, this program was created with dumbbells in mind. It would be great if you have several weights to choose from, so that you can adjust the weights per exercise. If you want a hassle free dumbbell set and have some cash to burn, then I highly recommend the Powerblock classic adjustable dumbbell set, which can give you individual weights ranging from 5 to 45 pounds:


Some of these exercises will also require a bench. A flat bench would be nice, like this one from Apex: If you don’t have an exercise bench, then you can use another piece of furniture that you can lie down comfortably on with your arms hanging out to the sides. For more experienced lifters, you can also use a swiss ball. This will increase the difficulty of the relevant exercises by making the movements more unstable. It will also develop your core muscles more (rectus abdominis, external obliques, lower back muscles), since they need to work more to stabilize your torso.

HOW HEAVY SHOULD I LIFT?

All the exercises I recommend here should be performed for 15 repetitions, therefore, you should be able to lift the weights for a specific exercise for 15 repetitions before feeling too tired to continue. Choose just the right weight; don’t choose a weight that you can’t lift for 15 repetitions straight, and don’t choose a weight that you can lift for more than 15 repetitions and not break a sweat.

HOW LONG DOES THE WORKOUT LAST?

The workout has a warm up, stretching, and two sets of the primary exercises. After performing the warm up, go straight to lifting the weights and perform each exercise in the recommended order without resting in between. After completing all the exercises, rest for 1 – 3 minutes then go through all the exercises again the same way for another full set. Then go immediately to the stretching and you’re done! All of this shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes to complete. 

UNTIL WHEN SHOULD I DO THE WORKOUT?

The workout is also designed for two straight months; in other words, it will be very effective for the individual for that time frame, especially if he or she increases the weight load every one or two weeks, but will become less efficient afterward. I recommend switching it up by performing another weight training perform after the two months are up, in order for your body to keep adapting to newer forms of stress and therefore reap the benefits of the exercises more.

THE WARM UP:

This is basically the same warm up I recommended for the simple, but effective home workout. It’s sufficient in that it gets all the major joints in your body moving, preparing them for the weights. If you have a better warm up plan that you prefer, then feel free to use it. Also leave a comment at the end of this article, as I’d love to hear about it!

THE SET A EXERCISES (to be performed every Mondays and Fridays):

Do the exercises in this exact order and just as the videos below prescribe them. Do them with proper form all the time. If you feel that you can’t maintain good form during your routine, then reduce the weight you’re carrying. Form should always be your top priority to ensure the full effectiveness of the exercises and to reduce the risk of injury.

Flat Bench Press

Wall Squats

Perform the exercise as in the video but grip the dumbbells and hold them hanging down either side.

Kneeling Bent Over Rows

Stiff Leg Deadlift

 

Military Press

 

Crunches

Lying Triceps Extension

Biceps Concentration Curls 

THE SET B EXERCISES (To be performed every Wednesdays):

Again, do the exercises in this exact order and just as the videos below prescribe them. Do them with proper form all the time. If you feel that you can’t maintain good form during your routine, then reduce the weight you’re carrying. Form should always be your top priority to ensure the full effectiveness of the exercises and to reduce the risk of injury.

Flat Bench Flyes

Alternating Leg Lunges



Always make sure that, like the wall squat from Set A, your forward leg's knee never goes beyond your toes.
 

Wrist Curls

You can also do these one arm at a time, similar to the concentration curls, if you like.

Twisting Crunches

Calf Raises

You can step on an old, thick book, like an old telephone directory, if you like.

Reverse Wrist Curls

Again, you can do these one arm at a time, if you like.

STRETCHING:

Again, this is the same stretching routine I recommended for the simple, but effective home workout. You can use a different stretching routine if you prefer something else, but if you do, leave a comment as I’d love to hear about it!

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

That’s it! This routine should work your entire body consistently for two whole months, and, coupled with a proper diet, should start you on your way towards your dream body! If you have any questions or comments about the program, please post them and I’ll respond to them as soon as I can!

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH VIDEO

Honest to god, there is a fountain of youth, and there's really no secret to reaching it. Everything I, and the rest of the people in the fitness industry have been blabbering about is all it takes. Having an excellent, balanced diet, regularly working out, and resting and relaxing when needed, all while having the most fun possible, is the key to the fountain of youth.

I originally saw this video via one of my favorite sites, Ross Training, and loved it so much that I had to link it here!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you gymnastics at age 69:

THE COST OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY

The human body is an incredible piece of precision machinery; and, like an automobile, for example, it needs to be regularly maintained. Your muscles need to be regularly utilized in order for them not to weaken and to stay at their peak capacities. If you don't maintain them and if you choose to simply slack off the majority of your life in front of the TV set, well, then you're unfortunately going to suffer a couple of consequences.

1. Cardiovascular Diseases - When the human body is relatively inactive for a very long time, the heart becomes weaker and less efficient than it should normally be, and is more susceptible to life-threatening diseases that can cause heart attack.

2. Obesity - Like gasoline is to an average car, food is fuel to human beings. It is our energy source. Unfortunately, if people maintain (or even increase) their eating habits from their youth, yet become more and more sedentary as they grow older, they use less and less energy as they simultaneously take in more and more. The body then stores this excess enhergy as fat,and obesity occurs in no time. Obese people are even more susceptible to cardiovascualr diseases, so it's really no laughing matter. Read more about managing the body's energy consumption on my article about Energy Balance.

3. Backache - If you don't maintain your muscles, they atrophy, and become weaker and weaker over time. Thus, weak back muscles commonly cannot maintain proper posture for long periods of time, whether standing or sitting. This causes the myriad of people you see on the street with a hunchbacked posture, which is incredibly bad in the long term. Placing the spinal column outside of its natural curve for long periods of time puts additional pressure on areas of the body that weren't meant to maintain that sort of stress, thus resulting in back pain. And you don't want that.

4. Chronic Tiredness - Again, if your body's inactive, your muscles atrophy. Not only that, but the rest of your physiological systems weaken over time as well. Your body's not as efficient as its supposed to be, causing you to not function as well as you should be. This results in the feeling of chronic tiredness. People wake up tired, they go through the day tired, and when they go to bed, they can't sleep for some reason, despite the fact that they're still tired. So they turn on late night TV until they doze off, and wake up tired once again. Why? Their internal systems aren't function very efficiently.

5. Anxiety - This is actually directly related to the above. Studies have shown that people who have been inactive for long periods of time often suffer from constant anxiety. When your body's not functioning very effectively and very efficiently, you just don't feel right throughout the day, which can actually cause you mental stress, resulting in constant anxiety.

6. Depression - Depression is another observed mental side effect of constant inactivity that studies have confirmed throughout the years. Combined with such things as obesity, back pain, and so on, it's really no wonder that very inactive people are usually depressed.

Still want to remain inactive? Hopefully not.

JAKE GYLENHAAL'S PRINCE OF PERSIA WORKOUT

Times Online has a fascinating article on how movie stars transform their bodies to suit particular roles, but the most interesting thing about it is that it details Jake Gylenhaal’s current diet and fitness routine for his newest movie, “Prince of Persia”:

“5.30am Pre-workout snack: half a banana, some nuts and an espresso.

6am An hour-and-a-half cardio outdoors workout while wearing a 20lb flak jacket to simulate the weight of armour. Interval training - 10min uphill sprint, followed by abs exercises, eg, sit-ups, at the top of the hill. Repeat sequence five times, then a 10min run, followed by stretching exercises.


7.30am An egg-white omelette, a small protein shake and an isotonic drink to replenish salts lost during training.

Lunch Baked potato with tuna and salad.

6-7pm An hour of resistance training using cables to simulate sword fights, pull-ups, press-ups, abs exercises using weights; finish with stretching.

7-8pm: An hour-long deep tissue massage

Dinner: Soup and a protein shake

Snacks/supplements Two litres of water, protein bars, dark chocolate, supplements rich in omega-3, 6 and 9. No foods containing refined sugar, occasional glass of wine allowed."



Fascinating stuff. Some of you may be wondering what an “isotonic drink” is, though. Well, they’re basically sports drinks like Gatorade, but I believe that a homemade fruit shake is better since it serves the same purpose but delivers more vitamins and minerals. Read more about this in my article about keeping properly hydrated.

Also curious to see what that “hour of resistance training” specifically is? Well, Weight Loss & Training.com has an excellent article that simulates what specific exercises Gylenhaal would have done to get the body he has in the movie, complete with detailed pictures!

I’d also assume that the supplements would be taken at different, set times throughout the day as prescribed by Gylenhaal’s nutritionist (or team of), and that the snacks would be consumed throughout his training schedules. Please take note that not only did Gylenhaal perform the routines here on (what I assume is) pretty much a daily basis, he also regularly did stunt training such as horseback riding, sword fighting and so on, mostly under the burning sun, as the film is largely set in a dessert environment, burning up a tremendous amount of calories. The snacks would make up for the extremely lean diet he has described here.

If you want to try this out yourself, though, please be wary of the snacks since too much of those can be counterproductive of your calories losses. Energy replenishing though they may be, too much calories are still too much and will ruin your energy balance, which will thus make you fatter, instead of leaner.

I’d also like to caution against those uphill sprints because, despite the fact that they are indeed an excellent form of exercise, too much of them can cause too much strain on the joints and can result in injuries, especially if you plan on suiting up with armor like Jake did. Gylenhaal obviously has a team of experts to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get injured and that nothing else goes wrong, as well as daily massages and such, which, I’m sure, not everybody has access to, unfortunately.

In any case, I personally feel that it’s a tremendous and effective fitness regimen if monitored closely and carefully. I also am personally very much hyped about this particular movie. I played the original game back when I was a kid, but didn’t play any of the more modern iterations, so I completely lost touch with the franchise. This movie could be a perfect reintroduction to it, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Check out my other features on celebrity workouts here!

ROBERT DOWNEY JR'S IRON MAN 2 WORKOUT

US Magazine has a great article about how Robert Downey Jr. quickly bulked up for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Downey apparently used very unconventional methods in order to gain over 20 pounds of muscle mass in less than a month's time:

"Instead of doing regular bench presses, we used a bamboo bar... and we would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar... so it was like trying to bench press a snake!" Bose explains. "It bounced all over the place."

Downey Jr. also pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.

"We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers -- anywhere from, two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand, all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer -- and we were just beating tires with it. We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water... and we'd drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."

They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley -- you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

I've never heard of the bamboo barbell with rubber bands, but the rest of those sound very much like Caveman Training, which many UFC fighters, including Sean Sherk and Brock Lesnar, currently utilize.

Read the rest of the article over at Yahoo.

Check out my other features on celebrity workouts here!

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, HOME WORKOUT

Every time someone comes up to me and asks me to recommend a quick, but effective workout routine for them, I give them the Crossfit Tabata This workout. The Crossift FAQ page explains this thusly:

“Tabata Intervals ( 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times) is applied in turn to the Squat, Rower, Pullups, Sit-ups, and Push-ups with a one minute rotation break between exercises. Each exercise is scored by the weakest number of reps (calories on the rower) in each of the eight intervals. During the one minute rotation time allowed the clock is not stopped but kept running. The score is the total of the scores from the five stations.”



If one were to apply all the exercises indicated on that list, the workout would take 25 minutes, exclusive, of course, of any warm ups and stretching routines, which, when applied, can make the total time 35 minutes or less.

Usually, though the people who ask me of this want to use the workout at home for convenience’s sake, and since not a lot of people own rowing machines, I always take the rower out of the equation, giving us 30 minutes total time left.

Another thing to consider, though something I don’t really recommend, is to take the pullup exercise out as well, since not a lot of people have bars or similar apparatus within their homes that can support their own body weight. I really don’t like taking out the pullup since it’s one of the most excellent exercises I know and is one of my personal favorites, but if you must take it out, then fine. Exercising less is always better than not exercising at all, but again, not that recommended. In this case, the total time would be cut down to only 25 minutes. Just enough time to do while watching your favorite program on TV.

For absolute beginners, though, I would recommend cutting down the time for each exercise cycle in half just so you can get the hang of it first. After doing the workout continuously for about a month or so, then you'll most probably be strong enough to challenge it at the full level.

So, instead of doing 8 cycles per exercise, you'll only be doing 4, resulting in only 2 minutes total exercise time, plus the 1 minute break, bringing our total down to only 22 minutes if you include the pullups, and only 19 minutes if you exclude them.



Alright, so let’s begin the workout, shall we? First of all, you have to warm yourself up a bit before diving into any workout routine. Seasoned exercisers can quickly dive into bodyweight workouts such as these without any repercussions, but I don’t recommend this for most people, as it can cause unnecessary injuries. Do some basic movements such as jumping jacks, jump rope, jog in place, or a combination of these for around five minutes, or until a light sweat has been built up and you feel your heart rate increase. I personally like to do shadow boxing for this. If you can’t think of anything and want a bit more structure, then here’s a good warmup video:



Next is the pullup. Again, some people may not want to include this on account of lack of equipment, but I still recommend it, so I’m keeping it in.



The video has the person doing both pullups and push ups, but pay attention to only the pullup portion this time around, since he has excellent form. Do the exercise for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat the cycle seven more times, then rest for one minute. If you are unable to do pullups like he does, then that’s okay. Simply do single pullups until you can get the hang of it. Jump up onto the bar and do one full pullup, drop down, rest a bit, then do another. Repeat until your time runs out.

Okay, now we go to the pushups. Here’s a video with a more technical view of the exercise:



Do the exercise for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat the cycle seven more times, then rest for one minute. Like the video mentions, if you can’t do full push ups with proper form, then do knee push ups, or as some people call them, “lady push ups”.

Next, we’ll do situps:



This is a good situp video tutorial, but I wouldn’t recommend beginners do this exact form. Notice that the woman doing the movement has her back perfectly in the neutral position. Unfortunately, many people who perform situps with their arms out in front of them like in the video often promote rounded postures, which is definitely not a good thing for the spine if done too often. An easy way around this is to simply place your hands on the sides of your head, around the back of your ears. Don’t interlock your fingers and don’t grab your head, since the tendency for many beginners is to pull their head and thus, give unnecessary stress on the spine. Just leave your hands there the whole time and let just the abdominals do all the work. Make sure that you keep your posture neutral at all times to prevent any injuries. Do the exercise for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat the cycle seven more times, then rest for one minute.

And then, we have squats:



Excellent video right there. Just remember to keep your spine in the neutral position at all times during the movement. Never curve it unnecessarily and maintain proper form. Do the exercise for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat the cycle seven more times, then rest for one minute.

Lastly, we have stretching. If you still remember all the flexibility exercises you learned about in school, then those should be fine. But, if you don’t, then here’s a good video you can use:



Let’s recap!

1. Warm up for around 5 minutes
2. Do pull ups for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat the cycle seven more times, then rest for one minute.
3. Do the same for push ups
4. Then Situps
5. Then Squats
6. And lastly, perform a 5-minute flexibility routine

That’s it! You can actually perform this workout six days a week if you wanted to, but always leave at least one day of complete rest for your body to fully recuperate. If you only want to do it every other because your body always feels sore the next day, then that’s fine, too, as long as you keep it up and perform the workout consistently.

But what do you do from getting bored of this workout after performing it long term? Well, remember that you're scoring yourself each time you perform these exercises, so just try to beat your scores every time you work out. Never give up and the results will speak for themselves!

FIRST POST

Hello to you all,

I have been personally involved in physical fitness for more than ten years to the day. I started in high school when I was only seventeen and wanted to change the way my flabby and unattractive exterior was viewed. Social conditioning, I know, which had vanity and possibly selfishness at its core, but it actually did a lot of good for me.

I started working out at a gym which was only walking distance away. Oddly enough, the gym had opened just three or four months before I seriously made my decision to get in shape. I worked out there pretty much every day, doing basic body building things like babrell biceps curls and machine chess presses. I also became more and more conscious of my diet and substituted fruit for all the junk food I was eating. I have no idea how I did it before but I just quit flat out. Almost like a smoker does cold turkey. Suddenly any and all junk food really did look like their namesake: trash, with flies and all.


After only a year of this, I got down to only 170 – 175 lbs and a 28 – 30 inch waist during my first year in college. And it was all downhill from there. I know, I know, I didn’t give you my starting measurements so I can’t really say how much of an improvement all this was, but I gotta say that I was fat as hell. I was the typical fat kid with glasses back in grade school, and continued on until high school. If I had to take a guess, I weighed around 220 lbs., and had a 38 inch waist back when I started out.

During that first year of reinvention, my confidence soared through the roof. I became more outgoing and I began making more friends. So, yeah, I’m gonna be stereotypical and make my first few posts “success story” articles of sorts, just to let you guys know where I’m coming from.

I have a masters in business but am now studying human kinetics at a major university because this is genuinely what I like doing. I love learning about health and fitness and all related subjects. So now I want to start giving back to others somehow. Seeing as though everyone seems to have his or her own blog these days, I decided this would be the perfect way to somehow give back to everyone else. By showing how physical fitness can aid you in ways you probably never thought of before.

So, yeah, this is my very first blog so I’m sure I’ll be really rough aroudn teh edges starting out. I welcome any and all comments and feedback no matter how brutal they may be! I’ll be adding more and more to this place over the next few days as I come up with news ideas, so stay tuned!