No man can be wise on an empty Stomach

Rant and Tip for March 8, 2012

Quote: “No man can be wise on an empty Stomach”  George Eliot

This is why it is important to make sure you eat and not just try to starve yourself by lowering merely lowering calories to an obscenely low amount. You cannot think straight because your brain is not getting the fuel it needs to survive. Food becomes an obsession then. This is why it is important to eat the right foods throughout the day not only will you lose the weight but you will feel good while doing it.

One food that can actually help your body fight the hunger blues is cheese. That is right cheese. According to a Danish study a daily dose cheese does not raise your cholesterol levels and will keep satiated for a longer period of time after eating it. Do not go with the low fat variety, choose good full fat real cheese. It is the fat that will help you stay satiated. Now I am not saying that you go out and eat unlimited amounts of cheese. I am not saying that at all. What I am say is to allow yourself to have cheese as one of your snacks at one of your small meals.

Did you know at one time doctors would tell guy with high blood pressure to stay out of the gym? Well that is another myth debunked by science. A recent study out of Brazil had a group of men with hypertension stop taking their meds and lift weights 3 days a week for 12 weeks, their blood pressure dropped a little less than 12%. Lifting weight increases blood vessel function and or nervous system function. Here is something I didn’t expect to read, when they stopped the training sessions their BP stayed lowered for another 4 weeks. Not if the does not inspire you to start lifting I am not sure what will. Exercise has been proven time and time again to be the best medicine on the market today and if you do it at home with some dumbbells (ladies stop thinking about your husbands) it can be the least expensive.

I did get to train yesterday. I did squats. One of the new things I am attempting is after my workout I am over loading the bar with a weight about 50 to 60 pounds more than I can actually squat at this point in time. I then squat that amount down the safety pins at a height I know I can get it back up at. I hit that for 2 and then lower the safety pins by another inch or 2 and hit it again. This taxes the central nervous system and gets my body use to heavier weights. I am hoping for a 400 squat by August by doing this weekly. Each week I will try to get the bar lower and lower for 2.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Barbell Curl Mistakes

This is usually seen when guys are trying to lift too heavy a weight that is not within their ability. They will start curling the weight up and finish by using the momentum of their upper body to fully curl the bar to the finish point.

When this occurs, a great deal of stress is placed on the lower back and shoulder joints, as it is no longer the muscles that are pulling the weight up, but the speed of the movement.

The thinking behind this is that by using a heavier weight you will help to further push your muscles (after all, muscle growth is the result of overload); however, when the weight gets too high and this begins happening, the biceps aren't really even working anymore so no positive benefits will result.