Category Archives: Exercise

The beginning of another year is almost here and as the age-old practice goes, most of us would go and renew our gym membership which most of us might have seldom used, isn’t it? Since the breakdown of the novel coronavirus in our world, people have become very serious about their body’s health and function. The novel coronavirus has taught us the importance of keeping a body fit and healthy and ensuring that the immunity game is strong.

When it comes to the world of bodybuilding and gym, it is the way training for muscle building has gained popularity the most of recent years. You could be a beginner at the gym or a fitness enthusiast — everybody wants to start weight training in order to keep the muscles toned and stronger than ever.

Most of the time, it is a lack of knowledge about muscle building that makes us fall prey to injuries that could be easily avoided. And this article is all about helping you understand the fundamental principles of weight training for building your muscles. This will not only help you become informed about the choices you make when it comes to your body, but it will also pump the right kind of confidence in you to achieve those dream body goals in the healthiest way! Read on to know more.

First: Know Your Vocabulary

It is very important to understand the terminology that is used for weight training when you need to build your muscles. Most people do not really know the actual practical meaning of the words that are used by their personal tailors or gym buddies and they end up working out either more or less that always creates a negative impact on the body.

• Rep: One complete motion of a particular exercise right from start to end is called one rep. For example, 1 complete squat is considered to be one rep.
• Set: A group of reps equals one set of examples, your workout might ask you to do three sets of eight reps. The first eight reps are equal to 1 set.
• Compound Exercise: this form of exercise is considered to be a movement where you are using more than one joint of your body to perform that movement. For example, we can consider a squat to be a compound movement as this involves the joints from your ankles, knees, and hips. And person trainers always recommend gym goers to prioritise compound exercises for greater results.
• Isolation Exercise: This is a form of movement where only one joint is used. For example, an isolation movement can be seen in a bicep curl. Only the elbow joint is involved here.
• Drop Set: When you’re performing any kind of movement, if you reach a failure point, you end up picking up lighter weights and you continue until you reach failure again.
• Superset: if you are performing variant exercises in each set without taking any rest in between — this is called a superset. This routine keeps your heart rate elevated and ensures that your muscle fibres are involved more and therefore you end up burning more calories.
• Pyramid Set: when you increase your weight with each set that you perform and you lower your reps, then it is called a pyramid set.
• Supinated grip: this is a grip position where your lower needs to be rotated so that your palm faces upwards.
• Pronated grip: this is a great position where your palms face downwards.

Second: Overload

You are considered to be overloaded if you expose your muscles to excessive weight stimulus or resistance that they can go through when compared to their normal everyday activities. The weight that you pick for any given exercise should allow you to complete all the repetitions incorrect form. If you struggle to maintain the technique while performing the petitions, you need to go back and complete your first set by decreasing the weight. On the other hand, if you successfully complete some extra Repps then you need to choose a heavier weight because your body has already recovered and got adapted to the tension that you made it go through.

Third: Progression

As we exercise more, our body gets stronger, and lifting the same weights that you did probably a week ago will not push your body as much as it did earlier. Therefore in order to ensure that the results are continuous, you will need to start overloading your muscles with more and more weight that is more stimulus over time. This is called aggressive overload and it is very necessary because your muscles continue to adapt. However, you don’t really have to always increase the weight. You could also increase your reps instead.

Fourth: Rest & Recovery

When you work out the stress from the overload causes minor damage to the muscle fibers. And when you sleep well, eat well, and rest, your body gets to start working by repairing and also reinforcing the little tears or damage that has been done to your muscle fibers. This process is like a look and can only be carried out when you are resting. Therefore never ever skip a rest day and secondly, you should not be training any harder than how you are being able to rest.

Fifth: Connection Between Muscle And Mind

Pushing, pulling, and lifting can be seen as very simple patterns therefore it is very easy for our mind to wander off and leave the bodies to go through the motions. However, we need to build our mind and muscle connection as it is just like meditation. It’s very important for us to get back to the present moment when we start thinking about our post workout meal while we are right in the middle of a set.

Ensure that for every single rate of exercise that you perform, you need to gather your attention on the muscles or the muscle that you’re working on. You need to visualise the concentric and eccentric contractions, you need to maintain awareness of the posture and alignment of your body and you need to also beware of any tension or stress that the muscles shouldn’t be facing when you are performing that exercise.

There are two essentials for efficient weight loss. A healthy diet and an effective workout plan. While diet serves as the fuel to your body, workout helps you burn calories and get into shape faster. A workout plan enables you to achieve your goals and helps you in keeping the weight off for a longer time. It is necessary to maintain the routine along with healthy eating habits to get faster results. It is necessary to understand that one workout plan may not work for all however, the plan discussed below can give you a push to workout. Changes can be done according to an individual’s needs later.

A great way to begin with your workout is:

Strength Training

Strength training is necessary for sustainable weight loss. It can also increase muscle mass when practiced for a long time. When the body has more muscle it requires more energy to maintain it. This results in an increased basal metabolic rate (BMR). It is advised to carry out full-body strength training rather than strengthening specific body parts as you may miss a day or two of your workout plan and it can cause confusion. Below are given the exercises to practice on day one.

Carry out exercises like bodyweight squats followed by bench dips, planks, and other exercises that can help you strengthen your body.

Cardio Day

Day two is meant for keeping your heart pumping and blood flowing. With the help of cardio exercise, the body can use oxygen more efficiently. It helps you burn more calories and promotes weight loss by helping in maintaining the calorie deficit. Older adults who are overweight can also go for cardio exercises as it reduces the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture. Various fun things can be done on a cardio day. For example, cycling, running, swimming, brisk walking, aerobics, and more.

Recovery Day

Recovery is necessary for rebuilding the muscles that you have worked out. On this day the body gets to rest and recover from the workout. However, this doesn’t mean you can laze around all day. A simple walk or some stretching exercises are recommended.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

This day involves pushing yourself a little more than your limits. Practice a HIIT session of around 20-30 minutes once a week. This enables you to burn more calories during the workout and after the workout since the body works harder to come to rest as compared to other days. It can also lead to muscle gain and enhance the oxygen consumption of the body.

Strength Training

Day five is the same as day one. You can carry out the same exercises as day one or you can modify them accordingly.

Recovery Day

Take a dip in hot water if your muscles feel sore and use anti-inflammatory herbs to reduce inflammation if needed. Do light exercise to keep the blood flowing for active recovery.

Cardio Day

The last day of the week will be the same as day two. You can practice the same cardio exercise or switch it up if needed.

Exercise is and definitely should be an essential part of everyone’s life. Without exercise, people’s health suffers tremendous loss and disadvantage and loses its flexibility and shape in really no time. That is why exercising is considered one of the unavoidable things in our life daily.

However, the most critical question that arises in young people today is when the most is an appropriate time for working out and exercising. Is it right to exercise at night or should compulsorily exercise in the morning? There is no confirmed or proved answer for this question as such. But, both day and night exercising gives equal benefits at their respective places.

The things that attract many people’s attention also create rumors and myths about the same. In the same way, even night exercising has many myths that are miles away from reality and practicality. These myths must not alter the mind and should not lend an ear; otherwise, they may significantly spoil your views and affect your life.

Popular Myths related to night exercises

There are some very baseless but popular myths about exercising at night, and these myths sometimes make people change their decision about exercising at night. People very seriously consider these myths despite them being a waste of time and irrelevant.

Some of such myths can be listed as follows-

• Night sweats may lead to insomnia:

It is a common perception that night sweats might cause insomnia conditions in people, which may increase to huge extents day-by-day. It is not the right thought because night sweats give more advantages to the people than disadvantages.

People who have insomnia can get enough and proper sleep if they are exercising before bedtime.

Night exercising, followed by a warm water bath, brings energy and activeness to people’s bodies and gives them long-lasting and deep sleep. So, it is indeed wrong to say that night exercising affects your sleep and gives you insomnia in people at any point.

• Working out after dinner may cause vomiting:

Sometimes, people may start exercising in the night immediately after dinner, which may cause vomiting and uneasiness in them. It is the wrong way of night exercising, should be done after about 30-45 minutes of your dinner. It will keep equal pace with your health and will not cause you vomiting and other uneasiness in the body.

If you want to prevent vomiting conditions, you should have a tight dinner schedule, and they should not be disturbed at any cost. An adequate will help to avoid vomiting conditions even after excessive or vigorous exercises.

The above myths are totally irrelevant and far away from reality. That is why these myths should not be considered by you if you are entirely determined to work out at night instead of morning, and this makes you happy and fresh in the morning and gives you peaceful sleep in the night.

Benefits of Exercising at Night

The following are the benefits of exercising at night, and these benefits are also very appropriate and exact solutions for making your health well and make you stronger and fitter day-by-day-

• Boosting Muscle Strength:

By performing night exercises, you will boost your muscles much more than you may while exercising in the daytime, as your muscles are strengthened and tightened throughout the day. Then they get incredibly relaxed while night exercising.

Muscle strength is a thing that provides energy and courage to you for performing well the whole day. That is why it is essential to do those exercises at night that will make your muscles relaxed and will help you to strengthen them to a great extent.

Boosting your muscle strength is easily possible for you at night time much more than it will happen in the daytime.

• Improves your Focus:

When you burst the stress you face throughout the day by exercising at night, you will feel much relaxed and free and be fully ready to meet a new tomorrow with full energy and enthusiasm.

Your focus and attention will improve when you burst your stress and concentrate your whole focus on one thing and do it with full efforts and dedication. Your efforts will surely pay you off when you dedicate everything to the work you do.

You should try night exercising if you want to focus on your life and goals in a much better and improved way or manner.

• Early wakeups without alarms:

When you get proper and stress-free sleep at night, you can focus on yourself much more throughout the next day, and this way, you can also sustain your energy all day long. With great enthusiasm and energy in your heart and mind at the end of the day, and while sleeping, you can wake up without any alarms and alerts. Your day will greatly freshen-up, and you will be very energetic and lively without any trouble in taking life happily and positively.

Your concerns and worries are not at all a barrier in your way to success and your goals.

• Best stress-buster for a tough day:

Your stress will surely get thoroughly busted when you exercise at night, which is the essential benefit of night exercising. When it comes to making good social contact night exercising should be your top priority, especially if you are an introverted kind of person.

A few people do night exercising or gymming. That way, you will easily interact with those people and increase your communication and interaction skills significantly. Undoubtedly, exercising at night will be an excellent stress-buster for you and help you communicate to a much greater extent.

• Healthy nightlife and healthy future:

When people get adequate sleep, they feel happy for the whole day and will also remain energetic for their entire life. With a fresh start, your every day will become essential and unique.

When the physical activity routine sets correctly, you will stay away from all the diseases and worries and lead a happy, stress-free, and successful life. A good nightlife always leads you to a better and bright future and releases all your stress and tensions. So, to get a prosperous and healthy life, you should try to set your schedule so that you can exercise at night daily and remain healthy and active all day long for sure.

The above benefits of exercises prove that your day will become much brighter and better when you exercise the previous night. To boost your energy and spirit, exercising at night can indeed prove to be the best solution for you throughout your life, and you will never regret this decision ever in your life.

Conclusion

The most important thing is to exercise regularly and maintain your health flow from time-to-time. Even if you exercise 2 hours-a-day, it is enough to make your body fitter and make you much more robust than before. A small regular exercise is much better than a vast but irregular activity.

Exercise must follow a schedule and stay regular, and you should keep a particular emphasis on what should be done by you to keep yourself in shape. All these things are a little challenging to be understood in the morning, and that is why night exercising has much more importance than daytime exercising.

Therefore, whether it is night exercising or day exercising, a regular schedule must be according to people’s comfort. Everyone should be alert about not missing their exercises at all. So, you should do all that it takes to keep yourself healthy and fit, whether at night or in the morning.