Core Strengthening Exercises

You need to make sure that you have a strong core, so that it can support the rest of your body. I remember one of my old Rugby coaches showing me some important core strengthening exercises, which apparently all professional rugby players do.

There were four main exercises which worked the sides, front and back of the core. One, which you might know, is called the bridge and the rest are different variations – I will explain in more detail soon.

Ok, well first up I will explain the four core strengthening exercises my coach taught me.

1. Lie on your stomach, and hold yourself up with only your toes and forearms (from elbow to hands) touching the ground. Almost like a push up position on you elbows. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BACK IS STRAIGHT! I personally think that you should aim to keep it there for around three minutes without changing.
2. Do the same, except lie on your back with only your heels and palms touching the ground (have straight arms). Again I need to stress to you about keeping your body straight. This position should also be held for around three minutes. You should always work the opposing muscles equally.
3. This time lie on your side, with your arm perpendicular to the body. Hold yourself up with your forearm and outside of your foot touching the ground. Make sure that your elbow is aligned with your shoulder. You should feel the muscles working all the way down the side of your body.
4. The same as number three, but on the opposing side.

If you need any help with these exercises, then please just post a comment and I’ll get in touch with you.

Cheers,
Alex

Carbohydrate

Protein and fats are the body’s building sources for tissues and cells, whereas carbohydrate is an energy source. Carbohydrate is not essential for the body, because we can run from both protein and fat. But it is still better to have in our diet so that protein and such are used more for building and repairing things.

If you want to have more energy, be a ‘bouncier’ person, then you need to have more carbohydrate in your diet. More endurance athletes also have more carbohydrate to give them energy in their long distance races or training sessions.

I thought that I’d only give you a small article on carbohydrate today considering that I’ve already posted one about protein.

The Importance of Protein

Protein is a vital nutrient as it helps to grow and repair muscle, bones, skin, ligaments, and more. That even includes hair. Without protein you wouldn't be able to carry out processes such as digestion. When you are sick, protein helps with the immune system which fights infections.

Even though it is an important part of all the things above, I'm going to specifically mention about repairing and growing muscle. Lets say that you went to the gym and do a hard session (well any session really). When you use your workout, tiny sections of your muscle get ripped apart. Protein is what fixed those 'weak-spots' and makes them stronger, therefore giving you bigger muscles. If you had a lack of protein in your diet, but still workout lots, then you'll just get weaker and weaker as your muscle breaks down because there isn't enough protein to fix the muscles.

Another interesting thing that we should look out for is that endurance athletes require more carbohydrate (I’ll get into that later on) for energy, so some don’t really think about their need for protein as well. We use protein just living! Children use protein to grow their whole body. So no matter what you are doing, you have to make sure that you have enough protein coming into your body.

This Site

Straight to the point. Well I am making this site so that people can read through all the articles and get some knowledge that will hopefully help to get everyone fit and healthy.

Some of the different topics that I'll be posting about are:

• Healthy eating
• Strength and flexibility
• Cardio fitness
• etc

Hopfully you will come back, and check for the all-important updates.

See ya soon.