Fitperf Fit Tips

Personal Training for Weight lifting Weight lifters and bodybuilders have long debated whether muscle growth is initiated and maintained through maximum lifts, or maximum muscle contractions.  There seems to be merit in both theories. Heavy lifts are necessary to tear muscle fibers and initiate the process of hypertrophy, which is the enlargement of muscle fibers.  This growth of type two fast twitch fibers needs adequate force to tear the cross bridging attachment between contracting muscle fibers.  The constant reoccurring process of lifting and tearing results in larger muscles, through the growth of muscle cells. The bodybuilding concept of maximum contraction results in transient hypertrophy, or the increase in blood fluids and a corresponding rise in blood pressure.  The contractions also stretch the muscle fascia which is the membranous tissue surrounding muscle bundles.  This repeated stretching of the fascia can result in the ability to have a ...

It is not mine, it is my mother’s fault I’m fat Over eating goes back to primitive times.  Primeval man had no way to maintain or store fresh meat.  The storage of meat through the use of salting goes back centuries.  Salting removes the water content and turns meat into a storable form of, tasteless shoe leather.  The killing of livestock was timed around the eating and use of the animal.  Societies had feasting ceremonies where copious amounts of animal flesh were consumed over a period of days.  These aforementioned feasting ceremonies are what we call holidays.  Along with the gluttonous consumption of food came the overzealous drinking of alcoholic beverages.  How could one celebrate without a good “buzz” on? Starting to see how overindulgence might be programmed into our DNA, as socially expected behavior.  When we were children and we were “good” what did our parents, or grandparents give us in reward?  Cookies or candies w...

Reaching your Fitness Goals How to start an exercise program can be daunting task if one does not know where to start. To quote a line from the Wizard of Oz “it is best to start in the beginning”. To evaluate where one needs to go one must first honestly ascertain and evaluate that individual’s health and fitness level. This is definitely the time one may want to enlist the services of a competent personal trainer. A personal trainer will accurately gauge your fitness abilities through fitness testing or from observation of exercise performance. Using the fore mentioned methods of evaluation a fitness trainer can then select appropriate exercises, exercise order rest periods and other exercise prescription variables. The Fitness Performance blog article from November 8, 2012 “What is Fitness?” enumerates on the various components of fitness, this article can be used as a template for the lay person to evaluate their health and fitness needs. When first embarking on a health an...

HOW I WENT FROM A PENCIL NECK TO A LUNK We are bombarded with commercials talking about a no Lunk Zone.  Lunks are what Planet Fitness has characterized as what body builders are.  They are trying to reinforce the image that muscles equate to mindless idiots.  They wish to create a gym where no one is really in shape but rather are happy with their level of don’t try hard complacency.  This is a place where people can eat their pizza, and sip their sodas while they work out.  This is a so called fitness company where people aren’t fit.  This is what Planet Fitness imagines as a good thing, creating an atmosphere where people don’t push themselves to the next level.  People need to raise the bar as far as their fitness levels, not put the bar on the floor, and aspire towards nothing. Years ago when I first started going to the gym yes I was intimidated by the big guys lifting the big weights.  Though I was intimidated I knew that if I wor...

In the pursuit of physical perfection, and the improvement of physical performance the use of supplements to amplify and cause changes is not a new concept.  The search for ergogenic aids, or supplements to improve the boy’s functioning or performance is as old as: the ancient Greeks consuming ground lions teeth or the native Americans consuming ground buffalo testicles.                                               The public’s conception of the means to change the body is not much better hundreds or thousand of years later.  The claims and marketing of today’s supplements make the concept of eating buffalo testicles seem logical.  Supplement companies are interested in making money not necessarily in helping, or furthering the health of their consumers.  Protein powder mixed with proprietary additives makes the claim that Mr Universe uses this f...