Fitness Mat & Leather Weightlifting Gloves

Greetings readers! I feel quite bored during this 3 weeks long of trimester break so i decided to go out somewhere to free my mind from the boredom last Monday morning. I went to Jusco Bandaraya Malacca just for a window shopping but surprisingly, i end up bought a fitness mat and leather weightlifting gloves there. Well, it is been quite awhile i planned to buy the fitness mat and the leather weightlifting gloves but never had the chance to get them. I wanted to use it for my push-up, sit ups and other exercises in which i think best fit to use it.

As i went from shop to shop and see anything that may caught my interests, i was then reached Fitness Concept Store located at 3rd floor, which is just a few stores away from the Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) counter. Unfortunately, not so many choices available there. 

There are only 3 types of fitness mat. 1 with cushion type and the other 2 were quite similar in appearance but different brands. I did not had the chance to snap photo of those fitness mats and leather weightlifting gloves available since it is not allowed. 

So, i decided to just bought the one with reasonable price, well at least i have one for my own use for the time being. I bought 1 fitness mat with the price of RM 65.00 and 1 pair of leather weightlifting gloves with the price of RM 39.50.

Plank Exercise

The plank exercise is actually an isometric core strength exercise that involves maintaining a difficult position of the body for the extended periods of time. The plank position also called a front hold, hover or abdominal bridge and the most common plank is the front plank which is held in a push up position with the body's weight borne on the forearms, elbows and also the toes.

The are many variations of plank exercise exist such as side plank and reverse plank. This plank exercise is commonly practiced in pilates, yoga, in training for boxing and also other sports. This exercise best to consider for strengthening the abdominals, the back and also shoulders. And now, lets move to the muscle parts that involved when doing front and side plank exercise.

The muscle parts that involved in the front plank includes : 

Primary 

• Erector spinae 
• Rectus Abdominis (abs)
• Transverse abdominus

Secondary 

• Trapezius (traps) 
• Rhomboids 
• Rotator cuff 
• The anterior 
• Medial 
• Posterior deltoid muscles (delts)
• Pectorals (pecs)
• Serratus anterior 
• Gluteus maximus (glutes)
• Quadriceps (quads)
• Gastrocnemius 

The muscle parts that involved in the side plank includes : 

Primary 

• Transverse abdominus 
• Gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles (abductors)
• The adductor muscles of the hip 
• The internal and external obliques 

Secondary 

• Gluteus maximus (glutes)
• Quadriceps (quads)
• Hamstrings 

I also did this plank exercise myself after done with my push up. So, if you want to try it, you also can do it too! Just start off with 50 push ups and right after you done with that, straight away do a plank for approximate 1 minute and keep repeat the process for 5 sets or more as you wish. Good luck!

How To Do Proper Push Up

A basic push up exercise is an effective way to strengthen the chest and arm muscles. And guess what? The most simple and basic push up exercise require no other equipment other than your own body weight and your arms. In fact, this particular exercise can be done anywhere you want like at home, office or at recreational park. 

So, you don't even have to go to the gym since it is very convenient for you to do it at any place you want with no cost involved at all. For this entry, i will explain on how you can do proper push up exercise. Now, let us get started! 

Step 1

Get yourself into the push up position. This means you need to be in a face-down position on the floor. During this time, you need to keep your feet together and your weight should be on your chest. 

Step 2 

After done with step 1, you then need to position your hands palm-down on the floor and it must be shoulder width apart. In other words, your hands should be placed next to your shoulders with your elbows pointed towards your toes. 

Step 3

You now need to curl your toes in upward position in which means the toes need to be pointed towards your head and the balls of your feet should touch the ground. 

Step 4

Raise yourself using arms. During this period, your weight should be supported by your hands and the balls of your feet. And remember to keep the "plank" position; meaning you need to keep your body in a rigid straight line from your head to your heels. As the push-up started at this stage, you need to keep raising and lowering your body at a considerable timing depends on your target set.

Keep your head down and breathe in as you raise and breathe out as you lower down your body. And do not drop your hips, keep the flat and rigid plank position as you do this exercise. 

Mind the hands position too as it can effect certain muscles part when you implementing push up while in the plank position. Please be informed that the closer you put your hand together, the more you will engage your triceps and the wider apart they are, the more you will engage your chest. So, be wise to know and choose which style that you really need to work on.

Best Practices to Get Fit at Home

Greetings my fellow readers! What a bright day in Malacca today. And today, i feel i want to write something useful to many people out there who do not have time to go to the gym for workout. Well, it is understandable since everybody has their own matter to attend to and this may cause time constraint for them to visit gym and do workout. In meeting this issue, so i try to search for few articles that correlated and find solutions for these group of people. And i come out with the best solution which is on how people out there who does not have enough time to go to the gym can get fit even at own home. 

As experts stated that we also can get fit at home without having to go to the gym to meet our workout needs and the result still visible and absolute but of course with discipline, passion and determination as well. There are mere 5 elements that we need to observe in order to get fit at home. And yes, i can mentioned here that certain gym is quite expensive and the cost can come to worse if you join health club out there. So, why don't you try some of the workout that best to be practiced at home and you still can get the result you wish. 

The 5 elements to get fit at home are as follows : 

• Warmup 
• Cardiovascular workout 
• Resistance exercise 
• Flexibility moves 
• Cooldown 

Lets start with a warmup first. Each and everytime you want to get started to exercise, it is very important for you to warm yourself up as the first step before you go intense in your exercise or workout. This is actually to avoid muscles cramps during the workout since you need to "activate"your muscles and be active for the intense exercise later on. You may start you warmup with easy walk outside or you can also do it on a treadmill as well, on which you comfortable with. Just feel enjoy doing this and you will automatically get motivated at the same time. 

After done with the warmup, you can start doing cardiovascular workout already. For cardiovascular portion, you can either walk faster, pedal faster, do aerobic steps or do a jump rope. And remember, this cardiovascular workout is very important as you need to gets your heart rate up and this will benefits both of your health and your body at the same time, simultaneously! 

For the resistance exercise, you can do a repetitive squats and push-ups. Squats actually works the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus and also calves whereas push-ups involves the pectorals, deltoids, biceps, triceps and even the abdominals and the upper back. Even with this simple exercises, you also can get the benefits from doing it. Just challenge yourself of how many squats and push-ups you can do within time set and you can assess yet improve your strength capabilities over time. 

Now we move to flexibility moves. For this portion, you can do some floor stretch or yoga poses. For some of people out there may find this not quite an option for them but if possible, you can try them it once. There is no harm trying right? So, just try to stretch yourself and see what you can do. 

After done with all the workouts and exercises, you need to cool yourself down. Meaning here, you need to rest but do remember, if your heart rate or beats fast, just relax and keep standing up and let the heart rate or beats turn to its normal rate. Do not directly sits down or lying down on the floor to rest. There are cases happen where someone passed out after resting merely after done with workouts and exercises. 

Getting started!

If you are a beginner, just be sure to aim for 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercises at least 3 times a week and focus on 30 minutes of strength workouts 3 times a week. In fact, while implementing this suggested portion of exercises and workouts, be sure that all the exercises and workouts done covers all the major parts such as upper body, lower body, abdominals and also the back. 

It is totally understandable that everyone want a fast and visible result of their workout but then end up overdone their workout in a wrong way. This should be avoided actually since we do not want all the efforts gone to waste. To me personally, it is better for us to do it slowly and then gradually increase the workout time and intensity in order to prevent injuries and what more important, all the efforts made is worthy enough as the result is also visible and better yet, we do it correctly and in a safe way too!

How To Do Proper Sit Ups

Sit up exercise is an abdominal strength training exercise which commonly performed in order to strengthen the abdominal muscles. If you are the beginner, i suggests you to start off with the most basic one and the try it with some modifications to the traditional sit up practices when you get stronger. There are several types of sit ups available but for this entry, i will explain how you can implement the most basic one only and will update the other types of sit up soon.

Sit up begin with lying with the back on the floor, typically with your arms across your chest. Sometimes you also can put your hands behind your head but it is not advisable because it can strain your neck muscles during the sit up process. So, let me explain the steps to do proper sit up. 

Step 1 

Lying your body on hard surface and have your knees bent. The balls of your feet and also heels should be placed flat on the ground as well. 

Step 2

You must place your hands on opposing shoulders so that your arms are crossed over your chest. You can also put your hands behind your head but it is not advisable because it can strain your neck musles. 

Step 3

After that, you must tighten you abdominal muscles gently by drawing in your belly button to your spine. 

Step 4 

While keeping your heels and your toes flat to the ground, slowly and gently lift your head first then followed by your shoulders blades. Keep focusing your eyes on your bent knees and gently contracting the abdominal muscles. During this stage, you must pull yourself up from the floor until you are at ninety-degree angle, or when your elbows are on or past the knees. 

Step 5 

When you done with the previous steps, hold the position for a few seconds and then slowly bring the torso back to the floor but do remember to keep it slightly, yet relaxed, arch. 

Sit up is a quick way to get stronger abdominal muscles indeed. Like what i had mentioned earlier, beginner are advisable to do the most basic one first and the proceed with the other types which are more challenging types after they get stronger. 

But however, those who diagnosed with osteoporosis should avoid doing this sit up exercise. This is because bending your spine in the sit up position increases the stress on your bones and can put you at risk for a stress fracture. So, better be safe than sorry; know your ability first and then you can assess whether this sit up exercise is suitable for you to do or not. Cheers!

Weight Gain Tips : Weight Lifting Exercise

For those who keep on visiting my blogs, i am sure you noticed that i ever post an entry about how skinny people can gain their weight by eating more right? And today, i want to write another weight gain tips for those who need it. But for today's tips, i will stress on about the exercise in regard with weight gain process stage and what it can do in order to help the gain weight process. 

Well, exercise is another component in gaining process. As you want to add pounds to yourself and avoid it from becoming flab instead, you need to exercise and focus on strength training. I suggests that you do weight lifting exercise and implement it for at least around 3 - 4 sessions a week. This is because when you lift weight, you actually force your muscles to expand. From there, your muscles will grown big and therefore requires you to eat more in order to fill in the expanded muscles part. But do remember to go hard for hard after each exercise and lift as much as you can handle but also aware for not to overdo it. Just gradually increase it over time and repeat the exercise for around 7 - 8 times per sessions depend on your capabilities. 

As what one quote always state that, "No pain, no gain". So, this means you need to feel the pain then you will gain the benefits from the pain itself. Same goes to this exercise as well. 

After you done with the exercise, give yourself one or two days to rest as your muscles need to recover itself. As you lift weight, your muscle tissue will tear and then will build more efficiently when you give it some time to recover. During this period, the process of healing of those muscle tissue will take place means your muscles will become stronger the next time you lift. 

When your muscles become stronger and stronger, do not forget to increase the weight for you to lift. But however, do not rush the process by increasing the weight more than you could handle as this will lead to great injuries to your muscles. Do it gradually and play safe, that is the better way since even though just by small increment in weight over from time to time will increases your strength and you will notice a big difference in just a few weeks. But of course, with rigid passion and perseverance too. 

Simply put, as you gaining weight by eating more or plenty of foods with high calories capacity, and at the same time you do weight lifting exercise and those calories you ate been burnt during the workout process. The you will have to fill the expanded muscles part by eating more foods again and this repetitive process will make your body grow healthily and fit. From here you already get the big picture of the art of this gaining weight stages. 

Instead of weight lifting exercise, you can also do a push-up exercise. This also another way for you to stay fit during weight gaining process. It is the best and the most enjoyable one i ever try for myself and still doing it until today. Try it out yourself and you can feel the difference too!

Walking & Running : Excellent Aerobic Exercises Ever!

Do you want to jump start your day with some fitness idea that you can incorporated into your fitness routine? Well, i can tell that getting the time to exercise is very challenging indeed especially when you are working and having a very tight schedule everyday. But, take your time reading this entry as this may attract your attention about how you can fit fitness into your schedule. It is actually the simplest method and you may not realise it as you did it everyday and even the whole entire life of yours. And the method is by walking and running. 

And yes, both walking and running is actually a types of aerobic exercises which can benefit anyone who practising them. As walking and running are both excellent aerobic exercises and no doubt also an excellent way for you to build your cardiovascular fitness. In addition, walking and running both beneficial for everyone since it helps promote weight loss for those who wish to put out weight or suffer from obesity, also improve your sleep if you having difficulties sleeping, at the same time elevate your mood and also boost up your energy level. 

Adding both of those aerobic exercises to your routine can also prevent you from getting harmful health problems such as heart disease and diabetes, decrease your blood pressure, decrease cholesterol level and also decrease the risk of cancer. 

As walking and running are easy for you to do, it also a good exercise for those who are intent to starts into workout programme and those who suffered with many health problems. Maybe some of you ever heard that walking burns more fat compared to running right? Well, i shall mention here that is actually a true fact indeed. This is because while you walking, as you actually exercising at your lower concentration, fat is being used as "fuel" by your body. But however, running is not less important for you to consider since running can burns more calories which may contribute to weight loss as well. 

So, it doesn't matter either you choose walking or running, both of them has their own benefits and it is best for you to consider which one is best in meeting your personal needs and preferences.

The Art of Push-Up Exercise

Maybe most of the people out there ever heard about the push-up exercise but based on my own observations, there are only some of them know about the benefits of this simple exercise. And yes, i also practise this particular exercise myself since couple of years ago and i am quite happy with the result so far. Better yet, no costs involved since the exercise can be done anywhere as you wish i.e. house, office and also recreational park. 

First and foremost, let's starts with the introduction part first. The push-up exercise is actually a common body movements exercise performed by one person in a prone position by raising and lowering the body using arms. But however, there are certain rules that need to be followed and remembered by those who practise it. Mind the position as you need to place your hands in a wide position since it will increases the push-up's use of chest muscles opposed to arm muscles. 

Push-up targets or worked out the muscles around the chest, arms and shoulders. Hence, the supports required from other muscles results in a wider range of muscles integrated into one simple exercise itself. So meaning that t is quite worthy and again, it is totally free and easy to be done anywhere as you wish. 

For those who wish to try this exercise, i suggests you to start gradually. During your first time, you may experience a minor pain around your arms as your muscle starts to stretch itself in order to pull your weight all over both of your hands. But do not fret, the pain will decreases over a short period of time.

So, i advise you to starts with low capacity first. For instance, 15 - 20 push-ups per set each session; 3 - 4 sessions per week with a day or two days gap for each session. And the following week, try to increase the capacity to 30 - 40 push-ups per set and further increase it over time and keep doing it over and all over again. 

The reason why i ask you to put a gap between the session is actually to give your muscles time to rest in order for it to gain itself up. You can try to do the exercise once every 2 days. So from there you can see the shape gradually formed around the affected areas. Or maybe you can take photos to monitor and compare the changes of your body shape over the time since you started the exercise. And trust me, you will never regret to practise this simple exercise because apart from getting best desired body shape, you will gain a good health too!