Remember to Cool Down at the end of your workout!

1. Quadriceps

Lying on your right side, pull left heel into left glute, feeling the stretch in the front of the thigh. Repeat with the right leg.

2. Hamstrings

Lying on your back, lift and straighten one leg directly above hips. Holding the calf or thigh, press heel toward ceiling as you pull leg back toward chest. Switch legs.

3. Glutes

Lying on your back, cross right leg over bent left knee. Then bring left knee to chest, holding onto the back of your thigh, gently pressing right knee wide. Switch legs.

4. Chest

Standing straight, interlace fingers behind your back as you straighten out your arms and lift chin to ceiling.

5. Triceps/shoulders

Take one arm overhead, bend at elbow joint, and extend palm down centre of your back, gently pulling elbow with opposite hand. Take same arm across the chest, gently pulling at the elbow joint, to extend through the shoulder. Switch arms

6. Core/back

On all fours, round out your back (like an angry cat), and then invert it, making a C-shape with your spine, Repeat three times. Then sit back between your heels, forehead on the mat, arms extended in front of you, as you lengthen your back. Now, pat yourself on the back—and go have a big glass of water!

10 Foods That Look Like The Body Parts They’re Good For

1)  Grapefruit – Breast Grapefruit, oranges, and other citrus fruits resemble female mammary glands and help the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts!  According to Dr. Moulavi, “Grapefruit contains substances called limonoids, which have been shown to inhibit the development of cancer in lab animals and in human breast cells.”

2)  Walnut – Brain

Walnuts have a striking resemblance to the human brain,  and have been recognized as one of the ultimate brain foods. Walnuts are a good source of omega-3, and have more antioxidants, folic acid (vitamin B9), and vitamin E than any other nut.  It is important to properly soak and rinse walnuts (as well as most other nuts) to remove phytates and activate enzymes for optimal nutrient absorption.

3)  Carrot – Eye

It is clear that a sliced carrot resembles an eye, it even has patterns of radiating lines that look just like the pupil and iris!  Beta-carotene (what gives carrots their vibrant orange colour) helps to maintain healthy eyesight, protects against macular degeneration, and the development of cataracts.

4)  Celery – Bone

A stalk of celery resembles a bone, and they’re good for bones too.  Celery contains silicon,which is part of what gives bones their strength.  Here’s an astonishing fact: bones are 23% sodium, and celery is also 23% sodium.

Stretching!

Try out these stretches before your next workout!

Sleep is essential for good studying, exercising, and relaxing.

Don’t think of it as Monday… It’s as simple as that…

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to strength and conditioning training you want to think about quality vs quantity. Lengthy training sessions are often the result of excess rest between sets or a lack of intensity. More training and more reps at a less intensity does not necessarily mean more growth or faster results. You need to train with intensity in mind. When you train with more intensity and less reps, you can often achieve more, in less time. With that said, below are just a few ways you can get more intensity & results out of some popular exercises.

1. Push Ups – There is nothing worse than watching a guy do a set of 50 push-ups and his chest barely goes near the floor and his elbows are fully bent! Instead of doing 50 “bunnies” as we refer to the fake push-up, just do a good set of 20-25 and thru consistency; over time those numbers will increase. A perfect push up means your head is up, back is straight and you perform a full range of motion touching your chest to the floor. Even if you can only do five perfect pushups, that is fine. Start there and work your way up each week.
2. Crunches – When it comes to crunches, I suggest to try to touch your knees and elbows every time at a slow and controlled pace bringing your chin to the ceiling (not your chest). Some people believe that doing more crunches at a faster pace is better because they did “more.” However, that is not the case. By slowing down each crunch, you are isolating your muscles, making them work harder.                      
   Tip: When you perform ab exercises during your workout, your posture may be just as important as the actual exercises that you complete. If you slouch your body while exercising, your abs will not receive the proper isolation, and you may not see the results that you want. When exercising, ensure that you maintain a neutral spine and engage your abs by pulling your belly button to your spine.
3. Pull-ups – Get your chin over the bar – then your chest to the bar. One of the most common errors while performing pull-ups is cheating the range of motion by not going low or high enough on each rep. If you’re using a less efficient technique or if you’re neglecting one or two of the main components that go into a correct pull-up you are at risk for injury while putting a limit on your performance from the start.

Reducing Sugar intake

• Toss the table sugar (white and brown), syrup, honey and molasses. Cut back on the amount of sugar added to things you eat or drink regularly like cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of sugar you add by half and wean down from there.
• Swap out the soda. Buy sugar-free or low-calorie beverages. Water is always the best choice!
• Eat fresh, frozen, dried or canned fruits. Choose fruit canned in water or natural juice. Avoid fruit canned in syrup, especially heavy syrup. Drain and rinse in a colander to remove excess syrup or juice.
• Compare food labels and choose products with the lowest amounts of added sugars. Dairy and fruit products will contain some natural sugars. Added sugars can be identified in the ingredients list.
• Add fruit. Instead of adding sugar to cereal or oatmeal, try fresh fruit (bananas, cherries or strawberries) or dried fruit (raisins, cranberries or apricots).
• Cut the serving back. When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t notice the difference.
• Try extracts. Instead of adding sugar in recipes, use extracts like almond, vanilla, orange or lemon.
• Replace it completely. Enhance foods with spices instead of sugar. Try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.
• Substitute. Switch out sugar with unsweetened applesauce in recipes (use equal amounts).
• Try non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose or saccharin in moderation. Non-nutritive sweeteners may be a way to satisfy your sweet tooth without adding more calories to your diet. The FDA has determined that non-nutritive sweeteners are safe.

Motivational Monday

You Can Only Be Limited By Yourself.

Looking To Increase Your Maximum

Jump Height?

Step 1

Run sprints to improve your cardiovascular fitness. In order to build an explosive jump that will propel you higher and longer, you need to build your cardiovascular capacity. Long jumpers need to be able to do short bursts of work with incredible force, and sprints are a great way to train the body for that work. Start with six rounds of 100-meter sprints with a minute or two of recovery in between. See if you can maintain or even beat your time on the first round through the sixth round. Try to improve on your time, and then move up to 200-meter sprints using the same format. Practice sprints at least once per week.

Step 2

Perform weight-bearing exercise to build the strength necessary for explosive power. If you really want to jump high, you need strength in your legs to power the jump. Train with squats at an increasing intensity, i.e. increasing weight, over a six-to-eight-week period. Stick to compound exercises that use more than one muscle group, as these exercises will be more effective and efficient for long-jump training. Don’t forget to train your upper body as well; you need to use the strength in your arms and abdomen to jump higher, so work on building total body strength. Do exercises like squat presses, pushups and pull-ups to efficiently build total body strength.

Step 3

Train with plyometrics. Plyometrics is a form of exercise training that uses jumping, hopping and bounding motions to build speed and strength. It makes perfect sense to use this sort of training to improve both the length and the height of your long jump. A common example of plyometrics is the squat jump. Instead of doing a normal squat, where your feet never leave the ground, the plyometric jump squat involves an explosive leap off the ground at the end of the squat, which not only builds strength, but also builds explosive power in the legs.

However, not all plyometrics exercises are suitable for training for all sports. Choose exercises that closely mimic the actions of your sports. For long jumping, an exercise that includes forward motion rather than just vertical motion would be most appropriate. Suitable exercises for increasing your explosive power would be 10- or 20-meter bounds and hops, tuck jumps and split jumps. When performing these exercises, focus on increasing the explosive power of your jump, which will improve jumping height and length.

Step 4

Stretch to increase flexibility of muscles and range-of-motion of joints. Think of your muscles as elastic bands; they need to be supple and pliable in order to expand and contract while you’re jumping. Practice yoga a few times a week, or at least stretch before and after each workout. Be sure you are warmed up before stretching to prevent injury.