WNY MMA & Fitness: Remember to do your push ups.

REMEMBER TO DO YOUR PUSH UPS!

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The pushup is one of the most basic and effective upper body exercises. Although it’s a fairly simple exercise, most people make a lot of mistakes. These five tips turn the standard push up from a chest/shoulders/triceps move into a full body exercise which means more muscle, increased strengthhttp://www.wnymma.com/ and faster results.

1. Brace Your Core
To avoid rounding your spine and doing “banana back” pushups, try squeezing or "bracing" your core. Imagine that you're going to get punched in the belly. Naturally, you’ll flex to guard. Bracing reduces the risk of injury by enforcing a neutral spine and engages your core, making the pushup of a full body exercise.

2. Squeeze Your Glutes
Your glutes are the one of biggest muscle groups in your body and often times the most inactive. By squeezing your glutes you will protect your lower back, improve posture, provide full body tension and help maintain a neutral spine.

3. Pack Your Elbows
A common tendency during pushups is to flare your elbows wide - a mistake and can lead to shoulder and rotator cuff issues. Instead, pack your elbows in towards your sides, trying to have less space between your armpits. “Stack” your joints, with your hands under your elbows, and your elbows under your shoulders. This will improve long-term shoulder health and recruit your triceps and lats more. Having joints in line also creates better range of motion in the shoulders and chest.

4. Grip The Floor
Instead of having your fingers together and pointing straight up, try this instead: Change your hand position so your thumbs are facing each other. Next open your fingers and grip the floor. This immediately creates more full body tension, tightens the lats and triceps and helps engage more upper back muscles.

5. Push The Ground Away From You
Instead of pushing yourself off the ground, think of pushing the floor away from you. This force production translates into full body tension and creates a bracing effect throughout the whole body. By pushing the ground away from you, you’ll use more muscles making the push up more of a full body exercise

source- Menshealth.com

WNY MMA & FITNESS- Losing Water Weight.

WNY MMA & FITNESS  - Losing Water Weight.

Our bodies don’t normally gain or lose significant amounts of fat or muscle overnight. Instead, when the scale shows a gain or loss of half pound or more from the previous day, the cause is instead likely to be the amount of water your body is retaining.

Is your weight gain fat or water? How to find out.

Figuring out whether your recent weight gain is fat or water can help you decide if you should cut down on calories, or focus on managing the amount of water your body is holding.

To find out, you can compare your current weight to your weight yesterday. More than half a pound gained since yesterday is probably water weight, and you can reduce it by cutting down on salt and increasing plain water consumption.

If you have kept track of your body fat percentage with a body fat monitor, you can   compare your current percentage to your results from a month ago. If the new measurement is greater than before, you’ve gained fat. If your body fat percentage has decreased but your weight has increased, the weight gain is not from added fat.

Check your extremities: are your hands, feet and ankles puffy? If yes, it is likely that your gain is water related. When you are retaining excess water, you might also notice imprints in your skin left by your socks, or your wedding ring may be tighter than usual.

Reasons for gaining water weight, and how to overcome them

Many possible causes exist for retaining water, including too much salt, sugar, dehydration, too much alcohol, dieting and women’s monthly cycle. Among other tips, if you are concerned about water weight, make an effort to drink more plain water. While it seems like the opposite of what you need to do, drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day will help flush sodium and excess fluid from your system. A well-hydrated body is healthier and is less likely to retain water.

Table salt is the most common cause of water retention. Excess sodium makes the body hold extra fluids in the cells. When you cut down salt and high sodium condiments like soy sauce, you can quickly lose water weight. 

Read labels of your foods and snacks and avoid those high in sodium. Anything canned or packaged probably has high sodium. Instead add fresh fruits and vegetables, especially potassium-rich foods that help your body balance its fluids. These foods include bananas, apricots, avocados and raisins. Other foods can help improve digestion and help fluids move through your body: yogurt, brown rice, cabbage and cranberry juice.

Sodium also leaves the body in your sweat during exercise, so be sure to exercise regularly, at least four times a week, to reduce water retention. 

Sugar is a culprit in water weight along with salt. Too much sugar raises insulin levels, which in turn lessens the body’s ability to expel sodium. Avoid high sugar foods and opt for fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats.

Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which can lead to dehydration that makes the body hold on to fluids. When having alcoholic drinks, balance them with water.

Dieting by eating less than 1,200 calories per day, can cause your body to retain water. When we restrict calories, especially carbohydrates, the body begins to break down its protein and carbohydrates stores that hold water. When eating returns to normal and the body starts to store protein and carbohydrates again instead of breaking them down, water weight increases. For real weight loss, you must gradually reduce calorie intake to a healthy level, with a balance of carbohydrates, healthy fats and proteins.

WNY MMA & Fitness- Float Like a Butterfly and Sting like a 20mm round fired from a M61A1!

Float Like a Butterfly and Sting Like a 20mm Round Fired From a M61A1!

Moving In

The mechanics of moving in:

1. From the boxing stance, the first action is a push from the back foot.
2. The front foot lifts very slightly from the floor, allowing the power generated from the push from the back foot to propel the body and therefore the front foot forward.
3. Allow the back foot to follow it’s course, catching up with the front foot.
4. The entire movement should be no more than 6 to 8 centimetres, and the boxer should retain the stance throughout.

Moving Out

The mechanics of moving out (unsurprisingly the exact opposite of moving forward!):

1. From the boxing stance, the first action is a push from the front foot.
2. The back foot lifts very slightly from the floor, allowing the power generated from the push from the front foot to propel the body and therefore the back foot backward.
3. Allow the front foot to follow it’s course, catching up with the back foot.
4. The entire movement should be no more than 6 to 8 centimetres, and the boxer should retain the stance throughout.

Common Faults When Moving In and Out

There are a number of common problems that can occur when developing the boxing footwork skills to move in and out:

1. Often, the boxer will ‘step and drag’.  For example, when moving forward, the front foot will step and the back foot will be dragged forward (vice versa when moving backward).  This method of movement does not allow the speed required for the purposes of not getting beaten up!
2. The distance between the two feet should remain roughly the same during the movement.  This is a further reason why aiming to move only 6 to 8 centimetres is desirable.  When the stance significantly narrows during movement, then the boxer is off-balance and less able to attack effectively or of more concern to defend effectively.
3. The boxer will flatten one or both feet, hindering the freedom of movement required for effective boxing.
4. The front foot will often point toward the opponent rather than retaining the 45 degree angle to the imaginary line, this cause problems with the balance.  This is common but should be identified and resolved without delay!
5. As covered when examining the boxing stance, it is during movement that the boxer may be likely to lose the line from the toe on the front foot to the heel on the back foot.  This again has the effect of taking the boxer off-balance.

As a next step, try mixing this boxing footwork with the jab.

WNY MMA& Fitness Tips for pre-fight nutrition.

WNY MMA& Fitness Tips for pre-fight nutrition. 

1. Carbo-load, don't fat-load.
Carbohydrate-rich foods include cereals, fruits, juices, breads, rice, plain baked potatoes and pasta with tomato sauce. Lower carbohydrate choices include donuts, cookies, buttery potatoes, ice cream, cheesy lasagna and pepperoni pizza. These fat-laden foods may taste great and fill your stomach, but fat does not get stored as muscle fuel.

2. No last-minute hard training.
By resting your muscles and doing very little exercise this pre-event week, your muscles will have the time they need to store the carbohydrates and become fully saturated with glycogen (carbohydrate). You can only fully carbo-load if you stop exercising hard! You can tell if your muscles are well-carbo-loaded if you have gained 2 to 4 pounds pre-event. Your muscles store 3 ounces of water along with each ounce of carbohydrate. (This water will be released during the event and be put to good use.)

3. No last-minute dieting.
You can't fully carbo-load your muscles if you are dieting and restricting your calories. You will have greater stamina and endurance if you are well-fueled, as compared to the dieter who may be a few pounds lighter but has muscles that are sub-optimally carbo-loaded. Remember: You are supposed to gain (water) weight pre-event!

4. Drink extra fluids.
You can tell if you are drinking enough fluids by monitoring your urine. You should be urinating frequently (every two to four hours); the urine should be clear-colored and significant in volume. Juices are a good fluid choice because they provide not only water and carbohydrates but also nutritional value. Save the sports drinks for during the event.

5. Eat tried-and-true foods.
If you drastically change your food choices (such as carbo-load by eating several extra bananas), you may end up with intestinal distress. Simply eat a comfortable portion of the tried-and-true carbohydrates you've enjoyed during training. You need not stuff yourself! If you will be traveling to a far-away event, plan ahead so you can maintain a familiar eating schedule despite a crazy travel schedule.

6. Eat a moderate amount of fiber.
If you stuff yourself with lots of white bread, bagels, crackers, pasta and other foods made with refined white flour, you may end up constipated. Include enough fiber to promote regular bowel movements — but not too much fiber or you'll have the opposite problem! Moderate amounts of whole-wheat bread, bran cereal, fruits and vegetables are generally good choices. (If you are concerned about diarrhea, limit your intake of high-fiber foods and instead consume more of the refined breads and pastas.)

7. Eat the morning of the endurance event.
You'll need this fuel to maintain a normal blood sugar level. Although your muscles are well-stocked from the foods you've eaten the past few days, your brain gets fuel only from the limited amount of sugar in your blood. When you nervously toss and turn the night before the event, you can deplete your blood sugar and, unless you eat carbs, you will start the event with low blood sugar. Your performance will go downhill from there.

Plan to replace the energy lost during the (sleepless) night with a light to moderate breakfast as tolerated. This will help you avoid hitting the wall. Stick with tried-and-true pre-exercise foods: cereal, bagels, toast, fruit, energy bars and/or juice. These carb-based foods invest in fueling the brain, as well as staving off hunger. If a pre-event breakfast will likely upset your system, eat extra food the night before. That is, eat your breakfast at 10 p.m.

8. Consume carbs during the event.
During endurance exercise, you'll have greater stamina if you consume not only water, but also some carbohydrates, such as sports drinks, gels, bananas or dried fruit. You should target about 100 to 250 calories/hour after the first hour to avoid hitting the wall. (For example, that's 16 to 32 ounces of sports drink/hour.)

The slower you move, the more you need to fuel yourself during the event. Some athletes boost their energy intake by drinking diluted juices or defizzed cola; others suck on hard candies or eat chunks of energy bar, animal crackers and other easily chewed and digested foods along the way. Your muscles welcome this food; it gets digested and used for fuel during the event. And hopefully, you will have experimented during training to learn what settles best.