10 Tips To Improve Your Cardio Workout

Making cardio workouts part of your exercise regimen is a surefire way to improve fitness and health. But you don't have to spend hours on the treadmill or trail to achieve results. Instead, use these tips for effective cardio workouts that burn calories and fat.

1. Increase the Incline

Instead of running on a flat road or treadmill, head for the hills or bump up the incline. Running uphill will send the heart rate through the roof and increase the calorie burn. Some added benefits include improved leg strength, running form and spring speed.

2. Hands Free

When using a piece of cardio equipment don't hold onto the handrail. Just let go and pump the arms forward and back, not across the body (which will reduce the effectiveness of a workout).

3. The Great Outdoors

If possible, take to the outdoors to add variety and new challenges to a boring running routine. Mountain biking and trail running on uneven surfaces improves athleticism and balance while working smaller, but equally important, stabilizer muscles.

4. Stop and Go

Use interval training to increase workout intensity and maximize results. Alternate periods of all-out effort with periods of low effort or rest. Try sprinting 100 meters and then walking or jogging back to the start line before repeating the sprint. Eight to 10 sprints is all it will take to get a great workout.

5. Swing It

Try kettlebell training for a workout that provides both cardio and strength benefits. Use the two-hand kettlebell swing to improve lung efficiency and maximum heart rate in a fraction of the time of traditional training methods.

6. More Work, Less Rest

Select six to eight body weight exercises, resistance training and cardio-based movements to use as part of an up-tempo circuit-based workout. Perform the first exercise, and then move onto the next without working. Repeat for each exercise before resting for one to two minutes at the end of the circuit.

7. Keep Pace

Use a smart phone app (like FitDay), heart rate monitor or GPS to record distance, pace and calories burned. Tracking all of these variables helps increase motivation and promote progress to avoid a performance plateau.

8. Turn it Up

The music that is. Listening to music during a workout improves performance by increasing motivation and reducing fatigue. Pick something up-beat and fast-paced to keep energy levels high throughout the workout.

9. The Buddy System

Workout with a training partner or group of friends to make the entire gym experience more enjoyable. Being accountable to another person will also serve as motivation and prevent missed workouts.

10. Be Consistent

The best way to get results from a cardio workout is to create a routine and stick to it. Whether it's first thing in the morning, at lunch or after work, the body will adapt to training any time during the day. Be consistent and exercise on a consistent basis and your fitness goals are within reach.

Fitness Basics For A Healthy Heart

Wondering what you need to know to improve your physical fitness and help reduce your heart disease risk? Let’s start with these fitness basics.

Physical activity is anything that makes you move your body and burn calories.

For people who would benefit from lowering their blood pressure or cholesterol, the American Heart Association recommends 40 minutes of aerobic exercise of moderate to vigorous intensity three to four times a week to lower the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Below are several key types of exercise that can all help you improve your level of fitness.

1. Strength and resistance training

Strength and resistance training are important elements of a good physical activity routine. The American Heart Association recommends strength training at least twice per week.

A well-rounded strength-training program provides the following benefits:

• Increased strength of bones, muscles and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments)
• Lower risk of injury
• Increased muscle mass, which makes it easier for your body to burn calories and thus maintain a healthy weight
• Better quality of life

2. Walking and running

Walking is a great way to get you moving with minimal impact on your body. It’s also low-risk and easy to start. While the AHA recommends that adults get 150 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, even short 10 minute activity sessions can be added up over the week to reach this goal.

A regular walking program can also:

• Improve your cholesterol profile
• Lower blood pressure
• Increase your energy and stamina
• Boost bone strength
• Prevent weight gain

Do you want to start jogging or running but aren’t sure how? Dr. Deborah Rohm Young, vice chair of the AHA’s Physical Activity Subcommittee, encourages women to start by setting small goals. Begin by walking 15 minutes four times per week, Young suggests. “You can experience an increased sense of wellbeing almost immediately,” she says. “From there, you can have more energy to do other things.”

3. Yoga

Yoga is an ancient practice with potential mental and physical health benefits for people of all ages.

Practicing yoga—as part of an overall healthy lifestyle—can:

• Help lower blood pressure
• Increase lung capacity
• Improve respiratory function
• Boost circulation and
• Tone muscles
• Give you a sense of well-being while building strength

In addition, yoga poses require stretching, increasing flexibility.

Flexibility activities are an appropriate part of a physical activity program. Note however that yoga does not count toward the 150-minutes-per-week of recommended moderate activity. That’s due in part because some forms of yoga do not raise the heart rate enough to achieve moderate intensity aerobic activity for a sustained period.

Try these yoga moves to improve your heart health.

Learn more about different types of exercises, including swimming and bicycling, to find what is right for you.

How To Properly Track Your Fitness Progress

 Earlier this week I passed along four success stories from readers who saw freaking awesome results in just six weeks.  Last month, I shared my talk at Google that contained more success stories with fellow nerds who made incredible changes and drastically changed their lives over the course of a few months.

Some people gained strength and muscle while others lost tremendous amounts of weight and body fat; despite the differing goals and vastly different results, they all made one specific change that helped them truly get the results they wanted:

They wrote everything down.

If you’re serious about making changes to your life and getting in shape, I cannot stress enough the importance of tracking your progress, and I don’t mean just stepping on the scale every morning and freaking out every time it goes up 1/10th of a pound.  I’m talking about a plan that allows you to find and stay on the right path.

Luckily, I’m here to help you start putting these practices in place TODAY.

In the immortal words of that overweight Italian plumber, “here we gooooooo!”

The Importance of Tracking Everything

Does this sound familiar?

1. You decide you want to get in shape
2. You go for runs every day for a week and try to eat less food
3. You step on the scale every day for a week and the numbers go down. Yaaaay!
4. You go to a cookout on a Sunday, step on the scale on Monday, and its higher than before!
5. You freak out, go crazy, and fall off the wagon
6. Lather, rinse, repeat

I’d guess this is 80% of people who try and fail to get in shape. Fortunately, you’re reading Nerd Fitness which means you’re most likely smart, incredibly good looking, humble, and aware that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is the definition of insanity.  On top of that, you understand and value the importance of tracking your progress – as the saying goes “that which get measured gets improved.”  This is true specifically for these reasons:

• Scales don’t tell the whole story. I’ve already covered my thoughts on scales. If you are training the right way (with an emphasis on strength training), your weight might not drop as fast as it would if you starved yourself and ran 20 miles a day.  Heck, you might be getting stronger and more muscular but the scale refuses to budge.  Now, if you only had a scale as your ‘measuring stick,’ you’d probably get super discouraged and depressed at the lack of “progress.”  However, if you were tracking your body changes properly, you’d realize that you are making far more significant and healthier progress by doing things the right way.  At the end of Saint’s journey to the Ab-promise land, his weight WENT UP while his body fat percentage went down.  The scale can lie!
• You don’t know if you’re on the right path. Along with the scale not telling the whole story, it’s tough to tell if you’re losing the right kind of weight in the right kind of places.  There are so many other aspects to consider other than the number on the scale, including how you look, feel, and where the weight loss is coming from – your muscles or your stored fat.  It’s like driving cross country without a map, compass, road signs, or land marks to use – how do you know you’re going the right way if you have no idea where you were or where you’re headed?
• You don’t know how much you’re eating. If you’re overweight, you probably don’t realize how many calories you consume on a daily basis.  If you’re underweight and “can’t gain weight no matter what you eat,” you probably don’t realize how many calories you consume on a daily basis.  Americans have such a warped sense of reality when it comes to proper “portion size” and what constitutes a meal.  We need to be better informed.
• You can’t tell if you’re getting stronger. Our bodies need to be constantly challenged in order to adapt and get stronger.  If you do three sets of 10 push ups every day for a year…you will just be really good at doing 3 sets of 10 push ups and nothing more.  You need to constantly increase the difficulty of your workouts in order to get results.  If you didn’t know how you did last time, how the hell are you going to know if you’re doing better this time?
• That which is measured gets improved! I’m sure there are actual psychological reasons behind why this works, but I know that I get better results when I exercise if I know EXACTLY what I need to lift or how fast I need to run to get stronger and better.  If I did 30 push ups in a row last week, then this week I have “31! 31! 31!” emblazoned in my mind while doing them…sure enough I’ll get to 31.  On top of that, if you’re constantly keeping track of what you eat, taking measurements, and tracking your workouts, you will always be thinking “healthy!” and thus make healthier decisions on a more consistent basis.

Hopefully at this point you’ve at least come to the conclusion that maybe you should start tracking your progress.  “Yes Steve, I have seen the light and I’m ready to start tracking my progress…tell me what the hell I need to do!”

PERFECT.  Here’s how to do it.

Track Your Body

THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE DOES NOT DEFINE YOU! When you strength train and eat properly, your body tends to only shed fat while keeping the muscle you already have.  Compare that to crash dieting and hours of cardio where your “weight loss” will be greater…but you’ll be losing both muscle and fat (and leave you looking and feeling like a weakling).

By tracking your body composition in more than one way, you’ll have a more accurate view of what’s working and what’s not working with your training.  If after a few weeks you’re not losing the right kind of weight, you’ll know that you need to make some adjustments.

Before we get into metrics, let’s set one ground rule: Don’t track everything on a day-to-day basis.  Our bodies are incredibly complex pieces of machinery where all kinds of crazy stuff happens all day and all night.  Our weight can fluctuate by many pounds over the course of a day.  Measuring EVERY day will promote an unhealthy OCD behavior where every tiny little change will be scrutinized and blown out of proportion.   So, measure yourself once a week at the same time, I advices after you wake up and before you eat breakfast.  Depending on your schedule, I’d either pick Friday or Monday mornings to track all of your measurements – if you tend to let yourself go on the weekends, I’d advise doing your measurements on Friday morning so that you’ll have a whole week to get back on track and see long-term changes.

Here are the best ways to track yourself OTHER than a scale:

Take a picture – My favorite method.  Stand in front of a mirror in a bathing suit or your underwear with your cell phone camera and take a picture.  Then turn to the side and take another picture of your profile view.  You might not like what you see.  You might not want to look at it again, and you probably won’t want to show it to anybody.  THAT’S FINE.  Just take the picture, hide it in a folder on your computer, and add to it once a week.  You live with yourself (duh), so it’s tough to notice changes on a day-to-day basis.  However, if you have two months of week-to-week photos to look back on, you’ll be able to tell if your body is transitioning in the right way.

Take measurements – Go to a craft store and buy a cheap tape measure or buy one of these self-help tape measures.  Make sure your measurements are taken in the morning and not after your workout.  Also, make sure you measure the same location each week – kind of weird, I know, but I pick freckles on my arms and legs so I know exactly where to measure each week.  Take a circumference measurement at each of these spots and write it down:

-Neck (for most people, this is the thing that connects your body to your head)
-Shoulders (both arms down at your side, at the widest point from shoulder to shoulder)
-Chest (lift up your arms, wrap the tape measure around your chest, just above the nipple, and then lower your arms)
-Bicep (either left or right, but be consistent)
-Waist (at the belly button for consistency)
-Hips (measure the widest part of your hips)
-Thigh (left or right, but pick the same spot on your thigh each week)

Measure your body fat percentage – This one is a little tricky depending on your resources and financial situation.  If you are severely overweight, start by I’d put your focus on measuring inches and how you look with your pictures and then add this one in once you’ve had some success.  Now, if you ARE interested in tracking your body fat percentage, your best bet would be to purchase a simple body fat caliper if you’re strapped for cash.  If you want to be more accurate, pay $40-60 per visit and get your body fat tested at a Bod Pod Location – a wise investment once a month (or every other month) to make sure you’re on the right path.

I am NOT a fan of body fat calculators that are built into your scale as I find them to be wayyyy too hit and miss.

Important info about body fat percentage tracking – no test is truly 100% accurate, and the specific number isn’t nearly as important as how it’s changing from month to month.  If you do the body fat caliper method, make sure you measure in the same place each time, take multiple readings, and get an average.  Even if your method of tracking your body fat percentage is less than optimal, you can at least make sure you measure it the same way each time to measure if it’s trending in the right direction.

In my opinion, measuring inches and observing changes in pictures is a far better estimate.

Track Your Food

Are you aware of how many calories you eat on a daily basis? When I talk to somebody who is trying to gain weight/lose weight, the response is the same: “I eat enough for my goals, but I’m not getting results…I guess it’s genetics!”  Unfortunately, 95% of the time, it’s usually ignorance and not genetics.  Unless you’ve taken the time to actually count calories for a few days of your normal eating schedule, you probably have no freaking clue how many calories you eat!

You CAN’T outrun your fork – 80% of your successes or failures will be a direct result of how you eat. Although the quality of your calories consumed is incredibly important, the quantity of calories you consume is the first thing that needs to be fixed.  Think of your stomach as a muscle that adapts to its surroundings.  If you continually shovel 4000 calories down your throat, your body will start to crave 4000 calories even though it doesn’t need that many.

Most people eat the same few meals over and over again on a weekly basis – I do.For that reason, I don’t think it’s necessary for you to track ALL of your calories EVERY day for months and months.  However, I think spending a week writing down every calorie is incredibly important for your education and awareness on what you’re eating.  I’m talking every freaking calorie: that half of a Kat Kat bar at Judy’s desk when you stopped by to grab some cover pages for your  TPS reports, the handful of M&Ms you ate while watching 30Rock reruns on NetFlix, the five cans of Coke you drank while finishing up that late night project, and the six beers and three slices of pizza you crushed to celebrate afterwards.

Every. Single. Calorie.

Once you have an idea of how much you eat regularly, take a look in the mirror.  Do you like how you look?  If so, GREAT!  Keep doing what you’re doing.  If not, it’s probably time to make some changes.  Start by eating less, and training your stomach to expect less.  Once you have your numbers under control, you can startmaking some other healthy changes.

I understand writing down your calories can  be a pain in the ass, which is where sites like DailyBurn.com, SparkPeople, and the DailyPlate come in handy. They all have massive food databases that allow you to simply plug in what you ate (Big Mac, one apple, a gallon of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, etc.) and it keeps track of calories, protein, carbs, and fats for the day.

If you eat out a lot, you’ll have to do some research – go to the restaurant’s website and they’ll probably have nutritional information on there.  If they don’t have it online, do your best to estimate by picking a similar meal option on one of the sites listed above and use its meal information instead.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but tracking your food for just a few days could be one of the most eye opening experiences you have when it comes to getting in shape.

Write it down, sucka!

Track Your Workouts

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

When you exercise, do you do so with purpose? Do you know exactly what you’re going to do and how long it should take you?  Or do you kind of wander around the gym like a lost sheep, trying to figure out which machines look fun to use that day.  If you’re serious about getting in shape, you need to start tracking your workouts:

• If you did 3 sets of 10 push ups last week for a total of 30 push ups, you need to be able to do 31 total push ups this week to be stronger.
• If you did squats with 135 pounds last week, this week you better be squatting 136 pounds or more
• If you did 3 pull ups last week, you know you need to get to 4 this week if you want to be stronger.

Have a plan, know what kind of results you need to get in order to be better today than you were yesterday, and then GET THERE!  You can certainly use any of the sites listed above for diet tracking to keep track of your workouts too, but I personally prefer just using an Excel or Google document (when I’m strength training), or a simple new entry in Evernote (when I’m exercising while traveling).  I always know exactly how I did in my last workout so that I know what I need to do in this workout to get stronger.

As we’ve learned from the Spartans, “appearance is a consequence of fitness.” If you are focusing on getting stronger and faster, taking a more active role in how you eat, and you are consistently tracking your progress to make sure you are heading in the right direction, you WILL get the results you’re after.

6 Tips For A Healthier Eating Lifestyle

When you think of summer weekends, what food pops into your mind? Barbecue, beer, and macaroni salad? When you think of eating on the road, is fast food the first thing you think of? This summer, don't eat foods that will leave you feeling depleted, bloated, and tired. Making better food choices will have a positive impact on your leisure time. As athletes know, healthy food and plenty of water sustain your energy levels, fuel your muscles, and help you recover quickly. The food you eat on the road will serve as your traveling repair kit. Here are some tips to help you eat healthfully while you're traveling or vacationing this summer:

Healthy eating starts where you stop. If you're on the road and stop at a fast-food joint, your food choices will be limited to fast food. But if you stop at a grocery store that offers whole or healthy foods—fruits, bagged carrots, nuts, hummus—or a supermarket that features a salad bar, you quickly expand your choices (and reduce junk-food temptations).

Eat frequently, and in smaller amounts. Eating small amounts of healthy foods throughout the day sends a signal to your brain that the food supply is plentiful, so it's okay to burn through those calories quickly. Limiting your calorie load at a single sitting also gives you lots of energy. Eating too many calories in one meal—even if they're healthy calories—sends your brain the message that leaner times must be around the corner, so those calories will get stored as fat. Eating too much at one sitting can also make you sluggish and sleepy.

Eat plenty of protein. Eating the right amount of complete protein for your weight and activity level stabilizes blood sugar (preventing energy lags), enhances concentration, and keeps you lean and strong. A complete protein is any animal and dairy product or a grain plus a legume (such as whole grain bread with nut butter, or corn tortilla with beans). When you need energy for a long hike, a long drive, or a day at the beach, stoke your body with high-quality, lean protein.

Pack snacks so you're not skipping meals. Often when we're traveling, we don't have access to food at regular intervals. Or worse, we skip meals so we can have that big piece of chocolate cake later. The problem is, your body responds as if it's facing a food shortage and your metabolism slows way down to prevent you from starving. To keep your mind and body humming, pack healthy snacks in your car or backpack. Examples are almonds, raw vegetables and hummus, yogurt and berries, fresh and dried fruit, and hard-boiled eggs.

Avoid "feel bad" foods. You know what these are: They're foods you crave, but after you eat them you feel sick or depleted. When you're on the road, it's particularly essential to avoid foods that drain your energy and deflate your mood. Foods to avoid: (1) simple carbohydrates or high glycemic foods, such as fruit juices, sodas, refined grain products, or sugary snacks; (2) anything deep fried; (3) nonfat desserts and sweeteners, which are loaded with chemicals that your body can't easily metabolize; (4) anything partially hydrogenated (this includes nondairy creamer, Jiffy-style peanut butter, margarine, and most packaged baked goods); and (5) excess alcohol.

Drink lots of water. Yes, water is a food. The body needs water for virtually all of its functions. Drinking plenty of water will flush your body of toxins, keep your skin fresh, and help you eat less. It will also help you avoid travel lag, symptoms of overexposure to the heat or sun, and junk-food cravings. Believe it or not, many of the unhealthy cravings we experience on the road can be satisfied with a refreshing drink of pure water. 

originally posted by mensfitness.com

Why you should keep a workout log.

At my gym, WNY MMA and Fitness, we require all of our students keep a workout journal. In their journal they write down in detail their warm-up routine, the workout, the “score” or results of the workout, and any thoughts or feelings they had in regards to the day. When they write down the workout they include the weights they used and any modifications made to the exercises.

Why do we require students keep a journal?

First and foremost because keeping a journal accelerates the learning process. Starting a new workout routine can involve learning new skills and new jargon. By writing down your workouts you are taking an additional few minutes to process what you have learned, repeat the concepts and terminology to yourself, and engrain it into your brain. Plus, if you forget what an exercise is called, you now have an easy reference.

Logging workouts also helps you remember the appropriate weights to use on a workout.Sometimes from workout to workout it can be hard to remember which kettlebell you used or which weight dumbbell you lifted. You might be working out on your own and there’s nobody to ask, or maybe you wanted to do a little more than last time, but you’re not sure how much weight you had put on the barbell. Having a journal to double check can quickly give you an answer that’s possibly even more accurate than what your coach may estimate.

As a coach, I find that if you as a student are journaling, I have a greater ability to help you on your fitness journey. if you have a detailed log of your workouts, it aids me in giving advice on how to progress because I know exactly what you have been doing, instead of guessing. Perhaps your progress has stalled out and you’re not sure why. If you have a journal we can sit and look through your workouts and try to pinpoint the problem. This is especially helpful if you are also logging details like sleep, water intake and nutrition. Logging isn’t just for workouts!

Finally, the best part of journaling is being able to track your progress. This is a great benefit both for when you are having a good day at the gym and when you are having a bad day. I have been doing CrossFit for a little over six years and I have a stack of journals, one for each year. It’s a lot of fun to be able to look back and see how far I have progressed. And, when I’m having a day where I’m being hard on myself, it’s encouraging to see I really have come a long way already and that the journey is full of peaks and valleys.

What are the basic benefits of journaling?

• Faster learning
• Remembering weights
• Having information to analyze
• Tracking progress

And remember – journaling isn’t just for CrossFit. You can keep detailed records of your workouts no matter what your exercise regimen. For example, you can log your run times and distances, you can log the new yoga moves you learned and what was challenging about them, or you can log your weightlifting numbers. Personally, I keep a kickboxing journal where I write down any new combos or techniques I learned in class. 

So what all can you  write in your journal?

• Warm-up routine 
• Skill practice or new movements learned
• Workout and “score” of the workout
• Weights used and any scaled movements
• Post-workout stretching or mobility work
• Hours of sleep
• Water intake
• Mood
• Any circumstances surrounding the workout
• What the BEST part of your workout was!

No matter what you are doing for your health and fitness, journaling is a valuable tool that will help you remember details and accelerate your progress.

Origanal post

Dont forget to DEADLIFT

Here are 7 reasons why the Deadlift is a superb exercise for serious Athletes…
1. If you’re a bodybuilder, or a guy who wants to be JACKED, very few things add slabs of granite-hard muscle to your body like heavy deads

2. If you’re a powerlifter or strongman – your sporting success depends a lot on how good your deadlift is. The deadlift is where power meets are won and lost and in any given strongman competition, one or more events are strongly deadlift based

3. Deadlifting builds a pretty decent grip; at least once you get fairly strong at it. In most sports, having a stronger grip will make you a better athlete.

In fact, my friend Elliot Newman recently spoke with Dr Stuart McGill and ‘Stu’ said that one very common thing he sees in many ELITE athletes is a lack of grip strength. So making those paws stronger is good – no matter what level you’re at

4. If you program your deadlift training sensibly, it will make you a lot STRONGER from head-to-toe. In particular – your glutes, hamstrings, entire back, core, forearms and grip will get stronger.

And when you get stronger, good things usually happen. For instance, you’ll probably notice that you get FASTER and more POWERFUL too. Faster, more powerful athletes are always better athletes.

5. The deadlift is relatively simple to learn (at least compared with many other barbell lifts). Sure, not everybody is ready to pull from the floor, but there is a variation to suit everybody – even if their mobility totally sucks.

The short learning curve and adaptability make the deadlift a great choice for athletes because it means that they don’t have to spend months drilling the exercise before they can actually load up some weight and see a meaningful improvements in strength, muscle mass and sporting performance.

6. The deadlift teaches AGGRESSION. If you aren’t aggressive with a heavy pull – it isn’t gonna budge an inch. This aggression is something that many sports require, so there’s a nice carry over effect.

7. The deadlift really hits the posterior chain hard (the back of the body). So if you’re one of those guys who has over-trained the ‘mirror muscles’ (front of your body), incorporating deadlifts into your training is a great way to bring balance back to your physique.

Of course – to be a good athlete – one who performs like a BEAST and is resilient to injury… it helps to be balanced.

So there you have it…

Now, before you rush off to pull a Deadlift PR, I need to tell you a couple of important things…

• You must deadlift with good form. Failure to do so can result in some extremely nasty injuries. Go to enough powerlifting meets and sooner or later you’ll see lower back injuries, tweaked hamstrings and torn biceps galore.Not fun.BUT… the prevention method is simple – deadlift with good technique!
• You must program your deadlift training sensibly. Seriously, get it wrong and you’ll likely end up overtrained faster than Usain Bolt runs the 100. No joke.

Original Post By: http://jasonferruggia.com/ Edited By: WNY MMA

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 the importance of cardio.

WNY MMA & FITNESS The Importance of Cardio.

Cardio

We’ve all seen Rocky wake up early, pound back raw eggs, then head out for a run.

Roadwork is a big part of the sport. But sprinting and more intense forms of cardio are as–if not more–effective than the slower method of running. We do both here at WNY MMA.

Early Morning Roadwork

Roadwork is typically done upon rising on an empty stomach. Ideally run 3-5 miles. Although when Rocky Marciano read that Joe Louis ran 5 miles, he started running 10. I’ll leave this up to you. Remember, Being able to out last your opponent is crucial to victory in MMA. 

Do this 5 days a week, and feel free to shadow box as you jog. It’ll get you used to throwing punches as you move your feet.

Sprints

Intense bursts of cardio, such as sprints, better replicate the explosive combinations of a fight. They also help boost human growth hormone (HGH) levels, helping us burn fat while maintaining muscle.

Sprints are great for improving conditioning. They’re also easier on the body due to the lessened impact on our knees when sprinting at full speed (in comparison to the typical  “heel/toe” gait of a jog of runner with poor form that creates a high degree of impact on the knees and lower back.).

I like performing sprints up hills or stairs due to the added difficulty. If you have access to either, use them. If it’s your first time running in a while, warm up with 10 minutes of skipping, and only sprint at 85% to avoid pulling anything. After an initial session or two, up the intensity to 95%, then to 100%, and remain there for the duration of the program.