Benefits of Burpees

Burpee basics

 

Burpees are an awesome, calorie-torching, strength-building, full body exercise.

Later in this post, you’ll learn why you should love them. But first, you need to know how exactly to actually do a burpee.

Just follow these simple steps:

• First, stand up straight, then get into a squat position with your hands on the floor in front of you.
• Kick your feet back into a push up position and immediately drop your chest to the ground.
• Bow your chest up, then return your feet back to the squat position as fast as possible.
• Immediately jump up into the air as high as you can.
• Add a little clap for pizzazz!

To see how it’s done, and to get a better idea of the pace you should try and keep, here’s a short video where I show you exactly how to do a proper burpee .

Burpees are all about speed, but don’t go too fast…or you’ll burn yourself out after doing just a few. Trust me.

And now, here are five reasons why burpees are awesome—and why they should be your new favorite exercise:

1. They burn mega calories

Burpees make your body a fat burning machine.

That’s because since burpees are an intense fully body exercise, they burn a ton of calories. Plus, research shows that high intensity exercises like burpees burn up to 50% more fat than moderate exercising.

And better yet, they speed up your metabolism throughout the day—meaning you’ll burn more calories all day long, even after your burpee hell is over.

So if you want to lose weight, ditch the recumbent bike and elliptical machine—and do some burpees instead.

2. They make you stronger

The burpee is a full body strength training exercise and the ultimate example of functional fitness.

With every rep, you’ll work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and abs. After a few sets of burpees, your legs should feel a little bit like lead.

3. They’re great for conditioning

Why do you think burpees are embraced in the hardest of workouts (like CrossFit)?

Because they’re great for developing conditioning and endurance! And they get your heart rate up—fast.

Burpees are a great way to get in shape quickly, whether your goal is to learn a new sport, train for a triathlon, hike a big mountain, or, just to look good.

4. They’re portable and require no equipment

The best thing about burpees? They require absolutely no equipment.

That’s right. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

You can do burpees in your house, in a nearby park, even in your hotel room.

5. You can add them to almost any workout

Unlike running, which is a slow, monotonous form of exercising (unless you’re sprinting), burpees are fast paced, dynamic, and never boring.

Like I already mentioned, adding burpees to your workout routine will bring you tons of benefits and whip you into shape quicker than you ever thought possible.

However, if you do have equipment available, there are tons of burpee variations you can do to mix things up. Here are a few:

Burpee pull ups. Do a burpee in front of a pull up bar, then do a (jumping) pull up.
Burpee knee ups. Do a burpee in front of your dip station or a set of chairs, then do a knee up.
Burpee box jumps. Do a burpee in front of a box or a high surface you can jump on, then do a box jump.

Be creative and come up with your own!

8 Various Benefits Of Jumping Jacks Exercise

8 Various Benefits Of Jumping Jacks Exercise

1.The Way To A Healthier Hear

Jumping jack is an aerobic cardio exercise, meaning, you use oxygen to meet the energy demands and stimulate the heart muscles. The heart has to work extra hard to pump enough oxygenated blood and also bring back the carbon dioxide loaded blood from the cells. This, in turn, helps exercise the heart muscles and other organs like the lungs. Hence, this steady and slow exercise keeps your heart healthy by providing a good workout to it.

2.Aid Weight Loss

This cardio exercise is also known to aid weight loss. It helps to burn the excess calories, thereby creating a negative energy balance in the body. This means that you have expended more energy than the number of calories you have consumed. And this is the main mantra of weight loss. Do 3 sets of 50 reps, and you will feel your heart pumping, and surprisingly, you will love to sweat it off.

3.Improve Coordination

Jumping jacks are all about coordinating your limb movements with the jumps. This, in turn, helps improves coordination between your limbs and brain. You will develop a better sense of timing, rhythm, balance, and posture.

4.Relieve Stress

Doing jumping jacks can help relieve stress. How? Well, when you jump and move your hands up and down, your brain stimulates the release of serotonin or the “feel good” hormone. The release of adrenalin also gives you a rush of excitement. These hormones, together, are responsible for making you feel happy and lower your stress levels.

5.A Good Warm-Up Exercise

You should always warm up before starting your actual workout routine. Apart from stretching, doing jumping jacks will help relax the muscles in your limbs, core, hips, back, and face. After completing a set of 30 reps, you will be ready for your next warm-up exercise.

6.Work Out The Whole Body

You jump, spread your legs apart, take your hands above your head, and then land softly on the floor, bringing back your legs together and hands to your side. So, you are basically working the whole body out – biceps, triceps, glutes, adductors, hamstrings, calves, quads, chest muscles, core, lats, etc. Hence, this is a great whole body workout. To make it intense, increase the speed, reps, and sets.

7. Improve Flexibility

Yes, jumping jacks also help improve your flexibility. If you don’t lead an active life and sit for a long time during the day, there’s little chance that you are as flexible as you were when you were a kid. In fact, if you are starting to workout again, you may find it difficult to even do 20 jumping jacks at one go. That’s OK. You can start with low-intensity jumping jacks and fewer reps and then advance to more reps and high speed jumping jacks. As you progress, you will find it easier to do this exercise with more ease and proper positioning of your hands and legs.

8.Tone The Muscles

Losing the tone of your muscles can make your body look sagged and malnourished. Doing jumping jacks on a regular basis can help shed the fat. Doing a high-intensity version of jumping jacks can also help improve muscle tone, thereby shaping your thighs, buttocks, calves, shoulders, and arms.

10 Benefits of Deadlifts

1. Increased Fat Burning

Alwyn Cosgrove, a personal trainer and fitness author, recently wrote about a study where: “Overweight subjects were assigned to three groups: diet-only, diet plus aerobics, diet plus aerobics plus weights. The diet group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. The aerobic group lost only one more pound (15.6 pounds) than the diet group (training was three times a week starting at 30 minutes and progressing to 50 minutes over the 12 weeks).

The weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively). Basically, the addition of aerobic training didn’t result in any real world significant fat loss over dieting alone.”

Lifting weights and resistance training will burn more fat than just dieting or dieting with cardio exercise alone.

2. Better Posture

Deadlifting increases your core strength and adds to core stability, according to Robson. Deadlifting targets all of the muscles responsible for your posture and enables you to keep your back straighter during regular daily activities.

3. More Muscles Worked

The Deadlift works more muscles than any other exercise, including the squat. The lift engages all of the major muscle groups, according to exercise physiologist Kevin Farley. If you need to do one exercise, this is the one to do. The Deadlift works your lower and upper body, including your back muscles.

4. Increased Real Life Lift

When you do other lifting exercises, like a bench press, for example, you’re not doing anything you might really do in real life. When are you ever going to have the need to lay on your back and push something in the air — unless you’re giving your two-year-old “flying lessons.” The Deadlift develops the muscles you need to actually carry something, like a bucket of water, those heavy grocery bags or your neighbor’s dining room table.

5. It’s Safe

The Deadlift is one of the safest weightlifting exercises you can perform. You aren’t going to get pinned under the weight or have to worry about it pulling you over backwards. If you get into trouble, you can simply drop it…making for a loud bang, no doubt, but no damage. You also don’t have to have a spotter to perform this exercise.

6. Improved Grip Strength

According to Outlaw Fitness: “Deadlifts are renowned for their ability to build massive amounts of grip strength, and for good reason. Your fingers are literally the only things connecting you to the weight of the bar. Your forearms have to work incredibly hard as you progress in weight to keep the bar from falling out of your hands. Subsequently your grip strength grows by leaps and bounds.”

7. Increases Hormones

Now don’t worry, these aren’t the hormones that will make you more emotional! Instead, by doing at least 8 to 10 repetitions of Deadlifts with significant weight, you can increase the amount of testosterone and growth hormone produced by your body. Testosterone increases muscle growth and improves muscle repair while growth hormone, which is produced by your pituitary gland, promotes tissue healing, bone strength, muscle growth and fat loss.

8. Cheap and Easy

A lot of exercises require a lot of equipment, special shoes or whatever. Not the Deadlift. Just a bar with some weight. Pick it up. Simple. You can usually find freeweights and a bar at a thrift store – or being given away by a friend – making it even cheaper.

9. Increased Cardio

Believe it or not, doing 10 repetitions of Deadlifts will increase your cardiovascular ability. You might want to make sure you have somewhere to sit down when you’re done!

10. Prevents Injury

The Deadlift can help prevent injuries by increasing the strength of your muscles around critical tendons and ligaments. Supporting joints with strong muscles is crucial to preventing injury, especially in the hamstrings and lower back, according to Outlaw Fitness.

Here are some types of crunches, how to do it and its benefits.

Here are some types of crunches, how to do it and its benefits.

 The Basic Crunch:

The basic crunch is done by lying flat on your back with your knees bend and your hands behind your head, then you rise up to meet your pelvis using the shoulders and the core to maintain and propel you forward. Injuries can be caused if you pull yourself forward using the strength of your hands on your neck or your head.

Reverse Crunch:

The reverse crunch is done by lying flat on your back and putting your leg up at 90 degree. Place your hands facing the ground on either side of your body. If you are starting out, you can place the hands behind your hip for added support. Then, using your core muscles in a controlled manner; pull up your legs and hips towards the ceiling while bringing your knees towards your chest. Then return to start position. During this exercise, try not to use too much momentum or to do it so fast that you hurt yourself. Repeat as many times as you can.

 

Vertical Leg Crunch:

To do this crunch, lie flat on your back with your arms straight. Lift your leg together and heels’ facing the ceiling till it is directly above your hips. Then raise your arms to almost touch the feet with your fingers while pulling in your belly button to stabilize your position using your ab muscles. Your torso will look almost like a U shape. Breathe slowly, control the movement and repeat for 8-15 reps.

 

 

 Long Arm Crunches:

 

To do this crunch, lie flat on your back with your knees propped up. If you want more resistance you can keep your legs straight out. Your arms should be above your head. Clasp them together. Using your core muscles, lift the upper part of your body. Make sure not to strain your neck. Repeat it for 8-15 times.

 

 Bicycle Crunch:  

 

This workout not only worked the rectus abdominis, but also works the upper abs. You can do this work out by lying flat on your back with your hands behind your head. Lift your knees off the floor towards your chest. First rotate to the right and try to meet the left knee with the right elbow while you extend the right leg straight out and then do the opposite side by trying to meet the right knee with the left elbow.

 Double Crunches: 

 

This is a basic crunch and reverse crunch exercise together. Just lie on your back with your knees at a 90 degree angle and hands behind your head. Lift up your hips off the floor like in a crunch and lift up the shoulder blades off the floor like in a basic crunch. Try to squeeze the core and control the position. Then return back to start position.

Top 6 Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training

 

1. Extra Free Time

Interval training is the most efficient form of cardio, and can deliver benefits much more quickly than typical cardio workouts. In fact, research shows that 27 minutes of HIIT performed three times per week delivers the same aerobic and anaerobic results as 60 minutes of regular cardio performed five times per week. Interval training can also get you in shape more quickly – according to a 2011 study, a mere two weeks of high-intensity intervals can improve your aerobic capacity as much as six to eight weeks of endurance training.

2. More Calories Burned

In terms of weight loss, intervals are more effective than long, slow endurance exercise. The intense effort you put in means that your body must work harder to recover, so you’ll burn more calories in the 24 hours after an interval workout than you would after a slow, steady run. During those 24 hours after high intensity interval training, your body can also produce up to 450 percent more human growth hormone, which increases caloric burn and even slows down the aging process.

3. A Big Smile

Interval training creates a surge of endorphins, the natural opiates your brain produces as a result of difficult exercise. Because of its short bursts of strenuous activity, interval training drastically boosts endorphin production, so you’ll experience a true “runners high” and will feel happy and energized after your workout.

4. Increased Speed and Endurance

Interval training stimulates several physiological changes that can lead to greater speed, and stamina. For example, HIIT helps your body learn to burn lactic acid more efficiently – allowing you to exercise for a longer period of time before fatigue sets in. Interval training makes it easier to go farther and faster with more energy, and will also help with your other cardio activities, including hiking, biking, swimming and skiing.

5. A Healthier Heart

Although high intensity intervals accelerate your heart rate, HIIT can actually decrease strain on your heart. Over time, cardiovascular exercise can increase your heart stroke volume, or the amount of blood that your heart pumps per beat. Interval training maximizes cardiovascular benefits, so it can quickly increase stroke volume, making your heart stronger and more efficient. HIIT also maximizes the other benefits of cardiovascular exercise, including decreasing your risk of both heart disease and high blood pressure.

6. Fewer Sick Days

Interval training also amplifies cardio’s other health benefits, including reducing cholesterol, which in turn lowers the risk of arthritis and other inflammatory problems. Additionally, challenging exercise strengthens the immune system, so regular interval work can boost your immunity and help prevent colds and the flu

Health benefits of regular cycling

 

Health benefits of regular cycling

Cycling is mainly an aerobic activity, which means that your heart, blood vessels and lungs all get a workout. You will breathe deeper, perspire and experience increased body temperature, which will improve your overall fitness level. 

The health benefits of regular cycling include:

• increased cardiovascular fitness
• increased muscle strength and flexibility
• improved joint mobility
• decreased stress levels
• improved posture and coordination
• strengthened bones
• decreased body fat levels
• prevention or management of disease
• reduced anxiety and depression.

Cycling for health and fitness

It only takes two to four hours a week to achieve a general improvement to your health. Cycling is:

• Low impact – it causes less strain and injuries than most other forms of exercise.
• A good muscle workout – cycling uses all of the major muscle groups as you pedal.
• Easy – unlike some other sports, cycling does not require high levels of physical skill. Most people know how to ride a bike and, once you learn, you don’t forget.
• Good for strength and stamina – cycling increases stamina, strength and aerobic fitness.
• As intense as you want – cycling can be done at very low intensity to begin with, if recovering from injury or illness, but can be built up to a demanding physical workout.
• A fun way to get fit – the adventure and buzz you get from coasting down hills and being outdoors means you are more likely to continue to cycle regularly, compared to other physical activities that keep you indoors or require special times or places.
• Time-efficient – as a mode of transport, cycling replaces sedentary (sitting) time spent driving motor vehicles or using trams, trains or buses with healthy exercise.