Various things I learned about fitness
Hello! I thought I'd post some things about fitness that I had learned over the years. This will be a sort of stream of consciousness as things come to me. Feel free to correct me! I appreciate any new insights. If you don't, I'll assume I'm right about everything. ;)
Before you do any strenuous activity, which includes stretching, you need to warm up. Stretching should come after because it's unhealthy to stretch cold muscles. (some people stretch first of all, which isn't good)
When working the muscles, remember that both strength and flexibility are important. I read, "a body without flexibility is a limited instrument; a body without strength is a useless instrument."
For strength and flexibility, work the muscle until it is rather fatigued (don't overwork), and then stretch it for 30 seconds or so. The muscle can also be stretched before it is worked, as long as you've warmed up already, but not necessary. Doing it afterward helps because the muscle became contracted and tight while you worked it, while stretching will help relax it and keep it from being sore the next day.
I've heard of cardiovascular endurance as a separate category from muscular strength, and I believe that, though you can also think of the heart as a muscle, and cardio will strengthen that muscle by making it work harder like strength training (in this case you make it beat faster). Cardio also gets the heart and lungs to work better as a team.
There are seven aspects of fitness: flexibility, coordination, strength, endurance, agility (move quickly with grace), equilibrium (balancing), and speed. As far as I know, the only activity that helps develop all seven to a good extent is ballet dancing. I think gymnastics and martial arts come pretty close. In any case I still supplement my ballet practice with other things.
There are different kinds of coordination (and others of the above, of course). Hand-eye coordination is helped greatly by tennis and badminton.
If you strengthen a muscle, it's a good idea to have a complementary strength (and flexibility) in the opposite muscle. If you work the quadriceps, work the hamstrings also. Though, I've heard that the quadriceps need to be a little stronger than hamstrings. (I don't doubt it, since I seem to need the quads a lot more)
Running up the stairs burns an amazing amount of calories. It's also really hard to do for very long. Kickboxing also burns a lot.
There seem to be two different ways of strengthening the muscles. Making them larger and having the ability to actually lift more weight means you do more weight and fewer repetitions. "Toning" them and allowing them to lift stuff more often means you'll do more repetitions and less weight. I guess this is why women tend to do more reps and men focus on more weight?
Nutrition: there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. All extra calories that the body does not burn or need to maintain your body weight is stored as fat. So to lose fat you need to consume less calories than you need to maintain your current weight, and/or burn calories.
Personally, I think the better thing to do is make sure you get all the nutrition you need (vitamins/minerals, etc.), and focus on what your body can do rather than how it looks or how much it weighs. If you try to increase your endurance for example (and not overeat), I think maybe your weight will eventually take care of itself. Weight isn't all fat, after all. Muscle weighs more than fat.
I also think this "low-carb" thing is BS. I don't know for sure. I think it's the SIMPLE carbs, e.g. sugars, that you need to watch out for. But I think whole grains are good.
I have a book for dancers called "Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger." It basically talks about every muscle in the body and how to strengthen and stretch each of them. It's meant for dancers who are already in good shape, and it occasionally uses dance terms (e.g., plié, which simply means standing up straight and bending the knees), but I recommend it for the huge information about the body.
I read about the seven aspects of fitness so many years ago in a book that I don't remember, but I found the same information in this website:
http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/rchen/sport/knowledge/fitness.htm
The benefits of actual sports and activities: http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/rchen/sport/knowledge/activities.html
I mostly agree with that last link, though I wonder a little bit (e.g., I thought gymnastics might help agility more significantly than that. Though, I haven't done gymnastics much).
Are you pumped yet?
Before you do any strenuous activity, which includes stretching, you need to warm up. Stretching should come after because it's unhealthy to stretch cold muscles. (some people stretch first of all, which isn't good)
When working the muscles, remember that both strength and flexibility are important. I read, "a body without flexibility is a limited instrument; a body without strength is a useless instrument."
For strength and flexibility, work the muscle until it is rather fatigued (don't overwork), and then stretch it for 30 seconds or so. The muscle can also be stretched before it is worked, as long as you've warmed up already, but not necessary. Doing it afterward helps because the muscle became contracted and tight while you worked it, while stretching will help relax it and keep it from being sore the next day.
I've heard of cardiovascular endurance as a separate category from muscular strength, and I believe that, though you can also think of the heart as a muscle, and cardio will strengthen that muscle by making it work harder like strength training (in this case you make it beat faster). Cardio also gets the heart and lungs to work better as a team.
There are seven aspects of fitness: flexibility, coordination, strength, endurance, agility (move quickly with grace), equilibrium (balancing), and speed. As far as I know, the only activity that helps develop all seven to a good extent is ballet dancing. I think gymnastics and martial arts come pretty close. In any case I still supplement my ballet practice with other things.
There are different kinds of coordination (and others of the above, of course). Hand-eye coordination is helped greatly by tennis and badminton.
If you strengthen a muscle, it's a good idea to have a complementary strength (and flexibility) in the opposite muscle. If you work the quadriceps, work the hamstrings also. Though, I've heard that the quadriceps need to be a little stronger than hamstrings. (I don't doubt it, since I seem to need the quads a lot more)
Running up the stairs burns an amazing amount of calories. It's also really hard to do for very long. Kickboxing also burns a lot.
There seem to be two different ways of strengthening the muscles. Making them larger and having the ability to actually lift more weight means you do more weight and fewer repetitions. "Toning" them and allowing them to lift stuff more often means you'll do more repetitions and less weight. I guess this is why women tend to do more reps and men focus on more weight?
Nutrition: there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. All extra calories that the body does not burn or need to maintain your body weight is stored as fat. So to lose fat you need to consume less calories than you need to maintain your current weight, and/or burn calories.
Personally, I think the better thing to do is make sure you get all the nutrition you need (vitamins/minerals, etc.), and focus on what your body can do rather than how it looks or how much it weighs. If you try to increase your endurance for example (and not overeat), I think maybe your weight will eventually take care of itself. Weight isn't all fat, after all. Muscle weighs more than fat.
I also think this "low-carb" thing is BS. I don't know for sure. I think it's the SIMPLE carbs, e.g. sugars, that you need to watch out for. But I think whole grains are good.
I have a book for dancers called "Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger." It basically talks about every muscle in the body and how to strengthen and stretch each of them. It's meant for dancers who are already in good shape, and it occasionally uses dance terms (e.g., plié, which simply means standing up straight and bending the knees), but I recommend it for the huge information about the body.
I read about the seven aspects of fitness so many years ago in a book that I don't remember, but I found the same information in this website:
http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/rchen/sport/knowledge/fitness.htm
The benefits of actual sports and activities: http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/rchen/sport/knowledge/activities.html
I mostly agree with that last link, though I wonder a little bit (e.g., I thought gymnastics might help agility more significantly than that. Though, I haven't done gymnastics much).
Are you pumped yet?