Tag: weight lifting

Squats

How Weight Training can help you

Posted on by Karac Avalron

Most of us exercise or rather we should be. Are you lifting weights? Male female doesn’t matter, lifting weights is very good for your health. In addition to that weight lifting can help with your self-esteem. I found a very good article here that discusses this concept at length.

From the article: “Weight training can help reduce the symptoms of depression.1 Since a common symptom of depression is low self-esteem, it’s no wonder that so many people who suffer from depression and start lifting weights report improvements in their self-esteem. Weight training changes your brain chemistry, releasing endorphins, which helps to improve your mood. And when you’re in a positive mood, it’s easier to lift yourself out of a pattern of negative self-talk.”

Self esteem is paramount to good health. Even when you have down times when you have good self esteem you recover faster. I discussed in an old blog post here, about low testosterone for men, weight lifting will help with this. I am unsure on the master hormone for women, Estrogen but I am confident when I say lifting weights will help both genders tremendously, if for nothing else the fitness value of increased muscle.

Self Esteem is a complex concept, we are all at different places in our journey through anxiety. How you feel about yourself is a hard thing to gauge as day to day it changes. When you lift weights, you build muscle, when you build muscle you APPEAR more physically fit. This physical manifestation has tremendous mental health benefits. Look, I’m not going out on a limb here, if you think you look better you are mentally going to feel better.

Don’t be afraid to go to the gym and lift to gain muscle. Women, don’t be afraid to gain muscle, thus gain weight. Its okay, you’re going to look awesome. Its good for you, and its very good for your self esteem which boosts your mental health.

You can do it, you’re doing great, one day at a time.

The Military Press – Why?

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So this is what is called a “compound movement” let’s get the definition of that out of the way first.

“Compound exercises are multi-joint movements that work groups of large muscle like squats, deadlifts, and push-ups. These movements elicit a greater energy expenditure (they require more energy to perform) and as a result, your body burns more calories and fat. The more muscle groups working at once, the more energy you will expend, which means the more calories and fat you’ll burn.”

Source: https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Compound-Exercises-45352697

Compound exercises engage large muscle groups which trigger multiple support systems in your body, specifically your endocrine system. This increases hormones based on system need, meaning if your body is lifting heavy weights via compound exercises, for men this means Growth Hormone, Cortisol and Testosterone.

So what is a Military Press? Its pressing weight over your head. It’s different from a shoulder press in the sense that your heels are together, with no pre movement momentum (you don’t swing your hips or bend at the knees). The bar starts at your chest and you press it up over your head and you push your head forward for the final deltoid squeeze. You do this standing up, and when you have your feet together you naturally contract your core, this is the secondary benefit of the press.

This mainly hits the deltoids (shoulders) and triceps. The core work is exceptional too but what you begin to see is the optical illusion of your body. Your body is an upside down triangle, so the wider your shoulders are, the slimmer your waist looks.

Start incorporating military presses into your routine, they are challenging and its likely very few people in your gym are doing them.