The Secrets of Proper Nutrition Revealed!
April 12th, 2009 by Captain Fitness
In addition to exercise, proper nutrition plays a major role in attaining and maintaining total fitness. Good dietary habits greatly enhance your ability to perform at your maximum potential. A good diet alone, however, will not make up for poor health and exercise habits. This chapter gives basic nutritional guidance for enhancing physical performance. You must know and follow the basic nutrition principles if you hope to maintain weight control as well as achieve maximum physical fitness, good health, and mental alertness.
Guidelines for Healthy Eating
Eating a variety of foods and maintaining an energy balance are basic guidelines for a healthy diet. Good nutrition is not complicated for those who understand these dietary guidelines.
To be properly nourished, you should regularly eat a wide variety of foods from the major food groups, selecting a variety of foods from within each group. A well-balanced diet provides all the nutrients needed to keep one healthy.
Most healthy adults do not need vitamin or mineral supplements if they eat a proper variety of foods. There are no known advantages in consuming excessive amounts of any nutrient, and there may be risks in doing so.
To get enough fuel from the food you eat and to obtain the variety of foods needed for nutrient balance, you should eat three meals a day. Even snacking between meals can contribute to good nutrition if the right foods are eaten.
Another dietary guideline is to consume enough calories to meet one’s energy needs. Weight is maintained as long as the body is in energy balance, that is, when the number of calories used equals the number of calories consumed.
The most accurate way to control caloric intake is to control the size of food portions and thus the total amount of food ingested. One can use standard household measuring utensils and a small kitchen scale to measure portions of foods and beverages. Keeping a daily record of all foods eaten and physical activity done is also helpful.
For example, a person running at 6 miles per hour (MPH) will burn 0.079 cal./min./lb. and a typical, 150-pound male will burn 11.85 calories/minute (150 lbs. x 0.079 cal./lb./min. = 11.85) or about 710 calories in one hour.
To estimate the number of calories you use in normal daily activity, multiply your body weight by 13 if you are sedentary, 14 if somewhat active, and 15 if moderately active. The result is a rough estimate of the number of calories you need to maintain your present body weight. You will need still more calories if you are more than moderately active. By comparing caloric intake with caloric expenditure, the state of energy balance (positive, balanced, or negative) can be determined.
Avoiding an excessive intake of fats is an important fundamental of nutrition.
Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for muscles during short-term, high-intensity activities.
Avoiding an excessive intake of fats is another fundamental dietary guideline. A high intake of fats, especially saturated fats and cholesterol, has been associated with high levels of blood cholesterol.
The blood cholesterol level in most Americans is too high. Blood cholesterol levels can be lowered by reducing both body fat and the amount of fat in the diet. Lowering elevated blood cholesterol levels reduces the risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD) and of having a heart attack. CAD, a slow, progressive disease, results from the clogging of blood vessels in the heart. Good dietary habits help reduce the likelihood of developing CAD.
It is recommended that all persons over the age of two should reduce their fat intake to 30 percent or less of their total caloric intake. The current national average is 38 percent. In addition, we should reduce our intake of saturated fat to less than 10 percent of the total calories consumed. We should increase our intake of polyunsaturated fat, to no more than 10 percent of our total calories. Finally, we should reduce our daily cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams or less.
The Best 3 Ways To Build Muscular Endurance and Strength
August 29th, 2008 by Captain Fitness
Isometric, isotonic, and isokinetic muscular endurance and strength are best produced by regularly doing each specific kind of contraction. They are described here.
Isometric contraction produces contraction but no movement, as when pushing against a wall. Force is produced with no change in the angle of the joint.
Isotonic contraction causes a joint to move through a range of motion against a constant resistance. Common examples are push-ups, sit-ups, and the lifting of weights.
Isokinetic contraction causes the angle at the joint to change at a constant rate, for example, at 180 degrees per second. To achieve a constant speed of movement, the load or resistance must change at different joint angles to counter the varying forces produced by the muscle(s) at different angles. This requires the use of isokinetic machines. There are other resistance-training machines which, while not precisely controlling the speed of movement, affect it by varying the resistance throughout the range of motion. Some of these devices are classified as pseudo-isokinetic and some as variable-resistance machines.
Isotonic and isokinetic contractions have two specific phases - the concentric or “positive” phase and the eccentric or “negative” phase. In the concentric phase (shortening) the muscle contracts, while in the eccentric phase (elongation) the muscle returns to its normal length. For example, on the upward phase of the biceps curl, the biceps are shortening. This is a concentric (positive) contraction. During the lowering phase of the curl the biceps are lengthening. This is an eccentric (negative) contraction.
A muscle can control more weight in the eccentric phase of contraction than it can lift concentrically. As a result, the muscle may be able to handle more of an overload eccentrically. This greater overload, in return, may produce greater strength gains.
The nature of the eccentric contraction, however, makes the muscle and connective tissue more susceptible to damage, so there is more muscle soreness following eccentric work.
When a muscle is overloaded, whether by isometric, isotonic, or isokinetic contractions, it adapts by becoming stronger. Each type of contraction has advantages and disadvantages, and each will result in strength gains if done properly.
The above descriptions are more important to those who assess strength than to average people trying to develop strength and endurance. Actually, a properly designed weight-training program with free weights or resistance machines will result in improvements in all three of these categories.
