Archives September 2020

What you take or eat before your workout can greatly influence, not only your performance in the gym, but your gains in muscle mass . Follow these four simple steps and you’ll be on your way to anabolic muscle growth from the very first rep you perform.

When it comes to nutrition, it seems that most bodybuilders – beginners and intermediate lifters in particular – place a greater emphasis on ensuring that their post-workout nutrition is the most appropriate. possible and they forget that pre-training is also very important.

A regimen with good nutrition, if followed correctly, will help you experience dramatically noticeable gains in muscle size and strength.

To visualize the importance of pre-workout supplementation, imagine your body running on an empty stomach during training. You may feel a bit sluggish and your performance may suffer. If you are lucky, you can still get some muscle engorgement. But what you don’t realize is that you are experiencing a double negative effect.

Mainly, if you are training on an almost empty stomach, glycogen stores are depleted quickly. And once they are completely exhausted, the body will use your muscle mass as its closest source of energy.

The other negative consequence of inadequate pre-workout nutrition is that intensity and endurance capacity suffer. As a result, you won’t be able to push yourself to the limit, resulting in a less-than-stellar performance in the gym.

As a general rule, your nutritional pre-workout regimen should be divided into two phases. The first phase consists of having a meal an hour or two before exercising (depending on your metabolism).

The second phase takes place 15 to 30 minutes before training and consists of supplements that are consumed to give more fuel to your training. Here are four easy-to-follow tips you can use to build a solid pre-workout nutrition plan.

Phase one: Pre-workout meal (1-2 hours before training)

1. Slow-digesting carbohydrates:

Before training you need to consume good sources of carbohydrates, such as slow-digesting ones. Not only will they provide a source of energy, preventing your body from using the energy from your muscles, but they will also sustain you throughout your entire workout.

This is why it is not advisable to use high glycemic index or fast digesting carbohydrates, as they will quickly deplete once their energy source is used during your training.

If you consume excess carbohydrates, or too close to your workout, your body will not have enough time to metabolize food.

As a result, blood is redirected directly to working muscles rather than assisting with digestion. As a general rule, it is recommended to consume between 40-80 grams of carbohydrates one or two hours before training.

Some slow digesting carbohydrates can be: brown rice, oats, whole wheat pasta, etc.

2. Eat fruits:

Fruits, like oranges, are an excellent addition to a pre-workout meal. Now that you have a slower digesting source of carbohydrates (as noted above), it is also beneficial to have a small, rapidly digesting carbohydrate source to kick start your workout.
Oranges provide this type of energy source fast.

In addition to providing a solid source of simple carbohydrates, oranges are packed with vitamin C and electrolytes. Bananas and apples are also great options if oranges aren’t to your liking.

3. Proteins:

Of course, no meal is complete without protein. As the most important source of muscle growth, protein – made up of essential and non-essential amino acids – is vital to maintaining a positive nitrogen balance necessary to stimulate maximum protein synthesis.

Obtaining the correct amino acid ratio is critical to achieving an anabolic state and the best way to achieve this is by consuming complete protein sources such as egg whites, chicken, turkey and even skim milk.

Another option is to have a whey protein shake if you can’t eat or are in a rush. As a general rule, consume 20 to 40 grams of protein in preparation for your training session.

Phase 2: Pre-training supplements (30 minutes before training)

4. Supplements:

There are a lot of supplements to choose from. Therefore, when analyzing stores be sure to select a fast-acting supplement, which is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream so that you have extra energy in your training.

Products that contain a combination of caffeine and l-arginine are very popular choices, and for good reason. Caffeine promotes greater focus, intensity, and energy in the gym. Arginine-based supplements are another popular option, as they are designed to activate maximal vasodilation, resulting in stronger muscle engorgement.

When developing an effective chest training routine, press exercises are essential for building mass and strength in the pectoral muscles and achieving overall good fitness.

Adding the bench press as a main part of your upper-body workout allows you to take advantage of the benefits of a compound movement: effective exercise of multiple muscle groups at once and faster release of testosterone into your system for faster recovery, greater fat burning and muscle growth.

Choosing to make the bench press a key component of your routine is one step, choosing which method to use for the bench press is another. The barbell bench press is one of the most traditional and popular options for chest workouts. Comprised of a straight metal barbell with plates added to the ends, a barbell is what most people think of when it comes to the bench press. Dumbbells are another popular option for press exercises and are used in pairs during bench press exercises generally with the same weight on each side. A flat, sturdy bench is used with the bar or dumbbells to support your weight while allowing you to keep your feet flat on the floor.

Note : When planning your upper body routine, perform compound exercises like the bench press at the beginning of your workout and then continue with more isolated workouts as openings and crosses for increased muscle exhaustion.

Should I choose barbell or dumbbells for the bench press?

There are three components of a bench press that can drastically affect your results: range of motion, symmetrical effort, and muscle tension. Here are some barbell and dumbbell press comparisons when it comes to these factors:

1. Range of motion

Barbell Press : When grasping a bar, your hands lock into a fixed position on the bar and then you begin to press up. This movement does not allow your arms to move through their full range of motion, limiting the potential extension of your arms and the impact of the bench press itself

Dumbbell Press : The dumbbell press requires both hands and arms to lift the dumbbell and allows you to extend yourself further, significantly increasing your range of motion. This allows more muscles to move and be placed under more tension from the press, increasing the muscle benefit of your workout.

2. Symmetric development

Barbell Press : One of the problems with pushing a single barbell is that sometimes mastery of the hands comes into play. If you bench press while favoring one side, you could end up with a size and growth imbalance in your muscles.

Dumbbell Press : Since each arm has its own system for pushing the weight, each arm moves independently to lift the dumbbell. This allows each side to do the same work and develop equally.

3. Muscle tension

Barbell press : During a barbell press, it can be tempting to slide your hands outward to distribute muscle tension to other muscle groups outside of the chest. This in turn decreases the stress placed on the pectoral muscles, which can negatively affect your results.

Dumbbell Press : Since the dumbbell press allows a greater range of motion in the exercise, you have more control over the movement of your arms and can maintain more your movement in front of your body instead of outwards. This will allow you to maintain a more concentrated tension on your chest muscles for a longer period of time, maximizing your results.

The most important thing to remember with any exercise is that consistency is key, as well as knowing the basics of a compound movement. Variety ranks close in importance. Almost all weightlifters will start on the bench with a bare barbell and quickly (or slowly) work their way up to more and more plates. Eventually, however, your training will stabilize, become stale, and even inefficient; That’s where the dumbbells will come to your rescue.

Dumbbells will help you increase your range of motion, stay longer under tension, and help you exaggerate your chest pressure movement. Without the help of a training partner, dumbbells are your best friend to help you overcome a plateau and squeeze those extra gains.

Settings are not for the weak. In fact, small improvements can sometimes produce big results. Incorporate these tips into your session today!

You have a great diet, a fancy training program , and enough motivation to train all that is needed. You go to the gym, you start to get results, and you feel great, like you could somehow lift a million kilos. Do you think or imagine that you’re doing everything right? Think again.

It doesn’t matter if you’re new or a veteran in the gym, there are always additional adjustments that you can incorporate into your workouts that will improve the results of your exercises, taking them to a higher level.

Instant ways to improve 6 exercises

By implementing the following adjustments to your exercises, you will improve the intensity, your results and avoid boredom in the gym.

1. Leg Press Upgrade: Move your feet

As a long-term basic leg exercise, the leg press can help you turn baggy jeans into tailored pants for quadriceps . While there is nothing wrong with technically doing the leg press with your feet in the center of the platform, placing your feet a little lower (toward the bottom of the platform) can give you a more intense workout for your legs. quadriceps.

If your routine already includes the deadlift, this small change in the Leg press will add more balance to your program – you won’t overwork your hamstrings or prevent your quads from not working enough.

2. Improvement for Deadlift: Spread the legs more

To increase the intensity, try using a wider stance while performing the Deadlift. This pose is most effective for targeting the inside of your thighs and glutes. As you expand your posture, point your toes slightly outward to ensure good form and a comfortable movement pattern.

Keep all other elements of the Deadlift in place as you normally would: Raise the bar with your back straight and focus on squeezing your glutes and pushing your hips forward as you straighten up. Work on keeping your lower back rigid.

3. Improvement for push-ups on the floor: Pause

Although push-ups are one of the best movements you can do to build your upper body and to gain strength, they are often overlooked in favor of heavy exercises. (We know it’s hard to look in the mirror and do push-ups at the same time.)

So make your push-ups even more difficult. Advanced techniques include close grip pushups or pyramid push-ups, incline and decline push-ups, one-arm push-ups, etc. So, no matter what variation you are doing at the moment, pause at the bottom of the movement.

Pausing during push-ups will force the muscles to contract more than normal, increasing the total time that the muscles remain under tension. By pausing at the bottom your trunk will also participate. Keeping your back straight at all times will prevent back pain.

4. Improvement for abdominal crunches: Hands over head

Everybody wants awesome abs. Doing crunches correctly can help you achieve them.

Many people allow their arms to do the exercise when their abs should be doing the work. Placing your hands on the sides of your head generally increases the chances that you will swing forward and use that momentum to help you do your abs. Although crossing your arms in front of your chest may prevent you from pushing yourself, it doesn’t add much resistance to the exercise.

For best results, keep your arms above your head when doing your sit-ups. Make sure you can’t use them for balance or that you allow them to help your abdominal muscles do the work.

5. Improvement for funds: Get out of the bank

If you normally include bank funds in your exercise routine, consider switching to parallel funds.

Unless you’re a beginner and haven’t built a base strength level, dipping between two parallel bars will put a lot more stress on the triceps than doing the exercise by placing your hands on a bench.

If you’re trying to build some incredible triceps, parallel dips are the right way to go. By not leaning forward, you keep the load on your triceps and not on your chest.

6. Improvement for Triceps Extensions: Use the small bar

Another amazing exercise for the triceps is the Rope Triceps Extension. The problem with this exercise is that some people may feel pain in their hands and wrists as they begin to work with more weight.

To help ease this pain, use the Triceps Extension bar. This bar offers a more stable pushing surface, allowing you to direct more force in a straight line toward the triceps, relieving stress on the wrists and joints.

When using the barbell triceps extensions, you will have the option of using a supination grip or a prone grip. Each one stimulates the triceps in a slightly different way. Incorporate both grips into your workout for optimal results.

The Physiotherapy department of the Camilo José Cela University has held a Conference on Advanced Physiotherapy from June 22 to 24, 2020, in an online format and totally free in which different teachers from degree in Physiotherapy from UCJC and in the different postgraduate training offered by Camilo José Cela University.

On Monday June 22, Dr. Gracia M. Gallego, director of the degree in Physiotherapy, offered the opening of the Conference and the first presentation related to instrumental physiotherapy: ” Ultrasound-guided approach to the psoas tendon with electrolysis ”, betting on a technique offered by the Master in Instrumental Physiotherapy at UCJC .

Tomás Fernández’s presentation was titled ” Ultrasound diagnosis of muscular lesions on the posterior aspect of the thigh “, in which he showed in a very didactic way how the UCJC approaches the ultrasound diagnostic assessment , being a tool of great potential for physiotherapists.

The presentations related to sports were made by Fernando Reyes, Sergio Toba and Roberto Murias, the three teachers in the undergraduate and in the University Master’s Degree in Physiotherapy and Readaptation in Sports at UCJC . Fernando Reyes es, who is also co-director of the Master in Athletic Training and Therapy at UCJC, presented the presentation on ” Core training in sport “, Sergio Toba told us about the ” Assessment and treatment of ankle sprain ”, and Roberto Murias on the“ Flossing Technique ”, a new tool that is introduced in the University Master’s Degree in Physiotherapy and Readaptation at the UCJC Sport in its 2020/21 edition.

From the subject of gynecological physiotherapy, and also sports, Dr. Elena S. Rodríguez made her presentation on the ” Urinary incontinence in elite sport ”.

Dr. María Benito and Raquel Delgado focused on the subject of osteopathic manual therapy, both teachers in the degree and in the Master in Integrative Osteopathy of the UCJC, offered some presentations that were entitled ” Approach plantar fasciosis osteopathic ”and“ Temporomandibular disorders and dental occlusion ”respectively.

´Victoria E. Garnacho, professor in the degree and director of the Expert in Comprehensive Pediatric Physiotherapy at UCJC, gave us a presentation on the “ Manual treatment of visceral alterations in infants under 24 months of age ”.

On the last day of the conference, other topics such as pain and entrepreneurship were discussed. Dr. Edurne Úbeda gave a presentation on the ” Therapeutic approach and exercise in fibromyalgia “, and Juan A. Valera one on the ” Anatomorphological and functional changes induced by cervical pain ”.

Finally, Dr. Jesús Guodemar, a professor in Physiotherapy, focused on entrepreneurship in physiotherapy with the presentation: “How to be an entrepreneur in physiotherapy?” This talk, co-organized with the new Degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Management at UCJC and with its director, Professor Camila Polensvaig Kominsky, allowed students and professionals in physiotherapy to learn about new management models in health and entrepreneurship models to physiotherapy.

It was also he who closed the conference thanking them for the enormous participation and assistance that they had. A great initiative that allowed to bring physiotherapy closer to students, graduates and people who want to know if this beautiful profession could adapt to their professional future.

The gym can be super intimidating: a sea of ​​cardio machines, tons of people lifting weights, intense spinning classes, and lots of machines with little pictures trying to show you how to use them. There are many mistakes that beginners make when they enter a gym and also some more advanced ones, so in this article I will describe 7 of the most common mistakes. These tips will help you reach your goals faster and without injury.

Big mistakes that are made in the gym

Making the mistakes that follow will keep you from reaching your goals. They won’t help you get stronger or better! It can be very difficult to venture out of your comfort zone when you feel like everyone is watching you, judging you, or you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. So here are my tips and tricks to avoid the most common mistakes beginners make and get a great workout.

1. Lifting weights with your ego

This is by far the biggest mistake anyone can make when at any level of training. Lifting with your ego is the act of lifting or pushing too much weight without being aware of what you are doing and incorrectly in the hope of impressing your friends, the opposite sex, or a more experienced person.

Even though your friends may think you lift a lot of weight and think you are cool, you are generally putting yourself in a dangerous position and injuries can appear at any time.

Keep in mind that most women are not interested in how much weight you can move and on the other hand, an experienced bodybuilder will laugh and not be impressed by what you do, as he is well aware that Lifting weights using perfect form is more beneficial and much more difficult than weight lifting like crazy.

2. Lack of hygiene

The gym is a place where hundreds of people a day are sweating and share the same facilities. This makes the gym a perfect place for the spread of bacteria.

It is essential to ensure that you have good hygiene. This means that when using a machine or bench you take some time to clean it up when you’re done. When using the bathroom wash your hands. Have a little common sense.

Would you like to sit on a bench that was drenched in sweat? No, Why does anyone have to? Do your part and help stop the spread of germs and being health conscious. The last thing you want to do is get sick and miss workouts. Remember that the best way to teach is by example.

3. Socialize in the gym

Your number one goal when hitting the gym es to get a great workout. I understand that the gym is a place where people usually go not only to train, but also to socialize. Make sure socializing doesn’t hurt your training.

I see too many beginners in the gym taking too long between sets, as they chat, while someone else is waiting for that machine that you are using every 8 min. Also remember that other people are there to exercise and that this machine can be crucial to their training.

There is no way to focus on training if your mind is elsewhere. What I say to beginners is find a friend or friends who have the same goals as you.

When you’re in the gym, the talk is fine, but never to the point where the flow of your training stops. A lighthearted joke is fine, but socializing too much won’t lead to any results.

4. Do only cardio

Beginners often think that the only way to lose fat is to spend a lot of hours on the treadmill and elliptical machines. This could not be further from the truth! Resistance training has been shown to be more effective and when combined with cardio, it is a winning combination!

I don’t think it’s good to do one or the other. Although weight lifting may be more effective in helping you lose fat and gain muscle, cardio is still important because it improves your cardiovascular health and endurance. There is room for both of you to work together on a healthy workout plan. For my workouts, I usually add 10-20 minutes of cardio to the end of my resistance workouts.You have to do both for optimal health!

5. Thinking that more is better

The old rule of “not always more is better” is also true in weightlifting.

Many beginners believe that by doing more repetitions, more exercises and lifting more weight they will be better at gaining muscle gains … let me tell you that it is not like that, you are not really doing anything with this type of training, the only thing that you’re going to get a few injuries and a terrible overtraining.

All beginners should start out by employing a fraction of a full body workout and using a maximum of 4 exercises for the largest muscle groups. At this point, your rep range should be between 8-10. Rest periods should not exceed 90 seconds.

It would be beneficial to rest only 60 seconds between sets, but not everyone can do this …

Finally, the amount of weight you lift should not always be increased every week or every month. You should be able to easily perform an exercise using proper form at a certain weight for a couple of weeks before climbing. You don’t just have to add weight for the sake of trying more.

6. Not having a training plan

When you set foot in the gym you should always have an adequate training plan of what you are going to do. I recommend to all beginners to keep a journal and write everything in it. You must have your workouts divided, know which muscle group you work each day, a cardio program and also a detailed record of the results of the training, including series, repetitions and weight.

Beginners fall into the trap of not planning their future, they wait until they go to the gym and do anything.

7. Forget about nutrition

Now, I know that in this article I’m supposed to talk about the gym only, but I always have to mention nutrition when asked for beginner advice. Nutrition is 80% of the puzzle. You can make a perfect training plan, using the best form and the highest intensity, but unless your diet is healthy, we will get nowhere.

Training and nutrition go hand in hand. You cannot be successful with just one.

Start do more compound exercises!

You must rest properly between series.

Never skip the days that make legs!