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When most people think about exercise, they think of strength training and cardiovascular activities, e.g. lifting weights and running on the treadmill.  A good fitness program definitely involves doing both of these sorts of exercise, but it also includes a third often overlooked type of exercise – stretching.  Most people think of stretching as something you do for sore muscles or as a quick supplement for cardio or lifting.  However, these people fail to recognize the importance that stretching has on being fit.  Stretching provides you with a half dozen serious benefits; and anyone who wants to maximize their health should take stretching seriously.

Stretching initially promotes a greater range of movement and circulation through the joints.  This is excellent because it allows you to maximize your regular exercise.  By promoting good range of muscle movement through joints, you will be ensuring that your muscles can move in the ways needed to lift weights or cycle.  Often people injure themselves with their muscles are too tight to perform a motion the way it ought to be done, and stretching can help prevent problems like this.  

Stretching is one of the easiest ways to promote blood flow and circulation to the muscles that need it.  Increased blood flow provides a two-way street that helps muscles perform better with less effort.  On the one hand, the increased blood flow is able to bring oxygen and nutrients to the muscles in order to provide them with the energy they need to function properly.  On the other hand, the blood flow is there to flush out waste products that build up when muscles work out, including lactic acid.  Stretching also provides a low impact way to condition muscles and tendons.  The better conditioned your muscles are, the less prone to injury and soreness they are.  

By stretching before you engage in cardio or weight training, you will be warming up muscles and promoting blood flow and circulation; which is a definite way to enhance your workout.  However, just as important as stretching before running or lifting, is stretching after the exercise.  Post-exercise stretches help develop new flexibility and strength in muscles and tendons, and provide better conditioning to prevent injury.  Post-exercise stretches are also a good way to even out blood circulation and flush out the damaging lactic acid buildup.

One thing that everyone serious about stretching should know is that protein is a needed nutrient to promote healthy stretching.  Protein helps repair torn muscle fiber and can maximize the benefits that come from stretching.  One of the easiest ways to get added protein into your diet is through a whey protein supplement.  Whey protein is easier for the body to digest than soy protein, and provides better utilization and absorption into the body.  The reason you want to take protein in supplement form is for this reason, you want your body to quickly absorb the nutrients and get the nutrients to the parts of the body that need them.

For more info on tasty whey protein, visit My Top Form Protein

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/why-stretching-matters-and-how-to-maximize-your-stretches-1383345.html

The day or two after a workout, you will almost certainly feel some muscle soreness.  This dull ache and pain is natural, and isn’t something you should be worried about.  However, just because you shouldn’t worry about it, doesn’t mean you ought to just put up with it.  Nobody needs to feel uncomfortable after a workout.  There are two surefire ways to avoid muscle soreness: stretching and providing your body with protein.  Best of all, both of these are natural, not chemical.  

In order to understand how to avoid the aches and pains of muscle soreness, it’s important to understand where it comes from.  Many people think that muscle soreness is the result of lactic acid buildup around the muscles.  However, recent research has shown that this isn’t actually true.  Your muscles do produce lactic acid during strenuous activity; but that lactic acid typically drains and dissolves within thirty minutes to one hour after ceasing the workout and activity.  So what causes the soreness if it isn’t lactic acid?  Most experts agree that during strenuous activity your muscles become damaged.  One way is that your muscles can get inflamed and swollen because of the increased blood flow during strenuous activity, thereby exciting the pain receptors nearby.  Another way is that muscle fibers are torn and damaged when the muscle is doing the work.  This tear and inflammation is what causes most of the muscle ache that people feel after their workouts.  And it is something that you can prevent.  

While many people deal with the ache and pain of muscle soreness using chemical anti-inflammatory drugs like acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen.  These drugs can help reduce pain caused by inflammation and swelling, but they don’t do anything to strengthen muscles or repair the damage muscle tissue.  Instead of resorting to a chemical “band-aid” fix; stretching and proper nutrition can deal with the problem head on.

The importance of stretching to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is immense.  Most importantly, stretching does three things that help deal with muscle ache.  First, stretching increases joint flexibility and range of motion; this helps avoid wear and tear on ligaments and tendons in joints.  Second, stretching is a great way to reduce muscle tension.  Flexible and elastic muscles aren’t as easily torn or damaged as stiff and static muscle.  The most important benefit of stretching is that it increases circulation (blood flow) which helps increase energy output on the muscles.  Stretching before exercising will help maximize the exercise by warming up muscle groups and moving the blood to make sure muscles are well oxygenated.  Post-exercise stretching helps to remove the lactic acid buildup, and also to maintain healthy blood flow to the muscle groups.  This blood flow is how the body delivers amino acids to the damaged muscle tissue; amino acids are what repair the damage.  

The best way to get amino acids into the body is through protein in your diet and the easiest way to get protein after a workout is through a whey protein shake.  Whey protein shakes have two benefits: they are whey-based, and they are shakes.  Whey protein is easily digestible and soft on the body compared to other supplemental protein sources.  And getting protein in the form of a shake provides the added benefit of hydrating a sore body, which helps flush out impurities and promotes healing.  Good stretching and whey protein can make muscle ache disappear: reducing the need for chemical pain relievers and helping you get back in the gym.

For more info on whey protein, visit My Top Form Protein

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/how-to-avoid-muscle-soreness-1370118.html

Anyone serious about fitness must dread traveling for business or pleasure.  While many hotels have gyms; you never know if their gym hours will match your availability or if the equipment is what you want.  While you always need to travel light, there are five tools that everyone can fit into their luggage that can help you get all the exercise needed to stay fit while on the go.  

Pack ankle and wrist weights.  These work for any exercise you normally use a free weight or dumbbell form, but have the added benefit of packing quickly and easily.  I recommend wearing your weights when running around airports to double up your travel time making connections or waiting for boarding.  Put them on when doing squats, sit-ups and push-ups for added weight and resistance.  They can also help turn a morning jog from a cardio calorie-burn into a lean muscle building activity.   

Speaking of morning jogs; the biggest mistake most people make when traveling is not bringing along athletic shoes or sneakers.  Even if you aren’t a runner, pack a pair of tennis shoes and spend some time wearing them.  Walk the hotel corridors or go up and down the stairs, enjoy a morning stroll along Main Street or in a nearby park.  Having good athletic shoes will allow you to take these walks with less chance of injury and stress on your feet, making the exercise more enjoyable and less painful.  

Another great tool to bring with you is a tennis ball or racquet ball.  No, the point isn’t to play tennis or racquetball: although, if the hotel has courts those CAN be great ways to get a workout in.  Instead, grip the ball in one hand and squeeze as hard as you can to provide your forearms and hands with a good strength building exercise.  A racquet ball packs light and takes up little space, making it an ideal choice for an exercise like this.

Resistance bands also pack light and are helpful when doing a variety of exercises.  A resistance band and related exercises provide basic arm and strength training.  There are many exercises available with resistance bands, but one great exercise is to use resistance bands while performing squats.  Squats alone are great lower body strength, but by stepping on the resistance band shoulder length apart and holding them at chest level, you will expand the benefits of the squat to your upper body as well.  Another great resistance band exercise is to ones are using resistance bands during squats and

Finally, one tool that almost everyone forgets is the proper nutrition your body needs to sustain exercise and strength training.  A lightweight choice is to bring whey protein supplements.  Most whey protein comes in a powdered form which you add to water to make a tasty and nutritious whey protein shake.  Since your hotel or motel will provide the water, all you are packing is the lightweight powder.  Whey protein provides your muscles with the right sort of building blocks to both develop and maintain lean muscle.

For more info on protein shakes, visit Top Form Supplements

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/5-exercise-tools-to-bring-when-traveling-1304239.html

With all of the recent negative press given to body supplements, it makes good sense to be cautions about using different nutritional supplements as a part of your body building efforts.

Whey protein has been lauded as a safe, natural and simple supplement. It’s use has become popular for those genuinely interested in good health through physical fitness and body building.

The importance of adequate protein levels in the body cannot be ignored. Naturally, building additional muscle mass will also require adequate levels.

Whey protein is a substance that is drawn from milk. That’s right, plain old cow’s milk. Whey is known to be a byproduct of cheese and, until the recent discovery of its health qualities, was discarded. In fact, scientists now know that what was once considered junk is actually rich in the amino acids which help build muscles and promotes good health.

This high quality and natural product is also useful for other people who may be on special diets, whether they are for weight loss, food allergies, or even for diabetics. Remember, high quality protein is essential for optimum health…not just for body building.

As always, be sure to check with your health professional before implementing whey protein or making any other changes in your diet or routines. Like anything else, too much of a good thing can be harmful, so be sure to use it in moderation.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/benifits-of-whey-protein-1731570.html