Some Health Facts That You Should Know!

1) Motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunk drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding .08.

2) Banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour.

3) In some parts of the world, they protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer.

4) The word 'gymnasium' comes from the Greek word gymnazein, which means 'to exercise naked.'

5) There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee; of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.

6) The average American eats at McDonalds more than 1,800 times in his/her life.

7) There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

8) According to U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs, but only 2 maggots.

9) You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

10) It is possible to go blind from smoking too heavily.

11) Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

12) You are about 1 centimeter taller in the morning than in the evening.

13) During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food — that's the weight of about 6 elephants.

Scary Health Facts

• It's not just coughs and sneezes that spread diseases. One single bacteria cell can multiply to become more than 8 million cells in less than 24 hours. Just imagine what's on the toilet door handle you just touched, the taps and even on other people's hands...
• Flies can't eat solid food. They vomit on food to make it soft before sucking it back up. Flies will eat anything from poo, to your roast dinner. Speaking of poo, a typical bowel movement can contain up to 100 billion potentially disease-causing organisms some of which end up in the air and on the toilet even after flushing - even if the lid is put down. When you're cleaning special attention should be paid to anything likely to be touched or contaminated with feces. This includes lavatory seats, flush handles, door handles, wash basins, taps, floors, tiling, light switches, potties, baby-changing mats etc.
• Airborn - Different viruses cause the common cold and flu, but both are spread through the air in tiny droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes. When you sneeze your body is getting rid of infected cells and an average sneeze will spread over 100,000 virus cells up to 30 feet. And, in case you were wondering, people suffering from a cold can spread the virus from two days before the symptoms of the illness start and up to four days afterwards. On average, adults catch two to three colds each year. School-age children can have twelve or more colds in a year.
• Do not use eyeshadow if you have an eye infection as this will aggravate the problem. You could also pass the bacteria on to the eyeshadow with the applicator or your finger. And pay attention to how those suave mall makeup artists apply their products on your face. You don't want to get used tools. Which reminds us, never use lipstick if you have a cold sore, it will aggrivate the cold sore but, more importantly, the infection will be on the lipstick and you could re-infect your mouth. Ok, one more thing, never share mascara as this is the most common way to pass on eye infections such as conjunctivitis.
• The wart virus is very contagious. The skin cells on the warts release thousands of viruses and touching the wart or skin cells on it releases the virus, which can then infect others. Similarly, 6-9 million Americans have toenail fungus. Protect your feet by keeping them clean and dry. Furthermore, a tiny flake of infected skin from a person with athlete's foot can fall off whilst showering. It may then be trodden on by others who can then develop the infection. Once a small patch of infection develops it typically spreads along the skin.
• High heels over 1.5 inches could lead to broken and twisted ankles as well as knee and backstrain. Pointed shoes could lead to bunions and hammer toes.
• Don't neglect your beard. If you do it will smell like a sweaty armpit. Dirty beards harbour the same smelly bacteria that live in smelly armpits. Human beards that aren't regularly maintained or groomed create the perfect environment for human lice.
• Make sure you brush and floss your teeth twice a day to avoid plaque. Plaque produces smelly gasses and bacteria which lead to bad breath and gum disease.

More Enlightening Health Facts:

• Medical researchers contend that no disease ever identified has been completely eradicated.
• The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.
• No one seems to know why people blush.
• In 1972, a group of scientists reported that you could cure the common cold by freezing the big toe.
• The number one cause of blindness in the United States is diabetes.
• The adult human heart weighs about ten ounces.
• People who laugh a lot are much healthier than those who don't. Dr. Lee Berk at the Loma Linda School of Public Health in California found that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones, and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds have it best - they laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
• People who have a tough time handling the stress of money woes are twice as likely to develop severe gum disease, a new study finds.
• Between 25% to 33% of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light.
• Of the 206 bones in the average human adult's body, 106 are in the hands and feet. (54 in the hands and 52 in the feet)
• In 1815 French chemist Michael Eugene Chevreul realized the first link between diabetes and sugar metabolism when he discovered that the urine of a diabetic was identical to grape sugar.
• Approximately 16 Canadians have their appendices removed, when not required, every day.
• Sumerians (from 5000 BC) thought that the liver made blood and the heart was the center of thought.
• Men have more blood than women. 1.5 gallons for men versus 0.875 gallons for women.
• The first Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandages were three inches wide and eighteen inches long. You made your own bandage by cutting off as much as you needed.
• The human brain stops growing at the age of 18.
• In 1977, a 13 year old child found a tooth growing out of his left foot.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 18 million courses of antibiotics are prescribed for the common cold in the United States per year. Research shows that colds are caused by viruses. 50 million unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for viral respiratory infections.
• It takes an interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech.
• The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of blood pumped per heartbeat.

#FITNESS FIRST!

The Ultimate Leg-Training Workout!

There’s a fine line between overtraining your legs and not training them hard enough. And not surprisingly, most of us fall into one of the two camps. First you have the guy who spends 45 minutes doing squats at the power rack before moving on to the rest of his hard-hitting, 90-minute quad workout. Then you have someone who thinks a sufficient lower-body routine consists of a machine-only session in which he hardly breaks a sweat.

“Most guys don’t realize that their leg training should probably be more middle of the road,” says Hollywood-based trainer Gunnar Peterson, CSCS. “They either try to do a pro bodybuilder workout once a week and end up hobbled like James Caan in Misery or do a leg extension/curl combo every three days and think they’ve trained legs. But you really should find a middle ground between the two so you train your legs with decent intensity twice a week.

MULTI-JOINT MOVES ARE KEY

Following a split that has you train legs one day a week would cripple you with 20 sets at maximum weight and keep you from progressing the way you could.” Peterson has nothing against extensions and curls, but a solid leg routine needs to be centered around multi-joint moves such as lunges, squats or step-ups. These exercises not only hit the quads and hamstrings but also the glutes, a bodypart seldom discussed among men unless it concerns those of the opposite sex. “The glutes are one of the biggest muscle groups in the body and to not train them is irresponsible,” Peterson says. “Read a women’s magazine — that’s the other team’s playbook. Women look at your glutes long before they notice your guns. Plus, training the glutes revs up your metabolism by stimulating such large muscles.”

HITTING ALL THE ANGLES

All bodyparts should be trained from a variety of angles to maximize musclefiber recruitment. This advice becomes even more important with legs since your quads are composed of four different muscles, the hamstrings are made up of three and a slew of fibers “come in from the north, south, east and west” to form your glutes, Peterson says. “It’s not just about squatting and driving up,” he explains. “You can tweak your stance, and you can change where the load is by doing front squats, back squats and one-leg movements. A lot of people just do it by rote or don’t do it at all.”

ENGAGING YOUR CORE

The routine Peterson designed hits all the major leg musculature via traditional squatting moves performed in novel fashion. A good dose of core work is involved, too, and the reason is simple: You can’t build strong legs with intense workouts without a sturdy core, and many guys are weak in this area. “You’ve got to shore up the weakness,” Peterson says. “I know it doesn’t sound fun, but it’s crucial to maximizing the effectiveness of your workouts, regardless of what muscles you’re training.

DAY 1, EXERCISE 1

DUMBBELL OVERHEAD BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUAT

Sets: 4–5, Reps: 8–12 each side

START: Grasp a light dumbbell in one hand, stand erect and place the top or toes of the same-side foot on a box or bench behind you, knee bent. Press the weight overhead so your arm is directly over your shoulder.

EXECUTION: Keeping your arm extended, bend your front knee and hips to descend straight toward the floor. When your front quad comes parallel to the floor, press back up through your front heel to return to the start. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Stand tall throughout the movement. There’s a tendency to tip forward as you descend, but you need to work on staying tall.”

                

DAY 1, EXERCISE 2

KETTLEBELL SWING WITH FLIP TO SQUAT

Sets: 2–4, Reps: 8–15

START: Grasp the handle of a kettlebell with both hands and stand erect with your arms hanging straight toward the floor, feet roughly shoulder-width apart.

EXECUTION: Bend your knees to dip down while lowering the weight between your legs. Keeping your arms extended, explosively swing the kettlebell up by extending your knees and hips, and lifting your arms. As the weight passes shoulder level, quickly bend your elbows and knees to drop underneath it (letting it flip over in your hands) and catch it in front of you in a full squat position. Stand up while pressing the kettlebell overhead, then drop back down to the start.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Stay focused on every part of the movement: exploding, the catch, lowering and driving up. You can’t phone this one in.”

               

               

DAY 1, EXERCISE 3

ONE-LEG EXTENSION WITH ANGLED CRUNCH (+ BURNOUT)

Sets: 4–5, Reps: 10-20 (Do 8–12 reps each of front and back squats.)

START: Sit in a leg extension machine and adjust the roller so it rests across the front of your ankles.

EXECUTION: Perform a one-leg extension with your right leg while simultaneously crunching and twisting your torso to bring your left pec over your right knee. Reverse the motion, then repeat to the opposite side — extension with your left leg while crunching your right pec over your left knee. That’s one rep. After you complete all reps, finish the set with double-leg extensions to failure.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Don’t bounce the weight. On the extension, really think about reaching that toe out and making that leg as long as possible. Don’t just snap it up.”

               

                                            

DAY 2, EXERCISE 1

SMITH MACHINE FRONT SQUAT TO BACK SQUAT

Sets: 4–5, Reps: 8–12 (Do 8–12 reps each of front and back squats.)

START: Stand erect in a Smith machine with your feet shoulder-width apart, head up and the bar resting across your front delts, hands grasping the bar.

EXECUTION: Descend into a squat, keeping your back flat and chest out, until your quads are parallel to the floor. Drive back up to standing and repeat for reps. Then rerack the bar, position yourself for back squats and complete the prescribed number of reps.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Try to focus on driving through your heels on the back squat so you get the most out of your hams and glutes.”

                  

                                           

DAY 2, EXERCISE 2

LYING LEG CURL TO HYPEREXTENSION

Sets: 4–5, Reps: 8–15

START: If it’s available, choose a leg-curl machine with an angled (not flat) bench. Lie facedown, position the backs of your ankles against the pad with your legs extended and make sure your knees are off the edge of the bench.

EXECUTION: Contract your hamstrings to bend your knees and pull your heels toward your glutes. At the top of the rep, contract your lower back muscles to perform a hyperextension (the range of motion will be very small). Lower your torso to the pad, then return to the start.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Rise slowly on the hyperextension and go for the contraction. This is one you really want to feel; you don’t want to just knock them out.”

                                         

So, these are some extremely good exercises for your legs. Hope it was quite a much helpful.(Source: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/legs-exercises/ultimate-leg-training-workout?page=6)

#FITNESS FIRST!

4 Weeks Workout Schedule!

In the realm of fitness, three-month programs dominate the landscape. You’ve even seen plenty of them in this magazine over the years. Are they effective? Absolutely. But we’re going to let you in on an interesting secret: It doesn’t necessary take eight or 12 weeks to get your feet wet in the gym. Not that you’ll be a seasoned vet after four weeks, but if you can just get that first month under your belt, you’ll get yourself over the proverbial hump where so many fail and give up, and set the stage for a lifetime of gains.

Let’s just call this the accelerated beginner’s guide to bodybuilding. In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding, but not so demanding as to cause injury (or worse yet, burnout), and progressive in the sense that each week you’ll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. After four weeks you’ll not only be ready for the next challenge but you’ll have built a significant amount of quality muscle. In other words, one month from now you’ll look significantly better with your shirt off than you look now. (How’s that for results?)

This program isn’t just for the true beginner who has never touched a weight before; it’s also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training. How long has it been since you went to the gym regularly? Six months? A year? Five years? No worries: The following routines will get you back on track in — you guessed it — just four short weeks. Let’s get to work.(Source: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-routines/complete-mf-beginners-training-guide-0)

WEEK 1: WHOLE IN ONE

You’ll begin the program with a full-body training split, meaning you’ll train all major bodyparts in each workout (as opposed to “splitting up” your training). Train three days this first week, performing just one exercise per bodypart in each session. It’s important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Friday — with Saturday and Sunday being rest days — a good approach.

The exercises listed in Week 1 are a collection of basic moves that, while also used by advanced lifters, we feel are suitable for the beginner as well. Notice we’re not starting you off with only machine exercises; a handful of free-weight movements are present right off the bat. Reason being, these are the exercises you need to master for long-term gains in muscular size and strength, so you may as well start learning them now. Carefully read all exercise descriptions, starting on page, before attempting them yourself.

In Week 1 you’ll perform three sets of every exercise per workout, which over the course of the week adds up to nine sets total for each bodypart, a good starting volume for your purposes. With the exception of crunches for abs, you’ll do 8–12 reps per set. This rep scheme is widely considered ideal for achieving gains in muscle size (the scientific term is hypertrophy) and is commonly employed by amateur and pro bodybuilders alike.

Notice in the workouts below that your first set calls for eight reps, your second set 10 reps and your third set 12. This is referred to in bodybuilding circles as a “reverse pyramid” (a standard pyramid goes from higher to lower reps), where you decrease the weight each set to complete the higher rep count. For example, if on your first set of lat pulldowns you used 140 pounds for eight reps, try using 120 or 130 pounds on set two and 100–120 pounds on set three.

Full-Body Split

Workouts 1, 2, 3
Monday/Wednesday/Friday

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Chest	Dumbbell Bench Press	3	8,10,12
Back	Lat Pulldown	3	8,10,12
Shoulders	Dumbbell Overhead Press	3	8,10,12
Quads	Leg Press	3	8,10,12
Hamstrings	Lying Leg Curl	3	8,10,12
Triceps	Rope Pressdown	3	8,10,12
Biceps	Barbell Curl	3	8,10,12
Calves	Standing Calf raise	3	8,10,12
Abs	Crunch	3	15

WEEK 2: SPLIT DECISION

You’re only a week into the program, yet you’ll begin to train different bodyparts on different days with a two-day training split (meaning the entire body is trained over the course of two days, rather than one as in the first week). You’ll train a total of four days this week; the split includes two upper-body days (Monday and Thursday) and two lower-body days (Tuesday and Friday), and each bodypart is trained twice. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday will be your recovery days.

Several exercises from Week 1 are carried over to Week 2, but one move is added to each bodypart routine — with the exception of abs — so you can train all muscle groups more completely from multiple angles. Chest, for example, includes two exercises: One is a compound movement (dumbbell bench press) that involves multiple joints (both the shoulder and elbow) to work the largest amount of muscle possible, and the other is an isolation exercise (dumbbell flye) that involves only one joint (shoulder) and targets the pecs to a greater extent. (When doing presses for chest, the deltoids and triceps are involved to a degree, meaning presses don’t isolate the pecs as much as flyes do.)

You’ll again employ a reverse pyramid scheme of reps, though in Week 2 you’ll go slightly higher in reps (15) on your third set of each exercise. Fifteen reps may be just outside the ideal muscle-building range, but these sets will help you increase muscular endurance to provide a solid foundation on which to build size and strength going forward.

Two-Day Split (Upper Body, Lower Body)

Workouts 1 & 3
Monday/Thursday: Upper Body

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Chest	Bench Press	3	10,12,15
Chest	Flat Bench Dumbbell Flye	3	10,12,15
Back	Barbell Bent-Over Row	3	10,12,15
Back	Lat Pulldown	3	10,12,15
Shoulders	Dumbbell Overhead Press	3	10,12,15
Shoulders	Dumbbell Lateral Raise	3	10,12,15
Biceps	Barbell Curl	3	10,12,15
Biceps	Preacher Curl Machine	3	10,12,15
Triceps	Lying Barbell Extension	3	10,12,15
Triceps	Rope Pressdown	3	10,12,15
Abs	Crunch	3	15-20

Workouts 2 & 4
Tuesday/Friday: Lower Body

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Quads	Leg Press	3	10,12,15
Quads	Leg Extension	3	10,12,15
Hamstrings	Lying Leg Curl	3	10,12,15
Hamstrings	Seated Leg Curl	3	10,12,15
Calves	Standing Calf raise	3	15-20
Calves	Seated Calf raise	3	15-20

WEEK 3: THREE ON THREE

In the third week of the program we step it up to a three-day training split: Train all “pushing” bodyparts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the “pulling” bodyparts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. As in Week 2, you train each bodypart twice a week, so you’ll hit the gym six days this week.

One new exercise is added to each bodypart routine to provide even more angles from which to train your target muscles to promote complete development. You’ll hit each muscle group with two exercises of 3­–4 sets each: four sets for large bodyparts (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings) and three sets for smaller bodyparts (biceps, triceps, abs, calves). The result is 16 total sets for the week for large bodyparts and 12 sets total for smaller ones — again, working in the 8–15-rep range — which is a substantial increase in volume from Week 1.

Three-Day Split (Push/Pull/Legs)

Workouts 1 & 4
Monday/Thursday: Push

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Chest	Incline Barbell Press	4	10,10,12,15
Chest	Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye	4	10,10,12,15
Shoulders	Dumbbell Overhead Press	4	10,10,12,15
Shoulders	Smith Machine Upright Row	4	8,8,10,12
Triceps	Lying barbell Extension	3	10,12,15
Triceps	Dumbbell Kickback	3	10,12,15

Workouts 2 & 5
Tuesday/Friday: Pull

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Back	Barbell Upright Row	4	8,8,10,12
Back	One-Arm Dumbbell Row	4	8,8,10,12
Biceps	Incline Dumbbell Curl	4	8,8,10,12
Biceps	Preacher Curl Machine	4	8,8,10,12
Abs	Reverse Crunch	3	15-20
Abs	Crunch	3	15-20

Workouts 3 & 6
Wednesday/Saturday: Legs

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Quads	Barbell Squat	4	8,8,10,12
Quads	Leg Press	4	8,8,10,12
Hamstrings	Seated Leg Curl	4	8,8,10,12
Hamstrings	Romanian Deadlift	4	8,8,10,12
Calves	Standing Calf Raise	3	25
Calves	Seated Calf Raise	3	25

WEEK 4: TURNING UP THE VOLUME

In the fourth and final week of the program, you’ll train four days in a four-way split that hits each bodypart just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Four-day splits are common among experienced lifters because they involve training fewer bodyparts (typically 2–3) per workout, which gives each muscle group ample attention and allows you to train with higher volume. As you’ll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders. Shoulders are trained more or less on their own, and you’ll alternate hitting calves and abs — which respond well to being trained multiple times per week — every other workout. No new exercises are introduced in Week 4 so that you can focus on intensity in your workouts instead of learning new movements.

Rep schemes remain in the hypertrophy range this week, but overall volume increases by adding more sets to individual exercises: up to five sets per move for larger bodyparts, and even 10 sets of calf raises on Thursday. This bump in volume will ensure that your muscles are overloaded sufficiently to continue the growth they’ve already begun experiencing in the first three weeks. Completion of this four-week program now entitles you to go to the next stage.

Four-Day Split

Workout 1
Monday: Chest/Triceps/Calves

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Chest	Incline Bench Press	5	10
Chest	Dumbbell Bench Press	5	8,8,10,10,12
Chest	Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye	5	8,8,10,10,12
Triceps	Rope Pressdown	4	10,10,12,12
Triceps	Dumbbell Kickback	3	10
Triceps	Lying Barbell Extension	3	10
Calves	Standing Calf Raise	3	25
Calves	Seated Calf Raise	3	25

Workout 2
Tuesday: Legs/Abs

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Quads	Barbell Squat	5	10
Quads	Leg Press	5	8,8,10,10,12
Quads	Leg Extension	5	8,8,10,10,12
Hamstrings	Lying Leg Curl	3	8,10,12
Hamstrings	Romanian Deadlift	3	8,10,10
Hamstrings	Seated Leg Curl	3	8,10,12
Abs	Reverse Crunch	2	20
Abs	Crunch	2	20

Workout 3
Thursday: Shoulders/Calves

Shoulders	Dumbbell Overhead Press	4	12
Shoulders	Smith Machine Upright Row	3	8,10,12
Shoulders	Dumbbell Lateral Raise	3	10
Calves	Seated Calf Raise	10	10

Workout 4
Friday: Back/Biceps/Abs

MUSCLE GROUP	EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Back	Barbell Bent-Over Row	5	12
Back	Lat Pulldown	5	8,8,10,12,12
Back	One-Arm Dumbbell Row	5	8,8,8,10,10
Biceps	Barbell Curl	4	10,10,12,12
Biceps	Incline Dumbbell Curl	3	10
Biceps	Preacher Curl Machine	3	10
Abs	Crunch	3	20

I truly hope that this works out for everyone to achieve their ULTIMATE fitness goal. Best of Luck!

#FITNESS FIRST!