Static stretching is just the opposite of dynamic stretching and is also known as active stretching. Known by different names, active stretching is also commonly called static active stretching. You take up a position and hold on to it without any external assistance. The only strength you can use is that of your muscles. Without any limb movements the muscle groups are stretched for about 15 to 20 seconds.

Improves active flexibility in martial arts and yoga

A very common example of exercising your opposing muscles and testing their strength is holding a leg out in front while you stand on the other leg. The stretched leg is held out with the help of your quadriceps that get strengthened while you repeat the position. In a way the muscles are also relaxed. Martial art exponents and practitioners use this active stretching technique to heighten their active flexibility as they have to hold a leg up toward the opponent’s head during the act.

You cannot stay in the active stretching position for more than 10 to 15 sec as the position is difficult to maintain much longer. Even yoga which involves different types of postures is based to some extent on active stretching. In some forms of yoga, postures of this type of stretching are more evident and individual muscles are worked one at a time. Most doctors and physiotherapists use this technique to cure cramps, aches and muscular problems.

To increase overall fitness and endurance levels of athletes and sports enthusiasts, fitness trainers and therapists also work on them. Usually, it comes in handy when they have fitness and injury problems. In highly active sports, injury can plague them and that is when gentle and quick active stretching is a way to heal and make them get back to optimum levels of fitness during performances. Overall body functions undergo a sea change with this technique developed by Aaron L Mattes.

Best performed during training

Active stretching technique has been developed to improve flexibility and is not usually performed by athletes just before their sporting events. Like martial artists who have to raise their legs to the height of their opponent’s head, dynamic flexibility is more required than anything else. But it can affect their balance and they can take longer time to react if they perform them just before the event. Power output also gets lesser and it does not prevent injuries. This exercise is part of their training process and not done prior to the sporting event.

You can know more about the new type of active stretching techniques at workshops, seminars and training programs at M2 Fitness Pros. Gentle and quick stretching technique is the latest fad to contract the muscle against the muscle that is targeted. The muscle is released before it can contract. Healthcare practitioners have co-opted this path-breaking technique to shore up their services by offering this extra feature. To loosen up tight muscles and prevent the risk of injury, active stretching is performed as part of the training process of athletes.

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Let’s face it, gyms aren’t pretty and they aren’t really designed to be. They are filled with rows and rows of exercise equipment and any wall space that doesn’t feature a full length mirror is usually covered by a poster of a muscled up bodybuilder or an advertisement for one of the personal trainers that reside there. The floor, while functional with its thick padded surface, doesn’t exactly provide the same ambience as a finely woven Berber carpet.

Well, at least you have the music to help you feel more comfortable. That is if you like whatever type of music happens to be blaring out of the speakers at the time. There is always the TV though. If you are lucky enough to get a machine that has a TV you can control, you’ll have the ability to watch whatever you want as long as you place the bacteria infested earphones into your ears. Perhaps I sound a bit disgruntled and I apologize as that is not my point. The fact is, sometimes I just have to take my work out outside as the confining walls of the gym can drive just about anybody crazy after a while.

So, what is so great about working out outside? What is so great is that the possibilities are endless. The only thing that determines what you’ll see and what you’ll experience when working out outside is the areas in which you’re willing to go to perform your workout.

If you’re looking for a more calm and serene atmosphere, simply take a jog around the past they can be found at your local lake. Benches found along the pathway will provide you additional structures for you to use if you want to perform incline push-ups or plyometrics.

If you’re looking for a more varied and intense surrounding, simply make your way into the city to complete your fitness regimen. Running up and down stairs amidst the hustle and bustle of a downtown environment will not only provide you with a great cardiovascular workout but it will ensure that the scenery you encounter is ever-changing. Cityscapes, with their varied concrete jungle type structures provide a plethora of workout opportunities to anyone who has a good imagination and a sense of adventure.

Whether or not you have kids, going to the local playground can be one of the most satisfying work out alternatives to the local gym scene. Fair you can perform an incredible variety of exercises using the jungle gym just as the kids do including pull-ups on the monkey bars, plyometric jumps on the landing platforms, and even dips between the bars of the equipment itself.

So if you are tired of looking at the inside walls of your gym, simply step outside and take a look around. Workout opportunities are everywhere and stepping out into the fresh air can reinvigorate your excitement for working out and training our regular basis.

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A Look at Some Stretching and Recovery Techniques

The first question to ask yourself is whether stretching is good for your body. The answer is yes. However the intensity of the stretching and recovery techniques should be utilized according to your body limitations or injuries. In other words, you should never try to force your body to do things or movements that feel difficult for it to move within your comfort zone.

Why Is Stretching Important?

Without proper stretching exercises our muscles tend to grow stronger and tighter at the same time, losing the ability to easily stretch. This results in various problems and reduces the efficiency of the muscles, often causing pain and sometimes even injury. With proper exercises and stretching, muscles can show better physical performance, reduced chances of injury, improve your posture and balance, improve muscle coordination and reduce soreness and aches.

How Is Stretching Best Practiced?

It is always advisable to warm up your muscles before you look to do any stretching exercises. As already pointed out, cold muscles are stiff and can cause acute pain if they are suddenly challenged by over stretching exercises. Warming up will result in increased flexibility and more efficiency. The intensity of the stretching exercises should be chosen according to your body structure, age and sex.

While stretching, try full range motions. This further increases the flexibility of your body. Remember not to strain yourself too much when stretching. Too much strain on your muscles can cause severe injury. Try to target a point where you experience mild discomfort. For balanced flexibility, try to work opposite muscle groups at the same time.

Use deep diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing to fill the lungs with oxygen with 2-3 deep inhalations so the feeling is felt deep into the lower lobes of the lungs. Then slowly release or exhale slowly through pursed lips to reduce exhale speed. This will allow a more thorough release in muscle tension and increase length of stretch rep.

A light cardio warm up can be ideal before a stretching session. This can be achieved by being on the treadmill for 5 minutes, jogging or cycling, etc. Always try to take normal breaths without ever holding your breath back. It is very important that you do not push the muscles to cross their limits. This will only result in pain and injury.

The stretching exercises are ideally slow and sustained. There should be no jerky fast movements or impulsive force on your muscles.

The Benefits

There are various advantages of the stretching and recovery techniques, if practiced accurately. Stretching can lengthen the muscles, improve their flexibility, and add to their strength, also making them better equipped against injuries and stress. Stretching can even help to clean the blood and thus helps with the vital systems of the human body.

With so many advantages for your body, stretching and recovery techniques are something worth considering. After all, it only demands a small part of your time, but gives you much more in return!

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Hello and welcome to the Mr. Fat Loss blog!

This has been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile and with everybody  coming into the marketplace with a variety of fat loss products that promise the stars and the moon, plus make you look fabulous…I thought a personal guide to assist you would be a good idea!

The main reason is that I want to help you with sorting out some of the fluff and provide some direction for you while  you look for the right fat loss program that’ll help you.

After 32 years of personal experience with exercise, fitness and health…I still look for the “new” the better, the faster or best fat loss program.

Its very hard and determining the “best or right” program can be challenge when all the information is sounding pretty much the same, just a different person or company promoting the next “magic bullet.”

I’d like to provide you with as many resources available so you can look for yourself and measure the claims made by each of the experts on the marketplace. Along with the ones I feel are important to include when putting together and building effective fat loss programs.

I’ll also be very blunt in many cases, not to offend , but to shake some of you up that have been saying you are “trying, thinking about or should” do something or that “it’s too hard to change” a bit more than “doing” what you should be doing to accomplish healthy fat loss as your goal.

In my mind, over all improved mental and physical health should be the goal of everyone on the planet…actually, to be the best human being you can. But, without making this a political forum or blog, instead comments focused on important fitness and health related topics will be welcome and appreciated with fat loss more as a side benefit of healthy lifestyle changes.

I also will have people from around the globe looking at the information here with the translator bar in all dialects available…so welcome visitors! Along with that there are a few sections you may want to explore which contain elements you might not currently have employed in your own fat loss programs.

These individuals in my professional opinion are some of the best in the world and will offer you a lot of information so that you can judge their abilities for yourself before going any further.

In addition, there will be variety of teleseminars, videos, articles and Q & A opportunity with so much new information related to any and all areas regarding fat loss strategies…with fantastic, thought provoking content.

Although it seems that each year new ideas come out about the best or fastest method for fat loss…human beings have not changed physically in a long time and unlike technology, do not adapt or evolve as quick.

Same stuff that got people lean a hundred years ago, still works today…hard, purposeful work.

That being said, you will not find a short cut method here, nor will I endorse it, but just common sense approaches to an age old desire…lean muscle.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mr. Fat Loss

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Facts about Bodyweight Calisthenics for Cardio Workout

Generally, the pictures that do come to your mind when you hear about cardio exercises are sustained repetitive and steady exercises like jogging, cycling or swimming, and so on, that sometimes prove to be exceedingly boring. These necessarily tend to work your body in the correct target zone of your heart. But there are some drawbacks present here as well!

Why Calisthenics?

Some experts suggest that doing the same exercises repeatedly has a negative side effect. It makes cardio workouts very specific as to what it results in. Your body gets accustomed to a repetitive and very specific action that can cause strains from the same movement over and over again.

The other factor is the typical plane of action or the single direction the body moves in while performing a basic type of cardio condition. The typical cardio program that is machine based or sagitially plane based only trains it to become efficient in that typical plane of movement, while various athletic sports require our bodies become conditioned in multiple planes to prevent injury as we move in brand new ways due to our sport.

An example of this is even when you exercise on the treadmill regularly for half an hour (which is just great) you can still get tired very easily if you need to play a game of soccer. This is where calisthenics come in.

Bodyweight calisthenics can also create the same effects as any other cardio exercises. A giant circuit of body weight exercises like Naked Commando is a good example of calisthenics for cardio workouts. These exercises can very efficiently increase the heart and the lung rates as well, resulting in similar physical advantages provided by the usual cardiovascular exercises that are more commonly known to us.

Is It Better Than The Other Cardio Workouts?

Many experts suggest that calisthenics workouts can prove to be better as they provide a complete set of exercises for the whole body. They enhance all the muscles in our body as compared to the few specific muscles that can be developed by the other cardio workouts, like the treadmill or the elliptical machines.

Moreover, calisthenics include movements that make the muscles work more closely simulating the day to day movements required by the body in work and play. These movement patterns may resemble some sport or your work related actions. This makes you better suited for your daily work routine and also results in better heart, lung, total body muscle strength plus the vital stability and balance that get a shot at being trained all at the same time!

A plus point of these calisthenics workouts is that they are much more interesting compared to the other cardio exercises which sometimes seem to appear exceedingly boring.

Therefore it’s very possible for you that calisthenics workouts can enhance the endurance and capability of your body to carry out a multitude of physical tasks much more efficiently, reducing fatigue and imparting a strengthened immune system of your body. On top of that it provides a complete total body workout involving all the muscles in your body, resulting in better cardiovascular health, helping you to live a fitter and more energetic life.

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