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5 reasons To Do Pranayama After Gym Work Out?

A typical day in the gym revolves around many exercises such as cardio, treadmill and other muscle building activities. Increased blood supply to the muscles, ligaments is normally attended after completing such strenous sessions. One may find lot of articles on those this areas in this blog. Moreover, I am sure that you may be using this material effectively .

Here is a thought, however, that while initially sounding absurd, but upon further contemplation have definitely helped many of my clients in the long run. When rendering life style counselling service especially for those who are athletes or who are regular gym lovers, my advice is to do something completely different at least for 5 minutes after the workout. I let them do some Pranayama or breathing exercise after each work out for about 5 minutes.

Pranayama is an ancient art of breathing and is widely known in yoga circles. Pranayama is simply an art of breathing where one inhales the breathe through the nose and then slowly exhales it the same way. This method of breathing is also known as abdominal breathing. Read more on how to do this here, and its benefits here.

To be present in the “Present” is what is called for with this exercise. But you may ask, why such slow and relaxing exercises to end our nice strenous workout at the gym? Here are a few reasons to explain why.

Refreshing:

Gym work out normally is very tiring especially if it is done for a long time. We are not speaking about the tiring of the person, but rather the tiring of the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the body. This feeling of exhaustion is bound to hamper some times. The best way to get refreshed is simply by breathing deeply. So in essence, Pranayama solves the problem as it combines deep abdominal breathing. The freshness that one gets when inhaling fresh air deep inside again and again is magic to our body.

Relax one's muscles and ligaments:

It is very common to complain after such a long and tedious exercise routine to feel fatigued especially for certain muscles that have been worked trained rather strenously. When one does Pranayama afterwards, one can feel that the muscles being to feel truly relaxed. While it is clear that an increase in blood supply has been delievered to the muscles during the workout, oxygen supply to the blood has been in shortage. While working out we actually breathe very quickly, consequently, we use a lot of oxygen. Pranayama would be the only way to increase the supply of fresh oxygen in our body and thus make out for the loss of oxygen in the muscles making one feel relax.

Carbon-dioxide thrown out:{Toxins thrown out }

Another added benefit of Pranayama is the quick disposal of carbon dioxide gas. If one tends to breathe deeply here in Pranayama, one also tends to throw air deeply. In layman terms, I might say that one tends to expel a lot of carbon dioxide gases. I am sure you will agree that this is a good sign in general. The constant exchange of gaseous that takes place in our lungs is decreased when one breathes quickly which is common during active and strenous workouts. During Pranayama exercise one is going to relax one self and breathe; this experience thus present no issue and results in lots of waste, including C0² , expelled from the body.

Brain and Pranayama:

A gym is a generally thought of as a place where one can work his physical body; but what about mental strength? Again, here is where the importance of Pranayama comes into play. Breathe work normally increases blood supply not just in our body, but also towards the brain, thus helping us get more refreshed .While doing weight training , it is important to understand that our blood is more circulated towards all the body and little to the brain. But our brain is also an organ that needs fresh oxygenated blood all the time. So, by performing Pranayama exercise one can ensure that the brain gets that fresh oxygenated blood.

Stamina /Concentration:

If you are fan of "Survivor” or any such style of reality shows , one thing is very clear. It’s not just physical fitness that one needs to face such challenges. It’s the combination of physical fitness, concentration and stamina. Gym work can help you with the physical part, but the “cream” of all this is your mental workout. For that one need not to overlook the role of Pranayamain the equation. It is not just a breathing work out for our lungs, it is also a work out for the brain. One can easily see increased stamina, concentration after doing any Pranayama session.

So the next time you visit the gym, make sure you spend only 5 minutes afterwards performing some deep breathing exercise and judge for yourself if all the claims I make are indeed true.

Sudeep A Chitnis a resident of Brighton Canada has been writing his own blog “e-swastya” on Ayurveda, Yoga and Diet. He specializes in a branch of medicine namely called as “Ayurveda or Science of living. Read more on his blog to know more about this entire subject and if you like to add your email and subscribe to his blog. For more tips, follow him on Twitter @vdsudeep

Featured Guest Blogger: Adrian of 36pounds.com

Bodybuilding vs. Strength training

If you train to look good and be comfortable in your own skin, which training type is better? Bodybuilding or Strength training? Which one is more effective? Which one is “the magic pill”? In this post I will answer these questions and, hopefully, help you get the best training available.

Two sides of Training

There are two approaches to training and fans of both have “my method is the best” attitude. On one side there is bodybuilding training, which is most popular today and is widespread due to bodybuilding magazines and gyms (a.k.a, Spa). On the other side there is power lifting (strength or functional) training. The latter training method is not as popular as the former; it is mostly done in basement-type gyms or actual basements. The average trainee is a bit afraid of this training because he/she doesn’t want to look big and fat; he just wants to be “ripped”.

Bodybuilding Training

Bodybuilding is training done of the purpose of looking as good as possible (having a lot of well defined muscles) and being as big as possible while maintaining low body fat percentage. The main goal for pro bodybuilders is to have the best physique on the contest day where judges decide the winner based on symmetrical and aesthetics’ grounds rather than on how strong the contestant is. Bodybuilding training therefore, is not aimed at increasing strength, flexibility or speed. Bodybuilders train more with machines to isolate the muscles in order to “polish” how the muscle looks; this type of training is conventional now and uses mostly 3 sets of 8-10 reps of isolation exercises.

Source: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/

Strength (Functional) Training

Here is a good quote from Tom Venuto, famous author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle ebook, which was very popular (and probably still is):

Functional training would help the average person develop strength that carries over into daily activities such as pulling open a heavy door, hiking up a rocky, uneven trail, starting a lawnmower, carrying a child, unloading heavy packages from the trunk of a car, or reaching up and pulling down a bulky box from an overhead shelf.

Strength training, unlike the training with isolation machine like bodybuilding, is more about free weight exercises, core training, stability balls, dumbbells (often larger ranges of motion as compared to barbells; this type of training means more muscle fibers working, which means better stimulation for muscles to grow. Strength trainers using compound movements like squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows. Powerlifters and Strongmen, most common types of strength trainers, use this type of training. While they don’t look as good as average trainee wants to look, they are incredibly strong. They just have a lot of mass and therefore are big. One very popular way of training is 5x5 training written about in books by Mark Rippetoe, Stuart McRobert and other “old-school authors”.

Source: http://www.criticalbench.com

Look great and Be strong as an ox!

So for an average trainee, I think finding the middle road is the best option. Getting that great looking body and gaining a lot of strength is a huge thing! To accomplish this task, we first need to focus on using compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows; we should also stay away from machines and only do a few isolation exercises once in a while to keep your body from imbalance. I prefer isolation exercises not to make up more than 20 percent of total exercises (1 in 5 exercises only). While we still need to do some, trainees need to build a solid base of muscles first and only then finish off their physique with some isolation exercise work. Work your face off with Strength training and total body training three times a week with 20% of your exercises being isolation. Do this training for half a year or a year, then go on an upper/lower split bodybuilding type training to finish off your masterpiece.

Cheers, Adrian

Adrian is a blogger who writes about his personal experiences with exercises. You may read more of his posting by visiting his personal blog http://www.36pounds.com/

Featured Guest Blogger: Ashley M. Hicks

Source: http://xaa.xanga.com

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror,” I’m sure we are all familiar with the Michael Jackson lyrics that empowered us to make a change to help improve the world. To my fellow idealist, this is somewhat of an anthem. Yet, those genuine words hold true for each of us as we tackle our weight issues. So often, we tell ourselves lies, “I’m not really that big; I just need to lose five pounds;” or my favorite, “I’ll start working out tomorrow.” We also place blame for not taking care of ourselves on family, friends, work or anything that takes up too much of our precious time.

Believe me, I know. I didn’t have my fitness breakthrough until I took a really long look in the mirror and confronted who was looking back – an overweight 22 year old who was not happy with her body. The ironic part was that being honest with myself was a cathartic experience that gave me clarity and really helped me to focus on the lifestyle changes I needed to make in order to lose weight.

So what do you do once you confront the man (or woman) in the mirror?

1. Figure out your BMI (Body Mass Index) – According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/) , BMI is “is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.” Why is BMI important? It helps us figure out what weight range we should be in for our height.
2. Set a goal – Setting a goal helps you keep your eye on the prize. What is your your target weight? What are your fitness goals? Maybe you want to run a 5k without stopping, or maybe you want to tone your body. Set those goals and a realistic timeframe for reaching them.
3. Plan an exercise program – I agree with the quote “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” You need a weekly plan of what cardio and strength training you are going to do. Nothing is worse than going to the gym for an hour, throwing around a few weights and not really accomplishing anything. If you don’t know how to properly do a squat or what interval training is, then maybe you should find a trainer. The added benefits of investing in a trainer are: motivation and support, nutrition advice and someone to properly guide you through exercises so you don’t hurt yourself.
4. Clean out the fridge – You have to change the way you eat in order for the workouts to be effective.
5. Get Moving – It’s going to be hard work, but you can do it!

So, what do you think? Are you ready to look at the man (woman) in the mirror? Or have you already made that first crucial step? If so, what are you doing now, to mak e those necessary changes, changes that you know you need and want to change? Whether you agree or disagree, do share your story even if you have a slightly different perspective.