Reasons Why Leg Training Should Not Be Ignored

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Reasons Why Leg Training Should Not Be Ignored
By: Ryan McKenzie

As a modern weight lifter or body builder, I want you to picture something. Picture yourself as an extremely musucular person with very little body fat. Now picture yourself walking down the beach and everyone is staring at you. You think they are staring at your body because it looks like its etched in stone, but the real reason is your extreme lack of leg development, otherwise known as chicken legs.

I would estimate that close to 75% of trainers do not work their legs, greatly reducing their bodies potential to grow. Working your legs has many benefits. The first and most obvious, is that if you would like to have a well rounded physique, you obviously are going to want a symetrical body, which can never exist without some mamoth tree trunks to support you. Another major benefit to working your legs is the extra growth hormone your body will produce. Why will your body produce more growth hormone? Because your legs consist of some of the biggest muscles in your body; your body will need to excrete more growth hormone in order to recover, helping other body parts grow as well. The third reason working your legs is very important, is for people who are looking to stay lean. Working your legs will use significantly more calories than other body parts due to there size and the time it takes to recover. Since your legs take longer to recover, your metabolism will be raised for a longer period of time. Finally, your body is a very intelligent machine, it does like to have imbalances. If you start to develop a lot of lean body mass on your upper body while your legs maintain the 12 year old girl look, your body is going to recognize this. To prevent your body from developing muscular imbalances your body can and will prevent you from retaining any more lean body mass until your imbalance has been corrected.

Hopefully after reading this article, you will be a little more driven to head to the dreaded leg room and get under that squat bar. Its for your own good!

About The Author

Ryan Mckenzie

http://www.amazing-weight-loss.com - Ryans Weight loss articles

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The Power of Stretching - Dave Snape

Your muscles ache from a good stretch. This is quite
normal and is part of the process. Stretching has
seemingly been with us and particularly with athletes
since the beginning of time.

A very key point to good stretching is to hold the
stretch for at least seventeen seconds. This is a
pearl of wisdom gleaned from a ballet teacher a few
years back. She said that any stretch under 17
seconds was just not effective.

The 17 second rule is exceeded in the high intensity
Bikram's yoga where stretches are held for about 30
seconds. Don't forget the high level of heat that is
used in Bikram's to extract that last little bit of
stretch out of your muscles. An interesting twist that
is not necessary to gain benefits from stretching. But,
it can't hurt, right?

So what kind of benefits can you expect from
stretching? That's an easy one. Have you ever seen the
movie, Blood Sport? Did you know that Frank Dux could
truly stretch his body to the extreme. The actor that
played him was quite elastic as well.

Great elasticity is also something you might see in
well trained Spetsnaz (Russian) agents. They often work
out with Russian kettlebells too. They are for superior
strength gains and the ability to withstand ballistic
shocks.

Why are stretching and flexibility considered important
to these people? Stretching gives one the ability to
have explosive power available at one's fingertips
without the need to warm up. Of course most of us are
not martial artists or agents. But, you'll be happy to
know there are plenty of other benefits.

Let me give you an example. After learning to sit in
the full lotus position for long periods of time, my
ankles became very flexible. One day I was walking
along and my left foot fell into a pothole. This mishap
pushed my ankle sideways to about 90 degrees from it's
normal position.

Amazingly, this didn't even hurt, not one bit. If my
ankle hadn't been so flexible, I may have suffered a
sprained ankle. At the very least, it would have hurt
for days.

Key point: stretching helps you to avoid injuries.
Not only that but if you do have a muscle, tendon or
ligament injury it should heal faster, theoretically
speaking.

Stretching actually grows the ligaments, tendons and
muscles being stretched. They really grow longer over
time.

Check with your physician before undertaking any type
of exercise, including stretching.

Here is some good instructional material on stretching:
http://tinyurl.com/6c6kq

Dave Snape

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