Female Fitness Magazine

Build more musclelose more fat

muscle2014

and Body

success Tricks To

uncover

GeTTinG ready for

summer? 6 pack

aBs

earnsucceed

female fiTnessr e a l W o r k o u T s a n d r e a l r e s u lT s

SPORT BODYusinG acTual science and facTs To Back-up our sTaTemenTs

april 2014issue 1

HoT & fiT

conTenTapril 2014

issue 1

// editor

that

R O C KpaGe 7

GeTTinG aBs

.

03 motivation

04flexibilty

05Toned legs 06

Toned arms

07 Toned abs

08lose fat

09 conclusion

The Beginning

naTHan WeissBock// authors

nathan Weissbock// designer

nathan Weissbock

WWW.sporTBody.comconTenT

Motivation is defined as the pro-cess that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behav-iors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or read-ing a book to gain knowledge. In this case, it is the urge and drive to want to workout.

How do you find motivation to exercise when you just don’t feel like getting off your butt? I ask myself this question every now and then, and I have the feeling I’m not the only one.

There are a million ways to motivate yourself to exercise. And trust me, I’ve had days when I’ve struggled with exercise. Most recently, the things that have helped include finding a workout partner (one of the best motivators!), logging my exercise, reading magazines, books and websites, and rewarding myself. Even action movies give me the occasional pump!

3 Sport Body

model: Meaghan BlakelypHoTos: NAtHAN Weissbock

Mostly everyone knows the proper order of exercising is to warm-up, stretch, exercise, cool-down, and stretch. People who believe this may be put-ting their muscles in more harm than you may think.In a general description, here is what happens to your muscles when you work them out: When you lift weight, your muscles exert force in order to over-come the stress. When you ex-ert more force than what your muscles are used to exerting in daily activities, they develop micro tears in the fibers. This is normal and what needs to happen in order for the muscle to grow and become stronger. The micro tears allow the mus-cle to expand very slightly and the rebuilding of the tears is why you feel sore.

Your muscles have elasticity to them which allows them to move and produce force. The more elastic (flexible) they are, the more they can safely produce force. In order to get the muscles elastic, they must have adequate blood flow to them to keep them warm. If this is done, the muscle are less likely to sustain injury due to tight, cold muscles.

think about how you work out. consider taking 10 extra minutes to warm-up and stretch your muscles. 10 minutes of preparing to exercise is better than weeks of recovering from an injury.

FLEXIBILITY

Maintaining

flexibility is

important to protect

yourself from possible

injury

If muscles are not warmed up before beginning to exer-cise, you have a higher risk of tearing your muscles. This is because not enough blood is getting to the muscle fibers to warm them up and make them flexible enough to produce the force needed to overcome the stress. When stress is exerted on the tight muscles, they may tear.

The same happens with mus-cles if they are attempted to be stretched without properly warming up. The stretching is what helps make the muscles elastic. Like stated before, the more elastic the muscles are, the safer they are able to and the more force they can pro-duce. But if cold muscles are stretched, they have a high possibility of injury. This injury could include anything from pulling to tearing to even snap-ping. Think of it like a cold rub-ber band, if the rubber is cold, it does not stretch very well. You begin to stretch it and may see small cracks in the band. This could be the tearing of your muscles. If you keep stretching the rubber band, it may snap on you. This is the same as your muscles. If you keep stretching a cold muscle it may snap.

4 Sport Body | April 2014

Armsmodel: Marizza FlorespHoTos: NAtHAN Weissbock

What is required to achieve those arms you seek

S o, what is the secret? Get ready… it’s push ups! yes, you heard us right. and while it’s one of the longest standing and most basic exercises, by doing the right variation and the

right number of reps, your arms will transform before your very eyes.

Why push-u p s ? l i k e most women, when first i n t r o d u c e d to ‘strength-training,’ i was

not a fan. i thought strength training’ meant ‘getting big’ (which is a myth by-the-way). and, let’s be serious, as a woman, the last thing you want is big bulky muscles, right? rather, most of them want a long, lean and toned look. and push-ups do just that! They train the triceps (which is 2/3 of the arm) and the biceps).

neck keeping the head looking straight ahead will ensure that this keeps your back and neck striaght, which

will prevent injury

Funny thing is, amongst many modern fitness enthusiasts, the

push-up is often overlooked due to its simplicity. A lot of people are under the misconception that something so basic couldn’t possi-bly be the best overall upper-body exercise out there. even members of the primal community who know better than to buy into mainstream hype are often skeptical of my claim that the humble push-up is nature’s perfect exercise. but my favorite thing about push-ups is that they don’t require anything more than a floor, so you can do them anywhere. And as i always say, If you don’t have a floor, you’ve got much bigger problems!


Toned

sTrong Legs

S quatting is one of the best lower body exciercises for you. By moving your body through a full range of motion, you’ll not only build strength; you’ll boost flexibility as well. Deep squatting helps to increase range of motion in the entire hip complex. The benefit: reduced back pain and an easier time getting around in daily activi-ties or sporting events. squat exercises

thoroughly engage the quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles, which helps to tone and strengthen the legs. slowing the motion down makes the workout that much more intense. Doing squats gives the glutes a powerful workout, helping to tighten and lift the butt. to increase this effect, give your glutes an extra squeeze when returning to a standing position. squats engage the core muscles of the body. Abdominal and back muscles are needed to keep balance during the movement. The result is a tighter, flatter abdomen and a stronger lower back. Make a conscious effort to hold in your abdominal muscles while squatting down to increase this effect. once you’re comfortable with doing squats, you can increase the difficulty by adding weights. Try holding dumbbells at shoulder level or use a barbell across your shoulders. You can also use one dumbbell; hold it in front of you with both hands while squatting. It’s especially important to maintain proper form when using weights. keep your knees aligned with your feet and don’t squat beyond the point where your thighs are parallel to the floor.

model: kelsey Hayes | pHoTos: naTHan WeissBock


The WeighTedSiT-up

The WeighTedSiT-up

Model: Kirsten Lee // Photos: Nathan WeissbockCore

You can use weighted plates, medicine balls, bars or resistance bands to supply the resistance when performing weighted sit-ups. When using resistance bands, the band must be tied to something stable behind you, and you can hold the ends of the band with your hands behind your head. Beginners should start with very light weight.

it-ups are one of the oldest and most used abdominal workouts out there for several reasons, including the facts that they can be done without any expensive gym equip-

ment and that they target the abs directly. As with any type of resistance exercises, adding weight offers the advantage of increased strength, muscle tone and muscle size. Weighted sit-ups are an effec-tive abdominal workout when proper form is used, but you must know what you’re doing before at-tempting these sit-ups.

You are at risk of injury when performing weighted sit-ups. Using too much weight is one of the easiest ways to injure your neck or back. If you notice that you’re stressing your neck excessively during the exercise, you are probably using too much weight. Good technique is far more important than how much weight you can hold. Try to keep your head and back in a straight line throughout the entire movement. This will force your abdominal muscles to work rather than your back and neck.

S


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THe HiiT WorkouTs

W hen most people think of cardio, they think of long, boring jogs, or endless hours on the elliptical. I have good news for you: there’s a method of car-dio that takes much less time and is far superior to

jogging to help you burn fat. It’s called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). High Intensity Interval Training involves alternating between very intense bouts of exercise and low intensity exercise. For example, sprinting for 30 seconds, then walking for 60 seconds is high intensity interval training. HIIT can be used both anaero-bically (in the gym with weights) and aerobically with cardio. Exercise physiologists used to believe that “steady state” cardio was superior for fat loss because relatively more fat is used by the body as fuel at lower exercise intensities than at higher in-tensities. The “Fat Burning Zone” shown on most cardio equip-ment as only 60%-65% of max heart rate is really a myth and is NOT optimal for burning fat. Yes, you burn more fat relative to glycogen when going for a walk, but what we care about is total fat burn. At higher intensities, you are burning far more fat, even though the fat/glycogen ratio is lower. In addition, interval training allows you to exercise at very high intensities for a much longer period of time than steady state, so you burn more fat.


Model: Joë Dion-Croteau Photos: Nathan Weissbock

“When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripples that extend until they encompass the whole pool. this is exactly what will happen when you give your ideas a definite plan of action.”

-Bruce Lee

Between work and family commitments, it‘s all too easy to let your diet and fitness routine slide. But while getting back into shape isn’t easy, it is doable -- with several lifestyle changes. By adopting a healthier diet, incorporating exercise into your daily routine and staying motivated, you can be on your way to better health in no time.

We hope that you join us on this amazing journey we are about to go on, and by subscribing to this magazine, you are about to impart on the adventure of a lfetime.

There will be times you will want to give up, unmotivated, not passionate enough to move on, but we hope to make sure that does not happen. We want to be with you every step of the way and make sure you reach your goal. You have already taken the first step in your journey by reading this magazine. Don`t stop now.

always do your best. What you plant now,

you will harvest later.

F iTBelieve in yourself! Have faith in your

abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or

happy.

9 Sport Body

Female Fitness Magazine

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