Sports & Fitness: Performance Training, Rules & Recovery

Elite athletic performance and general fitness are sustained through structured hypertrophy strategies, sport-specific conditioning, and rigorous adherence to injury prevention protocols.

Portrait of Young Woman In Park

What Exercises Should I Avoid When I'm Menstruating?

There are very few exercises that you should avoid during your menstruation cycle. In fact, exercise is recommended to help relieve symptoms related to menstruation, including cramps, lower back pain, water retention, irritability and other discomfort.

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Big jar of protein powder, bottles, shaker, milk, pills

Should Whey & Creatine Be Used Together After a Workout?

As your body can quickly digest and use the protein in whey, it is great for replenishing your protein stores immediately after a workout. While your body doesn't process creatine as quickly, this chemical helps to increase energy availability.

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Healthy Delicious Baked Potato Filled with Mixed Bean Salad

Can You Keep the Feeling of Muscle Pump Post Workout?

Well-nourished muscles stay pumped longer. When you workout, your blood vessels dilate as fuel is pumped to provide energy for your muscles. This action causes muscle hypertrophy, or muscle growth, for a short time frame during the workout, and then gradually decreases after the workout.

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Patient doing some special exercises

How to Exercise With Hand Grips

A stronger grip can benefit athletes of every skill level -- from weekend warrior to professional. Many strength and conditioning programs include wrist exercises, but exercises that specifically target the gripping muscles of the hand and forearm are often overlooked.

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Flat Footed vs. On Balls of Your Feet Bodyweight Squats

The body weight squat is an effective lower body exercise that targets your hamstrings, quadriceps and gluteus muscles. However, if you perform the squat with incorrect form, you can place undue stress on your lower back or knees.

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Relative Strength Formula for Bench Pressing

The bench press is a traditional upper body compound exercise used by athletes and recreational exercisers. But the bench press can also be used to test and predict your overall upper body strength.

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Can I Lose Fat Around My Hips & Thighs Using an Elliptical?

Whether you're an apple, carrying those extra pounds around your torso, or a pear, with extra weight on your hips and thighs, working out to spot reduce fat in a specific area is a myth. To lose that excess fat, you must reduce the total fat in your body.

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How Much Swimming Equals Running 5 Miles?

Swimming and running are both great ways to meet your daily cardiovascular exercise requirements. Due to the resistance of the water and involvement of your upper and lower body, swimming is also a good full-body, muscle-strengthening activity.

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How Running Affects Leg Muscle Growth

When categorizing types of exercise, running is typically considered an aerobic activity; it's highly effective at burning fat and, as a type of cardiovascular activity, it works your heart and circulatory system.

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Why Do I Spit a Lot When Jogging?

Many runners develop excessive saliva or mucus while jogging. This causes them to spit much more during their training than they normally would. A jogger might feel like spitting more during a workout for any of several reasons.

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Fractured Sternum Exercise Guidelines

The sternum is a long, flat bone in the center of the chest, also known as the breastbone. It is the attachment site to many chest muscles and connects the bones of the rib cage.

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How to Increase Muscle Mass and Decrease Body Fat Percentage

Body composition means what percentage of your total weight is from fat and what is from fat-free mass, consisting of muscle, bone, blood and other fluids. The American College of Sports Medicine publishes categories of body-fat percentage for adult men and women.

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Young man exercising with dumbbell in gym

Hammer Curl vs. Preacher Curl

Biceps exercises tone and define the muscles of your upper arm. They come in a variety of styles, two of which are the hammer curl and the preacher curl. You perform both by raising your hand toward your shoulder, but each recruits different muscles.

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Runners

How to Add Cardio to Powerlifting

One of the classic myths you hear when it comes to mixing weight training and cardio is that the two simply do not mix. Whether by choice or by result, you’ll only realize the results of one of them, even if you perform both of them.

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Basketball player dribbling ball

Sweaty Hands in Sports

When you play a sport recreationally or competitively, you can expect to sweat. Generating sweat can be good because it cools your body off. It can be bad because it leads to dehydration, and when you start to lose a lot of fluid your performance suffers.

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Man in Swim Competition

Swimming Laps Vs. an Elliptical to Lose Weight

Exercise is an essential part of good health. Regular sessions of cardiovascular exercise make up the largest component of a weight-loss program because it can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time. You have many options to choose from when doing cardio -- swimming and the elliptical trainer are just two.

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Man standing on head on surfboard at ocean

Benefits of Headstands

The headstand is considered the king of yoga poses because of its many benefits, which range from improved brain function and mood to increased upper-body strength. When done in correct alignment, many muscles are engaged, including those of the arms, upper back and core.

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