Squats are one of the best ways to develop and assess lower body strength. They are the first event in powerlifting and are also an essential part in the clean and snatch in Olympic weightlifting -- although Olympic lifters favor the front squat over the back squat.
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Fitness means different things to different people. For some, fitness means being able to run a long way or swim quickly while for others it is the ability to lift heavy weights or do the splits.
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The bench press is one of the most popular strength training exercises around. Using barbells or dumbbells, bodybuilders perform bench presses to build upper body muscle size, powerlifters to test upper body strength and athletes to gain functional strength for sports.
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Calluses are caused by repetitive friction against the skin and are common in people who weight train. While some lifters see calluses as a badge of honor that shows they do regular workouts, other people find this buildup of tough and sometimes painful skin unpleasant.
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Spending long periods of time sat at a desk, hunched over a computer or driving can result in pulled forward or protracted shoulders and a rounded upper back. In addition, a badly designed exercise program that involves too many pushing exercises and too few pulling exercises can also cause the same problem.
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The core is the collective term used to describe the muscles that control your spine, specifically your abdominals, waist and lower back. Many exercisers spend workout time focusing on their core muscles in the hope of developing a six-pack midsection.
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Your quadriceps are located on the front of your thigh. Their job is to extend your knee and flex your hip. They are made up from four muscles: rectus femoris, vastas lateralis, vastas intermedialis and vastas medialis. These four muscles share a common insertion point in the quadriceps or patella tendon.
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Bodybuilders use a number of specialized training systems to make their workouts as productive as possible. A training system is a specific arrangement of sets, reps and exercise performance designed to make exercises sufficiently challenging so they trigger muscle growth – a process called hypertrophy.
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People exercise for a variety of reasons -- from weight management to improved levels of strength for sports. If you want to improve any aspect of your physical performance, you need to adhere to the exercise principles. These principles can be thought of as signposts to success.
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Weight training -- also referred to as strength training -- offers many benefits, including stronger bones, greater strength for sports and everyday activities and increased fat burning due to an elevated metabolic rate.
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There are a number of variations of the deadlift exercise, including stiff legged, sumo, Romanian and standard. Each exercise is slightly different and will stress your body in different ways.
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People have ridden two-wheeled self-powered vehicles for transport, recreation and sport since the early 17th century. The materials used in bicycle manufacture have changed significantly and modern bicycles are almost unrecognizable from the wood and iron bikes of old.
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Track spikes are worn by runners to maximize their grip during competition and training. The spikes, usually made of metal, screw into the sole of the shoe and the length and configuration of the spikes depends on the running surface and event.
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Popular with athletes and the military, burpees can be used in circuit training or as a standalone workout. Burpees employ a large number of muscles in the motion of flowing through a squat, a single pushup, a jump and then repeating the motions.
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Exercises can be classified based on the engaged muscle's length and tension. Isotonic exercises involve an eccentric or lowering phase, and a concentric or lifting phase. Isometric exercises are those that have no joint movement about the joint but tension is developed within the muscle to support a load.
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If you're looking for abdominal exercises that don't require working out in a gym, isometric ab exercises are an option -- you can do these exercises anywhere. Isometric exercises involve contracting your muscles without any joint movement.
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A medicine ball is a weighted ball used for exercise. Modern balls are made of rubber or soft plastic, but they used to be made out of leather and stuffed with felt or horsehair.
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Your circulatory system consists of your heart, blood vessels and blood, and is responsible for transporting life-giving oxygen throughout your body. When you exercise, your body's need for oxygen increases; the harder you work out, the more oxygen your body demands.
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Soccer is an anaerobic sport that consists of rapid bursts of activity followed by short periods of rest. To be successful, a soccer player must have pure sprinting speed but also the ability to dodge other players and make tackles, which requires agility.
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The 1,600-m run, or metric mile, is a blue ribbon event in athletics. For many years, it was a race to see who would break the four-minute barrier, a feat eventually achieved by Briton Roger Bannister in 1954.
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