The female hormone, estrogen, is important for a variety of reasons, and even helps preserve bone health. Since women lose strength after menopause, you might wonder whether estrogen plays a role in muscle strength and hypertrophy gains. Find out what research shows.
When’s the best time to train your abs? – at the beginning of a workout or towards the end? This article discusses the pros and cons of each approach. It also talks about the importance of doing a variety of ab moves for optimal results.
Circuit training is a type of workout that keeps your body constantly moving. Why would you want to do it? For one, it’s one of the best ways to get a total body workout in the shortest time possible. Read on and discover 5 reasons you might choose to do a circuit workout.
Can a gluten-free diet make you a better athlete? That’s why some athletes believe – but is this backed by science? Read on and find out whether there’s a connection between dietary gluten and exercise performance.
It’s no secret that people lose aerobic capacity and exercise endurance with age, especially those who don’t exercise – but have you ever wondered why? This article discusses why and how much is preventable with training.
When you’re trying to get fitter and stronger, the last thing you want is to overreach or push yourself past the point where your body can recover. Overreaching can lead to a more severe form of exercise fatigue trainers refer to as overtraining. Fortunately, you can prevent this problem by following a few guidelines.
An exercise hormone? Yes, scientists recently discovered a novel “hormone” produced by muscles during exercise. As it turns out, your muscles are actually hormone-producing machines, at least in some capacity. Find out more.
As you may know, there are two phases of a muscle contraction – the concentric and eccentric portion. Some types of training, like super-slow training, emphasize the eccentric portion of the rep since this creates more muscle damage and greater potential for growth. Could eccentric-focused training also boost your metabolism?
For years, trainers have said to train hard to boost hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, anabolic hormones that aid in muscle growth. No doubt, you SHOULD train hard but not necessarily to churn out more growth hormone and testosterone. Research suggests that even if you do produce more of these hormones briefly in response to exercise, it may not increase your gains. Find out more.
What’s new in the fitness world for 2016? Every year the American College of Sports Medicine surveys participants to find the latest fitness trends. What’s likely to be popular in 2016?
You know strength training builds strength and muscle size – but does an intense resistance workout also improve your cardiovascular system? Find out what research shows about strength training and the impact it has on your heart.
One of the signs of vitamin D deficiency is muscle weakness. Restoring normal levels of vitamin D can improve muscle strength and function in people who are deficient, but what about normal people? Can vitamin D make you stronger if you’re not already deficient? Find out what research shows.
