Personal Trainer Secrets Issue Feb 12 2007

Fitness Article of the Week
How Exercise Improves Sleep

Regular exercise can help you sleep better Did you know that people who follow a regular exercise schedule have fewer sleepless nights? It’s true. Insomnia is not a common occurrence when exercise is part of your daily schedule. It has also been noted that exercise improves the quality of your sleep. When you exercise, you experience smoother transitions between the various cycles and phases of sleep throughout the night. Those who add exercise to their day have been shown to fall asleep faster, stay asleep more easily, and remain in the deepest “Stage 4” sleep for a longer period of time.

For an excellent night's sleep, try doing vigorous exercising throughout the day and a light exercise routine at bedtime. (However, do not exercise vigorously right before bed, as it may hinder your ability to fall asleep.) A moderate exercise regimen of only 20 to 30 minutes, three or four times every week, will not only give you a better, more restful night of sleep, but it will also increase your energy level throughout the day.

Both prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids have become a regular purchase for many people. However, for many, adding exercise to your daily routine can enable you to overcome sleep problems without the need for any medication.

How does exercise work to combat sleeplessness?

Two important recent findings relate to sleeplessness and exercise:

Those who experience sleeplessness and insomnia have been shown to lead generally more sedentary lives than those who usually sleep well. This may be due to the fact that the normal rise and fall of a person’s body temperature does not happen in those who do not are not physically active. The disruption of this normal body rhythm can lead to insomnia. Insomnia reduces a person’s energy, causing their physical activity to go down even more. This fact can compound the problem, since the decreased activity will disrupt the body’s normal functioning even more. It is a vicious cycle of lack of activity = lack of sleep.
When you do exercise, there is a significant increase in your body temperature. A few hours later, a drop in body temperature can be measured. That drop in body temperature after an exercise routine can make it easier for a person to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night.

When you choose your exercises, some that you should look at if you have difficulty sleeping are the ones that involve significant use of your legs. That vigorous use of the leg muscles can act like a tranquilizer, making sleep much easier to achieve.

Aerobic exercise is considered to be the best type of activity to combat sleeplessness. This is because these exercises allow more oxygen to enter the blood, due to the fact that you normally breathe deeply while doing aerobic exercise. Some examples of aerobic exercises are:

Jogging
Swimming
Bicycling (stationary or outdoor)
Jumping rope
Using a treadmill
Dancing
Walking
Hiking
Jumping on a trampoline
Almost any activity that can be sustained for at least 20 minutes...

Even as little as 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week can have significant benefits. Not only will you have more energy, but you will also find it easier to enjoy a good night’s sleep.

As stated earlier, exercising vigorously is not something to do right before you try to go to sleep. The rise in body temperature and the stimulation from the exercise can make it much harder to achieve due to your muscles and circulation system working at an increased rate. However, working out in the morning, afternoon or early evening will normally provide you with a better night of sleep.

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Featured Exercise
Ways to Increase Your Bench Press

The bench press is called the king of upper-body exercises. It is the number one exercise for chest development. It is also the universal gauge of a person's status in the gym. How often have you heard, "What's your bench?"

The bench press is much more complex than it looks at first. Anyone can lay on a bench, bring the bar down, and then push it back up. The question is how you increase your maximum lift in the bench press. First, it is important to understand that the bench press involves more than just the pectoral muscles. The tricep muscles, the deltoids (particularly the anterior), the latissimus dorsi, the biceps, and the abdominals all play a major role in the bench press. The rest of the body's muscles play minor and stabilizing roles. Ensuring that your training program covers all the muscle groups is the first step toward increasing your bench press.

Proper form is important when doing any exercise to prevent injuries and Ways to increase your bench press

to get the most out of the movement. This is no different for the bench press. Start with your position on the bench. Make sure the body is centered on the bench, and the bar is at about eye level. Your feet should be flat on the floor, solidly planted. To get the correct arch in your back, pull your shoulder blades together and down toward your waist. Make sure your shoulders and hips are firmly planted on the bench. Your grip width should be shoulder width, or a little wider. This will take some trial and error, depending on your structure and muscular strengths. If pectoral and deltoid strength are your forte, a wider grip may be beneficial. However, if tricep and back strength are your strong points, then a narrower grip should help you.

The path of the bar should follow a modified "S" shape. The bar needs to touch at nipple level, and then drive up and back, beginning to come forward again at the very end. Having someone watch your ,form or videotaping yourself while performing the bench press, is a good way to ensure you hit all the form points.

The training program to improve your bench press must include a variety of chest exercises. Relying solely on the bench press, and its immediate variations, will result in an early plateau. Changing your workout every four to six weeks with a variety of compound and isolation exercises will help keep the progress moving.

Don't neglect the incline bench press, the flys, and crossovers. Machine exercises can be a great change-up once in a while, but should not comprise the majority of your workout. It also is important to vary the repetition schemes, throwing in a program of high repetitions every once in a while for recovery and shocking potential.

Other techniques to improve your bench press maximum include the following:

Focusing on gripping the bar less tightly will help you conserve energy for the pressing part.
Using partial reps is also a crucial tool in increasing your bench press.
Adding more weight than usual, and doing only the top one-third of the motion for no more than 6 reps will help train your receptors to feel the weight.
Additionally, working only the bottom portion of the lift will help you blast through your usual sticking points. It is important to remember, though, that all parts of the lift must be worked to avoid causing a sticking point didn't exist before.

Working all the muscles, varying your routine, watching your form, and using partial reps will have you seeing an increased bench press in no time.

Ask Scott White | Personal Trainer

Question
I am thinking about building a home gym. Do you have any suggestions regarding the design and the types of equipment I should include?

Scott Responds

Home gyms have become an almost inevitable part of perfect healthy living. As far as designing a home gym goes, it is most important because this is when you determine which equipment and supplies you will include. In the past, home gyms were less common, and even considered a luxury. Today, however, home gyms are no longer a luxury and are even considered an essential aspect of a healthy lifestyle.

Design With YOUR Needs in Mind

iIn the beginning, home gyms were designed by professionals, or you could purchase readymade home gym packages. As times changed, though, home gym design became a personal affair – and now in most cases, the customers themselves design their own gyms, although professional assistance can still be hired.

Design your home gym with YOUR needs in mind

The design of a home gym should be evaluated according to the particular needs of each individual or family. The design should reflect who will be using it, and what their specific goals are. Home gyms provide many pronounced advantages over conventional gyms, in terms of unparalleled security, safety, and convenience. When designing your home gym, pay special attention to ensure that it will meet your needs, and give you the maximum benefit to help you reach your personal fitness goals.

Selecting the Equipment

Multi-purpose gym machines tend to be the most popular trend for home gyms. However, some people prefer to design their home gyms with specialty equipment. Swiss balls are one very popular pieces of equipment used in home gyms, for the strengthening of core muscles, along with the improvement of balance. Swiss balls are available in many sizes and types, so be sure to select and purchase the one(s) whose utility meets your needs and goals.

"Mass builders" are essential in any home gym that will focus on weightlifting or power lifting. Virtually essential in any home gym design, dumbbells and barbells are important tools for building mass as well as lean muscle tissue. A weight training menu can be achieved by incorporating 2 or 3 sets of dumbbells in varying sizes. The dumbbells are available in different materials and adjustable varieties, with versatility and adjustable resistance also available. Many dumbbells also feature handles, collars, and weight plates to for greater utility.

Beyond conventional exercise equipment, you can also add many other types of equipment to your personal home gym, such as Indian Clubbells, benches, and resistance bands. In addition, exercise videos and instruction tapes can be a helpful addition to the functionality of your home gym. However, the specs for your gym must be based on the available space in your home. You will reap optimal rewards from it if your home gym is a place where you can not only exercise, but also relax.

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