About Water

This is an important subject to cover. So starting with a question, do you drink a lot of water? If so, then you'll gladly understand the point I'm getting across here.

I discuss matters on account of water with a lot of people who claim to be dehydrated, and claim to hydrate with energy drinks and sports drinks ninety percent of the time. Now believe it or not, that's not ever good for you if you're replenishing with that kind of fluid more than ten percent of the time. Now there's the question, why am I saying this?

   Listen here, scientific studies and living proof shows that if you consume sports and energy drinks on a daily basis, the sugars in there make it very hard to lose weight, in fact it even makes you gain weight if anything. Why? Energy and sports drinks contain many many more sugars than needed and the body puts those into storage.

   To be completely honest with you, energy drinks aren't good for you. There have been several cases where those have caused people to have raw kidneys and see more blood in their urine than they ought to. I'll have a set of links at the bottom of this post.

   Concerning more of this topic, we've been drinking water for thousands of years before energy drinks came along and if not, humans were stronger then than now because we weren't taking in such depleting toxins from our day to day diets due to food science and manufacturing for preserving and so forth.

   Don't get all weirded out on me thinking I'm one of those oddball naturalists because I'm not, I'm merely stating facts. But let's get to water why not?

   Water is excellent first off because it's what our body's are mostly made of. It leaves no residue, and it cleans us out. Other than having to make frequent tinkle breaks, it also keeps you regular in your digestion which is beyond important.

   As well as you don't have to drink a specific amount of water a day. So many glasses is strongly recommended due to that's usually what people need, but only drink what you need to replace. People like myself who lose a lot of water due to heavy respiration and frequent if not constant perspiration in the afternoons drink up to a gallon a day because well, that's what we need to replace it all.

   Water also flushes out your kidneys and liver. It's a natural cleaner, and if you're drinking purified water, that takes in toxins on the inside of your body and leaves with them once it leaves the body.

   Also you need to have a bit of salt in your diet to retain water. Because believe it or not, you do need some to retain enough water to keep hydrated. Salt is like insulation for water. Now don't take this to the extreme, but a bit of table salt, and a little in your food is good. Some people are sensitive to it and retain too much water.

   Water is natural and the best thing for the body, there's a reason we can't live without it. So use water as the supporting bulk of your hydration, not just sugary beverages. Don't get me wrong occasional sports drinks for the heavy athlete are not bad, but in excess it isn't good for you and that's what I'm pointing out here.

   Now to mention carbonated beverages are among the dehydrators like alcohol and so forth. A carbonated beverage has a lot of sugar, a lot of sodium, and the air inside of it, more of like the carbon monoxide inside of it isn't the best thing for your digestive system since your body is already expelling that like crazy.

   Now athletes that train heavily, so I've read the idealistic thing to do is drink sports drinks because they overcome a condition called hyponatremia which is over consumption of water without proper sodium which helps retain it.

   But to entirely honest with you, that's not really completely necessary chugging a Powerade every ten minutes. For those of you that train intensely, or more than an hour at a time, hourly between rest periods, you can have something to do with a little peanut butter, a bit of dehydrated fruit, or crackers. Just a small snack between and it also allows for the energy release that comes from carbs. It's all something to think about, but throughout the day, water is the best alternative you could go for, and those of you that don't train so hard, sports drinks are not your best bet. And energy drinks with caffeine additives are just bad all over. Read up, give it some thought. This is my idea on things, I hope you enjoyed the post.

-The Fitness Cookie

Links: http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-drink/sports-drinks-vs-water

   http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/6-reasons-to-drink-water

Planche Tips: Full Planche

So occasionally there would a be a few things to keep in mind when you're doing a planche. The full planche especially, so that way you can train it right and get it with good form. Because generally speaking, those who just train straddle planches had to worry about form and hip position and things of the like, but if doing a full planche, that usually means you've mastered the straddle planche but maybe there are some set backs from keeping you from doing your full planche as good as you could be doing it.

When performing this one verses a straddle planche, pay attention to arm positioning and angle. This is incredibly taxing on your frontal deltoids. Your arms generally speaking for this one to work well need to be straight. Every muscle in your arms is under tension as well. So both sides, triceps to hold your arms back and biceps for support to keep your arms from hyper-extending. If your elbows bend too far back in the planche you need to train your biceps to contract a little more than you have been.

   Your arms lean forward a lot further, so you should actually be closer to the ground in your full planche. Nothing like a maltese, but that same mindset. Street style as I've heard with your hands back is not a way to start learning full planches. Acquire fingertip status or side ways positioned palms.

   Your back shouldn't be arched whatsoever. Because that either means you are doing a hanging planche, or you are in a extroverted handstand position as I like to call it, or just that noob planche that everybody does when starting out and coming down from their handstands.

   Also there's a form concern I've been noticing in these. People will keep a straight back, or a slightly bent back. If you want it to be a full form full planche though, pay attention the picture and if you notice, in the perfect form, your hips should look bent in the back, but the front of your body is straight. I've been training that way and have seen dramatic improvement.

   So keep in mind as you work and practice this move. Fingertips or hands sideways when learning,  arms at a more dramatic angle so your hands sit further back, and work to keep the front part of your torso as straight as possible because that is the best form.

   Training right is how you learn best. Good luck.

-The Fitness Cookie

How To Be Happy So You Can Exercise

There's a famous saying I see on the internet all of the time. "You don't have to be great to start, you have to start to be great." But what if you're not content with that? Well then, I can offer some answers to that question myself to the best of my ability.

To be happy to begin with, you might have to stop some bad habits when you being working out. Luckily bad habits can be easily broken when good ones are started. As far as I can tell personally.

   Unhappiness is a bad habit. Happiness is a good habit. So to get happy enough to workout, simply tell yourself you can do it and that you will enjoy it. That simple.

   Once your force yourself to be happy with what you're doing despite loss of motivation and such you can still get through the tough times because it's something that makes you feel good and usually people who start to enjoy exercise find it to be an outlet for anything wrong.

-The Fitness Cookie