Mark Lauren Quotes Page 2

“Quality 1: Muscular strength

Your ability to exert a force through a given distance. Muscular strength can be determined by the difficulty of an exercise that you are able to perform for a single repetition.

For example, if Jane, with maximal effort, can perform one Classic Push Up and Tarzan can perform a Handstand Push Up, then Tarzan has greater muscular strength.”

“Quality 2: Muscular endurance

How long you can exert a specific force.

Jane and Tarzan could compare their muscular endurance by seeing who can hold the peak position of the Pull Up the longest.”

“Quality 3: Cardiovascular endurance

Your body’s ability to supply working muscles with oxygen during prolonged activity.

Jane and Tarzan challenge and improve their cardiovascular endurance by performing 200 non-stop Squats together.”

“Quality 4: Power

The amount of force you can exert in a specific amount of time. Power = Work/Time.

If Tarzan and Jane are both able to perform only one Pull Up with their maximal efforts, but Jane is able to perform that one Pull Up faster, then she has more power even though they have the same strength.”

“Quality 5: Speed

Your ability to rapidly and repeatedly execute a movement or series of movements.

If Jane can do 45 lunges in 30 seconds and Tarzan can do only 25, then Jane has greater speed.”

“Quality 6: Coordination

Your ability to combine more than one movement to create a single, distinct movement.

For example, performing a simple jump requires that you coordinate several movements. The bend at the waist, knees, and ankles and then the correct extension of those joints must all be combined into a single movement.

Your ability to combine these movements, with the proper timing, into one movement determines your coordination, and in turn, how well you can do the exercise.”

“Quality 7: Balance

Your ability to maintain control of your body’s center of gravity.”

“Quality 8: Flexibility

Your range of motion.

If Jane, while doing a squat and using good form, can go down until her butt touches her heels, and Tarzan can only go until his thighs are parallel to the ground, then Jane has greater flexibility.”

“Remember, your muscles grow while you rest. Overtraining and poor nutrition are easily the most common pitfalls that beginners and experienced fitness enthusiasts alike fall into.

It’s not possible to say exactly how much is too much, since many factors such as genetics, diet, sleep, training intensity, frequency, and duration all play a role.

It’s best to watch for the following signs of overtraining: A halt in progress, chronic fatigue, decreased motivation, frequent injuries, and an increased resting heart rate, which is measured first thing in the morning before getting out of bed.

If overtraining is suspected, adjust one or more of the following: Diet, amount of sleep (you should try for 7–8 hours per night), training intensity, duration, and frequency.”

“Simply put, fitness is the degree to which a person possesses these eight qualities: Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, Cardiovascular Endurance, Power, Speed, Coordination, Balance, and Flexibility.”

“The reason many people gain weight as they age, especially beginning in their 30s, is because they have less muscle than they had in their late teens and early twenties. As we age, our bodies naturally lose muscle, especially as we are less active in our lives. This muscle tissue loss results in a decreasing metabolic rate.

And then, if you continue to eat like you did when you were younger, well, you’ll slowly gain weight, pound by pound, month by month, year by year, until one day you look in the mirror and wonder, 'What happened?'

This is how the average American adult gains 2.2 pounds per year. The key to eliminating accumulated body fat is regaining your youthful metabolism by regaining your muscle through strength training.”

“The solution to ultimate fitness is surprisingly simple. Though it’s up to you to apply it.

Free yourself from the dependency on gadgets, trainers, and common misconceptions. They are all crutches, keeping you from getting into the best shape possible.

It’s a call back to nature. Your fitness should be dependent on nothing other than yourself.”

“There are hundreds of benefits to regularly following an effective physical training program, but one that is often overlooked is your improved ability to serve others. It will not only make you strong and lean, but it will strengthen your resolve.

Your friends, loved ones, and coworkers will get a stronger version of you. Take the time to serve yourself, so that you can better serve others. That, above all, is beautiful.”

“Thus strength training gives your metabolism a boost far beyond the duration of the actual workout, for as long as 48 hours. In contrast, after aerobic training your metabolism returns to normal almost immediately. So with interval training we’re not only building muscle, but we’re also able to kick up our metabolism long after – even when sleeping!

Many people believe aerobic activity strengthens their heart, and decreases the chance of things like coronary artery disease. Yet, after much research, even U.S. Air Force Cardiologist Dr. Kenneth Cooper – the very man who coined the term 'aerobics' – now believes there is no correlation between aerobic performance and health, longevity, or protection against heart disease.

On the other hand, aerobic activities do carry with them a great risk of injury. Most, even so-called 'low impact' classes or activities like stationary cycling, are not necessarily low-force. And things like running are extremely high-force, damaging to your knees, hips and back.

Aerobic dance is even worse. Sure, you’ll hear the occasional genetic exception declare that they’ve never ever been injured doing these exercises. But overuse injuries are cumulative and often build undetected over years until it’s too late, leading to a decrease or loss of mobility as you age, which, in turn, too often leads to a shortened lifespan.”

“Try to remember, you’re not a hot rod. You don’t ever need to 'fill ’er up'. The difference between feeling 'satisfied' and feeling 'full' after a meal is about 1,000 calories. Then, even worse, there are about 2,500 calories between feeling full and feeling 'stuffed'!

So if you go to town on that all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, and leave the place feeling stuffed, you may have wolfed down as many as 4,000 unneeded calories. A typical reaction is to do some cardio the next day to 'burn off those calories'. But to burn that many calories with cardio would require, for example, jogging nonstop for 20 hours.

The problem is not burning calories, which is done even while you sleep, but that we cram too many calories into our mouth. Get into the habit of eating until you are no longer hungry, not until you are completely stuffed.

Remember, if you follow my advice, you’ll be eating again in 2.5–3.5 hours. Take your time, chew your food, and relax. It takes 15–20 minutes for the body to register how full it actually is.

Eating fast and furious can be a hard habit to break. But you’ll very quickly notice improved energy and well-being once you make the change to frequent, smaller meals.”

“Vegetables. Fruits. Nuts. Seeds. Meats. Eggs. Fish. That’s it. For millions of years our ancestors survived purely from these 7 things.

Typically, the women gathered the nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables while men hunted for meat. Together these food sources provided the necessary components of a complete diet that sustained healthy living.

Climate, geography, and luck mainly determined how balanced these sources were. But remember, regardless of how much of each food they ate, these were the only foods available to our ancestors, so naturally our bodies have adapted to their consumption.

It wasn’t until about ten thousand years ago, a blip in our time on Earth, with the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals, that large quantities of breads, potatoes, rice, pasta, and dairy became available. These relatively new sources of calories were the main reason our complex societies were able to develop, and our overabundance is to a large degree due to them.

However, for millions of years our bodies evolved on diets without any of these. The relatively miniscule time span since the domestication of plants and animals has not prepared us to live healthy lives with diets consisting of too many breads, pastas, rice, and potatoes.

Yes, life expectancy has greatly increased in this time span, but this can be attributed not to new foods, but rather to man’s no longer having to live life on-the-go while dealing with hunger, thirst, illness, injuries, extreme cold, and fighting dangerous animals with primitive tools.

So think of these new calories as little more than fillers. If you find yourself overwhelmed by nutritional definitions and rules, just ask yourself this: For millions of years before the domestication of plants and animals, what did we eat?”

“We were trained to set aside personal comfort for the common goal of the team.”