Beebleblog

What is this muscle?

The chest muscle, also know as the pectoral muscle (pecs), is one one the largest muscles in our torso. We have 2 pecs one either side at the front of our torso (highlighted in on the diagram), they originate from the sternum (chest bone) and insert into the tops of our arms.

What do we use them for?

Our pecs’ primary movements are for: pushing away from the body, moving our arms horizontally together in front of our body (like a seal claps - Beeble) and down against the side of our body. There are many other secondary movements that the pecs are also involved in.

Good examples of exercises that use the chest as a primary muscle are press ups, bench press, chest flyes and any other variant of these e.g. inclined and declined.

Is stretching them important?

Technorati Tags: Chest, Exercise, fitness, pecs, Pectoral, Stretch

With the normal response to “how often should I train?” being 3 times per week and 1 hour at a time, and a more recent response being 30 minutes everyday, it can be confusing to know what is really required to get the results you want.

Time Wasting

I have spent a lot of time in the gym (some would say too much – Beeble) and have seen how the majority of people use their allotted hour. On average I would say that about half an hour is wasted in most people’s training. Rest periods between exercises and sets are too long, socializing, whilst good, can distract from the job at hand and finally time is wasted by not giving the exercises you do 100% of your effort. All these can use up valuable gym time and result in you being at the gym for longer than necessary.

Technorati Tags: Effort, Exercise, fitness, gym, Intensity, Rest, Training, workouts

We have now been going successfully for 10 months and we felt the time had come to upgrade our look and the way we operate it. We use "Wordpress" to run our blog and so have now upgraded to version 2.2 and whilst hopefully you will notice no difference to the way it runs, it has made our job 1000 times easier and so should allow us to bring you even more posts in the future.

New Design

The main difference regular visitors will notice is that the design has completely changed. Dark colours have been replaced with light, bright and friendly ones and we now cover more of your screen which will allow larger and clearer diagrams as well as video content.

This has taken a lot of time and you may notice a few more changes in the near future. However the most important bit….."the content" will remain the same which we hope has been useful and informative and will continue to help you.

Swimming has long been considered a great way to get fit and improve your cardio vascular performance. It is a great low load bearing way to get healthy that is suitable for all ages and just by learning you are making beach holidays safer for you.

Who is it good for?

Everyone! But in particular it is important for very obese or large people. As the water is load bearing it takes the strain off the joints and allows you to move using the water as your resistance. Water aerobic classes are very good and will help get results very quickly, especially when led by a good instructor and combined with a good diet. They are also fun with like minded people, so don’t be put off!

Technorati Tags: Exercise, fitness, Swimming, Training, workouts

It doesn’t seem to matter what sport is played there seems to be a rather larger portion of injuries suffered by the hamstring. How many times have we seen our favourite professional get sidelined by a movement that looks pretty minimal and yet puts him/her out for several weeks? After that initial injury it is also not surprising to hear that they are plagued with hamstring injuries for the rest of their career.

Function

Now I don’t want to blind you with science but the cause seems quite obvious to me. Firstly we have to look at the function of the hamstring. It is a muscle that we use to help us with all major movements involving the legs. It’s a group of 3 muscles at the rear of the thigh and they stretch from our pelvis to below our knees. Their main function is to bend our lower leg up, pivoting at the knee. So they will be used for walking, running and supporting the quadriceps (the very big muscle group on the front of the thigh).

Technorati Tags: fitness, Hamstring, Health, injury, Legs, pain, recovery, Sports