Gennady Golovkin Vs Daniel Jacobs 18th March 2017

Daniel Jacobs: I won Fight against GGG by Two Rounds

Daniel Jacobs prevailing on Saturday in taking bound together middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin the separation in a 12-round battle surprisingly, and he likely won over fans while displaying his heart and capacity to box.

gennnady golovkin vs daniel jacobs

The main thing Jacobs didn’t win was the real fight in the ring.

Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) made the eighteenth barrier of his middleweight title yet observed his 23-battle back to back knockout streak arrive at an end as Jacobs satisfied his charging as the most troublesome trial of GGG’s vocation.

At last, Golovkin held tight to guarantee a consistent choice (115-112, 115-112, 114-113) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“I think I won the fight, and I think these fans bolster me on that choice,” Jacobs said. “… I thought I won by two rounds, least. … I felt like I was ahead on the cards, and I had an inclination that I expected to win the last round just to sort of take care of business.”

He proceeded with: “This is boxing. Clearly he’s a greater draw than me, and they need to make that super matchup with him and Canelo [Alvarez], so Daniel Jacobs presumably got X’d out. … I won this battle.”

Golovkin, 34, outlanded Jacobs 231 to 175, as indicated by CompuBox. In any case, it was Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) who landed more power shots, 144 to 126.

“I regard Daniel, and he made a decent showing with regards to and clean employment,” Golovkin said. “Regard to my group and every one of the general population that bolster me. Daniel is my most loved contender – spotless, great, quality, great warrior.”

Jacobs, 30, the cancer survivor to win a world title, got up off the canvas in Round 4 after Golovkin handled a couple of clean flush right hands along the ropes.

“After the knockdown, I revealed to him he would need to slaughter me [to thump me out],” Jacobs said. “When I got up, I thought, ‘This is all he has? I got go down and I thought I won the battle.'”

Not exclusively did Jacobs in a split second recapture his legs after the knockdown, he continually changed his assault by changing to southpaw, which on occasion took away Golovkin’s hit and constrained him to think.

Jacobs, whose certainty kept on developing in the center rounds, battled with an awful streak now and again, incorporating driving with his lower arm and hitting both on the break and after the chime. He additionally earned the regard of Golovkin, seemingly the game’s most dreaded puncher, by standing and exchanging now and again within.

“There were ordinarily amid the battle I went toe-to-toe since I knew I could,” Jacobs said. “I am anticipating what’s to come. I think I picked up a great deal of fans. My style is great, I am a fan-accommodating person, and I thought I won the battle.”

Golovkin could climate storms by depending on his hit, which he outlanded Jacobs by a wide edge of 105 to 31. In any case, in spite of cornering Jacobs on occasion as the assailant, he was never again ready to place him stuck in an unfortunate situation with power shots.

“This is boxing. I am a boxer and I regard his group,” Golovkin said. “This is boxing. I require the choice. I wasn’t believing that I required the twelfth round to win the battle. This was my first test at 12 rounds. I required a quality battle not only the twelfth round.”

Golovkin, who went ahead to lose the last round on two of the three scorecards, repeated his plan to confront Canelo Alvarez in a superfight in September.

“Obviously I am prepared to battle Canelo,” Golovkin said. “Obviously I need that battle. I resemble a creature for that battle. I will [also] give Danny Jacobs a possibility for a rematch.”

“We have conceded to a great deal of focuses and a ton of focuses are as yet remarkable,” said Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2, in regards to his arrangements with Alvarez’s promoter, Golden Boy.

Loeffler, who had planned to convey Golovkin to his local Kazakhstan in June for a title unification session against England’s Billy Joe Saunders, said those arrangements are still open to question.

“We need to perceive how Gennady is feeling one week from now and we need to perceive what the results are out there,” Loeffler said.

Golovkin and Jacobs featured a four-battle primary card that likewise incorporated a dazzling surprise misfortune by maybe the best pound-for-pound warrior in the diversion, junior bantamweight title holder Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

article originally  :  hboxing.com

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5 Movements to Reverse the Spinal Issues Caused by Excessive Sitting

Every office job or any job in a corporate setting entails a lot sitting for prolonged periods of time. Even though it’s not explicitly stated, sitting is pretty much a job description that many employees have. That’s because their work means sitting for 8 hours per day, 5 or 6 days per week while looking at a computer screen.

Sitting for long periods of time can be the cause for a multitude of health issue like edema, varicose vein, pain in the lower back muscles and many others, that if left untreated can create bigger health problems in the long run. That’s no reason to panic, because we have just the right advice for you that could remedy that in the form of five exercises:
You might like : Sitting Increases the Risk of Dying Early

1. Glute bridges

Lie on your back, bend your knees and keep the feet on the floor. Then, raise the butt and the hips in a way that the body is in a straight line. Hold the position for a few seconds then lower the butt and hips down. You finished one rep. Try doing 4 sets of 12 repetitions. If you find that easy, add additional load and hold it on the thighs while executing the reps. This movement develops the glutes and hips and has an effect on the abdominal muscles as well.

2- Glute bridges

Kneel in front of a wall with your back facing the wall. Put the leg you want to stretch up against the wall with the toes on the actual wall surface. Support on your knee which should be standing right at the base of the wall. Bring the other leg into a lunge position and lift the torso up. The closer your knee is to the wall, the greater the stretch.

Remain in the position for 2-3 minutes. Afterwards, switch legs.

3 - full squat

Photo credit CrossFitMurrayfield.com

With this squat variation you get into a squat position with the feet on the floor, with the back rigid and straight and the but going as low as you can. Something similar to a baseball catcher stance. You are supposed to feel a stretch in the legs, groin and back.

4 - Leg swings

There is a chance you’ve probably seen someone doing leg swings but weren’t sure that they were doing exactly. This exercise is meant for loosening the muscles and stretching them.
It entails holding onto something to keep balance and then swinging the leg in a back and forth motion as high as you can go. You can start doing the swing with each leg one at a time and then side to side. Do 20 swings of both motions.

5. Fire hydrants

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com                                                   

                                                                                 

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1 Remedies for Lagging Upper Pecs 6

The pec deck - and similar flye machines - allow you to really bombard your inner chest and get a great stretch on your entire pectoral complex. But, Gunter says, keeping your elbows high and parallel to the floor will allow you to bring the upper pecs into play as well.
                                                                                                 

                                                                                        

This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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3 Remedies for Lagging Upper Pecs

"Using dumbbells will give you a completely different kind of tension and range of motion than a barbell," says Gunter. "Make sure that you don't get locked into using the barbell on inclines all the time, or any of your angles for that matter."
                                                                                       

                                                                                    

This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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5 Remedies for Lagging Upper Pecs

Build a chest that's thick and rock solid with these 6 bodybuilder-approved tips.

"If your upper pecs are really lagging, the best way to bring them out is to always start with incline moves," he says. You can do this with a barbell, dumbbells or a smith machine. Starting with incline moves will ensure that these underused fibers are fresh, allowing you move the most weight possible to trigger growth. From there you can move on to flat and decline moves, where you're likely naturally stronger.
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This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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6 Remedies for Lagging Upper Pecs

Build a chest that's thick and rock solid with these 6 bodybuilder-approved tips. 

The upper chest is an area that many lifters tend to ignore in their quest for a bigger, thicker set of pecs. The flat bench, admittedly, is incredibly effective at bringing up your overall chest mass because you can handle more weight. But if you're looking for a complete, polished look, then dedicated upper pectoral work has to be a part of your program. Gunter Schlierkamp, a professional bodybuilder, is a big proponent of balanced pec training. While he will also admit that flat benching is crucial for overall chest development, he says that the only way to bring this area up is to attack it with the same ferocity as your other bodyparts. Here are his top six tips for blowing up that upper shelf of your torso.

                                                                                         

                                                                            

This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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5 Back Training Mistakes You Aren’t Even Aware You Are Making

The muscles comprising your back belong to the biggest and most complex groups of muscles in your body. If we began to analyze them separately we would see that they are actually two separate groups of several bigger and smaller muscles, like the rhomboids, trapezius muscles, teres major and minor, the lats (latisimus dorsi) and the spinal erectors.

They all act as the primary back movers and stabilizers. Just because of the fact that there are so many muscles makes back training one of the more complex tasks in the gym. The majority of people have absolutely no clue about the multitude of training mistakes they are constantly making. That is why they execute the exercises with a very poor body posture and form. This goes especially for deadlifts and bent-over rows. This epidemic of poor exercise execution leads to injuries to the spinal ligaments and various other very serious injuries. In this article, we present to you the five most common back training mistakes lifters make. You might like : Five Tips to Lose the Stubborn Back Fat Forgetting to retract the scapula and having a loose spine during the lift Scapular retraction and keeping you back arched will allow the spine to be in a neutral position during the execution of any movement. Having a loose spine during exercising will put an enormous strain on the ligaments of the lower back, increasing the likelihood of a back injury tremendously. When you retract the scapula and keep the spine and torso tight and rigid and in a neutral position, you engage the back muscles, putting the ligaments into a much safer and proper position. Spine hyper-extension or extending your back too much This is a very common mistake seen in many inexperienced lifters. It is most commonly seen at the top position of a deadlift, but it can also be seen during back extensions, where lifters often go above the healthy movement range of the joint and expose themselves to the risk of injury. You need to be aware of the fact that hyper-extending your back is not a safe position for the spine, even more so if you add additional load to it. It puts a tremendous stress on the posterior vertebras and can cause slipped discs.

Not incorporating dynamic stretching and exercises for shoulder mobility This might sound a bit counterintuitive at first, doing shoulder mobility exercises on a back day, but stay with us. The answer is actually very simple. The majority of back muscles share a same insertion point in the shoulder girdle. That’s why the lack of healthy shoulder mobility and tightness in the back muscles can ultimately cause serious shoulder and back injuries. Dynamic stretching and mobility exercises will improve the mobility of your joints, their range of movement and promote elasticity in the fascia which will ultimately lead to a diminished risk of injury. Using straps or belts too much If you already haven’t got some medical reasons to use them, using them should never be a standard practice. The reason why belts are used is to create air pressure in your abdominal cavity that will protect the spine while you are lifting relatively heavy loads. Using it every time, though, defeats its purpose in a way since you won’t allow the core to strengthen itself in a proper way, leaving a weak link in the posterior chain. The same goes for straps. Using them too often won’t allow you to strengthen your grip, which is a crucial part of any proper training regimen. Using a grip that is too wide It’s not uncommon to see lifters use extremely wide grip when doing pull-ups, lat pull-downs or bent-over barbell rows, with the false notion that using a very wide grip will somehow widen the lats. On the contrary, pulling like this can lead to a shoulder joint injury. The optimal wide grip is a bit wider than a shoulder-width grip and should serve you well in all pulling movements. You can achieve the desirable wide and thick look of your back with the proper training of the back muscles which can be safely done with the proper pulling grip. You might like : Protect Your Back With This Daily Routine
 This article originally appeared on :fitnessandpower.com .

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8 Awesome Exercises to Get In Shape Quick

5. Bench Presses

Incorporating bench press into your workout will also help you lose unnecessary pounds while training your chest and triceps. After you lie back on a flat bench, grip a barbell above you in a shoulder-width position.

Make sure your arms are almost fully extended and lower the bar until it touches the chest. After a short pause, push back the bar to the starting point and repeat the same process again.

6. Squats

Many bodybuilders perform squats as one the best exercises to grow massive legs and burn a tremendous amount of calories. You can do it, too, by positioning your feet a bit more than shoulder-width apart.

Then, hold a barbell across your upper back and take the barbell of the bar. Slowly squat down until your hips are aligned with your knees and then move back up to the starting position.

7. Barbell Lunges

One more exercise that will help you strengthen your legs is performed by crossing a barbell across your upper back.

Move one step forward with your right leg and sink into a lunge, so both legs are bent while your back knee getting as close to the floor as possible. Move back up and complete the same process with your left leg.

8. Swimming

If you’re bored of using weights or jogging, you should spend more time swimming. This is because if you swim intensively, you can burn more calories than while you’re jogging and give work to your entire body muscles.

So, don’t be afraid to use less popular ways to lose weight just because fewer people do it.

Watch this video about easy but effective fat-burning exercises below:

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This article originally appeared on :  spotmebro.com

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How to Train for Dense, Hard Muscles VS Soft, Big Muscles

You’ve probably noticed that not all muscular guys sport the same physique. While there’re those whose muscles are hard and dense, others, although big, have softer muscles.

The way you look is generally determined by your genetics, dieting and type of training. And having in mind that most of you would probably opt for having firm and dense musculature rather than big and soft, we’re providing you with the training methods that will help you achieve this goal.

SARCOPLASMIC HYPERTROPHY

The sarcoplasmic growth is focused on increasing the muscle glycogen concentration, which results in drawing larger quantities of fluids within the muscle cells.  While this type of muscle growth is very fast and delivers visible results, it doesn’t make the muscles dense and firm.
As a result, you can often see big muscular man who can’t lift greater loads.
Although this type of training makes your muscles look big, they also look soft, especially when you have higher levels of body fat. But, if you want to utilize this growth, stick to 10 to 20 or more reps per set.
However, you should also have in mind that this type of growth is not permanent. As soon as you stop lifting, your muscles start to shrink losing their volume in just few days.

MYOFIBRILLAR HYPERTROPHY

The myofibrillar hypertrophy focuses on making your muscle fibres bigger. Although this growth is not as fast, it results with great improvements in muscle strength.

And even though your muscles will not be as big as with the previous approach, they will always look strong and firm. This will give you a more defined and leaner appearance. If you want to achieve this type of hypertrophy, you should stick to 1-8 reps per set.
Another advantage of myofibrillar growth is that is more permanent. In other words, your muscles won’t start shrinking the moment you leave the gym.

CHOOSING YOUR FOCUS

The best approach would be to focus on myofibrillar growth in the beginning. This will help you in building solid base for future growth. You can always turn to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy later on, in order to emphasise those areas that are not as developed.
Another very important segment of your muscle development is your testosterone level. Without optimal testosterone levels you have small chances of achieving any type of muscle growth.
You can increase your testosterone production in several ways: hard training, good dieting and plenty of rest. Of course, you can also take testosterone booster.
Taking a testosterone booster will help you in building greater muscle mass and maintaining it. It will also help you get a leaner and firmer look. And as a plus, your sex drive will improve. So, if you want to be serious about increasing your muscle mass, you need work hard on increasing your testosterone levels.
However, have in mind that not all testosterone boosters are good quality products. That’s why you need to be careful which product you’ll choose. Read the label and check the ingredients that it contains. Otherwise, you might end up just wasting your money.

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This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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Work Your Abs To Exhaustion With These 5 Exercises

3. BICYCLE CRUNCH 

• Lie on the floor on your back with the hands behind the head and then raise the legs and bend them at 90 degrees.
• Switch both sides by bringing the left elbow to the right knee and the right elbow to the left knee. Do that for one minute.
• Strive to hold the crunch position counting to two on both sides to elicit a slower and more concentrated effect.

By doing this exercise you stimulate all the three areas simultaneously. It combines the standard crunch, the side to side movement which stimulated the oblique muscles and the reverse crunch which stimulated the lower ab area.

4. CROSS CRUNCH

• Lie on the back with your legs and arms spread out diagonally in the form of an ‘X’.
• Keep the legs and arms straight, bring the left hand to the right foot, then the right hand to the left foot, lift the head, neck, and shoulder off the floor.
• You’ve done one rep. Do one set of 10 reps total.

This is a very simple movement, it’s very safe since you are fully supported on the floor. When the legs rise off the ground, you have stimulated the lower ab area. And since you do that at a certain angle, you target the obliques and rectus abdominis too.

5. ROLLOUT WITH A SWISS BALL

• Kneel on a mat and place the hands on a Swiss ball.
• Keep the back rigid and straight and the abs tightened and then start rolling the ball as far away from you as you possibly can and then return slowly to the starting position.
• Strive to do 2 sets of 10 rollouts.

This exercise is very similar to the ab-wheel rollout, however, it’s been proven to be a lot easier and safer for the lower back area. It stimulates the rectus abdominis since you are only moving in one plane. If you like to add more difficulty to the movement, start rolling out at an angle of 45 degrees to the right and left which will target the obliques.

                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                    

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com 

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10 EXERCISES THAT WILL MAKE YOU BURN BELLY FAT WITHOUT HAVING TO JOG OR RUN !!

6. Spider crawl

Excellent exercise for getting more mobility in your legs and hips!!! It also strengthens your abdominal muscles.

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7. The get up

This is a great exercise for getting those six packs! You will get a great arm workout too and not to forget to mention – this is a challenging exercise!

8. Burpee

This is an excellent cardio workout! It makes your heart race and this melts calories! It may be difficult at the beginning, that’s why you can adjust it by your level.

9. Skater exercise

This is a great exercise for maximum calories burn with minimum effort. It is also a cardio exercise, so your heart will beat faster and you will move from one leg to another in a second. Enjoy it!

10. Rope jumping

Want to tone the arms and legs? Why don’t you try the rope? Great exercise for burning fat and also can be done anywhere!

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This article originally appeared on : healthyuniverses.com

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10 EXERCISES THAT WILL MAKE YOU BURN BELLY FAT WITHOUT HAVING TO JOG OR RUN !!!

Did we mention that summer bodies are made in winter? Today in this article we will give you excellent 10 exercises that will prepare your body for the beach. You will lose weight fast and you will look great without having to jog or run!

1. Squats

Butt muscles are toned by the squat! Today, with the grown up popularity of the exercising era, this is a very popular exercise among women. It works your butt and your legs at the same time; It is very simple and very effective exercise. If you want bigger effects, just do them with dumbbells!

2. Lunges

They are great in toning the butt and the hamstrings. If they are not comfortable for you and you feel slight pain, try doing a glute bridge instead!

3. Push-ups

This exercise targets the upper body. It helps toning the chest, the triceps and your back muscles. If you are doing it right and squeezing your abs, you are toning your torso as well! This is a great exercise that is included in almost every workout plan.

4. The Pull up

This exercise targets your back muscles. It may be difficult and challenging at the beginning, but it surely gives great results!

5. Planks

Excellent exercise for a complete body workout. It only takes few seconds at the beginning and building up the time as you get stronger. It is a very popular exercise. By strengthening your transverse abdominals, you save yourself some back pain in the future!

This article originally appeared on : healthyuniverses.com

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Here’s Why Training Every Muscle Group Twice Per Week Can Result In Faster Muscle Growth

The three pillars of bodybuilding: training, nutrition, and recovery are meant for one ultimate goal only – muscle growth. The scientific word for it is ‘hypertrophy’. If you want to trigger the process of hypertrophy in our muscle tissue, we need to incorporate mechanical stress to those muscles, i.e. training. If training is a must, that leaves us with an important question. And that question is how often do we need to train each muscle group? If we are to give an exact answer to this question, we need to delve into the mechanism behind muscle growth.

-Having the mRNA as a blueprint, the ribosome begins to take the amino acids within the intracellular pool and start connecting them together with peptide bonds to form new contractile proteins. Those proteins will then be incorporated into the existing cells and micro-damaged muscle fibers. This process actually recuperates them and makes them bigger. This whole process is also known as ‘muscle protein synthesis’.

The duration of hypertrophy

Protein synthesis is limited in time as any bodily process. It’s been measured actually. Its increase is practically eliminated in a 36-hour time windows. Those using steroids have an enhanced synthesis mechanism which makes them grow huge in a short amount of time. That’s why for natural trainees, training every muscle group within 48 hours is not just beneficial, it is also crucial. To make sure that you exercise each muscle group two times a week, we suggest you try these three training splits:

Upper/Lower Split Routine For Strength and Mass 

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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9 Often Overlooked Signs Your Body is Full of Toxins (Plus How to Naturally Detox)

The modern life has its benefits, but also its flaws. Day in and day out we pollute our body with different toxins and harmful substances. We live in a world with contaminated air, eat genetically engineered food treated with pesticides and hormones. Moreover, instead of trying to alleviate this situation, we aggravate it even more using different medications, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco. All in all, we put our health in great risk consciously and unconsciously. Because of this, it is very important to cleanse our body, so that it can continue to function properly.

These are the symptoms that we should not ignore:

1. Headaches

If the toxins are present in your body in excess, they can affect the central nervous system, thus causing headaches.

2. Increased abdominal fat

The presence of abdominal fat is one of the most obvious signs that your body is accumulating toxins. They hinder the ability of the body to regulate the glucose levels and cholesterol. They also alter the hormonal levels in our bodies.

3. Skin problems

The toxins in your body can also lead to skin problems. This comes as a result your body trying to get rid of them by using a natural process. Hence, the occurrence of inflammations, itching or facial redness.

4. Overheating

When our body is full of toxins, the liver kicks in trying to eliminate them. Yet, too many toxins can overburden the liver, forcing it to work harder. This, in turn, results with the liver releases extra heat, thus overheating the body.

-5. Low energy

When we have too many toxins in our system, we are always feeling exhausted and low in energy.

6. Congested sinuses

The contaminated air affects the sinuses, and as a result it can cause congestion of our sinuses.

7. Insomnia

High toxin levels in our tissues obstruct the blood circulation, which results in sleep difficulties and insomnia.

8. Gall bladder difficulties

Increased deposits of toxins in the liver trigger heavy production of bile, which results with a clogged gall bladder.

9. White or yellow tongue

If you notice white or yellow coating on your tongue, then your bloodstream is probably flooded with toxins.

Methods of detoxification

After covering the basic symptoms, we can turn to explaining some of the most efficient methods of detoxification.

Epsom Salt Bath

As a matter of fact, Epsom Salt is not salt. It is a compound of magnesium and sulfate, naturally occurring as a pure mineral in the bitter saline spring at Epsom in England. Hence its name. Both magnesium and sulfate are easily absorbed by the skin, which makes Epsom salt baths extremely efficient as detoxifiers, with the added bonus of pure enjoyment and relaxation. Sulfates help in detoxification of the cells by improving the absorption of nutrients and eliminating the metals. Magnesium, on the other hand, plays many different roles in our body. It regulates the enzymes activity, helps the function of muscles and nerves, and prevents artery hardening.

Fill your bathtub with warm water, and add a few cups of Epsom salt. Soak for 15 minutes, three days a week. It does wanders for eliminating the toxins, and alleviating headaches. However, you should have in mind that Epsom salt baths are not recommendable for individuals suffering of heart problems and/or high blood pressure.

Green Tea

Green tea’s reputation for being one of the most powerful plants when it comes to eliminating free radical is not accidental. It abounds in antioxidants, most notably epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG), which prevent toxic damage of the liver.

Lemons

The heath benefits of lemons are numerous. In addition to being one of the most powerful detoxifiers, lemon juice greatly helps the alkalization process of the body. It is also a trigger of bile production in the liver and stimulate minerals intake as well as absorption. Their high concentration of vitamin C, makes them ideal for boosting the immune system.
Furthermore, lemons are rich in antioxidants, particularly the antioxidant called d-limonene, which is most present in the peal. It activates the liver enzyme that helps in eliminating many toxic compounds.
For more than obvious reasons, it is advisable to regularly drink lemon juice mixed in warm water every day as soon as you wake up.
As an alternative, mix half cup of lemon juice with one tablespoon of honey and one teaspoon cayenne pepper. Add half a cup of warm water. Consume one cup daily for a period of one month.

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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5 Best Shoulder Exercises

Nothing stands out on a physique like a great pair of full, well-rounded shoulders. Even if your shoulders aren’t as wide as you’d like them to be, you can create the illusion of a V-taper look by developing a pair of supersized cannonball deltoids and losing a few inches off the waist.

Shoulder training can often be neglected in favor of training chest and arms, and you’d be surprised how many guys feel like their shoulders already get enough work as secondary muscles on chest/arm day and therefore don’t require any specialized work. This, of course, is far from reality in most cases. Sure, there are a few genetic beasts in every gym who seem to grow no matter what they do or don’t do, but for the rest of us, proper high-intensity shoulder training is required to ensure great development in this area.

Read the rest of this article to learn how to target your shoulders better and reap quality strength and mass gains on every gym visit!

Free Weights First

First of all, make sure to replace most of your machine-based overhead presses with free-weight overhead presses performed with dumbbells or a barbell. This will allow you to engage more muscles and strengthen your stabilizing muscles which although small or hidden, are extremely important for an injury-free and highly effective performance and ultimately for building a strong and well-balanced body.
Free weights enable your body to move in all three planes of movement, which is how your body normally moves in daily life, and this will help you increase your range of motion, target your muscles from all angles possible and build real, functional strength. Also, since you have to work to stabilize the weight while lifting it, instead of having a machine do that for you, your overall stability will dramatically increase. And stability is perhaps nowhere as important as it is for the shoulder area, which is notorious for its vulnerability.
On the other hand, machines allow you to focus more on the effort and less on the mechanics of the movement, and this can be useful for the end of your workout, when accumulated fatigue makes balancing weights over your head very difficult.
So it would be best to do the harder, free-weight variant of the exercise early in the workout, before fatigue sets in, and save the machine version for later, when you can use it to cause maximal hypertrophy and drain your muscles of any remaining strength by focusing on solely pushing the weight. Machines will also allow you to lift heavier weights and isolate specific muscle groups better, so it’s good to have a fair share of machine-based movements in your routine as well, as long as you make sure that free-weight exercises are at the center of your workouts

The Importance of TUT

Besides calves, shoulders can be one of the most reluctant body parts to grow. The reason for this is that these muscles are primarily geared for endurance rather than power and are used to working hard throughout the entire day to power all arm movements. This is why the most important thing to remember when training your shoulders (as well as calves!) is that they need a lot intensity in order to be forced into new growth.
One way to do that is by using heavy weights, but that’s not always recommendable because shoulder joints are very vulnerable to injury and your first priority should be keeping them healthy while improving the strength of the muscle surrounding them. The other way to do it by enabling optimal time under tension (TUT). Make sure to always perform the lowering part of your shoulder exercises in a slow and controlled manner so that you can maintain a good level of tension on the targeted muscle. Also, try to make rest periods as short as possible and never go above 2 minutes. Keeping the intensity high will make your muscles work harder and prompt greater growth.
To completely exhaust the muscles and enable maximum hypertrophy, start your shoulder workouts with heavy presses and end them with lighter-weight isolation work.

5 Shoulder-Building Exercises

The road to building the powerful shoulders you want starts with the introduction of these 5 cornerstone exercises in your shoulder routine:

#1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

This is a basic shoulder mass-builder that allows you to target any existing muscle imbalances between your left and right side of the body when pressing. It’s very likely that your dominant side is stronger and compensates for the weaker one during barbell movements. When using a barbell this is be hardly noticeable, but with dumbbells you’ll be able to tell the difference right away and address it properly. If you can, perform the exercise in front of a mirror so that you can keep your form in check.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Press the weight up in an explosive manner and push your head forward at the top of every rep to make sure that you’re moving the load through your shoulders and not your chest muscles. Return the weight to the starting position with a slow and controlled movement.

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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