Indiana College Towns

It’s that time of year again as the kids head off to college and start the education process to prepare them for the real world.  But what many students aren’t prepared for is the toll their new found freedom can take on their diet and health.  No longer is mom there to cook your meals or to slap those cookies out of your hands before dinner. 

But, before that “freshman fifteen” sneaks up on you, arm yourself with a few back to school weight loss tips to help keep the weight low and your health high.

• Sign up for activities through work or through your school such as softball, kickball or whatever interests you.  This is a good way to burn some extra calories and meet new people in the process.
• A great way to burn a lot of calories is to walk or ride your bike to class.  Make sure you map out the directions to all your classes ahead of time and it can be a good idea to do a dry run before the year starts to figure out how much time it will take.
• Many schools offer Yoga and/or meditation classes that will also help you burn more calories.  These will also help relieve the stresses of school!
• Stock your dorm fridge with fruits, vegetables, milk and other healthy snacks.  This will stop you from visiting the vending machine right down the hallway. 

Don’t let your weight be an added stress to the start of your school year.  With a little preparation you can stay fit and active and enjoy your college days.

Protein is a crucial part of everyone’s diet. Just as important as Carbohydrates and Fats. Protein however is classed as a macronutrient and is essential for good health and for building and repairing muscle tissues.

The molecules found in protein are formed from smaller pieces of amino acids. Single amino acids are a by product of the breakdown of protein chains. The chains of amino acids are called Polypeptides, if however the chains have less than 50 amino acids they are referred to as peptides, otherwise they are proteins.

Energy wise each gram of protein provides as much as 1 gram of carbohydrates, proteins are a lot more difficult to breakdown though so the body preffers carbohydrates as its source of energy.

A deficiency in protein will result in loss muscle, slow recovery and low energy levels and a weak immune system. When trying to gain muscle mass the required amount of protein increases dramatically, this is why protein supplements are widely used.

At the moment there are currently 4 different types of protein available:

• Whey Protein
• Whey Protein Isolate
• Casein Protein
• Multi Blend

Casein protein and multi blends are slow releasing products and these ensure that your body is getting a constant stream of protein and amino acids throughout the day.

Whey protein and Whey protein isolate are the faster digesting protein products. They are absorbed by the body much faster and while doing so aid the production of new muscle tissue by increasing protein synthesis.

For anyone taking part in frequent exercise or trying to gain lean mass then a supplement can help you reach your goals. Protein shakes are a great way to add additional protein to your diet and gain lean muscle mass.

Did you know that you can do more than a standard chin up with your chin up bar? This will mean you can get more use out of your chin up bar, exercising more muscle groups and giving you a much better overall toned an muscular physique.

Chin Ups

Chin ups should be performed by griping the Chin Up Bar with palms facing towards you (supinated grip). You should pull yourself up until your chin is raised above the bar, prefrebly until you can touch the bar with your upper chest. If you cant do this at first you can do negative chin ups where you use a chair to put yourself in the raised position and lower yourself down. You can do assisted chin ups; where a band, chair or friend helps you with the last little push to the top up kip chin ups; where a swing of the leg can be used to aid you in the exercise. Once you can do chin ups you can start adding weight to make the exercise harder.

Targets: Latissimus dorsi

Assisting Muscles: Brachialis, brachioradialis, biceps brachii , teres major, posterior deltoid, infraspinatus, teres minor, rhomboids, levator scapulae, middle and lower trapezius and pectoralis muscles.

Pull Ups

Pull ups should be completed in exactly the same way as chin ups but with the palms facing away from you (pronated grip). By changing your grip, and the range of movements this restricts you to less emphasis is placed on using the bicep muscle which will force the other muscle groups to be worked more.

Targets: Latissimus dorsi

Assisting Muscles: Brachialis, brachioradialis, biceps brachii, teres major, deltoid muscle, infraspinatus, teres minor, rhomboids, levator scapulae, trapezius lower, trapezius middle, and pectoralis minor.

Hanging Leg Raises

Leg raises are completed by hanging from the chin up bar and raising the legs up in a straight line to make an L shape or right angle.

Targets: Abdominals

Incline Press Ups

We all know that a press up is a poor man’s bench press, but when you are away or don’t have time to go to the gym a press up is better than nothing.

With some of the newer generation over the door chin up bars such as the Powerbar or Medicarn these can be lay on the floor and the frame used for performing incline press ups, instead of just doing standard press ups. By performing the exercise on an incline more focus is placed on the upper chest muscles which will give a fuller and better look throughout the body instead of just focusing on the lower chest muscles.

Targets: Pectoralis major muscle

Assisting Muscles: Anterior deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis, and the triceps.

Decline Press Ups

In exactly the same way as you have just used the bar to perform incline press ups you can also put your feet on it to perform decline press ups; which will target the lower pectoral area instead of the upper.

If you’re interested in further information on training at home with a chin up bar or product information visit Chin Up Bar for further information.