The Atlas of your muscles # 1
Published March 21, 2011 | 
A – Sternocleidomastoid muscle (neck)
B – Big doctoral muscle (breast)
C – Biceps (front surface of the shoulder)
D – Obliques (waist)
E – Brahioradnalis (forearm)
F – Hip flexors (upper thigh)
G – Group of abductor muscles (outer thigh)
H – Quadriceps (front thigh)
I – Sartorius muscle (front thigh)
J – Anterior tibia muscle (front surface of the shin)
K – Soleus muscle (dorsal to the lateral surface of the shin)
L – Rectus abdominis (abdominals)
M – Group of adductor muscles (inner thigh)
N – Trapezius (upper back)
O – Rhomboid muscle (upper back)
P – Deltoid (shoulder girdle)
Q – Triceps (back surface of the shoulder)
R – Lat muscles (middle back)
S – Spine erectors (lower back area)
T – Average gluteal muscle (pelvic girdle)
U – Gluteus maximus (buttocks)
V – Hamstrings (back thigh)
W – Calf muscles (back of the leg)
The trapezius muscle unbends head and neck, pulls shoulders together, protecting from the stoop, forms a strong neck. The deltoid muscle consists of three beams and has a so-called fan-shaped form. This muscle attaches the hand to the side, bends forward and rotates inward. With full development it successful forms the shoulders.
The pectoralis major muscle forms the width of the chest and represents a single muscular layer split down in the middle. It has three parts: upper, middle and bottom. This muscle rotates the arm inward, crosses the arms and attaches the shieldbone.
The triceps muscle of arm (triceps) is on the back of the shoulder and resembles in its form a horseshoe. It leads the hand back and unbends the forearm at the elbow.
The brachial muscle is located between the biceps and the forearm, forming their mass, is involved in bending the arm at the elbow and rotates the forearm inwards.
The biceps muscle of the arm (biceps) is located on the front of the shoulder. It has the shape of a massive ball. It bends the arm at the elbow and rotates the forearm outward. Together with the triceps and the delta this muscle is actively forming the shoulder.
The brachioradialis muscle is at the forefront of the forearm. It flexes and rotates the forearms outwards. It forms the mass of the forearm; it gives the hand a kind of athletic taper. Contributes to the grip power.
The long radial extensor muscle of the wrist unbends and leads the hand.
Short radial extensor muscle of the wrist, is also involved in straightening the hand.
The common extensor of the fingers (extensor digitorum communis) unbends the fingers of the hands. These muscles play a major role in working with the weights.
The oblique muscle is situated on both sides of the waist. It rotates the torso to the side and tilts the body forward.
The rectus abdominis lies on both sides of the abdomen, divided by a characteristic furrow. Together with the transverse and oblique abdominal muscles it forms the so-called abdominal prelum. It serves as an external support to the internal organs. With good development makes the stomach in, promotes the formation of the “regal” posture.
Fitness safety
Published March 21, 2011 | Why are we going to the gym? Of course, for health, beauty and physical strength. However, to achieve this, one needs not only a simple desire but a financial resource. To become beautiful and strong and remain healthy, you need to know certain axioms of training – a kind of safety in the gym. And not just know of its existence, but completely follow it.
It is in the gym and nowhere else where the commandment “your health is in your hands” is so to the point. In fact, the rules are very simple and easy to learn. It is much more difficult, as shown in practice, to remember them every minute of your workout. But this should be done for not to change the chair of a simulator for a hospital bed.
Irina Masloboeva, the doctor at the American Medical Centre, the fitness club GOLD’S GYM in Moscow, speaks about the basic rules of conduct in the gym and building your own workout:
- The instructor will never let a novice at his first attempt to work with a barbell and dumbbells – the so-called free weights. With all their outward simplicity, they require very serious skills, since it is necessary to control the range of motion, posture, speed and many other factors by yourself. In the gyms at the expense of constructive solutions all this is done automatically. I also strongly advise to never neglect the warm-ups. One should never immediately begin to do strength exercises, without stretching the muscles, preparing the heart and joints – that is, without adjusting the body to work. The workout should take not less than 20 minutes and consist of two parts. The first part is for cardio: run on the track, walk on the stepper and spin the bike pedals. The second part is for stretching the muscles, which will directly precede the strength work. Most of the injuries are happening because people start to load the muscles being not warmed up. And this is especially true for the already trained people, who work in the gym with heavy weights. They surely know of the necessity to workout but sometimes overlook it. As a result they tear their muscles and ligaments being the extremely unpleasant and painful injuries, fraught with most serious consequences for health in future. During the stretch, I would like to draw attention to a few muscle groups that require special care.
The muscles of the back of the thigh. Be sure to properly warm them up prior to the strength training. Especially if you have any problems with the spine. Otherwise, during the exercise, connected with bends, the increased load will be distributed on the spine, resulting in injury.
Be sure to warm the chest muscles. Otherwise, various presses and pulls can end in a damage of the shoulder joints.
If you are going to the aerobics, warm the calf muscles. The same is true if you want to play football, tennis and generally do any moving sports. In this case the stretching of the calf muscle should be done in two stages: when your knee is straight and when it is bent. This is the only way you can fully prepare this group of muscles to the loads.
10 reasons to failure in fitness # 3
Published March 20, 2011 | Overtraining
More is not always better. This rule is applied to fitness. If you’re straining for hours in the gym do not wait for the good: instead of increasing in size, your muscles at one point will start to cringe. Among us there are genetically gifted people who can train hard and long. You shouldn’t follow them in any case: “What is permitted to Jupiter is not allowed to a bull.” And if you’re training in the gym for more than two days consecutively, so most likely you over train. The same can be said, if during an individual workout you are doing more than three – five exercises with four or five sets in each. And if your exercises in the gym last for more than an hour and a half, this also can lead to serious troubles. I have already said that you grow not during the training, but at home, so excessive zeal in the gym is not need. And do not try to reach the pros, who, and is not a secret, often use the band pharmacology. It is clear that, making a hard training schedule, you are guided by the gripping enthusiasm, but try to look at the problem from the standpoint of common sense. Make an experiment: let yourself rest for a couple of days of training and then return to the gym. I am confident that you will look and feel much better.
Abuse of nicotine and alcohol
I cannot force you not to drink or not to smoke, you must decide for yourself whether you want it or not. I just want to note that bad habits really hinder you in achieving athletic results. Well, pray tell, how can a normal person train, if his head falls apart with a hangover and he barely moves his feet? Both alcohol and nicotine hinder full recovery from the workouts. Nicotine creates a problem for the respiratory tract, thereby making the body less resilient, which reduces the productivity of your workout. Alcohol that is taken in large quantities, generally slowly destroys the liver – the organ that plays an important role in the synthesis of the muscle tissue. Many smokers justify their addiction saying that it reduces appetite. However, I had not noticed that these people were firmly keeping to a diet consisting of chicken breasts, rice and vegetables. In short, if you are keen to improve your appearance and health, I advise you to give up bad habits.
Excessive sociability during the training
In any fitness center are met visitors who can be confidently called the darlings of the club. Their faces are always with a smile, for a long time they can chat on different topics with everybody and so on. What can I say? If your goal is to become one of these darlings you can behave like this. But if you intend to train seriously, it is better not to do so. Of course, I do not call to neglect everybody. But friendliness and excessive sociability is not the same thing. You have to train others to ensure that you are a serious person, who should not be distracted. After your training you can communicate as much as you want, but during the training – never. You may ask: and what’s criminal? Well just said a few words during a break in between the sets and … what? You see, resting too long between the sets, you’re cooling. The cooled muscles cannot develop the ultimate effort, in addition, are more prone to injury. And a too prolonged training is generally something that is not too productive, not a work but a pastime. Of course, you can visit a fitness center for this purpose. But in this case it is better to forget about the achievement of more or less decent results.