Be Physically Healthy Through Exercise And Nutritious Foods

Some people think that going to the gym to do some exercise and do some body shaping is not that interesting. Not only that you will get exhausted but going to the gym is boring and time-consuming. You might be interested in doing something more interesting.

Despite the fact that exercising is not that interesting to do, many health-conscious people do it for the sake of health and long life. It helps in relieving the stress we are experiencing because of our very much tiring and mind-draining work.

We are doing this whole daylong that causes stress and bring out the feeling of being mind-fatigued. Exercise really can give you great things.

Exercise alone cannot do the magic of acquiring a healthy body. What we are fond of eating as a regular diet is a big factor in having a healthy body. Eating nutritious foods and food supplements are needed to sustain a healthy body.

The desire to be physically healthy is the greatest factor to have a healthy body. You cannot eat nutritious food or even exercise if you are not motivated to do such things because having a healthy body and mind requires maintenance.

Weight lifting is one of the most common forms of exercise. It helps in building and shaping the muscles according to the desired size of the one exercising. In weight lifting, it is advisable to do it slowly in order to be able to eliminate or lessen the momentum build up as you lift the weights. This makes the weight lifting more efficient and effective.

The strengthening of muscles by weight lifting is an important thing to do. In doing weight lifting, you should make sure that there is plenty of space in your room so that there will be nothing that obstructs your movements.

Whenever you are lifting weights, your muscles contract and relax. This stretches and strengthens your muscles and tendons.

The term on the rate at which the weight or the resistance moves is called cadence. It is very helpful. By moving your muscles slower as you are lifting weights, your muscles are being stretched and exposed to heavy loads for longer period of time.

This makes your muscles stronger and bigger. The rate of cadence depends on the one who is exercising on which level of cadence is he comfortable to do.

In every circumstance and in every happening nor in everything we do, safety should be number one in the checklist. Keeping one safe and away from danger is something that must be done before something else. This will help to eliminate accidents and serious injuries from happening. It is said that prevention is better than cure.

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Benefits Of Weight Training

What is Weight Training?

Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength and size of skeletal muscles. It challenges your muscles by forcing them to adapt to the stress of the weights. Weight training differs from bodybuilding, weightlifting, power-lifting and strongman, which are sports rather than forms of exercise. It requires supervision to ensure sound technique in pursuit of safety and efficiency. Weight Training is a proven life changer because it builds muscle, fastens metabolism, burns fat, and is the basis of a strong firm muscular body.

Weight Lifting Tips

Before you get started on setting up your routine, keep a few key points in mind: Always warm up before you start lifting weights. Your warm-up session before lifting weights should include stretching exercises, calisthenics, and jogging. When you begin each lifting exercise, use small amounts of weight at first and then progress to heavier weights to help prevent injury. As you begin lifting, always lower the weight slowly through each repetition instead of just letting it fall. This will ensure that the muscles are receiving the maximum benefit at the same time limiting the risk of injury. Do not hold your breath while lifting weights. Breathe in on the relaxation phase and out while performing the resistance/lifting part of the exercise. When lifting weights - either free weights or on a machine - make sure that there is always someone nearby to supervise or spot you.

Muscle Growth

Muscle strength is gained by overloading the muscles and weight-lifting will increase strength fastest. Muscle growth depends on the muscle fibre type activated and the pattern of recruitment. Muscles grow while resting, so pushing yourself as hard as you can seven days a week won't do you any favours. Muscle groups should be worked a maximum of twice a week if using splits and three times if using full-body routines.

Burning Fat

If you want to lose fat or change your body, one of the most important things you can do is lift weights. Weight training helps to maintain the bodies fat within acceptable limits. A pound of muscle burns 60 calories per day whereas a pound of fat only burns 5 calories per day. Lifting weights builds muscle, and muscle burns calories. Therefore, the more muscle one has, the more calories that will be burned throughout the entire day, resulting in a firmer and leaner body.

Conclusion

The benefits of weight training are not limited to muscle growth and burning fat. These are just typical reasons why people begin to lift weights in the first place. Whatever reason you choose to weight train, make sure proper technique and safety are the number one priority. With this said, with a little hard work and the desire to gain as much knowledge on the subject of weight training, there is no doubt in my mind that it will increase the overall quality of your life.

Matthew Erickson writes on health and fitness related issues. You can learn more by visiting my blog at http://homegym-equipment.blogspot.com/

Benefits of Exercise and Weight Training

Everyone knows that exercise has many benefits, including:

1. Improving fitness and your muscular endurance; So, that can increase stamina.

2. Reduce the risk of heart disease.

3. Lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

4. Help regulate body weight.

5. Improve your confidence.

You can get all the benefits on top of any age and at least try to stay physically active is important as we get older. Many problems arise because the more we age - increased levels of fat, decreased stamina and flexibility, more porous bone, and further decreased metabolism. With regular exercise, such risks above can be minimized.

Fitness Aspect

Fit means being able to carry out their daily work with the prime and fresh; with enough stamina and alert to things that are emergency in our situation. Definition of physically fit varies depending on the profession. Definition of fit also quite relative, you may be more fit this year than last year or maybe you are more fit than your neighbors, no definite understanding of the fit. One thing is certain, if you pursue fitness, the sport is the only way to achieve it.

There are 4 basic aspects for physically fit, namely: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. Each can be measured with routine exercise. Remember, exercise for fitness training is not equal to weight training for increase an athletes performance. To really fit, you need to build 4 basic aspects of this, not just 1 or 2.

The most important aspect is cardiovascular endurance. Physiologically, cardiovascular endurance will keep the hearts ability and blood vessels to carry oxygen to body cells; also to dispose of waste in the body.

Cardiovascular endurance is built through exercise that enhances the body ability to deliver more oxygen to the muscles. In order to do this, it is needed the exercise that use large muscle groups (such as the leg) and most importantly thing is sustainable.

With routine aerobic exercise, your heart will be able to pump more blood and thus able to deliver oxygen more efficiently. Thus, the muscles capacity to accommodate the oxygen will increase, able to pump more blood per beat, so the heart does not work too hard. Your heart also has the ability to recover faster from stress due to exercise.

In order to effect the exercise, it is advisable to do a session of aerobic exercise 15-60 minutes 3 - 5x a week. To give you more benefit from this exercise, you should practice according to your hearts ability level.

The simplest way to measure it is by the formula 220 - age (it is your Maximum Heart Rate), then take 60-80% of that number. Top and the lowest results are your target heart rate zone. When you exercise, try the heartbeat is in the range.

The Right Exercise Model For You

One of the nice things in exercise is that you have many choices. You can choose to do something as simple as a road, you can select 1 or more recreational sports, or you can do exercise routine as in a classroom or home. In fact, variation in exercise is the key to fit. One thing to note, there is no type of exercise or training that insufficient all aspects of the need to fit in a balanced way. You should have more than one activity so the exercise is not monotone. Research also shows that people tend to choose the type of activity that is easy and fun for them.

One types of exercise provides many benefits to our health is weight training.

Weight Training Principles

Even if there are certain assumptions about someone who lift weights are always have a large muscles but weak, weight training portion can be used by everyone, not just for the one who interested in becoming bodybuilding athletes. Combined with routine aerobic exercise, weight training will increase muscle strength and endurance while making your physical & spiritual become more fit. This feeling healthy can not be obtained from any other type of exercise. For example, cycling help build 1 set of muscle type, basketball build other muscles, but weight training to work as a whole in our muscles in a short time.

A routine weight training will help you establish a particular muscle group that will improve performance in other sports of your choice. Nothing can improve the quality of your tennis without a tennis workout, but weight training will support your game; in addition weight training at leg will help your kick when swimming.

Basic Principles of Weight Training

The basic principle of weight training is the development of muscle gained through the stimulation of excessive burdens, contract certain muscle groups against the burden lifted. The muscles can grow is through the load pressure in a certain time, "recovery" after the exercise assisted by additional proteins. After a certain time period, the strength of muscle groups that get the burden pressure will increase making your muscles growing.

Free Burden is the Barbell and Dumbbell, usually used in pairs. The advantages of using this free burden is that you can make a move anywhere so that produces a variety of exercise; also it is relatively inexpensive tool price. The weakness of this free burden is not to give us the isolation to out exercise as good as machine and stress supplied to our muscles are not uniform, the left and right. While the form of exercise equipment can isolate muscle groups more efficiently in a way to maintain your body position and direct the movement of the load according to right directions. Thus, the stress accepted by our muscles will be more evenly.

Weight Training Tips

Weight training generally includes warming from 5 to 10 minutes followed by exercise routine to a specified portion completed. Serves your exercise routine should be arranged with the trainer at the gym. They will teach you how to set the correct position, a way to lift that does not risk injury, shows a tool that is used and how many sets of repetitions should be performed. If you continue to practice with a coach or friend, they will make your exercise program more enjoyable, give you emotional support and help you to avoid injury.

A good exercise program is training different muscle parts evenly. This program consists of about 12 types of training, 6 types for the upper body and 6 types more for lower body. You do not need to do all type at once, you will be taught to schedule that will provide at least 1 day of rest on the muscle that has just trained.

If you train the same muscle in 2 days, the muscle will not recover; even be weaker not stronger. Thus, you should exercise different muscles each day. (today the upper muscles, and tomorrow the lower muscle) or give the time of at least 2 days to rest.

Remember to train the large muscles before small muscles. For example, if your exercise program today is a combination of upper body muscles and the bottom, begin with leg muscles.

Teddy Hariadi comes from Jakarta, Indonesia. He has written a number of articles on Elliptical. Please also check out his other guide on body building workouts tips and fat burning secrets guide!

Beginner's Exercise Routines

Exercises for Free-Weights and Body-Weight-Only Calisthenics

A body-building work-out is designed to stress the muscles and force them to respond by growing stronger and larger. If done correctly, a certain amount of muscle tenderness can be expected within the 36 hours following the work-out. There are a great variety of exercises for each muscle or body part. Once muscles become accustomed to a particular exercise, weight-resistance or exercise routine, development will slow down and may stop. It's wise to change the exercises and exercise order every month or so.

If you're using free-weights it's important to establish the appropriate weights to lift so that injury or excessive soreness is avoided. As you lift a weight or push it away from you, exhale forcefully through your mouth then inhale through your nose as you relax.

For Calisthenics, it's important to use your imagination to create new ways of performing the basic exercise. Always exhale while the muscle is being contracted (flexed) and inhale as you relax.

For optimum muscular development it's important to drink pure water throughout the work-out and to have a protein meal within 90 minutes of the workout's completion.

Establishing Your Starting Weights or GO to CALISTHENICS

If you choose to work-out in a gymnasium or fitness center, the standard straight bar used for the chest-developing bench-press, weighs 45 pounds.

1. For the first exercise, lay on your back on the bench, knees bent, feet up on the bench and grip the bar evenly in the center with your hands about 24 inches apart. Lift the bar off its rack and lower it to your chest, pause, then exhale as you slowly raise the bar to full arm extension. Inhale as you lower the bar back to your chest. Repeat fifteen times. If the fifteenth repetition is easy, add ten pound plates to each side of the bar so that the newly combined weight is 65 pounds. Continue performing 15 repetions and increasing the combined weight until the fifteenth repetition cannot be completed. Record the final weight in your training note-book as "bench press XX lbs".

2. The second exercise is for your front upper-arms (biceps) and can be performed with either a straight bar or dumbbells. For dumbbells start with ten pounds in each hand, arms extended towards your knees. Lock your elbows in front of your hips then slowly bend your forearms upwards to shoulder height, again for fifteen repetitions. As before, progressively increase the weight until the fifteenth repetition of a particular weight cannot be completed. If you use a straight bar or a W shaped biceps curl bar proceed as for the bench press above by adding plates. Record the final weight in your training note-book as "biceps curl XX lbs".

3. Where your arms join your shoulders there is a group of three muscles called the deltoids. They are not powerful but are essential for many day-to-day activities. Be careful when starting to exercise them as they can be damaged easily. Start only with a 3 - 5 pound dumbell in each hand, arms straight and hanging down at your sides. Without bending your elbows elevate your arms straight ahead to shoulder height. If you can complete the fifteenth repetition increase the weight by 2 - 3 pounds only. Progressively add weight a little at a time until the fifteenth rep is impossible to do. Record the final weight in your training note-book as "deltoid raise XX lbs".

4. The final weight you recorded for the deltoids is the weight you'll start with for the triceps muscles located at the rear of the upper arm. With a dumbbell in each hand, bend forward at the waist keeping your back straight, head up. Bend your knees slightly, lock your bent elbows in to your sides so that your forearms are pointing to the floor then push the weight backwards as your straighten your arms without letting your elbows slip out of position. If 15 repetitions is easy, increase the weight. Once you find a weight whereby you fail on the fifteenth rep record it in your training note-book as "triceps kickback XX lbs".

5. The muscles running from your underarms to your waist are called the laterals. To exercise them you'll need to use either an overhead fixed bar or preferably a pull-down cable machine. For the cable machine, load it with about 50 pounds, sit directly below the bar with your arms overhead, hands gripping the bar as widely as possible. Pull the bar down to the top of your chest not to behind your neck. Proceed as before and establish your starting weight then record in your note-book "overhead pulldown XX lbs".

If you only have access to a fixed overhead bar, place a chair under the bar and stand on it as you grip the bar as widely as possible with your arms bent, chest touching the bar. Lift your feet off the chair and slowly straighten your arms to lower your body slightly then pull yourself back up. Wide-grip pull-ups are quite difficult and you'll need consistent practice to develop the strength to pull yourself up off the floor without the aid of the chair to get started.

6. The quadriceps are the large muscles at the front of your upper legs. Holding the bench-press bar firmly in a wide grip, balance it across the top of your chest and squat down, maintaining a straight back, until your upper legs are parallel with the floor. Pause, then exhale forcefully as you stand back up. Proceed as before with fifteen repetitions, progressively increasing the weight until failure on the fifteenth rep. Record the final weight in your note-book as "free squats XX lbs". Most fitness centers have squat machines and leg-extension machines available but it's best to use the bar for the first few weeks of training.

7. The hamstrings at the back of the upper leg are prone to injury, so, as for the deltoids, take it easy on them to start. If you have access to a hamstring-curl machine where you lie face-down with your ankles under a rolling pad, start with about 10 pounds and progressively work up little by little. If no machine is available then you may strap weights to the ankles, extend one leg to the rear then bend the knee so as to lift the weighted lower leg upwards. Record the final weight as "hams XX lbs".

8. Calf muscles are very resistant to exercise and need to be worked out harder than all the other muscles. Initially, however, stand on a step or block about 8 inches above floor height with just the balls of the feet on it, the heels hanging over. Exhale as you raise up on tip-toes, pause as you flex the calf muscles then lower back down stretching the heels as far down as you can. Perform 25 repetitions then hold a 15 pound dumbell in each hand and repeat the exercise. In your note-book record "calves XX lbs".

9. Abdominals are probably the most "desired" muscle yet the hardest to see as they're usually covered in a spongy layer of body-fat. Consistent, full-body work-outs will progressively whittle away the fatty covering and in time, as the abdominals tone up you'll be able to feel and then see the almost mythical six-pack. The most important ab exercise is called the pelvic tilt and unless you can perform that effectively no other ab exercise will ever yield its full potential benefit.

Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. As you exhale, tuck your tummy in and up under your rib cage allowing it to draw your groin upwards off the floor. Don't use your legs to assist in the movement. Flex and hold for two seconds then inhale as you relax back to the start position. Do ten of those then immediately follow with another ten but as you tilt and flex your pelvis, curl your head and shoulders up off the floor to look at your groin.

* * * * *

Introductory work-outs should be simple and not too time-consuming. The full routine may be be performed every-other-day or may be divided into alternating-day work-outs with the upper-body routine being done one day and the lower-body routine the next day. In either case, perform two sets of eight repetitions for each exercise with two minutes of rest between sets and exercises.

The first set should be with the weights you established as outlined above. Your subsequent workouts will start with the weight you ended up with on the previous work-out but, for the second set, increase the weight by 5 - 10% so that the eighth repetition cannot be completed. If the eighth repetition of the second set is "do-able" the weight selected was not heavy enough.

For maximum benefit, the second set should be "to failure" on the last repetition !

THE ROUTINE

Full-body, every-other-day or Upper-body, day one

bench press bench press

quadraceps press biceps curl

biceps curl triceps kick-back

hamstring curl delt raise

triceps kick-back overhead pulldown

calf raise

Lower-body, day two

delt raise

quadriceps press

abs

hamstring curl

calf raise

abs

* * * * *

Body-weight-only Calisthenics

"Calisthenics" or body-weight-only workouts comprise eight basic exercises, that when performed correctly, can tone and build every muscle of your body. Because the basic exercises don't require any equipment, many cities provide outdoor circuit-training courses based on calisthenics and walking. With simple equipment such as a fixed overhead bar or a sturdy tree branch and by adding some free-weights to create greater resistance the variety of exercises and routines is limitless. The free-weights can be dumbbells, rocks, plastic bottles filled with sand or weighted bags strapped to the ankles or wrists.

1. Pushups - chest, triceps, shoulders, back

a. Stand facing a wall two feet away. Place your hands at shoulder height against the wall. Keeping your body straight, lean forward until your chest touches the wall. Exhale and push away from the wall. Repeat twelve times.

b. Lie face down on the floor with your body straight, hands open, palms down and under your shoulders. Support your weight on your hands and knees. Stiffen your body from your knees to your head, exhale and push upwards until your arms are straight. Lower your body as you inhale. Repeat ten times.

c. As above but support your weight on your hands and the balls of your feet. Flex your body to keep it straight from feet to head, exhale and push up to straighten the arms, inhale and lower. Repeat ten times.

2. Squats - quads, glutes, back

a. Basic: Stand erect with your feet eighteen inches apart. Maintain a straight back and with your head held up and back, bend your knees until your upper legs are parallel with the floor. Exhale and stand up. Repeat ten times.

b. Walking Lunges: Stand erect with your feet together. Step forward with one leg and keeping your knee above your heel bend the knee until the upper leg is parallel with the floor. Exhale and stand erect as you step forward with the other leg.

3. Pullups/chinups - biceps, forearms, lats, back

(These can be done from a fixed overhead bar, a horizontal sturdy tree branch or lying under a table.)

a. Reach up and grip the overhead support, arms straight with palms facing you or each other. Exhale and pull upwards until your face is level with your hands. Inhale and lower your body to the start position.

b. Grip the overhead support with your hands spread as far apart as possible. Exhale and pull upwards until your chest touches the overhead object.

4. Dips - triceps, deltoids, lower chest

a. Sit on the ground or a sturdy chair. Reach behind you and place the palms of your hands on the surface. Exhale and push up until your arms are straight and your butt is clear of the floor.

b. The further back you place your hands the emphasis is taken from the chest and placed on the triceps and deltoids.

To do these more effectively you need a waist-high wall or parallel bars. The backs of two solid, stable chairs are O.K.

5. Donkey kicks - hamstrings, glutes, lower back

a. Kneel with your hands on the floor. Stiffen your back and elevate your head. Exhale and raise one leg as high as possible and straighten it. Do ten repetitions then repeat for the other leg.

b. As before, but also raise and extend the opposite arm as you raise the leg.

6. Pelvic Tilts - abdominals, glutes, inner thighs

a. Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. As you exhale, tuck your tummy in and up under your rib cage allowing it to draw your groin upwards off the floor. Don't use your legs to assist in the movement. Flex and hold for two seconds then inhale as you relax back to the start position. Do ten of those then immediately follow with another ten but as you tilt and flex your pelvis, curl your head and shoulders up off the floor to look at your groin.

7. Calf Raise - calves, ankles, low back

a. Stand on a step or block about 8 inches above floor height with just the balls of the feet on it, the heels hanging over. Exhale as you raise up on tip-toes, pause as you flex the calf muscles then lower back down stretching the heels as far down as you can. Repeat twenty-five times.

b. Stand with the heels hanging over the edge as before but bend your knees keeping your backstraight. Steady yourself with the hand rail or wall then maintaining your bent knees, exhale and raise up onto your toes, inhale as you stretch back down. 25 reps.

8. Neck Resistance - neck and shoulder

a. Stand or sit and allow your body to relax. Slowly bend your head fully forward. Place your cupped hands behind your head over the crown area and exhale as you push your head slowly backwards against the resistance of your hands. Hold the position under tension until you need to inhale. Re-centralize your head, remove your hands from your head then exhale and slowly bend your neck to the left side as though to touch your shoulder with your ear. Hold until you need to inhale, centralize your head and repeat to the right side.

b. Look up to the ceiling, place your cupped hands on your forehead and exhale as you slowly push your head forwards until your chin touches your chest. Hold the position under tension until you need to inhale. Re-centralize your head, remove your hands from your forehead then exhale and slowly bend your neck to the left side as though to touch your shoulder with your ear. Repeat to the right side.

c. Repeat each of the above exercises but exchange the hand positions - for (a.) hands on thforehead for (b.) hands behind the head.

d. Place your left hand on your head above your left ear. Exhale and push your head against the hand and hold until you need to inhale. Switch hands and resist to the right.

e. As for (d.) but place your right hand above the left ear. Exhale and pull against the resistance of your neck. Switch hands and repeat.

Luigi Kleinsasser is a certified fitness instructor and diet counsellor specializing in general health improvement, weight loss and fitness programs. His website is [http://www.luigiwho.com]

Body Building by Weight Lifting

People who overweight, they can lose their fat and build muscle by combining aerobic exercise with exercise and also protein intake. If you would like to lose fat you should doing Aerobic exercise. But In other side it will not build significant amounts of muscle without lifting weights. Building muscle requires lifting weights. It is important for you to do this to push your muscles to their limit.

You will not be able to build new muscle fibers If you don't put your muscles under stress. People that are trying to lose weight from fat and gain muscle.They should never do it with the same muscle group two days in a row. Since you need your muscle recover and grow before you give them a workout again. Consuming a protein shake or a glass of milk within 45 minutes of your workout may also lead to increased protein synthesis

Building muscle requires adequate amount of calories and protein. An individuals actually need to eat an extra 300 to 400 calories per day to gain a pound of muscle per week. Lifting weights will be counterproductive If you don't consume enough calories. It is because your body will not have enough energy to push your muscles to their limit.

Individuals need to consume 0.8g of protein for each kg of body weight that they have. Consuming protein within 45 minutes of lifting weights may lead to increased muscle growth. People that build muscle quickly often get stretch marks because their skin does not have enough time to adjust to added muscle. People that lift weights to increase muscle mass can reduce stretch marks by adding muscle mass at a slower rate to give your skin ample time to adjust.

If you would like to learn more about fat loss and gain lean muscle please click here! [http://body-building-guide.com/] or visit our website in www.body-building-guide.com [http://www.body-building-guide.com]

A pile of aged oolong

I just came back from another trip to Taiwan, this time having a few days between work and tea hunting. Taiwan really is the island of teashops, and the kicker is, quite a few of them are very decent places, with good tea and run by good people. As one of my commenters mentioned, they don’t try to rip you off the way they do in the mainland.

While MadameN and I were a little early to our dinner destination for a meeting with some colleagues from grad school, we decided to take a quick stroll around the restaurant and look at the amazing coffeeshops that are in the vicinity of the restaurant. While doing that, we ran into a tea store that looked as terrible as you can imagine – old, slightly broken and very dirty shelves, lined with bags of tea that have been stacked into pyramids, a common feature of many community teashops in Taipei. On the far end of the shop are bags and bags of teas, and some puerh cakes lining the wall. I decided to try my luck and walked in, asking if they have any aged tea. The woman who was in the store said she has to ask her dad, who really runs the operation, and ten minutes later, the dad walked into the store.

I expected nothing when I walked in, since most of these stores have nothing other than reroasted-to-death “aged” oolong for sale. However, in the subsequent twenty minutes, which was all the time I had, he brought out about five different aged oolongs for me to taste, each one decent, some better than others. It was clear that my twenty minutes were not enough. I decided to go back the next day.

So the next afternoon, after meeting up with Action Jackson, I went back to the store. We tried many teas.

Aside from the rather obvious advantage of trying teas this way, which is that you can drink as much or as little as you want, while comparing them honestly without any interference with the brewing skills and parameters, it also allows you to literally throw away teas that are no good. What you’re seeing here is already after a few teas have been thrown out, with three young gaoshan oolongs, two aged oolongs, and one roasted one. More were tested before we stopped after having tasted a dozen or so teas.

The shop’s proprietor also showed us his rather unique way of roasting teas.

It is an interesting use of what looks like an oven, because it’s not what it seems

Whereas the exterior of the oven looks like, well, an oven for maybe baking bread, once you open it up you can see that the heat is actually being provided by charcoal at the bottom of the oven, with pans of teas being roasted above it. It’s actually not a bad idea – this way, he can do charcoal roasting while keeping the room’s temperature to a reasonable level, and also limits the amount of charcoal he needs to use as well as being able to roasted a relatively small batch at a time. To the left of the oven is where he rests his recently roasted tea, and to the right, with the big white bags, are aged oolongs of one kind or another – no vacuum pack, no jars, nothing, just plain bags with good aged teas that are surprisingly not bitter at all. Nor does he re-roast the tea, ever, because, as he himself correctly states, once you reroast an aged tea it loses the aged flavour. I heartily agree.

In the end we all walked out of the store laden with tea, all sold at a very reasonable price. Having spent many days tea hunting in Taipei both on previous trips and this one, I can safely say that oftentimes the best shops for buying tea are also the ugliest looking, messiest, and dirtiest ones, with bags of teas piled everywhere, old, sometimes broken pots lining the shelves, and the most disorganized tea tables you’ve ever encountered. The shops that are neat, clean, with nice rows of boxed teas lit with mood lighting and packaged in designer bags are, more often than not, rather mediocre and rarely surprising. They might have a few things that are rare, interesting, or, better yet, sold with a story, but you have to pay a pretty penny for them, and I’m not sure if that’s worth the money, because what you can drink is the tea, and not the story.

View the original article here

Featured Tea Blog: Tea Guy Speaks by William I. Lengeman III

Recently I've been featuring a bunch of tea blogs. This week's post features a completely different tea blog, which I also greatly appreciate, and for completely different reasons from any of the other blogs I have featured recently. This blog is Tea Guy Speaks, run by William I Lengeman III:

What I like about this blog:

Tea Guy Speaks publishes a lot of press releases from within the tea industry, and is a good place to keep up on what is happening among the larger, more mainstream specialty tea companies, but the blog also highlights smaller and less well-known companies as well. The blog frequently shares videos, mostly promotional videos related to tea, and many funny videos. It also showcases various sorts of tea businesses, and occasionally, a tea review or two. But, while I appreciate all these aspects of the blog, there is an additional section that is not particularly blog-like, which is the #1 thing I like about this blog.

"Tea Resources" lists:

The blog also has a few very comprehensive resources which I have mentioned before, but would like to draw attention to. My favorite of these is the tea blog list, an exhaustive list of tea blogs which is one of the best references out there if you want as complete a listing of blogs focused primarily on tea as you will find. Another smaller list is the list of Tea chats, Lists, and Forums, and there is also a list of Tea Review Sites, which includes websites, both interactive and not, that have tea reviews from multiple reviewers.

There are other lists too, a total of eight (the business spotlights are linked to but are in a blog format, not a pure list). These lists are too much for me to really cover in depth...they can all be found in the blog's sidebar, labelled "Tea Resources":

Whether or not you subscribe to it, Tea Guy Speaks is yet another blog that I think is worth knowing about if you are involved in any capacity in the tea industry. If you run a blog, website, tea of the month club, tea room or tea house directory, or other relevant business or website, check the lists to see if your organization is already listed. It probably already is, but if not, Tea Guy Speaks is very responsive about adding new items and keeping these lists up-to-date. And lastly, you can also get in touch with Teaguyspeaks on twitter; he's quite active there, shares and retweets a lot of material, and is a good person to tweet with if you want to get involved in the tea conversation.

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Grasping The Aesthetic Of A Tea Company

In the course of sampling teas and reviewing them, I often go through a process with a new or unfamiliar tea company, in which I move from having no familiarity with the company, to trying one, two, three, and then more teas. Eventually, I form an impression of the company. Besides reflecting on the business, customer service, pricing, and presentational aspects of the company, I also form an impression of what I'd like to call the aesthetic of the tea company's teas. This aesthetic represents what I think of how the company's teas tend to differ from other company's teas, or how they tend to deviate from average or "typical" examples of each type of tea.

The aesthetic of a tea company is a bit of a nebulous concept, like this Lagoon Nebula pictured below, but, like this nebula, it is still a real concept that can, in some cases, be described in words:

Aesthetic can take the form of teas being sweeter or more bitter than typical, or of teas performing better under western-style brewing or gong-fu-style brewing, of the leaf of teas having certain characteristics of color, shape, or form, or of certain aromas being more or less represented than typical.

When comparing similar teas, aesthetic is sometimes subtle. For the most part, if you try a bunch of the same type of tea (like dragon well green tea, or Keemun black tea) from different companies, you'll be trying similar teas. But you will also probably notice certain trends even in these cases, if you pay enough attention. And, when looking at a company's whole catalogue, you will notice much larger trends in terms of which teas they choose to stock.

Some examples of a company's aesthetic that I've noticed:

Rare Tea Republic struck me as carrying a lot of smoother-than-average teas that had a moderately vegetal flavor, more vegetal than typical, especially for their black teas, but not overwhelmingly vegetal.Adagio Teas has seemed to me to carry teas which tend towards a sweeter flavor, with lighter aromas, although they certainly have some exceptions as well.TeaVivre's teas struck me as more aromatic than most Chinese teas for sale in the west. Each tea of a familiar style that I tried, conformed closely to the "typical" examples, with traditionally more bitter teas tasting more bitter and traditionally smoother teas tasting smoother.Rishi Tea seems to often have bold, edgy teas, with atypical aromas and strong flavors, often a little out of my comfort zone, but always making my tea-drinking experience enjoyable.Life in Teacup seems to have a decidedly non-western focus, with more teas that initially taste quite different to a western palate. The company also carries a lot of teas that are less well-known in the West. This company's teas are more likely to strike me as a bit strange, but I've found, they are also more likely to excite me, and I'm more likely to find teas I consider to be truly exceptional from Life in Teacup than from most other companies.Simpson and Vail, whose teas I've been sampling recently, seem to have dry leaf that is less aromatic than typical, but I find that their teas are much more pleasant to drink than I'd expect from the aroma of the dry leaf.
Some companies, like Upton, are so diverse that it's hard for me to describe an aesthetic of the company as a whole. And in most cases, I haven't formed enough of an impression to describe a company's aesthetic.

Forming an impression of aesthetic:

In order for me to form what I would consider to be a very solid impression of the company, I like to do the following things:

Sample some teas that represent the company's strengths - I think that a company's strengths and areas of focus say more about the company than random teas. Even in cases where a company specializes in a type of tea I am less familiar with, I want to really delve into the specialized offerings. When a company offers me samples, I like to accept at least a few samples that the company wants me to try, and that I may initially be less enthusiastic about. Sometimes, like with Rishi Tea's Vanilla Mint Pu-erh, which I would have never chosen to sample on my own, I am pleasantly surprised.Sample some of the company's most unique offerings - A recent example of this would be sampling Shanti Tea's Los Andes tea from Guatemala (my review).Sample some teas of styles which I am very familiar with - If I try only unfamiliar teas, I don't have a great sense of how the company's teas compare with others, both in terms of quality, and character.
The aesthetic begins to take form:

Once I've begun to sample a sizeable portion of teas from a particular brand or company, I begin to form an impression in my head about what that company's aesthetic is. Every tea company that I have sampled teas from has had its own unique stamp, signature, or characteristic aesthetic, but in some cases, it has been more overt, whereas in other cases, it has been subtle. This aesthetic reflects the decisions of the company's staff in which teas they choose to stock and sell. It also reflects the company's audience, and it may also reflect the companies practices of packing and storing teas, as these influence the tea's flavor as well. For example, I suspect that TeaVivre's loose-leaf tea is so aromatic because it is packed and sealed closer to the source of production and not re-opened after being shipped to the US, in contrast to some companies which import tea and then re-package it.

What do you think?

Do you think that the "aesthetic of a tea company" is a useful concept? Have you formed any impressions about the aesthetics of any tea companies yourself, whether or not you call them by this name? If you've formed an impression of the tea companies I mention here, does your impression fit with mine, or do you have a different view of any of these companies?

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Sencha producing process

Do you know how sencha is processed on the rolling process?You might have read how sencha is produced on books or on the internet.  It is produced by steaming, rolling and drying the leaves picked on the day.  The first step, steaming, and the last step, drying, are quite obvious and their process can be understood easily.  But, the rolling has five stages and it might be a little difficult to understand them from books.  I had a chance to observe the actual producing line at the workshop that I attended in April.    I learned a lot of things that I cannot learn from books.  For example, I would not know that you have to do this like the following photo if I didn’t observe the factory.I’ll introduce my notes from the workshop:Fresh picked leaves sent to the line1.   SteamingIn the beginning, you actually count the steaming time, and take out some samples of steamed leaf.  You check the appearance and texture of the leaves, and decide the steaming time of the day.  2.   Rolling (actually drying at the same time)a.    Hauchi    DRY the leaves with hot air as if agitating them in a drum.  Cool them down gradually to body temperature.  The leaves are very moist and sticky, which stick on the fins and walls of the machine.DRY like the Hauchi.  The leaves get less sticky.  Water doesn’t come out by pinching them.   So, staff is taking off the stuck leaves on the fins and walls after the hauch process.  Did you know leaves are sticky during the process?I’ll write about following processes in the next entry.

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Break Even Your Most Stubborn Exercise and Weight Loss Plateau

They say you can be a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Your goal is not to do everything under the sun, but instead to master a handful of exercises.

The first thing to do is to select a handful of exercises that you want to master. I recommend selecting 5-9 basic exercises that become your bread and butter movements. Such examples could be squats, pushups, chin ups, dead lifts, any sort of kick, running a mile, rowing 1,000 meters and so on.

Now that you have your exercises, your goal is to become more proficient at them. In our cosmopolitan fitness culture we tend to have goals around how we want our body to change. While this isn't bad, I find that those who focus on becoming better at what they do, rather than how their body changes, tend to have the most success.

If you focus on running a faster mile or lifting more weight you might just discover that those physical image goals take care of themselves.

One great way to accomplish this is to attempt to do more work in a given amount of time or the same amount of work in less time.

Like I mentioned before, you can aim to constantly run a mile in a faster time, or you can run a greater distance in 15 minutes.

This also works great for strength training. I like to use a kitchen timer and I set it for 5 minutes. My goal is to see how many reps I can do of the exercise within that 5 minute period. Then on my next workout I try and break my old record.

This is a great way to help you push yourself to that next level.

Of course, using this method will also result in a plateau at some point. No matter how hard you try you are just not going to be able to run a mile any faster or do more than 100 pushups within that 5 minute period.

When this happens you simply change either the work load or the time limit. For example instead of seeing how fast you can run a mile, you now see how fast you can run 1.5 miles or maybe how fast you can run up a long hill.

When it comes to weight training you can add more weight, or even lower the weight to change your potential rep range. You can also use a different time set so instead of using a 5 minute time limit use a 2 minute time limit to make things a little more urgent.

Whatever you do, don't get caught up in the details. Simply remember that your goal is to become as proficient as possible at a handful of exercises and to not stop looking for new performance potential.

Be fit and live free,

Matt Schifferle

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Building Strength With Dumbbell Power-Lifting

There are many effective ways to build strength. Some methods of building strength are much more effective than others. In this article we will be discussing the superiority of the dumbbell power-lifting over other methods of strength building. Dumbbells offer many more benefits than barbells, body-weight exercises, and weight-lifting machines. There is less risk of injury with dumbbells than there is with barbells, because if you drop dumbbells on a bench press, there is a good chance that they will fall to the sides of your body, as opposed to a bar which would land on your neck. Dumbbells require less reps and sets than body-weight exercises, thereby allowing you to be more efficient with your workout time. And finally, dumbbells are superior to weight-lifting machines because dumbbells require the use of, and thus train, many stabilizer muscles, whereas machines tend to isolate individual muscles and avoid secondary and stabilizer muscles.

The power-lifting method of increasing strength with dumbbells is as follows: Find the greatest amount weight that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps. Only do 4 sets on any particular station. If you find that you can do more reps or more sets, then you need to increase the weight that you are lifting. Say that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps with 60 lbs weights on a bench press. When you feel that you are ready to increase the weight, increase the weight of your 2nd set by 5 lbs. On your next weight increase, increase the weight of the 3rd set by 5 lbs. On your next weight increase, increase the 1st set by 5lbs. And lastly, increase the 4th set by 5 lbs.

Workout 1: 60, 60, 60, 60

Workout 2: 60, 65, 60, 60 [increase 2nd set]

Workout 3: 60, 65, 65, 60 [increase 3rd set]

Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 60 [increase 1st set]

Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 65 [increase 4th set]

The idea behind this strategy is for the 1st set to remain at your comfortable weight, as a stretching set, until your body has adjusted to the increased load. The 1st set is increased before the 4th set, because when increasing weight, your muscles will tire more quickly, and in order to be able to perform 3 good sets with the increased weight, it would take much longer to build the endurance to still have enough strength to do the 4th set with increased weight. For this reason, the 1st set is increased before the 4th, and at this point the 4th set serves as a burnout set to finish off the workout station. The 4th set is increased last, and may require a few workouts in order to complete a good, comfortable 4th set with the increased weight.

When you have increased all 4 sets by 5 lbs, then repeat the process until you have reached your goal. I alternate between pushups and the dumbbell bench press every few months. On my most recent cycle, I used this method to build from 4 sets with 60 lbs dumbbells to 4 sets with 100 lbs dumbbells in just a few months. The keys to achieving great results with this method are: to make sure that you use enough weight, to avoid over-training, and to make sure you use proper form when lifting.

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Can You Expect The Same Result From EMS That You Can Get From Natural Weight Lifting?

Electrical muscle stimulation or EMS is an exercise aid that uses very mild electrical current to cause your muscles to contract, under the auspices of increasing tone and fitness. Historically, EMS has been used in medical situations to help relieve muscle pain. For several years now, EMS devices have been available commercially to the general public as supplements to an exercise program.

While many manufacturers claim that EMS systems will cause people who lead a sedentary lifestyle to get into shape, there actual effectiveness is a subject of debate.

In 2002 the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit fitness advocate, published a study on EMS in its magazine. According to the study, the type of EMS used by manufactures of abdominal exercise belts was ineffective, time consuming and often painful.

This led to injunctions against the makers of certain EMS products for false and misleading advertisements. The manufacturers were claiming their products would lead to a loss in body fat and an increase in muscle tone, helping people achieve ideal "six-pack" abs. During the study, subjects underwent EMS "training," according to the guidelines of the products' manufacturer for eight weeks. The subjects did not lose any body fat or gain any muscle strength from using EMS alone. The researchers who conducted the study implied that EMS had no intrinsic value and could not serve as a replacement for weight training and other conventional forms of exercise.

That said, EMS does have its proponents. Olympic sprinting coach Charlie Francis published an article in Testosterone magazine about the history and benefits of EMS.

He recommends EMS as a supplement to a weight-lifting and exercise program, citing its effectiveness in conjunction with conventional exercise.

Francis said he encourages athletes to use EMS as a low-intensity exercise to help them increase circulation and recover form their more intense, regular exercise routines. He also recommended EMS as a way for bodybuilders to increase muscle density or burn off a tiny layer of fat before an exhibition.

However, Charlie Francis explicitly says EMS alone will not lead to the same results as a conventional exercise and weight lifting program. He says that EMS has use as a training device and for muscle rehabilitation, but that the idea that one can use EMS in place of good, old-fashioned weight lifting, running, calisthenics and other forms of resistance training and gain a rock hard, weight-lifter's body does not make sense.

So, we can now see that the value of EMS is a subject of discussion and research. Many people believe EMS machines are dangerous and not very useful, a scam promising to make sedentary couch potatoes think they can get fit without moving. Others see electronic muscle stimulation as a medical technology appropriate for rehabilitation or a fitness technology useful for professional athletes, bodybuilders and hardcore fitness buffs.

Whatever the uses of EMS may be, it seems that the experts can agree on one thing. Using EMS alone is not a replacement for weight-lifting. If you're considering spending hundreds of dollars on an EMS machine, your money might be better spent on a gym membership or a nice set of weights.

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