Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Best Way to Do Cardio

High Intensity Interval Training (or HIIT) is one of the best ways to go about doing cardio. It is a short interval training program that has been proven to burn fat better than the average treadmill run. Don't spend hours on a treadmill at a steady pace. If you do that, your body gets used to its state and the cardio is less effective.

Instead, you need to pace yourself. For example, on a treadmill that goes from 0.0 to 10.0, you should go at 3.0 for about 90 seconds. Then immediately switch to 7.0 for 30 seconds. Then back to 3.0 for 90 seconds. Then 7.5 for 30, 3.0 for 90, etc. HIIT doesn't take that long at all. If done right, you could have a really effective fat burning exercise in just about 15 minutes.

Here would be an example session:


Warm-up 3.0 (90 seconds)


Sprint 7.0 (30 seconds)


Walk 3.0 (90 seconds)


Sprint 7.5 (30 seconds)


Walk 3.0 (90 seconds)


Sprint 8.0 (30 seconds)


Walk 3.0 (90 seconds)


Sprint 8.5 (90 seconds)


Cool down 2.0 (120 seconds)

In total, that is around 11 minutes of cardio, and you get one hell of a workout. You will burn just as much calories as you would at maybe a 5.5 on a treadmill for 20 minutes straight.

In fact, in a study done by exrx.net, the group of runners that did HIIT vs. regular running burned 3 times as much body fat while using only half the calories. These are some amazing numbers. Who wouldn't want to do HIIT?

HIIT is the #1 way to burn fat today. Do things right, don't run for 45 minutes on a treadmill, and start looking better today.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Bad Nose Day!

How can i possibly describe today? With what word can i attribute today with?
Pain? Long? Exhausting? Bad Luck? Any more suggestions??

Well today has been all of those four it been a pain, its been long, its been exhausting, last but NOT least its been pure bad luck.

Well, it started out alright i guess. I looked forward to a day of excersicing for some reason. You know how sometimesyou just wanna play and run around the whole day? I expect all of you have had your days. Okay today we also had gym. So it started out okay. With some semi-stretches and semi-conversations then a few soccer warm ups, passing, shooting, and all that. Well tommorow we're going to have a game against another school, soo we needed to get a good practice today.

We start off with basketball after all the warm up. The first game goes smooth and easy. Even though my team loses. After ten minutes he makes the teams 5 against 6. We're six but we dont have good players. They're five and they have all the best players. Anyways the whistle blows and the game begins. IT takes almost two minutes for a team to make a shot. Seems pretty challenging huh? Well after that shot. Our rival team keeps on making shots. I believe the score was about 6-1, their lead. I go up to defend one of my opponents and he tries to get pass by me. To the left than woooo to the right. OOOOOUUUUCHHHHH!!! His big head hits me right on the right side of my nose and i hear a BIG crack. All of a sudden i cant see anything. Im blacked out. All i see is black with some white sticks and some noises i cant recognize. I feel the liquid rush of the blood dripping down my nose and run to the bathroom where i turn on the foccit and just scoop cold water into my nose. Im still blacked out. Ive never felt dizzier in my life. I seriously cant explain the feeling. It was like i was uncontious.
All my nerves, my whole body was in moment anguish mixed with pain mixed with dizziness. After i regain my ability to see, eventhough bluryly, i look up to the mirror and see blood all over m mouth and the foccit. I keep on washing and it doesnt stop. I leave the blood, and realize the incredible pain. I notice my nose very crooked. I was almost pretty sure i had broken it. But in my mind i kept hoping that it hadnt broken. I asked myself, did i have to gaurd him in the game at that moment? I thought, well if it wasn't me, it would've been someone else...huh? well.....maybe not Amyways the BLOOD would not stop. i did everyhting. I wanted to get napkins from the bathroom behind me so badly but, the Blood was dripping so fast it would make the floor dirty. so i jsut stood there, waiting for someone to come in. finally one of my best classmates came in and got me some napkins. He told he doesnt think its broken, and that if it was it would still be hurting. I told him the pain was unbearable, he just looked at me and said "o". Five minutes later mohammad came in, i think i have addressed him in a few of my prior blogs. Anyway he asked how i was. And i also said to him that i though my nose was broken. He said "No! if it was, you wouldn't be breathing!" Well i dont know where he heard that from! anyway so mohammad tells me to ask the gym teacher and he tells me its swollen. Well i have been swollen alot of time and when you feel a swell it doesnt feel as hard as a bone. All of a sudden an 11th grader comes in to the bathroom, and he also aske me what had happened. And so i tell him as i am walking my way to Sr. Najma. our dean/nurse. I aske her for some ice, and she also asks me what happened. G---DDD! why dont i just take the microphone and announce it to the whole school! Anyway unluckily she doesnt have ice, so she gives me this long bootlegged piece of ice that smells like curry. I put it on my nose for five minutes and out it back in the freezer. For the rest of the time i sit down in the gym and watch the soccer game, concentrating on my nose and nothing else. The pain was just un describable. The bell rings. Thank G-d it was last period. I go to my locker and come down. On the way down i see my father and ask him if my nose is crooked. He says "yes" and adds: "We'll have to go take some xrays right away. But first i had to go to the library to pay off some money. On the way, the constant bleeding became much more, it started to drip on my shirt, and I, like some retarded guy had to walk with my head facing the sky not to mention the fact that i had to close my eyes because of the sun. so i was practiculy walking blindly. When i get back to school i go back to the bathrooom, this time a different foccit, for some reason and start washing my nose again. ten minuts later were in the car. My dad suggests an ER (Emergency room). but we first call my insurance company and ask for a orthodoptist they give us an address and we go there. Wow, how great my fate is!! WE get there five minutes after closing time!! then we call my personal doctor and ask him if he can take x-rays. He recommends an emergenct room in the nearest hospital so we end up in Parkway hospital in Forest Hills. There, we register and wait for about an hour as the blood from my nose slowly drips. Around the last 15 minutes of the waiting time it had almost dried out. I keep getting frustrated because people who came after me went in before me, i understand the policy that the waiting depends on the problem, but still. I mean i have pain too, u know?? So after about an hour and a few minutes a doctor calls us in and i sit on a chair. The doctor introduces himself: "Hi my name is Dr. Igor." He takes my blood pressure, runs some tests, asks some questions, and takes my tempreture. As i sit there i see all the patients and wow, they really have to go through a lot i mean "na baba haq ba oonast." After about another 30 minutes they call me up to the xray room, where i lay on my stomach and face the right, where the nurse was, and get prepared for the first xray. Then i face the left for the second xray than lay on my chin for the third and last. The nurse gives back my glasses and goes into a back room, and tell me to wait there. After about five minutes she tells me to come out. I go to where i was sitting before and wait for the doctor to check my xrays to see if my nos is broken or if its jsut swollen. He comes back with my dad walking beside him and, the doctor tells me that "my nose is broken, but its not displaced permanently". Whatever that is supposed to mean. Anyway he tells me that i can go to school tommorow, that i cant play any sport for three weeks, and that i have to put some ice on my nose for twenty minutes 5 times each day for 5 days. And after those five days i have to go to some nose specialist to see if i need any kind of surgery. Scary? well it was for me.
But hey it was a great experience, to be as a victim in an ER.
I also learned a thing or two today: First i learned that i shouldnt play like my life depends on it, and second i should play having fun.
Unfortunatlry i cant play in the game tommorow against the other school, so my school's gonna loose. Lol just joking.
Now, ill just have to wait, to see what the future has stored in place for me next.

By the way happy Europe Day for any of you who are Europeans.

-PS-Srry for the spelling mistakes or typos.