Pull Ups

Me doing chin ups

Today I am going to discuss an exercise that should form some part of any home workout, pull ups. To do a pull up we need something to pull up on, a pull up bar is an affordable and easy item to use, that can be inserted into a doorway.

To beginners, a pull up can be a truly challenging exercise, and it may be useful to use, for example, a chair to help practice good form. When we start getting good at pull ups though, they are one of the most beneficial exercises out there. Pull ups work the biceps and the muscles of the back; trapezius, rhomboids, the posterior deltoids, the latissimus dorsi and the teres major. The biceps get more work when the exercise is completed with the palms facing towards our self (this is the one often referred to as a chin up), and the back muscles gain more from the exercise being done with an overhand grip.

To complete a pull up, the body is suspended by the arms as we grip our pull up bar, and we pull ourselves up with muscular effort. The elbows will bend and we aim to bring our head above the bar and lower again. This is one repetition.

A good tip for when the pull up is mastered is to add a weighted belt (or any other weight) to make it even more challenging and to help develop our muscles further.

This exercise is highly recommended, and when we combine it with press ups, we get a decent upper body workout.

Inspirational Fitness Quotes

Today I though I would share some quotes about health, fitness and exercise that I enjoy and that may help to inspire you in some way!

“Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint.”  - Mark Twain

“In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.” - Benjamin Franklin

“There’s lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven’t the time to enjoy it. ” - Josh Billings

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." - Joey Adams

"You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be." - David Viscott

 "The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results." – Anthony Robbins

"Today I do what others won't, so tomorrow I do what others can't"  -  Jerry Rice

"No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch" - Unknown

Hope these inspire you, let me know what you think!

Calorie Listings

On Twitter I saw a post that claimed calorie listings can be up 20% wrong. I found this fascinating. I decided to look further into this and found many different reports (just do a search on Google) that make claims that back this up. It appears that in restaurants the calorie amount listed may be accurate over an average.

“On average, the calorie counts were accurate. However, the lab analysis showed that 19% of the foods tested had 100 or more calories in excess of what was on the website.” (CNN)

Another report, however, is even more damning. This report suggests that on average, the food measured ten calories higher than what the restaurant had claimed.

With much focus on healthy eating and ‘calorie counting’ this makes things slightly harder!