Nancy Bebek News

Have you taken up swimming as an exercise to help you to lose weight? If you are, you are not alone because most people think that swimming is effective way to tone muscles and lose weight. This is why the public swimming pools everywhere are always packed in the evenings and on weekends.

Before I disappoint you, I must first declare that I am not against swimming. On the contrary, I swim regularly for the sake of my cardiovascular health.

However, some research seem to suggest that swimming is not an effective way to lose weight and in fact, one can even gain weight with swimming. Getting more bewildering eh?

Swimming is considered by many as one of the best exercises to lose weight and to tone muscles because when you swim, most of your muscles are called into action and you are actually having a full body workout. Furthermore, swimming also has an aerobic effect and so the heart and lungs are getting their dose of exercise as well.

However, a research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine demostrated that in the absence of a controlled diet, swimming has little or no effect on weight loss.

Professor Grant Gwinup conducted an experiment correlating swimming with weight loss and came up with surprising results.

a) Test subjects put in a cycling program lost 19 pounds in a 90 days study.

b) Those following a walking program lost 17 pounds in the same period.

c) Now, brace yourself for this! Subjects in the swimming program actually gained extra 5 pounds!

Did the findings shock you? I couldn’t believe what I was reading when I first came across the report.

Professor Gwinup then assumes that swimming in cold water stimulates the appetite to increase caloric consumption. Do you feel hungry after a swimming session? If you do, then professor could be right.

Professor Louise Burke, Head of Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport pointed out that competitive swimmers typically have body fat levels that are higher than those of runners or cyclists who expend a similar amount of energy when they train.

Why is that so? This is because swimmers feel hungry after swimming and may simply replace all the calories they have burned with a large meal and a sugar laden drink after their swim.

On top of that, they may even consume more calories than they have used up.

“Some research suggests that this is due to the cool temperatures in which swimmers often train in and by contrast, runners and cyclists usually experience an increase in body temperature during their training sessions, which may help to suppress appetite.” Professor Burke said.

Professor Burke also noted that competitive swimmers are less active when not in training sessions. The swimmers are so tired from the hours of intensive training that they sleep, relax or avoid any active physical activities outside their training sessions. Deja vu? Do you feel tired and sleepy after a swim?

Now, let’s talk about toning muscles. Do note that most of the work your body does when swimming involves positive muscle actions and no negative action and we know all know that the negative phase, that is, when lowering the weights during weight training is very important in building muscles.

So can your muscles develop properly when only the positive muscles are worked on? By the way, before you say that competitive swimmers have nice muscle tone, that is because they lift weights to maintain muscle balance as well as to gain strength for more powerful strokes.

Please, do not give up swimming if you enjoy the sport. Doing any exercise is better than not exercising at all. Just make sure that you don’t eat more or become more less active after your invigorating swim.

Perhaps the most heard about hormone in the bodybuilding and fitness industry is testosterone or testos for short. Why is the level of testosterone to someone wants to gain muscle mass and even to enhance a man’s sexuality?

Well, testosterone is male hormone that is very much revered as the ultimate boost to muscle building and even to have a hrader erection. At the anti-aging front, this hormone is even being billed as the fountain of youth, seemingly able to slow down or even at times, claimed to be able to reverse the aging process! At the same time, it is also being accused of the male species’ shortcomings such as, aggression, violence and sexual promiscuity ( because it improves the libido and making the male sexual muscle stiffer and lasting longer).

What exactly is this powerful hormone testosterone that is so highly praised by some and demonized by others?

Well, testosterone is the principle male hormone and belongs to a group of steroid chemicals called androgens. This hormone is mainly produced in the testicals but can also be produced by enzymatically converting other androgens secreted from the adrenal gland.

This powerful hormone plays very important functions in everything from growth and maintenance of the male sexual organs during puberty to even male pattern baldness. It also plays an important role in bone growth, sexual behavior, male fertility, protein synthesis of the muscles, giving male sexual characteristics such as facial hair and body hair and a deeper voice.

It is a fact that intensive weight training can and do raise the level of testos in the body significantly and this is good news indeed if you are trying to add on muscle mass because the more testosterone you have, the easier for you to gain bigger muscles. This is the main reason why older people and women find it more difficult to build muscles because of lower level of testos.

Testosterone works by binding the receptors inside your muscle cells. These receptors then transport the testos hormones molecule to the nucleus which is where your DNA is situated. Your DNA contains the blue-prints for every protein found in your body. This androgen receptor, once bound to testosterone will act as a messenger that tells your DNA which proteins to make from the blue – prints.

This process accentuates the production of contractile proteins which are used to make your muscle contract more forcefully, as well as structural proteins that are used to make the cell larger to accommodate the new contractile proteins. Simply put, testosterone is the boss who gives orders to your muscles to grow!

As we age, our body’s own production of testos decline accordingly and in the aging population, this hormone is a fountain of youth and vitality. This is because there is a reduction in the circulating levels of testosterone as we grow older and this reduction has been associated with a decrease in muscle mass, strength and contributing to male erectile dysfunction. This condition is medically known as andropause.

Andropause patients can undergo testosterone replacement therapy to correct the problem and many older patients express a sense of psychological well-being and vitality that they have not experienced since they were much younger.

However, this somewhat magical hormone is not free from negative effects. One undesirable effect of testosterone the cause of alopecia which is male pattern baldness. But the good news is that DHT, an androgen in your testos which causes male pattern baldness can be treated effectively with a medication called Propecia.

DHT may also be a serious risk for some types of cancers such as the prostate cancer and that is why, treatment of prostate cancer which usually involves a complete elimination of circulating testosterone.

Although this helps to reduce the growth rate of tumors, removing a man’s testosterone leaves him feeling emotionally unstable. There is also a complete loss of sex drive and sexual function. Because of non existing testos, the patient also loses muscle mass and even begins to take on feminine characteristics.

In conclusion, the testosterone hormone is a very important hormone for feeling and actually being younger. This hormone plays a very important role in a men’s health and well-being and at the same time is a fantastic muscle building hormone as it increases the strength of both muscles and bones.

A healthy lifestyle including good eating habits and regular exercise will ensure that you are getting all the benefits testosterone can offer. If you are over 25, you may wish to increase your production of hormone naturally by supplementing with Testosterone Boosting Supplements!