If you’re like most people you’re looking to get the most out of a workout that you possibly can. However exercising to build endurance requires a different approach than exercising to lose weight. To get the most out of your workout you need to know what your Anaerobic Threshold or AT is.

Your AT rate is an individual number that varies from person to person, and can even change as your body becomes stronger over time. To better understand AT we need to take a look at your heart rate. Your heart is expressed in beats per minute, the maximum rate at which your heart can safely operate is known as your Maximum Heart Rate or MHR and is an average value taken over a few minutes. Originally your AT number was believed to be between 80 to 90 percent of your MHR. However since you were taking a percentage of an average the value was often inaccurate, and a more precise measurement was needed.

Professional athletes who need to know their AT undergo a series of tests. They ride a stationary bike or run on a treadmill. A mask was placed over their mouth to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide at different levels of exertion. The results are processed using computer programs and yield very precise results. These tests are costly and time consuming and not necessary for most people.

A less sophisticated method that is reasonably accurate is the talk test. You will need to take your pulse or use a digital pulse meter or watch. When you are jogging or using a stationary bike and you can talk normally without speaking in short burst you are in your aerobic metabolic zone. As you increase the intensity and you still talk but not as easily this is the lower edge of your AT zone, make a note of your heart rate. Pick up the pace again as your breathing becomes more rapid and talking becomes more difficult and you start to speak in short bursts this is the upper range of your AT. For best results perform this test a few times on different days and average the results.

Once you know your AT range here are tips to help you get the most out of your exercise routine. Exercising below your AT range will burn some fat, and will help you improve things like blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Exercising in your AT zone will give you the maximum fat burning benefit. You will use the most calories if you can spend most of the time that you exercise in this range. Exercising above your AT zone will boost your strength and endurance. The amount of fat you will be burning will be lower than if you were exercising at a lower AT level. People who exercise vigorously and have minimal fat loss are exercising above their AT level.

Once you know what your AT level is getting the most out of your workout is easy. You monitor your heart rate and adjust your intensity to raise or lower your heart rate keeping you in your desired range. People who exercise regularly should check their AT level every 6 to 9 months and make adjustments as needed.

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A pain originating from the heart muscle itself is called Angina. This occurs when the blood vessels taking blood to the heart (coronary arteries), become partially blocked with fatty plaques caused by atherosclerosis (heart disease). The blood flow is only sufficient when the heart is at rest, but during activity, when the heartbeat can increase from 75 to 190 beats per minute, the heart muscle cannot get sufficient blood flow in it and causes mild to severe pain. This is why angina is brought on by exercise but will subside when the activity stops and the person rests. Angina will become worse over a period of time and less activity will provoke the pain. If the angina suddenly worsens and you experience symptoms even while at rest, the cause could be a blocked artery resulting in a heart attack. If this occurs, seek medical assistance immediately. Angina is not easy to diagnose from symptoms alone, as other conditions such as indigestion, show similar signs.

Signs and symptoms

• Pain can be mild or severe
 • The pain is most often described as heavy, crushing, tightness and choking
 • Pain originates from the center of the chest, can radiate up the neck and down the arms.  Most often it is the left arm.
 • Shortness of breath
 • Perspiration

There are no specific tests for angina, but your doctor will probably begin by asking three simple questions. What causes the discomfort? What does it feel like? What helps to ease the pain? The doctor may also suspect possibly angina if there are other cardiovascular risk factors such as - smoking cigarettes, family history of heart attacks, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, age and diabetes. The doctor will perform a physical examination on the patient paying special attention to the heart and any abnormal sounds or beats.

Routine tests include an electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure measurements, blood and urine tests and a chest X-ray. The doctor may require during the ECG the patient walks on a treadmill (exercise bike) while hooked up to a machine that records the heart’s electrical activity. The level of exercise is slowly increased until the patient feels pain and there is a change to the ECG pattern. Further tests may include a coronary angiogram. This entails a fine tube inserted into your heart via an artery in your groin. A special dye is then inserted into the arteries clearly displaying any narrowing (blocked) arteries on the X-ray images.

Angina responds well to drug treatment. The most common drugs used to treat angina are the following:

• Nitrates - These drugs come as fast-acting sprays or tablets that are placed under the tongue to ease the pain during an angina attack. Long-acting tablets taken daily reduce the need for the sprays.

• Beta-blockers - These tablets lessen the workload of the heart by allowing it to beat slower and less forcefully than usual. These tablets prevent pain and slow down the gradual worsening of angina.

• Calcium antagonists - Helps to dilate the arteries allowing more blood flow through them. They lower blood pressure; reduce the heart’s workload to help prevent pain.

A standard treatment is a low, daily dose of aspirin to prevent anymore atheroma from building up in the heart arteries.

Once an artery has become blocked or narrowed by plaques of atheroma, there are two levels of intervention needed for reinstating blood supply to the heart muscle. The intervention chosen will depend on how badly the artery is blocked or narrowed. 1) Angioplasty - This procedure is performed only when the arteries are not completely blocked. A fine tube (catheter) is inserted into the heart. On the tip of the tube is a tiny balloon, which is then inflated and deflated a few times to squash the plaque and widen the artery. This procedure is performed under local anesthetic and is carried out on an outpatient basis. 2) Bypass surgery - This procedure is carried out only if the arteries are completely blocked or very narrow. A new route for the blood supply is made using a bypass graft. For the bypass graft, surgeons have two options - they either use an existing artery that lies within the chest or they use a piece of vein removed from the leg.

Sometimes a person may have up to four blockages to bypass. Bypass surgery is performed under local anesthetic and can take from three to five hours to complete the surgery. Today it has become one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Heart Disease

They go by many different names including anabolic steroids, steroids, anabolics, juice, gear, and roids. But no matter what you call them, these powerful muscle-building drugs are now ingrained in the consciousness of bodybuilders and athletes everywhere. It’s safe to say that these drugs are rampant at all levels of sport from low-level amateur to upper echelon professional.

What they are

As news of the drug’s protein-building and muscle-promoting properties became known, it wasn’t long before weightlifters, bodybuilders, and athletes in other strength and power sports started taking them.

Who uses them?

Medically, these anabolic drugs are used for treating such conditions as delayed puberty, some forms of impotence, combating such wasting diseases as AIDS and cancer, anemia, and osteoporosis. Despite their legitimate medical uses, the biggest market for most of these drugs is in sports; and the sport most closely associated with these drugs is bodybuilding. It’s well known that virtually all professional and top amateur competitive bodybuilders use steroids in their stacks and cycles. And for every pro or national competitor who uses them there are probably a thousand recreational bodybuilders who will never compete. But it’s not just bodybuilders who use these muscle-building agents. Many of the world’s top track and field athletes also use them. And such sports as football, rugby, and powerlifting, see rampant usage.

How are they Used?

Anabolic steroids can be taken in a number of different ways. The two most common are orally (swallowing a pill) and injection (using a hypodermic needle to inject into the muscle). Orals are easiest to use but because of their chemical modifications, produce more side effects. Injectables require the use of a needle and all the risks that accompany breaking the body’s outer protective barrier. But this version is easier on the system with fewer side effects. A third method of delivery involves a patch containing creams or gels that absorb through the skin directly into the body.

What are cycles and stacks?

Most bodybuilders don’t just randomly pop pills and stick needles into their asses (at least the smarter ones); they combine the drugs into stacks and cycles. A cycle is a period of drug use followed by a period of nonuse. The most popular cycle would be 8 to 12 weeks on and 2 to 3 weeks off.

Pyramid Power!

Probably the most popular variation of this cycle is called the pyramid cycle. In this case the dosages start out low, gradually increase in potency, peaks for a few weeks, and then start to gradually decrease. There follows a drug-free period after this cycle before the user may start again. It’s thought that by arranging the dosages in this way, the body has time to adjust and avoid the side effects that sometimes occur. This type of cycle also gives bodybuilders and other athletes a better chance of passing drug tests.

Although the risks are greater, bodybuilders rarely take just one steroid in a cycle. Instead they take two or more drugs at the same time in what’s called a stack. Bodybuilders stack steroids because they find that drugs sometimes magnify each other’s effects by a process known as synergism.

The long arm of the law

Prior to 1991, bodybuilders could use steroids with relative immunity. That is, they didn’t have to worry about law enforcement agents knocking down their doors or raiding their gym bags. That all changed with the first federal Anabolic Control Act of 1991. Once this piece of legislation became law, steroids became part of the drug war and were placed in the same category as such street drugs as heroin and cocaine. Although prosecution mainly takes place at the state level, bodybuilders would be wise to seek alternatives to these drugs.

The legal alternatives!

Given the social stigma of using steroids and the potential for doing jail time, bodybuilders should check out the latest legal steroid analogs. These powerful compounds are outstanding for building muscle size and strength. They’ll also shred your muscles by eliminating body fat. These natural agents are made with pharmaceutical grade ingredients and are perfectly legal.

© Bob Howard 03/24/2006

Bob Howard expert on bodybuilding and steroids. Are you
looking for more of his steroids
articles? http://www.steroids.name/steroids-information.htm

So ladies, what can weight training do for you? Weight training will give you near-perfect symmetry and put curves and definition in all the right places. Muscle is firm and toned, not soft and mushy. It gives you strength, health, vitality and a beautiful body. Also, weight training will decrease your chance of injuries in everyday life and recreational activities. Weight training improves work, sleep, endurance, sex and many other areas of your life.

Ladies Training
Training for ladies shouldn’t differ that much from men’s training. We have the same number of muscles and they contact in the same fashion. The only difference between men and women are hormones. Men naturally have higher levels of testosterone, a muscle-building hormone, while women are constantly fighting the estrogen issue, a fat storing hormone. Now I’m not saying that just because you are female and have higher levels of estrogen you are doomed to gain weight. What I’m saying is that we can use what we have to our advantage. Regular weight training will build lean body mass. The more body lean body mass you acquire, the higher you raise your metabolism. An increased metabolism results in more calories burned per minute. Sounds interesting? Read on….

Muscle vs. Fat

A statement I hear a lot is that muscle weighs more than fat. The fact of the matter is that a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same, a pound. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat does. Muscle allows you to eat more food without getting fat because muscle is the only body material that is metabolically active. Once you put muscle on your body you will burn an additional twenty to thirty calories an hour. Bodybuilders actually burn fifty to seventy-five additional calories per hour.

Muscle Turns to Fat?

A misconception that I hear many women saying is that they don’t want to workout because if they stop the muscle will turn to fat. Now, let’s analyze this statement. People begin resistance training program in order to rid the body of fat, not to gain it. Muscle can’t turn into fat any more than fat can turn to muscle. Muscle (metabolically active) and fat (metabolically inactive) are two completely different tissues responsible for their own functions. Just as your heart and liver are two different organs performing completely different functions, the same goes for muscle and fat. Now I ask you, can your heart turn into your liver, or vise versa? If there were any truth to the above statement there would be a lot of people out there with great muscle potential, if you catch my drift.

An explanation to the above myth is that some bodybuilders do gain extra weight off-season in preparation for the up coming competitive season. Many veterans of bodybuilding gain weight when they get older or retire, how does that differ from the average American? There is a biological reason for the weight gain. The metabolism slows down as we age, meaning the body needs fewer calories per day to maintain itself. The downfall is that most people, including bodybuilders, don’t reduce their caloric intake to compensate for this slowdown and the end result is fat gain.

Another explanation is that bodybuilders, in hard training, develop enormous appetites and need the extra calories for muscle growth and repair. If the intake stays the same when training volume is reduced or ceased, the unburned calories get stored as fat; again, this is no different than the average American.

Stop Making Excuses

Simply put, stop making excuses. Not exercising is far more harmful to your body, image, and health than working out. Exercising and nutrition is a learned lifestyle, if you are not consistent with it you will decrease muscle and increase fat, but muscle definitely will never turn into fat.

Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988. She embarked on weight training to overcome an eating disorder, Anorexia Nervosa in its early stages. She overcame the eating disorder, received her personal training certificate, competed in many local bodybuilding contests, and qualified for Nationals. Since then she’s went on to write six e-books (weight loss, female bodybuilding, contest preparation, leg training, figure/fitness secrets, and cellulite removal). She writes articles for several fitness websites, as well as her own, www.theelitephysique.com, and also distributes a monthly e-newsletter. She has a very active and lively forum, filled with positive and supportive people with informative content. Karen’s sole goal is to educate others and help them apply that knowledge.