Strattera and Vyvanse are ADHD medications. This article discusses their effects, risks, how to take them, and how to choose between the two.
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Showing posts with label August 01. Show all posts
Showing posts with label August 01. Show all posts
Thursday, August 1, 2019
What are the differences between Strattera and Vyvanse?
What to know about skin picking
Skin picking involves consistently picking, pulling, or tearing healthy skin. It is a psychological symptom in many cases. Treatment includes therapy and medication. Learn more here.
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Wednesday, August 1, 2018
The Best Push-Up Variations for a Toned Upper Body
Push-ups are a classic, zero-equipment exercise with a whole lot of perks like serious chest, shoulder, triceps, and core gains–not to mention a visibly toned upper-body. Strengthening those muscles can help decrease symptoms like back pain, poor posture, and even not-so-perky breasts. But doing the same mighty, multi-tasking exercise over and over again can get a little boring.
Luckily, push-up variations abound. “Once you’ve mastered the basic push-up, incorporating different push-up variations will help engage and strengthen different parts of your body,” says certified strength and conditioning specialist Laura Miranda, also a doctor of physical therapy and the creator of PURSUIT. Some will work your biceps or triceps more, while others will work your core and quads. “Adding variation means you’re strengthening your entire body in new ways” she says.
Below, Miranda demos five push-up variations that go way beyond the classic (and that means they’ll help sculpt your arms even faster). Whether you’re sick of standard push-ups or are just looking for new, creative ways to work your chest, triceps, shoulders, back, and core, try these moves below.
And don’t be intimidated if they look challenging at first: If you’re not quite ready for these next-level moves, Miranda offers easier variations that’ll get you rocking the real thing in no time.
RELATED: 5 CrossFit Moves That Are Actually Easier to Master Than You Think
Narrow Grip Ball Push-Up
How to do it: Grip a medicine ball in front of your body in push-up position with your hands directly under your shoulders. Keeping your body in one long line and your elbows by your sides, squeeze your core and lower your body until your chest touches the medicine ball. Then, exhale as you push back to start. That’s one rep. Aim for five to 10 reps.
To make it easier: Place the ball on an incline–like on top of a bench–so that your grip is the same, but the angle of your body is different. “Doing push-ups on an incline reduces strain on your body while keeping the integrity of the movement and prepping your body for the more advanced move,” Miranda says. You can also grab a larger medicine ball. “The bigger the ball and the wider your feet, the easier this movement will be,” she says.
Why it works: “This push-up variation is similar to the Chaturanga push-up that you do in yoga because you’re keeping your elbows and triceps as close to your body as possible,” Miranda says. This placement puts a greater emphasis on the triceps muscles. Plus, using a medicine ball, which is less stable than a flat surface, requires you to engage your core and improves overall stability and balance.
RELATED: This 50 Push-Up Challenge Will Transform Your Body in 30 Days
The Cricket
How to do it: Start in a high plank position with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, wrists stacked under shoulders. Keeping your body in one long line, bend your arms and lower yourself to the floor. Then, using as much power as you can, exhale and push back up, lifting your body up and off the ground and to the right. Aim to travel anywhere from two to six inches, and land so that your feet and hands return to the floor at the same time. That’s one rep. Try two reps per side, before switching sides. Rest as long as necessary between repeating for three sets.
This plyometric variation of the standard push-up requires not only strength, but explosive strength in the up-and-down and side-to-side planes of motion. It’s best reserved for people who can do at least five to 10 standard push-ups and who can comfortably walk 15 feet in a lateral-moving plank.
To make it easier: Practice your lateral-moving plank. To do that, start in a high plank position with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, wrists under shoulders. Then, keeping your body in one long line, practice walking four feet in one direction and four feet in the other.
Build up to a clapping push-up next. The clapping push-up requires the same explosive motion, without requiring you to move laterally. For this variation, after lowering your body to the floor, use as much power as you can in your arms to push up and lift your body high enough off the ground that you can clap or touch your hands together under your chest. This will help build explosive strength and power.
Why it works: “There’s power. And then there’s explosive power. It’s the explosive power that takes your strength to the next level,” Miranda says. “The Cricket works on your explosive strength and power because it forces you to lift up while simultaneously moving your body laterally.” That lateral movement is also a boon for your shoulder health. “When you only do the traditional push-up, you’re only training your shoulder in one plane of motion, which limits how your shoulder joint functions and strengthens. Moving laterally is another way to strengthen the health of that joint,” she says.
RELATED: 12 Reasons You Have Shoulder Pain–and What to Do About It
Inverted “Box” Jump Push-Up
How to do it: Start in a high plank position with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, wrists under shoulders, with your feet about five inches apart on a bench or other elevated surface. Shift your bodyweight into your upper body and core and lower your body as close to the ground as you can. Push back up to start. Then, squeeze your core and jump both feet down from the bench so that your knees and hips land in 90-degree angles. Keeping your back neutral, exhale and explosively drive your feet back up onto the bench to starting position. That’s one rep.
Aim for three sets of five to eight reps. “But if you can only do one or two reps, do [what] you can do, then put your feet on the ground instead of the bench and do a few more reps. This will help build the prerequisite strength,” Miranda says.
To make it easier: Do just a decline push-up or just an inverted box jump. The decline push-up is the same movement except without the jump. This will get your body used to the angle and the increased intensity. The inverted box jump will help strengthen your core and get your body used to the increased time under tension. Keep in mind the higher the elevation of your feet, the harder this variation will be.
Why it works: “This is a full-body movement with a high amount of time under tension,” Miranda says. Time under tension is a measurement of how long a muscle is taxed during a movement, and it helps increase muscular endurance and strength. “All push-ups activate your core, but this particular movement kicks it into high gear because it requires that your upper body, lower body, and core all work together,” she says.
RELATED: Tone Your Arms With Anna Kaiser’s Bath Towel Workout
Running Push-Up
How to do it: This movement combines a standard push-up with a mountain climber. Start in a high plank position with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, wrists stacked under shoulders. Your feet should be four to six inches apart. Keeping your body in one long line, bend your arms and lower yourself to the floor. Then, push back up to starting position. Next, while maintaining a neutral back, drive your left knee to your right elbow, then drive your right knee to your left elbow. That’s one rep.
This is an endurance-based movement, so Miranda recommends repeating for 30 seconds at a time. “This is a movement that is limited by the number of push-ups you can do. Thirty seconds is a lot of push-ups, even for the most advanced athlete, so when you can’t do a standard push-up anymore, go to an elevated surface like a bench, box, or even a wall and finish the remainder of the 30-second interval,” she says.
To make it easier: Do just a standard push-up or just a mountain climber. When you can do mountain climbers for 30 seconds and three to five reps of a standard push-up, you have the prerequisite strength for this variation.
Why it works: A standard push-up works your shoulders, chest, triceps, biceps, back, core, quads, and glutes; adding the knee drive increases the cardiovascular strain of this movement and incorporates your hip flexors and obliques.
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Animal Kick-Through Push-Up
How to do it: Begin in a high plank position with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, wrists stacked under shoulders. Keeping your body in one long line, bend your arms and lower yourself to the floor. As you push back up to starting position, lift and bend your left knee and slide that leg under your body, kicking it to the right. As you do this, lift your right arm and rotate your body to the right. Hold for two seconds by squeezing your core.
Rotate back to starting position and return your left foot and right arm to the ground. That’s one rep. Repeat on the opposite side. Aim for three sets of four reps per side.
To make it easier: Hold a straight arm side plank for 30 to 60 seconds to help strengthen your shoulders and obliques.
Why it works: “This movement adds a rotation, which means in addition to working shoulders, chest, triceps, biceps, back, core, quads, and glutes like the standard push-up, you’re activating and strengthening your obliques, hip flexors, and shoulder girdles,” Miranda says.
6 Rowing Machine Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
Not sure how to work out on a rowing machine without looking like a total fish out of water? It’s easy to make mistakes when using a rower, officially known as an “ergometer,” the first couple of times. But you’d be crazy to avoid the machine altogether out of sheer embarrassment. Rowing can burn up to 800 calories an hour and is extremely effective in working your whole body from head to toe. Quads, hamstrings, back, abdominals, arms, shoulders and calves are all used in the rowing stroke. Depending on how you train, you can increase your aerobic fitness or focus on building muscle strength and explosive power. 
Rowing’s efficiency and effectiveness, plus its reputation for being a low-impact workout for all ages and body types, has made it increasingly popular in gyms and fitness studios across the U.S. CrossFitters are getting on board with rowing, too; numerous boxes incorporate the rower into WODs (Workout of the Day) and there are several CrossFit Games rowing events.
Row Like A Pro: Technique 101
“Learning to row has often been made way too complicated and intimidating,” says Josh Crosby, rowing world champion and co-creator of the IndoRow machine and ShockWave, an Equinox class that combines rowing with circuit training. To simplify the exercise and help you learn the stroke, Crosby and Patrick Larcom, head coach at Renegade Rowing and coach at CrossFit Boston, share the lowdown on the best ways to correct common newbie mistakes. Use these expert tips to confidently strap in and get your heart racing!
Mistake #1: Forgetting to check the damper setting.
Lots of newbies will sit down and not adjust the damper setting, the lever on the side of the air-resistant flywheel on a Concept II rower. If the lever is set to a higher setting, the rowing machine will feel more like a heavy rowboat and might exhaust your muscles before you’ve gotten a solid cardio workout in.
The fix: Practice your form before you set your sights high. “The damper setting is like gears on a bicycle,” says Larcom, noting that the higher the gear, the heavier the feel on the body. He recommends starting somewhere between a three and a five if you’re new to rowing because it’s most similar to the feel of being on water.
Mistake #2: Rowing with only your arms.
You’ve seen rowers with built upper bodies, so you’re ready to pull the handle with all your might, right? Wrong! Putting too much pressure on your arms, shoulders and back can cause serious injury to your body.
The fix: “Roughly 60 percent of your power should come from pushing with the legs, 20 percent from bracing the core and 20 percent from pulling with the arms,” says Crosby. It’s important to use the power of your legs for each stroke by pushing against the panel (foot stretcher) where your feet are strapped in.
Mistake #3: Mixing up the order of operations.
Firing the arms and legs at the same time might feel like the right thing to do when you sit down, but if you’re all systems go, you’ll put unnecessary strain on your upper body.
The fix: There’s a three-step process to the rowing stroke: Focus on pushing with the legs first, next pivoting backward at the hips so your shoulders pass your pelvis (you should be in a slight lay back) and then pulling the arms into your chest. A good target for your hands, according to Larcom, is the place on your chest “where you would bench press or the bottom of the sports bra,” below your ribs. Once your hands are pulled into your chest, reverse the order to go back to starting position, and repeat.
Mistake #4: Hunching your back during the stroke.
If you’ve got a bad habit of rounding your back when concentrating at a desk, odds are good that your body will naturally assume that same position when you sit down at a rower.
The fix: “You want to sit tall with a stacked posture,” says Larcom. He recommends focusing on “turning on” your abdominal muscles, or engaging your core, and relaxing your shoulders so they are pulled back and down. Your spine should always be in neutral.
Mistake #5: Banging your butt into your heels or rushing.
You’re in the zone, taking strokes as fast as possible towards your imaginary finish line. Problem is, your seat keeps slamming into the front of the rower and your body is jerking forward uncontrollably.
The fix: To regain control, pay attention to timing of your strokes. According to Crosby, the stroke’s ratio should be a 1:2 count, meaning that the body should expend lots of energy quickly at the drive, when the legs are pushing and arms are pulling, while the second half of the stroke should be more relaxed and controlled. Having a calm and collected recovery will prevent your seat from smashing frantically into the front of the rower.
Mistake #6: Shooting your butt out and having to jerk your upper body back.
If your legs are pushing quickly and causing your rear to shoot out ahead of the rest of you, your upper body will have to awkwardly catch up. Doing extra work to jerk your top half around will make your stroke less efficient, and can cause injury.
The fix: “Make sure your abs are turned on, so the hands and feet stay connected,” says Larcom, stressing that engaging the core is key to smoothly connecting the movements of the upper and lower body. For efficient rowing, you want to be able to stop at any point during the stroke and be in a “strong position,” meaning your entire body has a deliberate and controlled posture with muscles activated.
This article originally appeared on Life by DailyBurn.
14 People Share Their Most Embarrassing Gym Stories
Ever had a less-than-poised moment on a weight machine, or in a boot camp class? Hey, you’re certainly not the only one. In a recent Reddit thread titled “Stupidest thing you’ve ever done in the gym?” in the XXFitness subreddit, users revealed their most cringeworthy (and often painful) workout moments—from tripping on the treadmill to gym flirting gone wrong. Here are some of the comments that had us giggling. (We recommend you stop reading now if you’re currently on a cardio machine!)
Uneven bar
User Sambeano made the mistake of unloading a heavy barbell on one side, but not the other: “It was resting on the safety bars at the time, at about knee height, with about 30 kgs loaded on the other side. The bar flipped in the air and crashed into a glass door frame … The crash was so loud everyone turned around to look.” Whoops.
Bike dominos
“I thought this bench near some cardio equipment was fixed to the ground for some reason and grabbed onto it to stretch my shoulders out. I flew backwards into a row of eight stationary bikes, knocking them all over like dominoes,” wrote Mpaellen.
Bottom out
Themortalvalkyrie got off a rowing machine with a bruised bum: “My butt fell off the rower. I was [trying to] do sprints and got a little too excited, and at one point I think my butt must have come up a little and the seat flew back and i came down on the bar. But it was funny.” (Another Redditer jumped in, “I wish that thing had a seatbelt!”)
RELATED: 27 Fat-Burning Ab Exercises (No Crunches!)
Nothing to sneeze at
From jazzehcakes: “Once I was running on the treadmill and closed my eyes to sneeze, which caused me to trip, land face first, and fly off the treadmill.”
When exercise balls attack
“I threw an exercise ball on the mini trampoline and it flung back hit my fingers, which then hit my face,” shared another Redditer. “I managed to grab the ball before it caused further chaos. Everyone around me either didn’t notice or pretended not to. I probably looked like an idiot laughing to myself.”
Is this thing on?
Reddutchess15 was new to the exercise scene when she tried out her university’s fancy gym. Feeling a bit intimidated, she decided to “start off easy on the elliptical,” she wrote. “Well, I get to the elliptical, try to push the start button, and nothing. I keep pushing the start button and nothing happens. So, I thought it was broken. Worse, I worried that I would be blamed. So I just left without doing any workout at all. It wasn’t until my friend starting making fun of this other girl for the same reason days later that I realized i was supposed to get on it first.” (Trust us, we’ve been there!)
RELATED: 18 Moves to Tone Your Butt, Thighs, and Legs
Itsy bitsy spider
“Tried to kill a spider while running on the treadmill,” user little—dolly posted. “I lost my balance, fell down, got my shirt caught up and ended up with two scraped knees and treadmill road rash down one side of my face. Oh, and I didn’t get the spider.”
Pee problem
“I peed myself while squatting in a busy gym,” wrote Souponastick. “That wasn’t the worst part. For whatever reason my brain decided I needed to announce it, so as I was coming up from the bottom of the squat I screamed, ‘I’M F****** PISSING MYSELF!’ Everyone looked and watched me clean up my puddle.”
RELATED: 22 Exercises for Toned Arms and Shoulders
Right in the eye
“Saw a cute guy in the gym,” posted Tokyo1964. “I went to take a swig of water just as our eyes met, but accidentally squeezed the bottle slightly and sprayed it into my eye instead.”
Ripped pants
From Blaserea: “Ripped the crotch out of my shorts squatting, even heard it through the headphones.”
Fast and furious
Ever cranked up your speed on a cardio machine to clock a specific number of miles before your time runs out? Phoenixinda attempted this strategy, without success: “Last year I decided to go extra fast on the cross trainer for the last two minutes so that I could get a full 3-mile distance at the end of the 30 minutes. Foot slipped, fell between the pedals, and my foot fractured in three places. I was out for three months … I have been back at the gym, but I just can’t bring myself to even touch the cross trainer.”
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Mistaken identity
Vkm5028 learned the hard way to make sure you actually know the person you’re waving at before you say hi. “Thought I saw a friend of a friend out of the corner of my eye. I was in a goofy mood, and decided to make a goofy face and wave at him. Turns out, it wasn’t the guy who I thought it was, he was on the phone whenever I made the face at him, and I found out he’s a player for the local minor league baseball team and probably thought I was fan-girling at the sight of him.”
Sweat stain
“Worn pale blue leggings,” one user commented. “It looked like I’d [peed] myself half way through my gym session.”
Stuck on you
Wearing athleisure fresh out of the laundry? Make sure there’s no other laundry stuck to it before you leave the house. “I once had a thong static-cling itself to my leggings,” MyShoulderHatesMe posted. “I was at least 20 minutes into my workout before I noticed.”
I Trained Like a UFC Fighter and It Was the Most Insane Workout of My Life
My typical week of workouts typically means a couple of spin classes along with a weight-training day and the occasional yoga session. Being bored while sweating is my biggest exercise turn-off, which is why I love to mix things up in terms of style and intensity.
So when I had the chance to try a Daily Ultimate Training (DUT) class at a UFC Gym in New York City, I thought,why not?
If you’re unfamiliar with DUT, I can tell you that this workout lives up to its name, that’s for sure. The boot camp–style class involves an active warmup followed by a circuit of exercises that test your stamina, agility, and core strength.
“These types of workouts replicate the pace of a fight and provide the conditioning to build the best structural foundation for [a fighter’s] body to prevent pain and push them to their pinnacle both in and outside the octagon,” explained Javier Lee, training manager at UFC Gym SoHo, in an email to Health.
RELATED: Intense Cardio and Strength Circuit Workout
No two DUT classes are the same, but a typical session might include exercises like box jumps, burpees, push-ups, squats, and footwork drills in a Tabata–style structure. (Tabata workouts alternate a period of work with a period of rest.)
I arrived at the UFC gym on a sweltering Thursday evening with my friend Nora in tow. I expected to receive hand wraps and boxing gloves for our class—after all, this was a gym geared toward training fighters. But we were instead ushered to a patch of fake grass with about 10 other DUT-ers.
There, we began the class with a light jog, lots of lunges, and squats of all varieties. Don’t stop! our instructor yelled as he pushed down on my shoulders, signaling to sink deeper into my lunge. My legs were on fire. I felt tears in my eyes. And that was only the first 10 minutes of class.
After this warmup, our instructor set up nine stations, each featuring a different exercise. We split up into pairs and Nora and I snagged what appeared to be the easiest station. Unfortunately, nothing in this workout was easy. For the remainder of class, we spent two minutes at each station, taking 15-second breaks between each until we completed all nine exercises. The circuit included:
Wall sits
Rather than remain stationary, we were tasked with shimmying down the wall until fully seated. Then, we extend our legs for a moment, bent our knees again, and had to stand up without our hands, using only our back and ab muscles.
Tricep dips
This classic bodyweight exercise involved planting your hands on a windowsill, bending your elbows and extending them for an upper-arm burn.
Box jumps
“I don’t think I can jump that high,” Nora whispered to me as we approached the 3-foot cushioned box. With a bit of arm swinging for momentum, we got through it.
RELATED: I Tried Dieting Like My Mom…And It Worked
Inverted push-ups
With our feet propped against a windowsill while positioned downward, we used our shoulder muscles to complete the exercise.
Assisted rope climb
After planting our feet on the ground, we grabbed a thick hanging rope and climbed up and down to work our chest, arms, and core.
Kettlebell crawl and pull
Think bear crawls while pulling a 20-pound kettlebell beneath you, alternating pulling with just the left arm, then the right.
Bulgarian bag swings
We lifted the weighted bags overhead, then twisted to the side and slammed them down onto a tire in front of us.
Plank with elliptical
Why do a stationary plank when you can throw in a little ab-blasting movement? We tightened our cores in a normal plank position, then placed our hands, palms down, on elliptical pedals and pedaled it out.
Rows
We finished up the circuit on the rowing machine doing reps of this classic back, arm, and shoulder move.
The hour-long class didn’t end there. Following the nine-exercise circuit, we hit the faux grass again for ab exercises such as crunches, bicycles, and scissor kicks before finishing up with some much-needed stretching.
RELATED: This $20 Accessory Helped Me Become a Better Runner
Following a tough sweat session, it usually takes me at least a few hours or until the next morning to feel the muscle aches that tell me my body was challenged. But by the time I finished the warmup at UFC Gym, I already knew that my legs would burn for the hours and days that followed (my abs, shoulders, and upper arms were sore too). I waddled home from class, my legs feeling like Jell-O.
After DUT, I gained a whole new appreciation for the time and effort fighters like Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor, and Floyd Mayweather put into their fitness regimens. Being a top-notch UFC fighter isn’t just about throwing the perfect jab or uppercut. It also involves next-level stamina, not to mention mental strength. When my legs finally stop aching, I plan to head back for another push-me-to-my-limits workout.
Anna Victoria’s 6 Moves for a Better Butt
If you’re looking for a booty-blasting routine, look no further than fitness pro Anna Victoria’s two circuit, six-move regimen. All you need is a mat and a resistance band to perform these challenging exercises. Watch the video and read below for descriptions on how to complete each round of your new favorite workout.
Donkey Kicks
Get down on your hands and knees and make sure your hands are placed directly underneath your shoulders. Have your foot flexed and raise your bent leg up, and focus on squeezing your glutes. Do 10 reps on each side.
“One tip to keep in mind is you don’t want your back to be arched,” she said in the video. “You actually want your back to be flat, because that’s gonna help you focus only on engaging that glute.”
Fire Hydrant With Resistance Bands
Grab your resistance band and get in the same position as you were in for the donkey kicks. But instead of kicking up, you’ll be moving your leg out to the side. You can do this move without the resistance band, but it adds more of a challenge if you incorporate it. Be sure that your body is completely stable and you’re only moving your leg. Do 10 reps on each side.
Squat Jumps
When you squat down, make sure your body is stabilized. Squat back like you’re sitting in a chair, keep your chest up and keep your arms out in front. Jump up and land back in that stable squat. At the peak of the move, point your toes so you can squeeze your quads and your glutes properly. Do this move 15 times.
Now, it’s time to take a quick break. Take 30 seconds to grab a drink, take a breath, and get ready to go through this circuit two more times.
RELATED VIDEO: These 3 Moves Will Make You Feel Like Your Abs Are on Fire, in a Good Way
Resistance Band Lateral Walks
With the resistance band around your thighs, start at one side of the mat and squat down. Keeping your chest up, step side to side. Push your knees out to keep them from bending inward. This isn’t performed in a full squat position–aim for a ¾ squat.
Glute Bridges
Make sure your back is flat to the ground as you raise up your glutes. Do 15 reps of these, and pause at the top during each rep. Try not to lift too high; you don’t want to engage your hips during glute bridges.
Side Squat With a Kickback
Take off the resistance band and start in a sumo position. Squat down to the side and keep your bent knee in line with your toes. Bring your leg back to center and kick it back. Perform 8 reps of those and then switch to the other side.
Complete this circuit three times. Your booty-blasting workout is done!
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