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January 31, 2022

The Definitive Guide on How to Build Big Arms

If you lift, then you probably want to look like you lift. And for many gym-goers, looking the part includes owning a pair of arms that put the seams of your sleeves to the test. Aesthetically, big arms are imposing and signal to others that you do indeed hoist iron. Functionally, bigger and stronger arms help you bench press, overhead press, and row more weight; they’re not just the end; they’re a means to another end (lots of strength).

Muscular man curling a loaded barbell with both hands inside of gym

Paul Aiken/Shutterstock

And while most folks think hammering out close-grip bench presses and standing curls is enough to target the smaller arm muscles, there’s a science to building up your arms. But there are four fundamentals you need to wrap your head around to comprehend how to build bigger arms fully.

Arm Training Tenants

  • Muscle Mechanics: That is, how your muscle move your joints. To fully develop your biceps and triceps, you must know how they move so you can select the right exercises for the job.
  • Training Volume: Volume — meaning how many total reps you perform — has a dose-response relationship with hypertrophy. More training volume equals more muscle (assuming you don’t exceed your ability to recover).
  • Progression: The best progression model to use if you haven’t used one before is double progression. Simply put, double progression is where you increase the weight within your exercises only when you hit the upper limit of a given rep range across all of your target sets. 
  • Training Frequency: A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that twice per week is better than once per week for maximizing growth, while frequencies of three or more may or may not be better. (1) Because the biceps and triceps are two of the smaller muscle groups you can train, they’ll recover faster. Training your arms three times per week isn’t unheard of. And if you’re at a point volume-wise where you’re pumping out 15 to 20 sets per session, it may make more sense to break those sets up into two to three separate eight-set sessions.

Muscle Mechanics

It’s essential to understand the biomechanics of the arms before understanding how to train the best. So first, we need to cover their basic anatomy quickly.

Anatomy chart of biceps muscle

stihii/Shutterstock

The Biceps

The upper arm consists of three muscles in the anterior compartment. However, we will only need to focus on two of these muscles: 

  • Biceps brachii
  • Brachialis
  • Coracobrachialis 

Biceps Brachii

The biceps are composed of two heads: a long head commonly thought of as the “outer” and a short head referred to as the “inner.” Both muscle heads originate at the scapula and insert on the radius bone of the forearm. The biceps crosses both the elbow and the shoulder and can flex both the elbow (aka curl) and the shoulder (aka front raise).

Brachialis

The stronger of the elbow flexor is the brachialis. It originates at the upper arm’s humerus bone and inserts on the ulna bone of the forearm. The brachialis isn’t involved in shoulder movement; it only flexes the elbow. 

The Triceps

Anatomy chart of the triceps muscle

By CFCF – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

There is one main muscle in the posterior compartment of the upper arm: the triceps brachii. The triceps muscle has three heads: 

  • Long head
  • Medial head
  • Lateral head 

The long head is the thicker or more dense muscle, which can be seen in poses such as a double front biceps. The lateral head or the “horseshoe” muscle is what you see most visibly in the side triceps pose, and the medial head is a deeper muscle that isn’t as noticeable on the surface as the other two.

The primary function of the triceps is elbow flexion. All three heads cross the elbow joint and insert it on the ulna bone of the forearm. The origin of the lateral and medial heads are both on the humerus bone of the upper arm, with the long head crossing the shoulder joint to originate on the scapula.

Additional Considerations

Both the biceps and triceps are involved in pulling and pushing movements, respectively. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to hear that back and chest exercises are enough to stimulate the bis and tris. And there are several studies have shown pull-ups and rows elicit high levels of biceps activation, and that horizontal presses bring the triceps into play (2)(3)(4). However, pulling and pressing exercises alone may not be enough to maximize biceps and triceps development.

When you rely on indirect movements exercises to engage the arms, the biceps and triceps only receive a portion of the tension. That said, your arms do get hit when your work the chest and back, and it’s essential to keep this in mind when training. If you train your back hard twice per week, you probably don’t need two to three dedicated biceps workouts.

Instead, it’s probably wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes and for the sake of avoiding redundancy. Because the triceps are also targeted with any heavy vertical or horizontal pressing movements, it may be wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes.

Ok, now that you have a firmer grasp on those arm training fundamentals, let’s circle back to a big issue in arms training: exercise variance. You may think that simply curling and extending is enough to stimulate the muscles, but there’s more nuance to arm training. Your arm muscles will travel through different ranges throughout the entire range of motion.

To stimulate our muscles throughout their entire contractile range we must be challenging them at these three points:

  • Mid-range: barbell curl, close-grip bench press
  • Lengthened (stretched position): incline dumbbell curl, French press
  • Shortened (contracted position): high-cable curl, cable pushdown

“Fine, then I’ll just make sure to lift with a full range of motion (ROM) for every movement,” you say. Well, hold up. Lifting only with a full range of motion is a great move (so kudos), but you still need to select movements that engage the muscle the most during each of the three ranges listed above. A worthwhile arm training session aims not to complete a movement using a full ROM but to be challenged throughout the entire ROM.

Putting it all Together

Ok, so where do you go from here? You’ve probably already peeped the charts below and noticed that there’s a lot of work to be done. Don’t freak out just yet. Look closer, and you’ll see that most of the movements below are done for just two high-rep sets. The program’s goal below isn’t to decimate your biceps; it’s to partition a moderate amount of work (10 sets for each muscle group) among all three ranges of motion. 

Training Explained

There’s nothing complicated about this routine. First, you’ll select a primary movement for your biceps and one for your triceps. These exercises preferably target the lengthened or shortened range since these are the ranges most folks ignore. You’ll perform the primary exercise for four sets of six to eight heavy-ish reps, using a tempo of 3-0-1-0 (lowering phase-pause at bottom-lifting phase-pause at top).

After that, you’ll blast your arms with a circuit of three movements, known as a triset, each of which targets the mid, lengthened, and shortened ranges. The trisets are marked with the same letters (“A” and “B”). Think of this as a template to guide your sets, reps, and exercise choices. If you want to sub out the movements below for others, that’s fine, but make sure you’re hitting each ROM. 

Exercise Sequence Sets & Reps Tempo Rest Target Range
A1) EZ-Bar French Press 4 x 6-8 3010 60 seconds Lengthened
A2) Incline DB Curl 4 x 6-8 3010 60-90 seconds Lengthened
B1) Triceps Pushdown 2 x 10-12 2011 15 seconds Shortened
B2) DB Skull Crusher 2 x 12-14 2010 15 seconds Mid-Range
B3) Cable Overhead Rope Extension 2 x 15 2110 60 seconds Lengthened 
C1) DB Spider Curl 2 x 10-12 2011 15 seconds Shortened
C2) Standing EZ-Bar Curl 2 x 12-14 2010 15 seconds Mid-Range
C3) DB Preacher Curl 2 x 15 2110 60 seconds Lengthened

Pay attention to the tempo within each exercise especially the triset sequence as you will notice a pause in the shortened position (contract hard) exercises and a pause in the lengthened position (full stretch), if you take these into consideration your arms will be pumped like you have never seen.

While you most certainly could complete this three-times per week, focus on quality over quantity at first. Whereby you focus on the quality of work given within the workout twice per week for six weeks before taking its progression to the next level by completing it three times per week.

Another aspect of progressing this plan is to change the primary exercises from a lengthened to a shortened focus and the same to be done in the triset exercises. After at least 2-3 rotations of this you can then start to reintroduce the mid-range exercises as a primary focus while the others take a back seat. Here is how it should look:

Exercise Sequence Sets & Reps Tempo Rest Target Range
A1) Triceps Push Down 4 x 6-8 3010 60 seconds Shortened
A2) Ez-Bar Spider Curl 4 x 6-8 3010 60-90 seconds Shortened
B1) Cable Overhead Triceps Extension 2 x 10-12 2110 15 seconds Lengthened
B2) DB Skull Crusher 2 x 12-14 2010 15 seconds Mid-Range
B3) Single Arm Rope Triceps Extension 2 x 15 2011 60 seconds Shortened
C1) DB Incline Curl 2 x 10-12 2110 15 seconds Lengthened
C2) Standing EZ-Bar Curl 2 x 12-14 2010 15 seconds Mid-Range
C3) High Cable Curl 2 x 15 2011 60 seconds Shortened

Nutritional Considerations

To maximize your muscle growth, you need to eat within a caloric surplus then you cannot expect to be building any significant amount of muscle mass. With that being said here some recommendations regarding your nutritional intake:

  • Eat 5-10% above your maintenance (Caloric Surplus).
  • Eat four to five times per day. This his could be three meals plus two shakes or four meals plus one shake. Make sure it is suited to your lifestyle and daily schedule but keep your protein feeding times frequent.
  • For your macros aim to eat 35% protein/35% carbs/and 30% fat. Say you’re eat 3,000 calories per day, that comes out to 262.5 grams of protein, 262.5 grams of carbs, and 100 grams of fat.
  • Excessive supplementation isn’t necessary to grow. Your standard multi-vitamin, fish oil and probiotics will provide a great base of support.

References

  1. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2016;46(11):1689-1697. doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8. 
  2. Youdas JW, Amundson CL, Cicero KS, Hahn JJ, Harezlak DT, Hollman JH. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. J strength Cond Res. 2010;24(12):3404-3414. doi:10.1519/ JSC.0b013e3181f1598c. 
  3. Snarr RL, Esco MR. Comparison of Electromyographic Activity When Performing an Inverted Row With and Without a Suspension Device. J Exerc Physiol. 2013;16(6):12-22. http://faculty.css.edu/tboone2/asep/Russell.pdf. 
  4. Barnett C, Kippers V, Turner P. Effects of variations of the bench press exercise on the EMG Activity of 5 Shoulder Muscles. 1995:222-227. 

Featured Image: Paul Aiken/Shutterstock

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Mitchell Starc’s sneaky swipe at Shane Warne after Allan Border Medal accolade Shane Warner and Mitchell Starc.

Filed under: Outdoors — Tags: — admin @ 8:34 am

Ashes hero and T20 World Cup champion Mitchell Starc still hasn’t forgotten what Shane Warne said at the start of the summer.

Australian cricketer Mitchell Starc still hasn’t forgotten what Shane Warne said at the start of the summer.

On Saturday, Starc was named the 2022 recipient of the coveted Allan Border Medal, awarded to Australia’s best men’s cricketer over the previous 12 months.

The left-arm quick was a more than deserving recipient – unlike several of his multi-format teammates, he opted to take part in white-ball winter tours to the West Indies and Bangladesh last year.

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Starc was Australia’s highest wicket-taker in July’s ODI series against the West Indies, snaring 11 scalps at 10.63. His performance in the Caribbean ultimately proved crucial in deciding the Allan Border Medal, bettering short-format powerhouse Mitchell Marsh by just one vote on the final tally.

After helping Australia claim its maiden T20 World Cup title in November, Starc returned home with no red-ball match practice under his belt ahead of a home Ashes series.

Meanwhile, West Australian seamer Jhye Richardson was tearing batting attacks apart in the Sheffield Shield, taking 23 wickets in four matches at 13.43.

Warne, who has been Starc’s fiercest critic for several years, posted a series of tweets calling for the 31-year-old to be axed from the Test side ahead of the Ashes opener in Brisbane.

“(Starc) needs to find a bit of rhythm and some form,” he said.

“He had a really poor World Cup. He’s just not bowling well enough.

“It’s too important at the Gabba. I’m all for Jhye Richardson (replacing Starc in the team).”

It didn’t take long for Starc to prove his doubters wrong.

In a moment that has since cemented its place in Ashes folklore, Starc’s first delivery of the series bowled England opener Rory Burns around his legs, hooping the Kookaburra back into the pegs.

When asked about the delivery on Saturday, Starc responded: “You‘re running in just trying to hit the stumps, I guess. It was a straight half-volley on leg stump, I think someone said.”

That someone was Warne.

While calling the moment on Fox Cricket, the King of Spin bold claimed: “I don’t think there’s any swing is there? There’s no swing!”

However, Fox Cricket’s ball-tracking technology immediately proved Warne wrong.

Starc was the only paceman to feature in all five Ashes Tests, finishing the series with 19 wickets at 25.36 to help Australia secure a comprehensive 4-0 series victory.

The New South Welshman also averaged 27.55 with the bat across all formats in the 2021 calendar year.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Starc made it abundantly clear he has no interest in what Warne thinks about his bowling: “It doesn’t interest me at all. He’s entitled to his opinion.

“I’m just going to go about my cricket the way I’d like to, and I’ve got my family support networks and I get to play cricket with some of my best mates, so I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at.”

Starc’s father battled cancer throughout the 2020/21 summer, and unfortunately succumbed to the illness weeks after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy concluded.

“The last two years, as life is at the moment, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Starc reflected on Saturday.

“You find ways to adapt and what not, but it’s a reflection of the support base I have had throughout those two years as well.

“There’s certainly been times when I haven’t played my best cricket or certainly times over those two years where I didn’t want to play any cricket.

“I’m very thankful for my support networks and in particular (my wife) Alyssa, to play cricket at the highest level (and) be there to support me as well, I can’t thank her enough for that.”

Starc was also crowned Men’s ODI Player of the Year – surprisingly, for the first time in his career. His wife, Australian wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy, won the corresponding women’s award.

2021/22 Australian Cricket Awards

Belinda Clark Award

Winner: Ashleigh Gardner (54 votes)

Runners-up: Beth Mooney (47), Alyssa Healy (39)

Allan Border Medal

Winner: Mitchell Starc (107 votes)

Runners-up: Mitchell Marsh (106), Travis Head (72)

Men’s Test Player of the Year

Winner: Travis Head (12 votes)

Runners-up: Scott Boland (10), Mitchell Starc (7)

Women’s ODI Player of the Year

Winner: Alyssa Healy (13 votes)

Runners-up: Rachael Haynes (10), Megan Schutt (10)

Men’s ODI Player of the Year

Winner: Mitchell Starc (15 votes)

Runners-up: Matthew Wade (6), Adam Zampa & Alex Carey (4)

Women’s T20 Player of the Year

Winner: Beth Mooney (13 votes)

Runners-up: Tahlia McGrath (10), Ashleigh Gardner (6)

Men’s T20 Player of the Year

Winner: Mitchell Marsh (53 votes)

Runners-up: Josh Hazlewood (29), Ashton Agar (26)

Women’s Domestic Player of the Year

Elyse Villani

Men’s Domestic Player of the Year

Travis Head

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer

Darcie Brown

Bradman Young Cricketer

Tim Ward

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Cracking joints isn’t bad for you and could even serve a useful purpose

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 5:01 am

Some people habitually crack their joints, others can’t, and many are irritated by those who do.

So what’s going on? Why do people do it, is it harmful, what makes the noises, and what would happen if our joints weren’t able to crack?

Before going on, it’s important to note we’re talking here about people cracking their own joints. This is also known as “self-manipulation”. But when a physiotherapist or chiropractor cracks (or manipulates) your spine, what makes the noises is the same, but the implications can be very different than what’s being discussed here.

Although it may irritate friends and family, self-manipulating our joints is probably neither useful nor harmful for the individual.

Woman cracking knuckles.
Although it may irritate friends and family, self-manipulating our joints is probably neither useful nor harmful for the individual. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Why do we crack our joints?

People crack their joints because they feel better, looser, or less stiff afterwards.

The relief is temporary and they typically repeat it at some point after 20 minutes, when the effects wear off.

While joint cracking may seem incomprehensible to us non-crackers, we all do similar behaviours.

“Pandiculation” is the nearly universal type of stretching we do after being inactive — even dogs, cats, elephants, spiders and unborn sheep do it.

The drive to “pandiculate” and it’s transient effects are similar to joint cracking. However, pandiculation is thought to have positive effects on the body, by restoring and resetting the structural and functional equilibrium. The same is not the case for cracking joints.

Even spiders need to stretch now and then.

It doesn’t cause arthritis

Probably everyone who self-manipulates has been told — usually by someone irritated by the behaviour — not to do it because it will cause arthritis.

It’s now clear this isn’t the case.

American doctor Donald Unger famously cracked knuckles only on one hand for over 50 years, and found no sign of increased arthritis compared to the other hand. For this he received an IgNoble Prize in Medicine in 2009, an award for unusual achievements in research.

Person cracking knuckles.
Probably everyone who self-manipulates has been told not to do it because it will cause arthritis. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In another study, knuckle cracking was not found to increase the incidence of arthritis in an elderly population who had cracked their knuckles compared to those who didn’t. Also, the incidence of arthritis was not greater in the knuckles they did crack, compared to the other joints of the hand that weren’t cracked.

There are a few reports of injury from knuckle cracking, but these are probably too minor and infrequent to be of much concern.

Put simply, there don’t appear to be significant adverse effects to cracking your joints.

What makes the noise?

When people crack their knuckles they separate the joint surfaces and the pressure within the joint decreases. At a certain point the surfaces suddenly separate and a bubble forms by a process known as cavitation.

A simulated joint cracking.

A similar effect can also occur with a simulated joint, as in the video above.

It’s not entirely clear however which part of the process causes the actual cracking noise in humans. One theory is the noise is produced by the formation of the bubble itself. Another theory suggests it’s the breaking of the fluid “adhesive seal” between the joint surfaces as occurs with pulling a suction cup off of a wall.

High speed MRI image of knuckle cracking. As the joint surfaces are separated the volume suddenly increases and a bubble (the dark area that appears in the middle of the joint) is formed.

Woman cracking knuckles.
When people crack their knuckles they separate the joint surfaces and the pressure within the joint decreases. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Why have our joints evolved to crack?

Perhaps the most interesting question is why our joints developed in such a way that they’re able to crack.

I had a conversation recently with Jerome Fryer, a Canadian researcher who was involved in the above study with the simulated joint. He raised an interesting idea which hasn’t been published. Could the ability of our joints to crack actually serve a useful purpose?

When the simulated joints in his study were filled with normal water, the joint surfaces separated easily, which formed bubbles but didn’t produce the cracking sound.

But when the water was treated to remove all of the dissolved gasses and microscopic bubbles, the simulated joint performed more like a real joint. That is, much more force was needed to separate the surfaces, and only then did it produce a cracking sound.

Perhaps the fact it requires a large force to separate our joints, which happens to also produce a cracking sound, may be very useful by assisting in joint stability and thereby providing protection from our joints being damaged.

Neil Tuttle Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist & Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Crows’ fitness guru adds mental toughness – 7NEWS

Filed under: Fitness — admin @ 2:29 am

Fitness guru Darren Burgess is playing mind games at his new AFL club, Adelaide.

And Burgess’ desire to build mental toughness has been just as important as his fitness expertise, Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien says.

Burgess has joined Adelaide from reigning premiers Melbourne, where he oversaw a training regime that helped propel the Demons to their first AFL flag in 57 years.

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“He’s really good at instilling belief in the group at how fit we are and how well we are going, which has been great,” O’Brien told reporters on Monday.

“He has played a few mind games with us … it keeps us on our toes and keeps us guessing as to what we’re going to do.

“That has certainly helped in our resilience and our mental toughness.”

Burgess has deliberately kept Adelaide’s players in the dark about their fitness program until almost the last minute.

“Things like not telling us how many reps we’re doing, sending out sessions … the night before so we’re not knowing what we’re doing, that sort of stuff,” O’Brien said.

“A lot of it is between the ears really. Everyone around the league is really fit.

“But having that belief that you can outrun your opponent all day … is really important.

“That mental side is just as important as the physical side and he has been able to do that.”

O’Brien, who said the Crows were collectively the fittest they had been since he joined the club in the 2014 rookie draft, were following Burgess’ blueprint which led to Melbourne’s success last year.

“He has talked about Melbourne and their ability to work really hard but work really smart in their running as well in games,” he said.

“We have talked about that and being really fit but then not necessarily having to use it, just by doing your work early and working together as a group.

“They (Melbourne) were obviously the best in the competition at doing that with their defence and we’re looking to emulate that in the way we’re playing.”

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Sweat stress: Stop worrying you perspire too much or too little

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 2:01 am

We know we sweat to keep ourselves cool, but why do some exercisers get totally drenched (we see you Rafael Nadal) while others survive without so much as a towel-down?

The fear you’re sweating too much can lead to embarrassment, while staying dry in an intense workout can cause concern that your body isn’t working as efficiently as it should be.

But understanding how and why your body sweats is the best way to stop feeling self-conscious about it while you’re exercising.

Sweat flies off Rafael Nadal as he plays against Daniil Medvedev in the men’s singles final at the Australian Open 2022. (Getty)

READ MORE: Does grunting really give tennis players an advantage?

Professor Robert Newton, co-director of the Exercise Medicine Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, told 9Honey Coach that as a general rule of thumb, men tend to sweat more than women.

“Men have larger and more numerous sweat glands,” Professor Newton explains.

But women have other cooling mechanisms that work just as effectively to lower their core temperature.

“They tend to be smaller size, which means they have a greater surface area so they are better able to radiate heat than men. They also have less body hair than men so they lose heat more effectively,” Professor Newton says.

“Women also have a much better ability to shunt blood to the skin, which is often why women get more flushed than men. It’s their natural ability to shift a large volume of hot blood to the skin and lose the heat through radiation.”

READ MORE: Do you burn more fat when you sweat

By sweating less, women do have the advantage of retaining more fluid in the heat, but overall Professor Newton says neither sex’s system is far superior to the other (it’s just that men are more likely to get sweat patches in the cooling process).

(Getty)

“There is very little difference between male and female marathon times and no noticeable difference in numbers who experience heat exhaustion,” Professor Newton points out.

Overweight people tend to sweat more because the body perceives they need more sweat in order to cool down, and stressful situations can induce a sweaty response in plenty of us — particularly on our palms.

About three per cent of the population suffer hyperhidrosis, which is a medically diagnosable condition characterised by excessive sweating in non-stressful or unheated places.

There is also some variation between people — some women sweat more and some men sweat less — but Professor Newton says that unless you have a medically diagnosed condition, you probably have nothing to sweat (ahem) about.

It’s also worth noting that the more that you train in hot conditions, the more you’re likely to sweat.

“Sweating is highly trainable — the capacity of your sweat glands increases when you exercise in the heat,” Professor Newton says.

(Getty)

“Your sweat glands acclimatise to the heat and can produce a greater volume of sweat. But interestingly sweat becomes less concentrated and has less salt in it so you are losing less electrolytes, which is important because if sodium gets depleted you can have muscle cramps or other problems.”

As for whether excess sweating is better for clearing toxins, as fans of hot yoga often say, Professor Newton says there’s no research to demonstrate that.

If anything, exercising in extreme heat hinders performance.

“The difficulty with exercising in the heat is you can’t work at the same rate because it’s much more difficult,” he says.

“When your core temperature starts to rise your body will signal that as a challenge and you will feel greater fatigue. You only have to drop about three per cent in body weight [through fluid loss] for your strength and endurance to be impacted negatively.”

Children also sweat a lot less because they have less developed sweat glands. Once they hit puberty, their sweat quantity usually increases.

“You have to be careful of kids in the heat because they’re not as effective at keeping themselves cool,” Professor Newton points out. 

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January 30, 2022

‘Absolutely thrilling’: Women’s Ashes Test ends in dramatic scenes CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 30: Alana King of Australia runs out Anya Shrubsole of England during day four of the Women’s Test match in the Ashes series between Australia and England at Manuka Oval on January 30, 2022 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Filed under: Outdoors — Tags: — admin @ 8:23 am

The women’s Ashes Test has ended in dramatic scenes, with England’s No. 11. batter blocking out the final over to secure a thrilling draw.

You couldn’t have scripted a better advertisement for women’s Test cricket than this.

The Ashes Test at Manuka Oval has ended in dramatic scenes, with all four results possible heading into the final couple of overs of day four in Canberra.

England came agonisingly close to pulling off mission impossible, scoring the largest fourth-innings team total in the history of women’s Test cricket.

But it ultimately wasn’t enough, with the thrilling contest ending as a draw.

With the possible exception of day five of the New Year’s Test in Sydney, this was the most captivating day’s cricket of the 2021/22 summer.

Just as Steve Smith couldn’t get the job done for the Aussies at the SCG earlier the month, Australian debutant Alan King was tasked with unearthing a miracle 10th wicket in the last over, but it wasn’t to be.

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Skipper Meg Lanning declared Australia’s second innings in the afternoon session of day four, leaving England with 48 overs to chase the 257 runs required for victory.

The highest successful run chase in the history of women’s cricket was 198, achieved by Australia over a decade ago – England’s all-time best was 173.

The Australian camp understood that a draw would have strategically worked in their favour, with the scoring system in the multi-format series meaning the hosts only needed one victory in the three ODIs to retain the trophy in such a scenario.

And at the change of innings, it seemed as though a draw was an inevitability – Australia’s bowlers needed 10 wickets for victory, but the pitch had flattened out beautifully over the course of three-and-a-half days of action.

However, England opener Tammy Beaumont made it abundantly clear that the visitors had no intention of playing for a draw. She smacked a quick-fire 36 before Tahlia McGrath removed the right-hander with her first delivery of the day.

At the other end, Lauren Winfield-Hill compiled a patient 33 off 65 balls, prompting a journalist from the media centre to chuck his head out of the window and bellow, “Have a go, Lauren!”

But momentum quickly shifted back in England’s favour when skipper Heather Knight came to the crease, fresh off her record-breaking 168 not out in the first innings.

Knight and England all-rounder Nat Sciver combined for a game-changing 72-run partnership, scoring at quicker than a run per ball.

Lanning put six fielders on the boundary rope, hoping to stem the flow of runs – but easy singles became quick twos as England’s required run rate dropped below six per over.

The Manuka Oval deck was offering zero seam movement for Australia’s pace bowlers, with the exception of a couple of deliveries from young all-rounder Annabel Sutherland that crept below the bat.

Suddenly, the target didn’t seem unfeasible – England required under 100 runs for victory with eight wickets in hand heading into the final hour.

Teenage quick Darcie Brown got the long-awaited breakthrough with less than an hour left in the day, trapping Knight on the pads to halt England’s stampede.

But England’s Sophia Dunkley switched into T20 mode as soon as she waltzed into the middle, smacking 37 from her first 21 balls at the crease.

With 10 overs remaining in the day, England required just 45 runs for victory with seven wickets in hand. They were favourites.

According to the almighty CricViz, England’s chances of securing a win had risen from two per cent to 87 per cent in less than two hours.

However, in yet another stunning twist, only two runs were scored from the following two overs, making the equation 43 needed from eight overs.

Sciver then slapped a short ball from Sutherland directly towards Lanning at square leg, ending her swashbuckling knock on 58 from 62 balls – no women‘s player has scored more runs in a Test innings at a faster strike rate.

With England requiring 38 runs for victory, Australian wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy missed a tough stumping chance off King’s bowling, gifting Amy Jones an extra life on zero.

A handful of sloppy misfields from the Australians leaked crucial runs, but Sutherland struck again a couple of overs later, with Jones cracking a delivery towards Beth Mooney at the mid-wicket boundary, who claimed a regulation chance. All four results were still possible.

In another game-changing moment, Mooney snared a remarkable diving catch low to her right at long-on to remove the dangerous Dunkley for 45. It was a late contender for catch of the summer.

“This woman has had jaw surgery just days ago, titanium plates in her face, and absolutely no fear to take a diving catch to dismiss the dangerous Sophia Dunkley,” former Australian captain Alex Blackwell said on Fox Cricket.

The Aussies at this stage required four wickets from 28 balls for an unlikely victory, while England still needed 24 runs.

Sutherland snared her third breakthrough the following over, dismissing the powerful Katherine Brunt for 4 with a short ball that was edged through to Healy with the gloves.

Three overs remaining – Australia needed three wickets, England required 17 runs.

King’s next over featured a cataclysmic run out, with Anya Shrubsole attempting a suicidal quick single only to find herself half a metre short of making her ground.

And the very next delivery, Charlie Dean attempted to sweep King towards fine leg, but the top edge was caught by Healy for Australia’s ninth wicket of the innings. England had lost 6/26 in a dramatic collapse.

As Dean made her way back to the pavilion, the third umpire checked for the dreaded back-foot no-ball, but replays showed that King was safe by a matter of millimetres.

Two overs remaining – Australia needed one wicket, England required 13 runs.

Several deliveries went past the outside edge in Sutherland’s relatively uneventful penultimate over, in which just the one run was scored.

Ultimately, it came down to the last over. Just as James Anderson did four weeks ago, England No. 11 Kate Cross successfully blocked out the final six balls to avoid a dramatic defeat, and the Test was drawn.

Largest fourth-innings scores in women’s Test history

245/9 – England vs AUS, Jan 2022

229/5 – England vs IND, Jun 1986

225/8 – England vs NZ, Jul 1996

223/8 – India vs ENG, Jul 1999

214 – New Zealand vs ENG, Mar 1969

Former England bowler and Fox Cricket commentator Isa Guha called it “one of the greatest Test matches in Ashes history.”

“Heather Knight and the rest of that team are going to be absolutely devastated,” she said.

“They pulled off an unbelievable heist. To get themselves into a position to win the Test match — they were only one wicket away.

“I just can’t believe what we have witnessed.”

Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne tweeted: “What a finish that was. Absolutely great for Test cricket.”

Cricket broadcaster Adam Collins tweeted: “Well played Meg Lanning, Heather Knight and both teams. In just 10 sessions, they‘ve engineered an excellent, compelling Test. More of it, across five days. And also, crucially, time for multi-day domestic women’s cricket. Let this be a springboard.”

Australia takes a 6-4 lead in the multi-format series ahead of the one-day internationals, which get underway on Thursday.

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January 29, 2022

Lions Continue to Build Fitness Under the Watch of Fabian Bazan – Orlando City SC

Filed under: Fitness — admin @ 6:05 pm

With all the buzz surrounding Orlando City’s two Designated Player signings this week, you’d be forgiven for looking past the hard work being done at the Orlando Health Training Ground at Osceola Heritage Park.

But this is perhaps the most important time of the year for a soccer team. The Lions, returning from their offseason holidays, are two weeks into a six-week boot camp readying them for the steady grind of a Major League Soccer season. We spoke to Orlando City Strength and Conditioning Coach Fabian Bazan to get the inside scoop on how he prepares the Lions for the marathon to come. 

The first step, says Bazan, starts right at the end of the previous season, when the players head home for the winter armed with individualized fitness plans. Rather than keep them in peak shape, these plans are designed to actually ramp down the players’ bodies from the harsh environment of the season, allowing them to recover and prepare to build back up for the following campaign.

Upon arrival at training camp, Bazan puts the players through 7-10 sessions of assimilation back into the daily routine of professional soccer. This is especially important for new players, who need to adjust to Orlando City’s methodology and fitness techniques. Bazan says he focuses a lot on building up lower body strength during this period, with an emphasis on the quads and hamstrings, muscles which need reinforcement to prevent injury.

After these initial sessions, it’s time to start building towards game fitness. Bazan runs a series of stress tests on the players, including the infamous “beep test,” a non-stop back and forth sprint between two sets of cones designed to test the players’ maximal oxygen consumption. That was the focus of this past week, with the beep test taking place during Friday morning’s session.

The next couple weeks are built around increasing the players’ fitness loads, with the sessions gradually becoming longer and more intense. Bazan says that while this phase is physically strenuous on the veterans, it is actually most difficult for younger players, especially those from the academy who are not used to working at this level. The Lions’ first preseason games will occur during this period, with Orlando set to open up their scrimmage slate against Minnesota United on Thursday evening.

Finally, the players are ready to begin regular-season training in the build-up to the opener. Intrasquad scrimmages and other soccer exercises are common, not just to get the players ready for games, but to give the coaching staff a chance to evaluate their progress ahead of the season’s first match.

Orlando City is set to open its season against CF Montréal at Exploria Stadium on Sunday, February 27 at 1 p.m. By that time, you can be sure that Bazan will have the Lions ready to go.

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This Kettlebell Grip Cue May Change Your Training for the Better

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 1:00 pm

#kettlbell has accumulated north of three million posts on Instagram. Your favorite fitspo is probably (most definitely) swinging and hoisting kettlebells overhead, and you’ve been officially convinced to swing and hoist kettlebells. If that sounds like you, you probably have run into an annoying and unexpected problem: Your grip sucks

Man gripping a kettlebell in a Turkish Get-Up position

Man gripping a kettlebell in a Turkish Get-Up position

Kettlebells aren’t the easiest tool to grab, and the ballistic nature of many kettlebell movements makes them even harder to hang onto. What’s more, your ability to grip, and grip tightly, actually facilitate stronger and more powerful lifts. And it all starts with your muscle fascia.

The Importance of Grip

The fascial lines of the body are many and varied. This article isn’t intended to be a primer on fascia but on better understanding it to enhance our training. The arm lines are particularly relevant to our grip needs. There are four of these lines, and all play some part in grip and its effect on supercharging our performance.

This experiment uses the principles of irradiation of muscle tension to demonstrate just how vital grip is:

  1. Let your arms hang loosely by your side and notice where there is tension. Now make a fist. Notice it’s not just the muscles of the hand that are tight. The tension travels up your forearms.
  2. Now grip even harder. Notice the abdominals engage. Observe how the tension is now not just in your shoulders but also the muscles within your shoulders. How you grip grip has the potential to activate every muscle in your body.

Let’s try our experiment again, this time to demonstrate the importance of the arm lines:

  1. Grip as hard as you can, but focus on squeezing the thumb and index finger the hardest. You should feel the pec and delt engage forcefully.
  2. Now focus on gripping hardest with the little and ring fingers. This time you should feel the muscles in the back — the lats, rhomboids, and rotator cuff muscles — engage.

Applying this knowledge to exercise is common sense, yet few people do it. The conclusion to make from these tests is that if the body is ready for pushing (via the pecs and delts being engaged), your grip needs to have the index finger involved. The opposite applies to pulling motions, where we want to make sure that the pinky and ring finger are in direct contact with the bar or bell.

Hand Position for Smarter Grip

The most common hand position when using kettlebells is a grip that slides the wrist into the corner of the bell where the handle and body of the bell meet. This allows the handle of the bell to run diagonally across the hand and minimizes discomfort on the back of the wrist.

Then, most folks will close their index finger and thumb around the handle. You may mistakenly believe this grip is acceptable. It’s not acceptable. This grip will actually decrease performance while increasing injury risk. 

Man pressing a single kettlebell over his head outside

MDV Edwards/Shutterstock

Here’s why: During pressing, you need to address not only shoulder flexion but also shoulder stability. If the pinky doesn’t grip the bell, the rotator cuff won’t be fully engaged. And when it comes to swinging or pressing a heavy object overhead, you definitely want all the musculature of your shoulder to be engaged.

A better way to grip a kettlebell for pressing (or get-ups or snatching) is with the handle of the bell going directly across the hand, in line with the calluses. This grip allows both for use of the prime movers and for optimal function of the stabilizers.

 

Stronger Grip for Better Movement

If we extrapolate this for other kettlebell exercises, such as squats or swings, we can see these fascial lines connect the fingers to the muscles around the shoulder and also become muscles of the trunk on both sides. The front and back functional lines create two large Xs, one on the front of the body and one on the back.

The correct use of grip will switch on our postural control muscles and enhance all of our bigger lifts. For kettlebell squats, the flat grip is once again the better option (as opposed to the diagonal grip), since it activates the most support muscle.

Once you’re used to gripping this way, you’ll find your performance improves while your injury risk decreases. Changing your hand placement will perhaps make a difference in how much load you can move, but that shouldn’t be a concern unless you’re a powerlifter. Focus on how well your body can move and function as a unit.

More on Breaking Muscle:

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Kyrgios set to cash in like never before Which Aus Open doubles final pairing team is Australia, and which is Australia A?

Filed under: Outdoors — Tags: — admin @ 8:23 am

The All-Aussie Open doubles final has been likened to cricket’s nostalgic Australia v Australia A. But who is Australia and who is Australia A?

Nick Kyrgios is in line for his biggest-ever Australian Open payday – topping his entire 2021 earnings – in a men’s doubles final that has attracted interest like none before it.

Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have turned the tennis world on its head to the point where Saturday night’s doubles showdown with Max Purcell and Matt Ebden – marking the first all-Australian men’s grand slam doubles final in 42 years – has turned into one of the most anticipated matches of the week.

KYRGIOS & KOKKINAKIS V EBDEN & PURCELL STARTS AFTER THE WOMEN’S FINAL | FOLLOW BARTY V COLLINS LIVE

And it could be a lucrative one, too.

Kyrgios played precious few tournaments in 2021, entering the Australian Open on the back of a five-match losing streak, and finished the year with a 7-8 singles record – with $430,102 finding its way into his bank account.

While that’s nothing to sniff at, he’s set to blow that out of the water in one special fortnight with his best mate.

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Should they keep the party going with victory over fellow Australians Max Purcell and Matt Ebden on Saturday, they’ll split the $675,000 in prizemoney – giving each player $337,500.

Throw in the $154,000 Kyrgios earned for his first-round win over Liam Broady, and he will bank a healthy $491,500 for two weeks’ work at Melbourne Park – more than the $340,000 he earned for reaching the 2015 Australian Open quarter-finals.

None of this is likely to be important to Kyrgios, who prioritises entertainment over winning – but not to the extent that he’ll make a fool of himself.

“I think I played pretty good tennis in the past. I’ve beaten pretty much every player that’s picked up a racquet,” Kyrgios said.

“I’ve obviously had to play a certain level of tennis. It’s not like I’m going out there putting on a clown suit and creating a circus.

“I have also played, won titles, won big titles, I have played the traditional way.”

As for who deserves favouritism, it’s a prickly question for both camps.

The unseeded pairing of Ebden and Purcell bristled at questions likening this final to the Australia v Australia A cricket matches in the 1990s – where the star-studded world-beaters were pitched against a side of young guns, but one that was still considered the second-tier team.

“Who is Australia and who is Australia A? Because we’re the underdogs,” said Purcell.

Ebden stepped in to ramp up even more pressure on their high-profile opponents – who don’t have the doubles rankings to show for their heavy-metal performances this week.

“They have higher singles rankings right now. We have higher doubles rankings. They had big crowd support. We did also yesterday,” Ebden said.

“The pressure is on them for sure. They’ve had pressure on them their whole lives.”

Originally published as Australian Open men’s doubles final: Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis v Matt Ebden and Max Purcell

Read related topics:Nick Kyrgios

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January 28, 2022

Fitness entrepreneurs invest in Augusta as pandemic gym routines hit their stride – Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

Filed under: Fitness — admin @ 9:16 pm

AUGUSTA — Delays caused Anthony Oglesby to postpone the ribbon-cutting for his new Augusta business Thursday, in just another in a sequence of postponements the New Hampshire-based entrepreneur has faced.

The biggest delay, bar none, has been the COVID-19 pandemic that has hobbled all kinds of businesses with closures and gathering restrictions, but few more so than gyms and fitness centers.

While many people have turned to in-home options or replaced gym time with outdoor pursuits, Oglesby is betting big on the return to gyms. He is just days away from opening All Out Fitness at the Turnpike Mall with state-of-the-art weight strength and cardio equipment. It will be his second All Out Fitness location after the first that has opened just north of Concord, New Hampshire. A third is now under development in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, by the end of March, Planet Fitness is expected to open up a new, larger facility at 152 Western Ave. at the Capitol Shopping Center, that will more than double the space available and be able to offer the full slate of services, including hydromassage and tanning, that the current space cannot accommodate.

“In the Augusta market and for the people who live there, we just needed to be bigger,” said Mike Cleary, managing partner for Granite Coast properties, owner of five Planet Fitness franchises in Maine.

While the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, people across the United States have been returning to gyms and fitness centers in numbers close to pre-pandemic levels. Placer.ai, a company that tracks and provides analysis of foot traffic, reports that while gym visits declined in the fall as they tend to do in ordinary times, visits over the summer had nearly made up for pandemic losses.

PITFALLS ALONG THE WAY

When Cleary’s company acquired the existing Planet Fitness on Civic Center Drive in 2012, it has already been in operation for about six years. Even before the pandemic struck, he had been looking for a larger space because there was no space to expand where he was.

He was looking for a high-visibility space on a well traveled road with good parking. While a number of spaces were available, some were in older buildings and needed more work. Eventually, he found what he needed at 152 Western Ave. in the Capitol Shopping Center plaza, which is also home to Shaw’s Supermarket.

Among the work being done to the 23,000-square-foot space is removing the second floor in the space to open up the building, replacing the HVAC system and work on the building’s façade.

A large two-story open area is under construction Thursday for a new Planet Fitness location in the Capitol Shopping Center plaza, which is also home to Shaw’s supermarket, in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“A lot of people are looking for a little more room, a little more air theses days, so we’re really happy about this location,” he said.

The leased was signed last summer and demolition started in September. Cleary said he anticipates the new facility will be open in the second half of March.

At the start of the pandemic, he said, customers were initially cautious. But with the advent of vaccines, customers have said they want to return to the gym and to their usual exercise routines.

The exterior view of construction underway for a new Planet Fitness location in the Capitol Shopping Center plaza, which is also home to Shaw’s supermarket, in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“The CDC reports that even one workout can reduce a person’s risk of depression and anxiety while improving sleep,” he said. “People have become so much more conscious of the benefits of exercise.”

Cleary said the focus has been on larger spaces. He moved his Westbrook facility to a larger space in South Portland in November 2020, about eight months into the pandemic.

Oglesby’s challenges have been larger than just the pandemic, which slowed the process of renovating three commercial spaces in the Turnpike Mall on Western Avenue, just west of Interstate 95, into a single 17,000-square-foot space.

Co-owner and founder Anthony Oglesby shows an aromatherapy pod during a tour Thursday of the new All Out Fitness location under construction at the Turnpike Mall in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

In June 2021, Oglesby was in a car crash on Interstate 93 near Meredith and he is still recovering.

Oglesby, who graduated from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, got his start at Planet Fitness and later started TapouT Fitness, which he started to franchise. After selling off half of the brand, he took some time off with his family.

Eventually, he started a small club under the name All Out Fitness, and he started to pay attention to what people wanted.

“I thought of the camaraderie aspect of the gym, that’s what brings people together,” he said.

Co-owner and founder Anthony Oglesby, left, and co-owner and general contractor Jeff Blizzard stand Thursday in their new All Out Fitness location under construction at the Turnpike Mall in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

He plans to foster that camaraderie with a host of offerings in addition to the usual weight training and cardio equipment with aromatherapy pods, tanning, haircuts and manicures.

CENTRAL MAINE MARKET

Oglesby was drawn to Augusta because it shares a number of attributes with Concord, New Hampshire’s state capital. And just like growth drove investment in that community, he sees a similar trend developing in central Maine.

“Everything has a cycle, and Augusta is on an upward trend,” he said. “I want to be known for helping to grow and bring in a top-notch, high-end facility at an affordable rate. There’s going to be a huge influx in Augusta come the next 10 to 15 years.”

Maine is home to 11 Planet Fitness facilities, including five owned by Cleary’s company. In addition to Augusta, his company operates Portland, South Portland, Falmouth and Rockland locations.

“We’re really excited because we wanted to invest in the Augusta market for some time,” he said. “We wanted to bring the full Planet Fitness model to the market and we wanted to see if we would relocate or renovate the existing place.”

The exterior view of the new All Out Fitness location under construction at the Turnpike Mall in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Keith Luke, deputy director of development services for the city of Augusta, said it is good to see the investments being made by these companies at both of these locations.

The shopping plazas, along Augusta’s main commercial strip, are among those that have had high-profile vacancies as large national retailers have reduced their footprints by closing some stores or have shuttered entirely.

“It’s certainly been challenging from our standpoint to work around those vacancies,” Luke said. “These will be relatively high-traffic enterprises that I hope will breathe some new air into those retail complexes.”

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