Antioxidants Improve Recovery from Exercise and Build a Better Body!

Im sure by now youve heard all about the amazing health benefits of antioxidant rich foods in your diet. Not only do these free-radical fighting antioxidants help you look and feel younger by slowing down the aging process, but they also help to prevent cancer, heart disease, and loads of other degenerative diseases. But thats not all. Antioxidants also help you to recover better from exercise...and that means more muscle and less fat on your body in the long run!

The function that antioxidants play in aiding your recovery from exercise is the inhibition of free radicals produced during exercise. Any time you workout, free radicals are produced in the body that damage muscle tissue. Having an adequate supply of antioxidants about an hour or so before your workout can greatly reduce the muscle damage caused by free radicals, hence, improving your muscular recovery from exercise.

Some of the most potent sources of whole food antioxidants are berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries), cherries, acai fruit, various teas (green tea, white tea, black tea, and red tea - a.k.a. rooibos tea), nuts, seeds, red and black beans, purple potatoes, grapes, red wine, cinnamon, and dark chocolate or cocoa. Dont be fooled by all of the intense marketing for expensive antioxidant supplement pillsremember whole foods are always better for you (and cheaper) than a pill.

My favorite pre-workout antioxidant-loaded snack is a piece of whole grain toast with almond butter, a small amount of blackberry jam, and topped with a pile of fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries. I wash it down with a glass of iced green tea or rooibos tea sweetened with just a small bit (about a teaspoon) of raw honey. This is literally a quintuple-whammy of potent anti-oxidants! The almond butter, blackberry, blueberries, raw honey, and the green or rooibos tea are all loaded with different varieties of muscle protecting, youth promoting antioxidants. I throw down this snack about an hour before my training. Give it a try for yourself, or be creative and come up with your own antioxidant-rich pre-workout snack based on your tastes.

Remember, your body is continually bombarded every day by free radicals (creating oxidative stress) from exercise, air pollution, smoke, sun exposure, junk food, exposure to chemicals, etc. To reap the full benefits of antioxidants, try to make sure that every meal and snack you eat has at least one or two sources of antioxidant rich foods. This will give you a continuous supply of antioxidants throughout every day to prevent damage from the free radicals you are constantly exposed to.

Antioxidants are just one piece to the puzzle of a healthy diet that will give you the lean, muscular, youthful, and disease-free body that everyone wants. To discover the secrets behind all of the other pieces to the diet puzzle that create a lean body (macronutrient profile, glycemic response, hormonal response, glycogen storage, muscle protein synthesis, the role of leptin, the insulin process, etc.), please visit http://truthaboutabs.com

About the Author

Visit http://truthaboutabs.com to receive several free bonuses that are yours to keep with no purchase necessary.

Michael Geary is a nationally dual certified personal trainer (NCSF-CPT, AFAA-CPT), and author of "The Truth about Six Pack Abs" 2004-2005.

Antioxidants Improve Recovery from Exercise and Build a Better Body! Tips

Exercise And Your Anaerobic Threshold

Once you know what your AT level is getting the most out of yourworkout is easy. You monitor your heart rate and adjust yourintensity to raise or lower your heart rate keeping you in yourdesired range. The results areprocessed using computer programs and yield very preciseresults. Exercisingin your AT zone will give you the maximum fat burning benefit.You will use the most calories if you can spend most of the timethat you exercise in this range. Exercising below your ATrange will burn some fat, and will help you improve things likeblood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Back Extensions exercise

Or, if you find this exercise too easy for you, you can do it in a declined position or use platted weights in front of the chest or behind the neck. You will be lying on your front side and everything about an inch below your hips should be on the bench or back extension machine. For this exercise you will either need a back extension machine, or a bench that allows you to securely position your feet so that the rest of your body won't move during the exercise.

Pilates Exercise And The 7 Benefits

Can Do Anywhere - Pilates exercise is great for busy people, in fact some routines only last for ten minutes, and these include the required daily Pilate exercises for a regular commitment to the program. Pilates Exercise is leading the way on this. A Healthier Body - Pilates exercise are created to keep your body strong and flexible. Named after its founder, Joseph Pilates, Pilates exercise concentrates on certain positions and movements that call upon the needed stress to keep the body healthy.

Yoga As An Aid To Weight Loss

Let me just explain a little more about how yoga will benefit you. The thyroid is responsible for the chemical processes in your body that transform food into energy. An increased metabolism leads to an increase in the calorie burning process, so combining yoga with a calorie burning program may bring you excellent results.

Pilates Equipment - The Basics

These are only few of the most common exercise equipment thatyou may see in a Pilates studio, there are however, otherequipment that you might be able to use at home, like barrels,Pilates balls, and Pilates rings, these are however, not part ofthe original Pilates equipment that Joseph Pilates designedinitially, but rather a derivation and application of thedifferent Pilates techniques from other types of exercise. Cadillac The second type of Pilates equipment is the Cadillac or thetrapeze table.

Hot Yoga?

Hot yoga is advantageous because it cleanses your body and getsrid of the toxins inside your body. Copyright Melvin Chua, All Rights Reserved. Wearing of shorts allows your skin to breathe and give off heat.Students are the ones who usually wear shorts. People who want to beslim can practice this type of yoga because their fats andcholesterol will be burned through sweat.

Aerobic Cross Training for Weight Loss

For more information on cross trainning, keith Londrie II hasput up a web site for further information. You can gradually build up from there. Aerobic Cross Training for Weight Loss Do you sometimes get bored with your aerobic exercise? This also promotesweight loss and fitness.