Classic Bodybuilders of the Golden Era: Tim Belknap
Tim Belknap was 1981's AAU Mr. America, placed 3rd as a Heavyweight at 1982's NPC Nationals, and was the 1985 NABBA Mr. Universe. Diesel! Check out this classic video of Tim in competition.
Most of us know that strength training is important, but that doesn't make it any easier to do it. It may help to know why strength training is so important and all the ways it can help you look better and feel better. Check out my favorite reasons to lift weights and get motivated to start strength training today.
1. It helps you lose fat: When you lift weights, you build lean muscle tissue which is more metabolically active than fat. When you increase your muscle, you also increase metabolism which means you're burning more calories throughout the day. Regular strength training is just as important as cardio exercise for losing fat and getting fit.
2. It makes you strong: It may seem obvious that lifting weights can make you stronger...but what some people forget is that it doesn't just make you strong for your workouts, it makes you stronger in other areas of your life as well. When you lift weights on a regular basis, everything else becomes a little easier too - carrying groceries, housework, gardening, carrying the kids, etc. And, don't forget, it doesn't just make your muscles stronger, it makes your bones stronger too which can help reduce or even manage osteoporosis.
3. It reduces your risk of injury: The nice thing about strength training is that it strengthens everything, not just your muscles and bones. When you lift weights, you also strengthen connective tissue - the ligaments and tendons that keep your body moving well on a regular basis. Strengthening your connective tissue will help you continue to operate in peak condition and protect your body from injuries.
4. It can reduce arthritis pain: Recent studies have shown that arthritis sufferers who lifted weights actually reduced their joint pain. By strengthening the muscles, they were able to cushion and protect the joints during impact activities like walking. And don't forget...most physical therapy programs incorporate strength training to help rehab a multitude of injuries, which just proves that lifting weights can make a difference in getting better and having a better quality of life.
5. It increases balance, stability and flexibility: When we don't preserve muscle mass with strength training, what happens when we grow older? We lose muscle mass and that's often what leads to weight gain and loss of balance and flexibility. Lifting weights can help you work your joints through a full range of motion, keeping them strong and flexible and keeping you steady on your feet.
6. It can make you better at sports: Most athletes these days follow some type of strength training program to keep them strong and avoid injuries. Training specific to your sport can also help you improve your power, strength and speed to make you a better athlete. Even kids and teens often benefit from some type of strength training when it comes to playing sports.
7. It makes you feel better about yourself: According to some studies, both men and women feel better about themselves when they lift weights. By getting stronger and noticing changes over time like being able to lift more weight and do more exercises, both men and women build confidence and, especially for women, improve body image. Lifting weights, along with other types of exercise, also helps build confidence and can even help manage symptoms of depression and anxiety...a great way to deal with stress in a healthy way.
8. It can help lower blood pressure: Some studies have shown that regular strength training can help reduce high blood pressure over time, so this may become another way (aside from cardio exercise) to help treat high blood pressure in some people. If you do have high blood pressure, I don't have to remind you that you should always talk to the doc before doing any new activities (but I am anyway). But, if you get the okay, consider starting a basic program along with other recommendations from your doc for helping reduce your blood pressure.
9. It adds challenge and interest to your routine: If you've been doing the same cardio workouts for a long time, that can get a little boring. Strength training is a great way to spice things up and add a completely different challenge to your body. The nice thing about strength training is that it offers so many ways to set up your workouts...there's always something new to try and you never run out of new exercises, different types of resistance, new routines and a variety of ways to work your body.
Pretty nice compilation here of several well known female bodybuilders posing on stage looking sexy and feminine at the same time exhibiting strength and athletic prowess. The music is courtesy of Mellow playing Love on the Moon, which seems to match up quite well for this small clip. Kick back and enjoy the show…
Workout Routines and Splits: Weightlifing Programs for Bodybuilders
Coming up with weightlifting workout routines and splits and programs isn't really rocket science, once you understand the basics you can create your own.
One rule when making weightlifting workout programs is to make sure to split it so that you aren't overtraining. Doing chest on Monday, then triceps on Tuesday, then shoulders on Wednesday will overtrain your triceps. Why? Because just about every chest and shoulder exercise works the triceps secondary. And almost every back exercise works the biceps secondary.
But, here are a few sample split routines and programs off the top of my head I have either used at one time, or are commonly used by other people:
Monday - Chest/Triceps Tuesday - off Wednesday - Biceps/Back Thursday - off Friday - Shoulders/Legs Saturday - off Sunday - off
Monday - Chest/Biceps Tuesday - off Wednesday - Shoulders/Legs Thursday - off Friday - Back/Triceps Saturday - off Sunday - off
Monday - Chest/Back Tuesday - Shoulders Wednesday - off Thursday - Biceps/Triceps Friday - Legs Saturday - off Sunday - off
Remember, these are just sample programs. Some people like to workout on the weekends, and I don't. So in all the samples I made them off days. It all depends on what days you have time to workout and/or when you want to workout which is why these are just samples, not splits you have to use.
GetAnabolics.com Staffer Eats Cockroach For Mesobolin!!!
We’ve all done it, given in to the pressure to be hardcore, to go extreme, to lift an incredible weight, complete an impossible task, basically to take it to another level… because if you don’t, you can be pretty sure nobody will let it go. You’ll be the “puss”, the wannabe, the laughing stock… you name it. But if you step up, and show everybody how it’s done… well then the victory is yours friend.
That being said, my buddies over at GetAnabolics.com sent me this little treat recently:
Apparently one of their determined staff members decided he wasn’t going to back down on a dare to eat a half-alive, still twitching cockroach. He stepped up, in the most disgusting way possible.
Why’d he do it? For a free bottle of that insanely effective Russian compound, Mesobolin. You know it, Dr. Dan’s favorite mid-day snack (he pops them like cashews). If anything, this is testimony to the power of Mesobolin that one of the GA.com guys thought it was a good enough deal to chew and ingest the ever-so-crunchy body of a living cockroach.
You don’t have to eat a cockroach to get your hands on some Mesobolin, check it out… http://www.getanabolics.com/mesobolin-p-165.html
When 10,000 pounds of steel crashed down on Dan Przyojski leg, the only thing that saved the bodybuilding champion's appendage was his superior physical conditioning. In 1987, the former Mr. Toledo Bodybuilding Champion was working for Heidtman Steel when the accident occurred.
"There were 10,000 pounds of steel on a cable. It unraveled and came down on my leg, it almost severed the leg entirely. I passed out, and when I got to the hospital, the doctors wanted to cut it off. Luckily I knew one of the doctors, and he gave me a chance."
In face, Przyojski said he fought doctors for a year and a half to avoid an amputation. "I was dead set against it," the 42-year-old said. "I wasn't going to have a plastic leg."
The steel had not only crushed nearly every bone in Przyojski leg, but also it had ripped muscles and tendons from the bone, destroyed a large artery, and tore up his skin. A large pin held the upper and lower bones together. He was in a wheel chair for a year and missed three years of work. It was two years before he walked on his own again. After three years of 11 operations of bone and skin grafts and untold pain, Dan's perseverance paid off - the leg was saved.
By the time you finish reading this series of eating tips you will have the basics down to eating to build muscle fast! If You want to build muscle fast you have to eat right to build muscle! So Part One will focus on this crucial yet misunderstood element to build muscle fast. Building muscle fast takes much more than just eating to build muscle though. In this course we will cover 5 awesome tips to build muscle fast. By time you are finished reading this mini course you will be well on your way to knowing what it takes to build muscle fast...even build muscle explosively!!
Tip-1: Eat Enough Food To Build Muscle Eating enough food to build muscle for us skin flints is not as it seems. In order to build muscle I have seen consistently with my tests on over a thousand skinny males that the usual recommended calorie intake of 12- 14 calories per pound of bodyweight is not enough to build muscle.
So if this is not enough to build muscle what is? For skinny guys, A total daily calorie intake of 19 calories per pound bodyweight seems to be the magic number. Of course when you are eating this much it is important to be eating the right foods in the right combinations and times.
Tip-2: Eat the Right Types of Food So You Increase Muscle...Not Turn Into a Fat Pig!! Eating to build muscle is not as simple as just eating enough calories. You need to eat the right calories! What are the right calories? I recommend foods that are high in nutritional value to promote building muscle and not fat gain!
An example of this would be to eat a steak with green vegetables totaling 600 calories than deep fried chicken nuggets for 800 calories.
Another example would be to eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast instead of a bowl of Captain Crunch Cereal.
Eat nutritionally dense foods and to get the most out of your meals combine foods together that are compatible for best digestion.
Tip-3: Combine The Right Foods Do you want to build muscle without gaining excess fat? Or how about avoid indigestion? (Indigestion is bad for assimilating nutrition out of food for building muscle) or... stop blowing sick farts at work, in class or worst of all when you meet new people in elevators!
Then you need to systematically combine your foods at every meal. Combining foods is a science but luckily easy to learn. For now I will give you some examples of good food combinations and bad food combinations for building muscle:
Good Food Combinations for Building Muscle:
Protein and fibrous carbs (steak and spinach salad) Protein and fats (Chicken Cordon Bleu)
Bad Food Combinations For Building Muscle:
Protein and simple carbohydrates (many weight gain powders, most meal replacement bars ) Carbohydrates and fats (cheese bread,pizza)
Once you are eating good food combinations at each food serving it is important to follow the next step:
Tip-4: Eat Consistently On a Schedule Eating consistently on a schedule is crucial to provide quality nutrients for building muscle when your body needs them.
A good rule to follow is to eat every two to three hours and never space two meals more than five hours apart. If you are eating the right foods consistently like this then you should always keep your body in an positive muscle building state.
But for us hard gainers there are some underground secrets you can follow to really boost muscle growth from a nutritional stand point. The next trick to sustain an explosive growth spurt is to eat the right foods at the right times.
Tip-5: Eat The Right Foods At The Right Times By modifying your meals slightly at particular times during your daily routine you can increase lean muscle growth. There are two times when we modify our meals for maximum energy,assimilation to build muscle most effectively, breakfast time and after our workouts.
This has been a hot topic for the last couple of days, the now infamous CNN Interview with Wrestling Superstar John Cena. In the interview John Cena was asked if he's ever used steroids or performance enhancing drugs, the video below is his response to the question asked.
The biggest problem right now is Cena's response was edited and made to totally destroy his persona and character, the second video is the Unedited Clip from the CNN interview, you can definitely see how the media spliced the interview to demean and destroy Cena's character.
The current situation right now is John Cena (who is recovering from a torn pectorial tendon and is expected to return to action next summer) is requesting that CNN apologize for its obvious and intentional misportrayal of his personal character during its special report.
Study Finds Steroid Injections Into Carpal Tunnel Do Not Put Median Nerve At Risk
November 2007
SEATTLE — A study of steroid injections into the carpal tunnel showed the technique used does not injure the median nerve, but fails to consistently allow the drug to disperse freely in a cadaveric model. Investigators utilized the same technique in 34 cadaver hand/forearm specimens and passively flexed and extended the fingers before actually injecting the drug. They injected the specimens and then dissected them to determine the distribution of the solution and if the median nerve was violated. "We actually found the injection results in five different distribution patterns," Joseph E. Robison, MD, said in a presentation at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.
Steroid and dye
Investigators injected specimens with 1 cc Depo-Medrol (methylprednisolone acetate; Pfizer) with dye via a 5/8-inch 25-gauge needle. To ensure their technique was consistent, they identified the intersection of the wrist flexion crease and midline of the ring finger ray and directed the injection distally in line with the ring finger ray at 45?. They stopped when the needle's hub contacted the skin. They flexed and extended the fingers noting if the needle moved and then completed the injection, leaving the needle in place to confirm the injection site. Investigators dissected the carpal tunnel (CT) and found the following solution dispersion patterns and frequencies:
Free Distribution, 16;
Flexor Tenosynovium Or Tendon Sheath, 9;
Nonspecific Tenosynovium, 5;
Ulnar Sidewall Of Ct, 3; And
Subcutaneous, 1.
Needle motion association
No needle motion occurred in 13 specimens and four had a pattern other than free distribution, "where the injection was actually into the wall of the CT or the subcutaneous tissue," Robison said. If there was no needle motion, there was a more free distribution of the steroid. Investigators concluded injections were delivered into the CT, that a high percentage resulted in a focal deposit of solution, and that the median nerve is at low risk during the technique. Limitations of the study were injections may behave differently in live tissue and it only analyzed time-zero after injection. The authors believe that the clinical success of this procedure is based upon the distribution of the steroid in the clinical setting over succeeding days. Also, any of the distribution patterns could possibly provide patients with CT pain relief days or weeks later, Robison said. source: http://www.orthosupersite.com
To be honest, biceps have been one of the easiest bodyparts to develop. Thus, in line with the 'you can learn best from the hardgainer' school of thought, the question might be asked, what can a fortunate Ronnie Coleman with 22 inch guns teach a beginner about building trophy - winning biceps? Quite a bit, I think, as all of my training routines have been constructed after a great deal of thought. Thanks to Ronnie Coleman's video you too can get Hardcore Bicep Tips from the Great One.
The 10 Most Dangerous Pitfalls To Making Progress Bodybuilding In Your Physique
Are You Making These Mistakes?
Putting on muscle is easy if you have the know-how and combine it with hard work. But even if you have the right training program and work hard, staying on course can be challenging at times.
There's a pitfall at every corner of the gym, waiting for both the complacent and the overzealous. In this piece, I have outlined what I believe are the ten most dangerous pitfalls to making progress on your physique. Ignore them at your own peril.
1. Not Training Hard Enough: You may think you're training hard enough, but are you really pushing it on each set? If you're not pushing yourself to the point where you cannot perform another repetition on each set, you're not training hard enough.
In order to stimulate muscle growth, you have to push each muscle group to the point that it fails, i.e., where you cannot perform any additional unassisted repetitions. It is at this point that your brain receives a signal from the muscles indicating that it needs to stimulate additional muscle growth in preparation for the next bout of exercise.
Your goal throughout your workout should be to progressively fatigue the target muscle group more and more with each succeeding set, until you reach point where that muscle group is totally fatigued. This is called training to failure.
Unlike other failures in life, this is a good failure to have because it signals growth. In between sets, you should rest only long enough to catch your breath, which will give your body the ability to cancel the oxygen deficit that builds up during each set. Once you have caught your breath, it's time to go on.
This leaves very little time for chatting with friends in the gym or indulging in other distractions. It should be your goal to get into the gym, get the job done and get out. Do not mistake training hard with training for a long time.
It's not the amount of time you spend in the gym that counts, it's the quantity and quality of the work you put in. Keep the intensity high and keep the growth coming.
2. Training Too Long: If you're spending more than an hour in the gym, you're training too long. The time trap is a common pitfall, especially amongst beginners, who often think that if 30 minutes of exercise is good, 60 minutes will double their results. That is absolutely not the case.
There is an inverse relationship between intensity and workout duration. In other words, you can train hard for a brief amount of time, or you can train with sub maximal effort for a long amount of time, but you can't both train hard and train long.
Staying in the gym too long leads to poor results. In the best-case scenario, your workouts will be ineffectual, because you never truly reach the point at which your muscles are fatigued. A workout comprised of a series of less than maximal sets will do little to stimulate further progress.
In the worst-case scenario, you end up over-trained. That means you end up doing much more than your body can recover from, and hence, your progress takes a beating. A good rule of thumb is to train intensely, limiting the work out for each muscle group to 20-30 minutes. Get in the gym, get the job done, and get out.
3. Eating Too Much: In the old days we were told to train hard and then eat as much of meat, potatoes, milk, eggs and other high calorie foods as we could, but in retrospect, this only addressed the caloric part of the nutrition equation.
Focusing solely on calories doesn't address other very important nutritional factors like macronutrient ratios at each meal and meal frequency throughout the day. Yes, you need to consume more calories than you're burning off on any given day.
After all, a small surplus of calories is necessary for growth. But additionally, the macronutrient profile of each your meals needs to stay within a specific range; I prefer a diet that is 50% complex carbohydrates 30% protein and 20% fat by calories when I am trying to put on muscular size.
All too often, the "all you can eat mentality" that is adopted by those eager for muscle size destroys well laid plans. Eating too much at one meal overtaxes your digestive system, making it difficult for you to be hungry when it's time to eat again three hours later.
Meal frequency is more important than pigging out. Every serious bodybuilder needs to consume 5 to 6 small meals during the day. If you act like a human waste disposal at each meal, your appetite is going to be destroyed when it comes time to eat again 3 hours later. So eating indiscriminately can hurt your progress. Eating the right things is important.
I start out every day with Lean Body Breakfast MRP, which supplies me with 40 grams of protein, 35 grams of complex carbs, 7 grams of fiber and EFA's. Then throughout the day I will eat a well rounded diet consisting of 5-6 small meals that contain at least 40 grams of protein, plus lots of complex carbs, fruits and vegetables.
4. Not Resting Enough: Too much of a good thing can hurt you. Training is wonderful, but you have to be able to recover from it. You must rest at least 72 hours in between large body parts and at least 48 hours in between small body parts to fully recover. Many seasoned professionals won't train a body part more than once per week.
When you are expending maximal effort in the gym, i.e. you're training as hard as possible with very heavy weights, it taxes your body tremendously. Remember that it is outside of the gym, while you are resting that your muscles are actually growing. Rest time must not be underestimated.
Quality sleep is important; research shows that we actually need more sleep than we think. 8-9 hours for a growing bodybuilder is a minimum.
If you are a hard gainer, or you have a fast metabolism, you should limit your extracurricular activities outside of the gym.
Working out and then participating in highly energy intensive activities such as playing basketball, football, etc. several times per week will actually increase the recuperative time needed in between workouts, not to mention increasing nutritional needs. Keep these things in mind as you are trying to put on muscular weight.
5. Not Sticking To Basic Exercises: In bodybuilding, the steady ship wins the race. Stick to basic heavy exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and military presses as the foundation of your training at all times. These exercises are compound movements which incorporate the use of more than one joint and several large muscle groups. They have the most profound effect on muscle growth by taxing the maximal number of muscle fibers in the major muscle groups.
Many beginning bodybuilders lose sight of the fact that it takes time to gain muscle. When muscle gains don't come as fast as they would like, or the first time they hit a plateau, they think about changing basic exercises. Many will look to the pro's programs featured in muscle magazines for ideas. This leads them to discard time-proven basic exercises.
What most fail to realize is that the professionals featured in magazines have built the bulk of their physiques using basic exercises and that the exercises presented in their magazine workouts are advanced and used for shaping and polishing their physiques.
These finishing exercises do not do as much as the basic exercises in promoting muscular bulk, so if you want to grow stick to basics. Leave the shaping exercises to advanced bodybuilders and pro's.
6. Lack Of Motivation: In order to succeed, you must be a person who is able to perform hard work repeatedly over a long period of time. Persistence is one virtue that bodybuilding has taught me over the years. You must have something that "fires you up" and gets you into the gym.
You must clearly define your purpose for being in the gym and expending the hard work in the first place. And let's face it, the diet needed to support your workouts is not easy either. It requires a commitment of discipline, time, energy and effort. Motivation can be built, just like a muscle. But it requires a crystal clear idea of why you are doing this in the first place and constant reinforcement of that idea.
7. Not Setting Goals And Timelines: It is all too easy to fall into a routine. Over the long run, routines can be beneficial, but they can also be self defeating if you fall into the habit of just "going through the motions."
To keep yourself positively motivated in the gym you should always have a goal in mind whether that is an extra half-inch on your arms, getting into the best shape of your life for an upcoming competition. It is important not only to set goals but to also to put time lines on them.
In other words, you might give yourself a timeline of 8 weeks to attain that half inch you want on your arms. Once you have a goal and a timeline, you can positively motivate yourself to reach it. You become a man on a mission, so to speak, and all of your efforts take on new meaning. Always have a goal and a timeline in mind when you go into the gym to train.
8. Not Competing: Not everybody wants to become a competitive bodybuilder. Competing bodybuilders are those who enter bodybuilding competitions such as those sanctioned by the NPC around the country. But there are other ways of competing that don't involve stepping onto the posing dais.
You should compete against yourself at least once per year. But if not on the contest stage, then how do you compete against yourself? Quite simply, set a 10-12 week timeline to get into the best condition possible.
During this time, commit to restricting your calories and increasing your aerobic activities and training to shed excess body fat, just like you would if you were competing against others in a bodybuilding show. Take before pictures and after pictures.
The best time of the year to do this is in the spring after a heavy fall and winter phase of mass building.
It is my experience that I have become a better bodybuilder after each of my competition periods. Why? Because "cutting up" does several things for you:
First, it gives your digestive system a break from all of the extra calories during the year. This makes it more efficient, so that when you do start increasing your calories again, your absorption of nutrients is improved.
Secondly, dieting down combined with hard training results in the release of growth hormone, which helps the physique to grow again in the post diet phase.
Third, muscle quality improves. Most pre-contest training consists of higher repetitions and more sets, which contributes to muscle quality, i.e., muscularity, vascularity, and separation. Most importantly, competing gives you a clear idea of just how good your physique truly is, and helps you identify weak points and strong points.
If you want a forum to help you compete against yourself, enter the 12 week Lean Body Challenge by visiting www.bodybuildingtoday.com and signing up for my free weekly on-line newsletter. I will help you.
9. Skipping Workouts: If you want to grow, consistency is the key. Your system is a biological organism, and as such, it needs stimulation at regular intervals. For maximum progress, you must keep a regular schedule. Skipping workouts just retards progress, and at the very best is a step backwards.
Now, every so often I will either skip a workout or do a lighter workout intentionally if I'm feeling that my body is not completely recovered. However, skipping multiple workouts for no reason other than it didn't fit in your schedule or you just didn't feel like it is a losing proposition.
This sets you up for failure both physically and mentally. Physically because you won't see the progress you desire and mentally because it creates a bad habit. Stay consistent with your workouts and you will enjoy the best results.
10. Failing To Expand Your Horizons: This is a pitfall that primarily plagues bodybuilders who are well advanced in the number of training years. What happens is that these advanced bodybuilders get set in their ways and develop hard and fast habits, which are hard to break.
Most of these advanced bodybuilders are so sure that what they're doing is right and that their way of training is the only way of training that they fail to expand their horizons by trying new things. New techniques should be incorporated from time to time. By trying out new things, you can break out of training plateaus and enjoy new muscle growth.
While it's important to keep your base of fundamental exercise, it is also important to try new things to jar muscle growth. It is also important to use a variety of exercises both to round out your physique and keep your workouts fresh. Keeping your bodybuilding workouts fresh not only helps you to develop more muscle in but also keeps the workouts interesting, an important factor in keeping your motivation high.
Get a Full-Body Workout With Dumbbells and a Swiss Ball In 8 Easy Steps
I am glad you're reading this, I have found 8 easy steps to achieve a Full body workout by simply using Dumbbells and a Swiss Ball. To tell you the truth, in my downtime I still will practice this full body workout to quickly tone up. I assure you that this plan works, before I was able to go gym on a regular basis I would do this workout plan in the homemade gym in my garage, no problem.
1.) First of all you've got to make a plan! look at your schedules and find days when you have time to workout. It doesn't matter if your workout in the morning or in the evening; just do it! Your gonna want to try and workout three days a week, and also your gonna want to have a days rest between each workout.
2.) Form wise DO NOT completely straighten your arms as this might injure them!
3.) Ok, we all know how to do push ups but for shoulder presses its best to sit down, otherwise the rest of your body will get involved in the action when you are trying to isolate the action to the shoulders again here DO NOT fully extend your arms.
4.) Bicep curls are the classic weight lifting exercise. There are 2 variations to this there is hammer curls and standard curls they are the same except in hammer curls you turn the weights like your holding a hammer. Another thing if you slow the action down it much more effective!
5.) Tricep kickbacks are hard so to start you are gonna want to go with much lower weights than other exercises. Kickbacks are great when done properly DON'T use weights that are too heavy!
6.) Squats are the exercise that i find most people hate. So this is an essential, also when doing squats your body can handle a lot of extra weight
7.) Strength training is really important whether your trying to lose weight or gain muscle its still really important! For each exercise do 3 sets with 15 reps. To start off your workout your going to do chest presses on the ground. Then move onto press ups then shoulder presses, bicep curls tricep kickbacks, and squats then you should do sit ups on your swiss ball.
This is a clip from one of my favorite comedy sketch shows, In Living Color. The featured video is a skit called Girls On Steroids. Vera De Milo (played by Jim Carey) is a girl growing up trying to get the boys attention, nothing works, until she turns to steroid use. We all know steroids have a damaging affect on the body but what the skit does is shed a little light on steroid use through laughter, you'll enjoy this clip.
Here is an older video clip that I just came across that follows 3 young men and their use of steroids. Pretty interesting stuff, although it is a bit different than the world of steroid use in bodybuilding.
Yoga favors meditation and relaxation as some of its most efficient shields against stress. Half an hour of stretching your muscles and deep breathing can bring any yoga practitioner into a state of peace and relaxation that gives both mind and body the chance to replenish their energy. Special yoga poses such as the head stand are excellent for aiding circulation and allowing the heart rate to drop.
This kind of position also "forces" you to breathe deeply, thus improving brain oxygenation. Another similar pose would be the shoulder stand, which enhances the positive effects of breathing by increasing the lung's capacity to process oxygen. Both these poses are beneficial to the spine as well, as they allow it to stretch and relax at the same time. The plough pose may also be used in order to strengthen the abdominal and lower back muscles. Savasana, also known as the corpse pose, is excellent for relaxing the body between asanas.
