Archive for category: HOT NEWS

If you have any queries or suggestions, please feel free to reach out via email to info@harisonfitness.com. We will do everything in our capacity to ensure that you love your experience with us.

From childhood to adulthood, whether in gym class or strolling through parks, we’ve witnessed all manner of peculiar running styles. Among them, the sheer variety of arm-swinging techniques leaves us both amused and bewildered—from “crab-like” arm movements to straight arms swinging vertically without bending the elbows, or even arms clamped tightly against the body… But just how crucial is the arm swing? What constitutes a proper arm swing? Let’s find out!

01 How Important Is the Swing Arm?

Increase rear push-off force to boost running speed: Proper arm swing technique enhances rear push-off force during running. Simultaneously, increasing the speed and amplitude of arm swings allows the thighs to lift higher and the hips to drive forward, thereby increasing stride length and accelerating running speed.

Maintain body balance and reduce energy expenditure: Increasing the amplitude of forward-backward arm swings helps maintain balance as foot stride length and speed increase. This arm motion also stabilizes the body’s center of gravity, preventing unnecessary swaying. It allows movement to rotate primarily around the spine, minimizing wasted energy expenditure.

02 Correct Arm Swing Technique

The correct arm swing technique involves moving arms forward and backward, not side to side, as lateral swinging fails to balance the body or enhance propulsion. During running, arms should remain relaxed and swing naturally. When swinging backward, hands should align horizontally with the hips; when swinging forward, elbows should lift upward and move toward hip level.

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Bending elbows to approximately 90° during running may feel manageable short-term, but sustaining this angle and posture over extended periods causes increasing arm fatigue. Strong upper-body strength, however, enables a less strenuous second half of your run. Therefore, incorporating upper-body strength training into your routine is crucial. We’ve compiled the following exercises to enhance upper-body strength—let’s get started!

1. Push-ups

(1) Bend knees and hips, keeping feet flat on the ground. Keep your body straight and slightly arched backward, with elbows bent behind your head.

(2) Maintain a straight body and fully extend your elbows. Hold for 1-2 seconds at maximum muscle contraction, then slowly return to the starting position.

2. Standard Push-Up

(1) Keep your body as straight as possible, avoiding arching your lower back. Place your hands on either side of your chest, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and lower your body vertically.

(2) Maintain a steady rhythm: inhale as you lower down, exhale as you push back up.

3. Handstand Crawl

(1) Assume a four-point support position with hands and toes on the ground. Keep arms straight, hands directly beneath shoulders, and legs extended.

(2) Keeping feet stationary, alternate moving hands forward as far as possible. Slowly return hands backward to resume the starting position.

4. Dumbbell Training—Overhead Pass

(1) Stand upright with feet shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in your left hand and extend both arms out to the sides at shoulder height, palms facing upward.

(2) Keeping arms fully extended, simultaneously raise both arms overhead. Pass the dumbbell from your left hand to your right hand, then return along the same path to the starting position with both arms extended out to the sides. Repeat continuously.

Building powerful upper limbs enables stronger, more sustained arm swing. Mastering proper arm swing technique helps us glide effortlessly through each stride during runs! Consistent repetition trains muscle memory, allowing your body to execute natural arm swing motion during runs.

If you have any queries or suggestions, please feel free to reach out via email to info@harisonfitness.com. We will do everything in our capacity to ensure that you love your experience with us.

For individuals with hypertension, summer brings various factors that can cause fluctuations in blood pressure. Therefore, special attention should be paid to lifestyle management during this season.

01How Should Hypertension Patients Eat During Summer?

During summer, it is advisable to increase fluid intake appropriately to prevent elevated blood viscosity and reduce the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At the same time, excessive sodium intake should be avoided.

Some elderly individuals and those with “three highs” (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol) believe vegetarian diets are lighter and that long-term vegetarianism can lower these levels. However, evidence shows that strict vegetarianism can negatively impact cardiovascular health. This is because prolonged, excessive vegetarianism leads to dietary imbalances, triggering endogenous lipid metabolism disorders, yet does not reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

In reality, the key to whether a dish is light or healthy lies in its cooking method. Even vegetarian dishes, when drenched in heavy oils, salt, and sauces, are no lighter than steamed fish. Imitation meat dishes and fried vegetables are prime examples. Therefore, balanced dietary combinations and low-oil, low-salt cooking techniques are paramount.

02Summer Foods to Stabilize Blood Pressure

1. Apples

Apples are rich in potassium salts, which bind with sodium salts in the body to facilitate their excretion. Additionally, apples help prevent elevated blood cholesterol levels and reduce blood sugar content.

2. Bitter Melon

Bitter in taste and cooling in nature, bitter melon enters the stomach meridian and possesses heat-clearing and fire-purging properties. Bitter melon contains high levels of charantin, which mimics insulin effects. It stimulates insulin release, alleviates insulin resistance symptoms, and reduces triglyceride and LDL-C levels, thereby mitigating atherosclerosis and lowering hypertension incidence.

3. Corn

Neutral in nature and sweet in taste, it fortifies the spleen, boosts qi, dispels dampness, and clears turbidity. While corn cannot lower blood pressure in hypertensive patients, regular consumption helps stabilize blood pressure, thereby preventing hypertension and coronary heart disease. Furthermore, the unsaturated fatty acids in corn oil reduce blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

4. Bananas

Bananas are relatively high in potassium. Since potassium and sodium significantly impact blood pressure, low potassium levels in the blood can lead to a higher sodium ratio, causing blood pressure to rise. Additionally, foods like celery, oranges, and tomatoes also contain higher amounts of potassium, which can positively contribute to lowering blood pressure.

5. Lotus Seeds

Lotus seed hearts possess calming and tranquilizing effects, aiding in enhancing myocardial contractility and slowing heart rate.

6. Kiwifruit

Kiwifruit juice demonstrates favorable therapeutic effects for hypertension, angina pectoris, and arrhythmia, while also helping prevent ischemic cerebrovascular disease and cerebral arteriosclerosis.

7. Watermelon

Watermelon is rich in vitamins and provides essential nutrients while containing almost no fat. It offers excellent blood pressure-lowering benefits for individuals with hypertension.

8. Papaya

Papaya contains over seventeen amino acids and various nutrients that help soften blood vessels.

In reality, food has no direct impact on lowering blood pressure. Individuals with elevated blood pressure may incorporate the above foods into their daily diet for certain benefits, but consumption should not be excessive. The most important measures for blood pressure management remain active medication, a low-sodium diet, and regular exercise.

If you have any queries or suggestions, please feel free to reach out via email to info@harisonfitness.com. We will do everything in our capacity to ensure that you love your experience with us.

When it comes to nutrition, ensure that the calories consumed in each meal are less than those burned during exercise. The results of building muscle and reducing fat will be clearly visible. Do you truly understand the key points of a scientifically sound fitness diet?

01 Scientifically Control Calorie Intake

When we talk about fitness and muscle building, we’re essentially referring to expanding our muscle dimensions through equipment-based workouts. For muscle-building training, it’s crucial to pay close attention to daily dietary habits and promptly replenish the nutrients and energy required during workouts. During muscle-building phases, daily caloric intake should exceed that of the average person by 10%. For individuals with naturally lean physiques aiming to build muscle, caloric intake should be increased by 15% above average levels. This ensures sufficient energy to meet the body’s demands during exercise, leading to enhanced muscle strength and definition, ultimately revealing well-defined muscle contours.

02 Moderately increase protein intake

To achieve healthy and rapid muscle growth in a short period, adequate protein intake is essential, especially during muscle-building training. Reduce fat intake while significantly increasing consumption of high-protein foods. Adult trainees should aim for approximately 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. Don’t neglect other essential nutrients like iron, zinc, vitamins, and carbohydrates, which are vital for the body’s energy needs.

During meals, incorporate dishes like chicken breast, fish, shrimp, and eggs to provide your body with protein from multiple sources. It’s important to remind many trainees that consuming high-protein foods both before and after workouts is crucial. This not only supplies effective nutrients for muscle growth but also aids in post-workout muscle recovery.

03 Eat smaller meals more frequently to meet your training energy needs.

Therefore, during fitness training—especially muscle-building workouts—it’s most effective for trainees to increase their daily meal frequency to five meals. Consuming specific amounts of food at designated times—breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, and dinner—not only aids digestion and nutrient absorption but also ensures adequate calorie and protein intake for training. When individuals engage in daily, uninterrupted fitness routines, they continuously burn calories. Achieving a balance between calorie intake and expenditure is when the effects of muscle-building and fat-reducing training become apparent.

04 Optimize the Quality of Fat Intake

Scientific fitness training can help individuals reduce body fat and build muscle during workouts. However, this doesn’t mean avoiding all fatty foods during training. Different foods contain varying qualities of fat, and selecting those with higher-quality fats is key to a balanced diet. For instance, cream and chocolate contain inferior fats that offer no benefit for muscle growth, while foods like avocados and nuts are rich in high-quality fats. Therefore, consuming foods high in quality fats before and after muscle-building workouts significantly aids fitness training.

Scientific fitness training is inseparable from proper nutrition. A well-planned diet provides trainees with optimal conditions for exercise, enabling them to gradually convert the calories and protein consumed into muscle through effective workouts. This process helps reduce body fat and increase muscle mass.