6 Jun 2016

How To Do A Proper Push-Up

By Alan Leung

Push-ups are arguably the most popular bodyweight exercise ever; and certainly the most common bodyweight chest exercise. THE BENEFITS OF PUSH-UPS: BUILDS STRENGTH: You will be lifting around 50% (knee push-ups) to 70% (toe push-ups) of your bodyweight during a proper push-up . Push-ups are an efficient way to build your strength for your upper body muscles, especially your chest (pectoralis major), triceps (triceps brachii) and your shoulders (anterior deltoid). They can also train your

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13 Jun 2016

Common Mistakes! — Push-Ups

By Alan Leung

Continuing from last week’s blog post on how to do a proper push-up, this week’s blog is addressing the common mistakes that people make while doing push-ups.  Keep your eye open for them - now you have the knowledge to do them better!   Rotated Hand Position: Placing your hands on the ground incorrectly causes undue strain on the wrists and puts the elbow in an unstable position. Solution: Hands should be straight but slightly

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20 Jun 2016

Hot Beverages Cause Cancer! — WHO/IARC Report

By Alan Leung

  As I’ve written before on the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) report on red meat, they have just come out with a new study on coffee, maté and very hot beverages. In this latest study, 23 scientists from across the globe convened in Lyon, France to comb over the thousands of studies of both humans and animals, they have available to determine the evidence for causing cancer in coffee, maté and hot

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25 Jul 2016

Gut Microbiota And Probiotics! Part 1 of 2

By Alan Leung

Gut Flora - a term you probably have encountered even if you’re not interested in nutrition.  What is it and why is it important?  Why am I hearing this now and not earlier? First, some quick facts to give you some context on what gut flora, or microbiota is about: 1.  Common names: gut flora, microflora, microbiota, microbiome - some experts may have specific definitions for some of them, but by and large, they are

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1 Aug 2016

Gut Microbiota And Probiotics! Part 2 of 2

By Alan Leung

If you read my previous blog on gut microbiota, then you will know how important it is to manage your bacteria friends in your gut.  The reason why this topic has become increasingly popular, is not because it is some gimmicky trend that will phase out and you don’t need to worry about it - au contraire! More and more research is coming out on it so you might as well educate yourself on what

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18 Apr 2016

Why You Shouldn’t Follow Athletes’ Fitness Programs

By Alan Leung

Survivorship Bias   Similar, to my earlier blog Misconceptions: Swim, to have a swimmer’s body! this blog talks about the perils of the pervasive cognitive flaw - survivorship bias. Exercise programs that you frequently read on fitness magazines and social media platforms almost always depict a famous athlete giving his/her workout routine and telling you should follow it too if you want to get a big chest, skinny waistline, broad shoulders, slender legs, 6-pack abs,

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25 Apr 2016

For A Flat Stomach, DO THIS!!!

By Alan Leung

Six-Pack Secrets; Love Handle Erasers; The 5 Foods To Avoid If You Want A Six-Pack; 10 Core Exercises To Whittle Your Waist; Best Ab Moves If titles such as these still attract you to read them, then this blog post is for you! It’s for you, not because it’s going to help you get 6-pack abs, but rather to dispel all the false-promises articles with headings such as these make. Anytime you see fitness articles

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11 Apr 2016

Call To ACTion Recap

By Alan Leung

What a month! It was not easy, but I’m glad I did it! I’d like to re-state the reasons why we did this. It’s to see what an effect doing Olive Branch classes, twice a week, for a month will do to our bodies while stopping weight training. We also want to showcase to our followers that we too, suffer and struggle in the classes.  We are not superior beings with unlimited fitness capability, contrary

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29 Mar 2016

Love Thy Body

By Alan Leung

How many people do you know who is out of shape and obese? And how many of those people you know hate their bodies? Or maybe you’re reading this now and you have similar feelings towards your own body? To find oneself in this situation is despairing, and unfortunately, it is happening all around us. How did we get to this point in our evolutionary path that our current lifestyle has put us at odds

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7 Mar 2016

Misconceptions: The Lactic Acid Burn

By Alan Leung

First week of Call To ACTion!  is over.  I’m not going to lie - I did the TRX class and the Thursday ACT class last week, and it wasn’t easy! I can still remember after the first round of the conditioning circuit, I was barely able to walk.  I had three and a half minutes of break before the second round starts and I was desperate to relieve the pain.  The clock wound down, and

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