11 Jul
Blog

The Right Way to Lose Fat: How to Exercise

In a previous article, The Right Way to Lose Fat: What to Eat, we looked at the nutritional component of sensible fat loss. A lot was presented, such as Low-carb / high-protein, high-carb / low-fat, micronutrient, and glycemic, but all indications indicated that a calorie deficit is occurring in order to optimally burn body fat. This article highlights how exercise should be done to maximize fat burning potential. Please note the following statement (imagine, I'm shouting to you through a megaphone at maximum volume):

80% of the fight against body fat is diet

Exercise itself doesn't burn much calories in relative terms. Not to diminish its value, but if you rely solely on exercise and disregard your eating habits (READ: you eat like crap), you won't get very far. As I always say, "A good 40-minute workout can be ruined by five minutes of bad food." Amen.

Let's take a look at the estimated calorie consumption of multiple exercises / activities. There are tons of calculators all over the internet that "burned calories from training" (there … I only gave you access to three of them). Are you accurate? I dont know. Remember, these are only estimates, but they will at least bring you closer. Using my body weight (190 pounds) as an example, here are the estimates from three different calculators:

Running / working at 5 miles per hour for 30 minutes:

Calories Burned = 344, 364 and 345.

Running / working at 10 miles per hour for 30 minutes:

Calories Burned = 713, 775 and 689.

Two points can be seen from the above:

  1. Estimates vary
  2. More effort burns more calories

I would like to emphasize this second point again with my megaphone:

More effort burns more calories

Other exercises / activities and estimated calories burned in 30 minutes (150 pound person):

  • Dancing (casual) = 197
  • Dance (down!) = 274
  • Walking at three miles per hour = 150
  • Walking at 4.5 mph = 233
  • Inline skating (casual) = 270
  • Inline skating (fast) = 319
  • Martial arts = 401
  • Frisbee = 206

Some of the most discouraging moments I see often are well-intentioned but misguided people who turn a bee line on the treadmill to “do their cardio”. It usually works like this:

  • Earphones in.
  • iPod attached to the arm.
  • Maury Povich switched on the tube.
  • Treadmill set at three miles an hour.
  • The sneaking begins.
  • 45 minutes pass and a whopping 270 calories are burned.
  • Phew, what a session!

Now it's time to go back to the crib, breathe in a 3-ounce sachet of nacho cheese tortilla chips, and put about 450 calories back in the tank.

If the importance of poor food and a relatively low value for exercise is currently undetectable, let's look at some more depressing factoids. Visit one of my favorite websites, calorieking.com. Enter your favorite cheat food and portion size (these nacho cheese tortilla chips sound pretty tasty right now). The website provides examples of how to burn the number of calories in the food selection entered.

To wipe out the 450 calorie tortilla chips, the following would be required:

  • 125 minutes on foot.
  • 51 minutes of jogging.
  • Swim for 37 minutes.
  • 69 minutes of cycling.

Is it worth eating poorly when you know that it takes some great effort to counteract this with exercise? I know the sentence was beaten to death, but it is certainly true: "You can't overdo poor nutrition."

All right, time to get to the point. If you want to maximize the exercise component to reduce body fat, do the following: Choose exercise modes that are physically demanding. Yes, they feel uncomfortable, but use more energy. Instead of a 45-minute treadmill walk with little effort, do 20-minute intervals with high effort. Try circuit training, do a half-hour boot camp, run hills, whatever – WORK HARDER.

Are you going to get out of the "fat burning zone" by working harder? Yes, but you will exhaust your glycogen stores with more effort. You could even add a low-carb diet. Glycogen deficiency forces your body to tap stored fat and use it as energy, both during exercise and after exercise during recovery.

With regard to the notorious fat-burning zone, it was previously assumed that one had to drive “slowly” to burn only fat. Getting faster would go to glycogen. True, but understand these facts:

  • We have an almost unlimited energy supply in the form of stored fat. Marathon runners get tired from glycogen deficiency, not fat.
  • If you want to get to the purest fat burning zone, take a nap. Sleeping is purely aerobic (unless you have violent nightmares – these require immediate energy).
  • As mentioned earlier, after training, you will burn more fat during the recovery process if you do a high-effort workout, with all other factors being the same.

Last but not least, STRENGTH TRAIN. Yes girls, that means you too. Having more muscles means having less fat. The process of building strength and building muscle is intense. Intensive workouts consume glycogen. And as you know, depleted glycogen can cause fat to be used as energy.

I will end with this information:

  • Delicious = a 12-ounce cola and 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza.
  • Ugh = a 90 minute run to burn them down.

Now that you know how to train for fat loss, you will also learn how to eat for fat loss.

11 Jul
Blog

The Right Way to Lose Fat: How to Exercise

In a previous article, The Right Way to Lose Fat: What to Eat, we looked at the nutritional component of sensible fat loss. A lot was presented, such as Low-carb / high-protein, high-carb / low-fat, micronutrient, and glycemic, but all indications indicated that a calorie deficit is occurring in order to optimally burn body fat. This article highlights how exercise should be done to maximize fat burning potential. Please note the following statement (imagine, I'm shouting to you through a megaphone at maximum volume):

80% of the fight against body fat is diet

Exercise itself doesn't burn much calories in relative terms. Not to diminish its value, but if you rely solely on exercise and disregard your eating habits (READ: you eat like crap), you won't get very far. As I always say, "A good 40-minute workout can be ruined by five minutes of bad food." Amen.

Let's take a look at the estimated calorie consumption of multiple exercises / activities. There are tons of calculators all over the internet that "burned calories from training" (there … I only gave you access to three of them). Are you accurate? I dont know. Remember, these are only estimates, but they will at least bring you closer. Using my body weight (190 pounds) as an example, here are the estimates from three different calculators:

Running / working at 5 miles per hour for 30 minutes:

Calories Burned = 344, 364 and 345.

Running / working at 10 miles per hour for 30 minutes:

Calories Burned = 713, 775 and 689.

Two points can be seen from the above:

  1. Estimates vary
  2. More effort burns more calories

I would like to emphasize this second point again with my megaphone:

More effort burns more calories

Other exercises / activities and estimated calories burned in 30 minutes (150 pound person):

  • Dancing (casual) = 197
  • Dance (down!) = 274
  • Walking at three miles per hour = 150
  • Walking at 4.5 mph = 233
  • Inline skating (casual) = 270
  • Inline skating (fast) = 319
  • Martial arts = 401
  • Frisbee = 206

Some of the most discouraging moments I see often are well-intentioned but misguided people who turn a bee line on the treadmill to “do their cardio”. It usually works like this:

  • Earphones in.
  • iPod attached to the arm.
  • Maury Povich switched on the tube.
  • Treadmill set at three miles an hour.
  • The sneaking begins.
  • 45 minutes pass and a whopping 270 calories are burned.
  • Phew, what a session!

Now it's time to go back to the crib, breathe in a 3-ounce sachet of nacho cheese tortilla chips, and put about 450 calories back in the tank.

If the importance of poor food and a relatively low value for exercise is currently undetectable, let's look at some more depressing factoids. Visit one of my favorite websites, calorieking.com. Enter your favorite cheat food and portion size (these nacho cheese tortilla chips sound pretty tasty right now). The website provides examples of how to burn the number of calories in the food selection entered.

To wipe out the 450 calorie tortilla chips, the following would be required:

  • 125 minutes on foot.
  • 51 minutes of jogging.
  • Swim for 37 minutes.
  • 69 minutes of cycling.

Is it worth eating poorly when you know that it takes some great effort to counteract this with exercise? I know the sentence was beaten to death, but it is certainly true: "You can't overdo poor nutrition."

All right, time to get to the point. If you want to maximize the exercise component to reduce body fat, do the following: Choose exercise modes that are physically demanding. Yes, they feel uncomfortable, but use more energy. Instead of a 45-minute treadmill walk with little effort, do 20-minute intervals with high effort. Try circuit training, do a half-hour boot camp, run hills, whatever – WORK HARDER.

Are you going to get out of the "fat burning zone" by working harder? Yes, but you will exhaust your glycogen stores with more effort. You could even add a low-carb diet. Glycogen deficiency forces your body to tap stored fat and use it as energy, both during exercise and after exercise during recovery.

With regard to the notorious fat-burning zone, it was previously assumed that one had to drive “slowly” to burn only fat. Getting faster would go to glycogen. True, but understand these facts:

  • We have an almost unlimited energy supply in the form of stored fat. Marathon runners get tired from glycogen deficiency, not fat.
  • If you want to get to the purest fat burning zone, take a nap. Sleeping is purely aerobic (unless you have violent nightmares – these require immediate energy).
  • As mentioned earlier, after training, you will burn more fat during the recovery process if you do a high-effort workout, with all other factors being the same.

Last but not least, STRENGTH TRAIN. Yes girls, that means you too. Having more muscles means having less fat. The process of building strength and building muscle is intense. Intensive workouts consume glycogen. And as you know, depleted glycogen can cause fat to be used as energy.

I will end with this information:

  • Delicious = a 12-ounce cola and 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza.
  • Ugh = a 90 minute run to burn them down.

Now that you know how to train for fat loss, you will also learn how to eat for fat loss.

10 Jul
Blog

Nokia 5.3 Review: $199 Really Can Buy You a Good Smartphone

hmd global nokia 5 3 Review backhand

Nokia 5.3 test: $ 199 can really buy a great smartphone

"The Nokia 5.3 offers everyday performance and future-proof software at an affordable price."

  • Two days of battery life

  • Large screen size

  • Two years of software updates

  • NFC for Google Pay

  • Camera disappointed

  • The screen lacks brightness

High-performance smartphones that cost $ 400 can do everything that many people expect from a cell phone, but what about phones that cost half as much? The Nokia 5.3 from HMD Global only costs $ 199 or £ 149. After a week on the phone, however, I can safely say that you won't cut the quality and performance of a more expensive model in half – in most regions. at least.

The Nokia 5.3 will surprise you with its functions, its software and its general capabilities as an everyday smartphone. No, the camera and screen aren't the best models, but you shouldn't expect them to be. If you buy the Nokia 5.3 and know what it can and can't do, you get one of the best smartphone values ​​I've seen in a while.

design

The back of the Nokia 5.3 is made of a plastic composite that is easy to grip but has no pleasant texture. It also has some flex and curves around the side to hit the plastic frame, which then leads into the 6.55-inch screen. The phone is 8.5 mm thick and weighs only 185 grams. It feels good in the hand but is wide, so owners with small hands may find it uncomfortable.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

In addition to the volume rocker and the SIM compartment, there are two other buttons on the housing of the Nokia 5.3. The power switch is an obvious necessity and is located under the volume rocker. A notification light is built in that is bright and eye-catching. It pulsates when there are messages waiting for you on the phone. This is useful when there is no screen and the positioning is unusual and noticeable.

The second button feels superfluous. It's on the opposite side and calls Google Assistant. I often accidentally pressed it when I picked up the phone or juggled with one hand. This is annoying, because unlocking the phone adds several extra steps, or taking extra seconds to cancel at other times. There's a way to turn the button off, but there's no way to reconfigure it for something more useful. Nokia has added a 3.5mm headphone jack and a single speaker at the bottom. It has a lot of volume but no bass, which results in a hard and thin sound.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

On the back is a quad sensor camera module that protrudes very easily from the body and is attached over a fingerprint sensor. The design is no different from many other phones in recent years, including the OnePlus 7T and the Poco F2 Pro, and is harmlessly attractive.

This phone doesn't look like it will cost $ 199, and that's the big advantage here. You don't get an ugly phone that screams "cheap" when you take off or look at it, but a reserved and balanced design. I suggest that you buy the Nokia 5.3 in either cyan or sand instead of the boring charcoal color of my test model to make the phone more attractive.

screen

The 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen on the front shows where money was saved. The resolution is 1,600 x 720 pixels, which means that YouTube videos are played with a maximum of 720p. While this is perfectly acceptable for a phone at this price, I have found that it suffers from a lack of brightness. I had to crank up the brightness most of the time, and even then it is difficult to see in bright sunlight. The automatic brightness function is also annoyingly random and rarely settles on a single level before fluctuating again and never at the right point.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

With the selfie camera at the top of the screen there is a drop notch and at the bottom a small chin bezel with Nokia logo. Assuming the maximum brightness and the intrusive night light function that reduces the blue light (it affects the colors too much, especially when scrolling), the screen is suitable for everyday use. Just don't expect it to be a media powerhouse.

However, you can expect it to be satisfactory. The low resolution means that details are missing, but I found the screen to have a very cool color palette by default. It cries out for more brightness, and some videos may lack life and vibrancy. However, this is not the real aim of the phone, and the Nokia 5.3 works well for casual viewing. I also like that the screen is huge, so you don't feel that the low price has led to other visual compromises outside of resolution.

camera

Even phones that cost $ 199 now have four lens camera sensors, but they shouldn't. The main camera of the Nokia 5.3 has 13 megapixels and an aperture of 1: 1.8. There is also a 5-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro lens. The selfie camera in the teardrop notch has 8 megapixels.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It's functional, but not inspiring. As with the screen, expectations have to be mitigated because it is inconsistent and rarely took a photo that I want to share without editing. Neither the wide-angle nor the standard lenses provide the right lighting every time, either over- or underexposed, and the dynamic range also varies greatly between the two. Macro shots are as overwhelming as you would expect from a 2 megapixel sensor.

There is a night mode, but the shots are only slightly better than those without, and also a portrait mode. Edge detection is decent, but you have to wait for the camera to process the shots. When you switch to the selfie camera, the results often look washed out in bright conditions. However, the results are acceptable indoors.

If you combine all of this with slow software, the Nokia 5.3's camera is a letdown. This is a cheap phone and it will never take the best in terms of the camera, but there should still be a standard that needs to be maintained. Fast software and constant performance are required at all costs. I would rather have a camera with a lens that takes good photos than a camera with four lenses that takes mediocre photos.

Software and performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor with 3 GB, 4 GB or 6 GB RAM supplies the Nokia 5.3 with power. My rating phone is 4 GB and can handle tasks like social networking apps, messaging and calls with ease. If you do something more intense, including using YouTube, speed can suffer. Switching from landscape to portrait mode takes a few seconds, for example, and quitting performance-hungry game apps leads to a longer pause while the phone sorts itself out.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The benchmark tests are as follows:

Geekbench 5: 308 single core / 1312 multi core

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 1129 (volcano)

It's the same chip used in the Motorola Moto G8, Moto G Fast, and G Power, and the results are similar. Do you think you cannot play on Nokia 5.3? Think again No, it's not a ROG Phone 2, but I played Asphalt 9 Legends happily enough. Sure, it's not the smoothest experience, but it never develops into a situation that makes it unplayable. 1945 and playing Hill Climb Racer was fine too.

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The Nokia 5.3 is an Android One phone. This means that the software is similar to Google Pixel phones, with no special user interface, additional apps, or other changes to Google's basic Android style. Android One also ensures regular and timely software updates. The phone receives Android 11 when it arrives and will be updated for the next two years in total. This is a serious selling point and ensures that your cheap smartphone purchase will not be out of date in the near future.

Aside from a few performance stutters, it runs very smoothly, and I think it's good that it has a dark mode and also comes with NFC for Google Pay. Again, this is another big advantage since some competing devices don't have this feature at all.

Battery and security

The 4,000 mAh battery in combination with the low resolution screen and the mid-range processor gave me great hopes for the battery life of the Nokia 5.3. In reality, it was nothing better than most other phones, regardless of the specification. I mostly tested the Nokia at home and therefore connected to Wi-Fi most of the time.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

For me, average usage includes social media, some photos, some video and voice calls, and news and a little bit of games. The Nokia lasted almost two full days, but only if the second day is less intense than the first. Video puts additional strain on the battery. The charging process takes place only via cable, and here too there is no quick charging.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Security is exactly what you want: a simple but secure fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone and a face unlock, both of which are fast and largely reliable. However, the rear fingerprint sensor didn't work well with wet fingers. It has a handy feature that swipes down to pull down the notification shadow on the screen.

Price, guarantee and availability

The Nokia 5.3 can be purchased in the US for $ 199 from Amazon. In the UK, it costs £ 149 and is available in Nokia's own online shop, Amazon and Argos.

The device is warranted for two years in the United Kingdom, but only for one year in the United States.

Our opinion

When reading this review, you run the risk of believing that the Nokia 5.3 is not worth buying. As with any phone, I've pointed out the drawbacks, but it's important to put them in context. The Nokia 5.3 costs $ 199, it does everything a smartphone could want, and it does some things quite well. You can find much better phones, but at the same time the Nokia 5.3 can easily handle what most people need a phone for.

It's refreshing to see that at $ 199 you buy an attractive, modern smartphone that plays top games, runs all your apps, and has enough power and battery to be a reliable companion for everyday life. Just be prepared for the fact that it doesn't have the excellent photography or display quality that you would expect from a model over $ 700.

Is there a better alternative?

For $ 199? The options are limited. Take a look at the Motorola Moto G Power for $ 249 or the Motorola Moto G Fast for $ 199 if you want similar alternatives. However, to really buy a better phone, you have to spend a lot more. We recommend the Apple iPhone SE for $ 399, the Poco F2 Pro for $ 500, or the OnePlus 8 for $ 600. Google has set the Pixel 3a. However, if you find another one, it is a solid buy.

How long it will take?

The Nokia 5.3 is not waterproof, but the composite back is scratch-resistant. Thanks to the Android One platform, HMD Global also promises software updates for the next two years. This is a significant advantage over the Motorola alternatives. Provided you don't expect your own phone to change use, Nokia 5.3 easily holds the entire two-year guaranteed software update period.

Should you buy it

Yes. Don't let the negatives catch you and instead rejoice that you can buy a powerful everyday smartphone for $ 199.

Editor's recommendations




09 Jul
Blog

How To Shrink Pores And Why They Get Bigger With Age

If you feel like your pores are getting bigger with age, you are not alone! Indeed, it is a common concern to find out how to minimize pores while fighting the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. But why is it like that? And what is the best skin care regimen to treat both problems at the same time? Here you will find the answers to these questions and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Aging skin

It's no secret that our skin changes with age – but why is that? Two main factors are a loss of elasticity and a decrease in oil production. With age, the production of collagen and elastin decreases (both are crucial for storage Skin firm and flexible), which leads to less "rebound" of your skin. This is due to hormonal changes and changes in the connective tissue. This is the reason why fine lines become wrinkled and the skin often becomes saggy. Sebaceous glands also produce less oil with age, making your skin look drier, itchier, firmer and feel like it did when you were young. The outer layer of skin (the epidermis) becomes thinner and more sensitive, so that this dry, itchy skin is also more easily irritated by environmental stressors.

Why do my pores look bigger?

How exactly does a decrease in elasticity and oil production enlarge your pores? The pores are also elastic, and when the collagen content decreases, the pores lose this elasticity. As you get older, the skin's natural peeling process Known as desquamation, slows down as your skin dries up. The result is more dead skin cells that sit longer on the surface of the skin and fill pores that are likely to remain stretched.

Aren't you helping this process? Sun damage and sun exposure, which we often see as symptoms of aging skin. How Livestrong points out: “Sun damage creates a cell margin around individual pores. Although this accumulation takes place on a microscopic level, the end result is noticeable … While genetics are responsible for 20 percent of the pore size, sun exposure is a whopping 80 percent. "Eminence Organics Mangosteen Lactic Pro Peel 10%

How do I reduce pores and smooth the appearance of wrinkles?

So what are the main treatments and techniques to minimize pores while reducing the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin? Peeling, sun protection and professional treatments with a beautician are the best choice. To alleviate a slower desquamation process, include a gentle peel in your daily skin care routine, along with professional peels that remove dead skin cells.

We recommend booking a treatment with us Mangosteen Lactic Pro Peel 10%, which is safe for even the most sensitive skin types, minimizes the pore size and leaves the skin feeling deeply conditioned and supple. In addition, you should book a skin exam with a licensed beautician who can create a custom routine with you and address your main concerns. To help you get started, we've put together the following home skincare product that contains some of the most popular Eminence Organics products from fans.

Skin care routine

As mentioned earlier, exfoliation is key to minimizing pores and fighting the visible signs of aging, as is hydration to nourish the skin and keep it feeling healthy. The following six steps focus on these two principles so that the skin looks smooth and smooth.Eminence Organics Daily Resurfacing Cleanser

1. Clean

Our Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Cleanser is a beautiful milky gel that contains ours Lactic acid complex let the skin shine. But our main reason to propose this cleaner? In a # AskNatalie video, Eminence Organics leads the Skin Care Trainer Natalie Pergar was asked: "What are the best products to help with … large pores, but also fine lines, wrinkles and aging skin?" Natalie recommended our Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Cleanser because it removes impurities and prepares the skin for peeling . Watch their answer in the video below for more useful tips on how to shrink pores and reduce the visible signs of aging.

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt0U4PifoOo (/ embed)

2. Peeling

Also recommended by Natalie? Eminence Organics Acai peeling with firm skin. Use this firming peeling solution up to three times a week to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and to remove dead skin. If you prefer a more physical peel, our Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant ensures that the skin feels smooth, with rhubarb and BioComplex to improve the signs of aging. Our Dermafoliant is gentle enough for everyday use and can either be mixed with a few drops of water or with a cleaning agent such as Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Cleanser.Eminence Organics Firm Haut Acai Peeling

3rd tone

To Balance the pH of the skin and prepare it for further treatment. Tightening is a crucial step in your skin care. We recommend our Stone Crop Hydrating Mist to soothe dry skin and make your complexion look radiant and youthful. This award-winning toner is deeply moisturizing thanks to ingredients such as stone harvest and aloe juice. Spray this mist directly on the skin or, if desired, first on a round of cotton and then gently rub it over the face.Eminence Organics Bamboo Firming Liquid

4. Treat

To treat the skin, ours Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Concentrate and Bamboo Firming Fluid work together seamlessly. Apply Mangosteen Daily Resurfacing Concentrate first to refine pores and remove deposits. After absorption, massage a layer of our best-selling Bamboo Firming Fluid to moisturize the skin and improve the appearance of firmness and wrinkles.

5. Moisturize and protect

Moisture and sun protection are the key to fighting fine lines and shrinking pores. We recommend our Balancing Moisturizer Duo morning and evening to keep the skin hydrated without clogging the pores. Since this duo both a Green tea T-zone matting agent and a Grapefruit cheek hydratoryou can easily adjust to the moisture level your skin needs. During the day, a sun protection factor is the key. We recommend using our SPF 30 with red currant protective moisturizer over the duo to protect from the sun's rays while reducing the appearance of wrinkles.Eminence Organics Lotus detoxifying treatment overnight

6. Treat overnight

To give your skin extra love, consider including ours Lotus Detoxifying Overnight Treatment in your routine. This luxurious creamy treatment repairs dry skin during sleep and detoxifies the pores. Apply a generous layer on the face and neck before bed and massage it deep into the skin. You will wake up with skin that looks rejuvenated and restored.

With this routine, we are confident that you can shrink your pores and fight the visible signs of aging. Do you have any additional products that you would include? What other pore size problems do you have? Let us know in the comments or join the conversation on social media.

09 Jul
Blog

Klipsch The Fives Review: The Soundbar Killer

klipsch the fives review active speaker 6

"The Fives prove that the left and right channels beat most sound bars and look great at the same time."

  • Powerful, balanced, real stereo sound

  • Excellent multimedia audio experience

  • Stellar Phantom Center Canal

  • Beautiful design

  • Multiple connection options

  • May not fit in every home theater setup

The soundbar was designed as a simple plug-and-play solution to provide good audio quality in a simple device that didn't ask you to do a degree in audio design at the local community college. Since then, sound bars have dominated home theater audio and displaced loudspeakers in most households.

But Klipsch disagrees that the sound bar is the best and only option here. It is believed that a soundbar cannot deliver high quality stereo sound because it is limited by a single speaker in the middle. Instead of doing what was popular, Klipsch decided to create The Fives, a $ 799 response to the soundbar craze.

Are you clapping back successfully? Let's go into that.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Stylish and attractive

Sound bars have a consistent problem. They are not the most attractive devices. With rare exceptions like the Bose Soundbar 700, they are generally huge blocks of black plastic. Even in the case of the Bose, which looks pretty good, soundbars rarely work alongside the living room decor. Black is not the dominant color in my particular home setup and can conflict with the white and wood accents in my living room.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Although you can get The Fives in black, I was delighted to see that walnut is also a color option. It's just that my media stand has a walnut veneer and The Fives looks great on it. They fit in so well that they go into my media setup unless you try to notice the speakers.

Overall, the Fives kill it with their aesthetics.

For most active bookshelf style speakers, the device with all controls and cable inputs must be a specific speaker, either the left or the right speaker (in my experience, it is usually the right speaker). While I've set it up with the main speaker as the right speaker, the fives have a switch on the back of the main speaker that allows you to switch between left and right. Where the main controls and cables lead is entirely up to you and your setup.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

There are two dials on top of the main speaker, one for tactile volume control (if you wish) and the other for switching connection options. None of these dials are required because all of these functions can be accessed via the infrared remote control. Still, it's nice to have them as an option and they feel good. They have a wide design, a serrated handle and a slightly notched feel, which makes them remarkably satisfactory.

Overall, the Fives kill it with their aesthetics. In my opinion, they look better than any soundbar I've come across.

The five: Connected

The Fives offer easy connectivity to your TV as they are the first stereo bookshelf speakers to offer HDMI ARC compatibility. Setting up is as easy as connecting a soundbar.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

In addition to HDMI ARC, The Fives also support optics, Bluetooth, phono, USB and aux via a mini jack. There is also an output socket for an optional subwoofer. Thanks to the numerous options, you can connect your audio-specific device like a turntable. Switching between these devices is very easy using the above-mentioned setting wheel or the remote control.

It is clear that Klipsch is an audio company that is used to catering to the needs of music fans and that the connection options will definitely come through.

Two are better than one

Sound bars do a decent job with stereo sound, but even if they have the left and right surround speakers that come with some devices, your primary audio will come from a middle-weighted source. Single soundbar solutions like the Bose Soundbar 700 and Sonos Arc do their best to deceive your ears that there is a large gap between the soundbar drivers if this is not the case. However, digital tricks can only go so far.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Klipsch intends to use The Fives as a soundbar alternative for people who enjoy the simple plug-and-play nature of soundbars but crave better stereo sound. Because The Fives divides their left and right channels into physically separate speakers, you have complete freedom to distribute The Fives to the sides of your TV, regardless of their size, and enjoy the benefits of this true separation.

Where sound bars try to restore sound from the left and right, The Fives have to recreate the sound of a center. This "phantom center channel" is reproduced extremely well in my tests. I was on both sides of my 65-inch Sony TV and felt covered in sound. Even though there is no actual center channel, my ears believe that they are listening to audio directly from me, like from the center of my TV.

The Fives do something that only a few sound bars can successfully achieve – they deliver fantastic home theater sound.

The result is an audio experience that delivers great studio sound without loss. The Fives offer fantastic home theater sound, engaging and impressive video game audio and great music. If you use your home entertainment center as a real multimedia hub, The Fives can meet this demand.

Avengers: Endgame felt like a theater experience when the rumble of Thanos' army crashed into the Avengers, leaving me almost breathless with the clarity and depth of the bass.

Playing The Last of Us: Part II was a comprehensive experience. Every step, every whistle, every dog ​​bark and every infected click radiated from a certain direction on the screen and allowed me to get lost in the gameplay.

The survival of Jimmy Eat World, the dark necessities of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Lady Gaga's stupid love were all beautifully reproduced. I will go into the details in the next section on how best to set up The Fives. However, once you select them, you will be rewarded with an exceptionally balanced sound.

The Fives really showed their skills with the volume. At the lower volumes, the sound output between the channels was much less pronounced and possibly somewhat cloudy. When I used them at these low volumes, the Fives felt like driving a Lamborghini at the speed limit in a school zone. Sure, it can go slowly, but that's not really the point.

The Fives also want to be pushed and driven to top speed. Turn up the fives a little and you will be blessed with the best they can offer. Not only do they get loud (although yes, they get incredibly loud), they become a better listening experience as the volume increases.

Balance the bass

Since The Fives are a speaker pair, their placement is important. Most people don't leave much space between a wall and a media console to save space in the room or to hide cables. In most cases, the fives will not shine to the fullest.

These are ported speakers, which means that the lion's share of the bass comes from behind and is reflected by the wall. A certain distance is required to bring the low frequencies into phase (time alignment) with the mids and highs. To maximize their effectiveness, you should give these speakers about a foot and a half to work. When pressed closer, the perceived strength of the bass will overwhelm the mids, making it sound like these mids are below average.

When you have this kind of space, you can pump The Fives bass to the max and get serious power out of them. It won't be the mere rumble factor of a dedicated submarine, but it will effectively round off music and cinema.

If you don't have enough space, you can still enjoy high quality bass. You must use Klipsch's Bass Boost feature, which is enabled by default on The Fives. Bass Boost is a function that increases the performance of the bass. Between switching on and off, I strongly recommend leaving it switched on.

Since the bass was set to maximum, but the bass boost was switched off, the fives did not give me enough power in the depths to satisfy me (regardless of their placement distance). But if this option is activated, the speakers only need to have a bass volume of 50% in order to produce a very even, balanced audio at closer distances.

If you crave deeper bass and don't have enough room to give The Fives space to breathe, you can attach an optional sub. The fives recognize when a sub has been connected and automatically send all lows to the sub, with the entire performance of these main drivers dedicated to the mids.

Decorate your ears with excellent sound quality

I tested this with the Klipsch R-100SW subwoofer, a mid-priced 10-inch subwoofer, and the result literally rocked the foundation of my house with rumbling, chest-rattling basses while being blasted with one of the most beautifully balanced sounds I could think of can imagine. Music was a powerful beneficiary that the sub was added to this arrangement. It should be noted that if you choose a sub with The Fives, it needs to be wired.

The difference between using and not using a submarine is obvious, but I'm happy with the performance of The Fives. At least they match a single soundbar solution and in many cases exceed it.

At the start and until later this year, there is no way to optimize The Fives with app support. According to Klipsch, an app is in the works and should be available before the end of 2020.

No Dolby decoding required

The Fives do not support Dolby decoding. So if you're like me and channel all your content through something like the Roku Ultra, you'll need to go into the Roku's audio settings and switch it to PCM instead of the default. If you don't, content sent in Dolby Digital or Dolby Atmos will not deliver audio. Netflix & # 39; Dark and Avengers: Endgame, which is streamed over Vudu, are two examples of this.

You might think at first that this is a disadvantage of The Fives, but au contraire it is not. A Dolby Atmos soundbar with real drivers is nice, but not yet a standard, and we don't hold it against a specific sound system if it doesn't support it. By default, Dolby Digital does not need this signal because it does not require separation of the audio channel information. The fives do not have to decode the subwoofer, the center, the surrounds or the like. You get two-channel digital audio playback with full bandwidth via PCM. This is all The Fives need to decorate your ears with excellent sound quality.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Our opinion

The Fives are the dream of an audiophile in a soundbar killer. Not only will you outperform a single soundbar solution, you will also give soundbar systems with multiple speakers a chance. If you're interested in the quality of your home theater sound, the price of $ 799 is fair. The fives kill in every situation.

Is there a better alternative?

If you are looking for real left and right monitors that can be easily combined with your TV setup via HDMI ARC and without an A / V receiver, The Fives are currently your only option. They are the first and only speaker set to fill this role.

If you're open to soundbars, both the Sonos Arc and Bose Soundbar 700 are good choices. The Sonos Arc is the only sound bar in this price range that supports Dolby Atmos. All three are like The Fives in that they don't come with the included submarine, but still offer excellent sound quality.

How long will they last?

All active Klipsch speakers come with a one-year warranty, but you should expect them to last much longer. Klipsch is a respected brand and The Fives should offer you sound quality for at least a decade, if not more.

Should you buy them

Yes. They are an absolute home run and you will want them.

Editor's recommendations




08 Jul
Blog

How to Intensify Your At-Home Bodyweight Workout

It is more important than ever to understand how you can customize your workout to keep getting results.

With gyms worldwide closed, the question fitness freaks keep asking is: "Can you still get results if you exercise at home?"

The answer is yes. Can you continue to get consistent results? Yes, provided you understand some important intensity strategies to effectively implement progressive overload. In this article, we give you the six most important ways to achieve results from the comfort of your own home with simple intensity adjustments.

First of all, it is important to understand that you can make serious gains with your body weight.

Though contradicting many popular fitness cultures, the gym isn't the only place where you can lose weight, build muscle, and improve your performance. Here's a quick overview of how you can use body weight training as a critical part of your fitness goal.

Is Your Weight Loss Goal?

If your main fitness goal is to lose weight, your main focus should be on creating an energy deficit – meaning that you are consuming more energy than you are consuming. An energy deficit is typically created by calorie restriction and increased physical activity.

Regardless of whether you increase your physical activity during training or during training at home, What matters is that you move and push regularly.

Body weight training can burn lots of calories, especially if you do a high number of repetitions with limited rest and intense exercise.

Is your goal to build muscle?

To build muscle, you need to stimulate muscle hypertrophy. Without going into exercise science too much, you need to know the following: Muscle hypertrophy requires three mechanisms:

  1. Muscle damage can occur if you do a workout of sufficient length with enough sets per body part.
  2. Mechanical tension can occur when you perform each exercise slowly and alternately concentrically and eccentrically.
  3. Metabolic stress can occur if you do an exercise with a high number of repetitions.

Optimally, you would use heavy weights with progressive overload, with a different repetition, and a set range to build muscle. However, it is possible to build muscle by doing bodyweight exercises if you follow specially curated workouts that promote every key mechanism for hypertrophy.

Is your goal to build strength?

Body weight training is for you. Using your body's weight as resistance is one of the most effective ways to build strength.

Performing functional movements focuses on strengthening the most important movement patterns that are transferred into your daily life and increase your physical strength.

Body weight training is not necessarily superior compared to using weights, but it is just as beneficial and probably more practical, especially in the current climate.

Strength is built by increasing strength and endurance, and body weight training is ideal for both goals. Plyometric exercises help develop strength, and high-repetition bodyweight exercises are a great way to build endurance.

What determines your results in weight training at home is your ability to implement progressive overload. It's easy in the gym. But it can get a little more complicated at home. If you are not yet familiar with the concept of progressive overload, here is a brief overview of what you need to know.

What is progressive overload?

The principle of progressive overload states that muscles have to grow, performance or strength have to increase or a similar improvement has to occur. The human body must be forced to adapt to a tension that goes beyond what it has experienced before.

Ignore anyone who has ever told you that you have to change your exercise routine every few days to shock your muscles. There is no scientific evidence to support this; Your muscles are muscles, not people. You don't know what you're doing, just that you're working under tension.

Research shows that the most effective way to build muscle is to repeat the same movements and exercises and increase the intensity of the workout to keep forcing your muscles to work and adjust.

This increase in intensity is the concept of progressive overload. The progressive overload forces your muscles to work harder each time so that they continue to tear, repair and grow.

If you want to learn more about it, read this article. So keep the exercises the same, but increase the intensity.

Logically, the best way to do this is to increase the weight you use. But if you get stuck at home training, do you still have to buy heavier dumbbells? That would make your fitness trip a lot more complicated than it needs to be. So here is what you need to do.

Implement progressive overload

  • Increase the weight – This is the most typical way to implement progressive overload. Even if you only increase the weight by five pounds, your muscles will be forced to work harder and adapt faster. Make a note of the weight you use during each workout so you don't forget it.
  • Increase the volume of the sentences / repetitions – Increasing sets or repetitions forces your body to adapt to a higher intensity. It also builds up metabolic stress, which makes your muscles look pumped. However, it also causes large amounts of muscle damage and glycogen deficiency, which takes longer to recover. Also, you can't increase your sets and reps forever, it's not practical. However, this can be an effective intensity strategy for isolation exercises with body weight or low stress. Avoid this method for compound exercises like squats and deadlifts.
  • Reduce the rest time between sets – This causes you to work harder and keep your heart rate high. This method is more suitable for endurance exercises than for hypertrophy (muscle building). So you can implement this on the upper body or lower body / HIIT superset day, but not on heavy lower body days when rest is important.

Now that we've covered the basics, what are the more advanced methods of intensifying your body weight training at home?

1. Change the pace

As mentioned earlier, this is an effective way to stimulate mechanical tension, one of the basic mechanisms for building muscle.

With mechanical tension, the time is increased under load, i. H. The time your muscles contract and the force they create to complete the movement.

Remember that your muscles do not know the size of the weights used. You only know the tension.

The pace of an exercise is the timing at which it is performedSo if you want to increase the speed of a squat, count down 2, 3 4 in your head. & # 39; break, 2 3 & # 39; and accelerate in & # 39; one & # 39 ;.

This is an example of a slow eccentric (lowering) phase, a pause at the bottom of the squat, and an accelerated concentric phase that will bring you to a halt.

If you do an exercise slowly and switch between a slower concentric and a fast eccentric, or vice versa, the time under tension increases and your muscles have to adjust.

2. Play around with fixed intensities

There are not just sentences and repetitions. There are a variety of set and rep styles:

You can do a superset for the intensity (do each exercise immediately after the other).

There are different types of supersets:

Read more about different supersets.

3. Manipulate the range of motion

Doing a weight exercise creates an axial load that can prevent a full range of motion.

For example, if you squat with a barbell on your back, your spine is in a manipulated position, so the overall range of motion may be less.

Without external weight, your range of motion will likely increase. So play with the depth and breadth of the movement planes.

4. Manipulate your posture

Similar to the above, you can change your shape to activate different muscles. Following the example of a squat, narrow squats aim at your quads, while wide squats aim at your glutes.

With only minor changes in your posture or position, all exercises can feel different.

5. Change the position of your torso

This does not work with all exercises, Some body weight exercises can be made more intense by changing the position of your torso.

For example, on the next push-up try to put one hand behind your back and shift your weight to the grounded side. This slight displacement of the trunk changes the plane of movement and the rotation of your shoulder joint to beat differently.

6. Use partials and constant tension

When you do an exercise, you play around with partial repetitions and constant tension.

For example, when doing a squat, you can try to generate constant voltage pulses while coming up a quarter of the way from a normal squat and pulsing there for repetitions.

Now you have six tips. Let's put this into practice to get the most out of your body weight training. whatever your goal is

Example workout:

exercise Sets Representative attitude tempo
Body weight squats 5 25th Wide Slowly concentric, quickly eccentric
Pushup superset

a) Conventional push-up

b)

Push constant tension upwards

3rd

3rd

20

AMRAP

a) The standard for the first exercise

b) Keep the voltage constant by staying low and not getting all the way up

 Quickly done for metabolic stress to failure
Burpees 5 fifteen Can be plank burpees, floor burpees or push-up burpees Performed as quickly as possible to increase heart rate
Push-pull superset

A dip

b) chin-up

2nd

2nd

25th

25th

a) N / A.

b) Can be wide or narrow

 Slowly concentric to increase intensity and muscle damage
plank 2nd error N / A N / A
Bulgarian split squat 5 50 per leg Wide default
08 Jul
Blog

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC300TW Review: A Worthy Sony Challenger

Audio-Technica 300TW earphones

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC300TW

"Audio-Technica has created the best challenger for the Sony WF-1000XM3 that we have seen so far."

  • Comfortable design

  • Outstanding sound quality

  • Excellent noise cancellation

The Sony WF-1000XM3 has long been the undisputed champion of the real wireless earphone arena. Competitors struggle to achieve the couple's incredible sound quality and active noise cancellation at a comparable price. After this review, the Sony buds will be able to keep the crown, but man, Audio-Technica was nearing the throne.

Audio-Technica's new true wireless earphones, the ATH-ANC300TW, along with the Technics TSW EAH-AZ70W, are one of the most direct competitors of the WF-1000XM3. With an identical MSRP of $ 230 (though the Sonys are now often found for less) and many similar features, the 300TW aimed directly at the king. Here's why they just missed the mark, but also why they're still an excellent option.

Out of the box

The packaging in which the ATH-ANC300TW is delivered has nothing special. When you lift the lid of the white box, a protective layer of foam is inserted, under which the earphones and the rest of the accessories sit.

Audio-Technica 300TW charging caseNick Woodard / Digital Trends

Audio-Technica offers the usual gift items – a USB-C charging cable and a lot of documentation – but exceeds the expectations with the numerous included earplugs. There are extra small, small and large silicone earplugs (they are already delivered on the buds with the medium iteration) as well as a pair of medium sized Comply foam tips. If you want to make sure a customer gets the right fit for their earbuds, this is an ideal way to do it.

The connection is straightforward. The pairing process begins and ends with finding the buds in your mobile device's Bluetooth settings and establishing the connection. The ATH-ANC300TW has Bluetooth 5 technology and offers the coveted range of 30 meters. My tests of these buds at home have also confirmed this. In addition, I had no connection failure the week I used these buds.

design

The ATH-ANC300TW are built almost deceptively. When I initially pulled them out of their charging case, I thought that under no circumstances would they stick out of my ears. But I get that when I judge a book by its cover.

Audio-Technica 300TW earphones

The curved body of the ATH-ANC300TW offers you a compact, comfortable fit, even though you are looking for the opposite. I found them sufficiently safe so that I could run a handful of runs without them falling out. There are far better training-oriented buds, but these will come to the fore when necessary.

Except for the Audio-Technica logo on the end cap of each bud, these earphones, which are held in an elegant black, do not stand out aesthetically. There is a single button at the top of each bud. The action that these buttons take depends on how often you tap them. They were easy to use, especially since you can choose between a right-handed and a left-handed pattern in the associated app. We'll dive deeper into the app later, but it was worth noting that Audio-Technica didn't forget all of the world's southern paws.

The charging case takes a similar approach in terms of aesthetic simplicity and is kept in a black and gray color scheme. It's a bit bulky than I would like for pocket travel, but I wouldn't call it an obstacle.

properties

There is a laundry list with features that you can comb through with the ATH-ANC300TW. They are mostly exceptional, with a few tangles involved.

Audio-Technica 300TW earphonesNick Woodard / Digital Trends

The 300TW are weatherproof according to IPX2 to protect them from dripping water such as rain and sweat. This is better than the Sony WF-1000XM3, which has no official weather protection class. However, buds like the Google Pixel Buds 2 or the Technics TSWs mentioned above offer an IPX4 rating at a cheaper or similar price. I didn't see any rain when I was wearing the 300TW, but as a lush sweater during training, I will ensure that it can hold through this level of sweat.

The battery life is unfortunately only average. The 300TW can last up to 4.5 hours on a single charge, adding 13.5 hours of extra power to the charging case. That would have been fine a few years ago, but we're living in fast-paced times. The Sony WF-1000XM3 outshone these numbers a long time ago with six hours of playback and 18 additional plays. Newer products like the WF-SP800N from Sony offer a playback time of nine hours with active noise canceling activated. With the 300TW it's a real shit, because buds that sound so good shouldn't have such a short listening span.

Audio-Technica has included a nifty bunch of technology in these buds, and while the average owner may not be keeping an eye on them, they help improve the overall experience. There's Qualcomm Clear Voice Capture (CVV) technology to support calls during a call, a low-latency feature called Qualcomm True Wireless Stereo Plus that lets you stream without audio interruption, and SCMS-T technology that over Bluetooth protects content transferred between compatible devices.

Audio quality

It's been a while since I heard earphones that sound so good. Sure, I liked the sound of Google Pixel Buds 2 and Samsung Galaxy Buds +, but we're talking about a different class of audio quality with the ATH-ANC300TW.

Audio-Technica 300TW earphonesNick Woodard / Digital Trends

My favorite sounding real wireless earbuds are the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, and although the Audio-Technica buds don't quite reach the bar, they're on par with the great sounding WF-1000XM3 from Sony. This could be due to a combination of the 5.8mm drivers with diamond-like carbon-coated membranes for the 300TW or the collection of supported audio codecs such as aptX, AAC and SBC.

Whatever it is, it's great. Think of one of the endless catalogs of classic riffs in music – from Led Zeppelin's electrifying intro to the Good Times Bad Times to the dancing instrumentals of Frank Sinatra's Fly Me to The Moon – and these buds instantly make them even better. They are remarkably clear and present a masterful sound stage with a frequency response of 20-25,000 Hz. I would give the WF-1000XM3 the edge in the lower section, with the bass being the only area with the 300TW that is not that impressive. Still, the bass provided is probably more than enough for most people.

There is no EQ in the app for the 300TW, although I hardly find it a mistake. The sound quality offered here is fantastic. However, the app shows the active audio codec and allows you to navigate between them if you wish.

Active noise cancellation

I want to publicly apologize to all the neighbors who have heard me say "wow" repeatedly in the past week. As strange as it may have been to see someone say this without being asked when walking with their dogs, I promise that this is justified.

Audio-Technica 300TW earphonesNick Woodard / Digital Trends

The active noise cancellation integrated into the 300TW is really exceptional. Audio-Technica used hybrid noise cancellation technology. This means that there are microphones in front of and behind each driver to analyze, process, and prevent as much environmental noise as possible from affecting sound reproduction. It is a technology similar to Panasonic with the RZ-S500W or the Technics TSWs. As in these buds, the ANC does a damn good job in the 300TS.

I tested the 300TW's ANC capabilities with everything I could throw at it – a busy street, my lawnmower, a towering John Deere tractor in my local park – and they responded admirably. The app contains three different ANC modes, but instead of the typical low / medium / high modes, they are labeled for the environments they are best suited for: Airplane, On the Go, and Office / Study.

Of course, at least two of these three intended environments are not really one thing at the moment, so I couldn't put them against real business. But I switched through each mode and everyone reacted as it was intended: Airplane mode attenuated lower frequencies, targeted street noise on the go and office / study helped in quieter situations.

Such strong active noise cancellation requires an equally effective ambient noise function. The hear-through function of the 300TW is the ideal addition with the possibility to adjust the amount of noise let in. Interestingly, ANC is the default setting for the 300TW, and the alternative is hear-through. The only way to listen without any of these settings is to disable them in the app. On the other hand, I don't know why someone wants to do something like this.

Despite all the praise I've given the 300TW and its ANC capabilities, I still think Sony's WF-1000XM3 is better at its noise cancellation. But as close as Audio-Technica is, I would be more than a little concerned if I were Sony now. And although we really liked the Technics TSW's ability to suppress noise, the additional situation granularity in these buds is a huge bonus.

Our opinion

The Audio-Technica ATH-ANC300TW does not have a long battery life, but it makes up for it in almost every other category. These are great earbuds, no two ways.

Are there any better alternatives?

The Sony WF-1000XM3 for $ 230 offers better battery life, better bass and better noise reduction, and all with very small margins. The Technics TSW buds have better battery life and excellent noise cancellation, but a little weaker bass performance and a higher price. The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 sounds better, but costs $ 300.

How long will they last?

With their IPX2 weather resistance, the 300TW are durable in the elements and have a technology that is supported by consistent firmware updates. These buds should be designed for a long life.

Should you buy them

Yes. They may not have succeeded in dropping Sony, but Audio-Technica has managed to create one of the best challengers for the WF-1000XM3 that we saw in the ATH-ANC300TW. While Sony remains the leader on campus, it has to look carefully over its shoulder.

Editor's recommendations




08 Jul
Blog

How to Intensify Your At-Home Bodyweight Workout

It is more important than ever to understand how you can customize your workout to keep getting results.

With gyms worldwide closed, the question fitness freaks keep asking is: "Can you still get results if you exercise at home?"

The answer is yes. Can you continue to get consistent results? Yes, provided you understand some important intensity strategies to effectively implement progressive overload. In this article, we give you the six most important ways to achieve results from the comfort of your own home with simple intensity adjustments.

First of all, it is important to understand that you can make serious gains with your body weight.

Though contradicting many popular fitness cultures, the gym isn't the only place where you can lose weight, build muscle, and improve your performance. Here's a quick overview of how you can use body weight training as a critical part of your fitness goal.

Is Your Weight Loss Goal?

If your main fitness goal is to lose weight, your main focus should be on creating an energy deficit – meaning that you are consuming more energy than you are consuming. An energy deficit is typically created by calorie restriction and increased physical activity.

Regardless of whether you increase your physical activity during training or during training at home, What matters is that you move and push regularly.

Body weight training can burn lots of calories, especially if you do a high number of repetitions with limited rest and intense exercise.

Is your goal to build muscle?

To build muscle, you need to stimulate muscle hypertrophy. Without going into exercise science too much, you need to know the following: Muscle hypertrophy requires three mechanisms:

  1. Muscle damage can occur if you do a workout of sufficient length with enough sets per body part.
  2. Mechanical tension can occur when you perform each exercise slowly and alternately concentrically and eccentrically.
  3. Metabolic stress can occur if you do an exercise with a high number of repetitions.

Optimally, you would use heavy weights with progressive overload, with a different repetition, and a set range to build muscle. However, it is possible to build muscle by doing bodyweight exercises if you follow specially curated workouts that promote every key mechanism for hypertrophy.

Is your goal to build strength?

Body weight training is for you. Using your body's weight as resistance is one of the most effective ways to build strength.

Performing functional movements focuses on strengthening the most important movement patterns that are transferred into your daily life and increase your physical strength.

Body weight training is not necessarily superior compared to using weights, but it is just as beneficial and probably more practical, especially in the current climate.

Strength is built by increasing strength and endurance, and body weight training is ideal for both goals. Plyometric exercises help develop strength, and high-repetition bodyweight exercises are a great way to build endurance.

What determines your results in weight training at home is your ability to implement progressive overload. It's easy in the gym. But it can get a little more complicated at home. If you are not yet familiar with the concept of progressive overload, here is a brief overview of what you need to know.

What is progressive overload?

The principle of progressive overload states that muscles have to grow, performance or strength have to increase or a similar improvement has to occur. The human body must be forced to adapt to a tension that goes beyond what it has experienced before.

Ignore anyone who has ever told you that you have to change your exercise routine every few days to shock your muscles. There is no scientific evidence to support this; Your muscles are muscles, not people. You don't know what you're doing, just that you're working under tension.

Research shows that the most effective way to build muscle is to repeat the same movements and exercises and increase the intensity of the workout to keep forcing your muscles to work and adjust.

This increase in intensity is the concept of progressive overload. The progressive overload forces your muscles to work harder each time so that they continue to tear, repair and grow.

If you want to learn more about it, read this article. So keep the exercises the same, but increase the intensity.

Logically, the best way to do this is to increase the weight you use. But if you get stuck at home training, do you still have to buy heavier dumbbells? That would make your fitness trip a lot more complicated than it needs to be. So here is what you need to do.

Implement progressive overload

  • Increase the weight – This is the most typical way to implement progressive overload. Even if you only increase the weight by five pounds, your muscles will be forced to work harder and adapt faster. Make a note of the weight you use during each workout so you don't forget it.
  • Increase the volume of the sentences / repetitions – Increasing sets or repetitions forces your body to adapt to a higher intensity. It also builds up metabolic stress, which makes your muscles look pumped. However, it also causes large amounts of muscle damage and glycogen deficiency, which takes longer to recover. Also, you can't increase your sets and reps forever, it's not practical. However, this can be an effective intensity strategy for isolation exercises with body weight or low stress. Avoid this method for compound exercises like squats and deadlifts.
  • Reduce the rest time between sets – This causes you to work harder and keep your heart rate high. This method is more suitable for endurance exercises than for hypertrophy (muscle building). So you can implement this on the upper body or lower body / HIIT superset day, but not on heavy lower body days when rest is important.

Now we've covered the basics. What are the more advanced methods of intensifying your body weight training at home?

1. Change the pace

As mentioned earlier, this is an effective way to stimulate mechanical tension, one of the basic mechanisms for building muscle.

With mechanical tension, the time is increased under load, i. H. The time your muscles contract and the force they create to complete the movement.

Remember that your muscles do not know the size of the weights used. You only know the tension.

The pace of an exercise is the timing at which it is performedSo if you want to increase the speed of a squat, count down 2, 3 4 in your head. & # 39; break, 2 3 & # 39; and accelerate in & # 39; one & # 39 ;.

This is an example of a slow eccentric (lowering) phase, a pause at the bottom of the squat, and an accelerated concentric phase that will bring you to a halt.

If you do an exercise slowly and switch between a slower concentric and a fast eccentric, or vice versa, the time under tension increases and your muscles have to adjust.

2. Play around with fixed intensities

There are not just sentences and repetitions. There are a variety of set and rep styles:

You can do a superset for the intensity (do each exercise immediately after the other).

There are different types of supersets:

Read more about different supersets.

3. Manipulate the range of motion

Doing a weight exercise creates an axial load that can prevent a full range of motion.

For example, if you squat with a barbell on your back, your spine is in a manipulated position, so the overall range of motion may be less.

Without external weight, your range of motion will likely increase. So play with the depth and breadth of the movement planes.

4. Manipulate your posture

Similar to the above, you can change your shape to activate different muscles. Following the example of a squat, narrow squats aim at your quads, while wide squats aim at your glutes.

With only minor changes in your posture or position, all exercises can feel different.

5. Change the position of your torso

This does not work with all exercises, Some body weight exercises can be made more intense by changing the position of your torso.

For example, on the next push-up try to put one hand behind your back and shift your weight to the grounded side. This slight displacement of the trunk changes the plane of movement and the rotation of your shoulder joint to beat differently.

6. Use partials and constant tension

When you do an exercise, you play around with partial repetitions and constant tension.

For example, when doing a squat, you can try to generate constant voltage pulses while coming up a quarter of the way from a normal squat and pulsing there for repetitions.

Now you have six tips. Let's put this into practice to get the most out of your body weight training. whatever your goal is

Example workout:

exercise Sets Representative attitude tempo
Body weight squats 5 25th Wide Slowly concentric, quickly eccentric
Pushup superset

a) Conventional push-up

b)

Push constant tension upwards

3rd

3rd

20

AMRAP

a) The standard for the first exercise

b) Keep the voltage constant by staying low and not getting all the way up

 Quickly done for metabolic stress to failure
Burpees 5 fifteen Can be plank burpees, floor burpees or push-up burpees Performed as quickly as possible to increase heart rate
Push-pull superset

A dip

b) chin-up

2nd

2nd

25th

25th

a) N / A.

b) Can be wide or narrow

 Slowly concentric to increase intensity and muscle damage
plank 2nd error N / A N / A
Bulgarian split squat 5 50 per leg Wide default
07 Jul
Blog

Is Hydroquinone Safe And What Are Natural Alternatives?

We all crave flawless skin, but dark spots are not an easy problem to treat. For a number of reasons – from sun damage and stress to hormones and inflammation – hyperpigmentation is a common problem because it protects your body from everyday environmental stressors. It is no wonder that many are turning to hydroquinone, a powerful skin care ingredient to remove this common frustration. However, before reaching for this product, you should find out what it is and whether hydroquinone is safe.

What is hydroquinone?

Basically, hydroquinone is a chemical compound that is used to lighten dark spots. Byrdie Tell us that it was discovered in the early 19th century and used for everything from "skin care to photo development". Today, hydroquinone is used to treat skin conditions associated with hyperpigmentation, including acne scars, age spots, melasma, and post-inflammatory spots. Classified as a drug in the United States, it is only available on prescription in four percent concentrations and over the counter in two percent doses.

Where does hyperpigmentation come from?

When dark spots appear, your skin has gone into overdrive in the production of melanin, a type of pigment produced by cells called melanocytes. Triggered by stress such as UV rays or hormonal imbalances, the skin reacts with a protective defense and the production of additional melanin. Eminence Organics Lead Skin Care Trainer Natalie Pergar explains that an enzyme called tyrosinase triggers this process and "signals the production of melanin in the melanocytes of the skin". When more melanin is produced, the skin develops spots and an uneven skin tone.

How does hydroquinone work?

Hydroquinone works by inhibition the function of tyrosinase and the reduction in the number of melanocytes. By controlling these cells, melanin production is reduced and hyperpigmentation and other skin discoloration problems are reduced. Cosmetic and plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer Byrdie says the effect is temporary and discontinued and exposure to the sun can result in "pigment re-production and dark spot return". Ask infographic: is hydroquinone safe?

Is hydroquinone safe?

Although the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Hydroquinone was recognized as safe and effective in 1982 and withdrawn in 2006 due to concerns.

The FDA said: "There is potential for Hydroquinone is said to be carcinogenic in humans. "

The FDA said: "There is potential for Hydroquinone is said to be carcinogenic in humans. “Referring to studies from the Environmental protection agency and the National Toxicology ProgramThe FDA found that there was evidence of a carcinogenic effect in tested rats and mice, including the development of leukemia and liver lesions. However, there is no evidence that hydroquinone has caused cancer in humans.

In addition to its potential carcinogenic properties, hydroquinone has been linked to contaminants such as mercury. The LA Times Early studies found that women using hydroquinone products were high in mercury. Based on these findings, hydroquinone is banned in Europe, Japan and Australia. The World Health Organization has also looked into the unsupervised use of hydroquinone and said, "It is recommended to restrict over-the-counter sales of creams containing hydroquinone."

Even under supervision, hydroquinone may cause minor side effects and skin irritation. Dermatologist Dr. Lily Talakoub lists the most common side effects as "redness, irritation and peeling, although allergic reactions can occur with any topical preparation". People with dry or sensitive skin may also find that hydroquinone temporarily increases dryness or irritation. In addition to increased sensitivity, hydroquinone can also make the skin more sensitive to the sun. Sun protection is essential at all times, but especially necessary when using this medication.

Hydroquinone can cause not only minor skin irritation but also pigmentation problems, although these are usually rare. Since hydroquinone lightens dark spots, the hydroquinone often lightens the areas around it and leaves a so-called "halo spot". Dr. Shafer describes this problem to Byrdie as "slightly depigmented halo around the area to be treated".

At the other end of the spectrum, the skin can respond to hydroquinone by actually darkening in a condition called ochronisis. Dr. Talakoub describes this very rare reaction as one in which "black deposits form in the deeper layers of the skin". The skin can darken and thicken, resulting in dome-shaped yellowish bumps and gray-brown spots.

Natural hydroquinone alternatives

Although hydroquinone is an effective drug, it is still surrounded by question marks regarding its safety and side effects. If you're looking for safer solutions, you should explore them Natural hydroquinone alternatives as options for targeted hyperpigmentation. Not only do these alternatives naturally balance the look of your complexion, they can also offer antioxidant benefits for protection and prevention. Here are some natural alternatives for your skin care:Close up of bearberry

Bearberry extract

This botanical ingredient contains a natural form of hydroquinone and arbutin as melanin inhibitors. The bearberry extract obtained from the Uva Ursi plant contains strong antioxidant properties that help with hyperpigmentation.

Licorice extract

This extract contains liquiritin and glabridine, which disrupt melanin formation in the skin and support the appearance of an uneven skin tone. Because inflammation is a factor in hyperpigmentation, the anti-inflammatory properties of licorice are also helpful.Close-up of the tara tree

Tara Tree & African Potato

Like hydroquinone, these two ingredients act on the tyrosinase enzyme – it reduces tyrosinase activity and hampers its development. These actions reduce melanin production and counteract hyperpigmentation.

Gigawhite™

This formulation consists of seven organically grown Swiss Alpine plants, including mallow, peppermint, lady's mantle, Eurasian primrose, Speedwell, lemon balm and yarrow. These extracts inhibit tyrosinase and are all mixed together. This formulation has a strong effect on dark spots.

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZbOCDtOJ4 (/ embed)

If you're not sure if hydroquinone is safe, look for natural alternatives to help fight your dark spots. For more information on natural hydroquinone alternatives, see the Eminence Organics Bright Skin line, including our Bright Skin Moisturizers, Bright Skin Masque, Bright Skin Licorice Root Booster Serums and Bright Skin Targeted Treatment. Or speak to your beautician at the nearest Eminence Organics partner spa and find out if a natural alternative is right for you.

Do you suffer from dark spots? Let us know how to tackle your problem in the comments below, or let us know on social media.

07 Jul
Blog

Shark IQ Robot R101AE Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum Review

Hai iq robot vacuum rating 3

Shark IQ Robot 101AE with self-draining base

"The self-draining ability of the IQ robot combined with its ability to clean only certain areas allows me to schedule 30 days and achieve a truly automated cleaning experience."

  • Empties

  • Excellent suction power

  • Useful home mapping

  • Reasonable price

  • Loud operation

  • The robot needs a week to learn the environment

I'm too lazy to do robotic vacuum cleaners.

I don't want to make sure the dog bowl is out of the way, pull my shoes out of the middle of the entrance, and move my laptop cable and cell phone chargers so the robot doesn't eat them. I also don’t feel like emptying the trash can regularly.

I recently had the opportunity to review a new Shark robot vacuum called IQ Robot. What does the Shark IQ Robot have compared to the millions of other robot vacuum cleaners on the market? Is it nicer Smarter? Will it fold my laundry? What makes it special?

Well, like the Roomba i7 plus, the Shark IQ R101AE is an automatically emptied robotic vacuum cleaner. It is also said to have exceptional suction power, a self-cleaning brush roller, advanced mapping functions and a relatively affordable price. Given that features tend to increase pricing, it's reassuring that Shark keeps them relatively available.

Let's see if this self-draining robot is as good as it sounds.

Get ready

When I opened the box, I found the Shark IQ robot with the self-cleaning brush roller, wheels and main components already installed. To complete the assembly of the robot, all I had to do was snap open the two front side brushes, which are one-sided. I also found the self-draining base that also serves as a charging station. Finally, there is a mat included in case I want to set up the IQ robot on a carpet area. I did not use the mat because I placed the device on a hard floor.

Erika Rawes / Digital Trends

The setup process was very simple. It took less than five minutes. After fully charging the robot, which took six hours to fully charge the battery, I installed the Shark Clean app and connected the voice control device to Alexa.

Yes, it empties itself and is pretty cute

Erika Rawes / Digital Trends

I can hear the dirt being sucked out of the robot every time the robot interacts with the docking station. The emptying station is also without a bag, so I don't have to worry about replacement bags or environmental damage caused by plastic.

Thanks to the self-draining bagless technology, I can leave the vacuum alone for about a month. When it's finally time to empty the dirt, I just lift the container up and push a button to throw dust and dirt into a trash can.

Much better mapping than previous Shark robots

Earlier Shark robot vacuum cleaners like the ION R85 weren't particularly good at card technology. The R85 has intelligent sensor navigation with which it can avoid objects and move around the house. However, it does not have a visual assignment.

The new Shark IQ Robot is far ahead of the ION R85 in this regard. It does not repeatedly drive over areas where it has already been cleaned, and it creates a map of your house in the app that allows you to select specific areas in which the robot should clean. For example, you can instruct the robot to only clean the master bedroom or living room and they know exactly where to go.

Powerful shark suction

This vacuum has an amazing suction power. The suction power is better than most upright units I have encountered. As a result, my floors were completely free of dust, dirt and dog hair. However, what really impressed me about the IQ robot was its ability to pick up large debris. We have a lot of trees on our property, so my family and I track a lot of dried leaves. The robot picked up all of the last leaves, crumbs, and scraps of food left on the floor from the day.

The IQ robot comes with 8 feet of magnetic strips that I can use to block areas where the robot shouldn't be driving. I cut the magnetic strips into smaller pieces and put the strips in front of my dog's crate, around their feeding area and in front of an area where there are many cables and charging cables. This way, I don't have to move anything before I have vacuumed or cleaned up, which cancels the purpose of automated cleaning.

Planning, automatic top-up and more

I can set the IQ robot to clean on a schedule. In general, the robot vacuum planning features are not too useful since the user has to empty the trash can and prepare the cleaning area between cleanings. The self-draining ability of the IQ robot, combined with its ability to clean only certain areas, allows me to set a 30-day schedule and have a truly automated cleaning experience. The robot has a battery life of 90 minutes on a single charge. However, if the robot runs out of battery juice or the dust container fills up during cleaning, it will return to the station to get more battery power or drain itself and then continue cleaning.

The robot also speaks and lets me know when problems arise. If I can't find the robot, the app has the "Find my robot" function that the robot uses to beep so that I can find the device if it gets stuck under a couch or in a cabinet. Since it is compatible with Alexa and Google Home, I can also use voice commands to control the IQ robot.

The robot is a bit loud

Erika Rawes / Digital Trends

This vacuum makes a lot of noise. It's louder than any other robot vacuum I've used during operation. It is also extremely noisy when the robot empties the dirt into the self-draining base. When emptied, it sounds like one of those vacuum cleaners in the car wash. It frightened my dog ​​for the first time, and now she looks at the robot every time he approaches the docking station and waits for him to make the loud noise.

For me, the volume of the device wasn't too much of a problem as I can just stop my Hulu show when the vacuum approaches. But for those who have young children or in a home situation where they need a robot vacuum that works quietly, this could be a problem.

There is a learning curve

Most robotic vacuum cleaners take some time to learn your home. This device had to vacuum my house for eight days (14 separate cleaning cycles) before a complete map of my house was created. For the first week before the card was ready, I couldn't set the robot to only clean certain rooms.

The robot couldn't find the dock when he was still learning my home. It searched for about 45 seconds and then the robot said aloud that it couldn't find the dock and asked me to put it on the dock manually. It still worked normally and emptied itself after I put it on the dock, but I was a little surprised that it couldn't find it on its own. After about five days, the robot started to locate the dock with no problems.

Warranty info

The Shark IQ robot is guaranteed for one year.

Our opinion

The practical and powerful Shark IQ robot solves most of the problems customers have with robotic vacuum cleaners. There are a few drawbacks – the robot is noisy and it takes about a week to learn the house and unlock all of its features – but since the IQ robot is cheaper than other robots in its category, I'm still happy with that Total unit.

Are there any better alternatives?

The main competition to the IQ Robot is the iRobot Roomba i7 Plus, an excellent machine with excellent mapping functions and exceptional cleaning performance. The two main differences between the IQ Robot and the i7 Plus are the price and the fact that the IQ Robot is bagless.

You can buy the IQ Robot for $ 600, which is the normal retail price. The i7 Plus costs around $ 1,000. The i7 Plus is also self-draining, but the emptying station contains disposable bags. The customer must replace the bag after the trash can has been emptied 30 times.

How long it will take?

With visual mapping and smart home compatibility, this robot is technologically exactly where it should be. Functions such as self-draining and the option to select certain cleaning areas make it even better and bring it a little ahead of the curve.

There's no reason to believe that the Companion (Shark Clean) app will soon end support for the IQ Robot, and you shouldn't have to worry about the quality of the robot either. All parts and components feel robust and well made.

Should you buy it

Yes. If you don't want to worry about vacuuming at all, this robot is a good investment.

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