Student Fitness

By: Joe Norton 

University of Pennsylvania researchers found that even the most chronically sleep-deprived men report feeling “only slightly sleepy.” So, the question is how often do you feel slightly sleepy? Everyday! Well, if you are one of the many who do not get enough sleep and suffer because of it, here are some correlations you should be made aware of.

Sleep Deprivation opens the door for Illness

In a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that when 11 sleep-deprived but otherwise healthy men were given a flu vaccine, they built up just half the level of antibodies–proteins produced by the immune system to battle foreign substances–as fully rested guys given the same shot. Pair this with the fact that college campuses are already a hotbed for illness due to close quarters (and hygiene for some) and you’ve got serious potential for illness.

Don’t sacrifice mental ability.

“Studies done on visual perception, motor skills, and creative tasks all show that if you don’t sleep enough, learning just doesn’t happen,” says Sara Mednick, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute. Think she’s exaggerating? The National Sleep Foundation reports that sleep deprivation impairs mental performance almost as much as being drunk–only without the funny stories. Keep in mind you are a student and don’t sacrifice mental ability for a few extra hours.

The standard amount of sleep per night is 8 hours however there is room for variation.
Some sleep as much 9 hours while others sleep as little as 5 1/2.
For More information about sleep 

By: Joe Norton 

There are many ways you can increase your metabolism, the best ways of which are to be active and to eat often. However, there are smaller, simpler things you can do to increase your metabolism a little. Every little bit helps.

Load up on hot sauce - capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot peppers, causes an increase in metabolism. Studies have found that capsaicin works in two ways to reduce cholesterol levels: it decreases cholesterol absorption by the body so that more is excreted in the feces; and it increases the enzymes responsible for fat metabolism in the liver, so that more triglycerides, the hard insoluble fat, are secreted by the liver rather than accumulated in the body.

Drink coffee -Anyone who’s had a few too many coffees and sufferred the shakes can tell you that caffeine is a serious stimulant that dosen’t get much negative press due to our cultures love of coffee. Just make sure to drink plenty of water (I drink a glass of water for every cup of coffee, in addition to my daily 64 daily ounces) to counteract the dehydrating effect of the caffeine.

Eat Some Ruffage – Celery is so fibrous that your stomach burns more calories digesting it than you gained by eating it. So what happens is a net change that is negative. You burn calories by eating stringy veggies like celery.

By: Joe Norton 

It’s called progressive overload.
It is the process of systematically causing your muscles to overload, to get max’d out, and thus they adapt to this stimulus and grow to handle the weight. Then you do this again.

Try to make a weekly target, like add at least 2.5 pounds per exercise per workout.
After a few weeks you have made substantial gains and all the while it will hardly seem difficult. This is how the professionals do it, it’s as simple as that: Progressive overload.

I highly suggest using a journal to record your exercises and to make sure you are slowly progressing. After a month you will wonder how you ever managed to keep track of your progress without it (and you’ll realize you actually didn’t) It wasn’t until I kept a journal that I made significant gains in strength in short spans of time.