Japanese Freestyle Football @ Cineleisure

I was at Cineleisure the other day, enjoying my Very Vanilla Chiller without Espresso when suddenly, out of the blue, three Jap guys with funky hairdo came on the scene and started doing football tricks with some tv coverage! The culprit: PUMA! They brought down some street soccer guys with their own samba drummer to perform as a promo for their range of products. Their tricks were awesome. My brother and I were very impressed by the level of skill they possessed.

Fitness Edition: Women's Fitness

Today's fitness edition is not going to be concerning me or the latest training regime I'm on. Due to popular demand, this fitness edition is going to be dedicated to women!

I am so tempted to go on a verbal diarrhea and pour everything out in one post but I doubt that it's going to be of any help so I have decided to give a general guideline and as the questions pour in, I'll try to answer you and give a more specific guideline.

I am no expert but this will help you get started. Whatever you do, always go for a medical checkup and test with a doctor or certified trainer first and he will highlight to you any medical issues that may hinder your training.

Let's get started:

First of all, I think that the trend now is that women should be curvy and not flimsy (think in terms of Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity and Jennifer Garner in Elektra).

In order to move towards looking like that, there's a basic guideline you must follow:

#1: Weight training for toning

#2: Cardio

#3: Diet

#1: Weight training

Contrary to popular belief that if a woman trains, she's going to end up looking like Arnold from Terminator, weight training actually helps you tone up by working your different muscle groups. Why won't you end up like Mr. Terminator himself? It's simply because testosterone is responsible for boosting muscle development and although both men and women produce testosterone, the amount produced in guys is up to 60 times more. Now you know why!

Start with these combinations:

• Chest/Back: Chest press, Lats pulldown and seated row
• Legs: Leg extensions, leg press, lunges
  
• Shoulders/biceps/triceps: Shoulder press, bicep curls, tricep extension

Start simple and go slow; the momentum will build in no time.

#2: Cardio

You don't need to hit the gym for this one. Just run for around 30-40 mins around the neighborhood 2-3 times a week and you'll be fine. If running is not your thing, try swimming or cycling. Put on some music on your ipod and you'll enjoy this 40 mins.

#3: Diet

• No supper (yup... this is the first one I want to highlight... hahaha). If you're really starving, eat something whole grain.
  
• Eat a full, healthy breakfast - wholemeal bread sandwiches, whey protein with oatmeal, egg sandwiches


• Eat 4-6 times a day and break it down to smaller portions


• Get rid of junk food - Maggi mee is junk food. Allow only one day in a week to pamper yourself (moderately ok?). Also, one day doesn't mean 24 hrs, it means like for one or two meals, that's it.


• Eat fruits and vegetables. I struggle with vegetables so I consume up to 10 apples a week. Not the best option but still acceptable.


• Drink lots of water

Ultimately, you're training not just for aesthetic purposes but for your health and well-being. What you sow, is what you will reap 10-20 years from now. With that in mind, exercise!

Space

Recently, I have been reading up some articles on space exploration and the commercialization of such efforts for civilians, such as us, to enjoy at a "reasonable" price. This means that you can now go to space for a holiday, get a spectacular view of the earth off the atmosphere and go weightless for like 5 minutes before the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere for just US $200,000. It sounds fun to me... a fun 5 minutes! It'll probably go down as the most expensive 5 mins of your life!

Virgin Galactic has partnered with Spaceport America, New Mexico for this holiday of the future. I thought it is pretty amazing to be able to go to space for holidays... totally out of this world... hahaha, pun intended!

How does it work? You will most probably get into a Virgin Galactic spaceship called WhiteKnightTwo (just completed its recent test run successfully) and will take off from a track runway in the NewMexico desert, not far from Roswell (remember that alien show on tv?...).

It will go up to 110km above ground level and will go beyond the Karman line where space is said to begin. Once you're past it, you'll float, go weightless and have a breathtaking view of the earth for several minutes.

Then you're back in the atmosphere.

Some are sending their wedding rings into space and back to give it a sense of novelty. Another company which brews beer sends yeast into space and back to brew its blend of 'spacebeer'.

One thing's for sure, space is the new holiday destination and with businesses like this, the universe is the limit!

Fitness Edition: I-Robot

Every once in a blue moon, I post about health and fitness. Today is such a day! Recently, I discovered some interesting facts on how to look like Will Smith on I-Robot and I thought that it'll be great to share them with my readers.

First things first... the picture:

Why Will Smith? Apart from the striking resemblance (hahaha... I wish), we have similiar metabolism rates... that means it's super high.

During an interview, Will Smith was quoted saying, “I have a much easier time losing weight (for I am Legend) than putting weight on. Ali was fifty times harder trying to put weight on than to drop.” This quote was highly encouraging! If Will can do it, I can do it!

He had to put on the same kind of muscle mass and bulk up like he did for Ali which means lifting heavier weights. His bench press that year went from 175 lb to 365 lb. He went on a 5 day a week training schedule with a focus on 1-2 body parts each session. He also ran 5 miles a day. *Sweats.

Not only that, to get the ripped and defined look, he had to bring down his body fat % to below 10%. He was at 7.5% in I-Robot, to be exact! How did he do it? He slowly cut his calories and flushed out all the junk food from his daily diet. It's definitely not an easy task but possible nonetheless!

Motto: If Will can do it, I will do it! (That's so cheesy... hahaha!) Anyways, I'm just encouraging myself. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

You know what? I just got an idea. Maybe I should post on women's fitness the next time around! It'll be good to share some fitness tips with the female readers, right? Let's see how the response is like!