Testosterone and Exercise: Unlocking Strength, Speed and Stamina
Testosterone and exercise plays a crucial role in enhancing exercise performance, muscle growth, fat loss, and overall well-being
Johan van Wyk, BSc Sport Science
Hello, I’m Johan van Wyk, the voice behind CoreSifu.com.
Throughout the years I have learned a lot about healthy living and decided to share my passion with everyone. For me, CoreSifu was an obvious choice, because everything starts with a strong core, and understanding how your core function is essential for a healthy body. Most of your organs are situated in your core and having a strong core is important to protect these organs. Most of your central nervous system is in your core and a strong core protects your spinal cord, so many people get lower back problems from having a weak core.
Fuel or Flaw? The Truth About Pre-Workout Coffee with Sugar and Milk
You can definitely use sugar and milk with your pre-workout coffee, but adjust based on your goals.
Harness the Energy Within: How Caffeine Boosts Your Workout Potential
Coffee, with its rich caffeine content, is more than just a morning pick-me-up. It’s a versatile and effective tool for athletes seeking to enhance endurance, strength, focus, and fat metabolism. Caffeine boosts however, like any supplement, should be used responsibly and tailored to individual tolerance levels.
Harness the Hormonal Edge: Ignite Your Fat Burn with Catecholamines
To fully utilize fat burn with catecholamines, choose exercise types and routines that maximize their release, such as HIIT, fasted exercise, and strength training with short rest periods.
Adrenaline vs Cortisol: Battle of the Stress Hormones
Adrenaline vs cortisol; Understanding the differences between adrenaline and cortisol is crucial for appreciating how our bodies respond to both immediate challenges and longer-term pressures.
How Exercise Impacts Cortisol Levels: A Closer Look
It is important to know how exercise impacts cortisol levels to have a balanced and healthy body. While its acute rise during exercise is beneficial, prolonged or excessive elevation of cortisol—especially due to overtraining
Why it is Crucial to Maintain a Healthy Gut
Maintaining a healthy gut is essential for digestion, immunity, mental well-being, weight management, and chronic disease prevention.
8 Best Jumping Exercises you can do at Home
These jumping exercises combine strength training with cardiovascular conditioning, making them perfect for improving explosive power, agility, and stamina. Integrating them into your routine will help you build endurance and boost athletic performance, whether for sports, martial arts, or general fitness.
What is Better to Have, Stamina or Endurance?
So in conclusion, Stamina or Endurance? In essence, neither is strictly "better"—it depends on your goals.
What is the Difference Between Stamina and Endurance Training?
Stamina and endurance are crucial for different types of physical performance, but they train and challenge your body in different ways. Stamina is more about short-term power, while endurance is about long-term resilience.
The Pros and Cons of Cycling as Exercise
Cycling is an excellent form of exercise with numerous physical and mental health benefits, especially for those looking for a low-impact way to improve their cardiovascular health and build lower-body strength.
Seven of the Most Popular Core Exercises done at Home
Described in detail to give you a comprehensive understanding of each: Seven of the most popular core exercises that we found were; Plank, Crunches, Russian Twists, Bicycle Crunches, Leg Raises, Mountain Climbers and Side Plank.
8 Benefits of Intermittent Fasting: A Pathway to Health and Longevity
Intermittent fasting is more than just a weight loss tool; it’s a powerful approach to improving overall health. From fat burning and enhanced metabolic health to cellular repair and brain function, intermittent fasting offers a comprehensive array of benefits that extend beyond just physical appearance.
Bicep Curls vs Pull-Ups: Which one is Better?
When it comes to building upper-body strength and enhancing muscle definition, bicep curls and pull-ups are two of the most popular exercises
Empower Your Legs by Strengthening Quadriceps at Home
Strengthening quadriceps is crucial for protecting your knees and enhancing overall leg strength. The exercises outlined above can be performed at home with minimal equipment, making it easy to integrate them into your fitness routine.
Adrenaline release and adrenaline metabolism with and after exercise
Adrenaline release in the body starts almost immediately upon initiating a sprint, with noticeable effects occurring within seconds and peaking within a few minutes.
Understanding the role of Adrenaline in the body
The role of adrenaline is multifaceted in nature and is a powerful hormone that are released during exercise.. Its effects on heart rate, blood pressure, energy mobilization, respiratory function, muscle performance, blood flow, psychological state, and thermogenesis collectively enhance physical performance and endurance.
What Are the 5 Best Exercises for Burning Calories?
Choosing the right exercises for burning calories involves finding activities that are enjoyable, sustainable, and fit into your lifestyle. Running, HIIT, cycling, swimming, and jumping rope are all excellent choices that offer high calorie-burning potential.
The Effect of Caffeine and Alcohol to your Energy levels
Too much of a good thing can be detrimental to your health where caffeine and alcohol intake can easily be abused and lead to low energy levels.
Connecting diet to Low Energy Levels
Improving your diet by focusing on balanced, nutrient-dense foods and proper hydration can help boost your energy levels and overall well-being.
The Benefits of doing Stomach Vacuum exercises
Stomach vacuum exercises target these TVA muscles and strengthening them plays a big part in building up a strong core.
Understanding Tennis Elbow: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is a painful condition affecting the outer part of the elbow. Despite its name, it is not limited to tennis players; it can affect anyone who engages in activities that involve repetitive arm and wrist motions.
Can I become fat from drinking wine (alcohol) everyday?
Yes, drinking wine every day can potentially lead to weight gain, but it depends on various factors including the amount consumed, your overall diet, and your level of physical activity.
What exercises can I do at home to strengthen my lower back?
Exercising at home for your lower back can help strengthen the muscles in that area and alleviate discomfort. Here are some exercises you can try
Can I increase my fast vs slow muscle fibers or vice versa?
Exercise produces little change in the proportions of fast and slow fibers in the muscle, this is because exercise does not change the types of myosin enzymes formed by the fibers.
What happens to your body when you are in “fight or flight” mode?
It's important to note that the "fight or flight" response is a vital evolutionary adaptation that has helped humans survive in dangerous situations.
What are variations to dead hang exercise?
Firstly there are different grips that you can try; the normal or standard one is the overhand grip meaning your palms face away from you, then you can also try the underhand grip where palms are facing towards you. Lastly you get the neutral grip where palms are facing each other.
Best time of the day to do exercise for weight-loss
You may wonder if there are any benefits from exercising during early morning hours for weigh-loss or muscle building instead of the evening after work for example, or maybe if there is a difference between afternoon training and evening training.
Dead hang exercise and benefits
Dead hang is one of the easiest exercises you can do and has many benefits. All you need to do is get a solid bar to hang on and let gravity do its job. Easy enough?
Intermittent fasting: How it works
The big hype nowadays is intermittent fasting to lose weight, but does it really work and is it worth starving yourself for the desired results? Intermittent fasting is a kind of diet that doesn’t focus on what you eat rather than when you eat.
Electrolytes in energy drinks, why do I need them when exercising?
Drinking electrolyte fluids restores these vital minerals and the water content hydrate you, restoring plasma concentrations.
Can I still gain muscle if I am over 40?
The maximum contractile ability and power generated by a muscle decrease by 30-40% between the ages of 30 and 80.
Why do we involuntary stretch when we wake up?
Do you ever wonder why in the morning when you just woke up before you can even start to plot the day’s activities…suddenly your body overrides you and take over without permission and do a full stretch from your head to your toes. But geez it feels so good!
What happens with my muscles when running long distances regularly?
Regular running produces an increased number of mitochondria in the fast-oxidative and slow-oxidative fibers which are activated in this type of exercise. There is also an increase in the number of capillaries around such muscle fibers. All these changes contribute to an increase in the capacity of your muscles for endurance exercise with fatigue setting in much later.
What is hypertrophy during exercise?
According to the definition, hypertrophy is the enlargement of an organ or tissue through the increase of its cell size. This must not be confused with hyperplasia. Hyperplasia is the enlargement of an organ or tissue through the increase in the reproduction rate of its cells, thus increasing in cell number.
The three different skeletal-muscle fibers
The amount of thick and thin filaments per unit of cross-sectional area is more or less the same in all types of skeletal muscle fibers. This means that the larger the diameter of the muscle fiber the more thick and thin filaments it will contain working together in parallel to produce force. The result will be an increase in maximum tension and thus greater strength.
What is the afterburn effect that comes with exercise?
EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption refers to the elevated rate of metabolism and is linked to increased uptake of oxygen after exercise. Elevated metabolism means more calories are burned over the same time. This effect is highest with high-intensity anaerobic exercise like sprinting or weightlifting because this is when you tap into your muscle’s stored energy to keep up with the increased energy demand....
What is the Endocannabinoid system and how does it relate to Exercise?
The Endocannabinoid system consists of endocannabinoids which are neurotransmitters and are expressed throughout the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) and peripheral nervous system (nerves outside the brain and spinal cord). Endocannabinoids is a naturally synthesized molecules similar to THC which is the chemical responsible for the effect you get from the cannabis plant. Ongoing research is still being ....
What is runner’s high?
A runner’s high is that feeling of euphoria (a feeling of intense joy and happiness) while exercising. This is when pain turns to pleasure. Running, cycling or any aerobic exercise (moderate-intensity endurance exercise) causes the hormone endorphin (similar to morphine) to be released by the pituitary gland in the brain to alleviate pain. This gives you a feeling of happiness and pleasure. It is relatively short-lived though....
Does Sprinting build Core Muscle Strength?
Sprinting is one of the most complete full-body workouts out there, building muscle and burning fat is the name of the game. Sprinting does engage your core muscles to a big extend and your core muscles need to support the big and powerful movements of sprinting and giving it your all....
Eating nutrient-dense food to keep your body fat down
Nutrient-dense or nutrient-rich foods contain most of the nutrients that your body needs on a daily basis for normal function and growth. These include vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, and essential fats (omega-3 fatty acid and alpha-linolenic acid)....
Benefits of high-intensity sprinting over moderate-intensity jogging
Sprinting is one of the best fat-burning exercises out there with so many benefits. By sprinting I don’t mean running/jogging but sprinting flat out. Many of us might think sprinting like Usain Bolt is just for professionals. Many might be afraid of trying to sprint again because decades might have passed since you last sprinted. Sure, jogging and cycling have their place and are good for endurance and breaking down....
Single-joint vs multi-joint exercises
Isn’t any kind of exercise good just as long as you train regularly? Sure, any exercise in most cases is better than none. We will be discussing the benefits of doing certain types of exercise routines over others. Depending on what kind of outcome you are looking for, there might be more efficient exercises than the ones you are doing....
Connecting Muscle Mass with Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
The amount of lean body mass particularly your muscle mass that you possess directly and positively influences your RMR. The more lean muscle (muscle without the fat) you have the higher your RMR will be and the more calories you will burn each day. This is the reason that resistance/weight training is so important to getting lean. The more muscle you develop, the easier it would be for you to loose body fat...
Floor vs hanging abs training, and hip flexors
First, it is important to know how to train your abs in a safe way so as not to injure your lower back. The positioning of your body is very important to get the most out of your exercise. When you train your abdominals, you should train your hip flexors too..
The Importance of your gluteus muscles
The glute muscles are one of the biggest and strongest muscles in your whole body. This group of muscles controls the movement and rotation of the hip joint, as well as the extension and abduction of the hip joint. The glutes help us to keep upright and are active when we need to stand up, sit down, walk, climb stairs, run...
The link between a healthy core and breathing
Breathing right will produce more efficient lungs to fully oxygenate the body producing healthy cells. Breathing engages the lungs where it takes in oxygen and gets rid of toxins at the same time. Together with the lungs, the diaphragm and intercostal muscles work together to inhale fresh air and exhale toxic air....
Sit-ups vs Crunches – which one should I be doing?
These two exercises are often referred to interchangeably, but there are quite a big difference between the two. Crunches are also muscle specific in that it only workout one muscle group, where sit ups work on multiple muscle groups. So are sit ups better then?
What is my Lumbar Spine and where is it located?
The lumbar spine provide stability to your back and spinal column and is the balancing centre of your body. Many ligaments and muscles are attached to the lumbar spine and together they are responsible for basic mobility like walking, sitting, lifting and...
What are my ‘lats’, and should I be exercising them?
Latissimus dorsi are your 'lats' muscles and this is a flat V shaped muscle connecting your arms and shoulders at the side to your vertebral column at the back and running down all the way to the hips where it shares attachments. It’s the largest muscle in...
