See Who's Using Kinesiology Tape And Why It's So Effective

Bettering yourself and enhancing your physical performance are key essentials when developing yourself as an athlete. Self improvement and muscle progression are all part of strengthening your system, so that it can perform at its best possible rate. However, sometimes we all encounter injuries, or we have weak spots on our bodies that we'd like to improve. The best way you can do this, is by using some sort of sporting tape. Sports tape is essential to any sportsman or woman, as it supplies support for many reasons. It allows you to perform for a longer time period, it allows you to strengthen injured areas, and it also allows you to play harder. These are necessities when it comes to sports, whether you are a professional athlete or you play for fun, it's so important that you take care of yourself and your body, otherwise you could do yourself some serious damage.

For professional athletes who are looking to take part in the 2012 Olympics, or other important events, things like sports tape is vital to have in the gym bag, as you never know when an area of your body may start to weaken or feel strained. You must at all times carry with you the necessary safety equipment when training, otherwise you are putting your body and system at a high risk. It will show how serious you are as an athlete if you take the precautions to look after yourself, people should take pride in their work and tools, and as an athlete, your body is your tool, so you must keep it in good working order. In order to achieve the highest possible performance your body is capable of, you should wear the sporting tape, as it will allow you to reach your full potential. There is also a psychological side to the sports tape, as when you wear it, you feel enhanced, and it can make you reach out for that extra potential, enabling you to achieve better results. Remember, half of sports is psychological, everything must be done to ensure you are in the right mindset for the games.

There is one type of sports tape that is becoming very popular, it's called Kinesiology Tape, and even some of the worlds most reputable athletes are using it. Some big names like David Beckham and Gareth Bale are using the Kinesiology Tape as they have had such great results from it. They say it differs from the usual muscle supports, the way it carries itself and performs, it is as professional as the athletes that are using it. The Kinesiology Tape is applied in a more complex manner, but this allows it to really get in and treat the affected and weak areas of your body. It's made to mimic the bodies skin, moving with it, so that you can hardly feel it as you perform. It has a huge effect on your performance, as it allows you to move quicker, harder and for a longer time frame than usual. Kinesiology Tape should be compulsory for any serious athlete.

To learn more about Kinesiology Tape and its benefits, please visit the following website: http://www.sporttape.co.uk/

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Rowing to Music - A Fun New and Effective Fitness Training

Physical training in indoor rowing machines have been popular in many rowing clubs. A new and motivating training form is to use training programs with rowing adapted music. In this article we will look at how to:

Select music suitable for rowing trainingGet free tools for audio editingAdapt music to your rowing training programsMotivate and inspire your rowing club friends

The goal is to give you an understanding of how to make your very own rowing training programs with music of your personal taste. It is a fun and rewarding experience.

Energetic music with a clear and constant rhythm is perfect for your rowing program

Browse through your music library to find your favorite music that sounds energetic and motivating. Make a folder for the music on your computer and place copies of the music in it. A selection of slow, medium pace and fast music is needed. Ideally you should have about 10-20 songs of each pace.

We will only use music in 4/4 rhythm. To sort the songs pace you need to count the beats per minute (BPM) in the music rhythm. Music with a BPM within the range of 80 to 128 is suitable. On the internet you can find free software that can auto detect the BPM of your music. But the best and most accurate way is to count the BPM manually.

When training in a rowing machine we talk of rowing pace = strokes per minute. Therefore we divide the musics BPM by 4 to find which rowing pace (strokes per minute - SPM) the music rhythm equals. Add the SPM as a note to songs titles.

You can use a standard stopwatch to measure the BPM and divide it by 4 to get the SPM. There is a special stopwatch model called DIGI DT-320 which in a special mode can read out SPM directly, so you only need to push start and stop. Start the stopwatch when you start counting beats 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 and then stop the watch when reaching the following beat 1. Next step is to edit the music.

Audacity is a free software tool for editing your music

Audacity can freely be downloaded from the Internet. There are versions for both PC, Mac and Linux. There is documentation for the software. Another nice source for learning Audacity is to look for tutorials on YouTube. Audacity offers many advanced features, but we only need a few simple functions for our purpose.

You only need to learn how to:

Import your music into AudacityCut away unneeded parts of the songFadeout the last 2-3 seconds of the used part of the songConnect the songs on the timelineExport the edited songs as a new single music track (the final rowing music program)

The learning curve for using Audacity this way is reasonable short when using YouTube tutorials. Next step is to decide how you will build up your rowing program.

How to build your rowing training program with SPM and time intervals

A classic rowing program would consist of 24 SPM for 3 minutes then 26 SPM for 3 minutes and then 28 SPM for 2 minutes. This program equals approx. a standard 2,000 meter. You can mix the training music programs according to your personal training style and preference. The key to success is to use music that is easy to follow in rhythm. By counting the beats 1-2-3-4 you should end your rowing stroke at beat 1 and begin a new stroke at beat 3.

It is very important that the participating training partners rows synchronously according to the music beats. After a little practice you will find it easy, fun and very rewarding to exercise with music this way. Paces below 24 SPM and over 28 SPM are bit more demanding to follow for less experienced rowers. Remember to praise your training partners for their efforts. Training to rowing adapted music is growing very popular, because it is a lot more fun to train hard to good music. Have fun!

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