No doubt my candidate for the Ballon d’Or is. The best striker, brutal level for 10 years and a champion above all.

I know what a player Benzema is, everyone knows it.Everyone can have their opinion on who is the best No.9 in the world and for me it’s Karim.He is confident, he knows you can always improve too, which is great. It doesn’t surprise me what he’s doing.

When I speak about Benzema, only one word comes to mind, it’s class. He is class. When he plays, whatever he does, he does it with class.

Playing with great players is what I dream of. Benzema is a great player. I’m very happy he’s back. There are not many players better than Benzema in the world. He will contribute a lot to us

Benzema is a mix between Raul and Butragueno, he gives much more to the game than just statistics.

I’m happy for him, He is the best striker in the league and one of the world’s best.

The best striker of La Liga showed his class again – my boy Benzi.

For what he’s doing and for what he’s done, he has to be in the list of possible winners.Saying that Karim’s got time to win it. I somehow doubt this is his final season – he’s like a fine wine; the older he gets the better he is.

The best compliment you can give to Karim Benzema is that Cristiano Ronaldo was in love with him at Real Madrid.And for Cristiano to be in love with another attacking player means he does a lot for Cristiano — and he does a lot for every attacking player that plays around him.Karim is probably the only No 9 I know that is not selfish in his game. His vision is amazing, the way he enjoys his football is to play with lots of freedom. I can compare him with Harry Kane also in this sense

Karim Benzema is the best of his generation by far, he’s very complete.I like his finishing, his way of participating in the actions of his team, in their creation. He is not only there to score goals, he is there to bring the offensive animation of his training to life.His longevity at Real Madrid is incredible. In such a club, where it is not easy to stay or settle down, he arrived, he imposed himself when he was in competition with very great players.

He is my favourite.I love how he plays and how he links up with his team-mates.e comes short, frees up the space that gives the game far more depth. When he plays well, the team plays well. He’s one of the best players of the last decade.

I’m a big fan of Karim, as I have suffered from him in training and I know how difficult it is to mark him.He is a legendary player, not only in Madrid but in world football.

I think he has largely the level of Thierry.Thierry really impressed me because he was not only a fast player but he had the ball. But Karim is more complete.He also has a kind of presence because he is smaller and less athletic. Karim has always been a top player. If you love football, it’s impossible not to love him.

I don't need money, and when I do a favor, I expect nothing back.

Benzema Wins Ballon d’Or After Years of Waiting His Turn. Harshajit Sarmah nudged me on Linkedin about this and I published these quotes about it. Benzema is one of the best examples that age has no limits, and we can learn from him that if you have patience, age doesn't matter, what you deserve will happen sooner or later.

Karim Benzema might now be a Ballon d'Or winner but he's arguably been one of the most underappreciated strikers of his generation.

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Personal Development

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Motivation & Inspiration

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Sports

14 Quotes to sum up Benzema’s brilliance!

There is no way around the hard work. Embrace it.

A man who wins, is a man who thinks he can.

You have to believe in the long-term plan you have but you need the short-term goals to motivate and inspire you.

I fear no one, but respect everyone.

When you're good at something, make that everything.

The more I lose, the more they believe they can beat me. But believing is not enough, you still have to beat me.

Success is a nice thing because it always means you've taken a step forward and it gives you a sense of pride, which in turn gives you confidence and experience-a positive circle, so to speak.

The one thing you can do for sure is push the luck on your side.

What I think I've been able to do well over the years is play with pain, play with problems, play in all sorts of conditions.

I definitely need to use my chances when they come because definitely there wont be many.

I've always been aware that the image you patiently construct for an entire career can be ruined in a minute. It scares you a bit, but that's the way things are.

Discover Roger Federer famous and rare quotes. Share Roger Federer quotations about tennis, winning and sports. "There is no way around the hard work..."

QUOTES BY ROGER FEDERER

We’ve often thought about muscle as a thing that exists separately from intellect—and perhaps that is even oppositional to it, one taking resources from the other. The truth is, our brains and muscles are in constant conversation with each other, sending electrochemical signals back and forth. In a very tangible way, our lifelong brain health depends on keeping our muscles moving.

Brain And Muscles: Two Constant Conversationalists

Skeletal muscle is the type of muscle that allows us to move our body around; it is one of the biggest organs in the human body. It is also an endocrine tissue, which means it releases signaling molecules that travel to other parts of your body to tell them to do things. The protein molecules that transmit messages from the skeletal muscle to other tissues—including the brain—are called myokines.

The Skeletal Muscle’s Messengers: Myokines

Myokines are released into the bloodstream when our muscles contract, create new cells, or perform other metabolic activities. When they arrive at the brain, they regulate physiological and metabolic responses there, too. As a result, myokines have the ability to affect cognition, mood, and emotional behavior. Exercise further stimulates what scientists call muscle-brain “cross talk,” and these myokine messengers help determine specific beneficial responses in the brain. These can include the formation of new neurons and increased synaptic plasticity, both of which boost learning and memory.

The Muscle-Brain Cross-Talk

In young muscle, a small amount of exercise triggers molecular processes that tell the muscle to grow. Muscle fibers sustain damage through strain and stress, and then repair themselves by fusing together and increasing in size and mass. Muscles get stronger by surviving each series of little breakdowns, allowing for regeneration, rejuvenation, regrowth. As we age, the signal sent by exercise becomes much weaker. Though it’s more difficult for older people to gain and maintain muscle mass, it’s still possible to do so, and that maintenance is critical to supporting the brain.

Muscles: Survivors Themselves And Supporters Of Others

Even moderate exercise can increase metabolism in brain regions important for learning and memory in older adults. And the brain itself has been found to respond to exercise in strikingly physical ways. The hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a major role in learning and memory, shrinks in late adulthood; this can result in an increased risk for dementia. Exercise training has been shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, even late in life, protecting against age-related loss and improving spatial memory.

Muscles, Learning And Memory

Further, there is substantial evidence that certain myokines have sex-differentiated neuroprotective properties. For example, the myokine irisin is influenced by estrogen levels, and postmenopausal women are more susceptible to neurological diseases, which suggests that irisin may also have an important role in protecting neurons against age-related decline.

Muscles, Neuropathy And Neuroprotection

Studies have shown that even in people with existing brain disease or damage, increased physical activity and motor skills are associated with better cognitive function. People with sarcopenia, or age-related muscle atrophy, are more likely to suffer cognitive decline. Mounting evidence shows that the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function leaves the brain more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease; as a counter to that, exercise improves memory, processing speed, and executive function, especially in older adults. (Exercise also boosts these cognitive abilities in children.)

Muscles Don’t Matter Just To “MuscleBrains”, But To Brains Too

Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. (A man should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.)

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between our muscles and our brain. Exercise helps keep us fluent in that language, even into old age. 

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between your muscles and your brain.

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Health

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Exercise & Fitness

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Science & Nature

How Do Strong Muscles Keep Our Brain Healthy?

The Cincinnati Red Stockings now known as the Cincinnati Reds of 1869 were baseball's first openly all-professional team, with ten salaried players.

What was the first salaried baseball team?

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History

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Society, Arts & Culture

Cincinnati Red Stockings - Wikipedia

The 12-3-30 workout is a treadmill-based workout routine that claims to boost weight loss and burn calories. The workout on the treadmill involves:<ul><li>Walking at an incline level of 12</li><li>The speed setting of 3 miles per hour</li><li>Lasting 30 minutes</li></ul> The idea is to get your heart rate up without running using the incline setting and a moderately paced walking speed.

The 12-3-30 workout

<ul><li>Improves health as with any form of physical activity.</li><li>May build some lower body muscle. You could build some lower body muscle and increase strength. Walking at an incline activates your hamstrings, quads, glutes, hip, knee, and ankle flexors.</li><li>Increases daily energy expenditure. Each 1% incline grade burns about ten additional calories per mile for a 150-pound person.</li><li>Provides a joint-friendly and low-impact alternative cardiovascular workout.</li></ul>

Benefits of the 12-3-30 workout

<ul><li>The 12-3-30 workout is low-risk for those who are active already. However, ensure you are cleared for basic exercise by your doctor.</li><li>When using a treadmill, attach the safety strap in case of falls. This strap will pull out a key that stops the treadmill if you fall.</li><li>Warm up before the workout by walking at a slower pace and lower incline.</li><li>Never push past pain.</li></ul>

Risks of the 12-3-30 workout

The 12-3-30 workout is popular for a good reason. It is easy to remember and follow. Find out more about potential benefits and how to do it.

Why the 12-3-30 Treadmill Workout is Taking Over Your Social Media Feed

There’s a popular adage in the fitness community that you never regret a workout. And while that generally may be true, there are simply some days your mind doesn’t care and urges you to avoid it anyway.This is not only perfectly normal; it’s totally acceptable. The notion that you should force yourself into tough workouts creates an unsustainable and poor relationship with exercise.

Fitness Freaks And Their Regimes

Recovery is vital in any fitness routine. Recovery might mean simply walking or cycling to keep the body moving, or taking a break altogether ― and that’s OK. It’s all about listening to your body and not pushing yourself to a point where you end up hating exercise.Just as when you wake up feeling rested from a good night’s sleep, a rest day will give your body that same opportunity to meet your next workout with energy and enthusiasm.

Sometimes, Just Don’t Work Out

<ul><li>What you may have been able to conquer yesterday may not be the same today.</li><li>You will always have to take care of your fitness, but the way you move your body will change.</li><li>Your mind is just as important as your body. Just having a 'sweat session' isn't all there is to fitness.</li></ul>

Your Fitness Levels Can Change

<ul><li>Your workout doesn't need to be long in order for you to reap the benefits</li><li>Finding an enjoyable way to move your body for a short period of time can be just as effective</li><li>It's not just about the workout. It's about your peace of mind and quality of life</li><li>Buy a  good workout set, because clothes make us feel good.</li></ul>

Commit to Doing Just a Few Minutes

<ul><li>Blast some good music before getting started</li><li>Keep it simple and relaxed. Don't pressure yourself to have your best performance.</li><li>Stretch or find a gentle way to move their body.</li><li>Prioritize stretching and foam rolling: use a foam roller to activate your glutes and other muscles to feel good each day.</li><li>Fitness feels easier when it's an activity you don't hate.</li><li>Find a fun way to move that feels more like play.</li></ul>

Keep It Moving, Keep It Fun

<ul><li>If you don't feel like going to the gym, don't pressure yourself to have the best workout, and instead encourage yourself to move for the sake of consistency, the next workout will be that much easier.</li><li>The act of restarting is most often more challenging than the workout itself.</li></ul>

The Bottom Line: Think About Your Future

If your head isn't into exercise or if you only have a few minutes to spare, this advice is for you.

What Fitness Pros Do When They Don't Feel Like Working Out

Runners may get caught up in the idea that in order to see gains, you have to do more. However, experts say that running is an individualised sport, and the volume and intensity to perform optimally depend on fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibre predisposition.

Running is individualised

<ul><li>Fast-twitch fibres have a more powerful force but fatigue quickly. </li><li>Slow-twitch muscle fibers are less powerful but more fatigue-resistant. </li><li>Our muscles contain both types, but your personal ratio can vary.</li></ul> A 2020 study found that runners with more fast-twitch muscle fibres were more likely to suffer from short-term performance dips after periods of higher-volume training. It means that if you’re a fast-twitch athlete trying to push the same training as a slower-twitch athlete, it may actually make you get slower.

The difference between fast-twitch fibres and slow-twitch fibres

To find your specific muscle fibre ratio, plug a recent 5K time into a race equivalency calculator, then compare it to your marathon results. <ul><li>If a 5K time suggests you can run a 3:59 marathon, but your real marathon time is 4:10, you may be stronger at shorter races that need fast-twitch muscle fibres.</li><li>If your marathon time is 3:45, you may have more slow-twitch fibres.</li></ul>

Establish your specific muscle fibre ratio

Most people aren't suited for higher mileage. Professional athletes go home after their workouts; they're eating well, they're stretching and sleeping. The average person with a full-time job is likely not sleeping enough and knows it's unsustainable to put that much volume in their running. Furthermore, pushing higher may result in getting broken down and injuries.

Lifestyle factors play a role

Examples of lower mileage training plans:<ul><li>Athletes can do two harder but longer-distance sessions per week, with a shorter recovery run the next day.</li><li>Athletes can run four or five days per week with just one hard workout, such as 200-meter intervals. Long runs with varied intensity count as a quality session. </li></ul> Expert trainers advise you don't need to supplement your days off with another form of cardio to cross-train. Cross-training sessions depend on your schedule and motivations. Other experts believe it's better to let your body fully recover on days you're not running.

How to pack more quality into lower-mileage training plans

Regular strength workouts is a key component to strong performances. For example, a combination of weight-lifting and plyometric exercises, such as 5 sets each of barbell squats, weighted box jumps with dumbbells, and non-weighted box jumps, as well as separate 20-minute banded exercise sessions.

Strength workouts

<ul><li>You’re constantly dealing with soreness, fatigue, overuse injuries, or aiming for high numbers for their own sake.</li><li>If you get out for a run, are breathing normally, and running at a pace that should be easy, but you find that your legs just don’t want to move.</li><li>Watch out for an increase in your resting heart rate. You need to make serious adjustments if it is more than 10 percent for a couple of months.</li></ul>

Signs of overtraining

<ul><li>Listen to your body and write down notes that you’ll learn from.</li><li>Comparison can steal your joy for running. Social media only tells a fraction of the picture. We continually forget what works for us and then get scared or insecure based on what we see others doing.</li></ul>

Take personal notes and avoid comparison

For some runners, from recreational to sub-elite and even the pros, less truly is more when it comes to reaping gains.

In Defense of Running Lower Mileage (Just Hear Us Out)

Walking is primarily viewed as a form of low-intensity cardiovascular exercise.It generally does not cause significant changes in either muscle mass or tone.Walking falls under the category of endurance exercises, which are known to build slow-twitch muscle fibers; the fibers predominantly used for periods of sustained activity. People may notice a slight increase in leg size post-walking as the legs ‘swell’ to take in nutrients and remove waste products – such as lactic acid.

Walking Is Endurance Exercise

A 2018 study by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6240935/">Nagoya University</a> found that muscle quality was improved among 31 participants after 10 weeks of regular 30-minute sets of walking. Walking is predominantly going to be working your lower body, and mainly stimulating your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves and hip adductors, as well as your spine and abdominal muscles, which all have a significant role in stabilizing your trunk as you move forwards.

Muscle Building

Cardiovascular exercise, along with the correct diet, is a great recipe for burning fat.The key is to monitor your heart rate and work in what is known as the “Fat Burning Zone,” working at 60%-70% of your maximal heart rate, which in general equates to a 7-12 calorie burn per minute.Another important aspect to consider when looking for fat-burning results from walking is duration.

Burning Fat

<ul><li>There are several ways to maximize your muscle-building potential while walking.</li><li>A popular option is to incorporate intervals by alternating between walking at a steady pace and doing a 'power walk', a light jog or a sprint</li><li>You could also pause during your walk to add in some bodyweight exercises such as lunges, squats, push-ups or planks</li><li>Weighted vests have the added benefit of making you engage and strengthen your back muscles to ensure you are maintaining good posture throughout your walk</li></ul>

Maximizing Muscle Building While Walking

Walking on trails, roads, grass, inclined or uneven surfaces, or unstable ones like sand or gravel will challenge the muscles of your lower leg, ankles and feet more than on pavement, and they will have to work harder to maintain balance and stability.Alternate between working at different inclines and speeds to vary the intensity and muscle recruitment of the workout.

Mixing up The Terrain

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Podcasts

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Videos

How To Build Muscle

It’s our most regular form of exercise, but does walking build muscle? We look to studies and an expert for the answer

Does walking build muscle?

With the end of the Covid-19 pandemic now plausibly in sight, 70% of Britons say they hope to eat a healthier diet, lose weight and exercise more. But how? Every year, millions of people vow to be more physically active, but the vast majority of these resolutions fail. We all know what happens. After a week or two of sticking to a new exercise regime, we gradually slip back into old habits and then feel bad about ourselves.

Another Failed Resolution

Most adults in high-income countries, such as the UK and US, don’t get the minimum of 150 minutes per week of physical activity recommended by most health professionals. Everyone knows exercise is healthy, but prescribing and selling it rarely works.We all believe we should exercise more. So why is it so hard to keep it up? We list the most common and unhelpful workout myths.

Too Rich To Exercise

Exercise is a voluntary physical activity undertaken for the sake of fitness. You may think exercise is normal, but it’s a very modern behaviour. Instead, for millions of years, humans were physically active for only two reasons: when it was necessary or rewarding. Necessary physical activities included getting food and doing other things to survive. Rewarding activities included playing, dancing or training to have fun or to develop skills.But no one in the stone age ever went for a five-mile jog to stave off decrepitude, or lifted weights whose sole purpose was to be lifted.

Myth 1: It’s Normal to Exercise

When food is limited, every calorie spent on physical activity is a calorie not spent on other critical functions, such as maintaining our bodies, storing energy and reproducing. Because natural selection ultimately cares only about how many offspring we have, our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved to avoid needless exertion – exercise – unless it was rewarding. So don’t feel bad about the natural instincts that are still with us. Instead, accept that they are normal and hard to overcome.

Myth 2: Avoiding Exertion Means You Are Lazy

Let’s not demonise a behaviour as normal as sitting. People in every culture sit a lot. Even hunter-gatherers who lack furniture sit about 10 hours a day, as much as most westerners. But there are more and less healthy ways to sit. Studies show that people who sit actively by getting up every 10 or 15 minutes wake up their metabolisms and enjoy better long-term health than those who sit inertly for hours on end. If you work all day in a chair, get up regularly, fidget and try not to spend the rest of the day in a chair, too.

Myth 3: Sitting Is the New Smoking

A common myth is that people uncontaminated by civilisation are incredible natural-born athletes who are super-strong, super-fast and able to run marathons easily. Not true. Most hunter-gatherers are reasonably fit, but they are only moderately strong and not especially fast. Their lives aren’t easy, but on average they spend only about two to three hours a day doing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. It is neither normal nor necessary to be ultra-fit and ultra-strong.

Myth 4: Our Ancestors Were Hard-Working, Strong and Fast

Until recently just about every weight-loss programme involved exercise.  The truth is that you can lose more weight much faster through diet rather than exercise, especially moderate exercise such as 150 minutes a week of brisk walking. However, longer durations and higher intensities of exercise have been shown to promote gradual weight loss. Regular exercise also helps prevent weight gain or regain after diet. Every diet benefits from including exercise.

Myth 5: You Can’t Lose Weight Walking

Many people are scared of running because they’re afraid it will ruin their knees. These worries aren’t totally unfounded since knees are indeed the most common location of runners’ injuries. But knees and other joints aren’t like a car’s shock absorbers that wear out with overuse. Instead, running, walking and other activities have been shown to keep knees healthy, and numerous high-quality studies show that runners are, if anything, less likely to develop knee osteoarthritis. The strategy to avoid knee pain is to learn to run properly and train sensibly.

Myth 6: Running Will Wear out Your Knees

Despite rumours that our ancestors’ life was nasty, brutish and short, hunter-gatherers who survive childhood typically live about seven decades, and they continue to work moderately as they age. The truth is we evolved to be grandparents in order to be active in order to provide food for our children and grandchildren. In turn, staying physically active as we age stimulates myriad repair and maintenance processes that keep our bodies humming. Numerous studies find that exercise is healthier the older we get.

Myth 7: It’s Normal to Be Less Active as We Age

Many medical professionals follow the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes a week of moderate or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise for adults. In truth, this is an arbitrary prescription because how much to exercise depends on dozens of factors, such as your fitness, age, injury history and health concerns. Remember this: no matter how unfit you are, even a little exercise is better than none.

Myth 8: There Is an Optimal Dose/type of Exercise

Most people don’t like exercise and have to overcome natural tendencies to avoid it. For most of us, telling us to “just do it” doesn’t work any better than telling a smoker or a substance abuser to “just say no!” To promote exercise, we typically prescribe it and sell it, but let’s remember that we evolved to be physically active for only two reasons: it was necessary or rewarding. So let’s find ways to do both: make it necessary and rewarding.  For example: if you agree to meet friends to exercise regularly you’ll be obliged to show up, you’ll have fun and you’ll keep each other going.

Myth 9: ‘just Do It’ Works

Let’s not oversell exercise as medicine. Although we never evolved to exercise, we did evolve to be physically active just as we evolved to drink water, breathe air and have friends. Thus, it’s the absence of physical activity that makes us more vulnerable to many illnesses, both physical and mental. In the modern, western world we no longer have to be physically active, so we invented exercise, but it is not a magic bullet that guarantees good health.

Myth 10: Exercise Is a Magic Bullet

We all believe we should exercise more. So why is it so hard to keep it up? Daniel E Lieberman, Harvard professor of evolutionary biology, explodes the most common and unhelpful workout myths

Just don’t do it: 10 exercise myths

Researchers, founders and executives insist that running can teach essential lessons in sticking with big goals and mental toughness. Olympic distance runner Alexi Pappas's advice from one of her running coaches is to use the rule of thirds: "Whenever you're chasing a big dream, you're supposed to feel good a third of the time, okay a third of the time and crappy or not great a third of the time." "If you feel too good all the time, you're not pushing yourself enough, and if you feel too fatigued, you might be burning out."

How hard you should push yourself when chasing big dreams

The rule of thirds is for looking back at your progress and seeing if you should push yourself more or less. Feeling lousy is not a sign that you're not good enough or doing something wrong. Instead, it means you're trying to do something ambitious. To maximize your progress towards challenging goals, <ul><li>you should be well outside your comfort zone (feeling lousy) a third of the time.</li><li>Feeling lousy much more is risky.</li><li>Feeling lousy less means you're not putting in enough effort.</li></ul>

Resilience in rule form

If you don't feel lousy a third of the time, you're probably not aiming high enough, says Alexi Pappas.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Learning & Education

Use This Olympian's 'Rule of Thirds' to Chase Any Big Dream

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