About Muscle & Fitness

When it comes to muscle tone; use it or lose it is the name of the game, particularly as you get older. Until the age of 25, life’s a breeze (in fitness terms at least) and strength and endurance improve naturally. Sadly it tends to be down hill from there. The ageing process itself will contribute to a decline in general fitness and lifestyles tend to become more sedentary as we age, which doesn’t help. Muscle strength and power also tend to decrease with age. This is due to a variety of factors, particularly muscle wastage caused by a lack of use. Just as a muscle grows in response to strength training (workout using dumb bells, bar bells & machines) it will become sagging if it is not trained (sag in his or her arms, esp. the body of those prone to cellulite piles fat on the thighs and hips, giving them an orange-peel look...etc. ). When we are young we tend to get away with it; As we age we don’t. Learning how to exercise properly and then developing the physical strength, flexibility, agility & habit to perform it well is a priceless gift that you give yourself when you work out regularly.

Bear in mind that the heart is a muscle too and although there is no weight machine for the heart, we use cardio equipment such as treadmill or just running & jogging outdoor. This helps to create a leaner body which in turn decreases the risk of heart disease. The bottom line here is that regular strength training will enhance the quality of your life as you get older, so lay the foundations of good health as young as you can. Actually resistance or strength training can have a longer lasting impact on metabolic rate than aerobic workout. I read somewhere in a magazine that regular weight training boosts BMR (basal metabolic rate) by about 20%, which means that for every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. (BMR is the rate at which the body uses energy while at rest to keep vital functions going,such as breathing & keeping warm).

Strength training produces a 'soothing' biochemical change in the brain in such a way that it also helps to mitigate depression as what anti-depressant medications would normally do. One of the key drivers of muscle growth is the Testosterone hormone. Levels of testosterone vary from person to person but as a rule women cannot produce anywhere near as much testosterone as men and therefore it is much harder for females to gain muscle mass when strength or weight training. Just as well really, because most women don’t want to gain muscle anyway. It all goes back to hunting and gathering versus nest building. So in one of those handy quirks of nature, we have a win:win situation. Men who work out with weights get to build bigger biceps, triceps, back, chest etc. while women get to shape and tone what they’ve already got. Can’t say fairer than that can you.

***shoulder press***


***bicep curl***


***chest press***

Day of Ashura

Day of Ashura,

Yesterday was the day of Ashura (19th Jan 2008). It’s the tenth day of Muharram. The word ashura simply means 10 in arabic or asharo from wahid,ithnin,salasa,arba’, hamsa........asharo. So, ashura literally translated as the tenth day; The tenth day of Muharram. As part of the Malay community here (me being the reluctant committee member), i got involved in the preparation to commemorate & celebrate the day of Ashura by preparing Ashura porridge and to also hold a majlis tazkirah here. I am oblivious to the fact that there are several types of ‘bubur ashura’. There is a variety of bubur ashura and this is evident from the internet. The committee had decided that we ought to cook two types so the outcome of that was Bubur Asyura Perak (Langkap city style with loughborough twist) and Bubur Asyura kekacang manis (utara style) with loughborough twist since we put peach into it beside the various beans or ‘kekacang’.


I am mighty glad that the committee had managed to pull through such a big event even though they were formed just recently following on the previous raya haji celebration organised by the 2007 committee members. I would like to express my gratitude to the head chef, Pn. Jue for her culinary expertise in preparing the bubur asyura perak (not sure whether she would bump into my blog though). All in all, it had been a good day. Many families brought side dishes since it was also meant to be a potluck dinner and we had plenty of foods on the serving tables. We had the tazkirah delived by ustad masrul at 3.45pm and had our break fasting at 4.24 pm maghrib time. All these were held in James France exhibition hall in the university and it went smooth I would say. We had our prayer at around quarter past five in the prayer room of the James France building and then resumed our break fasting till 6pm.