Youtube daily which Oct 21 2017

Because calisthenics skills often put your body in complex positions

it sometimes might be confusing to tell which muscles are used in particular ones.

I've noticed that there's a lot of misconceptions around this topic.

Does back lever uses your back or your abs?

What about front lever?

In this video I'm gonna answer those questions,

but also explain the principles that say why it's that way.

So let's dive into the mechanics of calisthenics.

First, we need to cover the basics of kinetics of human body.

Why does my arm move?

We can look at it as a set of joints and muscles.

Joints allow movement in certain directions

and muscles are what makes the arm move by contracting.

When you contract your muscle, it gets shorter and pulls the part that is behind the joint.

This is the most important information here: the muscle can only pull, it cannot push.

So when I want to bend my arm this way, it is my biceps that gets shorter and it pulls the forearm up.

When I rotate the arm and extend it this way, now the triceps is doing the work of pulling and the forearm goes up.

The same rules apply when you move your whole body, but instead of one particular muscle,

the whole chain of them contracts to perform a specific action.

If you want to do a hollow body hold, your abs, quads

and hip muscles work in unison by getting shorter

and thus lifting your shoulders and legs above the ground.

Sometimes it may be difficult to see which muscles are contracted,

especially when we're talking about static holds.

In these situations muscles are not getting shorter or longer,

because there is no movement.

However, by representing the body using simple schematics of segments connected by joints

and applying some simplified forces, we can easily conclude which part of the body is being stretched.

And this is what we're interested in, because it means that this part of the body is counteracting the stretching

by contracting the muscles and thus training them.

Just like in that dragon flag example – the weight of the body forces it to bend,

granted that you hold tightly with your arms and shoulders,

so it provides sufficient support.

So, to keep it straight you need to contract your abs and quads.

Let's now move to real life examples and I'm gonna start with front lever.

I am using a resistance band here, but let's pretend that it's not there for a moment.

The schematics of this position look like that.

The joint that gets the most stress in this case is your shoulders,

so you need to push down with your hands to stop the body from going down.

This is accomplished by your triceps, rear deltoid,

lats and other minor back muscles in this area.

But if you were to use only those, your front lever would look like this.

To keep the rest of your body horizontal you need to contract your abs and quads.

Those muscles are used to counteract the gravitation and they do most of the work,

but it doesn't mean that the rest of the muscles in your body is limp.

When holding positions like front lever, we usually flex most of the muscles in our body,

because it helps with stabilization and generally

the more muscles we flex, the more power can our body generate.

But this is more like passive flexing when the muscle is not loaded in any way.

Just like when you flex your abs for the picture.

I've heard some people saying that they feel their chest after training front lever.

This can happen when you passively contract it hard.

It may also happen when instead of pushing precisely down with your hands,

you also try to bring them toghether.

This make you use chest muscles, but is not necessary to hold the position.

Now, let's adress the resistance band and use this position to show what I think

is the best way of using bands to learn skills and why is that.

When you want to lift up a horizontally placed stick on one finger without it changing it's orientation,

where would you place it? Naturally in the middle of the stick, because that's where its center of mass is.

The same thinking should be applied when using resistance bands.

If you want it to help you without forcing you to change position in any way

it needs to lift you upwards in the center of your mass.

Center of mass of your body in that position is somewhere between your belly button and your crotch,

so this is the optimal placement of the resistance band.

An alternative method, that I saw people use, would be putting your feet in the loop.

Here, you can see that the force from the band that is supposed to help you hold the position

isn't facing upwards and isn't applied at the center of your mass.

When I decompose that force into components you can see that one is lifting you upwards,

but the other one is pushing backwards changing the position slighly.

Plus when that upward force is applied at your feet it takes away some of the load from your abs.

To see that clearly, I can show you another example.

I placed my shoulders on a support, but this is the same thing that you're trying to do with your arms in a front lever

provide a support for the rest of the body.

When my feet is in the air, just like in front lever, the top of my body is under stress.

But when I put my feet on a support it all changes.

Now what keeps my hips from going down is my lower back.

Here, you can see how stress function changes.

Of course the resistance band doesn't provide the same support,

it just applies a force there, but if that force is big enough, the effect is essentially the same

– transfering the stress from the abs to lower back.

So if you want to get the most genuine feel of holding the position,

then use the band on your lower back.

Of course I'm not saying you cannot learn front lever using the resistance band on your feet,

I'm just saying that it changes the mechanics of the position slightly

and may not be the an optimal way of doing that.

Planche hold is pretty much the exact mirror reflection of front lever,

so it uses the opposite muscle groups.

Again I have to use a band to show you anything, but let's pretend that it's not there.

The most loaded joint here is the shoulder joint and the muscles used to hold the position

are mainly your front deltoids, but also trapezius and chest muscles.

What keeps the rest of your body horizontal is your lower back and butt muscles.

Squeezing your abs will definitely help you to hold the position,

but those muscles only play supporting and stabilizing role, as they're not directly loaded.

One additional joint that is stressted here is the wrist,

so the muscles in your forearms are also being used heavily.

Next, let's look at the human flag starting with your arms.

Ideally, both your arms should be straight and that means that there's not a lot of movement involved.

The range of motion of a straight arm is rather limited and comes from the scapula.

When holding the flag, the upper arm is pulled out of the shoulder joint whereas the bottom one is pushed in.

So to counteract those forces you need to pull with your upper scapula and push with the bottom one.

Figuring out how to do that might be difficult, especially in the beginning,

so it's worth it to practice the moves separately.

First – pulling. You need to grab the bar with one hand

and pull yourself up without bending the elbow.

This is called scapular pull up. You can use your other hand to help yourself, but eventually you need to be able to do it with one arm.

ou can see how my scapula is going up and down in relation to my head or the other scapula.

The second exercise, that helps you practice pushing straight arm is an exact opposite of scapular pull up.

You need to get to a handstand, get on one hand and push away from the ground as much as you can

and then go down by relaxing the muscles.

Those two actions are necessary to hold the flag properly

– pulling with the upper arm and pushing with the bottom one.

If you see someone bending an elbow of their upper arm,

it's because their scapula isn't strong enough and they cheat the move by pulling with the biceps.

As for the rest of the body, you need to contract the muscles on the side of your waist, that is facing up.

The side of your abs is doing most of the work to keep here.

So to conclude, your shoulders, back muscles that hold your scapulas

and obliques are doing the hardest work in human flag.

And lastly, back lever which is very similar to planche as far as used muscle groups go.

The schematics of this position are the same as for the front lever,

so the shoulder joint does the most work here.

This time, however, you pull down with your chest facing the ground, so you use front parts of the deltoid muscles,

your chest and biceps.

As for the rest of the body, now instead of the abs you need to contract your lower back,

butt muscles and glutes. And again, squeezing your abs does help with stabilizing the body,

but those muscles do not take part in supporting your body weight in that position.

All the previous exercises that included grabbing a bar require you to use the forearm muscles as well.

I didn't want to repeat myself everytime, so I just mention it here.

When you want to clench your fist, the muscles in your forearm contract to pull the tendons in your fingers.

When you require those fingers to hold your entire bodyweight,

those muscles need to work very hard to keep the fingers from straightening.

I hope I didn't complicate the topic too much,

but my main goal here was to explain why this or that muscle is used.

I can't cover every single position here, but when you understand those simple rules,

hopefully, you will be able to answer your own questions for other calisthenics skills.

Hope you liked this video, leave a thumb up if you did and I will see you in the next one.

For more infomation >> The Mechanics of Calisthenics - Which Muscles Do You Use? - Duration: 10:19.

-------------------------------------------

A Look at Which Celebs Have Been Robbed This Year | Daily Celebrity News | Splash TV - Duration: 1:46.

Mariah Carey just got hit by robbers and lost $50,000 worth of stuff.

TMZ reports the pop diva's Los Angeles mansion was hit around 3 in the morning, with the

crooks getting in through a window or door on an upper floor.

Surprisingly, the robbers didn't hit pay dirt.

Instead, they made of with 50 grand worth of purses and sunglasses – which was probably

less than 10 items total.

But she's not the only celeb who's been robbed this year.

Jason Derulo got hit in September – and what was was initially ruled a random act

– eventually got called an inside job.

Robbers got away with $600,000 worth of jewelry and $80,000 in cash after breaking into his

LA home.

David Spade's Beverly Hills home was also burglarized this year… with thieves making

off with $80,000 worth of jewelry and cash.

Spade did have a security system but it was reportedly disabled by the thieves.

Emmy Rossum's Beverly Glen home was robbed back in March – with thieves making off

with an estimated $150,000 in jewelry.

Reports claim robbers broke a rear patio window and turned off the alarm, then managed to

find and open Rossum's safe.

Before that Nicki Minaj's Beverly Hills home was robbed of almost $200,000 worth of

her precious jewelry, in addition to destroying and vandalizing her personal property.

Luckily for her, she was out of town at the time of the robbery.

Other robbery victims this year include Alanis Morissette, Kendall Jenner, and Soctt Disick.

For more infomation >> A Look at Which Celebs Have Been Robbed This Year | Daily Celebrity News | Splash TV - Duration: 1:46.

-------------------------------------------

Fitbit vs Phone: Which is the Better Pedometer? - Duration: 7:38.

walking six miles a day every day almost every day for the past two years has

been I think a very very important part of both my weight loss and maintaining

that weight loss so losing the sixty-five pounds I think was definitely

a combination of the eating and the walking it kind of reinforced the habit

and then you know the maintaining I found it very important to continue

walking I landed on walking as my excuse proof form of exercise it didn't matter

how tired I was I could always get up and get some steps in and I do it in my

house so again there are no excuses if I don't get my steps in there are

absolutely no excuses if you're looking to start walking every day as your form

of exercise you're probably considering buying a Fitbit or other kind of fitness

tracker but odds are you already have a fitness tracker I've used both a Fitbit

and a phone as my pedometer and they each have their pros and their cons so

today's video it's just gonna be about the pros and cons of each and what my

conclusions are so first let's talk about the benefits that you'll get

whether you use your phone or you buy a fitness tracker first of all they're

both going to give you an accurate count of your steps

they're both simple to use most apps will let you track your steps and your

weight in the same app and that's very important to track both your weight and

your steps so if you're not weighing yourself every day you should check out

my other video on why you should that being said there are some differences so

first let's talk about the Fitbit the Fitbit is amazing I loved loved loved my

Fitbit I cherished that thing I got it in December of 2014 and if anything if

nothing else the one thing the one big realization that I got from it was I was

sedentary I did not realize how little I moved until I had a Fitbit on my wrist

showing me just how few steps I got there were days I would only get like

1,300 steps the American Heart Association says you should get 10,000

steps a day so it made me that may be my lifestyle was also partly

to blame for my weight gain and the Fitbit is really fun it's got a whole

community so when you're on the app you can be friends with both people who just

have Fitbits and your friends in real life who have Fitbits and you can do

challenges and you can have contests and it's a lot of fun you can see how you

know kind of keep each other accountable which is good so another really cool

thing that I liked about the Fitbit and maybe not everybody would like was the

badges I love earning things like that even

though they have no value in real life like for example they had the Sahara

badge which you earn after you've walked 2983 miles which is the length of the

Sahara Desert another cool feature is that it keeps track of your personal

bests which I found to be very motivating back in 2016 when I really

got serious about I'm going to walk six miles every day I told myself I would

also beat my personal bests every month and so that was helpful

because it really showed me what I was capable of like I got over 40,000 steps

in a single day and then that made 14,000 seem like nothing

that being said you'll notice I'm not wearing one and the reason for that is

after I'd owned it for a year and nine months it broke now I bought mine in

December of 2014 and I paid $80 for it and I just felt like something that I

paid $80 for should last for longer than that I don't know maybe I was wrong and

maybe at my standards were too high but at that point I just felt like that was

a lot of money to spend on a pedometer that broke after not even two years of

use so I did contact their support team and they were very nice they

basically said you know we only have a one-year warranty

and so here's a discount code if you want to you know have like I don't know

10% offer 20% or whatever it was I didn't buy another one after that there

are a couple of other cons it can be kind of pricey for what it is and

they're not the prettiest things you know like if you're

and you're dressed up if you've got your Fitbit on it's just kind of sporty

looking although there are some options out there some independent crafters have

really started to make some cute things like on Etsy and some other companies

have started to make a little Fitbit holders some people have an issue with

trying to remember to charge the battery but what I found with that is if I could

just charge it miles in the shower I never ran out of battery it always was

charged I never had to deal with it so now let's talk about using your phone

I've been doing this for the past year now and I will say whether you use a

Fitbit or you use your phone either way you can get your steps in one thing that

I was concerned about was that I would somehow not be as motivated to get my

steps in if I only use my phone but I found that it was actually just as easy

to stay motivated because at that point the habit had been ingrained and that's

something to consider the Fitbit was fun and engaging and everything and while I

was forming my habit after I had formed the habit then I used my phone so I saw

no difference and you know my consistency a big reason why I just

started to use my phone was because I already had it with me when I was

walking anyway so you know normally now I just listen to podcasts so I've always

got my phone in my pocket while I'm listening to the podcast and in the

beginning a lot of times I was just watching Netflix just you know walking

around my house watching Netflix so I thought what's the point of having a

Fitbit when I'm already carrying around a thing that is a pedometer so there's

just one less thing to have to worry about on the flip side of that there are

some not so nice things about using your phone as a pedometer first of all the

battery drains really fast so you're gonna have to be really diligent about

keeping your phone charged so that when you are ready to go get your steps in

you have it charged up and ready to go and if you're watching TV with your

phone while you're getting your steps in your battery's gonna drain quicker so

just be aware of that and you have to remember to put the phone in your pocket

if you want your steps to count which I've had to learn the hard way before

also pockets ok phones are getting bigger pockets are tiny it's a problem

also my athletic shorts which I'm usually wearing don't have pockets

so with that I tried you know buying one of those dorky belt Clippy things and

strapping it to and clipping it to my hip but I stopped that because it broke

but what I do now is I just stick my phone in between my hip and my waistband

and just let the shorts hold it there but that's probably a bad plan and I'll

probably drop my phone and break it at some point so bottom line my suggestion

would be if you want a Fitbit go get a Fitbit you'll enjoy it it'll probably

help motivate you more when you're getting in the habit of starting to walk

also it's cool to have a community around you

and it's just more motivating in general but if you don't have the budget for it

still no excuse you can still totally do this with your phone and you know if

you're kind of in that middle like you don't really have a budget for a new one

but you think it would help you go get a used one on eBay like just find a

reputable seller and go get you a used one okay so hopefully that helps if

you've had a Fitbit tell me did you love it did you hate it did you use it did it

break I would love to know because I'm looking to maybe buy another one in

the near future maybe I just got a bad one

For more infomation >> Fitbit vs Phone: Which is the Better Pedometer? - Duration: 7:38.

-------------------------------------------

iPhone 8 Plus vs Pixel 2 XL vs Galaxy Note 8: which one to buy - Duration: 10:36.

iPhone 8 Plus vs Pixel 2 XL vs Galaxy Note 8: which one to buy

We are just two and a half months away from calling the year over and we already have most of this year's top smartphones lined up in stores.

Of course, we're still waiting for the iPhone X to finally land in users' hands, but, unless you already had your heart set on Apple's most expensive iPhone to date, you might already be weighing your options with what's available.

So which among this year's top three, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus, the Google Pixel 2, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, deserves your well-earned money? We take a look beyond the spec sheet to bring to light each one's strengths and, of course, flaws.

      iPhone 8 Plus The iPhone 8 will soon be eclipsed by the iPhone X, but, novel as that may be, not everyone wants it, much less afford it.

In fact, the iPhone 8's biggest strength might actually be its familiar design and mostly conventional features, standing tall and proud amidst a sea of change.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, for example, retains an LCD screen even while many are switching to OLED.

OLED might have some advantages, but it's not perfect either.

In addition, Apple has had years to perfect its LCD technology, something the experts at DisplayMate will attest to.

The iPhone 8's screen is bright and its colors are crisp and accurate.

They're also cheaper to make.

Apple didn't change the iPhone formula that much, which is actually good.

As benchmarks have shown, Apple's processors still runs circles around some Android phones, even when it has less raw power to work with.

One thing that Apple did change was the addition of wireless charging at long last.

That was thanks to its change in materials, using glass on the back once more.

Sadly, that isn't enough to mask the fact that the iPhone 8 still has the smallest battery among the three, even with the iPhone 8 Plus' larger pack.

Again, same formula.

The iPhone 8 Plus' dual camera is, of course still great and is one of the highest rated on DxOMark.

Sadly, not only does it tie with the Galaxy Note 8, both have also been overtaken by the Google Pixel 2 and, just now, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.

Pixel 2 XL The Pixel 2 XL is hailed as the pinnacle of Android smartphones, though that might be a bit of a stretch in some regard.

True, it is "Made by Google" itself and, therefore, should represent the ideal Android smartphone.

It has the best camera in town, say DxOMark, which is quite an accomplishment considering how much it is able to do with only one camera.

Tie that with a no longer unlimited offer of Google Photos cloud storage and you've got the makings of a great memory recorder.

Of course, the rest of the phone is great as well, both hardware and software.

The promise of three years' worth of consistent updates is music to Android fans' ears.

The HTC-inspired Active Edge may or may not be a good thing, depending on how Google plans to move forward with it.

And the dual tone, dual material design is always going to be a head turner at first glance.

Sadly, the Google Pixel 2 XL has a collection of small peeves and issues that can gnaw at your consciousness.

The phones durability as well as that of its fingerprint sensor is now in question.

It's IP68 rating, while tons better than the first Google Pixel, is still one point shy of the top.

Wireless charging has been around for years but Google has seemingly forgotten ever since the Nexus 6.

And the comparatively dull colors on the P-OLED screen, which might be fixed by an update, doesn't give a good first impression of what should be the best of the best Android phone.

Galaxy Note 8 And then there's the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung's second flagship of the year.

In all honesty, it should probably be compared to the iPhone X because of its price, but that would be its only point of comparison really.

In almost all other things, the Galaxy Note 8 will be rubbing shoulders with these two.

Samsung has been doing Super AMOLED on phones for years, so it has gotten this down to a T compared to Google or LG.

And unlike Google, Samsung gives users a bit more control over color saturation, knowing first hand that no one setting fits all.

Samsung also has had the advantage of already having a second phone with almost no bezels, so it isn't really that surprising that it has nearly gotten everything right.

It is, however, its first dual camera attempt, and it is impressive that it almost got it perfectly on first try.

Of course, it does now sit well below the Pixel 2 XL and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.

It's S Pen is as powerful as always and it is also one of the only remain flagship smartphones with a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

But its price tag hovers over it like a Sword of Damocles.

Only the staunchest S Pen fan will be able to justify the costs.

Remarkable as its dual cameras may be, even the Pixel 2 XL's single camera is able to perform just as well at a considerably lower price.

And TouchWiz, improved and leaner as it may be, will always be an elephant in the room.

Wrap-up: OS wars redux So which of the three to go for this holiday shopping spree? Sadly we have to discount the Galaxy Note 8 except for one and only one reason: the S Pen.

If you really love the stylus and have the cash to spare, go wild.

Interestingly, with the Galaxy Note 8 out of the way, it boils down to an iOS vs.

Android showdown once again.

Both the iPhone 8 Plus and the Pixel 2 XL are formidable smartphones and, when you consider all the pros and cons, they're almost on equal footing.

And so it becomes a question of which platform you find more comfortable to use.

iOS 11 is already out, but most of its notable features seem to have been designed for the extra larger screens of iPads.

It is also beset with problems, though Apple has been quick, nay quicker, to patch them up.

At least those that it considers actual bugs and not features.

In the same vein, Android 80 Oreo addresses many pain points in the platform, but the version on the Pixel 2 is, unsurprisingly, a bit special.

But more than just the platform itself, it's Google's ecosystem of services that give the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL a special flavor.

Ironically, some of those services and features are also available on iOS to some extent, which does make part of that argument a bit moot.