Posted on Mar 06, 2010 under General, Weight Training, weight loss |
One area of your body that is totally critical to not only your fitness goals, but your everyday life is your core. It is your center, where your energy comes from and a place where very essential, yet often neglected muscles are located.
Click here for more on the best Core Strength Exercises
Three Things you might not know about your core:
Your midsection contains muscles that stabilize each one of your movements and are the first muscle to contract. Since your energy originates from your core outward, a feeble core will directly have an effect on the quantity of energy you have for all your other training. Think about that next time you hit that plateau in your other workouts.Want six pack abs? If you’re like the average American, you most likely spend the majority of your day slouched over a keyboard. This posture is counter productive for you abs. Constructing a well-built midsection will help avoid this type of slouching and keep you upright.
While most muscles propel or push outwards, the core muscles essentially oppose movement. The reason for this is to stop any unforgiving movement of the spine which houses nerves which control your whole body.
Here are 3 different routines where you can decide the one that fits you best.
Perfect Posture: The collection of exercises really works to help you sustain correct posture which help in all aspects of your training. Translation, greater muscle gains.
· Side Bridge (15-45 seconds each side)
· Plank to Diagonal Arm Lift (4-12 Reps)
Do this group of exercises before your regular workout.
Back Pain, No Problem: If you’ve had any previous back pain or injuries, then this group of exercises is for you. These exercises will enhance your muscle fortitude to help lighten stress on your back and balance your weight more evenly to other parts of your body during demanding movements.
· Glute-Bridge March (6-12 Reps)
· Plank with Diagonal Arm Lift (4-12 Reps)
· Cable Chop (6-10 Reps)
· Side Bridge (15-45 seconds each side)
Perform this routine as a circuit 1 or 2 times, 2-3 times a week at the end of your workout.
Top of your game: If your midsection begins to get tired or give out, then your game will be next to go. The group of exercises will improve your strength and speed in any competitive or non-competitive sport.
· Plank with Diagonal Arm Lift (4-12 Reps)
· Glute-Bridge March (6-12 Reps)
· Swiss Ball Knee Tuck (6-12 Reps)
· Cable Chop (6-10 Reps)
· Side Bridge (15-45 seconds each side)
· Squat to Row (6-12 Reps)
Perform this as a circuit with 60 seconds rest for two sets, 2-3 times after your workout.
Click here for more on the best Core Strength Exercises
The Exercises:
Side Bridge: Lie down on your side sustaining you weight with your forearm level on the ground. Maintain your core tight and your body in a straight line from your ankles to your shoulders. Maintain this posture 15-45 seconds and replicate on the opposite side.
Plank with Arm at 2 o’clock: While in a tailored push up position with both forearms on the floor and your feet about shoulder width apart, lift your right hand parallel to the ground pointing at 2 o’clock. Maintain for about 2 seconds and then revisit your forearm to the ground. Duplicate with left arm pointing at about 10 o’clock.
Alternating Leg Lowering: Whilst lying on your back with right and left legs 90 degrees from the floor, lower one leg to about 3 inches from the floor, then go back to starting place. Replicate with opposite leg finishing the repetition.
Stability Ball Knee Tuck: Start in the push up position with your ankles resting on a stability ball approximately shoulder width distance. Keeping your core tight, move your knees towards your chest until you’re on your toes. Next slowly revisit to the starting position.
Cable Chop: At a elevated pulley position, grasp either a rope or handle with both hands. This is the opening position. Then gradually keeping your arms straight, rotate your body finishing with your hands downward and away from your body. Return gradually to the beginning position. Repeat on other side.
Lying High Knee March: Lie down on your back with your feet on the ground and your knees bent at about 90 degrees and your butt off the ground. Move one knee towards your chest keeping your body contracted and straight. Drop back to beginning position and repeat with the opposite leg.
Cable One Leg Squat to Row: With a pulley at the middle position, grab a handle with your right hand facing left. With a slight bend in your left leg, straighten your right leg behind you so it’s roughly a foot off the floor. From this point, pull the handle towards your body bringing your knee up towards your chest. Do 10-12 reps for each leg to finish a set.
Click here for more on the best Core Strength Exercises
Another great health, fitness and nutrition resource is Truth About Six Pack Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> The Truth About Six Pack Abs – The Truth
Posted on Jan 01, 2010 under bodyweight exercises, weight loss |
If losing fat is a struggle to you, you’re absolutely not alone. However, even with all the millions of people trying to lose weight by doing steady state cardio, did you know that all these people would have better results doing this a different way?
Ok, let’s take a step back for a second. It’s not really the “wrong” way, but it’s not the most efficient way either. The fact is that steady state cardio fitness is not the most efficient way to burn fat! Sure, you’ll burn calories, but it’s not as effective as other means of training.
If you want to lose fat and become more muscular, you really have to incorporate some form of high intensity training into your workout. It’s not unknown that this kind of exercise not only leads to greater loss of fat, but it also greatly improves cardiovascular health.
Check out our Fat Burning Furnace review for an in-depth look at one training program that will make this a fun, challenging, and effective way to lose weight.
Let’s take a closer look. When you’re running on a treadmill your body is doing the same motion over and over again. Over time your muscles will become used to this movemnet, and your body will adapt to burn less calories. The results over time will diminish because without challenging your body it will acclimate. In addition, you’re also putting a lot of stress on particular joints repeatedly. You probably won’t get hurt but it’s definitely not the best way of doing things.
Cardio also leads to mindlessness and boredom in your workouts. If you think that just squeaking by with a 30 minute jog around the block will help, you’re not trying hard enough. If you want the best results you’re really going to have to challenge your body.
Let’s see how high intensity weight training is a great solution here. You really only have to have a few workouts a week, and the workout length is shorter for each session. Weightlifting to maximum exertion and muscle failure really gives you a workout. Your body has to work extra hard to repair your muscles, (adding new muscle in the process), and prep your cardio system for your next go. This leads to a lot more calories burned overall.
If you’re stuck in a rut and you’re not seeing any changes in your body after weeks and months of boring cardio, then I strongly suggest that you look into a training program that will implement these high intensity routines.
Another great health, fitness and nutrition resource is Truth About Six Pack Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Six Pack Abs Truth
Posted on Dec 11, 2009 under Weight Training, muscle building, weight loss |
How to build lean muscle simply comes down to how much protein and calories to ingest. It’s a known fact that you need protein to grow muscles and that when you weight-train, you build lean muscle at the expense of fatty tissue.
You have to lose fat by eating properly while at the same time increasing your protein consumption. But here’s something else to consider, if you’re not eating right, then you have no reason to be in the gym; you’re actually harming your body if you do.
Here is what you need to do to build lean muscle – keep a daily food journal that counts the fat, protein and carbohydrate calories you are consuming each day.
Once you’ve done this, you can start to plan a strategy that will increase your muscle mass without putting on that much fat. The next thing you must know when trying to build lean muscle is the amount of protein you need everyday.
If you weigh 165 lbs, and you want to weigh 185 lbs, then you need to eat like someone who weighs 185 lbs, and the key to that is consuming 1.5 your body weight (or goal body weight) in grams of protein.
So the guy who weighs 165 lbs, but who wants to weigh 185 lbs needs to consume 225 g A DAY to reach that weight and build that lean muscle mass.
225 g of protein is a lot, but not if you’re used to eating that much food. If you eat 5 to 6 meals a day and take in 45 grams of protein in each one, you’ll get to your goal. Your consumption must be maintained at that level to retain your body mass. Once you’re eating right, you‘ll need to establish a weight-training routine that gradually builds as you graduate up the scales.
Of course, eating right also means eating smart and by this, we mean selecting menu items that are high in protein, vitamins & minerals, especially Omega-3s (good fat) and low in bad fat. To get the required dosage every day, you might want to try taking a quality protein shake although chicken, tuna and other fishes are also good options.
Carbs, you can take in all the carbs you want just as long as you’re getting the protein that you need, because you’ll be burning lots of carb calories during the workouts which requires an intense cardio routine.
There are lots of healthy carbs on the grocery store shelves, like fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains, so don’t think that carbs are solely from fastfood. Fruits and vegetables are very good sources of carbs rather than junk food carbs which are essentially useless.
Your main goal would be to achieve the necessary amount of protein, then eat the rest of whatever you want while staying off the junk food.
Now you know the key factors involved in how to build lean muscle mass, don’t forget to take a multi-vitamin every day while you’re working out. It will help replace everything you use up while pushing your body as far as it can go.
Another great health, fitness and nutrition resource is Truth About Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Abs Truth
Posted on Dec 07, 2009 under Weight Training, bodyweight exercises, muscle building |
Read on and find out how to gain muscle.
1) Diet: eat clean. To gain muscle and a minimum amount of fat, you need to eat a good lean quality protein source. About 1 – 2 grams per pound of lean body weight must be divided over 5 – 6 meals per day.
Carbohydrates: Complex fibrous carbs in the form of fresh vegetables are best for gaining lean weight. Potatoes and other starches should be eaten early in the day so they can be burned off while you’re active, preferably as a post workout meal.
Good fats need to be taken in at each meal: olive oil, flax oil, Udos essential oils or fish oils. Eating wild-caught salmon 2 or 3 times a week is a good way to get your fish oils.
Always remember that whatever meal you have, it must contain good fats, carbohydrates and protein. Stay away from sugars. If you have to take them, then eat them in the form of whole fruit early in the day.
Keep in mind that your essential nutritional calories should be taken from food sources, not liquids.
Make water your main drink, and drink enough each day. Here’s a simple rule of thumb to determine your basic water needs. Divide your body weight in half and turn that figure into ounces. That is the figure you need to start with, you may need more if you are really active. Example: you weigh 100 lbs. 100 / 2 = 50 ounces of water.
However, there are a few exceptions namely vegetables, fruits and protein shakes.
When made with the right ingredients, these can be very effective fast meal replacements, snacks or post workout meals. Precision nutrition has a whole section on these types of shakes with a lot of recipes and they are categorized as either anytime or post workout shakes.
You will need to determine your caloric needs to maintain your present mass, and then add about 15% – 20% more calories to that to increase your weight and gain muscle.
Muscle gaining tips for exercise:
Go for the big compound lifts to get your body to burn more calories. These would be: Clean and jerks, squats, deadlifts, squat presses, benches; flat and incline, dips and pull-ups. Keep in mind that your big lifts must first be accomplished before performing the isolated lifts.As far as reps go, vary it. Some days go for strength with heavier weight and lower reps. Other days go for more reps with a lighter weight. Keep the intensity high always, and you need to be flirting with failure on every working set. I like to do one warm up set and 3 – 4 working sets.
Get in get your workout done, if you’re spending more than an hour you are doing too much and/or you are not working intensely enough. Overtraining can be as damaging as under training. Remember that training provides the stimulus to get the muscle to recover and grow. During rest, the muscle actually recovers and grows. So get your 8 hours of sleep in and don’t overtrain.
So basically, the tips to develop muscles are:
1) Eat the necessary amount of lean protein as well as keeping your food consumption healthy.
2) Exercise intensely enough to stimulate the muscle to grow without injuring yourself
3) For your muscles to recuperate and have time to grow, make sure to get plenty of rest.
4) Rinse and repeat. KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
Another great health, fitness and nutrition resource is Truth About Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Abs Truth
Posted on Nov 19, 2009 under Fitness, Weight Training, fitness equipment |
The key to body building for beginners is to perform Compound Exercises with perfect form and get your diet right. I can’t stress this enough, and to work up in weight incrementally.
You can probably lift more than the weight you should begin with, but the key is to do the exercises consistently.
Beginners get discouraged because they don’t see immediate gains or they over-train… you must be patient and disciplined, disciplined is the key to making gains when you’re just starting out.
Compound workouts are done for muscle strength and build up, when you have reached the desired level for this, the following workouts would be isolation exercises.
Compound exercises are ones in which at least two joints are used to do the exercise movement, so for chest & triceps, you’ll want to do DIPS or BENCH PRESS, for lats and biceps you’ll want to do PULLUPS or LAT BAR PULL DOWN, for legs… it’s SQUATS and then DEADLIFT (which also hits your lower back).
For your shoulder & triceps, you’ll wan to do MILITARY PRESS, CLEAN & JERKS or SQUAT PRESSES.
CALF WORK, because of the unique nature of that muscle group, requires the intensity of CALF RAISES & DONKEY PRESSES which only work one joint, so they tend to be an isolation exercise.
When you have decided on what exercise types would comprise your workouts, it is time to move on in determining how many repetitions and sets would be needed.
It’s suggested that beginning bodybuilders, for the first two weeks do light weights and high reps to get your muscles primed for the growth phase, so you want to start with 1 or 2 sets and work your way up to 4 or 5 sets of 12 to 15 reps (this includes your warm-up sets).
Then you’ll want to swap out exercises, so if you’ve been doing WEIGHTED DIPS it’s time for BENCH PRESS, and you’ll want to raise the weight maybe 15 or 20% and do less sets and less reps (say 2 or 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps), stay on this course for two weeks, then it’s it time to bring the weight back down and do 4 or 5 sets of 10 to 12 reps for one week, then you can jump up in weight from the heavy phase, but do less reps and sets.
The key element here is to a) switch up the routine so your body has to constantly adapt b) build strength and mass by alternating what intensity of weights you pump. What it adds up to is better calorie burns, stamina and strength through one heavy set of exercises per week partnered with light yet repetitive exercises for the remaining days of the week.
Once you’ve been on the compound exercise cycle for about 6 weeks, you can start to slowly work in isolation exercises, these are exercises that use one joint to move the weight.
For example, do the barbell or PREACHER CURL, instead DUMBBELL CURLS. You want to do the FRENCH PRESS instead of ONE-ARM TRICEP PRESSES, LEG EXTENSIONS instead of LEG PRESSES, and so on. Once you attained the mass and definition you were aiming for, you can now start adapting more unique exercises. Although it’s nearly impossible to do “spot work,” you can eke out specific gains by alternating your routine and the reps/sets combinations.
For instance, when doing EZ-BAR BICEP CURLS, instead of doing 4 or 5 sets of 12 to 15 reps, do two sets of 21s; 21s for BICEP CURLS are when you do 7 reps of vertical to 90 degrees, then 7 reps of 90 degrees to the full contraction, and then finally 7 reps of the full motion… all without a break. That’s a burn that you won’t forget, and it’s a great way to shock you muscles if you’ve reach a plateau.
The discipline required to stay on the right course, even though it might not be “sexy” in the beginning is the key to making the progressive gains that you want.
Also, getting more than enough rest and eating right, actually eating more than ever have before.
Your diet is the most important thing whether you’re first starting out or a seasoned pro. A bad diet will make it impossible to reach your goals while eating healthy foods will hasten the body building process.
Let me leave you with one more thought. Top trainers have often said that until you can perform bodyweight exercises, you have no business lifting weights.
For that reason, you may want to start out doing bodyweight exercises.
Another great health, fitness and nutrition resource is Truth About Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Abs Truth
Posted on Oct 15, 2009 under Cardio, Dieting, Fitness, General, Health, Weight Training, fitness equipment |
A good number of exercisers these days still depend on long duration average paced aerobic exercise as their primary routine to burn fat quickly. But recent studies have revealed that this is a big, I mean big mistake. As a matter of fact, you might say that the complete aerobics blast of a few decades past was one of the leading mistakes in the health and fitness industry. Why?
There are quite a few reasons, but I will center on the two key issues here. When you exercise at a average pace for extended periods of time, as in the typically suggested percent of your target heart rate, your body is burning fat throughout the exercise. Though this may sound good, it is actually bad news.
This sends a signal to your body to hang on to a certain quantity of stored fat accessible for your next workout. You’re basically telling it that it needs fat obtainable to burn, ‘because you will be performing this exercise again. Consequently while we may be burning various calories during this exercise, after the exercise is over, our body begins storing up some fat for the next workout. Obviously not what we are looking for in terms of utmost ability to burn fat rapidly.
The other big concern with moderately paced aerobic exercise done several times per week is that it trains your body (heart, lungs, muscles, etc.) to become efficient. Once more, this may sound good, but what is essentially happening is bad for long term health. You are working only within your existing aerobic limits, without improving your aerobic capacity.
This is important because your aerobic capacity is what determines how your body responds in times of physical, emotional, and mental stress. If you decrease your capability for work, as you do in this type of exercise, you are reducing your long term health, not to reveal a poor chance of burning fat.
The good news is, you could reverse these effects by as a substitute concentrating your workouts on high intensity resistance training, with workouts that last 15-20 minutes on average, and should only be done 2-3 times every week.
These workouts will burn carbohydrates instead of fat during the workout, and will cause your body to employ its fat stores to restock the burned carbs over the next 24 hours, after the workout is complete! This type of work will also highten your reserve capacity and therefore your ability to handle all types of stress, leading to lasting health and fitness…and 24/7 fat burning. Nice!
But the exercise must be performed appropriately to be effective, and that means using satisfactory intensity, and balancing your rest periods between exercises and sets down to 60 seconds or less.
The students of the Fat Burning Furnace method know this, and are enjoying the benefits. Once you consider about how little time you have to expend in comparison to the classically recommended methods to obtain these fat burning and health developing results, it’s virtually magical.
Another great health and fitness resource for firing up your metabolism is Truth About Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Abs Truth
Posted on Oct 13, 2009 under Cardio, Fitness, General, Health, Weight Training |
Ask ten individuals what kind of exercise they must be performing to burn fat and fire up their metabolism and they will all perhaps tell you the same thing. They will tell you that you ought to do 30-40 minutes of moderately-paced aerobic exercise on a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair climber, etc. for 3-5 times every week.
They’ll most likely also tell you that more is better…4 times every week will be better than 3, and 5 times each week will be even better.
Individuals will tell you this since that has been and continues to be the mainstream recommendation for fat burning by a number of fitness professionals. Get in a specific target heart rate and stay at that heart rate for 30 minutes or more, several times every week. I am here to advise you there is a healthier way.
Sure, you’ll burn some calories while you’re running to nowhere on a treadmill, although you will not make a complete physique makeover with this type of exercise alone.
In actual fact, this kind of exercise can in reality be counterproductive to burning fat. Here are just a couple of reasons:
Long duration, lower intensity aerobics calls upon your stored body fat for energy throughout the sessions. Despite the fact that this may sound good, this can in fact cause your body to form more body fat in reserve after the exercise is over to have ready for your next workout. Yikes!
What’s worse, this kind of exercise when done repeatedly as generally suggested, trains your cardiovascular system to be efficient. Once more, while this sounds great, your heart and lungs can actually decrease their ability for work as they are getting more effective at doing easy work (your long duration, low intensity aerobic workouts), which reduces their capacity to handle stress.
This can lead to a host of other problems such as higher chance of heart attack. You are only working within your current aerobic capability because you are never challenging it to go beyond what it’s capable of. Furthermore anything that is effortless will not produce results even close to what is challenging for the body to accomplish.
As a substitute, you should be challenging the body to increase its capacity, so that it is stronger and able to deal with stress more easily. How is this done?
The quickest and most proficient way to rev up your metabolism, burn fat faster, and extend lifelong health and fitness is to add lean muscle to your body through resistance training – period. You want life altering results in the fastest possible time? Get stronger and form some muscle. When you add lean muscle to your body you will be literally turning your body into a fat burning machine!
Let us say that you were eating the amount of calories that permit you to maintain your present bodyweight, but began to add lean muscle to your body through proper resistance training…you will need to expend some of those calories you are ingesting to feed the new muscle, developing a calorie deficit in your body.
Additionally, when you accelerate your body with correct resistance training like I teach my students, the repair and growth process will call upon your stored body fat for energy. This calorie deficit united with the repair and growth process will permit you to burn fat all day long, each day. You will even get these fat burning effects when you are sitting around doing nothing at all.
Also, accurately conducted resistance training literally rises your heart and lung’s function for work. By placing extreme demands on your body, it is forced into being prepared for anything you toss at it. This makes you more resistant to cardiovascular health problems that plague a good number of people…even those individuals that exercise with aerobics frequently.
In addition the beauty is I have found that you do not have to spend a good deal of time working out to get the fat loss effects, and strength and muscle gains that will produce this environment…you can in reality get it done with 2 or 3 weekly workouts that last between 20 and 30 minutes, and even less time at an advanced degree.
In conclusion, it is quite easy to make this kind of exercise a part of your life because of its effectiveness, it will aid in keeping you healthy and lean for the rest of it…muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of!
Another great health and fitness resource for firing up your metabolism is Truth About Abs by Mike Geary. Check out Girlwithnoname’s review of this awesome eBook here:
===> Truth About Abs Truth
