3 Jun 2010

Cardio Exercise

Everyone has wondered at some point in time which Cardio Exercise is better. To put it in simple terms, both Low and High Intensity exercises will help you to burn off body fat. The question here is which is the most effective to burn off more Body Fat.

When scientists first discovered that during intensive exercises, your body burns glycogen, which is a form of stored carbohydrates that are stored in your liver and muscles for energy. During low intensity exercises, your body will burn a lot of fat.

If your wondering whether or not it works, the answer is no because there are so many obese people still around. Even though they are working out with low intensity routines, it still makes you wonder how it can be.

The scientists were right when they said the human body burns more body fat during low intensity exercises like walking or swimming. During a high intensity exercise such as running, the body will burn a lot more calories. Even if some of the calories burnt are from glycogen, there are still many fat calories burned as well.

To put the icing on the cake, when your store of glycogen gets low, the carbohydrates from your food you eat will later get converted into glycogen to fill up the store and won't be converted to body fat when they are left unused for energy.

High intensity Cardio exercise will juice up your metabolism even after you have completed your workout. What this means, is that your body will continue to burn body fat hours after you have left the gym. This effect is nearly non existent in low intensity cardio or aerobic workout.

Accumulatively, your body will burn up more and more calories during and after you have finished a high intensity cardio exercise that it will with low intensity. You can inject high intensity exercises into your cardio workout by introducing some interval training. You can walk for 5 minutes or so, then break into some jogging for another 5 minutes or so. Then, walk briskly again until you have caught your breath and then sprint for a minute before you walk again. From this point, simply alternate your running and walking for the
next 15 minutes until you are finished.

One of the best things about cardio is the more you do it, the more energy you'll have. Cardio will help you to burn calories, although its more useful for keeping your energy levels high.
If you've never tried cardio before, you should give it a shot. If you like to exercise, you'll find cardio the best way to boost your energy and keep in top shape. If you are just starting out, you'll want to go slow and keep your cardio exercise in track - as it is very easy to over exert yourself.

31 May 2010

The Benefits of Being Fit

The Benefits of Being Fit

This article was written to answer many of the most frequently asked questions on this topic. I hope you find all of this information helpful.

Being able to cope with and handle the everyday stresses of life is a advantage afforded to the fit individual. Making sure we take the time to accommodate our needs for stress relief, such as downtime, treatment time, massage time, or merely take the time for a pleasant, hot bath. The body tends to hold stress in the muscles of the shoulder and back. Taking the time to let go, do relaxation exercises, and unite this with physical exercise for the whole body benefits the fit and unfit.

The added action of physical exercise is frequently the catalyst our bodies needed to raise weight loss into high gear. For the person trying to loose weight, the benefits of being fit far surpass an infringement on personal time, or detraction from TV time that occurs. Not only is it good for your body, when you?re trying to cut back, it gives you something useful to do with your time. Exercise also decreases our appetite pangs, increases our fluid intake, and assists our blood to circulate much better.



The tranquillity of mind that comes from knowing your body is in top form, ready to cope whatever comes along, is a priceless ownership. To be able to ascertain that you?ve spent your day wisely, and invested in yourself is a real feat. The gain seen from adding just 20 minutes of exercise to your daily routine are incredible. I can swear to the tremendous increase in vitality, as a participant in walking for exercise. I lost a total of 74 lbs. in one year, by simply adding walking to may schedule. I had been dieting for almost two months, with very little in the way of results. Walking was suggested by my doctor, and I?ve never been so impressed. My vitality levels were three times what they were prior to start the exercise program. Increased energy levels are one of the greatest benefits of a fit body.


Raised self-esteem and confidence in your appearance are also benefits to keeping a fit body. A fit and healthy individual shines in how they look, how they treat others, and the enjoyment they take in going about their daily activities.

How about the benefits of a fit mind? The onset of many age-related cognitive disorders occurs because we haven?t taken the time to keep our mind young, and implicated in new learning. Learning new things forces our brains to form new neural pathways. We need those neural pathways for the transfer of information from the body to the mind, or with our aptitude to shape new memories. If we don?t exercise the mind, we lose the fitness. There?s also the added benefit of being able to participate as a productive citizen, well into our retirement years. For many older persons, keeping their bodies and minds fit means that they are also able to carry on to interact in their chosen work profession, keeping them continually active, and serving as a continued source of pleasure.

The information you just read was pulled from many different resources. You should continue searching for information until you believe you have a firm grasp of the subject. I do want to thank you for visiting and good luck.

25 May 2010

The Six Pack Challenge

Hi everyone, i said a couple of days ago that i was going to set myself a challenge, to have a six pack in six weeks.
So i will be starting this venture on Thursday 27th May. You will see a photo of me before, i will be telling what i'm doing and what i have eaten everyday through the blog and there will be nothing left out. I might do this challenge or i might fail, but i will be trying my best to get my six pack back.
Most of my training is going to be circuit training because i know most people can't afford a gym membership so it makes it easy for them, and i work 8 till 5 and have to leave at 7-30 to get to work in time, so its a normal routine for some people.Feel free to join me and post your results in the comments box and if you do well i'll put you on my blog with me, it will be hard especially the first 2 weeks as you'll be aching and feeling tierd, but stick with it because you'll feel better and more alert.
I'll have some video diaries for you and all the workouts i do that day right down to the food i eat so come lets have some fun together and a laugh even when its hard, i'm going to.
Me and My Girlfriend at Xmas 'gotta lose the chubby face'

Free Weights VS Machine exercise

Something you need to keep in mind and never forget is that when you exercise, you are training for
life. You still may spend an hour a day in the gym, although that will still leave another 23 hours or so for your muscles to function without using any fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any type of exercise, the movement of your body during the exercise is known as the range of motion. The more difficult the range of motion is, the more effective the exercise will be,because your body has to work twice as hard to perform the movement.

Take for the instance the classic dumbbell bicep curl. If you aren't familiar with the exercise,it is performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down by your sides. You'll contract your biceps to bring the dumbbells up to your shoulder height, then repeat the exercise as many times as you wish.
Using that same movement for exercise on a bicep curl machine, you should sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, then perform the same movement as above to move the handles in an upward motion.
Now, looking at the muscle contractions in this exercise, you are contracting essentially your biceps if you are using the curl machine, and that is pretty much all you are doing. When you use the machine you are sitting down, which will limit just how much your shoulders give. The machine has several muscles used in this exercise limited to the biceps, as well as the muscles in your forearms and fingers.

Most of the time, when using machine weights, you will always be limited as to what type of exercise you can perform. You must always follow a strict procedure, which is pretty much the same with free weights. Unlike free weights, machine weights offer a certain degree of resistance.

One of the best thing about free weights is the fact that you move a little chuck around to select the weight you want to use. Instead of dragging it over to your exercise area, you simply select it on the machine. When
you are tired during a workout, this can be a blessing.

A lot of people argue in the fact that free weights are the best for your body. While this is normally true, many people out there feel that machine weights are the best. There are pros and cons with both machines, although free weights have been around a lot longer and have been proven time after time to achieve dramaticresults.

Body builders for example, have used free weights over the years to build very impressive bodies. If you ask most of them about machine weights, they would probably laugh at you and tell you that you need to quit joking around.
In a nutshell, free weights will use more of your muscles than the machines do, which makes them more effective overall. This doesn't mean that the machines are a waste of use, as they offer some great advantages. In some cases, it is best to stabilize the muscles that are being used in a movement, which is where machines are the best to use.

The decision on which to use for you should be based on what you hope to achieve with lifting weights and where you plan to use the equipment, such as home or at a gym. Both systems are great for your body, although the free weights are best to use if you want the best possible workout, and always ensure that your muscles are getting the right workouts they need.

17 May 2010

Quick gym workouts

Quick Gym Workouts


This circuit will improve both your cardiovascular system and your muscular endurance, as well as allow you to do a full workout in less than 10mins. The idea behind the circuit is to carry out a number of exercises in sequence, without putting the Dumbbells on the floor.
The circuit can be carried out without the worry of having to set up lots of equipment ; all you need is a couple of dumbbells.


Do 3 Circuits – 30secs rest in between each circuit.



Dumbbell Squats                       15reps


DB Shoulder Press                   15reps


DB Stiff Leg Dead Lift              15reps


DB Row                                  15reps


DB Lunges                              15reps

16 May 2010

Body Detox the Easy Way With A Natural Diet

You may wonder sometimes why your body seems to be heavy and you feel lazy to move, yet you are not sick. You are more than willing to be energetic but your body is not just up to it. To address the problem, you resort to eating a lot, gulp up cups of coffee and smoke, thinking that you will be lively after. For a while, you feel good and going. Unknowingly though, you are accumulating toxins in your body. With this scenario happening more and more, you might need to detoxify.

With our ever-dynamic world today, we want our bodies to be constantly active so we can move along with the fast paced lifestyles. Hence, we resort to body stimulants such as coffee, cigarettes, diet pills, drugs and a lot more thinking that they will help the body to stay up all the time, but they do otherwise. These stimulants cause immediate loss of energy and emotional symptoms such as headaches, sickness and depression. They are also considered as toxins in the body.

What are toxins?

Toxins are agents that are able to cause body harm. There are two kinds of toxins, the Exogenous or external toxins and Endogenous or internal toxins. The Exogenous toxins come from external sources such as car fumes, tobacco smoke, drugs, factory pollution, etc. On the other hand, the Enogenous toxins come from viral or bacterial infection. Due to metabolism, the body creates its own toxin called Autogenous toxins.
These harmful substances are eliminated in the body in a process called detoxification. Detoxification is the removal of stored toxic products from the bowel, the blood, liver, and kidneys including the great amount of toxic substances stored in body fat to cure chronic diseases such as cancer. The easiest way to detoxify the body is the body detox through a natural diet. To detoxify the body naturally is a change in the diet from a poor to a healthy one. A healthy diet includes raw food diet, specifically, fruits and vegetables.

Naturally, the body detoxifies itself all day. The peak of detoxification occurs when the body is rested during sleep until noon. This is a way for the body to eliminate the toxins acquired from pollution, stimulants and nutrients.

For the ever busy people, you can substitute your stimulants with natural diet to acquire a healthy and active body. Most common stimulants taken by people are refined white sugar, coffee, diet pills, cigarettes and red meat.

Sugar has a stimulating effect. Hence, we feel invigorated when we drink colas. What we do not know, refined white sugar has detrimental effects on the body. Examples of products containing refined white sugar are cola and ketchup. It is advised to cut down on it by using brown sugars like cane sugar which is natural. Fruit juices also give the same kick as to refined white sugar.

Late night workers resort to drinking coffee to keep them awake. As natural substitute to coffee with a detoxifying effect is Japanese or Chinese green tea. The Japanese or Chinese green tea gives the same kick because it also contains caffeine but it does not contain substances that are irritating to the stomach.

Diet pills are also stimulants for the body to be kept alive. This may be observed among athletes specially, during time for competitions because they give more energy. They are being taken albeit the toxic effect in the body. In lieu of this, athletes must take fruits instead due to their natural detoxifying effects.

For cigarette smokers who think smoking stimulates their mind to think, they must think twice for smoking causes cancer. If they take carrots, they will experience the same effect in a more natural way.

For red meat lovers who really feel good and strong after feasting on said food, they better think about cutting on it. Fish is a better substitute.

Now, we understand why our parents keep on reminding us to eat fruits and vegetables. They give us energy in more natural ways plus they keep us fit and healthy.

1 May 2010

Best Muscle Building Tips - Here Are 4 Proven Steps to Ensure You'll Get Huge Muscles Super Fast!

Building muscle mass can be very simple, if you know what you are doing. Some people spend many hours in a gym without really knowing what there are doing and without any program to guide them. Usually these people don't get the results that they are looking for and all their efforts go to waste. Don't let that happen to you! In this article, you will find some valuable secrets that will help you build huge muscles in no time.


Eat a lot of protein: Without protein, your body won't be able to build new muscle, so you should try to get at least 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. It is essential for your body in order to produce and repair your muscles after your training session. Some sources of protein are: lean red and white meat, fish, chicken or turkey, egg whites, beans, legumes, and nuts. Such high intakes of protein can be difficult to keep up with, so a convenient way to receive an adequate intake is to use protein powders.

Take an amino acid supplement: After protein, amino acids are the most important supplement for muscle growth. They have a very short absorption time (15-20 minutes) and their effectiveness lasts for almost 2 hours. Amino acids are single molecules and do not require digestion. They are not absorbed by the liver and get metabolized directly into the muscles, where they exert an anti-catabolic effect and relieve the burning sensation during workouts. You don't have to take amino acids every day like you do with proteins. You can take them only in the days of training. Timing is also very important. The majority of bodybuilders take them about 20 minutes before training. Of course, you can also choose to split the dose and take half before and half during activity. The effective dose varies depending on body weight and intensity of training, but in general it's about 1 gram per every 10 kg of body weight. For best results, take them on an empty stomach.

Eliminate Junk Food: Eliminate or at least reduce the consumption of the following foods: sauces, sweets, fatty meats, salt, white sugar, fried foods, alcohol, fatty cheeses, mayonnaise, ketchup salted nuts and chips.

Do really intense workout programs: You should push your body to its limits in order to gain muscles. However, you must avoid burnout. Rest is an essential part of training. Try to alternate exercises between muscle groups and always take a day or two to rest.


Next follow the # 1 MUSCLE BUILDING METHOD to grow incredible muscles fast! Click Here to find out how!

29 Apr 2010

BODY BUILDING AND WEIGHT TRAINING

Bodybuilding and Weight Training


Introduction

Bodybuilding can be a fun and engaging sport. It can also be dangerous if not taken seriously, however, injury is rare and should not be a reason to stay away.

There are a few important questions to ask yourself before you start:

1. Where will you work out, and when?

At least three days per week are recommended (not consecutively, though, because your muscles need time to rest and grow in between workout days). Your workout might average somewhere around half an hour to an hour for an average workout.

2. Can you manage to eat several meals high in protein every day?

Almost all bodybuilders recommend a high-protein diet. This is important, because protein is the "building block" of muscle. How much protein should you be willing to consume? A common range is 1.0 to 1.5 grams of protein per day for each pound of your body weight (for example: if you weigh 160 pounds, you should try to consume 160 to 240 grams of protein every day for the best results). Be aware that protein supplements are available, such as whey protein powder, but it is generally advocated that at least half of your daily protein intake consists of "real" foods as opposed to protein supplements. Also, many bodybuilders believe it's best to eat around six smaller meals in your day instead of three large meals if you're able.

3. What are your goals?

Is your goal to become generally stronger? Perhaps your goal is to transform your body? Depending on your goals, you may need to adjust your workout accordingly. For example, if you're looking to not only gain muscle but also lose fat, you may want to use your resting days as cardio-workout days where you can do cardio exercises such as running and swimming.

Finding a Gym

Finding a gym can be a difficult task. You can do a few things. For example there's probably a recreation centre or fitness club in your area. Try looking in the telephone book to find numbers of local workout centres. Many high schools also have designated days where you can come and use the gym for a small fee. Ask friends where they work out and find out others opinions on places you might want to go. Or, if you want to work out close to home build your own gym. You can get weights, a treadmill (or take walks), workout bicycle (or bike around), and jump ropes. You can do all your working out in your home for a little money. Research what option is best for you, and go for it. This is the easy part!

The Bench press

Main Muscles Used:
Chest, Triceps

Description:

The bench press is similar to a push up. however, the differences are that the performers body position is reversed, where the person is lying with their back on a bench like seat and pushing weights connected to two sides of a standard 45 pound metal bar instead of their body weight.

weights used are in common sizes of 45lbs, 35lbs, 25lbs, 10lbs, 5lbs, and 2.5 pound cookies.

Starting position is the bar with, for example, two 45 pound weights on both sides (135 pounds) set on the starting point.

The lifter then positions themselves under the bar near the neck and positions their arms for the bench press. Arms held closer together puts more weight on the triceps, where as the opposite puts more weight on the chest. Find a comfortable grip (this varies by each lifter.)

The lifter then lifts the weights off the hooks holding the bar weights, and positions it across their chest. This is followed by a lowering of the weights, then pushing it back up to the starting point. Some say one should lower the bar completely to your chest. However, this may cause injuries. Forcing the bar to your chest when it does not occur naturally can cause temporary to permanent injuries to your elbows.

Common Exercises:

3 sets of 8 with stretching and a few minutes of rest in between each set. weights lifted vary from person to person. however, it should be a weight that allows the last set to be completed, but at the same time, moderately intense/tiring.

Pyramid sets are also used as a high intensity workout. sets go from 8, 6, 4, 2, 4, 6, 8 with increasing weight, and then decreased as the sets increase again. example of weight increase Example: 8 x 95, 6 x 105, 4 x 125, 2 x 135, 4 x 125, 6x 105, 8x 95

Safety:
In general, it is always good to have a spotter when dealing with free wweights. especially with a bench press. failure to be able to lift the weight back onto the safety bar after dismounting it can result in severe injury and even death. A spotter is there to help you live in case of these events.
Also, when bench pressing, avoid over-training to prevent injuries. be smart and lift an amount of weight where it can help you advance in your climb in weight lifting, but not injure you.
Make sure your equipment is in good condition and working order . "hardware failure" with heavy weights involving you is not fun.
Good form prevents stupid injuries.
Most of all, Have fun!

Variations of the Bench press
- Incline Press - Decline Press

Each variation works a different area of the general chest area (the upper area and lower area) and are done on an inclining or declining bench.

Dumb bell Curls
Main muscles used:
Biceps, triceps

Dumbbell Curls are predominately used to gain bicep muscle size. The suggested method is 3 sets with 12, 10 & 8 reps respectively. Start with 70% of the maximum you can lift & increase the amount by 5% with each new set (to a maximum of 80%) It is a good idea to consult a personal trainer or someone with a good knowledge of the gym prior to beginning any weight training program.

Form
While doing Dumbbell Curls, the legs and torso should be kept as still as possible (do not lock knees) and elbows should not move around while lifting the weight.
A suggested method for keeping near-perfect form while performing Dumbbell Curls is to stand against a wall and keep your feet, buttocks, and head touching the wall while lifting (the upper back may also touch the wall). At the same time, elbows should be kept at your sides and should not move around. One way to ensure that the elbows do not move is to keep the upper arm stationary. The only part of the body that moves during this exercise is the forearm and subsequently the bicep.