Posts Tagged ‘weight lifting’
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Nothing is more de-motivating that being stuck in a plateau. After all, nobody likes to keep on working only to notice that their efforts aren’t producing any results.
The bad news here is that most fitness aficionados don’t know how to get out of a crushing plateau.
So here is how to bust yourself out of a plateau:
1. Stop having cheat meals: And if you are having cheat days, eliminate them as well. The notion that you can accelerate fat loss by having cheat meals or cheat days is absurd. If you want to lose weight you will have to make up for this caloric surplus elsewhere in your diet.
2. Cover half of your plate with vegetables: This simple strategy is very effective for reducing hunger and reducing caloric intake. And keep in mind that very few food groups can accomplish this. You see, vegetables slow down digestion and increase bulk in your stomach.
3. Decrease rest during your workouts: By decreasing how much you rest between exercises, the demands on your body will drastically go up. And a more demanding workout will increase calories burned by leaps and bounds.
4. Do more non exercise activity: Light activity that simply gets your body moving is great for burning more calories while not taxing your body. Even better, a higher percentage of these calories will come from your fat cells.
5. Start logging what you are eating: Now you shouldn’t start taking exact measurements here. But get a general idea of eating patterns at this point. After about two weeks of doing this, slightly reduce the quantity of food you are eating.
6. Get a digital scale: Now this is a measure of last resort, but if you can’t get out of your plateau than you are going to have to setup a measurement system. This method is the only way to be entirely sure of what is going on.
Plateaus are extremely de-motivating. And if you are stuck in a plateau it’s vital that you act on this information sooner rather than later!
Author Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and former arm fat sufferer, instructs on how to get rid of arm fat. Unearth how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her blog with shake weight reviews now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Sunday, July 18th, 2010
If you aren’t constantly pushing yourself it will be very hard to get in the best shape possible. You see, your body will resist change unless you exercise with the highest level of intensity.
Unfortunately, many people are not reaching their potential when it comes to exercise.
So, without further ado, here is how to increase intensity:
1. Get more rest in between intense workouts: Doing this will help you exercise much harder. You see, your body needs lots of time to fully recover between intense weight lifting. And if you give it ample rest you will be able to go really hard next time around.
2. Rest less during exercise: I’ll be honest here, doing this is not easy. However, it’s a great technique for placing higher demands on your metabolic system. And a heavily taxed metabolic system will have you burning more and more calories.
3. Experiment with giant sets: Doing two exercises back to back without any rest is a great way to enhance the intensity of your workouts. It will also make your workouts more efficient because you are activating more muscle mass in a shorter period of time.
4. Lift heavy weights: As long as your form is precise, there is no reason for you not to lift heavy weights. In fact, in the absence of heavy weight lifting it will be very hard for you to reach your potential. So if you aren’t used to lifting heavy, begin slowly and progress upwards.
5. Have a small snack before exercise: Often overlooked, this strategy can really make a huge difference. You see, a small snack before exercise will keep your blood sugar from dropping which in turn will help you focus more and exercise harder.
6. Listen to your own music: This is such a basic tip, yet so many people simply fall victim to whatever is playing on the loudspeakers. And keep in mind that research studies have shown that listening to your own music increases exercise output.
Most people shy away from having intense workouts because they are not easy. But increasing intensity truly is the most effective way to get the results you want!
Author Katherine Crawford, an exercise physiologist and recent arm fat sufferer, instructs on how to get thin arms. Figure out how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her website with shake weight reviews right now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Saturday, July 10th, 2010
Arguably, circuit training is the most effective exercise modality for fat loss. However, despite this fact, it’s not for everybody.
In reality, circuit training might not be the best type of training for you.
Thus, here is why circuit training might not be for you:
1. If you haven’t recovered from a limiting injury: Working through pain with circuits is an exercise death sentence. You see, circuits are so demanding and hit your body from so many different angles that they are likely to exacerbate an existing injury.
2. If you are a beginner: It’s critical that you learn each movement before trying to do a bunch of movements in a circuit fashion. You see, learning a movement incorrectly from the beginning can create some nasty side effects down the road.
3. If you need to increase how much weight you lift: Increasing the amount of weight you lift involves doing lots of heavy weight lifting. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to do this with circuits and in some cases, is very dangerous.
4. If you have a postural distortion: Postural distortions need to be addressed with very specific exercises and stretches. And if you don’t address them and simply start doing circuits, you can make them worse. So make sure you fix the imbalance first.
5. If speed is your primary objective: Doing a bunch of exercises in a circuit at extremely high speeds is a recipe for disaster and very dangerous. For maximum power or speed make sure you focus on one exercise at a time. If you try to do too much here you run the risk of serious injury.
6. If you hate doing them: Circuits aren’t for everyone. In fact, if you strongly prefer a different type of exercise I strongly recommend that you do it. You see, you are not going to stick with something you do not like. And if you don’t stick with it you won’t get results.
Circuits do a great job at stripping away body fat. However, sometimes it’s better to do a different type of training that best suits your particular needs.
Writer Katherine Crawford, an exercise physiologist and former arm fat sufferer, teaches exercises for flabby arms. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her blog with shake weight reviews now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Friday, July 9th, 2010
Cardio can be an effective tool for increasing health and accelerating fat loss. It can also do wonders for your heart.
But nothing is worse than finding out that what you are doing is setting you back many steps. And if you do cardio the wrong way this is what’s going to happen.
So here is how to optimize your cardio routine:
1. Don’t do more than 45 minutes at a time: There really is no need to go over the 45 minute mark unless you are training for some type of endurance event. You see, as you do more and more cardio, your body begins to secrete cortisol.
2. Incorporate low intensity cardio: If you do too much high intensity cardio you will not recovery properly from your weight training. So make sure incorporate a lot of low intensity cardio so that your body can have a break.
3. Don’t stagnate: If you simply do the same intensity day in and day out you will not get continual results. You need to constantly push yourself a little more than before. Do this and you will keep on getting results. And nobody wants to stagnate here.
4. Enjoy what you do: You don’t have to do cardio in the gym. In fact, anything that gets your heart rate up counts as cardio. So pick the activity that you enjoy most whether it be hiking or biking and stick with it. Just make sure you progress levels of intensity.
5. Don’t train on an empty stomach: The idea that cardio on an empty stomach burns more total fat is a myth. For maximum fat loss you want to burn more total calories. And training with fuel in your body will allow you to burn more total calories.
6. Keep your joints healthy: If your knees are aching running should be out of the question for you. In fact, for maximum longevity here you want to focus on modalities that will have the least impact on your joints. So start experimenting with low impact options here.
Doing cardio with abandon is not the right approach here. You need to do cardio the smart way for best results!
Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and former arm fat sufferer, instructs on how to do flabby arm exercises. Unearth how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her website with shake weight reviews now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Thursday, July 8th, 2010
There are a million ways to get in shape. Unfortunately, if you try to do everything you will not get the results you are looking for.
In fact, if you try to do too much you will never be able to maximize your physical or health potential.
Thus, here are the main areas you want to concentrate on:
1. Corrective lifting: When you sit at a desk all day a lot of stabilizing muscles lose their tone and fail to provide the critical support your body needs. And a great way to reverse this is by doing lots of balance training. So make sure you incorporate balance training for the stabilizing muscles that need it most.
2. Hypertrophy: Building muscle isn’t just for bodybuilders, it’s for everybody. After all, once of the unnecessary effects of aging is a loss of muscle mass. Even worse, declining muscle mass promotes the accumulation of fat tissue.
3. Functional power and speed: Most high level athletes don’t just train for strength, they train for speed. You see, speed is what makes your body ultra effective in the real world. So once you master balance and muscle building training, start working on speed.
4. Muscle lengthening: Almost every single person that has a desk job is going to have muscle imbalances. And if said imbalances aren’t fixed you run the risk of prematurely wearing out your joints. So make sure you have lots of flexibility training in the areas that you need the most.
5. Connective tissue strengthening: Strong ligaments and joints are critical if you want to be able to exercise for many years to come. You see, because of poor blood supply, once a ligament is injured, it takes a very long time to heal.
6. Maximum capacity training: Staying within your comfort zone will prevent you from ever reaching your physical and health potential. Thus, it’s critical that you train close to your maximum capacity on a consistent basis.
Don’t get caught up with all the different exercise modalities out there. Just get moving and try to focus on the key areas outlined above!
Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and former flabby arms sufferer, teaches how to get toned arms. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her website with shake weight reviews right now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Please ignore the fads and realize that you can only lose weight when in a negative caloric balance. There is no way to circumvent this fact.
And you will feel less hunger if the majority of your caloric deficit comes from physical activity, not dietary restriction.
So, here are some strategies for burning more calories:
1. Avoid sitting down all day: Now most people have desk jobs. Thus, the only way to avoid this is by working from the standing position. And keep in mind that working from an upright position will also work wonders for your lower back.
2. Avoid overdoing the cardio: If you do too much cardio, your resistance training will suffer. And recall that resistance training is the best way to create the biggest caloric deficit in your system. So make sure you do not do too much cardio here.
3. Don’t eat too much or too little protein: Eat too little protein and your body will burn fewer calories during digestion. Eat too much protein, on the other hand, and you will burn less calories during and after your workouts.
4. Don’t move just to move: If you are increasing low level activity just for the sake of increasing activity, you will eventually burn out psychologically. Instead, increase activity in areas that you already enjoy. This will allow you to kill multiple birds with one stone.
5. Consider aquatic training: You see, water pulls heat away from your body two hundred times faster than air. This means that training in water burns lots of extra calories. The only catch here is that exercise in water makes you very hungry.
6. Use a mild repetition range: Doing sets of 15 repetitions is not the best way to burn calories. Instead, try to hit the 8-12 repetition range. And if possible, focus on sets of 10 repetitions. This will create the biggest caloric deficit.
Create the bulk of your caloric deficit from physical activity and you will greatly increase your chances of getting in shape. So take action here right now!
Writer Katherine Crawford, an exercise expert and former flabby arms sufferer, instructs on how to lose loose arm fat. Figure out how to get sexy arms by visiting her blog with shake weight reviews now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Wasting extra time when getting in shape increases the chances of abandonment. The more effort you put forth with less return, the higher your chances of jumping ship.
Thus, here is how not to waste your time when working out:
1. Get hot: Increasing how hot your body is before exercise is a great way to increase how much work you can do. You see, temperature regulates virtually every process in your body. And when you increase temperature, you increase your capacity to do work.
2. Stabilize your circadian rhythm: Everything from hormonal output to metabolic rate is under circadian rhythm control. And getting a stable rhythm will enhance reaction time, heart rate, strength and power during your workouts.
3. Aim to have heavy workouts: Heavy weight lifting by far produces the highest caloric cost of any training modality. And the more calories your body has to dish out, the faster you will get in shape. With this type of training you can spend less time in the gym while burning more calories.
4. Top off your water stores: By super hydrating your body before exercising you can enhance your performance since water controls virtually every process in your body, including exercise capacity. Just make sure you equilibrate before the training session.
5. Have a psych up period: This will help prime your adrenal medulla for maximum stress hormone secretion. And in this case, having stress hormones during exercise is beneficial because it is short term. Moreover, stress hormones increase exercise capacity by leaps and bounds.
6. Avoid carbohydrates during your workouts: Although counterintuitive, having carbohydrates during workouts that are less than one hour in duration is bad for you. You should not eat carbs when you are exercising because they take up energy to process.
Wasting time in the gym or not getting the biggest return from your efforts is very demoralizing. After all, the last thing you want is to work hard for little, if any return. So don’t delay here and take action today!
Writer Katherine Crawford, an exercise physiologist and former flabby arms sufferer, teaches how to get rid of arm fat. Figure out how to get sexy arms by visiting her website with shake weight reviews now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
With the surge of the internet, there is more information than ever on how to lose weight. The bad aspect, though, is that a lot of this information is published by “fly by nighters”.
Thus, without further ado, here are 6 exercise misconceptions that you have to know about:
1. Mental agitation is useless: Mentally agitating yourself before a workout can prime you adrenal medulla to secrete hormones. And these hormones will give you more energy, strength, core temperature and power while you exercise.
2. Eating during exercise is effective: In most cases this is not a good strategy. You see, your digestive tract reduces blood flow by up to eighty percent when you are exercising. The only time you should consider having diluted carbs when exercising is if the session lasts more than one hour.
3. Maximum heart rate can change: The only factor that will change your maximum heart rate is age. Thus, do not waste your time focusing on this variable. The only thing you can change here is your resting heart rate. As you become more conditioned, your resting heart rate will go down.
4. Eliminating carbs is the best way to lose fat: There is nothing magical about low carb diets. While they do lower insulin, total caloric intake is more relevant for absolute weight loss. The only exception here is people with insulin resistance.
5. Endurance training is the best form of exercise for heart health: Not true because the best form of exercise for your heart is a variety of forms. You see, weight training, for instance, increasing the thickness of your hearts walls. Endurance training, increases the output of your left ventricle.
6. Isolating select muscle groups is inefficient: I totally disagree here. If you want toned arms, for example, then you need to do exercises that tone the specific areas of interest. Now don’t get me wrong, combining a total fat loss plan with laser specific toning is the best approach. But don’t think isolating muscles is not fruitful.
There is a surplus of information out there on how to get in shape. And if you don’t have an advanced degree in exercise science, sifting through it all can be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. So take action on the pointers in this article!
Author Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and former flabby arms sufferer, instructs women on how to eliminate loose arm fat with ease. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her website about how to reduce weight right now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Saturday, April 10th, 2010
One of the secrets for successful fat loss is learning how to burn extra calories when you are not exercising. It’s like having a passive source of income that just keeps on making your bank account bigger and bigger, even while you sleep.
But there is a catch here: most people do not know how to do this.
So here is how to burn extra calories days after your workout is done:
1. Go big and heavy: Use your biggest muscles with the heaviest weights during the beginning of your workout. This will help create a situation where you secrete extra fat burning hormones post workout and where your body goes into oxygen debt.
2. Increase the intensity: This is the single best thing you can do to burn extra calories outside of your workouts. You see, when you crank up the intensity, you create an oxygen debt which is paid off when you rest. Again, this costs calories.
3. Don’t forget about the little guys: While hitting the big muscles should be a top priority, you also want to hit the smaller muscles for the best results. This will allow you to burn some extra calories while preserving the integrity of your joints and connective tissue.
4. Reduce rest between sets: Of all the intensity boosters, this one is king. The less you rest the more calories you will burn days after exercising. But there is a catch, reducing rest periods is very challenging because you don’t allow your body to fuller recover.
5. Eat before exercising: Not only is exercising on an empty stomach painful, but it actually decreases fat loss through a wide variety of mechanisms. Even worse, you can’t crank up the intensity if you are running on empty.
Burning extra calories outside of your workouts is the most efficient way to get the body you deserve. You can kill multiple birds with one stone with this approach. So take action here as soon as you can!
Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and former flabby arms sufferer, teaches women how to reduce arm fat swiftly. Figure out how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her website about how to shake weight with the best approach and strategy now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Cardio is a tricky form of exercise. You see, if you do too much it will hinder progress. If you do too little, it’s a waste of time. It truly is a balancing act here.
So here are some common cardio mistakes you have to avoid:
1. Only using one piece of equipment: The best way to do cardio is by constantly cycling pieces of equipment. This will prevent overload stress on single joints and will help distribute the exercise more evenly across your entire body.
2. Not cranking up the intensity: Although you shouldn’t be doing high intensity cardio all the time, you should strive for at least one high intensity session per week. This will ensure continual results and a better level of fat loss.
3. Doing cardio before weight lifting: Study after study has shown that this is a poor strategy. You need your internal energy stores to be at maximum capacity before lifting weights. Anything less and you enter a dangerous zone of high injury rates.
4. Doing abs before cardio: You need your core to be as strong as possible before doing cardio and before lifting weights. If you fatigue your core prior to doing cardio, you are more at risk for injury. You see, your core makes sure that stresses get applied in the least damaging manner throughout your body.
5. Running on fumes: Never do cardio on an empty stomach. Not only will your burn less fat, but your intensity will decrease. Add both of these together and you are setting yourself up for disaster. So make sure you have a small and slow digesting meal before doing cardio.
6. Only doing cardio: If all you do is cardio, don’t expect to get the best fat loss results possible. In fact, you may end up destroying your metabolism and hitting a hard plateau. So make sure you use cardio as a complimentary strategy, not as the only strategy.
Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and recent flabby arms sufferer, instructs women on how to lose arm flab with ease. Unearth how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her blog about how to shake weight right now!
Tags: beauty, bodybuilding, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, health, metabolism, weight lifting, weight loss, weight loss program, wellness, women, workout
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