Friday, February 20, 2009

Bodybuilding And Fat Loss - How Do We Speed Up The Process?

Fat loss is essential in any weight loss and fitness program. No only will you lose the unwanted pounds, but you will also tone and strengthen your muscles.

When you experience fat loss with your fitness and weight loss program, you will not only notice that you are losing weight, but you will also lose inches. The basic element in any weigh loss program is exercise. In order for it to be effective, you should exercise at least 20 minutes five times a week. This does not necessarily mean that you should have a vigorous workout, but walking and jogging can really add to your routine, if you do these types of exercises on alternate days.

In addition to exercising, which is the number one tip for weight loss, there are several other things you can do.

* pump iron lift weights, even if they are hand or ankle weights while you are exercising. These increase the resistance on the muscles and help to tone them up.

* keep a food diary this helps you to see where your extra calories and coming from and helps you to better regulate your diet.

* stay focused on the fat loss you want to achieve there will be times when you get discouraged, but you have to keep encouraging yourself to stick to the program you have set for yourself. find out what causes you to overeat many people overeat to compensate for stress in their lives.

Learn other coping techniques that keeps you from regaining the fat you lose.

* get support join a gym or a weight loss program, such as Weight Watchers, for example. Even having a friend to work out with helps to keep you focused on your goal.

* watch the portions of food you eat cutting down on calories results in the loss of fat. If you eat calorie rich foods try switching to snacks that do not contain calories and have lots of protein.

* slow weight loss is good do not try to lose all of your unwanted fat in a short period of time. A healthy weight loss is about 2 pounds per week and you may even have weeks where you do not lose any weight.

* slow down when you are eating. Eating fast helps to put on pounds and eating slowly fills you up faster.

* water is essential drink lots of water at least 8 10 glasses per day. This helps to flush the fat out of your system.

Check out http://www.1-stop-fitness.com/ for articles on eliptical trainer reviews and smith machine home gyms.

 

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Adapt Your Bodybuilding Routines for Your Body Type

It's fairly obvious that no two humans beings are exactly the same, thus it should come as no surprise that different people need to train in different ways and have different bodybuilding routines. One of the primary factors that will help you become a successful bodybuilder is to understand your own body, to realize what your limits are and to appreciate how your body will react under stress. Therefore in order to make the most of your bodybuilding routines and workouts you must know your body type and understand how it will affect your training.

Scientists have developed a body type classification system based on a number of factors and everybody falls into one of the following three categories (you may fall in-between, as these are quite generalized): endomorph, mesomorph and ectomorph. Once you have established your body type, you can them adjust your bodybuilding routine, training program and lifestyle accordingly. You should also speak to your doctor to get their advice before you start training and to get a check up.

The first category we shall look at is the endomorph body type. Endomorphs usually find it really quite easy to gain muscle mass, but also they find it very easy to put on weight. Thus having a great deal of self discipline is required to control your diet if you?re to be a successful bodybuilder. A great tip for endomorphs is to eat 6 small meals at regular intervals throughout the day to ward off hunger and snacking on junk food. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and don?t eat anything for at least a few hours before going to bed to facilitate fat loss. Endomorphs tend not to have too much difficultly putting on muscle mass, however if you want good definition in your muscles you?ll need to do plenty of cardiovascular training such as running. Doing this should increase your muscular definition by burning off excess fat. If you can, do your cardio training after your weights to burn off even more fat.

The next category we shall look at is the ectomorph body type. These are people who are generally tall, thin and have long arms and legs; they naturally have virtually no fat. Most ectomorphs often find themselves in endurance sports such as x-country running or athletics (high jump), however they can and do also become professional bodybuilders. The main thing that ectomorphs need to do is to start eating more of the right healthy foods, thus increasing the calorie intake to put on weight and build muscle. They should focus on weight training as opposed to cardio vascular training and train to failure so you can?t lift the last weight of a set. Make sure that you?re lifting weights at least 3-4 days a week, with a rest day between sessions to allow optimum recovery and muscle growth.

The final category are the mesomorphs, which fall in between the other two categories and are often the envy of the other two body types, as mesomorphs find it easy to build muscle and keep off fat. However, this can often lead to a false sense of security as having this mindset leads to missed training sessions, which eventually catches up with them. If you are a mesomorph just starting bodybuilding, don?t change the amount you eat, but eat healthier and make sure you are eating enough protein to facilitate muscle growth. Mix up your training sessions to incorporate both full body work out sessions and those to target specific muscle groups to improve definition.

It doesn't matter what your body type is if you want to be a successful bodybuilder, just adjust your training routines and your eating habits accordingly. Be dedicated and passionate and you will achieve your goals.

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Monday, February 16, 2009

Bodybuilding Power Drinks

In bodybuilding, much of the body?s energy and strength is used. After the hard work, the body needs rest. A time to recover helps the body to regain lost energy and fuel. It is important also for the body to have sufficient power for the next set of training, to be able to meet the required performance.

That is why power drinks play a vital role for supplying needed and sufficient amount of performance out of the body at a given time. At the same time, when the body is all worn out, power drinks can also help in repairing damaged cells in the body. There are assorted power drinks available at the markets, some are even promoted commercially to gain more popularity but then they can all be equally expensive too.

If you want to personalize your power drink or if you want to make sure what ingredients are in the power drinks you take in, you can make your own blend to meet what your body needs for a specific bodybuilding training set. There are many protein power drinks that you can blend and mix. Protein power drinks add muscle to the drink and it also contains carbohydrates, calcium, riboflavin and of course, protein.

Below are samples of protein power drinks:

Milk and Honey

2 tbsp unflavored protein powder
2 tbsp honey
1 ? cups milk

Prepare the ingredients and mix unflavored protein powder, honey into 1 ? cups milk and then sprinkle it with nutmeg or cinnamon.

Banana Smoothie

1 cup milk
1 large frozen banana
2 tbsp vanilla flavored protein powder
1 tbsp honey

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a blender and transfer contents into glass when ready.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

1 cup milk
1 scoop chocolate ice cream
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 egg

Put all the ingredients together in a blender and serve when done.

Shareen Aguilar is a writer for http://www.body-building-book.com which has Bodybuilding guide and other free fitness Books.

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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Bodybuilding Venue Tips

When considering a full bodybuilding routine, you need to consider first few important points to make sure that you?ll be able to put full focus and attention to your goal of gaining weight and increasing your body appearance. Above everything else, it?s always necessary to check the place where you?ll be spending your bodybuilding training moments.

First, you need to think about the venue where you can conduct your bodybuilding exercises. It has to be where you feel most comfortable in executing exercise routines. Commercial gyms are one place where you can take advantage of the different gym equipment. You probably won?t have any problem in executing ideal exercises on gyms since there are also expert trainers around the gym ready to help incase you need assistance. Another thing that you need to consider is if the training in a commercial gym is within your budget or not. Otherwise, it?s better to stick to home gym training.

Home gym training is ideal for those who don?t want to wait in line before gym equipment becomes available. As long as you have weight lift equipments like dumbbells, barbells, squat stands and a good and solid bench, you can train very well similar to those who train in the gym. Also, the main benefit is that you gain what you need for your body to gain inexpensively.

Another thing is that, with home gym training, you can train anytime you like or whenever you?re available. Just be sure you don?t train much otherwise, it will defeat the whole point of proper bodybuilding.

When bodybuilding at home, you will need to think about the training level you need to accomplish because there?s no one else who can lift the barbells just incase it ended up trapping your neck. You will need to think and impose about serious training precautions for a safer bodybuilding routine.
Shareen Aguilar is a writer for http://www.body-building-book.com which has Bodybuilding guide and other free fitness Books.

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Newbie's guide to developing strength and size in bodybuilding.

Most neophytes don't know how to get started in bodybuilding they spend many years doing the wrong things before they learn what exactly the right things are. In this article I will address one of the mistakes the newbie's make and give a simple antidote to the problem of developing strength and size as a bodybuilder.

I think before we go any further its important to understand that strength training for a bodybuilder is not the same as for other athletes. A bodybuilder must develop strength while building muscle size, shape and endurance, and on many occasions these goals are exclusive of each other. So let's start this discussion with how to choose the correct weight.

What does your trainer mean when he says light weight or moderate or heavy? How do you know by the weight what rep count you should use? I try to simplify this all too confusing problem in just a few lines.

Everyone get confused about what is heavy weight, what is moderate weight and what is light weight. I will try clear this up for you right now. Heavy weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 6 to 8 reps. I think it goes to reason that on your second and third set you will not be able to complete as many.

Moderate weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 8- 12 reps. Of course less on the following sets Light weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 15-25 reps

Now there is one more thing that I want to address that is strength. understand this, just because you are getting bigger does not mean you are getting stronger; however, if you are getting stronger you are getting bigger even if you can't see the size increase! Finally, train to get stronger, but not for strength, if you understand the principles of the Progressive Resistance System this will make more sense

The four days per week workout The four days per week is called a split routine, because the body is split into four sections Unlike a lot of trainers I think there is a relationship between growth and total amount of sets completed in a week's time. On the three day routine you had 9 set for chest, back and quads, and six set for shoulders. In this routine the weekly sets will range between 12 and 16 per body part.

In no way do I advocate the High Intensity Training (HIT) methods that you'll find in all over the internet. I don't deny how well it works; I just feel much of the injury throughout my career has come as a result of working out with too much intensity. Age and wisdom has taught me to the never to even advocate the negative or forced reps for any reason I personally call them injury reps! But let move on to what I think will work.

Some important things to understand about this routine

1. Workouts are never longer than 1 hour! Never!

2. Dips are done with no weight, except "bench dips" if you have a partner

3. "Max" represents the most you can do correctly( never do forced reps)

4. Unless I specify dumbbells, use only barbell

5. shoulder press are done to the front of the chest not behind the neck See article my article on shoulder injuries

6. Lat pull downs are done at shoulder width never wider and only to the front of the chest.

7. Seated row are done either on a seated row machine or on seated on a low cable row machine. If doing them on a low cable row machine lean forward only enough to full extend your arms keep lower back arched. Never let the shoulders roll forward for that "extra stretch"

8. Barbell curls are done in smoothly never jerky or fast.

9. Leg press are done with full range of motion your calf should touch your hamstring at the stretched position.

10. Leg curls should be contracted until heel touches you butt.

11. Seated calf raises this exercise is harder than it appears. Calf should get a full stretch at the bottom of the movement, and completely contracted at the top.

12. Warm up and cool down with about 10 t 15 minutes of stationary bike or ski machine ( I only do low or no impact aerobics, never run, never stairs,)

13. Stretch only after you have completed the workout and only for the muscles worked that day.

Workout 1 Monday

Dips 4 set of 8-12 reps Bench press 4 set of 8-12 reps Dumbbell Shoulder Press 4 set of 8-12 reps Shoulder Shrugs 4 set of 8-12 reps

Workout 2 Tuesday

Pull Ups 4sets of 6-8 Reps Lat pull downs 4 sets of 8-12 reps Seated Rows 4 sets of 8-12 reps Seated Calf Raises 4 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout 3 Thursday (after one day rest)

Hack Squats 4 sets of 15-25 reps Leg Press 4sets of 15-25 reps Leg Curls 4 sets of 8-12 reps Standing Calf Raises 4 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout 4 Friday

Barbell Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps Dumbbell Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps Bench Dips 4 sets of 8-12 Reps Close Grip Bench Press 4 sets of 8-12 reps

Troy Pearsall has over 25 years of bodybuilding experience. 15 years as a competitive bodybuilder 15 years as a personal trainer and 10 years as a trainer of competitive bodybuilders. He has other successes in other areas but his first love is teaching the sport of bodybuilding. for mor information go to http://www.fire-iron-online.com

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Monday, February 2, 2009

The Most Shocking Bodybuilding Myths Finally Revealed

The bodybuilding and fitness industry has the highest number of myths out there, even some of the 'professionals' are under the influence of myths. Knowing what stuff is true and what is false can be critical to achieving great results and staying injury free. This article should hopefully educate you and you'll be one of the few people that know the truth.

1.The workouts of professional bodybuilders are the best ? You want to become massive and ripped, so it makes sense to follow Mr. Olympia's routine...right? Wrong, Pro-bodybuilders are on a lot of steroids, therefor their bodies are capable of recovering faster from the workouts they do. If you or me did their workout for a while, we'd probably just over train and injure ourselves. Pro's also have many years of experience, meaning their bodies are capable of going through such vigorous workouts so often.

2.There is one, and one only perfect workout plan for everyone ? Some magazines or articles may try to say that there's only one workout that produces the greatest results for everyone. Funny thing is, I see hundreds of different perfect workouts! Everybody is different, a workout that works for you may not work for me, and so on. This is why it's important to educate yourself so you can make a workout thats 'perfect' for you. If you're a real beginner, you can get an experienced trainer to make a program designed exclusively for you.

3.(eg. Protein) supplement ABC is 500% more effective then (eg. Protein) supplement XYZ ? There are many supplement companies out on the market today, with a huge range of different brands available, its hard for consumers to choose one product over another. Thats why supplement companies say negative things about each others products to get a sale from you. They exaggerate the statistics by a long, long shot. At the end of the day, the difference between supplement companies is minimal in the single percentages. Unless the supplement company you buy from is your neighbor, who mixes the ingredients in his basement, its very unlikely that there's a 500% difference between the different big name companies.

4.You need to exercise to burn fat ? Nobody gains body fat because of a lack of exercise. You gain body fat if you eat more calories then you burn. For example; If your daily caloric requirement is 3000 calories, you only need to consumer 3000 calories that day.

If you consume more then 3000 calories you will gain fat.

If you consumer less then 3000 calories you will lose fat.

If you combine exercise to a good diet you will burn more calories, resulting in you losing fat faster.

James Penn is an expert at planning fitness training programs and especially abdominal routines. You can learn exactly what he teaches for free at http://www.firmupyourabs.com including abdominal workouts and abdominal exercises to help you lose abdominal fat.

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