Thursday, May 15, 2008

A good way to start working out when you are obese

For starters, you should start out with a diet that is easy for you to follow. Don't throw it all together at once because you'll get overwhelmed. Start with less calories and throw in healthier food items, and don't get discouraged if you you don't get it right one day. Just continue on. And don't use food as a reward, like I stuck to my diet this week so I'll have a big piece of cake this weekend. Once you're on top of the dieting (I'd say two weeks probably) I'd start with walking. You can walk around your neighborhood in the evening, it's relaxing. Make a work-out mix for your iPod so you can enjoy it. If you're interested in going to a gym, I'd say pick one that's low-key, like your local YMCA. The cost is reasonable and it's not the type of gym that people go to and show off (you know, full on make-up and snazzy outfits). It's relaxed and easy to work out at. Try to get a work-out buddy that is looking to complete the same types of goals you are. Keep each other motivated, and before you know it, it'll be a routine and you'll be in shape!

Just don't give up!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

dieting the RIGHT way

As you probably know, not all low carb diets, Atkins diet including, are high in fat and this can be their major flaw.

Tha matter is, for a food (or meal) to be "fat burning" as opposite to "fat storing," its fat content (grams) should at least 1.5 times exceed carbohydrates plus protein grams.

Beyond clinical ketogenic diet and cycling ketogenic diets used by bodybuilers, I know of only one diet designed for regular dieters and this is the Banta Diet.

You might want to read more about it and see sample menus and shopping list at http://bantadiet.com

Now, here's where to start reading about low fat diets:

http://dietandbody.com/updates/nfblog/?p=131

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Hot to get 6 pack abs

sic packs

Do Crunches. Lie on the floor (with or without a mat) and cross your arms in front of your chest. (Do not place both hands behind your head. Placing both hands behind your head can cause lower back problems in the long run as it places unnecessary stress on that part of your body from pulling on your head and neck.) Another alternative is to cross your arms in front of your chest is to lightly place your finger tips behind your ears, without pulling on your neck or ears to help raise you off the floor. Draw in your abdomen towards your spine while inhaling through your nose. Now raise your shoulders (upper torso) towards your knees, using strictly your abdominal muscles. It is very important not to lift your entire back off the floor, as this can cause back strain, and the extended movement does not help you develop six pack abs any faster. The most important part of the crunch is the initial flexing of your abs as you lift your shoulders off of the floor. As soon as you begin lifting off the floor exhale through your mouth, ending with a gasp once your shoulders are off the floor. Then pause for a second once you are at the top of the crunch and exhale the last bit of air from your diaphragm while flexing your abs. The proper breathing and flexing make all the difference. Now lower back down slowly and controlled while inhaling through your nose, just until your shoulder blades touch the ground. Do not let your head touch the ground and repeat.

Do Sit Ups. Lie on the floor, feet on the floor, knees up and fingers placed behind your ears or hands crossed on your chest. Sit all the way up, lifting your lower back off the floor along with your shoulder blades.Lower yourself down. Repeat. Once this becomes relatively easy for you (i.e. you can do a quite a bit with ease) start adding more challenges. Find an incline bench or do these on an exercise ball. Once you "graduate" from that, do weighted sit ups. Hold a weight on your chest while you do these. As these become easier, hold heavier and heavier weights. You might also try lifting your feet off the ground while doing the sit ups or alternating the leg in the air, like pretending to pedal while sitting up. If your hands are behind your head, bring your left knee up to touch your right elbow and then your right knee to the left elbow.

Do Leg Lifts. Lie on the floor, legs straight out, hands at your sides. Lift your legs straight up (not bending your knees at all) until they're at a 90 degree angle (or close). Lower your legs and repeat without letting your legs touch the floor. For more challenge there is equipment at most gyms that will allow you to raise yourself up using your arms as support and dangle your legs. You can perform leg lifts there too. If you're using this piece of equipment, you can make it easier by just raising your knees to your chest. It's more difficult to raise your legs to a horizontal position with your legs straight. This helps firm up the lower abdomen. If you're truly a monster, try doing leg lifts with a medicine ball hanging from your feet. Or hang from a pull up bar and raise your legs in front of you all the way up to the bar. Still too easy?...

Do Jackknife Sit Ups. Lie down flat on the floor. Place your hands on the ground to your sides for balance; you can pick them up as you get used to the movement. Simultaneously raise your knees and torso so that your knees and face meet on an imaginary line extending from your pelvis to the ceiling. You should be able to kiss your knees at the top of the motion. Your legs will naturally fold bringing your feet towards your hips, much like a jackknife. Lie back down (i.e. "spread out") and repeat. Place a weight between your feet when you think you can handle it. What's that? More?
Do V-ups. Lie on the floor, legs straight out, hands on the floor but this time extended out over your head. Simultaneously raise legs and torso. Don't bend your knees! What kind of V would it be if you bend your knees? Reach with your hands toward the raised feet. Touch your feet if possible (will require some flexibility). Relax, return to starting position and repeat. Add weight between feet to match your taste.

Static Hold and Side Statics. Put your body into the push-up position but with your elbows on the floor, and you whole body flat. This position is known as the static hold position and it trains your core (including your abs) to hold the body in place which is the real purpose of your abs. Hold this position for as long as possible, but you should be aiming to start off with at least 45 seconds, while seasoned ab workers known to achieve over 20 minute static holds. To perform the side static hold roll onto one side of your body and lift into the same position as before, but this time only one arm will be on the ground with the other arm pointed straight up the air and your non-weight bearing leg resting on your bottom leg. Once again, hold this for as long as possible

Train Your Oblique Muscles. It's not as important to work on your oblique muscles at first, but eventually you'll want to start working these too. These are the muscles to either side of your stomach. There are multiple ways to do this and anything that includes twisting your torso against a resistance counts. There are twisting machines at gyms, you can twist while you do sit-ups, you can do side bends, you can twist side to side with a medicine ball in hand, etc. Be aware though, that many beginners tend to have weak obliques compared to their abs (it simply isn't used as much in daily life) so go easy on the sides at first.
Know that since it is, literally, the center of your body there are many other tricks you can use to train your abs, and some of the other movements will more or less involve your abs. Including every abdominal exercise in existence would make this article painfully long and new methods are being developed constantly. Now that you've made up your mind about a washboard mid-section, get creative! Find new ways to crunch, bend and twist in your daily life. Some possibilities include:

Use a stability ball. Do your crunches on the ball to introduce instability to your workout, which will improve your balance too. There are also lots of core exercises that can be done with a stability ball.You can also use a small bubble use for physical therapy.
Duck and twist during your daily routine. Reach with your left hand to things on your right and vice versa. If you feel like turning around to face something, see if you can do it with keeping your hips in place and twisting at the waist (warning: awkward when talking to other people, use only against inanimate objects). While walking or standing, pretend that something is coming toward you and you have to duck to get out of the way. Do this as often as you are comfortable or at times when it won't look weird. You can bend forward from the hips or, if you're really into it, bend at the knees too and really "sink" out of the way.

Monday, March 31, 2008

tricep workouts and why YOU should do them.

Your Triceps

The triceps are made up of three parts - a long head which originates at the scapula, a lateral head which originates at the back of the arm (humerus) and the short head which originates on the humerus a bit lower than the lateral head. The triceps are responsible for extending the elbow.

Why Should You Work Your Triceps?

If you're working your biceps, you shouldn't neglect the other side of your arm. Muscle imbalances can cause pain and injuries. Also, your triceps work hard all day long--anytime you push something, your triceps are working so, the stronger they are, the easier these pushing exercise will be. Your triceps muscles are fairly small, so keep in mind that you will not be able to use as much weight as you can for your chest or your back.

Often Should You Train Your Triceps?

Like all muscles in your body, you can perform tricep exercises up to three non-consecutive days a week. If you're lifting heavy weights, (enough that you can only complete 6-8 repetitions) you'll need at least two days of rest before you perform the exercise again. For this reason, you may only work your triceps once or twice a week. If you're goal is endurance and strength, stick with one to three sets of 12-16 repetitions and at least one day of rest before you perform the exercises again. Keep in mind that you will use your triceps when performing chest and back exercises as well.

What Exercises Should You Do?

Most tricep are called 'pushing' exercises and generally involve extending your elbow as in kickbacks . You can do tricep exercises with any type of resistance--dumbbells, barbell, resistance bands, cables or a machine.

Kickbacks
Hold weights in hands and bend over parallel to the floor, abs engaged. Bend elbows and pull them even with back. Straighten arms behind you, squeezing the triceps and slowly lower back down.

tricepkick2.jpg (20279 bytes)


Tricep Extension
Sit or stand and hold one dumbbell with both hands, elbows bent behind the head to 90 degrees. Straighten the arms, squeezing the triceps.

tricepexten1.jpg (15428 bytes) tricepexten2.jpg (13981 bytes)


Tricep Press (a.k.a. Skull Crushers)
Lie on a bench and hold a light barbell with hands shoulder-width apart, palms out. Bend elbows to 90 degrees, lowering the weight towards the head. Squeeze the triceps to push back to start. You can also do this with dumbbells keeping the palms facing each other.

tricepskull1.jpg (11489 bytes) tricepskull2.jpg (10363 bytes)


Tricep Dips
Sit on a bench or ball (harder) with hands right next to hips. Bring hips in front of bench and bend elbows to no lower than 90 degrees. Push back up without locking elbows. You can also do this on the floor with weights as shown.
tricepdip.jpg (16646 bytes)
Close-Grip Bench Press
Lie on a bench and hold a barbell with a narrow grip, palms facing out. Lower the weight down towards the ribcage, bringing the elbows below the body. Squeeze the triceps to push the weight back up.


Close-Grip Pushups
To target the triceps, perform pushups with the hands close together and next to the chest. You can also do this on the ball or with one arm as shown.
How to get big biceps step 1:- Eat Big!

In order to get big biceps, you need to eat big. This means eat everything! Your body needs to have an excess of calories each day before you can start to build muscle. Make sure you eat lots of protein (meat, eggs and fish) and lots of carbs (brown bread, brown rice and potatos). Protein is what makes up your muscles, and you need a lot of it to actually build muscle. Eat as much protein as you can.

To really get big biceps, make sure you either have a protein shake (a protein drink) or a good meal after your biceps workout. This is when your bicep muscles are repairing and need the nutrients. Also, make sure you eat before you go to bed. Most of actual muscle building happens while you are asleep.

How to get big biceps step 2:- Lift Heavy!

One of the biggest mistakes I see lifters making when trying to get big biceps is doing to may sets and way to many reps. If you want to get strong and big biceps, you need to lift heavy weights at low reps. When I say low, I mean anything from 2 to 8, depending on the exercise. Most of my biceps exercises are arounf 4 to 8. I like to load up heavy on the big exercises like barbell bicep curl, chin up and preacher curl. Take this one step further by using a spotter to help you puch out really heavy sets.

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How to get big biceps step 3:- Rest Up!

Most people are surprised when they ask me how to get big biceps and I tell them to get plenty of rest. Like I mentioned earlier in this article, most of your muscle building is done in your sleep. So if you want to get big biceps, get plenty of sleep (9 hours would be good, but 8 is fine). Also try to limit your cardio to 1-2 workouts per week. When you're training your biceps, cut out the cardio. Don't train your biceps then hit the treadmill for an hour afterwards. How to get big biceps? Work hard, rest hard.

How to get big biceps step 4:- Mix It Up!

Feel like no matter how many hours you spend building your biceps you just can't seem to lift and heavier and get any bigger? You've hit a plateau. It happens to every lifter at some stage. This is why you need to vary your biceps workouts and shock your muscles into growth! See, you muscles tend to get "used" to the biceps training exercises. So you need to change you biceps workout every 2 - 3 months, change the day you work your biceps and change the order in which you do your biceps exercises. This will definately help you to get big biceps!

How to get big biceps step 5:- Train smarter!

To get big biceps, you need to put some thought into your biceps routine. Here are my tips to trian smarter: Only train your biceps once per week and hit them with 5 different exercises, train your back at least 48 hours before/after your biceps (because the biceps are secondary muscles in back exercises), never train your biceps if they are still sore from the last workout and always do the biggest and heaviest biceps exercises in your routine first (bicep curl, chin up, preacher curl).

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Why pay to go to the gym when FREE information is just one CLICK away!

How To Get Abs Fast with whats around the house - The Routine Exercises

Now the first ab exercise that I've always done throughout my life is the "sit-ups". Now sit-ups have such a bad reputation with people saying that they do nothing for you, but that's completely wrong. If done right the sit-ups can be very effective. But if you go about it half-assed it's going to do nothing for you. This is how you do a prope sit-up; First you lie down, make sure theres enough rooms around you. Bend your knees, with your feet on the floor. Cross your hands over your chest. And bring your chest up to your knees, focusing on the abdominals muscles. That's it, it's not about how many you actually do, more like how many good ones you manage to do.

Leg lifts is also a great effective exercise that you can do at home without fancy gym equipment. What you do is simply, lay down flat on the floor, place your hands under your buttocks, and lift your leg about 6 inches from the ground, concentrating on the abdominal muscle as you lift. Breathe in as you lift your leg up, and breathe out as you put it back down. This is a great exercise, and this is how I maintain my 6 pack abs!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

This site will have all you need on health and fitness!

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