Health Beauty & Fitness » Weight Training

Quick Useful Weight Loss Tips

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:11:35 +0000

Most of the people on these days are more health conscious and they are taking many steps to stay healthy. Most of the health issues appear because of excessive weight. So people, who feel they have an excess of weight, take decision to lose their weight. But while planning to lose weight, you have to follow some useful tips which help to achieve your goal very fast.

First you have to consume lesser amount of calories in your diet. A slight change in your diet will result in remarkable change. It is also good to take 5 or 6 small meals a day instead of taking three big meals. Secondly you have to clean your cupboard and your fridge. If they contain any food items, which you will be tempted to eat. Vegetarian meals contain smaller amount of calories than non vegetarian food. Including vegetarian food weekly for two days will help you to cut down the calories. It also helps to lose weight.

The best exercise to boost the calorie and to burn the fat is weight training. You have to get involve with any exercise program in a gym. It helps to increase your metabolism level and it also helps to burn your calories level. While at the time of sleep, your calories will be burned if you perform any exercise activity.

Cardio interval training is also good kind of exercise which helps to lose your weight quickly. You have to be very strict and avoid eating snacks and junk food in between your meals. Instead of taking snacks, you can take fruits, nuts and diet fluids. Your metabolism level will increase by drinking the ice cold water. So drink plenty of water daily (at least 9 to 10 glass of water). You have to consume fat free dairy products.

To get the desired result, you should have patience; losing weight in one day will not be possible. It will take some time and you have to follow the tips strictly, if you are serious in your goal.

Making Your 2011 Your Healthiest Year Ever

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:35:00 +0000

It is hard to believe that 2011 is right around the corner! I plan on making my 2011 the fittest and best year of my life (hey it is the last year I will spend in my 30s). A few small changes to your life can make dramatic improvements to your health and your life over the upcoming New Year. Try implementing a few of these and see how quickly your health and life improve.

1. Aim for 30 minutes of movement a day – the building block of a good fitness program is regular exercise, and 30 minutes is generally agreed to be the minimum time frame needed for that routine to be effective. This can be thirty minutes of weight training, thirty minutes of running, walking or biking, thirty minutes of Pilates or Yoga, or even thirty minutes of vigorous work around the house or playing a recreational sport. Remember the goal is to get your heart rate up for thirty minutes a day.

2. Add Green Tea to your diet – green tea is an amazing substance that has been linked to everything from weight loss to cancer prevention. The studies promoting the health effects of green tea are based on consuming four cups of green tea a day over a long period of time, not on taking green tea supplements, so enjoy a few cups of green tea a day.

3. Control your cheats – anyone who has controlled their diet over a long enough period of time will tell you they fell off the wagon every now and then. In fact I think occasionally cheating on your diet is valuable in throwing your body a curve ball and essential to keep you on that program. What you want to do is take control of those cheats. I do this by having days over the year already identified as days I plan on eating anything I want. For example on New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day and my Birthday at the end of April I get to eat whatever I want. Knowing these days are coming up help keep me on my program in the day between the cheats.

4. Use more than one way to measure your progress – here is a typical situation, someone goes on a diet and exercise plan, loses four pounds in the first week, then loses four ounces in the second week and figures the plan isn’t working. Well sometimes your body needs time to catch up to what you are doing to it. So instead of relying just on the scale add measuring your body fat or just take measurements of your chest, abs, waist, arms and legs. Combining two measurement systems will give you a much better idea of the progress you are making.

5. Drink more water – the old eight glasses of water a day just doesn’t cut it anymore. Aim to drink half to one ounce of water for every pound you weigh a day. Water is essential to keep your body running effectively and to flush out the waste. Additionally not drinking enough water actually causes your body to hold in water and make you appear bloated.

6. Get a physical – after all the work I did I figured I was in ideal health, then I had a physical and I found out I had genetic factors that can affect my heart and an unknown vitamin D deficiency. This physical also set a point from where changes can be monitored and I was able to discuss with my doctor my workout and nutrition strategies. Just because you feel good doesn’t mean your body doesn’t need to be checked, so go get it checked in 2011.

7. Get enough rest. For years I slept for 3 to 4 hours on average, skipping sleep all together on occasion and playing catch up and sleeping twelve hours on others, this is a stupid strategy. Modern sleep research tells us there is no ideal amount of sleep but most people need between 7 and 9 hours a night. If you go to sleep the same time every night your body will adjust to that being the time sleep begins, then on the weekend allow yourself to get up naturally and you will have a good idea how many hours you need each night. Sleep is essential because it is when your body repairs itself and without proper time to repair you’re not going to get the most from your workouts.

8. Focus on lean proteins – protein is essential for your body and a key part of getting the most of your workouts. Focus on getting your protein from natural lean sources like turkey, chicken, egg whites and fish so you get the benefits of the protein without overexposure to the unhealthy aspects of meats.

9. Eat more fruits and vegetables – in our modern fad diet world fruits and vegetables have gotten a bad reputation a rather unmerited bad reputation. Fruits and vegetables’ are packed full of essential vitamins and minerals, and they are what your body was built to run on. So don’t get caught up in the fad and enjoy what nature provides.

10. Make your rest active – rest is essential for your body to recover and to help us distress from our increasingly stressful lives, but active rest can be much more beneficial. Active rest can be working through a honey do list, light yard work, playing with your dog or kids, walking through a park or mall, going bowling, basically anything that is more than sitting on the couch but less than a proper work out.

11. Switch up your workouts every three weeks – our bodies adjust to almost anything in three weeks so we need to change our programs at least every three weeks to continue to get the most out of our efforts. Remember it is the change from the normal that your body has to adapt to that causes the stress that requires recovery that leads to weight loss and muscle growth. Changing your routine isn’t complicated, I do this simply by rotating my strength workouts between split t heavy training, full body circuits, split superset training and full body supersets. Using this simple system each routine in only repeated once a quarter and my body is constantly having to adjust and doesn’t know what’s coming next. For cardio I switch between long and moderate paced walking, high intensity interval cycling, and jumping rope. These switches always spur greater gains towards my goals.

Implement some or all of the eleven above and make your 2011 your fittest and most enjoyable in years!

How to Put Together a Fitness Training Plan

admin — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:41:44 +0000

You work out at home, at the gym, maybe even at work. But do you really know what to do? This article will provide you with information on how to put together a fitness training plan that fits all of your needs – lifestyle, fitness level, time constraints and interests. Whether you’re just starting out or been at it for years, the following information will be beneficial to you.

So you have home gym equipment and/or a health club membership, and you may even be using them on a regular basis. But, how do you put together an exercise plan that not only helps you improve your body’s health, but also do it in a way that fits the rest of your life?

1. Define what your goals are. Are you looking to lose weight? Gain muscle? Tone up what you already have? You’ll need to decide what it is you want to accomplish before you can define what your plan is.

2. Understand that you need to start slowly. Your body will adjust quickly to the changes that will take place as you get into a regular exercise program – but overdoing things at the beginning will have the opposite effect you are looking for. Start with a simple program, and build onto it as your fitness improves.

3. Decide how much time you can spend per day. And, and dedicate yourself to using that time for your fitness workouts. Keep in mind that committing two percent of your day will get you to where you need to be!

4. Write it down beforehand. Plan out your workouts, and keep track of your results. Pick your exercises, pick your weight for the exercise, pick your number of sets / number of reps, pick your time that you’ll do cardio, and commit to it.

5. When doing your planning – break up your routine. For example – if you’re doing weight training, don’t try to train all your muscle groups in one session. Rather, schedule your chest and arm exercises for one session, back and shoulder exercises for the next, and legs & abdominals for the third. Keeping variety in your training will not only help keep you motivated, it also helps keep you from overtraining and getting hurt.

6. See your doctor. Before you put your plan into action, talk to your doctor, and make sure that what you’ve planned won’t hurt you, only help you!

7. Learn about your body. Learn about what muscles make up your body, and what exercises work the muscle groups you’d like to concentrate on. Learn about what the difference is between “cardio efficiency” and “burning fat”. For example, running on the treadmill at your peak speed, may build your cardiovascular system, but running at a much slower pace actually is better for training your body to burn fat.

Your plan is just that – yours. In the end, you’ll only get out of your plan what you put into it. And, the best way to create a successful plan is to create something that you’re not just comfortable with, but a plan that challenges you to push yourself just a little bit farther! You only get out of your plan what you put into it. And, the best way to create a successful plan is to create something that you’re not just comfortable with, but a plan that challenges you to push yourself just a little bit farther!

How to Lose Fat Fast and Easily

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:57:00 +0000

Being overweight can be a serious problem and it is important to find a solution to it. The key to losing weight and keeping is to make sure that you do both exercise and diet properly as they are linked and you cannot ignore one or the other and expect good long term results. One key point to keep in mind that many diet and exercise programs fail to pay attention to is the value that weight training plays in attaining long term weight loss.

Proper weight training is vital:

Weight training is important for both men and women as it will help you to gain muscle and maintain it so that you increase your overall metabolism which will make it possible for you to eat properly, even binge or overeat once in a while and still maintain a healthy weight. There are lots of varying weight training equipments you can buy for home use and also gyms you can join which will give you access to a wide range of training equipments so that you never get bored using the same equipment all the time. However there is a key benefit to training at home as it is much more convenient and you have a much higher level of privacy if you are shy about training in a public environment.

You need to be careful when it comes to training with weights as it is easy to over train which can lead to a weakened immune system that is not good for your health. Be sure to eat right and also get enough sleep each day usually 6-8 hours for most people is enough. Most people should not train more than one to two times a week and if you lift particular heavy weights you might want to consider reducing the training to even once every two weeks. Remember also the importance of aerobic exercise as this will also help in increasing the number of calories you burn each day so you can lose weight more easily.

Weight loss is a function of the number of calories you are consuming versus the number of calories you are burning. If you are gaining weight then it is because you are either consuming too many calories or you are not burning enough calories each day so you need to monitor what you are doing and make the necessary changes so you get the best results possible. First make sure that you are doing cardio workouts three to five times a week and weight training at least once a week. If you know you are active enough then make sure that you are not overeating too much. It may not be practical to avoid large meals once in a while like during a family gathering or holiday but learn to back off the calories during regular days. Look into doing colon cleansing as well as this can not only help you to lose weight but also can really help to improve your overall health and fitness levels.

Use propecia for male pattern baldness only

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:34:06 +0000

One of the most commonly suggested causes of hair loss in both men and women is a genetic defect. The fact it may be inherited means it is not your fault when your hair thins and falls out and, perhaps more importantly, the condition is not necessarily something that can be cured. Of course, there is some evidence that hair loss does run in families, but there is more evidence that our lifestyles and medical decisions can be even more important factors in deciding who loses hair and how quickly. We will ignore the cultural effect of changing hairstyles where too much traction in pulling the hair back into a ponytail or comparable style may accelerate hair loss, the effect of a general anesthetic for surgery (curiously, many who undergo gastric bypass surgery often lose the most hair), increased levels of anxiety and stress, and both chemo- and radiotherapy for cancer. The most consistent cause surrounds the level of different hormones in the body.

In women, for example, the level of estrogen drops during and after pregnancy, and during the menopause. This has been directly linked to both the thinning of hair and its loss from the scalp. Some women also lose hair as a reaction to particular oral contraceptives. For obvious reasons, the level of hormones naturally occurring in the male body tends to be more stable. But, in both genders, thyroid problems can affect the production of hormones and produce early baldness in men. Similarly, for a number of reasons, the levels of the hormones may be affected artificially. The most consistent causes stem from the use of steroids which are commonly used for a variety of strictly medical, e.g. to control asthma, and other purposes, e.g. as supplements to promote growth and for strength while weight training. As an adverse side effect, many weight loss products affect the thyroid and hair suffers. Finally, it is not just athletes who discover some diet and other supplements affect the level of testosterone in their bodies. Many who take “natural” dietary and nutritional supplements find out the hard way that some “natural” chemicals affect hair growth and retention.

This should give you pause for thought. Because there are many possible causes of hair loss, you should not guess what is affecting you and self-medicate. The research evidence shows the majority of people are completely unaware that their own lifestyles or the drugs prescribed to them by physicians may be responsible. Always get a formal diagnosis from your regular healthcare professional. If he or she confirms your hair loss is an adverse side effect of drugs or supplements you are using, the remedies will be clear. But, if male pattern baldness is confirmed, propecia is the tried and tested response (albeit not for Olympic athletes like Zach Lund who were banned from competition if they took this drug). Because this drug was developed some time ago, you will now find both the branded and generic propecia (also called finasteride) freely available from most of the online pharmacies. This will save you some serious money while enabling you to both slow hair loss and often encourage some regrowth. However, two small facts should be borne in mind. Propecia works best when it is taken early in the cycle of hair loss. Secondly, hair loss restarts once you stop taking the drug.

Weight Training For Men Over 40 Years Old

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:22:56 +0000

If you are over 40 and you want to get involved in weight training, it is by NO means too late! You can actually turn your life around for the better, be in great shape, feel great and restore lost energy that you didn’t even know you had. Exercising is the best thing you can do for your body and it is extremely beneficial. Weight training for men over 40 is the best route to take, because it helps work on every muscle in the body and not just one, like with sit ups or crunches where you are focusing on your abdomen mostly.

Some important things to know related to weight training for men over 40, are that it’s vital to stay hydrated. You can have serious complications resulting from dehydration. All you have to do is drink water and then drink some more water. Do anything you can do avoid dehydration! Coffee, soda, tea, iced tea and most drinks are all diuretics which DEHYDRATE you! You think you’re quenching your thirst when really you are making yourself more and more dehydrated from all the salt and other ingredients. You must drink the recommended eight full glasses of water per day and perhaps even a little more especially on days that you work out.

Diet is also one of the MOST important thing in weight training for men over 40 years old. Proteins, complex carbs, essential fats, lean meats, vegetables…these are all vital parts in gaining muscle mass and actually achieving satisfactory results. If you can get up off the couch and shut off the TV, you’ll find that weight training isn’t so bad after all. You build new brain cells when you exercise as well as get great feelings from the flow of endorphins in your body.

Weight training for men over 40 years old can only be beneficial. Why wait until it IS too late to make a difference or get into great shape?

The Healthiest Walking Workout

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:44:23 +0000

Belly fat not only makes you look bad, but it is typically a sign that you are susceptible to certain diseases from being overweight like diabetes, cardio-vascular issues, and obesity. So how can you rid yourself of belly fat effectively and permanently? Well, the process is quite simple, but it is far from being easy. To lose your belly fat for good will require a commitment and discipline to see your goal through. But once you start seeing the results, it will become easier to stick with your belly blasting program. Here’s how to turn your body in a belly blasting machine.

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1) FOCUS ON BUILDING MUSCLE

Muscles require more energy to operate than other tissues in the boy. Increased energy consumption by the muscles means that it will be burning more of the calories you consume. The more muscles you’re able to add to your body, the more calories you’ll burn. This alone will help to reduce your belly and body fat. To increase the amount of muscles you have try weight training 3 times a week with a day of rest in between each workout. I advice circuit training where you focus on the major muscle groups. With muscles to aid, you’ll be burning calories even while you sleep.

2) DO CARDIO IN THE MORNING

Cardio in the morning has a number of benefits. First, doing your exercise routine in the morning ensures that there are no excuses that prevent you from finish it, as opposed to different scenarios that may arise if you worked out in the evening (i.e. you’re tired from a long day of work, you forgot about a few time eating, essential errands, the baby starts crying, etc..). Doing cardio in the morning also increases your metabolism for a longer period throughout the day, ensuring that you are burning more calories. Lastly, when you wake in the morning your insulin levels are low. This means you will be pulling from fat for energy. So, working out in the morning will take from your fat reserves and help to decrease that belly fat even faster. Try and get some form of cardio going 4-5 times a week for maximum results.

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3) EAT 5-6 SMALL FREQUENT MEALS

Eating at 3-4 hour intervals will ensure that your metabolism is fired up which, again, will help you to consume more calories. Your bodily systems, especially your digestive system, will be working hard to burn these calories which increases your metabolism. Just make sure you’re eating a good mix between protein and complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are more slowly digested then simple carbs and will give you sustained energy. A good example of complex carbs are fruits and vegetables. Eating 5-6 meals will tell the body that there is plenty of food, so it will not need to store body fat for later use. For your protein needs, I advise taking a protein supplement (preferably casein protein for its slow absorption) before bed to aid your muscles in their recovery from your muscle work.

By focusing on building muscle, doing cardio in the morning, and eating a good mix of protein and complex carbs 5-6 times a day, you’ll increase your metabolism and burn more calories. As you consume more calories than you ingest, you’ll slowly start to see that belly and body fat disappear. The key is consistency and determination. Don’t let distractions, no matter how big or small, deter you from reaching your goal.

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Optimum Men’s Health and Fitness Guide – The Ultimate Men’s Fitness Tips

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:04:21 +0000

Finding the perfect balance of mens health and fitness is a daunting task these days. There are so many so called “fitness experts” telling you one thing, while the others tell you differently. So what men’s fitness tips are really proven to enhance a man’s life?

Let’s take a look at some of the major issues and how to best tackle them.

WEIGHT LOSS

So much crap comes out daily on this subject. The worse products are usually savvy marketed diet pills that promise so many results and almost ALWAYS under-deliver!

So what’s really the best recommendations for weight loss? I’ll cut right to chase here since I’m not one to sugar-coat stuff. The best way to lose weight successfully and keep it off is to get your lazy butt up and do something! Anything!! Just do whatever your able of doing.

Humans are inherently lazy and this often makes them gain weight with each passing chronological year that goes by. The best mens health and fitness ideals come from physical activity. I’m not saying it has to be hard work.

In fact, it’s not hard work at all when you make men’s fitness a lifestyle and not a chore.

I would highly recommend interval cardio training for 20-30 minutes, 3-5 days a week. That’s only about 3% of your entire day! Your seriously gonna tell me you can’t devote 3% of your day to your health and fitness goals?

It doesn’t have to be 20 minutes, 5 days a week off the bat. Just start slowly,take baby steps, you’ll get there eventually. If you value your life at all, you should equally value good health. These weight loss fitness tips are not that hard to follow and you will get used to them,like everything else in life.

BUILDING MUSCLE

As a rule of thumb, I like to go by lifting weights to build muscle every other day. And usually your entire muscle building routine can be done in about 20 minutes. Allowing one day’s rest in between allows your body and muscles to recuperate. Weight training is a huge part of optimal mens health and fitness.

No time to get to a gym? Invest in a home gym unit! I highly recommend a Bowflex home gym unit or a Total Gym. A Bowflex is ideal for ultimate muscle building while the Total Gym is ideal for toning up the entire body and building modest muscle mass.

Not to mention they are both incredibly easy to use. Having a home gym in your house saves you gas and aggravation of driving in traffic to and from the gym also!

You see guys, men’s fitness does NOT have to be hard or difficult.

So now that you’ve got a slim and almost-perfect body, where do we go from here?

FACE EXERCISES

To complete the ultimate mens health and fitness plan, I’d highly recommend face exercises for men. Why? Because most often,regular exercise and weight training won’t exactly build chiseled facial features. While building muscle will define your chest and shoulder area, it won’t target your face and neck muscles effectively.

What can be achieved through these exercises? How about a chiseled jawline, enhanced cheekbones, elimination of under eye bags and double chin? Not to mention the burst of confidence that will come from your new look. Just imagine what can come from a quick blast of fresh new-found confidence.

The nice thing about face exercises is that the results are super quick!

They only take up about 15 minutes of your day and can be done sitting in traffic, on a plane or practically anywhere! There’s over 50 muscles in the face and it would be naive to think that we couldn’t also manipulate these muscles and sculpt and define them for enhanced facial features without plastic surgery!

So here you have it guys! The ultimate mens health and fitness guide and men’s fitness tips all-in-one simple outline!

Fitness Model Workout Principles

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:56:57 +0000

If you wish to become a fitness model you need to know how to workout in the right way. Fitness model workouts follow certain principles which you need to follow if you plan to ever have any success in this field. To be a fitness model you need to have a perfect body. Having too much fat is destructive. However, having too much muscle is also forbidden since the bulky look is definitely not what magazines are looking for. It’s just not considered that attractive.

So, you’re looking for the lean, elongated, toned look, and not the bulky look. This is a huge mistake which many fitness model wannabes make: becoming too bulky.

In order to get that lean look your workouts need to be comprised of 3 parts:

1. Cardio – I guess you already knew that, but the how is the important thing. Your cardio workouts need to be targeted to achieve the most fat loss. That’s why the best cardio fitness model workouts are interval workouts. You’re going to be spending enough time at the gym already. Don’t waste it on long cardio. Make your workouts short and intensive. This will cut the fat right off and leave you lean all over.

2. Resistance workouts – This is weight training and body weight training. You see I’m not mentioning machines here since they are a big no-no for fitness models. Weight training or body weight training is better than machines for a number of reasons: it gives better results, it is safer, and it is healthier. Again, you need to stand out of the crowd. Fitness model exercises are not done on machines if they can be done with free weights. Remember that.

3. Stretching – Most people don’t do stretches but you need to. First of all, being flexible will allow you to compete better. Second, it helps you achieve that elongated look to your muscles. Third, it is very healthy and reduces the risk of injury. Don’t neglect this part of the workout. It is crucial.

Now that you know the principles of a good fitness model workout, all you need to do is apply it.

Health and Fitness Club Classes Offer Opportunities For Women

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:51:40 +0000

There are many health and fitness clubs that offer special opportunities for their female clients. Most of the gyms and health clubs have classes that are co-ed, and they are also offering more individualized programs that target specific exercises for women.

Women need to learn stretching techniques that can be used to keep their bodies flexible, and these methods are sometimes different from the types of exercises available for men. The female body is often far more flexible than a man’s and, unless they keep the joints trained and moving, they will lose this ability over the years.

Some of the co-ed classes that are offered at a health and fitness club include spinning, stepping, Pilates, yoga, cardio, and weight training. Women are the dominant members of the stepping, Pilates, and yoga classes in almost every health and fitness club. The weight training classes generally have few, if any, women participants.

There are a couple of reasons that women tend to steer away from weight training. Women tend to believe that weight training and body building are synonymous and, therefore, they do not want to bulk up their bodies and look like male body builders.

Women may not know that much about weights and weight lifting techniques and many are reluctant to ask anyone for information. The barbells and heavy apparatus are still viewed as a man’s domain by many.

However, health and fitness clubs are now helping women rethink their ideas about weight training. It has been scientifically proven that working with weights will increase bone density in women. Strong bones and toned bodies are what women will gain from participating in weight training classes.

The bulk and large muscles will not appear on women unless they use testosterone drugs, since it is physically impossible for a female to develop those large and imposing muscles just by working with weights.