Bodybuilding | Weight Lifting | Fitness

fitness.mercola.com

Technorati Tags: Build, Fat.mp4, Help, lifting, lose, muscle, weights

The more you train with weights the more muscle you will gain, and more muscle equals higher metabolic rate and faster fat burning. Did you know that muscle burns fat even when you sit at your computer? Far too many people use their scale as an indicator of progress when in fact they have no idea if it’s fat, water or muscle they are losing.

Ask any bodybuilder or personal trainer, they’ll tell you the same thing: those who only do cardio will never achieve the results they want. Why? Cardiovascular exercise can help the body to burn fat, but doesn’t build much muscle mass. There’s only one way to achieve this; by adding resistance and weight training to your workout. Something interesting happens to your body when you lift weights: it increases your lean body mass. This helps the body burn calories. Low calorie diets and/or cardiovascular training alone can actually make you lose muscle, and make you fatter! When your body loses lean body mass, your metabolism slows down, and this makes it easier to gain fat. If you lose lean mass, your metabolism slows down, slowing down weight loss and increasing fat stores. The faster your metabolism is, the more fat you’ll burn all day long – even while you’re sleeping! Now you know why bodybuilders, who have very high muscle to fat ratios, can stay lean year round without doing much aerobic work.

Things to think about:

Ignore your scale! Not all weight is created equal. Most women look at a scale as an indicator of how fit they are. It may be hard to understand that muscle weighs more than fat. As you build muscle and burn fat, the scale may not move much. Yet your clothes fit better and you look and feel better. Isn’t that a better measure of success? Muscle weight is not the same as bodyfat; it’s hard to know what the scale is really saying.

Monitor your progress by taking pictures! Snap a picture of yourself every week or month to track your improvements. Ask a trainer to take your body fat measurements. Monitor this every month. You’ll be surprised at the progress you’re making.

Lift weights! The first paragraph in this article illustrates why this is so important to help you meet your fitness goals. You can burn calories sitting at your computer if your metabolism is revved up from weight lifting.

Don’t forget to eat! And eat right! Small, nutritious meals throughtout the day will keep your body at peak fat-burning levels. Increase the amount of fresh veggies and whole grains, avoid any processed foods and sugar, and eat only lean protein.

Remember: if you want to see real results, add strenght and resistance training to your workout routine.

Technorati Tags: Helps, lifting, lose, weight, weights

If you are looking to lose weight and keep it off for good, then you need to look no further than circuit training workouts. Circuit training workouts such as ChaLEAN Extreme, can help you shed the unwanted pounds by slimming your body and giving you the metabolism boost you need to keep the pounds off.

Circuit training is based off the simple principle that muscle burns fat. It has been proven, that the human body will burn more calories when you have lean muscle than when you have more fat. circuit training involves a quick paced workout of different strength training moves and exercises. Not only does this type of workout give you the benefit of developing lean muscle, it also involves a cardiovascular workout, which helps burn calories and keep your heart healthy. You can easily lose weight during a cardiovascular exercise, but when you do circuit training workouts, you are looking at the long term of losing weight and keeping it off.

With such workouts as ChaLEAN Extreme, the whole point of the program is to quickly move from one exercise to another so that you are raising your heart rate as well as benefiting from the strength training exercises. There is no taking a break in between a set of squats. Instead you will do a set of squats and within the next 10-15 seconds move into a set of bicep curls.

Most of the time the sets are brief as they last no longer than 30-60 seconds. So that may mean you do 15 squats and then move into 15 bicep curls on each arm. After one full set, the exercises are usually repeated or you can choose enough different strength exercises to do a full 30-45 minute set.

When you gain lean muscle with circuit training you are going to be able to raise your metabolism. This means that you can burn fat at a faster pace even while you are sleeping at night. What person would not want to lose weight while sleeping and resting? Not only will you lose weight quicker, but you can keep it off for good by keeping a regular routine of circuit training workouts.

Even though circuit training workouts like ChaLEAN Extreme are not the easiest workouts, they are the most beneficial when it comes to weight loss and getting that slim and toned body you desire. When you first start a program of this nature, you just have to make sure that you are not pushing yourself to the point that you are risking injury. You will need to push yourself, but you need to find a balance at what you body is capable of. Beginners who are new to circuit training may find that they are easily tired, but if they stick with, before they know it they will be losing weight and gaining more energy and strength.

Circuit training does not require any big piece of exercise equipment or a large investment of money. You can simply buy a program like ChaLEAN Extreme so that you know how to correctly do the exercises and you get the maximum benefits from the exercise. You will just need a set of free weights and resistance bands if you wish, to effectively burn fat, get lean muscle and get the body of your dreams.

Technorati Tags: Circuit, Keep, lose, training, weight, workouts

When trying to lose stubborn belly fat, it is important to focus on losing weight from the entire body, not just one particular area. Lose stubborn belly fat withtips from a fitness trainer in this free video on ab exercises. Expert: Les Whitley Contact: www.velocitysp.com/coolsprings Bio: Les Whitley is director of Velocity Sports Performance in Franklin, Tennessee. He has a degree in exercise science. Filmmaker: Tim Brown

Technorati Tags: abdominal, belly, exercises, lose, Stubborn

Most people think that the relation between gaining muscle mass and weight lifting is exclusive in the same way as cardio training and fat loss. However, the truth is that all of these are correlated and definitely affect one another. In order to put on muscle mass, cardio training is needed on top of weight lifting. The same holds true for weight loss. It’s not all about cardio as lifting weights will also work wonders in helping to shed off those extra pounds.

Improving the Metabolism

The main reason why weight lifting is necessary for those who want to lose weight is because of this exercise’s ability to improve one’s metabolism. This is true not only in the short term, but in the long run as well. That is, one’s metabolic rate is greatly increased within hours of a weight lifting session. More importantly, having more muscles will also be helpful in maintaining a permanently increased metabolic rate.

It is also a fact that weight lifting offers a more considerable improvement in one’s metabolism when compared to the effects of cardio exercises. There are even some instances wherein too much cardio could cause a reduction in one’s lean body mass which can translate to a decreased metabolic rate.

The Key is Body Composition

Although cardio exercises will indeed help an individual lose weight, the advantage of weight lifting is that it promotes the loss of fat. By doing so, one is able to alter his or her body composition in such a way that he or she becomes more lean and fat-free. The problem with focusing too much with cardio is that it may not change how one looks. That is, an individual can lose 15 or even 20 by going on a treadmill everyday. However, he may still look the same because his body still has the same body fat to muscle mass proportion. Instead of looking thinner, one might end up just looking smaller while still having the same amount of fat in the body. This is why it is essential to combine both cardio exercises and weight lifting in one’s quest to become sexier.

Designing a Program

There aren’t too many differences between a weight lifting program that aims to build muscle mass and one that has the intention of helping the exerciser lose weight. Nonetheless, there are still a few things to keep in mind for those who are hoping for the latter.

For those who are also going on diets that reduce the calorie intake, it is necessary to decrease the total volume of one’s workout. This could lead to performance drops during workouts because of a lack of energy. Secondly, exercisers should avoid decreasing the intensity of their training or the actual weights that they lift. In order to maintain one’s lean body mass, it is advisable to also maintain the intensity of one’s workout as if he were also aiming to put on muscle mass. Lastly, one may also want to look into circuit-style lifting as a substitute for the current cardio workout. This is quite different from the typical weight lifting programs but it also happens to be highly effective as well. Exercisers just need to make sure that they are getting enough rest in between sessions to avoid any burnout. GP

Technorati Tags: lifting, lose, weights

What are good weight lifting chest exercises to lose man boobs?
I already do bench press a machine, and flys.
I know I should be doing more but I just dont know what is effective.

I already know I should manage my diet so I just want to know the most effective exercises.

Technorati Tags: boobs, chest, exercises, good, lifting, lose, weight

Oh, to be a Hot Mommy! You yearn to join this elite club but in spite of all your efforts you haven’t gotten there yet. No doubt you’ve been through all of the crazy fad diets and have even bought your share of diet pills and exercise gadgets. But have you used the tried and true method of lifting weights to burn off the fat and get the right curves?

You have probably heard the myths in this article or even came to your own conclusion about them. It’s time to debunk them forever. As a bonus you’ll also learn something about weight lifting that you aren’t taking full advantage of to get slim and sexy.

Too many women have been sold on the idea that weight lifting is for men and they should do cardio. A few myths later and the belief is set in stone. Who knows when, where or why these myths started but they have held back millions of women from achieving the best physical shape of their lives. The first offender and the biggest: I don’t want to get too big and muscular, like a man.

Let play an educational game before we get into the “Big Like Man” theory. The game is to find someone who woke up one day with too much muscle because they were not paying attention. After more than 20 years I have not met a person who can claim they accidentally got too much muscle from lifting weights. Man or woman.

As final proof of the impossibility of becoming too muscular go to the beach in any country and take a look at the men. Sadly, there won’t be enough fitness models for every girl to take one home.

The next myth that needs to be put to rest is that women should only use light weights that those using heavy weights will somehow wake up in the Too Muscle-y Zone. weight lifting, like life, is more complicated than light weight = small, heavy weight = big. So go ahead and lift something big it will come in handy in your everyday life. Seriously, you will have to lift something heavier than a 2 lbs/kg dumbbell some day. Who knows you may even find it fun. No… really, some do. Honest.

The last myth we’ll discuss is that women should do aerobics because it burns more fat. Well, that is partly true. Typical aerobics training will burn fat more than lifting weights but only while you are doing it. The fat burning benefit stops when you stop moving. That new muscle you added from lifting weights? It continues to burn fat even while channel surfing.

OK, here is the part you’ve been waiting for: lifting weights can give the right shape to the parts you want. Oh, don’t get all bashful. You know exactly what we’re talking about. Adding a little muscle will help lift the parts you want higher. Yearn for more cleavage? It can pick the girls up. Got a flat butt? You can fix it with weights. Got too much butt? Can’t lose your baby belly? Guess what, they can be fixed with weights too. Remember that wonderful benefit of adding muscle: more muscle more fat burned. For once the system is that simple.

It is incredible that more women lift weights but these myths are holding them back and chasing even more women away. Sadly they are missing out on the benefits of one the best forms of exercise available. Marilyn Monroe truly understood the benefits and was an avid weight lifter.

Better health, being better prepared for everyday life and getting your body into that slammin’ sexy shape you’ve always dreamed of. You have to admit those are some great benefits. All these benefits are within your reach if you are willing to shed the chains that are holding you to the belief that weights are only for the boys.

Technorati Tags: Lift, lose, Moms, weight

I want to get an exercise routine that I can do to tone my body. It dosen’t matter if its arms or legs or stomach.

Technorati Tags: best, exercise, gain, lose, muscle, routine

What exercise routine should I do if I wanted to lose weight and tone like 25 minutes on treadmill and 5 lunges or something. I have a treadmill, stationary bike, and a Pilates DVD. And if I have toast with a little crunchy peanut butter on it for breakfast, a fruit salad for lunch, and a lean pocket salad and milk for dinner. And I would drink water. Would that work?

Technorati Tags: alright, diet, exercise, lose, plan, routine, Should, this, tone, want, weight

There are many forms of training, so many in fact that’s it’s really difficult to choose the type of training that’s right for your specific goals. Research, as well real life case studies show that “circuit training” combined with super-setting produce amazing results for women who want to lose weight as well as tone and define their muscles.

Before I get into the basic guidelines of how to structure your workouts effectively, lets first take a detailed look at what “circuit training” and “super-setting” really is.

First, Circuit training can be simply defined as working the cardiovascular system and the muscular system all at the same time.

Circuit training is also great for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of time to go on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then lift weights for another 30 minutes(raise you hand if you do this). When you circuit train you combine these two elements together to produce a high quality, top notch super workout. The way you want to structure your circuit training is to do an upper body exercise followed by a lower body exercise. This will allow you to give one area of your body a rest while you work another muscle group. You can take quick 10 second breaks in between if your just starting out. But after a while, and as your fitness level progresses you want to move from one exercise to the next without taking any breaks.

Super-setting is similar but when you superset you perform exercises for the opposing muscle groups. So for example lets say you did push-ups for your chest and triceps, right after that you would do bent over rows for the back muscles as well as your biceps. See how you work the opposing muscle groups? This is good because your muscles will get a rest before going on to the second set.

Now take both these principles and combine them together. I know you’re sweating buckets just thinking about it. In this case you will be going 30 minutes non-stop keeping your heart rate up and increasing your lean muscle which will help kick start your metabolism over a period of time(don’t worry you wont get big and bulky). Now just imagine what would happen if you did this type of training for 30 minutes 3 times a week.

Can you see the new clothing you will have to buy? Can you see your confidence growing?

In a matter of time you’ll be in the best shape of your life. Just remember consistency as well as patience will give you the best results.

Here’s a quick blueprint to help you structure your circuit training. All you have to do is fill in the blanks with exercises you feel are right for you.

Aerobic warm up 5-7 minutes

Do each exercise for 1 minute X 3 times – 24mintues

1. Upper body exercise
2. Lower body exercise
3. Upper body exercise
4. Lower body exercise
5. Upper body exercise
6. Lower body exercise
7. Upper body exercise
8. Lower body exercise

Cool down 5 minutes

Technorati Tags: Circuit, Faster, Help, lose, training, weight