Our society loves beauty. The most beautiful bodies are symmetrical, lean and firm. So why are most women starving themselves and spending hours on cardio machines trying to be skinny? Lack of knowledge! Most women donât understand the importance of weight training and how it can help shape their bodies into fat burning machines. The more strong active muscles you have the more fat your body will burn. Remember, muscleburns fat!!
I hear women say that they are afraid to weight train because they donât want to get âbig and bulkyâ. Women who weight train wonât increase their muscle size much, just their muscleâs density and strength. So forget about that âbulking upâ fear. As a woman ages, she begins to loose more muscle because after puberty your essential muscle growth is over and your muscle starts to deteriorate. The act of pregnancy further accelerates your muscle loss because the amount of protein your baby needs to develop requires the baby to steal protein (muscle) from you! Furthermore, re-menopausal, menopausal and post menopausal women have lower hormone levels causing accelerated muscle loss. Weight training with a proper nutrition plan will help re-build your lost muscle.
So why is muscle so important? Muscle is the driving force behind your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more fat and calories you will burn. A good metabolism doesnât happen by accident, yes genetics play a part in metabolism, but your lifeâs choices affect your metabolism as well. Some keys to a good metabolism are: weight training, a nutritious diet, an active lifestyle and a consistency in each.
We are often programmed to think we have to weigh a certain amount to be happy. We say to ourselves âIf only I could weigh what I did in high schoolâ. You need to get rid of that scale mentality. Who cares how much you weigh. The most athletic bodies are often considered overweight if you place them on the standard height/weight chart or BMI chart. How is that possible you ask? Because muscle is so dense that it weighs much more than fat. Muscle also holds about 60% more water than fat tissue causing muscular people to weigh much more than their âskinny fatâ counterparts. Since muscle weighs more than fat, donât think that you have to be a certain weight. What you should be most concerned about is your muscle mass % and your body fat%, your body composition. How much muscle and fat is on your body? Or are you firm and tight? To be âleanâ you need to have a high percentage of muscle and a lower amount of body fat. That way you can see those sexy muscles your fat is hiding.
So how do you go about getting those muscles you ask?? Weight train! There are 3 larger main muscles that our bodies are comprised of, your legs, back and chest. Metabolism will be affected most if these 3 muscle groups are emphasized since they comprise the majority of the muscle mass on our bodies.
Letâs talk about the area that all women are concerned about the most, legs and your butt. Leg muscles are the biggest strongest muscles of our body. The majority of women donât realize how strong and powerful their legs can be without getting bulky. I know that most women have a fear of lifting with their legs because they often carry a higher amount of fat in their legs and therefore fear adding bulk to their lower half through strength training. As women we donât have the levels of testosterone necessary to build big bulky muscles as men do, so donât think that if you lift with your legs you will make them significantly bigger. Initially yes, a small amount of muscle growth will occur and before you start loose your fat on top of this muscle, you may notice a slight size increase, but this is temporary. Shortly thereafter, you will notice your legs start to gain new shape, firmness and a leaner appearance. All of which is caused by these muscles becoming more active and therefore burning more fat.
Oh my favorite, the back! Most women are absolutely unaware of the huge potential fat burning muscles they have on their back. Our backs are full of muscles. There are tons of them holding our spine, ribs and shoulders in place. These muscles are very important to our health. How often do we hear about back and neck pain? I truly believe that weak back muscles cause much of the pain. Lifting with your back requires proper form and extreme focus on the muscles you are working.
Finally, our chest muscles. I am talking about your pectorals, the muscles all women need to embrace. Pregnancy and breast-feeding do horrible things to a womanâs breasts. The looks of a womanâs breast goes beyond the mammary tissue, it lies underneath in the pectoral muscles. Pregnancy can rob our bodies of muscle which means the muscle that once lifted our breast now is gone and it too needs to be rebuilt. If you want to give yourself a natural breast lift and boost your metabolism, build up your chest.
You must find a way to challenge your muscles. Lifting the same weight every time you perform an exercise will maintain what muscle you have, but not change them. I donât know many people that like spending an hours at the gym every week to stay exactly the same. We all crave to improve ourselves, so we must challenge our muscles by lifting weights that are challenging. There is nothing complicated about this, make sure you find yourself slightly challenged by your lifting program.
Lastly change it up! If your muscles get used to the same thing over and over again they will get bored just like you do. Boredom causes your muscle to not respond just as it causes you to not want to do your boring workout. Donât be afraid to change, try some new exercises, change the number of sets and reps of your exercises, increase or decrease your rest time between sets and workouts and change the order of your exercises. Remember muscle burns fat.
Maggie P is a health & fitness advisor as well as an acclaimed nutrition specialist with a focus on women’s weight loss and diet. www.maggiepfitness.com
Everyone knows the value of exercise and other physical activities to one’s health. Unfortunately, many modern day individuals are preoccupied with the ever-increasing demands of work, family, and other important matters that they have no time to include exercise in their schedules. Countless individuals are seeking ways to improve their physique, develop their muscles, and eliminate stress without consuming too much time.
A great way to improve one’s health and physique is by doing a workout program called “circuit training.” This kind of training program involves moving from one strength training routine to another, in a specified amount of time, with the goal of working the major muscle groups in the upper body, lower body, and core. Individuals who want to try this program should remember that no two consecutive exercises should target the same muscle group. During circuit training, individuals usually perform exercises in about 20 to 30 seconds with a 30 second recovery between each exercise. Three to five sets of exercises are done with a three minute recovery between each set.
Circuit training may improve strength, muscle endurance, and metabolism because of constant movement. In addition to these health benefits, if circuit exercises are done at speed, some benefits of aerobic exercises can be achieved as well. However, this type of program alone may not burn enough calories to promote significant weight-loss. This exercise program, like other workout programs, have advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of circuit training includes:
• Development of strength and endurance • Ideal form of training for many kinds of sports • Can be adjusted for appropriate age, fitness, and health of individuals • Exercises are simple enough to make individuals feel a sense of achievement in completing them • A wide range of exercises are available that will suit an person’s preference
Disadvantages of circuit training may include the following:
• Many exercises require equipment (dumbbells, barbels, exercise ball, etc) • Ample space is required to perform circuit exercises • Use of some equipment require appropriate health and safety monitoring
Just like other exercise programs, circuit training should be done properly and in moderation to achieve improved health. Some people are in such a hurry to improve their health that they tend over-train. Over-training should be avoided because too much or too intense physical activity may take its toll on the body. This happens because the body literally undergoes “wear and tear” during training. To build muscles and improve the body, it needs to rest to attain normal development. Medical studies show that over-training may cause fatigue and cause respiratory infection. In addition to these ailments, men who over-train may experience a decline in sperm quality and production. This happens because intense physical activities may reduce the level of the hormones in the bloodstream that affects the sperm. Normal sperm production and quality may return to normal after two to three days of rest.
Before beginning circuit training and other physical activities, individuals are encouraged to seek the advice of doctors and other health specialists. They may devise an exercise program and diet that are appropriate for one’s health needs. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of physical activities may lead to improved overall health.
Strength training isn’t just for muscle men. It is the best way to help your body turn into a weight loss machine. That may not initially make much sense to you as muscle is very heavy (it is heavier than fat.) But each extra pound of muscle on your body will another 50 calories per day, even when you’re doing absolutely nothing. Imagine yourself with 10 extra pounds of muscle. That muscle will burn an extra 500 calories a day which will certainly turn your body into a fat burning machine. Think about how much easier it will be to burn off extra calories when your using so many more calories a day?
I recommend this strength training strategy not just to men but also to women. Too many women think that strength training is just for men. And even when women do lift weights they usually do it in a “girlie” way. Instead of lifting heavy weights for muscle they lift a small amount of weight a lot of times for this mythological thing people call “toning.”
“Toning” does not actually exist. It’s a myth. Muscle can only get bigger or smaller. It cannot get “toned.” That doesn’t actually mean anything. The top way to grow your muscle (which is the purpose of strength training) is to lift heavy weights. Why? Because the body responds to these heavy weights by growing more muscle. Lifting light weights many times is actually an awful way to go about strength training.
Yes ladies, I’m telling you that you should train like a real man. You should lift heavy weights for a small amount of reps. In fact I recommend only doing one set of about 8 reps for each muscle area. How much weight should you lift? As much as you can lift without injuring yourself! The more weight you lift the more it will stress your body and the more likely your body will respond by growing new muscle.
That new muscle is the key to your fat burning power, particularly in the long run. Most diets fail because they do nothing to speed up your metabolism. In fact most diets actually slow down your metabolism with restricted calorie intake. But by adding new muscle to your body you are actually speeding up your metabolism in a way that will make it easier to burn off fat and to keep it off! You know how everyone says that it is so difficult to maintain fat loss? That’s because most people who lose weight starve it off but don’t do anything to really change their bodies at an intrinsic level. When you add muscle to your body you are becoming fit in a much more permanent way then you are by starving fat off your body.
What about that common fear among women that they will become “too muscular.” This is a mostly nonsensical fear. It takes a lot of weight lifting to get to the stage of being muscular in a manly way for a woman. And if you do see yourself beginning to develop more muscles than you would like (as unlikely as that is) you can always begin to slow down or stop your strength training. If you get to that point then you are likely set with your muscle needs anyway. But again, these circumstances are unlikely to develop anyway. Do not let this irrational fear stop you from doing what you need to do to improve your health.
It is recommended that you choose an online diet program that includes a free strength training program. Probably the best example of that is The Day Off Diet which is includes an excellent strength training program (free of charge) with it’s diet program (which is also very effective.)
The high-tech, high speed nature of 21st Century living has made exercise and other physical activities that promote health and longevity a rarity. In a more accurate sense, it can be said that physical fitness is commonly pushed down below a long list of daily priorities at work and in school.
Due to their hectic schedules, many people are now seeking ways to improve their physique, develop their muscles, and eliminate stress without consuming too much time. An alternative to workout without spending too much time is engaging in a training program called circuit training. This kind of training keeps aims to push the body aerobically and challenge strength. An example of circuit training may include about five minutes of jumping rope followed by push-ups and ab exercises.
Circuit training is an efficient and effective form of conditioning training that works well for improving strength, physique, endurance, flexibility, and coordination. Because of the versatility of this kind of training, it has become popular to busy individuals who want to improve their health. It is also developed by athletes who want to maintain their fitness level and prepare the body for more vigorous and stressful training. Circuit training may improve metabolism because of constant movement. In addition to these health benefits, if circuit exercises are done hurriedly which enables individuals to spend less time working out. However, this type of program alone may not burn enough calories to promote significant weight-loss. Like other workout programs circuit training has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of circuit training may include the following:
*
Develop strength and endurance *
Ideal form of training for many kinds of sports *
Can be adjusted for appropriate age, fitness, and health of individuals
*
Exercises are simple enough to make individuals feel a sense of achievement in completing them *
A wide range of exercises are available that will suit an person’s preference
Disadvantages of circuit training may include the following:
*
Many exercises require equipments (dumbbells, barbels, etc.) *
Ample space is required to perform circuit exercises *
Use of some equipments require appropriate health and safety monitoring
To save space and perform exercises effectively, those who want to engage in circuit training may include the use of fitness balls in their training. A fitness ball, also known as Pilates ball, stability ball, Swiss ball, and gym ball is made of elastic rubber which usually has a diameter of 14 to 34 inches. While typical exercises are done directly on a flat surface, a fitness ball may provide instability that may promote tension to targeted muscle parts. These muscles can gain strength as they try to maintain balance. With frequent circuit training with a fitness ball, these muscles may become stronger and gain mass in a short period.
Guidelines for circuit training for general health may include the following:
Load Variable
Number of exercises eight to 12
Time per station 30 – 90 seconds
Number of circuits per session one to three
Rest interval between sets 30 – 90
Rest interval between circuits two to three minutes
Speed of execution medium to fast
Frequency two to three times a week
Many people who want to improve their health do not realize the value of circuit training. This exercise program is essential in improving the health of individuals who do not have time to go to the gym and do not have the resources to purchase often expensive exercise equipment. Exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, squat thrusts, and abdominal crunches do not require equipment. People may buy cheap dumbbells and jump ropes to improve their circuit training program.
Before engaging in circuit training and other physical activities, individuals are encouraged to seek the advice of doctors and other health specialists. They may devise an exercise programs and diets that are appropriate for their health needs. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of physical activities may lead to improved overall health.
When you are using a bodybuilding workout guide you will be able to target your entire body effectively, the exercises are executed with regularity and for the correct amount of time. By making use of a bodybuilding workout guide you are able to realize exactly how your bodybuilding training should be transforming your physiques. A bodybuilding workout guide will point you in distinct phases: You will either be in a cutting or a bulking phase. One of the biggest benefits of a bodybuilding workout guide is the way it helps you keep tract of your development.
Without a bodybuilding workout guide you will not have a appropriate tracking program for your progress. From there you are likely to be at a loss when things start to go wrong with your bodybuilding training. While you can tell where you are, the bodybuilding workout guide tells you how you got there. You need to identify the exercises and the order you did them, the tempo used, the sets, reps, weight lifted and all other information relevant to your bodybuilding training workouts. This is one of the most neglected parts of a bodybuilding program. Meticulous tracking! When the plateaus come it is those people who have a Training journal to refer to who move on to bigger better things. You can use a simple little notebook and then transfer all your information onto computer.
Your focus at the gym should be 100% on your bodybuilding training and your training guide will help you keep that focus. Training with different rep ranges is very effective and helps to insure full development. Training to failure means that you repeat a strength training exercise until you are unable to do it any more. Your training time must be SACRED. A training Partner helps with this as he will pick you up when you are losing interest: A training partner should be someone who is willing to take the time he or she is devoting to bodybuilding, and share it with you.
If you’re a beginner, use a bodybuilding workout guide. If you want to build muscle, you’re going to have to lift heavy weight using effective weight lifting exercises. Once you’ve established the correct form and balance, try adding more weight lifting exercises, especially free weight exercises. If you’re having trouble or not sure about certain weight lifting exercises, always ask for advice.
The real point of following a bodybuilding workout guide is to help change body shape, proportion and conformation, which will result in the development of an outstanding body.
If you want to learn the real secret to getting advanced results to your weight training. Follow the link and you will find detailed instruction on exercises, training routines, your own personalized training program and a nutritional eating plan. Go to bodybuilding workout Guide!
www.CareyforFitness.com Morris County Certified Personal Trainer Carey Yang demonstrates a fat burning dumbbell strength & cardio circuit training workout routine. 1. Sumo Squat 2. Arnold Shoulder Press 3. Romanian Deadlift 4. Bent-over Rows 5. Squat & Push 6. Shrugs Visit http to sign up for FREE e-books and special reports to gain muscle, burn fat & build 6-pack abs. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel www.YouTube.com to get notified of the next FREE workout video uploaded.
www.LeeHayward.com In this video Im going to go over a total body workout routine that you can do using just bodyweight exercises. The first exercise is the basic push up. Push ups are great for building up the chest, shoulders, and triceps. They also bring the muscles throughout the mid-section and core into play as stabilizers to keep your body straight. Here in the video both my self and my better half Patricia are doing the workout set for set. Youll notice that here on the video we are doing the push ups with our hands placed on an exercise matt. This tends to make the exercise more comfortable then if you did them with your hands placed on the hard floor. You can vary your hand spacing and positions with each set to work the muscles from different angles. Wider hand spacing tends to place more stress on the chest. And a closer hand spacing tends to focus more on working the triceps. Were doing our bodyweight workout in a circuit routine fashion. Moving quickly from one exercise to the next. Only resting long enough for the other person to complete their set. Here Im doing bodyweight squats. This is a great exercise that works the entire lower body from the quadriceps, hamstrings, hips, and glutes. When doing squats youll make the exercise a lot harder and get more benefit if you use a full range of motion and squat all the way down. Here you can see Patricia doing bodyweight squats from a side angle. Youll notice that her upper thighs go down part parallel with the …
The new year is always flooded with resolutions, goals and hope for a more productive year, physically, personally and professionally. Almost always at the top of the list for many people is instituting some sort of weight management or weight loss system. one way to make those hopes a reality is to gather reliable information that will help you stay on track throughout the year. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting healthy tips from reading a fitness book or an online article like this one, just as long as you’re doing something. The worst thing that you can ever do is quit on yourself this year.
But how can you stay on task for an entire year when you’re so busy with kids, school, career and the occasional vacation. Well, here’s two exercises that will help make your new year’s resolutions a reality. It requires only a pair of resistance band, and takes less than 15-minutes to complete eack workout. The workouts are short, but they are highly effective against fat.
Workout guidelines:
Most gym goers, including me used to jump into an 8 week workout routine found on any website or fitness magazine. However, many such workouts are either way too advanced for the average person or it simply does not burn enough calories to make any real changes to your body.
Beginners should never mirror a workout found on a fitness magazine unless it specifically states that the workout program is for beginners. Resistance bands works well for both beginners and advance individuals. The reason why is because unlike other workout devices, you can change the intensity of the movement by simply changing your hold on the bands.
Beginners should perform the exercises below one time through, once per week. For the advanced individuals, execute the exercise 3 times through 2-3 times per week.
circuit training with resistance bands (3 or more exercises required)
circuit training with resistance bands is a great way to combine strength training and cardio all at once when you’re short on time. Traditionally, the rest period between exercises in this workout is very little if any, often with rapid movement from exercise to exercise. Choose three exercise that you can do back to back with the bands like a lunge, shoulder press, and dead lift.Execute each exercise for 8-10 reps than move to the next exercise until you complete the entire set.
Superset training with resistance bands (no more than 2 resistance band exercises required)
Superset workouts involves doing back to back exercises with no rest between sets. Basically, this type of workout maximizes training intensity and allows you to work several different aspects of the muscle at the same time. For best results, train opposing muscle groups first. This approach to training allows one muscle group to recover while the opposing muscle group is working.
E.L Forestal is a Known Expert Trainer, former college football All-American. His