Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Lana Hawkins


The fastest way to build muscle is to have a weight training program that is designed exactly for your goals. If you are trying to build strength then high loads and small reps are best for a strength training routine. To advance your fitness and endurance, use smaller weights and many repetitions. Increasing muscle size is accomplished by using a weight that allows for about 7-12 reps. Know what you want to achieve before you begin a weight training program.

If you are just starting out it may take a gym session to evaluate your starting weights. The point is to be careful at the start so injuries don’t thwart your progress.

Your current fitness level will be a large factor in determining what weight you will start with. You’ll need to be able to just barely complete the repetition target at the weight you’ve chosen. For example, say your goal is to build muscle fast or body build. You have not worked out in decades and it is hard to lift a gallon of milk ten times. Start with fifteen pound weights. Can you make twelve reps easy? If you can’t do more than 5, you will need to choose a smaller weight. You want to totally fatigue your muscle so there’s nothing left at your specified rep count.

This is what happens. Your body is very adaptable and it has its current limits. You can only do what you do. Give your body a challenge and it will adapt. It will not build more muscle if it does not need to. Do more than you do now and you will improve. Your amazing body will adapt quickly and build muscle. It needs more muscle to lift the weight. Your weight training program allows your body to meet the new demands. If you can bump up the weight with your weight training program at a fairly fast pace and you’ll be able to build muscle fast. Do over do it or you will be sitting out and not build muscle at all.

Know your goals to establish the correct weight training program for you. Your weight training strategy will depend on if you want sheer strength, fitness and endurance, or well defined muscles. A weight training program to build muscle fast will have you tanking out after about seven to ten reps. Increase the weight when you can finish the set without fatigue.

Guest Author: Rando Meresmaa


To get rid of fat you need a calorie deficit. So you need to burn more calories than you consume. Exercising and dieting are the two methods how a calorie deficit can be achieved. It is always better to burn more calories with exercise than it is to cut calories with strict diets. There are so many different cardio exercises that can be done and it is important to find the right one.

Running or Jogging

Running and jogging are excellent ways to burn extra calories. You also do not need any special equipment for it and you can do it outdoors and enjoy the fresh air. It also depends where you live and what the climate is like. Running is not recommended for beginners that much because it may be a little too intense. Running is also not advisable for those who are extremely overweight and have orthopedic injuries. Running tends to have a reducing effect on the entire body, including on muscle size. So if you want to keep your muscle the running may not be the best choice.

Walking

If you are just a beginner and have been sendentary for a long time then walking is a great way to start your fat loss. Walking is also suitable for overweight, older and pregnant folks. Doing a 30-60 minute walk is very good. But the main problem with walking is that it is not a good fat burner. In order to burn a lot of calories you have to push yourself very hard. By the way, shopping for a few hours is no proper workout.

Bicycle

Bicycling is suitable for everyone and it’s a no-impact activity so the potential for injury is low. You can also choose a certain program that is suitable for you. Most bicycles offer a dozen levels of difficulty and

they even have built-in heart rate monitors. The fat burning potential for bikes is moderate to high. If you want to burn a lot of calories with the bicycle, then pedal as hard as you can.

Treadmill

Running on a treadmill has some advantages and disadvantages compared to running outdoors. Running on a treadmill can become boring and it is a lot better to run in fresh air, than in a sweaty gym. But treadmills offer continuous feedback on the electronic consoles including such features as time, speed, distance and even heart rate. For example you can choose an incline and running or walking up a hill is an excellent fat burner. You can still do your workout on a treadmill no matter what the weather is.

Rowing machine

Rowing is regarded as the best overall exercise of all time. It works all the major muscle groups in the body, including the legs, buttocks, back, abdominals and arms. Rowing is a safe, impact-free activity. Rowing is also a superb aerobic workout and an excellent fat-burner. Because it involves the entire body, rowing burns more calories than almost any other type of aerobic exercise. But if anyone has tried rowing then he/she would know it is very hard. Many people can’t maintain a long enough workout

on the rower to achieve maximum fat burning. There is a way how you can avoid this. For example you can start with bicycling for 10 minutes, then use the treadmill for 10 minutes and then use the rowing machine for 10-15 minutes.

These were only a few examples and it is good to do all kind of cardio exercises to avoid adaption. And doing the same stuff all the time is just boring. If you are a beginner then start slowly and with the easier exercises like walking.



Instantly Tighter Skin

Guest Author: Christopher Guerriero


The benefits of lifting weights — also called weight training, strength training or resistance training — include stronger muscles, a stronger heart, a much leaner physique, a longer life, and a body better able to support your everyday needs and activities. Women, however, still tend to shy away from this beneficial form of exercise.

Ladies, does the mere idea of weightlifting scare you?

“I don’t want to lift weights because they’ll make me too big and bulky.” For how many of you is this the reason you’ve never attempted weight training?

It seems to be many a man’s dream to have big, bulky muscles. Why is it then, that men, whose bodies naturally contain much greater amounts of testosterone and growth hormone, lift weights yet DON’T get big and bulky?

It’s true! Unless they are supplementing with dangerous and unhealthful steroids or similar substances, most men do not naturally bulk up hugely by lifting weights regularly. And neither will most women.

The idea that women get big, ugly muscles from weight training is a complete misconception.

The fact of the matter is that women must lift weights in order to achieve the lean, sculpted bodies they dream of having. If a woman does happen to have the genetic disposition to bulk up quickly, there are easy ways to alter a workout to prevent this extra muscle size, while still increasing strength and rapidly burning fat.

The idea that weightlifting causes insanely huge muscle buildup is largely a creation of the media. It’s true that some women weightlifters takes steroids, and these hormones do make them look very masculine. The average woman who weight trains, however, will simply achieve a slim, healthy body without adding unwanted muscle mass.

Let’s start by discussing the basics of weight training…

Weight training involves controlled lifting and working out with weights. Two basic terms related to weightlifting are “rep” and “set.” A rep describes the complete act of raising and lowering a weight during a single act of exercise. A set describes the number of times a particular rep is performed.

For example, when a person does five reps of a squat, they squat down and stand up five times, continuously, before stopping and either moving on to another exercise or finishing their workout. Those five squats would equal one set. A balanced weight-training session will include several sets of different exercises.

Your goal as either a beginner, intermediate, or advanced weight lifter should be to exhaust your muscles in the shortest time frame – that simply means that when you lift a weight, you should lift a heavy enough weight to exhaust your muscles doing only 10 – 15 reps.

And you should do this exercising pattern about 3 days each week – with at least 24 hour of rest after each workout.

Now I’m going to share a principle exercise with you that many commercial fitness “buff’s” will hate me telling you because this single exercise will do more for your body than almost any other exercise around – making it completely unnecessary for you to ever buy another exercise gadget from late night television ever again.

Before I share it with you I’ve got to give you a quick disclaimer…this exercise should be done (at least initially) under the supervision of a qualified personal trainer, so that you learn the proper form to use during the movement.

This exercise will work EVERY muscle in your body, and you can do it in the privacy of your own home, without any fancy machines or expensive video’s.

In fact, this exercise a foundational core exercise and it’ll set your internal furnace up to burn more calories throughout the rest of the day than any other exercise we’ve tested (when done properly).

It’s called the dead-lift and here’s how it’s done for maximum fat loss and body shaping…

STARTING POSITION

Stand with feet flat and placed slightly farther apart than shoulder width with toes pointed slightly outward.

Squat down with hips lower than shoulders and grasp the weight lifting bar (or any small object)…in the beginning I highly suggest that you use very little added weight, so when you bend to grasp something, use a book or something else that’s small and light weight – just to help you balance.

Place hands on bar (or whatever you choose to lift) slightly less than shoulder width apart, inside the knees and with elbows fully extended. Place bar roughly 1 inch in front of shins and over balls of feet.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Lift bar off floor by extending hips and knees.

Maintain an erect and flat back at all times.

Keep elbows fully extended.

Keep bar as close to shins as possible without hitting or scraping.

When bar passes knees move the hips forward.

Keep body erect at point of full knee and hip extension.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow the hips and knees to flex to slowly lower the bar to the floor.

Repeat movement until finished with set.

Now this might sound a bit confusing the first several times you read it – however, once you practice it for a day or 2, the movement will become second nature to you and you’ll begin feeling and seeing the results quickly.

Remember that with any new exercise comes a bit of soreness, so start very slowly, and gradually increase your intensity.

Ladies, I encourage you: Let go of your preconceived ideas about weight training. Do not fear it. Embrace your weightlifting potential! You will benefit so much more from it than from spending hours on that piece of cardio equipment alone.



Turn Back The Clock

Guest Author: Rob


If you follow a weight training routine it’s very important to do the right exercises to increase overall muscle mass and strength. This is especially true for novice weight trainers. Doing too many isolation exercises at the expense of the major compound exercises won’t help you build the muscle size and strengthyou’re looking for. Even if you’ve been weight training for some time there are certain exercises you should always keep in your routine.

The best weight training exercises for overall muscular development are squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull-ups and pulldowns, military and dumbbell presses, curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises. Doing these exercises, or various forms of them, will help you build muscle size and strength throughout the entire body.

Squats are the best weight training exercise for leg development and possibly the best weight training exercise overall. Not only will you build your quadricep and hamstring muscles with squats, but you’ll also get a testosterone boost that will help you gain more overall muscle size.

The best exercise for lower back workouts is the deadlift. Deadlifting will give your entire lower body and even your upper back a lot of work when you perform them.

Bench presses are the undisputed king of chest exercises. You’ll build your pecs quickly if you bench press properly and also get some secondary work for the front deltoids and triceps.

For overall muscular development in the upper back you’ll need to train for both width and thickness. The best weight training exercises to add upper back width are pull-ups and pulldowns. Pull-ups are better than pulldowns, but it can be hard to get enough pull-ups for a good set if you haven’t built enough strength in your upper back or you weigh too much. To add more upper back thickness you need to do rows. Rows can be done a variety of ways – with barbells, dumbbells, cables, or on various machines.

Military presses are great for building the shoulder muscles, though you may want to do dumbbell presses instead to target the side head of the deltoid more. If you do military presses you should lower the weight to in front of your neck instead of behind it. You’re way more likely to hurt your shoulders if you lower the weight behind your neck.

The best exercise for the biceps are curls. Of course, pretty much every bicep exercise involves curling and you do them many different ways.

Triceps extensions are another exercise that can be done a variety of ways. You can do them while standing, seated, or lying on a bench to hit the triceps from many different angles.

The best exercise for the calves is the calf raise. You can do them standing or seated (for the best results you should do both) or on a leg press machine for a change of pace.

Always keep these exercises, or the different forms of them, as the main exercises in your weight training routine. Start your workouts with these compound exercises and save the isolation exercises for the end of your workouts. Flyes, leg extensions, tricep kickbacks, and other popular isolation exercises have their place for getting a nice burn in the muscles, but the major exercises will help you build the real muscle mass and strength.