Thursday, May 8, 2008
Doing Fitness Training At Home
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If you are serious in doing fitness , anywhere you can do it. Be it in the gym or at home. One of my favorite things to do is to do home fitness training. You can also get some benefit if doing this. You can save money instead of paying the fitness center fees. You can use a step for cardio activities such as step aerobics but you can also use it as a weight bench. If you get risers with it, you can put it on an incline, decline or flat weight-training bench. You can get a step or a set of steps for $30-350 depending on the type and brand.
You can also get a barbell set to lift heavier weights and experience a variety of workouts. You can buy many different types of barbell sets, for example, one that comes with the bar and then 300-pounds of weights. You can then distribute the weights however you want, depending on your desired workout. Because of the variety that barbells allow, you have option to target any muscle groups. The 300-pound barbell set averages at about $45 but if you do not need that much weight then you can find less expensive ones.
Stability balls are also a craze for at home fitness training. Like the step, it can offer a variety of options for your workout. If you want to challenge yourself, you can use it as a weightlifting bench. You can also use it for abdominal workouts, pushups, back extensions or lower-body exercises. Basically, a stability ball improves your balance and core strength. You can use it when you are watching television or sitting on a computer. Stability balls have an average price of about $70.
No matter what at home fitness training you use, an exercise mat is always helpful. Whether you’re using a step or a stability ball or you are doing crunches, an exercise mat is made to make your workout more comfortable. Although this is considered equipment, it can be used for workouts that do not have other equipment, for example, pushups, crunches or Yoga.
Source from Goarticles :
Britney Smith is an internet marketer full time and she writes in various topics , learn more about Health Fitness Exercise Website here : http://muscleshape.info/
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Some Helpful Fitness Training Tips
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Fitness training is essential for those who are bent on getting healthy and fit. There are many fitness training tips that you may not know of that can help you in your quest to getting fit and healthy. These fitness training tips are designed to help the athlete or individual to cope with how to maximize the efficiency of their training.
Integrate Different Workouts
For an effective workout, this fitness training tip shows us how to integrate different kinds of exercises to maximize the training. Aerobic exercises, muscle exercise, core stability and stretching are keys to an effective training. Other fitness training tips include starting your training with the aerobic exercise first and then the muscle exercise, followed by the core stability and finally the stretching workout.
Do The Training Exercises In The Morning
Many studies show that those who exercise in the morning do tend to stick to their training regimen more effectively than those who exercise after working hours or in the afternoon. This fitness training tip relies on the fact that most people have more energy in the morning. It is also in the morning that we plan our day, so what better way to start it.
Doing More Than One Set
Many people believe that doing just one set of exercises will suffice to keep them fit and healthy. The reality of it is that you need more than one set to be able to maintain fitness. Of all the fitness training tips, this one makes the most sense. Your body needs to move a lot to be able to effectively train and workout. Most exercises work best when done in two or three sets. The beginner should start with just one set if he or she has no prior experience to fitness training. As the individual gets used to the exercise, the number of sets should then be increased.
More fitness training tips include exercising at home and exercising in the outdoors when possible. Exercising at is best where you cannot make up excuses like the gym is too far or you are too busy or there are too many people using the equipment. Some people love to make up or find ways to avoid exercising even when they know they need it. Exercising outdoors (jogging, walking etc.) will prevent monotony as well as give you the variety needed to fully exert yourself.
These fitness training tips are designed for those who have just started their training or those who have some difficulty trying to stick to their fitness training regimen.
If you are serious about fitness exercises you should read this : http://muscleshape.info/
Britney Smith is an internet marketer full time and she writes in various topics , learn more about Health Fitness Exercise Website here : http://muscleshape.info/
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Muscle Fitness Training is Very Good for the Body
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By Britney Smith
When getting in shape, many people are interested in building their muscle and toning their bodies. Doing so doesn't mean that you have to be fully buffed out and cut like body builders; it's simply a way to stay in shape and become strong and healthy.
In fact, muscle fitness training can be right for anyone who wants no muscle build up but wants to strengthen muscles, and it can be right for those who do want the big muscle build up. This kind of training is pretty universal, and can usually be tailored to just about anyone's needs.
What to Expect
Depending on what type of muscle fitness training you are interested in, there are programs that range in intensity and length. As with everything else, the variations may not be for everyone.
You should expect to sweat and use most of your energy during a proper muscle fitness training program. However, you should not use so much energy that you feel weak or are unable to complete the training session. Make sure you eat plenty of healthy food and drink a lot of water before starting your training.
Options
You can hire a trainer to customize a program for you that fits your needs, you can go to a gym and join one of their already created programs, or you can customize a plan yourself to do at home.
If doing it yourself, you'll want to determine how long of a workout is best for you. You can experiment by putting together all of the exercises you enjoy doing and seeing how many of them you can get done within 1 hour and without exhausting yourself or hurting yourself.
If you can't fit everything you want to get done into one muscle fitness training session, consider splitting the exercises into multiple sessions, and alternate them from day to day. This will also help to keep you from being bored with your training, which should keep you motivated and help you to stay on track.
You should also consider adding new exercises to your muscle fitness training sessions as you learn them. Add extra time before and after your workout to allow for warm ups and cool downs to make sure you get the most of your sessions, and this should ensure a long lasting fitness program that benefits your health, body and your mind.
Source from :
Britney Smith is an internet marketer full time and she writes in various topics , learn more about Health Fitness Exercise Website here : http://muscleshape.info/ and also read more about her daily blog on slimming tips here : http://www.slimmingtips101.info/
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Unique Lean-Body Workouts for the Time-Crunched Individual
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by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you've ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works:
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for an hour at a shot, with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the exercises that are the best to focus on are:
- bodyweight squats (and variations)
- pushups (and variations)
- forward, reverse, or walking lunges
- up & down a staircase if one is available
- floor planks (holding plank position from forearms and feet)
- floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
- one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example routine (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.
Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs.
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique daily workouts. Heck, try to get your coworkers to do these with you if you can!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Do You Really Need "Cardio" Workouts?
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
In this article, I have an intriguing discussion about cardio workouts, which will hopefully get you thinking differently, and trying new things.
You may know I've been called the anti-cardio guy before, but this week I'm back posing the question to you...Do you really need cardio training to get lean and in great shape? By the way, you'll see in a minute that I'm not really "anti-cardio", just "anti traditional cardio".
Most fitness buffs, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need "cardio" exercise to accomplish these goals. They would never even question it. However, I'm not only questioning it, I'm going to refute it! In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I've spent over 15 years working out in various gyms, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I've seen it all.
I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.
But what exactly is "cardio"? Most people would consider cardio to be pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting on an elliptical machine, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym. This is what I call "traditional cardio". Hmmm, no wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.
But if you look closer, "cardio" exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. I'm not going to get into anything technical like increasing your VO2 max or anything like that. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumpin, and gets you huffin and puffin, it's cardio. I don't care if you're holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise...it's still conditioning your heart.
Let's take a look at a couple examples. Take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press for example, which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn't matter if you're not lifting 250 lbs; if 45 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much.
At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 10-15 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you'll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max, and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose the flab).
Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren't burning, heart racing, and you're gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!
Try and tell me you're not conditioning your heart with this style of training! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fullfilling your cardio workout needs as well.
Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises if you do them with enough intensity...something that can't be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV. Seriously, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise, you're not concentrating enough on what you're doing, plus you're probably not working out hard enough to see any real results.
I challenge you to give the "traditional cardio" a rest for a month or two, and start training the way I explain in my internationally-selling Truth about Six pack Abs Program, and see how you start getting leaner, more defined, and your six pack starting to show through what used to be stubborn stomach fat deposits.