Gym Workout Bodybuilding Tips

Gym workout programs can vary dramatically from bodybuilder to bodybuilder. One gym bodybuilding workout for one bodybuilding enthusiast can deliver outstanding results while another gym workout can be a disappointment for another bodybuilder.

After thousands of bodybuilding fitness consulting sessions, and publishing a popular weight training guide, I constantly teach bodybuilders a results proven gym workout routine that builds muscle fast.

All you have to do is follow my 8 Gym Workout Bodybuilding Tips and you will soon see your muscle building results double.

8 Gym Bodybuilding Workout Tips

1. Have a clear weight training routine purpose.

Upon entering the gym it is imperative to have a clear cut bodybuilding routine plan of action. You should know exactly what exercises you will perform, how much weight you will need to lift, and how many reps you must beat. Therefore, your whole bodybuilding routine is 100% planned, set in stone, prior to beginning your gym workout. You must walk into the gym with a definite plan, and purpose.

2. Be in a "warrior" high intensity weight training state of mind.

It is crucial to enter the gym workout focused. I can remember entering the gym and instantly beginning to perspire. I mentally had worked myself up into state of high intensity weight training desire. This is even before I lifted one weight. It is called focus, and anticipation.

Bodybuilding results are only seen when you force yourself to grow. That takes high intensity weight training, as well as ultra high mental focus. Your mind should be totally focused on conquering the next rep. It is important to imagine yourself forcing out that one additional muscle building repetition.

In an effective gym workout, your attitude, and drive will determine your altitude of muscle development.

3. Focus on effective pre- gym workout bodybuilding nutrition.

Make sure you ingest a small amount of complex carbohydrates, and protein approximately 2 hours prior to beginning your gym workout. This will assure you of getting the adequate amounts of energy producing nutrients to expel in your high intensity weight training session.

Another extremely important gym workout tip is to make sure you are properly hydrated with, preferably, water. You should be consuming at least one-half of your bodyweight in ounces each and every day.

Bodybuilding training preparations are similar to space shuttle preparations. Your goal should be to get your system ready for a high intensity weight training blast off.

4. Did you bring your bodybuilding workout log to your gym workout?

One of the biggest mistakes bodybuilders consistently make is neglecting to track their weight lifting progress. Without measuring progress, there generally is little improvement. How do you know what you are suppose to beat if you have no data? How can a department store set sales goals if they don't track sales? It is just absolutely silly seeing bodybuilders completing their gym workouts without recording any data. That what is not measured will not improve.

5. Gym workouts are for training, not socializing.

Remember, you are in the gym to get muscle building results. If you are talking and goofing around, how in the world can you be ultra focused on going to war with the weights? Get your work done, and then socialize if you wish. I tell my clients to stay focused, and don't allow distractions. Focus on conquering that near impossible, muscle growth repetition.

6. Use only proven bodybuilding program principles.

Don't listen to Joe Bodybuilders newest theory on building muscle. Stick to what has been scientifically proven to work. Beware of all the gym chatter floating around. To discover all of the most advanced proven bodybuilding principles visit my muscle building weight training guide presented in digital audio. Bodybuilding Done Right is a how to bodybuilding audio revealing the proven scientific bodybuilding program principle the pros use, but refuse to share.

7. Avoid Overtraining.

Once you have completed your pre-designed 100% high intensity bodybuilding routine, it is time to get out of the gym, and go home and grow. Hold yourself back from doing one extra set. Remember, more is not necessarily better. Stick to your plan. With high intensity weight training you need less volume of work. Any extra basic weight training exercises could be counter productive to your bodybuilding muscle growth.

Get out of the gym, and let your body compensate, and later overcompensate with added fat burning muscle tissue.

Also, make sure your body has fully recovered from the previous gym workout before you train again.

8. Begin the recovery process with optimal bodybuilding nutrition.

You have an hour after your high intensity weight training workout to replenish your glycogen levels, thus, aiding in the muscle building, and recovery process. Take in two parts complex or simple carbohydrates with one part protein. This is an important bodybuilding tip that has been proven to aid in the muscle recovery, and building process. So power your gym workout with these proven tips.

These are 8 important gym workout tips that should be followed. Following these bodybuilding workout tips will do wonders for your weightlifting, muscle building results.

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Quick Muscle Gain, Simple Steps to Top Bodybuilding Supplements Gaining Muscle Fast

No matter what age, weight, height or metabolism a person is; the key to gaining muscle fast comes down to a few very basic but very important facts:

1. Weight training: types and techniques
2. Rest: Between exercise and sleep
3. Food; The most important thing when it comes to quick muscle gain. Calories and nutrients.

Weight training;

Quick muscle gain is achieved through exercising 3- 4 times a week, and this takes dedication and commitment. It is important to continue your exercise routine week by week to achieve your goal of gaining muscle fast. The 2 types of weight lifting are;

1. Isolation exercise

Isolation exercise is when you use only one joint in motion at a time. This includes such exercises as bicep curls, leg extensions and hammers. Isolation exercise is good for maintaining the muscle that is already built.

2. Compound exercise

Compound exercise is by far the ultimate way to gaining muscle fast. This includes bench press, squats, and dead lifts. Exercise like squats will work a whole range of muscles and joints at once like your back, ankles, hamstrings, knees, quads and hips. It also improves core strength! The true way to quick muscle gain is compound exercises.
Technique during your exercise is vitally important. This will greatly reduce injury but also increase the rate of gaining muscle fast. There are many programs outlining the correct techniques for types of weightlifting.

Rest;

1. Quick muscle gain will only work when you actually give your muscles a chance to rest! Every time we work out we are actually ripping our muscles and they will only recover to build in between workout. To do this try focusing on particular types of muscle groups during weight training like back legs and abs, and then alternate to another particular group the following day. Like chest biceps and shoulders. By doing this the first group have been given a chance to recover and are definitely gaining muscle fast!

2. Resting also involves sleep! Sleeping from 6 to 8 hours a night is important when weight training. This gives those tired muscles a chance to recover and build even faster, also improving cognitive function and overall energy level s. So make sure you find the time to get sleep in your busy regime your body will thank you! Plenty of rest and exercising properly will top bodybuilding supplements anywhere providing you with the quick muscle gain you desire.

Nutrition:

What we consume and how much we consume is by far the most critical piece of information we must know when it comes to gaining muscle fast. Understanding your daily caloric intake and what the right nutrients are to eat is the key to a ripped physique.

Calorie intake is important and can be calculated through age, weight, gender, height and overall metabolism of an individual. There are many programs out there to help us with our own calorie intake.

Nutrition involves protein, carbohydrates and fats these are the vital ingredients that will top bodybuilding supplements anywhere producing quick muscle gain and are simply found in all the foods we eat! The key is choosing the correct sorts of food

- Protein such as eggs, lean meat, poultry, fish, nuts, beans and lentils are great for building muscle and is not stored in the body either, so whatever we don't use will simply remove as waste. Protein is known as a macronutrient which is good energy for our bodies.

- Carbohydrates are extremely important when it comes to putting on the weight needed for quick muscle gain. Although there is a lot of confusion when it comes to this subject, complex carbs such as vegetables, sweet potatoes only, whole grain rice and breads, oatmeal, beans are perfect sources of this helping the skinny guy get those results!


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Best Muscle Fitness Training System

The structure of a muscle fitness training system can take many forms, varying from extremely short and intense to overly lengthy and exhaustive.

One basic way in which a muscle fitness training system is structured is by utilizing a "split routine", dividing the muscle groups up and targeting a certain group one day and another group on another day and so forth. One of the best and basic muscle fitness training systems consists of a split 3 day a week routine which basic structure looks something like this:

Basic muscle fitness training system: 3 day a week workout:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Wednesday: Back/Biceps

Friday: Legs

Looking at this basic 3 day a week muscle fitness training system, Monday three different muscle groups are worked. The pectorals (chest), the deltoids (shoulders), and the triceps. Since there is some overlap in muscles being worked, that is the deltoids and triceps will be assisting in pushing movements involving pectoral work. So it makes sense to also train shoulders and triceps in this workout as they're already being "activated". So shoulders are followed after chest, and the workout concludes with tricep training (the two larger muscle groups are worked first, and then the smaller triceps muscles are worked last).

Wednesday in the basic muscle fitness training system consists of back (latissimus dorsi) and biceps. Once again there is muscle overlap. When one trains the back performing pulling movements, the biceps also get activated to a degree. So the biceps will be trained on back day since they're already getting worked.

An added note to back and forearm training in Wednesdays muscle fitness training system. The back is sometimes split between upper back for width, and mid back for back thickness. After the biceps are performed, some trainees will also train their forearms, if their goal is overall arm development and especially if their arm development is particularly lacking in the forearm department.

Friday in this muscle fitness training system calls for legs, or in gym circles its "leg day", or in hardcore dungeon gym settings, its "DLD", "dreaded leg day". Since dreaded leg day can be so taxing on the entire body, two days rest are given for recuperation before starting up again with chest on Monday. Leg day consists of training the front leg muscles-quadriceps, the back leg muscles-hamstrings, and the calves round out the Fridays muscle fitness training system.

This is just one basic muscle fitness training system split, which provides the trainee the benefit of working overlapping muscle groups in the same day and allowing rest and recovery in between each muscle building workout. There are a number of other muscle fitness training system splits, routines, and workouts. Only through beginning a routine and seeing what personally works for your bodytype and genetic capabilities, can you begin to personalize your own ideal muscle fitness training system. Future articles will outline specific exercises one can implement within this workout split.


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The Top Muscle Building Vegetables You Should Be Eating

If you're on a plan to help you build muscle, then you must make sure that you're not skipping over the muscle building vegetables that you should be eating. Far too many skinny guy's entirely cut out vegetables due to the fact that they are lower in calories and when you're trying to take in 4000 plus calories per day, it can be quite the feat to try and fit these all in.

You feel stuffed and thinking about a full plate of broccoli is the last thing you want to be doing! But remember, there are plenty of ways to get around this. First, you don't necessarily need to eat huge amounts of the muscle building vegetables to get good results. As long as you have a one cup serving with a few of the meals out of the day, you will be well on your way to meeting your nutrient needs.

Muscle building vegetables do supply many of the essential nutrients that the body needs to properly generate muscle mass, so you cannot overlook their importance. If you're still struggling to get them in, then also consider blending them up into your sauces as that will eliminate much of the 'bulk' that you experience by eating them. Let's have a look at some of the top muscle building vegetables that you should consider.

Broccoli

If there's one vegetable that can't be beat when it comes to good nutrients, broccoli is it. Broccoli is loaded with antioxidants that will help to fight off disease and is an excellent source of potassium that will keep your muscle contractions going strong.

Whether you want to steam it, stir-fry it, or eat it raw, broccoli is definitely something that should be added to your meal plan.

Asparagus

Second on our list of top muscle building vegetables is asparagus. Asparagus is another one that's very easy to prepare and can be eaten with many different meals. Asparagus is relatively low in calories so don't load up on it as it will fill you up, but having three to four spears of it per meal will work perfectly to help you get those nutrients in.

Cabbage

Third up is cabbage. Cabbage is a powerful muscle building vegetable that's also going to really protect against cancer development, something that we all should be somewhat concerned over. Due to the fact that we are constantly exposed to a number of toxins in our system, if you aren't taking steps to protect yourself from these, you're going to be at risk. Eat red cabbage with your stir-fries or chopped into your salad. You'll hardly notice it in there.

Mushrooms

Finally, the last of the best muscle building vegetables that you should consider are mushrooms. Mushrooms are perfect because they're also low in calories but yet at the same time pack a powerful protein punch.

Since getting enough protein your daily diet will be absolutely essential, this cannot be overlooked. Mushrooms work will with almost any dish - stir-fries, eaten raw, added to salads, or added into a wrap or pita. Make sure you start incorporating them in.

So if you want to see maximum results from your muscle building diet plan, be sure that you don't overlook these muscle building vegetables. It pays to take the time to make sure that you get them in your meals each day.


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Ripped Abs - How to Quickly Get Ripped Abs

The very idea of getting ripped abs quickly seems like at best far fetched and at worst to be simply impossible. Ripped abs take time to achieve for those who are unhealthy and overweight, but can come quite quickly for those in shape. By following the tips set forth in the following paragraphs you can quickly get ripped abs and be looking your best in absolutely no time at all!

Optimize Your Diet

By doing very simple things like limiting the energy in your diet (i.e. foods high in fat and high in sugar) you can expend the energy you need to overcome your weight. Make sure that your portions are not too large and you are eating in small portions throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. Drink plenty of water during the day to make yourself feel a little bit fuller and your ripped abs may come quicker than you think. To put it simply, optimize your diet by eliminating what you don't need and be smart about what you do eat.

Focus Your Toning

Most people understand that getting ripped abs mean that you have to be in shape first, but what comes after getting into good overall shape? That's exactly right, toning your muscle is where you move to next, but make sure you are fitting in exercises that focus on your abs or ripped abs will be nothing more than a pipe dream. Do plenty of sit ups, crunches, V-ups, leg lifts, and jackknife sit ups in addition to any others you can find that will make your abs burn!

Take Your Supplements

Your multivitamins and minerals are very important to helping your muscle toning and diet optimization go to all the right places. Consider a simple glucosamine supplement to help your joints make it through the exercise process and take vitamin C and E to keep your general health up in the best possible way. These supplements help control your toning and enhance your metabolism so it becomes possible to have well defined, or, ripped abs.

Remember that ripped abs will absolutely not come easily, but following these tips will put you in the best possible situation to get ripped abs quickly!


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4 Best Foods For Building Muscle, and Protein Powder Isn't One of Them

35 years ago when I read my first muscle mag, it was about 95% articles on getting big and contest results. It was maybe 5% advertisement. Or it seemed that way to me. Pick up one now; it is almost the reverse, nothing but advertisements for stuff that is going to make you bigger than Godzilla.

And there must be 2 dozen or more ads on protein powder this and protein powder that. Well, before you go spending all your hard earned cash on that tub of Myo-whatever, consider what nature has to offer.

1. Chicken: 3.5 oz serving has about 30 grams of protein. A protein drink with 20 to 30 grams of whey and soy can run you anywhere from 3 dollars to 5 dollars. A great piece of tasty chicken breast that weighs less than 4 oz will run you about a buck fifty or less at your local supermarket.

2. Whole eggs: Yes, there is the issue of cholesterol in the yolk, but for protein value; you just cannot beat a whole egg. That little beauty will give 6 to 7 grams of high octane protein at a cost of about 28 cents (we get brown, organic, blah, blah eggs that are too expensive, what the wife wants), but you can get it cheaper.

3. Whole milk: Where you do think whey comes from? You cannot beat this bounty from nature for adding muscle mass and building strength. A cold, 8 oz glass yields about 8 grams, or a 16 oz glass will give you 16 grams of muscle building fuel at a cost of about 50 cents, maybe less in your area.

4. Almonds and peanuts: A quarter cup of each will yield about 8 to 9 grams. If you eat a mix cup of both throughout the day, you will give yourself 32 to 36 grams of protein, plus the natural energy boost from those nuts. This is another cheap source of protein that you can use to reach your fitness goals.

5. Honorable mentions: A can of tuna gives you great bang for buck at 40 grams a can. Mix it with a little bit of mayo, one hardboiled egg, a quarter cup of chopped bell peppers, carrots, onions; and you can have yourself a tasty protein sandwich. Now and then, fire up that grill and have some red meat, because a 6 oz steak has nearly 40 grams of protein.

There you have it, my top 4 foods for building muscle plus a couple of honorable mentions. So, next time you reach for that can of protein powder; take your one hand and slap with the other before heading over to your local supermarket for the best muscle building foods nature has to offer.


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The Secret Of The Best Foods For Building Muscle

Building muscle is a great way to look toned up and great in clothes. It also helps to keep the body slim because muscles help to burn calories fast. One of the most important ways to muscle growth is by eating the right foods. This article discusses the best foods for growing muscle.

Fruits and vegetables are some of the best foods for building muscles. This is because fruits and vegetables are full of nutrients and vitamins. The body is also able to break down fruits and vegetables into enzymes which is important for breaking down fat and supply the body with the vitamins and minerals that it needs to build muscle and keep the body working the best that it can.

It is also important to eat protein at every meal to gain muscle. Protein is filled with amino acids, which the body needs to grow muscle. Good sources of protein are chicken, turkey, lean beef, and fish. There are also vegetarian forms of protein beans such as black beans, lentils, and pinto beans are good sources of protein. Also, nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and other seeds are great forms of protein for growing muscle. They keep most of the nutrients if they are eaten raw. When eating protein, it is a great idea to eat it with vegetables at meals. Good fats are also some to the best foods for building muscle. These good fats are found in foods such as avocados, olive oil, flax seed oil, and coconut oil. Be sure to stay away from fried foods and fats such as butter.

Protein shakes and supplements are also some of the best foods for building muscle. Protein shakes that are made with hemp protein, whey protein, or soy protein are great ways to build muscle and are great after a workout. Water is also important to drink. This helps to get rid of any toxins that accumulate in the body while lifting weights. This ensures that the skin also stays looking great. The hair will also look great.

When looking to grow muscle, it is important to eat these foods. The food that is eaten to build muscle is just as important as the exercise habits that one employs to grow muscles. It is very important to feed the body the best foods possible. When choosing fruits and vegetables, try to purchase organic vegetables and fruits to cut down on chemicals.


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Top Foods For Muscle Growth

Muscle growth is the product of the body's repair process from damage done by too much stress. It is quite a slow process that is why bulking up requires hours of rigorous weight lifting. Packing up on muscles requires an increase in one's protein intake because the body needs to store new protein faster than it can break down. One must keep in mind though, that effective muscle building can only be achieved by proper training and adequate nourishment. Here is a list of top foods that are essential for bodybuilders:

1. FISH. This should top the list of every bodybuilder because fish, such as salmon or tuna, is not only packed with protein but also has healthy nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids. This particular fatty acid helps in improving weight loss and aids in proper metabolism. Additionally, saturated fat in good quality fish is almost non-existent. In order to show off your lean, striated muscle, we certainly don't want an unsightly layer of fat under the skin.

2. LEAN MEAT. Chicken is said to be the staple muscle- building food with its high protein and low fat content. It can be deliciously prepared in a wide variety of ways making dieting more of a treat than a burden. Lean red meat is also an excellent source of protein. It has higher fat content than chicken, but is well compensated by nutrients like iron, zinc and B vitamins. Rounds and loins are meat parts that are extra lean with maximum protein and fewer calories.

3. EGGS. The protein in eggs is the most easily absorbed by the body and specifically targets muscle growth. Also, one can get the most amount of protein with the least amount of calories from eggs.

4. NUTS. Nuts and seeds especially almonds and cashew are packed full of protein and antioxidants like Vitamin E, for prevention of free radical damage after heavy workouts. These are the perfect snack to munch on, providing high quality calories and a fuller feel on the stomach without the added pounds.

5. COTTAGE CHEESE. Casein protein, a slow digesting protein, is found in high proportion in cottage cheese. It is responsible for elevating blood amino acid levels, for a longer time than whey, making it the best food for muscle maintenance.

These are only a few of the selection that muscle builders will want to include in abundance in their daily diets, but they certainly are the best ones.


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Food to Eat to Build Muscle - Best Foods for Building Muscles on a Budget

Have you been looking for the best and healthiest foods to build muscle? You need to learn how different kinds of foods keep you healthy and won't have any side effects on your muscle building, in other words, they won't add any extra weight. In the meantime, you should give up eating junk food particularly if you take this exercise seriously.

In the process of muscle building, you need to take in plenty of minerals and vitamins as well as a sufficient amount of protein to aid your body in gaining energy and strength. Those elements are essential factors for building muscles. If you don't consume and follow a good diet plan it is impossible for you to build muscle mass and as a result, you won't achieve your desired goal.

Let us explain and introduce a healthy diet plan to you step by step.

1. High protein Foods

Protein is a very vital part of a balanced diet because the primary purpose is to build the muscles as well as bones. Protein also helps with the rebuilding of your damaged body tissues. You must eat those foods which are rich in proteins such as, beans, eggs, nuts and fish.

2. Lean meats

It is very important for you to eat lean meats and avoid eating meats with fat so as to give your body the required energy. Try to eat those meats such as chicken, tuna, salmon, lean pork, lean lamb and beef.

3. Vegetables

There are many vegetables that are best for increasing muscles such as broccoli, green peas, cabbage and lettuce. Potatoes and kidney beans are also good to build muscles because they contain carbohydrates that your body needs.

4. Nuts

Nuts and Seeds such as sunflower seeds, almonds, and peanuts are good to consume because they have the minerals and vitamins that you need for gaining muscle.

5. Fruits

Fruits are sort of vegetarian; they contain a variety of different vitamin elements which your body requires every day.

6. Water

Keep in mind that to always drink water regularly so as to remain hydrated. It is a key element because when you exercise, you sweat and your body loses water. If water can't be added on time, your body starts to dehydrate. This will put a negative effect on your muscle mass.

Up to now you might have gained some general knowledge of a good and healthy diet plan producing a good effect on your muscle building. If you expect to gain more in-depth knowledge, you could consider another way to gain it such as purchasing an eBook about how to build muscle mass and eat nutritional food. All techniques and diet plans are practical and easy to achieve. Consider everything thoroughly, you will build up your muscle mass as well as stay healthy.


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The Best Ab Workout - My 6 Pack System

If you're like most men around the globe then you have often imagined what it would be like to enjoy 6-pack abs. It's astonishing that this wish, shared by a lot of men, is realized by so few. From my experience the top factor stopping men from getting 6-pack abs is their diet plan. You simply need to get your body fat under ten percent of your respective body mass. However it would be incorrect to say that you merely ought to lose weight and not train your abs as a way to get a six pack. Below I'm going to introduce the most beneficial ab exercise routine for guys. It is a six pack program that's going to show you results if you bust your tail, keep it up, and get your body fat percentage below 10%. Oh, plus the best part, this 6-pack program is totally Free!

The Best Ab Workout for Guys - Abs Blueprint 1.0

You read that right. The top ab training routine for men is on the internet, downloadable, and completely free. It is referred to as Abs Blueprint 1.0 and it was created by Rusty Moore of Fitness Black Book. Once you download this ebook you are going to discover the 6 exercises you need to get 6-pack abs along with the one exercise you will need to learn to ensure that you don't harm your back in your pursuit of perfect abs. Rusty then provides you the actual workouts he and his exercise partners have utilized to attain a fantastic set of 6-pack abs. The best part about this routine (in truth ALL of Rusty's products) is the fact he'll teach you the best way to adjust the exercises so that it is possible to produce the most beneficial ab workout to fulfill your needs. He lays out the various aspects to an ab training session, explains when to make use of low rep as opposed to high rep exercises, and when to use quick rep vs slow rep training. He named it a blueprint for a good reason. This really is the most effective ab training routine for guys because it shows you how to modify the 6-pack course to make sure you get results.

The Abs Blueprint 1.0 - A Sample Workout:

• Feet-to-the-bar bent leg raises: 5 sets of 10 reps
• Swinging side-to-side bent knee ups: failure
• Renegade rows: 5 sets of 3 reps
• Planks: regular plank for at least 2 minutes
• Hip or back bridges: 5 minutes

This is a preview of one of the more elite ab exercise sessions inside the blueprint. Do not fret if this appears too challenging. Rusty will teach you various exercises that will ensure you develop strength in your ab muscles and you'll inevitably work your way up to this elite workout. If you are not really acquainted with the exercises then check out the descriptions below. You are able to get the full exercise and workout descriptions if you pick up Abs Blueprint 1.0.

The most beneficial Ab Workouts for Men - The Abs Blueprint Exercises

Hanging Leg Raises: The hanging leg raise is one of the biggest exercises of the Abs Blueprint 1.0. There are multiple versions of the exercise based upon your level of fitness starting from knee ups and going up toward the feet-to-the-bar bent leg raises. Rusty will show you a nice abs burnout leg raise exercise that will ensure you obtain that v-shaped muscle at your waist.

Planks: Planks are frequently disregarded in ab workout routines for men. This is surprising because they're one of the most beneficial ab workouts for creating dense, rock solid abs. Rusty features a few variations on this activity as well and he will also show you a method to perform a burnout plank workout routine that is a great finisher.

The Ab Wheel Roll-Outs: Ab wheels are simple, portable type of gear which will really build up muscle in your abs. In Abs Blueprint 1.0 you will discover the best way to work with the ab wheel in a way that is a lot more like a revised plank. This roll-and-hold strategy will significantly challenge your strength and endurance!

Renegade Rows: Though not well known they are really also a excellent exercise for strengthening your core. In addition, they work your obliques harder than the majority of spine bending oblique exercises usually proposed in ab plans. Proper form is important here. Read the blueprint very carefully to make sure you know how to begin using this exercise.

Abs Blueprint 1.0 = My 6-pack system

As you can see, these ab workouts are often very challenging; however, following Rusty Moore's Abs Blueprint 1.0 plan you will find the best exercise routine for your current level of fitness and then have enough knowledge to strengthen and improve your ab muscles you'll attain the six pack which you have always desired. Who knew that the best ab workout for men would end up being the one that is free. Go ahead and get a hold of it today.


Jeremy Koch is the author of the health and fitness blog, the Self Health Atlas. His goal is to consolidate the best health and fitness information in an easy to navigate format that will empower you to achieve your health and fitness goals. Check out his blog today at http://www.selfhealthatlas.com.

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Is an Ab Wheel Rollout the Best Abdominal Workout?

There are lots and lots and LOTS of ways to work your abdominals. You can do bodyweight workouts such as crunches and sit-ups, do strength training workouts such as dumbbell side bends and cable Russian twists or use any number of specially designed ab training tools such as stability balls, ab cradles and ab sliders. You could also waste your money and time on one of those electrical ab-stimulating belts!

If none of those methods grab your interest or you are looking for what is probably one of the most effective ab workouts around, look no more than the good old abdominals roller.

Small and portable and costing no greater than a single week's gym membership, an abs roller is a great addition to any workout program and can be used virtually anywhere.

Abs rollers are a device with a wheel that has a handle threaded through the center and are used for one main exercise -- the ab rollout. The ab roll out is an extremely effective ab workout that is far more effective than crunches and sit-ups and all those funky exercise machines combined.

To do an ab roll out, hold the handles of the abs roller and kneel down. Put the roller on the floor in front of your knees. Keeping your arms tense and straight, your abdominals braced, your chest up and your lower back slightly arched, push the roller along the floor in front of you and lower your chest toward the floor. Extend your arms only as far as feels comfortable and do not let your lower back over extend. If you feel your back starting to "go" or hurt in anyway, lower your range of movement. Pull the roller back to your knees and then repeat.

If you feel you are ready for a much more demanding workout, do your roll outs from a standing position but be warned; this is a TOUGH ab workout.

Ab rollouts are extremely effective just because the exercise requires that your abdominals work hard to keep your spine stable as you extend your arms away from you. This is an isometric or static contraction that closely mimics how your abdominals work in nature. Many people train their abdominals using dynamic movements like sit-ups but, in reality, your abs rarely work in this manner. Most of the time, your abdominals work to prevent movement rather than create it. In the ab roll out, that's precisely what your abdominals are doing-preventing movement. Abs rollers work your abdominals in an extremely natural, even functional, way.

So, while there are other methods you can use to condition and strengthen your abdominals, very few workouts are as effective as the abs roller. Not only does the abs roller work your abdominals extremely and naturally, these simple devices also deliver a time-efficient workout -- ten minutes a day is all you really need. Not having time to exercise is no reason when you use an abs roller!


Keith Colladow is a personal coach and health and fitness teacher. Check out this ab wheel roller to strengthen your core with the best workout for your abs muscles.

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Ab Workouts Slow Fat Loss

Not only are most traditional ab workouts a waste of time, but they also slow your fat loss efforts. Each workout you spend crunching takes time away from more effective fat loss methods - such as interval training.

That's right, the common man's (and woman's) ab workout taken from Shape magazine or Muscle'n'Fitness often hurts their fat loss program more than it helps it.

Remember - I'm in the business of getting you the most fat loss in the least amount of exercise time...so you have little room in your program for traditional ab crunches (with the exception of using
basic ab exercises for beginners who need to learn to use their ab muscles after a lifetime of inactivity).

Instead, I focus on exercises that build a 6-pack AND burn a lot of calories at the same time. That's why I'm a big fan of making EVERY exercise an ab exercise (by bracing the abs in every movement), as well as using total body ab exercises (such as Mountain Climbers, the Spiderman Lunge/Climb, and the Stability Ball Jackknife).

These exercises use far more muscle mass than a traditional crunch. In fact, some of the total body ab exercises are "interval-like" in nature, helping to put more metabolic turbulence on the body, and as you know, that's what burns calories during AND after the workout.

Now of course you know that you can't spot reduce the fat on your body - so doing an endless number of crunches not only does little for you in terms of losing fat, it also wastes your time in your quest for a 6-pack.

Here are a couple of strategies to maximize your workout time when your goal is to get lean, and get down to a low-enough body fat percentage to see your abs in as little workout time as possible:

(If you've got 2 hours a day to workout, by all means, do whatever your heart desires... but I don't think many of us that live in the real world have that kind of time.)

A) First, simply cut back on your ab training - If your goal is to simply lose fat, gain a little muscle, and just look as good possible, then you can't spend 30 minutes on abs everyday. You can build your 6-pack by doing less than 30 minutes of ab exercise per week.

I'm convinced that no one (not even a fitness model or pro bodybuilder) needs more than 30 minutes of ab training per week.

In fact, at the photoshoots I supervise for the fitness magazines, I get to talk to a lot of fitness models and what they tell me about their training routines might shock you. Most of them don't train nearly as frequently as you or I might think.

Instead, they've worked hard over the years with the basic lifts to build their body, and now many of them simply use nutrition and maintenance workouts to keep their abs showing.

B) Second, replace your crunches with the total body ab exercises I mentioned earlier. Also, if you have access to a cable machine, you can do weighted ab exercises such as kneeling cable crunches.

C) And finally, if you are doing intervals for fat loss as I recommend, you can use the following approach to increase the difficulty of your ab and interval training. However, this is an advanced method only.

During your interval workout, perform an ab exercise during your active recovery period. For example, if you are doing running intervals on a treadmill...

Run for 60 seconds at your work interval speed. Immediately stop the treadmill, get off, and go into a set of 20 Mountain Climbers. Climb back on the treadmill and start it up for your next interval. Repeat for 3-6 intervals.

You can also use basic spinal stabilization "ab exercises" such as the plank, side plank, or advanced plank versions (i.e. plank with your arms on the ball) to train your spinal stabilization while under heavy breathing stress. I learned this technique from Dr. Stuart McGill.

Remember: Always train safe, with good form, and be conservative. Don't try to be a hero in the gym, but you should safely challenge yourself in each workout.


Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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7 Fat Burning Exercises You Can Do At Home For Weight Loss

With only seven exercises you can do a complete, at home, fat burning workout. And no, you don't need a big, lunky piece of cardio equipment to do slow, boring aerobic training.

Many people don't have time to consistently go to the gym and want to workout at home. But how many exercises can you do in your workouts at home with dumbbells? I have put together some training options you can do at home. The options include dumbbell workouts and exercises that need no external resistance. I have provided many options so that even a home workout can have variety.

In fact, this entire workout can be done with only your bodyweight, but for a more advanced challenge, you can use dumbells in certain exercises.

The workout doesn't use any machines either, because this allows you to use more muscles per ecxercise when you do standing exercises or push-ups instead of the pec-dec at your local gym.

Here's the workout.

1) bodyweight squat

2) pushup or kneeling pushup

Do exercises 1 and 2 back to back with no rest. Aim for 8-12 repetitions per set. If you are advanced, you can use dumbells for the squat and even harder pushup, such as decline pushups to increase the difficulty of the workout. For beginners, stick to bodyweight squats and kneeling pushups.

Do the squat and pushup back to back without rest, but rest 1 minute before repeating the exercises again. Then rest a minute, and repeat one more time. Then you will have done this superset (that's what it is called when you do two exercises back to back) 3 times.

However, beginners should do all exercises in the entire workout only once. Only advanced fitness levels can use the 3 superset system.

3) split squat

4) mountain climber

A split squat is also called a stationary lunge. That requires you to split your feet apart by taking a step forward. Use the wall for balance if you are a beginner. If you are advanced, you can hold dumbells in your hands during the split squat. Do all repetitions for one side and then repeat for the other side. Drop your hips straight down and use your glutes and hamstrings and quadriceps to push your body back up. Do 8 repetitions per side.

For the mountain climber, get into a pushup position. Brace your abs as if someone was going to punch you in the stomach. Maintain that during the entire exercise. Lift one foot off the ground and bring that knee up to your chest. Touch the foot down. Slowly return to the start position. Alternate sides for 10 repetitions per side.

Do exercises 3 and 4 as another superset, and do it 3 times - the same way as above - only if you are advanced.

5) Reverse lunge

6) Close-grip pushup

A reverse lunge is a moving split squat. Stand with your feet together. Take a step back with one leg. Drop your hips down and bend both knees. Then squeeze your butt and thigh of the front leg (the leg that didn't go anywhere) and pull yourself back up to the start position. Do 8 reps on one side and 8 on the other. Beginners use the wall for balance. Advanced can hold dumbells in hands.

The close grip pushup is the same as the normal pushup, except your hands are shoulder width apart, not wider. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides. This works your triceps (the back of your arms) more. Do 8-15 repetitions.

Advanced fitness levels can do 3 supersets. beginners just one set of each.

7) Jumping jacks

Finish the workout with the classic Jumping Jack exercise. beginners do 20 and then stretch. Advanced fitness levels can do 50 jumping jacks, take a 30 second break, and repeat up to 3 times. Then finish with stretching for your tight muscle groups.

This workout should take no more than 24 minutes, but it will boost your metabolism for 24 hours.


Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked home workouts for Fat Loss have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. The Turbulence Training Fat Loss discussion forum workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's home bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

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Why a Good Bootcamp Workout is Great Exercise For Fitness and Fat Loss

It's almost time to start the New Year and with the arrival of 2010 comes new resolutions as millions of people set out their goals and what they would like to achieve. Change can be a difficult thing when you do the same thing all the time so why not check out a good bootcamp workout. Bootcamp Exercises are a great way to mix it up and lose weight while getting fit. Join a class or do them from home. Find out why bootcamp Workouts are a great way to start the New Year.

Boot Camp Exercises Get Marines in Top Condition

Bootcamp Exercises are essentially based on body weight work outs and getting in shape without having to lift weights or by endless cardio. As a former U.S. Infantry Marine I can tell you first hand that simple body weight exercises performed correctly and used in a good circuit can get you into shape and strip fat off your body faster than anything else. The military gets millions of young men and women into incredible condition taking some from fat to fit without taking them to a weight room or gym everyday. It's incredible what a good bodyweight exercise program can do for rapid fat loss and fitness.

Fitness Boot Camps

You can join a Fitness Boot Camp to help show you the way and give you a structure to follow while being in a class with others. A good Fitness Boot Camp should teach you not only how to do the exercises but should also teach you the fundamentals of a healthy diet and gives you tips to succeed. A Fitness Boot Camp should also teach goal setting and how to lay out a realistic plan with steps to get you to exactly where you wan to be.

Push Yourself at Your Own Exercise Pace

Boot Camp Exercises are the most challenging programs out there and can teach you to push yourself harder because you are going to be pushing yourself to your own limits. When you must push yourself you will develop mental toughness and a tolerance for added pain which will increase your level of discipline from week to week making the training stick with you that much longer. If you have never done a Bootcamp Workout the first thing you will notice is that some people are in better shape or worse shape than you but that doesn't matter because it is whoever pushes themselves to the max and reaches for their goals that will see the best results.

Exercises Straight from Boot Camp

Boot Camp Exercises will include exercises like jumping jacks, eight count body builders, push ups, mountain climbers, squat thrusts, lunges, and dozens of others that can be done without having to use equipment. In more advanced stages stability balls and kettlebells can be worked into the programs for variety and added challenge. The full body exercises will increase the metabolism in your body quickly allowing for rapid fat loss throughout the day without slowing the metabolism through cutting calories and depriving oneself of food.


Start 2010 out With Your Own Home Based BootCamp Fitness Program

Want to know more? Click here to get started on your own home based Boot Camp Workout complete with 21 boot camp exercise programs and a nutrition plan ready to go. Teach your own Fitness BootCamp with this program that explains it all.

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Cardio Or Strength Training to Lose Belly Fat

Welcome to another lesson in how to lose belly fat and get six pack abs.

In today's lesson we're going to look at the difference between cardio and strength training: which is best and why we should do them? As you will recall, we did a lesson on how many calories we need to lose fat; total body fat.

Basically, it comes down to creating a caloric deficit. We need less calories coming in than we are expending, giving us a negative deficit. If we do that, over time we will lose body fat. How do we do that? We'll talk about the dietary regime in another lesson. In today's lesson we are going to look at exercise and whether cardio or strength training is better.

Should we do both?

First, let's talk about cardio. The benefits of long-duration cardio are short-term on the number of calories you are burning. This is not a bad thing. It is alright. Just remember the difference.

Long duration cardio: let's say that you go for an hour run. Depending on your pace, you may burn upwards of 1000 calories and that is great if you want to create a caloric deficit. That is what you need to do; you need to burn a lot of calories. For people who are heavier, long-duration cardio can be a great stepping stone or a starting point in their weight loss. The longer you perform a cardio exercise, the more calories you are going to burn.

Long-duration cardio is great for immediate effects. The only thing is that there is really no benefit after the cardio performance is over. The next day there is really no continual effect of caloric burning. If you look at it from an investment perspective, there are better investments for your calorie-burning buck. We need to look at the long-term solutions. This is where high-intensity interval training comes in.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is another form of cardio. You can do it with weights or just your own bodyweight. HIIT is the way I train. It is the way I train my athletes and it is the way I train myself. The majority of my workouts are based on this.

I do long-duration cardio sometimes, but if you are relying solely on long-duration cardio you are not going to lose fat for the long-term. Interval training is amazing. First of all, high-intensity exercise is going to burn a lot more calories. If you can exercise longer at higher intensity, you are going to burn more calories. It's really as simple as that.

Let's say that there are two people the exact same weight running on treadmills.

They both weight 160 lbs. One person is running at level 7 and the other is running at level 10, both for 20 minutes. Who do you think is going to burn more calories? Obviously, the person who is running faster will burn more calories. Intensity is the most important determinant of your ability to burn calories. If you combine intensity with duration, that's a double whammy.

Interval training is beautiful because what it allows you to integrate bouts of high and low intensity. Let's say that you run as fast as you can for 1 minute and then recover for 1 minute while running at a lower intensity. If you keep repeating 1 minute fast and 1 minute slow for 20 minutes, it means you are running very hard for 10 minutes. If you were to run hard for 10 minutes all in one shot, you most likely would not be able to sustain that kind of pace.

Interval training is beautiful because it allows you to work at a higher percentage of your maximum capacity for a lot longer which means that you can burn more calories as you dramatically improve your cardiovascular endurance much more than you would using long-duration cardio. High intensity is what it is all about in terms of improving athletic performance, cardiovascular performance, and burning calories which obviously leads to burning fat.

The other beautiful thing about cardio training that study after study is showing is an excellent benefit called excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).

After a high intensity session, your body is going to require a certain amount of time to burn calories to bring your body back down to a resting state. That is important because during high intensity exercise your body is not able to get enough oxygen in to sustain the required demands of the work.

After the work is done, your body gets more oxygen in to make up for the deficit during the bout of exercise. Any time that you bring in oxygen, you burn calories. For roughly every liter of oxygen you consume you will burn about 5 calories. Because you have this elevated oxygen consumption, you will burn calories for hours after your workout.

Studies have shown that high intensity interval training for as little as 20 minutes can elicit an EPOC response for up to 24 hours. That is huge. That means that if you do interval training in the morning, you are going to have a fat burning effect all day. The key is high intensity, the longer the duration the better.

You are going to get higher EPOC values and more calories being burned if you work out at a higher intensity and a longer duration.

This also ties in with full body high intensity strength training workouts. We're going to talk about that next. Another long term benefit/time investment is strength training. When people want to lose belly fat, they don't think strength training and weights have anything to do with it, but they have everything to do with it.

The ultimate goal, if you are looking to lose weight, is to raise your metabolism so that when you are sitting down at work from 9-5 or whatever it is that you are doing, you are burning more calories than you would have previously.

As I am sitting here, I am at about 7% body fat. I'm not blowing my own horn here; it just means that I have a lot more lean muscle which means that I have a fast metabolism. Sitting here I am burning tons of calories because of the way I work out and because I have a low body fat percentage which means that my basal metabolic rate (BMR) is higher...because of the way I work out!

Basal metabolism is going to be heavily influenced by how much lean muscle mass you have. The more lean mass you have the better. We increase our BMR by increasing our muscle.

The more lean mass we have the more our BMR increases. Remember that equation we did in the other lesson where we looked at if you have 25% body fat you will have a certain metabolic rate?

If you decrease your level of body fat then your basal metabolic rate will be higher which means that you require more calories, but it also means that you are burning more calories so you have a lot more room to play with.

There is a big difference between doing a seated bicep curl which is an isolated movement versus what I call high intensity full body movement. I am a huge fan of athletic workouts.

Pretty much everything I do right now is based on athletic training. There is a reason for that. I played professional soccer, so I know what the pros are doing at the top level of athletics in the world. I have gone through it and I do it now.

I am also the head strength and conditioning coach for the University of Toronto Men's Soccer Program and I take those guys through these workouts as well. This is because this way of training is very much like the real life movements that they perform in a game.

Why would I put someone on a machine to do leg extensions while they are sitting down reading a magazine that has absolutely no benefit at all? That movement actually puts more stress on the patella than if you did deep squats.

That is completely off topic, but there are so many things that people do not know about weight training that are so important to their ability to lose fat. You can see how passionate I am about this issue.

Here is the first concept: more muscle means higher basal metabolic rate which means that more fat is being burned in the long run. Not just today, but years down the road. That is a very important concept. How do we do that? We could build muscle the body building way, which includes taking body parts such as chest and back or biceps and triceps, whatever you want. You could do those kinds of workouts, however, what I like to do is use athletic workouts because they are functional and you get both the short-term and long-term effects from these full-body workouts.

With full body workouts, you get short-term effects from the high intensity of it. This means that you get immediate caloric burning during the workout. Because you are stimulating muscle development, you are getting long-term benefits from the increase of your BMR, and again, that is huge when it comes to fat loss.

Instead of sitting on a bench and doing bicep curls or tricep extensions, why not do full body circuit training workouts or superset workouts? A lot of the stuff that I already prescribe gets all of your muscles involved.

Get squat presses in, get cleans, get some snatches in. If you have no idea what those are, don't worry. Just follow along and you will understand eventually. Full body workouts get all of the muscles going in your body. The beautiful thing about that from a short-term perspective is that you are going to be huffing and puffing.

You are going to be breathing heavily which means that you are bringing in a lot of oxygen and burning a lot of calories. In the long run you are getting all of these muscles involved and are developing greater strength and greater power which means that you are improving your lean mass while you are burning all of these calories which also means that your BMR is increasing.

There are a lot of ways to do these high intensity workouts, but for now just understand that full body workouts are the way to go. Get a lot of muscle mass involved so that you get both the short-term and the long-term benefits to burning fat.

Let's go back to our initial question now: Cardio versus Strength training, which is better? Both are important. If you are someone who is having a tough time losing weight, you have to be doing a lot more cardio.

You have to get the immediate short-term benefits of blasting away calories on a daily basis. You can do that through long duration or interval training. Just remember the two factors we talked about: intensity and duration.

The longer the duration and the higher the intensity you can go for, the more calories you are going to burn. The second thing you need to do if you have a tough time losing body fat is you have got to increase the resistance.

If you are not doing strength training...let me rephrase that. You have got to do strength training! You have to do high intensity strength training. You have got to be dripping sweat during the workout. You should be leaving the gym absolutely drenched.

Do high intensity workouts using weights that are going to challenge your muscles so that you develop not only the short-term benefits but strength benefits in the long-term.

Now, if you are a female, do not worry about putting on mass. You do not have the hormonal breakdown to allow you to do that. There is not enough growth hormone and there is not enough testosterone to allow you to develop big bulky muscles.

But what high intensity strength training will do is make you stronger and leaner. You will perform better in any sport you are performing and you will get a much higher BMR to burn more calories. This is a very passionate subject of mine. There are so many misconceptions when it comes to strength training.


Fitness and Fat Loss Expert, Yuri Elkaim, helps thousands of busy health conscious individuals lose fat while sculpting lean muscle with just 3 short enjoyable workouts a week. Take his 20-lesson six pack abs e-course for free by visiting http://www.myfitteru.com/abs today!

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Top Ways to Get Started With a Cardio Beginner Program

Beginners are at a crucial juncture: they've made the decision to get into shape and realize they have a myriad of options in front of them. Make the wrong decision, and you'll potentially derail your progress for months (or sometimes even years).

Learn from someone with experience with fat loss and stay away from long duration, steady state cardio. Here are some key issues I have with long duration, steady state cardio:


It's boring. If your training program is boring, it's going to be tough for you to follow the program. Try and find something exciting. Something that you will look forward to doing each week.
Jogging hurts. Jogging was my form of outdoor cardio. I used to jog for 3-4 miles at least 4 days per week. Of course it worked, but I soon found myself in pain.
The pain could have also be caused by overuse injuries, which comes from too much repetition of the same activity. Professional runner andcyclers often complain about knee problems later in life.
The pain started with my shins and traveled to my knees. The uneven outdoor surface, and the constant pounding on the knees does a lot of damage to your joints.
The bigger you are, the more you should stay away from jogging long distance. One or two miles is fine at a frequency of 2-3 days per week.
Higher intensity distance cardio causes losses in strength, power, and muscle mass. You may not care about strength or power, but you should care about muscle mass.
Muscle mass will be your long-term fight against fat. This is because muscle is more metabolically active than fat. It takes more calories to maintain a pound of muscle than a pound of fat.
Hence, the more muscle you have on your body, the higher your metabolic rate. A fast metabolism will help you burn more calories throughout the day without performing more exercise or eating less.
Aerobic exercise is an impractical method of burning lots of calories. The bigger you are, the more fat you will burn with aerobic exercise. But, as you get leaner and fitter, you will need to perform more aerobic exercise in order to burn the same amount of fat.
For example, if in the beginning you were able to burn 100 calories in 20 minutes, 6 months from now it may take you up to an hour to burn the same amount of calories.
Of course, this is just an example, but that is what happens. Your body becomes efficient at using energy to perform a task. Hence, it takes more work to burn more calories.Now that you know why I don't like long distance cardio, lets look at some of the forms of cardio that I do like:



Bodyweight Cardio

Bodyweight cardio is simply performing high intensity bodyweight exercises that are relatively easy in a cardio format. Cardio is basically raising your heart rate and increasing the demand for energy (calories).

The greater your demand for energy, the more calories and fat you will burn. Bodyweight cardio is often more fun than regular, steady state cardio. Plus, you can perform it anywhere and anytime you want.

You can perform bodyweight cardio in your hotel room, at the park, in your backyard, or your friends house. Hence, it is one of best, no-nonsense and no-excuses method to burn fat.

Hard Cardio

Hard cardio consists of any sort of higher intensity, moderate duration cardio. My favorite forms are sledgehammer swings, jump roping, and shadowboxing. This form of cardio is not only exciting and gets your heart rate up, but also prevents overuse injuries.

You can choose 2-3 forms of hard cardio, or even combine hard cardio with bodyweight cardio. This way, you prevent boredom and conserve your joints. Hard cardio helps develop power and speed.

For example, sledgehammer swings are used by many athletes to improve explosive power. Jump roping is also used by boxers to improveagility. Hence, you'll be improving your athletic abilities while burning fat.

Interval Cardio

Interval training is where you perform an activity for a high intensity level, then take a short rest. Alternate between high intensity and lower intensity training. You can do this form of training with hard cardio or bodyweight exercises.

As mentioned earlier, distance cardio is an impractical form of burning fat as your body becomes more efficient at burning calories. They key to solving this is to use increase the intensity level.

Interval cardio is one way to increase the level of intensity. Sprinters perform this kind of cardio all the time. They sprint on the track, and follow up with a period of rest to return their heart rate to normal.

Kettlebell Cardio

Kettlebells are a training implement that have seen a resurgence in popularity. They've been around for many years, but it's just recently that they're starting to show up with commercial gyms.

Their effectiveness comes from the unique shape of the Kettlebell. A Kettlebell has a thick handle attached to a cannonball shaped weight. Hence, every single movement you perform engages a large amount of muscle in order to properly perform the movement.

If you have never heard of Kettlebells, it's certainly something to look into. Kettlebell cardio workouts can be performed with either circuits or interval training. But make sure you start off light.

Dumbbell Cardio

If you don't have access to Kettlebells, then you can try Dumbbell cardio. Dumbbell cardio simply allows you to combine cardio and weight training into one. After Kettlebell workouts, Dumbbell cardio workouts are the most challenging forms of training.

Adding resistance to your cardio workouts allows you to train your strength endurance as well as your cardio endurance. Sports such as martial arts, where you are constantly moving around (cardio) and fighting off an opponent (resistance), need a combination of resistance and cardio endurance training.

But, for the regular folks, combining strength and cardio workouts can help you get leaner while maintaining and even increasing your lean muscle mass and strength.


For some great high intensity cardio workouts, check out my blog, ShahTraining.com

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Which Is a Better Fat Burning Method: Cardio or Strength Training?

I have a confession to make. I am a master fitness trainer and I actually have an opinion about cardio and strength training. If you are looking for a sweet, two-sided article that gives you plenty of fluff and little advice then this article is not for you.

I am going to give you my thoughts and opinions on my preferred method of fat loss. I just want to be truthful and direct about my experiences.

A typical day for me includes meeting my clients for their weekly workout sessions and motivational chats. I also have an opportunity to talk with potential clients. Each day I talk with men and women about one thing: fat loss.

I provide the same speech day in and day out. I do not mind this. In fact I wake up each morning thrilled and excited to spread the word- the gospel of fat loss. Many of my potential clients are surprised by my opinions.

I am going to ask you for something. I am going to ask you for the same exact thing I ask potential clients- try my advice for a few weeks and then make a judgment.

There's nothing for you to lose except some unwanted and unhealthy fat. If I am wrong in my advice then simply stop the recommendations. If my advice helps you then keep going. Learn more about me and why I am one of the few personal trainers that actually has an opinion about the best fat loss method.

Here's the thought that shocks my potential clients: limit your cardio and increase your strength training.

That's it. Sounds simple and, if I am to tell the truth, it is simple. This very basic concept causes many people to think I've lost my brain. After all isn't cardio the ultimate fat burning workout? Nothing beats 45 minutes on the treadmill. Right?

Wrong. The reality and cold hard truth is that strength training is the best and surest way to increase your metabolism, burn fat and sustain long term weight loss. Cardio is important, but not nearly as important as many Americans believe it is.

Use the following advice at your own risk. It's worked for me and my clients. It has been one of the few ways folks lose fat and keep it off. Before I divulge a sample program let me say one more thing to tempt you- a pound of muscle burns 5 calories per day. A pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day. Simply adding 5 pounds of beautiful, lean and toned muscle equals an additional 250 calories burned per day. Pretty impressive.

Sample Weekly Routine (warm up before all exercise sessions):

Monday and Thursday: Participate in an upper body strength training routine. Consider doing 3 sets of 8 reps for all upper body muscle groups. Add 10 minutes of medium intensity cardio when you're done with the weights. Follow with a cool down.

Tuesday and Friday: Participate in a lower body and abdominal strength training routine. I enjoy doing 3 sets of 8 reps for all lower body muscles and the abs. Add in 10 minutes of medium intensity cardio after the strength training. Follow with a cool down.

Wednesday and Saturday: Toss in a 20-25 minute interval cardio program. Work at a ratio of 2:1 (1 minute easy intervals followed by 30 second higher intensity intervals).

Sunday: Rest day

Before I opened my own business I would train clients in regular gyms. I always saw members, particularly women, doing long cardio sessions. After years of experience and personal transformation I began suggesting these members give up on so much cardio. I asked them to consider weight training.

Most looked at me and laughed. Women were deathly afraid of touching a dumbbell, and if I were lucky enough to get them to consider the outrageous idea... they did not want to lift a 10 pound weight for fear of bulking up. That won't happen! I have spent years trying to educate the public about strength training.

Take the next few weeks and focus on the above program. Do not fear the weights. Lift heavy and push your muscles. Your muscles should be fatigued by the last few reps of each set. Always maintain perfect form and always have complete control over your workout.

Cardio is wonderful. Nutrition is vital. Strength training is the master of fat loss. Whether you have a few pounds or 70 pounds to lose, strength training is your answer. Go ahead and give it a try. Talk with a personal trainer if you need additional help and always ask your doctor if it's okay to start a fitness or nutrition program.

Each pound of muscle you have burns 50 calories per day. Imagine adding a few pounds of muscle. You'll have the perfect body you've always dreamed of- lean, toned, cut and always burning fat.

Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke


Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her strength training website is ranked within the top 1% of all websites worldwide. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat. It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynn_VanDyke

How Can I Flatten My Stomach?

During my research on this subject I have found that most of the solutions available to achieve a flat stomach pretty much talk about the same techniques. The biggest difference is how they are presented.

For example, it is well known that in order to flatten your stomach which in turn, reduces your belly fat, you will need to exercise. This is so your stomach muscles will be tight and defined (aka six-pack abs). However, exercise is simply not enough. The first steps in reducing belly fat involve learning how to eat right and in the right amounts, and then supplementing your new eating habits with stomach toning exercises in order to achieve that elusive flat stomach. Studies have shown that diet alone can help in reducing stomach fat, but if you want true "six-pack" abs, you must tone up your stomach!

Looks are important, I agree. But, let me take you to another area about belly fat. What you may not know is how dangerous it can be to carry around that extra weight, especially around your belly. "Fat around the midsection is a strong risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some types of cancers", says Samuel Klein, MD, the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

Obviously, reducing belly fat by doing stomach toning exercises (sit ups, side bends, or crunches) combined with a proper diet will go a long way toward reducing your risk of these terrible diseases. If you want to flatten your stomach only for the sake of appearance, a proper diet would be a good start. Success will come from being patient and having loads of perseverance! For the sake of your health first and your appearance second, do not give up on reducing belly fat and continue with your stomach toning exercises, and of course, a good and sensible diet!

I hope that after reading this you will take a serious look at yourself both inwardly and outwardly and finally decide to take continuous action. I know how difficult it can be to figure out how to beat this problem with belly fat and the stigma of not only being overweight but also looking overweight. For me, losing weight has been a lifelong battle. But, I was lucky enough to get the right information early enough so I would not have to spend my entire life struggling with being overweight.


Tom writes many articles intended to motivate people into taking action and getting started on their weight loss program. Having spent most of his life overweight, Tom is now in much better shape after learning the correct way to lose weight, without diet pills and without fad diets. You can read more at Tom's blog [http://lose-weight-to-live-better.com/]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Marchido

Do You Really Believe You Can Get a Six Pack Toned Stomach in Only 3 Weeks?

Get a six pack in only 3 weeks!

No sweaty exercise required and no gym fees to pay. Imagine building the body of your dreams while sitting in front of the TV (some programs even allow you to eat cake too!!). All for only three 'easy' payments of £39.99

Do you think anyone actually believes this?

Deep down most people know that getting fit takes exercise, but the marketers know that most people want it to be effortless, fun, quick and as easy as possible! So that's what they promise you!

And that is what you buy!

We all know that most 'home gym' equipment bought ends up gathering dust in the back of the garage. But as the advert rolls, somehow you convince yourself that maybe, just maybe this time you can stick with it. It's so easy to fall for the message as you as you admire the chiselled toned physiques on the advert and imaging yourself "Stepping up with a grin" in front of the TV.

I know that this illusion is persuasive, and I suspect that you know that the truth is that gaining control of your weight and getting fit requires a change in lifestyle and ongoing consistent action!

Guess what, the same applies to taking control of any area of your life. Buying books, listening to tapes, watching DVD's, and attending training courses will do absolutely nothing to improve your life unless you begin to act differently on an ongoing basis.



All you need to do is buy the book, DVD or go on the course apply the material and you can turn your life around! - It's easy!!

If it's that easy how come everyone doesn't just do it?

It's because you are being sold a lie!

Buying another 'motivation' product will not change you life. It will not help you overcome procrastination, get motivated, or find creative solutions to the challenges of your life. It takes more than some more information, but people want to sell you information and that's great business for them because when you don't apply it and feel bad about it, they can sell you more!

The truth is that you need more than information; you need to take ongoing action - and we all know how easy it is to fall back into old habits!

Years of coaching have taught me that your blocks can come in many shapes and sizes and there really is no "one size fits all" solution to your life. It is ongoing commitment to figuring out what is important to you, being willing to face the 'truth' of your current situation, taking action, learning and moving forwards that makes the difference.

Don't wish it was easier; your challenges are where your best learning lies, so work to get better and enjoy the journey (because it is your one beautiful and exciting chance of life!).

Anth.


Anth Quinn has been described as the best-kept secret in Personal Development; he is a straight talking champion of everyday people and despite developing a loyal following of over 10,000 readers he managed to avoid publicity.

He says that he finally stepped up to right what he saw as fundamental flaws in much of the personal development industries and he became determined to do something about this.

Despite a massive amount of good information out in the market place Anth says that most people never make long lasting positive changes in their life. Why is this? Well, he says almost every personal development guru is missing a fundamental piece of the puzzle, and it's not what you think!!

You can check out his free "daily action tips" at [http://www.empiricalcoaching.com/takecontrolFDT.htm]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anth_Quinn

The Best Six Pack Abs Workout

It's been said often that probably the best way to get great abs is not to train them directly at all, but to concentrate instead on working the major muscle groups hard, with intensive multi-joint exercises. These not only work the abs through the stabilising and balancing functions they're required to perform, but also stimulate the whole metabolism and ensure the production of optimum levels of vital fat burning hormones.

We've also made the point that traditional sit-ups, crunches and leg-raises are not the best ab exercises to include in your workouts. But that's not to say that you should avoid ab specific training altogether. If you really want that elusive six pack you're going to need to include a wide variety of exercises in your routines to ensure the best possible tone in your ab muscles as well as getting to the low percentage of body fat needed.

So the ideal six pack abs workout will include a measure of specific abs work alongside the squats, deadlifts and dumbbell/kettlebell work which really get the body lean.

The specific exercises, however, need to be much more intensive than the sit-ups and crunches of old; once beyond a certain beginner level the body has adapted to these and they will produce very little further muscle growth.

One of the keys to long term progress is therefore to include a variety of intensive exercises which will not only work your abs from all angles but also avoid boredom and prevent the body getting used to particular movements.

Try some of these for a superb six pack abs workout. Two or three at most need be performed as part of any one workout. Just a warning - some of these are quite advanced and you may find them difficult or even impossible at first. But this is actually a good sign as it shows you're getting the muscles out of their comfort zone and really making them work! Just stick with what you can do and build up your strength gradually.

Bridging - lie on your back, knees bent with feet pulled up to your butt and palms flat on the floor by your shoulders. Flex your back and push with your arms to lift your hips as high as you can. Aim to straighten your arms if you can and hold the position for a minute or more. This is a tremendous whole body exercise which actually demands more flexibility than strength, but which will work the abs really hard.

Hanging leg raises - your gym should have a pull up bar or rings, or you can get inexpensive ones to install at home. Simply hang from the bar or rings and lift your bent knees as high as possible towards your chest. Try to curl your pelvis up when your legs are as high as you can get them. A few good quality reps will be plenty!

Squat thrusts - a real grueller this, which many people avoid for this reason, but a very effective muscle and fitness builder. Simply get into the regular push up position and then jump your feet forward so your knees touch your arms; jump your feet back to the start position and repeat. Aim for ten reps at first, but realise that it's far more beneficial to do 1 or 2, and do them right, than to cheat by shortening the movement.

Sitting Leg Lifts - sit on the floor, hands behind head, and lift your legs together a few inches off the floor. Now scissor your legs up and down, raising each one alternately, without your feet touching the floor. Do as many reps as you can before the burn becomes too much!

Sitting Leg Pull-Ins - sit on the floor, legs straight out in front, arms above your head with the fingers of each hand interlocked. Lift your legs a few inches and pull your knees towards your chest. Straighten your legs and repeat, keeping your feet off the ground.

Seated Bicycling - similar to the above but with hands behind your head, pulling in your legs alternately one at a time.

Any 2 or 3 of these exercises will really help give you a great six pack abs workout, and it's very easy to introduce your own variations.There are of course many other exercises which can form part of intense ab workouts, but the basic tests are these: if you're out of breath and feeling your abs burning and struggling after only a few reps then the exercise has sufficient intensity.

You can find out much more about six pack abs workouts when you pick up a free copy of Insider Secrets For A Lean Body. The secret is to train not harder but smarter and you can discover many more ways by getting this 65 page guide.


Steve Smith is a freelance writer and web publisher with a special interest in health and fitness.

[http://www.effectiveabworkouts.org]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_P_Smith

Cristiano Ronaldo Six Pack Abs Workout Tips

Hi guys, and welcome to "How To Get Six Pack Abs Like Cristiano Ronaldo". In this article I want to show you how to overcome obstacles you'll find in your everyday life and get a physique like one of the most famous men in the world.

In case you didn't know, Cristiano Ronaldo is a professional football player (soccer if you live outside of Europe).

He has been hitting the headlines recently for his social life. But believe you me; he is one of the best players in the world.

But more than just that; Ronaldo has a very desirable, muscular physique.

A lot of men want it, and a lot of women want their man to have it too!

But there is one problem, Ronaldo is a professional athlete after all!

Hardly a problem for us though is it? Well actually it is a pretty big deal. It means that Ronaldo spends a large part of every day in a state-of-the-art fitness facility. And he has access to big-time fitness coaches and dietitians.

And probably the biggest benefit of all, he gets as much time as he wants to workout every single day. Jealous? Not at all!

So here's the problem: we are real people, right? We have jobs, we have families to take care of, and we've got real lives!

So we need to compete with Ronaldo, but we're never going to be able to spend as much time in the gym working out. But we still need to get a lean and ripped physique.

Well I'm here to tell you that there is a way...

If you want a ripped 6 pack like Cristiano Ronaldo you might have thought about, or even tried some of the following: Crazy fad diets, personal trainers, hyped up fat loss pills and cosmetic surgery. But let's get one thing straight, you absolutely DO NOT need to try any of these methods.

And here is another little point: you won't be spending thousands or even hundreds of Dollars on the process.

Everything I've just listed is based on marketing hype. Try to have an open mind because it's the kind of advice that is put out there to get you to spend your hard earned cash, not to get you results.

So let's get straight to what you DO need...

You are going to need to make some subtle changes to the way you workout. Did you know that by using a few secret weapon exercises you can actually spend less time in the gym but get amazing results? We are going to be using the most effective muscle building and fat burning routines.

This way you'll be burning the fat you need to reveal your six pack abs, but you're not required to spend your life working out. Using high-intensity full-body workouts we can achieve Ronaldo like results in relatively little time.

Here are some of the full-body exercises you need to start using: Standard deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, Barbell back squats, Barbell front squats, Dumbbell lunges, Dumbbell step ups, Dips, Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Renegade dumbbell rows, Dumbbell rows, One arm snatches, Two-arm kettlebell swings (my personal favorite).

No matter what exercises you're doing, you'll need to be eating the right foods if you want that sexy, flat stomach or six pack abs. Fat burning foods will be a key player in your ability to lose flab.

One of the biggest hidden dangers in our food is processed sugars and sweeteners. And guess what, "diet" and "lite" foods are full of them! Stick to the natural, wholesome and unprocessed foods for the best results.

By following these tips you will never go hungry, and you will never crave junk food.

So those six pack abs are easier to achieve than you might think if you follow the correct methods. But you still need to be absolutely committed to your lifestyle decisions. If you think that those silly little fat loss pills will get you where you want to be then you need to think again.

But if you are ready to try something totally different that actually works to burn off stubborn body fat in a smart and healthy way, then just incorporate the fat burning foods and exercises I have listed above.

Hopefully I've shown you a few cool tips to help you get that ripped physique like Ronaldo. I hope this article points you in the right direction to go on and make the changes you need to your exercise and nutritional programs.

Just in case you were wondering, just 21 days following the tips I've given you above will be long enough to see a real reduction in body fat percentage and a big increase in your energy levels.


Ready to make a change? Why not try the 21 Day Challenge [http://www.getyourtruthaboutabsbonus.com/21-day-challenge/] that everybody is talking about and discover how to get a Cristiano Ronaldo Six Pack [http://www.getyourtruthaboutabsbonus.com/how-to-get-six-pack-abs/get-six-pack-abs-like-cristiano-ronaldo/] for yourself.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Thorpe

How To Get Six Pack Abs - And 5 Mistakes To Avoid

How to get a six pack? The approach is two-pronged. Follow a structured exercise program. And lose weight. Only in this way can anyone achieve six pack abs.

A rookie mistake is assuming that doing thousands of crunches and intense bodybuilding workouts will magically add up to six pack abs. But when this doesn't happen even after months of rigor and discipline, there's a natural disappointment.

Compared to other forms of exercise, the process of how to get a six pack is somewhat different. It takes a holistic approach which includes nutrition and exercise to get the right results. Most people don't succeed because they focus on ineffective methods.

If you want an honest answer to the question, "How to get six pack abs?", then here it is. Not daily ab workouts or expensive ab machines or never-ending crunches, but a lean, healthy diet coupled with smart training. Make sure you aren't being misled by these mistakes.

1. You just can't see your six pack

Maybe you already have six pack abs - but can't see them because there's a fat layer covering it up. Unless your body fat is less than 8% (for men) or 12% (for women), you can't see the muscle beneath. High intensity cardio exercise with diet control will help unmask your six pack.

2. You can't crunch away the fat

The only way to melt away lower abdomen fat is through cardio exercise, diet and weight training. The bad news is you can't get rid of belly fat in isolation. You'll have to achieve overall fat loss.

3. You don't need daily abs workouts

Your core needs rest. Daily abdominal exercises can actually be counterproductive to getting a six pack. Abs workouts every 3 days is enough. The rest of your time can be devoted to intense cardio exercises that burn off fat.

4. You can't get away with just crunches and sit ups

While the rectus abdominis muscle grows stronger with these exercises, you also need to make your obliques and latissmus muscles tougher for a six pack. Your exercise routine must be diversified and cover all muscle groups equally.

5. You need to steadily increase difficulty

As your muscles grow stronger, they need greater loads to grow even more stronger. You must force them through progressive resistance training. Abs workouts are just the same in this respect as biceps or hamstring exercises. Using a dumbbell on your chest while doing crunches is an example.

Avoid these mistakes and follow a healthy diet and effective exercise program to quickly enjoy six pack abs.


How to get a six pack? You'll find a list of the best bodybuilding programs reviewed on Bodybuilding Reviews at http://BodyBuildingReviews.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cumba_Gowri