Fitness Blog

Loose Weight Eating Dietry Calcium

2008-09-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Dietary Calcium for Staying Lean

Dietry calcium is one of the secret link link for leanness .Scientific studies are linking increased dietary calcium to reduced body fat stores.

There are a few theories that explanis the link between dietry calcium and staying lean .

Theory 1:

One theory that I’ve seen relates this to the high calcium diets eaten by our prehistoric ancestors. Low levels of calcium typically meant that they were entering a period of famine, to which the body responded by increasing body fat storage and slowing the metabolism. A low calcium diet may still promote fat storage these days even though we are certainly never in a famine

Theory 2:

Another theory regarding how dietary calcium makes us leaner relates to a hormone in the body called calcitriol which is a a form of Vitamin D within the body in the form of a hormone. Research suggests that individuals not consuming sufficient dietary calcium may overproduce calcitriol which can promote fat storage in the body.

Regardless of the mechanism, it appears abundantly clear that low dietary calcium intake promotes fat storage, while higher dietary calcium intake promotes a leaner body. It is obvious that dairy sources are the best for supplying your dietary calcium due to their higher bioavailability (ease of absorption) compared with other calcium sources. So in order to loose weight and stay lean it is necessary to consume enough quantities of calcium and the best source is plain unprocessed milk.

The Hidden Evils In Our Food Supply

2008-09-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

Two Hidden Evils in our Food Supply

Two products that are present in huge quantities in our food supply these days are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and trans fats (hydrogenated oils, margarine, shortening) and they are the two evils that I am talking about . Both of these products are highly modified from their natural state by mass processing .This results in products that are much more harmful to our bodies than the original substance.

The answer to avoiding these products is actually quite simple – don’t buy processed foods!

HFCS

HFCS is mostly found in sodas, breakfast syrups, fruit juices, and any other sweetened beverages. HFCS is also found in ketchup, sweetened cereals, cakes, cookies, pasta sauces, barbeque sauces, salad dressings, and many other products.

The problem with HFCS is that it is not processed by our bodies in the same way as other sugars and tends to be more lipogenic (promotes fat storage). The bottom line is, if you want to be lean and ripped, stay away from the empty calories of HFCS. If you’re need to buy sweetened products, look for products that use natural un-processed sweeteners like raw honey, molasses, or organic maple syrup and use them in moderation.

TRANS FAT

Another of the most evil substances introduced into our food supply has been trans fats in the form of partially and/or fully hydrogenated oils. Some trans fats do exist naturally in some foods and are good for you, but the trans fats created through artificial hydrogenation are the ones to avoid if you care about your health.

The process of hydrogenation essentially chemically alters unsaturated oil, which would be liquid at room temperature, and makes it more closely mimic a saturated fat, which is typically solid at room temperature. Even non-hydrogenated vegetable oils that are mass produced and heavily refined are not healthy choices.

In hydrogenation, the already toxic oils have a metal catalyst added to them and are again treated under high pressure and high temperature, and then steam cleaned and bleached. Now does that sound like something you should put in your body in even small quantities? Well, if you eat processed food, or fried restaurant food, you’re putting it in your body in huge quantities!

In recent years, studies have shown that trans fats are the most harmful fats to our bodies and may be the main reason for the explosion of heart disease over the last 40-50 years. So the next time please try to avoid foods cooked with those fats.

Facts About Meal Frequency and Thermic Effect

2008-09-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Meal Frequency and the Thermic Effect of Food

The total quantity of calories you expend on a daily basis is the sum of those required to support your RMR, those utilized for exercise and other daily activities, and those expended during the digestion and absorption of your meals (thermic effect of food). It is estimated that the thermic effect of food accounts for approximately 10% of your total calories expended daily.

Protein has the highest thermic effect, followed by carbohydrates, and lastly, fats. Eating a portion of protein with each meal helps moderate the glycemic (blood sugar) response to the ingested carbs, and helps provide satiety.

Each time you eat a meal, you expend calories simply by digesting and absorbing that meal. If you eat 5-6 small meals per day as opposed to the typical 2 or 3 meals per day, you are increasing your calorie expenditure simply by increasing your meal frequency. Eating 5-6 small meals per day means eating approximately every 3 waking hours throughout the day.

It is important to note that you should never skip breakfast. You should eat first thing when you wake up in the morning . If you go the entire morning without eating like many people do, your metabolism is running much slower than it should, and you’re also putting yourself in a catabolic situation where your body will be breaking down muscle tissue for energy and to supply amino acids for other essential bodily functions.

Another reason that increasing your meal frequency is that it helps to maintain a more stable and steady blood sugar throughout the day. This keeps your insulin levels more stable and allows you to be in a fat burning mode for more of the day. If you eat the traditional 2-3 large meals per day, you have much bigger swings in your blood sugar and insulin levels.

It is very hard to lose body fat when you’re only eating 2-3 large meals per day. In addition to promoting a leaner body, eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout each day will also provide you with more consistent energy levels without the mood swings.

Infrequent Overfeeding Key To Weight Loss

2008-09-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Importance of Infrequent Overfeeding

It’s a well known fact that to lose body fat, you need to bring your daily caloric intake below your maintenance level .At first you lose weight, then your progress slows, and then there comes aperiod when you struggle to lose any more weight. If you reduce your calorie intake even further, now you start to lose muscle in addition to losing fat . Again, that’s not good because this will lower your metabolic rate, making it even harder to lose fat.

When you restrict your caloric intake for a period of time, your body think that you’re starving, and reacts by lowering your metabolic rate and increasing your appetite. Researchers believe that the reason your body does this relates to levels of a hormone in your body called leptin.

If you’re on a low calorie diet, leptin levels will begin to fall in your body. Low Leptin levels reduces your RMR and triggers cortisol production (a catabolic hormone that eats muscle), and also increases your appetite. It’s your body’s defense mechanism because it thinks you are starving.

Here comes the question of how to keep your leptin levels normal ? and hence keep your appetite sated and your RMR at optimal levels, it is helpful to have occasional over-feedings . This could be one day a week where you forget all about your diet and eat whatever you want in whatever quantities you want. Try to make the majority of your overfeeding day comprised of carbs, but avoid sodas or other sources of high fructose corn syrup. Also, try to go approximately 1000 calories higher than your maintenance caloric intake for the overfeeding day to assure a good response.

Heres the good thing

You could still lose a pound a week even with the overfeeding day. For example, if you stay at a 750-calorie/day deficit below your maintenance level during the other six days/week, and you’re 1000 calories over your maintenance during the overfeeding day, that’s still a 3500-calorie deficit for the week (+1000 - 750x6 = -3500).

What you’re actually doing is tricking your body into thinking that food is plentiful once again and it doesn’t have to lower your metabolic rate since it no longer thinks you’re starving. Besides being important physiologically for maintaining continual fat loss, the overfeeding day is also very important mentally by giving you that one day a week to look forward to where you can overeat and not worry about it. Knowing that your overfeeding day is coming soon, you’re able to stick to your diet throughout the week.

How to choose a Balanced healthy diet ?

2008-09-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

Balanced Healthy Eating

As stated previously, there is no reason to eliminate or limit your consumption of any one macronutrient like protein, carbs, or fat. These kinds of restrictive diets will always fail . I don’t feel there’s any magical dietary composition that promotes the best results for body fat loss. Some scientists and medical experts recommend a 40/40/20 diet (40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat), while others recommend a 40/30/30 composition

, and still others recommend a higher carbohydrate content along the lines of 60/15/25 .

Iit’s not necessary to be meticulous about exact percentages of macronutrients in your diet.I think that starting with your protein requirements makes sense. As a thumb rule try to consume 1 gram of protein per pound. For example, if you’re 170 lbs, you could try to consume approximately 170 grams of protein/day split relatively evenly between 5-6 meals/day.

If you had calculated that your maintenance caloric intake is 3000 calories/day (for that 190-lb male example), then you’d need to consume approximately 2500 calories/day to lose approximately 1 lb/week (500 calorie deficit/day = 3500 calorie deficit/week = approx. 1 lb of weight loss). Therefore, the 190 grams of protein (190 g x 4 kcal/g = 760 calories) represents about 30% (760/2500) of your daily caloric intake. The rest of your calories should come from unrefined carbohydrates (focusing mostly on lower GI carbs) and a healthy fats.

Everyone is different and will function most efficiently at different ratios of macronutrients than other people. There is no magic ratio that will work for everyone. Just focus on your total caloric intake and eating healthy foods as described below. Remember to calculate your approximate caloric range for weight maintenance and weight loss.

Here are the foods that should comprise the majority of your diet in order to promote a lean healthy body: vegetables, fruits, lean white and red meats, fish, low-fat or fat-free dairy, eggs and egg whites, whole unrefined grains, legumes (peas, beans, peanuts), whole grain bread, high fiber cereals (avoid low fiber cereals, even if they are unsweetened; they are acceptable only as a post-workout meal), nuts, seeds, and non-hydrogenated minimally processed oils (such as extra virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and virgin coconut oil).

Try to avoid drinking fruit juices. We were meant to eat the whole fruit, which includes the fiber and other beneficial nutrients, instead of just drinking the juice. Fruit juices simply add extra calories to your diet without really satisfying your hunger, so stick to whole fruits instead of juice.

How To Identify Good And Bad Fats ?

2008-09-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

As I’ve previously mentioned,we need adequate amounts of healthy fibrous carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats to maintain good health .So if you refrain from consuming some of these nutrients you wont get lean soon and it will affect your health as well. So now that we’ve established that eating adequate amounts (generally 20-40% of your total calories) of healthy fats will actually help you lose body fat.

Now let’s examine which fats are good and which are bad.

To understand which fats are healthy and which are unhealthy, just ask yourself the following simple questions:

•For plant based fat sources - Is it a minimally processed natural product or a heavily processed fat.

•For animal based fat sources (meat or dairy) - Did it originate from farm animals or from free grazing animals?

I guess the answer becomes intutive once you answer these questions.

Now moving on to plant based fats.It is important to know that the saturated fats in minimally processed oils such as coconut oil, palm oil have received an undeserved bad rap.You can see that if a source of dietary fat is unprocessed and natural, it will be healthy, regardless of whether it is mostly saturated, polyunsaturated, or monounsaturated.

Does Consuming fat makes you fat ?

2008-09-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

EATING FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT!

As long as you eat the right kinds of fat without overdoing the quantity you can never become fat . Yes, fat (at 9 calories/gram) is more calorie dense than protein or carbohydrates (at 4 calories/gram), but eating adequate quantities of healthy fats will actually help you lose body fat .There is a mixed reaction to consuming fat these days everywhere , even in the medical industry .

Some so called “experts” still stick to the assertion that a low-fat/high-carb diet is the best way to lose weight . On the other end of the spectrum, people argue that a high-fat, high-protein, low-carb diet is the magic secret to losing weight .The answer is cosuming fats some where in the midrange.

Instead, it is the processing of foods that is the key factor in acquiring a lean healthy body. For example, it is known that heart disease, type II diabetes, and obesity are unheard of in historical Eskimo populations despite consuming an extremely high fat diet comprised of mostly whale blubber, seal fat, cold water fish, and organ meat.

So the key here is to consume 20 - 40% of your calories as fat .Let us examine which fats are good and which are bad in the oncoming posts.

Why Not to Follow Fad or Crash Diets ?

2008-09-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds of fad diets on the market today . The problem with most fad diets is that they limit consumption of a certain macronutrient like protein, carbs, or fat, For example, with any of the low-carb diets , they severely limit your consumption of important carbohydrate sources. You may experience initial weight loss with these diets, But I strongly suggest not to follow such diets,because they will lower your RMR and put you at

risk of regaining weight faster .

One of the first reasons people experience a quick weight loss with a low carb diet is because they lose water weight by depleting their muscle glycogen stores. A significant quantity of water is also held in the muscle cells of the body along with the glycogen. So going on a low carb diet and depleting your glycogen stores will result in a weight loss initially .And you loose your muscle in the process as well.

Another one of the reasons that a low carb diet can cause people to lose weight is that they maintain lower blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels, and therefore can lose fat easier since high insulin levels promote fat storage and make it harder to burn fat.

However, there are ways to still eat your carbohydrates in moderation while still maintaining reasonable blood sugar and insulin levels to allow fat burning. So please do not fall into the trap of the low carb diet. The trick here is to appear at a balance between your carb and lean protein diet . You’ll never get lean if you’re overfeeding on carbs. Including a moderate quantity of healthy carbs in your diet will help you have the energy to workout intensely and maintain good energy levels through out the day .

Another type of fad diet that has been promoted in the past and even still now for weight loss is a low fat diet. So you are limiting one of the most important macro nutrients. People struggle to lose weight on a low fat diet .A larger quantity of refined carbohydrates in the diet will now trigger higher insulin levels, which will make you crave more carbs as your blood sugar crashes. This becomes a difficult endless cycle of craving refined carbs. This makes weight loss on a low fat diet very difficult.

Also, low fat diets affect hormonal processes in the body, which can shut down your fat loss and muscle gain efforts. Fat is also needed to satisfy your hunger.Studies indicate that in order to maintain all of the healthy metabolic processes in which your body relies on dietary fat, you should keep your total fat intake somewhere between 20-40% of your total calories. Consuming a diet containing lower than 20% fat can affect your weight loss efforts and damage your health as well. So what fats to consume and what fats not to consume ? .I will post about it in th enext chapter .

Glycemic Index Myth Unveiled

2008-09-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

The GI was originally meant to help diabetics know that if they ate more high GI foods, they were most likely going to need more insulin because they would have a quicker and higher blood sugar response. The thought was that if they focused on lower GI foods, they could manage their diabetes better by always maintaining lower and more stable blood sugar levels. This concept has also crossed over into the fitness industry with many diets promoting that you focus on lower GI foods in order to lose body fat. Take note that the one time of day that you can benefit from eating high GI foods would be immediately after a workout to promote an insulin release and replenish your muscle glycogen stores that were depleted during the intense workout.

While the GI is basically a good thing to understand if you want to lose body fat, there are problems with it and reasons why it can be misleading. First, the GI of food is measured using a set dose where the quantity of each individual food must be the same. Therefore, while a certain food like cooked carrots may have a high GI, you’d have to an unrealistically large quantity of carrots to get enough carbohydrates to cause a significant blood sugar response. This is one reason I contend that the GI is not that important if the quantity of the carbohydrates are relatively low. It’s just not logical to think that something as healthy as carrots or bananas, which provide many important nutrients for the body, are going to stifle your weight loss efforts, unless of course, you overdo the quantity.

Also, another reason I contend that the GI of individual foods should not be relied on too heavily is because how you combine your foods into a meal controls what type of blood sugar response you get from the meal. For example, if you combine a higher GI food such as a banana into a meal with portions of protein and healthy fats and/or an additional fibrous food, you’re not going to get as quick of a blood sugar response as if you ate the banana alone.

Also, you can generally assume that the more fiber a product contains, the slower your blood sugar response to that food. You generally want to look for products that contain at least 1.5-2 grams or more of fiber per each 10 grams of total carbohydrates. So, if a carbohydrate source contains 30 grams of total carbohydrates, it would be best if that carb source had at least 4-5 grams of fiber. Whole unrefined grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans are the best sources of carbohydrates to maintain a healthy diet.

Glycemic Index(GI) And Bodys Response

2008-09-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Continued next post >>

Insulin today is considered as a demon and has gotten a bad reputation since high levels of it within the body tend to promote fat storage and make it harder to use body fat for energy. However, insulin is also a very anabolic hormone that can help shuttle nutrients into your muscle cells and promote muscle recovery. When you eat carbohydrates, they are broken down in your system and raise your blood sugar.

Your pancreas secretes insulin to remove the excess sugar from your blood and deposit it into fat stores muscle glycogen stores, or liver glycogen stores. If your muscle and liver glycogen stores are already full, the excess blood sugar will be stored as fat. If your muscle glycogen stores are depleted such as after an intense workout, insulin secreted in response to a high carbohydrate meal will push the excess blood sugar and other nutrients into your muscle cells. This is one time when insulin is very good and helps promote muscle protein synthesis (recovery). The degree to which ingested carbs will raise your blood sugar depends on the quantity of carbs you ate and how fast they are digested. Factors such as the quantity of fiber the carbs contained, along with how much protein and fat you ate in combination with the carbs all affect how quickly the carbs are digested.

Generally speaking, the more unrefined and fibrous the carbohydrate source, and the more protein and fat eaten with the meal, the slower the carbohydrate will be digested, and the lower and more steady the blood sugar and insulin response. Slow and steady carbohydrate sources are ideal because they give you steady energy levels, reduce cravings, and allow your body to utilize fat for energy in addition. More heavily refined starches and sugars where the fiber has been removed will be digested much more quickly and cause a higher blood sugar spike and subsequent crash after insulin has done its job. People who eat a lot of refined processed carbohydrates typically go through these cycles of blood sugar spikes and crashes, which causes them to crave more carbohydrates and leads to body fat gain.

A little known fact is that carbs are not the only food substrate that can promote an insulin response. Large doses of certain free form amino acids and quickly digested proteins such as whey protein also can trigger an insulin response.

One of the methods that was devised originally to help diabetics manage their blood sugar properly was the glycemic index (GI) of foods. The GI basically categorizes foods (generally carbohydrate sources) into low, moderate, or high on the GI scale.

Basically, foods that raise your blood sugar quickly will have a higher GI and foods that raise your blood sugar slowly and to a lower degree will have a lower GI.

Examples of foods with high GI’s are white rice, white bread, white potatoes, corn flakes, crispy rice cereals, sugars (except fructose), ice cream, bananas, cooked carrots, candy, and any other refined carbohydrates where the fiber has been removed.

Examples of foods with lower GI’s are most dairy products, most fruits and vegetables, whole unrefined grains, sweet potatoes, barley, beans, and most other higher fiber carbohydrate sources.

Continued next post >>

Effective Exercises To get a Six Pack Abs ..

2008-09-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before the focus must be more on multi joined exercises in order to get a lean physique.So here I've given a list of exercises that are most effective in the weight loss and leaning down regime .

•Standard barbell deadlifts

•Romanian deadlifts

•Barbell back squats

•Barbell front squats

•Barbell overhead squats

•Dumbbell lunges (walking or standing)

•Dumbbell step-ups

•Barbell clean & presses

•One arm snatches

•One arm swings

•Two arm swings

•Barbell high pulls

•Barbell or dumbbell incline or flat bench presses

•Dips

•Push-ups variations

•Pronated grip pull-ups

•Supinated grip chin-ups

•Lat pulldowns (supinated, pronated, or neutral grips)

•Barbell bent over rows

•One arm dumbbell rows

•Renegade dumbbell rows

•Seated horizontal cable rows

•Overhead barbell or dumbbell presses

•Dumbbell squat & presses

These are all the exercises that are recommended for an effective and safe workout and maximum fat burning effect .These exercises are mainly multijoit exercises as opposed to single joint exercise and they give a maximum workout and burn fat better .

13 Effective Tips To Get A Six Pack

2008-09-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

So let’s review all of the important concepts to take into account in order to design a highly effective training program that will promote a lean ripped body. In no particular order, the most important factors that go into an effective routine are:

Focus the majority of your time on weight training to get lean instead of focusing on cardio training;
Replace traditional moderate intensity long duration cardio with high intensity shorter duration anaerobic training such as wind sprints and interval training;
Utilize multi-joint exercises instead of single joint exercises for the majority (if not all) of your training routines;
Focus on free weights instead of machines for the majority (if not all) of your training;
Increase the intensity of your workouts by focusing on exercises in which you complete more “work” by moving significant quantities of weight for larger distances .
Keep your workouts shorter but intense;
A training frequency of 3-4 sessions per week works best for the majority of individuals;
Ab specific training should be completed at the end of your workout or on a separate day from your full body training;
Ab specific training never needs to comprise more than 5-7 minutes of your total 30-60 minute training session;
Ab specific exercises should provide significant resistance to challenge your strength level
An arched back should be avoided during ab training while generally focusing on maintaining a hunched back during most ab exercises;
Perform a functional warm-up at the beginning of each workout utilizing core strengthening exercises to warm up your body along with a brief bicycling warm-up to lubricate the lower body joints;
Follow a specific type of training program consistently for 4-6 weeks before changing your training variables.

Frequency And Duration Of Training Sessions

2008-09-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Many people falsely believe that you must workout everyday or at least 5-6 days/week to build a lean ripped physique. In fact, for most people, training that frequently will lead to over-training. Your body needs a stimulus (exercise) in order to build muscle and lose body fat. However, your body also needs sufficient rest to recover from that exercise. Therefore, training everyday doesn’t give the body much time to rebuild and get ready for the next training session. On the other hand, if you only train one day per week, you’re doing little more than a sedentary individual.

So, what is an optimal training frequency for most people to obtain the best results? There’s not one single answer since everyone is different. It also depends on how you structure your sessions. However, most people respond best to training 3-4 days/week. That allows sufficient training stimuli to force your body to adapt, yet also allows sufficient rest to prevent you from getting “burned out” or overtraining.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your workouts between 45-60 minutes. Studies have shown that training sessions exceeding one hour promote higher levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol which can lead to excessive muscle protein breakdown. It’s very hard for your body to fully recover once you’ve over-trained. Think of it as taking two steps back, but only one step forward.

In summary, the majority of people respond best to training 3-4 times/week for 45-60 minutes/session.

The Problem With Cardio and a remedy .....

2008-09-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, all of those hours upon boring hours of repetitive low to moderate intensity cardio training sessions are not the best way to lose body fat and reveal your abs.

While it is true that aerobic training (cardio) does burn a higher percentage of fat during the actual exercising than anaerobic training such as wind sprints or weight training (which rely more heavily on carbs for energy), this does not mean that aerobic training will promote a leaner body than anaerobic training. The reason for this relates to the important aspects of your overall RMR, the quantity of lean body mass you possess, the hormonal response from the exercise stimulus, and the residual metabolic effect of your training session in the hours and days following your workout.

First, as previously stated, your RMR remains elevated for only 1-2 hours following a typical cardio workout. Conversely, your RMR remains elevated for up to 1-2 days following a strenuous anaerobic training session (weight training, sprints, and other high intensity exercises) in which a large quantity of your skeletal muscle has been traumatized. This trauma created in your muscles during anaerobic training is the process of muscle protein breakdown. Then, in the hours and days following that anaerobic training session, your body must repair the damaged muscle. This is called muscle protein synthesis. During this whole process, your RMR is elevated due to the repair work your body is performing. Hence, you end up burning a lot more additional calories from this residual RMR increase than you would have from the cardio training session. I

Second, as simple as this fact sounds, it is most often overlooked in people trying to lose weight who think that they have to focus on cardio to lose the weight. Weight training builds lean muscle mass and therefore increases your RMR .Lower your RMR, the harder it’s going to be to lose any more body fat and easier to store body fat if you happen to overeat.

First, realize that our bodies are designed to perform physical activity in bursts of exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go movement instead of steady state movement.Most competitive sports are also based on stop-and-go movement .

To examine an example of the different effects of endurance or steady state training versus stop-and-go training, consider the physiques of marathoners versus sprinters. Most sprinters carry a physique that is very lean, muscular, and powerful looking, while the typical dedicated marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly looking. Now which would you rather resemble?

Another factor to keep in mind regarding the benefits of physical variability is the internal effect of various forms of exercise on our body.

High variable intensity training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production in the body and an anti-inflammatory response, a more efficient nitric oxide response (which can encourage a healthy cardiovascular system), and an increased metabolic rate response (which can assist with weight loss).

Recommended Exercise Routine for Accelerated Weight loss

•Warm-up for 3-4 minutes at a fast walk or light jog

•Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute

•Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes

•Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute

•Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes

•Repeat those 4 intervals 4 times for a very intense 20-minute workout.

Do this routine on no workout days.You will see a leaner physique within days .

Is Wearing a Weight Support Belt Good Or Bad ?

2008-09-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

While on the topic of core stabilization, I want to emphasize to any misinformed fitness enthusiasts that a weight belt should not be worn at any time during any of your weight training routines (unless you’re performing a max or near-max lift in one of the spine loading lifts such as squats or deadlifts). The theory behind a weight belt is that it pulls in on your abdominal wall to aid in supporting your spine during a very heavy lift. The problem is that if you use a weight belt all the time, you actually weaken your core musculature since you take away the work that they are intended to perform. Hence, you could set yourself up for a back injury in the future. You don’t know how many times I see misinformed guys walking around the gym for their entire workout wearing a lifting belt.

Bottom line – don’t use a lifting belt unless you’re a competitive power lifter performing max or near-max squats or deadlifts. You’re actually doing more harm than good if you use it for anything other than that.

FREE WEIGHTS VS MACHINES Uncovered

2008-09-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Another important aspect of your training routine that should be stressed is that the majority of your resistance training should be comprised of free weights as opposed to machines. The reason machines take up so much space in today’s gyms is that they give the place a clean, modern, technologically advanced look; so people think that the gym is “better”. The reality is that machines are far less effective for getting results than good old-fashioned free weights.

To keep your workouts interesting, realize that your free weights don’t always have to be dumbbells or barbells. Some of the most intense, functional, result producing workouts can be done with kettlebells, sandbags, logs, boulders, etc.

Free weights allow you to follow your body’s natural line of motion and require that you stabilize the weight, whereas machines stabilize the weight for you and restrict you to a fixed path of motion. Essentially, machines are doing a portion of the work for you making your workout less effective. In addition, an over-reliance on machines for your weight training can make you prone to injury in the long run due to neglecting your important stabilizer muscles.

Bottom line – if you want better results from your workouts, stick to free weights for the majority of your routines.

When I say machines, I mean something that’s locked into a fixed path. Take note that I don’t consider cable exercises as machines. Therefore, cable exercises such as lat pulldowns, horizontal rows, or cable bench presses from a stability ball can all be beneficial.

Cardio VS Weight Training . The recommended one .

2008-09-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Let’s first take a look at the typical way that many people workout and compare it to a more effective full body approach. In their quest for getting lean, many people will focus a large percentage of their workout on cardio work and then work one or two muscle groups per day for weight training. Lets take an example of a person who is doing some cardio sessions and light weight training like biceps , triceps .Doing this he isnt elevating his metabolism and the effect doesnt stay for hours and days to come .

Now let’s compare that workout to an intense full body training routine comprised of some multi-joint lower body exercises such as squats and deadlifts combined with multi-joint upper body exercises such as bench presses, pull-ups, and bent over rows, and finished off with a couple challenging ab exercises.

This type of workout has stressed pretty much every muscle in your entire body as opposed to just a couple of small muscle groups. This in turn creates a metabolic environment in which your body must do more work (repair more muscle) to recover from the full body workout. Hence, your RMR is increased to a greater extent and for a longer period of time by doing the full body workout comprised of multi-joint lifts compared to the cardio and single joint exercise based workout.

If you’re working out 3-4 times per week utilizing the full-body training style, you’re essentially increasing your RMR 24/7. In addition, as mentioned previously, you also get a much better fat-burning and muscle-building hormonal response from your training when you focus mostly on big multi-joint exercises working large portions of the body. The result of all of this is that you get leaner quicker, provided that your diet is in order.

Compound Lifts (Vs) Isolation Lifts

2008-09-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Let’s start by looking at common weight training exercises broken down into either

Compound lifts (multi-joint movements) or
Isolation lifts (single joint movements).

Compound lifts works several large musculature , wheras isolation exercise focusses on only some particular muscle group.And one more important thing is while doing compound lifts the stabiliser muscles also come into play leading to an effective workout.

However, the general concept is that you get better overall body responses from multi-joint movements. By working a larger amount of muscle, compound lifts burn more calories, stimulate a greater release of fat-burning and muscle-building hormones, and are also more useful to everyday activities and sports. Everyday activities and sports rarely replicate single joint movements. In fact, single joint exercises are mostly viewed in athletic training these days to be totally useless or even potentially detrimental for athletes. So if you happen to see a trainer at your gym that is training an athlete with leg extensions, machine leg curls, and other single joint movements, you can pretty much rest assured that they are not a very educated trainer.

Examples of multi-joint movements include

squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, swings, snatches, bench presses, incline presses, shoulder presses, seated or bent over rows, lat pulls, pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, push-ups, high pulls, clean and presses, etc.

Examples of single joint exercises include

barbell or dumbbell curls, triceps extensions or pressdowns, shoulder lateral raises, pectoral flyes, leg extensions, leg curls, etc.

While there can be some occasional benefits to single joint exercises , the majority of your routines should be comprised of multi-joint exercises in order to develop a lean, strong, functional body.

Weight Loss tip for overweight people

2008-08-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

One key way to get a six pack ab is not do do crunches madly , but to focus on burning more calories .I've seen over weight people in gym doing biceps curls daily just because they want big biceps .But whats the point in having big biceps with a big belly .So if you workout your core musculature you will burn more calories and increase your lean muscle mass and eventually burn more fat.So the next time you see overweight people doing crunches ,biceps curls stop them and ask them to go for exercises that burn more calories like squats ,bench press , shoulder press etc instead of focussing on muscles like biceps ,triceps,traps .

How many pounds to loose a weeek ?

2008-08-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

It is considered safe to loose 1 or 2 pounds a week. If you lose the weight slower, you will generally be able to maintain more muscle. You need to create approximately a 3500-calorie deficit to lose 1 lb. Hence, if the male in the example above would like to lose 1-lb per week, he could reduce his daily caloric intake by about 500 calories/day to around 2472, or any other combination to create a 3500-calorie deficit per week.

The amount of LEan Body mass ie your muscle is directly proportional to the amount of calories you burn .This is the reason that weight training will be so important to your efforts for getting lean. The more muscle you develop, the easier it will be for you to lose body fat. The more muscle you lose through excessive dieting or excessive endurance cardiovascular exercise, the lower your RMR will go.So to simply put it "More the Muscle ,more the fat you burn ".

Some peolpe think just touching dumbell or a barbell will make them like a hulk. Especially the ladies think so .But on the contrary if you see in a gym the sexiest will be the one that lifts the heaviest of weights.
The best way to achieve this is through proper resistance training. Also, it is very rare for females to respond to weight training by gaining excessive muscle mass.Women simply don’t have the hormonal balance to build too much muscle mass. Now dont quote me the women body builders . I guess most of you know they take hormone injections.

And please dont go for fad and crash diets , they do more bad than good in a long run.And it makes your RMR slower . So, after you return to your old diet you will gain weight faster.

Daily Caloric Needs calculation formula

2008-08-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

You need to multiply your calculated RMR (below given formula) by a factor of

1.3 -sedentary
1.4 -moderately active
1.5 -very active

RMR expressed in calories (kcal)/day
Height expressed in inches
Weight expressed in pounds
Age expressed in years

For men: RMR = 66 + (12.7 x height) + (6.27 x weight) – (6.8 x age)

For women: RMR = 655 + (4.57 x height) + (4.36 x weight) – (4.7 x age)

Example: A 190-lb male, 6’0” tall, 28 yrs old, very active

Daily caloric requirements for weight maintenance =

1.5 x (66 + (12.7 x 72) + (6.27 x 190) – (6.8 x 28)) = 2972 calories/day

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

2008-08-28T04:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most important factor in burning body fat is the resting metabolic rate (RMR). The calories you metabolize on a daily basis is a combination of those consumed to support your RMR, those consumed from your daily activities and exercise, and those consumed from the thermic effect of eating meals.

Your RMR accounts for approximately 60-70% of the calories you expend on a daily basis, while your activities account for approximately 20-30%, and the thermic effect of food accounts for approximately 10%. Now you must be knowing why emphasis is being laid on making the RMR high by increasing your lean muscle mass.The idea here is to burn calories even when you are at rest .

In the next post I've provided formulas for you to calculate your approximate daily caloric needs in order for you to have an idea of how many calories you need per day to maintain the same weight. You can then adjust appropriately in order to lose weight.

KIller ABS Workout other than crunches

2008-08-27T02:16:00.000-07:00

A Couple Surprisingly Killer Abs & Core Exercises

•Front squats is a killler abs workout .You can feel your whole body aching including your abs after you finish this workout .

•Renegade dumbbell rows .Requires lots of stamina to do this and learning to balance is also a key .It works out your abs while you try to stabilise yourself .

Exercises hard on the back to be avoided.

2008-08-26T00:51:00.000-07:00

Listed below are the ab exercises I recommend avoiding because they are either ineffectual or potentially harmful to the back due to excessive psoas recruitment and/or encouraging an arched back:

The Bad Exercises

•Any machine-based ab exercise

•Any machine-based twisting exercise

•Torso twists (they provide no resistance, nor burn many calories)

•Hanging leg raises with an arched back

•Sit-ups with feet supported

•Lying straight-legged leg raises (first 45° off of floor, one leg at a time or both)

•Straight legged sit-ups

Now that we’ve listed the exercises I recommend avoiding, provided below are the exercises that should be focused on in order to best develop the abs and hip flexors, as they provide the most resistance and encourage proper body positioning:

The recommended exercises are put in the next post .

Good exercises for SIX PACK ABS

2008-08-25T02:06:00.000-07:00

The Good Exercises

•Hanging leg raises (with hunched back)

•Hanging knee raises (with hunched back)

•Lying leg thrusts (hip thrusts)

•Decline bench leg thrusts (hip thrusts)

•Reverse crunches (crunching hips off floor)

•Ab bicycles (alternating knees to elbows)

•Ab scissors

•Stability ball crunches (weighted for progression)

•Bench crunches

•Alternating (oblique) crunches

•Weighted cable rope crunches (with hunched back)

•Ab wheel

•Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)

•Abdominal vacuums (transversus abdominis development)

The difference these exercises make are you are doing this with a hunched back rather than with an arched back. So ,the possiblities of you deveoping a back pain or injury is less.And these variety of exercises train your ABS from different angles making it strong and flexible.

Recommended Exercises for six pack abs

2008-08-24T01:45:00.000-07:00

Next Post >>

There are literally hundreds of different exercises you can do for ab training, and people are always looking for new ab exercises with the thought that you always need to have a new exercise to get continued results. This is not true. You can pretty much keep using the same core of effective exercises, and change the training variables over time to keep progressing. For instance, you can change the order of exercises, the amount of resistance, the volume of work (sets and reps), the rest periods, the rep speed, or even try a different angle of a certain exercise for variety.

I should also note that in order to maintain balanced muscular development in the “core”, you must also devote sufficient training to the lower back muscles as well as the abdominals and hip flexors. You will get plenty of lower back training to balance out the ab training if you follow the exercises presented in section 9, which is full of lower back strengthening exercises such as deadlifts, swings, and snatches.

In the next post I've listed the exercises that I recommend avoiding because they are either ineffectual or potentially harmful to the back .

Next Post >>

Resistance Frequency and Duration of Ab Training

2008-08-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons that many people who spend a half an hour during each workout doing hundreds of crunches fail to ever develop six pack abs is that after a certain point, regular crunches just don’t provide much resistance.

By focusing the majority of your time in the gym on bigger compound movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and upper body multi-joint presses and pulls, your body is forced to work harder and burn more calories during and after the workout. Don’t get me wrong, crunches can have their place in a routine, especially for beginners, and advanced versions of crunches can even be challenging enough for well-trained athletes.

So how long should your ab training take? Well, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a half hour or more every day training abs. You can complete an intense ab training session in about 5-10 minutes during your workouts, either at the end or in the beginning of your workout, or on a separate day. I recommend doing your ab training at the end of your workouts to assure that you don’t pre-exhaust the abs when you might need their stabilization to protect your back during some of the bigger compound exercises that might make up your workout.

So the best method is to end the Ab workout at the end of your workout,so that you will see maximum results.

In reality, you really should train abs like you would any other muscle group. I recommend inserting a tough 5-10 minute ab routine into your workouts 2-3 times per week. That will be more than sufficient to help you fully develop your abs, without over-training them. Remember, your muscles need enough rest to properly develop. In fact, training your abs more than 2-3 times/week may lead to over-training and bring your progress to a halt.

As I noted earlier, in order to fully develop the abs to their potential, you need to train them with exercises that actually provide significant resistance. While I stated that crunches can be a great ab exercise for beginners, once you’ve got some ab training under your belt, you’ll need to start looking to more resistive exercises to make progress in ab development.

Exercises in which you’re curling the lower body up, particularly from a hanging position, provide the most resistance and are much more challenging than curling up the upper body. This is simply due to the fact that your legs are much heavier objects to move than your upper body. So begin your Ab workout with your lower body and once you have fatigued your AB's with that move to the excercises that are based on upperbody movement.

Anatomy Of Six Pack Abs

2008-08-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

The abdominals are composed of the rectus abdominis and the lateral abdominal muscles known as the transversus abdominis, and the internal and external obliques. The rectus abdominis runs from your sternum to your pelvis and essentially helps pull your rib cage and your pelvis closer together. The transversus abdominis acts as a natural weight belt essentially holding your insides in, and stabilizing your trunk. The internal and external obliques work to rotate the torso and stabilize the abdomen. The rectus abdominis is the actual visible “six pack” that you see in someone with well-developed abs and a low body fat percentage. However, the lateral abdominal muscles are also very important to develop due to their role in supporting the spine and maintaining a healthy lower back. In addition, developing the transversus abdominis helps pull your stomach area inward giving you the appearance of a smaller waist. Whenever you suck your stomach in (like a guy at the beach trying to hide his gut), you are using the transversus abdominis to perform that movement.

A popular myth is that people think that the upper abs and lower abs can be worked separately. The fact is that you cannot isolate the upper or lower abs. The rectus abdominus is one muscle group and the entire length of the muscle group is activated whether you’re pulling the upper body up or pulling the lower body up. So the technique here is to workout your abs from a variety of different angles to ensure maximum muscle fiber developement.

And one more thing that most people forget is abdominal muscles are just like anyother set of muscles in our body .They too need rest .I have seen people working out their abs heavily everyday with little or no results .If you are going to do that you will end up damaging your muscles .So work out your abs 3 days a week to get optimum results.

Reducing Body Fat to show six pack ABS

2008-08-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

When people ask me how to go about getting six-pack abs, they usually start talking about all of the crunches and other exercises they spend hours every week performing without seeing any tangible results. The idea is to reduce the body fat % to expose the already developed abs.And 6 pack ABS is not all about crunches .

Granted, a certain level of muscular development of the abs is necessary to have a ripped “six pack” appearance, but ultimately your body fat % is what’s most important. Generally, men need to get below 10-11% body fat to really start to see the abs (they really pop out at 7-8%), and women need to get below 16-19% body fat to really bring out their abs. However, everyone will differ depending on his or her body fat distribution. Based on individual body fat distribution, some people may need to get even leaner than these percentages to be able to see their abs.

Men tend to accumulate more body fat in the abdominal area, whereas women tend to accumulate more body fat in the hips and thighs.There are many methods available to do this, but the methods that will be most accessible to the majority of people are the skinfold caliper method, the bioelectrical impedance method, or estimates using girth measurements of various body part circumferences.Some of the calculations and tables for the girth measurement method can be found on-line or your trainer at your gym may be able to complete the calculations if they have the tables available.

While this manual will provide all of the information you need to know about developing your abdominals to the greatest extent possible given your genetics, the majority of this manual is going to focus on proven strategies and tips that will help you reduce your bodyfat to such levels that your abdominals are clearly visible.

So I guess you must have got an clear idea about the "Six Pack Abs Secret" .My following posts will cover the process steps and diet that you have to follow in order to get a chiseled body .