Exercise Routines For Women At Home

March 13, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Workout Routines for Women

Best Exercise Routines For Women At Home

Exercise routines for women have become an integral part of their lifestyles. With lesser time for oneself and sedentary lifestyles, exercise routines for women at home hold a high significance.

Those women who do not wish to spend a lot on the gym charges; they can easily follow exercise routines for weight loss at home. Exercise routines for women without equipment are also available for those who can’t afford the gym equipment. There are various exercise workout routines for women and it is just up to the women to choose the best fit for them.

Even the women have tight schedules now and they are constantly struggling to maintain a balance between the work and home. And yet some of them aspire to follow one or the other exercise routine at home. But they may still need to buy some inexpensive equipment to carry out these exercise routines at home. The equipment would include a bath towel, a small (soccer-sized) ball, a furniture-free area at home, a desk chair, some good dance music and a glass of water.

Exercise Routines For Women At HomeExercise routines for women at home provide the best chance to maintain their working regime along with their physical fitness. Before starting the actual workout, a four-minute warm-up is a must. Running in place or walking briskly around the house provides a sufficient warm-up before the exercise routine.

Few of the exercise routines for women are:-

  • Ab twist: While sitting on the floor and towel underneath you, and feet shoulder-width apart, hold the ball with both hands and arms extended in front of you. Lie back, tucking in with tight abdominals at all times. Stop at halfway to the floor and twist to the left and try to reach toward the floor with the ball. Slowly twist over to the right side while holding for a beat followed by normal breathing and concentrating on contracting abdominal muscles.

  • Push-up: Push-ups are an important part of the exercise routines for women at home. Place the towel under the knees for support and kneel on the towel in such a position that the torso is at a 45-degree incline. Position the hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and with fingers spread, lower yourself (until the torso remains two inches off the floor) while inhaling and abdominals tucked. Now gradually press up to the starting position.

  • Hamstring curl: You need to lie flat on stomach with ball placed between ankles. Let the head rest on crossed arms. Lift the knees off the floor as high as possible, keep the ball squeezed and the legs straight. Now the knees should be bent until the feet point toward the ceiling. Remember to exhale while curling up and inhale while releasing.

  • Arm Extension: Roll up the towel lengthwise, place one end in the left hand. Straighten the left arm directly over the head. Now grasp the other end of the towel with the right hand reaching behind the back. Let the towel be pulled down gently with the right arm, bending left arm behind the head. Keep inhaling while holding the towel steady. Exhale and bring the left arm to the starting position keeping tension on the towel with right arm. Then repeat on the other side.

 

The above exercise workout routines for women can be done even without any equipment’s, so it’s not necessary that you need something external to do exercise. All you need is motivation and you can follow above mentioned exercise routines for women at home to get fit and look smart.

For attaining the results, the workouts need to be followed very sincerely and the exercise routines for women at home are a blessing for the ones who are unable to manage time from their schedules.

Effective Workout Routines for Men

February 15, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Workout Routines for Men

Effective Workout Routines for Men To Build Muscle And Lose Fat

In today’s world of hectic and stressful life, it is very important that you must know the effective workout routines for men. Be sure to do some exercises regularly. These workout routines can be done at home and it can help you in maintaining the fitness level that you want without spending too much money and time. You can even perform these exercises at home by yourself.

Effective Workout Routines For Men To Build Muscle And Lose Fat

There are a lot of effective workout routines for men at home that you can do. In fact, you do not have to join a gym or any fitness club in order to make yourself fit. These home workouts are probably better compared to those performed at the gym because you are only using your body weight while performing them. If you workout in a gym and you do not have any prior knowledge about the machines that you will use on the workouts then chances are you might damage your joints or obtain some injuries. Excessive stress on the body joints can result to serious consequences.

Advantages of Effective Workout Routines for Men

  • Workouts done at home are much safer than those done at the gym.
  • Bodybuilding exercises and stretching exercises are proven to be highly effective if proper guidelines are followed and proper care is observed.

The most effective workout routines for men can be categorized into back, chest, leg and shoulder workouts. These exercises can help you in keeping a fit body. Workout routines for men done at home are quite simple and yet effective. These workout routines can help you in muscle building as well as developing a strong body.

Some of the Effective Workout Routines for Men

  • Push-ups are considered as the most common types of workouts that you can do at home. This type of exercise can strengthen your chest muscles. The inverted push-up is another type of push up exercise that can help in strengthening your shoulder muscles.
  • Side to side lunge is a form of exercise that can strengthen your leg muscles.
  • Body weight squats are the exercises for the muscles of the thighs and the legs particularly the glutes, hamstring and quads.
  • Deadlift is a type of weightlifting exercise which is done with the use of a barbell. This is the best exercise for stretching your thighs and back.

These effective workout routines for men are quite easy to perform at home. These exercises do not require too much time. Some people use these workout routines as their most effective weight loss workout routines. Some people want to lose weight because they are tired of the criticisms made by some people or they just simply want to boost their self-esteem. If you want to be successful in doing these workout routines then you need to have hard work and discipline. Your weight loss goals cannot be achieved by pills or dietary supplements. All you have to do is to make some changes in your daily routine. Effective workout routines for men are the easiest and most economical way of maintaining a healthy body.

Elliptical Trainer Routines

February 13, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Workout Routines for Women

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 Elliptical trainer routines are now becoming more popular due to a lot of reasons and the most important of all is its overall effectiveness. A lot of people are enjoying elliptical trainer workout routines because it has a lot of advantages which cannot be found in other types of exercise equipments.

Advantages of elliptical trainer routines

  • Elliptical trainer workouts are actually a combination of a stair climber and the natural and full stride of a treadmill. Treadmills are actually simple but you have to pace yourself the right way.

  • Elliptical machine routines provide you with cardiovascular workouts without affecting your back or your joints. This is a feature which you cannot find in other types of exercise equipments. Elliptical trainer workouts are perfectly safe for those individuals who have problems with their ankles, arthritis or bad knees.

Elliptical Trainer RoutinesFeatures of elliptical trainer routines

    • No back strain can be felt since you are standing upright in a natural position. There’s no need to pull or reach anything, therefore you won’t suffer any back pains compared to other types of exercise equipments.

    • Using the elliptical machine workout programs can give you the option to work your lower body or your upper body only. If you choose not to do the upper body workout then you can make use of the hand rails for comfort and support.

    • Elliptical machines can let you do both backward and forward motion which can let you exercise different muscle groups. These machines can give the most comprehensive workouts for your body providing an excellent overall sculpting and toning.

Using elliptical trainer routines can let you burn more fats. You won’t feel more exertion compared to a treadmill. This is the best way of obtaining great results while sticking to the workout program without feeling any disappointment. Elliptical machine workout routines are suitable for intermediate or advanced users as well as for beginners. You can never outgrow these machines. You have the choice to intensity and try various workout routines in order to meet the level of ability and fitness that you want. These elliptical machines are also safe for pregnant women. Due to the obvious benefits, a lot of people are now purchasing these elliptical machines. These machines are a wise investment for everyone. After purchasing these machines, try to develop elliptical workouts that can help you in toning your body. Your workouts must be able to help you obtain cardiovascular health. Whether you are an intermediate or a beginner on elliptical workouts, it is very important that you must have cool-down and warm-up periods. These periods are very important every time you use these elliptical machines. You can allocate five minutes for warm up as well as five minutes for cooling down and make them in a steady and slow pace. This can help you in loosening your muscles. You can do your workout for at least 3 to 5 times a week. You can also use your elliptical trainer routines every other day so that your muscles can rest on the days in between.

Quick Muscle Building Workouts

Quick Muscle Building Workouts – Your Secret to Fast Muscle Building Techniques

In the rapid-paced world today, everyone aspires to achieve results rapidly in whatever they do. Whether it is about losing weight or gaining it, losing fat or building muscle, fast and quick results are often expected. But the fact remains, there is no shortcut to success and hard work is the key. Quick muscle building remains the most desired wish amongst the youth today and they are always in a lookout for such quick muscle building workouts.
quick muscle building workouts

Quick Muscle Building WorkoutsThere are some points to be remembered for effective and quick muscle building. For building muscle, low reps should be used. This gives more stress to your muscles and they tend to grow faster. The focus should be on compound lifts for effective muscle building. Compound lifts mean those exercises which require various individual muscles to complete the lift. Squats, bench press, overhead presses are few notable compound exercises. Contrary to common beliefs, free weights are better than machines to make your muscles work more. Going to gym should be treated like going to a war. 100% intensity is required to do a good workout. The frequency to train should be set right as it is the key to achieve the effectiveness of these quick muscle building workouts.

Today, patience is meant only for mutual funds, not muscles. We want our bodies to look good right away. So here, we shall discuss a few types of quick muscle building workouts.

Pumping the chest

This is one of the commonest muscle building workouts and does not require any iron, but just pushups. Do as many pushups in 1 minute as possible. Without a break, move into a modified pushup position and perform pushups as many as possible in 1 minute. Repeating such a superset at least twice makes a good workout.

Pumping the arm

Work the triceps and biceps equally hard and rest 4-5 minutes between these exercises.

Overextension Kickback

Holding a light dumbbell in the right hand and with left knee and hand placed on a bench, you need to bend forward at hips to make the torso parallel to the floor. Lift the dumbbell up and back. The palm needs to be rotated up slowly toward the ceiling as the weight clears the butt. After a short pause, return to the starting position. Three sets of eight repetitions with each arm should be done. It is a very effective way of quick muscle building.

 

Bench Dip

The hands should be placed behind on the edge of a bench and the feet on a second bench placed in front of you. Someone should place a few weight plates on your lap carefully so that they do not fall. The body should then be lowered until the upper arms are nearly parallel to the floor. After a short pause, return to the starting position. Gradually with fatigue setting in, get the weight plates removed one at a time, until you are unable to do any more with only your body weight. Then, taking a position as if sitting in an invisible chair, lower your body and complete as many repetitions as possible. Probably the hardest of all, but bench dip is the most important part in the list of quick muscle building workouts.

Modified Bicycle Kick

You need to lie on the floor with hands behind your head, right leg straight but off the floor. Bend the left leg to pull your knee to the chest. Lifting the shoulder blades off the floor, touch the right elbow to the left knee while taking a count of two. Pause, return to the starting position and repeat the move on the other side. A minimum of 15 repetitions should be done on each side followed by 30 conventional crunches to achieve results in muscle building.

Roll up

Lie straight on the floor with arms at your sides. With heels pushed into the ground, shoulders and back should slowly be lifted off the floor until the body is perpendicular to the floor. Come back to the starting position to a count of five and perform 10 repetitions.

A sincere approach and right intensity are absolutely vital to get benefits from these quick muscle building workouts.

Muscle Building Diet

September 19, 2011 by  
Filed under Featured, Workout Routines to Build Muscle

Muscle Building Diet For Building Muscle Fast

What you eat is as important as you train yourself for any activity especially building muscles, stripping fat, and losing weight. Muscle building diets differs from the ordinary diet. Body builders work hard in the gym and strict muscle building diet with adequate nutrients is required to grow body muscles.

There are different muscle-building diet plans, so planning the correct one is very important if you want to increase your lean body mass without gaining too much unwanted fat. Generally people say it is important to have 3 proper nutritious meals per day. But 5-7 meals per day with right amount of nutrients at interval of 2-3 hours are more beneficial in muscle building. Some of the important muscle building diet rules are:-
Cycle your calories:-
This is one of the most important rules and works very well. You should consume more calories on the day you work out more and the vice versa. It will help you to stay leaner as you go for muscle building process. Eat your breakfast properly to get the calories from the first hours.
Get plenty of lean protein sources:-
Always make sure to get enough lean protein sources with each meal. This will help you in muscle density development. Proteins are the second source of energy after carbohydrates, so consuming them gives you enough energy to work out. Egg whites, Lean red meat, Chicken breast, Fish, and Seafood are excellent sources of protein.
Eat on healthy fats:-
Healthy fat is must for muscle diet plan. Healthy fat is extremely calorie dense at 9 calories/gram compared to 4 calories/gram proteins and carbohydrates. So it easily meets your calorie requirements. Fats slow the digestion and preventing the nutrients to get directly to the muscle tissues. So you should try to avoid fats before and after the work outs but do add healthy fat to your each meal.
Meal Timings:-
Make sure to have proper meal and nutrient timings. Try to focus on taking protein and carbohydrate rich diet before and after the work outs and then include proteins and healthy fats in your other meals. This will provide your body with the exact type of fuel sources, which means better results.
Be cautious on vegetables:-
It is always said that eat as many vegetables as you can. But for person who is looking for muscle building diet, you will have to be easy on consuming vegetables. As you will not be able to reach the total calorie intake for growth requirement as vegetables are rich in volumes but low in calories. You can blend vegetables in sauce and have its nutrient values. But take caution while consuming them, so they do not take the extra space in the stomach.
Eat calorie dense foods:-
It is advisable to take calorie dense food when you are thinking of muscle building diet rather than on vegetables. Adding foods like whole eggs, dried fruits, nuts, and nut butter which are calorie dense make your progress faster in muscle building. By taking even small quantities of calories dense food you reach your goal.
Always assess your progress:-
You should check your progress regularly. If you haven’t built the muscles even after doing proper work out as you had hoped, it means you are not consuming enough calories. So increase your calorie intake by 200-300 and then see the effect. If you assess your progress regularly, you can adjust your body accordingly and have the proper results.
Do not neglect all saturated fat:-
For muscle building, it is primarily important to take unsaturated fat, but having some saturated fat helps you to keep testosterone levels high. Testosterone is the key hormone involved in process of building muscles. So don’t neglect it completely- 15 % of fat can easily come from saturated fats while planning for muscle building diet.
Keep hydrated:-
Hydration is one of the important key factors in muscle building diet. It helps you to recover yourself from workout sessions and after that you have the energy to carry out your daily activities. It is advised to have at least 10-12 glasses of water; juice, milk for extra calories.

Though many people argue on the basic amount of fats, proteins are carbohydrates but generally following guide is helpful in muscle building diet plan:-
Fats: – 0.25 grams/pound of body weight.
Proteins: – 1-1.6 grams/pound of body weight.
Carbohydrates: – 2.5 grams/pound of body weight.

So above mentioned are some muscle building diet tips which, if taken care of, helps you in fast muscle building process.

 

 

Build a Bigger Chest in 3-4 Workouts or Less

September 30, 2010 by  
Filed under Featured

If your pecs are a weak body part, or, if you’ve simply hit a progress plateau in your chest development, then this high intensity chest training program will pack slabs of muscle mass on your chest after just 3-4 workouts – and I guarantee it. This is a high intensity bodybuilding workout for advanced bodybuilders only. (Beginners don’t even think about it…)

I’m currently on workout 3 of 4 in this pec routine and the results have been so impressive that I decide to write it up for you before I even finish the final workout next week.

Considering I’m on a calorie deficit in a cutting phase, I’m especially impressed with the increase in my chest size and development after 3 workouts. You’re not going to gain much if any muscular body weight if you are in a caloric deficit, but NO DOUBT, you can improve the development of a muscle group even while cutting up. This is a perfect example. I’m going to return to this program again for sure on my next mass phase. This program is called…

Multi-Angular Rest Pause With Pump Finisher

Here’s how it works. You select two exercises. For exercise one (the main course), I chose a basic pec mass exercise that can be done at any angle from steep incline to flat bench. Thats the primary exercise you stick with for all 4 workouts. Incline Dumbbell Press was the natural choice. I set up on a fully adjustable bench that allows multiple angles of incline.

For exercise two (dessert), I chose an isolation exercise for a pump finisher, and it changes with every workout.

Here’s the sequence:

A1 Incline Dumbbell Press – steep incline – about 65-70 degrees
6 reps
rest 10 seconds

A2 Incline Dumbbell Press – medium (regular) incline – about 45 degress
6 reps
10 seconds

A3 Incline Dumbbell Press – low incline – about 20-25 degrees
6 reps
10 seconds rest

A4 Dumbbell Press – flat bench
6 reps

Now rest 2 – 3 minutes.

That’s one “set.” Technically of course, that is FOUR SETS, done in rest pause fashion, so lets call it one “round” for clarity’s sake.

Yes… that was round ONE. Now do it two more times.

Note: It helps a lot if you have a training partner change the bench angle so you can stay seated and keep the dumbbells in your hands. Doing it alone is slow and cumbersome.

For poundage, youre going to have to go MUCH lighter than usual. Although I don’t train heavy pecs anymore, last time I did, I was doing 6 reps with 125s on the incline. So for this program I took about 50-60% of that; 70 lbs on workout 1, 75 lbs on workout 2,and 80 lbs on workout 3. On the last one, I had to drop to the 75s to finish all 3 rounds and even then I needed some forced reps towards the end.

You may need to decrease the weight on the 2nd or 3rd round, but if at all humanly possible, do NOT reduce the weight during each round. Doing all four angles at the same poundage is the whole idea.

What may happen, especially if you even slightly overestimated your starting poundage, is that reps may drop with each angle change within a round. First angle – 6 reps is easy. second angle, a little harder, but still no problem. Third angle, you might only squeeze out 5 reps or hit honest failure on the 6th rep. 4th angle (flat), you might hit total failure on the 4th or 5th rep.

Now this is also where a training partner comes in. This routine should not be attempted without a spotter. Sorry, but you are a dork if you try to do this without a spotter. This program causes HONEST muscle failure (I’ll explain that in more detail shortly), so you need the spotter for safety, but moreover, you will need a spotter’s assistance to complete forced reps, at least on the final round or two, if not the first round. In general, forced reps should not be overused, but they play an important part of this program.

Ok, where were we? Oh yeah, you just finished your 3rd round. You might be finished! Yeah. some people will be DONE, KAPUT, ZONKED, BONKED, NUKED, GAME OVER, after 3 rounds of that (think about it – that was 12 sets, disguised as 3 sets!) However, for those who want the full course…. come with me and lets finish off those pecs with the pump (oh, you thought were already pumped… heh.. just wait…you’ll see what a pump is!)

The second exercise (exercise B) is going to be an isolation exercise.. ie., DB flye, cable crossover, machine flye (pec deck), etc., and you will perform 20-25 reps, non stop in piston-like fashion. use a steady quick tempo, but not so fast that you use momentum.

This isolation /pump exercise will change with every workout:

B1 Workout 1: standing cable crossover
2-3 sets, 20-25 reps

B1 Workout 2: machine flye or pec deck
2-3 sets, 20-25 reps

B1 Workout 3: decline dumbbell flye
2-3 sets 20-25 reps

B1 Workout 4: flat bench cable flyes in cable crossover machine
2-3 sets, 20-25 reps

That’s it! That’s the whole program. Three rounds of multi-angular rest pause, then finish your workout with 2-3 sets of 25 reps on a pumping, isolation movement.

This routine is performed within a standard bodybuilding type of split, so it should be done once in 5-7 days, no more. You would probably do another body part after chest,such as biceps or triceps, depending on how you organize your split routine.

I would recommend advanced bodybuilders use this program a couple times a year if and when they need a boost in chest development. This is not the type of program you would use all the time. You would burn out and overtrain.

There’s one more very important part of this routine – progression.

On the Incline Dumbbell Presses, you will increase the poundage with every workout. Keep in mind, you will not be able to complete all 3 rounds at all 4 angles for 6 unassisted reps. Its going to get harder each time, even as you get stronger. You may have to use a spotter more with each progressing workout. You may also find that on workout 1 or workout 2, you can complete all 3 rounds with the same dumbbells, but on workout 3, by the 2nd or 3rd round, you have to drop the weight or you’ll barely be getting 2 or 3 reps.

Now let me re-emphasize the importance of a spotter. Theres something thats going to happen when you do this routine that does not happen often. You will hit what my training partner and I call “HONEST FAILURE.” This means that your muscles literally fail, or give out right underneath you. Mind you, this is not something you would usually aim for, but that’s just the nature of this program and this is only a 4-workout high intensity “shock” type of routine.

When I say your muscles will give out, I mean that literally. On the last rep or two of 3rd or 4th angle, of the 2nd or 3rd round, your arms may literally buckle underneath you. That’s honest failure.

You see, there are several types of failure… First there is “sissy failure”.. that’s when there is a lactic acid burn or a fatigue in the muscle (you’re tired) and because it hurts or youre tired, that causes you to stop. Thats sissy failure (sarcasm).

Then you have positive failure. This is where you can no longer push the weight up in a concentric motion, but you are still able to lower the weight and exert an upward force against the weight. For example, you’re bench pressing and you hit the “sticking point,” but you are holding that bar at the sticking point (its not coming back down), and you’re still exerting force to push the bar upward, but the bar simply isn’t moving up!

Then you have honest failure. This is where the muscle simply gives out.. it buckles. you have reached concentric and eccentric failure. This type of failiure is rarely discussed. In fact I don’t recall anyone ever writing about it except for Arthur Jones and Ellington darden and the rest of the High Intensity Training (HIT) camp.

Rarely does any bodybuilder tread in this territory, and for good reason, as it is really not necessary and can be dangerous for anyone but a veteran who knows what the heck he is doing – and all the kidding aside for a moment, Im serious about this. Its no joke if your chest and arms give out from underneath you and you dump a 70 or 80 pound dumbbell on your face. (you do like your teeth, don’t you?)

However, as a technique you use on rare occasion for a shock routine that breaks through progress plateaus, that untrodden territory is there… for those who dare. There is something about this particular program (multi angular rest pause) that takes you there. You’ve been warned! Train hard, but be safe!

Now, go out there and get jacked!

Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Eat More and Do Less Cardio to Lose that Unwanted Weight?

September 30, 2010 by  
Filed under Featured

Is the above statement too good to be true? That’s what Rory DeLuca thought. The 42 year old New Jersey resident, husband and busy father of 3 couldn’t believe what I was telling him when he came to see me. Like most people, after the holidays, Rory was frustrated with his increased weight and was even more frustrated that his previous “weight loss” efforts were not providing any results. He told me he was trying to eat less and run 4 miles every day, but every time he tried to stick to that routine, his back would hurt because of the running and he would end up starving at the end of the day. You can imagine his surprise when I told him that he would have to eat a lot more and do less cardio to achieve the results he was looking for.

Now, 3 months later, Rory has lost a total of 30 pounds and 9 inches off his body. His back no longer hurts and he is not starving. He eats tons of food all day and exercises less than an hour 5 days a week. So what is the secret to his success? Three very important weight loss principles that we can all incorporate.

1. Rory started strength training 3x’s a week. The key here is Rory was doing the right kind of strength training for his weight loss goal. He was not going from one machine to the next, doing 3 sets of 10 reps on each one. His strength training routine incorporated exercises that used his whole body so his heart rate was up the whole time. Try doing 3 exercises, back to back, using only free weights, stability balls and your own body weight, and you’ll see how quickly your heart rate goes up. No sitting on a bench and chich chatting in this workout. We keep the intensity high the whole time and the workout is complete in 45 minutes.

Incorporating strength training and reducing the amount of aerobic cardiovascular training was integral to his success. The ONLY tissue in the body that burns fat is Muscle. So the more muscle you have in your body, the more fat you’re burning at any given time during the day. The amount of muscle you have in your body also greatly affects your metabolism. So someone with more muscle mass will have a higher metabolism (This is why most men can eat a lot more than women). For example, one pound of muscle in your body requires approximately 50 calories per day. So if I had two people, both weighing 150lbs, but one was comprised of 100lbs of muscle while the other was comprised of 120lbs of muscle, the one with the more muscle mass is burning more calories all day long. That means that this person can eat more during the day and still maintain their weight and will also have an easier time losing weight. Aerobic training does burn calories while you’re doing it, but it does not do anything to increase the amount of muscle in your body, thus it does not help you to continue to burn calories when you’re done

2. Rory only did aerobic cardiovascular exercise using interval training. This concept could encompass a whole article unto itself, but basically, your body becomes accustomed to anything that you expose it to for long periods of time. Aerobic cardiovascular exercise makes your body more efficient at burning fat. But that’s exactly what you don’t want (If your car was more efficient at burning gas, you’d use less of it). Same with your body. If your body becomes efficient at burning fat, you burn less of it for the same amount of work. So instead of burning 200 calories for your 2 mile run, you may burn 150 calories for the same distance in 2 months. So you’ll have to increase the distance and continue to do this, just to burn the same 200 calories. This can eventually turn into running for an hour just to burn the same number of calories! I don’t know about you, but this is exactly what I don’t want to do.

Interval training refers to a series of intense activity separated with short rest periods. You want to make sure that you are constantly changing the intensity of your cardio workout during the whole workout, alternating from high intensity to low intensity. So a typical workout on an elliptical machine would be 5 min warmup, 1 minute at a high intensity (level 9or 10), then 2 minutes at a lower intensity (level 3 or 4). You would repeat this 3 minute round 3 or 4 times, gradually increasing the intensities once you feel like it’s getting easy. Cool down for 5 minutes, and that is a total of 19-22 minutes of cardio, not 1 hour! Keep your body guessing the whole time and it will not become accustomed to the same cardio workout.

3. Rory ate a lot of food all day long. Rory couldn’t believe his meal plan when I laid it out for him. He was going to be eating more than he was currently eating and couldn’t believe this was actually going to help him lose weight. The biggest difference would be what foods he would be choosing. Every meal was comprised of a healthy protein, carbohydrate and good fat. Lots of eggs (whole organic eggs, not whites), poultry, meat, fruits, whole grains, vegetables, olive oil, and raw nuts and nut butters. In order for his body to burn fat, it had to believe it wasn’t starving and the only way to do that was to feed it well.

So what can you do to achieve the same great results?

  1. Incorporate both a good strength training routine and interval cardio routine to your workout regimen. Don’t just do one all the time. Your body needs muscle to keep your metabolism high, and it also needs cardio to keep your heart strong, so find a good balance between the two.
  2. Incorporate a strength training routine that focuses on whole body movements. No sitting on machines, please. Unless you are rehabilitating an injury, you want to keep your body moving the whole time. What do you think burns more calories, a squat with a shoulder press combination or sitting on a leg press? Just try to squat and raise your arms overhead a few times and you’ll see how quickly your heart rate goes up. Keep your body moving through the whole workout and you’ll be sweating just as much as during your cardio.
  3. Eat consistently throughout the day. We’ve all heard it before: Eat five meals a day to lose weight. Well, guess what? It works, as long as those meals incorporate healthy food. Eat a protein with each meal. That is the biggest mistake I see. People are not feeding their muscles with enough protein. Remember, you want to keep your metabolism cranking all day and the best way to do that is to feed your body and to keep your muscle mass high.

Hopefully, this will help you to reduce those countless hours on the treadmill and stop starving yourself to lose a few pounds. I don’t know about you but if eating all day and doing less cardio is going to keep me at a healthy weight and in shape, I say AMEN to that!

Stop your weight loss struggles once and for all with these Fat Burning Meal Plans.

Super-Fast “Multi-Workouts” to Do at Home or at the Office

September 30, 2010 by  
Filed under Featured

This style of workout is WAY different than anything you’ve ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!

Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don’t have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.

Please keep an open-mind and don’t worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you’ll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that’s the case for you, then that’s your loss.

Here’s how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):

Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45-60 minutes at a shot… with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.

The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I’ve found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!

If you have a private office, then you don’t have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there’s no reason you can’t fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.

If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.

Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:

  • bodyweight squats (and variations)
  • pushups (and variations)
  • forward, reverse, or walking lunges
  • up & down a staircase if one is available
  • floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
  • floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
  • one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts

This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don’t want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.

The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body’s muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it’s usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.

Here’s an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):

Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am – 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am – 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm – 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm – max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)

Tues/Thurs
9 am – 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am – 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm – 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm – max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)

In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).

The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you’ve accomplished with these “mini” workouts completed throughout each day… You’ve increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.

Even though each “mini” workout was a very short duration, you’ve accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn’t even have to break a sweat during any of the “mini” workouts. And there’s hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.

Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don’t have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You’ve now got some extra free time on your hands!

Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you’ll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn’t mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I’d recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don’t worry so much about what other people think…have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you’ll be the one laughing back at all of the “blubber-bellies” at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!

Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique quick daily workouts.  Heck, try to get your co-workers to do these with you if you can!

If you liked these training ideas, this internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training and nutrition ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs and a flat stomach.