Recommended Sites
Archive for April, 2010
Looking for the miracle recipe to burn stomach fat?? Unfortunately, there is no miracle pill we can take to instantly have ripped abs. However, the correct combination to burn stomach fat is cardiovascular training and proper nutrition.
You’ll see all kinds of ads to take this supplement, drink this tea, or do this exercise to burn stomach fat. The true reality of burning stomach fat is to lose weight, by using more calories than you consume. If you have healthy eating habits, with nutritious foods, the truth is you won’t need supplements. Do cardiovascular exercise for at least 30 minutes most days to burn stomach fat.
The abs look great, but it is commitment, dedication and discipline to get there!
There are a few tips to keep in mind with your weight training workouts. You can do a full body workout, which is doing one exercise per body part. The other way you can use your weight training workouts to your advantage would be to split up the body part exercises for separate days, which would be called a split routine.
If you are going to use the split routine be sure to breakdown your weight training workout with opposing muscle groups like, chest/back, legs/shoulders, biceps/triceps. You could also breakdown the routine into chest/triceps, back/shoulders/biceps and just legs. There are a number of combination’s that can be done with your weight training workouts.
With a split routine you can do many different exercises for one body part on the same day, thus isolating the muscle group more complete. Which ever weight training workouts you decide on, allow 24 hours for rest and recovery for that muscle group.
Well guys it’s time to start sculpting that upper body. A real good way to do that is with push up exercises. You can always start small, with knees on the floor. As your upper body gets stronger you can graduate to 1 arm push ups or even handstand push ups. It’s so much fun to watch your progression.
If you are like me, push up exercises can sometimes bother my wrists. They have
push up stands or grips you can buy to help with wrist issues. You could also hold on to a set of dumbbells, by placing them on the floor.
Push up exercises can also use both sides of the BOSU. Use a stability ball and walk your hands out forward. You could grab a smaller pilates ball and hold the ball in one hand push up and switch it to the other hand. Then there are triceps push ups, close grip, wide grip, standard push up exercises or even push ups against the wall. Vary your push up routine to increase your upper body strength!
There are hundreds of abdominal exercises that can be done to help get a flat stomach. In so doing, there are those who forget to take care of the lower back, causing a huge muscle imbalance! Think about your abdominal area and reaching around to the lower back. This is the area where all movement is centered. Our posture stems from the muscles in the core and low back.
I want to remind you, after you do your abdominal exercises, rollover on to your stomach and work on the lower back. Lift and lower the extended legs behind you, keeping the foot flexed and squeezing the butt. Then alternate and lift the upper body off the mat. You will definitely feel these exercises in your lower back. That is good it helps strengthen the back.
Whenever I talk about weight training, the women get all upset and say they don’t don’t want to bulk up. The men however, are always looking to build muscle mass. Weight training and muscle building has many advantages to both women and men.
Weight training helps you to lose fat. By building more lean muscle your resting metabolic rate will be higher. This means that if the muscle to fat ratio is greater (more muscle/less fat)it requires the body to burn more calories at rest. That alone is a great reason for weight training!
Weight training can help with preventing injuries. As you get stronger lifting weights, your
connective tissue gets stronger, including stronger joints and bones.
Which leads me to more balance and stabilization. Weight training teaches all the muscles to work cohesively together, helping you maintain good posture and good balance.
There are so many benefits of weight training it’s impossible to list them all. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell both men and women about the possible prevention or delaying of osteoporosis by doing weight bearing exercise. Your self esteem will improve and the day to day activities will become easier. Now is a good time to start your weight training!
Circuit Training is one of many fat burning workouts! I like circuit training because you can use your weights, apparatus in the gym, and maintain a target heart rate. Plus, you can get in a lifting session and by moving from exercise to exercise without rest makes it a cardio exercise.
Interval Training is another great fat burning workout. Interval training is all about peaking your heart to its max and having some recovery time. Exercising in a way the heart rate increases for a finite period of time, then still performing the exercise allow yourself to recover for a finite period, and alternate in between. It’s like there are hills and valleys in your workout. Interval training is also cardio training.
The cardio fat burning workouts could be done daily. However, it is not suggested to use the circuit training workout daily. The muscles need 24 hours to recover. Circuit training can be used for a “quickie” workout at the gym…get in/get out quick!
I was thinking today about kettlebell exercises compared to dumbbell exercises and which I liked better. I do like warming up with the swing using a kettelbell. It works the whole body, because you squat and swing the kettlebell to shoulder height. An exercise you can’t really do to well with a dumbbell.
The clean and press exercise is usually done with a barbell instead of dumbbells. I think I like the fact you can lift heavier weight with a barbell. However, I like the ability to do a clean and press unilaterally (one arm) with the kettlebells. You can even out your right/left side dominance.
The squat and press can be done with dumbbells, barbell, and kettlebells. You can definitely hit
heavier weight with the barbell. The dumbbells and kettlebells are about equal. Except, I like the fact that when you push up into the overhead press the kettlebells will have more movement, throwing your balance off causing you to hold in the abs.
There are kettlebell exercises that can’t be substituted by dumbbells, like around the world. It is too cumbersome to use dumbbells and you wouldn’t get the speed required. I prefer to use dumbbells when doing a chest fly.
So I think it’s a 50/50 split between kettlebell exercises and dumbbell exercises. It’s always good to use both during a workout.
I teach this great Body Sculpt class weekly. Today after we did an abdominal exercise using the stability ball, I made a comment about lengthening the levers (arms/legs)makes an abdominal exercise more intense. I also added a comment about the basic crunch. When I was done explaining it, everyone learned how to get more from a basic crunch. Now I’m going to share this little tidbit for you.
When you get in a basic crunch position, hands behind head, knees bent. As you bring your head neck and shoulders off the mat, simultaneously do a pelvic tilt up. Think of it like bringing the ribs to meet the hip bone. By tilting the pelvic bones up, it also ensures that the low back stays into the mat. Not only that, you will use the entire abdominal range, incorporating the lower, mid and upper areas of the abs.
Wherever you are, and whenever you do a basic crunch, include the pelvic tilt and you’ll be working the entire abdominal area. Here’s another great abdominal exercise from Fitness From the Pro!
How to get a flat stomach comes with many variables, and some are fairly obvious. I am not a nutritionist, however, everything starts with good nutrition. That is quality protein, complex carbohydrates and good fats. A diet rich with fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, whole grains, good fats and plenty of water is an excellent beginning to a flat stomach.
Cardiovascular exercise includes 30 minutes of walking, indoors or out, biking, using the elliptical machine, or swimming, etc. The idea is to keep your heart rate in your targeted heart rate zone for at least 30 minutes.
Then there is strength training, to build up muscle. Increasing the amount of muscle and reducing the amount of fat will increase your resting metabolic rate. Your body will use more energy to sustain itself at rest with more muscle than it uses at rest with a higher fat percentage.
Finally, work on different abdominal exercises throughout this period, and you’ll have stronger more defined abdominal muscles. Don’t forget to equally work on your back muscles too, so you don’t create a muscle imbalance.
Combine good nutrition with at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise most days of the week and strength training, and that’s how to get a flat stomach.
How do you know if you are ready to increase your weight when you are weight training? First of all it depends on your fitness goals. If you want muscular endurance, you’ll want to increase your repetitions with a challenging weight with little rest in between sets.
If your weight training goal is to gain strength, then you will want to drop the number of repetitions and increase your weight. This could be done with the progressive overload. That is, start with a weight you can successfully do 12 repetitions. The next set should be incrementally heavier, where you would want to do 10 reps. The third set would again increase the weight and reduce the reps to 8. As you increase your weight, increase the rest time in between sets.
This is a good rule of thumb to follow with any weight training routine you may use. Don’t try to push the increase if your muscles aren’t ready. However, do recognize the signs any time you get to your last set, with the last rep and you are not struggling, then it’s time for the increase!