Lose Those Last 10 Pounds
I’m sitting here reading an email that just arrived in my inbox with suggestions for losing 10 pounds fast. I’m in agreement with most of it.
- Drink fewer calories from soda, alcohol, flavored water and energy drinks.
- Cut back on white sugared foods like candies and desserts and replace sugar with agave or raw honey.
- Watch what goes on your salad. Refined carbs and bad fats lurk in things your sprinkle on top.
- Replace whole milk with skim.
- Drink a glass of skim milk before you eat. You’ll get fuller, faster.
- Reduce portion sizes, even eat on a smaller plate as people tend to fill their plate. Less plate equals less food.
The email also talks about exercise and that’s the part I’m not in alignment with. Total emphasis was place on getting cardio exercise to really boost weight loss. Any exercise is helpful, but cardio might not be the way to shed those last 10 pounds. To burn a lot of calories with cardio you have to do a lot of powerful exercise. When you stop, so does the calorie burning. Personally, I don’t want to spend a lot of time exercising.
Resistance exercise not only burns calories while you’re doing it, but continues burning calories long after you’ve stopped. This after burn period is referred to as ‘excess post-exercise oxygen consumption’ or EPOC. It represents the oxygen consumption above resting level (sitting still) that the body is using to return itself to its pre-exercise state. The more intense the workout, the greater the oxygen consumption. Plus, doing it with intensity will get your heart pumping just like cardio. Aside from the benefit of prolonged calorie burning, you don’t need to put so much time into it like you do with cardio.
If you’re up to the challenge of an intense workout, grab a set of resistance bands and get free live exercise online here. You’ll get the help you need for losing those last 10 pounds or for staying in shape. The program is called Chiseled. Think resistance bands are for sissies? Think again. It’s an explosive 30 minutes of training with Blake Kassel, the owner and creator of Bodylastics resistance bands.
Train Your Chest
First of all when you’re looking to increase the size of your chest, you want to make sure that you target your body’s fast-twitch muscle fibers, because they have the most potential to grow.
How do you do that? By diversifying your workout and emphasizing low-reps and heavier-weight in each of your sets. You can also do an explosive, fast movement on the concentric part of the movement. For instance, off the bottom of the pushup you can push hard and fast so that your hands come off the floor and you clap your hands together, then return to the down position slowly for a 2 or 3 count, then repeat.
I get disagreements on this one, but I know that it’s true. The Best Chest Exercise is the WEIGHTED DIP… no contest! Why? It’s very simple, doing dips (and pushups) is the only chest exercise in which you move your body through space, instead of moving the weight through space. .
Moving your body through space uses more brain to muscle connections than just moving iron through space because it taxes your central nervous system more. The result, more muscle recruitment.
Now, you’ll work your triceps tremendously when doing a WEIGHTED DIP as well, but you’re also working your chest at the same time. You’ll need a dip belt to do these (or a simple strap or jump rope will do the job), and you’ll have to work your way up to a decent weight, but by the time you’re doing 8 reps with a 100 lbs on the dip belt, you’ll see the improvement in your chest size and strength like no other exercise.
Push-ups are next on the agenda, and because you need to hold a plank while you’re doing them, they also work your core stability.
Also, there are so many variants of the PUSHUP that are even more explosive. One of those is the MEDICINE-BALL ARCHBISHOP PUSH-UP; a long name, but this exercise works.
What you do is put 3 to 5 medicine balls in a semicircle, then get in the push-up position and put both hands on the ball to the far right; your chest should be over the ball and your feet must stay anchored throughout this exercise.
Now, move your left hand to the ball at the left and do a push-up, then bring your right hand to that ball. You want to continue moving left, doing push ups until you get to the last ball on the left. Then work your way back across the balls. That’s one rep.
Because of the inherent instability of the medicine balls, your hips and core will have to work much harder to neutralize that unstable surface, so you turn your chest workout into an ab workout also.
Try doing supersets of weighted push-ups with lying cable flies. Have your training partner place a weight on your back for the push-ups. When you do the flies, try holding the peak contraction for 3 seconds, and then do a 5 second eccentric contraction or lowering phase.
As with every exercise, perfect form is more important than lots of weight, because you don’t want to cheat and use other muscles to stabilize you or help you move the weight.
Resistance bands will also work very well for both weighted push-ups and dips. They don’t require a partner, travel easily and won’t ding the floor. For pushups, just put the band behind your back. you can put it on your lower back to work your core more or up around your shoulder blades. Now put your hands into the band loop and pin it to the floor and go to town. If it’s to loose at the bottom of the stroke, just put a loose overhand knot in the center of the band and you’re set.
For dips, drape the band around the back of your neck so it comes down the front of your shoulders and then place your hands in the band and grab on to the dip bar and have a field day.
You can also use the bands to assist in these movements if you don’t have the strength to move your bodyweight yet.
We only put the bench press last on this list because it is the first you normally think of and we wanted to give you some other ideas. And it is not as functional as the others because you are not moving your body through space. Keep variety in your workouts to keep your body growing and to keep from getting board.
Keep in mind that you can do the bench either, flat, incline or decline and you can use barbells or dumbbells.
Free Online Exercise Workouts
If you have an internet connection and some resistance bands you can workout anytime, anyplace to live exercise online for free.
There’s a program available for everyone throughout different times of the day. If you can’t catch a live workout, shows will be recorded and you can watch then when ever you like.
There are four different workout classes available for everyone in the family at the most convenient time of day and are conducted by trained physical fitness instructors.
Men’s program: Early morning. Strengthen and build muscle with the best resistance band exercises for adding muscle to your body.
Women’s program: Early afternoon. No bulking here, only toning designed for a woman’s body. Look hot in that little black number you’ve been saving for special occasions.
Teen’s program: Late afternoon. An after school workout program, specifically designed for teens to shape their developing bodies, build confidence, and look great.
Kids: Saturday and Sunday morning. Turn off the cartoons and have some fun. Kids love interactive programming and this is a great way for them to direct all that extra energy.
These free workout videos are perfect for people who don’t have access to a gym, are uncomfortable going to a gym, can’t afford a gym membership, or can’t spare the extra time to go to a gym begin with.
Workout videos and DVDs get old and boring after awhile. Plus, with any frequency, your body adapts to the exercises and they may not be as effective as they once were. That’s something that won’t happen with these live workouts because each show offers something different. Also, exercising is more fun when you have a live workout partner.
Resistance bands workouts provided many benefits without weights or the expense of home gym systems. They also have the advantage of being able to move in virtually any direction, not just up and down movements and they’re safe for the entire family.
- Increase muscle strength and endurance.
- Helps protect muscles and joints from injury.
- Improves performance in nearly any sport or physical activity.
- Strengthens bones and reverses osteoporosis.
- Helps promote healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
- Boosts metabolism and burns fat for hours during the “after-burn”.
- Helps maintain a healthy weight.
- Improves self-esteem.
- Helps with diabetes through improved insulin sensitivity and blood glucose control.
The Best Leg Workouts
Many people in the gym overlook the legs, and that’s a shame, because your legs are your locomotor unit and your foundation and you can’t build a strong body without laying the groundwork.
Your legs have essentially three main sections that all need to be trained equally, which means that you have to do lots of work to see appreciable gains in the size and strength department; those sections are — the hamstring, the quadriceps and the calves.
One leg exercise that can be labeled as the granddaddy of all muscle-building workout is the SQUAT (this idea is being challenged, we’ll see in awhile). Well, over 200 individual muscles get called into play when you perform squats, and because you are moving your body through space (not only the weight) you have more control of the weight that you are lifting and you activate more muscle fibers with each rep.
Squats blast your glutes, upper hamstrings and quads like no other exercise, not the leg extension or the leg press. A correct and proper form of execution is vital for you to get the best results as well as to avoid injuries.
When done correctly, you will use your hip extensors to get moving off the bottom of the stroke and then the quads will kick in at the top or lock-out portion of the exercise. Keep your shoulder blades collapsed together and your chest out and use your butt to hunt for something to sit on as you descend, stop when your thighs are at or just past parallel and then push through your heels and butt to drive yourself back up. You can vary your foot position to accent adductors or abductors.
Now that I’ve spent all that hot air telling you how to do squats, I’m going to recommend that you don’t do them, here’s why. Turns out the limiting factor on squats is your low back and in that bilateral squat position it’s not as stable as it could be, and therefore, you are more prone to injury there.
Your lumbar spine and S1 vertebrae are locked together and more stable in a one foot forward stance and therefore you can drive more work to your legs that way. So my recommendation is to sack squats in favor of split squats. This is like doing a lunge, but, you don’t come out of the lunge position until you are done with your reps and then you switch legs and do the other side.
This is also the reason it’s more functional, we are designed to walk, and that stance imitates a step. You can do this with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, sand bags and TRX suspension straps. I explain more about lunges in a little while. I will post a video on split squats in the near future.
At the start of every workout, it is suggested you do stretches, however you can take this step a bit further and stretch in between sets for more benefits.
Since we’re talking about squats, you must include the HACK SQUAT (using the machine) in your routine to bombard not just your quads but your abductors & adductors. Your abductors and adductors are notoriously hard at work, but the Hack Squat really targets them. Depending on where and how you place your feet on the platform, you’ll either emphasize your gluts or your quads more. A wide stance will emphasize your adductors, narrow will get a little more abductors. Feet forward will get more glutes and feet under you or back further will emphasize quads (careful not to hurt your knees on these).
Another quality leg exercise is the STRAIGHT-LEGGED DEADLIFT. This exercise assaults your upper hamstrings and glutes, and forces you to keep your lower back flexible and strong, too. Once again, collapse your shoulder blades together and stick your chest out.
You want to start with a comfortable, but challenging weight, and perform these by using a mixed grip on the barbell (one hand palm up and the other palm down), then lower the weight while keeping your legs and back straight.
Your knees should be slightly bent. Keep the bar close to your shins and push your buttocks outward. To feel fatigue in your upper hamstrings and glutes, you’ll have to perform either a good number of reps.
Another great exercise is the LUNGE. While paying attention to proper posture, next up will be lunges that will work on your hip extensors which are your glutes and upper hamstrings. When lunges are done with improper posture and bad form the load is thrown onto your knee extensors, your quads.
If you feel that most of the work is concentrated on your quads while doing lunges or deep squats, then it might be best to ask for coaching on the proper posture, otherwise, your knees will give out. It’s very effective when you lunge with a barbell, as it requires you to utilize your balance and stabilizers as you do each rep. You can do lunges with dumbbells, too, but you can’t use as much weight.
Three other great tools to do lunges with are: 1) Resistance bands, you can use the bands for either resistance or assistance. In my humble opinion, these are the ultimate tools for doing lunges, hell, you can use a barbell and use the band at the same time. 2) TRX suspension straps. You can use the bands with this also. 3) Sandbags, due to the shape and ever shifting nature, these require different gripping and/or carrying strategies and more core stabilization. Yes, you can use bands at the same time.
But we can’t overlook the calves, as building and honing these muscles will balance your legs (as much as genetics will allow) and add inches to your vertical leap.
After looking at so many different calves’ exercises, DONKEY PRESS is perhaps the most aggressive in building strength and size.
Form is critical for the donkey press, make sure you keep your knees straight and plantar and dorsiflex your ankles as far as you can, this bent over position adds a prestretch to the back of your legs and especially your calves.
While doing these workouts, try to keep in mind that you run the risk of injuries. So proper form and being honest with yourself regarding how much weight you can successfully lift.
The Muscle Gaining Secrets Master Manual!
