Want some great weight loss advice free? For losing stubborn fat, excess fatty tissues deposits that unknowingly build up around essential parts of your body, and to avoid the overall onslaught of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates that literally SNEAK up on you as excess fat later on... your best weight loss approach is to begin observing the EXACT number of calories that result from both the activity that you do along with the foods you are eating.
And, in a nutshell, an effective meal calorie counter can help you do just that.
This particular advice for weight loss affords you many benefits that probably up to now you have been missing. For instance, perhaps you may be highly interested in building up great abs quick. And, as quiet as it is kept, the absolutely most effective and successful way to do this is by lowering your overall body fat percentage. Yep. That is basically all there is to it because, contrary to popular belief, body fat does not merely sit in specific pockets or places on your body. It maintains a practically even distribution around your ENTIRE frame.
Okay, by incorporating a good meal calorie counter you now have your basic recipe, method, or approach to losing unwanted body fat. It happens via lowering your overall body fat percentage. Now, let us look at one or two of the primary ways in which the weight you carry is affected by the other aspects of your lifestyle.
One of the troubles with attempting to lose pounds is that simple matter of mental focus. Meaning, countless individuals who seek to lose weight often go about it with a sort of "tunnel-vision" that excludes the various, related, and crucial connections to weight loss achievement.
Today, you can explore the most important case in point, which is the ability to utilize, access, and understand the essence of a solid meal calorie counter.
Recall from the above that we agree you can lose the pounds you desire with a very fundamental yet consistent outlook and comprehension of how food calories truly work. Quite simply, the meals you eat are your one and ONLY source of dietary fuel intake. Such intake will become either of two things for your body: 1) excess fat; or 2) used energy.
You definitely want the latter, number two above. Your goal is to transform your meals into USED energy. This comprises the essence of body fat percentage and the lean mass that you carry around with you in excess, or with confidence, emotional satisfaction, and high performance capability.
This virtually all begins with your meal calorie counter because, in order to CONTROL a figure, you must be able to SEE the numbers that are creating it. You can write them down on a piece of paper. Or, better yet, you can get yourself a simplified and easy-to-use meal calorie counter that helps you to inclusively see what you eat, create the exact amount of calories that result in pounds lost each day, plus allows you to build or enhance your skill, comprehension, and expertise in the entire calorie counting scenario.
Essentially, EVERY food you eat has a corresponding calorie count number. That is, by the end of each day, the total enumeration of all the foods you have eaten gives you a sum. For example, maybe you are currently consuming 2,140 calories per day in total. And, if you are overweight, using this example, your goal is to eat 1,640 calories per day (because this will result in approximately 1 pound of fat loss per week).
Now, keep in mind that you do not have to reach your long-term goals at the beginning of your engagement. Take your time, in fact, because the best recommendation is to lose only a maximum of two pounds per week. This approach gives you long-term, convenient control over what you are doing. Mastering this meal calorie counter approach also gives you the confidence and the ability to relax more because you know that at any given time, you can lose weight at will.
Your scientific meal calorie counter method will easily become one of your favorite weight loss methods because it works - consistently, without guessing, and minus the emotional frustration caused by yo-yo dieting philosophies.
About the Author
Author, Kenneth Gene Dockins, is a trusted, caring professional lifestyle consultant with over 17 years of expertise in instructional guidance, and formalized hands-on training in fitness, nutrition, and weight loss achievement. You can find a great low calorie menu planner tool at Better-Body.Biz See the "Weight Loss Simplicity Menu Calculator," a highly supportive meal calorie counter.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Bodybuilding 101: The Total Body Workout
The trend in bodybuilding over the past many years has been to train one body part at a time, once a week. While this protocol can be very effective, it often can lead to overtraining and it requires a heavy commitment of time. If you find yourself too busy to make it to the gym 5-6 times per week or you feel that your body is overtrained and you need a refreshing change, the total body workout may be just the thing you need.
At first you may wonder how you can ever work your whole body in one workout. After all, most people are so accustomed to performing 4-5 exercises per body part for around 12-20 sets that they cannot imagine properly training a body part with anything less. This mindset must be opened up. In working your whole body in one workout, you will be performing only 1-2 exercises and 4-6 sets per body part. However, the training frequency will be 3 times per week.
The total body workout involves a focus on basic, multi-joint movements. These exercises stimulate the most response from the body in terms of not only the muscle fibres recruited, but also in the release of the necessary hormones to promote muscular growth. Also, working all major muscle groups in one session will have a synergistic effect on your body's response to the training session. In short, your body should respond well to this type of training, especially if it is a drastic change from what you have been currently doing.
The key is to keep the training sessions relatively short (less than one hour) and intense. Work the large muscle groups first (legs, chest, and back) and then the smaller muscle groups (shoulders and arms). By focusing on basic, compound movements you will provide your body with the maximum recruitment of muscle fibres in the shortest amount of time. For example, when you train chest with bench or incline presses, you are also recruiting heavy work from the shoulders (especially the front deltoids) and triceps. This is efficient training. Combined with sufficient intensity, it will create really good results.
With this program, leg training simply cannot be neglected. The simple old-fashioned barbell squat is the best bodybuilding exercise, period. Regular intense squats performed in good form will stimulate muscular growth over your whole body. As a matter of fact, most individuals would benefit from a routine focused on just squats, deadlifts, bench, bentover rows, and chins. These exercises work because they stimulate muscle growth. These are what the old-time greats focused on. So do them.
Here are the exercises recommended for the Total Body Workout:
Quads: Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squats
Chest: Bench press, Incline press, dips (presses may be performed with dumbbells or barbells)
Back: Deadlifts, Chins, Pulldowns, Bentover Rows, T-Bar Rows
For a sample workout, simply choose 1-2 of these basic movements for each body part and perform no greater than 6 sets. For example, a workout could consist of squats for 5x5, bench press for 3x8, incline press for 3x8, chins for 3x10 and bentover rows for 3x8. You get the idea? It's pretty straightforward. By the way, a 5x5 or 3x8 protocols works really well for the total body workout.
You can follow these basic movements with the following isolation exercises:
Hamstrings: Lying or seated ham curls
Calves: Seated or standing calf raises
Shoulders: Shoulder Press (dumbbell or barbell), lateral or front raises
Arms: Dumbell or preacher curls, lying triceps extension, triceps pushdowns
Abs: Crunches
For the routine, simply choose 2-3 of these muscle groups and perform 2-3 sets of your favourite isolation exercise. The next workout, do the other 2-3 muscle groups. For example, if you did shoulders and arms one workout (at the end of your legs, chest, back routine) do hams, calves and abs the next workout.
The total body workout should be performed 3 times per week on alternate days. A Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine works well and it leaves the weekends free for you weekend warriors. The important thing is to remember never to do the same exercise twice in a row. So if you did squats, barbell bench and chins and barbell rows on Monday, change it to leg press, dumbbell incline press, pulldowns and deadlifts on Wednesday. This is an easy routine to follow.
If you are looking to get maximum results with limited time, this routine rocks! If you are looking for a change or something new to stimulate new growth and strength, the total body workout could be just the ticket. Give it a try - you may just love it! Now get to the gym and train with intensity!
At first you may wonder how you can ever work your whole body in one workout. After all, most people are so accustomed to performing 4-5 exercises per body part for around 12-20 sets that they cannot imagine properly training a body part with anything less. This mindset must be opened up. In working your whole body in one workout, you will be performing only 1-2 exercises and 4-6 sets per body part. However, the training frequency will be 3 times per week.
The total body workout involves a focus on basic, multi-joint movements. These exercises stimulate the most response from the body in terms of not only the muscle fibres recruited, but also in the release of the necessary hormones to promote muscular growth. Also, working all major muscle groups in one session will have a synergistic effect on your body's response to the training session. In short, your body should respond well to this type of training, especially if it is a drastic change from what you have been currently doing.
The key is to keep the training sessions relatively short (less than one hour) and intense. Work the large muscle groups first (legs, chest, and back) and then the smaller muscle groups (shoulders and arms). By focusing on basic, compound movements you will provide your body with the maximum recruitment of muscle fibres in the shortest amount of time. For example, when you train chest with bench or incline presses, you are also recruiting heavy work from the shoulders (especially the front deltoids) and triceps. This is efficient training. Combined with sufficient intensity, it will create really good results.
With this program, leg training simply cannot be neglected. The simple old-fashioned barbell squat is the best bodybuilding exercise, period. Regular intense squats performed in good form will stimulate muscular growth over your whole body. As a matter of fact, most individuals would benefit from a routine focused on just squats, deadlifts, bench, bentover rows, and chins. These exercises work because they stimulate muscle growth. These are what the old-time greats focused on. So do them.
Here are the exercises recommended for the Total Body Workout:
Quads: Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squats
Chest: Bench press, Incline press, dips (presses may be performed with dumbbells or barbells)
Back: Deadlifts, Chins, Pulldowns, Bentover Rows, T-Bar Rows
For a sample workout, simply choose 1-2 of these basic movements for each body part and perform no greater than 6 sets. For example, a workout could consist of squats for 5x5, bench press for 3x8, incline press for 3x8, chins for 3x10 and bentover rows for 3x8. You get the idea? It's pretty straightforward. By the way, a 5x5 or 3x8 protocols works really well for the total body workout.
You can follow these basic movements with the following isolation exercises:
Hamstrings: Lying or seated ham curls
Calves: Seated or standing calf raises
Shoulders: Shoulder Press (dumbbell or barbell), lateral or front raises
Arms: Dumbell or preacher curls, lying triceps extension, triceps pushdowns
Abs: Crunches
For the routine, simply choose 2-3 of these muscle groups and perform 2-3 sets of your favourite isolation exercise. The next workout, do the other 2-3 muscle groups. For example, if you did shoulders and arms one workout (at the end of your legs, chest, back routine) do hams, calves and abs the next workout.
The total body workout should be performed 3 times per week on alternate days. A Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine works well and it leaves the weekends free for you weekend warriors. The important thing is to remember never to do the same exercise twice in a row. So if you did squats, barbell bench and chins and barbell rows on Monday, change it to leg press, dumbbell incline press, pulldowns and deadlifts on Wednesday. This is an easy routine to follow.
If you are looking to get maximum results with limited time, this routine rocks! If you are looking for a change or something new to stimulate new growth and strength, the total body workout could be just the ticket. Give it a try - you may just love it! Now get to the gym and train with intensity!
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