Cardio and strength training work in conjunction with each other to create a fool proof physical workout program leading to success in overall men’s fitness. Fitness for men over 40 is even more critical since as we age, we tend to lose muscle mass without intervening to slow or reverse that trend. While strength training refers to exercises that help build muscles, cardio can be referred to as any exercise or activity that can increase your heart rate and keep your heart rate up for a minimum period of time, but usually at least 20 minutes several times per week.

Strength training can be considered a good method for losing fat – to a point, but cannot act alone to lose fat; that’s where cardio comes into play. Now, with strength training, you’re not only building your muscles but you’re also increasing your metabolism and helping your body burn more calories. There are many options available when it comes to over 40 strength training. If you are a beginner and do not have equipment or cannot get to a gym, you can start with bodyweight exercises which are clearly a great option when it comes to weight loss and building some muscle. Using your own body weight is also free, which I think is great and a perfect way for a beginner or anyone who’s been away from exercising for awhile to get back into a routine.

When training, you must keep in mind that it is necessary to stretch out and warm up before you exercise. Actually, doing some light cardio such as getting on a treadmill or walking or simply doing some jumping jacks or other light physical activity will get your heart going and blood circulating, which is exactly what you need to do before doing any lifting. You must start with lifting the weights slowly and make steady movements with good form in order to prevent injury to your muscles. You must not forget breathing while exercising and drink a lot of water.

Cardio exercises are an important part of over 40 workouts. Cardio can be done after you have finished the heavy training exercises or can be done as an independent training on days you skip your strength training. These exercises help to maintain a healthy heart while at the same time acting as a great fat burner. The more intense the cardio, the more fat you’ll burn so don’t be afraid to kick it up a notch on days where you decide to only do cardio.

When you decide to do both cardio and strength training in the same workout, it is important that you do strength training first. Doing a lot of cardio before the heavier training could make you run out of steam early and make you too tired and possibly unable to get the most from your workouts. However, small cardio sessions can be used as a warm up for strength training sessions.

In order to achieve maximum results from your workout routine, you have to incorporate both strength training and cardio exercises together. For those working on an over 40 training program, it’s even more critical to be serious about your workout and consistently give your routine its due diligence. For more information on men’s over 40 strength training, feel free to visit fitnessfor40plus.com.

If you want to increase muscle mass, it’s very important to eat the kind of food that gives you the best nutrition for building muscle. This is just about as important as going to the gym regularly. Your hard training will get you less results, if you are not getting the proper nutrition for muscle gaining. If you are skinny and have a hard time gaining weight, it is especially important for you to keep track of the nutrition you are getting from your meals.

Here you have my six tips for muscle gaining nutrition:

1. You should have a meal every 2,5-3 hours.

Having a meal every 3 hours is beneficial for those who want to add muscle, those who are trying to lose fat and gain muscle, as well as those just wanting to gain muscle.Skipping meals to lose fat is not a good idea, because when you do your body could start to store fat as a defense mechanism.Having more frequent meals supports fat loss, because it accelerates the body’s metabolism. For those of you who can´t gain weight easily,it´s very important to have a meal every 3 hours or so, because if you don’t, your body doesn´t have a constant energy source, and it could start eating up the muscle tissue for the energy it needs.And when that happens the muscles aren’t growing.

2. Your muscles need protein to grow.

Meat, eggs, cheese, kinoa, beans, tuna, salmon, cod and peas are examples of protein-rich foods.Your preferred protein intake per day is around: 1,5 g per pound of bodyweight (3,3 grams per kilogram).Every meal should include protein, 40-60 g. Protein is an important growing material for the muscles, and it speeds muscle recovery.If you would like to use powdered protein supplement, it should not be more than 40 percent of your daily protein consumption. This is to make sure that you are getting enough minerals, vitamins and digestive enzimes from your diet.

3. Carbohydrates are an important part of your muscle building diet.

Carbs can be put in three categories, simple (sugars), complex (whole grain breads, brown rice), and fibrous (vegetables).You should concentrate on complex carbs when you are working out hard and building muscle, they release a slower and longer lasting energy. Foods that contain high complex carbs are amongst others: whole grains, cornmeal, bran, pasta and brown rice.You should eat most of your carbs in the morning and post-workout.Having a good meal post-workout is crucial for muscle building and muscle recovery. The amount of carbs you eat every day should be around 5,5 g per kilo of bodyweight (2,5 g per pound).

4. For muscle recovery, veggies are very important.

Every meal should contain 1-2 cups of vegetables and fruit.You get anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals from fruits and veggies and they speed muscle recovery and heal damaged muscle cells. High levels of acid loads to the blood, which are created by grains and proteins, need to be balanced out with alkaline rich veggies and fruits. To much acid in the blood can result in decreasing of muscle mass and bone strength.

5. Fat is important as well.

Depending on if you want to lose bodyfat or not, fat should be 10-30% of your meal. For those who don’t gain weight easily, 30 percent fat is the right amount, for those who would like to lose some bodyfat, ten percent is fine and for the rest, twenty percent is good. Consuming fat is necessary for the body, one of many of its benefits is its contribution to energy, and diffusion of oxygen into the bloodstream. The following are a few kinds of foods that contain “good fat” (essential fatty acids): olive oil, walnuts, seafood and pumpkin seeds.

6. Write down what you eat and when.

In order to keep track of the food you are eating, and whether it is useful to your muscle building efforts, keep a log of what and when you eat. Collect information about every meal, and its nutritional value, the amount of fat, carbs and protein you are eating. Even if this doesn’t sound very fun, it gets into a habit very fast, and has many benefits.You could have your phone remind you when it’s time to eat if you tend to forget meals.

By following these simple tips, your diet should be optimized for muscle gain.

I hope you found this article helpful and that it will help you in your muscle building efforts.

To get serious six pack abdominals is hard work; you need drive and determination to start with – working out and toning bits of your body hurts. But there are also three other things you need to take into account, Cardio, Diet and Muscle Building. To really get a great six pack you must embrace the burn that comes from working your muscles hard and pushing them to their limit, this is how you stimulate the muscles to grow and develop. Here is a brief guide to the three areas mentioned.

Cardio

Cardio is key, it is what helps you to burn off fat and allowing your six pack to be displayed. There is no sense working hard for a six pack only to find it is hidden by stomach fat! You must get your heart rate up and get more active for at least 20-30mins a day. You can do this however you want, running, cycling and swimming are all popular choices but you can do something different if you wish, such as climbing for example. It doesn’t matter what you do all that matters is it increases your heart rate, boosts your metabolism and sheds your fat!

Diet

Diet is also important, if your exercising hard this can be undone simply by eating badly. Firstly you can improve your six pack by eating less sugar, take 1 sugar instead of 2 in your tea, eat less high sugar foods etc. Also don’t fall into the low fat/fat free trap! These items can often contain replacements in them that are worse for you than the fat in full fat items. A good general rule to adopt is to eat foods where there is only a small amount of ingredients or with ingredients you have heard of. That’s not to say you can never eat sugar just try and half your intake of chocolate/sweet things, even that could mean you drop a couple of fat pounds without any other change.

Muscle Building

The final major piece of the puzzle lies in the targeted building of the abdominal muscle, if you don’t have the muscle you can’t have a great six pack! The best know exercise is crunches, they are fantastic at building your abdominals and should be a part of any six pack workout. The other exercises I would recommend are air bike or cross body crunch, fifer scissors, hip rock and raise, oblique v-up. 25 reps of these exercises will really give you a burning abdominals but the results are fantastic.

Cardio training is probably the best method of burning excess fat from your body because the exercise is aerobic and requires a lot of oxygen during the workout. When burning fat is your main goal, you need to use up a lot of oxygen. This is the reason that you need to do cardio training.

You also need to keep up the activity for a long period of time in order to gain maximum benefit from it, so performing cardio in sessions of 30 minutes is a good idea. This will give you maximum results in terms of endurance, stamina and fat burning.

Some of the best pieces of equipment for maximum fat burning improvement are the treadmill, rowing machine, stair climber and stationary bicycle. Long cardio is good because your body will burn fat in the presence of oxygen. This is exactly what cardio training gives you. If you are looking to get ripped and lean then you should use this method.

If your main fitness goal is to burn fat and get into the best shape of your life, you need to burn the fat from your body. To reach this goal, you should start to exercise for longer periods of time by raising your heart rate into the fat burning zone.

You need to keep your heart rate up for a sustained period of time. When you first get started you can run or jog for about ten or fitness minutes, but you need to quickly increase that number to thirty to forty five minutes. This is known as the optimum time to remain active if you want to drop the fat from your body.

The amount of cardio training you do will depend on your goals and commitment. It is always a good idea to exercise a little each day, but when you are committed to a fitness goal then you need to do a little more than usual.

Another great tip is that doing your cardio training in the morning can increase the fat burning effects of the exercise. This is something that fitness models and bodybuilders do to get in shape.

One of the main problems ectomorph’s face is that in the early days the process of building muscle simply isn’t fun. It hurts, makes us feel sick, and the progress can be slow going. Here are a few simple ideas you can try to actually enjoy the journey:

1. Set fun goals for yourself. Instead of simply pushing for more reps of any exercise, make it a game. Reward yourself when you hit X number of pull ups, or Y number of push ups. By doing this you’re essentially changing your motivations from “building muscle” to much more enjoyable aim of beating your own personal bests.
2. Find exercises that work for you. Doing a “proper” routine of exercises is useless if you’re not going to keep it up. It’s better to follow a less effective or even unbalanced regime that you can actually keep up with for a long time. For example, although pull ups are the best ectomorphic exercise I certainly rely too heavily on them. But I justify it by realizing that I simply enjoy doing them. They’re such a simple exercise, they look impressive to onlookers, and beating my own record is ultimately satisfying. Anyways, once you find your groove with a particular exercise you’ll become fascinated with other ones to flesh out your routine.
3. Pump some music. Before doing any physical activity pump up some music on the loudest volume you can use without blowing out your ear drums. Upbeat rock music is a sure way to take the focus off the pain of exercise, and more on the fun, progressive side of it.
4. Challenge other people. Find people to workout with and then challenge each other to doing the most amount of reps, or lifting the heaviest amount of weight. It’s amazing the strength you can uncover when your pride is at stake.

You may have heard that cardio is the best way to burn body flab, you may have also heard that cardio is way overrated. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The way many people do cardio is ineffective and the workouts they do are not those that will give them the best results. To lose fat with cardio you need to choose the most intense fat burning cardio workouts and to do them in the right way. In this article I want to share 3 of my favorite cardiovascular workouts that can help you to burn fat and drop pounds quickly.

Exercise #1 – Rowing

I love exercising with a rowing machine for a number of reasons:

1. It isn’t just a cardiovascular workout but an upper body strength workout as well. You can tone your arms and back muscles with this workout.
2. It is a high intensity workout so you burn lots of calories with it.
3. I find that after I complete my strength training workout, the extra effort my upper body puts in while rowing gives my muscle additional stimulation.

Exercise #2 – Fast paced Stair climbing

This has recently become a favorite of mine, maybe because I’ve moved to an apartment on the 10th floor. I climb the stairs from the ground floor to my apartment, take the elevator down, and climb again. If you go fast and try to climb the stairs two at a time at least part of the way, you will find that this quickly tires your out and your legs will feel the strain and effort of the workout. I highly recommend stair climbing. Anyone who lives in a building should try it.

Exercise #3 – Running

Need I say more? Running is the ultimate cardio workout. You don’t need any special equipment to do this and it can burn a lot of calories and fat. I recommend doing intervals in which you change your pace every few minutes and to include some sprinting and uphill running in each of your workouts. You can get an awesome running workout in just 15-20 minutes if you push yourself hard.

Bonus exercise – Jumping rope

You don’t need more than a few minutes to feel how powerful this exercise is. Jumping rope works your lower and upper body and is quite intensive. If you have a big enough room or a terrace, you can even do his workout at home.

Do these 3 + 1 cardio exercises and you will get fast results.

Most people think that building muscles is very easy, this is a big lie. You will have to choose the right exercise and work with them extensively. Also you have to know that not all exercises will give you a good result, so you have to meet experts to help you choose your Muscle Building exercises. If you really want to build muscles, then you must add the following exercises to your Muscle Building routine, not withstanding your body composition, whether you are lean, average or fat, you need to do the following.

1. Weight Lifting: If you have been trying to build muscles without weight lifting, you have not started. This will help you exert pressure on your muscles and this is the only way you will see muscle growth quickly. Also when doing weight lifting, work with heavy weights. Some of the most effective weight lifting exercises include Weighted Pull Ups and Dead Lifts.

2. Squats: This exercise is very necessary for anyone who wants to be successful with Muscle Building, mostly it helps you grow your leg muscles. It is also good to carry heavy weights when doing squats, this way it affects most parts of your body.

3. Work Hard and Short: This technique is overlooked by so many people. If you want to get the best out of your routine, you will have to work really hard till you are unable to continue and also do your routine within an hour. It is not advisable to remain at the gym throughout the whole day.

4. Train Infrequently and Rest: You must allow time between your routines and also rest. It is advisable to set a time interval between each Muscle Building routine of 24 to 48 hours, this will allow your muscles to heal and grow. Also you should sleep for at least 7 hours a day because most of your Muscle Building growth process will take place during sleep.

5. Eat the Right Food: This is as important as choosing the right Muscle Building exercises. If you are lean, your meal should consist of 50 percent of protein food, 40 percent of carbohydrates food and 10 percent of healthy fats, but if you are fat or average, you can consume 70 percent of protein food, 20 percent of carbohydrates food and 10 percent of fatty food. Eat foods like eggs, lean meat, chicken breast, turkey, green vegetables, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado. Also drink lots of water.

Cardio workouts, especially for the aged, prove to be the best alternative workout. No weights, no straining of the body parts, no unnecessary strain-related injuries or broken bones or dislocated joints – overall, it’s an overall solution for an elderly person’s health and well being. Also recommended for overly overweight people, since too much of fat is inversely proportional to large muscle masses. To make that muscle visible, nothing burns fat better initially than a good cardio workout.

But a busy lifestyle being the chief barrier between urge and possibility, most of us do not find sufficient time to walk down to the gym. Even if they do, the travelling means is the car or any other motorized vehicle that kills the very basic idea of a workout. Walking to the gym makes the quads work and thus, produces the testosterone, a natural fat burner; however, that must not stand as a barrier now since a good cardio workout can be obtained if a person gets hold of instructional videos. These are what the industry calls the Workout DVDs and a treadmill is the only equipment (not necessarily a motorized one) that you’ll require to go with it. Brisk, jog or run, flat, inclined or declined – it’s solely upon your discretion; even the angle at which you want. Add to it a stationary bike and paddle away the extra flab. Just like the treadmill, the bike has several user-selected options to choose from to control the amount of pressure you would like to apply on it.

Remember the childhood days at the park? Yes, it’s the jump rope being discussed now; it is the least expensive workout equipment that you’ll ever find. A 20 to 30 minutes schedule with the jump rope gives you full body exercise for both muscle toning and fat burn and if added with a step workout (not the fancy stuff but heavy duty ones) equipment, your recipe for a tasty fat-burn pie will be complete. But then again, remember that you need to eat it too, to see any result showing up.

The effects of good nutrition on the body are as visible as the effects of bad nutrition on the body. The difference is that bad nutrition can destroy the body, while good nutrition only supports and builds up the body. Hence, the better goal in life is to maintain a lifestyle that promotes good nutrition. This will cause many positive effects, including the following 5 effects of good nutrition.

5 Effects of Good Nutrition:

1. Maintain normal body function

This includes better learning, proper balance and pH in the body tissues, to stabilize and regulate body systems like blood pressure, rebuild tissues, and maintain proper blood sugar levels

2. Maintain healthy weight

This includes proper blood pressures, less likely to allow diseases like Diabetes, heart malfunctions

3. Prevent disease

This includes prevention of cancer, tissue disease, parasitical invasions, bacterial infections

4. Pass along good start to future generations

Healthy babies, immune system, healthy pregnancy

5. Provide stress relief

Reduce side effects of drugs, boost immune system, maintain calm and coping abilities

If you can enjoy these 5 effects of good nutrition, you will be well on your way to a better, healthier body that is able to function properly.

One key to getting good nutrition regularly is to avoid excess. Balance food intake between the major groups, and eat appropriate amounts. You need a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients. A multi vitamin may be helpful if you are not sure about your food intake but it is not a substitute for eating properly. Water is essential to body functioning, moving nutrients into cells, and handling waste disposal.

You can obtain and follow the standard daily food pyramid and recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) put out by the government. It is adjusted according to age because dietary needs change as a person ages.

This pyramid is composed of nutritional groups of: calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and includes lists of antioxidants and herbs that are beneficial to health.

Besides age, the body’s nutritional needs change with use of drugs, or disorders and diseases that affect the body’s ability to meet those needs, or interfere with absorption or intake of food nutrients.

There are more than the above 5 effects of good nutrition, but these go a long way to getting you started in a healthy lifestyle if you pay attention. By the way, if you cant pay attention, you may need better nutrition! Avoid excess sweets and highly refined food, because they can cause bacterial excesses that can even have a lethal result if left unchecked (Candida). By providing the proper fuel (food) to your body, you enable it to function at its optimum capacity, keeping you healthy, happy, and fit for years and years, with benefits extending even unto the next generation.

If you want to know how to lose the fat on your stomach, you do have to appreciate that it does have its challenges. But, if you have the right information, a belly fat diet plan does not have to be as hard as it may initially appear. As a starting point, totally avoid processed foods and substitute them with nutrient-dense, natural foods. This first step will certainly help you to lose the fat on your stomach and you will lose weight and feel healthier in a much quicker way than you thought possible.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

Make sure that you include a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables to what you eat each day as these foods help you get the nutritional supplements you need to support your body system. For example, calcium is good for healthy bones. Vitamin C helps your immune system and vitamin A supports healthier vision and skin.

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of carbohydrates and fibre. Carbs are essential because they provide fuel for your body system. Fibre manages the bowels and expands in your stomach to help you remain fuller for longer. And obviously, the longer than you feel full, the less you will eat and the more likely you are to lose the fat on your stomach.

Poultry and Beans

Beans and poultry provide your body with protein it needs to stay healthy. Protein is referred to as the foundation of the body system for a reason. It is found almost everywhere in the body system. Without it, you will experience problems like exhaustion, sleeping difficulties, and weakness.

As beans and poultry are high in protein they provide very satisfying meals which means that you are less inclined to over eats your appetite is satisfied.

Lean Meats

As part of your belly fat diet plan try to include lean meats. This will provide your body with iron which help to manage fatigue, issues regulating the temperature, headaches and dizziness.

Healthy Fats

Although it might sound odd, you do need to eat healthy fats as part of your belly fat diet plan. Such food items as fish and raw nuts provide good sources of healthy fats. These fats develop the brain, provide the body system with energy and help produce hormones. Fats also enable your body system use vitamins more efficiently.

Be Patient

If you remove processed junk food from your daily diet and substitute them with the meals listed above, you can lose the fat on you stomach but it will not happen overnight. The secret of how to lose the fat on your stomach is to have a sensible diet plan that you can stick to with foods that you like eating. When you combine this with an exercise program you will lose your belly.