Cardio workouts are one among most commonly taken option to reduce the lose belly fat. The reason is simple – these workouts are quite effective in order to burn the overall body fat. There are several forms of cardio workouts that one can opt from. Based on the research & studies conducted worldwide, given below are the three best alternatives among the cardio workouts in order to get rid of the belly fat in a short span of time:

1. Interval Training

While, the traditional way of cardio workouts essentially requires you to burn at least 400 calories in a single workout session, the interval training requires lesser time invested. To compare the span of time among the two, the traditional plan takes 40 minutes and interval training might only take as low as 4 minutes a day.

For some of us, interval training might not sound as a true cardio but it is proved with several studies that this means of weight loss indeed helps you achieve your goal. The key format is to do a regular warm-up followed by alternate sessions of hard & easy exercises. The workout ends up with a relaxing cool down.

For instance a 20 minutes workout in the interval training starts with a 5 minutes warm-up. Then you must do some hard exercises for one minute. These must be done at around 10 – 20% harder pace as compared to the normal intensity. Next 1 minute you decrease the pace of the exercises. The cycle of the hard & easy exercises continues for around 5 times. You end up with a 3 minutes cool-down session.

2. Tabata Protocol

Tabata Protocol is devised in a study conducted in Japan. In this sort of session, you initialize with the quick & easy body-weight exercises, like Jumping Jacks. Next, you must alternate amidst the 3 lower-body & 3 upper-body body-weight exercises. In this session you can take up squats, lunges, push-ups, pulling exercises such as rows & chinups, ab exercises for total body such as mountain climbers, etc. At the end, you take up 8 exercise circuits that must be some tough total body exercises such as jumps, running in the place, burpees, etc.

3. Kettlebell Workouts

For those who wish to think out of the box this is a fairly good option. The high rep kettlebell swings & snatches make your heart pound & make you sweat like anything! One might also choose to do this workout with the dumbbells.

Today, there are several diets publicized in books and on the internet, it is difficult to choose. Here we are not going to look at foods to eat but foods to avoid on any diet.

A common sense way to understand which diet is best is to see which one fits your own personal choices for life-style and natural (we stress the word, “natural” not synthetic) tastes.

We all have our likes and dislikes…many of which from a child passes with us all our lives.

Today’s commercial world, and international food and beverage business is about as responsible for the obesity problem as the tobacco company’s are for lung cancer. When you are on a diet, or if you wish to be your ideal weight, you must avoid the general choices below.

oAny “processed” food. ANY…this means food that has been treated in an industrial way. These foods contain additives and chemicals that disturb your natural processes of digestion and elimination. In this category, you can think of any food from a can, or one that can stay on a supermarket shelf more than one month.

oAny and all fast foods. These are perhaps the worst offenders, as they somehow taste great when you are hungry, you eat them quickly, and they contain all the ingredients you don’t need or your body wants; such as transfats, incorrect food combinations (cola drinks with proteins and carbohydrates), and an excess of calories.

An average fast food meal is about 1,000 or more calories. It is often more, and leaves you hungry in about 2 hours.

oAny “deep-fried” foods. This includes the famous potato, but can also include fried meats (such as fried chicken), and some sweets, such as the donut or many oriental-type sweets. These kill your diet, raise insulin levels in the blood, and there is no way to lose weight.

oAll polysaturated and animal fat. We do not say to you to eliminate fat, just eat the correct ones. These are found in fish, some vegetables and some dairy products (where omega-3 oils have been incorporated to the dairy animal’s feed).

oWhite Flour. There is nothing in it good for you, nothing. Whole wheat or other whole grains are another story. Eat them as you wish, but NO white flour.

It is a dead food itself, and only causes unbalances in your digestive system. White flour was invented as it does not spoil, where whole grains do. The bugs know which is best to eat. They eat the whole grains and not bleached processed white flour.

oWhite Sugar. As its carbohydrate cousin above, white sugar also has very little or no nutritional value.

There are so many healthy alternatives to it, and although sweet, these natural sugars are easily digested in your system as they are natural as you are natural.

oMayonnaise and its Derivates. Although very tasty, and makes the food you eat it with so as well, the mayonnaise is heavily processed, usually with the cheapest oils, mostly transfatty ones, and full of preservatives.

Also mayonnaise is made from eggs, and commercially treated to withstand the age process on the supermarket shelf. It will not help you diet, and in fact, it is not good for you at all. If you make it yourself however, and eat it sparingly, that is another matter.

o Caffeinated Drinks. This includes coffee, dark tea, the cola drinks, chocolate, and the new power drinks that are appearing in nightclubs, supermarkets and gyms.

The caffeine (or similar chemical found in tea and chocolate) disturbs your metabolism, and will prevent the natural slimming process when you are dieting.

There are many other foods to both avoid and enjoy, but the above list is generally agreed to by most dieticians.

When you are NOT dieting, you can certainly eat these foods, but it is advised to do so sparingly as to remember you had dieted, lost weight, and now, why gain it back.

There is quite a stir being caused by an Arizona doctor’s fat loss secret. Dr Suzanne Gudakunst claims to have blown the lid off the weight loss industry with her new fat loss plan. For years I have felt there was nothing new in weight loss ideas, but she may just be on to something here.

First of all, this lady doctor’s weight loss secret will not be secret very long. If her claims are accurate her methods could help reverse diabetes, rid some forms of cancer and a large spectrum of illnesses associated with poor nutrition. That type of results, in addition to permanent fat loss, will surely not remain secret for long.

Apparently, Dr, Gudakunst stumbled onto her new fat loss plan while doing studies on the colon and digestive system in the human body. During her studies she was able to determine a correlation between plaque and parasite infestations of the bowel tract and people suffering from chronic obesity. These same, obese subjects could not lose weight despite intense diet and exercise.

The doctor claims to have developed numerous natural ways to remove the harmful plaque and rid the body of the digestive parasites. She tested her process on the same obese subjects and found that after removing the plaque and parasites they were able to lose incredible amounts of weight!

She claims her program is new and different because it conquers the cause of obesity and fat accumulation before any actual weight loss plan begins.

I have to be honest here. I am diabetic, but not overweight. I haven’t tried her ideas but, they do make sense to me. I often wonder if the reason we have so many overweight people in this country is because of greed. There are so many diet pills and programs available and yet, the number of overweight people continues to rise. Could it just be because the diet drug business is too profitable. Is it all a big conspiracy?

I’m probably a bit too conspiracy minded. After all, I am one who still questions if we really ever set foot on the moon! While this doctor’s fat loss secret may not be conspiratorial in nature, it does suggest that there may be some conspiracy going on in the weight loss industry. It bears watching!

Hi everyone, I’m Jeffrey Rollins and I’d like to share my views about the all important cardio vs muscle building exercises dilemma and can they really help each other. How should you spend your time exercising and does cardio fitness really help to improve muscle gain and tone?

Well, IMHO there’s a strict connection between aerobics and the way your muscles look. I’ll try and explain why in this article. It’s no secret that if you place all your efforts in running, swimming, tennis, basketball or any other cardio induced workout your body will get slimmer and look more fit. The real question is: “how do you increase your muscle mass while keeping a tight and fit physic?”.

Muscles build up on proteins. So eating a lot of proteins is mandatory when you are trying to build up muscles. However, no matter how hard you workout at the gym, no matter how many reps you do, your body will store some of the proteins it needs as fat because it does not burn as much calories when performing anaerobic exercises as it does when performing aerobic exercises.

But, if you combine a lot of aerobic exercises in your routine, you will burn a lot of calories and your body will turn to proteins as a source of energy. The same proteins you need to build up your muscles, or worse the same proteins which are already in your muscles which will now be broken down and will deter your muscle’s growth.

Note – Fat is the last source of energy the body turns to when looking for calories to burn. So after carbohydrates, your proteins are at risk.

So how can you gain muscle, while not looking fat, having great muscle tone and bulk up further? The answer is to keep a mediate cardio routine with an extensive anaerobic bodybuilding program. And yes, then cardio and aerobics actually can help in putting on extra muscle and gaining weight the right way. Why? because cardio workouts actually elevate your heart rate and increase blood flow. Your blood being the conduit of food and energy to your body simply performs better, allowing for required energy and proteins to reach their final destination faster and better.

Yes – Cardio can help you gain muscle faster, but it’s important to find the right balance between cardio and anaerobic workouts.

It’s important to note!!! Every body, your literal body, acts differently to working out. It’s crucial to consult your fitness instructor and your family doctor about any significant lifestyle changes you are about to make.

If you are serious about your physique you would understand what you eat is important, however, do you know how you eat is also important for building muscle?

Calorie cycling is a favoured option. You need to be eating at least six small meals a day made up of the approximate ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It is suggested about 40% each of protein and carbohydrates and 20% fat, in some cases about 10% fat intake. If you are doing this and are still not seeing results, it’s time to shock your body and mix up the formula.

Do you want to build a massive physique and go in body building competitions or do you just want to lose a bit of fat and build a little bit of muscle tone? If you’re looking to build muscle only, one way to start building muscle is to begin a new body building diet. Some people recommend that you take your body weight and multiply it by 12 to 15 to get an approximate calorie estimate. This gives you a rough number of your daily calorie intake that needs to be consumed. Then for the next couple of days, restrict your food intake according to this figure. Keep your diet clean, with quality foods and calories.

Ensure you select low GI foods that will release slowly in your body. It may be slightly harder for those of you who are reducing your calories, so things like pasta and oatmeal combined with protein – tuna, turkey or chicken will be essential in your diet.

If you are nearing competition phase and want to get ripped try the old tested method of having some fluids as a replacement for food. Water or a muscle building low fat drink can help out the lower calorie phase of the plan. Also the extra fluids are important for hydration it can also assist to keep hunger away. Try drinking a full glass of water or a specific bodybuilding drink if you finish a meal and find you are still hungry.

As well as mixing up your food ratios and calorie intake, also cycle your training intensity. This will help double the effect and will help kick start your metabolism and iron out any plateaus.

Fat burning exercises are the slow, aerobic, long duration types of exercise that involve most of the major muscle groups. Your body will burn a higher percentage of calories from fat with lower intensity cardio exercises.

Fat burning exercises include walking, jogging, running, elliptical exercise trainer workouts, cycling and swimming. The key factor to keep in mind is the more muscle groups you use, the more fat you’ll burn.

Different type of exercises will burn more sugar rather than burning fat. Sugar burning exercises involve brief spurts of movement followed by rest which results in more sugar that is used for fuel instead of fat.

Sugar burning exercises include sprinting, tennis, racquetball, basketball, and golf. While these are great sports that benefit your overall fitness condition, they are different type of exercises that will not burn as much fat like fat burning exercises will.

To burn fat effectively, exercise at a moderate pace for a longer period of time. The residual effect of this type of aerobic exercise gives you the most benefits.

These aerobic fat burning exercises increase your metabolism which means you’ll burn calories long after you exercise. People who exercise on a regular basis develop more fat burning enzymes than people who don’t exercise at all.

By doing just twenty minutes of fat burning exercises you get those fat burning enzymes working. So if you are just starting out, exercise for at least twenty minutes and work up from there as your fitness level improves. Try to set 3 days a week as your goal to workout and work up to 5 days as you become more fit.

Home treadmills and elliptical exercise trainers are perfect for fat burning exercises. These fitness machines will give you the slow, aerobic, long duration types of exercise that work best to burn fat.

They are the most popular pieces for home gyms because they allow you to stay fit in any weather condition. They are easy to use and cost efficient because quality fitness equipment will last for many years.

If you want to reduce body fat, eating properly will always help. But by combining it with fat burning exercises, it will give you the excellent results you are looking for.

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A cardio workout is the one of the best way to lose weight. Of course, there is also dieting and weightlifting. The former ensures one to eat less and to avoid those kinds of food that can add up more weight to the body. The latter burns calories and replace the lost fat with muscles. However, if one wants to burn calories faster and to make the heart healthier and stronger, then doing a cardio workout is the thing.

Many routines or exercises could fall under the cardio workout category. Going outdoors for a morning jog or walk is considered as one. Enrolling at a gym for an aerobics course is also a good cardio workout. If one finds staying at home is better, he can have a treadmill or an exercise bike as equipments to help him sweat out and lose the fat. However, whatever routine one does and wherever he does it, what is important is that this is effective enough to help him lose weight and have a healthy heart.

Before one starts his cardio routine, he should do some stretching first. This will make sure that he is not going to get any muscle and bone injuries while doing the workout. Spending about five minutes to stretch the major muscle groups and the joints before jogging or hitting the treadmill or aerobics mat also prepares the blood circulatory system for intensive use. A little breathing exercise will also brace the lungs for some heavy work.

Another suggestion is performing not just one or two routines. There should be a combination of three or even more cardio exercises. This is important in order to have a more balanced and comprehensive muscle growth and body conditioning. An example would be getting off the treadmill after a while and try the elliptical trainer so that the arms and the torso can also be utilized. For joggers, who are not using any equipment, they should also pause from running and do some minutes of ‘jumping jack’. Another great type of cardio combination is the alternate use of light and heavy intensity routines.

Boredom can be a problem when doing cardio. Jogging, especially at very familiar places, can be a monotonous activity. It is even worse with a treadmill or n exercise bike. However, one can beat boredom by making the activity fun. He can play his portable audio player while jogging in the park or he can have someone along. While on the treadmill or exercise bike, he can watch his favorite TV show, listen to music, or even read a bestselling novel.

Sweating out can certainly make one lose weight but if he is not careful enough he may also lose more than necessary. It is best to keep water in handy while doing the cardio. Drinking during rests is important so that the body is hydrated enough during the exercises. Water is a natural coolant needed to prevent burning out the body.

When it’s time to start exercising, you may be wondering what is the best cardio workout for burning fat. If you do your research, you’ll see that every cardio machine on the market claims to be the best. You may never find the answer to which machine gives the best workout, since every person is different and has different cardio needs. When you’re ready to begin working out, the best choice is to choose a workout that you actually enjoy.

When you enjoy your workout, you’re most likely to stick with it for the longterm. Consistency with any cardio workout is the best way to lead a healthy lifestyle. The degree to which a cardio workout burns fat depends on the intensity of the exercise.

Cardio exercise beginners should choose low intensity workouts. Low intensity workouts will help you to workout longer, building your endurance. After time, you may begin to increase the intensity of your workouts. Increasing the intensity will help you to burn more fat in a shorter period of time. The best cardio workouts alternate bursts of high intensity with periods of moderate intensity. A better workout will get you to your weight loss goals faster!

As far as exercise equipment goes, treadmills are consistently rated number one; they are available in every price range and are a common staple in a family’s home. A treadmill workout will help you to burn calories, lose weight, and achieve your goals. Varying your workout is the key to preventing boredom on the treadmill, and alternating running and walking can give you the best cardio workout.

For those who need a low impact workout, elliptical exercise equipment is a great choice. An elliptical machine provides a great cardiovascular workout without impact on your joints. Again, varying your intensity will give you the best workout from your elliptical trainer.

If traditional exercise equipment bores you, then spinning may be the perfect workout for you. Spinning is anything but boring, and is a popular form of fitness. A spinning workout will get your heart racing as you pedal to upbeat music. You will work up a sweat, so it’s important to stay hydrated and keep your heart rate in check by wearing a heart rate monitor.

As you can see, there is no single machine that will give the absolute best cardio workout. No matter what method you choose, keep your workout entertaining, and you’ll be more likely to stick with it!

When getting into bodybuilding many people lose sight of the fact that sound nutrition forms the basis of any muscle building program and no amount of supplementation with the latest and greatest products will make up for bad eating habits. If you are serious about bodybuilding, building muscle mass or sculpting your body you will most likely have to supplement your diet with commercially available whey or soy protein powders (and possibly other supplements) but before you jump into the supplement craze you need to build a solid nutritional foundation.

It is really hard for new people to bodybuilding to avoid getting caught buying supplements that don’t work or that they don’t need. A lot of people when they start bodybuilding want to take the quick and easy road to being big, but they don’t realize that there is no easy road or quick road for that matter. If bodybuilding was easy then everyone would be doing it and if getting big muscles was as easy as buying the newest supplement then everyone under the sun would be big!

The best way to start in the bodybuilding game is to read about proper diet and nutrition, and build a solid nutritional foundation to build upon. Once you have a good nutritional base you can start to add things such as more protein, creatine, vitamins etc. But if you skip this step you will never be a good bodybuilder because you will never have the proper nutrition for optimal growth.

So if you want to start bodybuilding then you need to educate yourself about proper nutrition for bodybuilding so that you know how to supply your body with the basic building blocks for proper muscle growth.

There’s no denying a set of big arms looks impressive. And there isn’t a guy around who doesn’t want bulging biceps. When someone asks you to flex you immediately roll up your sleeves to show off your guns. Big bicep peaks are quite possibly the ultimate beach muscle. Everyone loves them.

Most people love to train biceps, flexing their arms with pride at the end of every set, yet not always seeing the kind of results they expect after putting in all the hard work.

This article will help you get the results you want from your biceps training. Discover how to build bigger arms with various bicep workout programs designed for mass building.

Anatomy of the Biceps

 Before you can jump into the training and the best bicep workout exercises some background information is necessary.

A quick anatomy lesson is in store.

The biceps brachii, or biceps for short is a two headed muscle:

1. long head or outer head
2. short head or inner head

Both heads share the same insertion point near your elbow on your radius. A bone in your forearm.  On the other end the two heads each have their own origins on the scapula. The short head attaches to the coracoid process.  The long head travels further and attaches to the scapula at the supraglenoid tubercle.

Basically your biceps run down the front of your arm and make up about 1/3 of the muscle mass of your upper arm.

There are 2 additional parts of the bicep are called brachialis and brachioradialis. These are little muscles on the outside of the bicep that help with elbow flexion. Generally they get enough work that there is no need to isolate them, unless you are a competitive bodybuilder.

Any arm flexion will work the entire biceps muscle but certain lifts will focus and hit one part more than the others. 

Functions of the Biceps

In order to correctly train the biceps is necessary to understand their function and movement patterns. The biceps is tri-articulate, working across three joints. The main duty of the bicep muscle is to flex the elbow…moving the forearm towards the shoulder. 

There is a second function of the biceps. Supinate the forearm, turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. Knowing these two functions makes designing a bicep workout plan a little easier. The biceps also helps stabilize your rotator cuff. But as a bodybuilder or someone looking to get bigger arms we are primarily concerned with the first 2 functions.

Training Your Biceps

Now that you have a basic understanding of the biceps muscle and function we can get into the good stuff…building big biceps!

You will be happy to know that planning your biceps workout program is fairly straightforward. They really only have two major jobs as described earlier. Just make sure you include these movements in your program and you will be on the right track.

Key bicep workout programing tips: pull heavy weight, include lots of chin ups and rows movements with your hands more than shoulder width apart, hits the outer head, to hit the inner head hands are placed closer than shoulder width, to get more Brachialis involvement curl with your palm facing your body. 

Best Biceps Exercises

You can not beat compound movements for adding massive amounts of mass to your your frame. And the same thing goes for getting big arms.  Chin up variations, and different rows are a great way to add size to your biceps. You will never see someone who can move lots of weight in these lifts without big  arms. So be sure to include lots of pulls in your program. That will be discussed in another article. For now we will focus on the biceps.

Barbell Curls

If you are looking to focus on just the biceps, barbell curls are the best biceps isolation movement you can do. This is the most basic biceps exercise and the foundation of your workout program.

Most guys know how to do a barbell curl so I will not go into much detail. Just remember to keep the elbows in tight to the body and to go heavy.

This exercise would be the first exercise done in the bicep portion of your workout. Start with a warm up set of 12 reps add weight drop to 10 reps add more weight now perform 8 reps. This set should be tough. Do one more set with even more weight and again drop the reps from 6-8. This set is tough.

Other variations include:

• ez bar curls
• straight bar cable curls
• different grips, wide or close

Hammer Curls

Hammer curls are able to work the inner head of the biceps more than other curling variations. To perform this movement you are going to do a basic curl but this time have your palms facing in. This is done with dumbbells or a bar that has a neutral grip handle on it.

You can do this exercise one arm at a time, together or you could alternate. 

Incline Curls

The best movement for the outer head is doing curls while seated on an incline bench. This exercise isolates and stretches the biceps more then standing dumbbell curls so you will have to use less weight.

Similar to the standing dumbbell curl. Grab a pair of dumbbells. Sit back on an incline bench dumbbells hang at arms length on each side of the bench behind your body. From here do your regular curling motion.

Preacher Curls

The best movement for the Inner Head is the preacher curl. For this exercise sit on a bench with a preacher stand. Hold a bar elbows rested on the preacher stand and palms facing towards the ceiling. keeping your arms on the pad do a curling motion.

How Often Should You Train Your Biceps?

Your biceps are small compared to other muscle groups thus do not need the the same volume and do not get the sam kind of stress. 

you can perform bicep exercises up to three non-consecutive days a week. Two days a week is a better option. Be sure to have at least one full day of rest between exercises and take two if you can get it.

Bicep Workout Program for Building Big Bi’s

After your pulling exercises like chin ups and rows:

Biceps Workout 1

Maybe today you did chin ups and close grip pull downs

1. Barbell Curls –  4 sets 12, 10, 8, 6
2. Hammer Curls – 2 x 15

Biceps Workout 2

Again this is to be done after your pulling exercises. Something like inverted rows and seated rows with a close grip.

1. Preacher Curls –  4 sets 12, 10, 8, 8
2. Incline Curls – 2 sets of 15

Be sure to get lots of rest and eat well. Your arms will be sure to grow and before you know it you will have the best biceps of your weight training career.

Train hard.