Archive | Workouts & Routines

Top Cardio Workout Tips

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.

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Best Bicep Workouts for Mass Building

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.

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The Best Fat Loss Exercises For Women

Ladies, in this article you will discover some of the best fat loss exercises for women. But if you want to lose fat and even get a flat belly it is time to cut out the crap. I am not going to tell you to do the exercises you will like. Perhaps the exercises may look a little bit different. And to be honest it wouldn’t surprise me if you end up in sweat after doing them. That is a good sign because the traditional fat burning exercises for women do look very easy, in fact they are but their intensity is far from high enough. There is a saying in life that is definitely true when it comes to fat burning. To get different results you will have to do things different. If you are a lazy person then this article is not for you, if you are motivated but are looking for some additional help then you will enjoy and benefit from this article.

High Intensity Interval Training One of the best fat burning exercises for women is HIIT or high intensity interval training. HIIT training is ten times more powerful then low intensity cardio training. With low intensity cardio training I mean jogging, walking, treadmill exercises and soon. HIIT workouts are performed at such a high level of intensity that your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover. Yes you will definitely end up in sweat and maybe tears if you do this for the first time. Getting out of your comfort zone is the key to lose fat fast.

Weight training to get super lean One of the best exercises to lose fat fast for women is weight training. Most women unless they are bodybuilding don’t do weight lifting exercises to get super lean. This is a very if not the hugest mistake you can make. Most women who are following a traditional diet lose muscle weight and that is a crucial reason why conventional diets don’t work. Do not be afraid you will end up like a female bodybuilder this will not happen. In contradiction to cardio exercises weight training does not burn fat during the workout, during a weight lifting workout your body burns sugar. But after the weight lifting workout your body acts up like a non stop fat burning workout. No I’m not going to lie to you training with dumbbells once a week won’t do the work. You should implement weight training in your daily lifestyle. To lose fat fast follow a weight training workout at least 3 or 5 times per week.

So the best fat loss exercises for women are not the ones discussed in magazines orthe exercises you like the most but the exercises that are high in intensity.

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Extreme Fat Burn – The Best Cardio Workout to Burn Fat!

As a strength and conditioning specialist I always get asked about what the most effective way to train the body for fat loss involves. The truth is that the more intense the workout the better. You see if you engage in movements, lifts, and exercises to elevate your heart rate and significantly raise your level of perceived exertion you will lose the belly fat, period! This is why I am a big fan of kettlebell training.

You see with kettlebell training you integrate the use of hundreds of your muscles at once and quickly elevate your level of perceived exertion. The great thing is that you can easily cover and involve both of the major bodily movements into your workouts consisting of the push and pull motions. Basically, by engaging in kettlebell lifts such as variations of swings and presses you stand to hit every major muscle group in your body including your heart! The base strength endurance lift that is performed with the kettlebell and falls under the “pull” category would be the swing. This is where you literally swing the kettlebell from between your legs up to at least chest level back and forth like a pendulum. This is highly effective in burning body fat and trimming down your body.

To cover the “push” motion I am talking about doing a variation of some sort of pressing action such as a static press and walk, a get up (or turkish get up), or a windmill lift. All of these lifts are variations of different pressing or pushing type movements. There is no muscle group left untouched with the implementation of kettlebell training. Your workouts can be effectively structured to yield a high result of cardio and fat burning success. Every lift and exercise is dynamic in nature and will not only get you cosmetic results, but will also give you the form and function to back it all up. To be a kettlebell man or woman you have to be just a little bit better than anyone else in terms of your strength and fitness goals.

If you haven’t already taken the time to learn more about kettlebell training and what it can do for your personal cardio program then start today! What else are you waiting for? Your knowledge, physical change, and the overall success of your cardiovascular fitness won’t come in the middle of the night. You have to take action. I will even make it easy for you by asking you to access the rest of my articles on the matter for free. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart my friend!

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Navy SEALS Workouts Are Different To Typical Fitness Training Methods

A Navy SEALS workout is different to the goals of a typical fitness or bodybuilding workout. A typical fitness workout may focus on improving endurance and reducing fat, where as a bodybuilding workout focuses on the aesthetics of building muscle.

A Navy SEALS workout needs to deliver so much more than just muscle and endurance. It needs to deliver strength, speed, flexibility, endurance, power, and mental toughness and fast rates of recovery.

Power is a key word here. Navy SEALS are required to deliver short bursts of intense physical exertion. These short bursts need to be fast and strong. And that is what power is all about, strength AND speed.

The Navy SEAL also needs to be able to quickly recovery from these power bursts and become mentally and physically ready for another burst of activity when required.

3 Elements Of A SEALS Workout

There are 3 main factors that a SEALS workout needs to abide by:

1. Portability

SEALS need to be able to train anywhere and at any time.

Therefore a workout should require nothing more than the body of the operative himself. No equipment or weights should be needed.

The workout should also be able to be completed within a small area of space. Typically no more than the space required to lie down in.

2. Efficiency

The workout needs to be quick. Operatives are extremely busy and have a hectic schedule and thus do not have time to spend hours each day working out.

Ideally the workout should last between 20-30 minutes.

3. Tactical Relevancy

The workout needs to improve the key tactical physical skills required. It is not just about exercising for the sake of it and improving all round general fitness.

A Navy SEAL workout needs to be specific to the physical requirements of the field: power, speed, agility, strength, quick recovery, and mental toughness.

Example Navy SEALS Workout

Below is an example workout that can be used to build Navy SEAL fitness.

The workout uses simple bodyweight exercises that I am sure you have already come across.

Instead of doing the typical 4 sets of 25 reps of each exercise, to make the workout relevant to the SEALS it is a good idea to perform it like a superset.

This is where you do 25 reps of one exercises, and then go straight onto 25 reps of the next exercise but without a rest. Continue until you have done all 4 exercises in a row. THEN rest. And repeat.

E.G: Push-ups x 25 > Sit-Ups x 25 > Pull-ups x 10 > Squats x 45 > REST > REPEAT

You can try mixing up this workout with other bodyweight exercises such as dips etc. Also try increasing the reps and trying to reduce the rest period as you progress.

Navy SEALS Workout Summary

This page has provided a simple example of the sort of workout that contributes to Navy SEAL fitness.

The aim is to develop tactical fitness and not just general fitness.

For maximum intensity, the exercises should be done quickly, one after the other. The rest period should only come each time the complete cycle of exercises has been completed.

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The Best Workout Routine

While it is difficult to suggest a best workout routine for everyone because largely, it depends on the individual and his or her physical strength and conditions, we can formulate a workout that will help you to attain all your health related goals. One of the important maxims to program a perfect workout routine is the Pareto’s Principle which suggests that while you workout 20%, you should attain 80% of benefits. This 80/20 principle is the basic concept of programming the best workout routine especially when you are leading a busy professional life. Even if you have just a few minutes to devote for a routinely exercise program, you can prepare a good exercise plan by including push-ups, pull ups and squats in your daily routine. It is one of the best workout routines for those who don’t have enough time to visit a gym and perform exercises for lengthy periods.

Best Workout Routine for your Upper Body: Push-Ups

Push ups are an essential part of any good workout plan. Regular pushups will help you efficiently workout for your chest, triceps and shoulders. In addition, pushups will also help you improve your Ab muscles. Pushups are certainly one of very first exercises that we learn during our childhood, yet we often forget or ignore effective push-ups can be. There are many variations of Push ups that can be used to improve your workout regularly. Some popular and effective variations of push-ups are elevated pushups, wide grip pushups and diamond push ups. Push-ups are one of the best exercises for chest, shoulders and Ab muscles and they are one of the simplest and best exercises.

Best Workout Routine for your Forearms and Biceps: Pull Ups

Pull ups are also a very common exercise that we learnt during our school days. Yet, we often ignore highly effective results of pullups. Pull-ups are one of the best exercises for your upper back and if you want to improve your biceps and forearms, Pullups will prove to be most effective. Some of the most effective and easiest variations of pull ups that you can use during your routine workout are chin up pull-ups, close grip pull ups, and wide grip pull ups. Wide grip pull-ups are a very effective exercise to strengthen your upper back muscle.

Best Workout Routine for your Lower Body and Legs: Squat

Often people enjoy doing push ups and pull ups; however, most of the people find squats a little difficult. Yet, in order to attain the best workout routine, you need to care for your lower body. While pull ups and push ups make the best exercise routine for your upper body, squats will help you in attaining the best possible exercise for your lower body. Squats are one of the best exercises to work on your lower back and to strengthen and shape your butt. Squats will also improve your leg muscles including quadriceps, calves and hamstrings. In order to bring variations in your daily workout routine, you may try front squat and sumo squat. To increase the intensity of squats, you may try one leg squat or overhead squat.

The best workout routine is one that can help you in improving whole of your body. It is important to perform exercises for your upper body and chest and you cannot ignore exercises necessary for strengthening your lower body and legs. The proper combination of Push-ups, Pull ups and Squats will make one of the best possible workout routine even if you have just a few minutes daily to invest for your health.

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Workout Tips For Women

Exercises are a critical element of daily life. The majority will certainly agree to this. Exercise is not only fantastic for reducing your weight, it’s also great for keeping an acceptable body mass, for burning those excess calories and boosting the metabolic rate. Exercise also amps up the heart and the lungs, making them function more efficiently. In addition to these health benefits, exercise also strengthens the bones and keeps people feeling great about themselves because they look so good! Exercise also gives people stamina, enabling them to keep up with their hectic lives. Unfortunately, not many people choose to exercise. Many people have difficulty deciding whether to exercise or just roll back over in bed whenever they awaken in the morning.

The guidelines that follow can be extremely useful when your goal is to reach and retain your ideal body mass, which should be the goal of workouts for women. These are especially good for women for two reasons: women experience a number of things happening in their bodies and are a lot more vunerable to osteoporosis; and lots of women feel pressure to keep up their beauty. Experts recommend that a couple of these tips at a time should be incorporated into your exercise workout.

Don’t worry that your exercise routine will not be enough to deliver the results. One must always keep the commitments you make. Ideally, you’ll want to exercise for 20 minutes to an hour each session, and have three to five workout sessions per week. However, this isn’t always possible in the real world. Don’t frustrate yourself by targeting the ultimate schedule when you know it might be impossible to fulfill. If you can manage it two times a week for half an hour per session, that should do just great.

It is advisable to concentrate on doing what you know you’re able to do than to admonish yourself for having not done enough. You should begin by doing what you know you can do, then progress to a higher level as you proceed. This should make you feel productive for having kept her commitment to yourself.

Strength training should always come first in your fitness workouts. Many women start with cardio exercises instead of lifting weights, which is a mistake. Starting your workout doing this makes it possible to miss a crucial component of your routine and spend all of your time on cardio training. You might realize this when you fail to see results even though you have devoted extended hours at the gym exercising. You can avoid this by reversing the order and beginning your workouts with strength training. It would guarantee a visible beneficial end result.

Don’t forget to monitor your heart rate. It is suggested to exercise at 75-85% of the maximum heart rate, but lots of people only power up to about 50% of their maximum heart rate. Have a heart rate monitor or a piece of exercise equipment that has this feature to assure you are working out at the proper target heart rate. To help keep yourself from dreading the gym, your workout sessions should last an hour or less. When you concentrate on the exercise and its goal, your workout sessions will end up more effective.

Have some type of fitness social support. In truth, belonging to a fitness community could be the most crucial thing your workout routine lacks. Social support can accomplish some wonderful things and its importance must not be underrated. It will be helpful to exercise in a gym sometimes if one customarily does her workouts in the home. You may also try taking classes in activities that interest you, such as Pilates, yoga or sailing, and join hiking, walking or running clubs.

Give yourself encouragement and don’t pressure yourself too much. Instead, congratulating yourself with a few encouraging words between exercises works significantly better. One should never forget to give some positive feedback for herself.

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Weight Loss Workouts That Will Make Weight Loss Fun

Knowing which exercises work can help you choose the right weight loss workouts for you. Professional trainers discover new information every day to help them set up exercise routines. Not everyone has the exact solution for losing weight, so it is important to consider the shape of your body and your objective before setting up an exercise routine that works for you.

Exercising must always include consideration of mass, volume, firmness, tone, and shape. If you want to build muscle mass, you may want to try bodybuilding routines, but more is needed to help you to lose weight and keep it off.

Steroids are used to build muscle mass by some bodybuilders. However, steroids are illegal and can cause harm. So stay away from the steroids. Instead, consider aerobics and weight lifting the natural way. You might especially want to consider cross training, which is a combination of aerobic exercise and weight lifting.

Aerobic dancing has gained a great deal of attention over the past few decades. Many health and fitness centers incorporate an assortment of weight loss workouts into exercises. Some of the popular exercises include yoga, Pilates, karate, kickboxing, and various types of aerobics.

Health and fitness clubs often incorporate their own exclusive exercise to assist people with losing weight, building muscle mass, strengthening the bones, and toning the body. Some aerobic exercises to consider include hi-low routines, martial arts, hip-hop, cardio kickboxing, step, and jazz dancing.

Cross training involves a combination of aerobics and weight lifting routines. Experts found that if you combine aerobics with weight lifting it is possible to lose weight fast and to keep it off. They may include slide or step aerobics, which use weight equipment.

During slide or step routines, the foot steps to the front, down, and up again on one leg. This action is replicated several times while the person holds weights in the hands, lifting up, and back down again. This process is used to tone the lower body and arms.

Step workouts encourage knee and ankle use while slide routines involve stepping up repetitiously. Step up, slide downward, and slide back. It is a simple routine used in many gyms today. Slide routines may include the use of equipment such as Nordic ski.

If you have a Nordic ski machine, you can do the slide and step exercises at home. You may add a combination of weight lifting to create a cross training workout. Perhaps you can add some dance steps, kickboxing, martial arts, or other types of exercises to increase your chance of losing weight fast.

When it comes to weight loss workouts, you have a variety of exercises to choose from, so be sure to take time to look up other routines available to you online.

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Workout for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain – Want to Get Slim Fast?

Are you ashamed of your big body size? Do you suffer stigma from friends and foes alike due to your unhealthy-looking body? Have you been rejected by the person you once had a crush on solely because of unnecessary fat on your body? These are just a few of the numerous nasty experiences that people with big body size have to deal with. Social stigma aside, the stark reality of things is the health implications that are associated with big unhealthy bodies. Don’t you worry because all is not lost. It is the purpose of this article to highlight top advice, diets and a workout for fat loss and muscle gain.

The benefits of doing exercise cannot be said enough. Some people work out for fun. This is like a hobby to them just like one would take a story book to read. There are those who exercise to avoid bad company that may corrupt their morals such as alcohol and substance abuse. Yet to those weighed upon by the stresses of life, the gym offers a safe haven for their psychological disorientation. However to a majority, and for the purpose of this article, physical body exercise is aimed at losing body weight and building muscles.

Don’t we admire the nice shapely-looking bodies of our celebrities? What we don’t know is that these celebrities pay a price to have these well curved sparkling figures. The secret lies in physical exercises together with the right diet. The following are some of the tips to help lose weight and gain muscles.

1. It starts with the mind

The mind is a very powerful tool. Depending on how one uses it you can either make it or break it. Before setting out on the mission of weight loss, it is imperative to convince the mind that however big your body is, you can still make it. It is all about being positive and refusing to listen to any other negative voice. Of course there are those around you who care such as your family members and close friends whose encouraging words will come in handy to give you the psychological boost that is necessary. This positive attitude needs to be maintained throughout the period when you will be exercising.

2. Discipline

Discipline is key to anyone aspiring to lose weight and build some muscles. Whether you have an instructor or not, the fact remains that you will have to stick to the regular routine set out for you. There is a well-laid out design for exercising that needs to be respected if the desired results are to be achieved. One of the major reasons why people give up on exercising is attributed to the inability to show dedication and working hard to meet set objectives. It is important to stick to the program and follow what the instructor says.

3. Eating well

Eating well is a very important consideration. It is good to seek advice from health experts and dieticians on the right food to eat. While carbohydrates will supply the body with the most needed energy, vitamins will help fight infections giving room for proteins to build, strengthen and consolidate the muscle fibers to give you that body look that you crave for. Furthermore, all the excess body fat will be converted into useful energy to fuel your new muscle. A high protein diet is essential to grow new muscle.

4. Have enough rest

Good rest and sleep is recommended to let the body recover and to allow metabolic activities time to take place uninterrupted. Recovery time for muscle is also incredibly important. The exercise program should concentrate on different muscle groups each other day to allow proper rest of each muscle group. Upper body one day and legs the next.

5. The workout

The best workout is a muscle building program that will build muscle which will burn fat continuously. So the more muscle you can build, the more calories your muscles will consume. Compound exercises will build muscle and requires a shorter workout since these exercises target multiple muscle groups. Compound exercises may make it more difficult to work out which muscle groups to rest. These are some examples.

Lunges with hand weights

Kettlebell Squat and Raise. Place the Kettlebell on the floor between your feet. Squat down to pick it up and as you stand up raise the Kettlebell up over your head. This will target the thighs and shoulders.

Free weights will target more muscle groups than weigh machines. The dead lift is an excellent all body exercise. This lift uses a weight lifting bar with weights.

These are some helpful diets tips and a workout for fat loss and muscle gain. Remember to get your body quickly into shape, build muscle and the muscle will burn fat for you.

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Exercise Band Workouts

Exercise bands or resistance bands come in a variety of shapes, lengths and styles. Basically, they are made of an elastic material that when stretched provides resistance and upon release returns to its original shape. Similar to rubber bands the bigger and thicker the band the more difficult it is to stretch.

Band workouts are becoming more popular in the fitness world. Men, women, young and old can use exercise bands no matter what physical condition they are when beginning an exercise program. You can be novice or experienced at working out and the bands will enhance your training regimen. Overall, they are much safer than any machine or free weights.

Advantages to using resistance bands are:

1. They are inexpensive

2. Easy to store

3. Can go anywhere and be used anywhere

4. Can mimic over 100 weight room exercises-very easy to increase or decrease

resistance level

5. They provide constant tension throughout the exercise movement

6. Can be used for sports specific training

7. To supplement a weight training routine

8. Can be used for flexibility training

9. Are safer to use than exercise machines or free weights

10. No age or physical condition boundaries

The only disadvantage that I could find is that you do have to inspect the bands for cracks and wear. They will need to be replaced when they become cracked or torn. So there may be additional costs of purchasing more bands if you wear one out.

So where does one start when trying to get fit. Getting started is the hardest part. Once you do you will reap many benefits like: increased stamina, prevention or reduction of the likelihood of diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer to name a few. There are also the overall gains in strength and endurance. Your posture improves. You feel better. Your flexibility increases so turning twisting and moving becomes easier. Your balance and coordination get better. You decrease your risk from injury due to twisting, turning or bending the wrong way. You will sleep better and feel better mentally. And finally, the number one benefit is you will burn more calories which will help you lose weight.

Once you begin to exercise regularly, you will discover many more reasons why exercise is so important to improving the quality of your life.

More information will becoming in the next article that includes what to do to start an exercise program. Starting with the basics from warming up and cooling down, terminology, nutrition, putting your plan together and how to do each exercise.

I hope you enjoy getting fit!

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