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Alright, let’s be honest, we all have those days where it’s tough to get up and go to the gym. You can think of a thousand reasons not to do it, and of course it’s so easy to rationalize that skipping just one day won’t hurt anything.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re body needs plenty of rest for recovery, but plenty of rest can quickly turn into laziness if you let it go too far.
So let’s talk about the other side of things. There are also a million reasons for you to get into the gym. Everything in your life… literally everything can be improved by your workouts, either directly or indirectly. Yep, it’s all connected.
1. Confidence: Some studies have shown that heavy, compound lifts activate the endocrine system and release anabolic hormones into your body such as testosterone. This makes you feel strong and confident. It takes the fear out of you and makes you feel like a real man… no, actually, it does make you into a real man. We’re talking about natural testosterone and its benefits here… this is very different than the synthetic hormones/steroids and their negative side effects. This is ok for the ladies too, since testosterone will only be released in much smaller amounts.
2. Dating: You can tell yourself all day long that you’re not shallow and looks don’t matter… but the reality is that a good looking body is always a plus when it comes to dating. Always. Going from overweight to lean & muscular can dramatically alter your ability to attract the opposite sex. So, if a girl has rejected you recently… maybe it’s not that she was rude or didn’t like you… maybe you’re just too fat. Do something about it.
3. Sleep Better: Most people with sleeping disorders are leading sedentary lives. Studies have shown that the amount of time required to fall asleep is cut in half when you’re working out. Hitting the hay never felt as good as it does after a workout.
4. School: Your workouts will sharpen your brain’s function by increasing the flow of oxygen it can receive. That translates to better grades in school and better job performance. Besides, too much fat can clog your brain… ok, not really, but it is harder to have the clear mind and focus when you’re really out of shape.
5. Enjoy Food More: All this working out will help you to realize that you don’t like to eat crap food anymore. Your appetite will start to increase as your body recovers from heavy workouts, and all those lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes… they suddenly start to taste a lot better. You body will demand real nourishment.
6. Look Better, Feel Better: This will help you with #2. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve the way you look. It’s not vain… it’s human. More people should try to do this through exercise.
7. Water: It never tasted so good as it does after a heavy set. This will help you to kick the soda/junk food habit.
8. Sex life: Increased strength, speed, endurance, stamina, flexibility… enough said.
9. Happiness: You just plain feel good when your body releases endorphins into your blood stream, so go out and get that natural high. You’re less likely to be moping around, sad about life or getting depressed about all the bad things that happened to you. You’ll become one of those positive people who are successful and driven.
10. Dedication: Speaking about success, the hard work ethic you develop in the gym doesn’t drop dead at the door when you leave. That tough guy that you built in the gym walks out of the gym with you, and he knows how to work hard in life. If you have the willpower to finish a tough set of 20-rep squats, you’ll have the willpower to do anything hard in life.
11. Progressive Overload: This term doesn’t apply to the gym only. Your muscles grow as you gradually increase the stress placed on them, and improvement in life follows the same pattern. You learn step-by-step, and you always improve just a little bit at a time. Instead of running from the tough things in life like most people do, you’ll know that these are what make you stronger. You will embrace the challenges in life.
12. Take the edge off: Those giant, juiced-up guys on steroids give us all a bad name with their attitude and bad temper. The truth is, a heavy weight lifting session will calm you down more than anything, and it’s the perfect outlet. Channel your anger and frustration into the bar, not the people around you.
13. Energy: You’re sleeping better and your workouts are giving you steady energy throughout the day. You won’t have to be cranking down coffee or riding the caffeine roller coaster to get through the morning. You’ll have a steady stream of consistent energy that will give you an advantage over the people around you.
14. Stop being a wuss: Once you toughen up the inner man, you won’t have to whine or complain about hard things in life anymore. In fact, you might even begin to volunteer for doing the tough things in life because you know that the only way to grow is by going heavy, whether it’s in the gym or anywhere else.
And you thought you were only making your muscles bigger…
I’d love to hear how training has improved your life as well.
Topics: Mental Focus, Workout Principles | 7 Comments »
The Straight Bar Vs The EZ Curl Bar
By Jason
Have you ever seen those different curling bars at the gym and wondered what they were good for? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about, one of the bars is straight and one of them has several angled grips, called the EZ Curl bar.
So which of these should you be using? Well, each of the bars has its own advantages. Let’s take a look at the biceps muscle group to understand what the advantages are.
Attachments:
Your biceps muscle group, as the name implies, is composed of muscles with two separate heads, or bundles of muscle. Your biceps attach to your scapula around your shoulders, run down your upper arm, and then attach to something called the radial tuberosity near your elbow.
The radial tuberosity is a bone that can rotate. That means that your biceps not only work to bend your arm at the elbow, but your biceps also work to supinate your forearm.
Supination: When we’re talking about the biceps, supination means moving your forearm so that your palm is facing you.
Pronation: The pronated position points your palms away from you.
Take a look at the picture on the left and notice where the bottom of your biceps attaches to your forearm. Your biceps attach to the portion of your forearm that is on top when your palms are facing up, in the fully supinated position.
That means that when your biceps are fully supinated with the palms facing you, your biceps are able to be involved most fully in your workout.
To get a feel for how this works, bend your elbow so that your forearm and upper arm form a 90 degree angle. Point your palm away from you and flex your bicep muscles. Then place your other hand on your bicep so you can feel it flexing.
Now, starting with your palm facing away from you, slowly rotate your palm until it is in the fully supinated position and facing you. As you rotated your palm toward you, you should have felt your biceps becoming increasingly more tense throughout the movement.
Ok, I think you get it now. Facing your palms all the way toward you is the best position for fully involving your biceps and getting the most out of your arm workouts. It allows you biceps to fully contract at the peak of each movement.
Positioning:
The standard position for bicep curls is about shoulder width. Let your arms hang down directly to either side. With your hands at that width, take the bar directly in front of you and begin your set.
Wrist pain:
The straight bar isn’t going to get a perfect review here… it does have certain drawbacks. Doing bicep curls with a straight bar is much more tough on your wrists. Beginners especially will notice pain in the wrists after doing a few sets.
If you are feeling wrist pain, go ahead and use the EZ curl bar for the rest of your workout. The EZ curl bar was specifically designed to be easier on your wrists, but as we discussed before, it’s not as effective for bicep training as the straight bar or dumbbells.
Don’t baby yourself though. Your bones can become stronger just like your muscles, but only if you use them. The wrist pain you’re feeling with the straight bar will lessen over time.
Don’t just ignore the pain and work through it either. That pain in your bones is your body trying to tell you something. Switch to the other EZ curl bar for the rest of your workout if it starts to hurt, and slowly continue to transition to the straight bar as your wrists become stronger.
We’ll talk more about wrist pain and using dumbbells for curls another day. Also, keep in mind that the discussion here applies to the biceps only… the EZ curl can actually be quite useful for your tricep workouts.
Topics: Training Tips | 3 Comments »
How Long to Rest Between Sets
By Jason
Image Credit: Petranek
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the more rest you take between sets, the more weight you’ll be able to lift when you do come back. This doesn’t mean that you should always take more rest between your sets… the right amount of rest for you will depend on your goals somewhat.
First off, let’s give little explanation on why you might choose longer or shorter rest periods between each workout. There are 3 different primary energy systems that your body uses to produce ATP, which is the primary fuel your muscles use for exercise.
These definitions come straight from this article on Wikipedia:
ATP-PC System (Phosphogen System) - This system is used only for very short durations of up to 10 seconds. The ATP-PC system neither uses oxygen nor produces lactic acid and is thus said to be alactic anaerobic. This is the primary system behind very short, powerful movements like a golf swing or a 100m sprint. Translation: Best for short bursts of intense lifts, like in power lifting or strength training.
Anaerobic System (Lactic Acid System) - Predominates in supplying energy for exercises lasting less than 2 min. Also known as the Gylcolytic System. An example of an activity of the intensity and duration that this system works under would be a 400m sprint. This is what you’ll partially use for bodybuilding and creating muscle mass, size.
Aerobic System - This is the long duration energy system. By 5 min of exercise the O2 system is clearly the dominant system. In a 1km run, this system is already providing approximately half the energy; in a marathon run it provides 98% or more. You use this when doing aerobic activity, so this system doesn’t really apply to our discussion here.
Now that you have a good idea what these three systems are used for, we can have a discussion about how much rest works best for each goal.
3-5 Minutes Rest: This is useful for trainees who are trying to improve their explosive activities of a short duration. That means that longer rest periods are generally better for people who are training for strength and power and should be used together with lower reps (3-5 reps).
This is because your body requires approximately 3 minutes for it to restore the phosphagen (Creatine Phosphate/ATP) stores for your next set. Once the ATP-PC energy system has been able to replenish the energy stores in your muscles, you’ll be to lift a heavier weight for more reps. So, you should rest longer to get the energy to go heavy.
45-60 Seconds: Taking a shorter rest works better for hypertrophy and building overall muscle mass. The point here is not to lift the most weight you can possibly lift. Your purpose is to keep the stress on your muscles and work them again before they have the chance to fully recover.
This gives your muscles intensity over a longer period of time and allows you to keep your muscle “pump” between sets. This is best for the 8-12 rep ranges used by bodybuilders, and is optimal for increasing muscular mass and hypertrophy.
What about the time in between?
You don’t necessarily have to stay exactly within these rep ranges for building muscle mass or strength. There’s no switch that suddenly gets flipped at 3 minutes where your body suddenly begins to use a different energy system. Your muscles recover gradually while you rest, and each energy system works together and has some overlap.
And as always, this is a highly individual thing. Some people swear by using 60-90 seconds rest while bodybuilding, which can be fine for some people. Each person is a little different, and just as one person can run faster than another, one person can also recover faster than another.
Your recovery time will be influenced by a number of factors:
- The intensity of the set
- How much sleep & rest you’ve had
- Your nutrition
- Your Age
- Any injuries you might have
- The temperature of the room
- If you have a cold or other minor illness
- How intense your day job is
You get the idea. I’m trying to show you that there are so many factors that go into this and that every person’s situation is slightly different. Start with the guides given up above, and adjust them over time as you get to know your body and its needs.
Topics: Weight Lifting 101, Workout Principles | 3 Comments »
Getting the right amounts of food is a huge part of the muscle-building and fat-loss equation. You can train as hard as you want enough in the gym, but if you don’t get enough food, you’ll never have the fuel needed to become stronger.
On the other hand, if you eat too much, you’ll end up overweight and wondering where your muscle is buried beneath the fat. So the question is: How much food, or how many calories do I need to consume?
The truth:
Counting calories is a great way for you to know that you are eating the correct amount of food. In fact, it is the best way for you to measure your daily calorie intake. But the truth is that most of you are never actually going to weigh your food and do the work necessary for calorie counting to pay off.
We can talk all day about how many calories you should be eating, but it won’t do you any good unless you are actually counting your calories.
Portions:
Since most of you are too lazy to count your calories (just admit, and I will too) I recommend the portion method for most people. This simple method has been around for a long time, and it is the quick and dirty way to know the right amount of food for you. Here’s how to do it:
Six small meals: Each meal should contain a protein, a carbohydrate, and some vegetable. It’s an oversimplification, I know, but the fact that this is so simple means you’ll actually do it.
- Protein: Eat a protein source with each meal about the size of the palm of your hand.
- Carbohydrate: Eat carbs that are roughly the size of a tightly clenched fist.
- Vegetable: The size of one or two clenched fists. Try to eat vegetables with at least 2-3 (out of six) meals each day.
The beauty is that every person’s hand size is relative to their body size, so this method works well, but it’s not perfect. Each person has different goals, and you’ll need to adjust for that.
- Building muscle: Increase your intake of each portion by 15-20%.
- Losing fat: Decrease your portion intake by 15-20%.
Of course, since this method isn’t perfect, you may need to do some adjusting over time. If you are actively exercising and lifting weights to keep your metabolism up, and you’re still unable to keep fat off, do another moderate carb adjustment from there.
Same goes for weight gain. If 15-20% over the initial recommendation isn’t enough, then adjust. The main idea is to get a feel for what portion size helps you to meet your goals. This simple method should take you most of the way to where you’re trying to go.
Calorie Counting:
Try the portion method first, and if it just isn’t accurate enough for you and your goals, then move on to counting calories. There are a number of ways to determine how many calories you need in a day.
These methods are recommended by fat-loss expert Tom Venuto. I’m not going to get too deep into these here. If you are really going to take the time to count calories and weigh your food, you will also be willing to take the time to read this article about each of the following calculation methods.
And if you’re really serious about counting calories, you should also read Tom’s book, Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. You’ll know everything you need to know about calorie counting and fat loss after reading it. Here are the 3 methods:
1. The quick method: This is my favorite, quick and easy. Just choose your goal and do a quick calculation to see how many calories you need in a day.
Fat loss: 12 - 13 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Maintenance: 15 - 16 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Weight gain: 18 - 19 calories per lb. of bodyweight
2. The Harris-Benedict Formula: This one is more accurate, but requires a little more calculation. You can still get this calculation done in a minute or two if you need to.
3. The Katch-McArdle formula: The most accurate. This requires you to actually measure your body fat percentage for the calculation.
The lazy man’s method:
There is a certain value in not always following your portions or calorie recommendations 100% of the time. Your appetite will often spike on workout days and drop down when you’ve been less active for a few days. Listening to your stomach can be more valuable than all the scientific calorie counting and portion measuring in the world… but you need to be in touch with your body first.
Most people aren’t ready to follow what their stomach tells them on a regular basis. Eating too much food can expand your stomach and skew your perception about how much you should be eating. If you’ve been doing all the right things and you’re in touch with your body, your appetite levels can be valuable feedback about your body’s needs.
Finally:
Now, with all that having been said, it’s important to realize that all of this portion measuring and calorie counting isn’t the most important thing. Eating the right types of quality foods is far more important than making sure that you’re getting the exact number of calories you need.
Spend your time thinking about what the right foods are first, and then measure them second. Thinking about it the other way around just doesn’t make sense anyway.
Topics: Dieting & Food | 4 Comments »
Image credit: cronfeld
Getting calluses while you lift weights is normal, but a lot can be done to reduce the number of calluses that form on your hands.
If you’re getting calluses while lifting, you’re doing some things right. You’re training hard, using a heavy weight, and doing plenty of pulling movements. Just a few changes will help to keep your calluses down to a minimal level.
Why You’re Getting Calluses:
Grip: The biggest reason for getting calluses on your hands is how you grip your bar on pulling movements. On a pulling movement, you are attempting to move the weight toward your body while gravity (or a cable) pulls the weight into your fingers. Gripping the bar in the wrong part of your hand will squeeze the skin beneath the bar.
- Wrong: Don’t place the bar in the palm of your hand directly above your knuckles on the other side. When you wrap your fingers around the bar, the skin below your fingers will fold around the bar.
- Right: Place the bar in the spot where your fingers connect to your hand. This helps to make sure that your skin isn’t folded beneath the bar. The weight in your hands will pull the bar to your fingers anyways, so it’s best just to start with the bar there. If this is your first time using this grip, it will feel a bit odd, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
This grip applies to the following pulling movements and their variations:
- Deadlifts (all variations)
- Rows (all variations)
- Lat Pulldowns
- Pull-ups/ chin-ups
- Powercleans
- Shoulder shrugs
Sweaty Palms: Hey, you’re really working up a sweat, I know. But moist hands aren’t the best for preventing calluses. If you’re wondering why this is, just think about what your skin is like after taking a shower. Wet skin is softer and forms calluses more easily.
- Dry: Wipe your hands before doing heavy pulling movements.
- Chalk: This helps to keep your skin dry and tight. Not all gyms will allow it, but chalk will also improve your grip on heavy lifts.
Sharp Knurl: Each bar has knurling (grips) to help you hold onto the weight better. Some bars have knurling that’s a little bit too strong and it feels like sandpaper on your hands. Choose a bar with decent knurling that’s not too sharp for you.
How to Treat Calluses:
Ok, so you’re doing everything right and you still get some calluses. That’s fine; it happens.
Just as your muscles adapt to increased resistance and become stronger, a callus is really just your skin becoming tough and hard because of the resistance you are placing on it. If you get a callus, keep it in good condition.
- Don’t peel, cut, or bite: Your callus is attached to the skin around it. Trying to remove the callus will also remove some of that skin and cause bleeding. Plus it’s disgusting.
- File: Use a regular nail file to thin it down if it’s becoming a problem. Keep it in place though, because calluses are a natural way for your skin to protect itself.
Not Bicep Curls:
The grip described above does not apply to bicep curls. At the top part of each curl, your forearms are close to vertical and gravity will pull the weight down toward your thumbs. There’s no avoiding this.
It’s ok though, because you’ll be doing much less weight on bicep curls than on heavy pulling movements, and the weight is only pulled toward your fingers for a moment at the bottom of the movement.
Topics: Workout Principles | 6 Comments »
Image Credit: PrairieArt
Talking about the shoulder muscles can really get confusing.
Chances are, if you ask someone for a shoulder rub, they’ll grab the meat that sits close to the base of your neck. This part of your “shoulders” is referred to as the trapezius muscle, or your “traps”.
Your deltoids or “delts”, on the other hand, are the part of your “shoulder” that sits just above your biceps where the arm connects to the body. So let’s just clarify right now that “shoulders” in this article is referring to the deltoid muscles and not the trapezius that sits at the base of your neck.
The deltoids are important to both developing a well-balanced physique as well as improving your sports performance. Strong delts will give you a strong competitive advantage in sports like football, wrestling, and gymnastics, just to name a few.
Here are some reasons why you should strengthen your deltoids:
- Strength & Power: Deltoids are involved in functional movements that strengthen the upper body. They also play a large roll in athletic performance.
- Broad Shoulders: Your deltoids can be seen from all angles since they surround your shoulder on the front, side, and rear. Wide shoulders are visible regardless of what you wear (ok, maybe not if you’re wearing a snow jacket, but you get the point), and they will help increase the appearance having the V-shape… large shoulders that taper down to a small waist.
The deltoids are composed of 3 separate muscle heads. Not all heads of the deltoids are worked through the same motions.
- Anterior Deltoid: This is on the front portion of your delts. To get a feel for it, place your hand on the front of your delts and raise your arm up directly in front of you. You should feel the anterior deltoid flexing.
- Medial Deltoid: Located on the side of your delts. Place your hand on the outside of your shoulder and lift your arm directly out to the side to feel it flexing.
- Posterior Deltoid: This one’s on the back. Place your arm on the back of your shoulder and start moving your elbow backward… I bet you can guess what will happen.
Regardless of what your natural genetics are, a lot can be done to increase your shoulder width. If you train them intensely and with your head on straight, you can widen your shoulders as much as several inches over time. This all depends on your natural frame, of course, but everybody can improve what they were given.
Even just widening your shoulders by a quarter to a half-inch on either side can make you look much broader. The best way to broaden up your delts is to train your medial deltoid on the side of your shoulders using pressing movements and side laterals.
There are 3 primary types of shoulder exercises that you will use in your training:
- Pressing Movements: Most pressing movements, such as the overhead shoulder press, focus on the anterior and medial portions of your deltoids. Think of movements such as the overhead press, dumbbell shoulder presses,
- Pulling movements: Exercises such as barbell rows, cable rows, T-bar rows… these tend to involve the posterior deltoids in the pulling movement. You’ll get these movements during your back workouts.
- Leverage Movements: Just like the exercise we practiced earlier, leverage movements involve raising your arm up directly to your front, side, or rear. Exercises such as front raises, side laterals, and bent-over laterals are all included in this category. These are isolation exercises, so use these a little more sparingly as a beginner and intermediate.
Like we mentioned above, the deltoids are a very complex and versatile muscle group. Because there are so many small muscle groups that give your shoulders this mobility, there is a larger potential for injury.
Be sure to always begin your deltoid exercises with plenty of warm-up. Work with weights you can handle and always use good form. Finally, working on your shoulder flexibility can also help you to avoid future complications.
Topics: Workout Principles | 5 Comments »
If you’ve been going to a commercial gym regularly, you might have noticed that some guys will crank out a set of 15 reps for an exercise while another guy just does 3 reps on a different exercise. What’s up with that?
The reason you’ll see people using totally different rep ranges is that some people have different goals. Doing more reps in your weight lifting routine can serve a great purpose, and doing less reps can also be useful.
Which rep range you ultimately decide to use should be based on your goals and what you want to accomplish. Here, we’ll talk about a few points that will help you make the best decision.
Let’s take a look at what each rep range can be useful for:
- 1-3 Reps: Best suited to boosting your overall strength. The focus here is improving the maximum amount of weight possible for a single repetition. You’ll see powerlifters use these ranges frequently.
- 3-5 reps: Best for developing power, meaning that this rep range is good for the combination of both strength and speed. This is particularly useful for athletes training for sports performance. See stronglifts for more on strength training.
- 8-12 reps: This is the magic range touted by bodybuilders as being the most useful for adding lean muscle mass. Your muscles will enlarge the most in this range and feel a “pump” as you workout. Building muscle mass and looking/ feeling better is the focus of this site.
- 10-20 reps: Very useful for building mass in your legs. Your legs generally are able to handle more stress than your arms can handle.
- 20+ reps: Best for endurance. Not great for what you’re trying to accomplish if you’re like most readers of this site.
Big and Strong?
It’s not uncommon for a person to want to build both muscle mass and strength. These two qualities usually go together, but bodybuilders with massive muscles often can’t lift as much weight as a strength trainer with somewhat smaller muscles.
Using the lower rep ranges will make you stronger first, and your muscles will also grow as a side benefit. Staying in the 8-12 rep range will build larger, more massive muscles first, and you’ll get stronger as a side benefit.
You can see where I’m going with this. Bigger muscles aren’t always equal to stronger muscles. In general, your muscles will become bigger as they become stronger, but each rep range has a particular focus. Pick your rep ranges based on your goals.
Simple physics teaches us that moving an object through a greater distance requires more force. For example, when you squat, you move the weight a good distance throughout the movement. But what about when you do a set of wrist curls? How much does the weight move on a set of wrist curls? Probably not as much.
Since some exercises have such a small range of motion, they can benefit from higher repetitions. Exercises such as calf raises, wrist curls, shoulder shrugs, and ab crunches can all work well with a set of 15.
More for legs? Your legs will definitely tire out less quickly than your arms. Try a heavy set of bicep curls. You might feel fine after 7 reps and then totally die out by the tenth. Notice how your performance can fail very quickly with your arms. When you’re doing leg exercises, on the other hand, you might be surprised how many times you can crank out another rep after taking a few breaths.
Nothing is set in stone
Let me just say that none of this is set in stone. If you want to train 5 reps for your legs and it’s giving you good returns, then go ahead. If you want to try 15 reps on your arms, go ahead. The above rep schemes are just guides that most people agree work for certain goals.
But you definitely should experiment with different rep ranges. The goal of this site is to help you build muscle mass and lose fat first… strength is secondary here.
Still, even if you don’t care how much weight you’re lifting, try a good month with sets of 5 when your progress starts slowing down. Always training with the same number of repetitions can lead to staleness.
Topics: Rest & Recovery, Weight Lifting 101, Workout Principles | 8 Comments »
Image credit: wok
I did my first article of shame in late November of last year. Well, I’ve been back to the magazine rack, and I’ve got another wonderfully educational article to share with you.
Today’s article of shame comes from page 80 of the March 2008 edition of Maximum Fitness For Men. The tag line on the cover of this magazine reads, “No B.S. Just Results”.
Honestly, this is the best quote ever:
Is dropping 5,000 calories in one day possible? Yes, it is. All you have to do is be smart. It doesn’t involve killing yourself twice a day or splitting hairs either. You’re 19 steps away from becoming a new man.
Wow, I can really cut 5,000 calories and it won’t split my hairs? Really though, I’ve only seen women worry about the ends of their hair splitting. Maybe this article accidentally got put here instead of in Maximum Fitness for Women. I don’t know…
Cut 5,000 Calories in one day!!! And Get Super Duper Frickin Ripped!!
OK, this article was pretty much screwed right from the beginning in my mind. The first red flag that went up was that you could cut out 5,000 calories and that it would somehow be a good thing. Let’s do a little math first.
Former bodybuilder and fat-loss expert Tom Venuto’s Quick Method of calculating calories shows us that you need to eat about 18-19 calories for every pound of body weight if you’re trying to get heavier (build muscle). Also, the average male needs about 2,700 to 2,900 calories per day (that’s average- some are much more, some are much less).
So let’s give the article the benefit of the doubt and say that the guy who is eating 5,000 calories in a day is trying to build muscle and needs 18-19 calories per day. If he’s trying to build muscle, he wouldn’t be cutting calories in the first place, but these numbers are more conservative, so we’ll use them.
5,000 calories / 19 calories needed per pound = 263 pounds.
So, the simple method says that 5,000 calories per day is appropriate for a man (or woman) weighing 263 pounds who is trying to get bigger. Never mind the fact that cutting out all 5,000 calories pretty much means he’s eating nothing for a day… I hope none of the smaller teenagers read this…
All you have to do is be smart
Here are a few of their awesome tips on how to be smart:
- 47 minutes of light office work: They say you’ll spend 100 calories doing this, because if you didn’t read the magazine, you wouldn’t have moved at all and would have wasted the chance to burn that extra 100 with light work!
- 35 minutes of self-grooming: This needs to be written in a magazine because you wouldn’t spend enough time doing your hair if they didn’t mention it. 100 calories.
- 1 hour of passionate kissing: I like this one. But you will either rip a tongue muscle or move far beyond kissing before an hour is up. 180 calories.
- 1 hour fixing your car: Just like we always say: if ain’t broken, fix it anyways. 343 calories.
- 1 hour of playing cards: Mega fat burner, right here. No joke. 140 calories.
- 50 minutes of handwriting a letter to a friend: Again, writing notes to your best friend forever probably got placed in the wrong magazine. This one belongs in Pink Dumbbell Magazine. 100 calories.
- 30 minutes in the gym, 30 mintues jogging: These were put at the very end of the list. First try the make-out marathon, the half-hour of doing your hair, or writing a note to your best friend forever. If those don’t work, then give the gym a shot. 632 calories.
Oh, by the way, actually doing all of their listed activities for the recommended times would require over 8 hours a day. I hope you can fit it in.
Topics: Dieting & Food, Exercises and Routines | 5 Comments »
How Do I Work The Fat Off My Gut?
By Jason
Image Credit: itsnickssister
WFN reader Richard asked the following question in the comments to a previous article:
Usually when I do situps/crunches, I would do like 3 sets and with each set I would do a different variation, like either crunches or legs in the air crunches etc etc. But which ab exercises do help burn that unwanted stomach fat?
This is a great question, because men tend to accumulate fat in the stomach area, whereas women get it more in the hips and thighs. Doing situps and crunches to work your abs seems like the logical choice to get rid of that gut.
Trying to take fat off of one part of your body only is called spot reduction of fat, and unfortunately, it doesn’t really work. You can decrease your overall body fat percentage, but there is no exercise that can help you take the fat just off your stomach.
But you know you want it
I understand the desire. The abdomen is the visual center of the body. Since the eye naturally draws first to the middle of the body, a big gut is like a bull’s-eye right on the center of you, while a tight stomach or six pack immediately shows an outstanding physique.
I get the feeling that if all of our fat cells were hanging out around our toes, we wouldn’t be too concerned… or maybe I’m just not realizing how nasty it would look…
But I know what the real question is: how do I really get that six pack?
Here’s the deal:
The rectus abdominus is a layer of muscle that is draped over your mid-section between the pelvis and the rib cage. Getting a six pack requires you to build up those muscles and strengthen them (I know you already know this part, but just in case). Your abs are worked especially in the stomach crunching movements and when they act as stabilizers for exercises like deadlifts.
The next step is to remove the fat that’s covering your six pack. Can you do this with ab-exercises? Well, kinda.
I won’t say that abdominal exercises don’t do anything to lower your body fat percentages. Each crunch you do does expend some energy and burn some fat, but not enough to really make a difference.
Also, each pound of muscle on your body requires more energy for you body to maintain it each day. Each pound is estimated to burn between 20-35 calories per day, depending on your activity levels and which studies you are basing the numbers on.
So, the fact that you are increasing the muscle mass in your abs will also amount to more calories expended. But the abs are a smaller muscle group, so again the results are negligible for fat loss.
A better way:
Here’s something that will do more: use those exercises that do work many of your large muscles together, burn many more calories, and create greater muscle mass to burn more fat. This will help to make the six pack more visible.
Yes, we are talking again about those nice, multi-joint, compound, YWWASWT exercises that I’m always ranting about. This means that one of the best weight lifting exercises for removing the belly fat is one of the exercises that you would expect the least: the squat. Use other big lifts in a similar manner.
From there, it’s a matter of taking the other steps to keep your fat levels in check:
- Six smaller meals a day
- The right foods in the right amounts
- Plenty of water
- Rest and recovery
- Thermic foods
- Cardio
Remember though, you are not a professional bodybuilder preparing for a competition. Your goal is to look good year-round, not just for a weekend or an event. There’s no need for complicated programs of severe carb restriction or extreme cutting programs. Do the simple things first, and worry about the complicated stuff if you ever really come to that point.
Summary:
Your six pack will require two things:
1. Strengthening of your abdominal muscles.
2. Lowering your body fat percentages so that your six pack is uncovered
How about you? What kinds of things were you doing when you were at your leanest?
Topics: Rest & Recovery, Workout Principles | 12 Comments »
How To Overhead Press With Good Form
By Jason
Image Credit: roguefitnessphotos
The overhead press is one of the most basic movements available for working the upper body. It’s so good, in fact, that it is touted by many to be the most useful movement for working your upper body.
Overhead presses place primary stress on the anterior deltoids (front shoulder muscles), the medial deltoids (middle shoulder), and the triceps. Secondary stress is also placed on the upper chest, the stabilizing abs and lower back, and the upper back muscles involved in the rotational movement of the scapulae.
This exercise is very efficient for building overall body mass simply because of the shear number of muscles groups involved in the movement. Any well designed training program should include an overhead pressing movement, and the overhead press is a premier movement to strengthen your shoulders and upper body.
Set-Up:
- Get in position: Take a firm grip on an Olympic bar and clean the bar up to your shoulders.
- Grip width: Your hands should grip so that your index finger is placed at approximately one inch wider than the nearest part of your shoulder. The width may be just slightly more or less depending on your size.
- Elbows up: Start with your elbows up high enough that your arms and shoulders are in the correct position to press the weight upward. Your elbows should begin more forward than the bar.
- Start on the shoulders: Bar begins on the shoulders with your chest up.
- Deep breath: Take a deep breath to fill up your lungs before you lift. This will help to increase the abdominal pressure.
Once you’re in place and all set to go, begin to press the bar upward with the following in mind:
1. Directly upward: Press the bar upward in a nearly straight line from your shoulders. This will mean that the bar should pass very close to your nose on the way up.
2. Stay centered: As the bar presses upward, keep your center of gravity over the middle of your feet. This means you will start the movement leaning back slightly as the bar is pressed upward and clears your forehead.
3. Move under the bar: As soon as the bar clears your forehead, begin to move your body forward under the bar. Again, the bar is traveling directly upward, and your body must move back slightly as the bar passes your face and forward again under the bar in the second part of the movement.
4. Lockout: This is completed as the triceps straighten the elbows and the trapezius muscles of your upper back pull to hold the shoulders in that position. Finish the movement with the bar directly above the back of your neck.
As always, there are a few common errors to watch out for and make sure to avoid. Proper form is key to your safety and making this into an effective exercise.
Common problems:
- Not keeping your chest up: This can cause your back to round and bend forward. Keeping your chest up will start the bar on your shoulders and give you a solid starting place for the movement.
- Elbows to your sides: Starting in this position will often place your elbows behind or directly under the bar and move your shoulders out from under the bar.
- Excessive hyperextension of the back: Some backward lean is necessary during this movement. But leaning too far back on the overhead press is unsafe for your lower back and shifts much of the stress of the movement to your chest muscles.
- Turning the movement into a push press: This means that you are using a thrust from your legs to help get the bar up. Your goal is to work your upper body in this movement, not your legs. A push press can be useful to eek out that last rep or two at the end, but you should generally do all of your exercise with good form.
Topics: Training Tips | 8 Comments »
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