Archive for the ‘Conditioning’ Category

The Top 5 Most Efficient Forms of Cardio

Thursday, October 10th, 2024
man using battle ropes for efficient forms of cardio intervals

Interval Training is simply one of the most efficient forms of cardio you can perform, if not the most efficient. You can get pretty much ALL the benefits of longer-duration cardio but without the long duration. Moreover, you don’t get bored, you don’t spend all your time doing it, and you don’t have nearly the risk of overuse injuries.

Let’s take a look at how we can choose from the most efficient forms of cardio to elevate conditioning while working towards strength goals.

This is an excerpt from Nick Nilsson’s book Muscle Explosion: 28 Days to Maximum Mass

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The Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 3

Friday, October 4th, 2024
female athletes with ripped abs from using the best abdominal exercises

Here is our conclusion to the best abdominal exercises series. If you haven’t already, you can read the Top 10 Best Abs Exercises Part 1. Then don’t forget to hit the Top 10 Best Abs Exercises Part 2.

Here is our list of the second 5 of our favorite 10 ab exercises that you can use to get 6-pack abs. Perform these exercises on a regular basis, mix them up, use different speeds, tempos, angles, and positions to get a full workout. Always try to mix it up from workout to workout.

That is quite enough out of me for now. Go ahead and read about the 5 exercises and then figure out how to work them into your routine.

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How to do Box Jumps

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024
female athlete performing box jumps

Box jumps are a great exercise for your legs, and can be performed on just about any variable flat surface. They hit your posterior chain – calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings – pretty hard.

Box jumps can be used for cardio workouts, neural activation training (NAT), high-intensity resistance training (HIRT), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) circuits. They are often used in CrossFit WODs (Workout of the Day) and are a staple exercise in plyometric training. Plyometrics have a wide range of athletic and real sporting applications; they are used, for example, to increase jumping ability, leg strength, hip drive, and explosiveness.

Box jumps are a simple movement. They require you only to jump from one flat surface up onto another flat surface, then either step or jump back down, depending on the purpose of the exercise. These are our tips for performing them safely and effectively.

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The Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 2

Wednesday, July 17th, 2024
Two guys with ripped abs who use the best abdominal exercises we discuss below.

Here is the long-awaited follow-up to the Top 10 Best Ab Exercises Part 1 and the precursor to the Top 10 Best Abs Exercises Part 3. Let’s take a look at 5 of our favorite 10 best abdominal exercises, that you can use to get 6-pack abs look. Do these exercises regularly, mix them up, and use different speeds, tempos, angles, and positions to get a full workout. Always try to progress from workout to workout.

Here are 3 ways you can gauge progress with abdominal exercises:

  1. Try to complete more reps in a given period. For example, do as many fold-ups as possible in 60 seconds. Try to break your personal record (PR) for each workout.
  2. Try to complete more total reps each time you perform the exercise. For example, in week one do 3 sets of 10, week 2 do 3 sets of 12, week 3 do 4 sets of 10, week 4 do 3 sets of 15, etc…
  3. If it applies, try to add weight to the exercise by holding a plate or dumbbell on your chest or behind your head, or use a weighted vest. You can also add weight to your legs with ankle weights. Try to use more weight, or complete more reps with the same weight, each time.

Let’s skip any additional small talk here and get on with the exercises.

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The Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 1

Thursday, July 4th, 2024
ripped abs bodybuilder uses the best abdominal exercises to train his core

With the prevalence of six-pack abs in the media by everyone from Hugh Jackman and Matthew McConaughey, to Janet Jackson and Beyonce Knowles, society as of late treasures that elusive flat-defined stomach look, and they must know the secrets of the best abdominal exercises, right? We can thank high resolution for our cultural transition from portly praise to abdominal admiration.

Best Abdominal Exercises

After all, before Hollywood got huge in the 1900s, as a culture we appreciated a little meat on our bones because it represented comfort, success, and good health. Now that we get to feast our eyes daily on tough-guy actors, beautiful actresses, rock stars, and supermodels, we’ve come full circle into the Washboard Era.

Quick Links:
10 Best Ab Exercises Part 1
10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 2
10 Best Abs Exercises Part 3

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9 Routines for Jumping Rope with Power and Endurance For HIIT

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024
male athlete using specialized routines for jumping rope to get ripped

Everyone knows how to jump rope. Hold the two ends and whip over your head, under your feet, back over your head, and so on. But we don’t all have a convenient plan in our back pocket. Hopefully, we can provide some useful suggestions here to help you work routines for jumping rope into your weekly routine.

This great exercise is an awesome fat burner, but it can also be pretty boring if you just use steady-state jumping counting the reps. That boredom can be overcome through, as jump rope is one of the greatest inventions ever for fitness enthusiasts and athletes, with many variations in technique, timing, intensity, and duration.

You also benefit from routines for jumping rope by strengthening your rotator cuffs and shoulders, increasing power in your lower body, developing your calves, and much more. Use some of the techniques listed below to make your jump rope sessions more challenging. Use the highest intensity techniques for your HIIT training.

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The Best Exercises to Build Endurance

Monday, July 1st, 2024
this girl got ripped abs partially by adding exercises to build endurance

Athletes have become bigger and stronger and are in better shape nowadays, and the trend to build endurance through specific training has only accelerated this phenomenon. Athletes are getting leaner and more ‘ripped’ than ever, in nearly every sport.

It used to be that a baseball player, for example, would focus on exercises specifically designed to improve the specific skill set that they needed to succeed on the baseball field. The same sport-specific training was true for every sport. But as people began to see the broad-spectrum benefits that came with endurance training for events like the triathlon, it became evident that an individual with greater strength and endurance in any sport could benefit from a more well-rounded circuit of exercises.

It didn’t take long before regular people started to realize that they could benefit from endurance training, too, and it quickly became more and more popular. Today, its appeal is at an all-time high. Even weekend athletes, as a result of endurance training, are becoming almost indefatigable.

Here’s why.

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What is My Body Type? Ectomorph, Mesomorph, Endomorph

Tuesday, June 18th, 2024
a group of men asking what is my body type?

You could be wasting your time with a great workout routine and proper nutrition if you don’t know how to train and eat based on your body type. When I first started training and reading about body types my first question – what is my body type, was hard to answer. It seemed I was the combination of 2 of them so initially, I struggled to categorize myself. Honestly, your body type category doesn’t matter enough for anyone to be stressed out about categorizing the body type but knowing the details of how to eat and train for each type, at least gave me some direction as I set goals for fat loss and strength gains in my earlier years.

Hopefully, this guide will help you find some answers if you ask the question, ‘What is my body type?’

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Trampoline Exercises and Workouts: Bouncing Your Way to Fitness

Thursday, August 17th, 2023
woman performing Trampoline Exercises

Are you looking for a fun and effective way to stay in shape? Look no further than trampoline exercises and workouts! Not just for kids, trampolining can provide a low-impact, high-intensity workout that engages your entire body.

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5 Benefits of Power Boxing Workouts – Unleash the Power!

Friday, May 12th, 2023
Power boxing workouts man hitting heavy bag

Power Boxing Workouts are a great way to build strength and develop quality striking and self-defense techniques. They’re also a great way to improve cardio, strengthen core muscles, and burn fat.

A power boxing workout will make you feel stronger and more confident when done correctly. Getting stronger, lifting heavier weights, and being able to throw harder can be hugely beneficial for your mental health. Let’s investigate all of the benefits of boxing.

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What is HIIT – High-Intensity Interval Training – And How Should You Use It?

Wednesday, July 20th, 2022

What is High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)?

female sprinter uses high-intensity interval training

High-Intensity Interval Training, often represented by the acronym HIIT, is really a big deal. HIIT training is the ideal and most effective replacement for underachieving endurance cardio. High-intensity interval training has been regarded for years now as one of the best ways to burn calories and maintain muscle mass while encouraging a long-lasting metabolic effect post-workout.

As a matter of fact, in studies, HIIT is 9x more effective at burning fat than endurance cardio.

More often than not, I have talked about HIIT workouts made up only of interval sprints. Today I would like to discuss HIIT training with resistance machines, but not to be confused with High-Intensity Resistance Training, or HIRT, which I will write about shortly.

HIIT Provides the Following Benefits

  • Burn more calories than endurance cardio
  • Burn more fat than endurance cardio
  • Increase power
  • Increase speed
  • Increase muscle density
  • Improve anaerobic endurance
  • Improve aerobic endurance
  • Speed up metabolism for more than a day and a half
  • Shorten cardio training sessions by at least 33%

Navigating This Article

Beginners TrainingIntermediate TrainingAdvanced Training
10 second sprints10 second sprints10 second sprints
20 second sprints20 second sprints20 second sprints
30 second sprints30 second sprints30 second sprints
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How to Improve Your Body Composition With Diet and Exercise

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022
improve your body composition like this fit man

Carrying extra weight around has many negative side effects. It can lead to everything from serious health conditions to unnecessary pain. If you’re considering trying to shed some extra weight this year, dieting and exercise are crucial for long-lasting change. The effort should not necessarily be about “losing weight” thought, right? You want to focus on how to improve your body composition by losing fat and gaining muscle in order to keep your metabolism as high as possible.

Let’s think about a few of the most important lifestyle habits we’ll need to change in order to get our body composition moving in the right direction.

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A Generic Full-Body Workout Routine

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021
Full Body Workout

There are about 8,675,309 workout routines that you can try. One of the most effective types of routines I have found in the first 14 years of my training career is total body training. A full-body workout will stimulate all of your muscle chains sufficiently to elicit a powerful physiological response.

The Principles of Total Body Training

  • Train every muscle group 3 times per week.
  • Select one exercise per muscle group, per day.
  • Hit each muscle group from a different angle or intensity in each workout.
  • Never go to absolute failure on any exercise; leave one rep in the bank, except sometimes on the last set.
  • Keep workouts under one hour, not counting warm-ups and stretching.
  • Change everything up after two months.

Why Might This Be the Most Effective Form of Training?

  • High frequency (how often you train any given muscle) means more chances to recover and grow stronger/bigger.
  • Low daily stimulus (# of exercises and sets per day for any given muscle) lowers your chances of overtraining.
  • Avoiding training to failure also lowers the chances of overtraining.
  • Hitting muscles from all angles each week strengthens stabilizers and is proactive injury prevention.
  • Avoid muscle adaptation by changing up the whole routine after 2 months.

Let’s take a few minutes to example one of the better full-body workout routines I’ve written. The next time you want to change up your routine, try this for a month or two.

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A Fat Burning Workout to Strengthen Your Core

Thursday, November 11th, 2021
Strengthen Your Core

Everyone wants a flat stomach but we don’t always get what we want, such is life: we have to hustle for the muscle. To get rid of excess body fat and lose unsightly belly fat, it is important to do both conditioning as well as weight training exercises. Stubborn belly fat cannot be targeted by spending extra time on ab exercises. Instead, you need to focus on how to strengthen your core and build up the supporting foundational blocks to influence the aesthetics of your v-shaped, chiseled midsection.

Of course, nutrition is responsible for 75% of your fat loss results, but you still need to strengthen your core by performing the exercises below. Perform all the exercises in a single day by pairing larger muscle groups (chest, back, legs) with smaller muscle groups (shoulders, triceps, biceps, abs), or spread them out across the week, adding additional exercises to further target a specific muscle group pairing each day, for example:

  • back, bis, abs
  • chest, tris, abs
  • quads, hamstrings, calves, abs

Now, let’s take a look at our 7 awesome exercises and variations for strengthening your core, and how to use them together in a circuit to bring out those six-pack abs.

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6 Ways You Can Boost Athletic Endurance

Wednesday, November 10th, 2021
Boost Athletic Endurance group training

Endurance is the ability to last through something that pushes you to your limits. Do you know what it’s going to take personally, to boost athletic endurance? Does your body have the strength to do more? Can you give anything else to the effort? Or are you ready to call it quits and rest?

Athletic endurance refers to several aspects of your physiology:

  • your mental state
  • muscle strength & stamina
  • cardiovascular health & conditioning

To go further and last longer, work on building all three areas. The following are six ways to develop your endurance levels through whole-body and spiritual strategies.

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Can High-Intensity Rebounding Workouts Transform Your Body?

Friday, August 6th, 2021
rebounding workouts

Rebounding is an aerobic exercise that entails jumping on a trampoline. It is an ideal option for all ages, especially as you can go for gentle rebounding or up it to high intensity following your needs and situations. From kids to older adults, rebounding workouts can transform the body, making it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Much like any workout, the more you put into it, the better results you’ll realize. The best part is that rebounding is fun. You can hardly mask that smile as you jump on the trampoline, making it an ideal option even for those who don’t enjoy working out. High-intensity rebounding workout’s popularity continues to grow by the day. Let’s look at how it can transform your body, making high-intensity rebounding workouts a favorite among many.

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Why You Need to Condition and How to Do It Effectively

Monday, April 26th, 2021
why you need to condition

Every athlete has to be well conditioned to perform well. I don’t care what sport it is or how often you play, but you need to be well-conditioned and in shape either way. In this article, I’m going to go over why you need to condition and how to condition. 

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Faster And Longer – Professional Runners, Here’s How You Can Level Up Your Stamina

Wednesday, April 14th, 2021
level up your stamina

Professional runners always aspire to get better, with new goals for distance, speed, and time. But running faster and longer requires more than just sprinting. It is as much about building your endurance base and maintaining your motivation levels. If you can manage both fronts, it will be easy to push your limits and level up your stamina. Here are some strategies that professional trainers recommend for runners who want to go faster and longer.  

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21 Tips on How to Sprint Faster

Sunday, February 28th, 2021

How to Sprint Faster

Sprinting is the foundation of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and will make your legs big, strong, fast, and powerful. Sprints are great for developing endurance, but also for developing lean muscle mass and speed strength. If you want to develop your writing skills you can visit services like thesishelpers.com, but for sprinting these tips will teach you how to sprint faster.

Female Sprinter

Ever seen a skinny sprinter? I didn’t think so.

Sure, squats are the almighty kings of the Gym Exercise Kingdom; but sprints are like the kings of the Functional Exercise Kingdom whose jacked-up, super-lean army of massive wheels is constantly trying to overthrow the squat as the #1 top leg exercise.

You think you know how to sprint right, but do you?

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The Top 4 Best Close Combat Self-Defense Martial Arts

Monday, January 27th, 2020

The idea of paying money so you can go get beaten up someplace might sound insane. This is what martial arts are but the pain and exertion can be extremely beneficial. The benefits of martial arts go beyond just physical fitness. In everyday life, you would have to defend yourself and even your loved ones. But you cannot do that well enough if you are just fit. No matter how much you ignore or deny it, the only self-defense tool you will have with you all the time is your body. Plus, most of the real-life situations are close combat.  

close combat self defense

Some forms are better for self-defense while others are not, this is just how it is. It is time to turn your body into a weapon with the help of martial arts. Here is a list of the best self-defense close-combat martial arts from the best to our least favorite. But there are not the only options available, but the best ones to protect yourself in my belief. Keep in mind that even the last listed option is the last of the best, so you can’t go wrong no matter which discipline you choose.

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