Posts Tagged ‘weightlifting’
Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
5 Weight Lifting Tips I Wish I Knew as a Beginner
If you’ve grown tired of your flabby countenance, not to mention feeling awful all the time because you fill yourself with junk food and live a sedentary lifestyle, then perhaps you’re finally ready to lay down the remote, pick up some weights, and start turning your excess baggage into toned, tightened muscle mass. Of course, you’re not going to snap your fingers and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger circa his Mr. Olympia years.
It’s going to take time, effort, and probably money to trim down and bulk up. And you’re going to need some help along the way. Luckily, there are plenty of trainers, forums, and even body builders at your local gym that can offer you pointers along the way.
Here are just a few basic tips to get you started on your journey to a muscular physique.
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Tags: beginner, bodybuilding, exercise, fitness, newbie, noob, tips, Weight Training, weightlifting, working out, workout
Posted in Fitness Tips, Nutrition Tip, Weight Training | No Comments »
Monday, June 17th, 2013
Here’s a pretty cool infographic about building a bigger chest. I really enjoy infographics and I’m hoping you do too.
How to Get a Bigger Chest
It’s a dream for every men to have a good looking chest and there are wide range of exercises that can performed in order to grow your chest. The infographic shares data about different exercises for bigger chest along with few workout tips.
For an additional list of best chest exercises, also check out my post about the top 5 best chest exercises.
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Tags: chest, exericse, fitness, muscles, pecs, pectorals, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
How NOT to Squat
8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman said it best: “shut up and squat.” [1] After all, there’s nothing better for building lower body mass. Squats force you to use numerous stabilizing muscles and exhaust hamstrings, quads, and glutes.
To get the most out of squats, however, they must be executed with correct form. Avoiding these common squat mistakes will take both your performance and physique to the next level.
Mistake #1: Not Engaging Your Core
The core is the body’s center of gravity and is where movement originates. [2]If you have a weak core, it will be much harder to keep the weight stable. It also places you at a greater risk for hip or lower back injury.
To properly engage your core when performing a squat, concentrate on sucking your belly button towards your spine. A strong core will be able to maintain this posture throughout the exercise. If you have a weak core, using a weight belt around the waist protects the spine and keeps you from relaxing the core.
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Tags: exercise, fitness, legs, squat, squats, squatting, technique, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Exercise Technique, Fitness Tips, Weight Training | No Comments »
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Don’t Let Overtraining Derail Your Progress
When you start working out, whether you’re preparing for a triathlon or pumping iron in order to bulk up for a competition, you may find that early successes give you the motivation you need to push harder, exceed your boundaries, and reach your fitness goals. And anything that helps you to stay on track when all you want to do is veg out on the couch with a bowl of pasta is a good thing.
Of course, there’s always the chance that you’ll get a little over-zealous with your training and end up doing more harm than good. So if you’ve been putting a lot more into your exercise routine than normal and you’re starting to wonder if you’re overtraining, here are a few signs that could help you to determine if you should forge ahead or take a breather.
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Tags: exercise, fitness, health, injuries, injury, over training, overtraining, proress, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries | No Comments »
Friday, April 19th, 2013
Regardless of the type of exercise regimen you’ve chosen, chances are that sooner or later you’re going to push yourself too hard and suffer some type of injury. Even if you’re careful, accidents can happen, so you want to be prepared when they do.
Luckily, the most common types of injuries that occur during exercise, such as sprains, strains, muscle cramps, and the like, are not too detrimental, although contact sports, for example, can certainly lead to more serious bodily harm. When it comes to addressing these issues so that you can get back on track with your workout routine, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure a speedy recovery.
Here are some tips that should help you to treat any injuries you may sustain.
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Diagnosis.
The first thing you need to do is determine the severity of your injury.
For example, it’s important to know the difference between a muscle cramp, which may be treated fairly immediately through stretching and hydrating, and a sprain or strain, which will certainly require more than a few minutes of rest and light stretching to correct before you can get back to lifting weights or swimming laps.
Although you may not be as qualified as a doctor to diagnose common exercise injuries, and you may therefore want to call your physician for an exam if you’re not sure about the cause of ongoing or chronic pain, most athletes and even amateur exercise aficionados can tell when something is seriously wrong and when they can handle recuperation on their own.
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Tags: deadlifts, exercise, fitness, injuries, injury, Medical, powerlifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 25th, 2013
Shoulder Rehab
Chronic Shoulder Instability and Impingement Syndrome are the most common types of shoulder injury. Chronic Shoulder Instability occurs when the ‘head’ of the upper arm bone moves out of the shoulder socket. This results in a shoulder joint dislocation and causes great pain. On the other hand, impingement syndrome is prompted by friction occurring between the shoulder blade and rotator cuff. The friction from the rotator cuff and the shoulder blade may be caused by inflammation in a tendon or muscle.
Preparations to Rehab an Injured Shoulder
It’s important to remember that any injury needs to be checked and treated by an accredited physician. They may recommend medication and several rehabilitation techniques to encourage the shoulder to heal and function as soon as possible. The Physician will also be able to see the specifics of your injury that may alter they way you would treat it. Here are some tips to consider when preparing an injured shoulder for rehabilitation.
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Tags: back, exercise, fitness, injuries, injury, injury prevention, Medical, powerlifting, prevent, prevention, rotator cuff, shoulder, shoulders, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries, Medical | No Comments »
Friday, March 15th, 2013
For many of us the hardest part about working out is motivation. This could be due to the fact that you haven’t made fitness a priority; when you’ve always got something more important on your plate it’s all too easy to put your health on the back burner.
Or maybe you’ve been exercising diligently and you’re simply not seeing the results you want, a situation that can be frustrating and discouraging.
It could even be that you simply don’t find your exercise routine particularly challenging or fun.
Whatever your reasons for skipping the workout day after day, the truth is that you need to find ways to get motivated, and interval training can provide you with several benefits that might just move you to get your butt off the couch and into gear.
Here are a few benefits of interval training to consider:
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Tags: Conditioning, fitness, high intensity interval training, high intensity training, hiit, interval training, intervals, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, HIIT Routines | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Everything You Need to Know Barbell Complexes
Hitting a plateau can drive you insane. Some people take months just to bump their bench press up by five pounds. A plateau is a good indicator that there’s something about your routine that just isn’t working for you anymore, and it means that it’s time for a change. Adding barbell complexes to your routine is a great technique for breaking plateaus. Barbell complexes are difficult, requiring you to perform several barbell exercises in a row as one set with no rest in between sets.
Benefits of Barbell Complexes
As a form of cardio, barbell complexes have several benefits over traditional cardio workouts. Barbell complexes burn a ton of calories but do not release cortisol the same way traditional cardio does. Cortisol is a stress hormone partly responsible for inducing fat storage in the body. However, barbell complexes release anabolic hormones that help you cut fat, making barbell complexes a great tool for cutting fat while you get out of your plateau.
The time required for traditional cardio can also be a bit of a drag, clocking in at thirty minutes or more. Barbell complexes are very fast-paced, and depending on how many sets you do, you may finish in ten to fifteen minutes – half the time of traditional cardio.
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Tags: barbell complex, cleans, Conditioning, exercise, fitness, Olympic complex, overhead press, snatch, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Conditioning, HIIT Routines, HIRT Routines, Weight Training | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
There’s something you might not know about type 2 diabetes: anyone can get it. The onset of this form of the disease need not be related to heredity, although instances in your family may raise your risk for developing diabetes. However, you should also know that the condition is not unavoidable, even if you do have a family medical history to contend with.
What is Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes develops when there is too much sugar in your blood, a condition known as hyperglycemia. Normally, your body creates insulin that breaks down sugar so that it can be stored in cells and burned off as energy. But over time, excess fat in the body can reduce levels of insulin being produced and create an insulin resistance in cells.
While the main cause of type 2 diabetes onset is thought to be obesity, the truth is that you can have a slim physique with a high percentage of body fat. The point is that even people who don’t necessarily look like they’ll develop diabetes may be prone to the disorder. And lifting weights can definitely help to lower your risk.
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Tags: diabetes, exercise, fitness, health, Medical, medicine, nutrition, resistance training, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Medical, Research | No Comments »
Monday, February 25th, 2013
How to Prevent Injuries that Will Derail Your Progress
Adding weight lifting to your workout routine on a weekly basis can offer the average fitness buff a world of benefits.
For one thing, it can make you stronger, as expected, helping you to overcome obstacles in other types of exercise (running faster, throwing farther, jumping higher, etc.). But it can also help you to create the physique you’ve been trying for (whether it’s bulking you crave or simply a frame that features better muscle tone) and even lose weight if that’s what you want (muscle burns more calories than fat). And that’s just the beginning.
Weight lifting, when done improperly, can also result in a slew of injuries, most of which can be easily avoided by warming up and cooling down, building up to greater weights or more reps over time, using proper form, listening to your body, and asking for help from a spotter.
Here are just a few common weight lifting injuries that are best avoided:
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Tags: back, exercise, fitness, injuries, injury, injury prevention, Medical, powerlifting, prevent, prevention, rotator cuff, shoulder, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries | 1 Comment »
Saturday, February 16th, 2013
Many people like the energy boost that they get from exercising early since it stays with them throughout the day and leaves them pleasantly sleepy at night. But if you’re not an early riser, you might find that you prefer working out during your lunch break or in the evening, despite the fact that it can leave you pumped up and unable to snooze when your head hits the pillow.
Of course, you may find that exercising later in the day presents you with myriad problems. Perhaps you’re too tired or demands on your time inevitably pop up, preventing you from getting in your workout.
In any case, you might end up deciding that starting your day with a workout is the best way to go. However, it can definitely be difficult to roll out of bed an hour earlier than usual, even if you’re committed to making it work.
So here are a few strategies that should help you find the motivation you need to exercise first thing in the morning.
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Tags: cardio, exercise, fitness, lifestyle, morning, sprints, tips, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout, workouts
Posted in Fitness Tips, Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Enhance Sports Performance with Resistance Training
Most athletes do whatever exercises are most beneficial for their sport of choice. Often, the focus of a workout regimen is geared towards the demands of the sport in question.
For example, marathon runners train by running, while cyclists – you guessed it – train by riding their bikes. But whether you play soccer or basketball, you’re big on Parkour, or your idea of a good time includes a kayak and white-water rapids, you may find, at some point that your training sessions are not delivering the results that they used to. Or perhaps you’ve found that you can’t seem to get over a personal plateau with a pure cardio routine.
Whatever the case, you may eventually come to the realization that adding weight training to your efforts could be beneficial to your overall health and fitness, taking you to the next level with whatever form of athletics you prefer. And here are just a few benefits that should help convince you to take the leap and lift some weights.
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Tags: athletes, athletics, fitness, performance, Sports, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Sports, Weight Training | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Weight lifting is a great way to exercise, build toned muscle, burn calories, and promote overall health–but it can be dangerous as well. Our bodies aren’t used to the stress of heavy lifting, and our backs are particularly vulnerable to strain and injury.
An injured back can keep you out of the gym for weeks, or even months at a time, depending on the severity of the injury and your ability to recover. If you want to stay healthy, strong, and transform your body into a work of art, always remember to protect your back.
Step 1: Warm Up
Never start a workout without warming up first. Your body just isn’t ready for the stress of heavy lifting when you walk through the gym doors. You need to get primed before you start hitting the weights.
- A short cardio warm up on the treadmill or elliptical is a great way to warm up your muscles and get the blood moving in your body. It is not necessary to use high intensity during your warm up. This is just a 5 minute effort to get the muscles moving.
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Tags: back, deadlifts, exercise, fitness, injuries, injury, Medical, powerlifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
A Short Term Solution
If you’re committed to your health and fitness, then you’ve probably got a regular routine worked out already. But you may have found that over time, your targeted regimen begins to deliver fewer returns in the way of results.
This is not such a terrible thing when you’re merely maintaining your level of fitness. But when you have to look your best for an event like a wedding, a body-builder competition, or even a stroll down the red carpet, you may be keen to up your game where your workouts are concerned.
The process starts with assessing your current state, determining your goals, and then figuring out the steps needed to get you where you want to be within a set time limit. So whether you have several months to prepare or just a couple of weeks, here are some tips that will help to get you in peak physical condition before the big event.
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Tags: cardio, Diet, event, exercise, fitness, lifestyle, nutrition, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Fitness Tips, Motivation | No Comments »
Friday, January 18th, 2013
Injuries
Nearly everyone who trains, whether bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman, or just a general fitness routine, has at some point suffered from an injury. And whether it’s a minor sprain or a broken bone it can definitely derail your progress towards your fitness goals, leading to weeks or months of recovery in which all of your hard work slowly slips away via loss of both muscle mass, strength, and conditioning.
My Personal Experience
I mean, I once walked into a Gold’s Gym after taking about a month off from training, with the intention to deadlift. I wasn’t planning to hit a 1rm or a PR that day. It was just simple sets of 5 to get back into the rythym. On the second set, at 50% of my previous 1rm, my back spasmed, I dropped the weight, and I was out of the weight room for another solid month.
Every athlete and weightlifter has some version of this sad story.
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Tags: back, deadlifts, exercise, fitness, injuries, injury, Medical, powerlifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Injuries | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
Leg’s Day: A Workout Guide
Here is a brilliant leg training article from the team at JackedPack. If you don’t know, JackedPack is a membership subscription service that sends you a monthly box of the samples of the best in sports nutrition supplements.
You can subscribe for 50% off your first month by using the coupon code SWOLE at checkout.
One of the best feelings in the world is when someone says to you, “Oh my gosh, are those Giant Sequoias or are those your legs?” We hope that all JackedPack members and non-members alike are able to experience the satisfaction and benefits of leg strength and size, and that’s why we’ve dedicated this post to giving our lower extremities the attention they deserve. We want everybody to be squatting school buses and deadlifting beached wales back into the ocean. We have included a stellar legs day workout that incorporates some awesome exercises that are sure to have people singing Sir Mix-A-Lot every time you walk in a room.
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Tags: bodybuilding, build muscle, gain muscle, leg training, leg workout, legs, muscle gain, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Weight Training, Workout Routines | No Comments »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Don’t let Your Workouts Get Stale!
Going to the gym and doing the same workout over and over again is a sure way to prevent progress when it comes on to muscle growth. Repetition is a surefire way to make progress… in moderation. Too much repetition will leave you tired, bored, sore, lazy, and overtrained. Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the necessity of having a properly designed fitness program.
Don’t let your progress plateau like this guy. |
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Tags: basics, exercise, fitness, plateau, tips, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Fitness Tips, Motivation, Weight Training | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
For those who still don’t believe Werewolf Muscle Training works, here is more support of my theory that increased frequency combined with stopping short of fatigue, produces equal if not better results that training a muscle once a week for an hour, with a ton of volume, going to failure on most sets.
The central nervous system is extremely important for performance, and should be stimulated aggressively and frequently, but should not often be fatigued. This also helps explain why you can train muscles when they’re sore… it works just as long as the CNS has recovered.
In this video you will find Christian Thibaudeau from T-Nation. He is way stronger than you or I, and he is just about as ripped as I could ever hope to be. A true inspiration.
“Never Chase Fatigue, Chase Performance”
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Tags: build muscle, build strength, fatigue, gain muscle, gain strength, muscle, performance, strength, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Fitness Tips, Quote of the Day, Videos, Weight Training | 3 Comments »
Monday, September 19th, 2011
While navigating a fitness website or browsing through a fitness supplement store, you may notice various muscle building supplements. You may wonder whether any of these 10,000 products really work to build quality muscles and enhance strength, or will they merely flush into the toilet? The answer is both yes and no.
The answer is ‘No’ for people who do not have patience and want fast results while they opt for an unhealthy approach. However, the answer is ‘Yes’ for people who go for the right kind of supplement, use proper exercises and diet, and wait for weeks or sometimes months to see the result.
Fortunately, you have a couple of good supplements which guarantee good results. These supplements for fast muscle growth can deliver the desired result within a short span of time. These include Whey Protein, Nitric Oxide and Creatine. Which happens to be the right choice for you?
Have a look in detail about the three supplements given below:
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Tags: bodybuilding, build muscle, build strength, gain muscle, gain strength, muscle gains, strength gains, Supplements, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Bodybuilding, Supplements | 8 Comments »
Monday, August 1st, 2011
How to Effectively Combine HIIT Sessions with Endurance Cardio
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please: walking or jogging for hours on the treadmill, peddling for hours on the stationary bike, climbing a mountain on the StairMaster, and plodding away on the elliptical trainer is NOT the best way to burn calories!
We’ve seen a hundred studies telling us that high intensity interval training (HIIT) burns more calories and fat, speeds up your metabolism, and is less catabolic than hours of endurance cardio. HIIT can also be far less boring, will actually help you build more muscle tissue, and increases your resting metabolic rate.
HIIT: Twenty minutes of HIIT cardio improves your VO2 max, burns a ton of calories, increases your metabolism, and maintains or builds muscle tissue all at once.
vs.
Endurance Cardio: Sixty minutes of endurance cardio is not only boring as hell, it also increases cortisol, burns muscle tissue (protein) for energy, and halts protein synthesis.
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Tags: cardio, cardiovascular, endurance, exercise, fat loss, hiit, lifting, lose fat, training, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, HIIT Routines | 11 Comments »
