Exercise | Life Health Fitness

Key Principles for Building Muscle at Home

People decide to put on muscle for a variety of reasons. Some want to become better at their sport. Some want to look buff at the beach or in a T-shirt. Regardless of the reason behind the goal, it is important to make your muscle-building program the best it can be. Here are four factors that are keys to success in putting on muscle mass.

1. Working Out

Working out, and lifting weights specifically, is absolutely essential in building muscle mass (unless your new job requires lifting or swinging heavy things). Simply doing a few push-ups will likely not be enough. It is important to get the most out of your workouts and do the exercises that most relate to your goals. Compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups are a great choice for putting on mass and are frequently used by athletes. Consider working the three main lifts (bench press, squat, and deadlift) into your workout plan if they are not already in it. Mixing up reps can be an effective strategy for these lifts. If one day you bench for three sets of ten reps, consider doing five sets of five reps the next time you bench press.

Remember that safety is the most important thing when working out. Know your limits and workout with a partner.

2. Nutrition

The easiest way to ruin the work you have done in the weight room is with poor nutrition. When you are engaged in a muscle-building program, make sure you focus on eating a lot of protein. Protein is absolutely crucial for putting on muscle. Lean protein like turkey is a great option. If you are not able to get enough protein from your diet, consider investing in a protein powder. You can buy several different types of protein powder at the pharmacy for relatively cheap.

3. Recovery

Giving your body the rest it needs is another important factor in building mass. If you are lifting regimen is intense or you are new to weight lifting, your body will be under an enormous amount of strain. Plan rest days each week. During these rest days, you can choose to relax or do some sort of light activity like walking or leisurely swimming or cycling. You may find that you get stronger by giving your body time to rest.

Also, make sure you are getting enough sleep at night.

4. Hydration

Proper hydration is essential in any fitness regimen. You don’t have to carry around a milk jug with motivational quotes on it that you have turned into a water bottle, but carrying around some sort of refillable water bottle helps you remember to hydrate throughout the day. Hydrating properly will enhance your performance in the weight room and will help you as you work towards your goals.

Becoming more muscular is a popular goal. If you have chosen to make this your own goal, you are not alone. Putting on muscle requires work and attention to several factors that influence the success or failure of a muscle-building program.

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Successful at-home Training: Weights, Resistance, Circuits, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding At-home workouts

Successful at-home Training: Weights, Resistance, Circuits, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding

At-home workouts can be just as beneficial, if not better, than workouts at the gym. For one, there is no risk of embarrassing yourself while in the privacy of your own home especially if you are a grunter. You can make all the noise and faces you want in your own home.

Second, you don’t have to wait for equipment or space to be available at home or worry about sweaty equipment.

Whether your training includes weights, resistance, circuits, power lifting, or bodybuilding, you can achieve results and be successful working out at home. Your goals will determine your workout routine. Contrary to popular belief, weight lifting, resistance training, circuit training, power lifting and body building requires different skill set, nutrition and routine.

At-Home Weight Training

Setting up your home for weight training doesn’t need to be complicated. You need one thing: weights. And your body of course. You can buy weights or use household items such as gallon bottles, detergent bottles or cans. The goal is to increase the amount of the weights over a period of time. A phenomenon known as progressive overload in in the fitness industry.

First, test your strength to determine the heaviest you can lift with no more than 12 repetition with good form . The last two repetition should be difficult to execute.

An at-home weight training routine should include a 5-minute warm up, a 20 to 40-minute weight lifting session, and a 10-minute cool down with stretching. Simple at-home warm ups can include jumping jacks, jump rope, jogging in place, or alternating lunges. There are many other warm ups as well, each with the goal of increasing your heart, warming up your muscles rate and lubricating your joints before lifting.

To begin your at-home weight lifting routine start with two exercises that target the same muscle group. For instance, if you want to shape up that booty you can do lunges and squats. Then choose the weight that allows you to do between 8 – 12 reps. The last 2 reps should be difficult to complete. Repeat this 3 more times with 2-3 rest between sets. This formula can be modified by adding more movement and weights as you make progress and gain muscle and get stronger .

After weight lifting, you should cool down and stretch. Performing a bit of cardio, like the examples mentioned for your warm up, help flush your muscles of waste buildup. Flushing helps your muscles recover faster, so it’s important to never skip a cool down. After a few minutes of cardio, perform some stretches. Focus on the muscle groups you worked. Each stretch should be held for 10 to 15 seconds and repeated up to three times each.

At-Home Resistance Training

Similar to at-home weight training, resistance training will follow a 5-minute warm up, 20 to 40-minute resistance training, and 10-minute cool down and stretching. The difference between weight training and resistance training is in the equipment as well as the type of muscle contraction. Resistance training is typically accomplished with elastic bands or bodyweight, and the muscle contractions can be isometric–meaning that your muscles are contracted but not moving.

Resistance exercises with bands can include squats with a band above your knees. Simply squat like you are sitting down in a chair, keep your weight in your heels, and push your heels into the ground as you stand back up. If you place the band around your ankles, you can practice leg extensions by shifting your weight to one foot while the other leg extends straight behind you. Lift that leg as high as you can. You can hold at the top position for an isometric contraction.

Body weight training is also considered resistance training. You use the weight of your body to create the resistance. The plank–holding a push up position–is an ideal resistance exercise. Hold this position for as long as you can (usually between 30 seconds and 2 minutes). Another isometric exercise is the horse, or sumo squat, position. Spread your legs farther than shoulder-width apart, turn your feet outward, and squat down. Hold this position for as long as you can.

At-Home Circuit Training

Circuit training is a nice mixture of cardio, resistance, and weights. The goal is to keep a moderate to high intensity between exercises.

Decide which body part you want to target. You can also target you whole body . Bodyweight or free weights are both effective as long as they are challenging. To create an at-home circuit routine, simply select one cardio exercise, one resistance exercise, and one weight training exercise. Perform these in a circuit, one right after the other, without rest between exercises. At the end of each round you will rest. The reps and set is the same as resistance training. Continue your circuit for at least 30 minutes.

Circuit training is easy to switch up, offering variety. Plus, it keeps your body guessing and your heart rate up.

At-Home Powerlifting

Powerlifting is focused on lifting the maximum amount of weight one time. The best exercises for this type of lifting are squats, bench press, and dead lift. You will need at a minimum bars, plates and dumbbells to be successful in their type of training.

Even though the focus is on heavyweight, you still need to warm up your body for a minimum of 5 minutes before lifting. An ideal warm up that aides in avoiding injury includes a few minutes of cardio plus dynamic stretching. This stretching is best performed as the movement you are about to powerlift but without weight. For example, performing squats (3 sets of 10 reps) with no weight is a dynamic way to stretch before powerlifting.

In terms of equipment, you will need a bar for powerlifting along with weights. Use a collar or a clip to secure your weights to your bar.

At-Home Bodybuilding

The focus in bodybuilding workouts is on gaining muscle mass. This is different from powerlifting because you do not have to lift your maximum amount in order to gain mass. At-home bodybuilding is a combination of targeted weight lifting and nutrition (protein consumption).

Bodybuilding routines require you to lift within a hypertrophy range, which is not too light and not too heavy of weights. It’s recommended to complete 3 – 4 sets of 8 – 12 reps or you can choose weights that you can only execute with 8 reps and same amount of sets. Take short rest period in between sets if you want to you muscle to grow. If you want to become stronger your rest between sets should be longer.

With consistentency, right technique, and nutrition you can achieve your goals at home with stepping foot in a gym.

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When There’s No Gym in Site, Bodyweight Workouts Have You Covered

What do you do when you’re on vacation and there’s no gym for miles around? You do a bodyweight workout, of course! Bodyweight exercises can build strength, but they mainly boost muscle endurance. However, you can modify bodyweight exercises to make them more challenging. With a few modifications, they can provide the progressive overload your muscles need to grow in size and strength. Plus, bodyweight workouts are ideal when you’re trying to stay fit with no equipment around. In fact, you can put together a quick but effective circuit workout that uses only your own bodyweight.

You can even kick the fitness benefits up a notch by adding cardio between bodyweight movements to elevate your heart rate and keep it high throughout your workout. Who doesn’t love cardio and strength rolled into a single, time-expedient session? Ready to get started?

Build a Bodyweight Circuit Workout

You can easily design a bodyweight workout for days you don’t have access to exercise equipment. The best equipment-free options for building strength/muscle endurance are triceps dips, push-ups, planks, and deep squats. If you don’t have weights available for squats, going deeper into the squat will make the exercise more effective. It’s helpful to have a chair or table to support your hands when you do triceps dips.

To keep your heart rate up, choose a cardio exercise to do between each bodyweight exercise. Cardio movements you can do with limited space include jumping jacks, butt kicks, high knees, squat jumps, mountain climbers, and burpees. For variety, alternate between the cardio exercises. These exercises provide cardiovascular benefits and an additional calorie burn.

Now, Get Started!

Once you’ve chosen your exercises, warm up by doing 5 minutes of dynamic exercises that stretch the muscles you’ll be working. The warm-up will also elevate your heart rate and raise your core body temperature. Never work muscles that are cold. After the warm-up, cycle through your chosen exercises. First, do 30 seconds of a bodyweight exercise. Then, 30 seconds of a cardio movement. Keep cycling back and forth through the exercises until at least 10 minutes have elapsed. If you’re doing the exercises with intensity, 15 minutes is enough to offer benefits. Once the workout is over, do a 5- minute cool down by doing the same exercise you did during the warm-up at an even lower intensity. With the warm-up and cool down, the entire workout should take around 20 minutes.

Since you’re not resting between exercises, you don’t need to exercise for 30 minutes or longer. Intensity matters more than duration for improving your fitness level. That’s why there’s a movement toward shorter workouts that are more intense. In fact, studies now show that more vigorous workouts are better for enhancing cardiovascular fitness than moderate-intensity exercise that’s longer in duration.

Benefits of Doing Bodyweight Circuits

The biggest benefit of bodyweight circuits is you are your own gym! No one can deny the benefits of using weights but when they aren’t available, you can always fire up a bodyweight circuit and get in shape wherever you are. This type of workout offers variety too. You choose the bodyweight and cardio exercises you use for your circuits.

The Bottom Line

Bodyweight circuits should dispel the notion that you need an expensive gym membership or fancy equipment to get a workout. Now, you have no excuse to skip a workout when you’re on vacation. You don’t even need much space to build muscle endurance and work your entire body. Keep this in mind when you travel but be prepared to sweat! Bodyweight circuits are fast-paced, sweaty endeavors, but they’re over before you know it! So, what are you waiting for?

References:

On Fitness. September/October 2011.

ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal: May/June 2013 – Volume 17 – Issue 3 – p 8-13. doi: 10.1249/FIT.0b013e31828cb1e8.

Mayo Clinic. “Is Body Weight Training Effective as a Strength Training Exercise?

Compound Exercise Benefits for Weight Loss

Why You Should Focus on Compound Exercises When You Strength Train

To build strength and muscle size, you must gradually increase the challenge your place on your muscles. Fitness experts refer to this as progressive overload, and it’s a fundamental tenet of strength training. If you ignore this principle, your workout becomes stagnant, and you stop making gains. If you’re serious about improving your strength and total body fitness, that’s not what you want.

Unfortunately, some people devote too much of their workout to cardiovascular exercise because they are not aware of the benefits of strength training. Training our muscles keeps them around longer because with age, we gradually lose muscle size and strength. This process begins after the age of thirty and accelerates once you hit mid-life. What you don’t use, you lose, and most forms of cardiovascular exercise don’t preserve muscle in the upper body and core. Strength training does that. So, the time you spend working your muscles against resistance is time well spent in terms of your future health.

However, there’s a caveat. Not all strength-training exercises are created equal. Some exercises offer more return for the time you spent doing them. These exercises are called compound exercises, and they’re the key to making big gains in strength and muscle size. Furthermore, because you be using more muscles at the same time it will increase the amount of energy used. After all, it take more any to move two muscles than it does to move one.

What is a Compound Exercise?

Compound exercises are strength-training moves that involve movement around more than one joint simultaneously. Compound movements also work more than one muscle group at the same time. Examples of compound exercises include deadlifts, push-ups, squats, dips, bent-over rows, military press, and bench press. For example, the main muscles you work when you bench press are the pectoral muscles in the chest, but the muscles in your triceps and shoulders are activated too. You get more bang for you buck when you perform compound movements.

In contrast, isolation exercises activate a single muscle group. They consist of movement around a single joint. Examples include biceps curls, leg extensions, lateral raises, and chest flies. These exercises offer benefits, but they shouldn’t make up the bulk of your workout. Compound exercises have benefits you won’t get from isolation movements.

What Are the Benefits of Compound Exercises?

Compound exercises are time expedient. Since you’re working multiple muscle groups, you don’t have to do as many sets or exercises to get a full-body workout. In fact, you can work your entire body by doing only a few, compound exercises. A few sets of deadlifts, squats, and bench press will work every muscle without taking a lot of time.

Another benefit of compound exercises is they are functional movements. In other words, compound exercises, like squats and deadlifts, train your leg muscles to work more effectively as a unit. Muscles don’t usually work independently of each other, and that’s where isolation exercises fall short. Shifting the focus to compound exercises translates into greater functionality when you do things around the house, like bending over to lift something heavy or squatting down to retrieve something off the floor. Compound exercises are also beneficial if you play sports. It’s a more “holistic” approach to getting strong.

Compound exercises also burn more calories because you’re working multiple muscle groups at the same time. The more muscles you put to work, the more energy stores your body has to tap in to. Compound exercises that work the large muscles in the lower body burn the most calories. So, deadlifts and squats are your friends if you’re trying to get lean and ripped. These are the exercises that get you stronger and leaner faster.

Some studies suggest that working large muscles groups against heavy resistance creates more of an anabolic effect relative to working smaller muscle groups with isolation exercises. In other words, targeting large muscle group with heavy weights stimulates the release of hormones, like testosterone and growth hormone, which fuel muscle growth. However, this is controversial. Not all studies support this idea. Yet it does appear that anabolic hormones are elevated for at least 15 minutes after a challenging strength training workout that emphasizes the large muscles in the lower body.

Compound Exercises

Chest

Bench Press
Push Ups

Back

Bent Over Barbell Row
Pull Ups

Abs

Plank
Bicycles

Shoulders

Overhead Press
Lateral Raise’

Leg

Squats
Lunge

The Bottom Line

Include isolation exercises in your strength-training routine but make the focus of your workouts compound exercises. A good ratio is 75% compound exercises to 25% isolation exercises. If you have muscle asymmetries where you’re more developed on one side than the other, isolation exercises on the underdeveloped side can help restore balance. But, overall, compound exercises are a strength and muscle-building ally to take advantage of. When you’re pressed for time, make all of your exercises compound movements to get the most benefits out of the time you have. Twenty or thirty minutes of compound exercises pack a lot more punch than an equivalent amount of isolation exercises. Take advantage of the benefits compound movements offer. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you see gains!

How To Start Plyometric Training At Home

Power Up Your Fitness with Plyometric Training

When you are pressed for time, space or financial resources plyometric training might be your best option. You can improve your strength, speed and burn fat by performing plyometric exercises at home. All you need is your bodyweight.

Examples of Plyometric exercises are squat jump,lateral jump and plyo push ups.

These exercises involves power and speed.

Strength training makes the muscles you work stronger but won’t necessarily make them more powerful. Power has a time component to it. It’s the amount of work your muscles can do in a specified period of time. If you’re strong, you can generate a lot of force but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can generate that force quickly. But, if you have powerful muscles, you can generate that force super fast. Think of basketball and volleyball players. They must have considerable power in their lower body to jump explosively into the air. How do you develop that kind of explosive power?

One way to boost power capabilities is to add plyometrics to your routine. What are plyometrics? They’re movements that stretch a muscle to store energy and then shorten or contract the muscle quickly to release that energy. An example of a simple plyometric move is squat jumps. To do a squat jump, you descend into a squat and then explosively propel your body upward toward the sky. If you dissected the movement, you would see that when you descend into a squat, the muscles in your legs store energy. When you launch into the explosive jump, the stored energy is released, and your body ascends into the air.

For a plyometric move to be effective, you have to release the stored energy quickly. You can’t descend into a squat and hold the position for a while before you jump. It’s an explosive move. Plyometric moves effectively boost your heart rate as well. So, you also get a cardiovascular workout if you do plyometric exercises for a sustained period of time. There’s another perk. Studies show that adding lower body plyometrics to a training routine may lower the risk of knee injuries, especially anterior cruciate ligament tears.

Beginner Plyometric Moves

The best way to add plyometrics to your routine, if you’ve never done them, is to begin with squat jumps on the floor. To do a squat jump, get into a squat position. Then, explosively jump into the air and land again in the same squat position. Repeat the movement for 20 or 30 seconds at first. You can gradually increase the time.

Another good, beginner plyometric exercise is lateral jumps. To do this exercise, place a pole or other object on the ground in front of you. Stand on one side of the pole. Then, descend into a squat and jump over the pole, landing in a squat position on the other side. Repeat for 20 to 30 seconds. This is a good movement for increasing lateral mobility too.

Another safe, beginning move is plyometric lunges. Here’s how to do it. Get into a lunge position with your right leg in front of you. As you descend into a lunge, explosively switch your legs so your left leg is in front when you land. Keep switching the leg in front as you do explosive lunges.

More Advanced Plyometric Moves

More advanced plyometric moves include box jumps where you jump onto boxes or risers of various heights. But, don’t attempt box jumps until you’ve done beginner plyometric moves for a few weeks. The risk of injury is higher when you’re jumping on and off a box. It takes strength, power, agility, and coordination to do it safely. Always start with a low box or riser and gradually raise the height as the movement becomes easier. Box jumps are an exercise athletes do to improve their vertical jump height. If you have health problems that preclude you from doing high-impact exercises, box jumps aren’t for you.

Upper Body Plyometric Exercises

Plyometrics aren’t just for your lower body. You can build power in your upper body with plyometric push-ups. It’s a tough move, so make sure you’ve mastered standard push-ups before trying a plyometric one. To do a plyometric push-up, get into a standard push-up position. Your hands should be slightly wider than your shoulders. Lower your body toward the ground in the classic, push-up manner. As you approach the floor, explosively push your body upward until your hands come off the floor. Land in a push-up position and repeat. You may only be able to do a few at first, but gradually work up to doing more.

Why is the Ability to Generate Power Important?

Having good power capabilities helps you perform better in sports that require jumping or sprinting. Plus, we lose strength as we age but power capabilities also decline. That’s one reason people become frail and chair bound later in life. It’s because they can’t generate enough power to rise out of a chair! Building muscle power and maintaining it throughout life is the key to healthy aging. Due to the intense nature of many plyometric exercises, they can help you preserve muscle strength, agility, and power.

Be Safe When You Do Plyometrics

Start with the easiest moves, like squat jumps, and work up to harder variations, like box jumps. Even if you never progress beyond squat jumps, you’ll still get benefits. Always start with a warm-up to avoid placing stress on cold muscles. You can even include plyometric moves between your strength-training exercises. What a way to challenge your body! Enjoy the benefits that plyometric moves offer.

References:

ACE Fitness. “Plyometrics: Controlled Impact/Maximum Power”

Int J Exerc Sci 2(2): 131-151, 2009.

National Strength and Conditioning Association. Volume 27, Number 2, pages 78-80.

Am J Sports Med. 1999;27:699-706. doi: 10.1177/03635465990270060301.

Short Summary:

Adult Hula Hoop

Hooping Ain’t Easy

When most people think of a hula hoop, the image of a happy child with a colorful plastic ring twirling around her waist comes to mind. While this image still holds true, hooping is no longer just for kids! More and more adults are embracing the hula hoop in an exciting and modern way– hoop dance. Gone are the days of simply spinning the hoop around one’s waist. Hoop dance involves dancing inside the hoop, around the hoop, and making that hoop do amazing things! It is so much fun that it’s easy to forget that you are getting an excellent workout session while you play.

Benefits of Hoop Dance

If the fun isn’t reason enough to give hoop dance a try, there are also considerable benefits to the mind and body. Hoop dance utilizes multiple muscles including the arms, legs, buttocks, hips, and abdomen. It tones and strengthens muscles, burns calories, elevates your heart rate, increases your flexibility, and improves your balance. In a study sponsored by the ACE, the American Council on Exercise, hooping was found to burn an average of seven calories per minute, or 210 calories during 30 minutes of hooping. The study also showed hula hooping to produce an increase in heart-rate comparable to the increase that one would get from boot camp, step aerobics, cardio kickboxing, and advanced Pilates.

Learning new moves can take a lot of time and practice, but the sense of accomplishment and pride you feel when you get a move just right is priceless. In addition to the self-esteem boost that is engendered when you have learned a new skill, you may find that the feedback that you receive from others is quite uplifting. Even very basic moves appear quite elegant and impressive to onlookers, as you will discover quickly when a friend or family member sees what you are doing and gasps in amazement.

Another important benefit of hoop dance is the calming and meditative effect that it has on one’s mind. Rebecca DeShon, a professional hooper since 2008, and founder of HoopEssence, Inc., based in Atlanta, Georgia says, “It has lifted me out of the depths of self-loathing and depression by opening up my heart and mind to creative self-expression! The hoop is such a soothing rhythm; it quickly turned into my ‘moving meditation’. It helps to center my energy and gives me time to clear my head and focus my energy.” A few minutes of hooping in the morning before you start your day can really help to get your mind in a positive place and your body full of energy, ready to face whatever may come your way.

Getting Started

Many times adults will say that they were able to hoop as a child, but when they tried the neighbor kid’s hoop, they quickly discovered that they had completely lost the ability that they once possessed. In most cases, this is not true at all. The real problem is that they are trying to use a child’s hoop. An adult person needs an adult hoop. Adult hoops are larger and heavier than the child’s version. With the proper hoop, there are no limits to what you and your hoop can do. Best of all, a hoop and the willingness to get up and use it are the only things required to start hoop dancing!

The best way to find the right hoop is to find someone locally who makes them. This can be done by typing “hula hoop” plus your city and state into an internet search engine. The great thing about buying your hoop locally is that it’s a sure way to meet other hoopers, many of whom will probably be quite eager to tell you all about hoop jams where people gather in a park or large building and hoop together. They’ll also be an excellent source of information about instructional classes, performances, and hoop-related events that may be happening in your area. Often you will find that the person who makes your hoop is more than happy to share a few tips and tricks to get you started.

If you live in a rural area, or if there are simply no local sources for hula hoops, all is not lost! You can order one online, or even make one yourself. There are many wonderful resources available online today that can guide you through purchasing a hoop, making your own hoop, and learning tricks and moves, from beginner to intermediate. There are entire websites available free of charge dedicated to all things hula hoop, complete with instructional video tutorials.

Give Hoop Dance a Whirl

Hooping is a low impact activity. Therefore it is a good option for you if have arthritis. It will give you the active range of motion you need in your joints to keep them moving.

If you are looking for a form of exercise that you’ll actually look forward to doing each day, hoop dance may be just the thing for you. Best of all, beginning this potentially life-changing activity is just as easy as procuring an appropriate hoop and giving it a spin. You don’t even have to leave your own house or yard. All you have to do is make the decision to get up and move that body!

It is recommended that you perform at least 30 mins of cardio activity a minimum of 5 days a week, hooping will count towards that goal. Do not be discourage if you mess up a few time. No one becomes a master hooper at the first try. With practice you will become an expert and reap the heal benefits of physical activity.

Replace Gym Machines with These Home Workouts

Gym machines continue to improve and incorporate new technology to isolate muscle groups and give you a good, safe workout. But gym memberships also continue to get more expensive and making trips to the gym is time-consuming. Life happen and maybe you cannot make it to the gym for one reason or another. When you work schedule, you change job or you have a sick love one you have to tend to going to the gym is not an option.

It takes about 2-3 weeks of inactivity for you start seeing small declines in your strength and endurance. Therefore, its import for you to keep strength training by all means necessary.

How do you do this at home. You can make good use of your time and resources and get a good workout at home with little or no equipment. Following are six gym machines and alternate home exercises.

You can use water bottle filed with water, sand or stone as a substitute for dumbbells. In addition you can fill a backpack with books as a substitute for barbells. All you have to do is slide a strong broom stick through the handles. Lastly, resistance bands can be just as effective as weights.

1. Seated Crunch Machine

This machine is great for isolating your ab muscles and giving them a good workout, but there are plenty of alternatives that don’t involve machinery. Start with simple crunches to get your abs used to the different moves. Once you can do twenty or so reps, add in leg lifts and bicycles for a great ab workout.

2. Adductor/Abductor Machine

This little torture device attempts to isolate the muscles on the interior and exterior of your thighs. The problem is, the leg muscles are made to work in tandem and isolating them can easily lead to injury. Instead, to deep side lunges or speed skates. To add extra resistance one you are accustomed to these moves, add barbells to the lunges and do jumping speed skates.

3. Seated Cable Row

This machine works several muscle groups, but you can easily replicate the workout at home. Do squats and deadlifts with barbells to work the thighs and back muscles, and then finish up with bent-over barbell rows to work the arms.

4. Leg Extension Machine

The leg extension machine is a great one to work those quads, but it doesn’t do anything you can’t do on your own. Alternate sets of squats and lunges with heavy weights or resistance bands to give those quads a workout at home.

5. Lat Pulldown Machine

This one should be obvious, but just install a pull-up bar in your home. There are several inexpensive ways to do this using a doorway or the ceiling in your garage. If you have an unfinished basement, attach a wood closet rod between studs. Alternate between pull-ups and chin-ups and remember not to swing your legs.

6. Back Extension Machine

Giving your back a good workout at home is easy, but take care to use proper form. Stiff-leg deadlifts with dumbbells will give you a good workout. To further stretch and exercise the lower back, add in some superman or bird dog reps. These are good to do after your ab workout as well.

Getting a good workout at home without buying a lot of expensive equipment is easy with a few alternatives and some dumbbells. Spend the time you would usually take to drive back and forth to the gym to throw in some cardio for a complete workout.

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Reap the benefits of Burpees today

Jump into it with Burpees!

If you’re looking for the ultimate fitness challenge, add burpees to your training routine! Ever heard of them? Also known as squat thrusts, burpees were named after a physiologist and fitness guru in the 1940s named Royal Huddleston Burpee. Mr. Burpee came up with this challenging exercise to measure a person’s fitness level in a way that didn’t require equipment. The exercise caught on and are still popular today. In fact, the military used burpees as a screening test for new enlistees during World War 2. The enlistees had to be capable of doing a certain number of burpees to join the military. So, burpees have a bit of history behind them and are still making people sweat today!

As popular as they are, burpees are an exercise people love to hate. That’s because they’re tough! But, if you can whip out a few burpees in quick succession, you can congratulate yourself on being in ship shape.

Burpee Exercise Benefits: Why You Should Include This Kick Butt Exercise in Your Routine

Burpees are a multi-benefit exercise. If you do a set of squat thrusts at a rapid tempo, you tap into glycolytic energy pathways that improve your anaerobic fitness as well as your aerobic capacity. It takes balance and agility to do burpees. So, it is a whole-body exercise that conditions your entire body in a way that can boost your performance in a variety of sports that require agility, coordination, and power. Plus, you don’t need equipment to do it.

What Muscles Do Burpees Work?

Burpees not only elevate your heart rate and get the sweat flowing, but they’re also a dynamic exercise that works most of the muscles in your lower body and your core. When you descend into a squat, you target your quadriceps and, to a lesser degree, your hamstrings. Plus, you also brace your core muscles for stability. If you modify a burpee by adding a push-up, your upper body, particularly your triceps get in on the action.

How to Do a Burpee Exercise

•Stand erect with your feet a few inches apart and your arms at your sides.

•Lower your body into a squat.

•Place your hands in front of you on the floor and shift your weight onto your hands.

•At the same time, jump your feet behind you while holding your body straight. Your weight should be on the balls of your feet and your hands, similar to a plank position.

•Quickly, jump your feet forward so they land right outside of your hands.

•As you launch your feet forward, jump into the air as you raise your arms overhead.

•Lower your body into a squat and repeat.

A more intense modification is to add a pushup after you land in the plank position. Since this is a more advanced move, don’t try it until after you can do at least 10 conventional burpees with good form.

How to Modify Burpees

You can tweak a basic burpee to make it easier or harder. If you’re just starting out and don’t have the stamina to do standard burpees, skip the jump until you’ve built up more endurance. You can even do burpees by placing your hands on an elevated bench rather than on the floor. This makes the move easier. The higher the bench, the easier.

What if you want to make burpees harder? Include a jump and a push-up with each repetition. To make it more challenging from a cardiovascular standpoint, increase the tempo. Do burpees faster! Here’s a challenge. See how many burpees you can do in 30 seconds. Then, try to beat your time when you next work out. Be prepared to sweat and suck air!

Another way to make the exercise harder is to modify the type of jump you do at the end. To increase the challenge, do a star jump or jump on to a low box. Be careful! This takes lots of agility and coordination. It’s not a beginner move or one you should attempt until you have lots of standard burpees behind you. To add a balance challenge, do single-leg burpees. Again, wait until you’ve mastered standard burpees.

The Bottom Line

Burpees can be a stand-alone exercise you do for cardiovascular fitness and to burn fat or you can do a few in between strength exercises to keep your heart rate up when strength training. There’s nothing like getting double the benefits – strength and cardiovascular from a single exercise. Take advantage of this challenging but effective exercise.

References:

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000522.

HuffingtonPost.com. “A Brief History Of The Burpee”

5 Fun and Effective Workout Outdoor Ideas

Outdoor exercise has benefits you don’t get from working out in a hot, indoor gym. Studies show that simply being in nature is good for your mood and enhances your self esteem.Other benefits include easy access and low cost. So why not take advantage of the health benefits nature offers? As the winter passes and flowers and greenery spring into full bloom, take your workout outdoors and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine while you do something healthful for your body. If you expose your arms, you’ll also soak up some sunlight to boost your vitamin D level.

Not sure about outdoor workouts ideas? Here are some ways to get a workout outside that’s fun and effective. Don’t forget to dress for the weather and apply insect repellent to ward of those flesh eating critters.

Join an Outdoor Fitness Bootcamp

Boot camps are all the rage, and some are setting up shop outdoors in local parks. Boot camps typically combine a variety of exercises with an emphasis on bodyweight movements, like push-ups, with minimal rest between each movement. You’ll find yourself sweating in short order! But the time will pass quickly due to the camaraderie of exercising with other fitness-minded individuals. You’ll make friends who share your love of fitness too.

Find a Fitness Trail

Some parks have trails with fitness stations along the way where you stop and do exercises. At one station, you might find an incline bench to do crunches. At the next, a bar where you can do pull-ups. Each station includes a board with instructions on how to complete the exercise. You can walk or jog the trail and stop at as many stations as you like to do the designated exercises. It’s a great way to build endurance and strength as you breathe in the fresh, outdoor air. You can search online for fitness trails in your area.

Hike Your Way to Fitness

Hiking is good exercise, but it doesn’t feel like a workout because you’re distracted by the panoramic view of nature that surrounds you. Hiking has advantages over walking because you’re on uneven terrain. Walking up hills and on uneven ground burns more calories and helps develop greater agility and balance. Did you know even a 10 to 15% incline boosts the calories you burn by up to 40%? Hiking uphill is an excellent way to strengthen your core and the muscles in your lower body. To burn more calories and build strength and endurance in your lower body, wear a backpack when you hike. Ready to tackle a trail?

Play Your Way to Fitness

Who says the only exercise equipment is at the gym? The park has fitness equipment too! Park benches, the monkey bars, and the swing sets can give you a workout. Park benches are ideal for doing triceps dips. You can also place your hands on them to do push-ups and mountain climbers. The monkey bars aren’t just for monkeys either. Use them to do pull-ups for your upper body and leg raises for your abs. Between exercises, jog around the park to keep your heart rate up. Afterward, take a leisurely stroll around the park to cool down. Mission accomplished.

Garden Your Way to Fitness

Gardening puts healthy food on the table, and it also keeps you fit. Did you know gardening burns up to 280 calories per hour? You’re also building strength in your core and lower body as you squat to pick up gardening tools. There’s also something mentally relaxing about spending time in nature and putting your hands in the dirt. In fact, a study showed that gardening was linked with a 36% lower risk of developing dementia.

Try a New Setting

Walking briskly is good exercise, but it’s boring if you always do it in the same place. Why not expand your walking horizons? Get in your car and drive to a new neighborhood. Park the car, get out and walk. You’ll have new sites to see. Hopefully, the neighborhood you choose has a few hills for an added challenge. Explore a new neighborhood every week.

The Bottom Line

Think beyond the gym and enjoy the health benefits of working out in nature. Enjoy the added mental and physical perks of outdoor exercise and reap the benefits.

References:

WebMD.com. “How Hiking Is Good for Body and Mind”

AARP. “5 Secret Health Benefits of Gardening”

Med J Aust. 2006 Jan 16;184(2):68-70.

Fasting Cardio Benefits: Should You Eat Before a Workout?

To Eat or Not to Eat

The basic meaning of fasting is ot to to abstain from food. How long your fasting lasts depends on the reason for fasting. Most people fast for religious or spiritual reason but in the fitness industry people fast to loose weight.

If you plan to workout while fasted it is very important to schedule the best time for you to workout while fasted. Because of our different lifestyle, this schedule will differ from person to person.

Should you grab a bite to eat or a small meal before a workout? Or should you start your sweat session with an empty stomach? Fitness gurus say that working out first thing in the morning after fasting overnight burns more fat. Does science support this idea?

It’s true that your body is primed to burn fat when you haven’t eaten in eight or more hours. In fact, some studies show that you burn up to 20% more fat if you exercise before eating. That’s because muscle glycogen, a source of fuel for muscle contractions is low, and your body must tap into fat as an energy source. If your intent is to burn body fat, exercising after a fast has potential advantages.

However, the benefits apply mainly to moderate-intensity exercises, like brisk walking, jogging, or cycling than it does high-intensity exercise. If you’ll be doing vigorous exercise, like heavy weight lifting, or a high-intensity interval session, your muscles are dependent on carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen, as a source of fuel. If you haven’t eaten in more than eight hours, you may have a hard time sustaining high-intensity exercise. The fatigue that goes along with fasting works against you when you’re trying to maximize your fitness level and burn the most calories. Exercising in a fasting state may keep you from performing your best, as you’re limited by fatigue and that means burning fewer calories.

You’ve probably heard of athletes who carb load before a race or other event where they need to perform at their best. There’s a reason they do this. They’re trying to maximize their muscle glycogen stores, so their muscles have enough fuel for a strong performance. They don’t want to “bonk out” in the middle of a race or other event.

Another Problem with Fasted Cardio

Fasted cardio may modestly boost fat loss since your body has to tap into fat as a source of fuel. But you may lose muscle as well, and that’s not desirable. If you overdo the cardio by doing a 10-mile run in a fasted state, it places stress on your body, not only from the exercise but the fact you’re running when you’re low on fuel. In response, your adrenal glands pump out more of a stress hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol has some good effects. For example, it helps keep your blood sugar from dropping too low when you’re fasting, but it also boosts muscle breakdown. It also sends your body into a catabolic or muscle breakdown state. Over a longer period of time, it also causes weight redistribution so that more fat ends up around your abs and waistline and less in the thighs and hips. So, cortisol isn’t favorable for body composition.

Fasted Cardio Can Impact Exercise Motivation Too

People respond differently to fasted cardio. Some people do it and feel reasonably well, but others feel fatigued, weak, or have problems with focus and motivation. Your brain needs a constant supply of glucose, and you don’t supply that glucose in a fasted state. It’s possible to adapt over time to a low carb diet and exercising in a fasted or low-carb state, but it takes time for this adaptation to take place. If you have blood sugar issues, particularly if you have a history of hypoglycemia or type 1 diabetes, exercising in a fasted state can be dangerous.

The Bottom Line

If you do low or moderate-intensity exercises such as walking, jogging, or cycling, you’ll likely have no problem doing it in a fasted state, especially if you exercise for 30 minutes or so. But, if you’ll be lifting heavy weights or exercising at a vigorous pace, it’s best to consume a snack within a few hours of a workout. You don’t have to eat a full meal. Choose a snack that has about a three to one ratio of carbohydrates to protein. For example, an apple or banana with peanut butter gives you healthy carbs and protein. Yet, this snack is still light enough that you won’t feel too full or heavy.

References:

Exercise Physiology. McGraw Hill. Powers and Howley. 2009.

British Journal of Nutrition. Volume 110, Issue 4 28 August 2013, pp. 721-732.