Here are new exercises to help you get ripped abs and the 6-pack abdominals you’ve always wanted. Forget about sit-ups and crunches and try these…

Traditional ab exercises, like situps and crunches are hard on your back. So does that mean you shouldn’t do any ab exercises? Is there anyway for you to get 6-pack abs without situps and crunches?

Yes! You should do ab exercises that take a different approach. Like the ab exercises in the bodyweight manual, that double as total body exercises - like the Mountain Climber, Spiderman Climb, and the Jackknife, and then of course some direct ab exercises like the Ab Wheel and the Side Plank.

Choose total body ab exercises. Take the mountain climber as an example. Now you’ll quickly notice that this is not a traditional bodybuilding ab exercise. You don’t lie on the floor and crunch or do sit-ups in order to isolate one muscle group. That’s always been a downfall of the bodybuilding approach.

Instead, the Mountain Climber is another total-body, efficient and effective exercise that helps you get more total body results in less time.

Here’s how to do it.

Start in the pushup position. Brace your abs. Keep your hips low and bring one knee to your chest. Feel your abs working. Slowly return the leg to the start position. Keep your abs braced and hips low. Alternate sides for as many reps as you want. Your entire body will be working hard, burning calories, and working your abs.

Other great, often-neglected total body ab exercises include the chin-up and push-up. Since I talked about push-ups yesterday, today I’ll give an example of how chin-ups can give you 6-pack abs.

I once trained a woman that had never done chinups (it’s really a shame that more trainers don’t train women to get stronger and master bodyweight exercises).

Regardless, after her first workout of modified chins (she could only do the lowering portion of the exercise, also known in the gym as “eccentrics”), she showed up the next session marveling at how sore her abs were simply from doing chin-ups. Years of ab work had never woken up her ab muscles like 3 sets of modified chin-ups were able to do. And during the workout, she continued to be amazed at how hard her were working during this upper body exercise.

The truth is, any good efficient and effective compound exercise will work your abs. So you don’t have to lie on the floor and bang out hundreds of crunches to get a washboard stomach. Heck, that’s not effective at all.

The 3 keys to abs are:

1) Fat loss through fat loss nutrition

2) Fat loss through interval training

3) Ab strength through efficient and effective exercises

Try a new ab exercise today.

It seems that almost everyone you speak to these days is on a diet or would like to lose body fat. One word that often pops up in conversation is metabolism. It is usually in the context of, ‘I’ve put on so much weight so I must have a slow metabolism’.

Metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical reactions that take place within all the cells of the body. These chemical reactions use up energy and of course, the more energy you use up the more fat you will burn. Metabolism is a very individual thing. I’m sure you know some people who can literally eat whatever they want and still lose weight, whilst others only need to look at food and they put weight on.

Why is this? Well, there are 3 major factors that influence our metabolism and we will examine each one to find out how you can affect it using lifestyle factors so your metabolism fires up to the point that your body turns into a 24-hour-a-day fat-burning machine!

Muscle mass
The first factor is your muscle mass. Since muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body (along with nerve tissue), which means it burns up the most energy, the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism gets and the faster you can burn off body fat.

Now I know you’re probably thinking, ‘But I don’t want to put on muscle!’ Before you disregard this idea, consider this: If you want to lose weight and you don’t force your body to at least maintain your existing muscle mass (through weight training), up to half of the weight you lose can come from muscle tissue. If this occurs, your metabolism will slow down dramatically making it harder to continue to lose weight and easier to put the lost weight back on. This is often the case when people go off a diet, they put the lost weight back on and it usually comes back with re-inforcements! It is called yo-yo dieting, referring to the up and down movements of the dieter’s bodyweight.

All you need to do to prevent the muscle loss that results from dieting and/ or performing aerobic exercise is to simply perform a minimum of two 30-minute weight training sessions a week. A qualified personal trainer can show you exactly what to do to ensure you weight train safely and effectively.

Furthermore, if you put on just a few kilos of body-shaping muscle it will have a huge impact on your metabolism. For every kilogram of muscle you put on, your metabolism increases by around 100 calories per day and over a few weeks this can help burn up a substantial amount of body fat. So even though your bodyweight may not change substantially, your body composition has because you have increased your muscle mass and lost body fat.

Also, as we age we tend to lose muscle. This results because our body’s functioning capacity reduces but also because our metabolism slows down due to a loss of muscle mass, which results from inactivity. Just as the saying goes: ‘use it or lose it’. In fact, research shows us that from the age of 30 to 65 most people have halved their muscle mass and doubled their fat mass and this is often called the ‘middle-age spread’. The ‘middle-age spread’ can easily be prevented or reduced by simply maintaining your muscle mass and therefore your metabolism through weight training.

Thyroid function
The gland that directly affects the metabolism of all body cells is the thyroid gland, which is situated around the trachea in the throat. The thyroid gland produces the throid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and tri-iodothyronine (T3) and these hormones directly increase the metabolism of all body cells. T3 is actually five times more powerful than T4.

The thyroid gland’s functioning is affected by many factors. Primarily, meal frequency and nutrient intake.

Nutrition experts recommend we have 5-6 small meals each day spread out every 2-3 hours. By doing so, we tell our body that we have a continual supply of nutrients. If we go without a meal for around 4 hours or more the body’s starvation mechanism kicks in and the first thing that occurs is the body reduces it’s output of thyroid hormones.

The starvation mechanism is an evolutionary response to a low blood glucose (sugar) level. It helped our ancestors survive famines thousands of years ago. Unfortunately the same thing occurs in our body as well. Whenever our blood glucose drops too low, our output of thyroid hormones decreases, which slows down the metabolism of all body cells, therefore preserving energy and helping us survive the ‘famine’.

Also, certain nutrients influence the functioning of the thyroid gland. Kelp (a type of seaweed that is a good source of iodine) and the mineral selenium have been shown to have a direct impact on the functioning of the thyroid gland. When these nutrients are supplemented in the diet they increase the output of thyroid hormones, even in people with normal functioning thyroid glands. Of course, an increase in the output of these hormones boosts the metabolism of all body cells.

Sympathetic tone
Sympathetic tone is the term used to describe the amount of norepinephrine (NE) released from the ends of neurons. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter (nerve transmitter) and the more NE is released, the higher the sympathetic tone or metabolic activity of many organs within the body. This means the body’s metabolism speeds up.

The people who can eat everything and not put on weight generally have a naturally high sypathetic tone and those people who put on weight just by looking at food tend to have a low sympathetic tone.

The easiest way to increase your sympathetic tone is by using ‘thermogenics’. Thermogenesis, as the name suggests, means the production of heat within the body [‘thermo’: heat, ‘genesis’: the beginning]. Heat is a by-product of energy production, therefore if you burn up more fuel, you generate more heat.

Some examples of thermogenics include certain foods like, coffee or cocoa (caffeine and theobromine- in cocoa) and chilli (capsaicin) and certain herbs (forskolin, evodiamine and ephedra). Green tea also has a very mild thermogenic effect but is mainly used as a ‘thermogenic extender’, which means it helps the thermogenics last longer in the body.

Thermogenics have a powerful effect on your metabolism so it is worthwhile ‘cycling’ their use, which means use them for a period of time, say eight weeks and then stop them for 2-4 weeks. You may also want to use them for two days on and one day off during the 8-week cycle.

So there you have it! Now you’ve go no more excuses for having a slow metabolism and you have some powerful strategies for boosting your metabolism and easily shedding those unwanted kilos in the lead-up to summer. Plus, there is a simple test to determine your metabolic rate and see if it is necessary to employ any of these strategies (see Ad on this page).

A summary of the strategies is as follows:
o Weight train twice a week.
o Have 5-6 small meals each day
o Supplement your diet with kelp and selenium*
o Use thermogenics occasionally*

So go to it and start turning your body into that fat-burning machine so by the time summer comes around you’ll be ready to put on your bathing suit with confidence!

* Before using any nutritional supplement, speak with your health care professional.

About the author: Stephen is the author of ‘Look Good, Feel Great!’ for more free articles and information about his book, please visit: http://www.fatburningsite.comStephen has been in the fitness industry for over 16 years. He conducts seminars and writes articles for various magazines throughout Australia.

If you are using an elliptical-type machine for intervals, then I believe that you are not getting the results you deserve. In my opinion, the elliptical machines are one of the least effective methods for losing fat - just as bad as spinning classes.

Now you might know someone that is uses the elliptical all the time and is lean. But I will be the farm that they can thank their genetics, their strength training, and their nutrition for their results. I have yet to see someone transform their physique with the elliptical trainer. In fact, when someone comes to me with a failing program, I often see them using the elliptical for their interval training. And that’s the first things I change.

The elliptical machine is sneaky, and it fools us three ways. First, you can get your heart rate up really high and easily. Second, you can get a big sweat on. And third, the machine tells you that you have burned an awful lot of calories (even though the calorie counter is likely inaccurate, as was shown on a CBS news report).

So why doesn’t the elliptical work? Because you just don’t do as much mechanical work as you do when you run or cycle. Basically, it’s just easier and less effective. Getting your heart rate up is not the key determinant of fat loss.

Your body is a well programmed machine. It’s ‘wired’ to increase heart rate and breathing as soon as it senses motion (that’s why you start to breathe heavily after taking a single flight of stairs - it’s not just because you are unfit).

The key factor in fat loss is the amount of work done. Until you learn to separate the influence of the two, you won’t be using intervals in the best possible manner.

As fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove explains, “The problem is not the elliptical itself — it’s just that it tends to allow/promote momentum (as most people have the resistance too low) from bodyweight alone. So unless you crank up the resistance and actually produce some force and/or MOVE your bodyweight - it’s nothing but momentum. So if you’re not actively using your muscles to produce some sort of force you aren’t burning many calories.”

But even then, I still don’t think using a high resistance level on the ellliptical will get you the results you are looking for. Yet despite their ineffectiveness, elliptical machines and the like remain a popular training method. But that’s only due to the human condition - like flowing water, we seek the path of least resistance. We’ll will do anything to get around obstacles rather than doing the real work required to overcome the obstacles. Given the choice, humans always go with the easiest option.

Compare the elliptical to the Stairmaster. Stairmasters are more effective but less popular. Why? Because we’ve found something easier (the elliptical) that still gives us the comfort of a sweat and an elevated heart rate (even if we don’t get the results). And now millions of gym goers pat themselves on the back after flailing around on the elliptical for 30 minutes and thinking they’ve been shedding fat.

Training in your comfort zone is useless. Your metabolic rate will increase when your body is forced to change. The harder and smarter you train, the greater your increase in metabolic rate. That is why you have to do things the right way (the TT way!), to lose fat. As I’ve always said with Turbulence Training, the key to getting results is making your body change. That means using training techniques that demand your body to change. The elliptical will not cause your body to change. It is a waste of time.

So what works better? If you have my TT Reports, you know I recommend the stationary bike. It’s safe, effective, and convenient. You can work at a very high power outage, and that is no illusion. You are doing the work (as long as you are not spinning at a very high RPM - that is another waste of time!).

Of course, you can also use sprinting. But that has a few more risks to it, whether it is done on a treadmill (risk: falling) or outside (risk: muscle pulls - so prepare appropriately).

Some other manly fat loss interval options are sled pulling, Farmer Walks (see photo), pushing heavy objects, wheelbarrow carries, and complexes. I’ll talk more about the exciting fat-shedding potential of lifting complexes in my future reports.

If you are using an elliptical-type machine for intervals, then I believe that you are not getting the results you deserve. In my opinion, the elliptical machines are one of the least effective methods for losing fat - just as bad as spinning classes.

Now you might know someone that is uses the elliptical all the time and is lean. But I will be the farm that they can thank their genetics, their strength training, and their nutrition for their results. I have yet to see someone transform their physique with the elliptical trainer. In fact, when someone comes to me with a failing program, I often see them using the elliptical for their interval training. And that’s the first things I change.

The elliptical machine is sneaky, and it fools us three ways. First, you can get your heart rate up really high and easily. Second, you can get a big sweat on. And third, the machine tells you that you have burned an awful lot of calories (even though the calorie counter is likely inaccurate, as was shown on a CBS news report).

So why doesn’t the elliptical work? Because you just don’t do as much mechanical work as you do when you run or cycle. Basically, it’s just easier and less effective. Getting your heart rate up is not the key determinant of fat loss.

Your body is a well programmed machine. It’s ‘wired’ to increase heart rate and breathing as soon as it senses motion (that’s why you start to breathe heavily after taking a single flight of stairs - it’s not just because you are unfit).

The key factor in fat loss is the amount of work done. Until you learn to separate the influence of the two, you won’t be using intervals in the best possible manner.

As fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove explains, “The problem is not the elliptical itself — it’s just that it tends to allow/promote momentum (as most people have the resistance too low) from bodyweight alone. So unless you crank up the resistance and actually produce some force and/or MOVE your bodyweight - it’s nothing but momentum. So if you’re not actively using your muscles to produce some sort of force you aren’t burning many calories.”

But even then, I still don’t think using a high resistance level on the ellliptical will get you the results you are looking for. Yet despite their ineffectiveness, elliptical machines and the like remain a popular training method. But that’s only due to the human condition - like flowing water, we seek the path of least resistance. We’ll will do anything to get around obstacles rather than doing the real work required to overcome the obstacles. Given the choice, humans always go with the easiest option.

Compare the elliptical to the Stairmaster. Stairmasters are more effective but less popular. Why? Because we’ve found something easier (the elliptical) that still gives us the comfort of a sweat and an elevated heart rate (even if we don’t get the results). And now millions of gym goers pat themselves on the back after flailing around on the elliptical for 30 minutes and thinking they’ve been shedding fat.

Training in your comfort zone is useless. Your metabolic rate will increase when your body is forced to change. The harder and smarter you train, the greater your increase in metabolic rate. That is why you have to do things the right way (the TT way!), to lose fat. As I’ve always said with Turbulence Training, the key to getting results is making your body change. That means using training techniques that demand your body to change. The elliptical will not cause your body to change. It is a waste of time.

So what works better? If you have my TT Reports, you know I recommend the stationary bike. It’s safe, effective, and convenient. You can work at a very high power outage, and that is no illusion. You are doing the work (as long as you are not spinning at a very high RPM - that is another waste of time!).

Of course, you can also use sprinting. But that has a few more risks to it, whether it is done on a treadmill (risk: falling) or outside (risk: muscle pulls - so prepare appropriately).

Some other manly fat loss interval options are sled pulling, Farmer Walks (see photo), pushing heavy objects, wheelbarrow carries, and complexes. I’ll talk more about the exciting fat-shedding potential of lifting complexes in my future reports.

Craig Ballantyne is a fitness expert and regular contributor to Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazines, and is on the advisory board for Oxygen Magazine. Craig’s trademarked fat burning workouts, help men and women lose fat fast in the comfort of their own homes. Learn more at www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Here are new exercises to help you get ripped abs and the 6-pack abdominals you’ve always wanted. Forget about sit-ups and crunches and try these…

Traditional ab exercises, like situps and crunches are hard on your back. So does that mean you shouldn’t do any ab exercises? Is there anyway for you to get 6-pack abs without situps and crunches?

Yes! You should do ab exercises that take a different approach. Like the ab exercises in the bodyweight manual, that double as total body exercises - like the Mountain Climber, Spiderman Climb, and the Jackknife, and then of course some direct ab exercises like the Ab Wheel and the Side Plank.

Choose total body ab exercises. Take the mountain climber as an example. Now you’ll quickly notice that this is not a traditional bodybuilding ab exercise. You don’t lie on the floor and crunch or do sit-ups in order to isolate one muscle group. That’s always been a downfall of the bodybuilding approach.

Instead, the Mountain Climber is another total-body, efficient and effective exercise that helps you get more total body results in less time.

Here’s how to do it.

Start in the pushup position. Brace your abs. Keep your hips low and bring one knee to your chest. Feel your abs working. Slowly return the leg to the start position. Keep your abs braced and hips low. Alternate sides for as many reps as you want. Your entire body will be working hard, burning calories, and working your abs.

Other great, often-neglected total body ab exercises include the chin-up and push-up. Since I talked about push-ups yesterday, today I’ll give an example of how chin-ups can give you 6-pack abs.

I once trained a woman that had never done chinups (it’s really a shame that more trainers don’t train women to get stronger and master bodyweight exercises).

Regardless, after her first workout of modified chins (she could only do the lowering portion of the exercise, also known in the gym as “eccentrics”), she showed up the next session marveling at how sore her abs were simply from doing chin-ups. Years of ab work had never woken up her ab muscles like 3 sets of modified chin-ups were able to do. And during the workout, she continued to be amazed at how hard her were working during this upper body exercise.

The truth is, any good efficient and effective compound exercise will work your abs. So you don’t have to lie on the floor and bang out hundreds of crunches to get a washboard stomach. Heck, that’s not effective at all.

The 3 keys to abs are:

1) Fat loss through fat loss nutrition

2) Fat loss through interval training

3) Ab strength through efficient and effective exercises

Try a new ab exercise today.

Sometimes you just can’t make it to the gym every time you want to-meetings run late, traffic gets backed up, the car breaks down or something else happens that stops you from getting in your workout. The next time that happens you might want to consider working out at home rather than skipping your training session entirely. Have you not trained at home because you don’t believe you can get a decent workout? Well, think again because you’re dead wrong-you can. At-home workouts, if done with reasonable intensity, can be extremely effective. A good in-the-house workout session can be made even better if you add in a pair of dumbbells. While depending on your fitness goals, training in the home might not be right for every person all the time, and nothing will ever replace weight lifting for building mass, for even the most dedicated gym rat, working out at home can be a nice break from the routine at the gym once in a while. Plus, it’s always a good idea to keep your muscles guessing by challenging them. There are a few other advantages to working out at home too: you can listen to your favorite music, there’s no waiting for machines, there’s no one to hassle you, no worries about cleaning up after others and you don’t have to drive. It can also be a great way to dodge the inner escape artist every once in a while when you just don’t feel like going to the gym or need a change of pace. If you’ve got kids, at-home workouts can help get them on the right track early on. The question is though, “Is working out at home effective and can I see results?” The answer is yes! The key though to an effective home exercise program is to include exercises that work three key areas: cardio, strength and flexibility. Even if you don’t have a fully-equipped home gym, there are plenty of exercises you can do using just your bodyweight. Keeping a set of dumbbells around the house can give your in-home workout some teeth and get your muscles pumped. Plus, they don’t take up a lot of space and help in stabilizing and developing muscles that are important to strength, balance, and posture. Some strength training exercises you can do at home using just your bodyweight and dumbbells include: Chest: Push-ups are great for working the pecs. Vary the spread of your hands to work different parts of the chest. For even more punch, place your feet on a chair or your bed and try some decline push-ups. Do some chest presses with dumbbells lying on the floor and dumbbell flies (flat or incline if you happen to have an adjustable bench at home) to round things out. Shoulders: Shoulders are little tougher to work out using just your body weight so you’re better off using dumbbells. These are all great exercises that are easy to do in the house: seated press, side raises, front raises, bent-over reverse flies and shoulder shrugs; upright row. Arms: There are plenty of effective exercises you can do at home to pump up your arms using just a chair and a set of dumbbells. Biceps: Just like at the gym you can do standing or seated bicep curls, concentrated curls, standing or seated alternating curls and hammer curls. Triceps: Doing push-ups with your hands close together is an excellent way to beef up your triceps. Or, sitting on a chair, do some one-arm behind-the-neck extensions with a dumbbell. Using a chair you can also do bent-over kickbacks and lying flat on the floor you can do a couple of variations of triceps extensions using a dumbbell. Back: For your back, try dumbbell rows, dumbbell dead-lifts and if you’ve got a spot where you can do pull-ups, holding a dumbbell between your ankles will really give you an extra punch. Legs: There are plenty of exercises you can do in the home to work your legs but add dumbbells and they’ll be even more effective. Here are a few examples: squats with dumbbells, lunges with dumbbells and standing calf raise (holding a dumbbell in one hand). Adding dumbbells to your out-of-gym or at-home cardio routine can help you make the most of your time. Carry a set of dumbbells with you when you walk, alternating between curls and just carrying them at your side. If you do this though, be careful not to swing your arms around too much, you can injure yourself easily. If you’ve got access to a set of stairs, walk up and down carrying a couple of dumbbells at your side-you’ll get your heart moving in no time. If you don’t want to skip the gym in favor of an at-home workout but do want to kick your metabolism up a notch while you’re hanging around the house, set aside some times throughout the day to spend a few minutes moving around using dumbbells. A University of Missouri (Columbia) study found that when we spend too much time sitting on our rumps, the body’s fat burning mechanisms slow to a near halt. No surprises there but the study also found that moving around whenever possible can jumpstart the fat burning process again. So instead of just lying around on the sofa for hours at a stretch, get up, pick up the dumbbells and get your ass moving-even if it’s only ten minutes at a time. You’ll burn some extra calories and you’ll do your body good. Mike Westerdal is the owner of http://www.criticalbench.com. Visit his site to receive two free PDF reports entitled, “31 Days To Bigger Arms” and “Boosting Testosterone Levels for Big Muscle Gains.”

“Don’t Let These 8 Mistakes Sabotage Your Bench” Did you know the average weight training enthusiast can barely bench press their own bodyweight? That statistic doesn’t even account for the people that don’t work out. Give yourself a pat on the back if you’ve conquered the feat of benching your own bodyweight. Don’t worry if you’re not there yet, you’re about to learn eight sure-fire methods that will help you earn bragging rights in and out of the gym. So what’s the big deal about the bench press anyway? You’re not playing sports or trying to compete, why is this legendary exercise so vital to an attention grabbing physique? In fact for those of you who think the bench press is simply for the ego, you’re wrong. It’s true no other exercise is more frequently talked about. However it’s not so strange when you think about it. The bench press is a core fundamental exercise for developing upper body strength. You’re not only working your pectorals (chest), you are also working your anterior deltoids (front shoulders), triceps brachii, and latissimus dorsi (back). If you could pick just one exercise to acquire a full round chest with some functional power to go with it, you would be wise to go with the bench. You just can’t develop the same upper body with any other exercise. As a personal trainer I have seen hundreds of people strive for a 300-pound bench. The truth is most people make the same mistakes, but they can easily be changed to help you start an explosive growth spurt of your own. Mistake #1: Less is more. By far the biggest mistake people make is “wanting it” so bad that they overtrain. It’s human nature, if we don’t see the gains we’re looking for the common sense solution is to work harder and harder. I can tell you from personal experience that last time I hit a plateau in my training I took a week off from the gym and came back stronger than the last time worked out. Be on the look out for warning signs of overtraining such as lack of motivation, trouble sleeping, poor nutrition, and of course lack of progress. Mistake #2: Full body workouts. Let’s get you set up on a new split where you can give each muscle involved in the bench press the attention it needs. Remember, there’s more to the bench press than just your chest. For maximum recovery you should only train each body part once per week with an optimal workout split. If you still think you need to bench two or three times a week, see mistake #1. You have time to workout 45-minutes a day, 4-days a week don’t you? Mistake #3: Self-doubt. Hopefully you don’t need a pep talk, but here it goes anyway. Excuse me as I impersonate motivational speaker Anthony Robbins for a moment. Your subconscious mind believes whatever you tell it, so do yourself a favor and program it with positive thoughts. I cringe every time someone asks me for a spot and they bash themselves before they even start the lift. Comments like, “I don’t think I’ll get very many reps,” or “I can’t do this much, but I’ll try.” If you’re not confident, fake it, and tell yourself you’re going to succeed. Trying is a part of failing. If you’re afraid to fail, you’re afraid to try. Mistake #4: Bad form. Let’s work on some mechanics. After practicing a few of these techniques you should be able to boost your bench press by a minimum of 25 pounds. Widen your grip a little bit. The wider your grip, the less distance the bar has to travel. Therefore it makes sense that you’d want to grip the bar as wide as possible. If you have been benching with a closer grip this will take some getting used to, but will make a big difference in a few weeks. To determine your grip, assume a natural push-up position and then bump it out approximately 3-inches. Another way to decrease the distance the bar has to travel is to retract your shoulder blades. Try to squeeze your shoulder blades together during the entire movement. This will give you a more stable surface to bench from. Keep your feet on the floor and drive with your heels. If you see someone kicking or flapping their legs in the air, as they turn blue trying to push the weight you’ll know that they are off centered and it’s costing them some serious poundage. Keep your heels on the floor to help you generate power. Arch your back. Your butt, shoulder blades, and head should always be in contact with the bench, but it’s okay to arch your lower back. If this isn’t natural for you, you can place a foam roller under your lower pack for practice. Many people have asked what the point of this technique is. Again, it shortens the distance the bar needs to travels. Is this cheating? Not at all, this is a regulation lift. If you want to completely isolate your chest head over to the pec deck machine to finish up. It’s good that you’re learning to use more than just your chest when you bench press. Don’t be surprised if two days later you feel sore in your back, chest, shoulders, and triceps. Mistake #5: Too many warm-up sets. Don’t get me wrong you certainly need to properly warm-up. However you should do so with some very light weighst, push-ups, and stretching. You don’t want to exhaust your muscles before you get to your working sets. Most people pyramid up and then wonder whey they can’t get the weight on their last set. By doing lighter warm-up sets you will save your energy for the heavier weights and a big finish. Mistake #6: Neglecting your back. Strong lats or “wings” are very important to the negative phase of the bench press. Your back is the center of support for the weight as you lower it to your chest. That’s why blasting your back is so important and must not be skipped. Try some T-bar rows, or bent over barbell rows to strengthen your back. You’ll notice that it’s almost the exact opposite or antagonistic lift to the bench press. Mistake #7: Lack of goals. So you want to increase your bench press. That makes the two of us. The problem with this statement is it’s much too vague. I want you to pull out your pen and paper. Write your goal down on four separate sheets of paper in bold letters. “ACHIEVE A ______ POUND BENCH PRESS BY ______.” The simple task of writing your goal on paper brings you closer to completion. This act will make your goal more concrete, increasing the likelihood of achieving it. Now post these pieces of paper on your fridge, dashboard, computer screen, and dresser to constantly remind you of your goal. Mistake #8: Lack of variety. The human body is an amazing system. Whatever you throw at it, it can adjust and learn to handle. Keeping it off guard, mixing things up, and adding variety to your workouts will ensure your body responds positively. Always stay one step ahead by changing your workouts when you feel you’re not making the gains you expect. If you’re like me and want to look good while, while having some strength to back it up you’ve probably been training with reps between eight and twelve. Try lowering the reps on your bench press sets to the six to eight repetition range for a few weeks. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how your body reacts if you haven’t tried this before. If you can avoid these common pitfalls and you’re open-minded enough to try something new you’ll soon be bench pressing more than you dreamed possible. Take it from me, the man who was stalemated at a 275-pound bench press for more than three years! Learn from others mistakes and watch your bench press sore. Your wife or girlfriend will be admiring your muscular upper body while your friend’s are dying to learn your secrets. The Split Monday: Chest/Biceps Tuesday: Legs Wednesday: Off Thursday: Shoulders/Traps Friday: Back/Triceps Saturday: Watch the game Sunday: Rest The Bench Blastoff Routine Day 1: Chest/Biceps Flat Bench Press 4 sets of 6-8 reps Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets of 8-10 reps Cable Crossover 3 sets of 10-12 reps Alternating Dumbbell Curls 4 sets of 8-10 reps Seated Preacher Curls 3 sets of 10-12 reps Day 2: Legs Squat 3 sets of 8-10 reps Leg Press 3 sets of 8-10 reps Leg Extensions 3 sets of 10-12 reps Leg Curls 3 sets of 10-12 reps Day 3: Off Day 4: Shoulders/Traps Font Military Press 3 6-8 reps Upright Rows 3 sets of 8-10 reps Lateral Riases 3 sets of 10-12 reps Dumbbell Shrugs 3 sets of 8-10 reps Day 5: Back/Triceps Pullups 3 sets of 10-12 reps Bent Over Barbell Rows 3 sets of 6-8 reps Lat Pulldowns 3 sets of 8-10 reps Close Grip Bench Press 3 6-8 reps Tricep Extensions 3 sets of 8-10 reps Day 6: Off Day 7: Off Points To Remember: Ø Make sure you’re not overtraining. Ø Work your bench press only once per week. Ø Ditch the self-destructing negative thoughts. Ø Don’t waste your energy with surplus warm-up sets. Ø Train your back just as hard as your chest. Ø Set a specific goal. Ø Try performing less repetitions when benching. Ø Drive with your heels, widen your grip, arch your back, and retract your shoulder blades! Mike Westerdal is the owner of http://www.criticalbench.com. Visit his site to receive two free PDF reports entitled, “31 Days To Bigger Arms” and “Boosting Testosterone Levels for Big Muscle Gains.”

Ten Tips For a Healthy Back

We don’t often think about our backs until they start to hurt. Back pain is one of the most common medical complaints in the country. Following are ten tips to prevent and maintain a healthy back:

1)LIFT HEAVY ITEMS CORRECTLY. Proper lifting technique involves standing close to the object with your feet apart. Squat down keeping the back in proper alignment (do not hunch or bend at the waist). As you lift contract your abs and push with your legs.

2)REMAIN FLEXIBLE. Tight hamstrings and a limited range of motion in the trunk can increase your risk of back injury or make existing back pain worse. Certain exercises such as yoga, tai chi and Pilates may help back pain by increasing flexibility and tension. Specific static stretch’s may help too.

3)MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BODY BODYWEIGHT. Excess weight takes a toll on the whole body and the back is no exception. Try carrying a 25 lb pack on your back and I think you’ll understand how excess weight can affect back pain and back injury.

4)SUPPORT THE LOWER BACK WHEN SITTING. Use a pillow or rolled towel and slip it behind your lower back while sitting. Every 30 minutes remove the support to give you a change of position. If you’ve been sitting for a long period of time, don’t just jump up and move. Get up slowly and walk around to give your back a break.

5)STRENGTHEN THE ABDOMINAL, BACK AND CORE MUSCLES. First, you need to strengthen the abs and lower back. Then you need to strengthen the rest of the core The core is made up of many more muscles than the abs and back. A strong core will protect your back and make all your other activities easier to perform.

6)MAINTAIN GOOD POSTURE. Improper body alignment plays a strong role in causing back pain due to the pressure it puts on the discs and the strain it places on the muscles, joints and ligaments. When you have good posture your body moves in alignment and back pain and injury are reduced.

7)WARM-UP BEFORE ACTIVITY. Cold muscles and cold joints put any muscle or joint at risk for injury. Take time to warm-up, and you’ll reduce the risk of back pain and injury.

8)STRENGTHEN THE LEG MUSCLES. Along with the core muscles, the lower body plays an important role in assisting good posture and body mechanics. Strong leg muscles will also take some of the burden off your back when you are lifting heavy objects.

9)REDUCE STRESS. Stress increases tension in all our muscles including the back. This tension can cause pain. Take some time to do a little relaxation work to let that tension dissipate or try a yoga, Pilates or tai chi class.

10)CHECK OUT YOUR MATTRESS. Because we spend a good time in bed a good mattress is a good investment. An ill fitting mattress most certainly can cause back pain

Back pain is indeed one of the most common medical conditions in this country. The good news is that, in many cases, back pain can be prevented. If you suffer from back pain, make it a point to try each of these ten tips a day and soon your back pain will show significant improvement.

A diet pill Acomplia Rimonabant and a Quit smoking drug Chantix.

What is Acomplia Rimonabant?Acomplia Rimonabant is a drug to assist obese people to lose weight and it is approved for sale Europe and UK with prescription from 28th June 2006. Since that time, this drug acomplia rimonabant is called a miracle drug for obesity treatment. Acomplia Rimonabant has been manufactured by Sanofi Aventis , a french pharmaceuticals.How Acomplia Rimonabant Works?Acomplia Rimonabant works by blocking the CB1 receptor in the body’s endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is thought to regulate the body’s desire for food and energy consumption. The body sends out chemicals called cannabinoids which, when they latch onto the CB1 receptors which are located in fat cells and the hypothalamus of the brain, creates a signal that the body desires food and this manifests itself as hunger pangs. It is believed that the endocannabinoid system is overactive in overweight and obese people. The blocking of the CB1 receptor by Rimonabant (the active ingredient in Acomplia) makes hunger pangs much more manageable.Acomplia Rimonabant’s clinical trialsAs with most drug treatment, acomplia-rimonabant/Acomplia Rimonabant does not work for everyone. Clinical trials of this drug Acomplia Rimonabant demonstrated that 70% of patients were able to lose at least 5% of their body weight over a 12 month period. Around 39% of patients who took acomplia rimonabant managed to lose at least 10% of their bodyweight over the same period. It was also noted that most of the weight loss occurred within the first nine months of this acomplia rimonabant’s treatment.Acomplia Rimonabant Side EffectsRimonabant Acomplia is not without potential side effects like all other drugs. The most common side effects reported by patients taking acomplia rimonabant include nausea, depression, irritability and sleeplessness. Most patients with Acomplia rimonabant’s treatment have reported no side effects whatsoever and only a handful have considered the side effects to be so serious that they have decided to cease Acomplia Rimonabant treatment.What is Chantix (Champix)?Chantix (Champix) is a new drug by world famous Pfizer pharmaceuticals, which has recently been approved for Smoking cessation. Chantix (Varenicline) enables smokers to see the light at the end of the tunnel, where they can live a healthy life sans smoking. Smoking is one habit difficult to kick; leaving no escape route for a smoker once he becomes nicotine dependent. Smoking cessation therapies are more likely to succeed for patients who are motivated to stop smoking and who are provided with additional advice and support.Chantix (Champix) is for oral use. The recommended dose is 1 mg Chantix (Champix/varenicline) twice daily.Chantix (Champix) Side Effects Includes following of them: * Nausea * Headache * Vomiting * Flatulence * Insomnia * Abnormal dreams * Dysgeusia (alteration in taste)

Know more about why DIETS DO NOT WORK

One of the biggest scams ever successfully pulled on the American public is - somewhat appropriately - a 4-letter word. That word is, of course, Diet. By now you have seen advertisements for more diets than you can easily remember, and have also most likely seen an article or television show debunking some of those diets. Unfortunately, the art of shooting holes through the credibility of a diet plan is normally done by ANOTHER diet company, solely for the purpose of getting you to use their product instead. Well, this article has nothing to sell, nor really anything to gain, save the knowledge that hopefully the reader - that’s you - will put down the Diet Madness Menu, and get a real world point of view on why diets don’t work, and what you can do about it. Eating, the Lost Art If you are considering a diet, or have in the past, your primary motivation was most likely to lose weight. What if I was to tell you that in order to lose weight, you actually need to eat MORE than you have in the past? You would probably shake your head at that crazy idea, and think that it was some new fad that could in no way assist you in your weight loss goals. Of course, the fact that every diet you’ve ever heard of was at one point “some new fad” would probably never even cross your mind. Nonetheless, the fact remains that most people do need to eat more than they presently are in order to lose weight, but the trick comes in eating the right kinds of foods, in the right ratios of nutrients, and at the right times of day. Sound tricky? Perhaps, but I assure you, it is really quite simple. However, the purpose of this article is not to inform you of the benefits of eating, but merely to let you know that eating is indeed a very effective way to lose excess bodyweight, and to explain how diets keep that from happening. Stating the Obvious Although most people do not think of the “latest diet” in these terms, hopefully the following question will make you consider what is pretty obvious if you stop to think about it. If the new “Last Diet You’ll Ever Need” was really that good at making you melt away pounds while sitting on the couch munching “Carbo Craze Chips” or was even remotely effective at burning off your spare tire while inhaling the sweet scents of “Aerospace’s Aromatic Air Baubles”, then why isn’t everyone already thin?? Seriously - think about it. Every time you hear about the latest diet or the most up to date exercise device that only takes 20 minutes per day, they always say that you will never need another system! The advertised system - no matter how logical or even outlandish as it may seem - is always touted at being better than ever, and the last system you will ever need. Well, if that were true, don’t you think that the manufacturer of that system would not only become wealthier than anyone in history, but would also become famous as the person who FINALLY solved the obesity problem in our world? Don’t you think that person could also afford to advertise their product during prime time on TV, instead of late at night? Don’t you think that system would become known throughout the world - throughout history itself - as a turning point in human development? So, I’ll ask you the same question again: If the solution is already out there, why do we need to keep coming up with new solutions?? The answer is, of course, very simple - these systems don’t work, and the human populace is simply looking for a non-existent quick fix to getting rid of too many late night excursions to the local burger joint, or to the fact they should have taken stock in beer while they were in college. Then what does work? Human physiology. Metabolism Metabolism is defined as the rate at which your body processes food. In other words, how fast your body burns calories. The faster your metabolism, the more food you can eat without gaining weight. How do you control your metabolism? By eating a nutrient-dense meal every 3 to 3 ½ hours. This practice “stokes your internal furnace”, for lack of a better analogy. Think of your body as an old-style locomotive that had coal shoveled into the combustion chamber one shovel at a time. If you didn’t shovel in coal fast enough, the locomotive would slow down, and your body is no different. If you don’t eat often enough, your metabolism slows down and you don’t burn through calories very quickly. In addition, not only does your rate of calorie consumption go down, but your body starts storing almost everything that you do eat as bodyfat! So, in essence, every time you starve yourself in your honest effort to “stick to your diet”, you are actually slowing down your metabolism as well as making your body more efficient at building padding for you to sit on at baseball games. Muscle “I don’t care” you say. You believe that in order to lose weight you need to starve. Okay, that’s wrong, but I’ll explain why that thinking is flawed. Your body needs energy so you can live through any given day. The amount of energy that you need is determined by your Basal Metabolic Rate, and by your activity level for that day. For most people, this amounts to between 1,500 and 2,500 calories per day. Well, if your calorie-restricted diet doesn’t allow you that many calories, your body will find a way to survive anyway. It does this by breaking down your muscle tissue and using it for energy. “So what?” you say. You don’t care, as long as the scale says you are losing weight, right? What if I told you that the ONLY place on your body that you can burn bodyfat for fuel is your muscles? What if I told you that the more muscle tissue you lose on a calorie-restricted diet, the fewer calories you can eat after the muscle loss? What if I told you that after losing 20 lbs on a calorie-restricted diet, your total bodyfat level will have dropped very little, if at all? What if I told you that by using muscle mass for energy, you have literally crippled your body’s ability to burn bodyfat in the future, and that by the laws of Nature (which we can’t change, by the way), you will absolutely put the weight back on, and probably gain more weight than you ever had before? If I told you all of that, would you still want to burn muscle tissue for energy while starving yourself to stick to your diet, paying $8 a bag for Carbo Chips, and $20 a session for Aromatic Air Baubles? On the other hand, perhaps the laws of Nature don’t apply to you. In that case, be sure to tune in tonight - I believe the “Lose Weight While You Eat Butter Fried Bacon” diet is going to be featured on a new infomercial. It is, after all, The Last Diet You Will Ever Need!