Great overall conditioning exercise

Great overall conditioning exercise

Iron Cross

This is a great overall conditioning exercise.

It also makes a good warm-up or finisher.

Hold two light dumbbells or plates in your hands and squat from a wide stance with the buttocks pushed back.

Arms should be held straight ahead, parallel to the ground and thumbs up.

As you squat up, push your hips forward while simultaneously moving your arms to the sides in a cross position.

Return to the start position by moving in the precise inverse fashion and keeping your arms constantly parallel.

Burn off body fat with dumbbell and bodyweight exercises

Burn off body fat with dumbbell and bodyweight exercises

If you are on a mission to increase your strength using nothing but dumbbells, you have come to the right place. However, I will suggest you incorporate one more thing in your dumbbell training for strength arsenal: bodyweight exercises.

You can increase your strength, build lean muscle, and burn off pounds of body fat with dumbbell and bodyweight exercises. And here's another great benefit: you can get more results in less time than most people who train at a gym with free weights and machines.

To make that happen, you just need to know what to do.
Without further ado, here is your -
Dumbbell Training for Strength Guide

If you truly want to get maximum results in minimum time, you absolutely must apply the following Strength Training Principles.

Strength Training Principle One:

Do not use bodybuilding splits.

Magazines are quick to promote bodybuilding splits to their readers. However, those are not the best option if you want to get strong and lose body as fast as possible.

If you want to train only three days per week, then you should be using total body workouts. That will allow you to train your muscles with enough frequency and will definitely allow you to achieve your goals.

If you want to train four days per week, then you should use upper/lower splits where you alternate training your upper and lower body. This will also allow you to train your body with enough frequency so you can get great results.

Those are the only two training "splits" you will ever need, and they are much more effective than traditional bodybuilding splits.

Strength Training Principle Two:

Use the best exercises.

Just like the magazines promote bodybuilding splits, they also tell people to do a lot of isolation exercises such as dumbbell flyes, dumbbell lateral raises, curls, kick-backs, and other exercises.
Once again, that is very ineffective and inefficient for getting you the best results in the least amount of time.

You should perform big, compound exercises that allow you to use the greatest amount of weight. This will cause your body to recruit the largest number of motor units, and that is the optimal way to get strong.

Here is a brief list of the most effective dumbbell and bodyweight exercises for improving strength:

Note: the abbreviation "DB" means dumbbell

Upper Body Pushes (chest/triceps/shoulders):

-DB Floor Press (1 arm and both)

-DB Bench Presses (flat and incline)

-Standing DB Overhead Press

-DB Push Press

-Dips

-Push-ups (decline, stability ball, spiderman, grasshopper, hindu, etc)

-Handstand push-ups and variations

Upper Body Pulling (back/biceps):

-Pulls-ups and other varitions (chin-up, neutral grip, etc)

-DB Renegade Row

-DB Pullover

-DB Row (with support, two point, etc)

-Inverted Rows (palm down, palms up, with towels, etc)

Lower Body:

-Squats (siff, sumo, close stance, etc)

-Split Squats

-Lunges (explosive, reverse, lateral, crossover, etc)

-Romanian Deadlift

-Deadlift

-Step-ups

-Bulgarian Split Squats

-Jump Lunges

-Box Jumps

Miscellaneous Exercises:

-DB Snatch

-DB Clean and Press (one arm or both at a time)

-DB Clean and Jerk

-Burpees

Strength Training Principle Three:

Train in the right rep range.

If you want to get strong, you have to lift heavy weights, period. Make sure you train in the 3-6 rep range using a heavy weight.

It is also beneficial to train in higher rep ranges (7-20 reps) as well. This will keep you from getting burned out, and also allow you to build some lean muscle and burn off body fat.

Strength Training Principle Four:

Improve your performance.

The best way to improve your performance, and therefore get stronger, is to slowly and consistently increase the amount of weight you use. Another way to get stronger is to use the same weight but perform more repetitions with that weight. Plus, you won't always be able to increase the amount of weight you use.

Both methods are effective and should be implemented. Just know that increasing the weight is the best and most effective method.

Sample Dumbbell Training for Strength Workout:

-1 Arm DB Snatch - Perform 3-5 repetitions for each side, and perform a total of 5 sets.

-1 Arm DB Floor Press x 5 each side

-1 Arm DB Row x 5 each side

-Bulgarian Split Squat x 5-8 each leg

-Burpees x 10-15

Perform those exercises back to back and keep your rest periods to a minimum. Perform a total of 5 circuits.

Sample Dumbbell Training for Strength Workout 2:

-DB Clean and Press

- Perform 5 repetitions and perform a total of 4-5 sets.

-1 Arm DB Push Press x 8-10

-Chin-ups x as many as possible

-DB Squat x 10-20

Perform those exercises back to back and keep the rest period to a minimum. Perform a total of 3-5 circuits.

Exercise: Intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment

Exercise: Intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment!

Inch Worm

Description:

Here's an intense ab exercise you can do without any equipment.

Assume a position where your feet are on the floor (shoulder width) while your hands are flat on the ground in front of you (also shoulder width).

At the starting position your butt should be high in the air; imagine you're are making an inverted "V" with your body.

Walk your hands out as far as possible, then walk your hands back to the starting position.

Preferably, at the end position, your abs should be two to three inches off the ground and you'll look like a flying superman. You won't feel like superman, though.

This one really hurts!

Exercise: Highly effective cardio at home workout

Exercise: Highly effective cardio at home workout

Maintaining a healthy heart, increasing strength, flexibility and endurance are all benefits to be gained from a cardio at home workout.
A successful cardio workout is extremely important in an effort to lead a long, healthy and productive life.

Often the expense and time necessary to obtain an excellent cardio workout are preventative. Continuing the workout can be problematic as well. A gym membership or in home equipment can be too expensive.
The success of a walking or running workout can be hindered by changes in weather or living in a area that is extremely hot, cold or rainy.

Each of these factors can impact the chances of exercising regularly and it becomes too convenient to decide against a cardio workout. What begins as a healthy life goal often ends as a project we began and did not complete. So, what is the solution?

As a personal trainer with countless requests from my clients for a cardio workout that could be done at home, it became my goal to provide a highly effective and inexpensive cardio at home workout that would keep my clients challenged and fit and that would provide the highest quality cardio work out possible.
After many hours of research, I discovered an at home cardio workout that did not require expensive equipment, a gym membership, or a running or walking routine.
I discovered a cardio workout that burns off pounds of body fat that can be done at home without any equipment, and that can be done in much less time than traditional cardio workouts.

The method is bodyweight cardio. The bodyweight cardio circuits consist of different bodyweight exercises performed one after the other with no breaks until the end of each circuit.

Here is an example:

-Bodyweight Squats x 20
-Push ups x 15
-Inverted Rows x 15
-Explosive Lunges x 10 each leg
-Inch Worms x 5
-Jumping Jacks x 60

KEY CONCEPTS:

-Always check first with a physician to determine if any health problems exist that could prevent aerobic exercising.
-As with all exercise routines, gradually increase the level of activity and repetitions.
-Do not become discouraged. Daily exercise increases endurance and as strength is increased more can be accomplished.
-Complete each exercise, do not break, rest for one two minutes and then repeat the circuit 2-4 more times.
-Switch the order of the exercises to prevent exercise burn out.

Variation:

-Set a timer for 15 minutes and complete that circuit as many times as possible within that time frame.
-The next time you exercise attempt to increase the number of circuits completed.

This exercise routine will provide you with an intensive and extremely effective at home cardio workout. The benefits of a healthy heart, increased flexibility, muscle strength, fat burning and endurance are all included with no hidden fee, no gym membership, and no purchase of a treadmill or walking miles in potentially dangerous locations at inconvenient times.

Get started today to enjoy all the benefits of an at home cardio workout.

Your Cardio Routine is Keeping You Fat ?

Your Cardio Routine is Keeping You Fat ?

When most people think of a cardio routine one thing comes to mind. About an hour of jogging at a moderately intense pace, 3-5 times per week. However, so many people follow this plan without seeing any results.

Then they start thinking to themselves, "I need to eat better, I must be different, why doesn't anything work for ME?!"

If this is you, then start questioning the source of your information, NOT why your body is so different. The truth is that moderately intense cardio is one of the worst ways to burn fat off your body.

Every other day when you jog half-heartedly for an hour, your body starts to burn fat off your body at a certain point through your workout. While this sounds good on the surface, it is the reason that so many people see little to no results from this type of workout.

When your body starts to burn straight fat during your workout, it has run out of carbs (available energy). By getting to this stage, you are communicating to your body that it better start storing fat again so it will have something to utilize for energy the next time you go for a run.

So you burn some fat off during your normal cardio routine, then the next time you eat, your body starts to store fat for your next workout. This is exactly what we don't want to happen!

To get the results you're looking for, start doing VERY intense workouts over a shorter period of time.

Lifting weights is an excellent idea, but if you want to stick to just cardio routines, change your hour long jogging session into a 20 minute sprinting session.

First, you'll find that you have 40 extra minutes every day that you workout. Which is extremely valuable in itself!

But you will starting getting much better results.

Doing shorter, more intense workouts will give you more strength, burn fat off your body quicker, as well as beefing up your lung capacity and heart strength.

Exercise intelligently, you will get results!

Exercise intelligently, you will get results!

People often go about exercise haphazardly, assuming just doing it is enough to achieve results. Wrong! Exercise intelligently, and you will get results.

Far too often, I see people having conversations on their cell phone or reading during their workout. Then there are those who insist on jogging for hours on end or churning their elliptical into the ground for 90 minutes.

Trust me, if you can hop on an elliptical for 90 minutes, you can't be working that hard! If you want serious results, you have got to be serious about your exercise.

A very smart person once said you can work hard, and you can work long, but you cannot do both. This is SO applicable when it comes to exercise, and the truth is, hard work beats prolonged work every time.

In kinesiology, long-duration cardio is termed steady-state exercise. Typically, steady-state exercise is of a low intensity and is always below an individual's VO2max, or the capacity of the body to get oxygen to working muscles for exercise.

Once exercise surpasses your VO2max, the exercise becomes anaerobic. Anaerobic exercise is paramount to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, also known as "EPOC".

This phenomenon is the "oxygen uptake above resting values used to restore the body to the pre-exercise condition" (Baechle and Earle 35).

Why is this important? EPOC is a critical factor in burning calories after you're done exercising. That's right, you can burn calories for up to 24 to 48 hours after exercise, when you're relaxing! That's huge, and any exercise that's anaerobic creates EPOC.

How do you know if an exercise is anaerobic? Well, generally if you cannot maintain your current intensity after 90 seconds with an exercise, it is anaerobic. The oxidative system takes over after 90 seconds, and the exercise becomes aerobic.

The best way to include an anaerobic portion to your cardio bouts is through interval training. Put simply, intervals are bouts of high-intensity exercise interspersed with lower intensity periods. Intervals can be done with several ratios.

As a general rule, the shorter and more intense your high-intensity bout is, the longer your low-intensity period should be, relatively speaking.

For example, if you want to do 10-second sprints, your low-intensity periods should be at least a minute, or a 1:6 ratio.

If you want to run at a fast pace for 2 minutes, then typically you can then slow down to a fast walk or jog for 2 minutes.

This ratio, of course, is 1:1. The rest periods will allow your body to recover for the next high-intensity bout.

Intervals will mobilize fat stores more efficiently than steady-state exercise. This is because high-intensity exercise will rapidly deplete your glycogen stores (the storage form of carbs in your liver and muscles). Once you deplete your glycogen levels, your body uses fat for energy.

A sample protocol would look like this:

2-3 days/week
20-25 minutes total

1 minute fast (RPE = 7-9) : 2 minutes slow (RPE = 3-5)

RPE is the Rate of Perceived Exertion, using a 1-10 scale. Ten would be impossible, and one is way too easy.

Intervals are intense, so doing them without at least a base of steady-state cardio for six to eight weeks is ill advised. Also, you shouldn't need more than 25 or 30 minutes to complete an interval session; sometimes less will suffice.

Doing more than three days a week for 30 minutes can lead to overreaching and overuse injuries. When it comes to very short high-intensity training like 10 and 20-second sprints, use caution. These intervals are very intense and can lead to extreme fatigue the next day. Build up slowly.

The treadmill and bike as well as outside running are the best choices for interval training. Switch it up often to prevent over-training and boredom. If you're feeling extra tired one week, listen to your body and back off the intervals. A good rule of thumb is to do two interval sessions per week mixed with one steady-state session.

Next time you want to go for a run, remember this: steady-state, low-intensity exercise only burns calories during exercise.

The advantages of doing intervals are clear. Even though they may burn fewer calories during the actual exercise, in the end they will burn more calories through EPOC.

The harder you work, the more EPOC you create. Intervals take less time than steady-state sessions. They mobilize body fat by depleting glycogen stores. As if that wasn't enough, intervals will increase your VO2max and therefore your overall fitness level.

You get out what you put in, and the hard work is clearly worth it!

References
Baechle, T., & Earle, T. (2008). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Exercise: Speeding up your metabolism

Exercise: Speeding up your metabolism

In order to shed the pounds you must do more than just exercise, you must exercise effectively! This is done by you speeding up your metabolism.

The only way to speed up your metabolism is to have a well structured nutrition and exercise plan!

Here are 2 drills that you can implement in order to achieve the fitness level and body you desire

Squat and Jump:

This basically consist of a combined couple of movements that are designed to wake your body up! In other words, if you want to lose the weight the best way to do it through your exercise is to perform movements that consist of short burst of intense movements. With this particular drill you are going to properly perform a squat and a jump in combination.

Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart. Perform a proper squat and allow your arms to swing back as your butt and hips sit back. Go to a squat depth to where your thighs are parallel to the ground.

From here immediately come out of your squat and immediately squat again making sure that again your arms swing back with your hips.

This time when you come out of the squat execute a vertical jump by triple extending at your ankles, knees, and hips!

Basically you are squatting first and then immediately performing a squat jump. Repeat this process over and over in rapid succession until you complete your set.

Squat and Push-Up Combination:

From here you will simply perform proper body-weight squats as explained in the first drill. Attempt to execute the squats in rapid succession and with good form.

Perform 50 of these in a row. As soon as you are finished immediately drop down into an upright push-up position and once again attempt to reel off 50 form perfect push-ups!

This is a sure way to help you get in shape fast.