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Working Out Without Equipment
If you want to work out without equipment, you can start with chair sits. Put your arms out in front of you and sit back into a chair, but just touch it and stand up again. Repeat until you feel some fatigue. Then you can go to a freehand squat, which is the same thing without the chair. Lunges and step-ups with just body weight are good, too. Do heel raises for your calves. For upper body, do push-ups, either the standard kind or from your knees. You can do crunches and most other abdominal exercises without equipment. Learn some yoga, which can be done without equipment.
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Core Exercises
Core exercises refer to exercises that target the abdominal and low back areas. You will find some exercise for the glutes will help, too, as these areas function together. Pilates exercise specializes in the core, but some traditional strength exercises like crunches and back extensions also are effective. You can work these areas every other day. Start with one set of crunches, an exercise for the oblique abs, and an easy back extension, if you are out of shape or recovering from surgery. Increase difficulty slowly. If you're in good shape, start at an appropriate level. Remember, you will not see abdominal definition unless you have a low percentage of body fat, but it's important to have strong abs anyway.
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Anatomical Neutral Posture
Anatomical Neutral Posture is where almost every exercise should begin. I want to teach you what this looks like and simple ways to check to see if you are staying there-in.
Anatomical Neutral Posture begins at the feet. The feet should be straight forward, not facing out. The feet should be hip bone width apart, meaning they should be in line with the bones of your hips. Knees should be directly over the feet and in line with the hips. At the abdomen, it should be drawn in ever so slightly, while also tightening up the muscles of the glutes (butt) as well. The chest should be lifted, while also drawing the shoulders back and down. The head should be back, looking forward, with ears in line with the shoulders and hips. Hands should be facing towards the body, standing as tall as possible.
The importance of Anatomical Neutral Posture comes in regards to proper muscular innervation. When you sit/stand/lift in proper posture, you will be more likely to exercise the proper muscles. Anatomical Neutral Posture will also put your spine in good alignment, minimizing the pains that could possibly arise from exercise. You will exercise better, utilize proper muscles, and have more of a challenging time trying to stay in proper posture.
As a sidenote, some women don't want to lift their chest for fear of seeming like they want to show off their breasts. Well, I don't mean wear low cut shirts, just lift your chest so your upper back is not rounded. it's either show off your chest a little or have back problems essentially... Seems like a no brainer to me.
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'Get Big' Routine
People have different goals, and one of those goals is that people (especially men) want to get Big or Huge or Cut. That's fine, and here's a great way t do it.
When working out to get big, you want to give your muscles the maximum amount of rest possible. Therefore in a given week, you should workout each muscle group only once. Yes, just once. That way when you workout you are giving your muscles the maximum amount of time to rebuild and recover for the next week's muscle destruction.
When working out, every set needs to be to failure. That means that you don't stop until you fail at doing the repetition. For example, if you were doing chest then every set would pain your chest because you were working it out so hard, and by the end of the workout (which would last at least 1.5 hours) your chest would be extremely tired and broken down. Since it would be so broken down there would be no way you could even exercise your chest in 2/3 days because of how hard you worked it out. Make sense?
Also, studying more about muscle recovery and ways to help that through proper supplementation need to be looked into, as well as Protein 30min-1hour after your workouts.
A sample routine could look like this: Mon-Chest, Tue-Back, Wed-Legs(Upper+Lower), Thur-Shoulders, Fri-Arms, Sat-Abs. Remember though, this is hard. To always puch your muscles to the maximum requires patience and intense desire. For those of you planning on treading down this road; Good Luck, and don't take steroids. :-)
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Dance Workouts
Switch it up! Take a cue from square dancing caller and do-si-do and switch partners when it comes to your body building workout routines.
Varying your routines and programs will make your workout routine more exciting and will keep you from reaching a plateau. Try these tips on how to spice up your workout:
• Vary your pumping iron workout plan and target different areas of your body on different days • Sign up for some swing or salsa dancing lessons • Try alternating your dance and dumbbell workout with stretching (such as yoga or Pilates) • Mix in a little tai chi for grace and swimming for cardiorespiratory fitness
Who says workout routines have to be routine?
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Circuit Training
When I workout at a gym, people will sometimes ask me what I am doing and initially say 'Are you doing a circuit?'. This may be due to the fact that I am breathing heavily and doing stuff that looks really odd and difficult, who knows. Regardless it is probably a good idea to figure out what a Circuit actually would look like.
Circuit Training is in reference to utilizing 3-4 exercises in a row, and then throwing in some type of cardio exercise with no rest. An example of this would be Push-Ups, immediately moving into Lunges, immediately into Lat Pull-Downs, immediately into Lateral Raises, then Jumping Rope for a minute, finally resting for a minute. This way your body gets tired quickly beacuse of lack of rest, and you get lots of muscles to work because you are exercising the whole of the body during the circuit. During a circuit training routine one would want to go through 3-5 whole circuits, definitely making sure that they stay hydrated and giving themselves ample rest between circuits.
Well what are you waiting for? Go try one out for your next workout! It wil be fun :)
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Workout for your Heart
Most people believe that Cardiorespiratory exercise (running, biking and the like) are what most doctors would refer to as exercise for your heart. It is a true belief, but there are ways to incorporate working out your heart especially during weight bearing exercise.
Whenever you exercise, your heart is pumping blood that has been oxygenated to areas of your body. As your blood travels through your body, it makes stops at muscles that need oxygen to function and perform better. After dropping off their supply of oxygen, they either oxygenated other muscles or return on the cycle back to the heart to perform the same thing again. Therefore when you workout you're getting a 'Heart' workout, but we can make it even more precise.
If you worry about whether your heart is strong or not, during your next workout session alternate exercising your upper then lower body. For example, start out with squats (lower body), then bench press (upper body), then leg extensions (lower body) to a seated row (upper body), and so on. Do a few sets of each, and as you continue alternating between your upper and lower body, your blood will be pumping through your body, giving you a great workout for your heart.
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Workout Intensity Booster - 'The No-Sit'
If you belong to a gym, then I bet you see lots of sitting. Yes, sitting. Most people in the gym will do workouts with a seated shoulder press, seated biceps curl, laying down triceps extension, seated leg extension or leg curl, seated leg press...you get what I mean.
If you are one of these sitting workout gym pro's and you feel your workout is not doing as much as you want, try standing. Just stand to do your shoulder press/tricep extension/biceps curl. When it comes to legs, do squats, lunges or deadlifts. If you don't know how to do any of those, ask a personal trainer (or maybe a knowledgeable friend) to help you. Being on your feet the whole workout will tire you out much more, stressing your stabilizer muscles especially in you abdomen, low back and glutes (your tri-core). Try that out and see what a difference it will make in your workouts.
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Workout or Not
Can sitting still really be as good a workout as moving around? Yep. Holding a yoga or Pilates pose (for example the Downward Dog asana and the Spine Stretch in Pilates) offers as much challenge as 30 minutes of a heart-pounding treadmill workout.
Don't think that you need to be sweating and dizzy to feel as though your workout routines work. If you are sweating and dizzy too often, that may be a sign that you need to have your heart checked or change your body building workout routines. Your cardiologist will probably recommend a more balanced workout plan.
Gentle muscle workout routines don't make you perspire copiously. Let's deep-six the image of the muscle-bound he-man manfully straining red-faced to push up iron. You might as well replace it with a tennis player returning an easy serve. Don't overload your workout plan with blood, sweat, and tears. The gentle tai chi and bagua movements redirect the energy and function as effective body building workout routines without outward effort. All your muscle work is inward, no matter what workout program you choose.
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Soreness After Exercise Breaks
So you haven't worked out in a while, and since you did you've been really sore huh? That's normal, it should hurt a bit. Make sure that you work through the pain though, and not take a week long break until you exercise again.
What happens to some is that they will not have exercised for a while and then go hit the gym and get really sore. Instead of exercising the next day or day after, they wait until the soreness leaves completely, generally just waiting until the next week. Just try and not fall into the pattern here, but work through the pain. Gives yourself a day to rest, but work through the pain! It will not happen for the rest of your exercising career, do not fret. Push through and you'll be glad you did.
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Cardio Love in the Afternoon
Forget about morning and evening workouts! According to a recent issue of Spa Magazine, working out in the afternoon is better for you.
The air resistance in your lungs is lower in the afternoon, making it easier for air to circulate as you execute dance and aerobic workout routines. Draw a big heart in your workout plan grid when you pencil in 2 p.m. and try your swimming, aquatics workout, or mountain biking workout program in the afternoon.
*If you enjoy hot California weather year-round, remember that UVA and UVB strength is still high around 2 p.m. PST so include the note, “need extra sunblock,” in your workout plan.
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Martial Arts Workout Plan
In addition to providing terrific self-defense techniques and inner calm, aikido offers fabulous body building workout routines.
While you probably need to supplement your aikido workout program with swimming, stretching, and walking, you can add a block of aikido twice a week or more to your workout plan.
A typical aikido workout is built on a principle of using circular force to disarm an opponent or deflect energy. You don't need Mr. Miyagi of “The Karate Kid” movies to tell you that aikido isn't about getting into fights, but often about avoiding them and keeping mentally as well as physically fit. What more could you ask from your workout?
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