Hurried man's guide to dieting.
on 1/26/2009
by
trifm
| filed in:
Diet and Nutrition
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* Don't eat so goddamn much.
* Eat smaller amounts of healthy foods often. Never be starved. Never be stuffed.
* Protein is good. Eat lots.
* Fats are good, but eat mostly healthy ones with omega-3s and stuff. There's a difference between fish oil and grease.
* Never eat trans fats.
* Carbs are tricky. Get most of yours from veggies, oatmeal, post-workout drinks, and fruits, not flour and sugar.
* If you're drinking full-sugar sodas all day long, stop it. You might as well smoke.
* Food log: Keep one for a few weeks. Learn more than you ever imagined.
* You know all that junk food and fast food you eat? You know it works against your physique goals, right? So stop eating it. Control yourself. Have some pride. Stop acting like a stray dog who eats whatever is dropped on the ground without even sniffing it.
* If you're not making the progress you want to make in the gym, it's probably your diet. Most people can't out-train a crappy diet.
* Fiber. You probably need more than you're getting.
* Plain water: ditto.
* You can learn to like healthy foods and dislike unhealthy ones. If people can learn to enjoy black coffee, sushi, and chewing tobacco, you can learn to like cauliflower and spinach.
* Vegetarians: Please. Embrace reality and have a steak.
* Even the most dedicated and hardest training person in the gym can get home and become a "diet wussy."
* Choose as many "natural" whole foods as possible. Your peanut butter's ingredients should list "peanuts" and that's about it. Your oatmeal should list only "rolled oats." Avoid too many packaged and processed foods with hundreds of ingredients you can't pronounce.
* Food is not a reward, a treat, or an escape. Food is fuel.
* If you want to stay faithful to your spouse, avoid filling your house with nub... read more
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Why you should care about body fat
on 1/13/2009
by
trifm
| filed in:
Other
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Body-fat is the over all percent of muscle to your body weight.
If you are close to thirty percent you are clinically considered to be obese. Over forty percent of you are obese.
And sixty percent of you are over weight just asking to get diabetes.
Do you know if you just lower your body fat levels 5 percent you will decrease your chances of heart disease, diabetes, strokes by half? Not to mention the greater quality of life you will live.
And if this doesn't motivate you, the think about how good you will look.
Is your image of yourself so bad that you would rather be fat than to feel good?
Here are the main ways to lower your body fat levels:
#1: Reduce high glycemic carbs and saturated fat intake and eliminate trans fats from your diet.
#2: Get a full balanced exercise program started: Cardio, weight training, and stretching.
#3: Take basic supplementation: fish oil, vitamins, fibers
#4: Lower stress levels
#5: Quit making excuses
So I ask of you, I beg of you, start exercising today. Make better food choices. Start Today if you haven't already.
Check out the comments section of the Quick Fat Loss Group for advanced tips.
What's your excuse for not doing it?... read more
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10 ways to exercise smarter not harder
on 1/13/2009
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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Makeing exercising a fun activity will help you stick with the program more easily. Here are some ideas on how to be more efficient with your workouts while still keeping it fun.
1. Set a time limit on all your workouts. End the workout if you run over.
2. Exercise larger muscle groups before the smaller ones. I.e... Back, Legs and Chest before shoulders and arms.
3. Change your workout plan up from time to time.
4. Treat your time in the gym as if it is your most important time of the day.
5. Make the workouts at the beginning of the week harder than those toward the end of the week.
6. Take at least one day off a week from doing any form of exercising.
7. Change your cardiovascular equipment up each time you exercise.
8. Monitor your heart rate all the time.
9. Go over your workout in your head before you start.
10. Efficiency is more important than length. Have a number of reps in your head before each time you do a set.
These are just a few things I have learned over the last 2.5 years of training years.
What would you add to this list?
... read more
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Anywhere Anytime Exercises
on 1/13/2009
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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Most people are very busy now adays, so getting to the gym is not always possible.
But, even if you can't make it, there is no excuse for not training.
Below you'll find 3 of many exercises you can do anywhere, anytime.
Raising your Toes and then coming down.
Stand on a floor flatfooted with toes pointing straight.Hold onto something to balance yourself. Now VERY SLOWLY, raise your toes as high as possible. Hold on for 2 secs and come down very gently and slowly. Repeat it 20 times to make one set.
Push ups
Lie down on the floor facing towards the floor with your body weight on your palms.Now slowly , push your body up keeping your back straight and facing right ahead. Hold onto 2 secs and then slowly bring your body back to the starting position.
Repeat it 5-10 times in the beginning and then try to practice this exercise 20 times per set.
Wall Squat
Stand straight with your back against the wall. Now, gently move your body down to the sitting position. Make sure your back is still against the wall.Hold on to 15 secs and then gently move up keeping your back against the wall again.
Repeat it 5-10 times in the beginning and then try to practice this exercise 20 times per set.
What exercises you do when you can't get a proper workout in?
... read more
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So you want a ripped stomach
on 2/1/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Other
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Let me start by saying - What is wrong with you? ;)).
Why would you want a bleeding internal organ?
Oh, you meant a defined mid section aka washboard abs. Why didn't you say so from the start?
That's pretty simple.
Simple, NOT EASY!
Learn to make the difference.
Got it? Good :P Then let's get down to business.
The reason you don't have a defined mid section is because you are not lean enough (low body fat level).
"Hey dude, no offense, but you don't know what you are talking about;I can see the first row of abs popping out. A few more sessions on my worthless-piece-of-junk-ab-machine-i-spent-a-small-fortune-buying-from-a-tv-commercial and all of these babies will come popping out.”
Yeah? Well, news flash buddy – the first row of abs start showing at 15% body fat. To see full abs separation and definition you need to be at about 9-10% body fat. Do you know how to shake off that 5%?
Of course you don’t, that’s why you’re still doing hundreds of crunches believing spot reduction works. Well, it doesn’t so stop it and allow me to lead you on ONE (I’m not saying this is the only right way, in fact most programs work to a degree or another if you give them enough time and commitment) right path.
#1. Your diet needs to be in check.
---------------------------------------------------------
Try Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm
excerpt
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“Here’s my take on it. I call these principles, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs," a shameless and possibly illegal play on Steven Covey’s book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." (Great book, by the way—you should read it sometime.)
These aren’t the newest techniques from the latest cutting-edge p... read more
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diet, fat loss, abs, exercise program
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Compound movements are best
on 1/30/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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When you have to choose between the two, choose compound movements to isolation movements.
A compound movement is an exercise that involves two or more joint movements. An isolation movement is an exercise that involves just one discernible joint movement.
The difference between the two is that a compound exercise can place greater absolute intensity on the muscles exercised relative to isolation movements that may place greater relative intensity on a specific muscle or a head of a muscle.
What this means in layman’s terms is that compound exercises stimulate the muscles the most while isolation movements build certain parts of a muscle.
Optimum results are achieved when using a mix of the two.... read more
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Perform reps with Maximum Intensity
on 1/30/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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Beginners don’t necessarily need to increase their Training Intensity because at this level even engaging in physical activities is enough to see progress.
But as you gain experience, the body adapts to the stimulus that because inefficient at stimulating the muscle to spark growth (so basically progress is halted). This is known as a “plateau”. Increasing the intensity of your training helps break the plateau and continue to see progress.
There are 2 ways to increase intensity:
1. Increase the amount of weight you use.
In this case you may have to recalculate your 1 Rep Max (Rule 7). If your 1 Rep Max hasn’t changed you should use the help of a spotter to “cheat” sets (use an amount of weight that you can’t handle on your own) until you are able to use the weight on your own or you pass the plateau.
2. Tweak the way you perform sets and reps.
The variables we will be working with are: repetition speed, tempo, tension on the muscle, rest periods, the superset technique.
I. Repetition speed.
Any given exercise has 2 parts – a concentric contraction when the muscle develops tension due to a shortening in length (example: upward movement of a dumbbell in a biceps curl) and a eccentric contraction when the muscle develops tension due to a lengthening of it (example: downward movement of a dumbbell in a biceps curl).
Most people use a 1sec up/ 1 sec down speed, not knowing that an increase in time spent on the eccentric part of the movement will improve the effectiveness of the exercise by 100%.
So remember to slow the speed down on the downward part of any exercise to:
• Keep the muscle under tension for a longer period of time
• Work the muscle on the downward part of the movement rather then letting gravity take over.
II. The Tempo.
A lifting tempo is a-b-c-d, where:
• a – time spent on the eccentric (downward) part of the movement
• b – time... read more
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lifting tips, reps, tempo
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Keep weight training sessions short
on 1/30/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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Keeping the actual weightlifting part of the workout less than 50 minutes has the following benefits:
• Allows you to maintain maximum mental focus and engage in the exercises with maximum possible physical intensity.
• The consequence of high intensity training is maximized hormone spikes, hormone that put the body in an anabolic state (fat loss, muscle building state).
After this time period the opposite occurs – the body secrets catabolic hormones (that destroy muscle to use it for energy) and the risk of over training is increased. Overtraining basically means increased recovery time for the muscles, less capacity to efficiently stimulate then during the next workout which translates into a halt in progress – also known as a “plateau”.
Many people make the mistake of working out hours at a time thinking that muscle grow while you’re working out. But the fact is that muscles grow given appropriate rest and recovery time as well as the nutrients needed to build/repair muscle tissue. So do your self a favor and keep lifting sessions short and intense to avoid over training and benefit from the optimum fat burning an anabolic state provides.... read more
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Change your workout routine periodically
on 1/29/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Strength Training
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The body has the ability to quickly adapt to any routine so often times a plateau is reached and progress stops.
To bypass a plateau or avoid one, you should switch your workout style every 6-8 weeks by:
1. Changing your daily split
2. Change the exercises performed
3. Tweak rep ranges, rest time and weight to increase intensity
4. Doing all of the above
... read more
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workout routine
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How to always stayed focused
on 1/29/2008
by
trifm
| filed in:
Other
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What is the number one reason for failing to lose body fat?
I’ll give you a hit: It’s not a lack of knowledge regarding dieting and exercising.
If you answered “failing to set clearly defined goals”, then you got the answer right!
You see, the great challenge for people isn’t to find the knowledge but to take action on it. Goals fill this gap.
It’s not enough to wish to change. You must define state and set a deadline for the wish in order to transform your dream into a goal. A goal with a purpose is the fuel that propels you forward.
"The strangest secret in the world is that you become what you think about.”
- Earl Nightingale.
Earl Nightingale is right that you become what you think about so instead of telling yourself every day that you can’t do it why don’t you imagine how you would like to look, set a deadline, make it a goal, write it down and read it everyday.
Also, when you have a goal you will be more focused and determined. See the guys and gals wandering around the gym like they don’t know what to do next. These people have not set goals for themselves and it’s very likely that they been gym members for a long time but still they haven’t improved a bit.
How to set goals?
1. Set some long time goals. Ex: By next year I want to lose 30 pounds of FAT.
2.Set some short term goals. Ex: I want to lose 5 pounds of FAT this month!
3.Set measurable goals. Ex: I want to increase my bench press by 20 pounds!
4.Set Realistic deadlines. You can’t lose 30 pounds of fat in 30 days! (no matter what some claim)
5.Make sure you don’t have conflicting goals. Example: You can’t gain 15 pounds of muscle while losing 15 pounds of FAT. Put emphasis on your main goal = either lose Fat or build Muscle.
6.Write them down. Until it’s not on paper it is only a wish not a goal.
... read more
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goal setting
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