Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 3 of 21)

Lose weight faster by doing cardio between sets

Men?s Fitness.com has three tips to how you can shed pounds in a quicker amount of time:

1.) TRY CARDIO BETWEEN SETS
Go about your weight workout as normal but instead of resting between sets, perform light cardio such as jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, or hitting a heavy bag for between 60 and 90 seconds.

2.) ALTERNATE INTERVALS
Perform a set and then do some highly intense activity for 15 seconds, followed by a 45-second easy bout for recovery. Then go back to the weights for another set. You can pair your lifting with any kind of cardio ? a treadmill sprint, intervals on an exercise bike, or with a jump rope, etc.

3.) TRY A CIRCUIT
Start with compound movements, followed by isolation lifts. For instance, do a squat, followed by a lunge, hamstring curl, and leg extension. Do not rest until after the last exercise and then rest two to three minutes. You’ll get an awesome pump while burning lots of calories.

To read the entire article, click here.

The most important thing to remember is that your diet must be sound. You can run 100 stairs in between every set on the bench, but if all you?re consuming outside of the gym is fatty, processesed foods, you?re not going to drop the weight.

That said, the article does highlight a couple of nice techniques to try if you?re getting tired of your current routine and can?t seem to lose that stubborn weight. I would warn, however, that if you?re trying to pack on size, continuously doing cardio between sets will zap your strength and therefore gaining muscle will be a challenge. For hard-gainers, resting between sets is the better way to go if you?re trying to bulk up.

Headache Remedies

Men?s Fitness.com offers a couple of tips to help understand your headache?s source and the key to making it go away.

MIGRAINE

Symptoms: Intense, throbbing pain, usually on one side of your head, accompanied by nausea and/or sensitivity to light or sound. Not fun. It’s uncommon for men in their 20s or over to start developing migraines, so if you’ve never had one before, that pain is probably something different.

Treatment: Prescription meds such as sumatriptan are most helpful. So is rest in a quiet, dark room.
Prevention: Identify and eliminate your triggers (the most common are red wine, cheese, and caffeine). Regular exercise has also been shown to reduce frequency and severity.

To read the entire article, click here.

I actually started developing migraines in my late teens. Mine come with auroras that occur about 15 minutes at the onset of the migraine and then go away once the headache begins. Usually the only thing that helps me get rid of migraines is lying in a dark, noiseless room and attempting to sleep them off. They?re incredibly painful and it?s near impossible to do anything other than lie in bed until they go away, which could take hours.

Normally I would get a migraine at least once every couple of months, with them occurring as frequently as once a month (which isn?t bad considering some people have them every other day). A doctor advised me to keep a migraine journal to help figure out potential triggers and while I can?t pinpoint the exact cause of the headaches, I have a good idea of why they come on. As the article suggests, caffeine can play a roll in causing some people?s migraines. But as it turns out, lack of caffeine causes mine.

For the past three and a half months, I have made sure to drink a small amount of caffeine per day and I haven?t had a migraine within that time. Granted, one could still be coming, but I feel confident that the caffeine at the very least spreads the migraines out. So if you suffer from migraines, create a journal for yourself (you can use this online one) and you might go a long way in discovering the cause.

The Plank

For those interested in getting your abs to pop (and really, who isn?t?), you might want to try doing the plank exercise a couple times a week. It?s a fairly simply exercise to complete and you don?t have to go to the gym in order to knock it.

Men?s Fitness.com breaks down the details of the exercise:

Get into pushup position on the floor.

Now bend your elbows 90 degrees and rest your weight on your forearms. Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Hold the position for as long as you can. Your goal should be to hold it for two minutes.

“The plank helps develop strength in the core, shoulders, arms, and glutes,” says Scott, making it a great prerequisite for lifting heavy weights or playing intense sports. Even though you aren’t moving or lifting weight, you have to constantly squeeze your abs to hold the position?most people can’t last 30 seconds on their first attempt.

To read the entire article, click here.

I?ve personally done the plank for a month now and while it shouldn?t be the main exercise in your ab routine, it makes for a nice complement. Always remember that a clean diet and a good weight-training program are keys to finding your abs. But exercises like these can really help your abs ?pop?.

The Skinny Guy Workout

If you?re a hard gainer, you?ve likely tried all kinds of workouts trying to add size to your frame. But as Men?s Fitness.com points out, your problem probably lies somewhere in between working out too much and not eating enough.

MF.com highlights three exercises to do for all hard gainers, as well as some dieting tips to help pack on the muscle.

WORKOUT
Perform these exercises three days per week, resting at least a day between sessions. Vary the sets and reps, too. On Day 1, complete five sets of five reps for each lift, resting two minutes between sets. On Day 3, do four sets of 10, resting 90 seconds. On Day 5, do three sets of 15 reps with 60?90 seconds’ rest in between.

1.Squat
Set up a barbell on the supports of a squat rack. Step underneath the bar, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and let the bar touch your upper traps. Grab the bar with your hands as close together as is comfortable. Nudge the bar off the rack, take three steps backward, and stand with your feet a bit wider than shoulder-width apart and toes turned slightly outward [1]. Take a deep breath and bend your hips back as far as you can, keeping the arch in your lower back. Then bend your knees and lower your body as far as you can (try to squat to where your thighs are at least parallel to the floor) [2]. Explode back upward to the starting position. That’s one rep.

2. Clean and Press
Set a barbell on the floor, crouch down, and grab it with hands shoulder-width apart. Your lower back should be in its natural arch [1]. Explosively stand up and shrug the bar, coming up onto the balls of your feet. As the bar rises to chest level, flip your wrists over so that your palms face the ceiling and your upper arms are in the bottom position of a shoulder press [2]. From here, press the bar straight overhead [3]. Reverse the motion to return the weight to the floor. That’s one rep. If you feel your back is rounding when you pull the weight off the floor, perform the exercise by starting with the bar at just above knee height, and “muscle” the weight up from there.

3. Pullup
Grab a pullup bar with an overhand grip, hands outside shoulder width. Allow your body to hang [1]. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar [2], and then lower yourself back to the starting position. That’s one rep. Depending on how many reps you need to do, you can add weight using a belt or holding a dumbbell between your feet (you may need to do this on the five sets of five day). You can also use an elastic exercise band to help you perform more reps (such as on the 10- and 15-rep workout days). You can get a jump stretch band that works great for this at elitefts.com.

Check out MF.com?s tips for eating for more muscle.

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