Recomemmeded Program
Military Fat Burning Tips
Guaranteed To Banish Ugly Belly Fat Once & For All
And Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life!
4-Day Upper Body Blast - Men - Turn Heads As You Fill Out Your Shirt With Your Muscles
By Mark Bojovic
When I was training for bodybuilding, working out twice a day and six days a week was business as usual. Now that I'm a missionary in Africa and don't have all the time to commit to the weight room as I did before, I need to focus on what's important. There's no room for wasting time.
So what is important? I'm a married man who likes to look good in what he wears. Being on the endomorphic side of the spectrum, my lower body doesn't need to grow any more - it's got enough size. So that leaves me with the upper body. I'm not going to be walking around topless in public any time soon, so I don't need that chiseled chest or six-pack abs look, either. What I do need is to fill out my shirts and sweaters in all of the right places: chest, shoulders, arms, and upper back.
With that said, here is the workout that I've adapted to fit my busy lifestyle and yet still produce great results.
This is a four-day workout, focusing on one body-part per day, ending with a rest day. Each workout shouldn't last more than 15-20 minutes.
First, start with a warm-up of some kind of cardiovascular activity (jogging, jump rope, etc) for 5-10 minutes, per ACSM recommendations. Then you will perform 4-6 sets in order to flood your muscle with blood and really work it out.
Chest Day: Start with light weights on the bench press for 12-15 reps. Immediately follow this set with light weight dumbbell fly's for 12-15 reps. Add more weight to your second set. Add more weight to your third set. You should complete 4-6 sets in all, depending on how you feel or how hard you want to push it. After your first two sets of 12-15 reps, your rep target should be 6-10. Cool down with some stretches.
Biceps Day: Start with light weights on the barbell straight bar for some reverse curls for 12-15 reps. Immediately after each set you should lie on an incline bench and do regular palm-up curls with dumbbells. Increase your weight for a second set of reverse curls for 12-15 reps and incline bench dumbbell curls. Your final sets should target 6-10 reps of regular palm-up curls, each set followed by incline bench dumbbell curls for 6-10 reps, too. Cool down with some stretching.
Triceps Day: Start by lying on your back and performing some triceps extensions with light weights for 12-15 reps (commonly known as "skullies"). Immediately follow this first set by kneeling on your bench and performing triceps kick-backs, where you extend the weight up behind you, with your back parallel to the floor. Add more weight for your second set of skullies and triceps kick-backs. Your final sets should target 6-10 reps of heavier weights, completing a total of 4-6 sets. Cool down with some stretching.
Shoulder Day: Start with the seated or standing barbell shoulder press (i.e. military press) with light weights for 12-15 reps. Immediately follow this with slightly bent-over dumbbell lateral raises for 12-15 reps. Increase your weight for the second set for 12-15 reps. Your final sets should target 6-10 reps of heavier weights, completing a total of 4-6 sets. Cool down with some stretching.
The goal of each workout is to completely flood each muscle group with a lot of blood and tear down as much muscle fiber as you can (for greater future muscle repair and growth). This extreme focus on one muscle group at a time has helped me maintain the upper body musculature that I desire. I hope you motivate yourself enough to stick with this quick and simple workout of upper body super-sets (back-to-back differing exercises on the same muscle). Thank you!
Please visit our blog at http://www.MarkandKay.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Bojovic
Recomemmeded Program
Military Fat Burning Tips
Guaranteed To Banish Ugly Belly Fat Once & For All
And Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life!
Why You Should Train With Kettlebells
By Jon Le Tocq
The fitness world has officially gone kettlebell crazy. Unfortunately many people still fail to understand why kettlebells should be a key tool in your fitness toolbox for getting excellent fat loss results, increasing strength, reducing the risk of injury and making your training much more exciting!
There are numerous reasons why you simply have to include kettlebells in your training to break through plateaus in your results.
Location, location, location:
You can use kettlebells anywhere, anytime.
Kettlebells have been described as 'a gym in the palm of your hand' - a short but highly accurate statement! Not only are they versatile in that they can be thrown in the back of the car and used to train in the park, in hotel rooms, in your back garden, in your friend's back garden, on the beach, the list goes on. Basically, if you have an area of around 2m x 2m and a height of 7-10 ft depending how tall you are, you can train with kettlebells.
This makes kettlebells the ideal tool for many people from all walks of life including:
Those who are sick of training in commercial gyms, full of members who don't really care and managers who care even less.
Those who need a portable training tool which gets results. This includes business people, soldiers and anyone whose lifestyle isn't conducive to regular visits to the local health centre. No gimmicks, no magic machines, just a proven method which gets results fast.
Variety:
Aside from versatility of location, possibly the most widely talked about and most captivating element of kettlebell training is the versatility of training.
Let's face it. No matter how committed you are to fitness and exercise as the cornerstone of your life, it can get boring if you have no variety in your training.
I have never, ever trained in such a way which enables so many muscles to be worked in such a variety of directions with more advanced trainees being able to move smoothly from one exercise to the next with deft movements of the bell.
This enables the trainee to complete strength and cardiovascular training all in one go.
It is true that if you want to be a powerlifter or bodybuilder you need to be working with super heavy weights with sufficient rest times in between. However, the trainee who wishes to be achieve a more complete fitness profile by increasing strength, shedding body fat, improving flexibility and building a powerful heart and cardiovascular system will not find a better way to achieve their goals.
The nature of kettlebells means if you have a big enough set, you can be training anaerobic endurance one day, strength the next, power the next and power endurance the next. Exercises are easily manipulated to suit whatever fitness goal you may have.
Optimising the physical capabilities:
Crucially the kettlebell is the single most effective way to learn how to use your body as one, solid, interlinked, inseparable chain of muscles and joints. It is accepted that free weights are galaxies ahead of fixed machines for functional training which is applicable to activities in daily life and on the sports field, but kettlebell training takes this to a whole new level.
The challenge to the core muscles is great enabling the trainee to build a very solid base from which to work with more advanced exercises. I once heard it said that 'you can't fire a cannon from a canoe'. In other words, no matter how strong or powerful you think your legs or arms are, if you have a weak, dysfunctional core, you will never achieve the true potential of your limbs. You must have a strong foundation on which to develop powerful, functional muscles.
Not only this but due to the unique way in which the centre of mass of a kettlebell sits, such training is also a huge challenge to the smaller muscles around the body which primarily act to stabilize our joints. In particular, the shoulders become rock solid after a few months of kettlebell training providing great benefits to those involved in racket sports, boxing or martial arts or who perform regular weight training of any kind and are struggling to increase their bench or military press numbers.
I have first hand experience of the power of kettlebells in a rehab setting. After a year of advancing through the stages of kettlebell training to the more advanced exercises, I suffered a partially dislocated shoulder in a cycling accident. I believe that it is down to the kettlebell training that I was able to press a 28kg kettlebell within 5 weeks of the accident. This was achieved by first working with the light kettlebells in drills such as the windmill, 'walking in the wind' and the get up.
Body composition:
The average person exercises to maintain or achieve low body fat. Even if they don't, it's always a nice bonus as a side effect of your training!
It has been proven that the most effective way to reduce body fat whilst maintaining muscle (after sound nutrition), is a combination of metabolic weight training and high intensity intervals.
Kettlebell training enables both methods to be achieved at once, enabling the busy person to gain maximum effect from their training in minimum time. What more do you want?!
Not only do body fat levels drop like a stone (when combined with effective nutrition) but the full body movements involved in kettlebell training will produce a great body shape. You can expect to gain a lean, toned physique. Ladies, a tight backside, tight thighs and a slim, toned upper body will soon be on its way! Gents you can expect to develop a strong, lean, muscular physique once you have harnessed the power of kettlebells!
Your investment in fitness:
For a beginner, an investment of around £100-150 will get you a full set of brand new kettlebells. For some people this can be 3 months gym membership, The difference is, you don't have to queue; you don't have recurring direct debit fees for a gym you never use; you can train where you want, when you want; you can get your training done in half the time with twice the results; it's far more exciting than plodding on a treadmill or sitting on the pec dec breathing in all the putrid , recycled air of the average commercial gym and the routines you can create are limited only by your creativity!
Mental wellness:
You will soon find yourself creating ridiculous sessions which push you to your limits and make you feel incredibly invigorated afterwards. Kettlebells are almost guaranteed to blast your endorphins (the happy hormone) through the roof!
I've yet to experience a method of training which develops mental strength as well as physical ability like kettlebells do. I can't say I've ever studied or practiced martial arts but I suspect it is a similar way of life which captivates you and creates steely willpower and physical prowess beyond anything you've experienced before.
Posture:
A word should also be given to the effects on posture. Because the key kettlebell exercises demand a lot of work to be done by your posterior chain (the muscles on the back of your body such as glutes, lower back and hamstrings) as well as the core muscles, you will soon notice big differences in the way you stand. Because of the way we sit at our desks all day hunched over a keyboard, and the usual focus in the gym on the 'beach muscles' such as the chest, arms, abs and quads, our bodies become very 'front dominant'.
Typical desk posture results in tight chest, tight hip flexors and tight hamstrings which more often than not lead to lower back pain directly or indirectly.
The use of the kettlebell swings and snatches helps address this by strengthening the previously weak glute (buttock) and lower back muscles. The mechanics of such movements also bring about repeat dynamic stretching of the hamstrings. When combined with a sound flexibility program, an upright, painless posture results.
In conclusion:
Kettebell training clearly offers a huge range of benefits to beginners and advanced fitness fans alike but please do not take this to mean that kettlebells are the solution to the world's problems!
Kettlebells, like bodyweight training, gymnastic movements, Olympic lifts, speed work, and any other fitness modality should be part of a large and ever growing tool box.
However, if you haven't yet harnessed the power of kettlebells, you are seriously limiting your fitness potential!
Jon Le Tocq is a strength and conditioning coach from Nottingham, UK, author of Intense Conditioning and the Fat Loss Action Blueprint and creator of the Kettlebell Conditioning Tour.
Find out more about his extremely fast working programs at:
http://www.intenseconditioningworkouts.com
http://www.worldstoughestworkouts.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Le_Tocq
Recomemmeded Program
Military Fat Burning Tips
Guaranteed To Banish Ugly Belly Fat Once & For All
And Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life!
No comments:
Post a Comment