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Click the link below to view our YouTube video on step-by-step instructions on how to make these delicious, tasty, low-carb and healthy cookies! https://youtu.be/Ekg4ZHnk9-s  This gold-medal muscle exercise can be done anywhere in your chest workout, but where you slot it affects how you perform it.
While the barbell bench press is often considered the top mass builder on chest day, its cousin, the dumbbell bench press, isn't far behind. In fact, many lifters swear that dumbbells yield better muscle-building results than the bar. Of course, execution has a lot to say about the effectiveness of either type of weight. But it's clear that even though you sacrifice a little in terms of load when going from the barbell to dumbbells, the latter offers some benefits the former can't offer. Let's dig into them, and analyze how you might place this move in your chest workout. What's So Great About The Dumbbell Bench Press? Each side works independently during dumbbell presses, which allows you to identify and correct strength deficiencies between sides. The dumbbell version is also more difficult; it can have a longer range of motion, and it requires greater muscle-stabilizer activation to keep the weights stable. If you've got sore shoulders that are aggravated when doing barbell presses, you may even find that dumbbells allow more freedom around your shoulder joints—and less pain. In short, the flat-bench dumbbell press is likely a solid addition to just about every bodybuilder’s chest routine. How you approach it on chest day, however, depends on what position you put it in your workout order. Let's consider how you should do flat-bench dumbbell presses if you perform them at the beginning of your routine, and how that differs from doing them in the middle or at the end. Beginning of Workout: Keep It at 6 and then Bring Intensity The dumbbell bench is an excellent substitute for the barbell bench press, though it can quickly get dicey if you want to do very low reps with very heavy weights, or single-rep max training. It's more difficult to spot, and positioning the weights in the start position is harder. Losing control can also increase your risk of shoulder-joint damage. As a first movement, don't be afraid to use heavier bells and give your body a strength stimulus. However, I don't recommend taking your sets any lower than 6 reps. With the aid of a training partner, you can make even lighter weights feel much heavier by using intensity techniques like forced reps or negatives to push past failure. If you do this movement as your big-buck push, I would also recommend incorporating some variety into your chest routine by using different bench angles, rather than just following it up with, say, the flat barbell bench. Middle of Workout: Knock Out Your Reps and Move On If you do this movement toward the middle of your workout, you should have already hit the other major bench angles such as incline and decline, which can be done first if you're targeting your upper or lower peck region, respectively. In addition, your strength will be somewhat compromised by the work you've already done, so now is definitely not the time to be training for strength with low-rep sets. Instead, use loads that allow you to perform 8-12 reps, the middle of hypertrophy range. Take these sets to muscle failure, but be highly selective with the amount of post-failure training you do here. Many lifters favour such techniques at the beginning of their chest workout, when they have the most strength, or toward the end, when they're using cables, machines, and other implements that are less risky and precarious than dumbbells. End of Workout: Choose High Reps and Drop-Sets It's pretty uncommon to see the flat-bench dumbbell press at the tail end of a chest workout, since it requires so much stabilization and balance. This part of your workout is usually focused on the muscle burn and pump, one reason why lifters often gravitate toward non-free-weight options here. That doesn't mean it's wrong to pick up the bells here, though. Doing so often means slightly lighter weights, like sets of 12 reps or more, or doing drop-sets at the end. This is less a strength technique than one in which you signal hypertrophy by a mechanism known as metabolic stress, which is commonly done with rep-out and pumping techniques. The flat-bench dumbbell press might also be done last if you're following a per-exhaust type of routine in which you flip-flop your single-joint and multi-joint exercises. If you want to highly reduce stabilizer activity on your final exercise, I recommend opting for the machine version instead, so you don't have to balance the weights. By making the following concepts the foundation of your workout planning, you can make sure that the work you do aligns with your goals. You can always tweak and tinker with these concepts to adjust for individual characteristics such as your age, time commitment, genetics, weak or lagging areas, injuries, and even your own personal experiences in the gym.
Putting together a program for maximum hypertrophy takes time. Plan your exercise framework well before you head to the gym. And before you start, remember that growing muscle doesn't occur in a vacuum; it must be supported by what you eat, when you eat it, and sometimes, through the proper use of nutritional supplements. If you're a woman with a well-designed mass-building nutrition plan in place, you can expect to gain 3-9 pounds of muscle in about three months (depending on your weight, metabolism, genetics, and other factors). Men can expect to gain 6-18 pounds over that same period. It is possible to gain weight more quickly, but more of it might end up as fat. The Variables Linked to Growth 1. Structure Your Workouts around Multi-Joint Exercises; They Recruit More Muscles Multi-joint exercises work more than a single pair of joints in tandem. The more joints in motion, the more muscle groups are activated. When you do a bench press, for example, the elbow and shoulder joints are both engaged. That means the muscles that attach to both joints (in this case, the chest, front delts, and triceps) are all working in unison. More engaged muscles allow for far heavier loads than are possible with single-joint movements. The backbone of your training should be heavier-loaded multi-joint movements like squats, deadlifts, benches, overhead presses, and Olympic lifts. Use single-joint movements like curls, push-downs, flies, raises, and leg curls to build up underworked areas and make aesthetic improvements to your physique. 2. Train at a High Intensity You may train balls-to-the-wall, but that's not how exercise scientists define training intensity. Instead, it refers to a specific percentage based on the load you're lifting versus your one-rep max (1RM) for that same exercise. Let's say you're using 185 pounds on the bench press, and your 1RM is 225. To get your intensity number, divide 185 by 225, or 82 percent (.82) of your 1RM. Exercise scientists have found that for maximum muscle building, you should train at between 70-85 percent of your 1RM, which corresponds to a weight you can do for 6-12 reps. Training to rep targets outside that range, such as choosing a weight that allows you to do 15 reps, will build muscle—just not at an optimum level. Adding more weight enables you to stay within that golden rep range of 6-12. The easiest way to estimate what weight you should be using, or whether the weight falls within the hypertrophic zone, is to use a 1RM calculator. The calculator can even help you estimate your 1RM for less common exercises like bent-over rows or lateral raises. Once you know how many clean reps you can do with a given weight (such as 10 lateral raises with 30-pound dumbbells), plug those numbers into the calculator to arrive at your 1RM. Note: The workouts listed below typically follow a progression: Train relatively heavy at the start, when your energy levels are highest, then lighten the weights as you move through the routine. Stay within the rep range associated with hypertrophy by starting off with 6 reps, then increase to 8-10, and finish with 12. 3. Choose Higher-Volume Training Regimens Okay, you've decided on your exercise and load. Now you need to decide how many sets to complete. Let's exclude warm-ups, which are meant to rehearse the movement pattern and get the blood flowing. You determine set count by measuring training volume. Volume is typically determined by calculating weight time’s sets time’s reps for your exercise and training session. The consensus is that a greater amount of volume will result in a greater metabolite and hypertrophic response. But each individual's ability to recover from an activity is different; the only way to determine your ideal volume is through trial and error. But you can save time and sore muscles by starting with a volume you know you can recover from, then slowly increasing it. People typically add volume to their training by adding more sets, with your working weights and rep counts staying fairly consistent within a muscle-building phase. But it's a good idea to include movements that work your muscles in very different ways. For example, if you do a bench press on a flat bench, followed by dumbbell presses on a flat bench, you work the pecks from nearly identical angles. But if you include incline or decline presses, you can add volume by targeting the muscle from different angles. Taking a multi-angle approach to your training is essential not only to create a balanced physique that isn't predisposed to injury, but also to building maximum muscle size. Finally, as you do more total work for a given body part, you may have to adjust your training split so that your work is spread out over more days. That's the idea behind the split we created here. 4. Limit Rest Periods to 60-90 Seconds The between-set rest variable may seem to have little effect on growth. But moderate rest intervals, about 60-90 seconds between sets, have been shown to maximize the hypertrophic response. While short rest periods may increase the metabolic stress, they can also decrease your force-production potential. To achieve your maximum force production, you need to make your rest times short enough for optimum metabolic stress, but long enough for complete recovery of growth factors like phosphocreatine. [1] 5. Train to Failure Momentary muscle failure refers to the concept of training to a point after which you can't complete any more reps on your own with good form. Lifting up to the point of momentary muscle failure been shown to create a greater anabolic stimulus than training below failure. What's important to remember is that scientific research suggests too much training to failure can be counterproductive. Frequent training to failure pumps up catabolic hormones that break down muscles, and it decreases anabolic hormones that build up muscles. [2] Take just one of your heaviest sets of each exercise to failure (or beyond). But Hyde recommends caution. Training to failure too often may lead to premature burnout and compromise your skeletal muscle gains. If you plan a phase with extensive training to failure (called overreaching), do it only occasionally. Multiplier Effects Hyde notes that the variables and practices we've been discussing aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, when used together, they can have a synergistic effect. To a certain degree, these different variables (load, exercise, volume, rest) can compound one another. The concept of increasing the load to increase the stimulus is derived from the size principle, which basically states that as a load is increased, you begin to recruit a greater number of more forceful fibres. This results in the synergistic effect. In fact, this loading can stress muscle integrity to the point that intracellular anabolic triggers are switched on. When you toss exercise selection (multi-joint over single joint; squat over leg extension) into the mix, you can see how handling a greater load recruits a greater number of muscles fibres. Adjust your volume and rest periods, and you're taking advantage of a number of force multipliers. By incorporating higher reps with multiple sets (with 1-2 minutes of rest in between) to maintain force output, you can cause a greater accumulation of metabolites which results in greater anabolic signalling and better muscle gain. Tips for Building Muscle · Recruit a training partner to spot you, push you to do a few extra reps, and otherwise elevate your training intensity to a level you likely couldn't achieve on your own. · Find a hard-core gym. When you want to gain muscle, nothing beats an inspiring environment. · Track your progress. Carefully monitor your workouts by logging your exercises, load, and sets and reps in a notebook, or use an app to do it for you. It is the careful manipulation of training variables that, over time, helps you maximize your strength and size gains. · Devise a training split that works for you. We've provided a body-part split that works all of your major muscle groups once every seven days using a two-days-on, one-day-off split. But that may not work for you. Find what does. Build Muscle: The Workouts · Workout charts don't include warm-up sets. Perform as many warm-ups as you need, but never take them to muscle failure. · After warm-ups, choose a weight that allows you to reach muscle failure within the target rep range listed above. Follow a reverse pyramid by starting with your heaviest weight for 2 sets, then lightening the weight a bit for slightly higher reps on the next sets as you become fatigued. Take each set close to muscle failure. · If you have a spotter, do a few forced reps on your heaviest set of each exercise—your first or second set. If you don't have a partner, train as close to muscle failure as possible. On the last set of each exercise, do a drop-set (quickly reduce the weight by about 25 percent after you reach muscle failure, then rep again to a second point of muscle failure). · Some finishing exercises are done Tabata-style: With your 10RM weight, do 20 seconds of as many reps as you can (normal rep speed). Take a 10-second break and then repeat the sequence for 8 more segments. While Tabata-style training helps burn fat, we added it here for the wicked muscle pump it creates. The style is normally done with multi-joint exercises, not single joint. A training partner comes in handy here, too. Day 1: Chest, Triceps, Abs Barbell Bench Press (Medium Grip) 4 total sets 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Incline Dumbbell Press 3 total sets 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Leverage Decline Chest Press 3 total sets 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Incline Cable Flye’s 3 sets, 10-12 Reps Machine Bench Press 8 sets (Tabata-Style) Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press 3 sets, 8,8,10 Reps Seated Triceps Press 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Dip Machines 8 sets (Tabata-Style) Hanging Leg Raises 3 sets CabLe Crunch’s (Kneeling) 3 sets, 12-15 Reps Plate Twists 3 sets, 45 Seconds Day 2: Back, Biceps, Calves Bent-Over Barbell Rows 4 total sets 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps T-Bar Rows 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Wide-Grip Lat Pull-Down (Bring the bar to your lower chest) 3 sets, 10 Reps One-Arm Dumbbell Rows 3 sets, 10-12 Reps Straight-Arm Cable Pull-Downs 3 sets, 12 Reps Barbell Curls 3 total sets 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Alternating Incline Dumbbell Curls 3 sets, 10-12 Reps Machine Preacher Curls 8 sets (Tabata-Style) Standing Calf Raises 4 sets, 12, 12, 20, 20 Reps Seated Calf Raises 3 sets, 15 Reps Day 3: Shoulders, Upper Traps, Abs Seated Barbell Military Press 4 total sets 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Seated Bent-Over or Rear Delt Raises 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Dumbbell Side Lateral Raises 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Barbell Front Raises 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Upright Cable Row 8 sets (Tabata-Style) Dumbbell Shrugs (or Machine Shrug) 4 sets, 8, 8, 12, 12 Reps Hanging Leg Raises 3 sets Cable Crunch (Kneeling) 3 sets, 12-15 Reps Plate Twist 3 sets, 45 Seconds Day 4: Legs including Calves Barbell Squat 4 total sets 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 6-8 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps One-Leg Barbell Squat Bulgarian 3 sets, 8-10 Reps (Per leg) Leg Press 4 total sets; alternate high and low foot placements 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 8-10 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps 1 set, 10-12 Reps Leg Extensions 8 sets (Tabata-style) Romanian Deadlifts 4 sets, 8, 8, 12, 12 Reps Lying Leg Curls 3 sets, 8-10 Reps Standing Calf Raises 4 sets, 12, 12, 20, 20 Reps Seated Calf Raise 3 sets, 15 Reps Accounting for Time: Missing Variables A well-designed workout is like gasoline on a flame, igniting the muscle-building process in the presence of good nutrition and smart recovery. As an intermediate or advanced lifter, you might find that such gains hold up for a while, then quickly start to diminish as your body adapts to the training stimulus. To achieve continuous improvements and build more muscle, keep increasing the degree of overload. Often, that means increasing the weight as you grow stronger. But it can also mean manipulating other training variables like reps or rest periods as discussed above. Progressive overload is helpful to muscle building because it requires you to continually challenge your body, to push to attain new levels of performance as your body adapts to the marks you set before. You never want to get comfortable with a workout and stop pushing yourself. When you do, you begin to plateau. Logging your workouts helps remind you what you've already done so you can pursue newer, higher marks. Variation of exercises in a purposeful, progressive manner accounting for overload is the name of the game. That's one reason why it's such a good idea to incorporate other training programs (such as Get Strong, Get Ripped, Get Athletic) into your overall program. Each of them emphasizes different training variables. Even within a phase like this one, you should be creating some variation over time. Here are some ways to add variety: · Sub out different exercises, or make subtle changes to the ones you're already doing. Replace a multi-joint exercise with one that hits the target muscle from a completely different angle, like doing presses on an incline instead of a flat bench, or switching from a barbell to dumbbells. Such changes create slightly different training stimuli that lead to increased muscle growth. · Sub out techniques, especially on your first exercises. Instead of doing benches on the bench-press station, try doing them in the power rack instead, where you can work on your strength coming out of the hole. · With a spotter, you can even try a few negative reps, which tend to have a greater effect on delayed-onset muscle soreness and a stronger anabolic stimulus. With negatives, slow down the eccentric portion to as long as 5 seconds on each rep. · Swap out finishing exercises and techniques. While we suggest Tabata-style for these workouts, you can also try drop-sets; both generate a vigorous muscle pump. In another technique called "one and a half’s" you complete one full rep, go halfway down, go all the way back into a full contraction again, then go all the way back down. The entire sequence counts as a single rep. · Change up your intensity. The exercise prescriptions suggest a given rep target. But that doesn't mean you're stuck with it—although we do suggest staying within 6-12 reps and 70-85 percent of your 1RM range in the Get Muscle program (excluding calves and abs, as they have a greater makeup of slow-twitch muscle-fibres). · Instead of always choosing a weight that you can take to 6-8 reps, integrate periods in which you go lighter weights and slightly higher reps—say, 10-12. This approach is called "changing the relative intensity." It's one more tool you can use to alter training stimulus and maximize growth. Don't make a lot of changes from one workout to the next unless you have good reason, such as a specific movement hurts your shoulders or just doesn't feel effective. Plus, it's incredibly difficult to measure progress when you're constantly mixing up the training variables. Instead, consider making changes every 4-6 weeks. This allows you to track what's worked and make smart additions to your workout. When you follow a well-designed mass-building workout like the one I built here, all that's left for you is to provide the effort. References 1. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857-2872. 2. Izquierdo, M., Ibanez, J., González-Badillo, J. J., Häkkinen, K., Ratamess, N. A., Kraemer, W. J., ... & Gorostiaga, E. M. (2006). Differential effects of strength training leading to failure versus not to failure on hormonal responses, strength, and muscle power gains. Journal of Applied Physiology, 100(5), 1647-1656. If you've been working on muscle growth for a while, you know it's harder to add muscle the longer you've been hanging around a weight room. So if consistency and repetition aren't enough, what can give you that added boost? Tricks and tips, baby, the answer is tips and tricks.
1. Don't Start With Press-Downs! The first exercise in any body-part routine should be the most challenging, the one you do with the most weight. So unless you're warming up your elbows, don't start your triceps workout with cable press-downs! All of the press-downs (overhand, underhand, rope, V-bar) are single-joint exercises that lack the anabolic kick of multi-joint exercises. Don't start your workout with an exercise that's light on muscle-growth stimulus or one that can pre-fatigue your arms before you ever get to your bigger multi-joint movements. Sure, start off your workout with a single-joint exercise every now and then, just to mix it up. But it should be the exception, not the rule. In most cases, I'm going for broke when I begin a training session, because that's when I have the most energy. Smash the big lifts early and you'll get some real work in. So instead of press-downs, start off with multi-joint exercises like close-grip benches, weighted bench dips, the triceps-dip machine, and weighted parallel-bar dips for triceps. 2. Take It Overhead One great trick for arm growth is to reach for the skies. The big, beefy triceps long head attaches on your scapula (or shoulder blade), and is fully stretched only when your arms are in the overhead position. For a muscle to contract forcefully, it must be fully stretched first, and that won't happen if your elbows are stuck by your sides. (In that position, the lateral head takes on a greater portion of the workload.) To develop your long head, make sure your routine includes overhead barbell, dumbbell, or cable extensions. A good way to better isolate the long head is to use a low-back chair for support. When you do overheads—or really, any exercise—standing up, your core does a lot of the work. By supporting your back, you can focus all your energy on isolating the triceps. To maintain balanced upper-arm growth, include at least one arms-overhead movement in your routine. For a real change of pace, try doing an entire workout using long-head-focused exercises only. 3. Stop Training like a Zombie There are lots of triceps exercises (dozens). So why is it that people tend to rely on just a handful of go-to exercises for this or any other body part? Maybe it's because these exercises are easy to set up, or maybe you just go into zombie mode when you step into the gym. Either way, don't forget the law of diminishing returns: The more you do an exercise, the less benefit you gain from it. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that changing exercises is more important to improving muscular strength than varying loading schemes. [1] Doing what you've always done isn't a growth strategy; it's a formula for stagnation. 4. Play with Your Angles In lifting, as in billiards and baseball, it's all in the angles. Just as you can increase the efficiency of your chest workouts by switching between incline, decline, and flat-bench presses, you can nail on those Clydesdale-size horseshoes by changing up your grip and arm position. Don't stop there. Close-grip bench presses don't always have to be done on flat benches. By adding incline and decline versions of the press, you're slightly altering the muscle-recruitment pattern and point of maximum stimulation. The same is true of skullcrushers. But wait, there's more! Exchange an EZ-bar for dumbbells and you get a totally different feel, especially if you turn your palms so they're neutral, called a hammer grip. And to get really wild and crazy, use a cable attachment, so the line of pull is coming from an angle rather than a straight-down pull of gravity. Mix and match these variations for still more new stimuli. The whole idea is to keep stimulating new muscle growth and avoid training plateaus by continually changing the exercises you do and the way you do them. 5. Go Extreme So, yes, varying your exercises is a smart way to invigorate your training. But it's not the only way. If you've fallen into the 3-sets-of-10-reps trap, you've got a whole other way to add variety to your workout. I like to bring all kinds of funk to my routine, not only to stimulate new muscle gains, but also to keep the workout itself mentally refreshing. I don't feel like I've worked unless I do something that starves the target muscle of oxygen. Add to your training and add greater muscle stimulus by trading 3-sets-of-10 for some 5-by-5 or another variation beyond the traditional boundaries of bodybuilding training. Slingshot benches and dips, for example, come from the powerlifting world, where you've got to have blazing triceps for a strong bench press. Add the Slingshot to your multi-joint dips and your triceps will have to work ever harder. If you want to get a really intense triceps pump, try blood-flow restriction training. 6. Train to Beat Your Sticking Point When you're doing a bench press, the triceps kick in more toward the end of the range of motion (ROM), when your arms are almost fully extended and you're near the peak-contracted position. But you won't get the full triceps value from this movement if you use lower weight to get through the sticking point at the bottom of the ROM. Start training above your sticking point—say, over the top half of the ROM. That way, you can use more weight and give your triceps the workouts they deserve. Focusing your efforts on the peak contraction (sometimes called lockouts) can complement full-ROM training but should never replace it. To deepen the workout further, move your hands slightly inward, like you do with a close-grip bench press. You can also do this heavy partial-rep training in a power rack for more safety. Also try squeezing your triceps hard for a full second in the peak-contracted position. Throw in some one-and-a-half’s too. By doing a half-rep between every full rep, you can pack 20 contractions into a 10-rep set. References Fonseca, R. M., Roschel, H., Tricoli, V., de Souza, E. O., Wilson, J. M., Laurentino, G. C., ... & Ugrinowitsch, C. (2014). Changes in exercises are more effective than in loading schemes to improve muscle strength. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(11), 3085-3092. Song: Harder Better Faster Stronger
By Daft Punk Song: Wiggle ft. Snoop Dogg By Jason Derulo, Snoop Dogg Song: Up Down (Do This All Day) By T-Pain, B.o.B. Song: Take Me Home Ft. Bebe Rexha By Cash Cash, Bebe Rexha Song: Summer By Calvin Harris Song: Live For The Night By Krewella Song: Stay The Night ft. Hayley Williams By Zedd, Hayley Williams Song: Dear Boy By Avicii Song: Problem By Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea Song: Talk Dirty ft. 2 Chainz By Jason Derulo, 2 Chainz Song: Timber By Pitbull, Kesha Song: Get Up (Rattle) By Bingo Players, Far East Movement Song: Into The Blue By Kylie Minogue Song: Right Now By Rihanna, David Guetta Song: Play Hard By David Guetta, Ne-Yo, Akon Song: Pompeii - Kat Krazy Remix By Bastille Song: Eye Of The Tiger By Survivor Song: We Will Rock You By Queen Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit By Nirvana Song: Welcome To The Jungle By Guns N' Roses Song: Numb/Encore By Jay Z, Linkin' Park How The Physiology of Fat Loss Works:
Losing fat is much simpler than you’ve been led to believe.
The first, and most fundamental, of these mechanics is energy balance. This refers to the relationship between the energy you give your body through eating food and the energy it expends through cellular and physical activity. It’s often measured in kilocalories (kcal). The absolute immutable truth about meaningful weight loss…as demonstrated by thousands of controlled weight loss trials conducted over the last 100 years…is this: you must burn more energy than you consume. You’ve probably heard this before but if you’re shaking your head in disappointment, allow me to explain. When you eat food, you provide your body with a relatively large amount of energy in a short period of time. It burns a portion of this energy and stores a portion as body fat for later use. The scientific term for this period of nutrient absorption and processing is “postprandial. Post means “after” and prandial means “having to do with a meal.” While in this postparandial or “fed” state, no fat burning occurs–the body is in “fat storage mode.” The reason for this is simple: why should the body burn fat for energy when you’ve just provided it with all it needs plus quite a bit more? Eventually your body finishes processing and absorbing the food, which can take several hours, and enters what scientists call the “postabsorptive” state. The energy provided by food is now gone but the show must go on. What can your body do to meet its energy demands? That’s right–it can burn body fat. Your body must now shift to “fat burning mode” to survive while it waits for its next meal. Every day your body moves in and out of postprandial and postabsorptive states, storing and burning fat. Here’s a simple graph that shows this visually: The light portions show what happens when you eat food: insulin levels rise to help process the nutrients and fat burning shuts down. The dark portions show what happens when your body runs out of energy from food: insulin levels drop, which tells the body it’s running out of energy and needs to start burning fat. Now, what happens if these light and dark portions more or less balance out every day? You got it–you body fat levels stay the same. Your body is burning more or less as much fat as it’s storing. What happens if the light portions outweigh the dark? Yup, you’ve stored more fat than you’ve burned and thus your total fat mass rises. And what happens if the dark portions are collectively greater than the light? You’ve burned more fat than you’ve stored, which means your total fat mass decreases. This is why meaningful fat loss requires that you burn more energy than you eat. It doesn’t matter how many “unclean” foods you eat or when you eat them or anything else. Your metabolism runs on the first law of thermodynamics, which means fat (energy) stores can’t be increased without you providing a surplus of energy and can’t be decreased without you restricting energy intake, creating a deficit.
When talking pure weight loss, a calorie is a calorie. Your body only burns so much energy and if you feed it less than it needs, it has no choice but to continue tapping into fat stores to stay alive. The goal isn’t to lose weight, though. It’s to lose fat and not muscle. And when that’s the goal, a calorie is not a calorie. Certain types of calories are more important than others. I’ve written about this extensively in my books and elsewhere, but here’s the long story short: When you’re restricting your calories to lose fat, you must ensure you’re eating enough protein. Research shows that when restricting calories, a high-protein diet is more effective at reducing body fat, helps preserve muscle, and increases satiety. How much protein should you be eating, exactly? Well, the government recommends 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, but research shows that double and even triple that amount isn’t enough to preserve lean mass while dieting. Instead, I prefer to follow the advice of scientists at AUT University, who concluded… “Protein needs for energy-restricted resistance-trained athletes are likely 2.3-3.1g/kg of FFM [1 – 1.4 grams per pound of fat free mass] scaled upwards with severity of caloric restriction and leanness.” To keep it simple, my general recommendation is eating 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight when restricting calories for fat loss. If you have quite a bit of fat to lose (if you’re a man with 20%+ body fat or if you’re a woman with 30%+), you can reduce intake to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight and you’ll be fine. So, now that you understand how the body builds muscle and stores and burns fat, let’s see what it takes to do both at the same time. First let me give you a quick explanation on the causes of knee and hip pain!
First, What Causes Knee Pain? Knee pain is widespread and especially common among athletes. Common causes for knee pain are, as noted above, strains and sprains, cartilage tears, and tendon inflammation, but the complex nature of the knee joint makes it susceptible to other problems. For example…
Second, What Causes Hip Pain? Like with knee pain, the most common causes of hip pain are arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis. Muscle imbalances are quite common as well. One of areas of the hip joint that often gives athletes problems is the sacroiliac joint in the pelvis. The sacroiliac joint is designed to transfer forces to and from the lower spine into the hip and legs and when it gets aggravated or injured, pain is felt in the lower back, hip, and/or legs. The squat motion puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the sacroiliac joint, which is one of the reasons why many weightlifters in particular struggle with sacroiliac pain. 3 Effective Joint Pain Remedies You Need to Try Ask the wrong so-called “expert” about what you should do to relieve your joint pain and you’re going to hear drugs or surgery or both. The problems with anti-inflammatory drugs are they just mask the problem and long-term use is a bad idea. The problem with surgery is obvious: it’s a traumatic, risky experience that we would all rather avoid if at all possible. Well, short-term use of drugs can give some relief and some situations necessitate surgery but if yours doesn’t (and a good sports doc can tell you), there’s a good chance the following 5 pain-relief strategies can help. Mobility Exercises “Unsticking” soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, and fascia) and improving movements patterns and range of motion can be very effective in relieving joint pain. The type of exercises that accomplish this are commonly referred to as “mobility exercises,” and the right ones can work wonders. Rest, Ice, and Heat - The most important part of recovery is rest. That doesn’t mean immobility but it does mean you have to not do things that are going to impair healing and recovery. Violate this simple principle and injuries can become chronic and debilitating. Once a joint has fully healed and you’re ready to start training again, it’s a good idea to start with lighter weights and see how you feel over the next several days (no pain is a good sign), and gradually work back into your normal routine. Ice helps you recover by reducing inflammation and swelling as well as internal bleeding from injured capillaries and blood vessels. As long as there is pain and inflammation, ice will help. Don’t apply ice for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, but you can rotate on and off all day. Heat stimulates blood flow, which helps your body bring nutrients to and remove waste products from the area faster. Heat shouldn’t be introduced immediately following an injury, however. The general advice is to ice only for the first 3 days to bring down swelling and, once this has been accomplished, introduce heat. Alternate between 15 to 20 minutes of ice and heat. Acupuncture As you know, abnormalities in soft tissues can cause joint pains, and research shows acupuncture can help treat this. Specifically, needling can help release “trigger points” in the body, which are tight, painful areas of muscle that refer pain to other areas of the body. For example, when you press on a trigger point in your neck, you might also feel pain in your shoulder (I’ve personally experienced that one). The key here is obviously the skill and knowledge of the acupuncturist. Look for someone trained in using acupuncture for myofascial release. Massage Like acupuncture, research shows that massage is another effective strategy for releasing trigger points. This can not only relieve pain but can help prevent muscular problems from developing in the first place that can, in time, cause joint pains. There is nothing more attractive than strong, smart and sexy lifters.
A body that squats, is a body that rocks. Squatting, especially barbell back squats can be hard on your body though. If you don't prep and prepare your feet, legs, torso, neck and spine to handle an axial load of several hundred pounds... you're short changing yourself. Here are two videos that might help you get ready for heavy squatting and keep your body free from imbalance and injury. #1 How To Stretch For Squats (do this FIRST) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHPhe97sO0w #2 How To Squat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy28eq2PjcM Follow both of these routines by some dynamic warm-ups and light squat work.... then you'll be ready to attack you back squat like a pro. "Your body is your mind!" Becoming the strongest version of yourself is a multifaceted process which must include: Physical Strength (structure, posture, performance) Physiological Strength (digestion, breathing, hormones) Energetic Strength (mind, character, soul) Life Mastery (authenticity, generosity, legacy) No part of you is more -or- less important than the others. “There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three—body, mind, or soul—can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression.” - Wallace D Wattles As you’ll see, your primary focus in bodyweight workouts is improving in a few basic areas: pushing, pulling, and squatting.
There are many variations of these movements and ways to make the more difficult, of course, but they are the foundation of all good bodyweight training. So, let’s review the best of these types of bodyweight exercises and then look at how we can combine them into an effective and challenging workout routine. Pushup No bodyweight workout is complete without some form of pushup. It’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to train your chest, shoulders, and arms, and it doesn’t require any special equipment. I’m going to recommend that you do several types of pushups in your bodyweight workouts. Pike Pushup The pike pushup is a pushup variation that is great for training the shoulders. Dive Bomber Pushup The Dive Bomber Pushup is a good progression from the pike pushup (meaning it’s an exercise you progress to once you’ve built considerable strength on the previous). It’s a complete upper body exercise because it emphasizes your chest, shoulders, and triceps at different points in the movement. Handstand Pushup In terms of bodyweight shoulder exercises, it’s hard to beat the handstand pushup for sheer difficulty (and thus overload). Dip I want to shy away from exercises that require special equipment, but I need to mention the dip because it’s one of the absolute best upper body exercises you can do, bodyweight or otherwise. There are two types of dips you can do: triceps (or bench) dips and chest dips. Chinup & Pullup These are also exercise that can’t be done without equipment…but a pullup bar is cheap and, in my opinion, vital. It’s vital because if you want to get the most out of your bodyweight training, you must be doing chinups and pullups. They train every major muscle in your back and involve the biceps to a significant degree as well, and they do it in a way that just can’t be replicated otherwise (outside of the gym, that is). There are many pullup variations you can do, of course, but you should build a foundation of strength with these two before progressing to more advanced types. Bodyweight Squat Just about every popular resistance training program you can find involves some sort of squatting. It’s the simplest and most effective leg-building exercise you can do. This exercise is the bodyweight equivalent of the barbell back squat, and if you want to build strong legs, you’re going to do a lot of it. Squat Jump The squat jump is a progression from the basic bodyweight squat that adds a dynamic “explosive” element to your training. Shrimp Squat The Shrimp Squat is a good introduction to one-legged squatting (which is a good progression from two-legged variations). Pistol Squat The pistol squat is a difficult progression from the shrimp squat that requires a considerable amount of strength and balance. Lunge The lunge is primarily a quadriceps exercise but all the major muscle groups of the lower body come into play. Russian Leg Curl The Russian leg curl is a fantastic exercise for isolating your hamstrings. Burpee The burpee is a classic full-body exercise that also builds your cardiovascular capacity. Hanging Leg Raise The hanging leg raise is one of my favorite exercises for training the core (and the rectus abdominis in particular). Bicycle Crunch The bicycle crunch is a popular abs/core exercise that is particularly good for training the obliques. Plank The plank is often hailed as the ultimate core exercise, but research shows that’s a bit of an overstatement. That said, it definitely valuable enough to include in your bodyweight workouts. Remember–Progression Is the Key That’s it for exercise recommendations. The key isn’t just doing exercises–it’s progressing on them. We recall that as a natural weightlifter, the most important type of progression is overload. When you’re weightlifting, the easiest way to do this is to add weight to the bar. When you’re training with your bodyweight, though, you have two options:
So, push yourself to make progress in your workouts and eat enough food and your muscles will grow. |
AuthorAlexander Bouraad - "If you can think it, you can do it. If you can dream it, you could become it." Archives
January 2018
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