Six Excellent Ab Exercises

Long-Arm Weighted Crunch
This abs exercise targets your upper abs. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms straight back beyond your head. Now crunch your rib cage toward your pelvis, keeping your shoulders still and your arms straight. Don't generate momentum with your arms. Perform 12 to 15 repetitions.





Seated Ab Crunch
Sit on the edge of a bench. Grip the edge of the pad and lean back slightly, extending your legs down and away and keeping your heels 4 to 6 inches off the floor. Bend your knees and slowly raise your legs toward your chest. At the same time, lean forward with your upper body, allowing your chest to approach your thighs. Return to the starting position. Perform three sets of 12 repetitions.



Corkscrew
This abs exercise targets both the lower abs and the obliques. Lie on your back, with your legs raised directly over your hips. Your knees should be slightly bent. Place your hands at your sides with the palms down. Use your lower abs to raise your hips off the floor and toward your rib cage, elevating your feet straight up. Simultaneously twist your hips to the right. Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat, twisting to the left. Do 10 repetitions to each side.



Weighted One-Sided Crunch
This abs exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, and hold a dumbbell with both hands by your right shoulder. Curl your torso up and rotate to the left. Lower yourself, finish the set on that side, then switch directions and repeat, holding the dumbbell next to your left shoulder. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side.



Kneeling Cable Crunch
Kneel facing the pulley and hold the ends of a rope attached to the high cable along the sides of your face. Bend forward, aiming your chest at your pelvis. Return to the starting position, then repeat the movement, this time aiming your chest toward your left knee. Return, then repeat to your right. That's one repetition. Perform three sets of eight repetitions.





Crunch/Side-Bend Combo
This exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and hands behind your ears. Curl up so your shoulder blades are off the floor. Bend at the waist to your left, aiming your left armpit toward your left hip. Straighten, then bend to your right. Lower yourself to the starting position and repeat. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side.

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Dealing With a Sweet Tooth

Having a sweet tooth can become a problem if you are trying to lose weight or follow a diet program. 
The following article was written by Karen Collins, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., American Institute for Cancer Research.
The good news is that healthy eating does leave us with some room for sweets. Yet few of us can have a sweet drink or treat each time we see one and meet the goal of “moderation.” Is it seeing sweets or knowing they’re around that draws you? Studies show that one way to reduce the tempting power of sweets is to limit variety. If ice cream or cookies are your weakness, stock one flavor at a time. Identify the sweets you enjoy most and try to stick only to those, skipping sweets you eat just because they’re available. Some people find that using sweets only for dessert, rather than snacks, makes it easier to limit them and decreases cravings. One study found that after two weeks of eating chocolate twice a day, 15 to 30 minutes after a meal, chocolate cravers reduced their desire for chocolate. But both cravers and non-cravers who ate chocolate daily between meals ended up with increased desire for chocolate. The researchers suggested that regularly using chocolate to satisfy hunger teaches us to crave it. If true, that could apply to other sweets, too. Normalizing sweets can also gradually reduce cravings that are rebound effects of overly restrictive dieting. If your cravings are emotion-related, each time you use sweets to cope with emotions the pattern may become stronger. Try not to focus on what you don’t want to do (eat sweets) and focus instead on non-food strategies you’ve identified to respond to emotions and stress.

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3 Rules for Getting a Healthy, Lean Body

This is probably the simplest diet ever. You'll find that when it comes to eating for a healthy, lean body, everything else is just details.

1. Embrace Fat

Research shows that diets containing upward of 50 percent fat are just as effective for weight loss as those  that are low in fat. "Fat is filling and it adds flavor to your meals, so it helps you avoid feeling deprived," says Alan Aragon, M.S., a nutritionist based in Thousand Oaks, California. In other words: Enjoy the fat in meat, dairy, avocados, olive oil, and nuts.
You won't store fat if you are not eating too many total calories.
Aragon's rule of thumb: Shoot for half a gram of fat for every pound of your desired body weight.


2. Prepare Your Own Meals
 
Cooking for yourself is your gateway to delicious meals made with healthy, fresh ingredients. 
USDA scientists recently found that men eat 500 more calories on days they consume fast foods compared with days they don't.

3. Eliminate added sugars

"This is the simplest way to clean up any diet," says Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., the author of The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. According to a USDA survey, the average American eats about  20 teaspoons of added sugar daily, or 317 empty calories. The researchers report that 82 percent of that added sugar can be attributed to soda, baked goods, breakfast cereals, candy, and fruit drinks. This is what you can eat instead: Meat, vegetables, whole fruit, and eggs, along with unsweetened whole-grain and dairy products. Eat accordingly.

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Work 300 Muscles in 15 Minutes

15-Minute Workout: 3 Moves


Execute this routine as a circuit. This routine consists of doing 10 reps of each exercise, and complete as many circuits as you can in 15 minutes. Rest briefly when needed, and continue working until the time is up. As your conditioning improves, increase reps or decrease the amount of rest.


Body-Weight Squat
 

  • Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. 
  • Lower your body as far as you can by pushing your hips back and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor. 
  • Pause, and slowly stand back up.




Judo Push-up 

  • Begin in a push-up position but move your feet hip-width apart and forward 
  • Raise your hips so your body almost forms an upside-down V 
  • Lower the front of your body until your chin nears the floor. 
  • Then lower your hips as you raise your head and shoulders toward the ceiling. 
  • Now reverse the movement and return to the starting position.



Sprinter Sit-up
  • Lie on your back with your legs straight and arms at your sides, keeping your elbows bent at 90 degrees. 
  • As you sit up, twist your upper body to the left and bring your left knee toward your right elbow while you swing your left arm back. 
  • Lower your body to the starting position, and repeat to your right. That's 1 rep. 

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Weight Loss Drinks Strategies

Drink Away and Lose 10 Pounds in 4 Weeks 
 
The average man guzzles two hundred gallons each year. Approximately 34 gallons of beer, 53 gallons or soda, 24 gallons of milk, and a whole lot of gallons of other stuff.
You just have to make a few adjustments to the types of drinks you're already pouring down every day and you'll lose weight. For instance, juice with pulp instead of pulp-free or green tea instead of regular.
Do it all and you're gulping 35,456 fewer calories in 4 weeks or 10 pounds. So drink away those pounds.


Morning Juice

Trade in your Tang, Sunny D, and pulp-free OJ for some juice with extra pulp.
Researchers at Purdue University found that people stayed full longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones, even when calories, temperatures, and amounts were equal.

Calories saved in 4 weeks: 5,460

Mid-morning Break Drink

Tea is a natural fat burner, but not just any tea. You need to buy the stuff marked "green."
A Swiss study found that substances in green tea called catechin polyphenols can significantly increase your body's metabolism of fat so you burn the stuff at a faster rate.
Examples of pre-brewed green drinks are Snapple, SoBe, or Arizona, but they're filled with sugar and average more than 200 calories a bottle. Look for Honest Tea brand instead. It has just 34 calories per bottle. Or just buy tea bags and brew it yourself.

Calories saved in 4 weeks: at least 4,872

Canned Lunch

Meal replacements really work. In a study presented at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, researchers found that regularly drinking meal replacements increased a man's chances of losing weight and keeping it off for longer than a year.
"Men trying to lose weight need about 600 calories per meal, with 25 percent of those calories from protein, 25 percent from fat, and 50 percent from carbohydrates," says Liz Ward, R.D., a Massachusetts nutrition consultant. You can get about that with this drink:

Strawberry Power Blast 

1 c low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 c 1 percent milk
2 tsp peanut butter
1 medium banana
1 1/2 c frozen unsweetened strawberries
2 tsp sugar
2 ice cubes or 1/2 c crushed ice

Directions: Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend on high speed until smooth (about 4 to 5 minutes). Drink immediately.

Per serving: 608 calories, 25 grams (g) protein, 106 g carbohydrates, 11 g total fat

Calories saved in 4 weeks: 9,856

Afternoon Indulgence

When you are craving something thick and creamy head to White Castle. Its regular chocolate shake is just 220 calories, which is not bad compared to a small McDonald's chocolate shake, which has 360 calories or Burger King with 305 calories per small shake. Dairy Queen beat everyone with the most fattening shake going: A small DQ chocolate shake packed with 560 calories.

Calories saved in 4 weeks: 9,520

A Soda For The Ride Back Home

The colder a diet soda is when you're drinking it, the less you'll notice the difference in taste. If you hate diet soda but want to start drinking it, your can try filling your cup three-fourths of the way with regular soda and topping it off with diet, then gradually adjust the ratio until you can wean yourself off regular altogether.

Calories saved in 4 weeks: 2,024



Evening Beer

Lite beer is a good choice, unless you have a problem with not tasting anything like the real thing.
Unfortunately, a bottle of Sam Adams or Heineken can set you back around 170 calories.
Here are some better regular beer choices:

Beer

Calories per 12-oz bottle

Cerveza Tecate:110

Keystone:122

Busch:133

Calories saved in 4 weeks: at least 1,036


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Develop more muscle by implementing these 5 steps.

Everybody loves feeling a great pump after a workout and almost everybody hates cardio. Devoting gym time to cardiovascular exercise feels as if you're burning away hard-earned muscle but you're not, you're revealing it.
It's alright if you want to gain mass but you also need to define those muscles.For a lean and chiseled physique, you need cardio work. You don't need much cardio (15 to 20 minutes twice a week max), and most of it should be at a high intensity. After a few weeks, you’ll start to notice less fat and greater muscle definition.  

1- Changing the Cycle

The frequency, intensity, and duration of your cardiovascular workouts should variate. If you're trying to add muscle, keep your aerobic work to a minimum (about once or twice a week for about 15 to 20 minutes.) This process limits your energy expenditure and allows your body to concentrate on building muscle.
If you're trying to get lean, increase your cardio training to two to four times a week, this process helps strip away excess body fat. At all times, alternate your cardio methods so your workout's not so boring. For instance, treadmill running 1 day, rowing or elliptical training the next, cycling the day after that.


2- Separating Cardio from Lifting

Cardiovascular training could impede your ability to recover from intense strength training but that all depends  on when and how you do your cardio. Space your cardio days and strength days from each other as much as possible. That way your cardio won't hinder gains in strength and size. For instance, if you do a tough cycling workout after you hammer your legs with squats and lunges and your goal is to build bigger legs think again... it's best to save your cardio for the next day, or even 2 days later, to give your legs the rest they need.If doing cardio and weights on the same day is a must, then choose a form of aerobic work that emphasizes body parts your weight lifting didn't focus on that day. So, if rowing is your cardio choice, which works your upper body as much as it does your legs, do it on a day when your weight session doesn't concentrate on your upper body.
No matter what route you choose, make sure to hit the weights first. You don't want to wipe yourself out before your weight routine, that would get the most out of your session, and lifting when you are tired could be dangerous.


3- Not making an Impact

Don't do a high-impact cardio training. Your body has enough to contend with in repairing the damage that lifting inflicts on it. Concentrate on cardio workouts that minimize microtrauma (small tears to muscle fibers tat are part of the process of building new muscle.) Running on asphalt, concrete, or any hard surfaces can be traumatic to muscles and joints. Jumping rope can cause similar problems.
Your best choices for low-impact exercise are swimming, cycling, and using an elliptical machine.

4- Ignoring the "Fat-Burning Zone"

There's a myth that you have to work out continuously for 20 minutes before you begin burning fat. The thinking behind this was that you needed to exercise in a range between 60 percent and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. Any lower was too easy, and any higher made it too difficult to efficiently use fat for fuel. Ignore that theory. Your body uses more energy overall when training at high intensities the physique of a sprinter is proof of this. Going all out also makes better use of your time since you can finish your cardio in an intense 10- to 15-minute workout.
Stick to interval workouts that feature short bursts of high-intensity movement followed by active recovery periods. This approach is best for your heart and for fat loss.

5- Choosing the Path of Most Resistance

Two great ways to increase intensity are: changing the gears on a bike and altering the gradient on a treadmill. Just make sure that the level of resistance you choose won't inflict with the amount of work you're able to do when you return to the weight room.

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5 Muscle-Killing Mistakes

1- Too Many Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises like chest flies and leg extensions are good to a point, but you  also need to include basic moves like bench presses and squats. The reason for this is, basic moves force several muscle groups to work together. Consequently, this puts more stress on your body and increases production of growth hormone and testosterone.    
Solution: Make sure at least 40 - 50% of the exercises in your workout are targeting more than one muscle at a time. 


2- Too Much Cardio
A half-hour on the treadmill is a great way to get in shape for women but for men, lengthy aerobic exercise shifts your body from burning fat to burning muscle. It also shuts down testosterone production. 
Solution: If you want an aerobic workout, try brief, high-intensity exercises. These let you burn fat without depleting muscle.

 3- Starvation 
If you want to lose your gut, starvation isn't the way to go. When you cut too many calories your body thinks it's starving and compensates by slowing down your metabolism. 
Your muscles need food after a workout so they can repair themselves and grow.
Solution: Never cut your food intake by more than 15% or 500 calories, whichever is less. And make sure you give your muscles the fuel they need after a workout. 
  4- Thirst 
Muscles are 75% water. Yet most people don't drink nearly enough.
Solution: To find out how much water you need to drink, take your body weight and divide it in half. For instance, if you weigh 160 pounds, you need to drink 80 ounces of water each day. Add another 16-24 ounces on days when you're working out. 

  5- Sports Drinks and Nutrition Bars
Avoid sports drinks and nutrition bars that are loaded with sugar.
Solution: If the label has the words "sugar" or "high-fructose corn syrup" on it, you are better off choosing a different product.   

 


Arnold Schwarzenegger's Approach

One man who has really left his mark on the world of bodybuilding is Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you know no one else in the bodybuilding industry, you know Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Diet
"Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach."

Schwarzenegger's philosophy was that bodybuilding is not a single-event endeavor. If you really want to see success, you must focus on all three components including your training program, your nutritional intake and your mental approach.

On the fat-loss side of things, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's biggest strategies in his workout routine was calorie cycling. Involving some higher calorie days interspersed with some lower calorie days to prevent his metabolism from slowing down.

He advised that on any calorie-reduced diet, when going long enough you can see your metabolism slowing down, making further fat loss incredibly difficult.

Training
"The last three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion."

Pushing your body to the limit was the quickest route to muscular success for Arnold.
Arnold felt both research and experience showed that the most training gains came when a weight was lifted that was between 70% and 75% of the one-rep max.

He recommended that a range of 8-12 reps be utilized when performing upper-body movements and 12-16 reps for lower-body movements. He felt lower muscles are more endurance-focused, therefore they can stand the higher rep range better.

Mind and Recovery
"Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and, thus, tone the spirit just as exercise conditions the body."

As much as Arnold loved his time in the gym, he also knew that rest periods were vital to success. He was well-known for his legendary toughness, but also realized that there was a fine line between enough and too much. If you crossed that line, overtraining would set in.

He recommended 48 hours of rest after working larger muscle groups and slightly less for the smaller ones.


Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout routine

Rest periods: About one minute. No longer than three minutes. Once you're at that three minute mark, your body is as recovered as it's going to get so there is no advantage, he felt, to resting longer.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

Chest

Barbell bench press: 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps
Barbell incline bench press: 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps
Dumbbell flys: 3 sets of 10, 8, and 6 reps
Parallel bar dips: 3 sets of 15, 10 and 8 reps
Pullovers: 3 sets of 15 reps each

Back
Chin-ups: 4 sets of 10 reps minimum each side
Close-grip chins: 4 sets of 10 reps
T-bar rows: 4 sets of 15, 12, 8, and 6 reps
Bent-over barbell rows: 4 sets of 8-12 reps

Thighs
Squat: 5 sets of 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps with a 20 rep warm-up set
Front squats: 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, and 6 reps
Hack squats: 3 sets of 10 reps each
Leg curls: 4 sets of 20, 10, 8, and 6 reps
Standing leg curls: 4 sets of 10 reps each
Straight-leg dead lifts: 3 sets of 10 reps each

Calves
Donkey calf raises: 4 sets of 10 reps each
Standing calf raises: 4 sets of 15, 10, 8, and 8 reps

Abdominals
Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
Bent-over twists: 100 reps each side
Machine crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
Crunches: 50 reps




Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday
 
Shoulders
Behind-the-neck-barbell press: 5 sets of 10, 8, 8, and 6 reps with a 15-set warm-up
Lateral raises: 4 sets of 8 reps each
Bent-over dumbbell laterals: 4 sets of 8 reps each
Dumbbell shrugs: 3 sets of 10 reps each

Upper arms
Standing barbell curls: 5 sets of 15, 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps
Incline dumbbell curls: 4 sets of 8 reps each
Concentration curls: 3 sets of 8 reps each
One-arm triceps extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps each

Forearms
Barbell wrist curls: 4 sets of 10 reps each
Reverse wrist curls: 3 sets of 10 reps each

Calves
Seated calf raises: 4 sets of 10 reps each

Abdominals
Reverse crunches: 4 sets of 25 reps
Seated twists: 100 reps each side
Vertical bench crunches: 4 sets of 25 reps

Resources:
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. New York City: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1998.

"Six Pack Abs" Impossible? Don't Think so...




Get off your mind the fact that the shape of your midsection largely determines how good you'll look on the beach this summer for a moment. I'll get back to that in a minute...

Diet
There is an old saying that “abs are made in the kitchen“.  To accomplish 6 pack abs, you need to focus mostly on your diet.  Getting 6 pack abs is 80% diet and 20% exercise.  No matter how great your ab workout is, if you don't clean up your diet, there will still be a layer of fat covering your ab muscles.

Protein is the number one tool to building blocks of muscle.  Having enough protein in your diet also gives you a better feeling of fullness and helps your body burn more calories since the body requires more time to digest protein. Some good sources of protein are: egg whites and lean meat.                                                                                                     

Carbohydrates are very important in your diet too since carbs aid with muscle repair and recovery. Taking carbohydrates after a workout ensures that they are least likely to become fat . Add around 1 to 2 cups of raw vegetables as well.  They absorb the protein properly, control insulin levels, and flood your body with vitamins, minerals, fibers and antioxidants.

Fat Loss Diet
This diet came from Vince Gironda,  considered as the best trainer of champion bodybuilders in his time.

Period of time: 1 Week  (Not to be undertaken for more than a short period of time.
Supplements: Take protein powder with raw milk, wheat germ oil, lipotropic amino acids (inositol, choline, betane), desiccated liver and kelp tablets. 

Days 1 through 4 - Eat as close to zero carbohydrates as possible -  Consume high protein foods like egg whites, poultry, lean meat and fish.                                                  
Day 5 - Eat a balanced diet - 25% of the calories from protein, 40% from carbs and the remainder from fats and fibers.