Tag Archive for: 7 keys to body transformation (free ebook)

Core Exercises Versus Isolation Exercises

Most beginners in bodybuilding commit the mistake of executing a glut of isolation exercises all through their workouts. Dumbbell curls, tricep extensions etc. Then there is the exercise that all men seem to be guilty of executing too often – this includes myself, bench-press. Luckily bench-press is more of a core strength exercise than an isolation, but too much to the neglect of other exercises is yet not good.

The reason we don’t tend to focus on core strength exercises, as we should, is simple.  They suck! They are complicated, painful, and make you need to die. that is the reason why they have names like “Dead lift” for example. Who surely wants to go into the gym and do squats? Answer: Nobody! It is much more fun to curl 50 pound dumbbells 12 times for 3 sets and get a cool burn in your biceps than execute 2 sets of squats maxed out and hardly be able to walk the following day. But the truth is if your goal is to add those inches to your arms, you must grow your legs first.

exercises

All commencing bodybuilders should focus their workouts around a couple of core strength exercises so that make meaningful progress. As much as it hurts, that is the basic formula for building muscle. All the bicep curls in the world is not going to add as lots inches to your arms as executing squats frequently with progressive weight.

Dead lifting is the single absolute exercise to construct strength in the posterior chain region. accurate form is the main factor to this exercise. Once you construct your strength with core exercises like these, the isolation exercises will be much more useful in sculpting you.

Another key to remind is that exercises requiring you to move your body by means of space are better than pushing weight. call to mind how ripped gymnasts get. Pull-ups and chin-ups are much better for building biceps than preacher curls. Handstand pushups are better than tricep extensions. Ok, ok, you can alternative close grip bench press for that one. But are you commencing to get the idea? Good!

So remind if you are just starting off out and need to boost your progress significantly, structure your workouts around a couple of core strength exercises. Pull-ups, chin-ups, dead lifts, military press, squats, and bench press needless to say. Then do the isolation exercises as a supplement.

10 Top Circumstances You Require Personal Training As Part of Your Weight Loss Solution or Exercise Routine

Personal Training, Exercise pattern & Weight Loss Solutions

personal training

#1 Motivation

People are typically creatures of behavior – it is easily the way the mind works. We leave so much to the autopilot inside, the one we’ve actually restricted to make all our responses immediately, that personal training from a motivator can actually un-train your old worn out and inappropriate responses so as to you make personal training changes in your way of living to make real progress, it doesn’t matter what weight loss solution you go after. inspiration is possibly the number #1 factor you require to make personal training a part of your weight loss solution or exercise pattern program.

#2 Exercise Routine

There are so multiple different pieces of exercise equipment and multiplicity of exercise habits, how do you know which is the correct weight loss plan or exercise pattern for you? Personal training can guide you for the reason that personal trainers know what results each exercise pattern and piece of exercise equipment can give, and multiple can advise on nutrition as part of any weight loss solution. Personal training can truly shorten the time it takes to accomplish your objective on any weight loss solution or fitness plan.

#3 Using Exercise Equipment Correctly

If you have been doing the same exercise pattern regularly and not achieving the weight loss solution objective you had planned for, the possibilities are that you may not be doing the exercise pattern correctly. It might be that when you started, without personal training, that you were never taught the correct mode of using a particular piece of exercise equipment or executing the exercise pattern correctly. You will get results quicker on any weight loss solution program or exercise pattern regime, if you get personal training to assist you burn fat rapid.

#4 Diet Solution

Ok, so now you have your personal training sorted out and you are doing the exercise pattern under supervision and going after your weight loss solution to burn fat rapid with advice from an expert. It is yet important to know your own metabolism and the right diet solution to speed up your metabolism so as to you can burn fat rapid. the right diet solution is critical because you wish to execute your exercise pattern with optimal energy levels as well as, to permit your muscles to burn fat when there are no “free carbs” (food from meals) around. When there is no carbohydrate fuel, anaerobic exercise habits force the muscles to burn fat into fuel for exercise and to fix muscle tissue long after you have ended your exercise pattern. Personal training will help you train at the correct time and just as importantly, consume at the correct time.

#5 A Tailored Exercise Routine

If you enjoy a sport but wish to be “the absolute of the best”, not just seeking for a pattern as part of a weight loss solution to burn fat, but you are serious about raising your fitness, agility or strength levels to get better performance in anything sport you play and enjoy so much, then you require personal training. A personal trainer will know a multiplicity of exercise and nutritional diet solution to absolute suit your individual requires. People come in all shapes and sizes with different metabolic rates, different skeletal structure and different body mass. Personal training is important if you wish an one by one tailored exercise pattern to benefit from what you’ve got.

#6 Hitting The Wall

A lot of this is psychological in nature, where people in sight of the ending line, “hit the wall” and lose energy, drive and from time to time even the hope of ending the exercise pattern or weight loss solution program. inspiration and drive from personal training can help you break by means of that wall. It is easily a stubborn inappropriate conditioned instant response that requires to be broken so as to you construct a different belief system – a “can do” attitude, as opposed to “can’t go on” attitude, that has stopped you failing each time you take up a weight loss solution or program to burn fat. It’s inspiration not to take the first steps and to sustain your exercise pattern and weight loss program but motivation to achieve success and actually get the results your autopilot inner being has been depriving you of.

#7 Information

How multiple of you have trawled the net seeking for a singular diet solution, a singular weight loss solution, an exercise pattern or where to get, how to work with, or what is the absolute piece of equipment for a definite purpose. when we talk about fitness, healthy eating, diet solution, a personal trainer will be able to give you the answers you are seeking for – and although they do not know, they work with other professionals in personal training networks who will get all the answers you will require to get the results you wish.

#8 Rehabilitation

If you are getting back from an illness or an injury, personal training will take all these reasons into recommendation so that you don’t overextend yourself in your exercise regime or weight loss solution and be sure that your aerobic or anaerobic pattern is complementary to where you are in your physical recovery.

#9 Family Fitness

Why not involucre the whole family, children additionally, into a personal training program satisfactory for each member of the family. It signifies more time with the family and it might be made into being a fun event at the same time, it doesn’t matter what exercise regime, weight loss plan or fitness objective you are seeking for. an expert can make personal training fun for each family member.

#10 Beach Holidays & New Year Resolutions

How multiple of you have had an eye on summer and what to wear on the beach? How multiple of you are seeking for that “beach body” you wish to display in the sun? Personal training can help you develop your weight loss goals, taking into account the time you have left until your holiday and the singular weight loss solution you are seeking for.

At the turn of the year, we all think ahead to summer at a time of year when the focus is on eating and drinking more than we may normally do. Getting personal training in January can help you set your weight loss goals with tailor generated routines to burn fat or fitness plans to ensure you hold on fit and healthy it doesn’t matter what you consume during the holiday festive season.

No matter what weight loss solution, diet plan or exercise pattern you are seeking for, personal training has so much more to offer than most people realise, at first glance.

Prореr Nutrition fоr Athletes

Prореr nutrіtіоn is аn еѕѕеntіаl раrt оf lіvіng a hеаlthу life; this іѕ еvеn truеr whеn соnѕіdеrіng nutrіtіоn fоr athletes. Athlеtеѕ whо are more асtіvе оr аrе еngаgеd іn a ѕроrt need tо hаvе a wеll-bаlаnсеd diet. Inсludіng thе рrореr nutrition thаt thе bоdу nееdѕ will hеlр you ѕtау hеаlthу аnd еnеrgіzеd.

Tоdау, оbtаіnіng proper nutrition for аn аthlеtе іѕ not difficult to асhіеvе; with thе help of scientists and nutrіtіоnіѕtѕ, thеrе is a wіdе variety оf nutrition рlаnѕ and nutrіtіоn рrоgrаmѕ tо сhооѕе from. Wіthоut the adequate nutrіtіоn, аthlеtеѕ саn develop vаrіоuѕ dіѕеаѕеѕ, аnd also run thе risk оf рооr performance оn the field, court оr аthlеtіс еvеnt.

Why is рrореr nutrition fоr аthlеtеѕ іmроrtаnt?

Thе mаіn rеаѕоn why athletes ѕhоuld fіnd a nutrition program іѕ ѕо thаt thеу саn ѕtау hеаlthу and рrеvеnt injuries. Recent rеѕеаrсh rероrtѕ thаt injuries аrе mоrе рrеvаlеnt durіng thе lаѕt 20-30 mіnutеѕ оf a game; thіѕ іѕ because durіng thіѕ time the bоdу is more fatigued аnd the mіnd becomes lеѕѕ concentrated. A hеаlthу diet can hеlр аthlеtеѕ build endurance not only physically, but mеntаllу аѕ well. Stауіng fосuѕеd аnd еnеrgіzеd thrоughоut a gаmе or an еvеnt can hеlр prevent injuries.

Anоthеr іmроrtаnt reason tо оbtаіn рrореr nutrіtіоn іѕ tо еnhаnсе уоur оvеrаll реrfоrmаnсе. Despite оf аll the training and ѕkіllѕ rесеіvеd, thе оnlу wау fоr аn athlete to rеасh his оr her full роtеntіаl іѕ by nоurіѕhіng аnd fuеlіng thе body. Bу еаtіng hеаlthу mеаlѕ full оf nutrіеntѕ, vіtаmіnѕ, аnd minerals, athletes саn рrоvіdе thеіr body wіth thе adequate energy ѕоurсе tо perform wеll.

Whаt ѕhоuld hеаlthу nutrіtіоn for athletes іnсludе?

Athletes ѕhоuld соnѕіdеr соnѕumіng a hеаlthу dіеt thаt іnсludеѕ the following;

Cаrbоhуdrаtеѕ – Sіnсе thеу рrоvіdе uр tо 50% оf thе energy ѕоurсе, саrbоhуdrаtеѕ should dеfіnіtеlу bе on top оf thе nutrition plan lіѕt. Thе mоrе асtіvе a реrѕоn is the more саrbоhуdrаtеѕ the body wіll uѕе. Inсludіng proper amounts of carbohydrates іn уоur diet wіll aid іn уоur реrfоrmаnсе аnd ѕtrеngth.

Wаtеr – As mоѕt know, water іѕ necessary fоr lіfе. Bеіng wеll-hуdrаtеd is crucial fоr аll human beings especially аthlеtеѕ. Bесоmіng еvеn ѕlіghtlу dеhуdrаtеd can bе extremely dаngеrоuѕ whіlе уоu’rе асtіvе. Water іѕ nееdеd tо rеgulаtе your bоdу tеmреrаturе аnd рrоtесt your hеаlth.

Fаtѕ – Lіkе carbohydrates, fаtѕ аrе аlѕо a gооd ѕоurсе оf energy. Whіlе fаt is typically оnlу uѕеd аftеr оnе hоur оf реrfоrmаnсе, аn adequate amount of fat should bе іnсludеd іn an аthlеtе’ѕ diet. Lасk of fаt consumption саn highly аffесt уоur рhуѕісаl activity.

Protein – Onсе саrbоhуdrаtеѕ аnd fаtѕ have bееn used, thе body will ѕеаrсh for рrоtеіnѕ as an alternative energy source. Whеn еxtrа рrоtеіn is consumed, the body stores it as fаt аnd uѕеѕ іt whеn еnеrgу іѕ nесеѕѕаrу.

Vіtаmіnѕ & Mіnеrаlѕ – Rіbоflаvіn, thіаmіn, аnd nіасіn are thrее іmроrtаnt vіtаmіnѕ thаt ѕhоuld bе included in аn athlete’s nutritional rеgіmеn. Thеѕе vіtаmіnѕ аrе required іn оrdеr fоr thе bоdу to produce energy.

How can уоu оbtаіn the proper nutrition?

Most people don’t hаvе thе tіmе or patience tо build their оwn nutrіtіоn рlаn. Thаt іѕ whу ѕресіаl nutrіtіоn рrоgrаmѕ for аthlеtеѕ have been dеvеlореd. Thеѕе nutrіtіоn рlаnѕ аrе mаdе especially to hеlр аthlеtеѕ improve their реrfоrmаnсе аѕ wеll аѕ their оvеrаll health. Athletes ѕhоuld аlwауѕ bе саrеful tо рrоvіdе thеіr bоdу wіth thе nutrіеntѕ іt needs tо ѕuссееd.

A Comparison Of Kettlebell Training To Regular Weight Training

Strength training is a critical element of any exercise program. Increasing muscle promotes fat loss and increases resting metabolism. The conventional methods of strength training generally include weight training of some sort. Kettlebells offer an alternative to traditional weight training, and this style of weight training may offer some surprising advantages over regular weight training.

Kettlebell training involves specific rhythmic movements of a kettlebell. Kettleballs are objects made of cast iron that resemble a ball with a handle. They range in weight from less than ten pounds to over 100 pounds. Kettlebells have seen regular use in Russia for hundreds of years. In recent decades, they are becoming more popular in the West because of the varying aspects that benefit cardiovascular health, strength, and flexibility.

kettlebell

Compared to regular weight training, kettlebell training offers several additional advantages. While all of the traditional exercises with weights can be performed with kettlebells, several exercises are specific to kettlebells. Regular weight training typically targets specific muscle groups, but with kettlebell training, several muscle groups operate to perform the movements. The two types of weight training, regular and kettlebell, offer similar results, but kettlebell training takes less time because it works several areas at once. Regular weight training is generally done separately from cardiovascular training.

However, kettlebell training offers intensive cardiovascular exercise simultaneous to strength training. The same is true for improvements in core strength and flexibility. Because of the asymmetrical nature of the kettleball, training requires improvement in balance. Additionally, the movements involved require full range of motion that improves flexibility while it strengthens the core. When comparing regular weight training to kettlebell training, the differences are seen in the advantages stemming from kettlebell training.

While kettlebell training offers additional benefits to cardiovascular health, flexibility, and core strength, the strength training gained from kettlebell training remains as effective as weight training, possibly more so. As with weight training, should the person desire bulk, they should use a heavier kettlebell. Should the person simply desire toning and weight loss, lighter kettlebells suffice. Specific areas can still be targeted with kettlebells. A person can still perform bicep curls, tricep curls, and other exercises associated with regular weight training.

However, kettlebells increase the effectiveness of the workout with exercises including the snatch, wing, clean, jerk, and others. Additionally, many prefer kettlebell training because it simulates real world activities, like carrying children or groceries. The muscles groups required for situations faced in life are actually the muscle groups developed. Comparatively, regular weight training focuses on the development of the muscle in a standing or lying position. These exercises do not relate to real-life needs as kettlebell exercises do.

When comparing regular weight training to kettlebell training, the results to strength training are similar. The differences include the time necessary to see the same results, the additional cardiovascular workout, the strengthening of the core, and the improvements to flexibility. Kettlebell training should be initially approached with the tutelage of an expert who can teach the proper technique and ensure the movements are done safely. When done safely, kettlebell training is highly effective for numerous areas of physical health, including strength training.

Natural supplements to help with fatigue

Are you feeling tired? There are so many natural supplements out there to help you feel refreshed and energetic. One of them is licorice. “Licorice, also known by its botanical name Glycerrhiza glabra, is a sweet-tasting legume family herb. Licorice root is widely-used for a variety of ailments, including adrenal fatigue.

According to Dr. Sharol Tilgner, a naturopathic physician and author of “Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth,” licorice directly affects your body’s levels of cortisol by extending its biological half-life, resulting in increased effectiveness of this stress-managing hormone.”

natural supplements

Another natural supplement is Siberian ginseng, according to Livestrong.com. “Siberian ginseng, also known as Eleuthrococcus senticosus, is a Araliaceae-family herb. The root bark is used medicinally, and it has a bitter taste. Siberian ginseng is commonly used to treat exhaustion and weakness. Siberian ginseng is an adaptogen, meaning it balances your energy and helps you manage stress, trauma, anxiety and fatigue.

To help you deal with your fatigue and sexual aspects of fatigue, These Panax ginsengs enhance your stamina and memory. They also help balance blood sugar abnormalities and sexual dysfunction, which may be associated with adrenal insufficiency. All of the ginsengs increase your resistance to illness.

Furthermore, there are vitamins to keep taking in order to feel energetic, “Vitamins that are commonly recommended for adrenal fatigue include vitamins C and E. B-complex may also be helpful, as well as the individual B vitamins pantothenic acid, B6 and niacin. These vitamins and others, as well as minerals, may be derived from a diverse, unrefined whole foods diet as well as in supplemental form.”

Let us focus more on vitamin B a little more. “Also known as pantothenic acid, vitamin B5 serves an important role in the manufacture of adrenal hormones. It converts into a acetyl co-enzyme A in the human body, required for the production of cholesterol. Any disturbances in the levels of cholesterol could affect the release of steroid hormones such as cortisol, DHEA or progesterone, as these are all made in the adrenal cortex from cholesterol.

Finally, there is magnesium, “magnesium plays a role in the function of more than 300 enzymes in the human body. Carolyn Dean, M.D., explains how magnesium can help with the high stress loads associated with adrenal fatigue. The mineral reduces the catecholamine release from cardiac tissue; these hormones, which include epinephrine, can contribute to the anxiety and sleep disturbances experienced by those with adrenal imbalance.

As always, rest. As a workaholic, I can tell you that it is not always the easiest step to take a break. It is crucial to know when it is time to take time out and rest. So, rest up.

What Personal Training Can Do For You And How To Know If You Are Being Trained Properly

In their pursuit to lose some extra kilos, people quite often go for strict diets, which involve limits on the amount and type of food a person eats. Such extreme measures may help in reduction of weight for a brief period, but pose serious health hazards if carried on for a long enough time. Exercising periodically for some time under the supervision of a personal trainer is a lot better alternative than engaging in strict dieting.

However, a high percentage of people are not sure about the advantages of working with a personal trainer, and express suspicion as to how effective such a program would be. There are, actually a whole lot of reasons to engage a personal trainer.

 

First of all, a personal trainer will create a comprehensive exercise plan for you and this will encourage you to attain your health objectives. This will help you become more driven towards your efforts to care for your fitness and overall health.

Secondly, a personal trainer, being a specialist, guides you on the correct exercises and techniques to use while working out, and will offer an exercise schedule and diet plan suited to your body and its specific requirements. Hence your self formulated exercise schedule and reckless attempts at eating less will be replaced by a more planned and concentrated program.

Thirdly, a personal trainer is more sincere to you than you tend to be with yourself, and can give you a correct picture of your fitness and health standards. Your road to a longer and healthier life will also be paved by a personal trainer who will plan for you strategies to battle against general health issues.

Fourthly, preventive measures against injury and quick recuperation from an injury can also be taught by a personal trainer, and he can make you informed enough to continue with your exercises without his instructions.

Lastly, a personal trainer makes you responsible enough to meet deadlines and abide by schedules, encouraging you to develop an ongoing approach to the maintenance of your new found good health.

In a personal training program, you and your fitness needs get complete attention from your trainer. A clear idea of your health needs and fitness aims is the first step to ensuring a fruitful personal training program. Moreover you can check on references, qualifications and experience of the trainer beforehand, and develop a good way to communicate once training starts. A cautious consideration of all these factors can ensure a very satisfying personal training experience.

How to Get Leaner Without Losing Muscle Power

You’ve finally done it! You’ve bulked up and reached the size you always dreamed of being! All of a sudden, you’re walking around like a human tank and people are diving out of the way when they see you coming down the hall…

It’s a great feeling being your biggest and you’ll be smashing your personal bests down the gym no doubt! But there’s a problem…

bulking

With all that extra size, you’ve inevitably put on at least some fat as well as muscle. This somewhat diminishes the achievement of bulking up. Whereas before you felt small, skinny and weak… now you’re afraid to take your top off down the beach because of all the flab.

You can’t win!

So is there a way you can have your (protein) cake and eat it too? Let’s dive in and take a closer look…

Why You Get Weaker When You Get Leaner

Bulking up is actually relatively easy once you know how. You just need to lift heavy weights a few times a week and then spend the rest of the time resting up and eating big. This is what most people really don’t understand about bulking – it’s actually the resting and the eating part that makes the magic happen!

And as it happens, resting and eating is also what helps to make you stronger. The reason for this is that when you relax and eat a lot, you’re putting yourself in a calorie surplus. As far as your body is concerned, you have plenty of excess energy and it can do whatever it likes with it. That means you’re going to build plenty of muscle and build plenty of ‘fast twitch’ muscle fiber – the explosive powerful kind.
This type of muscle is highly inefficient from an energy consumption standpoint but that doesn’t matter to the body as long as you’re in a caloric surplus.

Conversely though, when you start eating less and/or exercising more, your body will need more energy. That means it can’t afford the running costs of your fast twitch muscle fiber and it will get replaced with the alternative ‘slow twitch’ kind.

And as a result of all that, you’re now going to be left with less explosive power. Did you know that couch potatoes actually have quite a lot of explosive power for this reason?

The Solution

So what’s the solution?

Of course the first thing is to taper slowly from your high carb, high protein, low activity lifestyle. Try to more gradually introduce extra activity and reduce the amount that you’re eating.

At the same time, you also need to think about ways you can protect all that muscle you’ve built. Supplementing with BCAAs can help to do this for example.

More important though, you need to start training with heavy weights. When you do that, you’ll be telling your body that you need that fast twitch fiber and you’ll be learning to use the fiber you have more effectively. This strengthens your mind muscle-connection and it allows someone as thin as Bruce Lee to be as powerful as he was.

Switch to heavy lifts around your 1-3 rep max and you’ll stand the best chance of hanging onto that strength!

Injury Prevention for Body Power and Endurance

Jumping into any physical exercise routine without the proper warm up phase would only put the individual into the path of possible injury.

Therefore it is very important to have some sort of warm up routine or have some precautions taken to ensure a injury free exercise routine.

exercise

Staying Safe

The following are some of the recommendations that can be effectively used to avoid possible injury:

Having a routine physical fitness test would be a good idea, as the individual will be able to gauge from a professional view his or her current capabilities levels and then design the workouts accordingly.

Gradually increasing the intensity and time spent on each workout session would be better than just using a uniform guideline provided for as a whole. With the gradual additions the individual is able to better avoid injuries as the body will be slowly introduced to the changes rather than being “shocked” into compliance.

Having the advice of a personal trainer at hand is also something to consider if the individual is not really savvy with the various workout equipment and routines. A personal trainer will be able to provide the assistance that will help the individual make better and safer choices.

Warm up exercises can never be underestimated for it value. This phase will condition the body to be ready for the impending exercise routine, and this is especially important if the routine involves vigorous movements.

For some people starting a workout session on an empty stomach is something that they have grown used to over time, but for the less experienced exercise buff, having a light nutritious meal would be recommended. This food intake will help to keep the mind alert thus avoid possible injuries from occurring.

Advanced Training Techniques

Firstly it should be noted that advanced training techniques are only suitable for those who are already in good physical shape and have already been exposed to regular and fairly vigorous training sessions. These sessions should already be done on a regular basis.

Getting Advanced

The following are some advance training techniques that are popular both for its apparent benefits to the body and also for its innovativeness.

Supersets 

This type of exercise routine would involve the immediate switching of exercise routine as soon as one style is completed. Ideally there should be about 2 – 3 different workout style done is succession.

The idea behind this technique is to create more blood flow into the pectorals and provide an intense effective training for the chest muscles.

These sets can be designed to focus on the same muscle group using different exercises, or the focus can be switched to other muscle groups, but the main idea is to stay with the routine without any breaks.

Exercises such as bench press, dumbbells flys, bicep curl, triceps pushdown, leg press, leg extensions are just some of the ones used.

Negatives are another option that is considered very powerful for building strength. This involves the positive and negative elements in the exercise routine, where the positive focuses on the contracting and the negative focuses on the stretching parts of the routine.

Here the individual is expected to “hold” the exercise position for longer than necessary to create the pressure on the exact area being focused on, and if the ability to do so is possible without much effort, then there should be additional pressure added.

The ideal gauging time frame should be about 5 seconds. Examples of which may include bench press, close grip bench press, wide grip pull ups and preacher curls.

Why Aren’t You Seeing the Results You Want?

A lot of people mistakenly believe that they need to have a highly complex training program with an elaborate list of supplements and an iron will in order to get into shape. This is why people will spend so much money on personal trainers, on gyms, on creatine, on protein shake and on programs like ‘Insanity Workout’.

But that shouldn’t be true. In reality, as long as you stick to a relatively decent training program and you’re consistent, you should see results. Even if you are just doing a few press ups every night, this should be enough to bring about some positive change in your body. Could it be better? Sure. But it should be enough to do something.

body

So if that’s what you’re doing and your training is genuinely consistent… why aren’t you seeing any results? Well, there’s a few reasons…

You’re Not Giving it Your All

The first and most likely cause here is that you aren’t giving your training enough effort. It’s not enough to simply go through the motions when you lift weights or perform CV; you need to really push yourself and you need to work hard enough to feel the burn or the pump in your muscles and you need to feel the sweat forming on your body.

One big mistake you might be making then is leaving the TV on while you train! This can distract you from your workout and prevent you from really focussing on and engaging the muscles while you’re lifting or moving.

The Rest of Your Life is the Problem

If you’re training as hard as you possibly can and you just can’t seem to shift those last few pounds, then you might need to take a look at the rest of your training regime. What you’ll probably find is that you aren’t as active the rest of the time as you could be.

We are not designed to be largely stationary 24 hours a day and then to workout intensively for 30 minutes. If you really want to be healthy and fit, then you should be constantly resting or training. Take a look at your routine then and see where you could fit in more walks, more runs or perhaps an exercise class.

Your Hormones Are Getting in the Way

If you have the wrong hormone profile, then your body will be prone to burning fat and muscle for energy rather than storing it. That makes you an ectomorph. Or perhaps you’re someone who stores fat very easily and can’t lose any weight.

This could be caused by some kind of medical condition. Speak with your doctor about the possibility that you might be suffering with low testosterone, hypothyroidism or polycystic ovaries.

Even if you aren’t clinically ‘unwell’, it may still be the case that you have low testosterone, low T4, or poor insulin sensitivity. Luckily, there are normally things you can do about this situation. One of the best options is to train more regularly. Another is to eat more. Fix your hormones and you’ll make training much easier.

How to Make Menu planning with Low Costs and High Nutrition

The frenzied lifestyles we lead these days barely give us any time to think of what we will be having for the next meal of the day. But with some effort, you can easily chalk up a menu (for a week or two) that is nutritious and cost effective as well. A menu plan not only helps you save a whole lot of money, but it also lets you know what you will be eating.

It is far more healthier to have an idea of what you will be preparing, instead of pulling out the first thing you see in the pantry/freezer and deciding to make a meal out of it. To create a menu plan that saves time and money, here are some tips that you can follow:

menu

The first step of menu planning is to find out what you have in hand. Make a mental note of the meals you can prepare using what is available in the freezer, pantry and fridge. Prepare a shopping list of the things you have to buy to help you shop smartly, avoid impulse purchases and save money and time. Remember the essentials like fresh fruits, cereal and milk which you always buy.

Before you set out, plan your expenses. Have a look at the grocery ads and food coupons you already have. Maintain a price book in which you record how much things cost at different stores to help you know where you will find the best bargains for different items.

When you plan the menu for different meals, pay attention to serving enough vegetables and fruits and remember to balance your meals. Keep note of the requirements of your family, based on their ages, activity rates etc to ensure that food does not get wasted. The trick to make a meal appealing is by offering a variety that is both tasty and nutritious.

While planning a menu, you should think of how you will utilize leftovers. Leftovers can come handy on a day when you don’t have time to do elaborate cooking. Making use of a part of a meal to make a completely new meal can help you reduce your cooking time and food costs.

There are bound to be times when you will have to come up with quick alternatives when things don’t go according to plans. A hectic day at work, your kid’s illness, surprise visitors at home or weeks when you need to stretch the paycheck are situations when you should be prepared to make changes to your menu and reschedule your plans accordingly.

When our fast paced routines give us no time to breathe, having a menu plan means one less thing to worry about. With a clear plan of healthy and cost-effective meals for the day and week, you can be content about taking care of your family’s dietary requirements without spending too much money.