Saturday 20 February 2016

How to lose those nasty love handles?

1 Keep a food diary
Aside from helping you stay on track with a healthy diet, keeping a diary allows you to pick up patterns in your eating habits. If you notice that you’re eating the same things regularly, aim to get more daring with your palate to keep your body guessing and your digestive system cranking.
2 Lift weights
If cardio is your exercise tipple and you’re neglecting weight training, you need to get to grips with the barbell. Big, heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts will build lean muscle mass to rev up your metabolism, as well as mix up your workout.
3 Change speed
A good way to shock your body into a fat-blasting reaction is to vary the tempo at which you perform resistance exercises. For example, try taking four seconds to control the lowering phase of a move, while sticking to one second or as fast as you can on the upwards phase.
4 Take time out
If your body is stressed, your cortisol levels will be high. Although this stress hormone is essential to your body, an elevated amount may cause you to store fat on your tummy. Find time to meditate, have a relaxing bath or just take it easy and have some ‘me’ time.
5 Load up on vitamin D
Us Brits aren’t often given the sunshine treatment, and unfortunately, sun exposure is the best way to get a dose of the crucial vitamin D. Top up levels with a high-quality supplement like BetterYou DLUX 3000 to keep cravings at bay and improve your body’s absorption of fat-fighting nutrients like calcium.
6 Eat more fat 
Are you cutting fat from your diet thinking that it’s hampering your fat-loss quest? Actually, good fats from oily fish, nuts and avocado will give you energy and nutrients – without making you fat. Don’t try to force your body to run on empty while trying to boost your calorie burn.
7 Dial it down
You need full rest days every now and then, but every four to six weeks, try to dedicate a whole week to ‘de-loading’. This means performing your regular routine at a much lower volume and intensity. It’ll force you to recover while you stay moving, which means you’ll come back stronger, making a bigger impact on your results.
8 Treat yourself
Some experts swear by ‘cheat’ meals. They reckon that treating yourself to a blow-out feast once a week can actually help you achieve your hot-body goals by stopping you from caving in to cravings during the rest of the week, and preventing your metabolism from losing steam. So, go on, treat yourself to a big juicy burger with a side of crispy fries once in a while!
9 Get some shut-eye
Sleep to slim down? Sounds too good to be true! Actually, it’s vital to get a proper night’s kip – you’ll need more than most if you regularly exercise. Sleep plays a huge role in weight loss because it triggers the appetite-controlling hormone leptin. If you skimp on sleep, you’re more likely to eat extra cals during your waking hours.
10 Do cardio sprints
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a cardio queen, make sure you’re incorporating interval training into your routine as well. It has a much greater after-burn effect, which means you’ll be torching fat at rest, too. It’s also wise to start sprints if all you’re doing in the gym is lifting weights. 

Thursday 18 February 2016

15 Bodybuilding Tips

1. Stick to Free Weights.

Even though the modern gyms are full of fancy and shiny machines, they will not help you build a solid foundation of muscle mass. Dumbbells and barbells are the best when it comes to building muscle and especially for a beginner.

2. Do Compound Movements.

While you might be tempted to try all the possible exercises you see on fitness magazines or websites, you should stick to the basic movements first. Exercises like the squat, the deadlift, the barbell bench press and the military shoulder press should not miss from your routine.

3. Have a Program and Stick to it.

You cannot just go in the gym and do whatever you feel at that moment. You need to have a strict routine and follow it closely. Ask a personal trainer or an advanced bodybuilder to provide you with a program that includes the exact exercises you need to do, the number of sets and the number of reps per set. When you set foot in the gym you need to know exactly what you will do in that training session.

4. Don’t Train Every Day.

If the person that made you the program knows what he’s doing, your routine should have 3 or 4 workouts per week. As a beginner you don’t need to train more often than that. Spend the other days of the week to rest and recover.

5. Train Each Muscle Group Every Week.

While too many days in the gym won’t help you get bigger, too few workouts are not good either. You need to work each muscle group at least once every week.

6. Learn the Correct Form of Each Exercise.

While you may be tempted to see how much you can lift, you need to start with lower weights and learn the right form of each exercise.

7. Gradually Increase the Weights.

After you master the correct form on each exercise, you need to start increasing the weights periodically. Keep track of how much you lift on each exercise and slightly increase the weight every 2 weeks. This will increase your strength and will lead to muscle gains.

8. Be Cautious.

When you get to the point of using big weights, use a safety belt for lower back protection. You may not have back problems right now, but you don’t want to have them in the future either.

9. Eat a Lot of Protein.

Protein is essential when it comes to building muscle and can be found in chicken, fish, eggs, milk, dairy products and some nuts and vegetables. Most experts recommend at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight for the best results. If consuming enough protein each day becomes difficult, add a protein shake as well.

10. Be in a Caloric Surplus.

In order to build muscle you need to eat more calories than you burn. Use a calorie calculator to find out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and adjust that according to how active you are. If you have a sedentary job you will need fewer calories and if you are very active you will need more.

11. Eat More Often.

Have 4-5 meals per day and eat every 3-4 hours. Avoid being hungry!

12. Avoid Junk Food.

It’s true that you want to gain some weight, but you want that weight to be muscle mass and not fat! Consume quality food like lean proteins, complex carbs and healthy fats and stay away from junk food, lots of sweets and fatty foods. The only time when you should consume fast absorbing carbohydrates (usually foods that have a lot of sugar or white flour) is right after your workout.

13. Consume Fruits and Vegetables.

Besides macronutrients (proteins, carbs and fats) your body also needs micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). So make sure you consume lots of fruits and vegetables each day!

14. Rest and Recover.

Your muscles don’t grow when you work out but when you sleep. So make sure you get enough sleep each night (about 8-9 hours).

15. Act Like an Athlete.

Try to have a healthy lifestyle and avoid as much as possible smoking, alcohol and other unhealthy vices.


Saturday 13 February 2016

Lower abs Exercises!

For most guys, starting from the bottom and working upward is a great strategy when training abs, because your lower abs tend to be more stubborn than the upper portion in terms of strength and definition. The idea, then, is to develop a routine that works every muscle group in your abs in tandem in order to provide the balance you need.
The collection of movements below accomplishes this quite nicely, starting with two movements that target your lower abs, followed by some oblique work, and a core-stabilization finisher. And since it’s impossible to train one portion of the rectus abdominis—your six-pack muscles—apart from another, your upper abs will get plenty of work, too, in this routine.

Exercise                                 Reps


Hanging Leg Raise                12-15
Land Mine                             10 per side
Weighted Crunch                   15
Swiss Ball Plank                    30-sec hold

Fitness Tip- Exercise Daily!

You brush your teeth every day; exercise is equally important for your daily routine. Turn off the TV or computer, and get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.
To work your heart, it's got to be aerobic exercise. You've got lots of options: walking, jogging, biking, rowing machine, elliptical machine, swimming. But don't feel like you have to be an athlete. Walking is great exercise. Get 10 minutes here and there during the day. It all counts.
Start with something simple, like parking in the far corner of the parking lot -- so you get those extra steps to the door. Take the stairs one or two flights instead of the elevator. If you take public transportation, get off one stop early and walk the rest. Get out at lunch to walk. Or walk with your significant other or your spouse after work. You'll get a bonus -- relaxation and stress reduction.