Who Said Losing Weight Has To Be Boring? Here Are 4 Exciting Ways To Diet And Exercise!

Eat your fruits, eat your veggies, don't eat this, don't eat that, go for a walk, join a gym, etc., etc.! Aren't you tired of the same old routines for getting in better shape and health? Want to actually have more fun while you are transforming your body into something you can be proud of? Here are 4 exciting things I highly recommend you consider...

Exercising...

1. Do sport activities!

Listen, there is no rule stating that you have to do traditional fitness in order to lose weight and get in shape. Unless of course you are in a contest, you are training to become an athlete, a bodybuilder, etc., you don't HAVE to do traditional workouts to get amazing results.

Sport activities such as basketball, tennis, racquetball, swimming, etc. are all fun activities to do. However, they all burn off a TON of calories as well!

Please Note: Most sport activities (except swimming) are high impact. Therefore, if you have a lot of weight to lose or if you have a medical condition, I strongly recommend you consult your physician first. Trust me on this... I learned the hard way (I'm now dealing with patella tendonitis in both of my knees)!

2. Do body weight circuit routines!

Don't want to or can't go to the gym? Don't worry about it! Stay at home and do quick, fun, and calorie burning body weight circuit routines!

Body weight circuits are exactly as they sound. You simply choose to do let's say 4 different body weight exercises (i.e. push ups, jumping jacks, lunges, mountain climbers), you do them back to back in a circuit to complete one round, take a 15-30 second break, and repeat the circuit again!

Easy, no equipment involved, very fun, and you will NEVER get bored (and that's because you can constantly switch up which exercises you do)!

Dieting...

3. Cheat day dieting!

This type of dieting is exactly as it sounds. You get to cheat on this type of diet more frequently... and you STILL LOSE WEIGHT (due to an increase in your metabolism)! How freaking awesome is that?

The reason diets like this work so well (and are so easy to stick to) is because they tackle 2 issues most people have during a diet (their metabolism is not running fast enough and they keep getting cravings)!

4. Shifting calories!

A shifting calories diet is the type of dieting I went on that caused me to lose 52 pounds in 8 weeks. This diet is extremely powerful because of 3 things.

Firstly, this diet increases your fat burning hormones. Secondly, it decreases hunger pangs. And lastly, it will skyrocket your metabolism. It doesn't take a genius to see that if you have a higher amount of fat burning hormones being released, if you are not as hungry throughout the day, and if your metabolism is running fast like crazy, then you will obviously drop pounds like a bad habit!

What's The Bottom Line Here?

Be rebellious! Ignore the traditional ways and get the body of your dreams in an exciting way for a change!

Now don't get me wrong here, I am in no way shape or form indicating that traditional dieting and exercising is ineffective. Traditional dieting and exercising works and has always worked. I'm just saying that if you are having a hard time sticking to the traditional way, switch it up, have more fun, keep things exciting, and STILL get the body you have always wanted!

>> Click Here to learn more about the easy and fun diet program I went to drop 52 pounds in 8 weeks, and how it can help you as well to lose weight fast (no matter your current weight, body type, or fitness level).

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How to Set S-M-A-R-T Goals in Bodybuilding

Many people assume the importance of setting goals in bodybuilding. Goals are important not only in bodybuilding but also in other aspects such as business, career, family and others. If you do not set goals for yourself then you will simply become a drifter. You do not succeed in bodybuilding by chance you have to set well defined goals for yourself.

Your goals need to be SMART for them to work. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. We will look at all these specifications one at a time.

1. Specific

You need to set specific goals for yourself as far as transforming your body is concerned. A lot of people are of the habit of making goals which are not specific such as "I want to get into shape", such a goal is very vague. For you to be able to transform your body you need to set goals which are specific such as, I want to lose my fat tummy and develop six pack abs, I want to grow my biceps twelve inches, I want to increase my chest muscles, I want to develop my hamstring muscles, I want to build my shoulder muscles and so on. When you set this kind of goal it becomes specific and therefore you are able to concentrate on what you want.

2. Measurable

Once you have identified your specific goal the next step is to measure it. Your goal must have the ability to be measured. It is not just a matter of saying I want to increase my biceps you need to go a step further and say I want to increase my biceps by 18 inches. When you do this you have set a standard of measure and therefore each time you are in front of a mirror you will be checking whether or not you are progressing towards realizing your goal. Every time you stand in front of that mirror your main challenge will be to beat the set standard of measurement you have set for yourself.

3. Achievable

You need to ensure that the goal you have set for yourself is achievable. If you want to transform your body by lets say increasing your arms by 23 inches, adding 25lbs of lean muscles and losing body fat of around 40lbs in three months. All this goals are specific and measurable but unless you use steroids all these goals are unrealistic if you use the natural method unless you are blessed with superhuman genes.

4. Realistic

The goal to increase increasing your arms by 23 inches, adding 25lbs of lean muscles and losing body fat of around 40lbs in three months is not realistic. The reason is because the body requires time for it to transform and look the way you want it to look. For your body transform so that you start seeing progress you need to give it at least six months.

5. Timely

Your goal needs to have a time bound. If for example you want to increase your biceps by 12 inches you need to set a time bound of lets say six months so that you can be able to determine whether you are working towards achieving your goal.

Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit http://www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.

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Why and How to Exercise Your Back Muscles

Back pain is a major problem in America today. For instance, are you aware that over 1,000,000 people are bedridden cause of back related problems? Did you also know that the cost of successfully treating back pain has gone beyond $100 billion annually both in direct and indirect? The number of spinal fusions carried out annually has also surpassed the 400,000 mark representing fifteen times the increase over the past ten years.

 The amazing part here is the fact that majority of the problems related to back pains could be avoided. They are in other words preventative; they are not associated with accidents, arthritis and cancer. One would think that this means we can now forget about them but there lies the problem. We have been too busy working on our computers, blogging, sitting at our office desks to the detriment of our backs.

Many people do not exercise their back muscles to ensure they are strong and firm enough to withstand the daily pressures. Most of us only know about normal exercises that assist your body lose weight but not strengthen organs of the body. It is for this reason that we are here. So how do we change this trend and ensure we have a healthy back.

We could avoid becoming bedridden and master our lower back health before it is too late. You could use the following seven principles to start you off.

1. Change your Physical Activity: Most of us are used to the one way of working out i.e. jogging. This however, does not help much when it comes to back pain. In fact you could stress it further and end up in hospital bed very soon. The back muscles require tender care and exercise that does not strain them but focuses on relaxation.
2. A combination of aerobics and physical therapy: The two forms of exercise can be used separately to strengthen the paraspinal muscles surrounding the spinal cord. The physiotherapist will help relieve the pressure on the most painful areas of your back. More importantly, the physiotherapist being knowledgeable will identify and deal with those places that need to be addressed urgently.
3. Chiropractic treatment: these new form of pain relief has even become accepted by the majority of the insurance companies as helpful in dealing with back pain relief. Through chiropractic manipulations you are able to address a varied number of lower back conditions.
4. Avoid using Narcotics and other un prescribed medications: this will help reduce your chances of getting into any addictive drug and thereby reduce your health progress. Those using muscle relaxers should use them under the doctor's instructions and avoid side effects related to them.
5. Ten units- ten units: These are simple electronic machines that don't actually treat the back problem but help in relieving pain. You could use them to reduce lower back pain.
6. Bracing the Lumbar: This tool could be very effective when you need short-term back pain relief. It helps protect the lumbar spinal muscles just like you do in cases of wrist pain. It is not advised to be used for chronic cases as it would result in de- conditioning those lumbar muscles.

These tips could help you stay away from the hospital bed or becoming one of the back pains statistic. There are other solutions you may also need to use, but they need to be under your doctors direction. You could read our article on dealing with side pains right side and learn more healing tips for your lower back.

Are you having body pains and need to know how to deal with all manner of pains?
Learn how to deal with side pains right side.

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Spring Training Bodybuilding Tips

If you are already fit but want to gain or increase your solid muscle weight, then what you need is to get into a bulking plan. It is well known that in order to gain good muscle weight and composition you need to maintain healthy eating habits and engage in proper muscle building or strength training exercises.

The belief held by body builders who think that bulking up means a free for all when it comes to eating is misguided and incorrect. The secret to bulking up or building dense muscle weight minus getting that inflated look is achieving then maintaining a body fat composition not above 10%. Anything above a 10% body fat composition for men and a 13% body fat composition for women is stored by the body as fat and not as a component in establishing solid muscle gain.

Assuming that your fat composition is below 10% for men and 13% for women then the road to achieving solid muscle weight involves eating clean sources of food at an amount slightly higher than what you would utilize on a daily basis.

Once you are aware of the above information then the tips to attaining progress in body building or increasing solid muscle weight composition are patience, consistency, diet and nutrition, basic exercise and compound movement, and remembering to rest to recuperate.

A lot of people who want to gain solid muscle weight think that the goal is to eat a whole lot. While the food consumed may contribute to muscle gain, the fat that comes with it will hinder your ability to regain a cut look in the future. This is why patience and a good healthy nutrition / diet are essential. In addition to this, being consistent is vital. Making it a goal to stick to your bulking up program goes a long way in achieving your desired results or goals.

Regular exercise and compound movements have been proven to work time and time again so why stray away from principles when we all know they have been proven to work. If you are on a good diet but feel that you need additional supplements then make sure to stick to the directions. Another good idea may be to indulge in workout protein shakes. Finally, and most importantly, allow your body enough downtime to rest and recuperation. Most people overlook this part. It is extremely important to wait until your muscles are fully recovered before working the same muscle group again.

By following the above tips, having a little patience, understanding how your body works and maintaining a positive attitude, all your spring body building goals can be achieved.

Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.

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The Best 5 High Intensity Strength Training Tips to Build Muscle

These high intensity strength training tips can help you get maximum benefit in minimum training time. Do you want to build more strength and develop more muscle in the most effective and efficient way? Are you spinning your wheels at the gym and getting very little benefit from your workouts? If you are frustrated in your workout efforts then you should pause to take a look at your training program, learn some of these high intensity strength training tips and then apply what you have learned to your workouts. You may find that you are amazed at the results.

1. High intensity strength training can help you get better results in less time. One of the most important points to remember about weight training exercise is that the benefit does not come directly from the exercise but rather from the recovery and rebuilding that takes place between workouts. The key for muscle development is brief and infrequent high intensity workout sessions that stimulate your muscles and then you MUST allow yourself sufficient recovery to rebuild and adapt to the stress. That is how you get stronger. The harder you train the more recovery is needed. 72 to 96 hours between workouts often works very well although up to a full week can sometimes yield excellent strength building results. Mentally it can sometime be difficult to adjust your attitude to the fact that you must limit the training time and number of workouts which can dramatically improve your strength training results.

2. Push your muscles to fatigue and muscle failure - To really stimulate your muscles to get stronger it is important that you use all the available muscle fibers. This is done by continuing to perform a weight training exercise until you reach the point of muscle failure. Actually very few people train with this much effort. Momentary muscle failure occurs when you can no longer complete another repetition in good form. This strenuous, high intensity exercise will be the stimulus for muscle growth. It is hard to train this way and it requires discipline to push yourself to muscle failure but it is the way to really get the best muscle strengthening results.

3. Much scientific research has shown that performing just one set of a muscle building exercise is extremely beneficial for getting good results. This is one of the most important strength training tips to build muscle and will reduce your training time and improve your results if done properly. Each exercise should be a 100% effort. Once you have completely fatigued one muscle group simply move onto another exercise and perform another set with a 100% effort. More is not better - higher intensity in good form is better!

4. Variety in your workouts is another useful high intensity strength training tip. If you always do the same group of exercises your muscles will eventually get used to them and slow down your results. In order to avoid such slumps it is a good idea to regularity change up the specific exercises your perform. This also helps prevent mental boredom. How often you switch things around can also vary. You may want to change some exercises every week or two, some athletes will change every workout or you can keep things the same for a month or so and then change all the exercises you do. The important thing is too keep things fresh and to train hard.

5. Use proper form - Unfortunately the vast number of folks who weight train with free weights or weight machine use poor technique and bad form. Most people perform their reps in a relatively fast manner just to get them over with or to be able to use more weight. If you really want to greatly increase the benefit of the muscle building exercise you need to lift slowly, pause briefly, and then lower the weight back down slowly. 5 to 10 seconds per repetition works very well. This will reduce the momentum used, increase muscle fiber recruitment, increase safety and make you work much harder. Doing your reps fast will simply do the exact opposite of these things and as a result provide poor results. Do not allow your ego to dictate the amount of weight you use. You DO want to be progressive and gradually increase the resistance but you always want to train hard and in proper strict form. Never sacrifice good form just so you can use more weight.

If you want to get Maximum Benefit from your weight training workouts than you should read The Fitness Center Handbook. (Kindle Version) which is now available! In addition you can learn more about High Intensity Strength Training at SuperMuscular.com.

David Waters has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from the University of Massachusetts and is the author of The Fitness Center Handbook. He is also a founding member of The Nahanni Camping and Fishing Club.

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You Want Durable Or You Want Beach Muscle?

Before I go off on my soap box and you think I am a self proclaimed expert, let me say this. I have 37 years of high school football/strength coaching experience under my belt and if you do something long enough, you may not always become an expert but you will certainly evolve into an expert on what works for you and your program. What you are about to read is what works for me and mine.

I have been through the gambit of strength development for high school athletes, most primary, football players. And during that time I have, at various points in my career, found myself convinced that this method or that was the end-all, be-all workout for my athletes. And much of which is indeed good for them. But I have also gone full circle on what it is we are supposed to be developing in these young athletes. Size and gross strength were the demi-gods we used to all worship, the bigger the better.

Everyone knows that if a muscle is big, it is strong so you wanted your athletes to be big, at every position. Of course, that didn't mean that your wide outs had to squat 400 and bench 300 but they had to be bigger and thus stronger than the people they played against. So, they had to spend time in the weight room just like the o line and linebackers, et el. That concept is not wrong it is just over worked. Yes, they need to be in the weight room but not necessarily on the fast track to max lifts and "records".

Side bar; I have come to believe that most of the records we keep in weight lifting and on the wall are nice for a very select few and not the masses and thus who really pays them much attention? And I have been through the programs where you list athletes by position, by age, by class rank, etc. and all that does is create more names that no one pays attention too. I bet any coach reading this article, right now, can think of more than a few of the best athletes you ever coached that were not on top of the charts for weight lifting but were on top of the charts for winning and carrying your program.

And, I bet those same athletes were your best conditioned athletes with the most attitude to get things done. That conditioning, that athleticism, is what carried them to greatness. They were playing just as hard in the fourth quarter as they were in the first which meant those they were playing against were in trouble if they did not possess the same quality. I have come to believe that one part of that quality is "durability". Because they are in great shape and condition they can take the attitude to the end. That is what I mean by durability. They are in the game.

Creating durability is not simply a matter of overall strength. Bigger is better [thus the term "beach muscle" ... looks good on the beach] cannot be your one guiding principle. Building a stronger athlete is commendable but building a total athlete is even better. This is where I break from what I used to believe. Heavy weight, fewer reps and max outs are not guiding principles. Moderate to heavy weights, high rep/sets and repetitions create a program of overall body strength development and more importantly, endurance, core development and durability to perform skills and movement over and over and over again.

"Functional Training" became the latest catch phrase several years ago. It's a good term when you use it properly. Functional training is quite simply training the movements that your game/sport calls for. Focus in on those things which will make you a better player but you may not need a 350 pound bench press to be a better football player. You may need to be able, however, to do that movement over and over again (ie~Offensive line) well into the fourth quarter. Thus, you need a combination of strength AND endurance ... functional and durable.

One of the best examples of lighter weights being repped over and over again and building strength, endurance and durability is a carpenter, or even a brick layer. Shake hands with either of those professions and see what you get. You'll get a hand shake with tremendous strength and power. They didn't lift heavy weights for a few reps, they lifted a light weight for a thousand reps, every day. Now that doesn't mean that the athlete who lifts heavy weights, fewer reps, won't develop a good grip; he will. But how many of your daily athletes will work at that level; only a few. If, however, you can get them to work with implements that are lighter but more functional and less mind numbing, you can get the durability you seek.

Enter odd object lifting, old school. You will derive more benefit from tires, logs, sandbags, ropes and stones than stand alone, movement locked, machines. Implementing a program utilizing these objects will give you development in your athletes like you have never seen before. The reason for this is simple. You can incorporate more total lifts and core lifts in a shorter time. For example, let's say you really want to work your athletes in rear-chain movements to strength the back/hips combo. Put them on a tire flipping workout and stone lifting or sandbags and see what you get. In a shorter time you'll see great improvement in these areas and more durability because the entire body will be anchoring and stabilizing while your primary muscle groups work the implement/lift. Your core development will soar. Your shoulders will get hammered and wait til you see what it does to your grip. Your athletes will be crying the first few workouts.

One last word about this type of workout for your back, go back in time and look at some of the pictures of the old masters. Not in the last ten years but long ago, the old legends. What you'll find are backs that are super strong and have the classic v shape from hip to shoulder, but it will be somewhat rounded compared to today's lifters. Reason being, they lifted from the ground up.

They did not unrack a loaded bar from a squat rack and proceed to squat it. They lifted their loads from the ground to start with which means that they had to squat down deeply and get under it. By doing that, the body naturally curves the back and shoulders to get there. The entire rear chain had to fire, had to contract, to get the weight up. You would be amazed at how much work you can accomplish with your high school athletes with sandbags from 25 to 50 pounds. I guarantee you I could wear them out in a very short time.

Okay, enough of my soap box. Suffice to say I now utilize two types of training methods to achieve my goals; odd object lifting and kettle bells and kettle bells will be for another day to discuss. If you are at all interested in what I have written about, go to my web site and check it out. You'll like what you see. And send for our free eBook on a sandbag workout from Josh Henkin.

http://www.osscoach.com

Greg Meyers has 37 years of high school experience training football/strength athletes. He utilizes his old school techniques with the athletes he trains and his clients.

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Lose Body Fat Quick - Consistency is the Only Key

It is definitely not easy to come across the information you need, just as we crave to find the precise and apt techniques to lose weight fast. There are lots of products and services that are formed to help overweight individuals lose the unnecessary weight they have. There are also some people promising to tell you how to lose weight quick, that it can be mystifying. Here, in this article you will find out how to lose weight fast. I will share to you some basic weight lose techniques to lose that unwanted weight fast.

The first technique would be weighing your weight daily. It's not really going to give you an exact enough picture of your progress if you weigh weekly. Try to weigh yourself as part of your daily routine. This method, weighing yourself every day means there is nowhere to veil; you have got to face your development, or not have of it, and deal with it sincerely. Another technique is to take a bit more exercise. Losing weight doesn't depend on intense exercise programs, which can frequently be counter prolific. Even just a simple walk every day, it is still constant exercise. If you are sincerely burning calories you would not have burnt before, the only effect can be weight loss.

You have to keep in mind that constancy is the true keys to efficient lose weight. Even if small, but frequently is far more effectual than an untenable over keen rupture followed by a let down. Just keep at it, and you will get where you want to go and what you want to attain.

Wendy writes articles on various topics ranging from hobbies to business practices. Some of my recent articles are about a lose body fat [http://www.losebodyfat.org/] and belly fat diet [http://www.losebodyfat.org/].

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