6 Time Saving Tips During Gym Workouts
time management, female fitness
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I've been really busy lately and like most people, I've been finding trouble getting in a good workout at the gym with the short amount of time I have. So instead of cutting out my daily trip to the gym, I spent some time during my lunch break at work searching for time saving ideas. I wanted to look for some ways that I can spend less time at the gym, while still getting a satisfying workout.
Shortly after browsing fitness blogs, a cute blond caught my eye, and I noticed she posted 6 great tips on how to save time at the gym.
Here's the first 3 Tips, out of respect, I'm making you check out her blog to see Tips 4 - 6
1. Cut rest time. Resting for 3 minutes between sets is bad for a couple of reasons. First, this time allows for your muscles to get all energy back and it will be harder to exhaust them so they give you muscle building results. Also the more rest, the lower your heart rate and the less calories you burn. Try keeping rest 30 seconds.
2. Back to back exercises. Like the previous blog talked about, supersets are great to give your muscles a workout and you in a short amount of time. Do a set of one exercise and go directly without rest into another one.
3. Limit 8 exercises. You do not have to do every move you know to get a great workout. Actually, doing less exercises allows you to concentrate on the move and improve weight, intensity, etc to get you toned and ripped.
To see Tips 4 - 6, check her site out: http://www.totaltonedwomensclub.com/blog/?p=162
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on 2/28/2008
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0 |
7.9
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Hard Drinks Worse than Eating a Big Mac, Opt for these Low Cal Cocktails
alcohol and fitness
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Did you know that 2 glasses of Rum Punch can add up to 700 calories? That means those colorful little cocktails actually contain more calories than a Big Mac. I know there are many people out there that wouldn't dare step into a fast food restaurant and order up a greasy burger, yet on the weekends you can find them throwing back drinks that have calorie counts comparable to full meals.
But Ryan, what am I supposed to do if I value having a fit body, but also like to get twizzled on the weekends? Don't worry, you can still get drunk as a skunk without packing on the pounds. You just have to look into the nutritional value and be smart about it. You'd be surprised at which other drinks are high-calorie.
I'd recommend sticking to this list of Low-Cal cocktails that I found:
http://www.vitaljuicedaily.com/2007/12/12/low-cal-cocktails/?dir=fitconnect
I actually found this list of beverages a week ago, which was convenient because I held a small party with some friends of mine, who tend to be health nuts. This way I was able to show them a good time and they didn't have to go crazy in the gym the next day in order to work of the late night calories.
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on 2/25/2008
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1 |
50.9
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Ladies, Focus on these 3 Exercises for Your Booty
rusty, female fitness
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Fems... If you aren't aware, having a bubbly, rounded butt is one of the most important keys to having a great body. When a booty is poppin out in those black solo pants all the girls wear, it speaks to me. It's telling me to come up and smack it (sometimes I do, which leads to some awkward situations). But anyway, back to the point. Here are some exercises that can help your booty 'speak.'
1. Front Lunges with Dumbbells
This exercise is convenient because it doesn't require much equipment (you can do it without dumbbells if you don't have them). It does great work for your butt and thighs and you will feel it the next day, trust me. Number of reps depends on the person and weight being used. Some girls with nice bums that I know use 5 lbs. in each hand and do 4 sets of 12.
2. Sprinting
Rusty, who specializes in fitness for good looks, unveiled some great advantages on how sprinting can help tighten up that behind in his popular blog, fitnessblackbook.com. His advice is genius (as well as entertaining), but i can't steal his content, so you'll have to check it out here: http://fitnessblackbook.com/muscle_tone_strategies_/
3. Stairmaster or Step-Machines
I definitely recommend any kind of stepping to tone up your bottom half. Raising your knees stretches out the buttocks and thus, lifting your body up by pushing your leg straight again gives it a nice work. I've found that this exercise is great for toning because you're constantly stepping, unlike something like squats, where you're only performing a certain number of reps. A good 10 - 15 minutes on a step machine will do a booty good.
My recommendation is that you try to perform these exercises 2 - 3 times a week (performing other exercises throughout the week as well). In a month or two you'll start seeing the sag in your pants round out into a well defined bottom.
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on 2/22/2008
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1 |
39.7
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Working Out is More Than Just a Physical Improvement
workout talk, time management
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A lot of people don't workout because they don't have enough time. More specifically, they don't have enough time to dedicate toward just improving their body. They have more important things going on, like a career, kids, friends, etc.
Well I can understand someone not having time to dedicate strictly to looking better, but what about the other benefits of working out? Exercising improves mental health, aids habitual sleeping patterns, and usually involves going to a gym - which is a pretty social place.
Working out can easily be mixed with any other priority. Have a bunch of kids and they run around like crazy driving you nuts? Play a game of tag, or Four Square, or whatever the devil these kids are playing nowadays. You'll probably have trouble keeping up with the tikes.
Too focused on your career to find time to workout? Well that's just stupid. I went for a job interview the other day and spent most of the talking with the guy about lifting, dieting, and which supplements work best. At the end of the day, we were friends and he recommended me for the job. Remember when people told you that learning golf would be good for business? Hitting the gym will help too. Gym talk is a great conversation piece, and you'll find more people who go to the gym than hit the golf course.
Going to the gym can help your social life as well. Instead of huddling around the computer poking people on facebook (pointless activity), get up and go to the gym. You'll be surrounded by people, which opens up opportunities to meet new people. Bring a friend along as a lifting buddy and working out can be a social event. Better yet, mix the two... Meet someone at the gym (the hot girl if you're lucky) and turn them into a workout partner.
So basically, if you think that you don't have time for exercise because of many other important parts of life, you just haven't thought about the positive impact working out can have on tho... read entire entry
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on 2/21/2008
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6
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Fast Food Looks a lot Better in Commercials
obesity epidemic
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Ever notice how the McDonald's and Burger King commercials show these well prepared burgers and sandwiches, yet when you throw up your money for one it just doesn't seem as appetizing? Well I was stumbling the web for more info about fast food and I came across a site that compares fast food in commercials to the real deal you get at the nearest drive thru.
To see a comparison, go here: http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm
As you can see, the commercials aren't so accurate at depicting what you really get. Advertisements make fast food seem less greasy and almost make it look like it's not that bad for you. For instance, look at the first picture (Wendy's Chicken Club). In the advertisement, it looks pretty good. The lettuce looks fresh and the cheese doesn't look like a wad of fat.
So the next time you see one of those fast food commercials that gives you the urge to run out and put a few more pounds on, try to remember the reality of what you're getting. It might not be worth the extra baggage.
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on 2/18/2008
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2 |
28.2
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I hate Lifting Legs
workout talk
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I know, I know, legs are one of the most important muscles and you can't skip them... But I still hate doing them. And not just because it doesn't give you a good pump and inflate your upper muscles, but mainly because I can't stand being sore for a week after every time I do some squats.
After taking a break from lifting, primarily to work on this site, I finally started aggressively hitting the gym again (about 3 weeks ago). In my beginning phases of getting back in shape, I always skip legs the first few weeks because I just I know that the second I do a serious leg workout, I'm going to be walking around like an old man for the next week.
Finally, a few days ago, I manned up and did a squat routine, followed by leg press. I did an intense ab workout that day as well (abs are my specialty). Walking out of the gym, I was nearly falling down the stairs because my legs and abdomen were so drained. By the end of the night, I could already feel the soreness setting in. Considering my soreness doesn't reach it's peak until about 2 days later, I knew I was in for a rough set of days.
It's not just walking funny for a few days that's bothering me. I can't get a good workout in the gym when my legs are so sore. For instance, I like to use dumbbells as the core tool for my chest workout, and I find myself struggling to get proper dumbbell press position when throwing the weights back and lying on the bench. I found it much harder to stabilize myself, and since I didn't have a spotter, I held back on upping my weight. So in my opinion, that was a wasted workout.
Leg fanatics stress the importance of legs, and I'm well aware or their importance, so don't think that I'm saying legs aren't important. But you have to agree that legs are very very annoying to get back in shape. Anyways, I'm going to waddle off to the gym now to do traps and lats.
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on 2/14/2008
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0 |
30.1
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Dr Jarvik Exposed as not being so Doctorish
wacky finds
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I’m sure you’re all familiar with Dr. Jarvik, the creator of the artificial heart. He’s the guy on all of Pfizer’s Lipitor commercials blabbing about how he invented the artificial heart and then he goes off running with his son or he rows a boat down a river… Or does he?
Pfizer is now under intense scrutiny by the media and the U.S. Congress because they actually used a Stunt Double to perform the boat rowing scene in the commercial that we’re all familiar with that boasts the health benefits of taking Lipitor. Dr. Jarvik, who portrays himself on the commercial as being just a step or two away from competing in the X Games on ESPN, didn’t even have the energy to row a boat for a few seconds during a commercial.
Speaking of DOCTOR Jarvik… He is not licensed, or qualified, to practice medicine in any of the US States. Here’s a blurb from the WSJ Health Blog regarding Jarvik’s qualifications.
“NBC's science guru Robert Bazell wrote last year that while Jarvik is an M.D., he doesn't have "the strongest credentials." His grades as an undergrad at Syracuse University weren't good enough for U.S. med school, so he attended the University of Bologna in Italy, leaving after two years. In 1976, Jarvik graduated from the University of Utah's med school, but he never did an internship or practiced medicine, Bazell wrote.”
Personally, this does't have any affect on my life because I am not in the market for medicines like Lipitor. But I just think it’s funny how almost everything out there is a marketing game. I see his commercials all of the time, so finding out this bit of information made me chuckle.
WSJ Health Blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/07/
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on 2/8/2008
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6.9
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The World is Unfair to Fat People
obesity epidemic, dieting
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We hear the same things over and over. “America is overweight” and “We must stop the obesity epidemic.” There are millions of studies showing how people are generally overweight. But not only does the media want to point this out, but they want to place blame on everything and everyone. Fat people are constantly criticized for their figure, except for the rare times when the media feels like being nice and posts something about how it’s ok to be fat, and often times, they really can’t help it.
Let’s look at some other bodily features that humans have: Height, Skin Color, Eye Color, to name a few. We have little or no control over how tall we grow, what color our skin is, and what color our eyes are. Why? A well-known scientific aspect of life called genetics. We can try to eat the right things or hang upside down to make ourselves taller, but there’s no proof any of that make a difference. If we’re fair skinned, we can tan a lot (unless we burn easily) but skin color changes are only temporary. We can wear contacts to change our eye color, but in most people it’s an obvious fake.
So why, if all other features of our body are chalked up to genetics, do we put so much blame on those who do not have the ideal body type? My argument is, although there are definitely many people out there that could be lighter than they are, many people simply cannot help being overweight.
Oprah, who often goes on streaks of dieting, will always be overweight. She goes through periods of being slimmer, and I give her credit for that, but her genetic makeup will always be what society views as overweight. Just like WeeMan will always be short.
I know people who disagree would argue that people have more control over their weight than height, which I totally agree with. So let’s compare it to skin color. People genetically have a given skin color. Fair, medium, dark, and so on. Someone with fair skin tone, can tan often and acquire a med... read entire entry
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on 2/7/2008
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49.5
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Triceps are so Under rated, Use them to Overcome Plateaus
workout talk, plateaus
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I realized how important the triceps are my freshman year of college when I was doing a chest workout and realized that I could do flies with almost the same amount of weight that I could dumbbell press. I never took lifting very serious until college, so overall I wasn't very strong. But my chest was just naturally better equipped than my triceps. While my chest was strong enough to fly a set of 50s pound dumbbells, I could only press a set of 60 lbs dumbbells. I know, I know... I was pretty weak back then.
But the point is, that my chest would have easily been able to handle more weight, but my triceps simply weren't strong enough. Therefore, I had to do extra sets of flys in order to adequately work my chest. Now, although it was obvious in my scenario, I think there are many other people out there in the same situation, but to a different degree. I see lots of guys struggling with their bench press, when their chest seems to be doing fine with handling the weight. Mentally, they think, "I gotta work harder on Chest days." In my opinion, they should do the opposite.
My advice:
Switch up your chest workout for one week and don't do any pushing or pressing. Do only flies and similar exercises. Do more sets than you usually do to make up for the exercises your missing out on. You'll notice that you perform your flies better than you usually do after tiring your muscles out from sets of benching. And we all know that everyone starts off their chest workout with benching... every time.
Not only will you be switching up your chest workout and working different exercises harder, you'll be resting your triceps. Now, when it is time to work your triceps, they will be fresh and ready to go, instead of being worn down from being used in your chest workout. Now you can really work your triceps, since it's important to build them up to improve your bench. Finally, take a few extra rest days in order to build up your chest a... read entire entry
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on 2/6/2008
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7.6
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