Bodybuilding Tips To Help Achieve Your Ideal Body

Bodybuilding tips are important for anyone who wishes to achieve and maintain an ideal body. It is important that you get to set out a regular routine that you must follow so that you get to achieve and maintain the ideal body and body weight you've been wanting to have.

Therefore, there are tips that you need to remember especially if you are someone who is really serious about maintaining a good body figure.

First, you will need to find an appropriate FITNESS GYM that will give you the amenities you will need. If you opt to do your fitness program at home, you will need the proper GYM EQUIPMENT to help you achieve the proper fitness routine you will need to do.

Second, if you decide to use the gym as your workout place, you will need to find yourself a reliable GYM INSTRUCTOR who will guide and help you achieve a regular routine you can follow. However, if you are to do your workout at home, you will need to find appropriate FITNESS GUIDES that will help you map out a specific routine that will help you achieve the body and weight you want. It is important that you also seek advice from knowledgeable people who can help you achieve an appropriate fitness routine for you.

Third, you will need to achieve at least EIGHT HOURS SLEEP each day. This is most important because your body needs time to recuperate from the regular strain that you put it through during workout.

Fourth, you also need to stick into a specific DIET that I appropriate for your body type and your exercise routine, and also the daily usual things you need to do. You do not need to do any crash diets as these will only leave you hungry and may even cause you to eat even more than yo need the next time you eat.

Fifth, STICK TO THE ROUTINE. It is important that you get to stick to the routine so as to achieve the body or body weight you so wish to have. Many start a fitness routine only to leave it once they get to feel the strain it put into their daily lives. If you are serious about staying fit, you will need to faithfully follow your routine so as to achieve and maintain your ideal body.

It is important for anyone who gets to start a fitness routine to stick to it. It will take several days for you to feel the strain it puts on you and your muscles. However, that is part of the workout that you need to maintain so as to achieve the ideal body you want.

Start building muscles today! Read about some useful body building tips to help you out!

Quick Tricep Workouts

Triceps, when properly weight-trained, make up two-thirds of your upper arm's overall size. As such, it's better to do a quick tricep workout than to skip it when your gym time is tight. If it's absolutely necessary to skip a bodypart when training arms, better you should skip biceps than triceps if you're looking to develop upper arm muscle mass.

Your triceps brachii muscles have 3 heads - the long head, medial head and lateral head. They run down the back of your upper arm, from shoulder to elbow, and are mostly involved in extending your elbow to straighten your arm. The concentric portion of each rep contracts your triceps and fully straightens your arms, while the eccentric portion lowers the weight by allowing the elbow to bend to 90 degrees or more.

While twice the size of your biceps, the triceps are still one of the smaller bodyparts and can recover more quickly that larger muscle groups like legs, back and chest. This means you can work your triceps 2 - 3 times per week on non-consecutive days, but be careful not to use heavier weights than you can manage with proper form to prevent damaging your elbow ligaments or joint.

If you're training time is limited during a workout, use these three exercises to work the triceps, doing 3 or 4 sets of 10 reps each. Don't rush the reps - use a cadence of 1 second up and 3 seconds down with no pause or rest at the top or bottom of each movement.

Lying Triceps Extensions 

Also known as 'skullcrushers', lying triceps extensions start with you lying flat on the bench with your arms straight up above you, perpendicular to your body. The exercise can be done with dumbbells, a straight bar, a cambered (EZ curl) bar or the specialized triceps bar. Start by slowly lowering the weight to your forehead then return it back to the top position at a faster speed. At the end of each set, go immediately into the next exercise with no break.

Narrow-Grip Bench Press 

The second half of this triceps superset is the narrow-grip bench press. If you're using a triceps bar then you'll automatically have a narrow grip already, but if not then be sure your grip is about shoulder width or a touch narrower. Going any narrower than that places too much strain on the wrists at the bottom of the movement, so if you find your wrists getting sore widen your grip slightly. Since you're already lying on the bench in the proper position, lower the weights to your chest while keeping your elbows tucked close to your body, then raise the weight directly up by extending your arms. Do not let your elbows drift out to the sides as this involves the pectoral muscles of the chest more than you want it to - keep the tension on your triceps as the weight moves up and down.

Because you're supersetting this press with the extensions the weight won't be as heavy as you could do otherwise, so you can compensate by either doing a few more reps per set or slowing each rep down, especially on the eccentric (lowering) portion of each rep. At the end of your set rest for about a minute, then go back to the lying extensions to begin your next set. Perform the full cycle 3 - 4 times before moving on to the third exercise.

Overhead Triceps Extensions 

Sit up on your bench with your feet flat on the floor and a neutral or slightly-arched lower back. Using two hands, suspend a dumbbell overhead so that it rests perpendicular to the floor - your thumbs and forefingers should be wrapped around the handle while your palms and other fingers are pressed against the underside of the top BELL to support the weight. Keeping your elbows facing forward and tucked close to the sides of your head, bend your elbows and slowly lower the weight as far down as you can behind your head, then return the weight back up to directly overhead. Your upper arms should not move during the exercise but instead stay upright and close to your head.

Other Triceps Exercises 

The three exercises above will give you quick tricep workouts that are effective in building more muscle, but if you need to replace any of them due to injury or other physical issues, replace the necessary exercise with dumbbell kickbacks. Kickbacks have been shown to stimulate all 3 heads during each rep, so it's your best replacement exercise. Other triceps exercises like pushdowns, rope pushdowns, overhead cable extensions and triceps dips are good too, but save them for your workouts where time isn't limited and you can fit one or more of them in with these three.

7 Tips to Build Your Body

Being lean and fit is okay but if you are lanky, it tends to downgrade your personality. Body building is a great idea. However, this idea is not about pumping your body with medicinal supplements. In fact, body building is all about developing a routine that includes the perfect blend of diet and exercise to give you a great looking body. Yes! If you follow the routine consistently and passionately, you will also develop muscles and increase stamina. But, the ulterior motive should be to remain healthy.

Here is a look at some quick tips to help in body building:

1. Include lifting weights in your exercise routine. While cardio helps you increase stamina, if you want to add muscle to your body, you need to start lifting weights. Also, remember to increase the capacity gradually.

2. Don't exhaust yourself on day one. Body building will happen gradually. You must not overstress yourself by trying to exceed limits on the first day itself else it could permanently damage your body.

3. Multiple muscle exercises are good when you are planning body building workouts. For example, lifting weights on the legs that strengthen your thigh muscles as well as your calf muscles.

4. Hydrate the body. Drinking proper amount of fluids before and after workout is important. The fluids you consume before the workout ensure that the muscles are not dehydrated which automatically enhances your stamina.

5. Change is the only constant. It's great that you have worked out an exercise routine to keep your body fit. However, if body building is your aim, you have to remember to alter this routine every once in a while. Ideally, two weeks is a good time to change. After all, this change is what will help you enhance the muscle power of your body.

6. Take rest. Here again, we would want to stress the importance of not exerting your body. Between two workout days, ensure that you have given the body ample rest. This resting period is what helps in restoring the muscle stamina after you have exhausted yourself in the arena.

7. Eat well. Exercise is just one part of the body building routine. You also need to eat well. For eating healthy, we would recommend you to consult a dietician. According to the requirements of your body, they will work out a diet plan. Ensure that you stick to this plan in addition to the workout sessions.

Weight Training is For Life!

During your daily drive in the car you may well see a sticker that rightly states 'A dog if for life and not just for Christmas'. I think we need to be producing a new sticker that proclaims 'Weight training is for life and not just for our youth!'.

Scientific studies have shown over and over again that we can push back the aging process by regular weight training sessions. Many people now stay mentally alert well into their 80s and 90s, but it is their bodies that let them down, particularly in modern times when walking has become less of a necessity and we are more reliant on the car.

I have a passionate dislike for the 'R' word - retirement. I'm now over 50, and more conversations at dinner parties are dominated by the question "what are you going to do when you retire?". I for one have no intention of retiring! During the conversations people always throw in statements that include "I will potter around the garden" or "I will do some work on the house" - give me a break, please!

My father was a car worker, and for him life ended at 65. He walked out of the factory, received his pension, and within two years he had died. Is this what we have to look forward to? I sincerely believe that this doesn't have to be the case. My stated aim is to live beyond 100, and I'm going to make sure that the next 50 years are more productive and enjoyable than the first 50 years.

Integral to my desire for a long and fulfilled life is the necessity for a weight training or body building life style. Yes, you can take up weight training as a sport at any point during your life, but it's far better to have made it a commitment for life. In a recent newspaper article, Dr Miriam Nelson at Tufts University in Boston is quoted as saying "If muscle isn't stimulated, your body senses that you don't need it".

There are significant benefits to weight training whatever your age, and these benefits are described by Dr. Nelson. Of most encouragement to us all is that it's never too late, and well into our 90s our systems can be stimulated through weight training.

Diabetes is becoming increasingly common as a result of our more sedentary lifestyle, and light to moderate weight training can benefit type 2 diabetics by increasing muscle mass and decreasing insulin resistance. Exercise also benefits the heart in that it makes the lining of blood vessels more flexible, thus facilitating blood flow around the body.

Two of the most significant features of old age are sarcopenia and osteoporosis. The former involves the loss of muscle mass as we age. This may lead to increased fat deposits and it is associated with insulin resistance. It also means that we loose posture and visibly begin to shrink. Ben Hurley of the University of Maryland says that if you overload them in a gradual way, you can make the muscles bigger and stronger by making each muscle fibre thicker.


Even before we reach the age of 40 our bones stop growing and begin to gradually deteriorate. As this process outstrips the rate at which we develop new bone, osteoporosis can have an increasing effect. Again, if we follow a sensible weight training programme then bone density will improve and we will be much less susceptible to breaks and fractures caused by the bones becoming weak and brittle.

The importance of weight training and body building as key factors in the maintenance of a long and healthy life cannot be emphasized enough. Of course, there are other factors such as nutrition and mental health that need equal attention, but we need to understand that in order to enjoy life well into our 70s, 80s and even 90s physical exercise continues to be as essential as it was when we were much younger. As an educator I have frequently been told that 'learning is wasted on the young'. I totally disagree with this statement as I am a passionate advocate of 'lifelong learning'. I believe that the same is true of exercise - 'weight training is for life and not just for our youth'.

Beach Body Abs

With the return of warm weather in the spring, thoughts can never be too far behind of the approaching summer and the many wonderful outdoor activities that we'll often associate with it and among our top favorite summertime activities will always be the trip to the beach. Warm blue skies, refreshing ocean breezes, hot sand, cool waves and the many attempts at constructing the perfect sand castle; you can swear you're almost there just thinking of it. But that mental image just wouldn't be complete without also including images of hard, bronze bodies in attractive swimsuits soaking up the sun. Let's face it, attractive physiques will always be a top draw at the beach and the abs, or midsection, is the first thing that everyone notices.

But showing off beach body caliber abs certainly don't come easy. Successful ab training is a combination of a healthy, lean diet, consistent cardio work, and a comprehensive abdominal training plan. While all of that may sound daunting, it is certainly within your ability to attain a chiseled midsection that other beach goers will positively ogle at, and you certainly still have enough time to do so. This article will provide you with the steps you'll need to take to help you look your beach-body best.

Diet

The first thing you're going to have to change will be your diet. It goes without saying that even if you had the best abs in the world, it will still look pretty ordinary if a layer of bodyfat covers it. Diet plays a crucial role in defining your midsection so some modifications will be required in order for your body to look it's best. To begin with, get into the habit of using a diet log to keep track of your meals. Everyone is less likely to cheat when they know they have to write down everything they've eaten each day. An elaborate journal isn't necessary either; a simple notepad can work just fine. Also, begin switching to six small meals a day now instead of three larger ones to help rev up your metabolism as well as prevent the stretching of the stomach and the abdominal walls which occurs when one gorges themselves in food.

Next, you'll want to start creating a slight caloric deficit each day to help burn away the bodyfat. It is recommended that you work on losing only a pound or two, a week, of bodyfat. The weekly loss of any more weight than this, for the typical person, probably includes substantial amounts of water weight and muscle tissue and can wreck havoc on your metabolism. Remember, it's the bodyfat that's covering your abs that you'll want to lose so a good rule of thumb is to cut back your daily energy requirements by only around 500 calories a day.

Now if you're not sure what your daily energy requirements are for your current bodyweight (or the amount of calories you will have to consume each day to stay at your current weight), you can use this easy-to-remember formula as a guide. To estimate your daily total caloric needs, multiply 24 times 1.0 (if you're a man) or 0.9 (if you're a woman) by each kilogram of bodyweight you weigh. Then multiply that result by 1.7 (for a moderately active man) or 1.6 (for a moderately active woman).

(Men) 1.7 x 24 x 1.0 x bodyweight (in kg)

(Women) 1.6 x 24 x 0.9 x bodyweight (in kg)

To determine how many kilograms you weigh, divide your bodyweight in pounds by 2.2. Remember though that this formula is only a guide. It is highly recommended that you use the formula as a starting point, and then pay close attention to your body in order to fine-tune your calories according to how your body responds to your efforts. Look at your body in a mirror, if it doesn't appear (or feel) as if your body is losing any weight after a week or two, then reduce the amount of calories you ingest even more.

Cardio

You'll next want to start including cardio (aerobic exercises) into your weekly routine. There are few short-term options that can burn calories and strip away the bodyfat better than sessions of aerobic activities. It is no coincidence that even top-level bodybuilders will steadily increase their cardio workouts as a contest approaches to help really bring out their muscle definition. Begin by working out 3-4 times per week for 20 to 30 minutes at a time on a treadmill or a stationary exercise bike. Then work your way up to more intense sessions of at least moderate intensity for 45 minutes or longer by weeks 3 and 4. The last few weeks before you hit the beach, you'll want to include interval training into your routine to really help blast away the last few pounds of bodyfat.

Exercise

Spot-reducing your way to abdominal definition is a myth. It is impossible to localize fat loss over any one specific area of your body and is the reason why it is important for you to also watch your diet and include aerobic training if you truly wish to showcase some beach-body abs. But the inclusion of some solid abdominal training is still important for great abs. Strengthening the abdominal wall will tone and help reduce, if not prevent, any unnecessary sagging of the belly. Also, abdominal workouts will certainly develop the muscles of the ab (particularly the rectus abdominus and the external obliques) and enable them to easily become more visible, sharper and tight.

While there are literally hundreds of abdominal exercises to choose from, it is important that several considerations are first kept in mind before performing any of them. First, it is strongly recommended that you learn how to focus on feeling the contraction of your abs when exercising and really squeeze the muscle at the top of any rep. There are many individuals out there who lay claim to performing several hundred sit-ups per day, but it is the quality that counts here and not necessarily the quantity. Become more efficient when performing your abdominal exercises and allow the muscle do the work and do not use the mechanical involvement of other bodyparts or even momentum to help swing the body in order to complete any reps. Additionally, make sure that you maintain continuous tension while performing your reps and never allow your body to rest at the bottom of a movement. Finally, be sure to breathe in during the relaxation phase of your movements and exhale during the contraction phase of the reps.

Having now prepared yourself, choose three exercises to perform for your abs and complete 2 sets, of 15 - 20 reps on each exercise, three times a week. Once again, focus on squeezing the muscle at the top of the movement and go in a slow, deliberate manner during each repetition. Recommended abdominal exercises for beginners during their first week would be crunches (with legs supported on a bench), seated twists, and knee-ups or lying leg raises. As the next few weeks progresses and your conditioning improves, you will need to increase the intensity factor for the abs to really shine. Begin by increasing the number of sets of each exercise from two to three and then add additional, more advanced, movements to allow for up to five exercises for your abs. Recommended abdominal exercises during this stage could include reverse crunches, crunches on an incline board, vertical leg raises, medicine-ball twists and decline-bench twisting crunches. You literally have from hundreds of movements to choose from. During the last two weeks before you hit the beach, begin cutting back on the rest time between your sets and also start to include supersets of your exercises in which you complete one set of each exercise without stop.

While there are still other factors that could be included for consideration of your ab training, consistently eating a lean diet, performing cardio work and exercising your abs with sufficient intensity will always remain at its core. Put in the work on those three tenets of abdominal development and you'll be sure to possess a beach-body that will look great in a bathing suit and absolutely turn heads this summer!

Nathan Boyd is author of the highly rated ebook, "The Fitness Lifestyle" and the current Director of Pro Fitness of Texas. Nathan encourages everyone in their pursuit of becoming physically fit and maintaining it for a lifetime. All questions and comments are always welcomed!

5 Diet Fitness Tips You Can Use Toda

Are you ready to live a more powerful life by taking control of your
weight and physical condition? If so, here are five ideas that can
start you on the path to a healthier, slimmer body today.

1. Stop using remote controls. Remote controls are the bane of a
prospective weight loser. They may be remarkable gadgets by
themselves but from the weight loss point of view, they just aren't
very helpful.

They really encourage us to take a laid back kind of attitude
towards life itself. In fact if remote controls were not there, the
television would not have become so popular. It is because of remote
controls that people can remain where they are and switch from one
channel to the other. And they only have to twitch a finger muscle to
achieve this.

Now, I have nothing against multi-channel television sets but what I
strongly advocate is that you get up from where you are and change
the channel of the TV each time you want to do so.

2. Try massaging your partner on a regular basis. This is a fun way
to lose weight. It is something that can give your partner a lot of
pleasure and at the same time can give you a lot of exertion there by
leading to weight loss.

The attitude should of course be you scratch my back I
will scratch yours. It should not be a one sided effort or else the
interest will soon dwindle.

In fact, it is a good idea if couples take up weight loss routines
together. They can keep watch over each other, help control those
urges to eat and motivate each other to stick to the routine.

There are a lot of things that couples can do together that can help
them to keep physically active...

3. Try breathing exercises. You might be surprised to know that
breathing exercises too can lead to weight loss. If you are doing the
breathing exercises properly, you will find that you can exert a lot
of pressure on the muscles around the mid section.

You can feel a tightening of these muscles each time you breathe in
or breathe out. So go ahead and breathe properly, it is good for you.

4. Join a dance class. Dancing is a wonderful way to burn off those
extra calories. It is true. When you dance you are in fact burning
away a lot of calories. Of course we are not referring to the slow
ballroom kind of dances in which one person actually leans on the
other one for support. We are talking about fast dances.

The best way to do it is by joining a jazz or hip-hop dance class
because they will really work you out. I would suggest that you wait
for a couple more pounds to vanish before you think of becoming a
ballerina.

5. At the very least, do things like fetching, turning things off
and on by yourself. Often when we come back tired from work, we tend
to get others to do simple chores for us. These things are no big
deal. They are things that we can very well do for our selves but we
don't.

That is why we often ask our kids to fetch us this or take away that.

Training your pet is a wonderful thing indeed. It is quite
remarkable how some people get their dogs to fetch them something.
But the fact is that while you may be making sure that your dog is
getting a lot of exercise, you are neglecting your bit of the story!

Outer Triceps Workout

The outer triceps is an awesome muscle. It sticks out like a slab of muscle on your outer arm and makes your arm look thick from the front. When your standing side on the outer triceps looks like a half moon sitting there on your arm and screams POWER!

So how to do you work the tail of the triceps? Well the best known and common triceps outer head exercise is the standing triceps press down on the lat machine... but everyone does those already and there are not allot of great outer triceps out there, so what else works those little buggers?

First off any barbell or dumbbell movement with palms of hands facing up works the outside triceps more than the long or medial heads. Biggest point though is "LOCK OUT THE ARMS!" So basically keeps the palms up, or reversed and lock out and hold. Those are the most important issues to cover when targeting the outer triceps.

If you have weak wrists and cannot target your outer triceps with the palms up, then with palms down the outer triceps can only be worked specifically in moves where the upper arms never leave the side of the body (like the lat machine press down) and are fully locked out. If the arm rotates or the elbow moves forward then the long triceps is called into contraction and extension and so no outer triceps for you!

Another beauty for the triceps tail is "lying dumbbell extensions." These work the outer head of the triceps and give the shape and thickness needed for total development of the triceps as long as you lock them out and give a little twist at the top so the your palms face your head.

The last exercise that I use to work the outer triceps is "Triceps Bench Dips." This is a good exercise that works all of the triceps, but it emphasizes the outer head a little more. The great thing about this exercise is that you can push it all the way to failure, get a great pump, and your totally safe and don't need a spotter. Be careful not to let your butt drift away from the bench or you will use too much deltoid and take the outer head right out of the picture.

Here is an outer triceps workout

Reverse grip pushdown 4 sets of 8-10 reps

Super set:

Lying dumbbell extensions with a twist and Bench dips
4 sets of 10-12 reps or failure on the dips.

Here's to some wicked triceps heads!

"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU To Create Your Own Fat Free, Swimsuit Ready Body... Without Being a Spandex Wearing Gym Nut or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Personal Trainer!" (Even If You Can Barely Do A Pushup..)

Grab your free weight training workout (complete program and diet) as well as a ton of other workout routines you can read through to break through to that next level.