Thursday, April 19, 2007

How Much Weight Can I Lose In A Week?











Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could lose 5 pounds or 10 pounds of weight the week before that important function? Well, that is definitely not going to happen. Let us take a look at how much weight you can lose in a week.

The following guidelines are subject to you doing the following.

You need to increase your metabolism by eating smaller and more regular meals throughout the day. In addition, you need to perform specific fat burn exercises for between 30 to 60 minutes per day.

Your body will never burn fat only. It always burns a combination of fat and carbohydrates (glucose). During periods of elevated exercise your body just happens to prefer burning fat cells, but at the same time it still burns carbohydrates as well.

For your body to lose 1 pound of fat it needs to burn around 3500 calories.

Given this information we can now calculate how much weight you can expect to lose doing certain fat burn exercises.

When you go to the gym and do moderate cycling for one hour on a stationary bike you burn around 600 calories. If you did this for six consecutive days you would have lost around 1 pound of fat.

If you do vigorous calisthenics for one hour you burn around 700 calories. Hence, if you did vigorous calisthenics for five consecutive days you would have lost 1 pound of fat.

Going for a brisk walk for one hour in the neighborhood burns around 350 calories. You will need to go for your one-hour brisk walks for 10 consecutive days before you would've lost 1 pound of fat.

I think you're beginning to get the picture. Despite all the hype that is thrown at you by many product manufacturers, healthy weight loss is a relatively slow process that requires patience and endurance.

Provided that you control your diet and that you perform a moderate to vigorous level of exercise for one hour every day you can expect to lose around 1 pound of fat per week.

One pound of fat does not sound like a lot. Put 1 pound of margarine in a plastic bag and look at just how much it really is. Once you understand how much 1 pound of fat really is, you will know how much you've accomplished by losing it.

Your individual results might vary from this guideline. Your rate of fat burn and your weight loss depend on so many different factors including your physiology and state of health, amongst other things.



Tisha Diaz recommends this fat loss and weight control program that will help you get rid of those excess pounds and help you reach and maintain a healthy body weight.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Bodyweight Exercises: Top 10 Exercises Without Weights











If you hate to go to the gym, you are not alone. The good news is - you can get results in the comfort of your own home with some simple home bodyweight exercises.

Bodyweight training CAN be effective. It CAN be a substitute for weights, if necessary. Training using your own body weight as a source of resistance is a time tested technique to get results fast.

Here are the ten best bodyweight training exercises that give you great workouts and great results - without the gym.

1. Supine Pull-Ups (works major muscles in back, shoulders, and biceps) Use two chairs and a pole - a heavy broom handle works well. WARNING: make sure the chairs are stable and that the broom handle is strong enough to take your weight. You could be SEVERELY injured if the pole were to break or the chairs to slip. Lie on your back underneath a low bar. Grab the bar with a wide overhand grip. Pull up. Lower and repeat for 6-8 reps.

2. Supine Biceps Pull-Ups (biceps, some back) Use the same chairs-and-pole arrangement from #1. Sit underneath a low bar. Grab the bar with a reverse grip (palms facing you), hands about shoulder-width apart. Keeping your body upright, pull up until your chin just clears the bar. Focus on the tension in your biceps, trying to relax the rest of your body. 6-8 reps.

3. Push-Ups (chest, triceps, shoulders) The key when targeting the chest with Push-Ups is the direction in which your elbows travel. As with bench presses, the elbows must move AWAY FROM THE BODY to target your chest, and be kept CLOSE TO THE BODY to target the triceps. Place each hand just outside your shoulders, slightly behind the line of your shoulders. Hands pointing straight ahead, upper body rigid as a board. 6-15 reps.

4. Tent Push-Ups (primarily upper chest) Assume the position in #3, but walk your feet forward so your body is bent at the waist, and your hips are up high in the air. Bending at the elbows, lower yourself until your nose touches the floor. Push up. Repeat. 6-8 reps.

5. Push-Ups, Triceps Position (you guessed it - triceps, and some chest) Begin with fingers facing forward in position from #3, hands slightly LESS than shoulder width apart. Lower your body to the floor keeping arms in against your body. Push up. 6-8 reps.

6. Triceps Dips With Chairs With your hands behind your back, support yourself on your palms at the edge of a chair. Your hands should be touching; your elbows should angle outward. Dipping in this position relieves a lot of stress on the elbow and shoulder joints. Lower yourself, keeping your back close to the chair. Bend your elbows back and slightly to the sides. Keep your body angled slightly forward throughout the motion. Press yourself up until your arms are straight. 6-15 reps.

7. One-Legged Squats (front thighs, glutes, hamstrings) Stand perpendicular to a wall, about arm's length away from it. Extend your arm out to the side and place your palm against the wall at just under shoulder-height. Angle the foot farthest from the wall at 45 degrees. Bend the other leg back. Keeping your body upright, lower yourself until the non-weight-bearing knee is close to (but not touching) the ground. Support yourself by leaning against the wall. Press yourself back up to starting position. Repeat 6-8 reps.

8. One-Legged Hamstring Bridges Lie on your back with one leg extended, heel on the ground. Hold the other leg up off the floor. Pushing through your heel, flex your hamstrings to lift your body. Lower and repeat for 8-10 reps. Repeat with other leg. You can control the resistance and the degree to which the glutes contribute by changing the distance you place your heel relative to your butt.

9. Lunges Begin the lunge by taking a large step forward, keeping your head up and torso erect. Lower your hips and allow your trailing knee to drop to a point just before it touches the floor - never let the knee touch the floor. To return to the start, push off with your forward leg and then step back when the knee is completely straight. Repeat with other leg, 10-15 reps each leg.

10. Stair Running Stair running isn't usually considered a resistance exercise, and in fact, it makes hefty demands on your cardiovascular system. However, it also does an incredible job of conditioning the lower body. If your knees are in good shape, try doing 10-20 one-story sprints, preferably two stairs at a time. As you get stronger, work up the number slowly, keep one hand on the stair rail to catch yourself if you lose your balance. Give yourself a bigger challenge by wearing a backpack filled with nice and heavy books.

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To read reviews on home exercise equipment and learn how to choose the best exercise gadgets for your needs, visit Nitin Chhoda's new site guide to exercise equipment.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Bodyweight Exercise: 20-Minute Fat Burning Workout Secrets











Zach Even-Esh: Craig, thanks for taking the time out of your insane schedule to talk with us. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your clientele and your overall training philosophy.

Answer: Zach, I'm a Strength & Conditioning coach in Toronto and I write for Men's Fitness magazine. I work extensively with clients on advanced fat loss and muscle building and with young athletes.

ZEE: We have a growing number of hard core corporate / executive members on our site. They are leading busy lives running their own business or managing companies but they love to train hard, except they need to do so with short intense work outs. How do you train individuals like this and still get kick ass results?

Answer: I use supersets, moderately heavy weights (allowing 6-10 reps per set), limited rest interval periods, advanced bodyweight exercises, and interval training. These efficient and effective principles are the foundation of my Training philosophy.

These workouts are designed to crank up the body's metabolism because of the intense demands imposed during the workouts.

After the workout, your body has to work hard (i.e. burn calories and repair muscle) to fully recover and return to a normal, resting state (that is why I compare Training workouts to the Turbulence encountered in an airplane - a neat little analogy that the magazines really love).

I tend to stick with traditional weight training Bodyweight exercises, however, it is easy to adapt the Training principles when using strongman implements and advanced bodyweight exercises.

For intervals, I tend to stick with 30 seconds of work and 90 seconds of active recovery, although it will vary between workout phases and for athletes of different sports.

The great thing about heavy weights and intervals is efficiency. You don't have to do either for more than 20 minutes to get a great response. So if you are a busy Bodyweight executive looking to get lean, build muscle, and lose fat, you can get a great workout and shower in less than 30 minutes per day. Combine Training with the right nutrition, and you are well on your way to success.

ZEE: You're known for using training not just for getting people to look better, but for greater performance with your athletes. How do you incorporate TT with your athletes?

Answer: This system is like the Conjugate System used by Westside. You are able to modify the specific details so that anyone can use the general principles. You just have to modify the workouts based on the goals and current condition of the individual.

I will modify the traditional fat Loss workouts for athletes by adding supersets of Athletic Movement Training (my terms for a dynamic flexibility and warm-up), and then making sure that the strength training component focuses on the posterior chain (i.e. glute ham raises, wide-stance squats, RDL's, etc.).

Then we will modify the interval training so that it is sport-specific (I believe that conditioning is the only training method that we can give the term, "sport-specific").

ZEE: If you were limited to a 20 minute work out with an executive client, what would that work out look like? Take us through a work out here.

Answer: Providing the individual is injury free, we will move through a general warm-up circuit of bodyweight exercises (3 minutes), and then into specific warm-up sets for the first superset of bodyweight exercises (2 minutes).

Then we will spend 5 minutes on the first superset pair of exercises, and then 4-5 minutes on another superset pair. We might finish with a third superset pair or some ab work, and a 2 minute cool-down if it is necessary based on the individual's fitness level.

On non-weight training days, we would do intervals. It would look like this: 5-minute warmup 12-minutes on intervals 3-minute cooldown

Flexibility and mobility would be addressed on the client's own time or in a separate session. Generally, there is a great amount of mobility developed from the exercise selection on training days.

ZEE: With regards to nutrition playing a role in how a person looks and performs, do you help guide your clients in a specific direction with what they should / should not do in this realm?

Answer: I like to mash up a variety of nutritional expert's advice into my own approach.

It's mostly a John Berardi-based approach, but I might not be as picky as he is with certain meals. Basically, I start with 200-250g of protein per day for a man (depending on size) and then go with 30% fat and then the remainder is carbohydrate.

Then I split that up into 8 meals preferably (6 for busy people, but no less). I think it is important to have, as Berardi recommends, a serving of high-fiber, high-nutrient vegetables with each meal. If you have a high-fiber diet, you will control your appetite and blood sugar.

I don't think that people need to exclude fruit from their eating (in fact we should aim to eat at least 3 servings, and preferably berries, grapefruits, apples, and oranges), but instead we should avoid white, processed carbohydrates from a bag or a box.

Foods that should be in every healthy person's nutrition plan:

Green Tea Almonds Broccoli Berries A variety of lean protein sources Basically, for nutrition, just choose healthy, whole natural food.

ZEE: Last question Craig. What is the greatest misconception that you find people to have when it comes to performing better and looking better when they come to you. In other words, they tell you everything they have been doing in hopes of getting results but the results simply aren't there. Are there any common mistakes going on here?

Answer: Most of the time I try and get people to be honest with themselves and realize they have to change things if they want to improve.

A lot of people really just want me to approve their current workout (when it is clearly not working). But in reality, they have to change their workouts drastically to finally get results.

And most people think they are eating better and using a better program than they really are.

Even when most people they list out their food intake (as I have them all do on fitday.com), some people (including some trainers that I train) still don't see the obvious problems in their diet.

I suppose it is human nature not to see our own shortcomings, so it is helpful to have a professional review your training and nutrition or even an honest, knowledgeable friend.


http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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