GET SIX-PACK ABS IN 6 SIMPLE MOVES

The hallmark of fitness is a nice six pack, because it not only represents a certain level of effort in the gym, but also maintaining a relatively low bodyfat percentage.

For this, both diet and exercise play important roles, but the reward is a set of abs that are the envy of everyone you know. Here are six ab exercises to get you that highly sought, but rarely achieved, holy grail; the six pack.

THE WORKOUT PROGRAM

Perform one set of each exercise 3 times a week. These exercises are of sufficient difficulty that one set will be a good start. Shoot for a rep range of 8-12. Once you can consistently get 15 reps with good form, and still make it through the workout, add another set.

Rest: 90-120 seconds

1) THE PIKE

Lie faceup with your legs straight, arms at your sides, palms facing down. Raise your legs and torso 45 degrees off the floor. (You should look like a "V".) Reach your hands alongside your legs as high as you can without rounding your back.

Key Point: This one is tough, but focus on contracting the abs to move your body.

2) CABLE SIDE BEND

Attach a D-handle to a low-pulley cable and stand so your left side faces the weight stack. Grasp the handle with your left hand, keeping your arm by your side, and place your right hand on your hip. With your head facing forward, slowly bend to the left. Return to standing, repeat for reps, then switch sides.

Key Point: Granted, obliques aren't abs, but this movement is an integral part of any ab workout.

3) WEIGHTED CRUNCH

Lie faceup with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Extend your arms toward your knees, holding a lightweight plate with both hands. Keeping your arms extended, slowly lift your head and shoulders off the floor moving into a full crunch.

Key Point: Again, focus on contracting your abs to do the work. Use a light weight and anchor your feet if needed.

4) OVERHEAD CRUNCH

Lie faceup with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and arms extended overhead with your hands clasped together. (Your upper arms should be alongside your ears.) Keeping your arms straight and alongside your head, curl your torso forward, raising your shoulders off the floor. Pause, then return to the start.

Key Point: Another great way to hit the abs with extra overload. Perform shortly after the Weighted Crunch for a deep burn.

5) BALL PLANKS

Get into a push-up position on an exercise ball: hands shoulder-width apart on the floor and your legs extended behind you, feet up on a ball. Maintain a straight line from head to toe, and push back slightly such that your arms are out in front of you. Hold this position for up to 60 seconds.

Key Point: This ain't your grandma's plank. Your abs and entire midsection will be screaming by the end of this.

6) WINDSHIELD WIPERS

Lie faceup and tuck your hands under your pelvis, palms down. Keeping your legs straight and feet together, raise your legs so your heels point toward the ceiling. With your head and shoulders flat on the mat, lift your glutes off the floor and lift your feet toward the ceiling. At the top of the movement, twist your hips to the left (your feet should point to the left). Lower your legs back to the start (feet suspended off the floor), then lift up and twist to the right. Alternate sides for reps.

Key Point: A great way to finish off your abs. Start with your hips on the ground if needed and progress to the exercise as described.

Source : muscleandfitness.com

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The Importance Of Lifestyle Changes When Losing Weight

When it comes down to losing weight, so many people think of it as a diet, but it would be a lot better if you were to think of it as more of a lifestyle change. When you do this, you are able to achieve your weight loss the healthy way, and reduce the risk of putting the pounds back on later in life. Let’s face it, losing weight is really hard, but putting on the pounds can be very easy. Here are a few reasons why you should make a change to your lifestyle instead of simply going on a diet.

The Healthiest Way To Shed Pounds

First and foremost, you have to consider if whether or not the way you are going about losing your weight is healthy or not. It is easy to choose fad diets because you hear about them all the time, and you see people that have had amazing results, but the truth is that most of these diets are just scams. If you aren’t going about losing weight the healthy way, then you could be doing yourself an injustice. 

Lifestyle changes, not diets, are key to losing weight. It seems that new diet plans are published almost every day. Some of these diets might even help you lose weight. But many diets are so restrictive, either in calories or in variety, that they can be unhealthy in the long term.

Remember, don’t starve yourself, just look for ways that you can improve your diet and incorporate physical activity into your day. It really is the best method of losing weight.

Keep It Off

How many times have you jumped on a fad diet bandwagon, just to find that you packed the pounds back on after you stopped the diet? This happens to so many people, and is known as yo-yo dieting. You lose weight, you gain it back, you lose weight, you gain it back, and so on. You don’t really make any definitive progress. 

Once the pounds are lost, do your best to keep the healthier weight. Make daily, even hourly, conscious decisions about eating and exercising activities. Such thinking, in many cases, can become automatic and not painful.

If you lose your weight the right way and make changes that you will use for the rest of your life, your chances of keeping the weight off will definitely be a lot higher.

You Decide Your Diet

If you don’t really want to put yourself on a ‘diet’ per se, you may want to just choose healthy foods over unhealthy foods. You can just find the foods that you enjoy that are healthy, and incorporate them into your meal plans. 

The best approach is to focus on lifestyle changes and develop an eating plan that’s enjoyable, yet healthy and low in calories. This approach results in weight loss that you can live with – that is, that you can maintain over a long period of time.

You may even want to take some of your favorite recipes and look for ways that you can improve them so that they are healthier. You don’t have to give up your favorite dishes, but you may need to tweak them just a bit so that they are better for you and will help to promote your weight loss rather than hinder it.

Just remember, when you lose your weight, you aren’t immune when it comes to gaining it back. It happens to the best of us, so make sure that the changes you make to help you lose weight are changes that you can stick to for the long haul.

Source :myweightless.com

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The 10 Rules of Weight Loss

There's no magic bullet or secret pill — sustainable weight loss does not happen overnight. If want to take off weight and keep it off for good, some major healthy lifestyle changes need to occur in order for your results to last. Here are the 10 rules to live by every day.

1. Thou Shalt Eat Breakfast

Healthy foodie trends may come and go, but breakfast is a must. People who eat breakfast regularly lose more weight, since it jump-starts your metabolism, helping your body to burn more fat. With that said, any old breakfast won't do! Follow this nutritionist-approvedweight-loss breakfast formula to choose yours wisely and start seeing results sooner.

2. Thou Shalt Keep It Clean

One of the very fastest ways to see and feel results is to cut out processed foods and fill up on fresh foods straight from the Earth. Whenever possible, opt for whole, natural foods and follow our clean eating dos and don'ts. Once you clean up your diet and cut out the junk, you'll start feeling and seeing enormous changes. After a few weeks, you'll wonder how you ever ate any other way.

3. Thou Shalt Control Portions

Even when you choose healthy foods, overeating these good-for-you choices can sabotage your weight-loss goals, and you might not even realize you're overdoing it. Use this handy printable chart to start learning about just how much constitutes one serving, or instead of eyeballing your meals, pick up some portion-control products so you can be as precise as possible.

4. Thou Shalt Welcome a Sweaty Workout Session

When it comes to working out and losing weight, 15 minutes a few times a week is simply not enough. For her clients who want to lose weight, Michelle Bridges of The Biggest Loser Australia recommends working out "six days a week, ideally for 50 to 60 minutes at a time," and you can't be afraid to go intense, feel the burn, and build up a sweat. Your clothes should not be dry when you leave the gym! Not every workout has to be a crazy sweat session, but Michelle says three of your workouts every week should be "hard" exercise like interval training in order to see results.

5. Thou Shalt Set Minigoals

As you move along on your weight-loss journey, there is so much more to revel in beyond a tiny number on the scale. Setting specific and personal minigoals like training for a race, slipping into the old pair of jeans, or grabbing heavier weights will help you stay connected and realize just how much progress you're making every day. These may seem like small wins, but they're absolutely worth celebrating.

6. Thou Shalt Drink (More) Water

You'd be surprised just how many people confuse hunger with dehydration. Keeping your water bottle full all day long keeps your body in tip-top shape and helps you steer clear of unnecessary snacking. To maximize your water intake for weight loss, dietitian Julie Upton, MS, RD, recommends "drinking about half of your body weight in fluid ounces of water (or other calorie-free beverages). Cold water provides a brief shock to your metabolism, raising it by about 30 percent so that over the course of a day, your body will burn about 100 more calories."

7. Thou Shalt Plan Ahead

Occasionally enjoying a sweet treat or special meal out are essential parts of any sustainable weight-loss plan, but it only works when you're realistic about your indulgences and learn to plan ahead. Heading to the beach next weekend? Keep your diet extraclean leading up to your getaway. This way you have a little more wiggle room to enjoy as you please. We're big believers in the 80/20 rule over here; eighty percent of the time you keep your diet clean and the other 20 percent of the day you're able to indulge freely. The math is simple: if you eat three square meals a day, three of those meals are the 20 percent of your week up for grabs.

8. Thou Shalt Strength Train

If you were fed the myth that strength training impedes weight loss and messes with results, it's time to change your tune. Strength training builds muscle mass while boosting your metabolism. You might not tip the scale, but strength training is where the real resculpting of your body happens. Once you start lifting and moving through bodyweight moves at home, you'll be hooked.

9. Thou Shalt Rest Well

Getting adequate sleep every night makes sure you have the energy to power through your workout, but it's also been proven to help curb a ravenous appetite, since those who get adequate sleep eat an average of 300 calories less than those who don't. Sleep also surprisingly fights against "fat" genes. In one study that looked at twins, the twin who slept longer had a lower BMI than the twin who did not. In short? Wind down and get to bed earlier. Your body thanks you in advance for supporting all its hard work in the kitchen and the gym.

10. Thou Shalt Remain Positive

When you treat yourself with kindness, you're able to bounce back faster and stay on track for longer. Keep a healthy sense of humor, leave room to laugh, and take it day by day. Every experience won't be perfect, but when you're kind to yourself and keep a positive outlook, this whole weight-loss thing will feel a lot easier.

Source : popsugar.com

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How to Eat Healthy, Lose Weight and Feel Awesome Every Day

On this page you will learn how to eat healthy. If you do this, you will lose weight without counting calories and feel better every single day.

Given that healthy eating can prevent serious diseases like obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease, this advice may save your life. Literally.

I don’t like to put a label on my dietary advice. It is based on scientific research, not ethics, religion or a preconceived notion of what a healthy diet should be like.

But if you want to label it, call it a “Low-Carb, Real-Food” based diet (LCRF).

What Does “Low-Carb, Real-Food” Mean?

Let me start by explaining a bit of terminology.

• A low-carbohydrate diet minimizes sugars and starches, replacing them with foods rich in protein and healthy fats.
• “Real food” means choosing foods that humans had access to throughout evolution. Processed, unnatural foods with artificial chemicals are avoided.

LCRF is not a “diet.” It is a way of eating, a lifestyle change based on bulletproof scientific evidence.

It is a way of eating that emphasizes the foods humans have evolved to eat for hundreds of thousands of years, before the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

This type of diet is proven to work better than the low-fat diet currently recommended by health authorities all around the world.

What NOT to Eat (Foods That Make You Sick And Fat)

You should avoid the following foods as if your life depended on it (it does).

• Sugar: Added sugar is addictive, highly fattening and a leading cause of diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease 
• Grains: Avoid grains if you need to lose weight, including bread and pasta. Gluten grains (wheat, spelt, barley and rye) are the worst.
•  Healthier grains like rice and oats are fine if you don’t need to lose weight.
• Seed- And Vegetable Oils: Soybean oil, corn oil and some others. These are processed fats with a high amount of Omega-6 fatty acids, which are harmful in excess 
• Trans Fats: Chemically modified fats that are extremely bad for health. Found in some processed foods 
• Artificial Sweeteners: Despite being calorie free, observational studies show a massive correlation with obesity and related diseases . If you must use sweeteners, choose Stevia.
• “Diet” and “Low-Fat” Products: Most of these “health foods” aren’t healthy at all. They tend to be highly processed and loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners. Agave syrup is just as bad as sugar.
• Highly Processed Foods: Foods that are highly processed are usually low in nutrients and high in unhealthy and unnatural chemicals.

You MUST read ingredient lists. You’ll be surprised at the amount of “health foods” that can contain sugar, wheat and other nasty ingredients.

How to Eat Healthy (Foods That Make You Feel Awesome)

You should eat natural, unprocessed foods that humans are genetically adapted to eating. Research shows that such foods are great for health .

For healthy people who exercise and don’t need to lose weight, there is absolutely no proven reason to avoid tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes, or healthier non-gluten grains like oats and rice.

If you are overweight or have metabolic issues (low HDL, high LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, belly fat, etc.) you should restrict ALL high-carb foods .

• Meat: Beef, lamb, pork, chicken, etc. Humans have eaten meat for hundreds of thousands of years. Unprocessed meat is good for you, especially if the animals ate natural foods (like beef from grass-fed cows).
• Fish: Fish is great. Very healthy, fulfilling and rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients. You should eat fish (preferably fatty fish like salmon) every week.
• Eggs: Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. The yolk is the most nutritious and healthiest part. Omega-3 eggs are best.
• Vegetables: Contain fiber and many nutrients that are essential for the human body. Eat vegetables every day.
• Fruit: Increase variety, taste good, are easy to prepare and rich in fiber and Vitamin C. They’re still pretty high in sugar, so eat in moderation if you need to lose weight.
• Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc. Rich in various nutrients, but very high in calories. Eat in moderation if you need to lose weight.
• Potatoes: Root vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes are healthy, but they’re still high in carbs. Eat in moderation if you need to lose weight.
• High-Fat Dairy: Cheese, cream, butter, full-fat yogurt, etc. Rich in healthy fats and calcium. Dairy from grass-fed cows will be rich in Vitamin K2, which is very important for health .
• Fats and Oils: Olive oil, butter, lard, etc. Choose saturated fats for high-heat cooking like pan frying, they are more stable in the heat.

• What to Drink?

  
  • Coffee: Coffee is healthy and very rich in antioxidants, but people who are sensitive to caffeine should avoid it. Avoid coffee late in the day because it can ruin your sleep.
  • Tea: Tea is healthy, rich in antioxidants and has a lot less caffeine than coffee.
  • Water: You should drink water throughout the day and especially around workouts. No reason to drink a whole ton though, thirst is a pretty reliable indicator of your need.
  • Carbonated soda without artificial sweeteners is fine.
  Avoid sodas with sugar and artificial sweeteners, fruit juice, milk and beer.
  Simple rule: Don’t drink calories.

  Consume in Moderation

  These indulgences can be enjoyed from time to time.
  • Dark Chocolate: Choose organic chocolate with 70% cocoa or more. Dark chocolate is rich in healthy fats and antioxidants.
  • Alcohol: Choose dry wines and drinks that don’t contain added sugar or carbs: vodka, whiskey, etc.

  How Many Carbs Per Day?

  
  This varies between individuals.
  Many people feel best eating very little carbs (under 50 grams) while others eat as much as 150 grams, which is still “low-carb.”
  You can use these numbers as a guideline:
  • 10-20 grams per day: Very low, can’t eat any carbs except low-carb vegetables. Appropriate if you have a lot of weight to lose or if you have diabetes and/or the metabolic syndrome.
  • 20-50 grams per day: If you need to lose weight fast. You can eat quite a bit of vegetables and one piece of fruit per day.
  • 50-150 grams per day: If you want to achieve optimal health and lower your risk of lifestyle-related disease. There is room for several fruit per day and even a little bit of healthy starches like potatoes and rice.
  When you lower carbohydrates below 50 grams per day, you can’t eat any sugar, bread, pasta, grains, potatoes and a maximum of one fruit per day.
  I recommend creating a free account on Fitday to log your food intake for a few days. This is great way to get a feel for the amount of carbs you are eating.
  Warning For Diabetics: Carbs in the diet are broken down into glucose in the digestive tract, then they enter the body as blood sugar. If you eat less carbs, you will need less insulin and glucose-lowering drugs.
  It is very dangerous if your blood sugar drops below a certain level (hypoglycemia). If you have diabetes, consult with your doctor before reducing carbohydrate intake.
  

  Why Does it Work?

  Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years.
  Our diet changed drastically in the agricultural revolution, about 10.000 years ago.
  However, this change is small compared to the massive transformation we’ve seen in the last few decades with modern food processing.
  It is quite clear that humans today are eating a diet that is very different from the diet our ancestors thrived on throughout evolution.
  There are several “primitive” populations around the world that still live as hunter-gatherers, eating natural foods. These people are lean, in excellent health and most of the diseases that are killing western populations by the millions are rare or nonexistent .
  Studies show that when people eat natural foods that were available to our hunter-gatherer ancestors (also known as the paleolithic diet), they lose weight and see massive improvements in health .
• The Hormone Insulin
  The hormone insulin is well known for its role of moving glucose from the blood and into cells. A deficiency in insulin, or resistance to its effects, causes diabetes.
  But insulin also has other roles in the body. Insulin tells fat cells to produce fat and to stop breaking down the fat that they carry. When insulin levels are high, the body chooses not to dip in to the fat stores to provide energy.
  On a western, high-carb diet, insulin levels are high all the time, keeping the fat safely “locked” away in the fat cells.
  Carbs are the main driver of insulin secretion. A low carb diet lowers and balances blood sugar and therefore lowers insulin levels .
  When insulin goes down, the body can easily access the calories stored in the fat cells, but it can take a few days to adapt to burning fat instead of carbs .
  Low carbohydrate diets are very satiating. Appetite goes down and people start to automatically eat less calories than they burn, which causes weight loss .
  The main advantage of a low-carb diet is that you can eat until fullness and lose weight without counting calories. Eat low-carb and you avoid the worst side effect of calorie restricted diets: hunger.

  Health Benefits of a Low Carb Diet

  It is a common misunderstanding, even among health professionals, that low-carb diets are somehow bad for health. People who make such claims obviously haven’t bothered to check out the research.
  Their main argument is that low-carb diets are bad because they’re high in saturated fat, which raises cholesterol and causes heart disease.
  But recent research suggests that there is nothing to worry about. Saturated fats raise HDL (the good) cholesterol and change the “bad” cholesterol from small, dense LDL (very bad) to large LDL which is benign .
  The fact is that saturated fat does NOT cause heart disease. This is simply a myth that has never been proven .
  Low-carb diets actually lead to more weight loss and further improvements in risk factors compared to a low-fat diet .
  
  1. Body Fat: A low-carb diet, eaten until fullness, usually causes more fat loss than a low-fat diet that is calorie restricted .
  2. Blood Sugar: One of the hallmarks of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome is an elevated blood sugar, which is very harmful over the long term. Low-carb diets lower blood sugar .
  3. Blood Pressure: If blood pressure is high, it tends to go down on a low-carb diet .
  4. High Triglycerides: These are fats that circulate around in the blood and are a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Low-carb diets lower triglycerides much more than low-fat diets .
  5. HDL (the good) Cholesterol: Generally speaking, having more of the “good” cholesterol means you have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Low-carb diets raise HDL cholesterol much more than low-fat diets .
  6. sdLDL (the bad) Cholesterol: Low-carb diets cause LDL cholesterol to change from small, dense LDL (bad) to large LDL, which is benign .
  7. Easier: Low-carb diets appear to be easier to stick to than low-fat diets, probably because it isn’t necessary to count calories and be hungry, which is arguably the worst side effect of dieting .
  The statements above are proven to be true in randomized controlled trials – scientific studies that are the gold standard of research.
  Yes… it is scientifically proven that a low-carb, real-food based diet causes MORE weight loss and improves health MORE than the diet that nutritionists and dietitians all around the world recommend.

  Common Low-Carb Side Effects in The Beginning

  
  When carbs in the diet are replaced with protein and fat, several things need to happen for the body to efficiently use fat as fuel.
  There will be major changes in hormones and the body needs to ramp up production of enzymes to start burning primarily fat instead of carbs. This can last for a few days and full adaptation may take weeks.
  Common side effects in the first few days include:
  • Headache
  • Feeling Lightheaded
  • Tiredness
  • Irritability
  • Constipation
  Side effects are usually mild and nothing to worry about. Your body has been burning mostly carbs for decades, it takes time to adapt to using fat as the primary fuel source.
  This is called the “low carb flu” and should be over within 3-4 days.
  On a low-carb diet, it is very important to eat enough fat. Fat is the new source of fuel for your body. If you eat low-carb AND low-fat, then you’re going to feel bad and abandon the whole thing.
  Another important thing to be aware of is that insulin makes the kidneys hold on to sodium. When you eat less carbs, the kidneys release sodium. This is one of the reasons people lose so much bloat and water weight in the first few days.
  To counteract this loss of sodium you can add more salt to your food or drink a cup of broth every day. A bouillon cube dissolved in a cup of hot water contains 2 grams of sodium.
  Many people say they feel better than ever on a low-carb diet, when the initial adaptation period is over.
  If you don’t feel good, adding more fat and sodium should take care of it.

  A Meal Plan That Can Save Your Life

  This is a sample meal plan for one week that supplies less than 50 grams of carbs per day.
  
  Day 1 – Monday:
  • Breakfast: Omelet with various vegetables, fried in butter or coconut oil.
  • Lunch: Grass-fed yogurt with blueberries and a handful of almonds.
  • Dinner: Cheeseburger (no bun), served with vegetables and salsa sauce.
  Day 2 – Tuesday:
  • Breakfast: Bacon and eggs.
  • Lunch: Leftover burgers and veggies from the night before.
  • Dinner: Boiled Salmon with butter and vegetables.
  Day 3 – Wednesday:
  • Breakfast: Eggs and vegetables, fried in butter or coconut oil.
  • Lunch: Shrimp salad with some olive oil.
  • Dinner: Grilled chicken with vegetables.
  Day 4 – Thursday:
  • Breakfast: Omelet with various vegetables, fried in butter or coconut oil.
  • Lunch: Smoothie with coconut milk, berries, almonds and protein powder.
  • Dinner: Steak and veggies.
  Day 5 – Friday:
  • Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs.
  • Lunch: Chicken salad with some olive oil.
  • Dinner: Pork chops with vegetables.
  Day 6 – Saturday:
  • Breakfast: Omelet with various veggies.
  • Lunch: Grass-fed yogurt with berries, coconut flakes and a handful of walnuts.
  • Dinner: Meatballs with vegetables.
  Day 7 – Sunday:
  • Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs.
  • Lunch: Smoothie with coconut milk, a bit of heavy cream, chocolate-flavoured protein powder and berries.
  • Dinner: Grilled chicken wings with some raw spinach on the side.
  Do your best to include a variety of vegetables in your diet. If you want to stay below 50g of carbs per day then you can safely have one piece of fruit or some berries every day.
  Organic and grass-fed foods are best, but only if you can easily afford them. Just make an effort to always choose the least processed option within your price range.

  What About Snacks?

  There is no scientific evidence that you should eat more than 3 meals per day. If you do get hungry between meals, here are a few ideas for snacks that are healthy, easily portable and taste good.
• Full-fat Yogurt
• A Piece of Fruit
• Baby Carrots
• Hard-Boiled Eggs
• A Handful of Nuts
• Leftovers
• Some Cheese and Meat.
• 
  

Source :authoritynutrition.com

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Here's How To Get Big Biceps

Training the biceps is a must. This article will provide an overview of the best exercises available and a full training program and tips!

In bodybuilding everybody wants big biceps, as they are a most impressive area to develop, and given their high visibility and superficiality, signify strength perhaps like no other body part. When someone asks, "flex a muscle" they do not want to see your calves. It is the biceps that are usually requested.

Also, the greatest professional bodybuilding champions are usually those who are known for tremendous biceps size and shape. From the Austrian Oak, Arnold Schwarzenegger, through to current Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, great champions usually possess great biceps.

The biceps grouping (anatomically known as the biceps brachii), of which there are two heads (the short head or outer biceps and the long head, or inner) comprise the upper portion of the upper arm and are responsible for elbow flexion (moving the hand toward the shoulder), elbow supination (rotating the palm upward) and shoulder flexion/transverse flexion.

Also associated with the biceps, although not part of their anatomical structure, are the brachialis and brachioradialis, muscles that are situated on the side of the arm between biceps and triceps, and connect the main bicep muscle to the forearm respectively.

Training the biceps will involve training these muscles also, as they allow for greater overall upper arm size, and the illusion of a larger biceps from top to bottom.

To become a bodybuilding champion or just someone who would like to look great on the beach, training the biceps and associated muscles is a must. This article will provide an overview of the best exercises currently available, a full training program and tips to get the most from the methods presented.

THE BEST BICEPS EXERCISES

Personal experience - through training numerous clients and myself - has shown me that certain biceps exercises are superior to others. The best biceps movements, collectively known as the "mass-builders," are those that provide the greatest stimulus across both the long and the short heads.

Therefore, using the four exercises shown in this article - the standing barbell curl, one-arm preacher curl, incline dumbbell curl and hammer curl (in my experience, by far the best for building massive size) - will help you to achieve your size building goals at a faster rate.

Isolation exercises, such as various cable and machine movements, do have their place, especially as a contest approaches and one wants to etch more detail, or when a bodybuilder has sufficient mass and seeks to create more definition, but for building a good base of solid muscle they are largely unnecessary and it is best to stick with the basics initially to build the best foundation.

In addition to building great biceps size, the basic exercises will also create the type of shape your biceps will adopt (which is largely determined by genetics) as they will stimulate a greater cross-section of the muscle. Here are the best exercises, an explanation on how to perform them and they reasons why they are used.

Read More at :www.bodybuilding.com

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THE COMPLETE 4-WEEK BEGINNER'S WORKOUT PROGRAM

In the realm of fitness, three-month programs dominate the landscape. You’ve even seen plenty of them in this magazine over the years. Are they effective? Absolutely. But we’re going to let you in on an interesting secret: It doesn’t necessary take eight or 12 weeks to get your feet wet in the gym. Not that you’ll be a seasoned vet after four weeks, but if you can just get that first month under your belt, you’ll get yourself over the proverbial hump where so many fail and give up, and set the stage for a lifetime of gains.

 Let’s just call this the accelerated beginner’s guide to bodybuilding. In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding, but not so demanding as to cause injury (or worse yet, burnout), and progressive in the sense that each week you’ll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. After four weeks you’ll not only be ready for the next challenge but you’ll have built a significant amount of quality muscle. In other words, one month from now you’ll look significantly better with your shirt off than you look now. (How’s that for results?)

This program isn’t just for the true beginner who has never touched a weight before; it’s also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training. How long has it been since you went to the gym regularly? Six months? A year? Five years? No worries: The following routines will get you back on track in — you guessed it — just four short weeks. Let’s get to work.

WEEK 1: WHOLE IN ONE
You’ll begin the program with a full-body training split, meaning you’ll train all major bodyparts in each workout (as opposed to “splitting up” your training). Train three days this first week, performing just one exercise per bodypart in each session. It’s important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Friday — with Saturday and Sunday being rest days — a good approach.

The exercises listed in Week 1 are a collection of basic moves that, while also used by advanced lifters, we feel are suitable for the beginner as well. Notice we’re not starting you off with only machine exercises; a handful of free-weight movements are present right off the bat. Reason being, these are the exercises you need to master for long-term gains in muscular size and strength, so you may as well start learning them now. Carefully read all exercise descriptions, starting on page, before attempting them yourself.

In Week 1 you’ll perform three sets of every exercise per workout, which over the course of the week adds up to nine sets total for each bodypart, a good starting volume for your purposes. With the exception of crunches for abs, you’ll do 8–12 reps per set. This rep scheme is widely considered ideal for achieving gains in muscle size (the scientific term is hypertrophy) and is commonly employed by amateur and pro bodybuilders alike.

Notice in the workouts below that your first set calls for eight reps, your second set 10 reps and your third set 12. This is referred to in bodybuilding circles as a “reverse pyramid” (a standard pyramid goes from higher to lower reps), where you decrease the weight each set to complete the higher rep count. For example, if on your first set of lat pulldowns you used 140 pounds for eight reps, try using 120 or 130 pounds on set two and 100–120 pounds on set three.

WEEK 2: SPLIT DECISION
You’re only a week into the program, yet you’ll begin to train different bodyparts on different days with a two-day training split (meaning the entire body is trained over the course of two days, rather than one as in the first week). You’ll train a total of four days this week; the split includes two upper-body days (Monday and Thursday) and two lower-body days (Tuesday and Friday), and each bodypart is trained twice. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday will be your recovery days.

Several exercises from Week 1 are carried over to Week 2, but one move is added to each bodypart routine — with the exception of abs — so you can train all muscle groups more completely from multiple angles. Chest, for example, includes two exercises: One is a compound movement (dumbbell bench press) that involves multiple joints (both the shoulder and elbow) to work the largest amount of muscle possible, and the other is an isolation exercise (dumbbell flye) that involves only one joint (shoulder) and targets the pecs to a greater extent. (When doing presses for chest, the deltoids and triceps are involved to a degree, meaning presses don’t isolate the pecs as much as flyes do.)

You’ll again employ a reverse pyramid scheme of reps, though in Week 2 you’ll go slightly higher in reps (15) on your third set of each exercise. Fifteen reps may be just outside the ideal muscle-building range, but these sets will help you increase muscular endurance to provide a solid foundation on which to build size and strength going forward.

WEEK 3: THREE ON THREE 
In the third week of the program we step it up to a three-day training split: Train all “pushing” bodyparts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the “pulling” bodyparts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. As in Week 2, you train each bodypart twice a week, so you’ll hit the gym six days this week.

One new exercise is added to each bodypart routine to provide even more angles from which to train your target muscles to promote complete development. You’ll hit each muscle group with two exercises of 3­–4 sets each: four sets for large bodyparts (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings) and three sets for smaller bodyparts (biceps, triceps, abs, calves). The result is 16 total sets for the week for large bodyparts and 12 sets total for smaller ones — again, working in the 8–15-rep range — which is a substantial increase in volume from Week 1.

WEEK 4: TURNING UP THE VOLUME 
In the fourth and final week of the program, you’ll train four days in a four-way split that hits each bodypart just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Four-day splits are common among experienced lifters because they involve training fewer bodyparts (typically 2–3) per workout, which gives each muscle group ample attention and allows you to train with higher volume. As you’ll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders. Shoulders are trained more or less on their own, and you’ll alternate hitting calves and abs — which respond well to being trained multiple times per week — every other workout. No new exercises are introduced in Week 4 so that you can focus on intensity in your workouts instead of learning new movements.

Rep schemes remain in the hypertrophy range this week, but overall volume increases by adding more sets to individual exercises: up to five sets per move for larger bodyparts, and even 10 sets of calf raises on Thursday. This bump in volume will ensure that your muscles are overloaded sufficiently to continue the growth they’ve already begun experiencing in the first three weeks. Completion of this four-week program now entitles you to go to the next stage.

Source :muscleandfitness

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