The Best Ways To Lose Fat

Hi all:

I wanted to talk a bit about the old-fashioned body weight exercises. Too many times we’re told that we have to have all this equipment to work out effectively. You know, we need a bench and barbells and dumbbells and this and that, etc. But excess equipment just looks pretty and takes up space. Makes great hangers for clothes but is it really necessary? Do you actually use it all? I’d guess not.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve achieved my goals so far with minimal equipment. A slant board, some dumbbells, a chin up bar and a stationary bike. That’s it. And with just that and a change in my diet, I’ve dropped to my current weight of 184 pounds from 230. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

But I don’t do all of my exercise with even this much equipment. Some of the best exercises are done with just your body weight. And you know the ones, don’t you? They’re the exercises most of us learned in school. Push ups, pull ups, dips and crunches. Except for the pull ups, for which you need a secure bar, you don’t really need anything but your own body and some determination for these exercises.

The good old push up is a fantastic chest and arm exercise. Remember to keep your body straight as a board at all times when performing the push up. If you are just starting out, support your lower body with your knees instead of your toes. If you do the push up with your hands close together, you target your inner chest muscles. Hands further out targets your outer chest. This also works the arms, especially the triceps.

Pull ups target the arms. Doing a chin up with your hands curled under, palms facing toward you, is a great bicep work out. Palms facing out, away from you, works your lower arms and some upper arm muscle as well. If you hang from the bar, you can do leg raises, which is an incredible ab workout…and very tough when you first start out!

Dips are for the triceps. Sit on the edge of a sturdy chair, one that won’t tip forward, slide your legs straight out and support your body with your arms on the edge of the chair. Then dip down and back up. Intense burn on the triceps!

And finally crunches are crunches. No equipment needed. If you are wondering about cardio, buy a skipping rope, turn up the tunes and start skipping! It’s cheap and one of the best overall cardio work outs there is.

So there you have it. Cheap, easy and effective exercise with minimal equipment. All you need is a goal, some determination and the will to follow through. Try the body weight exercises. You may find that after all this time, it will feel like meeting old friends again!

Take care,
Dave.

Hi all:

Have you heard about the P90X system? To be honest, it took a nudge from my nephew, who is a workout junkie like his uncle, to clue me in. It’s sweeping the net and I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.

Basically what the P90X system does is take you, in 90 days, from where you are to what seems an incredible level of fitness. And it does this by doing what I’ve been preaching all along…constantly changing up the routines, changing the types of exercises and cardio you do and basically shocking the body all along the process so that it doesn’t get a chance to adapt and hit that dreaded plateau.

Now any system that follows this philosophy has got my attention. So here’s what I’ve decided to do. As many of you know, I’m a great believer in less is more. You don’t need a gym full of weights and machines to get a great workout. P90X is the same. Not a lot of equipment needed. I like that. So I’m ordering the course and I will follow it for 90 days. I need a change anyway and it sounds like a challenge!

I will let you know when I get the course and start and will keep you updated on my progress. And yes, I will take before pics this time! So stay tuned to the blog and see what happens. I’m looking forward to it!

By the way, the link to the P90X product page is here. And no, it’s not an affiliate link, so no worries!

Take care,
Dave.

Hi all:

There’s a great article at Fitness Black Book about adjusting your cardio workout to match your diet. Excellent advice! Please check it out here.

Remember, cardio is an integral part of weight loss. Without it, your weight loss journey will probably not be a permanent part of your life. It’s that important!

Take care.
Dave.

Hi all:

When you have to fit an exercise routine into your schedule, you might be tempted to skip the warm up routine, even though you’ve heard stories about people (like me!) getting injured while working out. But don’t! Really, just don’t. When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body at risk of injury, but you’re also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.

Warming up doesn’t have to use up the time allotted for your exercise. A decent workout only has to be 5 to 10 minutes long to do its job. And it doesn’t have to be boring. You can mix up a number of moves to make your warm up fun. Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving. Warming up is also important regardless of if you’re doing cardio or weight training.

The moves you do for a warm up shouldn’t be difficult or make you break a sweat (but sweating a bit is quite acceptable!). The main goal of the warm up is to slowly move the muscles to wake them up. Good movement includes jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, lunging, and skipping rope.

A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles. This is also effective as a cool-down. And consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.

If you’re really short on time, try warming up before you get to the gym. Slowly jog or power walk to the gym, park as far away as possible and jog to the door. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Then, when you get to the gym to work out, your warm up is already half way done.

Good workouts always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don’t warm up. Otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, that is never a good idea.

So remember, a few minutes of warming up can save you a lot of future pain. Remember my rotator cuff!

Take care.

Dave.

Hi all:

When do you work out? Not which days, but what time of day. We’ve all heard the theories: work out as soon as you wake up on an empty stomach so that your body burns more fat or work out after a meal so that your body has the energy for an intense effort, etc.

Well, I can tell you what I do, whether it’s right or not is for you to decide. But it works for me. =)

I work out in the evening, an hour or two after I eat dinner (which is usually around 7 o’clock. Now, my main reasons for working out then are 1) if I work out in the morning, unlike some people I don’t feel energized all day, I feel tired, sore and laggy. 2) I believe that if I work out in the evening, and then go to bed an hour or so later, my body spends the night healing from the exercise. I’m not dragging my ass around all day as my muscles try to do more on top of the beating I gave them in the morning.

Plus, I’m half asleep in the morning till about noon (not a morning person, folks). I just don’t feel like beating myself up at 7 a.m. If you do, hey whatever floats your boat!

In the morning, I’m doing well finding both my socks and having them turn out to be the same color! Anyway, that’s when I work out. When do you work out?

Take care;

Dave.

Hi folks;

I wanted to share some advice on lifting weights and avoiding injury, especially for those just starting out.

When I began my journey in early October, I made the single most common mistake of all of us who haven’t been fit for a while and want to see results fast. I started lifting too much weight too soon.

You see, you can’t follow the theme of more is better…it doesn’t work! Your body will develop at its own pace regardless and over-night results won’t happen. They are, in fact, physically impossible to achieve for anyone, of any age!

But, because I had determined to get back into shape (in fact, I want to be in the best shape of my life!), I started lifting heavy. Too heavy. And I developed one of the most common injuries in weight lifting…a rotator cuff injury.

Here are the facts about the RC, from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons:

The rotator cuff is the network of four muscles and several tendons that form a covering around the top of the upper arm bone (humerus). These muscles form a cover around the head of the humerus. The rotator cuff holds the humerus in place in the shoulder joint and enables the arm to rotate.

Rotator cuff tear is a common cause of pain and disability among adults. Most tears occur in the supraspinatus muscle, but other parts of the cuff may be involved.

The rotator cuff helps to lift and rotate the arm and to stabilize the ball of the shoulder within the joint. The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and their tendons. These combine to form a ” cuff ” over the upper end of the arm (head of the humerus).

The four muscles of the cuff (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor muscles) are attached to the scapula on the back through a single tendon unit. The unit is attached on the side and front of the shoulder on the greater tuberosity of the humerus.

The rotator cuff can be torn from a single traumatic injury. Patients often report recurrent shoulder pain for several months and a specific injury that triggered the onset of the pain. A cuff tear may also happen at the same time as another injury to the shoulder, such as a fracture or dislocation.

Most tears, however, are the result of overuse of these muscles and tendons over a period of years. People who are especially at risk for overuse are those who engage in repetitive overhead motions. These include participants in sports such as baseball, tennis, weight lifting, and rowing.

Rotator cuff tears are most common in people who are over the age of 40. Younger people tend to have rotator cuff tears following acute trauma or repetitive overhead work or sports activity.

In my case, I can pinpoint exactly what I did to injure my RC…bicep curls using dumbbells that were too heavy. That’s it! Simple and avoidable and I did it anyway. And let me tell ya, it hurts like hell and continues to do so.

Now, I’ve since learned to warm up before I start lifting and I’m doing some specific exercises to help to rehabilitate my RC and heal it, but it takes time, patience and has set me back a bit on reaching my goals. However, I will still get there, if only because pain never stops me, it just makes me cranky and determined! =)

But I wanted to share this with you folks in the hope that you can avoid doing what I did. It’s not fun and it is so easy to NOT injure yourself that I hope you will now know to warm up and increase your weight load slowly as you start to get fit.

Good luck on your own journey!

Dave.

Hi folks;

There’s a bit of a debate going on on-line about ab exercises and which ones are the best (and worst) to use to tone and define the abdominal muscles.

The debate basically stems from the question of how the abs should be treated. Are they actually one muscle group? Or are they several muscle groups that should be worked on individually? Well, here are my thoughts for whatever they are worth.

I’ve applied exercises to the abs coming from both directions…i.e. treating the abs as one muscle group and “just” doing one major exercise for them (with variations like twists added) and as several separate muscle groups and hitting them from different directions. And the results from this (totally subjective and unscientific) experiment were interesting.

My favorite ab exercise has always been the incline crunch. That is, using a slant board and crunching several inches up and then back for as many reps/sets as I can do in one session. After the body adapted to the point where I could do 12 reps and 3 sets, I added weight, holding a 10 pound dumbbell to my chest, then as time went on adding more weight.

My theory for this exercise is simply that since I am on an incline, my entire group of ab muscles are involved in the movement, starting with the lower abs as I begin my crunch and working the mid and upper abs as I continue through the entire movement. And using heavier and heavier weight, to failure, encourages muscle growth rather than simple toning. To tone, I would have simply increased my number of reps per set rather than add weight. Btw, I don’t like sit-ups and I discourage anyone from doing them, simply because the lower back and hip flexors get involved in the exercise and there’s a real chance of injury from that exercise.

I also went at the abs from the other direction. That is, I would do regular crunches and also add hip thrusts and/or leg lifts to work the lower abs separately. I also did “the bicycle” routine for awhile, which has been recognized by researchers at the American Council on Exercise as “the best” ab exercise out there. And I have to agree that it is an excellent workout for the abs. However, you can only add weight to “the bicycle” if you use wrist and/or ankle weighs, which is an added expense and a waste of money, IMO.

So, which is the best way to work on the abs? Well, try them all! And then go with the one(s) that you enjoy and feel will do the best job on your abs. Personally, I will stick to my incline crunches. I’m getting great depth/definition from this workout, I can freely add weight as I go and my risk of injury is minimal. But of course your mileage may vary!

As always, good luck on your personal journey!

Dave.

Hi folks:

I wanted to comment about how someone who is over fifty (barely, thank you!) feels as they begin to work out…after not working out and being unfit for a decade or so. Let’s call this a word to the wise (or, it’s gonna hurt for a while!).

It’s true for all of us, at any age. If you’ve been sedentary for some time, starting an exercise regime is tough. Really tough. Yep, we have the best of intentions when we start off; see if this sounds familiar…I’m overweight and tired all the time, think I’ll hit the gym and drop a few pounds. How about this one: I dunno, I’m starting to show my age…think I’ll start banging the iron and get back in shape.

Sound like someone you know? Of course it does. And it’s a good start. It’s motivation and we all need it to start down our own fitness path. But as they say, talk is cheap. Very cheap. What often happens is that you jump right into this new lifestyle. And you over do it. You injure yourself, or you don’t see results in a week, or you’re embarrassed that everyone else in the gym is younger/stronger/fitter (pick one or more) than you are. And that motivation starts to drain away.

Don’t let it! I’m serious here. Don’t let your perceptions change your drive to get into better shape. A question that I ask myself on a regular basis (when I feel like giving up, and I do occasionally) is this: In a year from now, if I stop working out, if I go off my diet (food plan), if I start using the stationary bike as a clothes hanger, what will I look like? And will I be happy with that result?

That’s the question you need to ask yourself, right now. Look in the mirror and decide if you will enjoy what you see in a year from now, or five years, or more, if you don’t change your lifestyle. If you can answer yes without hesitation, great! Call Dominos and order a large with extra cheese and have a terrific life!

For those of you who said no, and are over fifty, do NOT let the prospect of pain stop you from starting. Let me tell you right now, it’s gonna hurt. At first. Well, okay, it’s gonna hurt for awhile. But something really cool happens if you fight through the sore muscles, the aches and creaky joints. It goes away! It really does. And soon you will relish the (temporary) soreness that follows a good workout.

That soreness tells you that your muscles have been challenged, that they are rebuilding and getting stronger. It’s actually quite exciting..okay, it is for me but I’m funny that way.

Anyway, that’s my motivational kick in the pants for today. I know that I was reluctant to begin my journey partly from the discomfort that I knew would inevitably follow. But I just said screw that!, and carried on. And you can too!

Til next time, stay on the path!

Dave.

Hi folks:
here’s a great video on how to burn fat using High Intensity Interval Training. I use it myself and the results are great! Plus, you spend less time doing cardio…which is great ’cause I personally find cardio boring as hell! Check it out and enjoy!

Hi folks!

Here are three great ab exercises using a stability ball. They are straight forward and will really work your abs. Watch the video and give them a try. You will feel the burn!

Okay, this is the second 8 minute workout. Again, just bear with the music (it kinda grows on you after a while!). And this too is a killer routine, takes all of 8 minutes and not only works the arms but the upper body as well. Check it out and enjoy!

Hi folks,

I found a couple of great workout videos on YouTube, Now, they are old (made in  1994, I believe) and the music is…well, the music is interesting. However, the exercises are killer and all routines can be done in 8 minutes! Take a look, you might be inspired. I know I was!

Okay, as we’ve already discussed in an earlier post, spot reduction of body fat DOES NOT WORK. Sorry but I needed to emphasize that! However, if you, like me, want to see real progress in your workout and diet program, then you want to see your abs, right?

For guys, it’s the ultimate proof that we are doing it right. For ladies, a slim, curved stomach adds a femininity that catches the eye…and holds it!

So in doing some research, I’ve found a great new program that will get you there from here. It’s called Truth About Abs.

The author, Michael Geary, walks the walk. He is a fitness expert (a real one!) who has discovered some great techniques to reducing fat and really developing the abs that we all want.

He publishes an online fitness newsletter that is read by more than 320,000 people in over 150 countries and has written several books on fitness and physical health. His program is straight-forward, no mumbo-jumbo and it works.

If you want to take a look and judge for yourself, just follow the link below. Enjoy!

Click Here To Check It Out!

Hi all,

A terrific exercise regime that I’ve been using for a while now is call Body-FOR-Life. It was originally designed by Bill Phillips, a bodybuilder and expert in exercise and nutrition. They have a 12 week challenge that helps to motivate those of us (like me) who sometimes need a kick in our complacency to get started on a program.

The theory behind the program is simple but profound. You see, the body reacts to physical stress by adapting and strengthening itself. That’s why lifting weights helps to not only build lean muscle but strengthens the bones as well.

But many of us make the mistake of thinking that if we spend 2 hours in a gym doing light to moderate lifting, that this will give us great results. Uh-uh. Doesn’t work that way. You NEED to stress your body beyond its comfort zone in order to burn fat and build muscle.

And that’s where the Body-FOR-Life program comes in. You only need to less than an hour of weight training, every other day, to build muscle and transform your body. The days in between you do cardio…20 minutes worth. And one day a week you rest. Sounds easy, right? Well, IT IS! But, there’s a caveat. The workouts are intense. You do heavy sets in a short amount of time and when you’re done, if you are pushing your limits as you should be, you are basically a pile of jello.

But you feel great, your body changes quiickly and, if you dislike gyms as much as I do, you can do all the exercises at home with some basic weights.

That’s it. Check out the link below and see what you think. I highly recommend this program.

Body-for-Life