Best Time to Do Cardio Exercise

Morning is the best time for Cardio as the carbohydrates are to a minimum at this time.

Another time to perform is after a Weight Training Session as your body has depleted carbs and while cardio will use up body fat for energy. But if you want to do it later in the day just ensure that you do cardio on empty stomach.

The fat burning benefits of doing cardio exercise in a fasted state don’t appear to be anywhere near as significant as most people incorrectly make it out to be. In fact, the more fat you have to lose, the less these benefits exist in the first place.

Which means in many cases, the advantages might not truly be big enough to warrant going out of your way to do these workouts fasted.

At the same time, while this might technically be the best time to do it in terms of weight loss, fasted morning cardio (specifically when done at the moderate to high intensity it usually is) is the worst way to do it in terms of performance (meaning it will be harder for most people if they don’t eat something first) and probably for maintaining muscle while losing fat as well.

Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrates) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m. and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that's 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you'll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.

100 Pushups a Day

If you're serious about increasing your strength, follow this six week training program and you'll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive push ups!

Think there's no way you could do this? I think you can! All you need is a good plan, plenty of discipline and about 30 minutes a week to achive this goal!

No doubt some of you can already do 50 consecutive push ups, but let's face it, you're in a big minority. Most of you reading this won't even be able to manage 20 pushups. Actually, I'm sure many of you can't even do 10.

“Yeah mate, I do 100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups every night. I feel great and don’t need a gym. The girlfriend loves it”. I’ve heard this said so many times, from mostly young guys, that it’s beginning to feel as repetitive as all those push-ups. Of course you feel great. Your body has not yet had the years of abuse from bad exercise plans that will result in long-term pain and discomfort. The live fast die young brigade is alive in the mid noughties.

But it’s not so much based on drugs as it was in the sixties. These days it’s the body beautiful that is the rush. Those that punish themselves daily with RSI-inducing manoeuvres are falling prey to the idea that if something produces a desired result, doing it repeatedly will provide an improved result.

While I've been getting plenty of cardio work in, I haven't had much strength training. So I've made it a goal to do 100 push-ups a day. I don't do them all at once. I spread them out throughout the day in sets of 10. I'll just stop what I'm doing and crank out 10.

After only a week, I'm already seeing results. I'm stronger and less flabby. After this week, I think I'm going to up to 200 pushups throughout the day.

If you're not a gym kind of man or just can't afford it, I highly recommend doing something like this. it's simple and it works.




For the 100 a day pushups check this link : http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

The Great Forgotten Exercise -- Parallel Bar Dips - Exercise

When it comes to building lower pectorals, triceps and frontal deltoids, dips are without doubt one the best exercises I've ever used. They are seldom used nowadays and the reasons are plain to see: you have to be able to handle your own bodyweight for reps - unless you have access to one of those fancy-dan machines that allow you to dip (or chin) with less than body weight.

A correctly done dip has two distinct rep-stroke lengths, two levels: drop down until upper arms are parallel to the floor or go all the way down as far as you can. Either depth works the triceps exquisitely, assuming you lockout hard at the top of every rep and hold that flexion for a beat before lower yet again. The parallel tricep dip is a tricep isolation movement with some slight pectoral and front deltoid stimulation.

The width of the dip bars should be slightly greater than shoulder width. Some parallel bars follow a slight V-shape allowing you to pick the point appropriate for your frame. Chairs used for bar dipsWithout the availability of parallel dip bars, you can certainly improvise. Any two objects that are big enough and can safely support your weight can be used. Two chairs back-to-back are commonly used.

The keys to bringing the chest and lats into this exercise (and differentiating it from triceps dips) are:

1. The slightly wider than shoulder width bar width.
2. Moving the body slightly forward as you dip (head down).
3. Allowing your elbows to slightly flare out (just slightly outside of your wrists) as you dip.

Keep same posture going up as you do going down (your body moves as a single unit). Bend and cross your lower legs or keep legs straight depending on height of bars.

Many gyms have an assisted dip machine for those who cannot yet dip their bodyweight. It is also useful for working on form. This is a somewhat difficult exercise to master but, when mastered, it can be a very effective mass builder.

Adding resistance can be effectively done through the use of a dip belt (or a little creativity).

Hip Exercises

Hip exercises are the perfect example of this type of less-visible but highly functional focus. The hip flexors in particular are a small muscle group that play a big role in the body. They help to keep the hips in the correct position, and they’re working hard every time you step up a stair, do squats or just get out of a chair. Having strong hip muscles will also help prevent back problems: When the hips are in alignment, the spine is in alignment as well.

Decline sit-up

While you may have always thought of decline sit-ups as stimulating the abdominal muscles, they also call the hip flexors into play. As you lean back past a 180-degree angle, your hip flexors are automatically going to start tensing, preventing the body from falling back completely.

Keep in mind that the hip flexors are generally a much weaker body muscle, so it’s not going to take all that much weight to get them stimulated and progressing. Aim to complete two to three sets of 10-15 reps.

Back Stretches and Exercises

The pelvic tilt gently stretches the lower back.

1. Lie on your back and pull in your stomach so that your pelvis rolls and your lower back moves toward the floor.
2. Roll your pelvis in the opposite direction so that your back moves away from the floor.
3. Do these slowly and deliberately by counting. Count "one" as you move your lower back to the floor. Count "two" as you move into the neutral position. Count "three" as you move your pelvis away from the floor. Count "four" as you move into neutral.

Slyvester Stallone Workout

Sylvester Stallone's body has had significant fluctuations throughout his career. While he has maintained a lean, muscular look in most of his movies, his weight has varied a lot. For his role in Victory, Stallone had a hardcore diet that just included 200 calories (yes, calories!) of protein per day. He had a baked potato as well to avoid fainting. This allowed him to get down to 159lbs!

Stallone's workout included training twice per day for six days per week.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Morning: Chest (bench press), back (pulldowns), abs (crunches)
Afternoon: Shoulders (military press, lateral raise), arms (curls), abs (crunches, leg raises)

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday
Morning: Calves (calf raises), thighs (squats)
Afternoon: Rear deltoids (bent over row, shoulder press), traps (upright rows), abs (crunches)

This is just a sample of the exercises he performed. Generally he did 3-4 exercises per body part. He would perform 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. He varied his training as well to avoid plateaus.

One of his best abs workout :

Floor crunches

The move: Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Hold your hands behind your head and roll your upper torso forward as your knees come up toward your elbows. At the top of the crunch, consciously squeeze the abdominal muscles before slowly lowering back for the next crunch. Exhale as you come up, inhale on the way back down.

Sets: 2 sets of 5, 10 or 15; work your way up to 30.

The Sly Report: Crunches are much more effective than regular sit-ups because they specifically target your upper abdominal muscles rather than your hip muscles. If you're not used to them, they can cause soreness a day or two later, but it's a "cool" soreness. A badge of honor.

Tip: If floor crunches are too tough in the beginning, start on the gym's crunch machine.

Army Push Ups

Pushups are an integral part of military and law enforcement physical fitness. This exercise is a part of military service's physical fitness test including the US Army, Air Force, and Navy. It is universally seen as a test of your upper body strength and is a mainstay in most physical fitness programs.

In the up position, your hands are placed where they are comfortable for you. Your feet may be together or up to 12 inches apart. Your body forms a generally straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Your body must move as a unit, maintaining the straight line throughout each repetition.

In this position, your arms are extended all the way; failure to raise completely up will result in the repetition not being counted.

In the down position, you lower your body as a unit until the forearms are at least parallel to the ground. If the forearms do not reach the parallel position or your body does not maintain a straight line, the repetition will not be counted.

It is recommended that you keep your head up, as doing so will help you to go lower on each repetition.

On Odd Days

Do 200 pushups in as few sets as possible in addition to your regularly scheduled workout of cardio exercises. You can still do upper body workouts on these days if you are already on a program. This is a supplemental 200 pushups using maximum repetition sets (4 x 50, 8 x 25 ... it's your choice how you get to 200).

On Even Days

Do 200 pushups throughout the day. This can be little sets of ten done every half hour or fifty pushups done four times throughout the day.

Dumbbell Flys

Lack of variation in chest training can create disparity among the same muscle. Adding flys to presses will make your chest muscles strong and muscular. Bench press works on chest only up to the first 60-70% of pressing movement when it is taken over by anterior deltoids. This makes fly moves more important as pectoral muscles function to bring arms towards the center and flys help do just tat.

Dumbbell Flys are a great way to build inner chest. It gives chest muscle the complete look and feel.

Steps.

1. Lie flat on the bench keeping your feet on floor for better balance.

2. Hold the dumbbells at arms length above you with palms facing each other.

3. Now lower the dumbbells by bending the elbows slightly, and lower them only to a level parallel to the floor. DO NOT go beyond this point or lower.

4. Now return the weight to the starting position thrusting and squeezing the chest.

Repeat this movement to complete the set.

Warning straight armed is much more difficult than elbows bent because of leverage. Decrease your weight till you can do these with your arms almost straight. Many times you will see people doing WAY more than they should and they do them like this (demo). No, use less weight. Why? Because then you can spot yourself. At about rep 6 when you cant do another straight armed one, bend your elbows slightly. This increases your leverage and makes it easier on your pecs, now you can do 2 or 3 more. When you cant do any more reps, bend your elbows a bit more. This way, you can do forced reps safely.


Special Instructions

A narrow bench will allow free movement of the shoulders. This is not an exercise for heavy weights. Keeping arms slightly bent will less the stress on the elbow.

Firmer Breasts – Toning, Shaping and Lifting the Breasts

Most of the tissue that makes up the breast is fatty tissue, which cannot be firmed by any amount of exercise. However, the pectoral muscles that support the breasts can be strengthened by consistently doing the appropriate exercises. Unfortunately, there is no exercise that will enlarge or firm the breasts themselves. However, strengthening and toning the pectoral muscles of the chest can help provide support and lift to the breasts, making them appear firmer.

Here are some of the exercises you can do to enhance the shape, lift and tone of your breasts. Not only will they help reshape your bustline, they are excellent muscle conditioning and strengthening exercises for the chest area.

The “fly” or butterfly with 2-3 lb. weights. Lie on your back with your arms extended out to the sides of your body. Lift both arms (with weights) off of the floor simultaneously to the point of a “V” in front of your face. Repeat 10-15 times.

Modified push ups. Doing a modified push up, on your knees, with arms extended out toward the sides or your body is an excellent breast toning and firming exercise. Be sure the angle of the push up is working the side of your arms where the arm meets the breast, as well as squeezing the pectoral muscles gently with each repetition.

Extend your arm in front of your body, at a ninety degree angle to your midsection. Take your other arm and gently squeeze the extended arm into your chest, feeling the side of the breast (pectoral) muscle squeezing. Repeat ten times on each side.

Any time you are at your desk or sitting, a great refresher as well as an excellent bust enhancing exercise is to gently squeeze both arms into the sides of the breasts, feeling the side of the pectoral muscle contract gently. Hold for a few seconds. This exercise is a great re-energizer for those with desk jobs and can be done discreetly and frequently, virtually unnoticed.

Moderate massage. You can help to enhance the elasticity and firmness of your breast by applying massage techniques and gently massaging the breasts, especially if you combine this with what we recommend as an excellent breast firming serum called Benefil, which enhances firmness and shape, while helping to lift and contour the natural shape of the breast over time.

There are some that believe taking cold showers, or at least rinsing off with cold water helps to keep the breasts firm and elasticity in store, however, this doesn't sound very pleasant to me, and I have to admit I'm a total freeze baby, so I wouldn't try this one, but if you think it might help and aren't such a baby as me, then go for it!

There are also some supplements that help to fill out the breast tissue more, to your left, that are recommended, so you may want to check those out as well.