Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Megan Fox Workout
Simply being the most photographed gal on earth is actually hard work however Megan Fox makes it seem really easy. Even though being only 5 ft . 4 and weighting 115 pounds, Megan Fox stands as the most spectacular and adored physical specimen in The show biz industry nowadays. Megan Fox (with complete name Megan Denise Fox) came into this world on May sixteen, 1986 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
In order to time compress her body weight routine, Megan hired a personal trainer. The routine that her trainer created for her has also been used by a lot of Hollywood “hot bodies” and focuses less on achieving that bulky, bodybuilder look and more on getting the stars looking slim and sexy. Both male and female celebrities use these fat burning types of workouts on a regular basis – they are firm believers in what they can do.
Body weight Interval Circuits: The “Spartacus Workout” is also amazingly effective for females who are aiming for a Megan Fox type figure. Other plyometric exercises she used included different variations of pushups.
Planks: Without a doubt, planks are by far the best move for women to get flat abs and a super slim waist (22 inches) like Megan. Crunches are over rated and can actually be detrimental to the way your abdominals look!
A Brief Ab Circuit: After warming up with this plank routine, she would then perform 15-20 minutes on an ab based circuit that included Captain Chair leg ups, V-Ups, and Swiss ball leg raises, performed interval-style – hard effort with minimal rest between exercises. By super-setting exercises in this manner, the heart rate stays up, conditioning is enhanced, and it creates a much more effective workout.
Stationary Bike: By now, her heart was pumping. To take advantage of this, she would perform a half hour of steady state cycling on the stationary bike at a low level of intensity. (Following intervals with low intensity cardio is extremely effective for burning body fat as fuel).
Jason Statham Workout
Jason Statham's weight gain came the same way it does for most of us: a few too many beers and a couple of extra servings, compounded over time. Work out hard and you'll crave calories as fuel at the same time you loathe the millstone they can form around your middle.
Day 1
Progression to one-rep max
The objective of this workout is to build pure strength in one of the most effective total body lifts, the deadlift. To accomplish this, we have Jason work his way up to his one-rep max (1RM) - the heaviest weight he can lift once. Before he begins, though, he completes a two-part warm-up session.
Warm-up (part 1): Rowing.
For this, Jason completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at a pace that's less than 20 strokes per minute. (Jason's distance: 2274 metres.)
Warm-up (part 2): Pyramid Circuit.
Directions: do the following three exercises as a circuit, performing one set of each in succession without rest. Use a "pyramid repetition structure" to the workout. Here's how: in your first round through the circuit, do one repetition of each movement. In each subsequent round, perform an additional rep. So you'll do two reps of each exercise in round two, three reps in round three, and so on. Once you've completed five rounds, continue on, but reduce the reps you complete each round by one. So you'll do four reps in round six, three reps in round seven, and so on, until you've worked your way back down to one rep. At this point, your warm-up is complete.
1. Push-ups
2. Ring chin-ups
These are classic chin-ups, but Jason uses gymnastic rings instead of the bar, and performs each rep as quickly as possible while maintaining control and a full range of motion.
3. Bodyweight Squats
Workout: this involves just one exercise, the deadlift. Jason starts with a light weight - about 35 per cent of the amount of his 1RM - and then slowly starts adding weight and reducing reps. As the weight becomes closer to his 1RM - which, for Jason, is more than twice his bodyweight - his rest between sets increases to three minutes. This allows for almost complete recovery between lifts. Remember, these are the weights that Jason uses. They should be determined based on individual ability.
Reps x weight x rest
10 x 60kg - 1 minute
5 x 85kg - 2 minutes
3 x100kg - 3 minutes
2 x 130kg - 3 minutes
1 x 150kg - 3 minutes
1 x 155kg - 3 minutes
1 x 160kg - 3 minutes
1 x 162.5kg - 3 minutes
1 x 165kg - 3 minutes
Cool-down: 10 minutes on the trampoline. Jason uses a full-size gymnastic trampoline for 10 minutes of freestyle aerial work. Jason has an Olympic diving background, so he's doing fairly advanced movements here. In addition to fine-tuning motor skills, the trampoline is supposed to be good for your lymphatic system and flushing toxins from your cells.
Day 2
Functional Circuit
This workout is designed to be metabolically demanding, training the entire body with exercises that work multiple muscle groups.
Warm-up (part 1): Rowing.
Jason completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at less than 20 strokes per minute. (Jason's distance: 2238m.)
Warm-up (part 2): Static Hold Circuit.
Directions: do these four exercises as a circuit. For each exercise, you'll hold a specific position for 30 seconds, then have 10 seconds to change stations, before starting the next exercise. Do four rounds.
1. Ring Dip Hold
Hold yourself in the top position of a dip for the prescribed amount of time. Like the ring chin-up, Jason performs this using gymnast rings instead of a dip station with parallel bars.
2. Kettlebell Farmer Hold
Grab a pair of heavy kettlebells (dumbbells will work in a pinch) and let them hang at arm's length at your sides.
3. L-sit on Parallettes or Dip Bars
Jason uses parallettes to perform this exercise, but the L-sit can also be done on a dip station that has parallel bars. (See these articles for a description of this device, how you can make your own, and photos and a description of how to perform the hold.)
4. Bodyweight Squat Hold
Lower yourself to the bottom position of a squat with your thighs parallel to the ground and hold.
Workout: this routine, called the "Big Five 55 Workout", comes compliments of strength coach Dan John.
Here, Jason performs a circuit of five exercises, which he does a total of 10 times.
There is no prescribed rest and ideally you move continuously from one exercise to the next while keeping the sets unbroken. Focus on going as fast as possible while maintaining form, full range of motion and control. The weights should be light enough to allow this.
You can run the stopwatch and race through this workout, but for better results and quality movement you should simply try to keep the momentum and flow through the exercises continuous. Jason starts with 10 reps of each movement, and each time through, reduces the reps by one. So he does 10 reps of all exercises in the first round, nine in the second, eight in the third, and so on, until he's doing just one rep in each set. The result is that he completes a total of 55 reps of each exercise. Again, the weights below are the amount Jason used in this particular week.
1. Front Squat (45kg)
2. Chin-ups
3. Decline Parrallette Push-ups
Directions: hands on the parrallettes, feet on a box so that they are about 30 centimetres higher than your hands. Do the prescribed number of push-ups. Typically, because you're elevated on the parrallettes you can go much deeper in the bottom position and really push the range of motion, although this is dependent on shoulder flexibility.
4. Power Cleans
5. Knees to Elbows
Directions: hanging from a chin-up bar or from the rings at the half-cocked positon (elbows at a right angle), raise your knees until they touch your elbows. Lower them back down in one controlled movement so you don't swing.
Day 3
Interval Work
This session is performed on a Concept 2 rower.
Warm-up: Rowing.
Jason completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at less than 20 strokes per minute. (Jason's distance: 2102m.)
Workout: to mimic Jason's interval workout, you'll do six intervals of 500m.
Between each 500m "sprint" engage in active rest for three minutes. For this, you can get off the rower and grab a drink of water, but you must continue moving around.
Here's a look at Jason's times for reference:
Sprint 1: 1:40.1
Sprint 2: 1:39.7
Sprint 3: 1:43.9
Sprint 4: 1:41.6
Sprint 5: 1:38.7
Sprint 6: 1:50.3
Cool-down: to finish up, Jason performs a farmer carry for 500m with two 30kg kettlebells. There is no set or time structure; just carry the weight for 500m as quickly as possible. This tends to be a grip issue, so that dictates any rest that must be taken.
Day 4
Set Work
Here, Jason focuses on front squats, one of the best strengthening and total body conditioning exercises there is.
Warm-up (part 1): Rowing.
Jason completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at less than 20 strokes per minute. (Jason's distance: 2095m.)
Warm-up (part 2): Jason does 20 reps of bodyweight squats before moving on to the primary portion of the workout.
Workout: five sets of five reps of the front squat. In this workout, Jason used a load that was 105 per cent of his bodyweight.
Jason's Front Squat Workout (Reps x weight x rest)
5 x 80kg - 90 seconds
5 x 80kg - 90 seconds
5 x 80kg - 90 seconds
5 x 80kg - 90 seconds
5 x 80kg - 90 seconds
Cool-down: Jason does 200 reps of the push-up, but he performs this workout using a "ladder" routine. We do this as partnered ladders of 1-5, so 13 ladders plus an extra 5 reps at the end. I do a push-up, he does a push-up, I do two, he does two, I do three, he does three, I do four, he does four, I do five, he does five. We've now each done 15 push-ups and we immediately repeat the process starting at one again.
We do these quickly, with the only rest being the time it takes for each of us to do our push-ups. If you wanted to do this alone, you could do one push-up and count "1 one thousand", do two push-ups and count "1 one thousand, 2 one thousand", etc. This approach allows you to do a large volume of quality work (with small sets there is no reason the push-ups aren't perfect and done explosively) without much, if any, residual muscle soreness. We also use this approach with chin-ups and knees to elbows. Not many folks finish their workout with 200 perfect chin-ups, but this approach makes it doable.
Day 5
Cumulative Movements
This workout is designed to be metabolically demanding, training the entire body with exercises that work multiple muscle groups. The Cumulative Movement workout consists of only one trip through, as opposed to a circuit workout in which you repeatedly cycle back through the same movements.
Warm-up (part 1): Rowing.
Jason completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at less than 20 strokes per minute. (Jason's distance: 2149m.)
Warm-up (part 1): The Bear Crawl and Crab Walk.
Alternate between the bear crawl for a distance of 15m and the crab walk for 15m. Repeat until you've done five 15m increments of each.
Workout: one round through a series of exercises.
Directions: do one set of each movement, completing all of the prescribed number of reps before moving on to the next exercise. Perform each exercise as quickly as possible while maintaining proper form and full range of motion. The stopwatch is running on this one, so try to get through it as quickly as possible by minimising rest.'''
Jason's Circuit Workout (Exercise x Reps x Weight)
7m Fat Rope Climbs x 5 x Body
Front Squats x 5 x 85kg
Ball Slams x 5 x 12.5kg
15m Rope Pulls x 10 x 40kg
Bench Press x 10 x 80kg
Ball Slams x 10 x 12.5kg
Chin-ups x 15 x Body
Dips x 15 x Body
Ball Slams x 15 x 10kg
Resisted Fat Rope Pulls x 20 (no weights)
Smashes x 20 (no weights)
Jason's Time: 23:53
Day 6
Contextual Effort
This can be any activity or sport that you enjoy doing. If this is of significant duration and intensity it should be considered as part of your training. In Jason's case, the goal was to get outside and maintain an activity non-stop for over an hour to build some endurance (training the aerobic energy pathway).
Workout: one-hour-plus mountain trail run. Jason's time: 73 minutes.
Day 7
Rest
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Gisele Bundchen Abs Workout
Gisele Bundchen has a slim ectomorph/mesomorph build, she has low fat and some muscular definition. Gisele has great genetics which has given her this body, Gisele can stay slim easily and looks great without hitting the gym 4 times a week. Gisele probably does very light weights but quite a few abdominal exercises to ensure she builds a strong toned stomach. Gisele most likely does cardio twice a week to keep fat under control.
The secret to Gisele Bündchen's abs is a mix of both diet and exercise. Eating three cupcakes a day won't whittle your waistline like hers, but pair a healthy diet with these moves and you'll be showing off your six-pack all summer long.
Get into a push-up position with your forearms on the floor. Lift your legs and torso up off the ground so that only your toes and the flats of your forearms remain on the floor. Keeping your back neutral and your belly button pulled in, hold this position. Your body should be in a straight line—keep your gaze on the floor (so you don't put stress on your neck) and remember to take deep breaths.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
How to Learn to Do One Arm Push Ups
The one-handed pushup is a benchmark of fitness and strength. The exercise requires the development of subtle balance muscles to channel raw strength into a very difficult and awkwardly balanced exercise. With the right training and dedication, you can do a one-handed pushup within weeks.
One of the best ways to get the technique of a one-arm push up is to get a set of push up bars to make it harder. By using a push-up bar, it causes you to deepen the range of motion and eventually will lead way to a solid one-arm push up. I also recommend practicing both arms...you never know when a shoulder injury may occur and you might have to perform a one-arm with the opposite arm. (as with double arm push-ups, you can also start with your knees down, or another great way to learn the balance is widen your feet out for stability, but work on getting your feet closer every week until you master the move with your feet shoulder width apart).
The one-arm push-up is as much technique as it is strength. Spread your feet out wide in the push-up position then put most of your counter-pressure on the foot that's opposite your hand. Left-hand = right-foot. Right-hand=left foot. Then you'll be using much more of your core muscles to steady yourself down and back up again.
Try not to tilt your upper body upward as that really makes it look like you are doing it the easy way. Build your coordination up over the course of a couple weeks keeping your shoulders parallel to the floor so that when you go down to your deepest point both shoulders are low to the floor.
Strength training will be mostly tricep work and front delt (shoulder work). Lay on a bench with a single dumbbell. Do single-arm dumbbell press holding the dumbbell in a hammer (palms in) position. Use your ab/core muscles to compensate to keep you steady. Work up to going heavy since you won't be doing but only a few of these one-arm push-ups and you'll be supporting a lot of weight on that one arm. Train both sides to show your equal strength of both arms when you do your routine.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Abs Work out with Weights
The abdominal muscles are some of the most prized assets to any physique. In the fitness world, everyone wants a rock-hard six-pack - the finishing touch to any impressive physique. In the athletic realm, strong abs are needed to excel at any sport. In modern society, the average individual aspires for a flat-stomach, but few are willing to put in the effort.
Try to do the Weighted Crunch :
Instructions
Preparation
Lie supine on bench with head hanging off and knees and hips bent. Hold plate behind neck.
Execution
Flex waist to raise upper torso from bench. Keep low back on bench and raise torso up as high as possible. Return until back of shoulders contact padded incline board. Repeat.
or Swiss Ball Weighted Crunches :
The opportunities are endless when it comes to a Swiss Ball, but weighted crunches are one of my favorites. Choose a weight that allows you to perform 3 sets of 8?10 repetitions. Position yourself on the ball just to the front of the top (to ensure a full range of motion) and slowly allow your spine to wrap back around the ball. Be sure to anchor your feet with a weight at least twice as heavy as the weight you use to perform the exercise.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Butt Building Workout : The Butt Of Your Dreams
Skinny with a small butt? Then these best Butt Building Exercises and workouts are designed to build a bigger butt. Crack the bigger butt code now.
Building a bigger butt is no different than your overall Muscle Building goals. But here we will concentrate on the specific butt building exercises, plan workouts designed to build even the most stubborn butt muscles.
Dumbbell Lunges
This exercise is really good for your glutes and thighs. Pushing up powerfully out of the deep lunge is where the real work gets done.
Make sure that your knee doesn't go past your toes.
Get a dumbbell in each hand.
Stand up straight with tucked hips.
Step into a deep lunge position.
Hold still for about 1/2 second.
Push off your leg to stand up again.
Repeat.
Swap sides and repeat.
Swiss Ball Butt Busters
This exercise works on your butt, hamstrings and back. As a beginner you should have your arms out to the side to help with balance. As you get better you can bring them in. This will help strengthen your stabilizing core muscles.
If you're really strong, you can make it more difficult by using just 1 leg.
Lie on the ground with your feet up on a swiss ball.
Raise your hips so that you have a straight back.
This is the start position.
Bend your knees to 90 degrees.
The swiss ball will roll with your feet.
Make sure that you do not bend at the hips.
Hold for about a second.
Roll back to the start position.
Repeat.
Friday, 9 September 2011
Captain's Chair Leg Raise
The captain's chair leg raise is the second most effective move for the rectus abdominis as well as the obliques. You can do a variety of exercises on the captain's chair, which is a rack with padded arms that allows your legs to hang free and can be found in most health clubs and gyms. The key to keeping this move safe and effective is, first, to avoid swinging the legs or using momentum to bring the legs up. Second, keeping the knees bent will help you focus more on the abdominals and less on the hip flexors.
This is best done on gym equipment called the "captain's chair". But you can improvise if you have 2 heavy (stable) stools. Make sure they can take your weight. With one on each side of you, rest your forearms on the stools. Using your abs, keep your legs straight with a slight bend in the knees throughout. Using your abs, lift your legs up until they're parallel to the floor. Then slowly lower them back down. Repeat until you complete your reps.
If you don't have access to a captain's chair rack, you can try a ball roll out as a substitute.
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Bigger Triceps In Three Weeks
Hi everyone and welcome to the bigger triceps in three weeks workout! If you want to blast your triceps in the new decade to come then you are in the right place. This workout is fast and effective and uses unique exercises for triceps that you probably haven’t used before so lets get right into it!
Utilizing less than perfect form will result in the utilization of other muscles in the body, thus taking away from arm stimulation. You need to concentrate and feel the biceps and triceps contract as you work them. Forget about using super heavy weights and jerking the weight. Practice perfect form and think isolation at all times.
Try to do this circuit workout!
3 Circuits with 30 to 60 Seconds Rest Between Exercises
Exercise 1: Lying on the Floor Kettle Bell Extensions
12 Reps and Hold the Negative on the Way Down
Exercise 2: Tricep Push Up
12 to 15 Reps and Hold the Negative on the Way Down
Exercise 3: Physioball Dumbbell Kick Back
10 to 12 Reps and Hold & Squeeze for 2 to 3 Seconds at the Top and Hold the Negative on the Way Down
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Best Reps for Bench Press
It’s a very common question I get asked all the time in the gym, via email and on the forums. “Can you give me some tips for increasing my bench press?” You see the bench press is often used to measure a guy’s strength. The heavier your bench, the stronger you are right? Wrong. Now anyone who’s knows anything about lifting weights and body strength knows that that this is absolutely not true. However, as far as upper body exercises are concerned it’s probably the best exercise to measure upper body strength.
The standard understanding for how many reps are needed to build muscle is best grasped when examining the boundaries set for the different priorities that different rep ranges are said to be geared towards. Erm, yeah…in other words, let’s look at this in numbers:
Strength = 1-5 reps
Building Muscle (hypertrophy) – 8-12 reps
Endurance = 15+ reps
In the tradition of Arnold Schwarzenegger, most people follow high volume bodybuilding routines that look something like this:
Bench press - 4-5 sets 8-12 reps
Incline press - 4-5 sets 8-12 reps
Dumbbell flyes - 4-5 sets 8-12 reps
Cable crossover - 4-5 sets 8-12 reps.
For Bench Press you can try to do:
Do about 3 sets of 5 reps for your working sets. Don't forget to include warm up sets as well, something like this
12 reps - empty bar
8 reps - light weight
6 reps - moderate weight
3 reps - medium/heavy weight
1 rep - heavy (make this about 10lbs under your working sets)
3 sets of 5 reps
Try to increase the weight for your working sets by 5lbs each week.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
The Best Biceps Workout
Biceps. The ultimate show muscle. From age 10 on, every boy, teenager, and man want to have bulging biceps. This is, apparently, a true sign of manliness and strength.
Biceps are among the most famous muscles in the body. When somebody asks you to “make a muscle” or “flex”, they aren’t asking you to flex your hamstrings. They want to see your biceps!
It is important to keep in mind that in actuality the triceps muscle comprises a very large component of the arm, so you must not neglect your triceps work either, which will then give you the perfect balance of what you need to see optimal results.
When you are aiming for maximum size, another important point to note is that lifting heavy must be placed as a priority. Since building more size is a combination of a heavy surplus, enough volume, and plenty of calories, it's a wise decision to focus on exercises that will allow you to lift the heaviest weight possible.
Standing barbell curls are a basic movement that work the biceps and forearms. Grab a barbell with an underhand grip. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Let the barbell hang in front of you at arms length. Keep your elbows close to your torso at all times.
Moving only your forearms, use your bicep strength to curl the barbell up to shoulder level. Hold this position for a second to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the barbell to the starting position. Repeat.
The second exercise to add is incline dumbbell curls. This exercise is one of the best to help prevent that momentum issue from happening as we just discussed since it essentially restricts the movement of the back.
When doing this exercise you will feel maximum tension on the biceps muscle belly, so don't be surprised if the weight is slightly lower. As long as you're pushing yourself hard, using the lower weight but maintaining proper form will be the way to go for results.
The hammer curl is great for developing the forearms, brachialis, and brachioradialis. I’m not sure about you, but I can hammer curl more than I can traditional curl, and lifting more with good form is always better than lifting less.
To set up: grab two dumbbells and hold them down at your sides, arms straight, palms facing your body. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides as soon as you start curling.
To hammer curl: you are basically curling the dumbbell up as high as it can go without moving the elbows. Ideally, the flat side of the dumbbell, at the top of the rep, should come close to touching the shoulder of the lifting arm. We call this a hammer curl because it looks like you are swinging a hammer. This means the palms face towards your body throughout the whole exercise.
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