Saturday, July 24, 2010

Deadlift - Exercese technique and some training tips

Deadlift Targets Following Muscles:

glutes, Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Hip flexors, Lower back, Adductors, Latissimus dorsi, Trapezius, Abdominals.

Romanian Deadlift is a fundamental exercise for treasing overall mass, strength and power in both the the lower and upper body. Like squats, it a maximum stimulation movement.
Starting Position for performing Deadlift

* Stand in front of the barbell with your feet parallel and shoulder-width apart.
* Bend your legs until your hips and knees " are at the same level, keeping your rib cage up and your head level. Your back should be straight, at a 45° angle to the floor.
* Grasp the bar, with your hands just over shoulder-width apart, one overhand, the other under. This will facilitate better balance and keep the barbell in the same plane.

The Movement during Romanian Deadlift - The Deadlift technique

* Using the power of your legs and hips, and keeping your arms straight, lift the bar from the floor until your legs are straight. The bar should be against the upper part of your thighs. Hold for a count of one.
* Slowly return the bar to the floor, keeping your torso erect, arms straight and head up, eyes looking forwards. Your chest should be slightly forwards and over the bar.

Deadlift Training Tips

* Keep your back straight - i.e. in its normal position - throughout the movement. Do not lean forwards.
* Keep the bar as close as possible to your legs throughout the movement.
* Make sure your knees travel in line with your toes - do not allow them to travel inwards.

Variations of Deadlift

On a Block
Stand on a low, sturdy block or platform so that the bar is at the same level as your feet. This increases the range of motion and therefore it benefits your body more.
Romanian Deadlift

Setup for Romanian Deadlift:Stand and hold a barbell with a shoulder-with overhand grip. YOur feet should be hip-with apart toes pointed ahead, legs straight. Dont lock your knees.

Movement during Romanian Deadlit: Slide the bar down the front of your thighs by pressing your glutes back and hinging forward at the hips. Keep your spine in a neutral position until the bar is a few inches below your kneecaps (or whatever's comfortable). If you begin to round your back, you've gone too low.
Return to the start position by pressing your hips forward and squeezing your glutes.
Other Exercises for your Legs, hips and glutes Workouts.

Barbell Squat.

Leg Press.

Leg Extention.

Front Lunge (dumbbell or barbell).

Reverse Lunge.

Lying Leg Curl.

Straight-leg deadlift.

Standing Calf Raise.

One-leg Dumbell Calf Raise.

Leg Press Machine Calf Press.

Barbell Squat

Barbell Squat Targets Following Muscles:

glutes, Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Lower back, Adductors, Hip flexors.

The squat is one of the most efficient exercises for increasing mass, strength and power in the lower body. It is a compound movement that involves many stabiliser muscles to complete the lift.
Starting Position of Barbell Squat

* Position the bar across the upper part of your back so it is resting on your trapezius muscles (not your neck).
* Firmly grip the bar, with your hands almost double shoulder-width apart. As you lift the bar off the rack, keep your shoulder­blades together and chest up, and ensure there is a normal (stable) curve in your lower back.
* Position your feet shoulder-width apart (or slightly wider), toes angled out at 30°.

The Movements of Barbell Squat

* Begin lowering by bending at the hips, then knees.
* Keeping your head up and your trunk erect, slowly lower yourself down until your thighs are parallel to the ground; it is not wise to go any further than this. Keep your knees aligned over your feet, pointing in the direction of your toes. Hold for a count of one.
* From here, press the weight up, pushing hard through your feet and keeping your body erect as you return to the starting position.

Tips, Tricks and Correct Technique for performing Barbell Squat

* You should maintain the natural curve in
your back throughout the movement.
* If you lack ankle flexibility, it's better to work on your ankle flexibility to improve your range of movement rather than to use a board under your heels. This is potentially dangerous for the knees because it moves the knees forward over the feet and can actually reduce your flexibility.
* Breathe in as you lower the weight, allow­ ing your chest to expand and pulling your tummy button in towards the spine. Exhale as you push upwards.
* Keep your eyes fixed on a point in front of
you at about eye level.
* Make sure you do not bend forwards exces­sively or curve your back as this will stress your lower back and reduce the emphasis on your legs.
* Keep your hips under the bar as much as possible and your knees tracking over your toes as you rise.
* Do not rely on a weight belt unless you are using maximal weight or it could result in a weakening of the abdominal muscles. The abdominal wall should be drawn in towards the spine rather than pushing out against a belt when lifting.

Variations of Barbell Squat

Wider stance
Placing your feet just over shoulder-width apart (but not too far or you may lose stability) and taking the squat slightly deeper than parallel places more emphasis on the glutes on the upward part of the move­ment. Make sure you practise perfect form and control the squat - you will have to reduce the weight on the bar, since going deeper can put greater strain on the knees. You'll find this technique will not only increase your overall strength but also better shape your glutes!

Smith machine squats
Squats performed using a Smith machine; are less effective than barbell squats andj may increase injury risk when you are
not using a machine as it does not develop the stabiliser muscles. Since the bar travels in a straight line, this alters your natural movement, taking much of the emphasis away from your all-important stabilising muscles. If you must use a Smith machine, position your feet so that your heels are' directly under the bar.
Other Exercises for your Legs, hips and glutes Workouts.

Dead Lift.

Leg Press.

Leg Extention.

Front Lunge (dumbbell or barbell).

Reverse Lunge.

Lying Leg Curl.

Straight-leg Dead Lift.

Standing Calf Raise.

One-leg Dumbell Calf Raise.

Leg Press Machine Calf Press.

Bodybuilding Exercise Addiction

The addiction means the compulsion or dependence on the typical habit. The term addiction is widely associated with drugs, alcohols, gambling or just anything of similar bad habits. There are some people who are literally addicted to exercises. For them the exercises are becoming compulsive to the extent like physically, psychologically and emotionally which perhaps is considered as vicious as drugs. However, like other addictions, the requirement to compulsive exercise is directed by the array of motivations. These could incorporate avoidance, temper treatment, aspiration for controlling and overall for surviving with life.

Though exercise addiction is scarce but may escalate along with changes in the exercise patterns, especially as exercise is ethnically accepted or even admired. It is commonly believed that exercise addiction is correlated to the eating disarray anorexia nervosa, which does affect to hardly 1 percent of the population. The typical feelings of exercising of course intervenes major features of the routine life. Irrespective of kind, any addiction is considered to be progressive. Moreover, exercise can turn the organizing principle in anybody's life at the cost of non-exercise activities or relationships, family or work etc. Even there may the intensifying expectation or obsession as well as the progressive need to generate the exercise opportunities.

Exercise addiction could cause various symptoms such as: the decreasing efficacy of behavioral attitude, depression, anxiety, social or emotional loneliness, and disturbed sleep habits etc. Besides this, the addicted person would progressively become deceitful, cynical or suspicious and mysterious in practicing or increasing the exercise opportunities. Also it is found that the exercise addict would diminish and substantiate to safeguard what is progressively becoming pathological behavior. The vicious circle of addiction states that while trying to deal with such problems, the person would more aggressively and decisively engage in addictive behavior. From the addict's viewpoint, it could seem impossible to arrest such vicious circle without any help. Chronic exercise addiction could however be relentlessly unbearable condition evaluating clinical interference or even hospitalization in some typical cases.

The individuals who have been affected or addicted to exercising are generally distinguished by their compulsive exercise behaviors, excessive participation in exercise as well as presence of the activity disorder which means they exercise at an interval, intensity and frequency in excess than necessary for any sport. The inflexible schedule of powerful exercise is sustained in association with strong feelings of guiltiness when such exercise schedule or routine is dishonored. The exercise addicts willingly dislike skipping their exercising routines, but by chance they even skip the schedule, they would overdo their exercise during their next routine after such skip. It is also most common that the exercise addicts may bunk their schools, avoid or miss out the social occasions for their exercise workouts.

The severity of the addiction can also rich so high that even in case of any illness or in the state of tiredness, they don't wish to skip their exercise routine and maintain the detailed journal of their workouts. Besides this, the exercise addiction can even lead to disordered eating behaviors too.

Bodybuilding Routine

The body building routines are as diverse as the body builders themselves who have designed them. The ideal body building routines are meant for attaining the targeted results within the shortest time frame. Generally the people look for the optimal outcomes through minimal amount of efforts; hence the body building routines that utilize the superior training systems are more in demand. So far body building routines are concerned it does not work equally for all the body builders. In fact every body builder performs different exercises for different number of repetitions involving various weights to shape, tone or build up the different parts of there bodies. There are body builders found to be consistently fine tuning their body building routines through trials and errors or success and failures. As the successful body building routines develop the desired body areas of the body builders, their other areas indicates attention of keeping there whole bodies properly balanced.

Though any body building routine found to be working remarkably well for three months, it exhibits increased chances of your having to start fluctuating it sooner or later, doing what you require for maintaining the desired results and adding or discarding several exercises for shaping and building up the other parts of your body. In spite of the current condition of your body building routine would definitely benefit with the help of suitable body building nutrition. However, one should remember that no body building routine is required to be done for more than seventy five minutes per sitting or for total number of sessions not exceeding five per week. It is highly recommended that no body builder should ever dare over doing the body building routines than suggested as the human body just cannot do more workouts than specified. Non adherence to this suggestion may lead the body builder to some serious sort of consequences involving extended convalescence period.

The body building routines denotes the exercises, the number of sets, and number of repetitions to be done for each muscle. For instance, 3 sets of flat bench press, 3 sets of the slant bench press and 2 sets of flat bench dumb bell flays exhibits one of the various chest weight lifting body building workout routines. The workout split is the term designated to how the body building workouts are split, like what muscles you work on which day of the week. For instance, working out for biceps back and legs on Mondays, doing triceps shoulders and chest on Thursdays is considered to be the workout splits for the body building routines.

There are various exercises for each of the muscles and different ways of splitting them up for making routine out of them. The most effectual muscle building exercises for each muscle could be performed as follows -

Chest - flat bench press, slant bench press, flat bench dumb bells flays, slant dumb bells flays.

For the back exercise - dead lift, lat pull down or weighted pull ups, seated cable row, bent-over barbell row, and bent-over 1 arm dumb bell row.

For the biceps - standing barbell curls, preacher curls with dumb bells or barbells, seated or standing dumb bell curls.

For triceps - press down, dips, French press. For legs - squats and calve raises.

For shoulders - seated or standing military press with dumb bells or barbells, lateral raises and shrugs.

Abs - these are the vital muscles and require to be worked.

Bodybuilding Exercise

Do a Proper Warm Up before starting a Bodybuilding Program

It is important to warm up before beginning your bodybuilding program for two main reasons:

* It reduces the chances of injury.
* It will improve your performance.

Here are a few quick reminders of why you should do this.

Muscles respond better to exercise if they are properly prepared for the coming work­load. Warming up increases blood flow to the muscles and lubricates the joints because the fluid surrounding them becomes less viscous so the joint can move more smoothly and efficiently. At rest, muscles receive only about 15% of your total blood supply, but during exercise the requirement for fuel and oxygen sharply increases and they may need up to 80% of the total blood flow to meet the demand. Obviously, it takes time to re-route the blood, and this cannot be achieved efficiently if you omit the warm-up and start exercising vigorously.

Warming up also improves the elasticity of the muscles, enabling them to work harder, more efficiently and for longer before they fatigue, as well as allowing nerve impulses to be transmitted faster.

Finally, warming up also prepares you mentally for the work ahead; it increases your arousal level and motivation. Performing one or two warm-up sets with light weights acts as a mental rehearsal and means that you can perform your subsequent heavier sets more effectively.
Warm-up components

The time taken on this part of your workout depends to a large extent on the temperature of your surroundings - the cooler the environment, the longer it will take to raise your body temperature. Your warm-up should include the following three components.

* An aerobic activity that raises your body temperature and leaves you mildly sweating. This should be performed for 5-10 minutes and be continuous and rhythmic in nature - for example, stationary cycling, treadmill walking, gentle jogging, stepping or rowing.
* Mobilization of the major joints. This could include movements such as arm circles, knee bends and shoulder circles which take the joints through their full range of movement. These are not stretching exercises as they are continuous and do not increase the range of movement.
* Warm-up sets with light weights and high repetitions. Never embark on your working sets straightaway because your muscles won't be properly warmed up and you there are chances of injury. Start with 1-2 sets using very light weights (around 40-50% one-rep max), for 15-20 repetitions to warm up the target muscles, ligaments and joints, and to rehearse the action to be performed.

For more information on warming up and some exercises for warming up go to our warm-up section.
To Stretch or Not to Stretch?

For years it was thought that stretching before strenuous activity would help prepare the muscles for exercise and reduce the risk of injury. However, more recent research suggests that stretching before you start training is unlikely to benefit your performance and may even be detrimental. Ironically, strength is lower following pre-exercise stretching compared with no stretching at all. In addition pre-exercise stretching will not prevent post exercise soreness or tenderness. It is now believed that stretching is best kept to a minimum prior to strength and power training. An active warm up(such as treadmill, exercise bike, steppers), followed by 1-2 warm up sets with light weights, is more effective. For example before performing bench presses, do one or two warm-up sets with a light weight that you can comfortably manage for at least 15 repetitions.
Bodybuilding Exercises

Here are different exercises for almost all the parts of your body.

Exercise for Legs, Hips and glutes.

Exercise for Back.

Exercise for Chest.

Exercise for Shoulders.

Exercise for Arms.

Exercise for Abdominals.

Stretching for Strength Training.

Top 10 Tips to Well Define Triceps

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise is very important and it is very much necessary to be fit and fine.

Aerobic exercise can be any type of exercise that causes your heart rate to increase and makes you breath harder than normal.But don’t worry, you don't have to join any “aerobic” classes to benefit from aerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise is a very useful tool in fat burning too. The body has two sources of energy : sugar and fat. Sugar or glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle and is the easiest from of energy for your body to use. Glycogen is the bodies preferred source of energy. Fat on the other hand, requires more work to be used as energy.

Why? The problem is that fat can be broken down only as long as oxygen is available. Oxygen must be present for your body to burn fat for energy, but not to burn glycogen. In the initial stages of exercise, oxygen is not available.

It can take minimum of 20 to 35 minutes of constant exercise before fat is fully available to the muscles as fuel. How efficiently your body burns fat will depend on your current condition.

Exercise, particularly aerobics, enhances the development of capillaries to the muscle which in turn improves the blood flow wherever it’s needed. With better blood flow and improved oxygen uptake by the muscles, your body becomes better adapted at building muscle.

This is the most leading reason why you shouldn't neglect the aerobic part of your training.
The difference between aerobic and anaerobic training

Running, cycling and swimming are aerobic activities whereas weightlifting, sprinting and boxing are anaerobic activities. During aerobic exercise, the heart rate rises, respiration increases and carbohydrates and fats provide working muscles with energy via oxidation. During anaerobic activity, the heart rate and respiration increase to a greater degree, but stored adenosine tri phosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate serve as primary energy sources. As a result, lactic acid accumulates in the muscles and blood. Another way to understand the difference between aerobic and anaerobic work is to think in terms of duration and intensity. If you can do an activity for a relatively long time (at least 20 minutes), the energy will have to be light than moderate so that you can keep it up. This is considered aerobic. Exercising at a high intensity - so high that you can't continue at that step for more than a minute or two at a time - is aerobic. But no exercise or activity is 100% aerobic or anaerobic. Sprinting may be anaerobic, while marathon running is aerobic, but when long-distance runners sprint for the finish line, they're activating their anaerobic metabolism.
Heart and health benefits

Aerobic exercise has a lot of heart and and other health benefits. Aerobic activity offers a wide variety of benefits to overall fitness and health. The visual improvements are great, but the long term, more important advantages occur on the inside. Together with cardiovascular efficiency, metabolic changes will take you another step closer to achieving ultimate fitness. You know aerobic exercise causes your body to burn calories, a percentage of which come from fat, depending upon (among other things) duration and intensity. But did you know that you continue to burn fat even after your workout is over? After training, the body needs to replenish muscle glycogen, and fatty acids help to manufacture adenosine tri phosphate(ATP). Basically, fat is used to partially refuel the body for its next burst of energy. The more intense the exercise, the more the body has to replenish, and the more fat it will use to do just that. Now as far your heart goes, aerobic exercise lowers your resting heart rate, increases stroke volume and improves the efficiency of the heart. A trained heart doesn't have to work as hard to deliver blood to the various parts of the body and can pump more blood with each beat than an untrained one. Aerobic training can also lower blood pressure, which in turn decreases the risk of heart attack.

I recommend that your aerobics sessions should be at least 15 to 20 minutes in length. Although beginners should take it easy when first starting aerobic training. Beginners should start off doing 5 to 10 minutes of aerobic training and try to gradually increase the amount of time at every new workout when it feels comfortable to do so.
Click here if you are a beginner and want to start working out and weight lifting.

When doing aerobics training, shoot for training in your target heart range. In order to find this range, take the number 220 and subtract your age in years (for example, if your 32, it would be 220 - 32 = 188), then take that number and keep your heart rate within 60 to 80 percent of it (for example, take 188 x 60% = 113 beats per minute).

Information, Facts and Great Tips on Bodybuilding, Exercise, Workouts, Supplements, Weight Lifting and Fat Burning

Sometimes when you're doubtful about the authenticity of information on body building it's a challenge to pick the outstanding recommendations from the bad advice. There's so much wordiness on body building that it's often very hard to know from where to start. The purpose of this site is to bring the benefits of various nutritional, bodybuilding and weight loss supplements to your attention so that you may be aware of some additional tools to build rock hard muscles and become a true bodybuilder.

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It’s never too late and never the wrong time to start exercising. Or, maybe you already exercise, but need some advice or upgrading regarding your health & fitness equipment. Home fitness machines are a way of exercising that comes with the convenience of being right at home!

Working out at home has become popular in recent years and health & fitness equipment and home fitness machines continue to be a common mode of exercise. Convenient, safe, and effective, home gyms are very practical.

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