Home Fitness Revolution Part 2

The second video is by the same guy. Very effective arm work out for biceps and triceps. All you need is some dumb bells and some home bar weights, no expensive machine required. So take a look at the video and start sculpting those arms.

To a lot of us, home fitness is a preference. We prefer to be alone and in the comfort of our homes when we work out. Because of this I’ve decided to start searching and sharing some of the best at-home work outs that could keep you from paying another dime for your gym memberships. The first at home work out id like to share is for your chest. This video is quite popular on Youtube with over 19 million views but in case you haven’t seen it, here it is.

Millions of people for obvious reasons become less active during the winter time. Combined with holiday sweets and treats, winter can be one of the easiest seasons to lose your shape. I’m sure a lot of us don’t like working hard to get in shape for summer and then losing it around winter time just to have to do it all over again next year. For those of us that become less active in the winter then the summer I’ve decided to list off a bunch of activities you can do in the winter to stay active and in shape.

Shovel the snow instead of use a snow blower.
Go sledding, walking up hills can result in a great lower body workout.
Go to a gym or exercise in doors.
Go ice skating.
Go on a walk and enjoy the snow.
Go shopping for presents, there is plenty of walking involved.
If you use a wood burning stove or fire place go scavenge for fire wood instead of buying it.
Go build a snow man.
Go around and look at Christmas decorations.
Play with the kids or animals if you got em.
Take a vacation, if being active in winter isn’t your thing, go somewhere warm and get active there.
Get some house work done, clean out the garage or something.

Just GET OUT and do something. Go to the movies, hang with friends, or go bowling. Anything you can do that doesn’t involve you sitting around all the time watching tv and eating sweets.

You may have heard the phrase Circuit training more then once but do you know what it is or even tried a work out using Circuit training?  A lot of people tend to do one exercise and stay on that exercise till they are finished with working out that particular muscle group. This can add a significant amount of time to how long you spend at the gym. For those of you looking to cut down on your time spent at the gym, Circuit training is the answer you could be searching for. Circuit training is where you perform more then one exercise in concession with another. Example is doing one set of curls and then instead of waiting to do another set, move on to another exercise such as the bench press and do a set of that. If that’s all you wish to do for your current circuit it would look like this.

1 set curls > 1 set bench press > 1 set curls > 1 set bench press, and so on till you have finished working those muscle groups.

Of course when doing a circuit many people include more then just 2 exercises into their circuit at a time. Which exercises you include is up to you and you can have multiple circuits in a work out so don’t add too much. Doing circuits during a work out is a great way to keep your heart rate up and is also a great way to cut down on the time spent at the gym.

Today I’d like to share one of my ab workouts that I do often in the gym. Its just a simple and effective floor exercise with no need for heavy weights or fancy machines. So here it is

First of all make sure you are stretched out and ready to go, don’t be out of breath or you probably won’t last long.

Crunch – 25 reps ( look at the ceiling and don’t bend your neck and keep your back on the floor.)

Right Oblique Crunch – 25 reps

Left Oblique Crunch – 25 reps

Push Through – 25 reps

Right Side Crunch – 25 reps

Left Side Crunch – 25 reps

Leg Pushes – 25 reps

Reverse Crunch – 25 reps

Bicycle Crunch – 25 reps (you can go for more if you can handle it.)

If your just starting out your going to want to take breaks and rest throughout this workout.  Never over do any work out.

Facts are something everyone looks at. So here are 5 Facts about fitness that may get you back into the gym.

-Fact #1-

Fitness improves overall Health. Some are saying well duh? But did you know it relieves stress, helps ward of diseases and sickness, and can even improve conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol.

-Fact #2-

Eat the foods you love. You like eating food and indulging in sweets, and there is nothing wrong with that. I personally eat when I want and what I want. Thanks to being fit and exercising often, I can still enjoy good food and maintain a killer body.

-Fact #3-

While many people see working out as only way to improve appearance. Staying fit will increase your performance in all aspects. Run longer, play longer, get work done with ease, the possibilities are endless.

-Fact #4-

The heart is the strongest muscle in the body. Being fit improves your hearts performance. This help prevents heart disease, increase blood flow, and reduces how much your heart has to work.

-Fact #5-

Breathing is actually important to working out. The only time you should ever hold your breath when working out is if your are doing an underwater exercise.

Working out isn’t always as simple as just lifting heavy weights. There are many factors that can lead to a more intense workout and yield better results. I’m going to share 5 tips with you I use every time I go to the Gym.

-Tip #1-

Slower Lifting. So its no problem for you to curl 50 pounds 25 times fast? Well with slower lifting you’ll be increasing the effectiveness with each rep significantly. Each curl should take about 5 second between contracting and releasing. This is more effective then just cranking out 25 reps in 20 seconds.

-Tip #2-

Good Form. This one should apply to every exercise you do. I see lots of people at the gym who stray from good form and it’s costing them a more effective work out. Make sure when lifting you are using weights where you can keep your good form during reps rather than struggling to lift weight that’s too heavy to keep perfect form.

-Tip #3-

Intensity. This one can be a key factor in getting a much better work out. Some people spend hours at the gym working out when that isn’t necessary. If your workout feels like it’s getting to easy and your no longer as sore after your workouts chances are your not pushing yourself hard enough. Rather then working out for 2 hours with low intensity kick it up into high gear and do a more intense workout for an hour. What do I mean by more intense? I mean lifting heavier weights or increasing resistance. As you can imagine this will push your bodies limits much quicker and give you a more effective workout.

-Tip#4-

Protein. This one is crucial for people interested in increasing and keeping their muscle size. Muscles need protein to rebuild and grow. Without it, your muscles aren’t rebuilding the way they should and that means your workouts less effective. While it’s generally better to get your proteins from the food you eat, it’s not always possible. Consuming a Protein shake before your workout and after, combined with the proteins you get from food, should be more then sufficient to stimulate your muscle growth.

-Tip #5-

Change it up. Are you still doing the same exact workout you’ve been doing for months? Well that’s a problem, you’ve probably reached a plateau, what’s a plateau? Well in terms of working out its the point where your workout has stopped earning you good results because your body has become used to the workout. It’s far more effective to change your workout and work the same muscles just in different ways. This is going to be way more effective and give you a much better workout.

What do I mean by don’t single out muscles? Well it’s exactly as it sounds, when working out you shouldn’t pick just one muscle group and work ONLY that muscle out. I say this because muscles usually have a corresponding muscle that go with them. Examples are Abs correspond with the lower back, or Quads correspond with the Hamstrings. When working out it is always a good idea to work both sets of muscle to prevent any sort of pain. When I first started working out seriously I would always work my abs, but I would never work my lower back and over time I would feel significant strain on my lower back. To prevent this I simply incorporated a lower back work out into my training. While working out just the biceps or just the chest a few times shouldn’t create to much problems for you, it is always a much healthier idea to work out both sets of muscles for a complete work out.

I hear this question all the time, Where’s my abs? Well the sad truth about abs is no matter how hard you try to get them they will never show as long as there is significant body fat around the waistline. Because the theory behind it is that even though doing ab exercises and doing core training will get you abs, but as long as it is covered by the body fat you will never see them. so where are your abs? I’ll tell you. There right there in front of you, all you have to do is bring them out from hiding. You may secretly be packing the six pack of your dreams but the only way to find out is to burn that fat off your body.  The big secret that is doing crunches or sit-ups alone will not get you abs if you have to much body fat. If you are one of the many people who have high hopes for achieving a slick six pack of abs, then you must include some form of fat burning cardio exercise into your workout.

-Exercise Tip-

A great fat burning cardio workout to burn loads of fat off your body is just a combination of sprinting and walking.

After you are warmed up and ready to go what you want to do is…

Sprint and give it all you got for 15 seconds.
Stop and walk for 15 seconds.

And just continue this process as much as you desire but make sure you are comfortable and never over do it. The change in intensity will force your body to burn off large amounts of calories.

Working toward a goal is important in anything we set our minds to. This includes a job, sports, games, learning and countless others but the list certainly doesnt exclude fitness. When setting a goal for fitness it’s important to realize that no goal is to small or to big to achieve. If you want to lose a few pounds to look good in your wedding dress or bulk up or slim down to beach body perfection you can do it with your own determination. So just take a moment when thinking about fitness and think.

What do I want to look like?

And How can I achieve these goals?

Remember that with a proper goal in mind you will have the determination required to work toward it and achieve the results you want.