Weight Lifting Exercises - Weight Lifting Workouts

There are many different types of weight lifting exercises that are used by professional bodybuilders to get the fantastic results that many beginners only dream of.  There are weight lifting exercises for virtually every body part, even for body parts like wrists and ankles.  There are many weightlifting workouts out there, and whether your goal is to bulk up or tone up, there’s sure to be a series of weight lifting exercises that will be perfect for you.

If you’re a beginner, then obviously you will want to start with basic weight training workouts and move on once you’re comfortable with what you’re already doing.  Training varies from simple repeatable movements using dumbbells and barbells to more complex machines using resistance and cables.  While many weight lifter’s definitely have a preference, there isn’t one very specific right way to weight lift or wrong way to weight lift.  There are great weight lifting exercises for whatever your goals are.

While there are more complex weight lifting exercises that more advanced lifters use, the most common weightlifting exercises are often great for both the very beginner and for the professional pushing for just that little bit more.  The most common weightlifting exercise is to do the same exercises, slowly increasing the amount of weight as the individual continues to improve.

Weight lifting workouts vary depending on what muscles you want to develop.  There are great individual exercises for biceps, triceps, chest, back, shoulders, deltoids, abs, back, calves, quads, and legs.  Depending on what muscles you want to develop, there is likely not just one exercise but multiple weight lifting exercises that can help you bulk, tone, lose weight, gain muscle, or accomplish whatever other goals you have for your own personal development.

Aside from just the different individual weight lifting exercises, there are also different routines and exercise methods that can add even more variety to any weightlifting program that you’re currently on.  The use of free weights with barbells and dumbbells is a great way to start, and then moving on to cable machines and resistance training can keep things moving.  If you find yourself getting bored and the routine getting stale, then look at throwing in a good little bit of circuit weight training to give your body a dramatic change in routine, to keep your mind fresh, and to get some cardio in.

The various choices you have among weight lifting exercises should prevent your overall workout from ever getting too stale.  This is also good news because every time you begin to plateau, there are more weight lifting exercises that you can learn to change up the routine and get your muscles back into movement again.

Deciding which weight lifting exercises are best depends on what your specific goals and fitness levels are.  Continue to adapt as you get in better and better shape, and you’ll be on your way to hitting all your goals in no time.

Finding the Right Weight Gainer

If you’re a serious bodybuilder who wants to go beyond the basic healthy toning of many people, and you really want to seriously bulk up, then eventually you will need to look for a quality weight gainer. Weight gainers are often used by competitive body builders and professional athletes. You need to consume more calories than you naturally burn in order to build extra muscle mass onto your frame.

Weight gainers can help, since people in exceptional shape who have a lot of muscle already are going to have a naturally high metabolism and thus might need some extra quality calories and protein in order to bulk up even more. There are several things that you will need to consider when searching around for the best quality weight gainer. When looking at all the ingredients and nutritional information on the majority of weight gainers, you’ll find a lot of the same traits: high number of calories, a small bit of fat, high doses of protein, and large amounts of carbs.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because the best and easiest way to build muscle is increasing calories, protein, and carbs. That being said, there are certain weight gainers that are better than others, and often times you can figure one from the other by making a closer inspection. Some of the most important things to look for are protein quality, carb breakdown, and sugars.

“Protein Quality”
Not all proteins are considered equal, and the same is true with the types of proteins that you can find in a weight gainer. When looking for the perfect weight gainer to take your bodybuilding to the next level, consider the quality of proteins that the weight gainers have in their make up. Look for whey powder, which is generally the greatest of the proteins and is far better than soy. Casein is a high quality protein, but it digests slowly, which usually doesn’t work for most people’s goals.

“Carb Breakdown”
The carb breakdown of any given weight gainer is very important, as well. There are many different places where carbs can come from, but the different sources of carbs can be vastly different. Some weight gainers get most of their carbs from sugars (not a good idea-and not at all healthy).

A good weight gainer is one whose main source for carbohydrates comes from maltodextrin. This is the carb base that will refill muscle glycogen stores most quickly, which is what you want in a quality weight gainer that is being used in conjunction with a bodybuilding regiment. Sugars are bad because this leads to a very high spike in your body’s insulin, which is followed by the type of crash that can cause migraines, fatigue, shakes, and upset stomach.

Stay away from the sugar heavy weight gainers and you will definitely be healthier in general, as well as happier with the results that you can achieve with a quality weight gainer that relies on better carbs and proteins.

Amino Acids: The Building Blocks

Amino acids are often referred to as being a fancy word for proteins, but this isn’t quite right.  Amino acids are involved with proteins, actually.  Amino acids are the building blocks of protein.  Without essential amino acids, proteins can’t effectively work in the body.  There are many specific supplements that are even aimed towards helping those building blocks.

Amino acids naturally come from protein rich foods like meat, fish, dairy, and certain vegetables such as legumes.  Taking a supplement that helps the amino acids in your body is going to help your muscles, your bones, and help your boy absorb and use protein more effectively and efficiently.  Amino acids are absolutely essential to the human body, as they are needed (like protein) for muscle repair, growth, and development.

In addition to the obvious and well recorded benefits that amino acids have on the body, it’s not just professional bodybuilders who can enjoy the benefits of an amino acids supplement, but amino acids also play an active role in keeping emotional moods normal, concentrating, attention, aggressiveness (keeping in check, or becoming more so in appropriate situations), and even sleep.  Consumed protein is broken down into amino acids, at which point they go to work.

Amino acids are in everyone’s body, and are a necessary part of having a healthy physical body.  If you’re wondering what people might need amino acids supplements, aside from bodybuilders, there are actually several groups of people who might want amino acid supplements.  Some individuals who find amino acid supplements helpful include vegetarians, people afflicted with certain allergies, people affected by stress caused fatigue, or hypoglycemia.  In this case some extra boost to the amino acids can make a huge difference in helping individuals out.

The good news is also that supplements usually only have to be taken for short periods of time.  The odd thing is that to get the full amino acids out of food that the body needs, the body needs to already have amino acids in order to process the new ones.  Once levels go back to normal, often times there’s no need to take more supplements, although even healthy individuals can still benefit immensely.

Amino acids are called the building blocks of the body for good reason, as without them no one could be healthy.  These work in processing every single enzyme in the human body, as well as building and recovering muscles among many other things.  If you are a bodybuilder looking for a little bit more, then amino acid supplements might be the right way to get that last little bit of boost, and for individuals who maybe just need a little bit extra to get healthy, this could also be the answer that you’ve been looking for.

Amino acids are an essential part of every human body, and the more you know about them, the more aware you can be of the benefits.

Ideal Body Fat Percentage - What Level Is Right for You?

Many people want to know what their ideal body fat percentage is.  The problem with trying to answer this question is that that there is no straight answer that applies to every individual person.  The ideal body fat percentage can vary quite a bit in between various individuals depending on body type, heredity, age, eating habits, gender, and normal activity levels.  All of these can effect what a healthy body fat percentage, as 6% might be healthy for one individual, but 15% is healthy for someone else.  However as a general rule of thumb, once you get up to 25%, that’s unhealthy for anybody.

The ideal body fat percentage also varies greatly depending on gender.  For example, most males who have 5% body fat are considered in excellent health because that’s the safe lower limit for most men.  Women, on the other hand, have a minimum of 12% to be at safe levels.  A woman aiming for 5% body fat is not only being unrealistic, but is probably aiming for a goal that would actually make her unhealthy.

Active people tend to have lower body fat, while individuals with a more sedentary life style are obviously more likely to have a high level of body fat.  In addition to this, age has a lot to do it.  For example, males who are 20 are often considered to have too little body fat if they are below 8% (obviously there are exceptions, like hard core athletes).  But at 70, you would have to be below 13% to have too little body fat.  The healthy range for a 30 year old male is 8-19%, while for an 80 year old it is 13-25%.

Figuring out your ideal body fat percentage and working to keep it in that range is a very important part of staying healthy and is a better indication of overall health than the body mass index (BMI).  Going to a doctor for a test can be a good idea, and there are body fat monitors that help you to monitor your progress as you diet and exercise your way to an ideal body fat percentage.

This is one of the most important things you can do to in order to stay in good health.  Your ideal body fat percentage should be one of your main goals in working out and becoming healthy.  Taking another measurement every three weeks to steadily keep track of your progress towards your ideal body fat percentage can help you to stay motivated and stay with a workout and diet program.

There are actually a wide array of body fat monitors available, giving consumers multiple choices.  Aiming for the body fat reduction can be encouraging, as sometimes you may be staying at the same weight but gaining muscle while losing fat, or you might be losing weight but your body takes longer to show it.  By keeping track of your progress, you will get healthier and may find it easier to reach your ideal body fat percentage.

Creatine Kinase - A More Modern Form of Creatine

While creatine monohydrate is one of the most common forms of creatine that is found in the body and used as a supplement for bodybuilders and any individual looking for a little extra boost for their workouts.  Creatine Kinase, sometimes abbreviated CK, and also known as Creatine Phosphokinase (CPK), is a type of creatine that is found in the body and is an enzyme that is naturally absorbed by muscles, but unlike creatine monohydrate creatine kinase is not the same thing, and should not be mistaken for the creatine that is found in supplement form.

Creatine kinase is found in the body naturally, and is all right as long as it is found in small amounts.  It can appear in the body in higher amounts after an intense workouts, since creatine kinase often times occurs when muscles are torn or damaged, as they will be after a major weight lifting work out as the muscles work to recover.

The problem with creatine kinase is that in higher amounts it can be a sign of damage to the muscular system or the brain.  Because of this, often times blood tests are taken searching for creatine kinase because CK can be an indication of potential heart attack, muscle diseases, or potential stroke.  The same is true with neuromuscular disorders.  Elevated levels of CK can be a dead give away to something being seriously wrong.  In normal circumstances, CK helps to heal the muscles after a workout, but when the CK levels remain elevated when they shouldn’t that’s potentially a dead giveaway.

CK tests are often used to evaluate different types of neuromuscular diseases, and there are five different ways in which they can be used:

1.    To confirm a specific muscle problem that is suspected before more obvious symptoms confirm the diagnosis.
2.    To see if muscle weakness is caused by a muscle or nerve problem as opposed to regular soreness.
3.    To tell the difference between potential disorders that have similar symptoms but different CK readings
4.    To try to detect possible “carriers” of neuromuscular disorders.
5.    To try to keep close tabs on a disease that is known to fluctuate or shift throughout different phases.

Creatine kinase (CK) is not the same as creatine monohydrate, and the two should not be confused.  Monohydrate is the base of the popular supplement that has helped dieters and bodybuilders maximize their workout effect.  CK is a natural enzyme, but it is one that often times is used to indicate possible bad news.  Knowing the difference between these two “creatines” can make a huge difference in understanding the importance of each in any given conversation.

Body Mass Index - A Way to Measure Weight & Height

The body mass index, more commonly known as the BMI, is a way of measuring a person’s weight in proportion with their height, assigning a statistical number that represents both.  While the BMI in general can be a good way to estimate the average healthy body weight for a person’s height, this is not an exact science and one common misconception is that the BMI is a measurement of body fat, which is not true.  While the BMI is an estimate of healthy body weight for height, it’s not exact at all.  The BMI of a professional bodybuilder, for example, could be high in the “extremely unhealthy” range because of all the extra weight from muscle, but that would not be an accurate description of the bodybuilder’s actual health.

The body mass index is often used in lieu of actual body fat measurements because it is easy to measure and figure out, making it more popular.  The body mass index was first used between 1830 and 1850.  The BMI is figured out by taking the person’s body weight and dividing it by the square of the height.  For weight use kilograms, not pounds, and for height use meters.  So to get the right BMI number you want to take kg/m2.  That measurement will let you figure out your BMI.

The body mass index isn’t perfect, but for average individuals it is often a relatively reliable estimate of where your weight sits health wise.  The BMI measurement became most popular in the 1950s and 1960s when obesity first started to become a serious and common problem in developed Western societies.  The Body Mass Index has come under fire recently, mostly because of its misuse.  While the BMI is a good estimate, it was never intended to be used as iron clad figures, or to be used by doctors for medical diagnosis of health.  A more accurate use of BMI’s purpose is to have it used as a simple easy to estimate means of seeing how physically active or inactive the average individual is as measured by weight in relation to height.

There are several factors that can really through off the accuracy of a BMI report.  Two of the obvious are heavy weight lifting, like bodybuilding, and extreme height.  Because of the simplicity of the math, the taller a person, the more likely the BMI is to be off.  There are several “ranges” that BMI scores fall into.  It’s generally accepted that:

BMI Categories within the healthy range:
Low 18.5-19.8
Med-Lo 19.9-21.1
Medium 21.2-22.4
Med-Hi 22.5-23.7
High 23.8-25.0

Scores under 18 are dangerously underweight, while scores over 25 indicate obesity, and go all the way up to morbidly obese.  These are once again, just general measurements that compare the weight and heights of average individuals, but it’s still a good way to get at least a general idea of how you’re doing in regards to weight and health.

Mark Wahlberg Workout - Mark Wahlberg Workout Routine

Mark Wahlberg has come a long way in his life. The former musician and big time movie star hardly started out life with a silver spoon. Wahlberg may have shot to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg, starting out as one of the original members of the band “New Kids on the Block,” and then on his own as rapper Marky Mark. Later he starred in several hit movies like “Renaissance Man,” “The Basketball Diaries,” “Fear,” and “Three Kings.”

Mark has always been well known for his outstanding physique, and he used that to his advantage in both his music and movie career. How he got that physique had a lot to do with the one place that helped keep him off the streets where he had found trouble before, and out of prison: the gym. Living in a rough neighborhood in Boston, it didn’t take much effort at all to find trouble, and so he used the gym as a sort of “watchful parole officer.”

Instead of hanging at the corner he would go to the gym, and the Mark Wahlberg workout formed from day after day spent at the gym by him in order to avoid the trouble that claimed so many youth in his neighborhood growing up. Mark spent time in prison for assault, and after working out in the prison gym he used that and his experience as motivation to stay out of trouble, and continued to work out.

The Mark Wahlberg workout remains heavy on weight lifting and not much else. He hates cardio, and has often stated a complete aversion to running on a treadmill or spending an hour sitting in one place on an exercise bike. Despite having six pack abs, he doesn’t do crunches, either.

The Mark Wahlberg workout basically means hitting the weights for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, hitting two or three body parts a day hard and fast. That’s the key: there are no long breaks to catch your breath or “easy days.” If you’re pumping iron that day you need to go all out and perform all the weight lifting exercises on that muscle group at full intensity.

The only times Mark’s workout changes is when there is a movie coming out that adds an extra dimension to his workout. For example, in the movie “Four Brothers” his character was an avid hockey player, so in addition to the weight lifting Mark also played two hours of hockey a day for months at a time while filming the movie. Otherwise once he’s back in between jobs it’s back to the weight lifting over and over again.

Sometimes diet and exercise programs overcomplicate the basics too much. Sometimes just doing a great set of exercises right and consistently is enough, and the Mark Wahlberg exercise program might be the epitome example of that situation.

Blank Weight Lifting Chart

Using a blank weight lifting chart is a great way for you to keep track of your progress and to keep yourself accountable. It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re doing well in your workout even when you’re slacking, but the straight numbers don’t lie. Keeping blank weight lifting charts around allows you to chart your progress and are great because you can track everything from the gradual increases in your overall work out, or you can have a chart to record your progress with each individual exercise.

In the same way that using a food log will keep you more honest and help increase the success of any weight loss diet, having a good supply of blank weight lifting charts designed to record the progress of your specific weight lifting goals is going to keep you honest and help to increase and improve your results.

No matter how honestly you access your own workout schedule and progress, and no matter how hard you try to push yourself, you can’t keep track of your progress better with your memory than you can with written records. Besides for the obvious, which is the near impossibility of remembering weeks or months of workouts correctly, there’s the added benefit from weight lifting charts that with the numbers right there you will be able to recognize a plateau effect quite possibly before you sense it or notice it with your body.

If your goals are to build muscle or enjoy some great gains in weight training, then having an optimal workout is critical to getting the results that you want. Most people are visual, and being able to have the solid numbers there in front of them, as opposed to some abstract notion of “how I’m doing,” makes it much easier to adjust workouts accordingly in order to strengthen weak areas or to optimize and revise your weight lifting program based on the early results that you’re seeing.

Every professional bodybuilder tracks their progress using blank weight lifting charts, and this common practice occurs because it’s so effective. If this is the right move for professionals, then why wouldn’t you take advantage of this knowledge and mimic it to help your own progress?

Blank weight lifting charts are not hard to find. There are many places even online that have a wide variety of different options that can be printed off straight from the site. If you’re looking for general blank weight lifting charts, these are easy to find, while even specifically focused weight lifting charts that concentrate on everything from legs to chest to arms to back to even one type of weight lifting exercise are all available, as well.

By now the point of this article should be obvious: if you want to improve your results then take a few minutes a day to use blank weight lifting charts to record your progress. You’ll be glad you did!

Minerals: Essential to Your Body’s Survival

Minerals are often clumped in with vitamins as something that is necessary for your body’s optimum health.  In this sense that definition is true: minerals are necessary for optimum health.  Many minerals are even considered essential minerals, as in the human body must absolutely have them to survive.  So what exactly are dietary minerals?

Dietary minerals are the chemical elements that your body requires to live (as do most living organisms) that are present in most organic molecules.  Translation: they’re the chemicals in your body and the bodies of most animals that keeps everything functioning the way it should so you can live happy, healthy, and normal.  The actual word “mineral” confuses many people, and it’s an archaic term from a time when science didn’t understand the functions of the body as fully as they do now.

Minerals, like vitamins, can be provided naturally through food, and can also be ingested through various supplements that are available to bodybuilders and the common public as well.  While the differences between vitamins and minerals is hard to describe (and some are the same), minerals are an absolute necessity for good health, and even life itself.  There are 17 minerals that are just essential for a human body to live and function.  Some have obvious and well known uses, others aren’t as well known but remain necessary.  Those 17 essential minerals are:

#1 Calcium: Everyone knows about calcium, which is used for muscles, heart, and building bone.  This mineral is where dairy products shine.

#2 Chloride: This is what produces the acid in your stomach, and is mostly acquired in your body through the intake of salt.

#3 Cobalt: This is also known as vitamin B12 and can be found in concentrated supplement form.

#4 Copper: Copper is a critical part of many enzymes that the body needs to function a full capacity.

#5 Fluorine: This is related to the word fluoride, which more people will be familiar with.  This mineral is what allows tooth enamel to form, allowing us our ability to chew food and eat.

#6 Iodine: Iodine is the mineral required for thyroid regulation.  An iodine deficiency is what causes goiters, which are often a problem in older age.

#7 Iron: Protein may build the muscles, but iron is what makes the protein work.  Iron is one of the most essential of the minerals of the body.

#8 Magnesium: Required for bones, this element tends to decrease in older age.

#9 Manganese: Think of this mineral as an enabler for enzymes.

#10 Molybdenum: Works with oxidation of cells in the body.

#11 Nickel: Helps strengthen bones and keeps them healthy.

#12 Phosphorus: This mineral is another part of keeping bones healthy, but phosphorus also helps the body create energy, and also assists in a wide array of other functions.

#13 Potassium: Potassium is actually an electrolyte that is extremely important in keeping the electrolyte count balanced and using sodium and water with maximum effectiveness.

#14 Selenium: This mineral is the ultimate enabler of antioxidant enzymes in the human body.

#15 Sodium: Is an important electrolyte and works hand in hand with potassium.  One of the most well known minerals

#16 Sulfur: Critical in working with certain amino acids in the body.

#17: Zinc: Zinc is one of the most important minerals and works with several enzymes to keep the boy healthy.

These are the seventeen essential minerals that help the human body function, and taking quality multi-vitamins will help keep your mineral levels healthy.

Fat Smash Diet - Blast That Fat Away

The fat smash diet is a very popular diet that through intensive eating and working out (coupled with solid online support groups) can help many dieters drastically cut away weight and fat over a 3 month (90 day) program.  The fat smash diet is split into four specific phases, and has been lauded by many for its common sense approach to eating and dieting.  It has also been lauded by many dieters because of looser restrictions: you don’t have to follow the diet in an extremely strict line by line manner as long as you’re following the basic premises of it.

As mentioned earlier, this diet is broken into four specific phases, with an emphasis on heavy eating of fruits and vegetables throughout the whole diet.

Phase One: “Detox.”  This phase of the diet lasts a mere 9 days, but is considered one of, if not the, most important step of the entire diet plan.  During the detox phase you will mostly eat different fruits and vegetables and little else.  The point of this is to cleanse your body of junk and eliminate toxins from your blood that are left over like alcohol, caffeine, and bloat.

Increasing the amount of fruit & veggies you eat also increases your body’s ability to clean itself all the way down on the cellular level.  Unlimited fruits and veggies are allowed with the exception of potatoes and avocados, while small amounts of other food are allowed, but no meat.

Phase Two: “Foundation.”  This phase of the diet will last three weeks.  In this phase fruits and veggies still have the green light, but you also get to eat some lean meats now.  This phase lasts for three weeks, and you can have some chicken, turkey, and fish, along with 2 diet pops a day, if you want a sweet reward.

Phase Three: “Construction.”  This phase of the diet will last four weeks.  In this phase you can eat everything allowed from phase one and two, but you also get to enjoy whole wheat pasta and whole wheat bread.  It also increases the amount of protein you can have, as well as adding quite a few other food items in small doses that were restricted before, such as fat free mayo, peanut butter, cheese, fresh juice, and some dessert.

Phase Four: “The Temple.”  This is the phase of the diet that should set your habits for life.  The idea is if you’ve made it this far in the diet, then you should be able to have the discipline and food knowledge to keep watching your diet within reason from then on out.  In this phase you can eat all the foods allowed before, as well as small amounts of white starches, small amounts of alcohol, and even some junk food.  The idea is control: that if you have a candy bar and soda once, it won’t become a habit and you’ll take a smaller portion of meat at dinner.

This is one of those rare diets that is trying to help the dieter create a life change in their diet habits that will allow them good health and habits through the rest of their life, and the dieter who manages that won’t be disappointed.

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