Not Your Average Fitness Tips

Archive for July, 2010

As I do every 6-8 weeks, I’ve recently decided to change my workout routine.  I was focused on heavy strength training to help build dense muscles.  Now I’m planning to take a break from lifting and focus on strength training without weights.  By simply using my bodyweight, I’m confident I can perform a home workout without equipment that will help me maintain the size of my muscles while actually increasing functional strength.

Two staples of any bodyweight routine are pushups and squats.  There are quite a few variations on these exercises that make them easy enough for beginners and challenging enough for advanced trainees.  They are both compound exercises meaning they work multiple muscles.  These are the best types of exercise to build overall functional strength.  Combined, these two exercises alone could really work your entire body, but there are other upper and lower bodyweight exercises that can help round out a strength training routine as well. Continue Reading…

Over the past month, I’ve revamped my diet a little bit.  After many years of unsuccessfully trying the calorie restrictive approach, I found success with intermittent fasting, specifically Eat Stop Eat.  I’ve gotten to a point that I’m as lean as I’ve ever been but still want to continue trimming fat on the margins.  I decided to incorporate some of the “cheat diet” recommendations from Cheat Your Way Thin to aid in this fat burning process.  Combining these approaches with an overall healthy eating diet has been highly beneficial for me.

I think each approach has benefits on its own, but provide an ideal fat burning diet when put together.  However, assess each on your own and decide what fits best with your lifestyle and overall fitness goals.  Here’s how I went from a simple calorie restrictive diet to the combination I’m calling Cheat Stop Eat Your Way Thin. Continue Reading…

I’ve posted a detailed Cheat Your Way Thin Review.  Please check it out under Best Fat Loss Diets.

“Eat What You Want.  Outsmart Your Body.  Triple Your Results.”

“Discover How You Can Join The Thousands Of Others Who Have Already Used My Proven “Cheating” System to Effortlessly Strip Away Countless Inches From Their Own Hard-to-Lose Problem Areas— All While Regularly Eating Ice Cream, Devouring Juicy Burgers, And Indulging In Foods That Most Other Dieters Can At Best Dream About”

There’s no doubt that Hollywood actors and actresses develop some of the best bodies for their roles.  It often prompts the question of how these stars of Hollywood workout.  People in general seem fixated on taking their favorite celebrity’s workout and applying it to their own body.  However, a lot of people fail to consider a fundamental question: are celebrity workouts and diets effective?  Can a Hollywood workout really help you build a better body? Continue Reading…

A circuit training workout is great way to get a time efficient workout that offers the potential for muscle gain and fat loss.  However, I’ve recently been using circuit training exercises to improve my endurance and cardiovascular health.  Circuit training involves moving from one exercise to the next with little to no rest.  I prefer to incorporate circuit weight training routines at the end of my workout in order to increase my heart rate and lose some fat in the process.

One of the great features of circuit training is that you can incorporate any number of exercises into your routine.  Below is a list of circuit training exercises that I currently use or have used in the past along with a few sample circuit weight training routines that you can add to your workout. Continue Reading…

A common question posed by anyone who has read bodybuilding literature is: how much protein do I need per day?  Generally, bodybuilding magazines claim you need 200-300 grams of protein per day to build muscle mass.  For years, I believed in this approach.  I drank Myoplex and Muscle Milk and tried to include some form of protein with every meal.  Did I see huge muscle mass gains?  No.  I saw my weight increase with just as much fat gain as protein gain.  What happened?

While there is in fact a minimum amount of protein necessary to build muscle, the problem is that it’s not nearly as high as you’d think.  Just like the myth that eating 6 times per day will increase your metabolism and help you lose fat, the myth of how much protein you need is predicated on somewhat biased studies.  Fortunately, Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat came up with How Much Protein to sort out the real scientific facts about protein…from how much protein you need per day to whether post workout protein shakes are important. Continue Reading…

Hindu squats and Hindu pushups are unique variations of the traditional bodyweight squats and pushups.  Hindu squats, (known as bethaks), and Hindu pushups (known as dands) have been used by Indian wrestlers for decades.  I first learned about these exercises from Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning.  While I find Furey’s products a bit overhyped, as a former wrestling and kung fu champion, he does know a few things about strength and endurance.

Despite Furey’s claim that these exercises build strength, power, speed, and endurance, I find that Hindu squats and Hindu pushups are actually best treated as an addition to a bodyweight calisthenics program.  These exercises are intended to be done with high reps.  I’m a firm believer that low rep, heavy weight training maximizes strength gains, but have nothing against challenging exercises like Hindu squats and Hindu pushups that improve your cardiovascular system and work your muscles in a slighter different manner than their traditional counterparts. Continue Reading…

Aerobic exercise seems to be a core component of many fitness programs, especially beginners workout routines.  However, should they incorporate anaerobic exercise as well?  A fundamental question centers around aerobic vs anaerobic exercise and the benefits that each offer.  It’s really a difference of low intensity vs high intensity.  Generally people think of aerobic training as low intensity cardio performed in the “fat burning zone.”  There is less familiarity with anaerobic exercise.  Anaerobic exercise encompasses high intensity training such as a strength training routine or HIIT routine.  This chart breaks down different exercise zones by heart rate (aerobic is light orange, anaerobic is dark orange).

Read on to find out how and why both aerobic and anaerobic exercise should be incorporated into a fitness routine. Continue Reading…

I’ve posted a detailed Jump Manual Review.  Please check it out under Best Workout Routines.

The Jump Manual provides dunk training and exercises to increase vertical leap.

“The Jump Manual is an “all in one” vertical jump training software that provides you everything you need in order to achieve your maximum vertical jump and quickness.”

Recently I decided to add plyometric training exercises to my workout routine.  A long time ago, I experimented with different types of exercises to increase my vertical.  Plyometrics training not only helped increase my vertical leap but also provided a great strength training routine for my legs.  I’ve found the best plyometric exercises as part of programs that teach you how to jump higher to dunk.

Way back in high school, I was obsessed with my vertical leap.  As it did with pushups, my competitive spirit always came out when we tested how high we could jump in gym class.  I remember that I was 2^nd in the school at 34” during my junior year.  The person above me jumped 36” and went on to be a starter for the UConn basketball team.  I decided that I would really focus on plyometric training exercises to increase my vertical.  I tried a program called Air Alert II.  Let’s just say it taught me everything I shouldn’t do. Continue Reading…