The number of muscle programs that are appearing online is increasing. If you've ever surfed the Internet looking for one, always will you see huge promises and lofty claims of, "your dream body is only a step away!" and rubbish like that. We all know that the best way to build lean muscle is by exercise, but it's easy to buckle to the trends and follow the most glamorous exercise program, when you know that the plain, straight-forward one will get you the results you want. Here are some things you should look for in a good muscle exercise program.
1. Rest, Reps, Sets

Going back to the very basics, a workout is only a workout because of the repetitions and sets of repetitions of exercise. However, not many workouts talk about the most important aspect of exercise: rest. It's a common-held belief that building muscle is 1% exercise and 99% rest and recovery. So when you're looking for a set of muscle exercises online, make sure that it doesn't only talk about reps and sets. That's just the minimum requirement for a set of exercises. Make sure it talks about rest as well. If it does, you're onto something good.

2. Visual demonstrations of the exercises

One of the most common causes of injury and frustration is having an muscle building guide that people keep telling is awesome, but when you get a hold of it, the descriptions of the exercises are just downright dismal and pathetic. Some people have trouble visualizing things, so the best thing is a muscle exercise guide that either has videos of someone demonstrating the exercises (quite rare), or at least some sort of animation where the exercise is depicted accurately as well. This is also quite hard to find, but they do exist on the Internet.

3. Explanation of how the workout works

What's the point working out and following the program if you don't know how on earth the exercise will help you build muscle? You're just being a sheep and you'll be just as stupid as the other people who would have fallen for the program. It's easy to fall for the sales gimmicks and before and after photos, I know, but you have to make sure that the exercises sound legitimate. You have to make sure you know what's required as well. Some men buy muscle programs, being deluded by all the hope that's risen out from their minds only to remember they don't have gym membership or a decent set of weights. It's simple logic, but salespeople can be very persuasive.

So. Just remember that there are exercise programs online that do explain what you're going to do with their program (without revealing their what makes their whole program so different from the others), they will have demonstrations of exercises and they will have the actual exercises with rest, reps and sets included inside. Any less is not worth even looking at.

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There are heaps of "professional" personal trainers or bodybuilders who claim they hold the holy grail of muscle building knowledge, when all they did was take short cuts to get to where they are. A lot of bodybuilders copy each other and copy the same rubbish that they promote. All they're doing is further casting a darker shadow over the muscle industry that's already dominated by the shady supplement pushers. The only thing that's proven to work is a good muscle exercise program, but even they are hard to find too. If you see a muscle program with one of these components, it's crap and you should avoid it.

1. Have exercises that don't have an order

All the good muscle exercise programs will have an order to their exercises, whether you see it or not. They will workout the entire body and will usually incorporate the same muscle group, but exercising it in different ways. For example, a good muscle program will recommend that you do a hamstring curl at 15 reps x 3 sets at a 311 tempo. Then it will tell you to do a hamstring extension at 15 reps x 3 sets at a 311 tempo, taking a rest after all that. A substandard muscle routine will not see the importance of superimposing a related exercise on the same muscle group, giving you a set of exercises that will only stuff up the way your muscle grows, leading to slower gains.

2. They will talk about rest

This is something that's only been realized in the last decade or so by fitness experts, but rest and recovery is one of the most important aspects of building muscle. It's useless if you get a muscle program that gives you a set of exercises to do if it doesn't tell you how long you should rest in between each exercise. Because yes, it is important. Think about it . If you didn't have a set time to rest, a workout could vary significantly. You could end up adding on an extra 20 minutes to half an hour to a workout, simply because you were daudling between exercises. Also, if you take too long a rest, you lose workout intensity, meaning your muscles don't work out as hard as they should, meaning slower gains. Rest is important to a work out if you want to build consistent muscle.

3. Demonstrations

Have you ever tried folding paper origami by instruction books? It's bloody hard! A lot of guys can visualize the finished product, but it's often hard to see the path to get there. It's the same for working out. There are a lot of effective exercises out there that will expose weakness in your body and strengthen them, but it's pointless if we don't know to do them. Professionals seem like their speaking a different language sometimes when using the technical body part name when talking about an exercise. The good professionals will cut all that fancy crap and show you how to do the exercise properly. They can't rely on us to follow actors in tough movies. That's what's caused the proliferation of injuries in the first place: inproper understanding of lifting motion.

It's all common sense really, what you should find in a muscle program. It's just that us guys sometimes get deluded by pictures of other guys who've been there and done that and got the results. Or so they say. We have to really keep our eyes open for the gold amongst the scams. They have to contain information about rest, ordered exercises and demonstrations of the exercise. That is, unless if we like working out and getting nowhere.

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One of the hardest things about getting your ideal body is cutting fat afterwards without losing muscle in the process. That's why many guys just remain bulky after they decide to stop working out. The process of bulking up by lifting weights and eating properly is straight-forward once you work it out, but the fat cutting process is a bit more involved. Having said that, there are good fat cutting programs out there online that come free with muscle building programs. Here is what you should look out for in a good fat cutting program.

1. Explanation of how to cut fat

This is pretty obvious. A lot of people still think that cutting fat is the same as losing weight. It's totally different. Losing weight can be unhealthy, since you're purposely starving your body of calories it needs. That's what you typically do in diets and the weight you lose is actually muscle. Your body hangs onto fat deposits for dear life since a diet is the same as survival mode for it. Cutting fat is all about having a higher calorie output than input. That's the basis of cutting fat and a good fat routine will flesh out this simple rule.

2. Have an explanation of nutrition involved

This is naturally an extension of the theory for cutting fat. You absolutely have to talk about the biochemistry involved with cutting fat, ie. the carbs, fats and protein involved in a diet. Then it should go a step further than that and give an example meal plan based on this information. One of the hardest things about cutting fat is eating. You don't want to put the fat you're losing back on by eating improperly.

3. Have an exercise program for cutting fat

This should cap off the fat cutting program: the actual exercise you do. This, combined with the meal plans done properly will help you cut fat. Like muscle building exercises, the exercises you do should have rest, reps and sets. The way that these fat cutting exercises are structured is usually so that anyone can use them. If you did the exercises by themselves, with no regard to meals, you should still lose weight is from the fat you're burning, but you might lose muscular weight too.

All in all, a good fat cutting program explains the process of cutting fat, talk about how and what you eat to maintain your muscle while burning fat and finally the exercises required to physically burn the fat. A reminder than they're not worth buying, since you can get them with a good muscle building package that helps you bulk and cut afterwards.

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Lifting weights is an expensive sport. Not only are you talking about monthly gym membership, even if you purchase the equipment yourself, you're talking about hundreds of dollars. Not to mention the supplements you have to take for your life to maintain your body. It's hard enough doing all this without going broke trying to get your daily protein intake. What you need is a set of meal plans that will help you build muscle while keeping your belt tight and your wallet closed. Look out for these signs of good, cheap muscle meal plans.

1. Variety

Ok, so you're cheap. That doesn't mean you don't have taste or standards. You can get good cheap muscle meal programs online that will keep you guessing while making sure you get your daily protein intake. The kind of variety we're talking about is such that it will suggest a recipe for you to try one night for dinner, or it will recommend a simple snack you can make or a quick and easy fruit smoothie with whey powder and ice. This will save you money while filling you up and keeping your muscles happy.

2. Simplicity

The last thing you want when you're eating cheap is to be spending forever at the stove trying to figure out the order you have to put the ingredients in. A good set of cheap, muscle meal programs will cater for the culinary challenged and although there will be a compromise between variety and simplicity if you can't cook well, the sign of a good cheap muscle meal plan is that it's useable by a lot of people.

3. Times to eat

Not all of us are hardcore weightlifters. We try out best to fit in a good 5-6 meals a day, but a good cheap set of muscle meal plans will allocate times for us to eat and if we can't make them, they will be arranged so that we can still get our protein fixes without disrupting the other activities in our day. A good cheap muscle meal plan will not just throw recipes at you and ask you to work it out, it will arrange them in an order and recommend times for you to eat them.

It might seem too good to be true but you can find good cheap muscle meal plans that have an order for you to eat them in, that are also simple and have some variety for you. It's not impossible to bulk up and keep your wallet fat, you just have to know where to look.

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Are you looking to change the shape of your body or trying to lose belly fat without joining a high priced gym? If so, try this high energized cardiovascular fitness routine that that was developed by Keli Roberts.

With this 10 minute exercise routine you can burn up to 150 calories every single day.
The first two minutes of this fat burning routine is: Jump Rope - Begin by performing two jumps for each turn of the rope. Safety: Use the correct size jump rope and always land softly on the balls of your feet (that is the upper part of the bottom of your foot). Keep thinking I am losing weight.

Minutes two to three: Squat Thrust into a Push Up. The proper technique for this exercise is to stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your arms strait down next to your sides. Slowly squat down with your head forward and bring your hands to the floor just outside of your feet. Your hands should be pointing forward as well. Then in one movement, push your legs back and out behind you (into a pushup position). Perform one strict pushup and then jump back into your squat position and then stand back up. Keep thinking, the fat is vanishing.

Minutes three to four: Jump Rope with only one jump per turn. Keep thinking, The fat is melting away.

Minutes four to five: Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add the Side Plank. After completing your squat thrust and push up, you are going to lift and rotate your left arm off of the ground and over your head. Your left foot will rotate and rest on top of you right foot. And you will rotate your neck so you are looking up at your ceiling. Rotate back to the center and repeat on the other side. When finished, hop back into your squat position, stand up and start again. Keep thinking, no more belly.

Minutes five and six: Jump Rope. Same as minutes three and four. keep thinking, I am losing body fat.

Minutes six and seven: Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add the Leg Lift. This is the same as minutes two and three only this time you will lift the toes of one foot about twelve inches off of the ground only after you have performed your push up. Lower your foot and repeat on the other side. Hop back up to your squat position, stand up, and start again. Keep thinking, goodbye belly.

Minutes seven and eight: Jump Rope. Same as minutes three and four. Keep thinking, my belly is getting smaller.

Minutes eight and nine: Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add Mountain Climbers. Repeat everything as in minutes two and three only this time after your push up, you will quickly jog in place from your push up position. Make sure you bring your knees up to your chest on each rotation. Perform 5 jogs and repeat this entire process. Keep thinking, I am going to lose weight.

Minutes nine and ten: Jump Rope. Same as you first two minutes. Keep thinking. If I do this everyday, I will lose belly fat. Good luck to everyone.

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Fitness DVDs are extremely popular just after Christmas and the new year as people look to lose weight and regain their figures. So with so many to choose from, what factors should you consider when choosing one of these fitness DVDs?

Well the first thing I would say is that you shouldn't be influenced by the celebrity that is endorsing a particular DVD. Ultimately it's the actual exercise routine that is important. Just because you have the most famous celebrity behind a particular fitness routine does not make it the best and most effective one for losing weight.

Nowadays you will often find that there are preview clips of each of these fitness DVDs available to watch on all the major internet retailers. So this means that you can form a good idea of the actual content of each exercise routine to determine both how strenuous it is likely to be and whether or not it is right for you. This is important because you obviously don't want a high-energy intensive workout if you're out of shape and heavily overweight because it will be too much for you to start off with.

Another benefit of visiting these internet retailers and watching a preview clip of these DVDs is that you will soon discover how enjoyable each routine is. A particular routine may well be extremely effective at burning calories and losing weight, but if it is extremely tedious and boring, then it's essentially a waste of time because you are unlikely to be motivated enough to stick with it. So you should always choose one that looks enjoyable, ideally with good quality music and a variety of different exercises so you can actually enjoy performing the routine on a regular basis.

Finally one other point to consider is which areas each particular DVD focuses on. This too is important because you may want to target specific parts of your body rather than go for a general weight loss-oriented workout. Although most focus on losing weight and improving your fitness, some of these DVDs focus more on specific areas or types of exercise, so this is worth bearing in mind.

If you take all of these factors into consideration then you may well find that these DVDs can really help you to achieve your weight loss goals. They are certainly a lot cheaper than joining a gym, and just as effective in a lot of cases.

By: James Woolley

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Are you one of those people who wake up in the morning still feeling sluggish and tired? I think most people will be able to relate to you. I know I used to feel this way all of the time. Not anymore. Would you like to know how I stopped feeling this way? Then keep reading.
Here are 5 Simple Tips That Will Have You Waking Up With More Energy

1. Go to bed earlier. This may sound simple and like a duh statement, but most people keep staying up late and wondering why they still feel tired in the morning. Turn off the T.V. and go to bed, silly.

2. Drink water before you go to bed. Dry heat especially this time of year can slowly dehydrate your body. When you feel dehydrated, you have less energy. Drink a glass or two of water within an hour of bedtime and you won't feel so thirsty in the morning

3. Eat a nutritious breakfast. How are you going to feel full of energy if you skip breakfast or fill up on junk in the morning. Eat some fruit and protein and skip out on the sugary stuff. That way you don't crash from the sugar high a couple of hours later.

4. Exercise. Do a couple of simple exercises to get your blood and energy flowing. Jog in place or stretch for a few minutes. You don't have to do a full head on 30 minutes with weights or anything like that. Just get your body moving.

5. Live with passion. Why? If you are motivated to start your day because you are living with passion, you will find it easy to shrug off any bit of sluggishness that you feel. Get yourself excited about each day.

These are just five of the things that have worked for me. Try each one out for a couple of weeks and see how much better you feel.

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f you want to know how to lose belly fat, here are three simple tips that have helped thousands of men and women lose well over 53,731 pounds of belly fat with the Turbulence Training workout programs.

The first tip is to find the right diet for your personality. You should eat whole, natural foods no matter what your diet, but you can choose between eating 5-6 small meals per day, or eating 3 meals and 2 small snacks, or by using the intermittent fasting solution called Eat Stop Eat.

All three of those diet approaches are safe, fast, and effective ways of burning stomach fat. In fact, if you want to know how to lose belly fat, you just have to remember the simple equation that you need more calories going out (exercise) than you have coming in. These diet approaches help you control the calories in portion.

By eating whole, natural foods you help to control the hormones in your body that determine how much belly fat you pack on and how much you can lose. You lower insulin levels, and that is very important because insulin is a fat storage hormone. If you want to know how to lose belly fat, it helps to control insulin.

If you eat whole, natural foods you will lose belly fat without having an empty stomach. You’ll stay full, energetic, and alert all day long. That is one of the benefits of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss Nutrition System.

After you’ve arranged your diet to help you lose belly fat, you need to focus on two types of exercise, and no, slow cardio is not one of them. In fact, research shows time and time again that not only is slow cardio ineffective for fat loss, but that interval training is how to lose belly fat.

Interval training includes a normal warm-up, followed by alternating short (90 seconds or less) periods of hard exercise and easy exercise. Repeat this hard-easy system 6 times and finish up with a regular cool-down. That is the simplest way to do interval training, and it works.

Research from Australia shows that when compared head to head, interval training is better at burning belly fat than slow cardio.

The other type of exercise you must include if you want to know how to lose belly fat is called resistance training. And I don’t mean lifting soup cans at home. That is the politically correct way of exercising for fat loss, but it doesn’t work.

You need to do politically-incorrect resistance training to lose belly fat, and that includes working hard in supersets and doing exercises like pushups, squats, and planks. You can do all of those at home with the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss Workouts. For more information, grab your copy and one year’s worth of workouts at TurbulenceTraining.com.

If you want to know how to lose belly fat, the truth is you can’t ignore diet, interval training or resistance training. The whole, natural foods diet and three workouts of resistance training and interval training is all you need each week to burn belly fat forever.

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Pregnancy causes lots of changes in a womans body as well as mind. Among the other changes main is the weight gain. Ideally, a woman should gain weight during pregnancy from somewhere 9 to 12 kgs over her original weight. Some women are able to reach the desirable weight range during pregnancy and some exceed it. The most common worry seen in women post delivery is regarding extra weight accumulated during the pregnancy phase. So hereby, we upgrade the knowledge of those women who want to lose the extra pounds or Kgs. accumulated during pregnancy. Just follow the given tips.

Tips for weight lose by dietary changes

Restrict the intake of extra cereals: during pregnancy, we advise woman to increase the intake of cereals like rice and roti. Incase of weight lose one has to cut down the extra intake of these grains. For example: if you are taking 3 rotis for lunch and dinner then cut it down to 2 rotis lunch and dinner each.

Eat only 3 main meals: One has to stop the extra munching that was allowed during pregnancy phase. So concentrate on taking main 3 meals a day like breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Have healthy snacks: Incase you are not able to avoid evening hunger pangs then have non fried snacks, for example: fruits chaat, bhel, whole wheat sandwich etc.

Increase on fruits intake: Make sure that you are having at least 3 servings of fruits. It can be same fruit or variety of them. Avoid high caloric fruits like banana, mangoes, and grapes. Do include fruits like pineapple, pomegranate, apple, guava, watermelon, orange, sweet lime, muskmelon etc in your diet once a week. In case of dry fruits avoid cashew nuts, but make sure that there is intake of dates, walnuts, and almonds at least 3 times a week.

Make your dinner lighter: We all have a tendency to eat heavy dinner, but we do not realize that the food gets stored in the body in form of fat as our activity level decreases post dinner. So format for dinner should be - less of carbs like roti or rice. More of vegetables in form of soup or grilled veges or salad. Moderate amount of protein either from non-veg or paneer and daals.

Tips for weight lose by lifestyle changes

Exclusive breast-feeding: WHO also recommends all the women to do exclusive breast-feeding for at least first 6 months. It is a very easy way to come back to your pre pregnancy weight. Along with dietary changes, if a woman exclusively breast feeds her child for 6 months then the extra weight gained during pregnancy is lost easily. Reason being the body is not able to store the fat derived from food due to daily breast milk production.

Exercise daily: It is very essential to burn calories to lose weight. Along with dietary changes one should do at least 30 to 45 mins exercise daily. The quality of exercise can vary from simple walk to yoga. Daily exercise increases oxygen levels in body, which in turn helps in production of hemoglobin in body.

Have early dinner: Early dinner by 8.00pm helps our body not only to digest food easily but also to avoid water retention in body. Water retention or odema is commonly developed during the pregnancy phase.

By: Alliance

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