Choosing an Effective Fitness Program

Tips to Choose an Effective Program
By Dan Patterson

These days there are literally hundreds of programs out there that
promise to help you lose weight or gain muscle that it’s almost
impossible to choose one. This has created a huge problem of people
trying a program for about a week, and then jumping to another one for
a week, and then jumping to another one … you get the idea. Honestly,
if you’re doing this then you’re very unlikely to get many results.

First
of all, we have to realize that a lot of the ‘programs’ out there are
not very good. So before you start to follow any given program, make
sure it’s a good one. Here are a few things to look for to determine if
the program you’re considering is worth trying out:

1- Is it too strict?
In order for a program to be effective for you there has to be some
degree of flexibility. There is no such this as a “one-size-fits-all”
fitness program. Programs that are too strict are trying to make
everyone fit the same mold – a goal that just isn’t realistic.

2- Does it focus on the basics?
A good program will focus on the old tried and proven methods for
either losing weight and/or gaining muscle. If it starts with something
like “The new revolutionary way to gain muscle (or something else) in a
week or less!” there is a good chance that it’s mostly hype. Feel free
to check it out, just watch out for too much hype and not enough real
information.

3- Does it have a good nutrition program?
If the program claims to be a complete program but doesn’t give you
good suggestions on nutrition, then it isn’t a complete program. Refer
to point number 2 for this one as well.

4- Is it appropriate for your body type?
If you’re a high ectomorph, don’t do the same training program that a
high mesomorph or endomorph is doing. You have to train appropriately
for your body type to really get good results. This is a constant
problem with programs found in many of the muscle magazines. This is a
similar problem to tip number 1 of trying to fit everyone into the same
program. Not everyone will gain muscle the same way.

There
are other things we could add to this list, but I think that these
three basically sum it up. You also have to realize that in order for
any program to be effective, it has to have time to be effective.
Jumping from program to program won’t get you anywhere. Yes, you do
need to change up what you’re doing from time to time, but a good
fitness program will have this worked into the program as well.

Take
some good time when choosing a program to follow. Decide on what your
overall goal is and then research some programs before you just jump
into one. This will help you have a better chance of success.

About the Author:
Dan Patterson is an editor for BodyFitnessInfo.com, a free information
site with tips and information to help people lose weight and gain muscle. Our main goal is to help people achieve lifetime fitness.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Patterson

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Free Weights vs. Exercise Machines…

I found this article and thought it was a very interesting and true. I am not a person who likes the machines, I find that I get a better workout with free weights and by doing free weights, I am not just working one body part, but usually 2 or more! Can’t beat that!

Free Weights Vs. Exercise Machines
 by: Aaron Potts

Anyone who has ever been in a gym before is familiar with the
gleaming banks of shiny exercise machines. Coming in all shapes and
sizes, they are usually cause for the newcomer to the gym to pause and
ask, “What IS all of that stuff?”

Well, according to the price that the gym paid for any one
piece of that equipment, I certainly hope that it not only stimulates
your muscles, but also cooks your breakfast, washes your car, and
brings the kids home from soccer practice! Now the question becomes
whether or not those machines were worth the price, or if you’d be
better off doing a home aerobics video with a can of soup in each
hand….

Personally, I would advise you to get the low-sodium version of
the soup, serve it up alongside a tomato sandwich, and then go buy
yourself some free weights. Yes, that is just my opinion, but it does
come with some scientific reasoning behind it.

Natural movement vs. Controlled movement

One of the things that you need to remember is that when you are
exercising, you are training for LIFE. You may spend an hour a day at
the gym, but that still leaves 23 other hours for your muscles to
function without the aid of that fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any given exercise, the movement of your body
during that exercise is called the Range of Motion. The greater and
more difficult the Range of Motion, the more effective the exercise is,
because your body has to work harder to perform that movement.

Let’s take a classic dumbbell bicep curl for our case study.
If you aren’t familiar with the movement, it is basically performed by
standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of
dumbbells held down at your sides. You concentrically contract your
biceps (also known as flexing your elbow) to bring the dumbbells up to
approximately shoulder level, and then repeat the movement for a
prescribed number of repetitions.

Let’s take that same muscle movement and do it using a bicep
curl machine. You sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2
handles that are in front of you, and do that same fancy elbow flexing
movement to move the handles in an upward motion. Pretty easy stuff so
far, right?

Now let’s examine the muscles that are used in this motion.
Wait – I thought we were concentrically contracting the biceps? That is
correct, and if you are using the bicep curl machine, that is pretty
much ALL you are doing. For one, you are sitting down. You know, like
you did all day at work, and then in your car on the way to the gym.
Then, your upper arms are braced on a nice soft pad to keep your upper
body stable while you pull the handles upwards. The machine has
effectively limited the muscles used in this exercise to the biceps, as
well as the muscles in your forearms and fingers as you grip the
handles.

Let us now sidestep over to the weight room where the
dumbbells are kept, and once again get in the start position for a
standing bicep curl with the dumbbells. Notice the term “standing”. You
know, like you DIDN’T do all day at work, and hopefully also did not do
in your car on the way to the gym. So before we even start the
exercise, we are using more muscles than we did on the machine – namely
the leg muscles.

Now let’s pick up a 10 lb dumbbell in each hand. We’ve just
added 20 lbs to our body weight. What is keeping us from losing our
center of balance and falling clean over? The abdominal muscles and the
muscles of the lower back and spine. Now we are using our legs, our
abs, and our back. Flex those elbows and start to raise the dumbbells.
Now our center of gravity has become a fluid state, and our legs, back,
and abs all have to constantly compensate to maintain posture. Oh, and
the biceps are also in on the action by this point, as are the
forearms, the fingers, and the shoulder girdle.

We now have the dumbbells all the way up and it’s time to
start lowering them again, via an eccentric contraction of the biceps
(also know as extending the elbow). What muscle group controls the
extension of the elbow? The triceps on the back of the arm.

Did you lose track yet? It’s okay if you did because you have illustrated the point:

Machine Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms, and fingers

Cost: Thousands of dollars

Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms, fingers, legs, abs, back, triceps, and shoulders.

Cost: $40 for a good set of dumbbells that can be used for dozens of other exercises

In a nutshell, free weight exercises simply USE MORE MUSCLES
than machines do, which make them more effective. Does that mean that
the machines are a complete waste? Absolutely not! In some
circumstances it is BETTER to stabilize the muscles being used in any
given movement. However, those circumstances are the exception, rather
than the rule.

So what do you do? Change up your routine, and incorporate
free weights as well as machine exercises. However, keep the machine
work to a minimum – say 20% of your total time spent working with
weights. Spend the other 80% developing your stabilizer muscles, your
sense of balance and coordination, and if nothing else – just standing
up!

After all, you can go home and sit down on the couch to enjoy
your post-workout snack. The bicep machine already brought the kids
home from soccer practice, remember?

About The Author

Aaron Potts is the owner and creator of Fitness Destinations.
Aaron’s experience in the health and fitness industry includes one on
one personal training in many different environments, maintenance of
several health-related websites, and authoring of many fitness-related
products for consumers and fitness professionals. http://www.fitnessdestinations.com.

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Carmel’s Fat Furnace Plan!

I like Angie have only have 18  days to get to 18% BF!  So I am gonna zig zag also, just like Angie said 3 low, 1 high.  My low is 1918 YIKES thats a lot of veggies!  LOL  and my high day will be 2398.  This is what tomorrow my first low day looks like for eats.

Egg white, 2 serving	34	1	0	6
Egg, fresh, 1 large	75	1	5	6
Tillamook Pepper Jack Cheese, 1 oz	20	0	9	6
Broccoli, fresh, 0.5 cup, chopped	12	2	0	1
Dannon Light’n Fit Creamy Yogurt- Strawberry, 8 oz	133	21	0	11
vanilla protein powder, 1 serving	110	1	2	23
Coconut Oil, 1 1tsp	39	0	5	0
Dannon Light’n Fit Creamy Yogurt- Strawberry, 3 oz	50	8	0	4
Egg white, 1 serving	17	1	0	3
Egg, fresh, 1 large	75	1	5	6
Broccoli, fresh, 0.5 cup, chopped	12	2	0	1

Red Ripe Tomatoes, 1 medium whole (2-3/5″ dia) 26 6 0 1 Balsamic Vinegar, 1 tbsp 8 2 0 0 chicken, 0.5 serving 70 0 2 13 Romaine Lettuce (salad), 1 cup, shredded 8 1 0 1 Carrots, raw, 1 cup, chopped 52 12 0 1 Hidden Valley Light Ranch, 1 tbsp 40 2 4 1 Almonds, dry roasted, 1 oz (22 whole kernels) 169 5 15 6 Apples, fresh, 1 medium (2-3/4″ dia) (approx 3 per lb) 81 21 0 0 chicken, 1 serving 140 0 4 26 Romaine Lettuce (salad), 1 cup, shredded 8 1 0 1

chicken, 1 serving 140 0 4 26 Brown Rice, medium grain, 1 cup 218 46 2 5 Stewed Tomatoes, 1 cup 66 16 0 2 Asparagus, fresh, 10 spear, medium (5-1/4″ to 7″ long) 37 7 0 4 Carrots, raw, 1 cup, chopped 52 12 0 1 Brown Rice, medium grain, 0.5 cup 109 23 1 2

None

CALORIES

CARBS

FAT

PROTEIN

1,803

192

59

158

1918 – 2398

182 – 227

59 – 76

163 – 203

As far as workouts go my plan is 3 TTworkouts a week w/ the intervals right after and 1 day of spin!

Lets burn up some serious FAT!!!!  Summer is soooo close!!!  If you would like to have a plan made just for you and your goals I would be happy to do that for you and even come to your house to train you!  Its great motivation and wonderful for accountabiliy!  Contact me at http://www.womensdietandfitness.com/betterbodiesbycarmel/prices.html If you live near Puyallup, Sumner, Tacoma, Orting, Bonnie Lake, or Federal Way.  If not we can set something up for you online contact us at http://www.womensdietandfitness.com/onlinetraining.html

Another great article from Craig Ballantyne…

I am such a huge believer in these workouts and what Craig has to say, I just have to pass along his great articles!
——————————————————————————–

5 Ways to Cut Your Workout Time

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Do you know the 2 biggest reasons men and women stop exercising?

1) Lack of time
2) Lack of motivation

Let’s tackle “Lack of Time” today with 5 ways you can get your
workouts done faster. After all, no one should spend more than 50
minutes in the gym.

Here are 5 ways to cut time from your workouts.

a) Supersets

I use “non-competing” superset. This means, choose two exercises
for different muscle groups – and preferably completely opposite
movements. For example, choose a push and a pull. That way, one
muscle group rests while the other works…and you cut the rest
time you need between sets.

b) Choose a better warmup strategy

Don’t waste 10 minutes walking on the treadmill. Instead, use a
total body circuit of bodyweight exercises as a general warmup, and
then move directly into specific warm-up sets for your first two
exercises.

c) Pair dumbbell and bodyweight exercises together in your
supersets

This saves you time at home (you don’t need to change the dumbbell
weight between exercises) and in the gym (you don’t need to fight
for 2 sets of dumbbells).

d) Choose Intervals over slow cardio

The latest research shows more weight loss when people use
intervals, and intervals take half as long to do.

e) Limit the use of isolation exercises

Pick multi-muscle exercises, such as squats, pulls, pushes, and
rows. If you have time, you can squeeze in some dropsets for arms
and shoulders if you want. However, if you only have 3 sessions of
45 minutes per week, isolation exercises must be the first to go.

In addition, don’t spend more than 10 minutes per week on direct ab
training. It’s not efficient and won’t give you rock hard abs
alone.

Workout less, live life more,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator of Turbulence Training

PS – Don’t know where to start?

If you are a beginner, start by reading Dr. Mohr’s nutrition
guidelines…eating properly will be the biggest factor in your
early success.

Beginners should also start with the Introductory TT workouts to
prepare their muscles for the upcoming intense training.

For others, it’s best to start with the Intermediate Level TT
workouts. If those aren’t enough of a challenge, you can move onto
the Original TT workout and follow the 16-week advanced program
right through.

If at any time you need a break, try the TT Bodyweight 4-week plan.

And then finish off with the TT Fusion Fat Loss program followed by
the 30-day Maximum Fat Loss program to cap off a full 24 weeks of
Advanced TT fat loss workouts.

After that, choose between the TT for Women or TT for Muscle
programs to help put the finishing touches on your physique. All of
these are included as bonuses with Turbulence Training.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and
Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training
fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness
and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and
women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than
45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence
Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio
sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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