There are a multitude of exercises that you can do for weight lifting but I think that the most important thing that you can do is to concentrate on your core bodyparts and try to get exercises that will work those parts the best.

First thing to know when choosing the best weight exercises is to understand the difference between simple and compound exercises. A simple exercise is one in which only one muscle group is used, biceps curls for example. A compound exercise is one where you are working more than one muscle group. An example of a compound exercise is bench presses which work the chest for sure but are also being assisted by the shoulders and triceps.

Why do you want to worry about the simple and compound exercises? Mostly because using compound exercises will be exercises that will build body mass more quickly than simple exercises because you are working multiple muscle groups at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

I have been asked before how to gain weight fast. Most people that are weight lifting at one time or another, usually in the winter, try to bulk up and gain a lot of muscle for the summer, of course there is the diet down afterwards but we can deal with that later.

How to gain weight fast is a question that many people that are dieting to lose think is insane but I know from personal experience that many people would like to gain weight but do not really know how. I have a former weightlifting partner who had a really hard time gaining muscle no matter what he tried.

Here are some tips on how to gain weight fast that I think would help almost anyone. Read the rest of this entry »

While some individuals are strictly interested in obtaining muscle for aesthetics, for most people, this isn’t an interest. Instead, you’re more interested in knowing what health benefits weight lifting will have for you…

Far too many people overlook the many health and fitness benefits that weight training has to offer, and because of this, experience problems down the road with their body such as decreased bone density, a slowed metabolic rate, increased stress levels and other negative consequences that are associated with constant stress.

Increased Bone Density

Weight lifting, being one of the best weight bearing exercises you can do, will increase your bone density and help ward off osteoporosis or stress fractures in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost anyone that’s picked up a set of weights has or will experience symptoms of over-training at one point in there muscle building program. Over-training can lead to serious injury, chronic fatigue, and even muscle loss.

Over-training is very common amongst athletes and particularly bodybuilders, since they figure that training as much as possible is the fastest way to massive muscle gains.

This couldn’t be any further from the truth however…

Training too much, or at too high of an intensity will lead to over-training.

Now this doesn’t mean you don’t have to put plenty of effort in to see some decent results… Whether you are a bodybuilder, athlete, or just someone that wants to add some additional mass to your frame, you need to train hard and be consistent-that’s a given. In order to get the most out of your genetics, you have to progressively overload the muscles by increasing the weight and / or intensity of each weight training workout. Read the rest of this entry »

fat loss 4 Idiots – Will It Help You Lose Weight?

fat loss for Idiots is a site and diet that my wife had learned about from her stepmom. Initially I looked at the Fat Loss For Idiots website and saw that after clicking though a bunch of pages of information I found that the program was only $39.

As a fitness and health enthusiast I know that there are no easy ways out of losing weight so when I first saw all of the hype around fat loss for idiots I was of course initially skeptical.

I have scoured the internet looking for more information on the Fat Loss For Idiots program and would like to present this to you here so that you can make an informed decision when you visit the Fat Loss For Idiots site. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a lot of questions that I get asked everyday about what works and does not work outside of the gym for getting better results. These tips I hope will help you get a better handle on what will make you stronger and have more fun workouts with better results.

How much sleep do I need if I am working out?

There is a real need for sleep when you are working out. As you are probably aware it is really hard on your body just having a workout so you need to rest and sleep to heal your body before your next workout. Another good reason to sleep enough is to make sure that you not only recuperated from that last workout but that you have something left in your tank for the next workout.

How much sleep do I need?

This is a very subjective question. Everyone needs a different amount of sleep. I have always found that I can not get my for more than a few days with less than 7 hours of sleep a night and I will feel it in my legs on my bike after just three nights of bad sleep. The best thing to do is listen to your body instead of your mind. If you are used to watching TV on the couch late at night then you will not have a chance to know that you are tired and should be sleeping. Read the rest of this entry »

As a person that lifts weights on a regular basis I often get a lot of questions about how to best lift weights and what is important or not important. Well to this end I have decided to answer a few of those questions so that you can do just a little bit better in the gym and outside.

Should I eat right before I workout?
Well this is an easy one. Yes, and no. You need to make sure that you have sufficient carbohydrates to fuel your workout but at the same time you do not want to eat too much beforehand. A sports drink of some kind would be great and if you would like, even a coffee will do. The main thing is to make sure you are well hydrated and that you are not hungry or bloated before your workout.

Do I need to do 12 or 16 sets per muscle group?
It is important not to do a lot of sets for each muscle group. This will lead to overtraining and will make you actually lose muscle as your body tries to get healed between workouts but can’t it is much better to do a workout where you are doing only three or four sets per muscle group but taking these to exhaustion. The big muscle magazines have been showing the pros doing this for at least 20 years now and it is unrealistic to workout that hard for us mere mortals. Read the rest of this entry »

What is your weight lifting schedule? I know that mine tends to vary a little bit but on a weekly basis I beleive for me the best weight lifting schedule is to workout three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and on each of these days I will do weights.

As far as cardio is concerned I feel that I am ok these days with my bike partway into work and home and the only reason these days that I am hitting the gym is to do the weight training that I can not do otherwise.

I have covered in the past what kind of workout that I will do on those weight days but basically I have been sticking to a schedule of circuit training that has me do three circuits of bench press, lat pulldowns or rows, lateral raises, bicep curls, and tridcep pushdowns all in a very quick kind of set. One thing that I will just touch on here is that i do each of my sets to near failure. Read the rest of this entry »

I have had a question that is interesting about the difference between different muscle fibers and tried to get a good answer. Here is the differences between fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers and the difference that they make to your workouts and fitness level.

One slightly confusing area of exercise is the idea that a muscle can do both push a lot of weight once or move many times. Look at the difference between doing a set of squats compared to running or the difference in the leg muscles of a bodybuilder compared to a triathlete.

All types of skeletal muscle are constructed from densely knit fibers. These muscle fibers can be looked at as Fast Twitch and Slow Twitch muscle fibers. Which kind are you looking for when you are doing weights? Which ones do you want to have when you are running distance? Read the rest of this entry »

There seems to be two ways of looking at weight lifting. One method is to warmup and then progressivley increase your weight and decrease your reps like a pyramid, the other is to just do sets to failure. Which way is the best way to lift?

I always tell people as they are getting started lifting weights that the best way to start is to do a couple of sets of 10 reps per exercise and one exercise per muscle group. to many of us that have lifted weight for years this may seem to be a very random and not very effective way to start weith training as a form of exercise but there are in fact two good reasons to start out this way.

Easy Weight Workouts to Start

First when starting to do weights the seemingly simple bench press, or shoulder press, or lat pull down will feel very awkward and unnatural. Doing a couple of sets of 10 reps of these exercises gives you plenty of time to get used to the exercise and make yourself better at the form. Secondly, when getting started weight training you find that most of your muscles that do not get used often get very sore the next day and even more sore the day after. This is a great thing to minimize since after a couple or three weeks of lifting weights you will not get that muscle soreness that you can get initially.

The first day that someone commits to doing weight training is the day that they want to see results. People are more than willing, especially when getting started, to lift as much weight as many times as they need to. This is bad. In the excitement of getting started you can not only hurt yourself but if those results do not come the next day you will very quickly stop weight lifting in disappointment.

How to Weight Train – What Exercises

Instead it is best to start weightlifting as easily and effectivly as possible. Pick one exercise per muscle group and then do that exercise for two sets of 10 reps with a break of a cuple of minutes in between. Make srue that you go trhough the full reange of motion on every rep and that you are doing your reps slowly, count two seconds for the weight going down and another two seconds for the weight going up. As for the amount of weight it is always good to use a lighter weight as you are trying to figure out how much that you can lift. If one set is too light and one set is heavier that is fine. You will get a good feel then for your next workout.

Here are a few exercises to get you started:

• Chest – Bench Press
• Back – Seated Rows
• Biceps – Bicep Curls
• Triceps – Tricep Pushdowns
• Shoulders – Military Press
• Quadriceps – Leg Press (save the squats for later)
• Hamstrings – Leg Curls

As for the number of times that you are going to do weights I suggest probably doing this twice in the first week with a couple of days off in between  and then three times a week, usually people shoot for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and take the weekend off the weights.

This may seem simple but getting started weight training is the toughest part and doing this incorrectly will stop you from weight training forever. Get started today.