Getting started in weightlifting means that you will probably need some weight lifting equipment. Hopefully you have been looking around for this but I will try to give you a good idea of the equipment that you will need.

First of all there are two kinds of equipment for weight training. There are weights and bars and there is equipment that will help you to use those weights and bars.

Weight training equipment – Weights and Bars

In looking for weights and bars it is a good idea to have weights that will work on short bars (like for one armed curls) as well as on longer bars (for two armed curls or bench press). I have always tried to have a variety of weights from 2.5 pounds to 10 pounds and I have bought metal weights instead of those crappy plastic ones as they take a lot less space. 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.

How can you be lazy and get in shape? Everyone that wants to get started, or is scared to get started working out and changing their diet to become more healthy thinks that it is a giant change in your life. I would like to warn you not to make too much of the changes that you need to make.

Sure you need to change your diet. Sure you need to exercise but to get started in a healthy lifestyle you do not have to do much more than eat better and get 30 minutes of exercise a day. The changes that you make have an immediate impact to make you feel better and to actually be healthier right away but you still have the opportunity to be lazy a lot of the time.

I remember the first time that a lazy attitude to exercise first hit me. A few years ago when I started running. I had never really run before and the guys that were experienced were giving me tips. Stretch, start slow and start getting faster every week, try to change my route to keep things interesting. And you know what the last, most important tip form the seasoned runners was. Don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t hurt yourself by running all the time as you get started.

When you start to exercise you are going to be working out a half hour each day, six days a week. This will not be running from dawn to dusk. The change in your life to fitness will mean that you will wake up and work out or work out in the evening for a half an hour to get yourself in better shape and then stretch. You can even do this watching TV. Last night I did exactly that.

The other big change is your diet. Is it really so hard to eat better? No, all you need to do to actually to make eating easier and more healthy is to cook your food ahead of time. If you spend some time making a few big meals on Saturday or Sunday and pack these up for meals for the week. Get some Oatmeal or something as healthy for breakfast that will start you day quickly and easily. Get some meal replacement bars (low cal as you get started) and you have the makings of a lazy way to start a great diet without the hassle of cooking all the time.

So do you believe it? You can start a lazy way to get in shape and still change your life for the better. Sure there is a time everyday that you will definitely not be lazy. If you get into action making food it will give you a bit of lazy time later. But, if you are smart, workout hard and eat right this lazy way will hep you to get in great shape without the stress that you have to give up everything in your life.

Last week was a really cold week up here in Calgary. I rode to work once and the temperature other than that has been dropping to around -20 which is a bit too cold for me. I hummed and hawed about my exercise and even though I should transition immediately to indoor training I was a little slow. Last night I finally worked out indoors.

I got home from work, changed into shorts and popped in a DVD of the Survivorman TV show. I hit the exercise bike for 26 minutes and then my elliptical trainer for another few minutes and then relished the fact that my indoor workout was a great way to keep myself in shape.

Even though I ride my bike almost everyday from about March to October or November I really am not sure how good that workout is. I try to ride quickly but the breeze and the fact that I am moving stops the sweat from really building up on my skin and clothes so it is really hard to judge the workout.

When you are training indoors you can definitely feel how hard you are working out. Last night when I was on the exercise bike I could really feel how hard I was working and my next workout on the elliptical trainer will be a lot more difficult in that it will work my arms well. After having a few workouts indoors I am sure that my body will be sore again. Everytime that you change you workout you get sore because you are working the muscles differently then you did before.

Of course when I wrote the last articles about this subject I talked a lot about the weights in my basement and how you need to have those too. The strength training that you do will add a lot of calories burned, mix up your workouts and actually help you lose fat. Did you know that a pound of extra muscle that you put on will force your body to burn an extra 50 calories a day? This can add up really quickly.

What do you think? Are your workouts tough enough? Are you working out indoors or hoping to just wait until spring comes back?

Every weightlifter looks at two different numbers, their max on their bench and the max on their squat. The max on the bench is what people are always asking about and everyone knows that if you were to gain 100 pounds on your bench press that you would have a lot bigger chest.There are four pieces of the puzzle to increasing your bench press by 100 pounds. These four are the planning, the eating, the workouts and the rest.

The Planning

Planning is something that very few weightlifters do. When you go to the gym you workout as hard as you can but very seldom do people working out ever have an idea of what they will be doing in a month. Plan your workouts, plan your eating, and plan when you are going to be taking breaks. This is pretty easy but often we will forget what is the most important part of the workouts and just do the stuff we like best.

Eating your way to gain 100 pounds on your bench press

We all like to eat and the faster metabolism that you get from working out allows you to eat even more then other people do. When you are trying to make big strength gains you are going to want to do the kind of eating that is considered bulking up. You want to do the following Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on the Biggest Loser I found that the over arching theme to the show seems to be that people were working out harder than they ever had before. Actually some of the people did not even know how hard that they could push themselves.

Our mind is very slow to adapt when it comes to diet and exercise. If you live a sedentary lifestyle of years and then begin to work out your body will think that it can run let’s say 100 feet. So you run 100 feet and your chest is sore and you are out of wind. Now let’s say you do this every day and after two weeks you finish this “workout” of running 100 feet and you are still winded and your chest is sore. Your mind thinks that you are just as strong but really you could push yourself a lot harder.

Discomfort is a trigger to the brain telling you that you have pushed yourself to hard and no one like to be in discomfort. Most trainers know that you have a sticking point in your own mind where you think that you cannot go any farther or harder. This is just a psychological sticking point that is not real but just a level that you are not comfortable going past. The trouble is that this is the level where all of your gains come from.

I am a victim of this lack of pushing myself as easily as anyone else. The thing that helps is to remember before your workout that you are setting low levels of limits on yourself and to set goals every single time that you workout.

Another way that you can make yourself work out harder on a regular basis is to read and see success stories. I am sure that this is the reason that I watch the Biggest Loser and also the reason that success stories are always so popular in the sports sections in newspapers be it home run kings or the greatest quarterback this week kind of stories.

Stop looking at how hard you are working as being the hardest that you can work out. There is always a step farther, a pound more, a minute quicker. Try today to make sure you have great goals and you will make greater improvements in your health and fitness endeavors.

I commented on a blog this morning by a fellow blogger that found that he got stronger after not working out for a few days. This is pretty common and I have found this myself in the past.

There are two reasons that you would be stronger after not working out after a few days. First you could be overtraining, which I believe is much more prevelent than we realize, or it could be that after a few days the glycogen levels in your muscles are really back up to a good level.

Overtraining

Overtraining can happen quite easily if you are working a muscle group too often, as you probably realize if you work a muscle group more than a couple of times a week you get really sore because your muscle fibers have not had a chance to heal. Make sure that your rest is good and that you do not directly or even indirectly stress your muscles too often! Also be aware that your muscles really do not increase in strenght durin your workout but instead in the days after as your muscles heal completely.

Glycogen levels

One of the things that you will notice after a few days between workouts is that your muscles get stronger and stronger. At the same time when you workout your muscles seem to get weaker and weaker during your workout. The reason for both of these effects is caused by your glycogen levels in your blood and muscles. As you workout your muscles use glycogen for energy and as it depletes so does your strength. Glycogen is just a derivative of sugar that is found in your muscles. Very soon after your workout it is important to take in a lot of liquid carbs. I used to drink sugar and water mixed together but really it is probably better to drink some kind of a post workout energy drink (not Gatorade) and this will help you quickly raise blood glycogen although it really takes a few days to really bring the level back up to the point where you are stronger.