There are allot of debates on weight training especially about the way “they used to train” back in the day and how “they train now”

The one thing we very easily lose prospective of is that as time goes on there are always new developments….that’s not just with weight training, it’s with almost everything and anything.

The biggest developments with weight training has been the type of equipment that is now available and the vast amount of nutritional advice at our disposal. 

Weight Training Equipment

Weight training equipment now allows you to place pressure on your muscles from angles that were not possible 30 years ago, there are now probably 10 more ways to train your chest using resistance machines all giving different angles to work with…this technology was not available to bodybuilders 30 years and more ago…

Nutrition

Nutrition was not as enhanced as it is today, we have better equipped labs and nutritionists that provide us with detailed nutritional guidlines on what we eat, as a result of this we have a much better understanding of nutrition and can use it to our advantage.  

Don’t Let Equipment FOOL YOU!

The one thing I would like to remind bodybuilders and the general gym goers of today is not to lose focus and look beyond what is available to them at their local gym or health club.  If bodybuilders 30 years ago managed to great great abs without having access to some type of abs machine then how did they get amazing 6 packs?…if they also managed to get their body fat percentages close to 6% without the use of treadmills and x trainers then do you really need those pieces of equipment to reduce your body fat?…there are always other ways to achieve your desired results.

Strength Training

Strength training coaches all over the world will tell you in order to get strong you need to focus allot on the following exercises: Bench Press, Squats, Deadlifts, Bent over barbell rows…these exercises were the core exercises used since weight training started developing and are still used today in almost every training regime by top athletes…

Training for MASS 

Anybody wishing to embark on the route of mass training will be told time and time again, focus on the following exercises for good size but keep the reps low and weight heavy.  Bench Press, Squats, Deadlifts, Bent over barbell rows and chins…“Mmm…isn’t that what they used 30 years ago???….”…

The point I am trying to make is not training 30 years ago was better than today’s methods but rather to incorporate what they used purely because it worked!…What made bodybuilders big and strong 30 years ago will make you big and strong today…while technology gets better and develops over time… your body and the way it works doesn’t!…

30 years ago bodybuilders and weight trainers understood to get big and strong they needed to place their muscles under pressure using heavy weights and consume plenty of carbs and protein…this theory still works today and will in another 30 years time and so on…

Conclusion 

Don’t knock old skool training methods as they are still very much alive today in almost every gym and not to be phased by the equipment that you have available to you today…you don’t need the all singing and dancing treadmill or multigym to get you the shape and fitness levels you desire…just ask yourself…”how would they of done that back in the day”…

Did you know that taking part in just 30 minutes of cardio exercise per day is a great way to kick start your new health regime?…didn’t think so!….well you can…

And did you know that once you are in a consistent routine of cardio training you can add body resistance exercises to your newly found routine to maintain muscle tone…Not having access to a gym or weights at home is no longer an issue!

And did you know that all this should only last you 45 minutes in total…so why not get in to the habit of starting with 30 minutes as soon as you get home from work and AVOID SITTING ON THE SOFA or going into the KITCHEN for a quick BITE as soon as you get out of your work clothes!….Instead get on that bike or get the skipping rope out or even put on those trainers and go for a run around the block…Avoid sitting down and tricking yourself into believing you will get up in 10 minutes and do something! 

Jump the BIGGEST Hurdle (TIME)

Jump the biggest hurdle used by millions of people worldwide EVERY DAY for not exercising (I DON’T HAVE THE TIME)…separate yourself from the crowd and be an individual…get on that horse you are constantly falling off from and GET FIT!….

Don’t make the mistake of trying too hard or rushing

Remember there is NO RUSH to become fit and healthy…health and fitness should not be treated as a seasonal chore…health and fitness is for life so lets start off slowly and pick up the pace gradually.

By rushing and pushing yourself too hard too soon will only result in your muscles becoming too sore and you having a good few days of serious muscle soreness.

Your muscles will build stamina, endurance and tolerance to exercise over a period of time with consistent exercise…so DON’T over do it! 

Conclusion

There is no excuse for not exercising unless you are restricted due to medicinal reasons or for reasons that are out of your control…and NO…time is not one of them!

Exercise

Exercise is part of the recovery process and should be treated as seriously as the medication and nutritional advice that has been prescribed to you.

When an individual has suffered a heart attack there is unfortunately some permanent damage that the heart muscle sustains as a result, so it is important when exercising that you start of slowly and stay within the guidelines that have been set for you. 

Exercise should be limited and your activities should or will consist of the following:

- Walking
- Stretching
- Very Light Resistance Exercise (Not in all cases)

The above list may seem very little but you have to protect your heart in the early stages and only expose it to as much stimulation as your GP/Doctor will allow you to do. 

Your hospital may also run exercise classes for you to attend, ensure you attend every visit as these classes will help determine the correct level of intensity you need to be working at and your heart can handle.

As you start exercising independantly and on a more frequent basis, you can with the authority of your GP/Doctor start building up the intensity of your workout routines.

Exercise will not only strengthen your heart but will also help you to lose weight thus reducing pressure on your heart, it will assist in lowering your blood pressure and also help reduce cholesterol levels.

(always consult your Dr or GP prior to starting ANY new physical activity)

Nutrition

As part of the recovery process you will have received a list of foods that should be consumed to help you while you are on the road to recovery.  Do not take this list lightly, ensure that you are following any meal plans prescribed to you and are consuming foods from the list only to help promote good eating habits.

There will also be a list of foods and possibly drink that you need to stop consuming as they can hinder the recovery process and get you back to your previous eating patterns which you need to avoid at all costs.

Preventing Another Heart Attack

After suffering a heart attack it is vital to ensure that you are not putting on weight as this can cause more stress and unecessary pressure on the heart.

It is just as important that you do not NOT suffer another attack to prevent further damage to your heart.  The list below shows you what precautions you can take to prevent another attack:

- Becoming Overweight
- Not Exercising
- Smoking
- Reducing and keeping your cholesterol down
- Reducing your blood pressure

The information is purely for guidance and SHOULD NOT be a used as a solution and or a replacement for any program that has been prescribed to you by your GP or Doctor.

I was doing my rounds at my health club a few weeks ago and broke into a conversation with a polite middle aged man who looked a little lost and unsettled.  I introduced myself to him and got chatting away…This gentleman has decided to get back into the gym after having spent 10 years sitting on the sidelines doing NOTHING!

He did not play badminton once a week, he did not go for walks, he didn’t go swimming, he didn’t play 5 a side football….he was very upfront about it and said he has done NOTHING!

Wow…was my reaction…I have never met anyone that has claimed that they have done nothing…I always hear “I play badminton once a week, a play squash, I play 5 a side football once a week, I swim every now and then…..”

I was yet to hear, “I have done nothing in 10 years”…

I drilled a little deeper as to why!…and this is what I was told!  “I got married and then came my little boy and I was taking care of him, then I had a little girl….and they are a right handful and then this happened and then that happened…and I found I never had the time”

My first question was, ”What has changed?”…He is still married, he still has a boy and girl, he is still working!…”So what has changed?”… 

He didn’t have an answer and was struggling to find one…I had to tell him what had changed…It was simple, his mindset had shifted and is what caused this sudden change, I say sudden because he has gone from 10 years of no activity to joining a gym and now trying to lead an active lifestyle.

All the reasons above were just excuses for not exercising; he had convinced himself so well that he was too busy that he did not exercise for 10 YEARS!

Maintaining Your Motivation & Mindset

I knew straight away I had to help this new member become settled into a routine and make sure that no one, especially him, disturbs his new found mindset.

I instantly asked him if he had a training partner and suggested he gets one and fast because he never.  By having a training partner not only does it add instant value to the social aspect of exercising it creates another reason for having to continue exercising…you don’t want let your partner down!

If there is a day he does not feel like training but his training partner decides to go to the gym, it is more likely that he will make the effort of going, guilt is the only reason for going, but the object is met!

Once going to the gym becomes a regular habit and please bear in mind this habit can take only a few weeks to form it can be the difference between sustaining a very healthy lifestyle for you and your family or another 10 years of inactivity and poor health.

A week later I revisited this newly formed health fanatic and was happy to hear that he managed to convince his friend who has also not trained for 10 years to join and start leading a healthier lifestyle!  His gym visits increased from twice a week with no training partner to 4 times per week WITH a training partner!

Now that does not sound like a big jump, but in fitness years that’s brilliant, he is now doubling his activity resulting in twice the amount of calories being burnt in a week, his muscle tone, strength and endurance will increase at a much faster rate and best of all he will start seeing mental and physical results allot sooner!

Did you notice something?

There was something that my new member had said to me about his friend that had just joined.  He also hasn’t exercised for 10 years!  As I met more often with these two I also learned that they work together, that they always had a beer after work together, they both supported the same football team and were season ticket holders TOGETHER!

Whether you want to believe it or not, you will do what those closest to you do!  They were both happy not to exercise for 10 years and were both happy to eat, drink and go to sporting events together but none of them mentioned exercising together!

But somewhere along the lines one friend’s mindset had shifted and changed for whatever reason, it could be health reasons, to prolong life, for family etc…

But that shift in his mindset also infected and positively impacted the mindset of his close friend.  What was his friends motivation?…there wasn’t one there…he has decided to take part in exercise because his friend for his own his personal reasons had decided to. 

Imagine what these two can achieve if they now decided to start looking closely at their eating and drinking patterns, what impact will this have on their families if they also change their mindset and focus on health and fitness?

The possibilities are endless and the point I am trying to make is only YOU can restrict yourself from everything and anything and you also have the power to influence those closest to you to also change their mindset.

So stop pointing the fingers at scenario’s that you have made to be true for not exercising and start pointing those fingers back at Yourself…as for “You are Your Own Worst Enemy”…but as you now know, that doesn’t have to be true…

If you are staying up late, getting all worked up over something before bed or sleeping in a noisy environment then this is not going to help your cause, however if you find that you have reached that training plateau then spending a few hours in bed is a better solution to destroying yourself in the gym trying to get over the plateau.

Let’s have a quick look at the basics, if you are not getting enough sleep then your body’s growth hormone which you need to build muscle get disrupted and on the flip side its production of stress hormone cortisol which can cause fat gain will go up!

There are many other negatives that come hand in hand with lack of sleep, it can cause depression, weaken your immune system and make you more vulnerable to bacteria.

To avoid all of the above it is best to try to get eight hours of  quality sleep, lying in bed and updating your profile on facebook on your mobile device does not count, get some real shut eye! 

Consume Slow Release Protein  before Bed

Consuming a slow release protein will also be highly beneficial such as casein or mixing a weigh protein, fish, glutamine and flaxseeds to drip feed the body throughout the night.

There is a misconception that cardio alone will help you lose weight, it will assist in weight loss; However, incorporate weight training into your regime and you will see much faster results!…

Let’s just cover this from a male and a female prospective so we can gain a better understanding of the message being pushed across to you.

I have personal trained and written programs for hundreds of men over an 11 year period, a good number of these men have been looking for weight loss and one of the first things I hear when writing their program is “I don’t want to get too big so I don’t really want to lift any weights”

Not having done any weight training is probably the number one reason most of these guys have put on weight!  And further more their current lack of ability in not being able to lift weights is probably the real reason weight training doesn’t feel like a good option!   

If getting big and muscular was really as simple as lifting a few weights then there would be a good chance that every guy walking the streets would have an amazing physique…the reality is far from that…so don’t worry about getting really big after a few weight training sessions!

So let’s have a look at how weight training combined with cardio will speed up your results.

Doing cardio is  a great way to burn some unwanted calories and also a good way to start building up muscular endurance but more a little bit of more effort from you with weight training and the results can be excellent. 

The good thing about cardio is you will continue to burn calories for up to an hour or 2 after your session has ended but it slows down again shortly afterwards.

This is where it is important to ensure that you are including weight training as part of your regime.  The higher your body’s muscle percentage will result in you burning more calories doing your basic day to day duties, this includes, walking, standing up, sitting down, watching TV and the best one SLEEPING! 

“Doesn’t weight training all of a sudden seem a little more appealing now…”

Men with a higher muscle percentage against body fat percentage burn more calories than those that have a higher body fat percentage than muscle percentage…and the only way to increase muscle percentage is by weight training.

So the next time you start weight training and check your weight, do not be alarmed at the fact that you maybe the same weight or heavier!  Do not associate this weight with FAT, it is simply your muscles becoming heavier, which remember is a good thing! 

Ladies, the above principle also applies to you, increase your body’s muscle percentage and you will see your body fat percentage reduce very quickly!  So don’t be afraid in thinking you will become really muscular by lifting some dumbbells.

Let’s have a quick look at some love examples of what I am talking about.  Everyone has seen a bodybuilder, be it in life or in glossy magazines, these guys weigh about 20 stones and have a body fat percentage of 3 to 4%.  

I am not recommending anyone to try to reduce their body fat percentage to these low levels but the point I am trying to make is these bodybuilders eat up to 7000 calories per day yet have a lower body fat percentage than most of us that consume 2000 calories! 

Yes they do watch what they eat and exercise more but due to the simple fact they have a much higher muscle percentage to body fat percentage they are burning more calories.  They could not exercise for a month and would still burn more calories than someone that is exercising an hour per day that has a higher body fat percentage!

So the next time you are your local gym have a wonder into to the free weights or resistance machine area and incorporate this style of training into your regime.

“You can thank me afterwards”..

Answer – Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc… your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going.

Metabolism is affected by your body composition. By body composition, I mean the amount of muscle you have versus the amount of fat. Muscle uses more calories to maintain itself than fat. People who are more muscular (and have a lower percentage of body fat) are said to have a higher metabolism than others that are less muscular. For example, let’s say you have two people who are the exact same height and weight.

One exercises on a regular basis with weights, in addition to aerobic exercise, and has a low percentage of body fat.

The other never exercises and has a higher percentage of body fat. The first person who exercises will have a higher metabolism than the second person. What this basically means is that person #1′s body will use more calories to sustain itself than person #2.

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There are many exercises that can work your ABS effectively but they can become very ineffective if performed incorrectly!

For a good general and all round routine I would suggest the following routine:

Ab Crunch

Start off with the basic Ab crunch, it will target your mid section and upper abdominal very well.  Lie on the floor with your legs bent and feet flat against the floor, this is your starting position. 

The aim is to raise the upper body off the floor by only a few inches (make sure your lower back is always in contact with the floor), contract your abdominal muscles at the peak of the exercise and then return to the start position.  That is the movement you want to adopt throughout the exercise.

There is a second consideration that needs to be taken into account and that is your breathing.  Before you start raising your upper body ensure that you have taken IN a deep breath and then EXHALE as you raise, when returning to the start position ensure you are INHALING.

This exercise should only be performed as quick as your breathing, so pace yourself and don’t rush, the more control you have the better.

Leg Raises

The leg raise is a challenging exercise and maybe an exercise that you need to build up to.  You will need a chins bar and have the ability to hold up your own body weight.  Hanging straight from the chin bar with your legs together, the aim is to raise your legs and have them finishing straight in front of you before lowering them in a controlled manner and repeating the movement.

Again the breathing is vital, take in a deep breath before you start and then exhale as you raise your legs.

This exercise will help develop those lower stomach muscles and the mid section.  Do not think this is an exercise that will enable you to perform 15 reps straight away, so be patient and concentrate on the technique and quality of the movement, the reps will follow after.

Stick to these two basic movements to begin with, at least 3 times per week and then consider adding some more complex exercises to compliment your regime.

For further tips, tricks and blogs visit: musclemadness

Question – Are cabbage and soup diets good for you?

Answer -  I don’t encourage anyone to diet as they DON’T WORK! 
By cutting back too much on food you actually slow down your metabolism as you are giving it nothing to do…this will result in you finding it even more difficult to lose weight and eventually stopping your diet until you find a great new way to lose weight…this is called yo yo dieting! 

By eating on a regular basis you are always giving your metabolism something to do…this does not mean you eat everything and anything, you do also need to ensure you are eating some healthy foods….and of course exercising as well

For more information on how to speed up your metabolism and lose weight safely and naturally then I recommend you download “Boost Up Your Metabolism”a very good eBook with great hard hitting facts!

Question - What is the most efficient way to lose weight Naturally?

Answer -  Taking part in weight training can really kick start your fat burning furnace!  Cardio workouts alone will not get you the most efficient results.  By adding a weight training routine you can add muscle mass to your body which will result in your body having to burning  more calories on a daily basis!…