Muscle Rumor » Bodybuilding

Four Fat Burning Foods

Muscle Builder Guy — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:36:18 +0000

Are you more interested in losing weight or getting rid of your chubby belly? I think most of you reading this would opt for both but if you were hard pressed to choose just one it would probably be the latter. Body fat is that tissue that hides those well defined muscles that are lurking underneath. You can either burn body fat or store it. The goal of course would be to burn more body fat than you store and keep it off.

It’s tough to burn fat these days when you’re bombarded with billboards such as these on your way to and from work “44 ounce soda, 99 cents” or “Any size soda, one dollar.” The product that retailers want you to over consume they under price. These and other types of foods and beverages are what helps lead to obesity and excess body fat.

Today I’m going to reverse the trend and give you four items that you can pick up at any local grocery store that will help to burn more fat and achieve the body you want. These fat burning foods won’t do everything for you, but they can definitely help you along the way.

1. Coffee (Caffeine) – Our first caffeine is coffee which is consumed by more than 80% of the population, drinking on average 3-6 cups per day. Although coffee is enormously popular for its ability to increase alertness studies have also shown that it has calorie-burning properties. One cup of coffee has been show to increase the metabolic rate as much as 4% for a little over 2 hours. Overtime this small increase can lead to small drops in overall body weight.

2. Hot Pepper – Have you ever had beads of sweat congregating around your forehead after eating hot red peppers? Well, you’ve just experienced the calorie burning effect of hot peppers. This is a process called thermogenesis where the body releases calories in the form of heat. Of course, once these calories are released there is no chance of them every being stored in your body as fat.

3. Cinnamon – I love the taste of cinnamon and to learn that it has fat burning properties is a plus. Cinnamon and rich carbohydrate diets go hand in hand. Cinnamon helps reduce the blood glucose levels, which help keep your insulin in check. A spike in your insulin level increases fat storage.

4. Green Tea – The fat burning abilities of green tea is mainly because of its high caffeine content. Not only does green tea burn calories but many of the calories they burn are known to be fat calories. Having a cup of green tea extract 3-4 times a day will increase your calorie burning rate by as much as 3% or higher which will help you to burn more calories.

4 Weeks to Getting Flat Abs

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:13:16 +0000

Do you need an effective plan to help you get flat abs? If you do, you are in luck. This is because you will find a 4 week plan here – giving you planning, exercise and diet guidelines. Let’s see how you can implement that plan:

Week 1

Planning

Write reasons down – Write down your top reasons for wanting to have flat abs – it will act as motivation for your journey.
Plan how you are going you achieve it – Set smart goals (goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bounded.) to help you to plan how you are going to achieve it.
Commit to goals – Promise yourself that are going to be committed to your goals.

Diet

Keep a food dairy – Keep a food dairy for the week and use it to see where you are eating wrong.
Choose a healthy diet/eating plan – Pick a healthy eating plan that enables fat burning like the truth about abs eating plan.
Go grocery shopping for the month – Go do the groceries for the month bur make sure to do it on a full stomach.

Exercise

Light cardio – Do only light cardio exercises like brisk walking, light jogging, swimming, hiking or biking for 4 days a week for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
Light weight training – Do only light weight training exercises for 2 days , for about 30 minutes at a time – include a lower and an upper body day.
Abs exercises – Include some crunches with your lower body day.

Week 2

Diet

Follow your healthy eating plan/diet

Exercise

Cardio – Switch over to interval training for 20 minutes at a time for 2 times a week.
Weight training – Lift heavier weights this week.
Abs exercises – Increase your abs exercises by including the following abs exercises: oblique crunches and the plank.

Week 3

Diet

Stick to your healthy eating plan/diet

Exercise

Cardio – Increase your cardio to 3 times a week, doing the same as in week 2.
Weight training – Increase your weight training days also to 3 times a week and increase the weight load.
Abs exercises – Do the same abs exercises as last week, but include one more exercise: the bicycle exercise.

Week 4

Diet

Stick to healthy eating plan/diet – Keep on following your eating plan
Have one cheat meal – Reward yourself for doing so good with one cheat meal.

Exercise

Cardio – Repeat the cardio of week 3.
Weight training – Lift heavier than last week.
Abs exercises – Do the same exercises than week 3, but include a weight to make the exercises more challenging.Follow this 4 week plan for flat abs and you will start to see flat abs in the mirror soon. And when you want to ensure that you get flat abs, check out the truth about six pack abs pdf – it has 6 workout plans and 74 meal plans to ensure you get a six pack.

What are Supersets? Adding them to an Extreme Fitness Workout?

Muscle Builder Guy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:20:23 +0000

Supersets are great to add to your Extreme Fitness workouts. Some people refer to this as an extreme training technique in which you do two or three workouts or sets, one right away right after the other, with no rest in between. This extreme fitness workout could be for the same muscle group, like your arms supersets of your biceps or two muscle groups maybe your chest and shoulders, depending on your goals. Adding supersets can turn your workouts into extreme fitness workouts. You might be surprised at how many numerous choices you’ve when it comes to supersets.

Some from the basic supersets instruction techniques to add to your Extreme Fitness workout include:

One Muscle Group: This involves two workouts for that exact same body part. The advantage of this really is to hit various fibers from the muscle from various angles but without having giving the body part time to recover from the first exercise set. This forces the body part to perform to get tired and it makes it harder to perform the next set. Example: leg extensions, which target the quads, then while the quad are tired you then follow them by squats which targets leg muscles but this time the gluts, hamstrings and inner thighs which are still fresh.

Opposing Muscle Groups Supersets: You do two workouts that target opposing muscle groups; you can do supersets for the arms, the biceps then the triceps. Example: biceps curls and then triceps kickbacks. These are great for getting the best extreme workout you can in a short period of time. There is proof the body’s nervous system strengthens the second muscle when you work the muscle in this way.

Exhaustion Supersets: This involves two workouts for that exact same muscle group. For your superset you start with an exercise that works just the target muscle, such as a dumbbell fly. Then you do another exercise like the bench press so you are working the same target muscle group. So the dumbbell flies for the Pecs and then the bench uses the Pecs muscle but also gets help from the triceps and the shoulders. This again pushes the muscle to work harder and getting faster results.

Extreme Superset: This really is a true extreme fitness workout you do three more sets in a row instead of two for that muscle group using different exercises. These are used to hit a certain muscle and should not be used too often as they are very intense and shock the muscle.

Staggered Supersets: In staggering, you do a set for another muscle group between sets. For instance, during a straight set of leg presses, you could throw in a set of arm curls or pushups while you relax your leg muscles. This saves time, allowing you to perform smaller muscle groups while the bigger ones get a break.

There are lots of choices and you don’t have to do Extreme Supersets with only weights you can use any fitness exercises you are currently doing using the same concept.

Use a Batting Cage to Build Arm Muscles

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:17:44 +0000

Baseball isn’t necessarily the most energetic of team sports. There isn’t much running save for the brief sprints between bases, there isn’t a whole lot of weight to carry around, there just isn’t a whole lot of sweating going on in general out on the baseball field. If you love the sport of baseball and want to use it as a means to get your daily dose of physical exercise in it would behoove you to take a trip down to your local batting cage.

Batting cages are great places to go and work the fundamentals of your baseball swing but they also grant you the opportunity to work arm and abdomen muscles that you normally wouldn’t be able to on a normal playing field. From the moment you throw your sports bag down and pick up the bat to start swinging to the moment you are too tired to walk you will be able to exercise in a batting cage.

A mechanical pitcher isn’t going to fatigue or get tennis elbow after a certain amount of pitches and you don’t have to give up the mound to let some other dead beat kid hit the ball. A batting cage allows you to plop down in front of the pitch and hit the ball correctly for however long you’d like and this is a great way to tone your biceps and abdominal muscles.

Baseball players are notorious for being out of shape. If you look at any historical baseball player, take Babe Ruth for example, they are usually pudgy and bloated around the hips but they have great shoulders and arms. The best batters are the ones who have great arm muscles and that’s because the more they practice batting (and maybe the more steroids they inject into their butts) the bigger their arms become. If you focus on your baseball swing at a batting cage you can really get a nice upper body workout without even having to go to the gym.

Importance of Weight Training

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:04:16 +0000

Everyone should include some sort of weight training in their fitness routine. Building muscle is an excellent way to improve your body. Many people think that if they lift weights they will get ‘bulky’ but you do not need to worry about that. If it was that easy to build huge muscles, everyone would be 300 lbs. Also, the amount of size and weight you gain is directly related to your diet anyways, not your fitness routine. It’s important to understand all of the aspects of optimizing your fitness routine.

Beginning Weight Lifting

If you are new to weight lifting, I would suggest starting with the basic movements; the bench press, overhead press, squat, and deadlift. With just those simple exercises you can get plenty strong and build plenty of muscle. It is important to start light with new exercises so that you are using the correct form, take your time when lifting and concentrate on learning the movement. Never sacrifice form for extra weight. Other exercises can be done to target specific muscle groups, these are called isolation exercises. Be sure to keep the focus of your workout on the big compound exercises. They lifts are a lot easier to get stronger on because to involve a large amount of muscle.

Getting Real Strong

If you are serious about getting stronger, you need to get on a program designed to accomplish this. There are many strength based weight lifting routines that are usually focused around the basic movements. On these routines you are working to constantly improve the amount of weight you are lifting. This method is called linear progression is one of the fastest ways to get stronger in any of the compound lifts. Think about the change in your body if you go from squatting 135lbs to squatting 315lbs. This type of routine is perfect for building muscle, because it focuses on low volume, high intensity workouts with plenty of rest to grow.

Start Your 6-Pack with This Abs Workout Routine

Muscle Builder Guy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:03:12 +0000

Feeling good about yourself and the way that you look is so important to good self confidence and self worth. If you do not like the way that you look and you are ready to do something about it, then let us go and get started. For most Americans who are looking to get in shape the area that bothers them the most is the abs. The mid section for Americans is the area of their body that they most want to change. Strong abs makes a healthier spine, a stronger back and a better beach body.

If you are ready to get started then let us talk about a good abs workout routine. The most effective abs workout to get the six packs that so many people talk about and wish for is the age old bicycle exercise. For this exercise, you lay flat on your back and with your hands place gently behind your head you bring your knees up as you bring your shoulder to your knee without pulling at your head and straining your neck. You will be straightening your left leg while bringing your right shoulder to meet it at the same time, and then you will switch sides.

To add to your abs workout routine you should try using an exercise ball for your crunches. This will help to strengthen and sculpt your rectus abdominals. To keep the routine going and add another level of exercises for your abs your need to work your obliques. Vertical leg crunches are great for you rectus abdominis and your oblique. While lying on the floor, cross your ankles and while your legs are fully extended upwards with your knees crossed. Lift your shoulders off the floor while contracting your abs and bringing your chest towards your feet. Lower your legs and repeat 12-16 times.

While working your rectus abdominis, you also need to work those unsightly love handles, your obliques. We all have them and wish them away regularly. While the bicycle is a great exercise for those flabby love handles, Standing Trunk Twists are even better. While standing with your feet about a foot apart, you twist your torso to the left and then to the right. Do this for about 12-16 reps.

A good abs workout routine will make all of the difference when you are trying to tone and get a healthy beach body for the summer months. Your abs is also the key to a healthy strong back and spine. Get that six pack that you have been dreaming of.

Getting That Flat Stomach You Want

Muscle Builder — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:16:02 +0000

Many people make the resolution to get those rock hard abs, but very few ever follow through. The natural instinct is to workout your stomach doing crunches and situps, but the body doesn’t work that way. TV ads will try to sell you on this or that ab product but don’t fall for their tricks because they simply won’t work. You cannot simply try to lose the fat from one area, like your stomach, and see results. The right exercises combined with the right nutrition is what it takes in order to truly burn fat in your entire body, including your stomach.

The best way to really get the body that you’re wanting with those great abs, or how to get a flat stomach, is to increase the fiber, consume low-fat dairy products as well as more vegetables in your diet, as well as varied fruits. When choosing meats, choose leaner cuts. Burning fat is easier if you are tricking your body and keeping it guessing by doing interval training and changing up your pace often. Your body just wants to keep burning fat if you’re switching up from a lower intensity then boosting to a high intensity, and repeating that style. Working out all of your muscles through weight or strength training will allow your body to burn more fat. Crunches and other great core exercises are still definitely okay, just don’t only do those, instead focus on a full body workout.

Proper nutrition + proper exercises (interval training, with weight training) will get your body burning more fat, and making it so that you can definitely get a flat stomach. I definitely believe that you will be able to achieve this, whether you want to get washboard abs quickly, or if you want to do ’slow and steady wins the race”… either method will work as long as you are focusing on what you need to do, for every meal and every snack, and every time you want to not work out, just think about those abs and go get them!

Yes, You Need Protein Shakes

Muscle Builder Guy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:34:12 +0000

Protein shakes are one of the best ways to get your daily dose of protein as well as many other vitamins and minerals. Protein shakes are without a doubt the single most popular form of sports nutrition on the market today.

If you’ve ever read a fitness magazine or been to a supplement store, you will have undoubtedly seen a multitude of muscle and performance supplements. Out of the many muscle building supplements available, protein is the one supplement you simply cannot afford to overlook. When muscle building is your goal, most research has shown that 1 gram per pound of body weight is needed for optimum results. You can go with around .5 grams for general fitness goals. While meat protein is great, a protein shake can go with you wherever you are and no utensils needed. Plus, who really wants to eat chicken breast all day every day?

Protein shakes are very versatile and you don’t actually have to use the powder in a shake form. One great way you get your whole grains and protein for breakfast is to pour one or two servings of your favorite protein powder over a bowl of plain oatmeal. Be creative and see what you can drum up to put some life in your diet as natural protein supplements.

No matter what your fitness goals are, you need to be sure that you are getting the best protein for you. Most fitness and nutrition gurus will agree whey protein is by far the best. You should also check the level of cholesterol in your protein, simply put, the higher the cholesterol the less you will absorb. I recommend a maximum cholesterol level of 20 mg per serving, but shoot for 15 or lower if your budget allows. Don’t be afraid of off brand protein either, in many cases it is just as good as major label without paying for a huge advertising budget.

The Flat Stomach Guide

Muscle Builder — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:13:48 +0000

Having a flat stomach is a dream or goal, but very few see that dream to the end. Just exercising your stomach muscles won’t get you the nice flat stomach that you want, whether you are male or female. The washboard abs really won’t come from all of those silly ab-focused machines from the television commercials. Losing fat cannot be narrowed down to a specific part of the body. Your body will instead respond better and you can get the abs through eating correctly, as well as doing the right kinds of exercises, and that my friends, is how to get a flat stomach.

Burning fat through nutrition includes a focus on increasing the fiber in your diet, focusing on only eating the right portions of lean meats, and eating those fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in order to fill you up on stuff that is low in calorie and high in the right vitamins. You cannot burn fat by just running on a treadmill normally, but if you turn it into interval training, then you can start the fat burning process. Switching from working out at a high in tensity to exercising at a low intensity start to burn that fat. The way to really burn fat while exercising is through strength training with weights or other forms of resistance. You can still do stomach crunches and situps, and other core exercises, just don’t rely on those solely to get a flat stomach because it will fail.

Your body definitely wants to get thinner and burn that fat, and you can get that process going through exercising properly as I described, as well as eating correctly with the types of foods I listed above. If you want that flat stomach fast, or whether you want it before a certain date a few months away, it’ll require dedication with your nutrition and with your exercise routine. You definitely can do it!

Grip Exercises That Anyone Can Do

Muscle Builder Guy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:10:14 +0000

We have all envied a bowflex commercial – have we not? We see some random ripped dude with massive forearms and a ripped chest. You know, you do not have to pay all of that money in order to get that rock hard forearm. All it takes is dedication and a steady work ethic. I will elaborate further.

Building muscle and getting tone takes both time and effort – not something that everyone has. So when we see a new commercial advertising on tv we all jump on the ban wagon and are sold instantly. Hardly do we ever realize that all of this can be obtained for free.

So here I am going to talk about some common grip exercises that anyone can do from their home with just a little bit of effort and time. First off, if you have dumbells then all you have to do is some wrist curls. You like a bicep curl only with your wrists. Try to mix it up a little and create some muscle confusion. If you have some resistance bands then you will be able to do a multitude of forearm muscle building. You can do some wrist curls as well with these and you can reverse the exercises by going the opposite way working your brachioradialis.

Most people do not know this, but when you do your usual upper body workouts you are also building grip muscle. Exercises like bench press and dips are great for this particular muscle area. The most common grip exercises have to do with “grippers” as I call them. These are the resistance balls that are made to be squeezed. They come in multiple forms and hardness. A good place to start is by going to your local sporting goods store and asking to view their upper body exercise equipment. Good luck with the muscle building! Also, when you increase your grip strength enough, you may be able to crush an apple with your bare hands!