1. Leg Extensions: You’ve already spent most of the day in a seated position. The last thing you need to do is train your legs from that same position. As someone who spends any amount of time sitting we have to be sure that our workout routines are well balanced. Providing exercises that focus more on quality movement patterns and less on specific muscle groups. Truth is leg extensions may be doing more harm than help. Passive structures in the knee (ligaments) are stressed more in open chain exercises like the leg extension which can lead to future knee pain and range of motion problems. During the knee extension several stabilizing muscles are taken out of the movement creating an imbalance of work done by primary movers and synergistic stabilizers. In other words, this is an injury waiting to happen.

Alternatives

*Dynamic Lunges
*Step-Ups
*Front Squats
*Terminal Knee Extensions or Backwards Walking for any individuals with knee impairments

2. Military Pressing: Few people, not excluding high level athletes possess optimal shoulder build to be able to do this exercise “safely”. I put safely in quotes because you may not suffer an acute injury from shoulder presses, but chances are down the road you may develop some sort of impingement. Understand this is not a matter of poor training or weak musculature. It is simply a matter of how you are built. This is not to say that Military Presses can’t have their place in a well planned out exercise program. Let’s face it; the average computer guy geek has sub-optimal posture in the first place. The last thing we want to try and do is have him press heavy weights over his head. The outcome could be very dangerous. For our purposes in the gym, I believe much safer exercises can be used to create even better results without this risk.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups (there is a large variety)
*Gators
*Press-Outs

3. Sit-Ups: Everybody’s favorite exercise. If not for great looking abs then surely they are good for “core” strength and your lower back right? The truth is, when you perform a Sit-Up you are using very little abdominal strength and a whole lot of hip flexor strength. Contracting these hip flexors and flexing forward can create excessive amounts of compression on our lower spine. For anyone who sits for any length of time during the day this is not an ideal situation. Most geeks need more abdominal strength but there are much safer and more effective ways to go about getting it.

Alternatives

*Planks and Side Planks
*Reverse Pull-Ins
*Jack Knives
*Chop and Lift

4. Bench Press: Another favorite exercise to most average gym goers. But here we sit, not the “average” person. One of the last things we as geeks want to do is reinforce our tendency to be slumped with our shoulders rolled forward. After all this is the position most of us are in the majority of the day if we spend any time at a computer. Unfortunately our friend the bench press is only going to do more hurt than help when it comes to this negative posture. Don’t worry though, like the others there are plenty more exercises that can be used to get the same and most likely better results. Most of which allow our shoulder blades to move freely throughout the exercise which actually reinforces a more desired posture.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups
*Cable presses (unilateral or bilateral)
*Gators

5. Upright Rows: When it comes to the upright row I struggle to find a reason why anyone would need this movement. If this is in your routine I suggest you take a moment to re-evaluate what your goals are in the gym. Keeping your forearms internally rotated while you abduct your upper arms is a recipe for impingement.

Alternatives

*Barbell Rows
*Dumbbell Rows
*Face Pulls
*Cable Row Variations

Conclusion: When designing yourself an exercise program it is important to create goals and choose exercises based on their potential benefits as well as risks. As geeks we have to be mindful of our posture and the implications it will have on our workouts. It may not be a glamorous approach but in the long run it will be the most effective approach regardless of what our goals may be. Remember, if you get injured working out it won’t matter what those goals are because you won’t be able to work out at all.

By Vince DelMonte

www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

If you could sculpt one body part to perfection for next summer, what would it be? Let me guess – six pack abs! I don’t know anybody who does not want to shrink there waistline, lose body fat, eliminate low back pain and develop a jaw dropping set of rock-hard six-pack. Too bad that your brain has been poisoned with contaminated information.

Before you can start learning how to get six-pack abs and discover the truth about what it really takes to build a beach-worthy abdominal section, you must first expose the lies, myths and rumors. Before we talk about how to get six-pack abs, the right way, we must re-program your hard drive and empty the trash can of garbage you have been fed.

Because of all this hyped up and misguided information – even among so-called ‘fitness experts’ – you should skeptical of discerning about all abdominal training equipment and programs. Let’s first eliminate the top four ways not to get a six-pack:

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require expensive workout equipment promoted through obnoxious infomercials. You can’t flick on the TV anymore without seeing two new abdominal exercise machines being promoted at once. There are so many of them, that if you get suckered into these ‘ab workout’ gimmicks, you will be broke quicker than Ben Johnson sprints the 100 m dash! And get this: Of the $520 million dollars a year spent on exercise equipment, abdominal machines get a $208 million dollar piece of the pie!

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require thousands or even hundreds of crunches a day. So much for the Brittany Spears ab workout! Crunches are decent but totally overused and associated with more being better. Crunches is a very general exercise and general exercises get general results. Excessive floor crunches shorten the abdominal wall, pull your head forward and emphasize poor posture. They also involve a very low level of stimulation which neglects adequate muscle fiber recruitment.

Learning how to get a six-pack does not involve starvation diets. Starvation diets starve the muscle when instead, you should be feeding the muscle. Guess what happens when you starve your body? Your metabolism shuts down out of survival and causes your body to store fat. Your body must get energy from somewhere so guess what gets sacrificed? That’s right, your precious muscle which is in fact responsible for a maintaining a high metabolism. Starve your muscle – great logic!

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require fat burning pills. What did the last weight loss pill you bought do for you? The same thing the next one is going to do – nothing! Except give you a thinner wallet but not a thinner waist line. The entire concept of taking pills to ‘burn fat’ is built on a sandy foundation and misleading because diet pills only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. Without focusing on the root problems of a flabby mid-section, like nutrition, lifestyle and proper training, you will just end up where you started – farther away from having a six-pack for summer instead of closer.

If you just landed on earth from Mars today, and were able to avoid these four completely wrong ways to build a six-pack, than you will have an advantage over the rest of the world and be one enormous step closer to taking your shirt off with pride!

About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.

For my last Grappling competition I had to drop around 18 lbs in about 3 weeks time.  Here’s an example of what I did on my non-weight training days for cardio.

It’s a break-fall combined with an up-down.

I completed 20 repetitions of each and then rested twice as long as the amount of time it took me to complete the set.  Then I repeated that process 2 more times for a total of 3 sets.

If you combine this type of training 3 days a week with weight training 3 days a week.  It’s nearly impossible not to get lean.  Your body is forced to comply.  Be smart and aggressive with your training and you’ll always see results.

So if you’ve been reading my stuff for a while then you probably know I advocate HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) for fat loss as opposed to the low intensity long duration cardio.

HIIT can be performed on just about any piece of cardio equipment; it’s all about the intensity and less about the modality.  

It involves a series of sprinting efforts split with moderate intensity efforts.  We call these work periods and rest periods for simplicity.  Because variety is important I often use several different work/rest ratios.  

Today I’ll be discussing what works best for the ultra beginner when it comes to HIIT or even just exercise in general.  Also, if you’re over 300 lbs these are a good introduction into a new type of training that’s going to help you to drop weight much faster.  This is the same exact cardio routine I use with my current clients when they are first starting out.  I’ve found that it is very unreasonable to expect “sprinting” from a complete beginner or someone whom is much heavier.  Even if it is low impact sprinting on a cross trainer, it’s rarely ever successful or productive.

First off; what I always use for beginners is the treadmill.  Providing they’re not special needs, I already know they can walk.  Maybe not comfortably, but it’s probably the closest, and most familiar bit of human movement that they already have mastered.  This will be important for the beginner because the first few sessions will be spent getting some actual work done and not just learning to adapt to a new movement pattern.  On your first bout of using the treadmill, you’ll want to find the right speed and grade that makes walking just a little too uncomfortable for you.  This should be just enough that you can only tolerate a minutes worth of work.  After that minute is up, safely get off of the treadmill, but keep it running*.  Be sure to record the speed and the grade that you are working at in a journal.  Using a stop watch or a clock, give yourself a 2 minutes rest.  Make the rest active if you can, pacing around, stretching and moving if it’s possible.  At the end of your 2 minute rest period get back on the treadmill and give it hell for another minute of work.  Repeat this 1:2 interval for another 6 rounds, or until you feel you can no longer continue do to cramping, pain, nausea, or exhaustion.  Remember, it’s supposed to be uncomfortable, but you definitely do not want to hurt yourself.  Listen to your body.  Complete this routine 5 days a week, 2 days on its own and 3 days after working out with weights.  If your goal is fat loss it is extremely crucial that you be working out with weights, but that’s a discussion for another day.

This routine should kick your butt for at least 2 weeks.  After that point you should try to shorten your rest periods to just 90 seconds, and then eventually down to 1 minute.  At that point you’re almost ready for some real HIIT. 

*Note: some treadmills have a safety mechanism that will automatically shut the machine down if you step off.  If this is the case at your gym, try speed walking out doors instead; 1 minute fast paced 2 minutes slow.

Because everybody likes FREE stuff right?  

Download all 3 of them here.

These are 3 very high quality ebooks with tons of great quality information.  I wouldn’t be pimping them if they weren’t.  

21st Century 6 Pack AB Training

Top Secret Fat Loss Strategies Revealed

Top 6 Sources of Omega-3 Fats

Just right click on the link and save as.

Seriously this is the type of stuff that blows away all that crap you’re being fed in most magazines. 

Fitness advice from a bum?  Nope, it’s just me looking very homely today.

Listen to me ramble a little bit about the use of exercise equipment and why I don’t believe machines are gods gift to the gym.

How do you feel about training with machines?  Good?  Bad?  Is there a place for them in a solid fitness routine?  Let me know how you feel.

Goal: To keep my metabolism up through the fat season and avoid putting on any excess lbs.

Since my last update I’ve only gained 2 pounds of body mass.  Not bad considering all the chocolate I got into during the last couple weeks.  The kicker; although my bodyweight has gone up, my waist size has dropped by two measures.

This is a great indication that I have gained or maintained a good amount of lean mass while dropping some fat mass.  I’m happy with that.  Let’s see if I can keep it up.

Here’s what I did this past month.

Lifted weights three times a week alternating between these 2 routines.  Each routine takes about 35 minutes with warming up.

Workout A

Superset
Deadlift 150lbs x 20reps x 2sets
Bodyweight Rows x 20reps x 2sets

Superset
Alternating Lunges 10lbs x 20reps x 2sets
Push Ups x 20reps x 2sets

Plank :50 seconds

Workout B

Superset
Stability Ball Leg Curls 20reps x 2sets
Assisted Pull Ups 7pl x 20reps x 2sets

Superset
Step Ups 20reps x 2sets
DB Military Press 20lbs x 20reps x 2sets

Side Plank :45 seconds

I also did cardio three times per week on my non weight training days.  I use an elyptical/cross trainer.  Here is what that looked like.

4min warm-up at level 5

4min HIIT :15 sprint :15 moderate on level 10

And those 8 minutes is really all I do for cardio.  I find if I try to throw in another set of intervals I lose weight much too fast.  You can hate me if you want but when I do those sprints I am in lots of pain, trust me.

I’ll be switching my routine up through November and see if I can’t keep this momentum up through New Years.

I’d love to hear what everybody else is doing to keep off the fat during fat season.  Please leave your comments below.

Warm up: Solute to Sun (8 mins)

Exercise 1: Hip Dominant

Exercise 2: Upper Body Pull

Exercise 3: Quad Dominant

Exercise 4: Upper Body Push

Do 10 – 20 repetitions of each and repeat 3 or 4 times.

Based on a premise I learned from Mike Rousell and Alwyn Cosgrove I decided to do a micro 4 minute workout today.

The idea is to do these small workouts in between our much larger workouts in order to take advantage of the compounding fat burning effects that take place for up to 36 hours “after” we train.

Only in my case I’m not so much trying to burn fat as I am trying to put on some lean muscle.

So what’s my rationale?

Well I’m not at risk of over training because the workouts are small and consist mainly of higher rep exercises.  So no muscle damage occurs.

I feel they’ll be beneficial because I will be pumping blood and nutrients to the muscles I trained hard the previous day.

Not to mention it won’t hurt to stimulate my metabolism a little.  Especially because when I train to put on muscle I consume more calories and I’d like them to be going to the proper place if you know what I mean.

If it works out well I’ll definitely report on the subject again in the near future.

Until then, you can check out some of Mike and Alwyns stuff at Warp Speed Fat Loss

Or if you’re interested in creating your own micro workouts check out the Body Bot

By Jason Ferruggia

Let’s face it; nobody wants to be skinny and weak. Deep down everybody desires the ripped, muscular physique of a UFC fighter or an NFL running back. That’s the kind of look that attracts the ladies and earns respect from the guys. But the question that perplexes many of you is “how do I get that look?” Well search no more because I am about to teach you how to gain weight and build muscle at break neck speeds and finally achieve the head turning physique you have always dreamed of.

Most skinny guys and wannabe mass monsters make numerous mistakes in their training programs and naming them all here would take an entire book. But the important thing is that you stop making those mistakes immediately and start following my top ten tips on how to gain weight fast.

1. Train Heavy- You will never build any significant size with high reps and light weights. If you want to get huge you need to add weight to the bar and bring your reps down a bit.
2. Don’t Train For More Than 45 Minutes Per Session- Your testosterone output is dramatically increased during a weight training workout but this only lasts for 45 minutes. After that point its shot. What happens then is that your testosterone levels start to plummet and cortisol levels start to rise. Cortisol eats muscle and increases body fat storage. So hit it hard and get out quick.
3. Always Follow the Law of Progressive Overload- If you want to get huge you have to use progressive overload in your training. What this means is that you absolutely must improve upon your previous performance every time you enter the gym. You can do this by lifting heavier weights, doing more reps with the same weight, doing more sets, doing the same amount of work in less time or doing more work in the same amount of time. But whatever you do, DON’T do the exact same thing as the last time you were in the gym. You must give your body a reason to grow and repeating the exact same workout as last time does not force muscle growth.
4. Use Big, Compound Exercises- Exercises like squats, deadlifts, military presses and rows should be the staples of your mass building workout program. These are the exercises that build the most muscle and stimulate the greatest testosterone production. Most machines are a waste of time and do very little to help you pack on size. Stick with free weight movements like dumbbell presses and good mornings, and bodyweight exercises like chin ups and dips.
5. Eat Big- No matter how good your training program is you will never develop a massively muscled physique if you don’t consume enough calories. You need to eat every 2-3 hours and focus on getting one gram of lean protein per pound of bodyweight daily and an ample amount of clean carbs and healthy fats. For super skinny guys with a fast metabolism I recommend focusing on foods like rice, potatoes, pasta and consuming 30% of your calories from healthy fats like avocado, nuts and cold pressed oils.

By following those five tips you will start to pack on slabs of new muscle in no time. For more explosive tips on how to gain weight rapidly check out http://www.thebuffgeek.com/musclebuilding.php .

 
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.thebuffgeek.com/musclebuilding.php