7 Ways To Get Your Body Ripped For Summer

By Joey Sheather

1. Lift Weights to Build and Tone Muscle

Increasing your muscle mass and tone will accelerate body-fat loss. When your muscles grow the demand on your body's energy resources increase. Therefore your metabolism starts running at a higher rate burning more calories during rest and while you exercise.

Muscles require a lot of energy to:

- Fuel their normal function in rest

- To power the 3 main energy systems with ATP (Adenosine Tri-phosphate; the energy molecule), Glycogen (a string of Glucose molecules) and Adipose Tissue (Fat) during exercise

- To replenish energy stores after exercise when the muscles are drained and facilitate the sustained hyperactivity of the muscles chemistry

Bigger and stronger muscle also enhances your bodies' ability to perform and sustain high intensity exercise. This in turn can increase the potential calorie burning effect of your workout.

2. Perform Low Intensity Sustained Exercise

Have you ever noticed someone who is overweight pounding away day after day on the treadmill sweating and panting but never really getting anywhere? I certainly have. This is because of a fantastically great misconception that I can't believe still exists today: The harder you go on the cardio the more fat you burn! I'm afraid not. If you learn about the basics of the human body and how the energy systems work you find out that it is in fact the opposite.

Fat burning occurs and peaks during sustained low intensity exercise in the presence of oxygen. This means that when energy is required quickly for short or medium bursts of intense exercise ATP and Glycogen becomes the source of that energy. They can be used instantly and without oxygen resulting in a by-product that everyone has experienced, Lactic Acid. Anaerobic Exercise predominately uses these fuels during brief periods that cannot be sustained. Aerobic Exercise utilises fat as the dominant fuel because the low amount of intensity is sustainable allowing blood supply to the muscles that is rich in oxygen, fats' catalyst.

So what does this mean for all you lovely people out there? If you want to concentrate on burning fat during cardio-vascular exercise drop the intensity to a level where your breathing rate increases but you can still have a fairly normal conversation with someone. A more scientific approach would be:

Get the number 220, take away your age to get your maximum heart rate (MHR), multiply that number by 0.65 (the fat burning range) and use the answer as your target heart rate (THR) during cardio-vascular exercise. Example;

220 - 26 = 194

194 x 0.65 = 126 beats per minute (BPM)

Maintain this heart rate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to hit your peak fat burning range. If you are fit however, I'd increase it by 10 BPM as your bodies' chemistry and response to exercise are more developed.

3. Cut Out Excess Calories and Pleasure Foods

I'm not talking about dieting because to me that word sounds temporary and unsustainable. I'm talking about a sensible and attractive lifestyle change that is logical and positive. You don't need all that crap. Eating certainly needs to be enjoyable but eating in excess of what your body really needs is unacceptable 90 percent of the time. Do yourself a favour and put food into perspective.

Food only exists to fuel, nourish, maintain and rebuild the body. Humans have made eating a way of life and we let it get out of control treating ourselves constantly to food that is very high in empty calories and low in nutrition. Junk food tastes good but is that short few minutes of pleasure really worth deteriorating the function and capability of your body?

Good food tastes good. I think that there is just as much pleasure and satisfaction or even more out of supplying your body with nutritious foods as there is with eating fast foods, desserts, sugar and chocolate. If you have a great training session a healthy protein drink or a steak and salad is what you feel like because that is what is going to support the desired outcomes of your exercise routine. Lollies or candy will do nothing positive and makes you feel gross afterwards.

If you think about the big picture and you want to get the most out of your life you MUST look after the ONLY body that you have. How on earth can people justify owning an expensive car or boat or whatever, spending time and money on maintenance, repairs, supplies, services and accessories giving it the best of everything while they only supply their own bodies with sub-standard fuel? Cars and other toys are replaceable and only needed a few hours of each day. You CAN'T replace your body. You need it all day every day until you leave this world. It's your best friend and should the priority receiving everything it requires for peak performance.

I always suggest that one day a week everyone should consider letting their guard down and eating something nice and naughty but for the rest of the time you must eat healthy, fresh, nutritious varied food. It's a crime not to and will only lead you down a negative path.

Enough preaching. Here are some suggestions to help shed unwanted body-fat through your eating habits:

i. The food and exercise equation

First there is an element of experimentation. You need to find out how to balance and manipulate the equation between the food that you eat and the exercise that you perform. This can be simplified further by calling it ENERGY IN and ENERGY OUT. Increase or decrease one or the other to make your bodyweight go up or down.

Example:

- if you eat more and exercise less your bodyweight will go up
- if you eat less and exercise more your bodyweight will go down
- if you are at a point where your food intake and exercise output balance each other your bodyweight will remain the same

Work out the extent of change you need to apply to change your bodyweight.

ii. Increase your meal frequency and decrease your meal size.

If you eat three large meals a day you receive an uneven spread of calories and energy. This can affect you in the following ways:

- Slowing down of the metabolism ( the bodies total demand for energy and ability to burn it)
- A lack of energy due to the large meal gaps
- Storing of excess calories as body-fat from the large meals
- Sleeping on a full stomach again promoting body-fat storage

If you eat 5 to 7 smaller meals throughout the day all these point can be turned around increasing your metabolism and facilitating exercise and normal function.

iii. Don't eat complex carbohydrates or junk-food after lunch.

Eat foods that are dense in energy early in the day for a sustained release of energy throughout the rest of the day. As you get closer to sleeping you need nutritious foods, such as salads and stir-fried veges, lean meats and fish, that provide less energy because excess calories will be unused and stored as fat. Dinner should also be a smaller meal than it traditionally is to aid this. Breakfast and lunch should be the larger meals as they are the energy providers for your day and any exercise that you do.

iv. Drink lots of water.

Water is the catalyst for every function and chemical reaction in the body. If you keep yourself hydrated it will assist you in many roles such as body-fat loss. You can train harder and longer maintaining a healthy internal environment by keeping up the blood volume reducing pressure on the cardio-vascular system. The sodium and potassium concentrations of the muscles will remain balanced promoting healthy muscle contraction. Drinks lots of water to exercise properly and stay healthy. Adequate water supplies will speed up all the processes within the body including fat metabolism.

v. Avoid.

Pasta, bread, buns, oats, cereals, white rice, noodles, potatoes, mash, chips, pumpkin, couscous, polenta, pastry, alcohol, junk-food, snack-food, desserts, pizza, crumbed stuff, batter, oil, butter, sugar, salt, MSG, cheese, fast food and fried food especially after lunch.

vi. Eat.

Salads, vegetables, fruits and herbs of many colours. Fresh, raw, organic and cooked foods. Fish, beef, chicken, tofu, lean lamb, protein drinks and supplements.

Do what is best for your health and enjoy it.

4. Perform Your Cardio First Thing In The Morning

Perform your fat-burning cardio exercise first thing in the morning before you have breakfast. There will be no food in your system to use as energy and the glycogen stores in muscles and liver won't be utilised if the exercise intensity is low (where it should be). Glycogen is limited and will deplete leaving fat as the primary fuel. Keep yourself well hydrated with water but don't have breakfast until after you have finished your 30 minutes to 1 hour of cardio. Fat will be maintained as the dominant fuel source.

5. Cut Down Rest Time Between Sets

Weight training is traditionally performed with approximately a minutes rest between sets or even longer. I think that most people rest for too long losing potential workout intensity and other possible benefits. I recommend 30 seconds to 1 minute and often less or none!

Reasons for reducing rest time between sets include:

- Increased exercise intensity through continual muscular stimulation whilst fuel stores are depleted. Limiting rest time forces the muscles to work extra hard as their energy stores do not have time to replenish. The blood also cannot deliver oxygen rapidly enough to retard lactic acid accumulation.
- An increased cardio-vascular effect produced because the body moves continually from one exercise to another taxing the heart and lungs. So you not only facilitate muscle strength, growth and tone you also improve heart and lung fitness.
- Improved fat-burning effect with the sustained exercise during the workout and in recovery afterwards. More calories are burned training in this manner.
- Enhanced body chemistry through increases in oxygen delivery, lactic acid removal and energy repletion.

How to decrease rest time during your workout:

- Utilise agonist/antagonist supersets. This is where an exercise is performed for a muscle followed immediately by an exercise for the opposing muscle group
- Utilise pre-exhaustion supersets. This is where an isolation exercise (single-joint) is performed to specifically fatigue a muscle followed immediately by a compound exercise (multi-joint), which uses additional fresh muscles, to further fatigue the target muscle
- Perform circuit-type training where there is little to no rest for the entire workout
- Be focussed and motivated and hungry

6. Perform Sprint Workouts

Twice a week take yourself to a sports field or flat park and mark out a 100 metre length. Complete a 10 minute jog and 10 minutes of stretching focussing on the legs. Perform a run at 50%. Walk back. Perform a run at 75%. Walk back. Perform up to 10 runs at 100% walking back slowly each time to recover.

This type of intense anaerobic exercise will:

- Alter the chemistry of the bodies energy systems forcing them to work harder and faster
- Increase the basal metabolic rate (BMR) burning more energy at rest
- Change the muscle fiber composition of the muscles training them to be stronger, more powerful and able to work at higher intensities for longer
- Cause more fat to be burnt during recovery

7. Use Variety In Your Cardio And Fat Burning Program

I've talked about using variety to get the most out of your weight training and while it's not as frequently required with cardio-vascular exercise it still needs to be implemented. Instead of using the treadmill for 40 minutes every try one of these mediums:

- Rowing Machines
- X-Trainers
- Stair Climbers and other machines
- Circuit Classes
- Barbell Classes
- High Energy Classes
- Boxing and Martial Arts Classes
- Spin Classes and other group fitness activities
- Team Sports
- Dancing
- Walking, Jogging, Running
- Cycling, Swimming
- Other dynamic pastimes, games, sports and activities

Changing your routine regularly will keep your body stimulated achieving constant improvement. It's also fun and will keep you interested.

Joey Sheather is the head trainer at Global Weight Training, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to get into shape in the shortest possible time. For more information, visit Weight Training.

source from www.123fittness.blogspot.com

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Strength training: OK for kids when done correctly

From MayoClinic.com
Special to CNN.com

The young athlete in your family is disciplined and devoted, squeezing in practice whenever he or she can. Now your child wants to start strength training. You've heard coaches and other parents talk about strength training, but you wonder — is strength training really good for a child?

The answer is yes. Strength training exercises that are supervised, safe and age-appropriate offer many bonuses to young athletes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the National Strength and Conditioning Association all support strength training for kids — if it's done properly. Today's children are increasingly overweight and out of shape. Strength training can help put them on the lifetime path to better health and fitness.

Strength training, not weightlifting

Strength training for kids — not to be confused with weightlifting, bodybuilding or powerlifting — is a carefully designed program of exercises to increase muscle strength and endurance. Weightlifting, bodybuilding and powerlifting are largely driven by competition, with participants vying to lift heavier weights or build bigger muscles than other athletes. This can put too much strain on young muscles, tendons and growth plates, especially when proper technique is sacrificed in favor of lifting larger amounts of weight.

Strength training for kids, however, isn't about lifting the heaviest weight possible. Instead, the focus is on lighter weights and controlled movements, with a special emphasis on proper technique and safety.

Your child can build muscle strength using:

• Free weights
• Weight machines
• Resistance bands
• His or her own body weight

Benefits for young athletes

Strength training for kids has gotten a bad reputation over the years. Lifting weights, for example, was once thought to damage young growth plates — areas of cartilage that have not yet turned to bone. Experts now realize that with good technique and the right amount of resistance, young athletes can avoid growth plate injuries. Strengthening exercises, with proper training and supervision, provide many benefits to a young athlete.

Supervised strength training that emphasizes proper technique:

• Increases your child's muscle strength and endurance
• Protects your child's muscles and joints from injury
• Helps improve performance in a particular sport

Your child may gain other health benefits from strength training, too. These include:

• Better heart and lung function
• A healthy body composition
• Stronger bones
• Lower blood cholesterol levels
• A good fitness habit that lasts a lifetime

Some studies suggest that improved self-esteem and a decreased chance of depression also are upshots of strength training. Your child may get a feel-good boost after improving his or her performance.

Who benefits most?

Strength training benefits older preteens more than younger kids. At the age of 5 to 6, kids should be focusing on body awareness and body control, balance, running, jumping and throwing.

Strength training also helps those kids who have a focused interest in a particular sport. For example, a figure skater or dancer who has a goal of jumping higher can improve with strength training. Football players, soccer players — just about all young athletes — can enhance their performance with a strength training program.

Because technique and proper form are so important, don't let your child begin strength training until he or she is mature enough to accept directions. A good rule of thumb is if your child is old enough to participate in organized sports, such as hockey, soccer or gymnastics, he or she is ready for some form of strength training.

Guidelines for youth strength training

The right strength training program for your child isn't just a scaled-down version of what an adult would do. Many adult programs focus on fewer repetitions and heavier weights. A youth strength training program needs to focus on:

• Correct technique
• Smooth, controlled motions
• Less resistance and many repetitions

Your child's coach can tailor a strength training program for your child according to your child's age, size, skills and sports interests. The general principles of youth strength training are:

• Provide instruction. Show your child how to perform strength training exercises using controlled breathing and proper form. You might ask a trained professional to demonstrate. If you enroll your child in a class, make sure there's at least one instructor for every 10 students to ensure that your child receives proper instruction.
• Supervise. Adult supervision is important to reinforce safety and good technique. For instance, if your child lifts weights to strength train, a spotter — someone who stands ready to grab the weights — can step in if the weight becomes too heavy. As a parent, you can get involved in strength training, too. You can supervise your child and serve as a positive reinforcement for healthy lifestyle habits.
• Warm up; cool down. Have your child begin each workout with 5 to 10 minutes of a warm-up activity, such as walking, jogging in place or jumping rope. This makes muscles warm and ready for action, all the while minimizing the risk of injury. End each workout with a cool down, including some light stretching.
• Think light weights, controlled repetitions. One set of 12 to 20 repetitions at a lighter weight is all it takes. Kids don't need weights specially sized for them. They can safely lift adult-size weights as long as the weight isn't too heavy. The resistance doesn't have to come from weights, either. Resistance tubing can be just as effective — especially for younger kids.
• Rest between workouts. Establish a rest period of at least a day between strength training workouts. Two or three sessions per week are plenty.
• Track progress. Teach your child how to fill out a chart of which exercises, how many repetitions, and what weights or resistance he or she uses during a workout. It will be helpful in monitoring progress.
• Add weight gradually. Only when your child masters proper form should you add weight. If your child can't do 10 repetitions at a certain weight, it's too heavy.
• Keep it fun. Vary the routine often. Kids are more likely to stick with strength training if they don't get bored by it.

Results won't come overnight. But over time, you and your child will notice a difference in your child's muscle strength and endurance.

A healthy habit for a lifetime

If your child shows an interest in strength training, know that it can be a safe and effective activity. Along with aerobic exercise, stretching, and balance and stability, strength training is one part of a well-rounded fitness program.

Encourage physical activity in your child — it's a key step to becoming a healthy adult.

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