Dumbbell Weight Training For Women

More and more women are beginning dumbbell weight training as an excellent means of burning fat and maintaining muscle tone, as well as keeping in shape and reducing the visible effects of aging on the body.  Exercising with dumbbells, sometimes called free weights, can be a great way to keep your body limber, well-conditioned, and healthy.  Dumbbells are relatively inexpensive and many different exercises can be done with the same set of weights, making them a versatile part of any exercise routine.

Adding dumbbell exercises to your daily exercise routine is very easy to do.  One quick way to start is to carry a pair of small two- or three-pound dumbbells during a morning walk, treadmill run, or stair climbing routine.  This increases the amount of work done and calories burnt, as well as providing an arm workout that would not be achieved with walking or running alone.



Bicep curls are a simple dumbbell exercise that can be performed standing, with lunges, or even sitting down.  Hold the weight at a 90-degree angle to your body, and slowly contract your bicep to raise the arm up to your shoulder level.  Inhale as you raise the weight, and then exhale as you lower the weight back down to the original position.  Focus on your bicep muscle and try to keep your body as relaxed as possible. Perform 10 repetitions and then switch arms.

Hammer curls involve gripping the weights in both hands, starting with hands down by the sides of your body.  Then bring the dumbbells up in alternate rising movements to your shoulder.  Keep the movements nice and slow, and as one lowers, raise the opposite arm.  Perform 10 repetitions with each arm.  Hammer curls can be performed while walking or stepping up and down on an aerobic step or climbing machine as part of a low-impact aerobic exercise routine.

Both bicep curls and hammer curls are easy to do, and can be learned without any significant studying.  After starting with the basics, add additional dumbbell exercises to your workout to strengthen other muscles, such as back and shoulders.  Take a women's fitness class at a local gym or community center or consider a single session with a personal trainer to learn additional exercises that be done with a set of dumbbells.  It is always recommended to get a trained professional to show you the basic movements, but with practice you should be able to master the basics in a very short time.

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Supercharge Your Workout With Short Intense Kettlebell Workouts!

First let's take a look at a sample workout:

Start with 2 sets of each:
Chinups, 10 reps
Military Presses, 10 reps

Then perform the following as a circuit:

Kettlebell Row, 3 reps;
Kettlebell Snatch, 3 reps:
Mountain Climbers, 8 reps,
Kettlebell Row, 3 reps.
Kettlebell Snatch, 3 reps;
Mountain Climbers, 8 reps:
Military Presses, 5 reps,
Kettlebell Row, 3 reps.
Kettlebell Snatch, 3 reps..
Mountain Climbers, 8 reps:



So what exactly are the benefits of a short but intense kettlebell workout like the one above?

A ten to fifteen short workout like the one above provide similar benefits than that of interval training in that it will raise your metabolism for upto 48 hours after the workout. This means that you will continue to burn calories hours after you have completed the workout.

The intense nature of this workout will also help to increase muscle mass and help tone those muscles.

It is this reason that people with a lot of commitments opt for these intense routines as they are able to keep their ripped physique whilst not performing long drawn out workouts

What are the drawbacks of Intense Kettlebell Workouts?

The main drawback of these short intense kettlebell workouts are that it will take a lot of getting used to. Even if you are an avid trainer switching to short intense workouts will really drain you of energy (as they are intended to do) to start off with.

If you are unable to perform the whole workout then obviously you can downgrade to a lighter weight kettlebell. Also if you are still having trouble completing the required workout then you can increase the rest time between sets until you can successfully perform the next amount of reps. Soon you will be able to perform the whole workout without any rests at all!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Andreas_Y_James/45433

Muscle Building Foods - List of Post & Pre Workout Foods That Help in Bodybuilding

Nutrition plays a major role in muscle building. You should maintain a good diet regime for increasing your muscle mass with ease. Muscle building foods include carbohydrates, fats and protein. You should preferably take more small meals daily for boosting your metabolism that consequently helps in burning fats in your body. One should also drink 10-12 glasses of water daily for maintaining the body temperature.

List Of Post & Pre Workout Foods That Help In Bodybuilding

Complex carbohydrates

* Bread
* Brown rice
* Potatoes
* Bagel
* Pasta
* Cereal

These are muscle building food and helps in providing energy to your muscles. Complex carbs releases energy slowly unlike juices, energy drinks etc. You should also include protein in your post workout diet, as they are the building blocks of our body.



Some of the most efficient protein foods are as follows:

* Chicken breast
* Egg whites
* Turkey
* Cottage cheese
* Yogurt
* Tuna

You should also include protein supplements in your diet for attaining instant energy. Your post workout meal should also have fats such as:

* Flaxseed oil
* Olive oil
* Cod liver oil

You can easily drink protein shakes before and after your workouts. It is advisable to have light meal before workouts.

You need lots of strength and endurance for performing muscle-building workouts that can be easily provided by Nitric Oxide supplements. This product can easily increase the flow of blood in your body that consequently helps in improving your muscle mass. Nitric oxide supplement also helps in preventing various deadly disorders such as diabetes, cancer and heart attacks. It can strengthen your immune system. This product nourishes your overall health with flamboyance.

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Cardio Exercises to Lose Weight & Burn Fat - Lose Weight Fast With Cardio - No Fat Burners, No Gyms

In order to lose weight naturally cardio exercises can be the best option. This is because the metabolism rate of the body gets enhanced in these workouts . Along with these workouts a healthy diet plays an important role to lose weight at a steady pace. Such healthy combination of diet and workouts can help you get a slim profile and that by avoiding the fat burner diets and gym.

How to Lose Weight fast with Cardio Workouts

Cardio workouts can help you a lot in losing weight at a very steady pace. In fact, if you develop the habit of doing cardio workouts in a regular manner then you are not required to opt for any fat burner diet or gym. Further, the following workouts would help you to lose weight and burn fat fast:



*Swimming: It is one of the best exercises which would help you to burn huge amount of calories at a steady pace. In fact if you can do breast stroke then you can burn approximately up to 400 calories.

*Running: Just have a good pair of running shoes and then you are on your way of burning serious calories. A 145 lb individual can burn up to 330 calories in just 30 minutes.

*Bicycling: You can opt either for the outdoor or the indoor ones. This workout would depend upon your speed and resistance. However, you can burn up to 500 calories in just 30 minutes.

*Step Aerobics: This workout is the most preferred among the women. This type of exercise mainly focuses on glutes, hips and legs and one can burn up to 400 calories in just 30 minutes.

*Cross Country Skiing: This incredible exercise would help you to lose weight and burn fat at a very steady pace as a 145 LB individual can burn up to 330 calories in just 30 minutes. This is the most preferred workout as it involves both your lower and upper body.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Anna_Holman/50394

Lose Belly Fat With Exercise

A big issue that arises in our times is belly fat.Everyone wants to get rid of it, everyone has different reasons, and there are all sorts of people who want to do this!By now if you have made it here, you likely are aware that you must exercise to lose belly fat. You can mix a good exercise routine with a healthy diet to lose those extra pounds you want to.

There are hundreds of programs, ads everywhere tout them, all saying how they know the secret to swift weight loss! They want you to take a pill, or follow their instructional guide to the letter, they tell you that you can not try at all, and still lose weight! Sound too good to be true? It usually is, there is no magic slippers to click together for overnight weight loss.

Likely by now, you have perused or tried some of these programs, and have discovered just how well the really work. Hopefully this wont be a new thought to you, the only magic way to lose weight is to have a healthy diet, mixed with exercise to lose belly fat. If it is a new thing, or not, either way, that is the only way to be sure you will lose the weight.

TV, movies, and the news tell you every day, it's not okay to be overweight, yet they still also change the weight limits for obesity every day! You of course wonder how to become healthy, do you beat yourself to a pulp every day with hardcore exercising, how about starving yourself at the same time? Well, to lose weight you must exercise, you don't have to hurt yourself exercising, and you can even eat while you do it! It's not as hard as it is made out to be.



Common advice you might find is to keep your workout slow and regulated. Don't get yourself going to fast or hard, keep the intensity low through the whole workout. For a multitude of reasons, this is not the way you should do your exercising, that is if you want to lose weight.

If you take a good look at it, you will see that our bodies are made to go go go then stop, rinse and repeat. We are designed to go-then-stop not just keep moving at a slow steady pace. Changing what you normally do, keeping your exercise moving and changing is a huge factor to keep in your training program. Just take a look at most sports. How many sports are based upon moving at a steady pace, the entire time? Not a lot, most are dependent on fast exertion followed by a rest period.

Definitely try it out, follow the advice, and do the exercise at a slow pace, for a long time. Notice that your body does indeed burn calories! Why is it a bad thing then. if you are burning calories, you should be happy right? Well lets look at your body to find out what it does. Your body thinks that it needs to store up energy, just for this new extended workout. It finds that things are going the same every day and so it just stores up the calories you need and you burn them over and over but never touch the excess weight. If your body keeps storing up those calories you never really lose any weight. Thus you need to have intense workouts and change things up constantly to keep your body burning extra stuff and not give it time to get used to things.

You want to train your body to do what you want, not to get efficient in the fat mode and stay that way. You want to make your body be able to do more work, this will also help you live longer healthier lives. Do those hard core intense exercises you should be and you'll burn belly fat and end happier and fit and trim in the end.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jason_Langlois/506181

Bodyweight Exercises - The 3 Reasons to Use Them Today

Perhaps the question I get asked the most about bodyweight exercises is... "Can I REALLY reach my goals without equipment?" Well, I can't promise to know what everyone's "goals" are, but I believe you can improve fitness, burn fat and build an athletically muscular physique with only bodyweight exercises. So, if those are some of your goals... read further.

I think you'll find that bodyweight workouts offer many benefits other forms of training don't. And quite frankly, many of your fitness, fat loss and physique building goals won't be reached if your don't incorporated some type of bodyweight training.

Bodyweight Exercises Improve Fitness

Many people, even people in the fitness industry, are confused about fitness. It is not the way you look, or how big your muscles are. Fitness is about performance. (And if you really want to get into it, fitness is really about survival.)

And one of the areas many exercisers need the most work is moving their own bodyweight. Strength, power, endurance, balance, agility, coordination, flexibility, speed, accuracy and mental toughness can all be improved with bodyweight exercises. So bodyweight training is an important and necessary tool fitness improvement.



Bodyweight Exercises Burn Fat

Hey, we could all stand to shed a few pounds (myself included). And the truth is, you don't need an fancy equipment to do so. As a matter of fact, I would choose a bodyweight workout over running on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike every time. There is no better way to challenge you whole body than doing a circuit of bodyweight exercises with little rest. (Try it for yourself instead of boring cardio and watch the pounds fall away!)

Bodyweight Exercises Build An Attractive Physique

I keep hearing, "Weight lifting is better for building muscle." Well, that's true. But I want more from my exercise program than just building muscle. I want to improve performance. I want to burn fat. And most importantly, I want to build a strong, capable body that looks great. Bodyweight exercises deliver on all counts!

I think you'll find that when you use bodyweight exercises as a main part of your fitness program you'll feel empowered. You don't NEED a gym membership or expensive equipment to build a high-performance, lean, muscular body. And when you realize you can get a performance improving, fat burning, muscle building workout anywhere, anytime, you'll be much more temped to take ACTION. Because, after all, action is what really gets you the results you want.

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