Focus On Fitness And Diet As A Lifestyle, Not A Program

We’ve all seen article headlines like this:

• 10 Weeks To Better Abs!
• 8 Week Fat Blasting Diet!
• Drop 15 Pounds In 2 Weeks!

Instead of seeking programs that provide temporary fixes, approach exercise and diet as a lifestyle. If you are only after short-term changes, and follow a short-term program, there’s a good chance that once the program is over you will resort back to your old habits. In fact, men and women who use short-term, fad approaches usually fall off the wagon and end up worse off than they started.

Seek out diet and fitness plans and programs that will fit well as a lifestyle. Set both short-term and long-term goals. Understand that once your short-term goals have been reached, the real work begins: maintaining your results.

Have you run a “quick fix” program only to have stumbled after you were done? Tell us your story in the comments section below.

Improve Your Workouts By Keeping A Tight Rest Between Sets

Have you been feeling like a slug in the gym lately? One simple, but amazing way to improve your workouts – and results – is by monitoring and limiting your rest between sets. Not only will the pace of your workouts improve, making you feel more engaged and focused, but the tighter rest schemes will also force you to push harder.

For heavy compound exercises limit your rest between sets to two minutes maximum. For isolation exercises, try limiting rest between sets to one minute. Monitor rest periods using a wrist watch, wall clock or iPod App.

If you are really pressed for time, and are in the mood to crank up the intensity, trying limiting rest between compound movements to 60 seconds, and rest between isolation lifts to 30 seconds. Remember to always use good form. If your form starts to slip because of restricted rest periods, it’s best to extend the rest periods slightly so that you do not get injured.

Give this a try and let us know if your focus and workouts improved.

When Building Muscle, Do Not Perform Cardio Before Weight Training

If muscle building is a primary goal then make sure you are not performing intense cardio sessions prior to lifting. You want to enter your resistance training sessions feeling 100 percent and ready to go for two reasons.

The first reason has to do with energy and performance. You want to be as fresh as possible when you start your weight training session. This will allow you to lift as much weight as possible, and maximize every set. This combination will help you string together quality workouts, and keep your muscle gains coming.

The second reason has to do with exercise form. If you lift while you are fatigued or not physically 100% there is a chance that your exercise form might suffer. If your form isn’t up to par, you increase the risk of injury.

While it is ok to do 5 to 10 minutes of very light cardio to help get warmed up prior to resistance training, you should avoid intense cardio sessions at this time and save them until the heavy lifting is done.

Gym junkies has a great write-up outlining the pros and cons of doing cardio before or after weights. Definitely check them out!

To Sneak In Vegetables, Play Hide The Spinach

It can be a real challenge to get children to eat their vegetables. Heck, most adults don’t like to eat their vegetables. Here’s a simple tip to add tons of nutrition to your meals by simply “hiding” a little spinach.

Finely chop or dice a large handful of spinach. Place a small amount of olive oil in a frying fan and drop in the spinach. Stir continuously. You will notice the spinach wilting down rather quickly. Once it has finished wilting down, pull it off the heat and set the pan aside.

You can now place this diced spinach in any number of dishes, from mashed potatoes to meatloaf to soups and sauces. A large handful of spinach wilts down substantially. It hides well in just about any savory dish and carries with it little to no taste. Don’t forget the most important benefit to spinach: nutrition! Spinach is high in iron, and rich in Vitamin A, C, K and more.

The next time you are at the grocery store, stop by the produce section and pick up some fresh (not canned) spinach. Dice, cook and add it to your dinner tonight.

Understand How Much Cardio It Takes To Burn Off Your Snack Food

We’ve all heard it a thousand times: “I just ate a donut/cheeseburger/bag of chips. 10 extra minutes on the treadmill for me tonight!” Is it really that easy? Can you simply burn off your snack food with a few extra minutes on the treadmill? Let’s take a look.

For the sake of simplicity, we will assume you are walking and not running on the treadmill. We will also assume that you’re using a brisk pace, perhaps 4 miles per hour, or one mile every 15 minutes. One mile of walking burns 100 calories, so using out current pace we will burn 100 calories every 15 minutes.

• One Oreo cookie – 40 calories, 6 minutes on the treadmill.
• Nature Valley Oats ‘n Honey Crunchy granola bar – 94 calories, 14.3 minutes on the treadmill.
• Little Debbie Nutty Bar, one package – 310 calories, 46.5 minutes on the treadmill.
• McDouble from McDonald’s restaurant – 400 calories, 60 minutes on the treadmill.
• General Tso’s chicken, one serving – 844 calories, 126.6 minutes on the treadmill.
• 2 Slices Pizza Hut Meat Lover’s Pizza, pan style crust – 960 calories, 144 minutes on the treadmill.
• Large sized Burger King Double Whopper Value Meal – 1,780 calories, 267 minutes on the treadmill.

Have you been guilty of thinking you can simply burn off food on the treadmill? Let us know in the comments section below.

Surround Yourself With Successful Lifters Who Have Built Muscle And Strength

This tip cannot be understated: you rise to the level of those around you. If you are surrounded by folks with average results and limited motivation and goals, you are likely to achieve average results. If you are surrounded by highly successful lifters, you are more likely to set loftier goals. This is true for most areas of life, and it is especially true for muscle and strength building.

To improve your results, improve your environment. Seek out experienced lifters at your gym and befriend them. Find lifting forums with plenty of successful athletes, and start a training log. Go to local bodybuilding shows and powerlifting meets and soak up the atmosphere. Mingle with top lifters on Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube and Twitter. You will not only meet some new people, but also find yourself walking out more motivated than when you came in.

Don’t sink to the level of those around you. (No disrespect meant!) Surround yourself with higher standards and allow yourself to see new possibilities. You will likely achieve things you never thought possible.

To Build Muscle Focus On Using The Best Exercises

The muscle building process is often seen as a complicated process. There is so much information floating around the Internet that it becomes easy to get confused. The following will help clear up one of the major points of contention:how should I train?

To improve your workouts you want to use the best possible tools. Your tools are your exercises. When you don’t shy away from challenging exercises, you challenge your body in very intense ways. A craftsmen always chooses the best tools for the job. In the gym, just as it is in life, when you choose sub-par tools it takes longer to do the job correctly.

The following exercises are not a complete list of the best possible exercises, but they certainly are a good place to start:

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Bench Press and variations
• Overhead Press and variations
• Dips
• Pull Ups and Chin Ups
• Barbell and Dumbbell Rows
• Stiff Leg Deadlifts
• Close Grip Bench Press