Skinny legs are shared by both men and women, fitness buffs and slouchers, weight lifters and runners. And regardless of what many people do to try and improve their chicken-like leg appearance, it can still be hard to build attractive leg muscle. Now, through modern research, several old and new fitness approaches have been shown to help grow skinny gams into muscular masterpieces. It really comes down to both diet and exercise.
Weightlifting is a great way to improve overall appearance; and when it comes to improving leg size, some bodybuilders get it right. Unfortunately some don't. And all the squats in the world won't make a difference if there isn't a targeted diet to go along with exercise. That's why many bodybuilders fail to build their skinny legs into powerhouses to match their mammoth bodies. The diet part of their exercise equation is missing.
As for runners, they often see worse gains than their bodybuilder buddies. In fact, runners are often notorious for having skinny legs -- even men and women who once had impressive drumsticks end up with skinny runner legs.
It's important for runners to include some resistance-based exercises (like weightlifting) into their routine, especially with their legs. Not only can this shave a few seconds off their overall time, but it can help runners maintain or even build full, attractive legs.
For anybody with skinny legs, the following tips should build some muscle when followed for 6 months to a year. As for muscle tone, most people see gains within a couple weeks.
FUEL YOUR MUSCLE GROWTH
To make a long story short, protein builds muscle -- even leg muscle. But not all protein is equal. Some foods are better than others at providing adequate protein to fuel muscle growth. To build leg muscle, start with the foods listed below:
* eggs
* liver
* kidneys
* beef
* fish
* chicken and turkey
* milk, yogurt, and cheese
* nuts
* beans
* peas
* some grains (especially barley)
Don't overcook meats. Overcooking your food can actually breakdown and damage protein and other nutrients your body needs to build muscle. Try baking meats instead of frying, it's easier to control the temperature. Steaming vegetables instead of boiling also keeps more nutrients in your foods.
Most nutritionist advise 1 1/2 grams of protein for every pound of body weight each day, for maximum muscle growth. With this type of diet, it's easy to fuel the muscles in your legs for proper growth.
DRINK, DRINK, DRINK
You've probably read it before, but it's got to be said again. Drink plenty of water. I personally try to make 8 glasses of 12 ounce water per day part of my diet. And all that water doesn't need to be from the tap. Include fruits and vegetables as part of your daily amount. Melon (like watermelon and honeydew) are a huge source of water. They're really flavorful too.
LEG PRESSES
Exercise is the most important thing you can do to build leg muscles. By focusing on just your legs and making most of your workouts push those muscles to their limits, you'll definitely build more attractive legs.
Perform the leg press at the gym using a machine by the same name.
* Sit on machine with back on padded support. Place your feet on platform and grasp handles to sides.
* Push the platform away by extending your knees and hips. Return and repeat.
LUNGES
This is one of the best overall exercises for your legs and butt muscles:
* Stand with feet 3 to 4 inches apart, with hands on hips. Starting with your right leg, take a giant step forward. Your toes and knee are pointed directly in front of your body.
* Bend your right knee slightly, with your whole foot on the floor. Your left heel lifts up.
* Lower your body straight down from this position. Your front knee must lower down over your ankle, or behind your shoelaces.
* Raise your body and bring your left leg in to return to the standing position.
* Repeat with your left leg. Alternate right and left each time.
CALF RAISES
* Grasp a dumbbell in one hand to side.
* Position toes and balls of feet on calf block with arches and heels extending off.
* Place hand on support for balance. Lift other leg to rear by bending knee.
* Raise heels by extending ankles as high as possible. Lower heels by bending ankles until calves are stretched. Repeat. Continue with opposite leg.
Fuel your workouts, drink plenty of water, and perform exercises that really hit those leg muscles. Before you know it, you'll turn your skinny poles into shapely legs you'll be excited to show off in shorts.
Daryl Bennett is always researching the best ways to lose weight, stay fit, and build muscle. For one of the most proven and time-tested solid workout regimens visit The Law Enforcement Workout website at >> [http://bestbody.50webs.com] Cops know fitness.
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat With A 10 Minute Workout
With this 10 minute exercise routine you can burn up to 150 calories every single day.
The first two minutes of this fat burning routine is:
Jump Rope - Begin by performing two jumps for each turn of the rope. Safety: Use the correct size jump rope and always land softly on the balls of your feet (that is the upper part of the bottom of your foot). Keep thinking I am losing weight.
Minutes two to three:
Squat Thrust into a Push Up. The proper technique for this exercise is to stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your arms strait down next to your sides. Slowly squat down with your head forward and bring your hands to the floor just outside of your feet. Your hands should be pointing forward as well. Then in one movement, push your legs back and out behind you (into a pushup position). Perform one strict pushup and then jump back into your squat position and then stand back up. Keep thinking, the fat is vanishing.
Minutes three to four:
Jump Rope with only one jump per turn. Keep thinking, The fat is melting away.
Minutes four to five:
Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add the Side Plank. After completing your squat thrust and push up, you are going to lift and rotate your left arm off of the ground and over your head. Your left foot will rotate and rest on top of you right foot. And you will rotate your neck so you are looking up at your ceiling. Rotate back to the center and repeat on the other side. When finished, hop back into your squat position, stand up and start again. Keep thinking, no more belly.
Minutes five and six:
Jump Rope. Same as minutes three and four. keep thinking, I am on the way to get rid of belly fat.
Minutes six and seven:
Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add the Leg Lift. This is the same as minutes two and three only this time you will lift the toes of one foot about twelve inches off of the ground only after you have performed your push up. Lower your foot and repeat on the other side. Hop back up to your squat position, stand up, and start again. Keep thinking, goodbye belly.
Minutes seven and eight:
Jump Rope. Same as minutes three and four. Keep thinking, my belly is getting smaller.
Minutes eight and nine:
Back to the Squat Thrust and Push Up only this time you are going to add Mountain Climbers. Repeat everything as in minutes two and three only this time after your push up, you will quickly jog in place from your push up position. Make sure you bring your knees up to your chest on each rotation. Perform 5 jogs and repeat this entire process. Keep thinking, I am going to lose weight.
Minutes nine and ten:
Jump Rope. Same as you first two minutes. Keep thinking. If I do this everyday, I will get rid of belly fat. Good luck to everyone.
We recommend using a soft padding such as a yoga mat when performing this exercise. This will cut down on any injury and save some of those knee joints for you. If you need more information on gym mats and yoga mats, please visit Ultimate Fitness Equipment - for all of your fitness needs |
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Workouts Without Weights - A Special Forces Fitness Workout For a Strong and Compact Physique
I'd like to share a cool conditioning workouts without weights that I came up with a few months ago in order to get stronger and better conditioned in a short period of time. It incorporates the concept of "Ladders" found in Pavel Tstatsouline`s book "Power to the People," In this book Pavel shares the training secrets of the Soviet commandos and athletes he used to train with that allowed the Russians to dominate other countries in the Olympics. This is really popular in the Marines and SEALS, and we use this type of training to get really high pure strength and strength endurance levels while still keeping up our long distance running.
What are ladders?
Basically you will pick an exercise and start at the "bottom" of the ladder doing anywhere from 1-5 reps. You will rest the same number of seconds as reps per set. So if I start doing 2 push ups, I would rest 2 seconds, do 4 push ups, rest 4 seconds etc until I reached a specified number. You want to try to do as many reps as possible without going to failure. This is different from a pyramid set in that you stop at the top of ladder in this workout, but in a pyramid set you will go up AND down. This is great for building muscle, but not for strength or muscle definition. Ladders are an excellent tool that can be applied to almost any workout plan. I absolutely love them.
My "Special Forces Fitness" workout Finisher
Here is a workouts without weights, you will need access to a pull-up bar. You will be doing 3 "ladder super sets" of push-ups and pull-ups. This means you will complete one push-up ladder and then immediately transition to pull-ups without rest. After this "super set" (performing 2 exercises back to back), you will take 30-60 sec rest and then repeat at least 2 more times. Focus on getting perfect reps at a medium pace and stop before you feel like you can`t do anymore. If I`m getting guys ready for the Marines or SEALS we will do the push up ladders from 2 reps to 14 reps going up by 2 reps at a time, and we do pull-ups from 1 rep to 7 reps going up by 1 rep at a time, and repeat this cycle 4 times. We do this as a bad ass forces fitness finisher to a long ruck march or run pretty regularly and a lot of guys can max out at least 100 push-ups and 20 pull-ups for our PT tests.
Why this type of training builds a hard and "compact" physique
I love this workout because it combines a few key training principles into a single session. The ladder principle builds strength, stamina, and conditioning since a high volume of reps is accumulated in a short period of time, but your muscles don`t get "pumped" because of the rest periods. By super setting pushing with pulling exercises I took advantage of making opposing muscle groups help each other out. Basically alternating pushing with pulling gives each muscle group a rest while at the same time telling the central nervous system to start connecting the neurons that fire the individual muscle fibers. Essentially doing pull-ups will start to help doing pull-ups and vice versa. Pretty cool! The more you compress the time frame of the workout, the more you will release fat burning hormones to make it a conditioning workout as well.
How I used this training method to double my regular pull-ups and master the One arm Pull-up
After doing this workout for the past 6 months I've increased my pull-up max from 20 to 40 reps, and push ups from 100 to 135 in 2 min. I also think it helped me to achieve one arm pull-ups, which I just mastered about a week ago(and which I`ll do a post on soon!). Doing this type of high volume, low rep training with perfect form has similar effects to a power-lifting cycle. In fact, a ladder workout is basically an entire power lifting cycle compressed into a few minutes! The really cool thing is that I never feel sore any more from doing burnout sets, but my strength and conditioning level is still improving.
Hi,
My name is Charles Malina and I run the health and fitness website http://www.enduringhealthmanual.com/. My goal is to help you achieve and exceed your health and fitness goals. I`m just a regular college student who happens to be laser focused on getting and maintaining ideal health, fitness, and longevity, and now I want to share my ideas and findings with you. I've helped several individuals in the civilian and military worlds achieve their physical and aesthetic goals, including varsity athletes and prospective infantry and special warfare officers. Recently I've had enough requests for me to provide personalized training and diet plans that I decided to place my thoughts and findings online for free, enabling anyone access to them.
I'm focused on combining diet and fitness tips that mainstream actors and models use to achieve great looking bodies with training methods and secrets used by elite athletes and military units. Essentially I want to help you achieve the ideal body; perfectly functional and capable of extreme power output and endurance, but at the same time aesthetically pleasing and attractive to the opposite sex.
What are ladders?
Basically you will pick an exercise and start at the "bottom" of the ladder doing anywhere from 1-5 reps. You will rest the same number of seconds as reps per set. So if I start doing 2 push ups, I would rest 2 seconds, do 4 push ups, rest 4 seconds etc until I reached a specified number. You want to try to do as many reps as possible without going to failure. This is different from a pyramid set in that you stop at the top of ladder in this workout, but in a pyramid set you will go up AND down. This is great for building muscle, but not for strength or muscle definition. Ladders are an excellent tool that can be applied to almost any workout plan. I absolutely love them.
My "Special Forces Fitness" workout Finisher
Here is a workouts without weights, you will need access to a pull-up bar. You will be doing 3 "ladder super sets" of push-ups and pull-ups. This means you will complete one push-up ladder and then immediately transition to pull-ups without rest. After this "super set" (performing 2 exercises back to back), you will take 30-60 sec rest and then repeat at least 2 more times. Focus on getting perfect reps at a medium pace and stop before you feel like you can`t do anymore. If I`m getting guys ready for the Marines or SEALS we will do the push up ladders from 2 reps to 14 reps going up by 2 reps at a time, and we do pull-ups from 1 rep to 7 reps going up by 1 rep at a time, and repeat this cycle 4 times. We do this as a bad ass forces fitness finisher to a long ruck march or run pretty regularly and a lot of guys can max out at least 100 push-ups and 20 pull-ups for our PT tests.
Why this type of training builds a hard and "compact" physique
I love this workout because it combines a few key training principles into a single session. The ladder principle builds strength, stamina, and conditioning since a high volume of reps is accumulated in a short period of time, but your muscles don`t get "pumped" because of the rest periods. By super setting pushing with pulling exercises I took advantage of making opposing muscle groups help each other out. Basically alternating pushing with pulling gives each muscle group a rest while at the same time telling the central nervous system to start connecting the neurons that fire the individual muscle fibers. Essentially doing pull-ups will start to help doing pull-ups and vice versa. Pretty cool! The more you compress the time frame of the workout, the more you will release fat burning hormones to make it a conditioning workout as well.
How I used this training method to double my regular pull-ups and master the One arm Pull-up
After doing this workout for the past 6 months I've increased my pull-up max from 20 to 40 reps, and push ups from 100 to 135 in 2 min. I also think it helped me to achieve one arm pull-ups, which I just mastered about a week ago(and which I`ll do a post on soon!). Doing this type of high volume, low rep training with perfect form has similar effects to a power-lifting cycle. In fact, a ladder workout is basically an entire power lifting cycle compressed into a few minutes! The really cool thing is that I never feel sore any more from doing burnout sets, but my strength and conditioning level is still improving.
Hi,
My name is Charles Malina and I run the health and fitness website http://www.enduringhealthmanual.com/. My goal is to help you achieve and exceed your health and fitness goals. I`m just a regular college student who happens to be laser focused on getting and maintaining ideal health, fitness, and longevity, and now I want to share my ideas and findings with you. I've helped several individuals in the civilian and military worlds achieve their physical and aesthetic goals, including varsity athletes and prospective infantry and special warfare officers. Recently I've had enough requests for me to provide personalized training and diet plans that I decided to place my thoughts and findings online for free, enabling anyone access to them.
I'm focused on combining diet and fitness tips that mainstream actors and models use to achieve great looking bodies with training methods and secrets used by elite athletes and military units. Essentially I want to help you achieve the ideal body; perfectly functional and capable of extreme power output and endurance, but at the same time aesthetically pleasing and attractive to the opposite sex.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Gain Strength Without Size For a Lean Special Forces Fitness Body
Can you get stronger without getting bigger?
Check out a forces fitness tip here to help you gain strength.
In my experience a lot of people think that you have to spend hours in the weight room doing burnout sets to failure in order to get stronger. While this can work over a short period of time, you will plateau very fast and in my opinion create a physique that is incapable of performing any kind of athletic activity at a high level. This is something that I see a lot of people messing up in the gym. I repeatedly hear young guys discussing how they've hit a plateau in their lifts and they decide to try to simply increase the number of sets/reps, total volume, or simply keep doing the same old thing, hoping that they'll magically get stronger. This is a HUGE mistake, especially if you don't want to get bigger/more muscular.
Reduce your sets and reps to increase strength and muscle tone
To get really strong you need to lift the heaviest weights you can manage with perfect form, for very few reps. I recommend 3-5 reps. 1-3 reps for pure strength, 5 reps for a little muscle as well. A good rule of thumb is to get out of the gym feeling stronger than when you came in. If you feel fatigued or sore, you did too much. I like keeping the total number of sets under 14 total. Keep rest between sets to about 1-2 minutes. I know it sounds crazy but trust me, you will bust through your current plateau and build strength steadily like this. This is an awesome way to gain strength without size for a lean Special Forces Fitness body.
Why more is NOT always better
Most people think that simply doing more work = better results, and I was definitely stuck in that category until a couple of years ago. Basically, increasing the total number of sets, or just trying to do more work will mean that you'll build strength endurance and muscle mass, but you're pure strength gains will stagnate quickly. Remember those muscle bound dudes in high-school and college with "inflata-lats" and ridiculous cut-off t-shirts who seemed to subsist on a diet of protein shakes and chicken breasts (Think like half the cast of "Jersey Shore" lol)? This is the look you will create with high volume lifting and it is simply not functional or attractive. If you combine this lifting method with a high carb, high calorie diet and you're just asking for a puffy and bloated look.
Train like a Recon Marine to get a Hollywood body
This is a really popular method of lifting in military units that have to be ready to go at a moment's notice. They can't afford to be tired or sore from a 2 hour lifting session, but they still need to be really strong and conditioned. Recon Marines and Navy SEALS are 2 Special Forces units that are a great example of the body type and level of conditioning this training produces. They are generally of average size, but with outstanding muscle tone and strength-to-bodyweight ratio. I've been training like this for about 3 years now, and I have nearly doubled my strength levels. I used to have trouble lifting 50lb dumbbells for a single armed row, and now I can easily pull a hundred with each arm at a bodyweight of 160lbs. Whenever I start to train guys for the military the first thing we do is limit our time in the weight room as much as possible. After a few weeks you will feel like a badass lifting heavier weights than half the people around you and then leaving while everyone else is still slogging through their burnout sets.
All the best,
Charles Malina
Charles Malina is a personal trainer who has helped prepare prospective officers to enter the Navy SEALS and the Marine Corps. He also has helped many people in the civilian world achieve better health and longevity through his unique training style and approach. Charles utilizes advanced training techniques used by elite athletes and military units and combines them with secrets and tips that Hollywood models and actors use to look their best. Learn more at http://www.enduringhealthmanual.com/
Check out a forces fitness tip here to help you gain strength.
In my experience a lot of people think that you have to spend hours in the weight room doing burnout sets to failure in order to get stronger. While this can work over a short period of time, you will plateau very fast and in my opinion create a physique that is incapable of performing any kind of athletic activity at a high level. This is something that I see a lot of people messing up in the gym. I repeatedly hear young guys discussing how they've hit a plateau in their lifts and they decide to try to simply increase the number of sets/reps, total volume, or simply keep doing the same old thing, hoping that they'll magically get stronger. This is a HUGE mistake, especially if you don't want to get bigger/more muscular.
Reduce your sets and reps to increase strength and muscle tone
To get really strong you need to lift the heaviest weights you can manage with perfect form, for very few reps. I recommend 3-5 reps. 1-3 reps for pure strength, 5 reps for a little muscle as well. A good rule of thumb is to get out of the gym feeling stronger than when you came in. If you feel fatigued or sore, you did too much. I like keeping the total number of sets under 14 total. Keep rest between sets to about 1-2 minutes. I know it sounds crazy but trust me, you will bust through your current plateau and build strength steadily like this. This is an awesome way to gain strength without size for a lean Special Forces Fitness body.
Why more is NOT always better
Most people think that simply doing more work = better results, and I was definitely stuck in that category until a couple of years ago. Basically, increasing the total number of sets, or just trying to do more work will mean that you'll build strength endurance and muscle mass, but you're pure strength gains will stagnate quickly. Remember those muscle bound dudes in high-school and college with "inflata-lats" and ridiculous cut-off t-shirts who seemed to subsist on a diet of protein shakes and chicken breasts (Think like half the cast of "Jersey Shore" lol)? This is the look you will create with high volume lifting and it is simply not functional or attractive. If you combine this lifting method with a high carb, high calorie diet and you're just asking for a puffy and bloated look.
Train like a Recon Marine to get a Hollywood body
This is a really popular method of lifting in military units that have to be ready to go at a moment's notice. They can't afford to be tired or sore from a 2 hour lifting session, but they still need to be really strong and conditioned. Recon Marines and Navy SEALS are 2 Special Forces units that are a great example of the body type and level of conditioning this training produces. They are generally of average size, but with outstanding muscle tone and strength-to-bodyweight ratio. I've been training like this for about 3 years now, and I have nearly doubled my strength levels. I used to have trouble lifting 50lb dumbbells for a single armed row, and now I can easily pull a hundred with each arm at a bodyweight of 160lbs. Whenever I start to train guys for the military the first thing we do is limit our time in the weight room as much as possible. After a few weeks you will feel like a badass lifting heavier weights than half the people around you and then leaving while everyone else is still slogging through their burnout sets.
All the best,
Charles Malina
Charles Malina is a personal trainer who has helped prepare prospective officers to enter the Navy SEALS and the Marine Corps. He also has helped many people in the civilian world achieve better health and longevity through his unique training style and approach. Charles utilizes advanced training techniques used by elite athletes and military units and combines them with secrets and tips that Hollywood models and actors use to look their best. Learn more at http://www.enduringhealthmanual.com/
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