If you challenge yourself in the weight room, it’s easy to lose track of perfect form. Examine these common mistakes and the corrective measures you can take to get everything right. Incorrect Squats – Avoid leaning forward and bending downwards. All the pressure comes down on your back which is where you don’t want it. Image: istockphoto Correct Squats – Sit back with the weight while keeping your body as upright as possible. Your thighs should end parallel with the floor. Incorrect Bench Press – Don’t lift your heels off the floor or leave only your shoulders on the bench. This defeats the purpose of even doing the bench press. Correct Bench Press – Plant your feet solidly into the ground and shorten... [Read more]

If you’re like many, you wait for the right time to begin the fitness regime in your life.  November isn’t a good working out month for you.  Neither is December what with all the holidays and eating, but after New Year’s day, you’re going to begin the path to fitness realization, right?  And then somehow, you never do and your elaborate plan falls to shambles.  Why is this so? A life of health and well being doesn’t revolve around any particular starting date or need a warming up to get to.  It should be, well it should be your life.  Any delaying of a starting date to “get in shape” is merely a cover up for you being lazy in taking care of your body.  You may as well admit you want to eat 4,000... [Read more]

Swimming is good for weight loss.  Actually, swimming can help tone through building muscle but becase you’re not supporting your body weight, you get less effect.  Plus, swimming generates so much hunger you may end up eating all calories burned and then some. Machine weights are safer.  They may be safer in the sense the weights are suspended, but you can still make the wrong lifts if you don’t make height and position adjustments. Treadmills put less stress on your knees.  The force on your joints is the same whether your feet hit a treadmill or the ground. Ab crunches will get rid of stomach fat.  Crunches or sit-ups strengthen your abdominal muscles but you can’t control where you burn fat. Strength training makes... [Read more]

Can’t make any headway in your fitness goals? Take a look at this list and see if you fall under any of these categories to find out why. Your workouts really aren’t all that hard.  The intensity of your workout is a strong reflection of your progress. You eat too much.  You can exercise 3 hours a day, but if you eat too much you still won’t lean out. Your workouts are inconsistent.  If one week you’re Rocky Balboa and the next you’re Howie Schwab, it’s going to be hard to improve. You’re doing all the wrong exercises.  Exercise is good but not all exercises are created equal.  Make sure your regimen hits weak spots. Your nutrition is inadequate.  Your body needs the right foods to build and... [Read more]

Some people can power their way to awesome looking shoulders. Others are stuck with the best they can do (me) but whether you’re in category a or category b, we can all build super strong shoulders with the following 5 exercises. sxc.hu 1. Shoulder Shrugs – pull either a barbell or dumbells up in smooth controlled motions and then hold while you let your traps bear the burden. 2. Straight Ahead Shoulder Flies - These flies force the tops of your shoulder muscles to develop.  Lift above your shoulder to get a little extra out of them. 3. Clean and Jerk - This incorporates more than just your shoulders, but you can modify this lift to only include an upwards row and military press to hit your shoulders coming and going.  You won’t... [Read more]