When lifting weights, you should always strive to lift the same with both sides of your body (arms and legs).  To gain a better balance in your strength, use weight that both sides can handle.  You should avoid any situation where one arm or leg is struggling to finish the set while the other is hardly being challenged.  To accomplish this you will need to hold your dominate side back from advancing, but it’s worth it.

In extreme cases of strength imbalance, challenge the weaker side with even more reps or weight to get the job done.

Another weight lifting tip is to utilize dumbells more and barbells less.  Barbells give a limited ability to transfer the burden to the dominate arm.

In your every day life, make a conscious effort to use both sides of your body equally.  This not only builds strength, but also coordination.  For example, if you’re a dominate righty, try carrying groceries in your left hand instead of your right.  For your legs, try taking two stairs at a time with your weaker leg while only taking one stair with your strong leg.

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Post from: EveryJoe

How to Build Symmetrical Strength

Protein is rated by the efficiency in which it is absorbed by the body in terms of BV or biological value.  Whey protein isolate is ranked above everything – milk, beef, eggs, you name it as far as BV.  Whey protein actually does come from milk but is stripped of it’s fat and lactose sugar.

The benefits of supplementing with whey protein are:

• builds muscle mass
• increases recovery time
• reduces injuries during workouts

If you’re pushing yourself to become leaner and a better muscle builder, add whey protein isolate (highest BV) to your diet after workouts and possibly another time during the day.  You’ll want to adjust your usage according to your lean body weight.  Whey protein is the best way to provide protein to your muscle during times when you’re not eating.  By doing so you’ll avoid other junk that comes with food and give your muscles a cleaner fuel to work with.

Protein shakes usually don’t taste fantastic, but occasionally you’ll find one that is pretty good.  Recommended flavors include vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  Most users mix with skim milk, but some more hardcore users take the protein with water.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Why You Should Take Whey Protein

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To persevere and become one of the few fit adults in the US, you need to have your mind right before your stomach can ever be flat.  To do this, try these tips to get your brain programmed to exercise:

1. Schedule three times a week where you must exercise no matter what.  No excuses, no meetings, no snooze button.  Just three times a week where you put your body to the test.
2. Sit down and actually plan out how much money you could save.  The surplus of money from health insurance and grocery bills might give you the dollar incentive to put down the oreos and get in the gym.
3. Write down the positive effects getting in shape could have in your quality of life.  Your clothes would look better on you, different activities would be easier, you wouldn’t sweat as much, you would have more confidence, and increased muscle tone could all be huge motivators.
4. Consider exercise to be fun and not a hassle.  There are many weighs to make fitness fun: sports, music, and partners all work.  You don’t have to settle for a boring workout.
5. Set small goals every step of the way and record them.  Realizing early goals is instrumental to winning bigger battles later down the road.  Losing just a pound or an inch in a week can give you the deep positive encouragement you need to lose 20 lbs or 4 inches later down the road.

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How to Gain a Mental Edge to Workout

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Wake Up Early: It takes awhile for this to become a habit, but once it does you can open up a block of time free from distractions and commitments.  You can almost hit the ground running right out of bed and not lose too much other time in prep.  For a 30 minute run, you only need to get out of bed about 40-45 minutes before you normally would.

Prioritize: You’d be surprised how much time you waste or spend on low priority items (like TV).  Free up 3 hours of time and that’s at least 4 30 minute blocks of exercise.

Multitask: Don’t view exercise as time lost.  Instead, combine it with learning, reflecting, or family time to get more for your time.  For example, you can go bike riding with your family, listen to lessons/news on your iPhone, or just use the time as an emotional release for your mind and spirit.

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Strategies for Adding More Time for Cardio

Incorrect Squats – Avoid leaning forward and bending downwards. All the pressure comes down on your back which is where you don’t want it.

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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 up your back while keeping your butt on the bench.

Incorrect Pull-ups – Don’t use your momentum to lift yourself up.

Correct Pull-ups – Pull yourself up in a controlled manner and then slowly until your arms are straight. Pause and repeat focusing on the biceps.

Incorrect Dumbell Military Press – Stop lifting to hear a clank over your head.

Correct Dumbell Military Press – Lift the weights straight up and lower them straight down.

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Correct Your Weight Lifting Form

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 calories a day and even more on holidays and then pretend like that is going to change on one magical day that you convince yourself you will stop several months of bad habits all of a sudden.

If you’re serious about getting in shape, then now is the time to make a difference.  You don’t need any grand design or super fitness plan.  Try to implement healthier changes in your daily routine and then progress into exercise and a more conscious effort to maintain a great diet.  Do this now and spare yourself the shallow New Year’s pledge that makes weight loss companies millions while leaving you farther than ever from fitness.

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The Best Starting Time for Fitness is Now

Here are some more myths to remember:

Post from: EveryJoe

Common Fitness Myths

1. Your workouts really aren’t all that hard.  The intensity of your workout is a strong reflection of your progress.
2. You eat too much.  You can exercise 3 hours a day, but if you eat too much you still won’t lean out.
3. 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.
4. You’re doing all the wrong exercises.  Exercise is good but not all exercises are created equal.  Make sure your regimen hits weak spots.
5. Your nutrition is inadequate.  Your body needs the right foods to build and grow stronger.

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Post from: EveryJoe

5 Reasons Why You Can’t Get in Shape

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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 get much rest and your shoulders will burn intensely.

4. Sitting Alternating Dumbell Military Press – If you sit Indian-style while making these lifts, you’ll get no help from your legs and get a true test of how strong your shoulders are.  Touch the weight to your shoulder as long as you feel no pain.

5. Elevated Push-ups – Push-ups are great shoulder stabilizers but if you increase the elevation of your feet, you’ll put even more emphasis on the shoulder.

Mix in these 5 exercises to your workout and you’ll have well rounded, strong shoulders in no time.

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5 Killer Shoulder Exercises

The biggest benefit is in weight loss. Running after dark is the best way to burn up all of those extra calories right before you go to bed. As an added bonus, you’re bodies core temperature and heart rate will be descending from a higher level when you go to bed. This gives you a little more burn even when you’re asleep.

Another pro is exercise reduces stress and tension which are usually at high levels after you get off of work. Exercise in general helps your mental state and inverses your emotions into more positive thoughts because of the endorphins you release when exercising.

While working out in the morning kicks starts your day, it doesn’t have the timliness that the night time does. As for not being able to fall asleep, make sure you push yourself during the day to be as productive as you can. Closing your eyes probably won’t be hard 20 to 30 minutes after you’re done with your run. One thing to remember is not to sacrifice your safety. Run on a home treadmill (or ride an exercise bike), with partners, or go to the gym.

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Running at Night Helps You Lose Weight