The core of your body is the base of your strength.  To build a stronger core, you’ll want to hit your abs hard.  Below are eight exercises that will help tighten up your abs and provide the foundation to a stronger body.

Exercise Ball Abs – Abs on an unstable ball forces your muscles to work harder and builds balance.
Bicycles – a natural shredder of your stomach that bolsters coordination.
Toe Touches – lie on your back with your hands on the floor extended all the way out.  Touch your toes and come all the way back.  Easy to do but effective …read more

You’re fat.  You have the strength of a strong Chihuahua and the stamina of a 17 pound cat.  But instead of grabbing a bucket of BlueBell ice cream and slothing into your sofa for a 4 hour block of TV, your fighting spirit emerges from the abyss and you decide to reverse your situation into a healthy one by getting in shape.  What’s your next step?
Exercise is the ultimate energizer and will help you lose weight as well as gain strength, stamina, confidence.  To efficiently harness the awesome power of exercise, you need to devise a workout plan.
Your workout plan …read more

If you’re serious about losing weight, look no further than your net calorie deficit. The pounds start flying off your body when you create a deficit against the calorie consumption that is maintaining the current weight you would like to get away from. The key numbers are 1 calorie is lost per deficit of 3,500 calories.
Hypothetical:
Alicia weighs 165 lbs wants to lose 5 lbs for her upcoming concert. Her current calorie intake is 2,750 calories per day. After reading this fitness blog, she realizes that if she can reduce her number of calories to 2,250 per …read more

Speed training can help anyone accomplish their goals and in short time.  What is speed training and why is it so effective?  Speed training is running at a more accelerated pace than your norm.  In plain terms, imagine running away from a bear chasing you.
The reason why speed training is darn effective is because it maximizes the rate at which your muscles use oxygen and burns much more calories than you otherwise would running.  In short, you’re getting a lot (calorie burning, muscle building, fat loss) in a little bit of time.  Of course, part of the trade off is …read more

So many men strive for big, muscular arms but many don’t accomplish their ideal goals. Some may set their sights to high, but for others the problem may lie in the weight room.
When building your biceps, you always want to focus on the bicep muscle and forcing it to carry the burden. Many guys are so obsessed with their weight room ego, they lose sight of what they’re actually after: big arms. Instead of using proper forms spread over different bicep exercises, you’ll see many lifters leverage curls improperly with the rest of their body and go …read more

The USC Trojans’ Stafon Johnson had his throat crushed in a bench press accident Monday morning.  According to reports, the bar slipped from Johnson’s right hand and landed on his neck. He was coughing up blood immediately after the incident.  Johnson did have an assistant strength and conditioning coach spotting him.
Strength coach Chris Carlisle said, “I’ve seen players have the bar slip and fall onto their chest, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of someone dropping a bar on their throat.”
Although speculative, from everything mentioned in the media reports it sounds as if Johnson …read more

The path to bigger shoulders comes through paying attention to detail and a conscious effort to work shoulders exhaustively every three to four days. Shoulders don’t receive the fanfare biceps or bench press do, but more well rounded weight lifters after balanced bodies will try to elevate their shoulder status along with other muscle groups.
To get bigger shoulders, you need three to four exercises per shoulder workout. The best exercises for shoulders are dumbell military press, shoulder shrugs, diagonal front lifts, and cross cable flies. These exercises will help sculpt full shoulders, but to make the muscles …read more

The components of your workout and diet are the foundation to your fitness level, but the timing of when you do things defines how your results end up.  You need cardio, but when is the best time to run relative to when you lift weights?  Should you run after lifting weights?
The answer depends on your goals.  If you’re interested in adding muscle/strength, you should not run after lifting weights.  Instead, you should immediately lunge for your protein shake so your muscles can begin recovering.
If you’re more concerned with all around fitness, then running after hitting the iron will be fine.
The …read more

How many exercises should I do per muscle group?  How many reps should I do?  Although you may hear or read exact numbers to these questions, the answer is anything but precise.
Depending on your repetitions per exercise, you should aim for 2-5 exercises per workout.  If you’re completing 36 reps per exercise (3×12), then you should top out at 3 exercises.  If you’re at 20 reps per (2×10), then 5 exercises would make sense.
Varying the type of exercises you work on each muscle group is highly recommended because the variety helps your muscles become dynamic and able to excel in …read more

You can use a business trip or a vacation as a good excuse for taking a break from your workout or you can can continue your disciplined ways. If you’re a workout warrior, try out these tips on the road.

Pack your food. The airlines are hardly the place for ideal workout food (and even if they were, they’d be expensive).  Pack some easy things to get nutrition on the run such as fruit, breakfast bars, or trail mix.
Get your workout in no matter what. You don’t need a temporary gym membership or hotel gym to get the job done.  Use …read more