Sunday, March 6, 2011

A sure fat burning exercize

What type of exercizes use up the most calorie ?

1) total body resistance workout - a combination of Pull-ups, bench presses, squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses : but they need to be done the correct way !!

rule 1 : do it heavy, with low reps , 5 reps for 5 sets. Choose weight that you fail at 7 reps

rule 1b: if you can't lift heavy, lift 10 reps but do it fast. Choose weight to fail at 12.

Don't rest too long in between exercizes - 20secs to 1 minute ( depending on tiredness level of previous exercize). Don't have to repeat 1 type of movement, e.g
after 1 set of squats, you can proceed to do benchpress then squats.

rule 1c : know the muscle you target with a specific movement. Don't overwork them. You can't do deadlifts and squats in one day, the muscles they target overlap.

rule 1d: If you hate weightlifting and love cardio, then at least do HIIT. Here's how : jog for 10 mins (warm up), then sprint for 1 minute, then jog for 1minute, sprint for 1 minute, jog and repeat. The sprint to jog should last at least 15 minutes, by the end of the HIIT, if you aren't huffing and puffing , that means you didn't sprint. HIIT burns more cals than regular cardio.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Cutting diet

Do you have round waist , big backside/bottom and gain fat easily ?

If so, you are the same as many people who have problems trying to lose weight.
They classify us as ENDOMORPH.

Endomorphs are efficient at storing fat, so during famines endomorphs can use up the stored fat and survive. Most endomorphs gain weight easily because they are more efficient at using the calories from food and store them. Endomorphs are the most likely survivors of famines. If you are of the ecto or meso, you wouldn't have difficulty losing fats, seriously.

What many people don't tell you is this : endomorphs cutting thrives on a low carb environment. I'm serious, if you are round at the bottom and the waist, try doing low carb for cutting.
Bulking is relatively easy for endomorphs, but if the caloric excess is too high, fat will be stored.

When does our body start to burn fat vigorously ?

We start burning fat vigorously after all the carbs in our body is used up.


When does our body start storing fat ?

Learning this process helps you prevent fat gain :
After you ingest food, the carbohydrates will be converted to glucose, the speed of conversion depends on the Glycemix index ( the higher , the faster ). When the glucose level in our blood is high, our pancreas produces insulin. Insulin then allocates the sugar to our muscles , our liver and the excess glucose will be converted to fat.

Why low carb , won't the protein be converted to glucose ?

When glucose is depleted, the body starts extracting fats and muscles and starts converting them into sugar. The protein that you eat helps you to reduce the muscle loss effect. It's possible for protein to be converted to glucose, but the process is slower and more difficult. Here is a simple way to look at it:
1 )body burns off all dietary carbs
2) Then body starts burning dietary fat and protein
3) When depleted, body extracts from liver and muscles
4) Finally it starts burning body fat and muscle

Monday, January 3, 2011

Rule 1, of cutting or bulking

RULE NUMBER ONE :

Throw away all your junk food, throw them away even it belongs to your friend, roommate, family and tell your friends to stop buying them. I'm serious, existence of junk food tempts you, makes it harder for you to stick to your diet.

Junk food includes : potato chips, soda, crackers, biscuits, sweet stuff, sweet drinks, KFC, French Fries, licorice, ice cream, sweetened bread, hot dog, chocolate, starbucks sweetened coffee with that shitload of whipped cream.

Junk food is cleverly disguised, they say low fat potato chip or no fat potato chip, fact is it's pure carbs and MSG. Low fat ice cream is still ice cream, it has sugar and fat. KFC is pure evil, but at least it has some proteins.

Characteristic of junkfood : High fat content, High sugar content, High carb content, High GI, has MSG

There can only be one time where you eat high carb, high GI food, like potato chips, biscuits and that is your postworkout meal ( bulking period) with a dose of creatine.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

HIIT`

Ever heard of HIIT ?
It's one of the latest fad in exercizing. Best of all it works.
H I I T= High intensity interval training.

Technique example :
jog for 5 mins to warm up.
then start sprinting for 30 s
slow down to a jog for 30s
sprint for 30 s
slow down again to a jog for 30 s
rinse and repeat , you only need to do HIIT for 15 mins to be able to feel the full effect.
If you do this right, at the end of that 15 mins you should be huffing and puffing.
You will burn more calories doing HIIT for 15 mins than doing your regular cardio for 25 mins

Advantages to HIIT:
-HIIT uses up more calories than regular jogging or fat burning.
-You can literally feel your metabolism increasing after the exercize.
- You can use it in any kind of exercize : swimming , Treadmill, Elliptical machine
- Trains your stamina / heart and lungs
- Improves insulin sensitivity : Feel less hungry, less hunger pangs, less cravings, u get the idea

Downside
- Injury prone, because you have to sprint/swim as fast as possible

Remember to wear your knee guards and watch out for injuries before trying HIIT out.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Bulking is not eating whatever you want

Bulking has this misconception nowadays.....
People say," I BULK so I can eat as much as I want and whatever I want."

Well , I did say create a daily caloric excess during bulk period, but to some people bulking has become an excuse to eat whatever they want.

Maybe you think the same. Maybe you just need an excuse to eat. Maybe you don't want to lose that fat.

Bulking irresponsibly is one of the major causes of fat loss failures. Always calculate your daily maintenance calories when you are bulking and do not exceed it by a lot. Let's say your daily maintenance is 2000 cals even with all that workout, the most you can consume is about 2400 cals. The max is 20% above your maintenance level, levels above those are counterproductive.

Look here guys and girls, you didn't really think that I would let you eat irresponsibly ? Losing that ugly and unhealthy fat is about control....




BTW reading this blog is free and you will probably find similar stuff
at http://www.truthaboutabs.com/
except you gotta pay for that one. All my advice is free, but you need to do groundwork yourself.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bulking , feels weird

I have been really busy with work and family these few days, but here I am writing again. The stuff I had written about was definitely incomplete, but that was weighlifting for beginners, you have to practice to master it.

Things to remember while bulking :

1) Remember your input has to be greater than your output by about 200-500. On workout days, you use more calories so eat more , vice versa.

2) Diet matters. If you bulk on junk food, you are FAILING the program as you are gaining more fat than muscle. No ice cream, sweet stuff, pop/soda/coke, potato chips, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza and many more. Rule of thumb, avoid high calorie food (fat and sweet). Exception to sweet things are only post and pre workout.

3) Please remember, you are not in cutting/ fat loss phase , so please don't go low carb or switching to low calorie high volume food. For example getting your carb only from oats or avoiding carbohydrates. We need the carbohydrates during bulking, please remember that insulin helps to sens muscle cells with your nutrients and protein. Eating only high volume, low calorie carbs like apples/fibre type of food or oats is good for the your bowel movement, but you are probably going to puke because you have to eat so much of them to fill up your daily caloric needs. Wholemeal and white bread is still fine. Rice is acceptable too.

4) Once you get used to the weightlifting exercises, make a schedule. The schedule should include a cardio day to boost your heart performance, improve blood vessels that can boost our muscle gain. It could look like :
Monday - upper body + mid
Tuesday- lower body + mid
Wednesday - rest
Thursday- cardio
Fri - repeat from monday
You know yourself better than I do, so make your own.

5) Get enough rest, pretty basic. Since you build muscle during rest, you need to rest, seriously. Go for 9 hours a day of sleep.


These are some of the responses that people got when people tried bulking and my answers to them :

1) Bulking is so great, I am losing my weight and I am becoming slimmer significantly....
ANS: If you do the program correctly, you are supposed to gain muscle. So if you lost a significant amount of weight and you can feel that you are becoming thinner chances are that instead of BULKING , you are CUTTING. In other words you are not getting enough calories to compensate for your output.


2) Can I cut first then bulk later ? I am not comfortable with gaining weight ...
ANS: It's your own choice, I am just recommending you the things that I have learnt from experience. Personally , it's faster for you to reach your goals, if you bulk first. Remember that the muscles are like a supercharger that you install in your engine, it makes you go faster.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Weight lifting for dummies

I won't tell you everything, but I'll give you the basics. The rest you have to learn some on your own, buy a book or learn from your friends.

This won't be hard, but you need a gym, even a makeshift one will do. You have to learn the different forms of weightlifting, different exercizes to target the muscles.

For example, I will list the important ones :
Bicep curl - biceps ( pretty obvious)
Tricep curl - triceps
Deadlift - lower back , thighs
Squats - almost everything at the lower body
sit ups/crunch - abs
pull up - upper back, shoulders
shoulder press - shoulders
hack squats - thighs
bench press - chest

repetitions/reps : obvious, but it is the number of times you do an exercise at one go

Before you do weightlifting always check with your medical doctor for any underlying disease that might harm you.

First thing you should bring to the gym, is a piece of paper and pen, your workout drinks and yourself. Learn the proper form of all the exercises listed above.
Proper form beats heavier weight but bad form.

Go choose an exercise listed above, choose a weight (for example 10 pounds) that you feel comfortable with , test HOW MANY REPETITIONS YOU CAN DO until you are unable to lift it in PROPER FORM ( until you mess up/slant sideways, fail). Record the number if the number is in the range of 7-11 then it's a good weight. Note it down and go over the rest of the exercises ( you can add more if you want).

The thing you just recorded is your starting strength list, it should be updated every two weeks to check your progress/regression.
Let's say you recorded down a fail in ten reps for your bicep curl. Do 8 reps ( 10-2=8 ) , 4 times

I always go for volume, in the example above the volume is 4 times 8 reps ( 8x4 =32 ). Volume should always be around 25-30ish.

How long should I rest between exercises ?
Depends on how heavy/tiring the exercise is. For squats and deadlift, I reccomend 1 to 1 and half minute. For the rest I reccomend 10-30 seconds.

What muscles should I exercise in a session ?
I prefer you target both upper and lower body in a session. Just do 5-6 types of exercise in one session, and do not do squats and deadlift at the same time.

I have sore muscles...
I have said that weightlifting itself doesn't actually build you muscle, it's the recovery from your weightlifting that does. It's normal to feel sore at the beginning for a few days but remember not to exercise the sore muscles.

Remember to track your progress. Maybe you realize after one week you can lift more reps, you can try to increase the weight. One of the most obvious ways to check on your muscle building program is to check your improvement in the weights. The fact that you are stronger means that you have built muscle. Another way is to use measuring tape to measure your different muscles weekly.

Please remember to take your POST and pre workout drinks/meal .