mrpowerfitness.com

Everyone wants the quick fix. From minimal time exercising to fast food. Then there’s the aerobic craze, by a video and dance in front of your T.V. set. While you might lose a few pound of fat, you also lose muscle tissue. I can’t say this enough add muscle increase metabolism. so not only do you lose muscle mass but eventually your metabolism will eventually begin to slacken.

Now about that benefit. The great thing is that it especially benefits  a wide range of groups. That’s from mother’s that recently had babies to women after their menstruation. But the group it benefits most is the elderly. Not to mention every one over thirty. You see as we age just like your hormone levels begin to drop after thirty so does calcium production. Why do you think osteoporosis is so common as we get older.

If most people over thirty did resistance training coupled with a proper diet they wouldn’t need prescription medicines for their osteoporosis. By lifting weights you can stimulate your body to increase calcium production. Some of the systems in your body that use calcium are the heart, muscles, skeletal, the nervous system, the kidneys and the gastrointestinal system. Each of these systems demand a specific calcium balance, which are regulated by the calcium found in your blood, delivered by the circulatory system.

When these systems are low the blood takes calcium from your bones to maintain the calcium serum levels in the blood in order to service all those systems. Because of the relationship between the muscles and bones weight training stimulates your skeletal system to produce new calcium. By combining a proper diet with more than enough sources of dietary calcium and a good weight training routine everybody even the elderly can have a better and healthier lifestyle.

It seems that 4 minute exercises are all the rage these days. But in actuality have been around since 1996. That’s when research scientist Tabata, for who the Tabata method is named after, discovered that by doing eight sets of high intensity exercise for twenty second durations with ten second rest intervals would put you in both aerobic and anaerobic states at the same time.

Now every fitness guru promotes some variation of it. To be honest it does fit the bill for the majority of people interested in either staying fit or losing weight. Specially in today’s hectic pace everyone keeps. This bill of sell targets most every-one’s needs, desires and wants.

• Time:  One of the chief attributes, can be done in four minutes.
• Effectiveness:  Done right this will increase your metabolic rate and get you in shape.
• Cost: You can do this in your own home with the equipment god gave you.
• Variety:  Although one should focus on whole body exercises there are plenty of  combination’s that work

However due to the intense depletion by the end of the four minutes you won’t be able to do this everyday or even five days a week. Chances are even if you do the recommended maximum times a week, three, you probably are not going to look forward to doing this too often. And that’s the one draw back. When done right and at the end of four minute you are huffing and puffing like a chain smoker finishing a marathon race. In addition to that you’ll likely feel like heaving your guts out and wish you could.

I can attest to all this and it’s effectiveness. Even though it’s rough on you and your pride, the four minute exercise is a great one to have in your arsenal and one of my favorites. That being said you’re not going to build a lot of muscle with this exercise regimen. Not that everyone needs or wants to be a bodybuilder. But increasing some muscle mass will definitely hike your metabolism and make you look healthier. Even with the use of weights and going as heavy as you can, provided you can complete the eight sets within four minutes, you’re not going to increase muscle mass or strength. It’s just that to do that you need to lift heavy to your max in eight reps to three or four reps, even one maxed out rep to gain muscle mass. And to do this you need a minimum of sixty seconds rest between sets.

That being said every one should incorporate this into their exercise plan. Obviously a disclaimer is needed here, if you have heart or lung problems, or any health issues consult your physician first and make sure they approve it.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

There are many opinions on how to work up to your first pull up. If your out of shape, haven’t worked out in ages, plain over weight or a complete newbie to exercise let me help.

First off for the most part your ability to perform pull-ups is pretty much proportional to your body-fat to muscle ratio. Hence the more you weigh the harder it is to do one. That is taking into consideration that you have average muscle tone.

Lets say that your weight challenged. Lets say by twenty pounds. We are also going to say it has been a while since you set foot in a gym.

One method and probably the best is the old stick with it method. This is every time you are working your back muscles and are going to do pull-ups you have to try as hard as you can to do as many complete reps as possible. Recommended, break your routine up into sets and reps as you would any other exercise.

Start with one complete rep, all the way up, all the way down. If you can only do one rep thats fine if you can do more do as many as you can for your first set. Now you will do five more sets for a total of six sets times as many reps as you can for each set. So if you could do only one rep each set then thats a total of six reps. Rest any where from thirty seconds to a minute between sets.

Now you can do this for a couple of weeks then add either after the first two weeks or from the get go static reps. So what your going to do after each set before you drop down from the bar is to pull up to your sticking point and hold that position for as long as you can, until failure, then rest for the next set.

My third technique is actually away from the pull-up bar. You can do it after you have done your pull-ups or on a off day. Go to the lat pull down cable machine, many gyms have them as part of a cable combo set. Make sure it’s the seated one and sit. adjust the weights to approximately one third to half your body weight, here you will have to gauge for yourself.

Grab the lat bar about shoulder length as you would for a pull-up. Pull the bar down along the front of your torso mimicking a pull-up motion, stop when the bar reaches your lap. Then back up for one full rep. Do five more sets with incremental weight adjustments until you reach the point where you can not bring the bar below your chest. Of course your reps will decrease proportionately to the increase in poundage.

So that’s ten reps the first three sets then eight, six and four. Add one last max rep with the most weight you can handle to the point mentioned before(just below the chest). When you can do say twenty pounds more than your body weight at the time for ten reps, I’ll bet you will have no problem ripping off pull-ups.

All along while your working on this improvement if you lose weight at the same time those reps will get easier and easier.

This should take you a long way in dominating the pull-up bar.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

One of my favorite exercise routines is to do six sets of each exercise for ten reps at a reduced weight. Roughly anywhere from one third to two thirds the poundage of my max one rep for that particular exercise. This with a rest period of fifteen breaths in between sets.

So if I were doing bench press, my max one rep is at 265lb. I lower the total weight to 135 lb. I do six sets with roughly fifteen to twenty seconds rest non stop. What I do is count out fifteen breaths and start lifting.

I train one body part per day and my workout last about forty five minutes. I do as many different exercises as it takes to hit that particular muscle group from all angles, between five to seven different exercises.

Here’s an example of my chest routine for this method:

Exercises                    Sets           Reps          Rest          Weight

• Bench Press           6             10        15 Breaths        135lb.
• Incline Bench         6              10       15 Breaths          90lb.
• Decline Bench        6              10       15 Breaths        135lb.
• Military Press         6              10       15 Breaths          95lb.
• Cross Cables         6              10       15 Breaths          25lb.
• Dumbbell Flyes      6              10       15 Breaths          35lb.

In the case of the last two the weight is for each dumbbell and selector.

Now about Cycling your routine. I brought up one of my favorite routines because you can’t just do the same routine all the time. Your body begins to adapt to it and even when you increase the poundage it adapts as quickly. Thus your gains body composition wise diminish.

Recently I posted about another great routine the Tabata Method(see “The Four Minute Exercise” below). This method is great for revving up your metabolism and breaking down fat.

By alternating routines you keep the body from getting bored and adapting too quickly. This is what as meant by “cycling”. Just like the seasons go through there “cycles” so do you cycle through your routines.

The best advise is to do no more than a month of any one routine before switching. I would also recommend to do at least two weeks of any routine before switching also.

The exception to the rule would definitely be the Tabata method. You may want to do this only two or three times a week and maybe only a week. Its that rough that you won’t welcome the days you schedule to do it. But it really produces results.

Here’s a good example of a routine cycle for those that want to get ripped and fit using the two methods mentioned here.

First two weeks train heavy, four sets per exercise, four to six exercises to cover all the angles, one body part per day. First set very light to warm up. Increase weights so that it is a challenge to do eight reps. Third set the same to six reps and your fourth set max out for four reps. If your feeling gung ho and can do so safely do one final set/rep at your one rep max.

Next two weeks do the routine I introduced at six sets per body part, one body part per day, with fifteen breath rest between sets. again five to seven exercises or whatever needed to hit all the muscle angles.

Finally do one week doing only Tabata method, say three times that week. Remember that’s one exercise like the “Thruster” for twenty seconds as fast as possible non stop then rest for ten seconds, repeat for total of eight sets.

So to recap thats two weeks heavy, two weeks moderate and one weeks four minute exercise. By changing up the order as well you can create more muscle confusion.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

On a short rant this time. I mentioned in my last post about how you can get a kick -A$$ workout with a pair of ten pound dumbbells. For many reading this a pair of five pound dumbbells might be all you can handle. I’ll wager a pair of fifteen pounders and definitely a pair of twenty pound dumbbells are too difficult to handle for this exercise.

While you can do this with out weights and that might be a good idea for most to start off with. Basically this is an exercise called the Tabata Method. Named after a Japanese researcher who discovered an interesting way to increase both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. It’s an excellent cross training method and for those looking to lose fat quickly.

Here it is in its entirety:

1. Do your exercise for twenty seconds with as many reps as possible in that twenty seconds.
2. Rest for only and exactly ten seconds.
3. Repeat seven more times for a total of eight sets.

That’s why it’s also known as the four minute exercise. It’s also all you’ll be able to do if done correctly. You will find that your pretty well drained by the time you get to the last set if not even before.

Now the one thing that makes or breaks this exercise is that you have to do as best as possible a full body exercise. A great one would be to do an exercise known as “Thrusters”.

In the start position, start in standing position with dumbbells held at just above shoulders like doing a military press. Squat down to deep squat position then rise back to standing position while pressing the weights to full overhead position. That is one rep. The front squat is also another great exercise for this method.

Last thing to mention, you need to view a clock with a second hand or one that ticks off the seconds. Only because you need to adhere to the time structure to the second in order for this exercise to be productive.

Beware this one will drain you and leave you heaving if done to strict instructions. Bring a bucket…

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

The age old argument… whats the best exercise? Better ask whats the best method. Free weights, machines, calisthenics or aerobics. Each has its own pros and cons.

Calisthenics the precursor to aerobics, is basically doing exercises using your own body weight in repetitive movement with out using any type of weights for resistance. Examples would be jumping jacks, push-ups, squat thrust and even pull-ups.

The benefits are that certain exercises in this group today are still some of the best exercises to do still today. Like the pull-ups, dips and to a lesser degree push-ups. On the down side barring these few there is only so much progress you can make without additional resistance.

Then there’s aerobics, very similar to calisthenics but differ in style and difficulty. Usually done all in one spot and continuously for a specified duration. Good for cardio and endurance training. Still while you will lose weight you won’t add any muscle and your metabolism will stay where it always was.

Now we get to resistance training. Typically machines or free weights, although Bow-flex is also a resistance type of machine. All offer some form of resistance one way or the other using gravity as an assistant.

Machines offer you controlled movement and safety in that you can’t drop the weight or weighted bar on your self. This also allows you to lift heavier in regards to the amount your select. The negative side is that no matter how much you lift you are getting a “cheated” assistance from the pulleys. You also lose the benefits of joint strength from range of motion, the other aspect you lose.

Finally my preference free weights. You don’t need to lift four hundred pounds to use or benefit from free weights. Why with a pair of ten pound dumbbells you can get a killer and complete workout. Completely drained.

Benefits are greater range of motion, which allows for multiple variations on all your exercises. Then there’s the joint strength you gain by involving your joints , which you lose with machines. You can even add weight training to those calisthenic and aerobic moves.

The down side would have to definitely be serious injury from dropping the weights on yourself. As long as you take precautions, like a spotter on heavier lifts you almost can’t go wrong with free weights.

With all the variations from exercises, tempo, rest periods, weight and rep amounts you can’t beat it or go bored.

So explore your horizons.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

When doing exercises there are those that stand the test of
time. They should be in every one’s routines one way or the other.

These exercises all have one thing in common, they are the best
for building muscle bar none. While in certain instances they
tend to be the more difficult to do, not from a technical aspect
but from a performance aspect.

Here they are then in no special order a run down on what they
are and what muscle group they benefit:

Pull-Ups done from a hanging position with palms facing away from you.
THE best overall exercise for building a muscular back. Pull your self up to
reach your chin over the bar then lower back down, thats one rep.

Squats, are done with a weighted barbell across the back of your
neck and shoulders. You actually squat down as low as possiblealmost till your rear
touches your heels and stand back up. This is one rep. Unparalleled for upper leg
development, the rear, hamstrings and quads.

Bench Press is done laying prone on a bench on your back.
One then Lifts a weighted barbell off the bench rack lowers the weight to your
chest and press back up. The king of chest exercises.

Lunges, done with usually light dumbbells this like walking knee
bends. Step forward with one foot and until the knee from the
other leg barely touches the ground then repeat with other leg.
There are multiple variations to this one and all equally
effective. Same benefits as the squats more or less as it
targets some areas the squat misses.

While these four exercises don’t hit every body part because of
there compound movement, which is that they involve other muscle
groups as well as the targeted muscle group,they are the core of
most all muscle building.

In order to get fit, lean and raise your fat burning metabolism
you need to add on some muscle to your frame.

Thanks to AskTheTrainer.com, ShapeFit.com and James Fitzgerald on Expert Village
for the youtube.com videos.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

What type of exercise do you need for your fitness goals?

Before this gets answered we should look at the body’s response to exercise. In reality it’s the body’s response to exertion or physical effort. Our body always wants to do the least amount of work possible. It’s natural state is to seek the easiest workload.

That being said any increase in work load over a prolong period of time causes the body to adapt to this new way of being. unforetunately when you stop this work load the body will revert back to it’s path of least resistance.

So back to our question. What type of exercise is best for you. That really depends on your goals. If you want to be a marathon runner then you will most likely focus most of your training on running great distances each week as well as exercises that focus on endurance and increasing ones VO2 intake, or the amount of oxygen you intake. The more efficient your ability to take in and use oxygen the greater your endurance or ability to keep going.

If your goal is to be like a body builder you would then increase the work load in effort to your muscles that would exhaust your muscles rapidly with fewer repetitions. In example you would do so many sets of exercise lifting progressively heavier weights over so many sets that decrease in number of repetitions proportionately to the increase of amount of weights used to increase effort.

Now if one wants to be a fitness buff they need to generally do a hybrid regimen of the two previous extreme examples. In actuality you don’t need to cycle on and off between the two disciplines.

I believe if you focus more on the exertion factor one will obtain an overall better fitness level. Simply by adding on say five to ten pounds of muscle weight you improve appearance, health and increase metabolism which causes your body to burn excess body fat more efficiently. One More Rep…Squeeze It Out…

James Bolduc
MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com