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Increase the effectiveness of your workout by doing multiple high rep sets with minimal rest. The reason why it works is because it increases the blood supply to the muscles. By increasing the supply you also increase the supply of nourishment to the muscles. Provided that you provided your body with quality nutrition and supplements. And since this causes the muscles to rebuild bigger and better it also increases the metabolic rate and burns fat more efficiently.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a body builder to get these same benefits. No matter what adding lean muscle to one’s frame not only improves your health, looks, and as mentioned previously your calcium serum levels, it also increases your fat burning ability.

The best method to utilize this technique goes like this:

To add muscle you will want to do four sets of at least four exercises per body part. Don’t try to do every body part in a day’s session. I usually do one body part per day, such as, Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms and Legs. Stomach you can add in with any of the other body parts at the end of your session. Add weight progressively with each set from ten reps down to three. After you have completed the heavy lifting and before your stomach sets if you are doing them that specific day, you are going to choose one exercise for that body part. Now for this exercise you will do seven sets at a weight you can handle for fifteen reps each set. Between each set rest only thirty second and no more than thirty seconds. This is similar to creating an aerobic effect and will increase and speed up the blood flow to that body part.

This will also create a tremendous pumped up effect, letting you know it’s working. Now feed those muscles. This will increase the nutrient supply to your recently taxed muscles. Watch and see how quickly your body will get sculpted.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.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.

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

Supplements That help you achieve your fitness goal.

Of course you need your vitamins. All your B’s, C, D, E, A and the rest. But with these you should take extra spread out over the day, not all at once first thing in the morning like most do. Reason being that most of your vitamins are water soluble and get filtered out with your urine.

Then you should be using a good quality protein, preferably a whey based one. One that has both whey and casein. Also choose a quality amino acid complex and follow the directions. The protein you can take as part of an after workout meal and first thing in the morning with a good carbohydrate food to stock up on fuel for a pre workout meal.

Conjugated linoleic acid commonly known as CLA is anther good supplement. It helps to regulate your metabolism and body composition. As an added benefit it is also an anti-carcenogenic. CLA also helps lose weight when combined with resistance training.

These with a good diet and exercise program will not only get you started but take you far. Next post will be more in depth on CLA.

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