When you have hit a plateau and your triceps just do not seem to be gaining anymore muscle, grab the cables. Working out the triceps with cables will get you over the hump so you can still build your muscles. There is a difference when working with cables versus working with weights. The cables are going to keep the tension on the triceps the entire time you do the extensions. By keeping the tension on the triceps they will not get to rest so the muscles will start building up again.
There are many different cable tricep extension exercises that can be done when working out. Always make sure when doing the tricep extensions that you are doing the exercise correctly.
When doing the one arm tricep extension select the amount of weight you will work with. Then stand straight with one foot in front of your body and the other behind your body. It will look like you are walking just in smaller steps. Make sure you are standing right in front of the stack of weights. With your palm facing the ceiling grab the handle of the pulley. Slowly pull the handle until your arm is bent just a little under 90 degrees. Your forearm will be next to your body almost at waist level.
Once you are in position pull the handle all the way down until your arm is straight. If you are moving the upper part of your arm then you are doing the exercise incorrectly. The only part that will be moving in this motion is the forearm. Exhale as you are bringing your forearm down.
While your arm is straight down tighten your triceps. Hold the triceps tight for just a second. Then inhale and bring the forearm back up into your starting position. Continue performing this until all the repetitions are done then switch hands and start the whole procedure again.
For the low cable tricep extension select your weight then lay on your back on the bench. With knees bent place each foot flat on the ground on each side of the bench. Make sure your head is laying flat and pointing at the weights. With your palms facing towards each other grab the ends of the rope. Your elbows will point toward the sky and your hands will point at the machine.
While exhaling pull your forearms straight up so they are pointing at the sky. Once again only move your forearms and not your upper arm. While the forearms are pointing straight up tighten the triceps. Hold them tight for a few seconds then start inhaling as you go back to the starting position. Continue through all the motions until you have completed all your repetitions.
Both of these cable tricep extension exercises will help build the muscles again when you have hit a plateau with free weights.
While still concentrating on the triceps, get ready to work them out some more with the weighted bench dips.
Ingredients
1 lb sirloin steak (sliced into 1/2 inch strips)
1 onion (chopped)
2 cups broccoli (fresh uncooked)
1 green bell pepper (sliced into strips)
1 red bell pepper (sliced into strips)
5 gloves garlic (sliced)
1 tbsp olive oil
Preparation
In a large skillet, add the olive oil and add the garlic and steak. Once steak is nicely browned, add the rest of the ingredients cook on med to high heat and stir fry for 3-5 minutes. Remove, serve, and enjoy!
Posted in Videos on May 18, 2012
Video: A great variation of the deadlift that will work your shoulders and arms. This exercise can be done with a kettle bell or a barbell.
There are so many different diets on the market that it is important to know which diet is honestly safe to use. The different factors involved with each diet can make either the diet effective and safe or a health hazard. Here are ten safe diets that have been researched and reviewed by leaders in the diet industry, to verify the health related factors for everyone wanting to diet safely.
eDiets.com is a diet plan that incorporates most of the plans into their online system for dieters. The main focus on the diets includes healthy eating habits and exercise for the weight loss. This site uses Atkins, Glycemic Impact, Mediterranean, Slim Fast, Low Fat, High Fiber, Wheat Free, Cholesterol Lowering, Vegetarian, and Heart Smart diets along with many others on the site.
Diet.com has a credible doctor backing this site, who has authored books about weight loss. Dr. Robert Kushner, uses personal lifestyles of the individuals to create a customized diet plan; based on the personal habits that will help people lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.
Other doctors to help their patients lose weight effectively and safely created Medifast Diet. It consists of six meals a day removing the hunger many suffer during a diet. The plans are transitional with maintenance and exercise plans to help keep the weight off, as well as a strong support system for continued guidance and assistance.
Jillian Michaels Diet Plan is used by a national television program with proven results. The diet is designed so the individual can exercise in the comfort of their homes as well as eating a healthy diet and concentrating on the mental aspects of the dieter. The plan is based on the individual’s metabolism and increasing it so the person can lose weight safely and effectively with the abilities to learn weight management for long-term effects.
Denise Austin Diet was created by a fitness expert that bases her diet on the development of a diet plan that allows a person to eat what they want but at lower levels that are healthy and nutritional. The concept helps dieters learn to avoid the cravings while eating a balanced diet with an exercise program.
Sonoma Diet uses the Mediterranean diet with added styles in the plan. The foods are known to be extremely delicious that adds to the wonder of losing weight. The people are taught to eat slower so they not only enjoy their food more but also learn to eat less since it takes about 15 minutes for the brain to accept the stomach is full when eating. The diet is based on “waves” or steps where the person uses the described steps to lose weight effectively.
South Beach Diet Plan is based on healthy eating foods that will be satisfying, while removing the hunger issues. There are three phases to the diet that are each designed to deal with the many issues such as eliminating the food cravings, kick-start weight loss, and weight management.
The Duke Diet & Fitness was created by renown experts in the nutrition and medical field dedicated to helping others improve their lives with healthy eating and weight management. The diet focuses on the diet, fitness routines, and behavioural strategies to help the person create a healthier life style.
Nutrisystem Diet Plan is a unique plan for women, men, over 60, vegetarians, and Type 2 Diabetics. The personalized diets use good carbohydrates in the diet with fiber and Omega-3 fatty acids to control the appetite while promoting a healthier heart.
5 Factor Diet Plan was created by a diet coach for Hollywood stars based on fitness and a healthy diet. The people eat five times a day, cut the time on the exercise routines, and transforming the person’s body into a healthy body.
To be on the safe side it is always better to consult with your own personal physician prior to commencing a specialized diet or exercise plan.
Posted in Videos on May 16, 2012
Video: This exercise will work on your obliques as well as your hip flexors.
Posted in Videos on May 15, 2012
Video: A fitness professional shows how to do bent over t-bar rows. Although it might look like an arm exercise, it really helps in strengthening the upper body muscle.
An obese person faces more health risks than a person of average weight. Being that overweight can cause issues like difficulty finding clothes that fit and even sometimes difficulty fitting into seats in places like airplanes and theaters. An obese person also is at much higher risk of things like heart attack and stroke.
An obese person is generally someone who is more than 40 to 75 pounds overweight. A person is considered morbidly obese if they weight 100 pounds or more what they should. Both of these conditions carry elevated health risks.
When you’re obese, your body is carrying more weight than it was designed to carry. This puts extra pressure on bones, muscles and joints. If you think about how much harder it is to carry a sack full of 50 pounds than it is to carry one with 5 pounds, it’s easier to see the burden put on your frame.
Because bones are strong and rugged, the extra weight takes its toll on the weakest part of your frame: the joints. Joints like hips, ankles and knees are at particular risk, because the weight of the entire upper body falls up on them.
Joints are naturally our bodies’ weakest spots because they’re the spots where the bones come together. The knees are at a particular risk in an obese person. The knee is a very complex joint that faces wear and tear with every single step we take.
When someone is obese, there’s much more pressure on the knees than normal. So each step puts twice, triple, sometimes four times the normal pressure or more on those joints. This causes the joints to wear out prematurely and is the reason heavy people often have trouble with their knees.
While hips joints and ankles are at this same risk, it’s the knees that generally carry the brunt of the weight and absorb the pressure, so this is where the injuries often appear first.
Aside from the extra weight on the frame and joints, all that extra weight puts pressure on the body’s systems, too. First of all, large amounts of body fat don’t just show up on the outside, but fatty tissue can form internally around organs.
And large amounts of body fat can actually crowd internal organs and put pressure against them. This pressure can cause the organs to start operating differently, and can interfere with normal bodily functions.
Because the extra weight requires more work of the body to keep going, often blood pressure is elevated and the heart has to work harder than normal. This can be a factor in heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
Also, the extra weight generally means that the person’s diet is poor and too high in calories. This is a major cause of diabetes, which can damage blood vessels, eyes and nerves.
In some cases, people may lose their eyesight or a foot or leg to diabetes because of poor circulation. The good news is that once an obese person starts losing weight, diabetes and other conditions can be reversed.
Obesity is a rising metabolic disorder that affects the entire world. Obesity is closely related to heart disease and other health issues. It is the condition based on the body mass index (BMI), calculating the fat ratio from a formula using the height and weight of the individuals.
The formula is weight in pounds divided by the height in inches squared divided by 703. The total of that calculation then is used against the chart to determine if the individual is underweight (18.5 or lower), healthy weight (18.5 24.9), overweight (25 29), or obese (30 +).
Obesity and coronary heart disease are closely related based on clinical studies. Obese people tend to have a higher risk of heart disease due to their other health related factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. The one contributing factor with heart disease is directly connected to the high cholesterol, which also has issues with clogging of the arteries; increasing the risks of heart disease in every individual, but is extremely higher in obese people.
People with high risks of heart disease; generally have other health issues that once were thought to contribute to the disease. Yet in recent studies it has been discovered those that are obese have a higher risk of heart disease; even without the other factors. Obesity causes heart disease since the obese person is not as active as the healthy weight individual is. The amounts of exercise play a role in heart disease.
Other contributing factors include the diet of the individual. Obese individuals tend to have a high caloric and carbohydrate diet, which blocks the blood vessels and can lead to heart muscle damage.
When the individuals limit their amounts of fat, sodium and starch, which are turned into fat when not burned up by the body with physical activity and exercise, the individuals can reduce their weight and risks of heart disease. Learning to eat a healthy diet will help with the levels of risks, while not completely removing the risks, if damage to the vessels and heart muscles has previously occurred; prior to the weight loss.
Medication is available for heart disease to help with the complications. Other methods are extensive such as surgery for heart bypass and heart transplants in extreme cases.
The fact of learning to take care of the heart and blood vessels, prior to any damage, is the most important factor, many need to realize. As once the damage is done to the cardio system, it is not possible to repair the damage; short of surgery and transplants.
Several methods are available to reduce the risks of heart disease including eating a healthy diet, avoid smoking, add a daily exercise regimen to the life style, and avoiding stress when possible.
Okay, you have learnt about the ?Alternating Hammer Curls?, now let?s get started on the one arm dumbbell preacher curls. Yes, the words ?Preacher Curls? sound sort of ridiculous, but if you want to get that nice peak in your arms, then you should get your dumbbell and get each arm ready for the single arm dumbbell preacher curls.
The Preacher Curls happens to be the best isolating exercises, doing this exercise will help you isolate bicep muscles and makes sure that you pack weight on and achieve a really fast muscle growth in the most popular muscle group; and that is, the biceps.
What You Need to Do The One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curls
You will require a preacher curl bench which you can find in most gyms. If you do not have the time to go to the gym as often as you would like, you can invest in one for your home?s fitness room. You will also need a dumbbell.
How to Do the One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curls
Adjust the height of the preacher bench so that it is at a really comfortable level for you. If you have the bench too low, this will not give you adequate room to reach over and carryout the exercise. Adjust the height of the bench in such a way that you will be sitting comfortably with the back of your arm on the padded area which is right in front of you.
Take a dumbbell that you can successfully handle for 8 repetitions (at least). Use a lightweight dumbbell because this exercise is not so easy to perform ? just get used to the movement first before you switch to heavier dumbbells.
Position your arm (the one holding the dumbbell) stretched out and placed on the bench?s pad. Rest the other arm on top of the pad ? doing this will help stabilize your body during the process of carrying out the exercise.
Make sure you straighten your upper body and back and position your feet in a position that will lend you more stability.
Start the exercise by curling your arm upward till it?s a little bit above horizontal. The biceps should be the only muscles working with support from the forearm muscles. Ensure that your elbow does not slide or move and make sure you do not twist or tilt your upper body.
As soon as you have reached the top position, make sure that you hold for a second or two before you lower down the dumbbell to the starting position.
Important Note
For really big muscle growth, you will need to pack on more weight, but like it was mentioned earlier, start with lightweight dumbbells until you have complete control over the dumbbell.
You will of course work both arms in order to avoid one arm growing way bigger than the other. If you want to see quick results, you should make sure that you include the one arm dumbbell preacher curls in your regular exercise routine.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 large carrots, sliced
5 new potatoes, quartered
2 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook stirring often until onion is translucent. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook for just a few minutes to allow the carrots to sweat out some of their juices.
Pour the vegetable broth into the pot, and season with ginger, curry powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until carrots are tender.
Puree soup in small batches using a food processor or blender, or if you have an immersion blender, it can be done in the soup pot. Reheat soup if necessary, and serve.
