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The latest word on eating to protect your ticker isn't about clearing your fridge of all fat—it's about focusing on the right type. "Choosing foods with omega-3 fatty acids and mono- and polyunsaturated fats (like salmon, avocado and peanut butter) can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol—even more than limiting the cholesterol you eat," says Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, a professor of nutrition at Penn State University. Which is why this eating plan is packed with these good-for-you foods. Step 1 The first step is to ascertain the present calorie intake proportion. (Typically, people tend to have a greater percentage of fat in their diets than the ,typical proportion.) Assuming that a person was originally consuming 2,500 calories at the start of the programme, then the Expected Ideal Proportion of calorie intake is: Carbohydrates 60% of 2,500 = 1,500 calories Fats 20% of 2,500 = 500 calories Proteins 20% of 2,500 = 500 calories Step 2 Calorie Reduction: A ...

By now, most men understand the importance of protein in building muscle. When working out, the stress of weight lifting damages muscle fibers. This damage activates a special repair process that eventually forces individual muscle cells to grow. All of this growth requires loads of amino acids, the basic building blocks of life. But the process of muscle growth requires more than just protein. Weight lifting burns fat and energy in the form of muscle glycogen, so your diet also needs to include a healthy serving of carbs to both replenish muscle glycogen stores and to boost insulin, a hormone that helps shuttle amino acids into the muscles. This means you should not only focus on incorporating protein into your diet, but also pay just as much attention to avoiding unhealthy foods – this combination of attention to your diet will be a winning combo. Here are 6 mass-building meals that can give you the carbohydrates for the energy to train, along with adequate proteins to supply ...

When it comes to the triceps, the long head, located smack-dab on the back of the arm, provides the most muscle mass. And to really hit the long head, you can’t go wrong with dumbbell overhead triceps extensions. Putting your arms up places the greates  amount of stretch on the triceps long head, because unlike the other two triceps heads, the long one crosses the shoulder joint and attaches to the scapula. When a muscle is stretched to its fullest length at the start of an exercise, it takes the majority of the load during the exercise. This is why triceps extensions performed with the arms overhead, as in dumbbell overhead triceps extensions, place the most focus on the long head for building maximum triceps mass.   #1 Cable Tricep Kickback                                3 sets of 10 repetitions #2 EZ-Bar Overhead...

Have you ever been told you need to increase your protein intake? I have. But what does this even mean? Why is protein so important and where can you find it?  The fitness gurus seem to have it all mapped out yet when you log your food into my fitness pal, you always seem to fall short of your protein recommendation.  If you know all about protein and you nail your daily requirements, thats awesome but this articles probably not for you. However, if you struggle to meet your daily protein requirements, want to know why protein is good for you, how much you should eat  AND how to increase your daily intake then read on.  In this article, I'm going to share with you 6 simple strategies to boost your protein intake. 1. Eat Lean Cuts Of Meat 2. Eat More Low-Fat Dairy Products 3. Use Protein Powders (in moderation) 4. Plan Your Meals Ahead Of Time 5. Frontload Your Day With A Protein-rich Breakfast 6.Grab High Protein Snacks

Protein is the end-all, be-all solution to your muscle-building needs. Everyone knows that. But with all the conflicting research, claims from trainers and nutritionists, and protein-boosting supplements inundating the market, it's hard to know what's right. That's why we're stepping into the ring: to help you separate protein fact from protein fiction, once and for all. The Difference In The Bare Minimum And Optimal Needs For Protein Intake The needs of an athlete, or someone who’s training using resistance with the goal of changing body composition is going to differ greatly from those who aren’t active, and leading a sedentary lifestyle. The current RDA (recommended daily allowance) is anywhere from 46 to 56 grams daily[1]. There are some varying recommendations for teens, and women who are breastfeeding, but it’s not a huge difference. When you break it down, some numbers have recommend about ~.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. This equates to about ~.4 grams...

If I had to boil down the fitness goals of the average person in less than five words, it’d be a surprisingly easy task: “Lose fat and gain muscle.” In reality there are many (many) other fitness goals, and lots of other reasons to workout and eat healthy foods; but this is what interests—and confuses—most people. While losing the extra pounds can be the most frustrating process, building muscle is harder for most people to understand. It can be disappointing when you're working hard to lift weights and train your body, but you're just not seeing the results that you want. Your muscles may still look puny compared to the others in the gym or perhaps your arms have extra flab that you figured should be gone by now. If this is you, you may be making one of these mistakes: Mistake #1: Resting Too Much We all need to rest between sets, but resting too long can lower your heart rate and stop your body from refueling your muscles. It's recommended that you rest for 30 to 90 se...

If you are ready to go all in, adopt all seven principles today and commit to 21 days of planning out and journaling your meals and snacks and you will be celebrating that you made what seemed impossible, possible in less than a month! If moderation is your mode, add one new principle each day for the next week, and you will see one habit feeds success into the others and you will look and feel much better in four to six weeks from now. If you prefer a slow and steady pace to adopt the 7 habits, commit to one new principle each week and make it a 7-week plan to your lifestyle transformation. With any new habit, the more you do it the more automated and simple it becomes. Any nutrition plan worth starting is one you can maintain for the rest of your life, “Diets” die, learning how to feed your body with real food lasts a lifetime! Let’s Review Follow these steps to ensure a balanced and healthy approach to nutrition! Step 1 : Eat Mostly Whole, Natural Foods that are Minimally Proces...

I am sure that you have heard it all before. To get the complete physique that you want, working your legs hard is a necessity. The legs make up the largest part of your body and carry a ton of muscle. If you skip leg day, you are missing out on a ton of growth potential. Not too mention the large hormone release (testosterone, growth hormone), fat burning enzymes and caloric burn that come with working your legs. Leg day is also the toughest day of the week. It takes high volume, high reps with heavy weight, and mental toughness to get through a true leg routine that gets results. This also means that time becomes a factor. When we are pressed for time we tend to skip the hard stuff. We will fit in our chest and arm workouts since these are the show muscles and skimp on the legs. This is a huge mistake and it can be fixed. You can still get a solid leg workout in 20 minutes. With the right routine you can blast the legs in a short amount of time. There are four primary areas of the le...

Anyone can build a big chest, but most guys have no idea how to get the right proportions that will give you that truly unstoppable, masculine look. Tell me something. Do you want to look drop-dead gorgeous with people turning their heads to check you out on the beach, or do you want to look like an overgrown freak that makes people wanna throw up when they look at you? If you’re in the game to look great with stone-slabs for a chest that gets women weak at the knees, then today’s exercise is definitely one you should be doing. See, most guys who work on their chest, end up getting a huge lower chest because the lower chest is just naturally wired to respond to exercise better than the upper chest. The best chest exercises for MEN focus on growing chest muscle as quickly and efficiently as possible and at the same time, widening the chest to give you that unstoppable masculine look. When it comes to burning chest fat and losing man boobs, while at the same time, growing muscle and ...

It wasn’t so long ago that I was laughed off lifting forums for suggesting full body workouts. Man, times have changed. These days frequency training has become an acceptable method of building muscle, and the body part split is often referred to in a sarcastic manner as a bro split. Frequency training provides many benefits. The main one, for me, is that it does not leave my joints feeling beat up. I find it’s much easier to perform 3-4 sets per muscle group 3 times per week then to destroy that body part with volume one day per week. I stay healthier and feel better when I am not crushing body parts and movements patterns with set after set on a given day. How To Structure A Full Body Workout Routine It’s not a good idea to do exactly the same workout routine every time you go to the gym, as this will soon lead to recovery issues. Instead you should alternate two (or even three if you are more advanced) different routines over the course of the week. Also your workouts should not ...

The success of any training program relies heavily on aspects that are almost entirely out of the control of coaches and trainers, who cannot supervise what athletes do when they leave the training environment. This is where certain behaviors and habits can sabotage everything the athlete has worked so hard to accomplish. Proper nutrition plays a huge role in how the body recovers and responds to training. Eating well provides energy for workouts and the raw materials for building strong bones, muscles, and connective tissue. It also provides the foundation for a healthy immune system, meaning less training time missed due to sickness and a more consistent training effect. We live in an exciting age where we can access information about any subject with the touch of a button. However, not all the information presented is truthful, reliable, or accurate. Advice about nutrition put forth on television, the internet, in magazines and newspapers is often flawed. It can be overwhelming to d...

We all want a good-looking physique. That being said, most of us train our arms and chest hard. But don't forget your shoulders. Broad shoulders fill out your clothes and make you look manly. Here are some shoulder workouts for mass that I recommend for general fitness, not for athletes. (Training your shoulders frequently can take time away from exercises that actually improve athleticism.) include 4 of my favorite workouts to help you build a massive shoulders.   UPRIGHT BARBELL ROW           3 set of “8,10” reps, rest 30s.  STANDING MILITARY PRESS      3 set of “8,10” reps, rest 30s.  SIDE LATERAL RAISE        3 set of “10,12” reps, rest 30s. CAR DRIVERS        3 set of 10 reps, rest 30s.

It’s FRIDAY, and the fact that my American Peeps are enjoying a long weekend, I want you to do this workout today, and start your weekend off Right! we’re gonna do a short…intense…workout called the 5-3-20 ! Here’s what you need to do: Here are your 5 Exercises: 1.    Cleans + Press (or High Pulls) 2.    Dead Lifts (Barbell or Dumbbell) 3.    Bench Press (Barbell or Dumbbell) 4.    Squats 5.    Chin Ups or Pullups (on your back, pull your chest to the bar) Here are the rules: You do 20 repetitions of each of the exercises back to back. I want PERFECT FORM ONLY, So Use a weight so that you can complete 15-20 repetitions, you will be going all out. Time yourself for the set. You have a total of 3 Sets to do.

Whether you want to change your body to improve your health, looks, fitness, sex appeal — or just feel better about yourself all over — this plan offers you a simple promise: It can transform your body so you can accomplish all of those goals. And still have the energy you need to make each day a good one.   Principles of the abs diet Most people who are embarking on a new mission begin with one fundamental question: When do we eat? Good question. Most diets are all about what foods you'll cut out. This one is all about what you'll include. And that's good news, because if you want to emerge on the other side of this plan with a new body, you must have the flexibility and freedom to keep yourself from getting hungry, and the knowledge that you can eat well no matter what. So let's see what's on the menu. Guideline 1 Eat Six Meals a Day Didn't I tell you that this is not about deprivation? We're so used to hearing people talk about eating less food that i...

If you're looking for ways to boost your testosterone level, start by looking at your daily habits. "I never prescribe testosterone alone without talking to men about their lifestyle," says Martin Miner, MD, co-director of the Men's Health Center at the Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I. Some changes that are good for your overall health could also provide benefits in helping to maintain a healthy level of this important male hormone. There are countless different methods you can use to naturally boost testosterone. Testosterone is so valuable to us men, that there have been hundreds of different scientific studies into what kind of foods, activities, lifestyles, etc., impact testosterone.   Different methods work better for different people, and it can depend a lot on your circumstances. If you are greatly sleep-deprived and live a stressful life, then improving sleep and reducing stress will elevate your testosterone levels a lot. As I mention below, good...

With the holiday season upon us, many of you are thinking the same thing… “I’ve worked so hard and come so far! How can I avoid putting on the typical 5-10 pounds this holiday season?” Did you know that between Thanksgiving and Christmas 5-10 pounds is the average weight gain in the US? Well not this year! This year we’re going to start fighting back! We’re going to hit it hard and we’re going to hit it early so when it comes time for the holiday season we are ready for it! This 5-day “Weekly Workout Plan” is actually a 5-day Workout Guide that will provide you  great workouts a week all the way  ! We’ll hit calories so hard those holiday meals won’t even see us coming! Keep reading for more… Of course, we all know that working out is only a small part of the battle. In order to realize your healthy goals you need to supplement your workouts with healthy eating. Lucky for you, I’ve got you covered here, too! DAY 1 1 TRAP-BAR DEADLIFT Sets: 5 Reps: 10 Rest: 0-30 sec 2 BENTOVER ...

Achieving goals is powerful and affects our success in life. When we dare to dream about what we truly desire and set goals in that direction, a powerful shift happens. Life is now lived with greater direction and purpose. And once those goals are achieved, confidence builds, and not only do we feel a sense of accomplishment, but we want to succeed even more. Goals that we properly set, write down and focus on daily can be achieved faster and easier. Here are six steps to help you succeed in fulfilling your desires: Here’s how to get to your goal in 6 Steps: Step One: Only One At A Time When you’re feeling motivated, and decide to set a goal, it’s tempting to become over-ambitious by setting multiple goals. While it’s great that you want to improve many things about yourself, the pressure of trying to achieve more than one goal at once will cause you to drop all the goals and go back to status quo. Focus in on the one goal that you really want to achieve first, and focus all of your...

Bursting out of a shirt tends to be a priority on most male’s “to do” lists, especially during Summer. No-one can deny seeing the crowds queuing around the bench press every Monday in their local gyms… Yet, despite the determination, not many develop this muscle group to its full potential. The most common reason behind the pecs crisis is poor “mind-muscle” connection – inability to “feel” the muscle working while performing an exercise. This can be the case especially for various barbell presses, and means poor muscle activation leading to poor growth. If that sounds familiar read on and find out how to up your game with top dumbbells exercises for chest and finally fill that shirt out. Dumbbell exercises for the chest target the inner, outer, lower and upper pectoral muscles. 1. Dumbbell Bench Press 2. Twisting Dumbbell Bench Press 3. Crush-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press 4. Dumbbell Flyes 5. Dumbbell Pull Overs 6. Incline Bench Press

Increasing mechanical tension is a key to adding muscle. Increase the tension by lifting more weight for a specific exercise. One of the ways you get bigger is by getting stronger. How to do it: Use a compound movement such as the Barbell Military Press. Progressively increase the amount of weight you lift. A fairly good set and rep scheme would be 6 sets of 3. Once you manage to hit all 6 sets of 3, increase the weight and repeat. Increase Metabolic Stress with a Superset of Compound Movement and Isolation Another key factor for muscle growth is metabolic stress. Metabolic stress is caused by the buildup of a variety of metabolites such as lactate, hydrogen ions and creatine. One way to tell if metabolic stress is happening is to create a "pump" in your muscle. The pump is basically caused by fluids building up in the cells and the accumulation of metabolic by-products. Also, more metabolic stress can be created during the lowering portion of a lift, which is why doing is...

The back is a complex muscle group with no shortage of possible exercises, so many that an overeager newbie armed with a Flex magazine and a belly full of ambition could easily hammer away at his back for hours, yet still barely scratch the surface of available options. The Golden Age of bodybuilding was a decidedly simpler time. While there were many exercises for bodybuilders to use, the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) was usually first in mind, and for building back thickness, one didn't have to look any further than the barbell row (along with the deadlift). But it wasn't a case of "happily ever after." Cautious critics would target the barbell row due to the propensity for technique errors and the trainee's inability to fully recruit the lats – not to mention that "safer" alternatives like dumbbell rows and lat pulldowns allowed for greater range of motion and more focus on the targeted back muscles. So we labeled it as dangerous, ushered in ...

The triceps muscle is composed of three heads - and these need to be trained in a very specific way. This is because the triceps make up 2/3 of your overall upper arm mass, and the long head is the largest of the three individual heads it contains. For that reason, the best tricep long head exercises are those that begin with the shoulder in a flexed position, as this lengthens the long head and causes it to take on the majority of the load during the lift. 5 Best Tricep Exercises For Mass (Long Head) #1 – One-Arm Overhead Cable Extensions: This is my favorite lift to build tricep long head mass since it places the triceps under constant tension and lets you train each arm independently. Just grab onto a cable and face away from the machine, and then extend your arm overhead, contract the tricep, and lower the cable behind your head before repeating. #2 – Overhead Rope Extensions: This is the same motion as the previous exercise but done using a rope attachment and both arms at th...

More than often, you’ll get this response: “Stay away from simple carbs and focus on complex carbohydrates, since they digest slowly and provide your body with a constant stream of energy”. I can’t tell you how many “fitness-experts” give this response to their clients on a regular basis. Of course it seems to make sense, but there is actually some science suggesting otherwise. Many people believe that as long as a carbohydrate digests slowly, it should keep your blood sugar stable and make it less likely for you to gain fat. But the truth of the matter is that structuring your nutrition program around “slow-digesting carbohydrates” is actually not an effective way to get the nutrition you need. There are actually 4 primary reasons why this is the case. Let’s go ahead and take a closer look… Here are 4 of the main reasons why this is so… First , carbohydrate absorption speed is based on the glycemic index, which is a highly flawed tool for bodybuilding nutrition. The glycemic index ...