What is Tae Bo?

I see a lot of people doing Tae Bo and I actually went to such a training session. I must say I loved it, it was a little similar to my personal combination of Mixed Martial Arts and ground exercises routine. Mine was more intense in terms of muscle usage but I really tend to think that Tae Bo is a lot better when talking about aerobics, muscle tonification and loosing weight. Tae Bo is basically an aerobic exercise routine. It was invented by Billy Blanks, an individual that practiced tae kwon do and boxing. By combining elements from these two styles of fighting and music choreography Tae Bo was born. It was the original "cardio-boxing" routine and basically uses martial arts movement at rapid pace while promoting body fitness.

Tae Bo is a combination of boxing and tae kwon do and this is where the name comes from. Later a backronym was thought of: "Total Awareness Excellence Body Obedience". Belive it or not, it all started in 1989 and thanks to the fact that Billy Blanks started training some celebrities like Paula Abdul in the nineties now we have some sort of pop culture type movement in some areas. Some of the best sold training DVDs out there are Tae Bo related and many gyms offer this type of aerobic training.

Do not think you will practice Tae Bo and learn martial arts. This is not the case. There are no throws, ground moves or grappling moves here. It is all intended to make your body stronger in terms of fitness. You might learn to kick and hit better but it will not really teach you to fight. If you think about fighting and self defense maybe you should try mixed martial arts for the most similar effect to tae bo in terms of intensity. Tae Kwon Do is also a very good option. To sum it all up this high-intensity workout in Tae Bo is aiming to increase cardiovascular fitness, strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. You will not get stronger or gain muscular endurance unless you really are a beginner at training!

Water in Bodybuilding

There is one simple rule that says: "If you do not know how much water you are drinking then there is a big chance it is not enough for your body!". Lack of water immediately transforms in a less effective nutrition plan. When on a diet water is the most important ingredient you need to look at and so few people understand this. Many individuals start counting calories, fat grams, protein take in but fail to know how much water they drink. As mentioned above this means they are not drinking enough. It is very important in nutrition and bodybuilding in general to know how much water you consume.

You also need to know some other facts as well. First, if you are thirsty it does not mean you are dehydrated. On the contrary, knowing how much water to drink depends on how thirsty you are. Secondly, it is said that if your urine is dark then you are dehydrated. That can not be considered to in bodybuilding or in any other sport because there are many factors that can change urine color to dark. The last myth you have to understand refers to caffeine. Many individuals belive that it dehydrates the body. Well, studies proved that it actually hydrates people that are used to caffeine and together with teas and sodas they can even be useful in hydration for some bodybuilders.

As mentioned above, drinking water should be done when you are thirsty. There is a chance to overdue it though and it has to be avoided. Let us keep it simple. Before a workout be sure you are hydrated and drink a glass or two of water. Then, every 15 minutes you spend at the gym should translate in another glass of water, especially if you are sweating a lot. Do not neglect water in bodybuilding, fitness or any other sport. It can help out!

Who Is Joe Weider?

Josef E. "Joe" Weider was born on November 29, 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

He is the Canadian co-founder of the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) together with his brother Ben Weider. Joe Weider also created Mr. Olympia and Ms. Olympia. 

What few people know is that Joe Weider started his empire with just $7 at the tender age of 17. He built barbells out of car axles and wheels. Later he became a manufacturer of gym exercise equipment and one of the first people ever to focus on nutrition as a part of bodybuilding. 

His line of nutritional supplements is one of the most recognized across the world.

Joe Weider introduced the mental approach to working out. He never claimed to be an innovator. He always said he took different elements from different sources and synthesized them into bodybuilding. To sum it up, Weider is one of the first that put together and introduced a series of training principles that successful bodybuilders use today:

1. Pre-Exhaustion Training
2. Pyramiding
3. Super sets
4. Muscle Priority Training
5. Set System Training
6. Instinctive Training
7. Giant Sets
8. Tri-Sets
9. Staggered Sets
10. Compound Sets

We have a lot to thank Weider. Without him bodybuilding would not have been the way we know it today!

3 Forms of Creatine

Few people are aware of this simple fact but you should know that there are three forms of creatine available for buying: monohydrate, citrate and phosphate. 

What you also need to understand is that phosphate creatine is not easy to absorb by one's body and is not so effective in bodybuilding, so there is a big chance you will not get the expected results. 

With citrate creatine research is not conclusive although it does become more popular each day. Monohydrate creatine has been used in research in most cases and is the one that has the most proven results. 

This is why, until further news, you should try and look for monohydrate creatine in my view!

Low Fat Diets - Are they Good?

The answer to this question is very simple: NO! Low fat diets are very bad for an individual's general well-being, not to mention his health. This is because healthy fat is very important in keeping your skin looking good, lubricated joints and a key factor in hormone production. If you want to eliminate something from your diet you need to start with sugar and not fat! By doing this you will actually get your glucoze level to be in a healthy range and this induces fat loss. Just do this! Eliminate sugar all together from your diet for a week or two and keep on doing what you do! You will see something change!

If you chose to go for a low fat diet your testosterone level will drop together with progesterone production. In case you did not know, both are important for men and women in order to loose weight. It's simple, if you do not have enough fat in your diet you won't have enough levels of testosterone to aid you in loosing weight because you can not develop muscle. Building muscle is the best way to get rid of fat and keeping it off.

People Still Don't Get Fat Loss

There are some things that never change and one of them is individuals that are fat and want to lose weight but simply do not understand how to do it properly. You surely saw one of them on the treadmil, walking for half an hour with his cell phone at his hear talking in the same time for half an hour. That is no workout! Leaving that aside let us talk about the subject at hand. The facts are simple: you need to burn more than you eat in order to lose weight. How hard is that to understand? People start eliminating fat from their diets thinking that will make them immediately lose weight, without even thinking about what specialists say: some fats are good for you! Others start eating more times per day, in smaller quantities because this is how you should eat to help out your body. Again, they do not understand that you need to eat properly not less. If I eat a box full of chocolates instead of a stake then I do not gain anything here. Loosing weight is 80% a proper diet, 10% workout and 10% motivation and will to learn.

A cardio workout is not effective unless combined with a diet. You can not loose weight if you consume 300 calories and drink a protein shake after your workout that brings in 500 calories. Loosing fat is easy but you can not do it by exercise alone! How long will it take till people understand this?

Great Body - Eugen Sandow

Now I am sure that most bodybuilders today have no ideea who Eugen Sandow was and that is why I decided to pick him as today's Great Body of the Day. Eugen Sandow was born Friederich Wilhelm Mueller on April 2 1867. He died on the 14th of October 1925 but he is the individual that people refer to as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding". We basically have to thank this guy as much as we have to thank Weider or Arnold for promoting this sport.

Sandow loved Greek and Roman statues of gladiators together with other statues of heroes. He loved them so much that he considered the physique depicted in them to be how a man should look like. By the tender age of 19 he had already reached part of his goals and was performing stunts in different side shows. People din not care about how much he lifted, they were amazed of how he looked. That is when a famous promoter, Florenz Ziegfeld, became his manager and had him perform shows in which Sandow showed off his body. They were called "muscle display performances". This can be considered the "father" of bodybuilding shows and competitions as later on in time a competition was also organized, the first ever bodybuilding competition. Eugen Sandow even built the first ever line of equipment and was among the first people in history to market a product by using as brand his own name.

Eugen Sandow did a lot for this sport and so few people know about him that I just had to let at least some know about him.

Use a Balanced Fat Burning Diet for Abs

By now you have to know that you can not get those sexy abs you are looking for this summer by doing hundreds of crunches and that you have to work hard in the kitchen as well. A bodybuilding diet is a must have if training and wanting to loose weight together with getting sexy, hot abs. If you do not burn that extra fat you have there over your muscles there is no way you can achieve your goal.

Here is another news flash if you need it! Everybody out there has great abs. Human anatomy can prove this. You have great abs there but they are covered with a layer of fat and water. The only thing you need to get to see your abs is reducing the body fat covering it and making it low enough for the muscles to show. In most cases this will happen when body fat falls below 10% for men and 13% for women. If you want those abs to show even better you need to lower it even more to get a defined aspect until around 6% for men and 11% for women. Yes, for women it is a lot easier but men usually throw more motivation behind it. We all love a woman with a flat stomach, those defined "six packs" are not really necessary. For a man we must agree that he looks better if the abs look better.

The basics for a fat burning diet stands in 40% proteins, 40% carbs and 20% good fats. This means that fruits and dairy products need to be eliminates because they have simple carbs that can slow down fat loss. Talking about carbs now you have to know that they must come from complex slow releasing ingredients like brown rice, sweat potatoes, oatmeal in a combination with sources full of fibres like broccoli (yes I know most people hate broccoli I do too) or green beans. Your proteins must come from lean red meat, tuna, chicken or turkey. The main sources of fat should be extra virgin olive oil or flax seed oil. There is no great philosophy to have a good balanced fat burning diet for abs. You just have to be motivated and stick in there!

Quadriceps Training

Have you ever seen great bodies that simply look very good from the waste up but simply do not have legs that are as big as their upper body? I'm sure you did and these "chicken legs" are definitely not looking good from a symmetry standpoint. So many individuals think that if you start running, go for hikes or ride a bicycle they will get big and strong legs. Well, they are simply making a huge bodybuilding mistake.

The quadriceps are the muscles located right at the front of the leg. They are very important as they extend it at the knee and help to flex the hip. Four big muscles make up the quadriceps and they are all important for the body and how it looks. For a professional bodybuilder, having a perfect upper body and bad legs is just competition suicide.

Most bodybuilders use the same exercises to train the quadriceps. The Free Bar Squat is the one that actually helps out muscle growth in this area the most and it also stimulates the upper body too because in order to perform the lift part of the exercise you have to use upper body muscles as well. When keeping the bar squat on your back the upper body muscles have to hold a static contraction in order to just keep it in place. Such stress you get from this free bar squat actually stimulates hormone secretion in the biggest way possible during training. A hard squat session will not only prove to be the best exercise for your quadriceps but can also help out the entire body. Do not neglect it and always have a partner ready to help out as injuries tend to appear the most in this exercise. The reason behind it is that novice bodybuilders tend to do it wrong and a partner can point that out and help you out if something bad is about to happen.

Replacing Leg Curls

For a bodybuilder the leg curl motion is one that can not be neglected. The need of a leg curl machine is quite big if you want to have good legs. There is also a variation that I found to be very interesting. Instead of doing a leg curl on a regular leg curl machine try this approach! Use a flat bench and position yourself on it facedown. Make sure your knees are above the bottom ledge and ask a friend to help you out next. Take a dumbell and ask your partner to position it on the bottom side of the top plates, resting just on your feet. Now you can do a leg curl by holding your legs together and paying attention that the weight does not fall. The exercise will not feel like a regular leg curl but will help you out in your workout once in a while. Your calves are also involved in the movement adding more strength at the end of the session! Try it out! It is quite a nice variation!

Great Body - Bill Davey

Our great body of the day is a guy that is labeled as a natural bodybuilder, is a trainer and has quite a lot of success in the busines! Bill Davey definitely has a physique others would kill for. He was born in 1966 and has started bodybuilding between junior and senior high school years. The reason behind it was that he was involved in football and the coaches wanted him to become bigger. Bill Davey is 6 feet tall and his weight during off season is 225 to 230 pounds. During competition he weighs 215 lbs. His competitive record includes:

# Musclemania - 2002 SuperBody - 1st place (Professional Division)

# Musclemania - 2002 World Championship -- 6th place

# 1997 AAU Mr. America - 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1996 Musclemania Natural Championships -- 1st Heavyweight

# 1996 WNBF World Championships -- 12th Open Division

# 1996 NPC Team Universe -- 7th Heavyweight

# 1996 NPC Junior Nationals -- Didn't place Heavyweight

# 1995 ANBC USA Nationals -- 1st Tall Class

# 1995 NPC Junior Florida Heavyweight and Overall

# 1995 ANBC Tampa Bay Natural -- 1st Tall Class and Overall

# 1994 NPC Florida West Coast -- 1st Light-heavyweight and Overall

# 1994 NPC Sarasota Championship -- 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1994 NPC Naples Championship -- 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1992 Florida West Coast -- 1st Light-heavyweight

Davey had a lot of success in his career and even launched a special DVD with his personal training routine. I saw it and it is quite good, very motivational. I saw it on Repetrope Here

If you never saw this guy before here is a presentation of natural bodybuilder Bill Davey:

As a bodybuilding trainer Bill Davey also has some tips written in All Natural Muscular Development that I think you should take a look at:

1. GO HEAVY----- OR GO HOME.

2. CHANGE YOUR WORKOUT EVERY THREE WEEKS.

3. TRAIN ONE MUSCLE GROUP PER SESSION.

4. MAKE EVERY REP OF EVERY SET COUNT.

5. WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN'T TO ANY MORE REPS IN A SET, DO TWO MORE.

6. KEEP WEIGHT TRAINING SESSIONS TO ONE HOUR MAXIMUM.

7. ALLOW FIVE TO SEVEN DAYS BEFORE TRAINING MUSCLE GROUP AGAIN.

8. LEARN EACH MUSCLE GROUP'S RANGE OF MOTION -- AND WORK THAT MUSCLE THROUGH THAT FULL RANGE OF MOTION.

9. STRIVE TO DEVELOP NEUROMUSCULAR CONTROL.

10. DON'T NEGLECT SPECIFIC ROTATOR CUFF EXERCISES.

Interview With MMA Trainer Fred George

Mixed Marial Arts (also known as MMA) is a different sport than most others because there is a lot of work that needs to be done and your body must go through intense training. I tried one simple MMA training session once and I couldn't finish it so I have to hand it to these guys for the effort they put in. I found an interview with Fred George, a MMA trainer that works in Las Vegas. He has had a lot of success in training MMA and is getting more popular each month. Fred was also given responsabilities in training some of today's top athletes with Kevin Randleman being just one of the high prospects under George's training. Even more, Fred George has been involved in two MMA matches and won both by TKO. After the matches he even says that the intensity involved in them is not even close to the training strategies he uses today as a routine. The TKOs were actually achieved in the first round, one after 54 sec and the other after 5 minutes.

In this interview I found on Bodybuilding.com Fred George answers interesting questions like:

- Exactly what is your background in the martial arts Fred? What led to your involvement?

- When you competed in MMA you were a pretty big guy. Do you still train for size, or have your goals changed?

- Do you have any big names fighting soon?

- As a trainer, what kind of style do you teach?

- What do you focus on primarily for your athletes in the weeks leading up to a fight?

- How would you go about replicating the conditions of a big fight, when training one of your athletes to face someone of say Ken Shamrock's caliber?

- How do you develop speed in your fighters?

To view the interview Click Here

Bobby Lashley Workout with Maxim

The WWE superstars seem to be very researched on the web these days, especially their workout routines. After discussing John Cena's workout yesterday let us now talk about Bobby Lashley. This individual has an incredibly great body. Actually, most WWE superstars have great bodies but Bobby Lashley stands out. He once went at a photoshoot with Maxim Magazine for an interview in the Expert Fitness column they publish. Bobby gave some advice and also showed some of his secrets. If you want to find out about a superstar's workout regime there is a big chance it will be published in a magazine, especially with somebody that has a body like Lashley. He stated :

"I’m going to give away a couple of my secrets to my successes with my body and build. "

Lashley did something nice in that shoot. He immediately built a makeshift pull up bar out of photo equipment as you can see from the picture attached and did a total of five exercise. He said that:

"We did have to rig the bar a little bit to get that exercise in; however, my back is my strong point when I work out, so a pull up is pretty easy for me. I do a lot of core work, so I work my abs a lot, so that was easier for me. For the average person it’s probably going to be more difficult to do."

Isn't it interesting how every great body out there always say that they work a lot in order to have that body? That is what you should do as well! Work out, work out hard and you WILL see results! Just in case you do not know who Bobby Lashley is maybe you should read our Great Body Bobby Lashley dedicated post some time ago.

Train your clients at home

This post here goes to all the bodybuilding and fitness trainers that are struggling to make a living and there are so many out there that this entire situation is quite sad. People, you need to wake up, the real money making opportunity in trining individuals is training them at home and not at a GYM. People will pay you at least $50-$60 per hour to train them in the comfort of their homes and you are making a lot less when employed by a GYM. I am basically too lazy to go to everybody's home and train them but I did this at some point in my life too. The money is too good to deny. Now I am not training people at home anymore because my business is going too well and I have the freedom of having a lot of free time. This is why I started this blog, to help out at least like this if I am not training people anymore or even training myself that much to be honest. I am now weighing in at 300 pounds and it is not pure muscle belive me.

Leaving that aside let us get back to the subject at hand. You need to start training people at home if you are a trainer that really wants to gain money. The problem is that all you learnt is directly linked to training people in the surroundings of a GYM. I know it is so because I probably took similar classes as you did to get my license. When you train people at home the advanced techniques you learnt will do you no good and you will start to work on learning again.

Luckily I found something that helped out a friend of mine a lot. He was fired from a GYM and I was browsing the Internet to try and find him a job. He is a very good trainer and quite motivational. In return I found a webpage that was basically selling a package dealing with training clients at home. I recommended it to him, he was desperate and bought it and now he is gaining around $300 per day by training people in the comfort of their homes. That is interesting and when I found out yesterday that it helped him out like that I just had to share this site.

What I liked is what you get: a special ebook telling you what to do, a DVD filled with exercises you can do, another DVD with exercises using portable equipment, 2 DVDs of example training sessions with some clients, a CD Rom with all the legal documentation you need, a copy of another book that tells you how to sell yourself as a personal trainer, a list of sites that offer training insurance, another ebook that tells you how to mold to every type of client you might have, a 10% discount at PerformBetter.com, an exercise package that shows the basic exercises everybody can do at home with illustrations and a whole lot more. This is basically a package that is worth somewhere around $900-$1100 if you buy everything individually. You can get it here for $297 with a 60 days money back guarantee and this is a huge sale and an opportuinty for success that most not be missed by any trainer out there. Hope this proves to be usefull and make you enough money to live the healthy life you want for yourself and your family.

Are energy drinks good for anything?

I am sure you noticed that you are surrounded by energy drinks commercials everywhere you turn and let's face it, they taste good and the wrappings and publicity basically sells them like crazy. Now I am going to ask you one thing: how many bodybuilders did you see drinking these "great" energy drinks? Think about it and tell me later because I already know the answer to that question. Did you ever look at the ingredients in these drinks? They have so much sugar and caffeine in them that some are actually above what can be considered healthy. You get yourself an energy kick but at what cost. Surely you will also find different minerals, vitamins, ginseng and other ingredients that are healthy but that does not matter when you put in so much of these two damaging ones. Think twice before purchasing one or at least take a look at the ingredients list, some of them are not that bad but 90% of all energy drinks are not healthy at all.

Sylvester Stallone and Growth Hormone

This is one interesting piece of news I just read. It seems that Sylvester Stallone was charged with importing an illeagal growth hormone under the form of a drug called Jintropin. To his defense, the "Rocky" star and in my opinion a former great body has declared that he did not know the drug was illegal. He was caught in Australia holding 48 vials of this hormone. It does seem a lot doesn't it? The fact is that it seems he has a medical condition that he treats using hormones for quite a long time. Although it looks like nobody knows what he is suffering from, the excuse will probably not make him escape a fine that could reach a maximum of $36,000. Stallone declared to his defense that:

Never ever was it my intention to breach the laws and I realise that I should have properly informed myself about your customs.

John Cena's workout

I see that many people ask around: What is John Cena's workout? I must say that I did not know but I imagined what it should be like, with a lot of cardio and less concentration on becoming stronger during competitional fighting times. I did a search and documented myself on John Cena's workout and this is what I found out.

Cena is usually on the road 4 days a week and is also pretty active with his rap career and the launch of a movie that I think was a flop ("The Marine") although it was pretty succesful. This WWE superstar has a great body as everybody realizes and the facts stay simple: he has to get to the gym. In an interview for Men's Fitness he said that:

"I have to make it to the gym--it's the only way I'll survive in the ring. But I can't train heavy because I'm wrestling all the time or in places where I can't get good food, so it's hard to recover. Instead, I circuit-train one body part per session. If I'm working chest, I'll do six exercises--one after the other--with no rest in between. It doubles as a cardio workout, and it keeps me pumped. That allows me to stay big, but I can't really get stronger."

This is basically how all WWE and TNA superstars survive. It is not easy to be a professional wrestler and to be a succesful one is even more difficult. Cena for instance said around a year ago that he only benches around 315 pounds which is less then you would actually think he can when you take a look at his body. Genetics is a big part of John Cena's body and everybody must realize this. There is no sense in wanting arms like this wrestler and doing a research on his arm routine, adopting it and thinking you will have his arms. You need to find what is best for you, not for John Cena.

Great Body Jessica Alba

The great body I decided to pick today is Jessica Alba. This woman here is one of the most wanted celebrities alive by men of all ages. A recent study published in USA actually showed that Americans think that she and Halle Berry are the two female superstars with the hottest bodies today. I don't think anyone would say something against this statement. As she is our Great Body Of The Day I also researched some facts about her you might not have known:

1. Jessica enjoys playing golf, swimming and moved frequently in the first nine years of her life due to her father's military career. In the meantime, she lived in Mississippi, Texas and California.
2. Jessica is of Mexican, French and Danish descent.
3. She was chosen as one of People Magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful People in May 2007.
4. She adores Harley Davidson motorcycles (who doesn't?)
5. Jessica Alba had asthma as a child and currently owns two sweet puppies called Sid and Nancy
6. The bra that she wore in Sin City drew a bid of $1,025 in an eBay auction.
7. As a child, she used to cook her own meals to control her weight and maintain her health. She used to avoid the food cooked in her family because it caused her health and weight problems

Aerobics Workout

We all know by now that aerobics are trully great and that the amount of information we can find about it online and in magazines is in a whole different quantity than it was years ago. In the past this type of workout was actually in fashion and it would have been a raised probability to meet friends or family at the gym while doing aerobics. Today this changed and thanks to the appearance of many aerobic types of workouts like Tae Bo or oriental disciplines and international workouts fewer people are doing aerobics in a gym every day.

The good news is that people still realize that the simple, classic aerobic workout is still one of the best and it is currently one of the most developed and researched types of weight loss workouts we can find. This basically means that there is a higher possibility that you will find information on how to loose weight with an aerobic workout than with any other type of weight loss workout out there. You even get info about what to wear, what to buy, what influences the quality of workouts, when to eat, what to eat and so on.

An aerobic workout is still a great way to work out your entire body and simply keeping it in shape together with loosing weight and getting discipline through a strict workout schedule. Socially speaking it is also a lot easier to make friends in a gym and finding a good workout partner is also a benefit usually achieved during aerobic workouts. This is because any bodybuilder that sees another bodybuilder paying attention to cardio workouts and aerobics in general realizes that the individual is no novice and really know what he is doing. There would only be a step till trusting him on aiding in a heavy weight lifting session.

A good aerobic workout is still a basic way to get in shape and must not be put aside.

Workout Routines for Women

Most women are always looking for a killer body and want to be more physically appealing. Out of them only few succeed because they do not realize that the real key to it all is just finding a regime that is effective and sticking with it. It does not matter if it is swimming, fitness, jogging, biking, there are many ways to suceed in this task.

The goal is always the same. It does not matter what method is used. The problem with it all is that the workout that works best for a woman is not the same one that works for a man. There is a need to adopt a different approach. Bodybuilding and weights training is usually not considered by most women. They don't even think about this although this is a wrong approach. Women always want toned legs and a flat abdomen. Only after that they think about biceps, triceps and other muscles. The approach is of course suitable but free weight training must not be ignored. In fact, such training is essential in building a great body.

Women have to build muscles in order to have a good body and you have to realize that week arms make you look unbalanced and there is no symetry there so it does not look good basically. Any trainer out there will tell you that the best workout is one that offers diversity and you need to look at the whole body and not just your belly or butt.

Be sure to include weight training exercises in your routine as they are as important as your cardio regime. If you are not sure on how to do this you can find the information online on hundreds of websites so there is no excuse in being lazy.

Bodybuilder mentality

I started thinking today as I went to the gym about how bodybuilders think about themselves. I am sure you saw a lot of examples of great bodies that had louzy attitudes. The fact is simple, if you have a good body and you can give lessons to others that's what you should do not boast about your physique. Bodybuilding is not about convincing yourself and others how good you are and this attitude is often the difference between a champion and just a great body with no prospects nor friends. There are many professional bodybuilders out there that have some success but don't even have a training partner because of their mentality. Bodybuilding should be a lifestyle as so many people say. You practice this sport to become a mature and better person and get healthy not just to look good. If bodybuilding becomes an obsession of making you the best possible then it is no longer a lifestyle and obsessions are definitely not good.

Bodybuilding Helps You Loose Weight

Right before I go to sleep there is one thing I want to point out here! Bodybuilding is a great way to loose weight even if you might not realize it! In such a resistance/bodybuilding workout you do burn more calories than you think and if hit with a simple and proper diet and good sleep you WILL be loosing weight in no time!

Common Mistakes in Bodybuilding

There are a lot of mistakes that one can do when working out and the list is quite big and can take months if not years until a bodybuilder can achieve the proper discipline to practice this sport. It is always a good thing to know what the most common mistakes are and should be a reality in training for novices and professionals.

First of all there is a need to talk about cardio workout. Most of us know that you can not loose waith and get a great waist without cardio. The problem is that a lof of people overdo it and this has a bad effect just as with any excess in one's life. The best way to handle this situation is analyzing your workout. If you are lean but do not look lean and cardio is not doing anything you should cut all cardio workout to 50% of what you normally do for some time. If results appear then this is your problem. A lot of people fail to understand this.

Carbs are vital to your workout. Starting a diet with small quantities of carbs can lower your metabolism because this is how the body reacts to the lack of carbohydrates. If you take on this type of a diet you have to realize that carbs are important and you should take in some shakes with high carbs as they are the ones that give you energy. If you do not have energy for your heavy workout the body can only suffer!

Many individuals (when trying to loose weight) will use lighter weights. In order to achieve your goal you have to maintain the same standard of training and using lighter weights will not help you loose pounds. Keep on training hard and work on your diet and supplements rather than lowering your workout!

Fitness and Life

Take a second to think about fitness in general! What do you gain from this? The only thing that usually comes to mind is: a fit body! The truth as I see it is that you have a lot more to gain from fitness, bodybuilding and sports in general. First of all you get discipline and good habits are developed. You also learn about moderation and how everything in one's life needs to be moderated in order to succeed. You can not workout every single day as your body will crash. In life you can not sleep just a few hours per day without getting tired or keep on going with your job without a vacation. It's the same thing and fitness teaches you this! As you keep on working out you immediately learn that priorities are important and that you have to set your goals in order to suceed. For every action there is a consequence always and learn the fact that you should focus on the travel and not the destination. You must not look at where you can get but how you are going to get there. Fitness keeps you motivated and teaches you all of these and a whole lot more. There is no reason whatsoever why you shouldn't keep on practicing fitness!

Summer snacks

Summer is just right down the alley and everyone will be looking for food that does not add up too much. Summer diets start just about know and everyone is looking forward to looking his/her best when at the beach. Anyone involved in bodybuilding or fitness is in this situation. The problems also appear because there are a lot of outdoor barbecues and parties that do not serve that good of meals for one's body! If you want to approach the situation with health in mind maybe you would want to try out changing some snacks.

Why not start out with a fish burger instead of the regular burger served at barbecues? By doing this you immediately bring down saturated fat. Few people think about making a fish burger but bodybuilders will tell you that it is quite a treat and offers a different taste and is also nutritionally high. You can also try out barbecue beans, a Banana Colada Smoothie or some Peanut Butter Popcorn with a twist.

What to do when hangover is unavoidable?

Ok so hangovers are avoidable because you can always not drink but if you have to you need to minimize the damage. The previous post told you about the negatives of consuming alchool when mixed with bodybuilding. We need to be honest! Most of the visitors that will get to this site will be young and I am young and this means we all enjoy a drink or two once in a while. We do go to parties thinking about getting as much alcohool in as possible although we never admit this. With this in mind let us try and think about what to do when such a thing is sure to happen.

First of all think about dehidration. At least 2 litres of water need to wait for you by your bed for when you get back home. This simple task of leaving water there and driking it when you get home will aid your muscle a great deal by hydrating them and will prevent hangover. If you end up with a girl in the room (or man depending on your sex) be sure to make her go away as fast as possible because you will never get your buddies off your shoulders after this incident. This does not mean being rude, just speed up the process. Also, when getting himbe sure to drink a protein shake before going to bed. You can even mix it with the water that was waiting for you (that is if you can still stand). The last thing that needs to be done is having a big healthy breakfast rich in calcium, protein, iron and phosphorus.

The are just hints to do when you get to drink alcohool but the best thing would be to avoid it as much as possible, especially if you want to practice bodybuilding at a professional level!

Alcohol and Bodybuilding

If you are young there is a big chance at some points in time (for some more than others) a party will pop up. What are parties all about? Alcohool! That sweet liquid that gives you imense powers and helps everybody loosen up together with making couple hooking up a lot easier. The only question that comes up in this blog entry here is: does alcohool and bodybuilding mix? If you want an answer to this question you can only find one: NO! I am a drinker, I love getting heavily under the influence at parties but then again I am not into professional bodybuilding. A bodybuilder works hard to gain muscle and alochool does not mix well with this.

There are three main reasons why alcohol is not good for a bodybuilder. First of all it is made out of empty calories. It has no nutrients, just 7 calories per gram. If you per chance drink one shot of vodka you will take in around 100 calories. With teens like me one shot of vodka is usually just a beginning. Just try to think about how many calories you put in your body when you get that lovely dizzy feeling most people look for. It also slows down our metabolism so this also has to be considered.

The second thing that needs to be mentioned is that muscle growth is affected by drinking alcohool. The biggest effect is that protein synthesis is lowered by around 20% and the morning hangover also lowers training intensity. There are many negative body mass growth influences but these are the two that are the most important and easy to understand.

The last thing that should be mentioned is that alcohool will decrease testosterone and increase estrogen. This is also bad! Alcohool and bodybuilding do not mix!

The Importance of Sleep

Few people adequately understand the importance of sleep. A bodybuilder or an athlete in general must know that sleep is quite crucial in his workout. The most important two reasons why this is a fact are that the body will synthesise protein better when resting and the human mind will recharge for the following training session. Growth hormone and testosterone are also manufactured faster when the body is sleeping. The only real problem is that a bodybuilder really needs to sleep more than 8 hours each day and this means that during this time he will not be eating. An immediate effect of this is a decay in muscle because of the natural need our bodies have to consume in order to regain maximum power. Before going to bed every lifter, bodybuilder or fitness practitioner needs to eat high protein meals right before going to sleep.

One Gram of Protein per pound

Today's athletes and mostly bodybuilders are aware of the importance of protein in their raily diets. This is a very good thing to notice as I can see many individuals that start going to the gym who are interested in nutrition facts. One of the real problems that appear is closely linked to protein as few people realize the correct amount a body really needs. Some will continue to state that 70-80 grams of protein per day is enough. It has been proven to be wrong. A bodybuilder will put more stress on his muscles than a regular athlete and this causes an immediate need for extra nutrients. Eating food that is rich in protein like eggs, milk, red meat and chicken is the second most important thing in bodybuilding training after the workout itself. A good starting point for every begginer and some more experienced bodybuilders is to apply a simple formula of 1 gram of protein for 1 pound of bodyweight (although there is a need for even more with pros taking even double the amount in their organisms). For instance, if you weigh 100 Kg. you should have 220 grams of protein in your daily diet. For an average bodybuilder the grams of protein needed rise to 375.

Great Body Frank Shamrock

Frank Shamrock is quite an interesting fellow. For those that do not know he is involved in mixed martial arts and ultimate fighting competitions and has seen quite a lot of fights in his career. You could say he is a tough dude but he is also very generous and treat to be around. Many people will think that he is Ken Shamrock, "the world's most dangerous man". Well they are two different people and Ken is actually Frank's step brother as he was an orphan. His dad was Bob Shamrock and Ken Shamrock was the first one to go into mixed martial arts. Frank soon followed. His real name is Frank Alisio Juarez III and he was the first fighter in the middleweight class to hold the title and actually retired as the five time undefeated champion. As you can see he was not sloppy at all and he is quite well known in MMA circles.

Great Body - Bobby Lashley

Bobby Lashley is currently a wrestler involved with World Wrestling Entertainment. He gained a lot of popularity recently thanks to a match in this year's Wrestlemania, which he won. The match involved two other important wrestling superstars: his opponent Umaga and special guest referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The match also involved billionaires Donald Trump and WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Here are some raw facts about Bobby Lashley:

Real name: Franklin Roberto Lashley

Height: 6'3"

Current Weight: 273 lbs.

Date of birth: July 16, 1976

Born in: Kansas City, Kansas

Pro Wrestling debut: 1999

Trained by: OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling)

Finishing move: Dominator

Bobby Lashley was very impressive when he debuted on WWE and this was because he did not talk match but his in ring intensity and his moves (especially the suplexes with the belly-to-belly suplex as a crowd favorite) are spectacular. He is currently wrestling under ECW banner and he is actually the ECW world heavyweight champion there. Hope to see more of him soon as he does look very good and has huge power and intensity. Bobby Lashley is trully a great body.

Great Body - 50 Cent

I am definitely not a 50 Cent fan but I have to admit and we all have to recognize the fact that he has a great body. Because of this I thought about letting you know some facts about 50 cent that you might not have known. We are not talking about his workout or anything, just about this rapper that has enjoyed and still enjoys quite a big success.

FULL NAME: Curtis Jackson

BIRTHDATE: July 6, 1976

BORN IN: South Side Jamaica, Queens , New York

EDUCATION: Andrew Jackson High School, HE got kicked out in 10th grade for posession of crack

SON: Marquise Jackson (6 years old)

FORMER JOB: Hustling since he was 12 years old, mostly selling drugs

INSPIRATION: Jam Master Jay

WAS ALMOST KILLED ON: May 24, 2000 - He was Shot 9 times in a drive-by near his grandma's house. One of the bullets went through his left cheek and knocked out a tooth and a piece of his gum. This actually created his rap voice!

Other FACTS:

- He is left handed

- A big part of 50's reputation was given by JAY-Z as the rapper attacked Jay on one of his tracks and he retaliated on one of his songs. This gave Curtis Jackson a street credibility quite hard to gain.

- Before signing 50 Cent Eminem battled him to see if he is worth to sign. Slim Shady won but 50 Cent claims it was because he was forced to go first.

- He was given many other contract opportunities but signed with Shady because he knew he could say anything on a record with EM as a producer.

Learning the Mandatory Budybuilding poses

There are a lot of individuals that ask around the gym how to do the mandatory bodybuilding poses. Few will actually explain them properly so I thought about finding a video online that can show everything. Well I did and this is it! Enjoy and learn your first steps in professional bodybuilding!

Skin Care tips

I just went online researching some skin care tips and I realized that there are some simple ways to keep your skin healthy that anyone can do. Why not have a smooth and beautiful skin? It can definitely help us out and makes us feel better, not to mention the fact that good looking skin is necessary for every professional bodybuilder out there. Let us see what are the most important and in the mean time the easiest to actually respect. First of all we must know that exercising regularly also helps our skin look better. This is because fat cells are damaging and skin is actually damaged by lack of exercise. Another important one is quitting smoking. Smoking really destroys our skin. Then, alcohol also has a detrimental effect and should be avoided at all costs. I am talking about excessive beverage consumption and not the casual glass of red wine (which can be beneficial for the entire body). The last tip I would like to emphasize on stands on sun radiation. We usually wear protective creams during summer but there is a popular, wrongful thinking around that winter is different. The radiation from the sun is still powerful and damages skin. This is why, no matter if the weather is cloudy or not, cream with sun protection is a good idea.

Lovely Model Ahmo Hight

Ahmo Hight is a very beautiful fitness model with a great body and an actress. As a child she moved from town to town until she finally chose her career. She was born in Newport Beach, California and is now 38 years old. Her small acting career started in 1997 when she appeared in "Pacific Blue", followed next year by a role in "Erotic Confessions". Ahmo Hight also starred in 4 more movies: Club Wild Side 2, Hotel Exotica, Secret Pleasures and Insatiable Wives. As you can see for yourself she is quite an adept of fitness and has one great body. This is why I decided to post a little information about her here as I am sure most of you never even heard of her. I also found three picture galleries in case you are interested in seeing more of her:


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