Let’s hit the triceps!

Target muscle: Triceps Brachii
Synergist muscle: Deltoid, Anterior; Pectoralis Major, Sternal; Pectoralis Major, Clavicular; Pectoralis Minor; Rhomboids; Levator Scapulae; Latissimus Dorsi 
Dynamic Stabilizer muscle: Biceps Brachii
Stabilizer muscle: Trapezius, Lower

1. Sit on one bench and place your hands shoulder width apart with your palms flat on the bench and your fingers wrapped around the edge.
2. Move your bottom off of the bench and place your heels out in front of you. Keep your knees slightly bent.
3. Breathe in as you bend your arms and lower yourself to the ground until your shoulders are inline with your elbows and your triceps are parallel to the floor.
4. Exhale as you raise yourself up. Do not lock your elbows and keep them slightly bent at the top of the exercise.

You can increase the resistance and difficulty by placing your feet on a bench of equal height.

Recently a local radio show called “The Bert Show” in Atlanta read a letter that was anonymously written by one of the staff members. It was a very hateful and rude letter towards obese people. I personally don’t like seeing people be obese because it’s generally unhealthy, but I understand that many people have problems with coping with this health issue because it can stem from medical reasons or other factors that have plagued that individual’s life, including child abuse, depression, and more. Some cope by displaying a smile to hide the pain and others exert aggressive attitudes as a defense mechanism; both which are negative methods of managing one’s trouble.

Many of these obese people yearn to lose the weight and fit into the societal image of what is considered healthy. While such a goal is desirable, the real achievement is the positive energy you accumulate and pass on to others by doing your best.

Set a realistic goal that you want. Then, make smaller milestones that are obtainable. Finally, keep a log that will track your progress to obtaining your goals. All of these steps will ensure that you stay motivated and improve each time you train.

The problem with making large leaps on the ladder to the destination is that people are impatient. Everyone wants everything now and hot on the table, but the fact of the matter is that everything takes time with hard work. If something was easy, then everyone would be doing it, right? That’s why we make small goals in-between, so that you have that feeling of achievement each step of the way.

If you find yourself at a plateau, then find the answers to your problem. The more hungry you are to each the next objective the more likely you are to find the solution that you need. Ask and you shall receive.

Take your time, perform your training the correct way, and your goals will be clearly defined. Rushing anything, whether weight loss or strength training or anything else, will lead to sloppy results and, worse, injury. 

Never give up.

This combination of exercises will work on your legs and abs in one smooth movement! When you kick you are activating many of your abdominal muscles just to lift your leg in the air. It beats any crunch if you want to burn the visceral fat around your waist. Keep up a steady pace and you’ll hit your cardiovascular system too.

1. Keep your hands up in front of your face, like a boxer, your head facing forward, and your back straight. 
2. Take a long step back with your right leg while keeping your left leg planted in the front. Your right knee should be facing the ground and your right foot will be on it’s ball, pointing to the front.
3. Bend at the hips and lower your right knee to about an inch off of the ground. Squeeze your right quadriceps as your lower yourself. Do not place your knee on the ground because you will be resting and you will damage your kneecap because of the pressure of your upper body. Don’t let your left knee go past your left ankle because you will damage the ligaments and tendons in the kneecap.
4. Pick up the right leg and flick your right foot forward, as if you’re kicking someone in front of you. Do not lock your knee because you will damage your joints. After you kick, control and place your right leg beside your left leg.
5. Repeat this exercise for the left leg. Keep up a steady pace to work your lungs.

Many people are guilty of sucking down food without chewing enough times. Chewing food will help with weight loss and improve your digestive process.

1. Saliva: Saliva contains enzymes that help break down fats and starches. Spending more time chewing will enable you to cover more surface area of food with your saliva in order to enable these enzymes to get to work. Otherwise, the food will be spending more time breaking down in the later stages of digestion rather than providing the immediate energy that you need.

Also, saliva helps relax the stomach muscles and reduces stomach cramps. Kind of like greasing a pipe to fit into another pipe without the painful grinding.

2. Odor: Food not chewed enough will be left as large particles trying to pass through the colon, where they grow bacteria that creates bloating and the smell that comes out of your anus.

3. Nutrients: When you don’t chew enough the rest of the digestive tract must work harder to break down and process the food. This extra work can lose beneficial nutrients because your body was too busy breaking down instead of absorbing.

4. Trimming: When you eat slower and chew more you will end up eating less because your brain will believe you are eating more than you already are.

5. Flavor: Chew more and actually enjoy what you’re eating!

6. Number: The number of times to chew ranges from food to food, though my go to number is about 25 chews. Just be sure the food is soft, wet, and easy to swallow once you’re done chewing.

The Russian Twist, also known as the Lying Twist, and an excellent exercise to strengthen your obliques. No, you will not be able to spot reduce the love handles, but this exercise is a key component in helping the love handles disappear (which can be achieved through other cardiovascular exercises).

Target muscle: Obliques
Synergist muscle: Psoas Major; Quadratus Lumborum; Iliocastalis Lumborum; Iliocastialis Thoracis
Stabilizer muscle: Trapezius, Middle; Trapezius, Lower; Rhomboids; Deltoid, Posterior; Triceps; Adductors, Hip

1. Lie on the ground facing the ceiling with your arms extended out to the sides. Keep your feet, knees, and legs together, and point your knees to the ceiling with your feet off of the ground so that your thighs are vertical in the air.
2. Lower your knees to the left side just until your legs are an inch off of the ground. Do not touch the ground or you will risk resting on the ground. Also, your head will turn to the right side, opposite of your knees. Squeeze your abs as you perform this exercise.
3. Perform this exercise the opposite way with your knees to the right side and your head to the left side.
4. Repeat the movement until you reach your target repetitions, which should preferably be about 40 to 50.

Note: If you find yourself inching your way in a direction, don’t worry because it’s normal.

1. If you wish to make this exercise more effective (and difficult), assume the same position as before. This time keep your legs locked and our toes pointed straight at the ceiling.
2. Tilt your legs to the left about ten degrees while your head turns to the right. Then tilt to the right side the same distance while turning your head to the left. Squeeze your abs the entire duration.
3. When you return to the left side tilt your legs further than before. Then repeat on the right side. Keep up this increase in distance until you lower feet are just an inch off of the ground during this exercise.
4. Repeat the movement until you reach your target repetitions, which should preferably be about 15 to 20.

My coach and I have been running more often by the instruction of a book based on 5K and 10K running. As I aforementioned in this post it will take a good year to build a good cardiovascular base by way of running. Most will believe that running for miles on end every day will improve your cardiovascular ability, but such machismo plans are not efficient as more research and facts proven by years of experience by other runners show that the exercise has been broken down to a true science of percentages and other statistics.

In any case, building a good cardiovascular base will be based on running every other day in a different way each time. For now you can alternate between the following session plans: 1) running one to three miles as natural and easy as possible; 2) alternate by running naturally for one lap and walking for one lap on a track for up to twelve laps.

Start with these two plans for now. I’ll be back with more later.

Push-Ups can simply made easier or harder by the placement of your feet and hands. For instance, by placing both of your feet and your hands on the ground in a normal push-up position, you are sharing the weight of 50/50 between the two points. If you place your hands on higher ground, the exercise becomes easier as you place more of the weight on your feet. On the other hand, placing your feet on higher ground will increase the difficulty as you place the weight on your hands. Hence, standing up and pushing against the wall is the easiest position (and mostly done for those rehabilitating), while having your feet vertically in the air is the hardest position (which is unnecessary, but a fantastic feat of strength and balance).

If you do place your feet on higher ground, be sure that your body is as straight as possible without your buttocks or back dipping towards the floor, otherwise you will damage your spine.

The lunge is a versatile exercise that fires many of your stabilizer muscles to work on your lower body and balance.

Target muscle: Quadriceps
Synergist muscles: Gluteus Maximus; Adductor Magnus; Soleus
Dynamic stabilizer muscle: Hamstrings; Gastrocemius
Stabilizer muscle: Erector Spinae; Tibialis Anterior; Gluteus Medius; Gluteus Minimus; Quadratus Lumborum; Obliques

1. Stand with your legs shoulder width apart with your hands resting on your hips, which will help with balance.
2. Lift your left leg and step out far in front of you. You will place your heel gently on the ground first, then your toes pointing forward. Your rear foot will be on its toes and your leg will be bent with the knee facing the ground. do not place your rear knee on the ground because you will be resting and you can damage your knee with the pressure of your body on top of it to the ground. Keep your back straight, chest, out and eyes forward.**
3. Make sure that your front knee is not past the toes of your front foot. Leaning too far forward will over stretch the ligaments, tendons, and other structures of your knee, thus weakening it. If you were to look from the side, your knee will be in line with your heel, or better yet a good position would be for the knee to be behind the ankle.
4. Do not lean forward. Doing so will cause your front knee to move past your front toes. Instead, do not move your front leg at all. Bend your rear leg about an inch off of the ground. At the bottom, squeeze the hip flexor muscles on the top of your rear leg and hold for a second.
5. After you’ve squeezed and held your lunge for a second, raise your rear leg from the floor, then return your front leg to it’s original position. Then perform the movement with your other leg.

* - It should be noted that heel striking while running is not the best form, you are not “running” in this exercise, so you should not feel impact on your heel.

** - If you feel your back pinching it means you are putting your chest too far out or you are leaning back too far. Adjust yourself comfortably, but keep a nice upright form.

Setting Your Base

There are many factors that comes to running correctly. It is a very natural movement that humans have done since we’ve been on this planet. How do you think the Native Americans pass messages from one tribe to the next? Running for days. How do you think Neanderthals were able to bring home big game to eat? Running and chasing the beat for hours on end. Running is the foremost exercise that anyone can do and become amazingly fit.

Go out one day and run for one mile or two miles or three miles the best you can. Were you breathing heavy? Some people will blame the humidity or make some other excuse, but my point is that you will need to develop a good cardiovascular base to get the most benefit. 

The best measurement of a good cardiovascular base is for you to be able to comfortably run for about two to three miles and breathe easily throughout the duration. If you have a partner, you should be able to talk normally without losing too much stamina occasionally.

For a beginning running program, be sure to stretch and warm up your joints as thoroughly as possible because the impact of running will take its toll. Don’t over stretch your muscles too much because, once again, the impact will wear down on your muscles and require more oxygen.

The best way to warm-up after stretching is to walk briskly for at least five minutes (or a maximum of one mile). If you are on a treadmill, set the speed to four miles per hour and walk for five minutes. This warm-up also applies to your cool-down period too, so do the same thing.

Running form will be discussed later, but at this point in time you should focus on running as naturally and rhythmically as possible. Don’t worry about what shoes to wear (or not to wear) or other factors as we will discuss these points another day.

That’s all for now. I’ll come back with more running another day.

woohoocthulhu asked: I would love some pointers for getting started with running. Also, any advice on shoes (and other gear) for various types of workouts?

Running is a very specialized subject. There are tons of information established, yet discovered every day, and there are millions of opinions within the sport, such as whether to use shoes or go barefoot. I will provide what I know and learn, so bear with me in the future.