Concluding Blog Post

Blogging has been very interesting this year.  I never saw myself as a person who would blog on any topic week after week and find myself interested in it, it just never seamed to me that I would find a topic worth writing about over and over.  Being able to write about my own topic was nice though and made it a lot easier to manage through the semester.  The freedom to write about your own topic really got me eager to write, well maybe not eager but I was not upset about writing.  Making sure to write about something that really interested me, I chose working out because that was the thing I did most in my life.  Week after week it I researched different lifting techniques for different muscle groups.  Some things I had already knew about, but I also learned a lot from this.  I learned much more about my topic.  I not only learned more about the topic that I was writing about, but I also learned things like in text citations and and in text quotations. Overall I think what I learned the most is how simple it is to write a big paper. 7000 plus words throughout the semester is what we averaged throughout all our work on our one subject.  What we did throughout this semester was not extremely hard work by any means, so knowing that I can now write a large paper really helps for my future.  I did not know that this was all adding up to show that you can write a paper by breaking it down into sections like how I did, but I do know that from this class it will make more successful with writing papers in the future.

Fitness. Full Body workout.

 Full Body Circuit

I have hit every main muscle group throughout my blogs, but now it is time to hit them all at once.  This blog will cover a quick full body workout that will hit every muscle in your body.  I am going to begin with my experiences that I have seen at the gym.  I rarely see people doing full body exercises at the gym.  People tend to focus on a few muscle group at once, which is fine, but fail to realize the significance a full body workout can give you. Lets say you only have time to go to the gym once or twice a week for whatever reason.  A full body workout will allow you not to get behind on a specific muscle group because you will be hitting everything on your body.

Have you ever seen those P90X videos or INSANITY videos? Well if you have, you'll notice they don't ever do bench or barbell squats or anything with HUGE weight or enormous bars required for the exercise, yet they are all so jacked.  They simply use body-weight or small dumbbells to exercise with. This full body workout I am about to show you is just like that. I go to Sport and Health in Stafford, and if you have ever seen somebody doing a full body workout there then you know the person doing it is always jacked or cut over half of the time, either way you know he/she works out. I am telling you this just to show you that even though you wont be doing the heaviest weights, doing a full body workout is excellent for muscle growth or simply just trying to shred some weight by burning calories and toning up a bit.

This is called a circuit exercise, you will "do 10 reps of each exercise, and complete as many circuits as you can in 15 minutes". According to the article once reps become easier and easier, just increase reps per set.

I will begin with Body weight Squats:

 "Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your body as far as you can by pushing your hips back and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Pause, and slowly stand back up." This will workout your lower back as well as every muscle in your legs. 

                                        

Next exercise will be Judo Push-Up:

"Begin in a pushup position but move your feet hip-width apart and forward, and raise your hips so your body almost forms an upside-down V. Lower the front of your body until your chin nears the floor. Then lower your hips as you raise your head and shoulders toward the ceiling. Now reverse the movement and return to the starting position". This exercise works your calves, triceps, abs, entire back, as well as your chest (plus a little bit of forearm just because you're holding yourself up). 

     

The next exercise is my favorite which is the Sprinter Sit-Ups:

This exercise burns a lot of calories. The muscle groups it hits are your quads, abbs, lower back and upper back (trapezoid). Here is how you perform the exercise: Lie on your back with your legs straight and arms at your sides, keeping your elbows bent at 90 degrees. As you sit up, twist your upper body to the left and bring your left knee toward your right elbow while you swing your left arm back. Lower your body to the starting position, and repeat to your right.

And this is my circuit Full-Body workout that I like to use at the gym. Remember this thing hits 300 muscles, I was simply naming the main muscle groups people like to go for when workout out.  The first time I did this I was winded very quickly, and took many breaks. The following day my entire body felt like mush, so trust me when I say to take breaks. The easier it becomes the less breaks you will take, but no matter what you will get a great workout from this circuit!

"15-Minute Workout." Quick Full-Body Workout: Men's Health.com. Rodale Inc., 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Fitness. intro

Chris Lovejoy                       

Professor Quinn

English 112

3 April 10, 13

The Full Fitness Guide

            You always hear about new years resolutions and when you do, getting “Fit” is always on their lists.  Whether you are trying to bulk up with some muscle or just trying to slim down and fit into those pants, then you will need to learn about the fitness required to do so.  Fitness, “Sound physically and mentally” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fit?show=0&t=1365615775.  Working out to become fit is more than just lifting some weights and expecting results.  Lifting specific muscle groups should be a main focus as well as the amount of repetitions and sets you do.  Just remember to never forget proper form of the lift. 

            The cold hard truth about fitness is no matter how much you lift and cardio you do, intake of the proper nutritional foods is the key.  Healthy food, whether trying to bulk or trying to cut down, will help you see results incredibly quicker than ingesting your daily fix of Mcdonald’s , Chipotle, etc. Food is not the only thing that can really benefit you besides the obvious of lifting weights.  The right supplements can really increase a good workout to help improve overall goals like losing or gaining weight. Different supplements do different things, some better than others, but if interested it doesn’t hurt to try them out and see the effects they can give you.

During Workout Supplements

Intra-Workout supplement

Now that we have discussed the benefits of pre workout supplements, we will talk about intra-workout or during workout supplements. Lets talk about why you would benefit from taking an intra workout supplement. These supplements are meant to increase your "Pump". How they increase your pump is simple. Nitric Oxide is the key determining factor in how many nutrients reach your muscle cells as well as enabling how quickly your body can buffer lactic acid. Lactic acid is the "Burn" sensation you feel when working out which ultimately makes you lose strength. The more Nitric Oxide, the less burn, as well as the more nutrients. Your muscles need nutrients to use, so the more nutrients you get the more you can lift. See how this is starting to make sense? Supplements like Hemavol 
     

and supplements like Yok3d   

are the ones that will increase your pump while lifting. The main difference between these lifting supplements and pre workout supplements are that the pre workout supplements are meant to give you energy and increase heart rate. As I said before, the intra workout supplements are simply meant to help you maintain your pumps and not get sore during your lifts to allow you to lift for longer. The longer you lift the more you rip your muscles, the more they grow the better results you see.  I am a strong believer of taking these sorts of supplements to get all you can out of a lift. As long as you take the recommended dosage, you will be okay.

Supps... or no supps

Pre-Workout Supplements

To take workout supplements or to not? Pre-Work out, during, or after? How bad are they really? Some people believe they are bad for you, and some people really do not worry because the results out weight the consequences. Where do you stand on the matter?  There are supplements strictly for energy during the work out. Some of these workout supplements include Jack3d, NoXplode, and C4. Some of those supplements can still be purchased, while some of them cant. That is what I will be covering in this blog. 

                      

Do you see those bottles right above, yeah those ones, that is a pre workout supplement that is used more than any other in the world (USP Labs). The bottle on the left is the original Jack3d. It blew everybody's minds with the pre-workout pumps you could get from it. It has won many awards and was rated the best, yes I said was. That was all before it was reported "that it has been linked to high blood pressure, headaches, vomiting, stroke and even death." This is because of 1,3 dimethylamylamine, well at least that is the ingredient that USP labs took out of jack3d to create Jack3d micro which is there new product. 

How would you feel if you had a heart attack due to a product that you were taking and was given no warning towards the effects that could injure you? If you ask me, do not abuse a product and it will not abuse you. I am sure someone took to much of a jack3d and that is why they were injured. It increases your heart rate with the recommended dose, and when you take more that will just increase it even more. I am no doctor, but I bet a unnaturally high heart rate could cause you to go to the hospital. People abuse it after they know there is a recommended dose and get hurt then sue and get it taken off the market. Get a big check and are happy about it. I am all for the workout supplement, but that could be just me.

http://usplabsdirect.com/jack3d.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2194656/Jack3d-sports-supplement-banned-Britain-fears-lethal-effects.html

Shoulders part 2.

Shoulders

Today is your second exercise for shoulders. Remember we keep mixing up the different workouts because when muscle memory kicks in it gets easier to lift the same thing over and over. The easier it gets the less you're working out your muscle and less progress you make.  Your next 3 exercises will consist of the first two having 3 sets a peace with reps of 10,8,6.  The last exercise you do is going to be a burn out. Burn outs are the best way to cut a muscle up because you're doing light weight many more times then you would do a normal lift. The first exercise is Military press. 

- Military Press

This exercise is perfect for shoulders. Hits all parts of your shoulders as well as triceps and upper chest. Like I said above, you will be doing 3 sets with reps of 10,8,6. Always have a spotter handy, this is not an exercise you want to fail on and have all that weight drop on you. 

1. Sit on a bench with back support in a squat rack. Position a barbell at a height that is just above your head. Grab the barbell with a pronated grip (palms facing forward).
2. Once you pick up the barbell with the correct grip width, lift the bar up over your head by locking your arms. Hold at about shoulder level and slightly in front of your head. This is your starting position.
3. Lower the bar down to the shoulders slowly as you inhale.
4. Lift the bar back up to the starting position as you exhale.
5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.         

That is how you perform this exercise.

Next is Arnold Dumbbell press, and yes this exercise Arnold Schwarzenegger invented that is why it is called the Arnold dumbbell press. This exercise hits Triceps and Shoulders. Again you will do 3 sets with reps of 10,8,6. Go with whatever weight you can complete the amount of reps listed. This is how you perform this exercise:

1. Sit on an exercise bench with back support and hold two dumbbells in front of you at about upper chest level with your palms facing your body and your elbows bent. Tip: Your arms should be next to your torso. The starting position should look like the contracted portion of a dumbbell curl.
2. Now to perform the movement, raise the dumbbells as you rotate the palms of your hands until they are facing forward.
3. Continue lifting the dumbbells until your arms are extended above you in straight arm position. Breathe out as you perform this portion of the movement.
4. After a second pause at the top, begin to lower the dumbbells to the original position by rotating the palms of your hands towards you. Tip: The left arm will be rotated in a counter clockwise manner while the right one will be rotated clockwise. Breathe in as you perform this portion of the movement.
5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

 - Arnold Dumbbell Press

The final exercise is called battling ropes. Here is how it looks before I even begin to talk about it because I know you're wondering what does this look like.
- Battling Ropes
This exercise is a burn out. You will not be going for reps here. You will do 3 sets, first set you will perform this exercise for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Second set you will go down to 1 minute, and third you will continue to go down to 45 seconds. Go at your own pace, go hard enough to make sure you are getting a work out but slow enough so you will complete the time per set. This exercise not only works out your shoulders but hits every muscle in your arms as well as your chest and core. Here is how you do it:

1. For this exercise you will need a heavy rope anchored at its center 15-20 feet away. Standing in front of the rope, take an end in each hand with your arms extended at your side. This will be your starting position.
2. Initiate the movement by rapidly raising one arm to shoulder level as quickly as you can.
3. As you let that arm drop to the starting position, raise the opposite side.
4. Continue alternating your left and right arms, whipping the ropes up and down as fast as you can. 

(all images taken from google) 

Back day part 2

Back/Traps

If you did the exercises in my last back and traps post then thats good! But it is time to change it up. Lets start with traps since I am really excited to show you this next exercise, Head Harness!

- Head harness raises

There is no better way in my opinion to grow your neck than using a head harness. You have to purchase this since it cant be done like shrugs, but the results are amazing! Do as many sets and reps as you feel comfortable since some people's traps are significantly stronger than others. I would start with 2 sets but go as you please. Try not to go too heavy with this exercise at first or you will be sore for a week I promise. 

I have recently start doing incline bench pull on back days. Some gyms have machines for this exercise where you can simply stack weight on, lift it off the stand, and you pull up as many time as possible before setting it back down on the stand which is perfect for lifting by yourself. - Incline bench pull

If your gym does not have this I also know another way for you to perform an alternative to this exercise but still great none the less. What you do is take a flat bench, put one end in the corner where 2 walls meet, lift the opposite end up between your legs while you squat and put as much weight as you feel possible than lift to your chest. I would love to show you a picture but I cannot seam to find one so hopefully I described it well enough for you to perform next lift. Both those lifts are great for working every part of your back, just watch out where you put your chest on the bench because some times you tend to lose breath depending on if your chest is too high on it.

Biceps Part 2/Forearm

Alternative Bicep/Forearm 

Looking back at my previous blogs I saw I could include a few more bicep workouts for you to use, whoever you may be.  Hammer curls and normal dumbbell curls are key to anybodies main bicep day. Other great exercises for you to try out are preacher curls and standing bar curls. Preacher curls are very good for extending your bicep just like hammer curls do. Standing bar curls are your standard curl that gives you that big knot everybody looks for in a muscular arm. Both exercises should be 3+ sets.  Add weight every set and lower your reps every set. I try to do 10,8,6 but if you start on lighter weight do 12,10,8 reps. Here is how you perform both exercises: - Preacher curls

(you can do variations of one arm Dumbbell preachers back to straight bar)

- Standing bar curls

Now onto forearms! Forearms are great for improving almost every other exercise. Having stronger forearms allows you to grip things much easier. Holding a flat bar while doing bench becomes easier so you can focus on performing a perfect bench lift. Holding dumbbells becomes easier when doing shrugs so you can do more reps. And not to mention forearms are completely underrated when it comes to making your arms look bigger. I am going to start with reverse barbell curls. - Reverse barbell curl

Follow the same reps and sets as above. This exercise allows you get more mass on top of your arm and get that defined line along the top of it. The second benefit is that it hits your biceps too so you are actually working out more than one muscle group. Now to hit the bottom part of your forearm. Barbell wrist curl is perfect for hitting the bottom of your forearms and give yourself mass on it. 

   - Barbell wrist curl

All of these images are straight off of google. These all show you the perfect range of motion you should be moving the weights as well as the position you should be in when performing the lifts.

abbs continued

Ab workout continued

Now here is an ab routine that is meant to be quick and painless, okay well maybe not painless that is kind of what we are looking to do here. In my last post I knew not everybody would want to work out abs for a very long time so here is a perfect routine for those who just like to hit abs as a warm up or right at the end of a work out right before they leave.

Lets begin.  I will post pictures of how to perform each of these workouts at the end. First we start with one minute bicycles. Lift your arms above your head and begin moving both legs in a pedaling motion. Reverse the direction of your pedal after 30 seconds. After that go into one minute pulse ups. Lie flat on the floor with your hands to each side. Raise your legs straight to the ceiling and slowly lift your hips off the floor. Keep your toes pointed towards the ceiling. Slowly lower your legs to the floor and repeat. Remember to take breaks when needed. One minute oblique side bends are next. Lying on your side, position your body with a slight bend at your waist. With hands behind your head, slowly lift your legs and torso towards the ceiling. This is a very awkward work out but gets easier as time goes on. Practice makes perfect! Fourth is V ups for one minute. SLOW SLOW SLOW that is the key to this one. Lying on the floor with hands above your head, slowly lift yourself up as if you were doing a sit-up and touch your toes. Slowly bring your body back to the floor while simultaneously lifting your legs about 30 degrees off the floor. With hands still behind your head, slowly lift your body again and touch your toes without bringing your legs to the ground. Hold for a moment and return to the starting position. The last minute is the one minute twist! Now this exercise is meant to be FAST FAST FAST! With knees bent, raise your legs about six inches off the floor. Move your upper body in a twisting motion side to side, touching both hands on the floor. The faster you go the harder it gets. Feel free to add Dumbbells if it gets to become too easy. 

- Bicycle.

- Pulse ups

- Side Bends

- V ups

- Twist

Abbs

Abbs

Alrighty people, I hate to say it but when it comes to abbs most the work is done in the kitchen and not in the gym. Because this blog is about abb workouts and not diet yet though I will stick straight to some good abb workouts. The First exercise is Vertical Leg Crunches. This is what is looks like :

                                                                                                                                       

"How to:

1. Lie on the floor and extend the legs straight up with knees crossed.
2. Place your hands behind the head for support, but avoid pulling on the neck.
3. Contract the abs to lift the shoulder blades off the floor, as though reaching your chest towards your feet.
4. Keep the legs in a fixed position and imagine bringing your belly button towards your spine at the top of the movement.

Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
These are good for core abbs but help with your legs a bit I might add.
The next exercise is Captains Chair Leg raise. This exercise requires the machine to hold you up and cannot be done without it unfortunately. This is is how to do the exercise:
                                                                                                                                 
"How to:

1. Stand on the chair and grip handholds to stabilize your upper body.
2. Press your back against the pad and contract the abs to raise the legs and lift knees towards your chest.
3. Don't arch the back or swing the legs up.
4. Slowly lower back down and repeat for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps. "
5. You can also change the angle of your legs to come it at the side to workout the outside of your abbs.

My final exercise I do is Planks. Planks are great because they can be done anywhere just like the first exercise and also work your back and arms out a little too. Here is how you do this one:                                                                                          
"How to:

1. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
2. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.
3. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.
4. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air or sagging in the middle.
5. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps."

Now all of these exercises you can follow the recommended reps and set, if you do not want to take that long and are looking for a quicker abb exercise. My next blog will show you a faster one.                         

Fitness

Legs Day

Fitness

Shoulders

Want to get that arm shredded? Want to get a little wider so you fill in those large shirts better? This is how you do it.  Shoulder workouts are so important for your upper body. It helps with nearly every other workout you do.  People tend to forget about doing those shoulder workouts.  Personally I work them out on chest day since you can hit both muscle groups at once.  They do all those things I listed above, which are all pretty important things if you want to get that full body workout throughout the week.  

I have three main workouts I am going to show you, dumbbell lateral raises, dumbbell front raises, and bent over lateral raises. Each of these I do 3 sets with reps of 12, 10, and 8.  The higher the reps the cutter you get which will show on your arms a lot and give you that shredded arm everybody wants whether you're a guy or girl. Lets start with lateral raises. "Raise the dumbells out to your sides until they reach shoulder level. Complete the exercise by lowering the dumbells back to the starting position." These will work the side deltoids perfectly, the first picture below will show you how to perform this exercise. Next is the dumbbell front raises.  "Using one arm at a time, raise a dumbell out in front of you to shoulder level. Complete the exercise by lowering the dumbell under control back to the starting position. Repeat with the opposite side". The second picture will show you how to perform this exercise. Finally you do the bent over lateral raises.  "Stand bent at the waist with your knees slightly spread. Grasp the dumbells with your palms facing inward and your elbows slightly bent. Raise the dumbells out to your sides.  Return the dumbells back to the starting position".

 

http://www.muscletech.com/resources/features/shoulder_training/

Fitness

Back Day

Back day has recently became my favorite day to work out. After watching the latest batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and seeing Bane (The Villain) with his enormous back it changed my perspective on lifting. When you start off lifting everybody just wants to get huge arms that make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

                                                                                                                           

Those arms are big right, but I would rather look a little something like this:

 

 Most people tend to work out your Latissimus  Dori a.k.a. your lats more than anything else.  That is because your lats are the biggest muscles on your back. Yes, that will make your back bigger and give you that V look, but there are a couple other muscles that will make your entire upper back a lot stronger and give it a better look to it. I am going to start with every mans favorite back exercise, the Lat Pull downs. they look a little something like this:

            

Hit that machine and you will have a back like bane in no time. Working out your traps give you good size and make your neck look thicker.  There aren't many exercises to working your traps out. The easiest way I have found is to simply take dumbbells at waist side, lower your head, and raise your shoulders to ear height and lower them. The other muscle you should focus on working out is your rhomboid. that is the muscle between your shoulders which gives you a nice crease and defines your back more rather than just size. The workout for this is very simple, like the lat pull down picture you see above, you do the same thing but use a narrower bar about 4 inches apart with the handles parallel.  You do all the same motion as the picture above your hands are just closer.  Doing these three workouts will allow your upper back to increase in both strength and size. 

         Murphy, Myatt. "Back Exercises." Men's Health Magazine : Men's Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom. Rodale Inc, 28 July 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. <http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/back-exercises>                                                                                          

Fitness

Chest Day

This discussion will be about working out your chest aka pectorals. I have been trying to get some size on my body, so I will be talking about how to get mass and girth on your chest. There are many exercises and different ways to perform them to work out your chest, I am going to talk about the top 5 that I use. 

First I'll talk about the actual muscle it self. Your chest is two muscles, the pectoral major and minor, but just one big muscle mass really. When working out you focus on three different sections of it; your upper, lower, and middle sections.  All exercises will be 3 sets consisting of 10 reps, 8 reps, and 6 reps. The higher the reps the lower weight you can lift which will cut you up rather than give you size. The lower the reps the more weight you can lift which will give you size, so that is why you end on 6 reps for final and do not do more.  

I am going to start with middle section of your chest. Straight flat bench works that part of your chest the best, so I always make sure I do that work out every time it's chest day.  When working my upper chest, I do one of two workouts.  Incline dumbbell press and incline normal bench.  Both of them work your upper chest perfectly. Lower chest you can do the same thing as upper, but instead of being on an incline bench you will be on a decline one. Here are some pictures to show you what some of the exercises look like:

                  My two other workouts I like to do while on chest day are pec deck machineand chest dips .

 Stewart, Alex. "5 Mass-Building Chest Workouts." Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 16 Sept. 2009. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. <http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/beginner-chest-training-guide.htm>

Fitness

Bi's and Tri's

Let me first start off by saying that I work arms all on one day.  Some people don't like to do that because they feel like working arms on one day ruins your workout on other muscle groups for the rest of the week.  I do not see it that way. If you take supplements like XTend which are amino acids (Building Block of protein which rebuild your muscles) it helps you recover faster so you can take a day off then be right back at the gym. People tend to work out Bi and Back together and Tri and chest together because usually when you work one your working the other on most work outs.  That is good if you cannot make it to the gym a lot during the week, but when you have time to go to the gym throughout the week it tends to make you lift lighter weight because lets say your on the bench; you're working out your chest mostly but you are also hitting your tri's. So when you go to work out Tri's next you already drained some energy out of them and will not be able to lift as much.  Same thing goes to Bi's. Lets say you do Lat pull downs you also hit your Bi's, so when you finish and go to do some sort of curl work out, you already drained your Biceps of energy a bit. But back to some useful workouts.  I like to start off with regular Dumbbell curls. 3 Sets going from 12 reps to 10 then to 8.  Do the same sets for every workout I talk about. To do a good rep just keep your arms at your waist and SLOWLY lift with your palms facing outward from your body and try to keep your arms still at your waist.  Next I go to skull crushers.  There are many different ways to do it, I just lay down on a flat bench with a J bar, lift directly above my head, and with your palms facing outward slowly lower the weight down to your skull and lift back up.  Next you can do some hammer curls.  The difference between hammer curls and normals curls are you do everything the same besides you face your palms towards your waist. This allows your bicep to extend further rather than having one big bulky bicep. After doing triceps extension on the ropes. To do these successfully you must keep your elbows in at all times and have them flush with your side. Slow and staying with the amount of sets and repetitions will give you a solid burn on this workout. These are just a few workouts that really hit the muscle groups well. Hopefully you try them out next time you decide to do arm day at the gym.

Preparation

Your day should always start off with a good meal.  You need energy to lift those heavy weights, and how else could you get better energy than by eating a solid healthy meal.  I always eat oatmeal in the morning or I'll eat an egg sandwich (egg and cheese and fried bologna). Without the appropriate carb in take you lack the energy needed for the long intense workout some people look for. Eating oatmeal and eggs and chicken in the morning are all great morning meals with high carbs. Eating good meals is not the only thing needed for a good work out though. Your sleep patterns can really affect the amount of energy you have while lifting. Too little sleep and too much sleep can tire you out and not give you the energy you need, 6-8 hours of sleep are suggested for the norm.  Choosing the correct time of the day to work out is a big kicker too.  Try to work out during the day when you have the most energy because then you will be able to lift your heaviest weight.  Hydration is also a key factor when it comes to lifting to your highest potential. Take all these things into consideration, you don't always need to be perfect with all these different benefits that can help with a better work out, but if you can manage to stay on top of as many of them as possible you should really see a big difference in your lifting or weight cutting depending on what your looking to do. Another big thing is whether you want a work out partner or not. Some people like to have another person with them to encourage them more and push them as hard as they can. While other people like being alone and going at their own pace.  For me it depends on my mood.  Sometimes you just want to be alone and "crush it" and other times its nice to have someone to help you along the way and get you going.  One good hint though, when your lifting heavy weight and don't know if you can get it, that is when it is good to have a partner to spot you.  Better safe then sorry.

Introduction

My blog focuses on working out. Exercise, weight lifting, eating well, and whatever I can come up with will be my topics I chose to write about. I will be giving great workout routines and things you should try to do like how many reps you should do per workout, how to do a quality rep, and how many sets to do. I'll talk about overworking a muscle group too hard on a workout as well as knowing when to finish. Now I do not know much about dieting because I personally have never had to diet, but I will research calorie intake and how much you should take in and work off while trying to lose weight. Their are a lot of different cardio work-outs that say "Weight will fall off" and strange slogans like that. I want to find the difference between certain weight loss programs like Insanity and P90X to see why they work so well.  I am thinking my blogs will start off with discussing about working out different muscle groups and different work-out routines and once I feel that I have hit the main muscle groups people tend to work out I will start off talking about exercise or eating well. Everybody's new years resolution has lifting all over it, it was my own last year. Maybe people will take some good advice from this blog and maybe they wont, but I will make sure I put some good hints and advice in here to get big. I will throw in some supplement advice in here too, depending on your supplement intake can really change how your work out affects your body progress.

Hitting the Gym

HITTING THE GYM

 Thinking of a good blogging topic has been interesting to think about. I sat around trying to think of a good topic that could keep me interested in talking about for the next 16 weeks as well as be able to find research on and educate myself as well as my readers about. The only thing I could think of for me is going to the gym.

I have been going to the gym now for the past year now and never really looked into all the factors it takes to improve on all aspects of increasing strength and losing fat and what not. 

1. How many calories does it take to consume see a difference in size?
2. How many calories does it take to burn to see a difference in size?
3. What supplements are good to take and which ones arent?
4. Which workouts are good to do and how to perform them?
5.  How long should you spend on cardio and normal weight training?

These are all questions I would like to answer and talk about as well as anything else that comes across my mind this semester that seams like it should be included in this topic.