All You Need to Know About Cardio

Depending on how your body responds and what your specific goals are, any type of cardio training can get the job done. Although both types of cardio will really work, there are differing thoughts on which types are best for fat loss.

The two main types of cardio training include

• ·      LISS - Low intensity Steady State
• ·      HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training 

LISS

LISS cardio is mainly known as an easygoing form of cardio that doesn’t put much stress on the body. LISS can help boost metabolism and burn a few extra calories.

Forms of LISS usually take 30-60 minutes and include:

• ·      Walking or jogging on a treadmill or outside
• ·      Cross trainer or elliptical machines
• ·      Stair stepper or stair master
• ·      Rowing machines
• ·      Swimming (this requires a bit more skill. You need to be a good swimmer to ensure it stays low intensity)
• ·      Water running or walking

When performing this type of cardio training, it is important to remember that it is meant to be slower, take more time, and that it is part of a calculated training regime. LISS should be done primarily on active rest days, or days where your body feels too worked from other exercise for a high intensity cardio session

HIIT

HIIT cardio is a high intensity style of training that taxes the body much more than LISS training and puts your body fat under direct assault. This style introduces a whole other level of intensity and activity from continuous LISS cardio that most people do. HIIT training will also yield better results in less time, however, it is important to keep in mind that it takes a lot of energy from the body and should be done at a maximum of 3-4 times per week.

Forms of HIIT cardio usually take no more than 10-20 minutes and include:

• ·      A high intensity period of sprinting outside or on any form of cardio machine for a calculated period of time
• ·      Follow up with a short interval of low intensity walking or complete rest.
• ·      This combination of training is repeated as many times as possible within the 10-20 minute time period for the HIIT training session.
• ·      You can expect to do one cycle every 1-2 minutes

How Protein Becomes Muscle

Yes, this is a sidetrack from information about cardio training that I am supposed to be posting about this week, but this was too good to pass up.

I will be sure to write a longer, more in depth post about cardio training later this week.

If you have ever wondered about the science of how your muscles actually grow and get stronger, this video on How Protein Becomes Muscle is an excellent and informational source for learning how the foods you eat transform into gains on the body.

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/how-protein-becomes-muscle

Building Your Back

Building a bigger and stronger back can be one of the hardest things to do in the gym for two reasons.

• It is one of those muscles that you never really see.
• It can be difficult to really feel the benefit of back exercises because there are so many different points of motion before the pull fully reaches the targeted muscles in the back.

When you make a pulling movement to work your back, that weight is pivoting through your wrist, elbow, shoulder, and finally the contracting muscles in your back, which makes it hard to fully feel the muscle being worked. It is important to use a weight that you are comfortable doing many reps with and to hold the rep at full contraction for at least one second before slowly lowering the weight.

One more thing that you want to be sure to always do is keep your back straight. This will help you keep proper form and more importantly protect your spine from injury.

This being said, lets look at some back exercises to perform for your specific fitness goals:

Size Building

• •   Lat Pull-Downs (wide grip)          3 sets x 12 reps
• •   Lat Pull-Downs (Close Grip)        3 sets x 12 reps
• •   Cable Rows                                   3 sets x 12 reps
• •   Dumbbell Lawn Mower Pulls       3 sets x 10 reps

Strength Building

• •   Weighted Pull-Ups                        5 sets x 5 reps
• •   Lat Pull-Downs (wide grip)          5 sets x 5 reps
• •   Barbell Rows                                 5 sets x 5 reps
• •   Deadlifts                                        5 sets x 5 reps

Combination of Size & Strength

• •   Pull-Ups                                        3 sets x 6-8 reps
• •   Lat Pull-Downs (wide grip)          3 sets x 6-8 reps
• •   Cable Rows                                   3 sets x 6-8 reps
• •   Dumbbell Lawn Mover Pulls        3 sets x 6-8 reps

Back to Basics

The next few weeks are going to follow a fairly similar schedule to last weeks posts on “Basic Exercises For Training Your Chest”. I plan to introduce and explain the basic exercises for different muscle groups in my first post of the week, and in my second post I will provide three workout routines that correspond with building size, strength, or a little bit of both.

This week is all about building a thick and wide back (AKA meat shield). I will talk about a number of different back exercises here, and later I will throw in some exercise routines with reps and sets for different fitness goals.

Common Back Exercises:

• ·      Pull-Ups – The most common and best exercise for your back. It is important to know that there are different types of Pull-Ups depending on where your hands are placed, but for beginners, don’t worry about that and just grab hold of an overhead bar and pull yourself up. This exercise works the Latisimus Dorsi, which spans a majority of your back. The more weight or reps you add, the bigger and stronger your back will grow
• ·      Pull-Downs – Very similar to pull-ups, however, they have a more isolating effect on the back. You are still pulling weight like a pull-up, but since you are seated in a fixed position there is more focus on breaking down the muscle. This exercise is better for building size instead of overall strength and thickness from generic pull-ups
• ·      Rows – Another one of the best and most common exercises to perform. Rows can be done on a cable machine, a barbell, dumbbells, and there are even more variations within these three options. In a row, you have the weight in front of you and you are pulling it to you chest. You want to feel the muscles squeeze in your back and then slowly let the weight back to its starting position. This exercise will build size and strength in your upper back
• ·      Deadlifts – A more advanced lift, however, when done properly, will greatly increase overall strength and thickness of your back. Check out this video to perform a proper deadlift 

If you would like to learn more about different exercises for your back, I suggest checking out the Top 5 Muscle-Building Exercises ForThe Back, on MuscleandFitness.com

3 Workouts For Building Your Chest

Now that we talked about the basic exercises and movements for training your chest, I want to talk about the anatomy of the chest and how different combinations of these exercises, along with a variety of rep ranges, will help you reach your goals of building size, strength, or somewhere in between.

When you glance in the mirror it seems like the chest is all one big muscle group, but it is actually a combination of two layers of muscle. The first is the pectoralis major, which is a larger sheet of that you see in the mirror, and the second being the pectoralis minor, which is a smaller sheet, which lies underneath. These two muscles work together for the sole purpose of pushing things.

Although the chest is just one big muscle group, it is important to think of your chest as three different muscles consisting of upper, middle, and lower sections.

So lets look at some combinations of exercises and rep ranges that work on these different areas and help you meet specific fitness goals:

Size Building

• ·      Barbell Bench Press                           3 sets x 12 reps
• ·      Incline Barbell Bench Press              3 sets x 12 reps
• ·      Decline Barbell Bench Press             3 sets x 12 reps
• ·      Dumbbell Fly’s                                  3 sets x 10 reps
• ·      Push-ups                                            3 sets till failure 

Strength Building

• ·      Barbell Bench Press                          5 sets x 5 reps
• ·      Barbell Incline Press                         5 sets x 5 reps
• ·      Decline Barbell Bench Press             5 sets x 5 reps
• ·      Dips (add weight if you can)             5 sets x 5 reps
• ·      Push-ups                                            5 sets till failure 

Combination of Size & Strength

• ·      Dumbbell Flat Bench                        3 sets x 6-8 reps
• ·      Dumbbell Incline Bench                   3 sets x 6-8 reps
• ·      Dumbbell Decline Bench Press        3 sets x 6-8 reps
• ·      Dumbbell Fly’s                                 3 sets x 10 reps
• ·      Push-ups                                           3 sets till failure