Why do people want to isolate certain muscles anyway? First off the body doesn't work well with body part isolation. the body works much better with the complex movements of a full body workout. Large parts of the body help smaller parts of the body by completing complex movements. To be truly honest there really no such thing as body part isolation. In almost every case there's a nearby muscle group and joints that will help with whatever movement or exercise your trying to attempt. Overall, this article gives you the pros and cons of what single joint workouts can do to your body in the long run vs. what full body works and more complex movements can do for your body in the long run.
By attempting to try to isolate muscles by performing a single joint exercise, you are really making your body more injury prone and non functional. you are creating a body that has strength in single joints rather than others instead of a powerful work of art that works as one whole unit. muscle isolation is great if you want to end up hopping around in body riddled with joint pain and injuries. muscle isolation can also cause excess body fat. So if this is the body you want go ahead with trying to isolate body parts. On the flip side of things if you want a body that looks like it was sculpted by the gods you need to turn all your attention away from muscle isolation.
If you ask any one of the players in the NFL about body part isolation they will look at you crazy. These guys are crazy ripped and they never do body part isolation. single joint workouts don't burn half the calories as much as a full body exercise would. with a complex movement workout you will see that it's much easier to lose weight vs. a muscle isolation workout. All this is possible because your metabolic rate is being accelerated and production of fat burning and muscle building hormones such as testosterone and other growth hormones are being increased. For example the leg extension machine only works the quads mainly. This can cause knee joint problems in the close to near future. Plus it doesn't burn much calories. Now full body workouts focusing on your chest arms and legs are complex movements that work hundreds of muscles including the quad as one unit. This also burns a crazy amount of calories.
I do believe that complex full body workouts should consume your workout but you can benefit from very small inclusions of single joint exercises. In my opinion your workout should be 85 to 95 % of full body workouts and only 5 to 10 % single joint work outs.
if you're interested in discovering more ways to create a body that looks as good as it functions, pick up a copy of the innovative book The Truth About Six Pack Abs just go to http://www.newweightlosstricks.com to sign up and download a free E-book about the secrets of training and nutrition. it only available for a limited time so hurry!!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Ultimate Hard-Body Exercise
The Front Squat (a surprising exercise not only for legs, but also rock hard abs!)
As you may have already discovered, the squat is at the top of the heap (along with deadlifts) as one of the most effective overall exercises for stimulating body composition changes (muscle gain and fat loss). This is because exercises like squats and deadlifts use more muscle groups under a heavy load than almost any other weight bearing exercises known to man. Squats and deadlifts use hundreds of muscles throughout your entire body to move the load and also to stabilize your body while doing the drill.
Hence, these exercises stimulate the greatest hormonal responses (growth hormone, testosterone, etc.) of all exercises.
In fact, university research studies have even proven that inclusion of squats into a training program increases upper body development, in addition to lower body development, even though upper body specific joint movements are not performed during the squat. Whether your goal is gaining muscle mass, losing body fat, building a strong and functional body, or improving athletic performance, the basic squat and deadlift (and their variations) are the ultimate solution.
If you don’t believe me that squats and deadlifts are THE basis for a lean and powerful body, then go ahead and join all of the other overweight people pumping away mindlessly for hours on boring cardio equipment.
Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just body weight. Squats should only be done with free weights – NEVER with a Smith machine! My program, The Truth About Six Pack Abs contains the full story on why machines are so inferior and even potentially DANGEROUS compared to free weights.
The type of squat that people are most familiar with is the barbell back squat where the bar is resting on the trapezius muscles of the upper back. Many professional strength coaches believe that front squats (where the bar rests on the shoulders in front of the head) and overhead squats (where the bar is locked out in a snatch grip overhead throughout the squat) are more functional to athletic performance than back squats with less risk of lower back injury.
I feel that a combination of all three (not necessarily during the same phase of your workouts) will yield the best results for overall muscular development, body fat loss, and athletic performance. Front squats are moderately more difficult than back squats, while overhead squats are considerably more difficult than either back squats or front squats. I’ll cover overhead squats in a future blog post.
If you are only accustomed to performing back squats, it will take you a few sessions to become comfortable with front squats, so start out light. After a couple sessions of practice, you will start to feel the groove and be able to increase the poundage.
To perform front squats:
The front squat recruits the abdominals to a much higher degree for stability due to the more upright position compared with back squats. It is mostly a lower body exercise, but is great for functionally incorporating core strength and stability into the squatting movement. If you're doing front squats right, you'll feel a hard contraction in your abs during these.
It can also be slightly difficult to learn how to properly rest the bar on your shoulders. There are two ways to rest the bar on the front of the shoulders.
In the first method, you step under the bar and cross your forearms into an “X” position while resting the bar on the dimple that is created by the shoulder muscle near the bone, keeping your elbows up high so that your arms are parallel to the ground. You then hold the bar in place by pressing the thumb side of your fists against the bar for support.
Alternatively, you can hold the bar by placing your palms face up and the bar resting on your fingers against your shoulders. For both methods, your elbows must stay up high to prevent the weight from falling. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground throughout the squat. Find out which bar support method is more comfortable for you.
Then, initiate the squat from your hips by sitting back and down keeping the weight on your heels as opposed to the balls of your feet. Squat down to a position where your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground, then press back up to the starting position. Keeping your weight more towards your heels is the key factor in squatting to protect your knees from injury and develop strong injury resistant knee joints.
Keep in mind – squats done correctly actually strengthen the knees; squats done incorrectly can damage the knees. Practice first with an un-weighted bar or a relatively light weight to learn the movement. Most people are surprised how hard this exercise works your abs once you learn the correct form.
START/FINISH
MIDPOINT
get ripped 6-pack abs. For complete descriptions of over 50 of the most effective full body exercises for stripping away body fat while developing a rock-hard body, download my world-famous program -
The Truth About Six Pack Abs (used by over 263,000 readers in 154 countries currently).
Thanks for listening ,
Darius Woodard
As you may have already discovered, the squat is at the top of the heap (along with deadlifts) as one of the most effective overall exercises for stimulating body composition changes (muscle gain and fat loss). This is because exercises like squats and deadlifts use more muscle groups under a heavy load than almost any other weight bearing exercises known to man. Squats and deadlifts use hundreds of muscles throughout your entire body to move the load and also to stabilize your body while doing the drill.
Hence, these exercises stimulate the greatest hormonal responses (growth hormone, testosterone, etc.) of all exercises.
In fact, university research studies have even proven that inclusion of squats into a training program increases upper body development, in addition to lower body development, even though upper body specific joint movements are not performed during the squat. Whether your goal is gaining muscle mass, losing body fat, building a strong and functional body, or improving athletic performance, the basic squat and deadlift (and their variations) are the ultimate solution.
If you don’t believe me that squats and deadlifts are THE basis for a lean and powerful body, then go ahead and join all of the other overweight people pumping away mindlessly for hours on boring cardio equipment.
Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just body weight. Squats should only be done with free weights – NEVER with a Smith machine! My program, The Truth About Six Pack Abs contains the full story on why machines are so inferior and even potentially DANGEROUS compared to free weights.
The type of squat that people are most familiar with is the barbell back squat where the bar is resting on the trapezius muscles of the upper back. Many professional strength coaches believe that front squats (where the bar rests on the shoulders in front of the head) and overhead squats (where the bar is locked out in a snatch grip overhead throughout the squat) are more functional to athletic performance than back squats with less risk of lower back injury.
I feel that a combination of all three (not necessarily during the same phase of your workouts) will yield the best results for overall muscular development, body fat loss, and athletic performance. Front squats are moderately more difficult than back squats, while overhead squats are considerably more difficult than either back squats or front squats. I’ll cover overhead squats in a future blog post.
If you are only accustomed to performing back squats, it will take you a few sessions to become comfortable with front squats, so start out light. After a couple sessions of practice, you will start to feel the groove and be able to increase the poundage.
To perform front squats:
The front squat recruits the abdominals to a much higher degree for stability due to the more upright position compared with back squats. It is mostly a lower body exercise, but is great for functionally incorporating core strength and stability into the squatting movement. If you're doing front squats right, you'll feel a hard contraction in your abs during these.
It can also be slightly difficult to learn how to properly rest the bar on your shoulders. There are two ways to rest the bar on the front of the shoulders.
In the first method, you step under the bar and cross your forearms into an “X” position while resting the bar on the dimple that is created by the shoulder muscle near the bone, keeping your elbows up high so that your arms are parallel to the ground. You then hold the bar in place by pressing the thumb side of your fists against the bar for support.
Alternatively, you can hold the bar by placing your palms face up and the bar resting on your fingers against your shoulders. For both methods, your elbows must stay up high to prevent the weight from falling. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground throughout the squat. Find out which bar support method is more comfortable for you.
Then, initiate the squat from your hips by sitting back and down keeping the weight on your heels as opposed to the balls of your feet. Squat down to a position where your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground, then press back up to the starting position. Keeping your weight more towards your heels is the key factor in squatting to protect your knees from injury and develop strong injury resistant knee joints.
Keep in mind – squats done correctly actually strengthen the knees; squats done incorrectly can damage the knees. Practice first with an un-weighted bar or a relatively light weight to learn the movement. Most people are surprised how hard this exercise works your abs once you learn the correct form.
START/FINISH
MIDPOINT
get ripped 6-pack abs. For complete descriptions of over 50 of the most effective full body exercises for stripping away body fat while developing a rock-hard body, download my world-famous program -
The Truth About Six Pack Abs (used by over 263,000 readers in 154 countries currently).
Thanks for listening ,
Darius Woodard
Monday, April 19, 2010
Hidden Secrets About Abs - That Fitness Gurus Dont Want You To Know!!!
First and foremost the most important thing to do in order to get control of losing your belly bulge and get a flat six pack is completely cleaning up your diet. Exercising is important, but your diet trumps all when it comes to losing body fat so that you can be able to see your abs.
There is so much disarray these days and ages about what a healthy diet that pushes fat loss really is... after all, we all are so overwhelmed by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carbs, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and thousands more. There's so much false information, that the average buyer doesn't even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss and a healthy body.
Another thing, is to focus incredibly hard on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in stead just a single body part in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that ever so stubborn stomach fat.
To really get fit, the workouts should have a high intensity level, with short periods of rest in between, work out the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.
For the last thing, let us talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes down to training the abs, if you want the best results, I always recommend you to forget about the stupid floor exercises for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really out of shape, but most people that are very well conditioned need a much better and intense work out for their abs than crunches and situps. Crunches is one of the abs workouts that actually provides barely any resistance, and remember that resistance is the key to develop and tone your muscles.
I’ve provided a ton of great abs workouts in my book, but one of “THE” most resistant exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the stupid way you see most people do them in the gym). The key to getting the best results is doing these and actually working the crap out of your abs, is to curl your pelvis bone up as you elevate your legs. Almost and I mean almost nobody ever does this exercise right. To be very honest, a huge amount of people can’t do this at first, but I provide some tips and tricks in my book as to how to progress to doing these extremely accurate.
I know this might sound funny to some people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is... are you listening to this?
They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time is spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it's the hidden true.
Remember this, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about sliming down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your exercises must mainly focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and giving you a higher metabolic rate. This just doesn’t happen when you focus too much of your time focusing and training a small muscle group like the abs.
Instead, you must use the majority of your time working and focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs as a whole not just the calves or hamstrings separately , the back, and your chest. This is what speeds up your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat six pack of abs!
When it comes to forming the six pack abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of leg rasing ab exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).
However, the most maximum definition in the abs and mid section comes from losing that stubborn body fat, and the most effective workouts featured in my book for that accomplishment are various kinds of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, cleans & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat six pack abs, focusing on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly is the key to success!
I have provided a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my program, which accounts for almost 2/3 of the book, but I'll try to make some nice and simple notes to get people started on the right path to six pack abs immediately. The most important thing is that your diet needs to be as natural and unprocessed as it possibly can. It almost always comes back to the over processing of food that makes the diet unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolic rate and hormonal balance in your body.
For one example, why would you eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains (even better than whole grains are sprouted grains, I would usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).
Why would you eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why in the world would you eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE most worst I repeat the worst things to eat in the modern diet), why not eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and things like that.
The point I try to get across all the time is to not fall for some gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as I know that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another.
Your body needs all macronutrients it can get to thrive and obtain an assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Try to cut out an entire food group will just work against what your body needs in the long run. I get into very much more detail on this extremely important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.
That’s a little information on how my program for lean flat abs can help you. Well, I hope you plucked several nuggets of information to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs in the near future. If you don't already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I've developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!
Thanks for listening,
Darius Woodard
There is so much disarray these days and ages about what a healthy diet that pushes fat loss really is... after all, we all are so overwhelmed by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carbs, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and thousands more. There's so much false information, that the average buyer doesn't even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss and a healthy body.
Another thing, is to focus incredibly hard on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in stead just a single body part in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that ever so stubborn stomach fat.
To really get fit, the workouts should have a high intensity level, with short periods of rest in between, work out the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.
For the last thing, let us talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes down to training the abs, if you want the best results, I always recommend you to forget about the stupid floor exercises for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really out of shape, but most people that are very well conditioned need a much better and intense work out for their abs than crunches and situps. Crunches is one of the abs workouts that actually provides barely any resistance, and remember that resistance is the key to develop and tone your muscles.
I’ve provided a ton of great abs workouts in my book, but one of “THE” most resistant exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the stupid way you see most people do them in the gym). The key to getting the best results is doing these and actually working the crap out of your abs, is to curl your pelvis bone up as you elevate your legs. Almost and I mean almost nobody ever does this exercise right. To be very honest, a huge amount of people can’t do this at first, but I provide some tips and tricks in my book as to how to progress to doing these extremely accurate.
I know this might sound funny to some people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is... are you listening to this?
They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time is spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it's the hidden true.
Remember this, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about sliming down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your exercises must mainly focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and giving you a higher metabolic rate. This just doesn’t happen when you focus too much of your time focusing and training a small muscle group like the abs.
Instead, you must use the majority of your time working and focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs as a whole not just the calves or hamstrings separately , the back, and your chest. This is what speeds up your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat six pack of abs!
When it comes to forming the six pack abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of leg rasing ab exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).
However, the most maximum definition in the abs and mid section comes from losing that stubborn body fat, and the most effective workouts featured in my book for that accomplishment are various kinds of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, cleans & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat six pack abs, focusing on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly is the key to success!
I have provided a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my program, which accounts for almost 2/3 of the book, but I'll try to make some nice and simple notes to get people started on the right path to six pack abs immediately. The most important thing is that your diet needs to be as natural and unprocessed as it possibly can. It almost always comes back to the over processing of food that makes the diet unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolic rate and hormonal balance in your body.
For one example, why would you eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains (even better than whole grains are sprouted grains, I would usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).
Why would you eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why in the world would you eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE most worst I repeat the worst things to eat in the modern diet), why not eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and things like that.
The point I try to get across all the time is to not fall for some gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as I know that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another.
Your body needs all macronutrients it can get to thrive and obtain an assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Try to cut out an entire food group will just work against what your body needs in the long run. I get into very much more detail on this extremely important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.
That’s a little information on how my program for lean flat abs can help you. Well, I hope you plucked several nuggets of information to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs in the near future. If you don't already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I've developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!
Thanks for listening,
Darius Woodard
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