All posts in category bodyweight

Cardio Before or After a Workout?

beginner strength training cardioThere’s a lot of debate out there right now about whether you should do your cardiovascular exercises before or after your beginner strength training routine. To be fair, there are a lot of valid arguments on each side, so I’m only going to offer my opinion on the matter.

Cardio Before Your Workout

The people who say to do cardio before a workout usually state that it’s an excellent way to get your circulation going before you get into the heavy lifting. They usually recommend light cardio before you start lifting weights, but I don’t think it’s the right approach.

In my opinion, a good stretching routine – which you should ALWAYS do – will do the job of getting your circulation up and running and really get the blood flowing for your workout.

Cardio After the Workout

When it comes to me, I have to say that I’m with the people who say to do the cardio after your workout. The reason is simple. Intense cardio activity will really drain your strength, and you are going to need that to get the most out of your strength routine.

If you get into a full aerobic workout before the strength training, your muscles will already be fatigued by the time you hit the weights, and you’ll work out less and with fewer reps. The idea is that cardio has more of an impact on strength training than strength training has on cardio.

The Best Time to Do Cardio

Ideally, you should actually do your cardio at a completely different time of day. If you have the schedule for it, you can even push it over to a different day completely. This gives you the highest possible energy levels for your beginner strength training.

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by Andrew on February 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on February 9, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/cardio-before-or-after-a-workout/

Beginner Strength Training Tips- Are Complex Exercises Good for Muscle Gain?

beginner strength training complex exercisesIn a word, yes. Complex exercises are very good for your workout routine, although many beginners are tempted to cut them out completely until they learn the ropes a little better. Unfortunately, if you train your body to stay away from those, you’re probably going to end up avoiding them for the rest of your life.

Get the difficult exercises in early and they’ll be much easier once your beginner strength training is becoming more advanced.

Multi-Joint and Single-Joint Exercises

Most exercises are classified into two categories: multi-joint and single-joint exercises. For a single joint exercise, you could look at the bicep curl as a prime example. Only your elbow joints are moving for this.

Multi-joint exercises are the bench press, dead lift, and squats, among others. In these you are using two or more joints to complete the full range of motion. For example, the bench press uses your elbows and your shoulders.

Which Ones Are Better?

There’s no single exercise that is better than any other, so you should focus your beginner strength training on utilizing a combination of single and multi-joint exercises to hit the most muscle groups. The multi’s really get in and hit complex muscle systems that would otherwise be left out of the loop in a workout routine.

However, single-joint exercises are great for hitting those main muscles like your biceps and shoulders. If you’re looking for muscle gain, you have to be sure to include all of these so that your body grows symmetrically as you train.

Squats are great exercises for a full body workout because they use both the lower body, for the lifting motion, and the upper body, to keep everything stable. You should try to use these as much as possible in your beginner strength training routine.

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by Andrew on February 8, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on February 8, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/beginner-strength-training-tips-are-complex-exercises-good-for-muscle-gain/

Beginner Strength Training Tips- When To Eat For Maximum Muscle Gain

beginner strength training when to eatA lot of beginners easily get confused about when they should eat. There are people who say that having 6 meals spread out through the day is best, but there are actually two specific times when you should be sure to get food into your body for beginner strength training.

Eating Right When You Wake Up

The most important time to eat is right after you wake up in the morning. If you’re planning on training hard, you need to have enough fuel to get through the workout. If you don’t get that precious fuel early in the day you’re going to be out of energy before your training routine has finished.

So what should your breakfast look like? Most of it should be carbohydrates. The general mandate for high energy levels throughout the day is carbs in the morning, protein at night.

That being said, you should include at least some protein as well, but don’t make it your main macronutrient. If you can get some low fat yoghurt or some cereal with milk you’ll be able to get a good start. Go for plain, un-sugared cereal like regular granola or oats though, because that will be healthier.

Eating Right After Training

Just as it’s important to eat in the morning, it’s also vital that you eat immediately after your workout. After a hard beginner strength training routine, your cells are going to be more accepting to nutrients that will replenish all that energy that was lost in the workout.

The best way to do this is to have a pre mixed shake or smoothy that has plenty of protein and carbohydrates. While this is ideal for the minutes immediately following the workout, you should also aim for a full meal within the next hour and a half to give you some complete protein and complex carbs.

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by Andrew on February 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in beginner strength training, bodyweight, Food and Nutrition, Mental Focus
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Posted by Andrew on February 7, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/beginner-strength-training-tips-when-to-eat-for-maximum-muscle-gain/

A Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download Exercise for Your Shoulders

Finding a really good muscle maximizer exercise is tough to do, that’s for sure. What is a muscle maximizer? It’s an exercise that really pushes your muscles to the limit of their endurance. I’m firmly in the camp that pushing to fatigue is the best way to massively increase muscle size in the shortest amount of time. Your muscles only grow when they break down; that’s a scientific fact. The only reps that matter are the last few ones when you can barely even move your muscles, because those reps are where the muscle tissue finally breaks.

muscle fatigue

If you can speed up the time in between your first rep and your fatigue rep then, it stands to reason that you’ll be able to speed up your workouts and still achieve the same results. This isn’t just theory or conjecture; I’ve been experimenting with this process for years and the results are unassailable. For the best somanabolic muscle maximizer download exercises, you have to push your muscles to their limit in the shortest amount of time possible, and the best way to do that is with some properly planned bodyweight shoulder exercises.

 

Bodyweight exercises are so beneficial because you don’t need any extra equipment. Your body is your entire gym, and therefore it goes everywhere you go. The trick to performing bodyweight exercises effectively is to increase your leverage of resistance. You can do 100 pushups, sure, but you can get to the same place by doing 20 handstand pushups. Why go for more reps when you can get the same results with fewer reps? You won’t find a muscle maximizer download anywhere because these are exercises that you can learn on your own. Here are two of the best bodyweight exercises for boosting shoulder strength.

 

One Arm Plank

 

The plank is a very powerful shoulder exercise because it uses isometrics coupled with resistance to work the shoulder muscles. This is ideal for anybody who has weak shoulders or joint pain because it doesn’t put a range of pressure on the muscles. To do a plank, get in the top pushup position, elbows locked, and tighten your muscles. Keep your body rigid and in a straight line.

 

While that exercise works well for beginners, nothing tops the one arm plank in terms of sheer somanabolic muscle maximizer power. Get into the same plank position, but lift one arm up by your side. Try not to lean down towards the side without arm support. This will really work your shoulder muscles as well as your core as your abdominal muscles struggle to maintain your balanced posture. The closer your feet are together, the harder it will be.

 

The Handstand Pushup

 

Finally, my personal favorite shoulder muscle maximizer exercise. The handstand pushup places all your weight on your shoulders and biceps, while relying on your core muscles to keep your body straight. If you’re unable to pull off a regular handstand, lean up against a wall for support.

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by Andrew on January 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in bodyweight, muscle maximizer

Posted by Andrew on January 17, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/a-somanabolic-muscle-maximizer-download-exercise-for-your-shoulders/

An Awesome Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Video

Ha! I just came across this sweet Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download video on Youtube and it’s pretty funny. It doesn’t really give you a lot of information about what the Muscle Maximizer is, but it’s a unique take on what most of the videos for this product usually look like.

There are basically two types of videos you are going to see on Youtube for the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download.

 

1- The phone cam or webcam video of some muscular guy in a dimply lit room talking straight into the camera about what he thought of the Kyle LeonMuscle Maximizer. Yep, that’s real exciting dudes.

 

Then you have the ripped videos of Kyle Leon talking to the camera and explaining everything about the system. These ones are a lot better, but they’re really a dime a dozen nowadays. Okay but seriously now, this next video really is awesome, just like the title says.

 

 

You can also find an excellent Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer review at this link that actually gives you a real look into the program.

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by Andrew on January 11, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on January 11, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/an-awesome-somanabolic-muscle-maximizer-video/

What Are Your 2012 New Years Fitness Resolutions?

Hey hey everybody and welcome to the new year! I haven’t posted anything here in awhile after my Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer article, but I have been busy, believe me! For one thing, I bought myself a kettlebell a few weeks ago and I have been experimenting with the best kettlebell exercises to us with it. I love that thing! It really makes working out fun and switches things up for you so that it doesn’t get boring.

My first New Years resolution for this year is to keep it up with the kettlebell and work my way up to a 40 lb one. The one I have right now is a 25 lb kettlebell, and it offers just the right amount of resistance to make it feel like I’m definitely getting a maximum workout from it.

On top of the kettlebell thing, I’ve also been getting into parkour a little bit, and holy crap do I love that sport! I’ve actually been gravitating towards outdoor, functionality activities recently, and I love the outdoor weather. I experimented with some Skyrunners last week (also known as jumping stilts), and like I said I’ve been getting into amateur parkour. Not good yet by any means, but bodyweight exercises like the human flag, plyometrics, and handstand pushups are really getting me where I need to be physically.

Well, that’s it for me, what are your New Years fitness resolutions for this coming year? Feel free to post some in the comments section.

 

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by Andrew on January 1, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on January 1, 2012

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/what-are-your-2012-new-years-fitness-resolutions/

Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download

The Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer download is an innovative diet and training program from Kyle Leon. The program takes your unique body type and matches it with a diet based on your specific height, weight, age, and other physical factors. Does it actually work though? Is the Muscle Maximizer actually worth all the hype? That’s what I’m going to take a look at in this short Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer review.

What Is the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download?

In short, this is a revolutionary new program that will help you formulate a diet that will take pounds off. Coupled with the comprehensive physical training program that’s included with the Muscle Maximizer as a FREE bonus, you can get absolutely shredded in less than 9 weeks.

How Does it Work?

Basically, what this program does is take your somatotype, or body type, and use that to create a customized nutrition plan for you. This is better than other books on the subject because it addresses one thing that those books fail to mention: everybody is different! There are millions of different types of people in this world, and one book with generic nutrition tips can’t help everybody.

The Muscle Maximizer solves this problem because it gives you total control over the type of nutrition you get. It’s important to be accurate of course, but I’ve had better advice from this program than from any of the real nutritionists I’ve gone to see.

Who is Kyle Leon?

Kyle Leon is a nutritionist who has been working in the field for several years. He’s also a fitness trainer, and he’s combined both of these professions in his development of the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer download. When Kyle Leon was a kid he was pretty weak and couldn’t put on any muscle no matter how hard he tried. He gave the term “hardgainer” a whole new meaning.

Eventually Kyle figured out that what you eat really depends on your own specific body type, and that’s how he came up with the concept of somanabolism. While one type of food is great for muscle gain for one type of person, it won’t get the same results with someone who has a different body type. Additionally, your lifestyle plays a big factor in what kind of nutrition you need each day.

What the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer does is take both of these elements and combine them. This way you’re able to pair your workouts, your working life, and your diet and nutrition together so that they all match. If you’re more active, your food requirements will change. The same goes for people who don’t have a lot of activity each day.

Are There Any Negatives to the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer Download?

Sure there are; nothing’s perfect. The biggest downside to this exercise and nutrition program is that all the measurements are based on the American system. That means that nothing is given in the metric system, which can be hard for people outside of the US. Fortunately there are plenty of tools to assist with the conversions online, so it’s not much of a big deal.

 

Other than that, this Muscle Maximizer review couldn’t find anything negative about the program. It’s definitely worth taking a look at if you want ripped muscle and a shredded physique.

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by Andrew on December 16, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in bodyweight, Mental Focus, muscle maximizer
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Posted by Andrew on December 16, 2011

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/somanabolic-muscle-maximizer-download/

Hardcore Muscle Fitness…The Bodyweight Way

If somebody sits you down and tells you that they’re going to go through the most intense workout they’ve ever experienced up until that point, what would you think they were doing? You’d probably picture them running down to the gym and then pumping massive amounts of iron with nothing but a scowl on their face and AC/DC playing in the background. You might see sweat pouring down their face as they wage a war against the forces of nature and take on a 500 pound benchpress with nothing but a grimace and a grunt.

What about pushups? Or pullups? Would you see that in your minds eye? Probably not. Most people don’t associate bodyweight exercises with anything hardcore and challenging. I mean, that’s mostly what stay at home moms do when they’re trying to work off some extra babyfat in between pilates classes, right?

Wrong!

A million times wrong, man, wrong to the nth degree. What you’re saying is absolute nonsense. Bodyweight workouts are one of the fastest, easiest, and most effective ways to turn your body into a rock hard ripped and shredded killing machine. Not only do they give you the muscle and the bulk, but they hook you up with the lean tissue and the range of motion to back it up.

Do you want to be an elephant or a tiger? Unless you’re already an elephant you probably went with tiger. That’s because you know what the human body is supposed to do: it’s supposed to hunt, kill, leap, and run for miles without wearing out. The human body was designed for so much more than we give it credit for, and yet most of us still cram ourselves into tiny Tupperware gyms to sweat it out under the AC and the fluorescent lights. We pay $2,000 to get hooked up with a home gym or a Bowflex, when everything we need is right in our bodies already.

If you think pushups are weak, try doing an incline pushup instead. If you were doing those as a baby, go for some handstand pushups. If you’ve been handstand pushuping since you were a toddler, go for a jumping clap handstand pushup. There’s no limit to how far you can escalate bodyweight workouts, and there’s always the option of increasing reps as well. And true strength is not only about muscle mass, either. It’s about the ability to actually use that muscle. How many bodybuilders do you know who can actually use their muscles for a lot of things.

Actually, look, if you want a great fix on what a truly capable body looks like, go look at someone who does parkour. This is something that uses every muscle in your body. You need increased stamina, hardcore endurance, and superman strength to be able to pull off all those feats. You think it’s easy? Think again. This is what real hardcore muscle fitness is all about. Bodyweight exercises give you that extra edge that you WON’T find in a gym. Trust me, they’re spectacular.

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by Andrew on December 13, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on December 13, 2011

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/hardcore-muscle-fitness-the-bodyweight-way/

Working Out Isn’t Just for the Healthy People

One of the biggest deterrents to getting started with a new workout routine is a simple case of misguided image. A lot of people look at those other guys and girls who work out everyday and think, “Wow, they’re so fit, I wish I could be like that.” What they don’t realize is that everybody, even those strong, muscular gym rats, had to start out somewhere.

The common perception seems to be that working out is something that only healthy people do, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In reality, unhealthy people need the exercise even more than those health nuts, if I can use that phrase in front of you guys, and they just so happen to be the ones that aren’t getting it.

If you’ve been thinking about getting started with a workout routine, whether at your home or at a gym, you need to realize that there’s nothing wrong with starting from the bottom. Remember that when you’re at the bottom of the ladder the only place to go is up, so think about that the next time you start telling yourself that you won’t be able to handle an exercise. In fact, if you’re embarrassed about how you look or about how you think you’ll be able to perform, just start working out at home for awhile using bodyweight exercises. It’s great to have a friend there to support you, but sometimes you just need to go it alone and be a lone wolf for awhile.

That’s another thing about people that I can’t seem to get over. To most people, if you’re going to do something it has to be with someone else. There’s nobody out there that’s just going out and doing something alone for once. It’s like it’s an attack on your insecurity if you’re not able to spend the time with someone else. I don’t mean to insult anyone, but you have to get over that, and fast. Half of your exercises are going to take place alone, and if you’re going to be serious about your weight training you have to be doing it even when nobody else is around watching you.

Of course, I’m going to back up on myself for a second here and say that you should always try to have a workout buddy or a spotter with you if you’re doing weight training, but for other types of workouts you don’t need that. There’s nothing wrong with just spending a few hours by yourself, away from your iPhone or your Blackberry, just solely focused on the workout ahead of you.

I feel like I got off topic a little bit with this post, so I want to veer back towards that course before I wrap this up. Working out is something that anybody can do at any time in their life. Whether you’re 5 years old or 95, you can benefit from a little bit of healthy activity. Make the decision right now to get out there and feel what exercise is all about.

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by Andrew on December 12, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Andrew on December 12, 2011

https://bodyweightcommando.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/working-out-isnt-just-for-the-healthy-people/