Need a personalized workout program? Try this Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Program

Need a personalized workout program? Try this Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Program

Workout routines are what exercises, how many sets, how many reps etc. that you do for each muscle. For example, 3 sets of the flat bench press, 3 sets on the incline bench press, and 2 sets of flat bench dumbell flyes is an example of one of the many chest weightlifting workout routines. A workout split is a term given to how you split up your workout. What days you do what muscle on. For example, doing biceps back and legs on Monday, and doing triceps shoulders and chest on Thursday is a workout split. Here i will give you some sample workout routines, the routine I use, and tell you how to make your own workout routine.

One rule when making weightlifting workout programs is to make sure to split it so that you aren’t overtraining. Doing chest on Monday, then triceps on Tuesday, then shoulders on Wednesday will overtrain your triceps. Why? Because just about every chest and shoulder exercise works the triceps secondary. And almost every back exercise works the biceps secondary. So, you would need to do 1 of 3 things when making your workout routines and splits:

1) Work chest, triceps and shoulders on the same day, and biceps and back on the same day so that it’s ok if the secondary muscles get worked that day, because you’re doing them anyway.
2) Separate those muscles that work a secondary muscle so that they are far enough apart not to overtrain you. For example, do Chest Monday, triceps on Wednesdays, and shoulders Friday… and biceps Monday with chest, and back Wednesday or Friday.
3) This is personally what I prefer, and do myself. Do chest and triceps Monday, and shoulders Thursday, and back and biceps together on Friday.

Sample Splits

Coming up with weightlifting workout routines and splits and programs isn’t really rocket science, once you understand the basics you can create your own. But, here are a few sample split routines and programs off the top of my head I have either used at one time, or are commonly used by other people

Monday – Chest/Triceps
Tuesday – off
Wednesday – Biceps/Back
Thursday – off
Friday – Shoulders/Legs
Saturday – off
Sunday – off

Monday – Chest/Biceps
Tuesday – off
Wednesday – Shoulders/Legs
Thursday – off
Friday – Back/Triceps
Saturday – off
Sunday – off

Monday – Chest/Back
Tuesday – Shoulders
Wednesday – off
Thursday – Biceps/Triceps
Friday – Legs
Saturday – off
Sunday – off

You might want to tweak it to your preference. This is just a template for you to work on. Try it and see the results! Just remember to be consistent.

Body Evolution Boot Camp aims to encourage you to make a lifestyle change through eating healthily and getting you in the best shape of your lives. Visit us at Body Evolution Boot Camp now and get started on a path to a better you!

Staying Fit During the Holidays? Not a Problem!

The holidays are a time to celebrate, and boy, do we make the most of it. We eat, we drink, we indulge and then we end up feeling like bloated whales by the time it’s all over.

It’s almost an unspoken rule that, with the holidays, comes unlimited eating and incomplete workouts, but this year, you have a choice. You can enjoy AND you can also work out that extra good food you’ve been enjoying. All it takes is flexibility, creativity and a new way of defining exercise.

Keep Moving

It’s tempting to ditch your workouts as your days fill up with holiday preparations, parties and errands, but now more than ever, you need to stay active. Exercise will help you deal with added stress and give you energy for everything you need to accomplish. It will also help you manage your weight through the maze of parties and gatherings you’ll be attending. If you have trouble sticking with your usual routine this time of year, come up with a new one. Forget the rules, lower your standards and do whatever you need to do to keep moving:

• Shorten Your Cardio. Pare down your cardio routine to whatever time you have, even if it’s only 5 or 10 minutes. Choose activities that are easy to do at a moment’s notice: walking, running, jump roping or cycling. Get the most out of the time you have by working at a high intensity. This sample 10-minute workout is a great place to start:

0:00 to 1:00 – Warm up with a brisk walk (outside or around the house)
1:00 to 2:00 – Jumping jacks
2:00 to 3:00 – Jump rope (pretend if you don’t have a rope)
3:00 to 4:00 – Run as fast as you can for 1 minute (in place or outside)
4:00 to 5:00 – Ski hops: Stand with feet together, bend knees and jump a few feet to the right and then left, landing with bent knees.
5:00 to 6:00 – Jumping jacks
6:00 to 7:00 – Walk as fast as you can
7:00 to 8:00 – Jump rope
8:00 to 9:00 – Jumping jacks
9:00 to 10:00 – Cool down and catch your breath

Remember to work hard. Keep your perceived exertion at 8 or 9 for the entire workout.

• Exercise wherever you can. You already know to take the stairs, park far away and so on to get more exercise. This holiday season, wear a pedometer as you’re running around, and see how many steps you can accumulate. Use every opportunity to get in more movement, whether it’s parking on the opposite side of where you need to be or chopping down your own Christmas tree.
• Make it a family affair. As you gather together with your family, plan active things to do. Walk around the neighborhood to look at holiday decorations. Play football before the big meal at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Plan contests with the kids to see who can run the farthest or who can do the most push-ups. Challenge everyone to a snow-shoveling contest, and then build a snow person out of the remains.
• Don’t forget strength training. Maintain your muscle mass by paring down your routine to the basics. Choose compound, multi-joint movements to make sure you’re getting the most out of your time. This new strength-training workout is a great place to start. It involves a variety of compound moves that target the large muscles of the body with plenty of core work thrown in as well.

Control Your Eating

Eating yourself into a coma seems inevitable during the holidays, what with all the yummy delights available. Treating every party as if it’s an invitation to indulge, however, is a sure way to add pounds. Below are a few reminders for keeping the calories in check:

• Eat Before You Go. Rules to live by: never go grocery shopping while hungry, and similarly, never hit a holiday party on an empty stomach. You’ll be less tempted to overindulge if your belly’s full of something healthy.
• Choose One Treat. Once at the party, choose one thing to indulge in and make it good. No chips — you can have those any old time. Pick something you only get during the holidays.
• Control Your Drinking. Alcohol is an easy way to consume more calories than you need, so avoid mixed or fruity drinks, and have a glass of water for every drink you consume. Also, definitely avoid the egg nog; it has up to 350 calories a cup.
• Don’t Skip Meals. It’s tempting to skip meals to make up for whatever nightmare food you’ll eat later, but just like the empty-stomach rule, if you’re starving, your rational mind will be unavailable for healthy food choices. Eat small meals all day to avoid going nuts at the buffet table.

However you deal with the holidays, make this the year that you don’t gain extra weight. Make a decision to do everything you can to stay active and eat healthy while not depriving yourself of all the fun. Like everything else in life, it’s all about moderation. Happy Holidays!

Body Evolution Boot Camp aims to encourage you to make a lifestyle change through eating healthily and getting you in the best shape of your lives. Visit us at Body Evolution Boot Camp now and get started on a path to a better you!

Source: About.com

15 Tips on how to restart your exercise habit (and keep at it!)

It’s okay, you can finally admit it. It’s been two months since you’ve seen the inside of the gym. Getting sick, family crisis, overtime at work and school papers that needed to get finished all kept you for exercising. Now, the question is: how do you start again?

Once you have an exercise habit, it becomes automatic. You just go to the gym, there is no force involved.

Once you have an exercise habit, it becomes automatic. You just go to the gym, there is no force involved. But after a month, two months or possibly a year off, it can be hard to get started again. Here are some tips to climb back on that treadmill after you’ve fallen off.

1. Don’t Break the Habit – The easiest way to keep things going is simply not to stop. Avoid long breaks in exercising or rebuilding the habit will take some effort. This may be advice a little too late for some people. But if you have an exercise habit going, don’t drop it at the first sign of trouble.
2. Reward Showing Up – Woody Allen once said that, “Half of life is showing up.” I’d argue that 90% of making a habit is just making the effort to get there. You can worry about your weight, amount of laps you run or the amount you can bench press later.
3. Commit for Thirty Days – Make a commitment to go every day (even just for 20 minutes) for one month. This will solidify the exercise habit. By making a commitment you also take pressure off yourself in the first weeks back of deciding whether to go.
4. Make it Fun – If you don’t enjoy yourself at the gym, it is going to be hard to keep it a habit. There are thousands of ways you can move your body and exercise, so don’t give up if you’ve decided lifting weights or doing crunches isn’t for you. Many large fitness centers will offer a range of programs that can suit your tastes.
5. Schedule During Quiet Hours – Don’t put exercise time in a place where it will easily be pushed aside by something more important. Right after work or first thing in the morning are often good places to put it. Lunch-hour workouts might be too easy to skip if work demands start mounting.
6. Get a Buddy – Grab a friend to join you. Having a social aspect to exercising can boost your commitment to the exercise habit.
7. X Your Calendar – One person I know has the habit of drawing a red “X” through any day on the calendar he goes to the gym. The benefit of this is it quickly shows how long it has been since you’ve gone to the gym. Keeping a steady amount of X’s on your calendar is an easy way to motivate yourself.
8. Enjoyment Before Effort - After you finish any work out, ask yourself what parts you enjoyed and what parts you did not. As a rule, the enjoyable aspects of your workout will get done and the rest will be avoided. By focusing on how you can make workouts more enjoyable, you can make sure you want to keep going to the gym.
9. Create a Ritual - Your workout routine should become so ingrained that it becomes a ritual. This means that the time of day, place or cue automatically starts you towards grabbing your bag and heading out. If your workout times are completely random, it will be harder to benefit from the momentum of a ritual.
10. Stress Relief - What do you do when your stressed? Chances are it isn’t running. But exercise can be a great way to relieve stress, releasing endorphin which will improve your mood. The next time you feel stressed or tired, try doing an exercise you enjoy. When stress relief is linked to exercise, it is easy to regain the habit even after a leave of absence.
11. Measure Fitness - Weight isn’t always the best number to track. Increase in muscle can offset decreases in fat so the scale doesn’t change even if your body is. But fitness improvements are a great way to stay motivated. Recording simple numbers such as the number of push-ups, sit-ups or speed you can run can help you see that the exercise is making you stronger and faster.
12. Habits First, Equipment Later – Fancy equipment doesn’t create a habit for exercise. Despite this, some people still believe that buying a thousand dollar machine will make up for their inactivity. It won’t. Start building the exercise habit first, only afterwards should you worry about having a personal gym.
13. Isolate Your Weakness - If falling off the exercise wagon is a common occurrence for you, find out why. Do you not enjoy exercising? Is it a lack of time? Is it feeling self-conscious at the gym? Is it a lack of fitness know-how? As soon as you can isolate your weakness, you can make steps to improve the situation.
14. Start Small - Trying to run fifteen miles your first workout isn’t a good way to build a habit. Work below your capacity for the first few weeks to build the habit. Otherwise you might scare yourself off after a brutal workout.
15. Go for Yourself, Not to Impress – Going to the gym with the only goal of looking great is like starting a business with only the goal to make money. The effort can’t justify the results. But if you go to the gym to push yourself, gain energy and have a good time, then you can keep going even when results are slow.

Body Evolution Boot Camp aims to encourage you to make a lifestyle change through eating healthily and getting you in the best shape of your lives. Visit us at Body Evolution Boot Camp now and get started on a path to a better you!

Source: Stepcase Lifehack