Spot Toning

Many people don’t realize that you can build muscle without using any fancy gym equipment — in fact, standard bodyweight exercises like pushups can be used to build muscle up the old-fashioned way.

It’s understandable that you might not realize how effective the grand-daddy of exercise moves is at building your chest and arms. At a glance, pushups are simple and repetitive. And that’s true to an extent. But what you might not realize is that there are nearly endless opportunities for pushup variations that you never learned in high school gym class.

There is a wide variety of pushups that you can perform to isolate different muscle groups, but we’re going to focus on five types in this article. These will not be the best five for all people, but they should open your eyes to the variety possible in simple bodyweight exercises.

Wide pushups: traditionally, pushups are performed with your hands being placed at shoulder width. Wide push ups, sometimes called “wide-stance pushups”, require you to extend your hands beyond the width of your shoulders. Wide-stance pushups work your chest muscles more heavily than military-style pushups, so if chest definition is what you are looking for — wide pushups are one exercise that will help you meet your goals.

Fist pushups: Sometimes referred to as “knuckle” pushups, require the use of your fists, instead of the palms of your hands, to bear your body weight during the pushup. Fist pushups are beneficial because they target different areas of your body than traditional pushups, and may actually increase the effectiveness of your workout.

Yogi pushups: also referred to as “divebombers,” you start the pushup in the yoga downward dog position, which is similar to a pike. On the down rep, you transition into the upward dog position in a motion that is similar to sliding under a fence, reversing this movement on the up rep. These pushups are brutal and really work your shoulders.

Incline pushups: Incline pushups are the exact opposite of decline pushups — instead of placing your feet higher than your head, your head should be higher than your feet for this exercise. Any sturdy surface that will allow you to perform the pushups unencumbered can be used. Incline pushups work your lower pectoral muscles.

Deep pushups: If you are working out at home, you can perform raised pushups with the help of three sturdy chairs. By placing each of your hands on an opposite chair, and your feet on the third chair, you can increase the depth of your pushup and thereby increase the effectiveness of your workout routine. A similar, but less intense, movement can be performed with pushup stands. The “Perfect Pushup” bars work wonders.

Here is a more comprehensive list of pushup styles to achieve muscle weight gain: wide, fly, diamond, military, yogi, fist, decline, incline, stacked, deep, prison cell, and inchworm pushups.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of your pushup workouts: remember to add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don’t want to push out 50 easy repetitions. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.

Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and exercise, build muscle at the same time. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!

There are countless oridinary men and women that regularly go to a gym in order to increase lean body mass. They strive for a much improved body shape but all too seldom they do not accomplish their goals.

As the weeks pass by they become increasingly annoyed with their shortage of mass gains.

This can be a regular problem for anyone expessing a desire to improve their body shape, which is why many people quit, thinking that they are by some means unable to add body mass.

So why does this occur to so many people and what can you do to resolve it?

From my knowledge, those of us who do not make good muscle gains in the gym make the same mistakes time after time.

Read on below to see if you are making these everyday mistakes, with solutions for every problem.

Some people choose the completely wrong workout program to achieve their aims, often following professional workouts from bodybuilding books.

This is no use for the typical guy or girl, and in particular for hardgainers.

In order to increase muscle mass you should train for around 45 mins with heavy weights, doing 2-3 sets per exercise. Keep your sets at between 8-15 sets per weight training session.

It does nothing to benefit you by doing 20 or more sets and sacrificing many hours at the gym.

Doing the same bodybuilding program month after month, even though they haven’t made any evident body mass gains.

In order to encourage muscle growth you must change your workout every 8-12 weeks. Our body’s have a kind of muscle memory so it quickly gets used to the same weight workout you repeat each week.

You must shock your muscles by altering your body building workouts routinely.

Not having days off from weight training.

I take 1 week off in the middle of each bodybuilding training program.

This gives my muscles time off to recuperate and revitalize. In the past, before I took regular time off I often experienced muscle strains and tendon injuries.

Another benefit is that I often experience increased strength after I’ve taken time off.

Bodybuilding training on successive days.

Doing bodybuilding programs that involve lifting heavy weights puts a lot of load on your muscles. It can even take up to 24 hours to restore your glycogen reserves. Therefore, ensure you train no more than 2 consecutive days. This will make sure your body can re-nourish itself, resulting in optimum energy reserves when you train at the gym.

You depend on muscle building supplements to compensate for a poor diet.

Most body building supplements are not anything more than costly marketing scams. They empty your pockets of hard earned money and do nothing to build mass. If you spent $50 a week on bodybuilding supplements, it will make no more than 10% difference to your muscle mass gains.

All workout routines should be structured around a stable dietary plan.

You have got to ensure that you nourish your body with the nutrients it requires in order to produce lean body mass.

What to do next

In order to build muscle more quickly than you have ever achieved previously, you must ignore the traditional bodybuilding methods that you have picked up in the past from professional bodybuilders in muscle books and magazines.

Hard gainers in particular can adjust their bodybuilding workouts and stop repeating the frequent mistakes I’ve outlined above. Do this and could see some remarkable results!

Swimming is a great way to exercise. The whole body gets a workout in a gentle manner, and you have fun while exercising. You get both types of exercise - resistance and cardiovascular workout at the same time. There is little chance of your hurting yourself in this form of exercise.

The simple objection to swimming as an exercise is the inconvenience. You just come home from work, all bushed out. Then your spouse reminds you that you have to go to the swimming pool for your prescribed exercise. Groan! Even if the pool were in the neighborhood, you know how it feels to go out at all? And woe betide if it’s storming or snowing! If only you had a swimming pool at home!

Well, now you can have a swimming pool at home. That too at just a fraction of the cost of a regular pool! It’s called a stationary lap pool, and it simulates a stream flowing past you. You get in and swim against the flow. So although you’re swimming, the action of the current keeps you there in one place as though you were stationary. Hence the name.

A lap pool comes ready built in a variety of style and models. About 4 feet wide and 6 feet long, it can be located almost anywhere, even indoors! What can be more convenient? They can be installed above ground to avoid any digging, or in the ground - the choice is yours. The savings in cost and space is tremendous, and the convenience is priceless!

The basic concept of a stationary lap pool is to move the water, not the swimmer! So the swimmer swims in place against the flow of water that is circulated around the stationary lap pool. As mentioned at the outset of this article, swimming gives the swimmer both resistance exercise as well as cardiovascular exercise.

Stationary lap pools range from the basic model to super luxury models. In the very basic model you can adjust the speed and force of the water flowing against the swimmer. In higher end models you can control the temperature of the water as well, or have a Jacuzzi effect with pulsating jets of water massaging you down with alternate streams of hot and cold water.

A stationary lap pool is the ideal system to get your resistance exercise and cardiovascular exercise at the same time, in a very enjoyable way. Compact enough to fit inside your house, cheap enough to be generally affordable, the stationary lap pool gives you so many conveniences and advantages that you’ll have no hesitation in buying one for yourself, or in recommending it to others.

In conclusion, a stationary lap pool is your best bet to a form of exercise which is deeply relaxing and pleasurable. All this is yours, at an extremely attractive price. If you like swimming, then just head out and get yourself a stationary lap pool!

If you’re up late at night watching TV, chances are, you will be seeing infomercials. A good portion of those are probably promoting ab related products. You’ll find machines, medicines, diets of fashion, and workouts that will promise to give you that beautiful six pack you’ve always dreamed about. There are a lot of theories, but are any of them practical?

The vast majority of these fads do not last very long, they are exposed for what they are and people move on to the next breakthrough invention. If most of these fail, is there any way to get flat abs?

This is the best time tested approach to getting yourself a six pack abs. The best way to achieve this goal is through a healthy diet and exercise, but you might not want to hear this. There really aren’t any legitimate shortcuts to getting the body of your dreams. If you have discovered how to lose weight quickly, you will soon find out how quickly you will put it back on.

Now that we know you’re going to have to exercise, what types of exercises should you do? Should you just get on the ground and start doing thousands of crunches? Will this give you the six pack of your dreams? Actually it won’t do much at first. Your ab muscles are probably covered up by a layer of fat. This means that if you want to see those abs, you have to get rid of the fat first. So how do you get rid of the fat?

Many people have the misconception that they need to routinely undergo hours worth of jogging on their treadmill. However, this is a common misconception as well. Interval and weight training are the best way to burn fat quickly. Weight training burns calories when you are working out and when you are resting.

Once you develop your muscles, they will act like incinerators that continuously burn calories in order to keep themselves going. This will help to burn much more fat in a very short time. Weight training, jogging and running are great methods to improve your fitness.

Besides the right exercises, you should also try to eat healthier as well. If you’re always on the couch, cramming your face full of nachos and beer, you probably won’t be getting a six pack anytime soon. Getting different results in your life requires you to take different actions. If you want a six pack, you’ll need to change what you’re eating. Eat healthy foods and drink a lot of water. Put good things into your body and it will give you good results.

In general, it’s not that hard to develop a six pack. Don’t think it will be a breeze, you will not wake up to a tone, fit looking body the next day. If you stick to the long process, you could achieve the necessary weight loss of any proportion.

How would you like to build muscles without any weights? Many may say that this is impossible, but this is something that can definitely be accomplished using the right methods and techniques. Here’s a list of the things you need to do to build the muscle you want without any weights.

1-Basics

It is even possible to build muscle without weights with the traditional simple forms of exercise - exercises which need no special equipment, and which can be done anywhere. These include such exercises as sit ups, press ups etc. These are not going to turn you from a weakling into a champion bodybuilder, but if you are not used to exercising your body, they can be a great way to start. As with any form of exercise, you need regular workouts to see results.

2) Arms without Weights

A specific focus on particular muscle groups is what it’ll take to build muscle. General calisthenics may be good at building the abs, chest, and triceps, but may not be the best exercise for building up your arms. Most budding bodybuilders will want to use weights to build their arms. One secret you can use to build your arms without weights is to use cans and a plastic bag to create weight. You can easily make a 5-15lb weight using canned foods and a plastic bag, which in turn, and be used to build your arm muscles.

3) Chest without Weights

A well built body usually has a muscled chest framing it. So how can you build your chest without using any weights. Let’s go back the basic push-up. The push-up in and of itself will build the chest along with other muscles. But if you really want isolate the chest here’s a variation on the regular push-up that will build your chest muscle. Simply place your feet on a chair while doing the push-up. This will isolate the chest muscles (pectoral muscles) to help you build them quickly.

4) Shoulders without Weights

The shoulders will definitely benefit from basic exercises such as press ups, and even more so from inclined press ups. One way to go beyond this is to add pull ups. So many people find these exercises hard to perform, so they definitely have the potential to build muscle without weights. To get the very best results from your pull ups, you will need to widen your grips, so that the weight is concentrated in the shoulder area. This will make sure that the effort you are putting in gets the best possible result, by being directed to the right area. It is hard work, though.

Forget the pricey gym memberships or expensive home equipment. You get can the muscles you want without the use of weights.