If you begin a weight loss and exercise program knowing you will have to endure some pain right off the bat, chances are good that you will not only be able to prepare yourself better, but you will also continue on to success. If you anticipate, plan, and take the proper steps, you can minimize your soreness.

Physical Fitness Tips #1: Anticipate, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
It is normal to get excited on your first day of exercise. Visions of you flexing those muscles on the beach are probably dancing in your head. This is great, but keep your head in the game and out of the clouds. You’re not going to get that way tomorrow or the next day. Lifting too much or running too fast could end up delaying your program while you recover if it does not burn you out all together. Start slow. Next day, push a bit harder. Next day, a bit harder still. Easing into a program is the best way to anticipate soreness and achieve steady progress.

Physical Fitness Tips #2: Embrace The Pain, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
A little soreness means you have embarked on something that is good for you. While it’s always bothersome, know that it’s only temporary and that it is an important step along the road to your fitness goal. Think of it as hurting in a good way. A great way, even. Once you work through the pain, you are going to be fitter than before.

Physical Fitness Tips #3: Eat Proper Nutrition, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
The more you exercise, the better you need to eat. The better you eat, the less sore you will become. Most people think that since you are burning calories with exercise, you can eat as much junk as you want. Not true if you want to remain healthy. Why? Because junk will not fuel your muscles properly. This is especially true if you are trying to lose weight. If you are eating donuts for breakfast, switch to a soy based protein shake. What you eat is always vital.

I was a chronic asthmatic my entire life and I could not exercise. I would have given anything for the chance to be sore from exercise! It was not until I began to change my eating habits for the better that my body began functioning properly. People told me I could never exercise but thankfully, I did not buy their story. I can not stress this enough. The better your fuel choices are, the better your body will perform. It is just like a car.

Physical Fitness Tips #4: Stretch, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
Stretching your muscles before and after you work out will help speed up your recovery time and eliminate the risk of damaging your body. Easy movements and stretches both at night before bed and first thing in the morning helps your blood circulate better and will also improve your recovery time. When a friend of mine ran track in high school, his team stretched before and after each practice. In his five year running career, he had little soreness and no injuries.

Physical Fitness Tips #5: Ice Your Muscles, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
Nothing circulates blood around like ice. If you have ever watched a locker interview after a sporting event, you probably noticed that a lot of the athletes were icing parts of their body. That’s because it is a great recovery aid. Almost all injuries heal quicker when ice is applied. And soreness is basically a tear in your muscle tissue. These are necessary in order to get stronger, and they will heal faster if you ice them.

Physical Fitness Tips #6: Exercise, To Deal With Soreness From Exercise
What do you mean, Exercise? Is this not how you got soreness in the first place? Yes! But here is the trick. More exercise is the last thing you feel like doing when you are sore but working out promotes circulation. Being sedentary while you are sore is worse than working out, as long as you remember to not work out too hard. It is a good excuse to be slightly active, since you are doing what is called a “recovery workout.”

Use the steps above when beginning an exercise program to lose weight or just get healthier. You will find that recovering from soreness is not as much an obstacle to overcome, but rather a part of the wellness process for which you can be prepared. Nothing in life comes easy. It took you a long time to gain all that weight and it will not come off easily with a magic pill or the latest fitness gadget. Learn to overcome small obstacles a day at a time so you can not only lose weight, but you can keep it off for good.

Bill Winch is a Personal Wellness Coach whose mission is teaching and coaching others who are struggling with getting healthy, losing weight safely and keeping it off for good. He is also a Certified Business Growth Specialist, former High School and College Business Educator and Counselor, and mentors from his home office in Rochester, NY. If you are interested in receiving his Free Report “9 Weight Loss Myths Exposed” visit his website by clicking on FREE REPORT or by calling him directly at (585) 271-3767 for a free wellness consultation.
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80 Day Fitness Challenge! – Grand Prize is a Trip to Cabo – Contest ends December 19!  Check back to see who wins!

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October 1st thru December 19.

The answer is simple, but because the market is flooded with so much garbage all you hear or read about is either the latest supplement or “advanced” exercises. If real, solid, steel-like muscles are what you want then anytime you are introduced to a “new” or “advanced” way of performing an exercise, you’ll do yourself a world of good by throwing it out the window.

Too many times do I see curious skinny gym members look over at the “gym buff” doing some funky exercise upside down on an exercise ball with one leg up flailing a pair of light dumbbells around thinking that if they learned how to perform that exercise they can look like him. Forget about it. Whether it works for him or not is irrelevant, the bottom line is that this type of exercise or anything like it will NOT work for hardgainers.

If an exercise is “new” I can almost guarantee it is far less effective then the simple, basic muscle mass building exercises. Why? Because all of the best exercises for maximum muscle growth have already been accounted for years ago. They have and always will be the number one exercises for the single purpose on how to gain muscle weight fast. Nothing compares and they will never be bested.

Basic or compound exercises allow you to lift more weight, and the heavier weight you can lift, the bigger you will be. With that in mind, what are compound exercises and which are the best for maximum muscle mass? Compound lifts, or multi-joint lifts, are weightlifting exercises that force you to use more then one muscle group, preferably 3 or more.

For example, the bench press is a compound lift because although the primary muscle used is the chest muscle, your shoulders and triceps are also helping to lift the weight. Tricep pushdowns, however, are what’s called an isolation or single-joint exercise. Since this exercise just isolates a single muscle, your triceps, it doesn’t stimulate nearly as much muscle growth as a compound lift would. Though there are many different compound exercises, you must focus only on those that stimulate the most amount of muscle and allow you to lift the heaviest amount of weight.

Here are the granddaddy of all compound muscle mass building exercises that you MUST include in your workout if you expect to build maximum muscle mass in the least amount of time:

1) Squats (quads, hamstrings, calves, and also has an effect on most of the upper body)

2) Deadlifts (hamstrings, quads, traps, lower back)

3) Bench Press (chest, triceps, and shoulders)

4) Shoulder Press or Military Press (shoulders and triceps)

5) Bent-Over Rows (back, biceps, lats)

6) Pull-Ups (back, biceps, lats)

7) Bar Dips (chest, triceps, shoulders)

If your workout programs to gain muscle don’t include any of these exercises, then don’t expect to grow very much, and don’t expect to grow at all if you are a hardgainer. Try starting your workouts out with one of these exercises first, before you do any other exercises for that same muscle. This will ensure you exert most of your energy into the most important exercises, the ones that will be most responsible for your growth. For example, if you are training your shoulders, start off with the barbell shoulder press before you do any laterals, shrugs, or any other isolation exercise.

A couple of months ago, a friend asked me why he wasn’t gaining any weight and getting any bigger. So I asked him to tell me about his workout. You can probably guess what it was. Sure enough, he was doing about five exercises for each muscle group, mostly isolation exercises. He wasn’t doing any lower body exercises whatsoever, and the only compound exercise he was doing was everybody’s favorite: the bench press.

So here is what I did: I gave him a simple but proven workout program for fast results that consisted of ONLY compound exercises, which in fact doesn’t look much different from the list of muscle mass building exercises above. I told him to just do a few sets of each exercise a few times a week and to focus on just adding weight to the bar every week. Did he grow? About five weeks later he e-mailed me back and told me of his improvements. He weighed 18 pounds heavier and added around 20 to 30 pounds to each of the compound exercises I told him to do.

Is this a common result? Those who are willing to work hard on just a few compound exercises can expect results like this, even hardgainers. Was it easy? No. He worked hard, just like everyone else who got results like this. No fancy supplements or advanced exercises, just hard work on the key muscle mass building exercises, lots of clean food and plenty of rest.

Now that you know the key muscle mass building exercises for maximum muscle growth in record time, I want you to use them! If you haven’t tried any of them before then you will be in for a treat. They’re tough, they’re demanding, they take sweat and grit and everything you got. They’re not the type of exercises you can do while you hung-over or on 3 hours of sleep. You have to have lots of energy, be properly warmed up, and completely focused if you want to get the most out of them. But they will bring you more results then all of the other exercises put together.
Derek Manuel is the author of the best-selling, How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers. If you want to learn how you too can gain 20 to 30 pounds of solid muscle in as short as 8 weeks, or if you just want more quality information on how to gain weight and build muscle, please visit http://www.hardgainers-weight-tips.com
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Regeneration and re-energizing time

Your body needs on average 7-9 hours of sleep each day. This is the time during which your body regenerates energy and your mind rests. By depriving yourself of sleep, you begin to suffer from an exhausted mind. You may begin to feel as though you can’t concentrate on one thing and find yourself jumping around or getting anxious.Keeping yourself up doesn’t help a situation by spending more time on it. You can find yourself making many mistakes that you will have to spend time going back and redoing.

If your mind and body are exhausted from lack of sleep, it will affect your energy level and moods. In order to stay focused on a fitness plan, keep your energy levels high.Neglecting sleep is contrary to your fitness plan. Exhaustion pushes your body and mind to become stressed and overworked. Your health may diminish and your immune system may actually get weaker. You may begin to feel a little more irritable than usual and grumpiness can make you a difficult person to get along with. If you have a fitness partner, this may be a little uncomfortable for them. The stress that is created by sleep deprivation can greatly affect your body and mind even more than you are aware of.

Tips to sleep better

If you feel that you can’t sleep well and it is causing your lack of sleep, you may consider trying some tricks that will help you sleep better. A dark room allows your mind to rest, as it does not have to concentrate on changing lights or flickers. Turn off any electronic devices- especially ones with LED lights that can definitely illuminate a room. Try using a fan that offers that “buzzing” sound. White noise is a great mental relaxer. Most of all- stop worrying. Worry is one of the greatest sleep destroyers out there. Remember that each day brings new opportunities and chances. Worrying about them will not fix them.

Rest is vitally important to your health

During fitness routines or exercise, you will experience a lack of energy. You may find that you can’t run as long or do as many sit-ups as you used to. This can be disheartening to someone striving to get healthy. The solution is to get the rest your body needs to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Secure your allotted sleep time!  If you do, you will feel better and notice your body works and functions better. More energy and a better outlook on life will be a great psychological benefit and directly affect your determination to accomplish your goals.

Any other tips you can pass along to be sure to get enough sleep?

“Drenched Fitness – In Pursuit of the Ultimate Workout, http://drenchedfitness.com.”
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Here are some healthy gifts you can get people for christmas that will be a boost to their fitness goals!

Polar Fs1 Heart Rate Monitor

You can buy this trusty little watch on amazon for around 40 dollars. This is the same watch I use, and its a great gift, there are so many benefits to knowing what your heart rate is! It allows me to train in certain zones with accuracy, so I know if I am working above, or below anaerobic threshold, tempo work, cardiac work, etc… its very useful! I do not opt for the fancier versions, this one will get the job done.

Hand Blender

I dont know what I would do without this, just a scoop of protein, some creatine, and water; blend with the hand blender and your good to go! I used to mix my protein up with a spoon, but that made a mess. The hand blender makes it easy to just grab, mix, and go.

Wrist Wraps

I bought some wrist wraps over at elitefts.com for 16.95. You can never get enough wrist support! It may add some weight to your lifts to, for me it did! I love these, and most people I train are worried about their wrists, so this is one of my first recommendations.

Lifting Belt

You know, some people say you shouldnt use a belt, well… I say thats crazy, especially as the weight gets up there, you wont find me squatting sets of 500 without one! I would recommend looking at some APT belts (they got some pretty snazzy colors) those hold up nicely, but if your not looking for a forty dollar belt, at least pick one up at the local wal-mart. We all got to start somewhere.

Protein Powder

The other day a guy in the gym asked me if I take protein after I work out…OF COURSE I DO! You should as well! Check out proteinfactory.com, they sell 5 pound bags for around 30$.

Lifting shoes

I like to do shock training, plyos, jump training, whatever you want to call it, as well as lift, and run. I would pick up two types of shoes, first a good pair of cross trainers, you can find a good pair over at nike.com, or check out some of their outlet stores. You should also look into a pair of lifting shoes, but these can be a bit pricey, and a pair of 20$ Chucks work well enough, especially for general lifting purposes. If your serious about getting the most out of every rep on the squat, good lifting shoes can help.

Bands

Look, I am tired of seeing men and women doing dips, and pullups on that assisted machine; a pure waste of time! Try buying some green, red, etc bands over at elitefts.com. This way all you got to do is throw bands of varying degrees of difficulty over the top of the pull-up bar and it will assist you, until you dont need them anymore!
Lifting glovesI dont use gloves, but most women do. If your a guy and your lady is using every excuse in the book to get out of lifting, it might be wise to buy her some cute gloves, it will make her feel more legit.

George Foreman Grill

Quick, easy, and good for cutting weight. I dont know how many times I have been trying to get to the single digit bodyfat %, and this thing saved me. I would wake up, only have 30 minutes to get dressed, and go to work, and I could throw 2-3 chicken breasts on this, and be good for lunch, and a mid afternoon snack.

Ab-Wheel

I am not into a lot of the gimmicks out there concerning getting a six pack, because I know 100% of getting a six pack is losing the fat first, but I do believe the ab-wheel helps strengthen abdominals, and I am a fan of that. You can find these for cheap to, just go to wal mart, and when your real good at it, try it without putting your knees on the ground.

A Health food Cookbook

It will give a  bit of guidance on what type of food can be made while still living a healthy lifestyle.

Anyway, hope these ideas helped. These fitness gifts would be great to make the holidays healthy!

Check out http://www.thefitnessenthusiast.com

Check out http://thefitnessenthusiast.comA fitness enthusiast. A soon-to-be husband. A journalist. A ex-collegiate athlete. Through trial and error, years of productive training experience, helping others achieve their fitness goals, and a hefty amount of reading; I came to realize the poor state of the fitness industry. This site is dedicated to offering practical training, nutrition, and supplementation information that is easy to understand. I offer training articles, interviews, videos, recipes and advice becausefitness is my passion. I desire to help others, just as they have helped me. I carry no expectations, just the hope that this site can help people lead strong, confident, and healthy lives. I am not in business of theory, only in results.email me at thefitne@thefitnessenthusiast.com
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I’m sure George Bernard Shaw wasn’t referring to fitness when he wrote these words, but they certainly describe to a tee how our inability or refusal to change our attitudes and actions can get in our way of reaching our fitness goals.

You know who you are – the women who want to shed some pounds but can’t go a day without your double whipped cream mocha latte with caramel on top, and the men who say you want to lose your love handles but would rather sit on the couch watching TV than go for an evening walk.

Understand change

How do we break our cycle of defeat? One key aspect is understanding change. When you’re overweight or not in the best shape, you must be absolutely willing to embrace certain changes in your life, starting with a change in diet. “No food tastes better than being in shape feels,” is a great perspective to have when adopting a new diet. Be willing to say “yes” to some foods and “no” and “sometimes” to others.

When it comes to diet, the best change you can make is to avoid starvation, deprivation, and eating cardboard-like foods. Instead, make dietary changes that place you in control of buying, preparing, and consuming healthy chow. It’s also important to learn the nutritional profile of foods and to hone your judgment of what each one does to your body. In addition, you’ll need to discipline yourself to manage portion sizes and emotional or impulsive eating.

It’s a combined effort

Now while you can lose weight just by following dietary changes, you get the most successful and sustainable results when you combine healthy eating with regular exercise.

As many of you are aware, this is usually easier said than done. Work, family, and laziness all make sticking to a routine difficult. One of the best things you can do to make this process a little easier is to prepare yourself mentally. Acknowledge that there will be time constraints, that you’ll have to push yourself to develop new habits, and that you might become bored and lazy in the process.

Mental preparation is important because it gives you the opportunity to think of solutions before you even encounter the problems. Solutions such as ways to keep yourself motivated; a fitness journal for tracking your goals; having a workout buddy; and when, where, and how you’ll exercise will help you deal with work, family, laziness, inconsistency, and other issues when they materialize.

Contradictions between our fitness goals and our willingness to change in order to achieve those goals are not uncommon. However, if you’re ready to make lifestyle changes and plan how you’ll handle these changes, you’ll greatly improve your capacity of getting healthy and fit and staying that way.
Drenched Fitness – In Pursuit of the Ultimate Workouthttp://drenchedfitness.com
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Have you heard of the saying “You are who you hang around with?” Well I understand it now and I’ll tell you why! I knew taking the challenge and committing myself to the discipline and intensity of training with an Elite group of jumpers and sprinters was going to be the hardest thing I had done to date. My health and physical fitness was good before I started, but I was still sore for every day for 4 weeks when I was put through the paces of the UK’s Top Performance Coaches winter training program.

I want to discuss with you some of what I feel are the vital lessons I’ve learnt in improving my health and physical fitness which have had dramatic effects;

1. Plyometrics – simply jumping and hopping exercises – the effects that these exercises on my speed and body fat reduction was amazing.
2. Training with people better than you – Improves expectations of yourself and makes you work harder and faster towards your goal.
3. Rest and recovery – The importance of listening to your body is vital to staying injury free.
4. Discipline -The focus you need to improve and to stay healthy helps you stay the course.

Plyometrics - The biggest wake up call to me was plyometrics, basically all that hopping and bounding you see athletes do on grass and over hurdles etc. I had never given them their due credit and it showed; my example of a single leg hoping was pathetic. But as I had about 7 Plyometric exercises to do every Thursday I soon improved my strength and became very lean (ripped!) within weeks! The intensity is so great I found that after just two weeks of hard hopping and bounding my fat just melted off! My legs became super strong and my running speed improved throughout the year.

Training with people better than you – Improves your health and physical fitness faster!
My health and physical fitness was at a level that I thought was good. But when you are taken out of you comfort zone and someone has higher expectations of you than you do – it adds to your drive and ability. Combine that with having better people to aspire to, you find that you begin step up to the plate, towards the level of the people surrounding you. For example, my weights and speed improved markedly because I had one of the best coaches around shouting and screaming at me that I could do it, and I did, in as little as 3 months I was putting out some training sessions as good as if not better than the group I was training with. My advice to you is find a great coach/mentor, train with better people than you and have higher expectations of yourself. It can work for your health and physical fitness goals and any other goals equally.

Rest and recovery – the missing link to your health and physical fitness
Do you get silly injuries, niggles that soon become chronic? I know I have. The next part of my health and physical fitness education was the importance of rest and recovery. World Class Athletes have massages at least 3 times a week on their legs and back, routine check ups and listen to what their bodies are telling them. Straight after a hard technical session we would have ice baths; which were absolutely freezing as we had to stand in a big wheelie bin for over 10 minutes until we couldn’t feel our toes. The result however was amazing, almost no soreness the next day! Combine this with a good deep tissue massage to get the muscles relaxed and flushed out of toxins and you are in great shape week in week out.

The last thing I want to discuss is my Health and physical fitness enlightenment is discipline.
It means two things; the discipline to train when called upon but also the discipline not to train if you are slightly tight, too tired or not mentally with it. These are the keys to staying healthy, avoiding injury and not getting into a rut. You have to have the commitment to turn up when it’s raining, or when you don’t feel like it. It’s this discipline that World Class Athletes all share.
“Paul Simmons; dedicated Health and Fitness Expert, Co-founder of Fit-and-Healthy-Now.com with over 18 years of experience primarily in athletics and weight training. Was coached by the Top UK Athletics Performance Coach and trained with Olympic and World-class athletes.

http://www.fit-and-healthy-now.com

Putting the Authority into Exercise and Fitness – visit the site to explode your potential
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