Wednesday Video - Are sore muscles growing?

You've heard the phrase "No Pain, No Gain" but what does it mean? Does it imply that in order to gain new muscle we have to subject ourselves to pain? Or does it mean that unless we put ourselves through pain that is the only guarantee that our muscles are growing?

This short video has the answers

Monday Muscle - Protein Rich Balanced Diet and Exercise for a Complete Muscle Building Experience

It is a known fact that protein is a must have in muscle building; following a high protein diet will enable one to gain muscle in an effective manner.

If one wants to gain or lose weight, one should be on a muscle gain diet. A muscle gain diet is an important factor, because it helps to gain muscle instead of fat.

There are two factors included in weight loss. A proper diet and working out. When dieting one should avoid eating junk food and high carbohydrate food..

Incorporating a balanced breakfast to your daily routine is important.

Here I can suggest a balanced meal chart that can help build muscle and reduce body fat. Having a bowl of curd, with 2 sides of fruit such as a apple and a small banana. Two pieces of toast containing low trans-fat butter, such as peanut butter. One boiled egg white.

Snack or Mid-morning meal: 

Pure fruit or fruit juice makes for an excellent snack

A glass of fruit juice or a fruit. 

Lunch: 

Two ragi roti or roti made with wheat bran. A bowl of grilled vegetables. A serving of grilled chicken or turkey. Large salad and a bowl of spinach soup.

Evening replenishment: 

A glass of milk along with two biscuits. 

Dinner: 

Grilled meat or grilled fish. Baked beans and two rotis. Including a large intake of nuts, such as almonds or cashews. Some of the high protein foods include nuts, milk, wheat and lentils.

Maintaining a muscle building diet can sometimes get boring from eating the same foods. Contacting a dietician can be helpful, because the dietician can change your diet when required.

A simple strategy to help lose lean body mass fast is following a BMI (body mass index)

How to work out your BMI

chart. The chart is informational on the amount of weight and muscle required to the height and age of a person.

It is important for a person trying to gain muscle to know how much food is needed. Muscle cannot be gained unless the body fat is proper. An obese person will not gain muscle weight, because it will put him on more weight with fat.

Having excess muscle is a risk that can lead to having a disorder. Men can build up muscle by using Muscle building powders. These powders are available in the muscle building markets.

A recipe I can recommend to use as a muscle building food is a Sprouts-Chicken Burger. Ingredients: Burger bun, tomato and onion slices cut in round shape, 2 low fat butter or cheese sprouts, and processed boneless chicken mince. 

Method: Cut the burger bun in two halves. Place butter on the buns.

Place the processed chicken mince, sprouts, and vegetables inside the bun. Cover the items with the top part of the bun. Keep these simple and basic instructions in mind whenever you are trying to build muscle weight.

Fat Loss Friday - Healthy Eating Plan For Kids

For most parents, devising a healthy eating plan for their kids is a very difficult task. Kids are very choosy and selective when it comes to eating food. There are only a few foods which they actually enjoy eating and are more inclined towards fast food. That, however, is not healthy for them and parents try different means to make them eat the home made healthy food. There are certain ways by which you can make them interested in their food.

The first thing that you can try is to make the kids help you in the kitchen in preparation of their food. Kids are normally very much interested in such work.

Kids enjoy helping in the kitchen

When they help and cook the food themselves, they automatically associate themselves with that food. If they don't eat it later, they relate it with their failure of not cooking tasty food. So this can be a good option of making them eat the food that they cook themselves.

The other important thing that you have to consider is to determine which nutrients are important for kids according to their ages. Then you can make various different recipes which are rich in those nutrients and they taste good as well. You can consult their doctor and nutritionist in this regard to determine the nutrients and their amounts necessary for the kids. Another important thing to keep in mind while making kids eat the home made food is their presentation. The more interesting and appealing the food looks to them, greater are the chances that they would eat it without much hassle. Mix the foods up in different combinations. Make them colorful by adding food colors and decorations to various recipes. Fruits are very important for kids but most kids don't like to eat them. The solution - make fruit smoothies with them! Fruit smoothies are easy to drink; they look appealing because of their colors and tones. You can even add some colorful sweets and candies to decorate it. Another alternative to fruits could be flavored yogurts. You can get flavored yogurts from markets or you can make them yourselves. Just add your kid's favorite fruit flavor to some plain yogurt. It will taste good so the kids will eat it easily and it would provide all the necessary nutrients to them such as calcium and vitamins.

Other important nutrients necessary for kids are proteins, carbohydrates, and fiber. Eggs are very important for kids. You can make different recipes that utilize eggs so that their nutritious value is preserved and it is also tasteful for the kids. You can make different versions of French toast to utilize eggs. Pancakes are another healthy option that provides the nutritious value of eggs and flour. Basically, there are endless options for making yummy and mouth watering foods for kids that are highly nutritious and tasteful. The key is to present it in such a manner that it appeals to the kids so that they can eat it while enjoying it as well.



Read more: Healthy Eating Plan For Kids http://www.sooperarticles.com/health-fitness-articles/children-health-articles/healthy-eating-plan-kids-715697.html#ixzz40npwdret

Wednesday Video - What is creatine?

You may have heard about this supplement but are not sure what it is or what it does. There's a lot of misinformation out there about Creatine and you may be wondering what is Creatine? Is it safe? What does it do? Find your answers here!

Monday Muscle - The Hidden Truth To Muscle Building

Some of you have probably heard of this, but I would bet a lot of us (Myself included) don't apply it like we should.

It is not some secret arcane formula, I'm not telling you to go sacrifice a goat under a new moon or anything. People DO know about it, but so few people actually use the knowledge.

Are you ready to learn the Truth?

The Hidden Truth to building muscle? REST.

I know, it might seem a little obvious. But think about it! Most people put so much emphasis on working out, they completely ignore reccovery. You need to remember that muscle is formed out of the gym, not in it. A large majority of weight lifters could actually be OVERTRAINING because they do nothing but work out, and totally ignore resting. Refrain from making this mistake yourself! Resting is vital.

Use These Four Tactics to Avoid Overtraining:

Now, you know the Truth is; but how can you apply this in your everyday life?

#1 Get plenty of sleep! 

Good quality sleep is essential

I know with how busy people are these days this one can be hard, but it is incredibly important. You NEED sleep, more so than the average person if you continounsly work out hard. Eight hours of sleep is of course best, but at least get Six. I would not recommend less than that.

#2 Improve Your Diet! 

Get extra protein into your day; this is possible in any number of ways, a good thing to do is to get a good protein mix, and drink it once a day. There are many different types on the market, pick one that works best for you.

#3 Stretch, Stretch, Stretch! 

Stretching helps loosen you up. Stretch before, stretch after. You'll be less sore, get the bloodflow going, and avoid the after session cramps. All very good things, for such an easy thing to do.

#4 Vitamins. 

This one probably seems similar to our #2 Tip, but is just as important. Get a good multi-vitamin. They've been shown to lead to better recovery, and let's face it: How many of us are actually getting the vitamins we need in our daily lives? Especially with how rushed we are during the day.

I know this all might seem obvious to many of you. You may be right, or it could be the little bit you need to get over the Wall. Are you always tired or sore? Those are signs you're not getting enough rest! So take a break, drink a shake, and rest up so you can get back to building muscle, or losing weight.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/build-muscle/the-hidden-truth-to-muscle-building

Fat Loss Friday - 5 Unusually Fast Fat Loss Tips

TIP 1: EXERCISE EFFICIENCY

The idea here is that we're all very busy, and I don't have time to spend hours at the gym or workout nearly every day of the week. I know most people are in the same boat.

So what is needed is an exercise routine that can be performed infrequently and takes very little time, but still gives you great results...

...now the only way to do this is to use a form of exercise that produces fat loss in the time that you're NOT working out.

Most popular forms of exercise provide most of their calorie and fat burning during the exercise...but this is not efficient because we can only exercise so much...even the aerobic and cardio fanatics out there can only stand say 5-10 hours a week of exercise.

There's only so much cardio you can do in a week

So with 24 hours a day times 7 days, that gives us 168 hours in a week... so even working out 5-10 hours a week still leaves us with 160 or more hours that we won't be working out...

...it is these 160 hours we should be focusing on if we want maximum fat loss in minimum time...

...and when you can do that, now you've got exercise efficiency. So the idea is to get the most fat burning out of those 160+ hours that you're not working out...

...and the best way to do it that I've found is by using a very high level of intensity combined with resistance training exercises performed in fairly rapid succession.

This type of exercise will burn fat for up to 2-3 days after the workout is over, so you can see why just 2-3 sessions a week of this type of exercise can double or even triple the amount of fat loss that can occur with typical type of exercise in the so called "fat burning zone".

TIP 2: FOCUS ON MICRONUTRIENTS FIRST

Perhaps the most important tip I can give anyone trying to get and stay lean is to look at food from a micronutrient standpoint.

This is not something you'll hear from most nutrition experts, in fact they'll tell you just the opposite, to look at your food from a macronutrient view (protein, carbs, fats)...

...this is what most people end up doing, and it is still important for fat loss, but the big turning point in my personal fat loss journey happened when I started to focus on eating most of my calories from foods that are super loaded with nutrients instead of stressing out over my protein, fat, and carb ratios.

The foods I'm talking about are vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds.

Now don't mistake this for a vegetarian or vegan diet, that's not what I'm talking about, but a diet that supplies the body with the nutrients it requires to burn fat optimally.

Now, you'll notice that I didn't include lean animal meats on this list. Well, that doesn't mean these foods won't help you burn fat, they will, but what I'm saying is you need to take your focus off of the whole protein first mindset and instead go with a "nutrient first" mindset.

Make sure your meals are balanced

I was raised, as I'm sure a lot of people are, that any good meal needs to start with a big portion of beef or poultry, and that the nutrient rich foods (like vegetables, fruits, beans, etc.) are a small part of that meal, if at all.

I'm saying you have to flip that equation entirely and that most of your meal should be based in the nutrient loaded foods, with a smaller bit of the animal proteins.

The fact is that these foods have the most nutrients, and when you give your body the required nutrients without overloading it with foods that have little nutrients, fat loss become so much easier because the hunger and cravings that plague dieters almost disappears.

TIP 3: STOP DOING SITUPS AND USING ABS GIZMOS TO LOSE STOMACH FLAB!

OK, so this is a big one because six pack abs are like a status symbol these days on whether or not you're lean.

I mean back in the 70s and 80s, it was enough just to have a flat stomach, but now it's all about the six pack...for whatever reason.

It probably has more to do with the fact that people are fatter than ever and things like six pack abs are becoming more rare and of course they are that much more desirable because of it.

So, a lot of people are still mystified by the spot reducing myth that you can do exercise a specific area of the body and create localized fat loss.

I should know because I hammer my newsletter subscribers with this myth several times, but I still get question after question about which abs or belly exercises or gut blaster 3000 will get them a set of six pack abs!

Look, you really can't lose fat from one area of your body specifically...

...the only way you can lose belly fat, thigh fat, butt fat or any other fat is by lowering your overall body fat percentage. In other words, losing overall body fat.

The reason you have problem areas or body parts is because you simply have more fat cells stored in that area genetically.

And we can't lose these fat cells, we are stuck with them unless we resort to surgery, but we can shrink them, and that's what happens when we lose fat. We shrink the fat cells.

So the key here is forgetting about all those abs specific exercises for a while and instead focus on lowering your overall body fat percentage by creating a calorie deficit through the right diet strategies and adding lean muscle to your body.

Truth be told, a good set of barbell squats to muscular failure done a couple times a week will do more for losing belly fat and getting six pack abs than 1000 crunches a week because the amount of calories and fat that will be burned from the squats will far outweigh those crunches.

Yeah, you'll need some abs specific exercises to build the abdominal muscles, but no one will see them if they're covered up by layers of body fat.

TIP 4: DON'T JUDGE YOUR FAT LOSS PROGRESS ON A SCALE

Alright another huge mistake people make when determining how successful their fat loss program. First off, we're talking about fat loss here, not weight loss.

Weight loss is the predominant term, unfortunately, because that's what we are taught at an early age.

But when it comes to losing actual body fat, we have to look at our body composition, not how much we weigh on the scale, but how much of our body is fat weight.

This is really the only way to know if you're losing fat or just losing water weight or muscle, which is very common on most crash or fad diets...

...people will end up losing a few pounds really fast and get excit, but they don't look much better in the mirror!

Don't rely on scales to measure progress

I mean they could look better in clothes because water loss and muscle loss will make you look smaller in clothes sometimes, but when the clothes come off...

...yikes!

This is the skinny-fat look that a lot of people have...they have high body fat percentages, but because of a small bone structure they look acceptable to people while in clothes.

I know nobody wants to look like that, which is why body fat percentage must be the key measurement for fat loss.

OK, another reason we can't rely on the scale is because of muscle mass...

...if we're doing this right, our exercise is going to be geared toward gaining lean muscle as this is the best way to create a calorie deficit almost immediately.

Especially as we age because our bodies naturally lose muscle mass every year once we hit our mid 30s or so... by the way that's the main reason so many people who were in good shape in their 20s and 30s wake up in their 40s 20-30 pounds of fat heavier.

So if you're measuring your progress by the scale and you gain 5 pounds of muscle, the scale could show no fat loss or even a small gain because muscle weighs more than fat...

...it's more dense and takes up less space. This can cause you to freak out and think your efforts are causing weight gain when in reality your creating the perfect environment for 24 hour a day fat burning.

So, easy ways to track your bf% are with a skinfold caliper, which you can find online, some of those body fat scales or hand grippers (though there are some tricks to using those correctly).

I actually have a body fat percentage analyzer available for my newsletter subscribers for free which you can get on my website...this is a great little tool and it's there for anyone who wants to accurately track your fat loss.

So that's the idea here... track your body fat percentage, not just your bodyweight! It's fat loss, not weight loss we're after.

TIP 5: KNOW YOUR FAT LOSS NUMBERS

I'm talking about keeping score and knowing your numbers here...

...if you don't know the numbers, you have little chance of success in fat loss and fitness.

Just like anything else in life, if you're not tracking what works and what doesn't work, you'll be using a shotgun approach that will take much longer and not work as well as an approach that includes tracking.

This is especially important in relation to your exercise and fat loss and fitness progress. Let's look at the business world for a moment. In any business, at the end of the day, results are measured by revenue, or the money that was made.

If the business owner doesn't know the numbers, they won't know if they've made any money. And thus they literally have no business! It's crazy and pretty simple, but the most powerful metric a business owner can track.

I'm a big NBA basketball fan, but do you think I'd enjoy watching my favorite team if they didn't keep score? Of course not!

If they don't keep score, we don't know who's winning, and thus there is no "game" to win or lose. They have to know their numbers to know who wins and who loses.

Again, strikingly simple, but the fact is that most people don't track their exercise routines at all. How do they know if they're winning or losing the fat loss game?

In fat loss and fitness it's all about monitoring a few key numbers, primarily strength gains, inches in your body part measurements, and body fat percentage.

Knowing your numbers help your progress

If you don't know these numbers from week to week, month to month, you'll have a tough time judging your progress...and thus you'll second guess yourself, the methods you're using and have little change of succeeding.

This is also important because with any type of exercise or diet plan, you'll need to make slight adjustments as you progress, and how the heck are you going to do that if you don't know what or when to adjust?

So recording your progress on a weekly and month basis is key to getting that lean and fit body you desire... and if you're not doing it, you're using the shotgun approach: just spraying bullets and hoping you hit something.

This is a big reason people give up on their programs...

...not measuring their progress accurately. When you do this right, it can also give you that positive reinforcement to work even hard toward your goals.

Once you sniff something that actually is working, I don't know about you, but I'll do everything I can do magnify that effect for as long as I can.

So, bottom line, make sure to keep accurate records of your workouts and your progress. Just like in any business or in sports, you won't know if you're winning if you don't keep score.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sean_A_Keats/1193814

Wednesday Video - What Is Fat?

Today we deal with the 3rd (and probably most notorious) macronutrient - FAT!

There are a lot of misconceptions around fat and it generally conceived in a negative light and it has a bad reputation.

This short video explains what fat is exactly, how it works and why you need it.