Archives August 2020

Most professional bodybuilders follow a seasonal and off-season diet (on / off), since it is almost impossible to have a slim, defined body and want to gain a considerable amount of mass muscular. One of the main keys to achieving a defined body is cardiovascular training . There’s a science mixed in with cardio to amplify your results, just like resistance training.

If you are a professional bodybuilder you will know the importance of cardio in the months of preparation before a bodybuilding contest since we could not enter a stage and win without it. Some bodybuilders do two hours of cardio a day, one in the morning and one at night.

Over the past 15 years cardiovascular training has received a ton of cues as the premier center for fitness, weight management and cardio-respiratory health. Cardiovascular training has many benefits. Helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease from factors such as obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol.

Intensity low or high?

The yin and yang of the exercise world are aerobics and strength training. “Aerobics” refers to low intensity, extended time workouts that are intended to use up calories and burn fat. Strength training is high intensity. When it comes to combining aerobic exercise with strength training, the main mistake people make is that they use a progressive overload tactic in their aerobic workout.

A great form of cardiovascular exercise is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). She does this in intervals, and should be between 15 and 20 minutes. An example would be sprinting for 20 seconds and then brisk walking for 40 seconds before repeating the desired number of times. Or you could try the bike or the rowing machine.

Aerobic or anaerobic?

You must burn calories at a higher rate than you consume to lose weight. Aerobic calories burn fat while you inhale oxygen. Anaerobic calories burn glucose by converting it to starch in your muscles, known as glycogen. The accumulation of lactic acid as a side effect of anaerobic activity generates a burning sensation in the muscle. To lose fat the most, it’s pretty clear to focus on aerobics rather than anaerobic activities.

Swimming For cardio

Swimming is a very good cardiovascular exercise since in addition to improving your aerobic conditions (endurance), it mobilizes all the important muscle groups, such as shoulders, back, legs, arms. As swimming is an aerobic exercise that you can do for a long time and it also mobilizes large muscle groups, it allows us to burn many calories in one session. It also helps to tone (strengthen) the muscles involved, especially the back muscles, the deltoids and to a lesser extent the legs.

But a study from the University of California has revealed that swimming is less effective than cycling or running to lose weight. Over a six-month period, cyclists lost an average of 9 kilos, runners 8, and swimmers gained 2 kilos. The researchers suspect that the difference is in the activity itself. The water expels heat from the body, so dieting swimmers may have eaten something else to compensate for the heat loss.

Likewise, as an adaptation mechanism to exercise, swimmers have a higher percentage of body fat than other athletes. This is explained because the body responds to the specific stimulus of the sport, keeping fat, so as not to lose so much heat and thus feel warm, in addition to improving the body’s buoyancy.

That is why the choice of activities has to be appropriate in order to achieve your goals. On the other hand, the swimmer, due to his activity in the water, needs to perform muscular strength exercises to improve his power and thus be more effective in the pool.

Best duration time to burn fat with cardio.

Although it may be a great way to start, generic timing programs are ultimately going to limit you. At first, you need to tailor your cardio training, based on your goals, skill level, body type, and metabolism. You have to watch your body’s reaction to make progress once you’ve started taking action. There is no “best time” for the duration or frequency of cardio, other than the amount it takes to get the results you want.

When planning an exercise program it is important to consider the whole body to obtain maximized results and prevent injuries that can marginalize your progress. While there are many different training plans and programs, a common solution is to dedicate different days to different muscle groups to maintain specific routines and give them time to rest while you work on other areas. Common groupings include abs, arms, legs, and back.

What equipment do you need to train legs at home?

Arm, shoulder, back and abs home workouts can be accomplished quite easily and without much equipment depending on your regimen. However, the day that you do legs can sometimes present a problem to exercise and get results. While it is commonly said that effective leg training requires a squat rack and barbell equipment, the space required to have such equipment could be a limitation.

However, many of the compound workouts that exercise the major muscles of the legs (hamstrings, calves, glutes, and quads) can also be done with a set of dumbbells. Doing leg exercises using dumbbells offers many advantages, including less space required for storage and use, versatility in a multitude of workouts that target different muscle groups, and scalability when using an adjustable dumbbell set. Dumbbells also offer a safer way to perform certain exercises, as many barbell workouts require you to hold the weight on your shoulders, making it difficult to quit the workout or drop the bar if something goes wrong. With the dumbbells you can simply release them to avoid injury.

Many home gyms don’t have heavy enough dumbbells. This is especially true for advanced and intermediate lifters. If an adjustable base weight set isn’t heavy enough for your training level, look for an additional set of dumbbells that will allow your weights to meet your training needs. A weight bench can also be a great piece of equipment to have in your home gym. It can be used during many of your training days for a variety of muscle groups. With an adjustable weight bench, you can adjust incline, drop, and other angles that add even more variety to your exercise routines.

Exercises to do when training weights

For the day you train your legs, give yourself at least an hour to complete the different workouts. Not sure where to start? Consider the following 5 compound workouts designed to increase the strength and muscle mass of your legs.

1. Dumbbell lunges

3 or 4 sets of 10 repetitions. Lunges primarily work the quadriceps but also work the calves, hamstrings and glutes. As you stride, always make sure to keep your back straight and prevent your knees from sliding into your toes during the movement to avoid stress on the knee joint.

1. Select an appropriate but challenging dumbbell weight and stand straight while slightly bending your knees. Hold the dumbbells at your sides.
2. Step forward with one leg and keep the other leg in place. Keeping your balance, squat at your hips while keeping your back and torso straight.
3. Begin to regain position by returning to your initial position.
4. Repeat these steps, alternating the leg with which you take the initial step.

Looking for an added challenge in your dumbbell strides? Take a step back instead of forward for a more challenging balance.

2. Dumbbell squats

3 or 4 sets of 10 repetitions. You have several options to choose from when performing dumbbell squats. The most common is what is known as the goblet squat or front squat. While this compound exercise works all of your major leg muscles, it can also strengthen your shoulders and core depending on how you hold the dumbbells.

1. Stand up straight with your legs shoulder-width apart.
2. Hold a weight vertically by one end. Here’s where you can add some variation: hold the dumbbell in the center of your chest, higher, or further out for a different shoulder and core workout.
3. Squat up straight into a sitting position with your hips aligned with your knees.
4. Return to your starting position while keeping your back straight.

* The front squat can also be performed with kettlebells, which makes kettlebells a great piece of equipment to have at your home gym.

3. Dumbbell step ups

3 or 4 sets of 15 repetitions. This is a compound workout that requires a weight bench or elevated platform. The step ups can also be intensified by raising the platform. During all movements, keep your back straight and your eyes looking forward.

1. Hold a pair of dumbbells at your side and stand straight in front of your weight bench or elevated platform.
2. Raise the knee of your right leg, step onto the platform, and firmly place your foot on the raised platform.
3. Using your foot firmly planted, push up and lift the rest of your body.
4. Plant your left foot on the platform and stay in that position.
5. Step back with your left foot and then the other to return to your starting position.
6. Repeat the movement, alternating the starting foot.

4. Dumbbell Deadlift

3 or 4 sets of 10 repetitions. The deadlift is an excellent compound exercise that targets the hamstrings but also works the other major leg muscles. However, it is an exercise that requires a lot of attention in its execution, since a poorly executed deadlift can cause serious injuries. One of the most important things when doing the deadlift is to keep your back straight and not bend it. Keeping your eyes up can help prevent this. Another great step in this exercise is to bend at the waist without moving the hips back. This moves tension from the hamstrings to the lower back, which can also lead to serious injury.

1. Stand up straight with your knees slightly bent. Keep the dumbbells at your sides. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
2. While keeping your back straight, lean toward the waist. As you lean in, your hips should move back if you are using proper form. Your knees should not move at this point and you should lower the weights onto your feet.
3. You should feel tension in your hamstrings. Keep lowering the weights until you can’t lower yourself comfortably
4. Without bending your back, lift the weights. Keep your eyes up and lift the weights in a straight motion to your starting position.

5. Dumbbell Hamstring Curl

3 or 4 sets of 10 repetitions. This is another workout that requires an exercise bench to perform. Hamstring curls are an isolation workout, meaning they only target your hamstrings. During this exercise, try to keep your upper body and legs as still as possible and make sure that the weight of the dumbbells you select is not so heavy that it causes your body to sway.

1. Select your weight with the dumbbells and place it on the floor at the end of the bench.
2. Lie face down on the bench and align your knees with the end of the bench. Fully extend your legs so they hang over the edge of the bench.
3. Using your feet and keeping your upper body and legs rigid, lift the weight between the arches.
4. Bend your knees and focus on moving the weight with your hamstrings, flexing the dumbbell in a controlled motion.
5. Pause when you have raised the dumbbell to a comfortable position and then lower the dumbbell to the starting position.

When planning your exercise program at home, remember that rest days for your muscle groups are equally important. Give yourself 4-5 days between leg workouts to allow yourself a full recovery. During rest days, switch to other muscle groups and consider adding a day for cardio.

Bad training habits are difficult to break especially if you are not aware of them. Of course, it cannot always lead to injury, but certainly these mistakes can make movements less effective . I particularly see the same mistakes all the time with pulley crossover, a very simple type of exercise to train the chest.

Be honest: Are you guilty of any of these three most common pulley crossover mistakes? If so, don’t worry because I’m going to provide you with a remedy for each of them. So you can be on top of what you need to do next time you do this cable exercise to train your chest.

Key errors with standing crossings with pulleys

1. Arm opening / closing

All the movements you do in chest exercises have only one thing in common: The elbows should be fixed in a slightly inclined position during the entire movement of the exercise. Take into account that the degree of curvature in the elbows does not vary in the opening and closing during the repetition, it must remain in the same position during the movement of the exercise, giving rise to a great movement in the shape of an arc as if you were hugging a barrel or tree.

One of the main mistakes we make when training the chest with the openings is keeping the arms too rigid, since in this way we think that the work is much more intense and we concentrate much more on the chest, when it is not. What happens when we have our arms outstretched when performing the chest openings is that we divert much of the tension that should be concentrated in the chest to the biceps, which will be the ones that will withstand all the push of the exercise. To avoid this, what we must do is bend the arms slightly at the elbows in order to concentrate much more on the chest.

Solution : Go lighter in weight and rehearse the movement with the pec-deck machine with your arms fixed in a slightly inclined position and do the exercise from this point.

2. You keep your feet together

Crossing is particularly difficult when your feet are together because you are not well positioned to absorb changes in your center of gravity. This additional level of difficulty leads some people to believe that they are doing better, but they are not.

The crosses are for training the chest not for the whole body. Anything that makes movement more difficult, especially when it comes to maintaining balance, is detrimental to your ability to perform quality reps and feel good for the muscle contraction.

Solution : Stagger your posture with your legs slightly apart so that you can feel in a stable position and can focus on what is happening with your chest.

3. You don’t use multiple angles to do the exercise

One of the great things about the crossover cable is that it is not fixed in one position on the pulley. By moving the pulleys to any position from high to low and changing the angle of the torso inclination we will be working different beams of the pectoral. At the top it will favor the lower part of the chest, while the crosses from a lower part will favor the upper part of the chest. Doing repetitions from the middle will work the central part

Solution : Mix a little! Various angles between various high points, low points, and last in the middle.