Lunges – exercise for legs

Hello everyone !

In this article I’ll be talking about the great legs and gults exercise called “Lunges”. They’re easy to do, and does not require expensive equipment. You MUST have them included in your legs and gluts workout plan ! But if you have problems with your knees or ancles – skip them ! Anyway, lets go ahead and talk about the different variations of lunges.

With bodyweight 
You see the girl in the picture ? Thats how lunges are performed. Keep your lowerback straight, make a step forward with your left leg till it reach 90 degree. Go back to the starting position and repeat the same with your right leg.

Advanced lunges
If bodyweight lunges are too easy for you then just grab 2 dumbells and try again ! The weighted lunges are much more harder and will give you a nice soreness ! I promise you – if you didn’t do this exercise before, after 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps on the next day you’ll feel such burn  in your gluts that you’ll feel uncomfortable when trying to sit !      






 You can also do lunges with barbell but its a bit harder and requires more fitness experience. Find whats best for you and do it ! Do you like lunges ? Whats your opinion abo
ut them ? Post a comment bellow.

Interesting facts about water

In this article I’m about to talk again water. I’ll share you a few things that I'm sure that you DON’T know.

Interesting facts
The movie is full of interesting and more important, scientifically proven facts. Did you know that water has its memory? Or it can change its structure? Or that is influenced by the emotions of people? But let’s not reveal more. Please Google “Water – The movie”. Download it and watch it ! I’m expecting your comments in the comment box below.

Postworkout nutrition tips + recipes

Eating after a workout
Eating after workout is one of the most important meals of the day.That’s due to the fact that once muscles have been exerted for a long time, if you do not give them something to recover, they will have no progress . What happens to us during training? As you already know, carbohydrates are the main source of energy in our body. That’s the exact reason why immediately after training, when they are exhausted, it is important to supply them in order to restore glycogen levels. More important thing, however, in our post workout meal, is to have protein! It is needed to recover muscles to grow stronger and bigger. Another thing you may know is that when you exercise your muscles they are filled with blood, and a part of this blood must go to the stomach to involve in food digestion, so it is important that an after training meal should be easily digestible and not too large.

Recipes for a post-workout meal:

1)Whites and salad
2) Meat and salad
3) Fish with vegetables
4) Sandwich of whole-grain bread and meat
5) Rice with meat
6) Rice with spinach
7) Peas or lentils
 8) Whites and boiled potatoes Those were my tips for a post workout nutrition! I hope you find this article useful and interesting. Feel free to drop me a comment in the comment box below.

Salt – harmful or useful ?

In this article we’ll talk about salt and how it affects our body. Salt has become part of almost every meal. We add it to salads, meat and potatoes and I can hardly think of food that is consumed without salt. I guess most of you have heard, however, that salt is harmful, but do you know why? In fact, salt is necessary for our body and is vital, but its quantity should be VERY little! The daily required dose is about 1 gram. Each gram exceeding this dose may be considered harmful.


Negative Effects of salt consumption
Ulcers may be formed. Leads to heart attacks and strokes. It cause damagе to your kidneys. It retains water  in your body. Yet we should not forget that we need it! Just limit its amount a little bit.

How to eat properly at school

Have you asked yourself the question – how to eat properly at school, given the fact the only thing offered in school canteens is greasy pastry, cheese pies, batters fried in deep oil and occasionally some more or less acceptable sandwich?
This article will give you a few tips that I hope will be helpful for you.
There are many ways to eat properly even at school.

To begin with: 
Canteen Not every school has a canteen, but if you’re lucky and yours is one of them you can always find something cooked to eat there and it’s perhaps the best option.

Good butteries
Apart from old time bakeries selling pies filled with fat probably somewhere around your school there are better butteries selling some sandwiches. Although bread will not be the whole grain one , a sandwich with white bread, salad and some meat is a decent meal for school.

If you live 2 feet away from school
Go back home and eat there. It’s something I do quite often : D

Take your own food
However if none of the above options do not seem agreeable for you, you can always get a foodbox in your rucksack. Here are a few good things that can get in your bag.

1) Fruit – will not satiate much, but better than nothing.
2) Steamed vegetables with meat – you have a little bit from dinner left? Bundle up!
3) Eggs – Once you boil them, remove whites put them in the box and you’re ready for school.
4) Cans – A can of tuna is about has 23g protein in it – is there any better meal for school? (Just remember Orbit gum after it)
5) Rice with meat – there’s a little left in the tray from yesterday? Pack it up for school!
6) Cottage cheese – you can carry it from home, you may buy it directly at school.

5 pre-workout meals

Hello everybody !
You might have already read the article “10 post-workout meals”. This is a similar one but it is about 5 pre-workout meals.

Here they are:
Eggs – you can have them boiled, fried or as an omelet with a slice of wholemeal bread.
A steak (preferably chicken one) with a salad.
Oats with milk and some chopped fruits.
Oats with yogurt and some chopped fruits.
Coffee with milk (especially if you try to get your body ripped).

Try to avoid simple sugars in your pre-workout meals. They might cause you an insluin spike and you might fall asleep. I guess you don’t want this to happen especially when you’re going to workout ? Thats it from me. Feel free to post a comment in the box below.

3 tips for ripped abs !!!

What we need to know to achieve the desired abdominal definition. In today’s world we are offered various “easy” and “fast” systems which promise to turn you from a person with flabby stomach to one with a 8-pack
abs – THEY ARE LYING ! If it was that easy to just buy some pills, or buy one of those notorious vibrating belts, all people would have had ripped and defined abs, right ? I’m going to tell you three things you can do to achieve ripped abs.

 1 – Reduce the food 
To shed body fat, you have to burn more calories than you consume. Don’t forget though, your body requires calories to go through its daily vital processes. You should NEVER restrict calories too drastically, because this leads to slower metabolism, and will interfere with your goals. Besides that, the extreme calorie restriction may lead to loss of muscle mass due to the lack of energy resources. Your body metabolizes body fat for energy, once the fat is depleted, the body searches for other energy sources and may start to catabolise muscle tissue.

2 – Eat smaller meals, often 
eat every three hours. Eat slow digesting carbs, proteins and fats (which have to be in small amounts). You have to eat at least 4-6 times a day. Eating smaller meals every 3 hours is going to activate your metabolism even more, and this is something we want to achieve. Resistance training also greatly effects metabolism, so don’t skip workouts.

3 – Cardiovascular training 
Cardio is a must, if you want ripped abs. It reduces your body fat percentage, promotes cardiovascular health, improves blood circulation, reduces stress, effects you muscle tone and overall conditioning. Like all exercise, cardio leads to endorphin secretion- the body’s hormone of happiness. Feel free to comment and ask me questions under the article.

Running with nylon all you have to know !!!

Hello everybody !

In this article ill be talking about one of the most rediculous myths “losing weight faster when you run with nylon on your stomach”
WHAT THE F*CK !?? Where did this bullsh*t come from ?!? 
Listen guys.. I’ll tell you how it is and please read this and don’t ever listen to the guy who told you something good about nylon running.

Okay.. First 
If you want to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you’re getting. For example if you  get 2000kcal today and you burn 2500kcal you’ll start to lose weight. Thats how easy it is.

Second 
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT FAT REMOVAL ! You CANNOT tell your body where to remove the fat from. Our bodies are clever enough and they know where the fat should be removed. And here comes the biggest surprise (not at all..) The fat from the lowerbelly and the love handles will get away THE LAST. First you’ll drop fat from your arms, legs, chest and at last from your belly. So don’t get dissapointed, please. Thats how it is.

At last 
If you’re about to say something like “Fuck you Kristiyan ! I’ve been running with nylon for 10 minutes and it was full of sweat, you don’t know a damn about working out !” Ey ey ey.. calm down ! You can stay with this nylon for 10 minutes reading this article again and again and you’ll see that it will be “full of sweat” but sorry my friend. Its not sweat, its just WATER. You’re getting dehidrated and that has nothing familar with losing weight and burning calories ! So.. thats enough from me. I hope that this article will open the eyes of many people. If you’ve got anything to say – push a comment from the form bellow.

Brachialis – what is it and how to train it ?

Hello everybody !

I decided to write this article in order to meet you with a muscle that you might not assume that exists in your body. This muscle is called brachialis and its located under your biceps.

What is brachialis ? 
Brachialis is a small muscle located under your biceps. Even though its role is quite big. Brachialis helps biceps alot and training it correctly can lead to significant strenght gains.

How often and how to work it out ? 
You can do 2 to 3 sets of 10-12 reps in your biceps workout, focusing the brachialis. The exercise that hits brachialis most is called “Hammer curls”.

How to do hammer curls ?
Get 2 dumbells, stand up, put your thumbs facing the sky and start curling. Don’t swing, jump and so on ! Clean form !!! Don’t move your elbows !!! Thats all I had to share about brachialis. I hope you’ll like this article and feel free to put a comment bellow.

Lose weight with the After Burn effect

In this article ill talk about the “After burn effect”. As you might guess from its name, its an effect of burning calories after finishing some physical activity. This effect can be really helpful to anybody who wants to lose weight or get ripped. The after burn effect is caused by cardio exercises. That means – swiming, running, jumping and so on !

Lets go on and clear up this topic
A group of scientists made alot of experiments and found that when we’re doing cardio our body burns alot more calories than we’re expecting. Thats because cardio exercises lead to metabolism rate increase. In other words – our bodies burn calories for hours after we finish our cardio session. Here is an interesting chart. 20 mins running burns 230 calories  | +70 additional calories will be burnt because of the AB effect. 35 mins running burns 400 calories |+460 additional calories will be burnt because of the AB effect. 50 mins of running burns 570 calories | +580 additional calories will be burned after the running because of the AB effect. As you can notice, the longer our cardio session lasts, the more calories are burnt by the AB effect. I hope that this article was interesting to you. Feel free to put a comment bellow.

What you need to know if you’re about to start working out

What do you need to know about working out when you are just starting. Meet with the basics of bodybuilding The 7 things you need to know before beginning your bodybuilding lifestyle!!

1. Expectations 
You need to know that anyone can change , but this requires alot of time, dedication and consistency. Nothing will happend for a week, or a month for that matter. You can expect visible changes in your body after at least 6 months of hard working out and proper nutrition. The most common mistake wich beginners make is starting the run for the body of their dreams , and they want it fast…they want it really fast!…this , is a big mistake, wich can lead to injury or overtraining, wich will actually hinder your progress thus what you are doing will be exactly the opposite of ‘fast’ . just take it 1 month at a time.

2. Consistency
As you know , to reach anything in any point of life you need to be consistent. If you stop – all the work and effort you have put into your goal will go to hell.

3. Cardio
You MUST have cardio workouts included into your training regime/program. If you think that only 60 minutes of weightlifting will do it – you are wrong. (that is if you want to lean out and get a 6 pack). Cardio workouts will help you cut down your bodyfat, that will help you show your new muscle gains , wich were achieved by lifting weights and proper nutrition. Everything is chained , and you musn’t miss the one or the other.

4. During workout
Its EXTREMELY important to have focuss during your workout. Be really focused into everything, do the exercises right and use GOOD form. Bad form is acceptable only at the end of your set when you just want to squeeze out 1 or 2 more reps.

5. REST
Resting is the period in wich the muscles recooperate and grow. A good rest is considered taking at least 8 hours of sleep at night, and your protein intake being twice your bodyweight in grams. Wich means if you are 70 kilograms, your protein intake should be around 130-140 grams. But as with everything, protein intake for everybody is different. Some people have had big muscle gains with relatively low protein existence in their diets, while some others go by the traditional 1.5-2 grams per kilo of bodyweight. Its up to you. Experiment!

6. Eating 
To get a fit and muscular body, eating is critical and mistakes can cost you alot. The muscles need protein, wich rebuilds them after you’ve tore down those muscle fibers at the gym, carbs wich provide your body with energy, and fats wich regulate your body temperature , storing energy, keeping your skin healthy etc.

7. Water 
Water is extremely important. Drink it all the time. Before/after and during your workout! As we know, water makes up to 70% of our body, so you can imagine how important it is to you. It is also proven that dehydrated muscles loose up to 20% of their strenght and durability. I think those are the basics of bodybuilding wich every beginner should know, before beginning their new…STRONG lifestyle!

Everything about cardio workouts !

All about cardio workouts In this article you’re going to learn why it’s necessary cardio workouts to be present in your training program and also which type of cardio workout is best for you.

What is cardio workout 
The word cardio has its origin in English and is an abbreviation for Cardiovascular exercise. It is enhancement of heart activity for a certain period of time and is more important for your health than weightlifting.

Why should we do cardio workouts? 
There are several reasons: 1.To remove your fats and look better. You want six pack abs? The only way to achieve them is to clean up subcutaneous fat. 2.It’s proved that cardio improves your mood and decreases depression. 3.Another scientifically proved fact is that cardio workouts lessen brain fatigue with up to 65%. 4.To live a healthier live. Because losing only a few per cent subcutaneous fats make you look much more “ripped”.

Cardio workouts “burn” muscle mass? – FALSE.
Many people insist on the wrong opinion that cardio workouts do “burn out” muscle mass – give me a break! Loss of muscle mass is due only to wrongly structured feeding regime and protein insufficiency in your diet.So, if you consider doing with two apples all day long and jogging a 5 km distance in order to do a “clean up” – you’d better make up your mind! Types of cardio: there are different types of cardio workouts and it’s not of high importance which one you’ll choose. What matters is to do it at least 4 times a week. They are divided basically into two types:

1) Slow paced and balanced cardio. 
That includes walking and jogging.Its duration varies between 45 and 60 minutes with a slow and steady unchangeable tempo. During this type of training joints are minimally stressed and that’s the exact reason why it’s appropriate to be practiced by overweight people .

2) High intensity cardio 
This type of cardio burns out much more calories in comparison with slow paced jogging/ walking. It’s duration is between 20 and 30 minutes, but the joint impact is much higher. So what exactly should I choose? Here I’m going to present you a few alternative ways for cardio training: Bike. Biking is a great way both for indoor and outdoor cardio workouts ! Averagely for 30 minutes it burns out between 250 and 500 kcal, depending certainly on biking intensity. Swimming – Swimming also can be a killer cardio workout. It exercises the entire body and it can burn out up to 400 kcal in 30 minutes. If you have the opportunity to include swimming into your weekly schedule – it’s a must do! Rope jumping – Rope jumping is another awesome way to do a cardio workout. I myself am a great fan of. Just like swimming, it exercises the entire body. Furthermore it’s an interesting fact that a 70-kg male can burn out up to 14 kcal per minute jumping! (Well, it’s true… it requires a bit of practice until you learn how to jump, but after 1-2 days of training you are going to make it! ) Running – Running is still the most popular cardio method. Depending on its intensity it can burn out about 300-400 kcal per 30 minutes. Walking – The least intensive type of cardio, but nevertheless for 30 minutes you can burn out up to 180 kcal! That was all about cardio workouts from me. I hope you find this article useful.

Rest – Weekly and annual

I suppose you have heard the phrase “your muscles grow while they’re relaxing” – this is entirely true, so this article will talk about rest – when and how to have it.

Weekly rest 
After training hard one or 2 days at most, it’s a must to have a whole rest day. This is the day on which muscles will fully recover and become stronger. It’s best to have strength workouts 4 times a week.

Annual rest 
Once you have trained regularly 4-5 months so far, again you should consider having some rest. It should be about 5-10 days, during which the body will recover from everyday exertions in the last few months. I know that once you get used to everyday training, it’s difficult to idle for a few days, but it’s necessary if you want better results. Take a break from training, but keep on sticking to good eating habits. There is no need in those 5-10 days that are intended for rest, to become a regular customer of McDonald’s.

Tips for hardgainers

You do your best to gain weight, but the scale is always showing the same ? 

This article is exactly for you. How to gain muscle mass :

About nutrition:
 If you want to gain weight you must eat more! If you are not getting enough calories, there is no way to gain even and single gram! Increase the amount of food little by little, eat each day a little more than the previous one, until you reach the level you think food is enough. After you have obtained this level keep it for some time and see how your results go by. If you do not start putting up weight, increase food intake! However, by saying eat more I do not mean to swallow everything that is edible! Try to eat quality food and emphasize mainly on protein.

About training:
Change your workout. Set a little heavier weight and do fewer reps (of course, you should perform the exercise correctly!). Also, if you do cardio you can limit it for a while as it burns out part of the calories needed to gain weight. Well, that was my advice. Let’s hope they’ve been of use for you!!!

Small meal before workout !

Hi guys,

This article is about eating before working out and to be more precise it is about the size of the meal. The portion shouldn’t be big!

WHY?
The answer is : Because your body spends energy on digesting and then absorbing the nutrition. So, if you load your body up with a large amount of food, you can not expect it to have enough energy for exercising too. At the end of the day this will ruin your workout. Training after eating might provoke vomiting or stomach ache. It can also be a reason for lack of power so that you will not be able to do the exercises properly. That’s why before training you should try to:

1. Consume small portions of food
2. Avoid fat foods
3. Train 60 – 90 minutes after eating Thats it. Feel free to post me a comment below this article.

Carbs and losing weight – 4 important tips

Hello everybody !

In this article I’m about to talk about carbs and fat loss. Carbs are the thing that you must take care of when it comes to losing weight. If you have control on your carbs you’ll easily achieve your goals.

A few things you need to know :
Carbs are the first energy source which is being used by the body. To drop weight you need to reduce the amount of carbs you’re getting. Thats the easiest way. You have to wisely arrange the carb portions during the day.

A few things about carbs that I’ve realised during my lifting experience
1 ) ALWAYS try to focus on SLOW carbs ! Avoid simple sugars ! Have your biggest carb meal for breakfast and eat it along with some protein like egg whites or milk.

2 ) The next kinda big carb meal should be right before your workout.You’ll need their energy in order to have a great workout.

3 ) In the rest of your meals try to get your carbs from veggies. They’re low in calories and high in fiber. This will help you alot in the fight for losing fat.

4 ) And last but not least – avoid carbs at night ! You don’t need their energy at night, so just skip them !   These were my 4 tips. I hope you find this article helpful and interesting. Feel free to left me a comment in the box below.

Top 5 most common bodybuilding mistakes !

Hello guys ! In todays’ article I’m going to share you the 5 most common mistakes, when it comes to working out !

1) Neglecting the warm-up 
Warming up is as important as you workout ! Don’t fucking skip your warmup if you don’t want to get injured !

2)  Bad form 
Learn the proper form of all of the exercises that you’re about to do ! Working out with bad form can lead to injuries and will not be beneficial for muscle hypetrophy.

3) Going too heavy 
Try to swallow your ego and put some weights that allow you to do 8-12 reps with good form in each set. Lifting heavy weights with bad form won’t impress anybody, but will injure you !

4) Neglecting muscle groups 
Don’t do it ! You will look rediculous !

5) Don’t go to the gym without any plan 
If you don’t know what you’re about to do – how many sets, how many reps, which exercises and so on – Just don’t go to the gym !

ABS Program

In this post I will reveal to you another great 4 minute ab workout wich will help you get the beast abs you have always wanted ! Summer’s right around the corner so who woudn’t want a great set of 6pack abs to show off at the beach? In this article you will learn how to achieve them!

Important notice:
Before I get right into the program I want to point out a few things wich i think are really important. -To get 6 pack abs you need to lower your bodyfat levels to a really small percentage. Even if you do 10,000 crunches a day this wont change a thing, but only make them stronger and bigger below your slab of fat. So much more important than the workout itself is your nutrition and your cardio. Soon I will do more articles about the different types of cardio but easily said you can just run 3-5 times a week for 20-30 minutes. THE FORMULA FOR GREAT ABS IS – 95% NUTRITION AND 5% EXERCISE! Now, since we figured out how to get them we can move on to the workout itself.

Warm up:
Begin with 1-2 minutes of stretching the lowerback by doing deadlifts or hiperextenstions and probably waist tilts. NEVER miss your warmup with any bodypart, because your abs can get injured as easy as any other muscle. Now since we have warmed up, start up your timer and lets begin!

Workout:  

Exercise 1 : normal crunches
Do the following exercise slowly for a minute straight. Remember its not a hip pivot and its not a neck pivot. the only thing that is going up and down is your straight torso towards the ceiling. try to feel the burn and flex the muscles really hard on the positive part of the movement. Ewps, a minute has passed by! Lets move to the other exercise!        


Exercise 2 : bycicles
This movement represents a similiar movement as when you are riding a bycicle. Lie on the ground on your back , and move your right elbow to your left knee, than left elbow to your right knee. Do that slowly and try to feel your obliques burn. Another minute has passed by! Time for exercise number 3      






Exercise 3 : 
Lying leg raises Lie on the ground with straight legs and raise them up towards the ceiling. Simple as that. another minute has passed by!            







Exercise 4 : 
Planks Do it exactly as shown on the picture. Its an isometric exercise and it really burns! try to hold it as much as you can. This great exercise routine is apropriate for beginners as much as for intermidiates or advanced bodybuilders. I suggest you do this workout on the days that you are doing your cardio, right after it ! Feel free to put a comment below this article, share your opinion !