There was a time in this world when the need to lose weight was completely unheard of. People ate well, but they worked well too. They woke up early in the morning and then engaged in a whole day’s work. This work was mostly physical labor. People worked on fields digging, sowing, harvesting. They tilled they soil, rode horses, worked on farms and ranches. The result was that they could afford to eat almost anything they wanted in whatever quantities they wanted.

That was ages ago though. The world has changed so much since those days. Life styles have changed so much and the comforts and facilities have increased so much. As a result of all these comforts and amenities, the state of physical well being has really changed. Most of us have sedentary jobs that demand little or no exercise at all. To put it simply, things have become so easy. Just as can be expected, weight gain has become a major concern for almost every city dweller.

All over the world people are switching to a healthier life style and the catch line is indeed weight loss.

#1

Drink plenty of water. Our body needs a lot of water so give in to water. Water is not just way to flush out toxin but if you have more water in your body you will generally feel healthier and fitter. This it self will discourage any tendency to gorge. The best thing about water is that is has no calories at all.

#2

Stay away from sweetened bottle drinks, especially sodas. All those colas and fizzy drinks are sweetened with sugar and sugar means calories. The more you can cut out on these sweetened bottle drinks, the better for you. If you absolutely must drink sodas, then stick to diet sodas.

#3

Include in your diet things that contain more water like tomatoes and watermelons. These things contain 90 to 95% water so that there is nothing that you have to lose by feasting on them. They fill you up without adding to the pounds.

#4

Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Juice is often sweetened but fresh fruits have natural sugars. When you eat fruit, you are taking in a lot of fiber, which is needed by the body, and fruits of course are an excellent source of vitamins.

These are just some quick diet tips on losing weight. Start off with these and you will start a gradual change in your lifestyle. A lifestyle change is necessary if you are serious about losing weight.

For a great Diet on losing weight Click Here.

In a previous post, I talked about having a blueprint for a solid muscle training routine. In this blueprint, I mentioned how you should log all your information about your muscle training routine including exercises. What exercises should you be doing?

Regardless if you are a beginner or an advanced weight trainer, the best and most result producing exercises are compound exercises. Compound exercises are lifts that even though seem to concentrate on one muscle group, they need a lot of support from secondary muscles. Secondary muscles are the other muscle groups helping the main muscle perform that particular exercise. With that, the result will be a strain on the main muscle with a smaller emphasis on the secondary muscle. This helps your entire body become stronger and more fit.

Which exercises are considered compound exercises?

The compound exercises that every muscle training workout should include the following:

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• BenchPresses
• Pull-Ups

If you have ever done a correct squat for example, you would have felt your legs primarily doing the work. You should have also felt the rest of your body straining and helping you perform the lift. This is a perfect example of the primary and secondary muscle example. Many beginners who start on a muscle training workout routine feel have certain goals they would like to reach. Males most likely would like to have bigger biceps and perform endless amounts of curls with ‘Barbie’ weights thinking this will help them. Then, when the results don’t happen the way they want, they switch the muscle training routine to another one thinking that must be the problem.

If you have ever seen pictures from the 1950s of the ’strong men’ from that time, you will see men who have bodies that many bodybuilders of today would like. The difference being that none of them gourged themselves with protein powders, magic pills and even worse-drugs. They lifted using compound lifts and ate fresh food and drank real milk. They did not have the information overload that we have today.

The problem with compound lifts.

Even though these are the best exercises to perform, many people have no idea how to perform them correctly. This leads to injury and that person dropping that exercise from the muscle building training routine. Before lifting the weight you will want to workout with, you should perform ‘practice’ lifts with a partner watching and making sure you have the correct form. Once you learn the feel of the exercise, you can start incorporating them into your workout.

What secondary muscles do these compound lifts help build?

You would be amazed at how certain lifts actually help build other muscle groups that you would never realize.

Bench Press -  When performing a bench press, the primary muscle group is the chest area that is being worked. If you perform a correct press, squeezing the muscle group at the top will result in your biceps and grip strength increasing. Don’t believe me? Try it and see for yourself.

Deadlifts- Primarily your hamstrings and your back will feel the most strain when done correctly. Realize that your shoulders, biceps quads and actually almost your entire body is working when performing a deadlift. This is probably the most beneficial exercise anyone could do. It is also the most unused exercise in todays muscle training wirkout routines.

Squats- We already touched on the benefits of a squat. Your entire body is working to help you perform this lift. Like the famous ‘20-rep squat routine’ where all the lifters did were squats and had reported gains of 20 pounds of muscle added!

Pull-ups- Another underused exercise. Performing a pull-up is one of the true examples of someone being strong. A proper pull-up is done with your palms away from you, or a overhand grip. A grip with palms facing you are chin-ups. Two almost identical exercises but the difference in grip will force you to use different muscles. Pull ups are excllent for your back and bicep muscles.

The Common Factor.

Did you realize what the common factor is? All of these exercises help you in developing your bicep muscles. So if you are a male looking to build your biceps, be a real man about it and do a muscle training workout routine using these exercises. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. If you are a female, don’t be scared away from these exercises. If you do these or for that matter any exercise using the proper weight and set and rep scheme for your personal goal, then you will achieve great results.

A  great resource for a solid Muscle Training Workout Routine.