:BodyFitnessInfo.com BLOG

What separates a good workout from a great workout? In a word: INTENSITY!

How do you know if you’re reaching the right level of intensity in your workout? In today’s post we’re going to take a rather different approach to this. Instead of explaining all of the different ways you can tell if you’re working hard enough, let’s use a visual example. Go grab a copy of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding and take a look at some of the workout pictures of him working out in the gym. What do you notice? For one thing, he isn’t really smiling in those pictures, he’s really straining to get the weight going! Now, let’s use this as an example of what intensity really means. In this same book, Arnold talks about in each set you should go to failure on each and every set. He further explains this to mean that it doesn’t mean absolute muscle failure, but the point where you can’t do another proper rep without rest. If you’re just going through the motions and doing your 3 sets of 8 without really feeling it at the end of each one of those sets, you’re not hitting the right level of intensity.

Now, you don’t have to take this to the extreme and pop a vein every set, but just make sure you’re actually getting an effective workout by reaching the right level of intensity. Bill Phillips talks about doing the same thing on your last two sets in the Body-for-LIFE method. He talks about on those last few reps you’re using all of your possible will-power just to get that weight up one last time. So if you want to increase the intensity just a little more, don’t just do this on your last set for a group of exercises, do it all the way through. Per Arnold’s suggestion, you should never just stop a set because you’ve reached a predetermined number of reps.

We hope these suggestions help with your goals to gain muscle!

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Today we want to approach the concept of balancing your training. No, we’re not talking about the number of days that you workout or anything like that. What we’re talking about is making sure that in your workout plan you’re giving attention to ALL of the main body parts.

For some strange reason it seems that different people tend to neglect different parts of the body. People sort of play favorites with their own body. One person may just love their chest workout day, but dread their leg day. Or vice versa. Whatever the situation may be, its very important if you’re planning on developing a good physique to give attention to all the main body parts. In other words, you want to gain muscle all over in a balanced fashion, not just a few parts at a time!

Have you ever been at the gym, beach, pool, or anywhere and you’ve seen someone that you think looks like they have a good build, but then you notice that their legs are really small? This is a perfect example of someone who has probably been working out properly on their upper body, but has been constantly neglecting their leg workouts. And over time it shows! Not only that, but the longer a person goes without correcting the problem it will either hold back their overall development (the body naturally likes to stay balanced) or they will be completely off balance and have a big upper body but chicken legs. This is not an optimal physique.

So how do you correct this? Here are some ideas:

* Don’t play favorites! Think of your body as a whole, not as your favorite body parts and less favorite body parts. This is a recipe for disaster since we all tend to procrastinate the things we don’t like as much.

* Strategically plan your time. If you find that you really don’t like your leg workouts for example, don’t plan them on the day that you are most likely to miss your workout. Instead, put your “favorite” part on one of those days because you’re more likely to make sure you get that workout in. Instead, put that less favorite body part on the day that you have no excuse to miss. But again, you shouldn’t be playing favorites!

* Get an honest friends opinion from time to time. Whether its your wife, training partner, or someone else that you trust have them be honest with you in your development. And don’t take it too personally, just take it as another person’s eyes to help you improve what you’re doing!

Go for balance, go for a whole body transformation. In then end you’ll be a lot more proud of the physique that you’ve developed because it will actually look like a winning physique.For another great article by Tom Venuto on a similar topic, check out this link:
Symmetry, How to Develop a Classical Body Shape

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Below you’ll find a link to another great blog post from a guy names Marc David. In this post he talks about the importance of making sure that if you’re trying to burn fat you’re not just doing cardio, but also the importance of doing weight training as well.

Its crucial that even in a ‘weight loss’ program you still plan to build muscle. Simply because a body with more muscle will work more efficiently at burning fat than one that has less muscle. So don’t just run, pick up the weights as well to get the most out of your healthy weight loss efforts.

read more | digg story

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Below you’ll find a link to a rather interesting page that shows some pictures of what 200 calories of food actually looks like. This is a good thing to look at from time to time to really realize that some foods are a lot more calorie dense than others. So you may think that you’re only eating a little bit of something so it isn’t bad, but if that food is very calorie dense a small amount can still have huge consequences when it comes to overall calories. So have a look and be amazed!

read more | digg story

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Who doesn’t love a smoothie from time to time? Below you’ll find a link to another website that has a bunch of free smoothie websites to give you some ideas for that end of the day meal, or even for a mid-meal smoothie that could be a little more exciting than just a plain protein shake. Of course, feel free to customize any of these for your own nutritional goals, but hopefully this will give you some good ideas for your weight loss or muscle gain diet.

read more | digg story

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