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Serious Strength Training-3rd Edition

Core Strength Exercises for the Serious Athletic Woman

Article by Rod White

Core Strength Exercises for the Serious Athletic Woman – Health – Fitness

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Decreasing in numbers are the part-time powder-puff gym girls. Women are increasingly moving from light cardio workouts and easy resistance training in the gym to high-intensity circuit training. More serious female fitness buffs are even jumping into power exercises and tackling jerks, snatches, squats and presses. Women may be participating in more extreme weight training due to a competitive factor through sports, or because they are taking on more challenging careers such as the military, firefighters, police force, etc.

However, due to the structural differences in a female’s anatomy, the need to focus on building core strength is even more vital than their male counterparts. In order to maintain proper frame support, good posture and protection from injury, a serious female athlete needs a strong core for executing such demanding strength training exercises.Strength Training Exercises and the Core

Core muscles are those that stabilize the trunk of your body while you are making other movements. Therefore, core muscles consist of the abdominals and back muscles. Many people focus exclusively on ab workouts when core training.

However, a good abdominal workout can be achieved through strength training exercises, thus providing you with both benefits at the same time. The reason for this is that most power exercises utilize core stabilizing muscles which are, therefore, worked as well during strength training.

Here are some of the best strength training exercises for athletic women to use to achieve a strong core:Ab Exercises

Although core strength can be better achieved through other strength building workouts, some specific ab exercises are beneficial for sculpting your abdominals into a nice six-pack. Since most women desire a sexy, washboard stomach, included are a couple of good ab-specific exercises for this purpose.

Crunches – One of the staple ab exercises, crunches are good for ripping the abdominals. While laying on your back, cross your arms over your chest and bring your knees up as you raise your upper body. Touch your knees to your elbows, release and repeat.

Planks – Planks are a go-to total core strengthening exercise as there are several positions, each working a different part of your abs or back. The classic plank is completed by starting in a pushup position only you rest on your forearms and toes. Push yourself up onto your forearms with you back straight and parallel to the floor and hold for at least 30 seconds. You should eventually achieve maintaining a plank position for 2 or more minutes. You can strengthen oblique muscles by doing a side plank or one-handed plank and develop back muscles via the straight-armed plank.Pushups

Pushups should always be included in a core strength exercises. Not only are they good for building your core strength, but they will increase your upper body strength as well.

With your back straight, contract your abs as you raise yourself up until the arms are fully extended. Lower yourself back down until your chest is almost touching the floor and repeat.Overhead Press

Pressing weight overhead requires a great deal of support from your lower back as well as your abs which work to stabilize your core during the movement. If you perform overhead presses correctly with your back slightly arched and contracting your stomach as you lift, you will build a good core foundation through this strength exercise.

You should begin with a barbell weight you are comfortable with before increasing to heavier amounts.Squats

Squats are another strength training exercise that benefits the core muscles as well as your lower body. When performing squats, keep the back slightly arched and focus on contracting your abdominals. Doing so will strengthen both sets of core muscles and add stability to your trunk.

If you’re just beginning, complete squats without weights by wrapping your hands around the back of the head and squat down until your thighs are parallel with the floor. You can then move to squatting with dumbbells and then onto barbells.

http://www.muscleprodigy.com/core-strength-exercises-for-the-serious-athletic-woman-arcl-2159.html

About the Author

Rod White is a writer of http://www.muscleprodigy.com , an Everything Guide to Health, Fitness, Training, Muscle Building, Nutrition, Sports, Lifestyle and more!

Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.

Rod White

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The Serious Body Builder Diet To Optimize Muscle Built

Article by Joe Lee Javier

The muscle builders diet should contain one kilogram of protein for every one kilogram of body weight. The protein should be made up about thirty per cent of the muscle builder’s calories intake.

The carbohydrates should make up about twenty per cent of the total amount of calories for the average body builder. This is not the ideal ratio for everyone bust it does give a good idea of what the average body builder should be eating.

Most muscle builders like to start there day with a large fried breakfast something along the lines of ten egg whites, two scrambled yolks mixed with one tablespoon of olive oil, two slices of whole wheat toast with a generous spreading of natural peanut butter, one hundred grams of oats and one banana and this is all washed down with black coffee and water. If you feel like you are putting on too much fat then you could reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you have in your diet. Or on the other hand if you feel that you are not gaining enough weight you can add to your carbohydrates.

Once you have worked out how much protein you need to have in your diet it is important to keep this level. When you are trying to work out the best diet stick to your diet for a couple of weeks and then revise it, this is important because it can take a couple of weeks for any changes to take place.

If you feel that you need to make changes to your diet look at changing the amount of carbohydrates or fats or in some cases even both.

Most body builders also opt for a reasonable sized lunch such s two hundred and fifty grams of tuna in either water or brine with a five hundred jacket potato accompanied with a mixed salad and a large glass of water.

There are a lot of people who are into muscle building to opt for a snack in the middle of the afternoon. This snack is not what most people class and a snack.

For a muscle builder a snack is more likely to be something along the lines of two hundred and fifty grams of chicken breast, one hundred grams of boiled rice and one cup of mixed vegetables.

The muscle builder would also try to include one tablespoon of extra virgin oil olive which would in most cases be washed down by a large glass of water.

The body builders tend to have three meals in the evening as well which are usually only a few hours apart and they all include a lot of carbohydrates, proteins and calories.

It is also very common for muscle builders to use daily supplements. There is a wide range of daily supplements that are available in the market such as carbohydrate powder, cod liver oil, whey isolate protein powder, evening primrose oil, multivitamins and minerals and vitamin C to name a few.

In most cases the proteins and carbohydrates contain about four calories per gram and fat has nine calories.

The above is a suggestion and recommendation, it is always safe advice for you to consult your nutritionist and physician to cater to your unique needs.

Handle any emergency with Howcast’s First Aid app – howc.st If you’re looking to add some muscle to that skinny frame, this guide will help you skip some of the eating errors your fellow gym rats have undoubtedly made.

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Browse The Most recent Serious Home Work out routine: Weight Training Program And HIIT Routine

Article by Jacob Blackhite

After a lackluster workout schedule for the past month and a half which has included a bachelor party, two weddings, birthday parties, and a bout with bronchitis, I’ve decided it’s time to once again perform an intense home workout routine. Luckily, due to the activities of the last six weeks, my body is truly primed for this kind of an intense workout. Of course, I did not lose any weight over the past 1 1/2 months, but I didn’t gain any either. My goal has been to stay on a maintenance schedule to make sure I was preserving my muscles without adding any fat to my body. This way I don’t have to be worried that my body will break down when I return to a much more aggressive workout routine.

First of all, the HIIT routine and strength training routine I’ve outlined below are not something you want to do on a regular basis. Such a regimen should only be used every few months in order to intensely target fat. I will just do this regimen for about 30 days at a time. Any longer and I would risk overtraining. Even though the intensity of my workout will be increased, I have no intention of increasing the duration of my exercise. Generally I exercise 4 days per week, 45 minutes per day. My goal for the next month is to workout 30-45 minutes per day, 6 days per week.

To get really lean, tight muscles, my strength training routine includes low rep, heavy weight training. To make sure my workout is time efficient I also use supersets. This is the routine I’ll be using on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. For each move, I will perform 3 reps for 3 sets. But with dips and pull ups, I will perform 5 reps slowly. I will end my regimen with kickboxing. The first set for each exercise will be a warm up set using approximately 75% of the weight I do for the 3 rep sets. I perform this warm up set using slow reps to increase time under tension. I allow myself a 2 minute rest in between the sets, which is when I do the other superset exercise. I do whatever I can to avoid training to failure.

Because I’m working out at home, I’ve put some of these supersets together for specific reasons. For example, to avoid time spent changing weights, I pair a barbell exercise with a dumbbell exercise. I also like to end my strength training routine with a kickboxing workout to accelerate my heart rate. Besides the fact I started martial arts training when I was young, I find it fun to include this kind of routine. I use ankle weights to increase tension for kicks and do punches with 10lb dumbbells. You can achieve an excellent fat loss effect by adding this kind of weighted cardio workout. All in all, my total strength training routine is 30-35 minutes. Each superset only takes 6-7 minutes and kickboxing is about 5-10 minutes.

To really develop lean muscle, incorporate HIIT or high intensity interval training into your regimen. On Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, I will do a HIIT workout. Due to how intense the HIIT workout will be, I do not do strength training for my legs. I start my HIIT regimen with a HIIT in short intervals. I take 2 minutes to warm up and then do eight sets with 15 seconds of sprints at full speed, and 45 seconds of jogging. This exercise will put fatty acids into my blood, so after the HIIT regimen, I do 10 or 15 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike at a single speed and intensity. This exercise is also great for helping my legs recover as well.

Usually, I will complete my regimen with 10 minutes of HIIT long intervals which incorporates 1 minute of full running and 1 minute of jogging. However, now I intend to change my regimen a bit. I will be doing a plyometrics routine that includes everything from calf raises to step ups to broad jumps. It works out great because it’s like a longer routine time of HIIT, but only takes 10 minutes, and still works great for increasing the lactic acid, while reducing glycogen, which helps a significant fat burn when my workout is done. In addition, my legs end up being strengthened a lot more with plyometrics than regular cardio. This regimen is completed in approximately a half an hour too.

As this intense workout regimen is performed for the month, be sure to eat properly. Personally, I fast intermittently two times each week, but I also eat properly the rest of the time. A lot of people do their strength workouts when they fast, but I am in favor of fasting on HIIT days, and eating more on the days I do my strength traingin. Therefore I fast on Mondays and Fridays. Wednesday is my day to pass on breakfast and create additional calorie reduction. I also restrict calories during this month on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as well. Sunday will be my cheat day to let my body restore leptin levels.

But, I will eat more properly than I would normally do. I will eat a lean protein, veggies, and fruit for dinner on Monday. Similarly, I will be avoiding saturated fat and refined sugars on Wednesday as well. Even though I will reduce the number of calories I consume on every other day besides Sunday, I will give my self permission to eat a few reduced-calorie snacks. On Sunday, I will eat whatever I want so I do not feel deprived by my diet, which means I can eat barbecue in the warmer months.

While the above provides a very intense home workout for me, I like to stretch things a bit further for the final week or two. I will add a 10 minute circuit training workout to my strength training routine to further burn fat while preserving muscle. In addition, I will use a Tabata program, which includes 8 sets of a 20-second sprint and 10 second rest period, to the HIIT routine on both Wednesday and Saturday. I will not do this to my workout on Monday. Lastly, I will not eat breakfast on Thursday and Tuesday mornings to lesson my calorie intake even more.

My expectation is that this HIIT routine and strength training routine will blast me through a fat loss plateau during the next month. Then I can reduce the intensity of my workout to avoid overtraining.

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