Weight training for women

This article is just a begining for women who don't know if they should do weight training or not.

Ladeis, don't be afraid of weights, you are not turning into a female version of Ronnie Coleman by lifting. I mean come on, bulking up is not that easy.

Weight lifting will tone your body and make you get in shape along with ragular steady state cardio and HIIT.

Ladies, you have to know this, high reps means creating the pump in the muscle, which means muscle fatigue which means muscle growth while low reps means less pump, less fatigue and less muscle growth. Go for a moderate weight with lower reps for strength and toning.
I suggest to go for 4 sets of 8-10 reps for strength, toning and some definition that won't harm anyone ;).
This is for split training, which means one or two muscle groups per day. With 2-3 exercises for each muscle group with 4 sets of 8-10 reps.
Some suggest to go for only 5 reps, to prevent muscle growth but I think muscle growth won't be that easy. Any way you will feel what works good for you with practice.
Plus, adding cardio and  HIIT to your training won't let you bulk up.

Example:
Day 1: Chest and Biceps + Cardio
Day 2: Back and Triceps + HIIT
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Legs and Abs + Cardio
Day 5: Shoulders + Cardio
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: HIIT


Or you can do full body weight training two times a week, with cardio and HIIT in other days.
In this case, you will perform only one or two exercises for each muscle group with 3 sets of 8-10 reps.

Circuit training is another form of wight training in which you can add body wight exercises. Circuit training increases strength, toning and while you perform it, your heart rate increases, burning more calories and fat, so you won't need further cardio or HIIT session the same day.
Circuit workouts is a series of exercises that you perform with a certain number of reps for each exercise either for a certain number of sets as fast as possible (for time), a certain number of sets with a given rest time or as many rounds as possible for a certain given time (AMRAP).

Ladies, work on your body weight exercises along with wight training and cardio. Pull ups, push ups ,dips, air squats and lunges. When you master these moves you can go for advanced exercises, hand-stand push ups, pull ups variations, push ups variations and muscle ups.
Go for mixed body wight movements, burpees, spider push ups ..etc,.

Mixing all these exercises with weight training, cardio and HIIT will give you your dream body and won't make you bulk up.

Do your glutes and legs a favour and do squats, dead lifts and lunges WITH WEIGHT. Don't be afraid of the weights, the resulats will amaze you.


Other exercises you should do are: pull ups, push ups, dumbbell bench press, dumbbell shoulder press, one hand rows.

Jennifer Nicole Lee

Take Jennifer Nicole lee for example, and her famous MOM to WOW transformation, weight training and staying feminine

Another model who lifts is Jamie Eason

Jamie Eason

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet

A crossfitter example that you can weight train and stay feminine is Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet

Take the first step and hit the gym.
Search weight training workouts for women.
Do any new weight exercise with a trainer for a proper form.
Stay motivated with fitness models and atheltes and read about their workouts and diet.
Find a motivating training partner.



GO KILL IT LADIES.



Thank you
IR.

Exercise of the day: Burpees

Burpee is a great bodyweight exercise that enagages both your upper and lower body muscles along with your core muscles.

Burpee consists originally of the following steps:

1. Begin in a standing position.
2. Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground.
3. Extend your feet back in one quick motion to assume the front plank position.
4. Return to the squat position in one quick motion.
5. Return to standing position.

Then it had been modified to other variations, the most common version is the jump push up burpee (usually just called Burpee) in which a push up is added after step 3 and a jump in the end of the exercise.

Here's how to do Burpees:

Here's Zuzka Light performing Burpees:

Other variations involves a change in the jump and/or the push up.

Jump variations: squat jump, forward jump, tuck jump, box jump, jump over an obstacle, jump and pull up, jump and muscle up ... etc,.

Push up variations: regular push up, diamond push up, hindu push up, one arm push up ... etc,.
You can also hold a pair of dumbbells during performing burpees or you can perform side burpees in which you extend your feet to the side.

The exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the Burpee test. He earned a PhD in Applied Physiology from Columbia University in 1940 and created the "Burpee" exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a quick and simple way to assess fitness

Why Burpees?

Because:
1- Burpees test your strength and aerobic capacities in one movement.
2- They work and add strength to the whole body. Doing burpees will work your chest, arms, front deltoids, quads, hams, thighs and abs.
3- They burn lots of calories. Adding them to a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) session burns even more fat and speed up your metabolism throughout the day.
4- They are great for developing conditioning and endurance.
5- You can do them any where any time without any equipment.

Burpees workouts and challenges:

100 Burpees
Perform 100 Burpees as fast as you can. Record your time and try to beat it the next time.

1 Mile Jump Forward Burpees
Perform jump forward burpees untill you reach 1 mile. Start with less distance, and increase it time by time.

Burpees Ladder with other exercise
Perform 10 reps of burpees and 1 rep of other exercise (for example: Toes to Bar or Hang Leg Raise), then 9 reps of burpess and 2 reps of the other exercise and so on untill the last set that you perform 1 rep of burpee and 10 reps of the other exercise. Record your time and try to beat it the next time.

10 minutes drill
Set your timer to 10 minutes and perform as many reps as you can of burpees. Record your score and try to beat it the next time.

Burpees every where
Perform 10 burpees every where you go. Share with friends. (This was started by Zuzka light)

And finally
You can add burpees to any of your workout, specially bodyweight and HIIT workouts.

So, get up and do BURPEES

Thank You
IR.

Monday Motivation: Kane Sumabat

Kane Sumabat A.K.A Timberwolf or Timbahwulf is a real living motivation.

From his posts on instagram and twitter, he's about 45 years old having a physique and health better than an 18 years old teanager.

About when he first started training, Kane said "I first started training when I was about 12 or 13, but I took it to another level just after I turned 30"


He says that he doesn't have to look for motivation to keep training as long as he enjoys what he does.

"All I care about for my diet is hitting the numbers in terms of calories and macros and let the chips literally fall where they may. For 8-10 months of the year, to stay my leanest, I take in 2500 calories/ 225-275g protein/ 125-150g carbs/ 100-110g fat", Kane said, "The three exercises that have contributed the most to building my physique are the basics, flat bench press, neutral grip pull ups and front squats, and the exercises to which my abs respond the most are overhead squats and stiff legged hanging raise but most important is the diet"



Check out his YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/timbahwolf/videos?flow=grid&view=0     

Check him out on:
twitter: @timbahwolf
instagram: @timbahwulf

Source http://www.maniacfitness.com/

Bodyweight 364 reps WOD

I designed this workout for the bodyweight workout day.

Abbreviations:
MU: Muscle ups     
MUD : Muscle up dips (after you perform the 1 MU, perform dips while you are up there)
PS: Pistol squat (each leg)     
CPS: Clapping Push ups
JS: Jump squats     
HSPU: Hansdstand push ups
T2B: Toes to bar     
JL: Jump lunges        

Warm up and do this workout, 1 round for time:

- 1 MU
- 1 MU + 2 MUD
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups + 8 Dips (on parallel bars)
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups + 8 Dips + 9 T2B
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups + 8 Dips + 9 T2B + 10 Push ups
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups + 8 Dips + 9 T2B + 10 Push ups + 11 JL
- 1 MU + 2 MUD + 3 PS + 4 CPS + 5 JS + 6 HSPU + 7 Pull ups + 8 Dips + 9 T2B + 10 Push ups + 11 JL + 12 Burpees

Record your time and share it.

Thank you
IR

Thoughts Thursday

Fitness thoughts

Unless you puke, faint or die, keep going.


When you have one of those days when you feel weight over your shoulder, take the chance and do squats.


Strive for progress, not perfection.


It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.
 

Fitness is like marriage, you can't cheat on it and expect it to work.


Weights won't lift themselves.                                                              


If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.


If I didn't look missy, sweaty and exhausted after my workout, then I didn't do it right.  
  
                                                      
Workout can be fun. 


A one hour workout is only 4% of your day, NO EXECUSES.

Now go do your workout

IR

I know it's bad but I can't stop : Chocolate

WARNING: If you are weak against chocolate, if you love but don't eat chocolate to have your dream body, don't read the following.



 



Are you trying to get shredded but you can't?Is that because you eat rice, pasta, bread, or candies?

You are not alone, every one has his point of weakness when it comes to food.
 

For me it's the greatest world food discovery of all time, CHOCOLATE.

Chocolate is not bad itself, it's just not the type of food you want to eat when you are shredding.
 

If there's one reason why I don't have a shredded stomach, it's only because of chocolate.
I know I shouldn't be posting about chocolate since this is a fitness blog but I'm not posting about some sort of food that I shouldn't be eating excessively to have my dream shredded body, in fact I'm posting about a passion, a passion that I need to get rid of, but I don't want to.

World largest Hershey's bar

It's said that chocolate is an addiction because it contains some hormone or something that gives
happiness to the mind.
No my friends, that's not it, chocolate is an addiction because it's the best muthaf***** taste you can ever get on earth.

It's not a matter of colour, dark or white, it's not a matter of type, bar, block or spread, it's not a matter of brand, milka, hershey or nutella, chocolate is the best thing I eat.


ANOTHER WARNING: If you want a shredded stomach with six pack abs, don't do this.

BUT I do have a favourite which is Nucrema cocoa cream with hazelnuts. how on earth can something taste that good? This can be eaten by spoon, with bescuit, with bescuit and peanut butter or with Egyptian famous Meshaltet.

 

Nucrema, Peanut butter and bescuit

Nutella and Meshaltet

Nucrema, Peanut butter and bescuit

Nucrema and bescuit

Another favourite is my wife's home-made Chocolate & bescuits bowl:
1 can of natural cream
150 grams of cocoa
1 tsp of sugar
Cracked bescuit of your favourite brand
Shredded chocolate on top.

Chocolate and bescuits bowl

Yes, I'm thinking what you are thinking right now ... PALEO MY ASS.

Exercise of the day: Handstand Push Ups (HSPU) Against the wall

No matter how heavy you shoulder press, HSPU still one great bodyweight exercise for shoulders.

HSPU can be performed with support against the wall or without support. I will post about unsupported HSPU as soon as I am able to do it, wish me luck :D

HSPU against the wall is not a difficult exercise, you just need to be carful not to arch your back excessively nor falling on your head of course.

You may feel high pressure in your head when you are upside down or a little dizzy after you get down the first few times you do or try to do the exercise.

You should be abl to do a decent number of regular chest push ups and dive bomber push ups in order to start performing HSPU.

For me, I began with working on handstands against the wall which took me only few tries in one session to achieve. Then I began to perform the push up which took me aslo few tries to perform one. Since then I've been performing this exercise in many of my workouts.

Now, I'm working on unsupported handsatnds, crow pose and tripod pose, preparing to work on unsupported HSPU.




working on my free handstand

working on crow pose

This video uploaded on youtube by gbodyweighttraining showing how to HSPU against the wall.

Strict or kipping HSPU?

I always do strict HSPU, I think the only reason to do kipping ones is that you are competing in Crossfit games, kipping HSPU help you to do more reps in AMRAP games or to finish faster in for time games, other wise, strict HSPU are better than kipping ones for working your shoulders and increasing strength keeping your muscles flexed, core tight and your whole body rigid while pushing up.

This picture shows my start position, my half way to the floor, then my full range of movement when my head touches the floor.

Notice my bare feet, my wife wouldn't let me do HSPU against the wall with my sports shoes on. :D





HSPU against the wall

Thank you
IR.