The Key to Making a Home Workout Routine Stick

Getting fit in your home is great. No stinky locker rooms, no self-conciousness, no waiting for machines, and no membership fees! But, the one down side of a home workout routine is the lack of accountability. While someone may learn to expect your face at the gym or people close to you might know about your trips there, typically your home workout routine is your business and yours alone.

 

For whatever reason, when we are only accountable to ourselves, we are less likely to follow through on something. Having others expect something from us makes us more likely to do them. Perhaps that is why with any fitness routine but especially home workout routines, it is so easy to let that initial determination fall off.

 

Finding ways to stick with your home workout routine, then, is key. Think about those things in your life that you are dedicated to and ask yourself what makes you stay dedicated. More than likely those are things that you feel you don’t have a choice about. For instance, you are likely dedicated to your job because you need a paycheck. You may be dedicated to your family but for the majority of us, not being dedicated to them just isn’t an option. Dedication to a long standing hobby may now feel like a part of your life, and stopping could seem out of the question.

 

In order for a home workout routine to really last, you must not make it an option. It has to be a constant, something that is a part of your life. Fitness has to be a necessity for you rather than an option! Schedule it on your calendar and let the family know what times you will be working out. In other words,plan for success.

 

They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit. If you are just beginning a home workout routine, give yourself 21 days. Make a promise to yourself or anyone that will listen that you are going to workout, diligently, and enthusiastically for 21 days (don’t forget a few days of rest in there!). If you can get past these 21 days, seeing fitness as a true fixture in your life won’t seem like such a long shot.

 

Don’t give yourself a choice when it comes to your home workout routine. Follow through with your workout just like you pay your bills, go to work, or feed your family. See it as a permanent component of your daily schedule and it becomes much easier to make it happen.

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Why Drink High Protein Shakes?

Advertisements of high protein shakes fill pages of fitness magazines. They are so prominent in the fitness and particularly the bodybuilding world that you may wonder if they hold magical muscle building ingredients. Well, they sort of do! High quality protein shakes contain an ideal combination of nutrients to build muscle and aid you in your fitness program.

 

Protein is an important nutrient in the science of building and maintaining muscles. When you are sore after a heavy workout, proteins are going to work, repairing and fortifying the stressed muscles. This healing process promotes muscle growth and is one of the reasons high protein shakes are such a popular post-workout drink.

 

High protein shakes also help in regulating your diet. If you are trying to keep your metabolism on high by eating frequent small meals throughout the day, protein shakes are a great, convenient meal replacement. They allow you to get optimal nutrition from a quick, no hassle source.

 

Depending on your choice of protein shake, it could be a good tool in losing fat as well. While research on this topic varies, one thing is true: by substituting a lower calorie, nutrient dense, high protein shake for a higher calorie meal, you can cut your daily caloric intake thereby promoting weight loss.

 

Of course, not all high protein shakes are created equally and the one you choose should fit the needs you have. For instance, if you are interested in using a high protein shake to aid in weight loss, you will want to make sure the formula you choose is lower in fat and calories. However, if you are looking to build mass, you would want one that’s just the opposite.

 

Here at ExtremeBodyWorkout.com we sell a variety of nutritional shakes with your fitness needs in mind. If you are looking for a high protein shakes that is excellent for post workout, check out the Peak Recovery Formula. We also carry Meal Replacement Shakes and Whey Protein Powder, a great source of pure high quality protein.

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Daily Free Exercise Tips at ExtremeBodyWorkout.com!

Motivation is a huge factor when embarking on a fitness program. While you may not be able to find it everyday, anything that you can do to increase it is helpful. A daily exercise tip or article can be just the thing to get your mind focused for the day on the fitness task at hand. Starting your day with some helpful information about exercise can ensure that you are starting your day with your mind in the right spot.

 

Everyday, without fail, I post to this blog. In an effort to keep people fit, healthy, and informed, we at ExtremeBodyWorkout.com come up with topics you are interested in. We scour the web for what people like you want to hear and want to learn about. Then, a daily exercise tip or health article is posted.

 

Posting to this blog in the morning is not only a job for me. It gets my mind set on my fitness goals for the day. What you fill your mind with is often what you fill your life with. Starting the day by reading a daily exercised tip or fitness article can put you in the zone and get your mind on track for the entire day.

 

Somedays you may find information you already know here, but a refresher course in nutrition and exercise basics never hurt! Somedays you may actually learn something. If so, feel free to comment and let me know! We do our best to give you information you are looking for in a daily exercise tip and do it in a way that is fun to read and easy to understand.

 

Just because we sell products on ExtremeBodyWorkout.com doesn’t mean all of our information is slanted. We do the best we can to give you accurate information in our daily exercise tips and fitness articles. We stand behind all of our products and fitness systems, though, and you will see that in our blog!

 

If what you are looking for in a daily exercise tip is easy to understand, reliable information, you’ve found it. As always, feel free to comment and someone here at ExtremeBodyWorkout.com will respond if you have any questions.

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Good Abdominal Workouts to Get the 6-Pack of Your Dreams

You can only do so many crunches before you start looking for other ways to get that stomach in shape. Good abdominal workouts should be able to blast your abs into shape in a relatively short amount of time. For those of us who have truly experienced a good ab workout know that 10 to 20 minutes can be plenty of time for soreness to take over the next day.

 

Good abdominal workouts should be able to be done in your own home. No fancy gym equipment is needed to firm up your midsection. If you are looking for a great addition to your home fitness library check out the abdominal workouts in P90X, 10 Minute Trainer, or Turbo Jam. Both are complete home fitness systems with excellent abdominal workouts included.

 

When developing your abs with a good abdominal workout, you want to uncover your work by making your entire body lean as well. You can’t show off your 6-pack if you’ve got a keg on top of it! A good abdominal workout can only do so much, the rest is up to diet and fat loss.

 

A home fitness system can ensure that you are losing fat all over while gaining muscle. This means that with the addition of a good abdominal workout, your flat chiseled abs will show through rather than be masked by fat on top. Some people think they can “spot train” or do sit ups to lose fat on their stomach. While it’s true that any exercise will burn calories, sit-ups or other good abdominal workouts won’t directly get rid of your chubby tummy.

 

The key in uncovering that hard work on your stomach is losing fat, eating right, and adding a good abdominal workout. The ab work won’t do it all and must be done in conjunction with the rest. If you want to get ripped and have lean muscles and a toned physique, you may want to give a fitness program a shot. Not only will your 6-pack show up sooner but so will your strong arms and defined legs!

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The Benefits of Flexibility Exercises

Stretching and flexibility exercises should be included as part of every fitness program. Not only do flexibility exercises prevent injury, they also serve many other purposes. On top of all the benefits, flexibility exercises feel great! They can be incorporated into a relaxation routine at the end of your day or as a way to wake up gently in the morning.

 

Stretching and flexibility exercise are one in the same. Gently stretching your muscles through long extended moves will improve your flexibility overtime. As you become more flexible, daily tasks seem easier and even less tiring. Bending to tie your shoes, lifting packages off the floor, reaching overhead for something, all of these become easier with flexibility exercises.

Stretching also improves circulation. Flexibility exercises cause blood to rush to areas of the body and muscles being used. This increase in blood flow (particularly to the muscles) can help aid in the healing process after injuries.

Flexibility exercises and stretching can improve posture. Stand up straight and be seen. When you muscles aren’t tight or tense you can literally hold your head higher and stand straighter more comfortably.

 

How to Do Flexibility Exercises Properly

Warm up! Don’t do any exercises, even stretching with cold muscles. Do some jumping jacks or jog in place for a few minutes to get your muscles warm and blood flowing. Stretching cold muscles can cause injury.

Hold each stretch for 20-30 seconds. Get the most out of your flexibility exercises by holding them for a period. Don’t bounce on your muscles while stretching, just focus on making the reach slightly longer and stronger than before.

Relax! If you push too hard during flexibility exercises, you could injure yourself. Of course, you will feel tension in your muscles as you stretch them but the moves should not be painful.

 

Try a DVD with flexibility moves if you have a hard time creating your own program. P90X has 2 DVDs that are great for flexibility exercises. Yoga X will get you limber but will also rock your body to the core! This is not your mama’s stretching routine! X Stretch is a more relaxing stretching workout, designed to rest your muscles and get them limber and ready for another week of P90X.

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What are the best exercises for losing weight?

Quite simply: Any exercise is good for losing weight! But, there are some that are heads and tails over the others. Before we discuss which are the best exercises for losing weight, we should discuss how the body uses exercise to lose weight. Unfortunately sweat is not fat cells leaving your body or I would be in the sauna everyday! The science of weight loss can be simplified pretty well so that you have a good idea of how your body is benefiting from exercise.

 

There are two ways your body loses weight through exercise and both of them have to do with burning calories. Despite fad diets and wacky fitness products the old weight loss formula of calories in must be less than calories out, is the only way to lose weight naturally. You can abide by this formula by either cutting calories out of your diet or burning calories with exercise. A combination of the two usually results in the best outcome. The best exercises for losing weight, therefore, are those that burn serious calories.

 

Good news: your body burns calories at rest! True you can burn calories through high intensity cardio workouts, but you can also increase your metabolic rate to burn more calories at rest. Our body uses energy to maintain itself. All of our tissues and organs need calories as energy to survive. Muscle must have more energy than fat to maintain itself. This means that muscle burns through more calories on a daily basis than fat does, even at rest. So, one of the best types of exercises for losing weight is that which increases your muscle.

 

Strength training is an excellent way of building muscle. Light resistance training or actual weight lifting are both satisfactory ways of doing this. Even Yoga and Pilates are excellent at building lean muscles. As your percentage of muscle increases, so will your resting metabolic rate. This means you can ingest the same amount of calories and lose weight. For this reason, muscle building workouts are definitely one of the best exercises for losing weight.

 

Another way your body burns through calories is during cardio or aerobic workouts. When your heart rate is elevated and you are working out hard, your body requires immediate increases in energy. While you are using this energy, you are burning calories. This is the immediate choice for the type of exercises for losing weight. You workout, burn calories, and lose weight. No waiting for muscle growth here.

 

When you add a healthy diet to both cardio and strength training workouts, you have a recipe for success. By incorporating both types of exercises for losing weight you can be sure that you are not only burning immediate calories when you workout but increasing your metabolism to ensure you are burning more even at rest!

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Strength + Speed = Power With Plyometrics Workouts

Plyometric training is relatively new in the world of fitness. Unlike straight strength training or cardio like running, plyometric workouts just arose in the early 1970s. Plyometric workouts were originally used as a training program for track and field in the former Soviet Union. It later traveled across the globe where it earned the title “plyometrics” from United States track coach, Fred Witt. 

The goal of plyometrics is to increase strength, shorten reaction time, and increase overall power behind quick movements. It improves your ability to run faster, turn quicker, and jump higher. For this reason plyometric workouts are used in a variety of sports and training programs to condition athletes.

 

Plyometric workouts and moves are all focused on “loading” the muscles for quick explosive reactions. Similar to the way a basketball player can jump higher when they get a few steps in before their jump, loading the muscle prior to any movement gets a stronger and more powerful response. It’s when you push the body to realize a maximum potential in a quick fast movement that real gains are made with plyometric workouts.

 

Think of how your leg reacts when a doctor tests your reflexes. This is similar to the movements your muscles experience in plyometric workouts. By loading the muscle and training it to contract quickly and powerfully, you can expect quicker and more powerful reactions from your muscles in running, kicking, throwing, turning, and jumping.

 

Plyometric workouts are important in many sports. Another benefit of plyometrics though, is their ability to work your entire body and get your heart rate pumping. Through big jumps, squats, and explosive movements, plyometric workouts can burn some serious calories while building muscles and shortening reaction times.

 

P90X includes a great plyometric workout in the series. The plyo DVD is definitely the “beast” of the P90X workouts as it requires you to continually lift your entire body off of the ground. As you gain experience and confidence with this workout, your jumps will get higher and stronger and you will feel great as the moves are called out.

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Take Your Workouts To the Next Level With a P90X Chin Up Bar

If you’ve already started the P90X series, you know what I mean when I talk about “bringing it”. If you haven’t, Tony Horton encourages participators to “bring it” in each P90X workout. This just means he wants you to put your all into every move, and every rep. Do your workout with enthusiasm and determination. If you can increase how challenging the workout is with a P90X chin up bar, then you are definitely “bringing it”.

 

P90X chin up bars are an excellent way to increase the resistance on several of the P90X DVDs. Although the P90X chin up bar isn’t required, it’s a superb way to multiply your results while doing the P90X program. As you lift your own body weight off the ground, you are challenging your arms, shoulders, back, and core.

 

Our P90X chin up bar is a simple install and easily removable when not in use. It mounts into nearly any door frame (24-32″). Once mounted, you can hang and remove in seconds, making it an extremely convenient addition to your workout. Unlike some similar products on the market, the P90X chin up bar extends past the door frame, allowing for wide grips as well.

It’s constructed of heavy gauge steel and is extremely durable. This rugged piece of equipment is made to withstand up to 300 pounds and allows for up to 6 different grip positions. It has professional grade foam grips to prevent slippage and help you get your burn on!

 

Sure you can use resistance bands for the chest and back workouts and still see results. But, if you are looking to maximize your results and truly bring it, the P90X chin up bar is for you. Like sit ups and crunches for abs, nothing quite compares to the workout you get from a classic pull up. The P90X chin up bar is a great way to take your workout and your results to the next level. If you are going to go extreme and do the P90X series, you should do it to the max and do it with the P90X chin up bar.

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