muscle

Effective Strength Building Routines at Home

Finding a strength building routine you can do at home doesn’t have to be a chore. You don’t need a big weight bench or a fancy piece of home gym equipment. All you need is dedication to your health and a plan. P90X is the ultimate in home body transformation systems. It is a strength building routine like no other. As trainer Tony Horton moves you through the 12 DVD workouts, you will use muscles you may have forgotten existed. Utilizing all muscle groups, in a variety of moves and routines, you will be building strength, adding muscle, and losing fat in one fell swoop.
 
How Does It Work?
 
The key to any strength building routine is resistance and repetition. Your muscles will respond the best when they are pushed harder, repeatedly. P90X does just that. It pushes your muscles as they may have never been pushed before. Day after day you will push your body to the limit and ask it to build itself back up. Through the science of muscle confusion, P90X asks your muscles to push through any potential plateaus by constantly changing up the routines and asking your body to adapt.
 
Muscles grow through this tearing down and building up. Tiny tears or trauma within the muscle fibers occur during heavy exercise. The powerful cells in our muscles repair these tears and reinforce them, making them stronger and larger. An effective strength building routine takes this break-down and repair cycle into consideration.
 
What Do I Need?
 
With a strength building routine like P90X, little is needed but your body. If you are a 200 pound man, that’s 200 pounds of resistance that can be put to use in a well-made strength building routine. Minor, inexpensive equipment like resistance bands and a chin-up bar will only increase the effectiveness of the routine and the pace of muscle growth.

If P90X seems a little extreme for your fitness level, or if you don’t have the time to dedicate to P90X, take a look at Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer that allows for complete workouts including strength building routines in just 10 minutes a day.

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From Soft to Hard-Body: Muscle Weighs More Than Fat

Maybe you are like the few Americans who are pleased with what they see on the scale. We all know that 200 lbs on one person doesn’t always look the same on someone else. We’ve also been told that muscle weighs more than fat. So even if you are okay what the scale says, you may not be pleased with what that weight consists of.
 
The phrase “muscle weighs more than fat” is tossed around all the time. This phrase and what it means is often misused and misunderstood. One pound of fat and one pound of muscle weigh the same: one pound. However, muscle is more dense than fat. This means that 5 pounds of muscle on your body will look leaner and healthier than 5 pounds of fat. So, a muscular 200 pounds looks very different from a flabby 200 pounds.
 
Changing your body composition (what your body is made of) can mean the difference in fitting into those college jeans you have been holding onto. Even if you weigh what you did when you were 18, chances are it looks very different. Firming up and gaining muscle mass while losing fat can be just as challenging as losing weight in general, requiring dedication to a regular fitness plan.

Fat does not turn into muscle. When you change the composition of your body you are actually losing the fat and adding muscle, not magically morphing one into the other. So while it will not require a drastic cut in calories like typical weight loss, it will require hard work and a conscious effort.

Building muscle requires using muscles and gradually and consistently increasing resistance and weight. Because muscle burns more calories than fat, as you increase your muscle mass, your body will naturally burn more fat, furthering your transition from soft to hard body.

Finding an exercise routine that challenges your muscles sufficiently and makes this transition possible is not as difficult as it might seem. You don’t necessarily have to spend countless hours in the gym. With programs like P90X you can get the muscular body you’ve always wanted in your own home and on your own time.

Through the power of muscle confusion and sheer enthusiasm, trainer Tony Horton guides you through a body transforming process that will have your muscles working and potentially growing like never before. By alternating moves and exercises, you’re continually challenged and easily push through any plateaus.

The next time you step on the scale and a smug grin comes across your face; consider whether or not you had to peer over your tummy to see the number. Although your weight is acceptable, you may want to consider changing what that weight is made of. With P90X and the original Power 90, you can achieve a hard-body transformation that your friends will envy.

 

 

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