Side shoulder raises

Video: This exercise targets the shoulder muscles.

Gorilla Chin Crunch

The gorilla chin crunch is a compound exercise that effectively works the abdominal muscles, as well as the lats and biceps. It is certainly no secret that everyone who takes the time to workout wishes to have a flat, washboard abdomen. You do not want to have great looking abs and walk around with flabby arms ? or do you?

If you want to perform the gorilla chin crunch, you need to understand that although it may look really simple but if you do not have upper body strength, you may not find this exercise very easy to perform.

What You Need to Perform Gorilla Chin Crunch

You will require a chin-up bar, upper body strength and determination

How to Perform Gorilla Chin Crunch

You can start by hanging from the chin-up bar; you should use an underhand grip (that is, having your palms face you). The underhand grip should be a little bit wider than shoulder width.

Then, bend your knees at around a 90 degree angle in such a way that your calves are parallel to the floor while your thighs stay perpendicular to it ? this will be the starting position.

As you breathe out, you should pull yourself up while you crunch your knees up at exactly the same time ? do this until your knees are at chest level. When your nose reaches the same level as the bar, you will stop going.

Important Note: when you reach this point, you should also be done with the crunch at the same time.

You should breathe in slowly as you return to the starting position.

You should repeat the gorilla chin crunch according to the recommended amount of repetitions.

If you want to, you can also add resistance by holding medicine ball or dumbbell between your feet ? but you need to understand that if you are not an advanced athlete, you should not try this. On the other hand, when you become an advanced athlete, you can also try doing the one arm gorilla chin crunches, the exercise involve grasping your wrist with your free hand and continue working the oblique more.

The abdominal muscles need regular workouts and 5 minutes of daily abdominal exercises can actually make a real difference ? that is, as long as you do the exercises everyday.

Now, you need to know that even though exercises play a vital role in getting the physique you have always desired, you will need to make sure that you eat the right kind of food and drink lots and lots of water too.

When you feel your muscles cramping, you should immediately stop the exercises and rest. Do not over push yourself, especially if you have just started working out ? with a little time, you will be an advanced athlete.

Important Tip

You can get a training buddy if you are not sure whether you will be disciplined enough to continue your work out routine ? a committed workout buddy will keep you primed and ready to go.

Remember, you will never regret dedicating your time to staying fit.

Simple Weight Loss: Cabbage Soup Diet

In this Cabbage Soup Diet Review’s, I’m going to tell you the good and the bad of this popular fad diet. In the plan, you eat as much of the soup as you want plus certain foods on certain days. It is a seven day meal plan and the authors claim you can lose up to 10 pounds in just a week. This Cabbage Soup Diet Reviews’ goal is to help you decide if you want to try the plan.

The cabbage soup diet is most often attributed to the Mayo Clinic, although they have issued a number of releases saying that they had nothing to do with its development and do not endorse it. If you have a major hospital in your area, you may have heard of it by that name. For instance, Loma Linda University is a major teaching hospital in one area and people in the vicinity call it the Loma Linda Diet.

In this Cabbage Soup Diet Reviews, I’m going to tell you what I like about the program and what I think is lacking. It is a good diet in some limited circumstances, but if you are looking for lasting weight management, it’s not the right choice for you.

There are two factors that make this program so attractive. The first is that if you stick to the plan, you will lose weight up to 10 pounds in just one week. The other plus is that you won’t have to be hungry at all. That is because you get to eat as much of the soup as you want. You may get tired of the soup, but you won’t go hungry.

The downsides of the program are also twofold. The first is that the diet is boring and many people find the food bland. You are only allowed certain foods on certain days. For instance, on one day, all you can have besides the soup is bananas and skim milk. On the other hand, on another day you get up to 16 ounces of steak and all the vegetables you want.

The other problem with the diet is that it is extremely low in calories. That means that it is not sustainable over time. In fact, even people who endorse the cabbage soup diet recommend that you stay on the diet for one week and then wait at least one week before starting the cycle again.

You will average about 900 calories on the diet. This cabbage soup diet reviews notes that that’s not enough to keep your body going. Therefore, you will be forced to burn fat. That’s a good thing. But, if you stay on it for more than a week, your metabolism will start to shut down, reducing the fat-burining effects.

Also, the main weight loss from the cabbage soup diet comes from water loss.

In short, my cabbage soup diet reviews points out that if you need to lose weight for a one off situation like a wedding, reunion, or just a big date, this may be a solution for you. But if you are looking for a long term solution, this is not the program for you.

And that’s my cabbage soup diet reviews.

Fresh Fruit Salad Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon grated fresh lime peel

2 cups diced peeled cantaloupe

2 cups diced peeled honeydew melon

1 cup seedless red or green grapes

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 cups diced peeled cored fresh pineapple

1 cup raspberries or blackberries

1 1/2 cups halved hulled strawberries

Directions

Whisk together yogurt, lime juice and honey in small bowl to blend; set dressing aside. Wash and clean fruits. Add fruit to a large bowl. Cover dressing and fruit separately and chill until ready to serve, up to 6 hours. Mix dressing into fruit. Let stand 15 minutes to blend flavors. Note: You can easily interchange different fruits – this dressing will also taste great with nectarines, peaches, etc.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

2 tbsp honey

Directions

Whisk whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, combine egg, buttermilk and honey.

Make a well in dry ingredients and stir in egg and buttermilk mixture. Allow batter to rest for a few minutes.

Set a nonstick frying pan to medium-high heat. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls on to griddle or pan. Cook until the edges begin to dry and bubbles appear in the pancakes. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes more.

(Makes 8 pancakes)

Dancing Provides a Great Workout

If you enjoy dancing then why not make this your exercise routine? You have probably read lots of articles telling you that it is easier to stick with an exercise routine that you enjoy. So why not dancing?

There are so many types of dance that you will never get bored dancing. You could try Zumba dancing, Belly dancing and even tap or ballet. Plus this can all be done in the comfort of your home with very little if no special gym equipment.

Even just turning on your favourite music and dancing is a great form of exercising. Let yourself be carried away by the music and burn lots and lots of calories. A 150 pound person can burn approximately 306 calories per hour just dancing in general. Ballet or Tap will have you burning 326 calories per hour and Ballroom dancing 374 calories in a one hour period.

Of course you don’t have to dance for one solid hour. You could break this up into four 15 minute intervals during the day. To get the biggest benefit try to put in as much effort as you can into your dancing. Don’t get carried away as you don’t want to hurt yourself by pulling a muscle.

If you want to learn a certain style or a dance routine you can find plenty of DVD’s and videos on this subject. If you visit YouTube you could probably find some instructional videos on there. This is a great way to try something new like Belly Dancing before purchasing a DVD or book on the subject. You will just need to make sure that you have enough room to dance safely near your computer.

Maybe you dreamed of being a ballet dancer when you were younger. Well there is nothing stopping you from learning the movements now. Ballet dancers are known for their incredible strength and practicing the basic steps will no doubt improve your leg, arm and core strength.

Of course it will take time and determination to perfect any new dance routine, but you are not aiming to be a professional. Your goal is to have fun while learning a new dance step or style.

Just moving your body more will help get you back into shape. You will be feeling more energetic and youthful than you had expected and all you did was dance your way back to health.

Sit Up

Video: A demonstration of an advanced sit up targeting your abs.

Buying Healthy Food In Bulk

It’s no secret in the United States that eating unhealthy is often the easier, cheaper option. One visit to the specialty health food stores would convince anybody that eating healthy isn’t cost-effective. The word “organic” has become synonymous with “expensive” and many people have repeatedly turned back to frozen television dinners after being dismayed at the cost of “eating healthy”.

An idea for those who would like to bring more lean meats and vegetables into their diets is to consider buying food in bulk and storing the excess in a freezer. Many bulk food companies have cropped up in recent years, most requiring a membership to take part in the deals they offer. While paying for a membership to buy food may not seem to be in line with “living on the cheap” if the membership is managed correctly and used to purchase things with the idea of storing them up and eating them over an extended period of time, the decision to partake may end up being cheaper than purchasing processed food.

The way to make bulk food work for you and your family is to appropriately plan for the ways in which you use the food and be able to store it properly. A freezer will go a long way toward keeping bulk food in good condition for a long period of time. If the freezer in your daily refrigerator isn’t large enough to be able to compensate for the amount of food you buy in bulk, purchasing a separate freezer may help you save money in the long run.

Another way to make the most out of bulk food is to consider buying a vacuum sealer. These allow you to remove the air from bags with much higher competency as compared to simply rolling the air out of Ziploc style bags. This is a great way to help save opened containers of both meat and vegetables by protecting them from freezer burn.

Buying food in bulk is a great way to help get healthier items into your kitchen while saving money. There may be a bit of an initial investment in the extra freezer, bulk food store memberships, and vacuum sealers required to make the most of buying your food in bulk. Good luck with eating healthier ?

Dumbbell lunges

This is another very important factor for any leg exercise. This is a great exercise because it works so many of the different muscles of the leg giving you a very comprehensive workout. It works the quadriceps and calf of the leg you are lunging with and it allows you to stretch and work the opposite hamstrings. The weight of the dumbbells allows you get more of a workout because that is simply extra weight that these muscles must work to support.

How to do a dumbbell lunge

1. Start with your body completely straight and your feet facing forward hip width apart.

2. Bring one leg forward and lunge. Make sure to keep your foot perpendicular to your shin (do not lean your shin forward) so that you are targeting your quadriceps

3. You will want to make sure that you land on your heel and roll onto the ball of the foot

4. You want to bend your knee and hip as your move your weight from the heel of your foot to the ball so that your thigh is parallel to the floor.

5. Then you will push off from the ball of your foot to go back to standing straight up with both of your feet together, hip width apart

6. Repeat the above instructions with the opposite leg. Continue this pattern of rotating legs until you have completed the amount of reps in your set

Tips for getting the best results whiles doing a dumbbell lunge

Remember your posture because it is very easy to cheat with this exercise by throwing off your posture. What this means is that you can do many sets and find that it is doing little for you because you are not working the right muscles in the right way

You can get a more complete workout by working the upper body with the dumbbells in your hands. This can be as simple as just doing your bicep curls while you are doing your lunges. The one thing to keep in mind though is that you do not want to have an exercise that will throw you off while you are doing this exercise

Make sure that you sit into the lunge and the farther you can go the better

It is important to not let your knee come forward while doing this. Your calf and foot should be positioned in an L position (90 degree angle)

If you want to really blast your legs with this exercise, instead of alternating legs, you can just do all the reps for the set on one leg and then move to the other leg and do all the reps for that leg

It is important to focus on the muscles as you move through the exercise. Do not just move fast. Instead you want to perform it at a speed where you can make sure you are moving with control and focus on the muscles you are working.

Plank

Video: Your chest, shoulders triceps and core are used in this exercise.