Ab Crunch Machine

1. Select a light resistance and sit down on the ab machine placing your feet under the pads provided and grabbing the top handles. Your arms should be bent at a 90 degree angle as you rest the triceps on the pads provided. This will be your starting position.


2. At the same time, begin to lift the legs up as you crunch your upper torso. Breathe out as you perform this movement. Tip: Be sure to use a slow and controlled motion. Concentrate on using your abs to move the weight while relaxing your legs and feet.


3. After a second pause, slowly return to the starting position as you breathe in.


4. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

Caution:

• For this exercise, always select a weight that you can easily handle as using too much weight can easily lead to injury.

Crunches

1. Lie flat on your back with your feet flat on the ground, or resting on a bench with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. If you are resting your feet on a bench, place them three to four inches apart and point your toes inward so they touch.


2. Now place your hands lightly on either side of your head keeping your elbows in. Tip: Don't lock your fingers behind your head.


3. While pushing the small of your back down in the floor to better isolate your abdominal muscles, begin to roll your shoulders off the floor.


4. Continue to push down as hard as you can with your lower back as you contract your abdominals and exhale. Your shoulders should come up off the floor only about four inches, and your lower back should remain on the floor. At the top of the movement, contract your abdominals hard and keep the contraction for a second. Tip: Focus on slow, controlled movement - don't cheat yourself by using momentum.


5. After the one second contraction, begin to come down slowly again to the starting position as you inhale.


6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Variations: There are many variations for the crunch. You can perform the exercise with weights, or on top of an exercise ball or on a decline bench.

Female Bodybuilding Tips For Building Muscle While Remaining Feminine

 
Men are not the only creatures interested in building muscle, which is why we have compiled a list of effective female body building tips. It is important that women seek the proper techniques and tips to help them build an adequate amount of muscle before beginning any sort of workout regimen.

Women should especially pay attention to the amount of muscle they have because it can also help them keep fat to a minimum. One pound of muscle burns up to nine times more fat than aerobic activity alone. Having an adequate amount of muscle comes in handy particularly later in life when women become more susceptible to bone diseases such as osteoporosis.

Given below are a list of female bodybuilding tips you will find very useful when trying to build and sustain muscle mass:

1. Always eat before and after a workout. These two meals are called the pre-workout meal and post-workout meal. They are the two most important meals of the day when it comes to the female bodybuilder. They should both consist of an adequate source of protein and carbohydrates. The pre-workout meal should be eaten no more than one hour prior to a workout and the post-workout meal should be eaten no later than 90 minutes after a workout.

2. Of all of the female bodybuilding tips, the one that you should make yourself extremely familiar with is to avoid overdoing it. If you are trying to build muscle, you need to make sure that your total amount of weight lifting time does not exceed 45 minutes of active lifting per session. Anything over that amount will only cause your body to become completely depleted and resort to muscle for energy.

3. The third tip consists of the actual workout that you engage in. You want to be certain that you are challenging yourself at all times. Remember not to overdo it because you do not want to hurt yourself and potentially ruin your chances of excelling. You are the judge of what is comfortable and what is not. If you are straining, then lighten the load. If you are trying to build muscle, you must stay away from doing too many repetitions. Doing too many repetitions will result in more of a cardio-like workout and tone your muscle, not build it. Practice doing no more than about 10 to 12 repetitions per set as well as no more than five sets per exercise. If what you are doing does not feel challenging, boost the weight up a pound or two. Always remember to breath in when lowering the weight as well, and breath out on the way up.

4. The fourth has to do with avoiding the dreaded plateau. When people come to a plateau, they can no longer excel. The only way to get over the hump is to switch up your workout routine. The human body usually comes to a plateau once every five weeks. Once you hit that five-week mark, come up with a new set of exercises.

5. The fifth female bodybuilding tip has to do with another one of the most important aspects of all, resting. This is where the muscle building really comes in. You need to rest each of your muscle groups for at least 48 hours before working them again. Muscles cannot grow when they are constantly being worked; it is only during the recovery process that your muscles experience the most growth.

There are plenty of women who shy away from the weights at the gym because they are scared they will bulk up and lose their feminine appeal. This could not be further from the truth. What makes men bulk up is their higher testosterone levels, which women naturally have less of.

With weight training, women have the ability to appear curvier and transform their entire figure into something much more beautiful than they could have ever imagined. The best part about it all is that lifting weights provides strength, which is something everyone needs.

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Romanian Deadlift

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aJ6F-ge-dUw]

1. Put a barbell in front of you on the ground and grab it using a pronated (palms facing down) grip that a little wider than shoulder width. Tip: Depending on the weight used, you may need wrist wraps to perform the exercise and also a raised platform in order to allow for better range of motion.


2. Bend the knees slightly and keep the shins vertical, hips back and back straight. This will be your starting position.


3. Keeping your back and arms completely straight at all times, use your hips to lift the bar as you exhale. Tip: The movement should not be fast but steady and under control.


4. Once you are standing completely straight up, lower the bar by pushing the hips back, only slightly bending the knees, unlike when squatting. Tip: Take a deep breath at the start of the movement and keep your chest up. Hold your breath as you lower and exhale as you complete the movement.


5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Caution: This is not an exercise that is recommended for people with lower back problems. Also, it needs to be treated with the utmost respect paying special attention not to round the back forward too much as you move the torso. Finally, jerking motions or doing too much weight can injure your back.

Variation: The exercise can also be performed with dumbbells in each hand.

Lying Leg Curls

1. Adjust the machine lever to fit your height and lie face down on the leg curl machine with the pad of the lever on the back of your legs (just a few inches under the calves). Tip: Preferably use a leg curl machine that is angled as opposed to flat since an angled position is more favorable for hamstrings recruitment.


2. Keeping the torso flat on the bench, ensure your legs are fully stretched and grab the side handles of the machine. Position your toes straight (or you can also use any of the other two stances described on the foot positioning section). This will be your starting position.


3. As you exhale, curl your legs up as far as possible without lifting the upper legs from the pad. Once you hit the fully contracted position, hold it for a second.


4. As you inhale, bring the legs back to the initial position. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Caution: Do not ever use so much weight on the exercise that you start using swinging and jerking as you can risk both lower back injury and also a hamstring injury.

Variations: Since you have three foot positions you have in reality three exercises. The movement can also be performed with a dumbbell held in between your feet (a partner needs to place it properly). This latter exercise though is only suitable for advanced trainees. Finally, it is also possible to just use one leg at a time for better isolation.

Barbell Lunge

1. This exercise is best performed inside a squat rack for safety purposes. To begin, first set the bar on a rack just below shoulder level. Once the correct height is chosen and the bar is loaded, step under the bar and place the back of your shoulders (slightly below the neck) across it.


2. Hold on to the bar using both arms at each side and lift it off the rack by first pushing with your legs and at the same time straightening your torso.


3. Step away from the rack and step forward with your right leg and squat down through your hips, while keeping the torso upright and maintaining balance. Inhale as you go down. Note: Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down, as this will put undue stress on the knee joint.


4. Using mainly the heel of your foot, push up and go back to the starting position as you exhale.


5. Repeat the movement for the recommended amount of repetitions and then perform with the left leg.

Caution: This is a movement that requires a great deal of balance so if you suffer from balance problems you may wish to either avoid it or just use your own bodyweight while holding on to a fixed object. Definitely never perform with a barbell on your back if you suffer from balance issues.

Variations: There are several ways to perform the exercise.

• One way is to alternate each leg. For instance do one repetition with the right, then the left, then the right and so on.


• The other way is to do what I call a static lunge where your starting position is with one of your feet already forward. In this case, you just go up and down from that starting position until you are done with the recommended amount of repetitions. Then you switch legs and do the same.


• A more challenging version is the walking lunges where you walk across the room but in a lunging fashion. For walking lunges the leg being left back has to be brought forward after the lunging action has happened in order to continue moving ahead. This version is reserved for the most advanced athletes.

Getting a Smart Start in Bodybuilding - Tips For Teen Bodybuilders

Bodybuilding is, without doubt, one of the most demanding sports out there and it is easy to get disillusioned and depressed when results are slow in showing. This is particularly true when teens take on bodybuilding for the first time. Not only do they have to contend with the reality that building a good physique is generally a slow process, but they have to figure the changes in their own bodies into the equation as well. This process can be made a little easier for teen bodybuilders if a couple of basic tips are followed as part of their workout routines right from the start.

The main pitfall that any new bodybuilder faces, and this is particularly true of teen bodybuilders, is having unrealistic expectations. This is a slow process particularly in the beginning. If you are dedicated enough to stay the course during that difficult first year then success will surely follow. The simple fact of the matter is that you are unlikely to gain more than 10 or 15 Lbs of muscle through the first 12 months.

One way of staying positive during this process is to keep a really good record of your progress. Digital photographs and notes kept on weights and measurements. The digital photos are particularly valuable as a graphic record speaks volumes. This is also generally handy for tracking progress with the view to keeping your diet and routines on track.

Maintaining pace is also a major issue for most teen bodybuilders. Consistency is a mainstay of any bodybuilder's routine, and this can be particularly hard for teens as they tend to have far more variable and demanding social and study schedules. However, without sustained input there will be no progress, so consistency is perhaps one of the biggest allies of teen bodybuilders.

One of the most appealing features of teenagers is their unflappable faith in their own abilities. Unfortunately this is often not tempered with practicality. This has been the downfall of many teen bodybuilders as they try to push the envelope way beyond reasonable limits. Not only do they run the risk of burn out but the every present spectre of injury looms in the absence of restraint. A serious injury at this point can either put the teen bodybuilder out of commission for so long that all gains are lost or put an end to their career altogether.

Two the most difficult things for teen bodybuilders to stick to are diet and rest. Thing is, those are two of the most critical parts of successful bodybuilding. Muscle regeneration takes place during sleep periods when your natural steroid production kicks in. Simple fact - no sleep, no muscle gain. Diets also play a fundamental role in effective bodybuilding. Follow the basics and you will be fuelling the machine for maximum performance. The 3 main meals should be complimented with three smaller in betweeners. Concentrate on good, complex carbohydrates, lean protein and good fat. In between meals can be protein shakes or meal replacement bars. Whatever you do, don't skimp.

Finally, teen bodybuilders should try and keep it real. Don't try and follow fads and believe in unrealistic product promises. You will simple never "Put on 20 Lbs in 30 days". Get pro advice on your routines and diet and follow it, don't try and be a hero in the gym and plug away consistently. There just isn't any other way to get that ripped bod, simple as that. The rewards are just too great to pack it in when the going gets tough, so give it stick and good luck!

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