Back Workout: Why We Need It

When it comes to exercise regimens, we often pay close attention to toning our abs, arms, and thighs. We sometimes fail to include any type of back workout in our physical fitness routine.

Working on our backs can give us a tremendous amount of benefits, not least of which is strengthening them to give us better support when lifting heavy loads. We do not necessarily have to do a full back workout immediately and in fact, this is not recommended for beginners.

We can start with a few basic back exercises and work our way up as we become accustomed to the exercises. We also do not need to enroll at a gym in order to do our back exercises. We can do our routine right at home.

Home Workout

While we may be more interested in doing our back workout at home, we should first of all consult a professional physical fitness instructor about the workout that we have planned just to make sure that we won't be straining any muscles, hurting our backs or incurring any other type of injury.

There are different types of back exercises that we can do, working on both our middle and lower backs. These exercises include the following:

• Rows - This helps us build our side back muscles or what is called the Latissimus Dorsi. With the use of two dumbbells, one for each arm, we raise these alternately while lying; face forward, at a 45-degree angle. We should start with light dumbbells, about three pounds each.

• Reverse Fly - Sitting erect with feet flat on the floor and our backs straight, we lift the dumbbells up, reaching up to our shoulders.

We can start with these two basic back exercises and then add more routines as we get more comfortable. Other back exercises are back extension, dumbbell pullover, and one-armed row.

Frequency Of Workout

So as not to strain our muscles, we should do our back exercises on alternate days, at least 3 times per week. While we may be eager to finally get a toned back, overdoing it can cause a lot of injuries.

Also, we should remember do a few cardio exercises first before starting on our back workout routine. These will loosen-up our bodies and muscles to prepare us for a more rigorous workout.

Failing to do our cardio exercises first may result in cramped or pulled muscles.

We should also start with just 2 sets of back exercises first, with about 14-16 repetitions for each set. As we become more accustomed to our routine, we can increase the number of repetitions at a level where we are most comfortable with.

By incorporating back exercises to our regular physical fitness regimen, we will be improving our posture, strengthening our back muscles, and increasing their flexibility.

By following a regular exercise routine, we will also be improving our overall physical health, not to mention our quality of life, and mental health. We may soon even find that we are more confident and that we have actually achieved the kind of body built that we want.


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The Back Biceps Workout That Makes Them Grow Like Mad

The back biceps workout - if I am going to work out any body part with my biceps it is going to be the back. The reason why I exercise my back with biceps is because I get a great pre-exhausted pump in my biceps from the back workout.

Also I love to super set the back with biceps, I do not do this to often because it is quite demanding, as the back muscles are a big group of muscles and take allot of energy from me on every exercise, and do not leave much energy for my biceps exercises.

So the superset workout would only be put in place if I wanted to shock the muscles back into growth or losing weight, as supper setting is a great way of losing body fat, because of the way the workout does not allow your heart rate to drop for long. The back biceps workout I am going to show you is a superset workout.

So remember do not do this workout week in week out as you will start to overtrain.

1. start with seated close grip pull downs to the chest for the back super set with seated incline bench concentration curls for the biceps, do 1 warm up set for back and biceps, then increase the weight in every exercise until you get to a rep range of about 6-7 reps.

Do not allow for any rest between exercises just keep going. You should be doing about 3-4 sets per body part.

2. Move from here giving the back and biceps 2-3 minutes to recover.

For the back we are going to do t-bar rows with a close grip.

And for the biceps ez barbell curl.

Repeat the exercise as it was done in the first part of the workout.

3. For the back wide grip pull downs, pull the bar with a shoulders width grip to your chest.

And for the biceps reverse ez bar curl, when bringing the bar up to your chest lift your elbows up about four inches from your sides this will allow you to squeeze the muscle better at the top of the movement.

These two exercises are done the same as the two previous examples.

This will be enough for your biceps do not forget they are only a small muscle group and can be easily overtrained.

4. Bent over rows with dumbbells superset this time with seated wrist curls, make sure the wrist curls do not go below 12 reps as they respond better to high reps.

But keep the rows the same as the previous exercises going up in weight and down in reps.

Finish the workout with behind the back barbell wrist curls but with a close grip so the hand are almost touching.

Remember in all exercises stretch the back biceps and wrist during the exercises and in-between also to squeeze the muscles at the top of every movement.

This really is key to getting the best from your back biceps workout.


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Fitness at Home - Body Weight Based Exercise - Back Workout

Health and fitness is on a lot of minds. As boomers get older and Gen X'ers start hitting their thirties they are realizing that unless they do something to take care of themselves physically they aren't going to be able to do the things that they've been taking for granted. Becoming more fit doesn't have to involve joining a gym or buying a bunch of weights or machines. For the most part you can get a good workout in using only your body weight and things around the house. One exception is back exercises. To get a decent back workout you should purchase a pull up bar that can be mounted in a doorway. If anyone can suggest any exercises to complement the ones I am detailing, please let me know.

Pull-ups are one of the most effective back exercises around. When I did research on back exercises pull-ups were often cited by experts as an integral part of training. Many pieces of equipment at a gym simulate the movement of a pull-up, but have the advantage of using smaller weights, which makes them easier to do. So how can we work around that issue at home?

The easiest solution is to place the pull-up bar at lower positions in your doorway. If you place the bar at chin height you can use your legs to give you whatever assistance you need to do a successful repetition. Use as much or as little leg strength as you desire. As you gain strength over the course of time you may want to either raise or lower the bar. Either one can add to the challenge. Let me explain.

Raising the bar is pretty self explanatory. Once you have the bar at the height where you can just barely reach it, you will be using your entire body weight for the exercise. This is not easy. A fitness entry test for the Coast Guard only requires men to be able to do three pull-ups. (An alternate name for this exercise is the chin up. If you have a double chin, one repetition still only counts once.) Keep that in mind as you are doing your pull-ups. They are a challenge.

To make a less strenuous challenge, lower the bar. If you take the bar down to about the three foot height level you can do what is essentially a inverted push-up. Try to have your back and legs in a rigid straight line and pull yourself up to the bar. To make this easier you can rest your butt on the floor, or sit on an. That takes a percentage of weight off your lift. When you get comfortable with that, raise the bar height. You can gradually raise the height as you get stronger, or you can keep the height low. Don't push yourself too hard. Slow and steady wins the race.

As an alternative to a pull up bar, you could potentially lay under a table and grip the edge of the table to do a modified floor pull-up. You have to have pretty good hand strength for that, but I like to include alternatives that involve no equipment.

To change up these exercises a bit you can grip the bar in different ways. You can have your palms facing you or facing away. Doing a pull-up with your palms facing you engages your biceps more, facing away engages your back more. You can also have your hands at shoulder width apart, narrower or wider. Do what feels most comfortable for you, but experiment occasionally with different grips.


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Top 4 Benefits of Weightlifting

It's not all about v shaped abs and bulging biceps when it comes to the benefits of weightlifting! It's easy to get wrapped up in the images of the glossy fitness magazine cover models. I have lots of friends who don't go to the gym or have no interest in weightlifting. While they may consider it purely an activity in vanity, the health benefits can't be ignored.

Benefits of Weightlifting

1. Physical Capacity - In the most simplistic terms, weight training increases the strength of the body's muscles and connective tissues. This allows you to perform more work or work harder, and expend energy. This is what Physical Capacity means when referring to exercise and it can be further broken down by muscular strength and endurance.

Muscular Strength Definition - When it comes to weightlifting muscular strength is defined as the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert maximum force against resistance for a single contraction or rep.

Muscular Endurance Definition - The ability of a muscle or group of muscle to exert sub-maximal force for extended periods of time.

2. Body Composition and Aestethics - In the fitness industry your body composition refers to the percentage of bone, muscle, organs, skin, water, connective tissue, and fat. When people refer to "getting leaner" they mean losing body fat and / or putting on muscle. Body composition isn't solely determined by weight. Two people that have the same weight and height can look vastly different. When people say "muscle weighs more than fat" they're just wrong. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat... both weight a pound! Muscle takes up less space versus body fat.

3. Metabolism - This is your body's fuel burning furnace. Because weightlifting increases the strength (and sometimes size) it increases it's need for energy. Your body not only requires more calories, but it becomes more efficient at burning them and utilizing other nutrients.

4. Injury and Disease Prevention - When you're busting out reps in the weight room or during your workout, you're not just strengthening your muscles. You're also building the strength and endurance of connective tissues like ligaments and tendons. This helps to stabilize joints and can thus may help you prevent injuries. There's a plethora of studies that show that weight lifting / resistance training is an important tool for disease prevention. The leaner your body composition is the lower you risk may be for obesity related diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure issues.

The benefits of weight lifting aren't just noticed when you're trying on those new pair of jeans or checking yourself out in the mirror. Training isn't just for gymrats or vanity reasons. Get in the gym and get your sweat on and I could almost guarantee you'll feel better!


Los Angeles Personal Trainer Riley Daye is part of the GymPaws Workout Gloves Fitness Team. His areas of study include Weight Lifting, Strength Training, Nutrition, Body Building and Sport Specific Training.

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Increasing Your Speed In Legs

Today what we're going to talk about is increasing the speed within your legs and the hip itself. In short, we will be talking about speed, strength, and power within the legs. What you want to first ask yourself is whether you are functional? When it comes to building speed, your body needs to be in a balanced state. What does that mean? Are the muscle tissues moving properly? Does the fascial system have enough glide? Do your muscle tissues contract and communicate with the whole body? All three of these questions must be addressed to decide if your body is in a balanced state. So one muscle must communicate with the next muscle, and so on and so forth. In the case of speed, everyone has front muscles, the hip flexors, which are contracted. Everyone understands that these muscles are tight but this is actually slowing the legs down. You need to really focus on getting that hip to open. So let's actually start showing you what's happening.

What you need to know is that the body is designed to have something in the back turned off if something in the front is on. We are an anterior driven society so the front of our body is working overtime, at all times. Consequently, this will get tightened and turned on, eventually getting harder and preventing the hip joint from opening completely. As a result, the posterior part of your body, your butt, is going to turn off. I'm going to show you how to make that backside functional, but first, let's find out what it looks like.

In order to push your leg backwards, your glute and hamstrings need to work. So you need to focus on foam rolling, trigger point work, and stretches for your glute and hamstrings. First, you must get them to learn how to move, then get them to contract with trigger point work or squats. It is also important to get them to communicate, by using fluid motion in your stretches. Once you do that, you must then understand the hip flexor area. This area will be the next tricky part. This gives the glute and hamstrings a reason to stay working. There are many muscles in this group and so much happening in this area. However, what you want to focus on is getting the hip to open in the backwards direction. Once we get the muscles to stop working so hard, your body will take over and start doing it on its own. This is where people make their mistake. They think they need to get faster and stronger yet what they don't realize is that the body naturally wants to become more efficient. You don't have to try so hard if you focus on the basics of getting the muscle tissue to start moving, contracting, and communicating. Watch how it moves then feed that movement. Afterwards, it's just a matter of practicing that speed and efficiency in a non-focused way. Usually, if you are doing this right, you won't even see the positive effects coming. You will notice that you are running faster without even trying.

So when we are talking about increasing speed, we are talking about increasing the functionality of your body. Getting it to move, contract, and communicate through foam rolling, trigger point work, and stretching is the key point here. You just need to do these things and focus on the balance between the hip flexors and extensors. Then it's just a matter of practicing and you will realize how much easier you can move and how you can move.


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Healthy Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe

This Healthy Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe is probably one of my all time favorite chicken recipes! If you're into working out, you already know that nutrition is just as important as the time you put in at the gym.

Adding healthy proteins to your diet is a sure fire way to get the nutrients you need to build muscle and lose weight. If you're creative in the kitchen you can definitely find ways to keep healthy eating interesting as well! This is a super easy chicken recipe that will impress!

Healthy Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe

Here's what you'll need:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Sliced Deli Ham

Low Fat Swiss Cheese slices

Dijon Mustard

Panko Crumbs

Plastic Wrap

Toothpicks

Meat Tenderizer or Hammer

Preparation:

1. Trim off any excess fat from the chicken breasts, wash them off and pat dry. Roll out about 3 feet of plastic wrap on the counter. Place a couple of chicken breasts on it and cover with the other end of the plastic wrap. With the meat tenderizer or hammer pound them out so that each breast is about 1/3 inch thick.

2. Lay the chicken breasts on a baking sheet sprayed with non stick spray.

3. Layer on a piece of Swiss Cheese and Ham. Spread a layer of Dijon Mustard on top of that.

4. Roll the chicken breast up, being careful not to squeeze it too tightly or the mustard will ooze out.

5. Secure with a toothpick and sprinkle Panko Crumbs over the top of each.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Healthy Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe - Tips

- If you're using frozen chicken breasts you may find that the pieces are too small to roll up. In this case just layer them instead of rolling. Once you've put the ham, cheese and mustard on, place another flattened out chicken breast on top and secure with a toothpick.

- You can use any type of ham you want. I just by the regular deli ham that you'd put on sandwiches. If it's super thin just use a couple of slices.

- Don't add any seasoning to these until you try them. The Panko crumbs, ham, cheese, and mustard add plenty of flavor (and salt) to the recipe.

- If you don't have a meat tenderizer, use a hammer or the edge of a book. Basically anything that will flatten out the chicken breasts will work!

- Serve this with your favorite veggies and a dollop of mustard on the side for dipping.


Los Angeles Personal Trainer Riley Daye is part of the GymPaws Workout Gloves Fitness Team. His areas of study include Weight Lifting, Strength Training, Nutrition, Body Building and Sport Specific Training.

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Bodybuilding Calf Exercises to Get Eye Popping Big Calves

One of the most misunderstood muscle in the human body is the calves and unfortunately, many bodybuilders get it wrong with calf exercises.

Let me explain... how many times have you heard if you want big and developed calves... you must perform high reps sets often to increase the muscle mass in the calves?

What would you say if I told you that there is NO evidence that high repetition and high frequency calf exercises equals big calves?

Or to rephrase it... uh...no, it doesn't work that way.

Got your attention didn't I?

And then there is a whole 'nother set of bodybuilders that completely ignore their calves in their bodybuilding workout routines. And this is a mistake in my opinion because strengthening your calve muscles means you can perform at a higher level with other leg workouts such as lunges, squats, and other exercises...

My point is that you shouldn't treat your body as a black box. Especially your calves. Know what you are doing and in order to do that... you must know your calves...

First of all, your calf muscle really is two muscles. The prominent gastrocnemius and the soleus beneath it. Biopsies of the calf muscle reveals the story... both of these muscles are higher in the slow twitch muscle fibers than most of the muscle sets throughout your body. And fast twitch muscles fibers have great potential to get bigger.

So what does that mean? Well, for starters... you are probably training your calf muscles the wrong way if you train them like you do for all the other muscle sets in your body.

Whoa!

So those high reps -- high frequency calf workouts are probably a really bad idea if you want big calf muscles. To add more muscle mass to your calves... you should focus on the fast twitch (FT) portion of the calves. Also, understand this... the basic purpose of the calf is to help support your body weight on the ball of your feet when you raise the heels up.

Do this... go to a floor mirror and watch your calves as you raise your feet off the heels. The calves start to flex, right?

So our calf exercises MUST utilize this information and we must overload our calves in this position...

And when I say "overload," I mean we must increase the demand placed on our calve muscles to force them to grow bigger to adapt to the increase load...

Makes sense now?

Sure it does! And that's because I'm looking out for ya...

Another point I wanted to make when you do your calf exercises... don't concentrate on the seated calf raises... why? Because that calf workout really focuses on the smaller underlying muscle -- the soleus. Bodybuilders should focus on the prominent calf muscle -- the gastrocnemius


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