DON’T SKIP YOUR PUSH-UPS

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Fitness, gains, Push-Ups

A push-up is the most effective basic exercise that most people tend to forget about. Incorporating push-ups into your training routine is extremely beneficial, especially if you want to build serious strength and stability in your upper body. Push-ups target several muscle groups defining your arms, chest, back, and abs.

There are almost an infinite number of ways that you could do a push-up. Using different hand placements and shifting your body weight will target different muscle groups of your torso for upper body conditioning. Best of all, push-ups are scaleable to your fitness level, so no matter what, they will always be challenging.

There are several ways to incorporate push-ups into your workouts. You could do them as a warm up exercise or as a superset burnout exercise. You could also alternate some bench press days by doing a variety of different push-ups. Regularly practicing push-ups will help build stronger pound for pound strength.

Lastly, the most important thing to remember is that its not about how many push ups you can do, its about how well can you do them.

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QUICK TIP – HOW TO FIND NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION

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Examine, Nutrition, Supplements

Examine.com is a great website that provides proven information about nutrition and supplementation.

For example, you can find information regarding supplements such as amino acids, creatines, whey protein, fish oils, etc..

Information about dietary foods are also available with topics such as are eggs healthy, or how many times to eat a day, and how bad diet sodas really are.

This site provides important information in scientific way. They also have a blog with several articles related to health and fitness. I recommend this site if your looking to make knowledge gains.

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EFFECTIVE EXERCISES FOR SHOULDER GAINS

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bodybuilding, gains, shoulder exercises, shoulders

As of late, I have been focusing on adding size and shape to my shoulders. There are several exercises available that will help build them up, but I find that the following three are very effective.

#1.) Standing Military Press

I like this exercise because other than obviously working-out your shoulders, it is a compound movement, so it works out all of your muscles from shoulders to toes. The reason why it involves your entire body is because when the weight is lifted above your head, you’re contracting your abs, your back and glutes, as well as your legs and calves in order to hold the weight up. You get the most out of your shoulder workout with this exercise.

#2.) Upright Shoulder Rows

This shoulder exercise is great because it isolates each shoulder and corrects any imbalanced muscle development. To achieve a more balanced aesthetic of shoulder roundness, do each side unilaterally (each side individually) so that each side exerts an equal amount of work. This will benefit you in the long run.

#3.) Reverse Flyes

This exercise focuses on the rear deltoids of the shoulders. Most people tend to neglect this muscle group for two reasons, one they are hard to see, and two, they are one of the most difficult muscle groups to grow. Nonetheless, working out your rear delts is what is going to make your shoulder “pop” and look wider. Don’t skip out on your rear delts!

These three exercise will help you achieve the most gains from the front, back, and top of your shoulders. Remember strict form is key!

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BRAND SPOTLIGHT – ALPHALETE ATHLETICS

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Alphalete, Athletic wear, Fitness

From time to time, I will be recommending the latest and greatest performance apparel brands that I think are a must have. Today, I am showing the brand Alphalete Athletics, they are a high quality fitness apparel company that cant seem to keep their inventory in stock. They are a new company and are growing rapidly. This coming Sunday October 4th, they are going to have the biggest launch of clothing yet including shirts, Henley, joggers, and much more for both guys and girls. I recommend snagging up some if you can because the clothing is so comfortable, soft, and really high quality. The attention to detail in their garments is there.

Here is their website link: http://alphaleteathletics.com/

A LITTLE WEEKEND MOTIVATION

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Fitness, gym motivation, Motivation

Here is a video from youtube channel TheOnlineCoach for a little weekend lifting inspiration. The coach is a very inspiring person and I recommend checking out his channel.

SUPER SETTING FOR STRENGTH GAINS

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Lifting, Supersets, Suptersetting

Super setting is when you perform two exercises consecutively. This means that once you finish one lifting set, you move straight to another. The important thing about supersets is that your body stays in motion and there is no rest period for your muscles. You can superset one body part or you can train two body parts.

My personal favorite is super setting two different body parts such as my chest and back lats. I like this because I reach a full around pump and I really feel the burn. The only time I superset one body part is on arm days, which usually consist of hitting biceps then the triceps with the superset.

Super setting really helps give that pump that your chasing. Its best to do it with strict form in order to tear the most muscles fibers possible for max gains. The benefits of doing these are: 1.) Burn more calories for fat loss 2.) Save time with your workout 3.) Increases your metabolism because your body is working harder 3.) Build stronger muscle endurance due to the no resting periods 4.) More muscle fiber damage 5.) Creates muscle confusion. But remember, you shouldn’t super set everything because you do need the rest time in between sets for optimal muscle gains.

Check out this hilarious video about super setting by the BroScienceLife YouTube channel.

NIKE FLYKNIT RACER RAINBOWS

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Flyknit, Flyknit Racers, nike

Another color of my favorite shoe just released a few days ago.

Check out the Rainbow Racers. Retail is $150

Link to the shoes: http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/launch/c/2015-06/nike-flyknit-racer-rainbow

TIME UNDER TENSION LIFTS

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benchpress, incline bench, TUT

Time under tension (TUT) is basically a training style that keeps constant stress on your muscles during a set of lifts. It tears deeper into your muscles which leads to serious muscle gains. TUT is high intensity training and proper form is everything.

When doing a basic inclined bench-press, you want to push out and extend your elbows until they lock out. This transfers the stress on your muscles from your chest to your joints (elbows).  This picture illustrates the locking of elbows.

When doing an inclined bench-press with time under tension, you want to push out but not all the way to where you lock your elbows, instead push the weight up and stop just before you elbows lock, then come down and start the next rep. This keeps pure tension on your chest for 100% of the time. This picture illustrates how high to push the weight up which is the point just before your elbows lock.

If you compare the two pictures, you will notice the difference in the lift. Hopefully this quick tip will help you achieve more GAINS!

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MANAGE YOUR MEALS WITH THE ULTIMATE LUNCH BAGS!!

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Dieting, lunch box, meal prep

Stay on top of your macros with the diet and meal management bags by FitMark. These are perfect for people who meal prep or for those who love organization and efficiency. These high quality lunch bags are awesome, they come with food containers, shaker cups, supplement containers, pill organizers, and everything else you need to make sure that you are hitting your daily macros. This way, there is no chance of breaking your diet and make room for GAINS.

The bags range from $25 – $120 and when you enter your email, you will receive a 15% off code. I recommend this product for anyone living the fitness lifestyle.

This is my favorite model, The Shield. $79.99.

Page link to see all the lunch bags: http://fitmarkbags.com/fitness-bags/meal-management-bags

COMPOUND EXERCISES 101

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bodybuilding, compound lifts, Fitness, lfiting, weightlifting

What are compound lifts?

Compound lifts are movements that target the major muscles in your body and the smaller muscles that assist it.

Basically, there are six compound exercises that will help you reach your fitness goals faster than spending countless hours working out individual muscles. Whether you want to lose weight, grow, maintain, or get stronger, incorporating these lifts into your program will provide faster noticeable results and a well rounded body workout targeting several groups of muscles with one exercise.

THE SIX COMPOUND MOVEMENTS:
1.) The Bench Press – This exercise targets your elbows, shoulders, and chest. They assist each other in order for focus all your strength on pushing the weight.

2.) The Squat – Squats are king because they work every single muscle in your legs. The goal here is depth, the deeper you go, the more muscles fibers you are going to tear for optimal growth.

3.) The Deadlift – The deadlift is primarily for building strength because it focuses the tension on your tendons and ligaments in the posterior chain of your body(your posture muscles). It works out your ankles, knees legs, hips, neck, lower back. Due to so many muscles working together, this exercise allows you to lift extremely heavy weight.

4.) The Row – The bent over row is basically like a bench press but for your back lats and traps. Strict form is crucial here, remember to check your EGO at the door.

5.) The Shoulder Press – Also known as a military press, this movement uses all of your shoulder muscles and deltoids to build broad wide shoulders.

6.) The Pull-up – The pull up is a key movement to building a bigger back and wider lats. Its all body weight and it also works out your forearms, shoulders, and biceps.

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