Zen My Fitness – Linking Muscle and Mind

Food should never be boring or don’t get the guilts about having a snack, that is unhealthy not the food.

Raw Avocado-Lime Pie

If you want to try something a little different then try raw food.

You eat raw already by snacking on fruit but that can be extended to raw foods like lasagna and cheesecakes.

Here are some Benefits of a Raw Food Diet ( taken from About.com).

• Increased energy
• Clearer skin
• Weight loss
• Reduced risk of disease

The raw food diet contains fewer trans fats and saturated fat than the typical Western diet.

It is also low in sodium and sugar and high in potassium, magnesium, folate, fiber, vitamin A, and health-promoting antioxidants.

These properties are associated with a reduced risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

At times I feel like I have reached my maximal weightlifting limit and any progression stops or only increases at a snail’s pace which you could say is a weightlifting plateau.

It's Not All About Lifting Heavier and Heavier

There are a number of causes why plateaus happen and I will identify one of the most frequently occurring causes and offer 3 methods which helps me to break through this plateau.

I don’t like to change my current workout at a whim so by using these few simple tactics gives me enough ‘kick along’ to get out of a ‘rut’ and keep my progression moving forward, whilst still being able to use my existing program.

REASONS FOR PLATEAUS Read the rest of this entry »

It's not as bad as you think!

Sounds paradoxical eating snacks and still being able to get a defined 6 pack Abs but it’s true.

And I don’t mean as a cheat meal but you can eat these daily!

OK there is a punch line, I need to be doing these few things first to be able to eat like this, the ground rules are:   …. Read more of this article

MMA or Mixed Martial Artists are some of the fittest athletes in the world.

Watchout your head is in the way!

You have to be fit to hold up your hands for 5 rounds with 1 minute rests while someone is trying to punch portholes into you.

If fat-loss is a goal and you are bored of doing endless “TV watching”  treadmills then mix it up and consider doing a good hard MMA workout as an alternative cardio routine for fatloss.

I’ll guarantee it will engage your mind rather than being placed in neutral, your athletic skills increase and you’ll find it more enjoyable and satisfying.

So Why MMA Workouts for Cardio?

  … read more at the musclehacker!

Stretching Complaints Department - Please Enter

Do you bother stretching at all? Does it really help or hinder? Can flexibility help improve your bodybuilding? … I say YES and here is why.

Firstly we are discussing static and dynamic stretching to improve flexibility. Don’t confuse stretching with warming up as they are two different animals and should be treated differently.

Poor flexibility prevents you from achieving a full range of motion. Having tight muscles gives you less muscle growth from the same strength-training effort.

How does it improve bodybuilding?

Over time we tend to become less flexible and stiffer. You might notice your range of motion start to become limited as compared to when you were younger. And performing heavy weighted exercises shorten and stiffen your muscles and connective tissues when the effort is imposed.

Find out the right way and when is it best to stretch. This is a Guest Post I did at Musclehacker.com please click here to read more

How to get 6 pack abs you probably already know is one of the most searched health topics on the Internet.

Me in Feb 2011

Checking with Google there are 5,600,000 results and this article makes 5,600,001 and when you finished reading this there will be 10 more!

There are plenty of articles that will tell you how to get a 6 pack abs but with this post I’ll simply stick to (1) objective  of real measurements … there are no magical 6 pack promises allowed on this!

If you are like me I hate spending too long at the gym (1 hour max.) so at the end I tend to rush through doing my ab routine so I can get home and do other things.

Rather than do my abs at the gym I want to identify what are the most effective exercises that can be done at home for developing a defined mid section. Read the rest of this entry »

When do we start?

I have published a guest article over on musclehacker.com  about discovering what is the best type of cardio for fat loss!

I provide a definitive answer that will work for you guaranteed.

Maybe you have heard that before but if you haven’t then the answer is (drum roll please) ….  click here  to find out at the musclehacker.com!

I wanted to find the best method to lose weight fast in a week!

How to Lose Weight Fast

Why? Just for the sake of curiosity and see what worked plus we are in Mid Winter and I always tend to put extra weight on over that period.

So I chose 3 methods but there are many more ways to lose fat however these were easy enough for me to do.

The 3 that I decided on for my weight loss experiment were:

1. Intermittent fasting during the day.

2. Eating mainly simple Carbohydrates during the day.

3. Eating mostly Proteins during the day.

But firstly I had decided on some simple rules: Read the rest of this entry »

Build larger muscles, burn more fat or perform better then make sure you drink water. 

That’s it, no need to read any more but ONLY if you know how much to drink!

Do you know how much water to drink daily to help reach peak performance?

I mean too much water could be as bad as too little water! Over hydrating can lead to an electrolyte imbalance.

I use to run and exercise a lot and I kept away from processed foods and added salts, which I thought was a good thing.

After I had a blood test it showed I was very low in sodium which came from excessive sweating and was flushing out all the salts in my body, which inturn meant I was not absorbing water but it was passing right through my body even though I was drinking all the time.

I remember getting ready for a race and drank so much leading up to it, I felt bloated so I wasn’t even in the mood to run hard.

So here are some strategies to hydrate correctly during exercise. Read the rest of this entry »

Anorexic or Buffed

My all time favourite body weight exercise is to go for a run.  I find running is a very effective method for fat loss and if done the right way can help build a muscular body.

Running doesn’t cost much, no fancy equipment or gym membership needed, it gets me outdoors and I can do it anywhere, anytime.

I have been running regularly for over 5 years, initially long distances where I was doing about 80-100 kms per week but through injury and the everyday time restraints,  I had to run much shorter distances just to fit in all my daily activities.

As I lowered my running distance and increased the intensity I noticed a change in my body.

I had been lifting weights all throughout my running but on shorter the distances my body started to develop a muscular shape.

The Best Way To Run For Muscle Growth.

You probably heard many times of the comparison between Sprinters and Marathon runners. At the Olympics you can see how real this comparison is.

By the way there are very lean body builders who just walk or slowly jog, this keeps their heart rate very low and they can build a ripped muscular body too.

So from experimenting over the last few months I’ve discovered the best way to run and build or at least maintain a muscular body is follow these two extremes. Read the rest of this entry »