Weight Loss Tips - Let's See Our Muscles

Some basics for losing the gut

Everyone reading (or writing!) this wants to see their muscles. In order for us to see our muscles, we must remove what is hiding them. This is often makes for a hard thing to do, as we know we need to eat less to lose the gut, but eating too little will mean we lose muscle. Therefore, it is vital that still eat enough to preserve our muscle, but not so much that the fat builds up. Here are a few tips that will help us achieve this.

1)      Aim to avoid ‘dry’ carbohydrates after 4p.m. Eating carbs is vital to our body, but on an evening aim to eat brown rice or wholegrain pasta and of course our vegetable rather than other carbs!

2)      Ensure that we eat good fats. Cutting fats from our diet is ridiculous, it is essential to our body. We must make sure, however, that we are eating the right fats.

3)      We should try to fill up on protein and vegetables. Eating good levels of protein will help us to feel fuller, for longer. This will help us to avoid overeating.

4)      We should aim to eat a good amount of fibre. It will help our body deal with dietary fat.

These are just some basic tips when we are aiming to lose our belly and still maintain the muscles that we already have.

A Push-Up Variation

Three-Point Push-Up

Push-ups are an exercise that should form some part of everybody’s basic workout regime. They are a fantastic exercise for keeping fit and healthy as well as strengthening the muscles of the chest, core, shoulders and arms. But, after a while, it is important to mix things up. This blog post is going to discuss a variation of the press up known as the three-point push-up.

How to do a three-point push-up

A three-point push-up is simple to do if we already know how to do a normal push-up. We get into the normal push-up position, but instead of having both feet on the floor we place one on top of the other, meaning our weight is distributed to three points as opposed to four. We then, as with basic push-ups, slowly lower ourselves to the floor, pause, and then return to the starting position for one rep. We should swap feet halfway through the set.

Why bother with a three point push-up?

This exercise works the same muscles as a basic push-up (the triceps, chest, core and shoulders) but these muscles get worked more intensely because our weight is distributed on three points rather than four. A basic push-up is one of the best exercises that there is - but a three-point push-up is even better!

For more information on push-ups in general, visit this fantastic webpage: Why Push-Up?

A Piece of Equipment we Should All Have

A piece of equipment we should all have

I am someone who mainly works out at home, although I do go to the gym now and then. I use very little equipment for my workouts and use a lot of bodyweight exercises to keep fit and strong. To be fair, I am not someone who is keen on developing huge mass so I do not need the biggest weights money can by. However, there is one piece of equipment that I swear by, because it is so versatile. I am referring to a doorway pull up bar (or wall bar).

What is a pull up bar?

A doorway pull up bar is, obviously, a bar that can be used for pull ups. They are a piece of home equipment that fit into (most) doorways so that we can do our pull up exercises from home. However, pull ups are not the only exercise that can be done with this piece of equipment and that is why they are so valuable to us.

What exercises can be done?

There are so many exercises that can be done, as well as variants of the basic forms of exercises too. There is of course the pull up and chin up, with the many variants that come with them, such as one-handed versions of these exercises. We can also use a door bar to do hanging knee raises, which is a very tough abdominal exercise. Hanging leg raise is another exercise, quite similar to the knee raise. A hanging hip knee raise is fantastic for our abdominals too! Simple put, the number of exercises we can do with one piece of equipment is fantastic.

Why should we all have a door bar?

As well as all the exercises that we can do with them, door bars are really convenient to use. Many fit to any door, and they are generally very easy to store. If we travel they are also pretty easy to take to hotels and use too.