Looking for Losers

(cheap joke, I know) But I am currently looking for participants who’d like to LOSE 10 lbs in 30 days. I am in the process of building part 2 of the site, and I am accepting ‘early birds’ for testimonial purposes and just to have some cool people join the forum and try it.

Of course, like the rest of the site, there is nothing to buy or commit to. You’ll get a peekaboo into the new Lose 10 lbs plan, and you’ll get a turbo boost on your summer weight loss goals. This is a one month, daily plan, so it’s best if you’re not in love with your current workout regimen but instead are willing to try a new supercharged plan. Besides, shocking the body by changing up your workouts every month or two is the way to keep improving and not plateauing. So why not give it a whirl, yes? You’ve got nothing to lose! <– Wait. Let me rephrase that.

YOU HAVE 10 LBS TO LOSE!

Sign up by becoming a member of the forum and making a new topic where you can state that you want to try the new Lose 10 lbs plan. I’ll make you a special type of member that allows you to view the “hidden, special, VIP, one-of-a-kind, for superstars only” pages.

Thanks, and good luck with your goals!

– BUM

/by

Why 10 in 30 works.

The 10 in 30 workout plan is not just a bunch of exercises put together nilly willy. It’s designed to work your major body part groups to maximize gains and results. Similar exercises follow each other so that some muscles are being worked back to back, while other muscles are joining in.

For example, the Back Day starts with Lateral Pulldowns which will give you a wide, muscular back. They are followed by Seated Rows, which also work much of the same muscles of the back, but from a totally different angle. Remember that changing even the slightest angle makes a big difference since the weight is distributed differently while still engaging much of the same muscles. The third back exercise is Bent Over Unilateral Dumbbell Row which seems like the same movement as Rows, but you are working one arm and one side of your back at a time. This will help give you that split down the middle of your back.

After the big exercises are done for Back Day, the 10 in 30 plan goes to two Tricep exercises, and two Bicep exercises. These are more concentrated exercises that focus on much smaller muscles that also performed some of the work during the heavy pulling exercises at the beginning. The triceps got to work a little during the Straight-Arm Cable Pulldowns and are included to balance out the upper arms. (your core and abs also get a good workout during the Straight-Arm Cable Pulldowns!)

The Legs Day starts with the hardest exercises, Barbell Squats and Step-Ups and then gives you a break with two calf exercises, back to back, before hitting the quads again with Lunges. It’s important to do the squats first, while you’re fresh, then take a break from working on the quadriceps. You’ll get back to them at the end with the unilateral Lunges.

Chest Day works the same way, with the star player, Incline Bench Press being first along with the Incline Dumbbell Flies. We hit the inclines first, since most guys have a harder time developing the upper pecs, and the middle pecs get a major workout during the inclines anyway. We go back to Flat Bench Press at the end, though, after taking a break with Cable Crossovers and Pec Dec Flies to really get that ‘cut’ in the center of your chest. The next exercises, Rear Delt Fly and Rotator Cuff Extensions are for balance and strengthening the back and rear deltoids (shoulders) during Chest Day. This is to prevent overworking your chest which will pull on the back muscles and rear delts, causing rotator cuff soarness and injury. This way, your body is pulling on both sides, front and back, giving you a proper straight-up posture with shoulders back, chest out.

It’s good to vary the rest times as well, specially when lifting really heavy or doing Supersets like in Shoulder Day. After the Standing Military Press and Standing Upright Rows Supersets, you go into Seated Arnolds which are some heavy-duty presses for exploding your shoulders. You rest for 2 minutes in between sets of the Seated Arnolds to allow you to lift really heavy, with proper form, and therefore take full advantage of such a great exercise! Here, again, you start with the heavy exercises, and then move on to the more concentrated, smaller muscle work—the Dumbbell Side and Front raises. You’ll do these with much smaller weights, with higher reps. I usually use 15lb dumbbells or less for these.

The Arms portion of Shoulder Day is a bit different since we’re only concentrating on the smaller bicep and tricep muscles for the rest of the workout. So, we superset the hell out of them! This type of workout is made to send huge amounts of blood to the area being worked on, in this case— your upper arms. By working on both front and rear of your arms, right after shoulders, you’ll get a massive pump of blood that will leave your arms looking insane! It’s ok to chuckle with amazement while checking out your arms in the mirror after you’re done.

Abs Day is meant to target lower and upper abs as well as obliques in a fast-moving circuit. Add weight to really make your ab muscles get bigger. Yes, in order to get some truly impressive abs, you must work them out like you do your other muscles. Get them bigger so they stick out! There are no exercises that stretch them out and widen them like crunches on the back extension bench. This is because most of us do not want a big, wide, stomach, regardless of how much your abs show. That’s why we do Box Crunches and other exercises that contract your torso by curling it and do not stretch it out by bending backwards.

Do the 10 in 30 workout plan in order, do not replace exercises, and it’s also best to do the days in order to prevent overworking a muscle group by not letting it rest enough. If you don’t want to do two leg days, you can rest on Thursday and only do abs + cardio, so that your biceps and triceps will be ready for the ~damage~ they will incur during Friday’s workout.

Now work out hard, eat a lot, sleep like a baby, and HAVE A GREAT LIFE!

__ ~~~~ __

/by

5 reasons why quitters quit. (working out)

How many times have you seen friends start some kind of fitness routine, either as a New Year’s resolution or during other times, only to stop doing it within a few weeks—if that. Why do you think this happens?? Have you been a victim of this yourself?

There can be many reasons for conking out early, but here are what I consider the top 5 reasons:

 

1. Too Hard – Many people have jumped on the P90x train—and a powerful, fast-moving train it is! You will definitely get results, IF you can stand it. That’s right, P90x is tough. I’ve known a lot of people that have started it, but only 1 that completed it. Why would that be? It takes a real strong mind to keep doing it, that hard, day after day.

Pushing yourself to the extreme continuously can lead to burn out in most people. This is especially true if you have other pressing issues in your life like kids, a stressful job with long hours, family problems, etc.

Are you ready to lift heavy? Ease up, Sheera.

Be honest about what level of fitness you are, and what you can handle—at this time.That’s right, what you can handle now is totally different from what you will be able to handle next month if you stick with a program.

While you should push yourself to have an awesome workout, recognize that rest is just as important. Maybe start with rest days in between workout days, regardless if you’re training different body parts.

Also, you might want to limit the sets or total workout time for the first few weeks going to failure only once a week. Just make sure you’re enjoying it and leaving some energy for tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that…

2. Logistics – having to travel 20 miles to a gym at 5 in the morning is just setting yourself up to fail. You pretty much know you aren’t going to be able to keep this up for very long, so you sort-of have a pre-written excuse. Don’t do that to yourself! If someone set you up to fail, knowing what they were doing, and you totally fell for it, you’d be pissed at them, right?

Well you’re supposed to love yourself, damnit! So treat yourself better than that.

Be sure you get 8 hrs sleep so you can workout hard.

Find a nearby gym or set up a home gym (you can even workout with minimal equipment like a Jungle Gym or a Stretch Band) and if you’re going to do a class or Boot Camp, make sure it’s not at an ungodly hour like 5am. If it is, then make sure it’s 5 minutes away from your home, not 30 minutes.

3. Lack of Commitment – Did you steal P90x from the internet instead of buying it, or decide to run around the neighborhood in your old shoes instead of getting good, new shoes that will protect you from injury? It’s the mentality that you haven’t invested anything that let’s you quit easily. You’re not taking this new lifestyle seriously.

If you joined a gym, or hired a personal trainer, or even bought a good pair of new sneakers, you’re more likely to feel guilty about quitting. And I know the statistics about the percentages of people who stop going to gyms, but those people were bound to quit—whether it be at a gym or at home. It was most likely due to one of the reasons mentioned here. Commit, baby!

4. Short Term Mentality – Getting in shape for a special event like a reunion or pool party? This can be motivational and it can be the necessary fire under your butt, but keep reminding yourself that it will not end once the event is over. Keep telling yourself that this is not a short-term fix, but a lifestyle change.

From NOW ON, you will exercise regularly and you will keep your diet in check. The event is simply your first “show”. There will be many more.  In fact, plan what you are going to do next month, and the month after that, such as 10in30 for month one, fat-cutting with a specific goal for month 2, etc. Which leads to:<

5. Lack of Specific Goals – Saying that you’re going to “get in shape” is almost meaningless. Weigh yourself, check how much fat you have, and make a goal to get down (or up) to a specific weight and fat percentage by a realistic date.

You can also give yourself a weightlifting goal like I did—Squat 50% more by my birthday, and break it up into small, weekly goals. Know what you are trying to achieve, and check your progress weekly ’til you get to that goal, and you will get to that goal!

Instead of killing yourself and burning out early, or having one fantastic week followed by 2 sorry-ass weeks, keep it consistent and enjoyable.

Because CONSISTENCY is far better than sporadic great workouts that will fizzle out soon. You can also do what I do and change things up with new equipment (which leads to new workouts) and changing your general goals every 1-2 months.

PEACE AND DRINK UP, MATES!

– BUM

/by

Morning HIIT Cardio for extreme Fat Burning!

Want to burn fat and keep burning it throughout the day? Then wake the hell up and do some HIIT Cardio on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning. You can have coffee for the quick boost, but NO SUGAR. You’ll conk out half way through the workout once the sugar buzz is burned and used up.

This morning, I DID THIS:

12 MIN TOTAL
burpies
squat jumps
sumo jumps
anchored feet situps
lying leg raises
straight-legged pikes with furniture sliders + pushup
bent knee pikes with furniture sliders

Every 30 seconds, I switched to low intensity, light, jog in place. Then, back to one of the aforementioned high intensity bastards! 12 minutes is all you need! You can do 15, but you really don’t need to. This way you can do it every morning, even on weight training days and you won’t burn out. Remember, CONSISTENCY TRUMPS INTENSITY! But intensity rules too. Just don’t burn out, ok?

___ *** ___

/by

DEVASTATING Back work out.

It was time for a straight Back Day. No messing around, no mixing shit up, no half-assed “I’m tired” stuff. Super sets are my thing, and today was no exception. Protein shake with BCAA’s an hour before. Green tea pill half hour before. iPod with kick-ass music blasting. This makes a HUGE difference, at least for me. Music has a big impact on me. So, instead of working out to Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Hurt’ on the gym’s loudspeakers and inevitably yawning mid way through, I resorted to heavy bass dubstep and other electro goodness. To each their own.

Here’s what I did:

Bent Over Rows
Pullups Madness. Regular pullups, then immediately jump on the Assisted Pullups machine, add 40# and do more. Then, chinups using a semi-supinated grip (palms facing each other). Then add another 20 for 60# total, and do another set of pullups/chinups. Keep doing that ’til you get to 4 assisted sets. I did this twice.
Straight Arm Press Downs on cable machine, separate hands. For Lats.
Unilateral Bent Over Rows Dumbbells. 3 sets with hand on bench, 2 with elbow on bench. 2 more stepping way to the side to allow the row to be more centered on the body.
Seated High Rows Wide grip, Narrow semi-supinated grip. 2 & 2.
Body Rows with Barbell 3 sets.
Straight Arm Press Downs with high cable, and straight bar.
Reverse Flies seated, with cables. 3 high intensity sets.

Whew! Mostly back to back with no rest. I alternated bicep intensive exercises like Pullups and Rows with the Straight Arm exercises while the biceps rested. Only rested :30 as necessary. Whole thing took around 45 minutes. Major sweat buckets! I now feel devastated. Thanks a lot.

__ ** __

/by

Cross Train Thursday—Squats and Back.


Yes, I mixed Legs and Back. I did chest yesterday, and I hadn’t done any legs except for calves in about a week, so there you go.

Squats. Since I don’t have a squat rack at home, I went with light weight, 12 rep squats. I highly recommend this when you don’t have a squat rack for safety. You don’t want to have to do a heavy military press after you’re burned out on squats. If it’s enough weight for your legs to max out at 6-8 reps, then for sure, it’s way too much weight for you to do a safe over the head (or military) shoulder press, especially after you’re exhausted. You’ll still do as many squats as you can, maxing out at a higher number, but when you’re done you will not have a problem lifting the bar over your head, onto your chest, then lowering it down slowly while keeping your back arched instead of rounding it. I did 4 sets of 12.

Followed it with Standing Calf Raises and immediately; Seated Calf Raises ’til my lower legs burned. 3 sets.

Then, on to the Pullup bar. Started with Horizontal Pullups, then regular Pullups. Then I used my Suspension System to do some Rows in order to hit more angles in my back. I started with very low handles, then raised them slightly after I maxed out and did some more. I also varied the grip from overhand to pistol grip to over-under twisties. Same thing for the pullups. Started with wide, then neutral grip, then chinups (underhand grip). It’s also good practice to hold at the top for some of the reps and do Knee Raises to Ab Curls while holding yourself up like I did!

That’s it; not many exercises, but many sets and I surely pushed it to where I was totally pooped. Nourished myself with a scoop and a half of Whey with 5g BCAA’s + another scoop of 5g BCAA’S with 5g Creatine in 10 ounces of 2% milk for a total of 47g protein.

/by
,

Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps!

Yesterday, was the first day of working out since I got what appeared to be another flu. Maybe it wasn’t the flu since I got over it in less than a week. Either way, I didn’t do much besides Deep Pushups and a few sets of pullups here and there. No visit to the gym since Friday (one week ago).

I went with my comfort food: Shoulders/Arms. Need inspiration, do ya? Let me know if this is enough of a workout, yes?

Shoulders:
shrugs/shoulder press
seated arnold press+standing DB press

Arms:
Barbell curls: wide, narrow, norm,
Rope curls
Tricep vbar pshdns
Standing Tricep extensions
Rope tricep pushdowns
Handle, overhead extensions
Skull Crushers (back of the head)
Incline bench hammer-twist curls
Seated noBackrest, hammer-twist curls

Most were back to back super sets or tri-sets. I like to do 2-3 sets of Biceps back to back, while lowering the weight to max-out 3 times. Then, immediately move on to Triceps and do the same; 2-3 sets back to back, before going back to the Shoulders Shrugs/Military Press Superset.

Hardly any rest except for walking to get a drink of water after around 4-5 sets. Again, sweating like a  ______! Who needs cardio?! (I’m open to suggestions on what to put in the blank since I say this so often) Go ahead and ask if any of the above exercises are not clear.

CHEERS AND GOOD LUCKS!

______________****_______________

/by

6 pack Abs, Barbell Squats, High Jumps from hell!

I’m not going to lie.

Don’t you hate it when people start off like that? Well, I’m not going to lie either. (as opposed to the other times when I made the whole damn thing up) This workout, although it didn’t have much weight lifting, killed me. I would love a nap right about now.

“So, what did you do that was so hard?” Ok, Biff, I’ll tell you— you sarcastic bastard! I am on my mission to raise my squat. So I’m adding 10 lbs every week. I’m talking about a REAL squat, with a real barbell, placed on your real shoulders, and squating so your ass lands on your ankles. That’s right—all the way down, baby! Just like 10 in 30 tells ya to! I managed to gather enough strength to do 3 sets of 6 reps with the added 10 lbs. It was really hard.

Doesn’t help that there was a hot chick behind me doing the leg press machine with what appeared to be more weight! But you know what, Biff? That doesn’t compare to a REAL squat, you innocent and confused little man. I’d like to see that chick do 6, ass-to-ankles squats with HALF the weight I used. I don’t think she’d be able to do 3. Don’t cheat yourself by only using the leg press instead of doing squats and thinking you  squat 3 plates when you’re actually squatting much less.

Here it is:

Squats: 3 sets. √
2 sets incline Hammer bench press (I noticed my shoulders and back were looking great but my pecs were lacking)

calf raises galore
^super: seated calves galore
^super: chaser of HIGH JUMPS (blast them calves by jumping as high as you possibly can, letting your knees hit your chest way up in the air!)
run outside for 17 minutes (not really any sprints. shins hurt)

Hanging Leg Raises of death. <– 4x fail
^ 2 sets

Box crunches w 25#
^super: crunches w 25# 2 sets
+ 1 set of reg crunches

Plank Madness 2x each side.

********************************************************

Scoop and a half of Optimum Nutrition Whey in water. And around 25 minutes later, I had lunch: 2 chicken breasts and mixed vegetable of green beens, peas, carrots, and corn. Drank a grapefruit juice for the simple carbs and vitamin C. Now I need Green Tea, and then a nap. Did I already mention I’d like a nap?

(((((((((((((((((((((((((°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°‡°))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

/by