** GETTING IN SHAPE FOR SUMMER **

Bananas
They are good for two reasons: it has a lot of carbs, which are a good source of energy when you need to go to the gym, and it has a lot of potassium (K), which prevents your muscles from having cramps.

To build bigger calf
This is one of the most difficult muscles to achieve any results in muscle training, generally people who have them big are genetically favoured. The only training I've ever seen give any results is what is called "heavy duty" training. This is the training described by NilSatis:
- each day you'll only work on one muscle group
- you'll only work on that muscle group once a week
- your work out should consist of 3 or 4 exercises of 3 sets: (12-10 and 8 to 6 rep), and you should use the maximum weight you can in each repetition specially on the last one. By the end of the training (that lasts maximum 25 minutes), you'll feel very tired and maybe you'll feel dizzy. That's why you should eat some protein shake right after ending the training. You shouldn't do that kind of training for over 6 weeks. (don't do this training without assistence from some instructor or friend, you'll need it).

70% of your body improvement is due to the kind of food you're eating. Four big NO's:
- NO fat
- NO alcohol
- NO fried food
- NO sugar

Eat every 3/4 hours, moderate portions of food. Eat a lot of protein and don't have carbs prior to 4/5 hours before going to bed, unless you plan on training.

Do your muscle work out before your cardio/aerobic training. If you're to choose between aerobic training or muscle work because you don't have enough time, choose muscle work and be more severe on your diet: it's way more effective on weight loss that the other way around. Why? Because bigger muscle accelerate your methabolism and accelerate your body consumption of calories, meaning your body will consume more energy to keep the muscles: you loose fat.

Don't worry about your weight, check your new figure trying on clothes.

More tips later.
 
70% of your body improvement is due to the kind of food you're eating. Four big NO's:
- NO fat
- NO alcohol
- NO fried food
- NO sugar


OH SH*T.

good stuff Conrado - interesting post. 8)
 
Not saying it's the best choice, but wouldn't including running in your exercise help bulk up your calves? Many runners have huge calves.

I use fat burners as well which will speed up the process but diet and cardio are key.

Fat burners as in some kind of pill? If that's what you mean, what do you recommend for a safe and effective choice?
 
patrick767 said:
Not saying it's the best choice, but wouldn't including running in your exercise help bulk up your calves? Many runners have huge calves.

I use fat burners as well which will speed up the process but diet and cardio are key.

Fat burners as in some kind of pill? If that's what you mean, what do you recommend for a safe and effective choice?

I never really train my calves because I got good genes for that (at least that).

As for fat burners, the best is anyone that contains ephedrine, if it's not forbidden in your country. You can check the fat burner for Ma Huang and Guarana, if it has them, you got a good fat burner. It works accelerating your methabolism and it's optimized with the same low carbs, high protein diets. Be careful not to take ephedrine close to your sleeping hour, it will ruin your sleep. Some people (like me for instance) take ephedrine pills for clubbing, they work like Red Bull concentrate in pills.

If ephedrine is illegal in your country, try CLA (Composite Linoleic Acid), which is the new hit among gym people: it helps burning fat while using the energy for muscle improvement. I tried it once and it works wonders. Some people like Creatine and L-Carnitine but I'm not very found of them.
 
As Conrado says fat burners containing ephedrene are the most effective.

Ephedrene strictly speaking is a prescription only med here in UK but there are still fatburners around that contain Ma Huang or Ephedra which are the herbal equilvalents. You can also get a product called Chest-eze over the counter at most pharmacies which contains ephedrene.

The best fat burning stack is ephedrene/caffein/aspirin which is what most fat burners contain. The typical ratios are:

30mg ephedrene
200mg caffein
20mg aspirin

This can be taken up to 3 times a day.
 
Do they actually make you butn fat quicker though or just suppress your appetite?

I took some once at work and I just felt completely wasted as though I was on speed. Not ideal!
 
Clara said:
Do they actually make you butn fat quicker though or just suppress your appetite?

I took some once at work and I just felt completely wasted as though I was on speed. Not ideal!

Fatburners work by:

Increasing your body temperature which burns more calories (thermogenic)

Increasing your heart rate. Basically like revving your car higher will burn more petrol, a higher rate rate will burn more cals.

Suppressing you appetite.

That wired feeling you get does lessen as your body becomes used to the ephedrene which takes a few days.
 
That's a lot of caffeine (about 5 cups of coffee worth if you take 3 of those pills a day). You're going to have some withdrawal when you stop taking it.

edit: ephedra is in fact off the market in the States. There's some pressure to put it back on, but not much.
 
Has the hunger kicked in yet? i found when I used to do early morning cardio that it would be suppressed for a hour or two after then I would kill for a massive mid morning snack!!

Unfortunatley my working schedule makes cardio of a morning a bit too much hassle!

In a ideal world Id like to do some HIIT before work and breakfast to get my bodyfat significantly down!
 
NilSatis said:
Has the hunger kicked in yet? i found when I used to do early morning cardio that it would be suppressed for a hour or two after then I would kill for a massive mid morning snack!!

Not quite. I'll be snacking in half hour though ;)

Doing weights in gym after work so i'll be sleeping like a baby tonight :lol:
 
I usually cycle for 45 mins in the morning along the beach, then do my weight training in the evening.

Is this the right way round to do it?

The problem i find - is i'm usually knackered in the evening and i often miss doing my weights.

I'd do them in the morning if i had the time.
 
MARKB said:
I usually cycle for 45 mins in the morning along the beach, then do my weight training in the evening.

Is this the right way round to do it?

The problem i find - is i'm usually knackered in the evening and i often miss doing my weights.

I'd do them in the morning if i had the time.

Better to do weights later on as your body's had time to warm/loosen up during the day. This will help reduce the risk of stress on the joints or even injury.

If you're too knackered to do weights later, try just doing a quick 20 minute session rather than a long drawn out tedious workout.
 
IMO Id say thats probably the best way to do it Mark. Tho with a long time inbetween the weights and cardio , the sequence in which you do them is not as crucial if your doing one straight after the other. In which case as Conrado said earlier in the thread, do weights before cardio. If you do a particularly intense session of cardio Ive found the weight you can lift drops off significantly , and this affects your form (as you inevitably still try to lift your usual poundage!) and can lead to injury in the worst case or just feeling inadequate!
 
NilSatis said:
IMO Id say thats probably the best way to do it Mark. Tho with a long time inbetween the weights and cardio , the sequence in which you do them is not as crucial if your doing one straight after the other. In which case as Conrado said earlier in the thread, do weights before cardio. If you do a particularly intense session of cardio Ive found the weight you can lift drops off significantly , and this affects your form (as you inevitably still try to lift your usual poundage!) and can lead to injury in the worst case or just feeling inadequate!

Agreed, i would never do a cardio session before weights, my energy levels would be too depleted.

5 minutes on the bike/cross trainer wouldn't hurt though just as a warm up.
 
Drew you're doing very well on the post counts lately arent you...

4 pages for this one, 7 pages for the one about your poo flushing 8O :lol:
 
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