Posts Tagged ‘muscle’
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
As a beginner, it’s often difficult to get into weight training and working out. Most beginners (including me when I was a beginner) don’t want to approach the big guys and ask them questions about workouts and what they’re doing. In today’s article we’re going to look at the top 10 bicep workout and bicep exercise mistakes. The aim of this article is to help people who are new to bicep workout and bicep training techniques. This will ensure that bicep workout and exercise beginners build the most muscle in the time they spend in the gym.
Bicep workout mistake #1 – Bad technique
I go on and on about this on eBicep.com that bicep exercise technique is very important to build big biceps. If you cheat during by swinging the weight or not lifting the full range of motion you are only cheating yourself. For details on how to do each bicep exercise correctly, see Vince Delmonte’s bicep exercises section.
Bicep workout mistake #2 – Too many sets!
There have never been a rule that says more sets = bigger biceps. It’s all about quality or training. You are better off doing 15 sets of quality bicep workout exercises than doing 30 sets of poor form rubbish. You need to concentrate on every rep of every set, watch your bicep muscle as you pull the weight up – focus on it. Just remember, a small amount of quality training will build bigger muscles than a large amount of poor quality training.
Bicep workout mistake #3 – Overtraining
Overtraining so very common, especially in a competitive environment like bodybuilding. As a general rule for all muscle groups (not just biceps): if the muscles you are about to trainare still sore from your last workout, don’t train them. Simple as that. As you’ll see from my next point, resting is more important than training.
Bicep workout mistake #4 - Not enough rest
To someone new to working out, this just sounds plain stupid. Buy as experienced muscle builders know, rest is a very important part of building your muscles. When you workout your bicep muscles you’re actually breaking and tearing them (that’s why they “pump up”). And when you rest and sleep your muscle grow and repair. Not enough rest = not enough muscle growth. rest up!
Bicep workout mistake #5 – High reps / light weights
One of the most commonly asked questions in muscle building is, “how many reps should I do to build the most muscle?”. There’s is no straight answer to this because there’s so many variables. There is 1 common rule though, heavier weights/less reps = bigger and stronger muscles. So to get the most out of your bicep workout, drop the reps down to 6-8 on your big bicep exercises and do a few extra sets.
Bicep workout mistake #6 – Same old routine
After a few months of doing the same workout, your muscles will get accustomed to the workout and stop growing. This is called a plateau, and every muscle builder hit’s it at some stage. You need to mix up your bicep workouts every 2-3 months. Change days, change exercises, workout your biceps with a different muscle group. Mix it up, you’ll see and feel the difference!
Bicep workout mistake #7 – Pre-exhausted biceps
It’s important when planning your bicep workout that you don’t work any other body parts that use the biceps before your bicep workout. For example, a big mistake I see all the time is training the back then the biceps. This is not good for your biceps because all the back exercises use biceps as a secondary muscle group. So don’t train your back before your biceps, or vice versa. Train your back and biceps on separate days.
Bicep workout mistake #8 – Wrong exercise order
If you have read our bicep workout page you’ll see that we always do our biggest bicep exercises at the beginning of the workout. These are the heaviest weight movers and need the most energy. So stick to your big exercises like bicep curl at the start of your bicep workout and follow with the smaller exercises.
Bicep workout mistake #9 – Not enough rest between sets
You need to make sure you have adequate rest between sets, other you wont be able to left heavy weights, and you will not be able to grow as much muscle. For the bigger bicep sets a longer rest is OK, take what you need and don’t rush it. If your workout is taking to long, split it over a few days.
Bicep workout mistake #10 – Poor eating
You know the saying, “eat big to get big”, well it’s true. In particular you need to eat as much protein as possible and complex carbohydrates. You need to eat small meals, more often. For more information see our food to eat to build muscle article.
Peter Simpson has been a personal trainer and muscle builder for more than 9 years. For Bicep Workout and Bicep Exercise guides see Peter’s 100% dedicated bicep workout site eBicep.com
Author: Peter Simpson
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Tags: bicep exercise, bicep muscle, bicep training, bicep workout, bicep workouts, big biceps, bigger biceps, endurance training, loss of strength, muscle, muscle builders, muscle cells, muscle contractions, Overtraining, Weight Training, workout, workouts
Posted in Body Building, Dumbells, Exercise, Exercise Tips, Free Weights, Injuries, Mens Fitness, Recovery, Technique & Form, Weight Lifting, Weight Training | 88 Comments »
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
10 Free Tools for Weight Loss
Everybody likes free stuff. If you know where to look, there is an abundance of free weight loss tools to be found on-line. Weight loss tools are suitable for people who like numbers, and like keeping track of things. Some of us prefer to just “wing it”. Enjoy.
- FitDay – An extremely popular on-line diet tracker.
- NutriDiary – Tracks food, calories, and weight.
- ExRx – Animations of hundreds of exercises (by muscle group)
- SparkPeople – Diet and exercise program that has now removed its fees.
- PeerTrainer – Diet and exercise program – where you become part of a group.
- Weight Loss Calculators (caloriesperhour.com) – BMR, BMI, RMR, etc.
- Weight Loss Calculators (freedieting.com) – macro-nutrient ratios, body fat %, etc.
Nutrition info:
- NutritionData – Has comprehensive information on most foods.
- DietFacts – As well as the standard foods, has manually-entered data from many restaurants
- CalorieKing – Has comprehensive nutritional info, but their Portion Watch tool is unique – it has photos of different portion sizes of many popular foods. (Note that CalorieKing’s diet program is fee-based).
Walking
Walking Chart — Keep track of your daily walks!
Your Health Age
Health Age Questionnaire — Discover your “health” age!
Nutrition Log
Nutrition Log — A chart to log your daily nutritional intake.
Carb Counters Cheat Sheet
Carb-Counters Cheat Sheet for Fruits and Vegetables
Atkins Carbohydrate Chart
Atkins Carboydrate Chart
Diabetic Free Foods List
Diabetic Free Foods List
Diabetic Food Exchange
Diabetic Food Exchange Chart
Heart Rate Calculator
Target Heart Rate Calculator
Body Measurements Calculator for Men
Ideal Body Measurements Calculator for Men
BMI Calculator
BMI Calculator
Male Girth Calculator
Male Girth Calculator
Calories Expended
Calories Expended
Calorie Calculator for Men
Calorie Calculator for Men
Calorie Calculator for Women
Calorie Calculator for Women
Weight Charts for Men
Weight Charts for Men
Weight Charts for Women
Weight Charts for Women
General Height/Weight Chart
Height/Weight Chart
Hidden Carbohydrate Calculator
Fiber/Hidden Carbohydrate Calculator
Push Up Test
Push Up Test
Weight Training Log
Weight Training Log
Exercise Calculator
Exercise Calculator
Weight Maintenence for Women
Weight Maintenence (Caloric) Calculator for Women
Weight Maintenence for Men
Weight Maintenence (Caloric) Calculator for Men
One-Rep Max Calculator
One Repetition Max Calculator
Activity and Food Exchange Plan
Activity and Food Exchange Plan
Nutrition Guide Chart
Nutrition Guide Chart
Daily Food Diary
Daily Food Diary
Daily Food Diary II
Daily Food Diary II
Another Food Diary
Food Diary II
Workout Log
Workout Log
Informational Tools
Body Glossary
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Tags: calories, exercise center, exercise equipment, find a gym, fitness 101, fitness club membership, fitness clubs in, fitness expert, fitness facilities, fitness formula clubs, fitness forum, fitness games, fitness health club, fitness health clubs, fitness monthly, fitness news, fitness one, fitness pal, fitness personal trainer, fitness software, fitness west, fitness works, fittness, freedom fitness, golds gym, golds gym fitness, gym, gym equipment, gym health club, gym membership, gym memberships, gyms, gyms in, health and fitness club, health club, health clubs, home gym, jp fitness, key fitness, kickboxing fitness, la fitness center, la fitness club, la fitness hours, life fitness center, muscle, national fitness center, one on one personal training, one to one fitness, Personal Trainer, personal trainers, personal training, pilates, premier fitness, premiere fitness, princeton fitness, private gym, pulse fitness, rock fitness, snap fitness 24 7, spectrum fitness, spinning fitness, sports and fitness, sports club, sports club fitness, strength training, summit fitness, the fitness center, Treadmill, university fitness center, victory fitness, victory lady fitness, Weight Lifting, Weight Training, weights, wii fitness game, women's health club, world gym fitness center, Yoga
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Thursday, February 12th, 2009
On Friday afternoon after you leave work, you probably think about going out and having a few drinks with friends to relax and wind down. Even though you may think you deserve to go out and have a few drinks, there are some things that you should certainly keep in mind.
Like any other day, tomorrow is going to be a day for exercise, and since you are exercising on a regular basis, a few drinks of alcohol won’t really hurt anything, right? Before you decide to rush out to the local bar, there are a few things below that you should think about before you make your choice about going out to drink some alcohol.
Research has proven that even small amounts of alcohol with increase muscular endurance and the output of strength, although these types of benefits are very short lived. After 20 minutes or so, the problems will begin to surface. All of the negative side effects associated with alcohol will easily outweigh any possible benefits that it can have. No matter how you look at it, alcohol is a poison that can really harm your body if you aren’t careful.
The negative side of alcohol can reduce your strength, endurance, aerobic capability, recovery time, ability to metabolize fat, and even your muscle growth as well. Alcohol will also have an effect on your nervous system and brain. If you use it long term, you can cause severe deterioration of your central nervous system. Even with short term use, nerve muscle interaction can be reduced which will result in a loss of strength.
Once alcohol reaches the blood cells, it can and probably will damage them. With alcohol users, inflammation of the muscle cells is a very common thing. Over periods of time, some of these cells that have been damaged can die which will result in less functional muscle contractions. Drinking alcohol will also leave you with more soreness of your muscles after you exercise, which means that it will take you a lot longer to recuperate.
Alcohol will also have many different effects on your heart and circulatory system as well. When you drink any type of alcohol, you may begin to see a reduction in your endurance capabilities. Anytime you drink, your heat loss will increase, due to the alcohol simulating your blood vessels to dilate. The loss in heat can cause your muscles to become quite cold, therefore become slower and weaker during your muscle contractions.
Drinking alcohol can also lead to digestive and nutrition problems as well. Alcohol cause a release of insulin that will increase the metabolism of glycogen, which spares fat and makes the loss of fat very hard. Due to alcohol interfering with the absorption of several key nutrients, you can also become anemic and deficient with B type vitamins.
Because your liver is the organ that detoxifies alcohol, the more you drink, the harder your liver has to work. The extra stress alcohol places on your liver can cause serious damage and even destroy some of your liver cells.
Since alcohol is diuretic, drinking large amounts can put a lot of stress on your kidneys as well. During diuretic action, the hormones are secreted. This can lead to heightened water retention and no one who exercises will want this to happen.
Author: Robert Bell
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Tags: aerobic problems, alcohol, endurance, heart problems, liver poisoning, loss of strength, muscle, muscle cells, muscle chemistry, muscle contractions
Posted in Fit Living, General Fitness, Nutrition, Weight Gainer | 24 Comments »
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
I’ll never forget the very first time I got ripped, how I did it and how it felt. I’ve never told this entire story before or widely published my early photos either. Winning first place and seeing my abs the first time was sweet redemption. But before that, it was a story of desperation…
I started lifting weights for bodybuilding when I was 14 years old, but I never had ripped abs until I was 20. I endured six years of frustration and embarrassment. Being a teenager is hard enough, but imagine how I felt being a self-proclaimed bodybuilder, with no abs or muscle definition to show for it. Imagine what it was like in swimming class or when we played basketball in gym class and I prayed to be called out for “shirts” and not ‘”skins” because I didn’t want any one seeing my “man-boobs” and ab flab jiggling all over the court.
Oh, I had muscle. I started gaining muscle from the moment I picked up a barbell. I got strong too. I was benching 315 at age 18. But even after four years of successful strength training, I still hadn’t figured out this getting ripped thing. Muscle isn’t very attractive if it’s covered up with a layer of fat. That’s where the phrase “bulky” really comes from – fat on top of muscle. It can look worse than just fat.
I read every book. I read every magazine. I tried every exercise. I took every supplement in vogue back in the 80’s (remember bee pollen, octacosanol, lipotropics and dessicated liver?) I tried not eating for entire days at a time. I went on a rope skipping kick. I did hundreds of crunches and ab exercises. I rode the Lifecycle. I wore rubber waist belts.
The results were mediocre at best. When I made progress, I couldn’t maintain it. One step forward, one step back. Even when I got a little leaner, it wasn’t all the way. Still no ripped abs. When I played football and they beat the crap out of us at training camp, I lost weight, but STILL didn’t get all the way down to those elusive six pack abs. In fact, it was almost like I got “skinny fat.” My arms and legs lost some muscle but the small roll of ab fat was still there.
Why was it so hard? What was I doing wrong? It was driving me crazy!
My condition got worse in college because I mixed with a party crowd. With boozing came eating, and the “bulk” accumulated even more. At that point, the partying and social life were more important to me than my body. I was still lifting weights, but wasn’t living a fitness lifestyle.
Mid way through college I changed my major from business management to exercise science, having made up my mind to pursue a career in fitness. That’s when I started to feel something wasn’t right. The best word for it is “incongruence.” That’s when what you say you want to be and what you really are don’t match. Being a fitness professional means you have to walk the talk and be a role model to others. Anything else is hypocrisy. I knew I had to shape up or forget fitness as a career.
But after four years, I STILL didn’t know how to get ripped! Nothing I learned in exercise physiology class helped. All the theory was interesting, but when theory hit the real world, things didn’t always work out like they did on paper. My professors didn’t know either. Heck, most of them weren’t even in shape! Two of them were overweight, including my nutrition professor.
However, out of my college experience did come the seeds of the solution and my first breakthrough.
In one of my physical education classes, we were required to do some running and we were instructed to keep track of our performance and resting heart rates. Somehow, even though I was a strength athlete, I got hooked on running. After the initial discomfort of hauling around a not so cardio-fit 205 pound body, I started to get a lot of satisfaction out of watching my resting heart rate drop from the 70’s into the 50’s and seeing my running times get better and better. And then it happened: I started getting leaner than I ever had before.
The results motivated me to no end, and I kept after it even more. My runs would be 5 or 6 days a week and I’d go for between 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes I had a circular route of about 6 miles and I would run it for time, almost always pushing for a personal record. When I finished, I was spent, drenched in sweat and sometimes just crashing when I got home. And I kept getting even leaner.
That’s when I started to figure it out. If you’re expecting me to say that running is the secret, no, that’s NOT it per se. I was thinking bigger picture. In fact, I noticed that my legs had lost some muscle size, so I knew that over-doing the runs would be counter productive, ultimately, and I don’t run that much anymore these days. But that’s how I did it the first time and I had never experienced fat loss like that before. The fat was falling off and I had barely changed my diet.
My “aha moment” was when I realized the pivotal piece in the puzzle was calories. It wasn’t the type of exercise, it wasn’t the specific foods and it wasn’t supplements. Today I realize that it’s the calorie deficit that matters the most, not whether you eat less or burn more per se, but in my case creating a large deficit by burning the calories was the absolute key for me.
These runs were burning an enormous number of calories. Everything I had done before wasn’t burning enough to make a noticeable difference in a short period of time. 10-15 minutes of rope skipping wasn’t enough. 45 minutes of slow-go bike riding wasn’t burning enough. Hundreds of crunches weren’t enough. I put 1+1+1 together and realized it was intensity X duration X frequency = highest the total calorie burn for the week. How much simpler could it be? It wasn’t magic. It was MATH!
It was consistency too. This was the first time in SIX YEARS I stuck with it. Body fat comes off by the grams every day – literally. Kilos and pounds of body weight may come off quickly, but they come back just as fast. Body fat comes off slowly and if you have no patience or you jump to one program to the next without following through with the one you started, you’re doomed. In six years, I had “tried everything”… except consistency and patience.
Then the stakes went up. I had finally gotten lean, but there was another level beyond lean… RIPPED! My buddies at the gym noticed me getting leaner and then they popped the question: Why don’t you compete? My training partner Steve had already competed 3 years earlier and won the Teenage Mr. America competition. Since then, I had been all talk and no walk. “Yeah, I’m going to compete one of these days too… I’m going to be the next Mr. America.” Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. The only title I had won was “Mr. Procastinator.” Then finally, Steve and my other friends challenged me almost in an ultimatum type of way. Well, the truth is, I set myself up for it with my big mouth and they called me out, so I would have been the laughing stock of our gym if I didn’t follow through.
The first time you do a real cut – all the way down to contest-ready – is the hardest. Not as much physically as psychologically, simply because you’ve never done it before. Doing something you’ve done before is no big deal. Doing something you’ve never done before causes uncertainty and fear, sometimes even terror! I was plagued with self-doubt the entire time, never sure if I was ever going to get there. It seemed like it was taking forever. But failure was not an option. Not only did I have an entire gym full of friends rooting me on, I had great training partner who was natural Mr. Teenage America! The pressure was on. I had to do it. There was no way out. No excuses.
Some other day, I’ll tell you all the details of the emotional roller coaster ride that was my first contest diet, but let it suffice to say, at that point, I still didn’t know what I was doing. It was only later that I went into “human guinea pig” mode with nutritional experiments and finally pinned down the eating side of the equation to a science (and gained 20 lbs of stage-weight muscle as a result).
In the late 1980’s, the standard bodybuilding diet was high carb, low fat. For that first competition, I was on 60% carbs – including pancakes, boxed cereal, whole grain bread, and pasta – so I guess you can toss out the idea that it’s impossible to get ripped on high carbs – although high carb is NOT the contest diet I use today. But it didn’t matter, because I had already learned the critical piece in the fat loss puzzle – the calorie balance equation. Understanding that one aspect of physiology was enough to get me ripped. It only got better later.
In the end, I took 2nd place at my very first competition, the Natural Lehigh Valley, and one month later, I won first place at the Natural New Jersey. Seven months later, the overall Natural Pennsylvania.
Looking back, was all the effort worth it? Well, my good friend Adam Waters, who is an accountability coach, teaches his students about using “redemption” as a motivator. Remember the Charles Atlas ad where the skinny kid got sand kicked in his face and then came back big and buffed and beat up the bully? That’s redemption. Or the dateless high school nerd who comes back to the 10 year class reunion driving a Mercedes with the prom queen on his arm? That’s redemption.
After all the doubt, heartache and frustration I went through for six years, I not only had my trophies, my abs were on the front page of the sports section in our small Pennsylvania town newspaper. The following year, I was on the poster for a bodybuilding competition… as the previous year’s champion. THAT’S REDEMPTION. You tell me if it was worth it.
There are 7 lessons from my story that I want to share with you because even if you have a different personal history than I do, these 7 lessons are the keys to achieving any previously elusive fitness goal for the first time and I think they apply to everyone.
1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small. If you don’t feel fear or uncertainty, you’re inside your comfort zone. Puny goals aren’t motivating. Sometimes it takes a competition or a big challenge of some kind to get your blood boiling.
2. Align your values with your goals. I understood my values and made a decision to be congruent with who I really was and who I wanted to be. When you know your values, get your priorities straight and align your goals with your values, then doing what it takes is easy.
3. Do the math. Stop looking for magic. A lean body does not come from any particular type of exercise or foods per se, it’s the calories burned vs calories consumed that determines fat loss or fat gain. You might do better by decreasing the calories consumed, whereas I depended more on increasing the calories burned, but either way, it’s still a math equation. Deny it at your own risk.
4. Get social support. Support and encouragement from your friends can help get you through anything. Real time accountability to a training partner or trainer can make all the difference.
5. Be consistent. Nothing will ever work if you don’t work at it every day. Sporadic efforts don’t just produce sporadic results, sometimes they produce zero results.
6. Persist through difficulty and self doubt. If you think it’s going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you’re fooling yourself.. For every sunny day, there’s going to be a storm. If you can’t weather the storms, you’ll never reach new shores.
7. Redeem yourself. Non-achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.
Postscript: My journey continued. Since that initial first place trophy, I have competed as a natural for life bodybuilder 26 more times, including 7 first place awards and 7 runner up awards. And yes, I finally nailed down the nutrition side of things too. You can read more about that and the fat loss program that developed as a result at www.burnthefat.com
Train hard and expect success always,
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach
www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
www.burnthefat.com
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Tags: ab exercises, bodybuilder, bodybuilding, burn the fat, burnthefat, cardio, crunches, Exercise, fat loss, fitness, gaining muscle, lifting weights, man boobs, metabolism, muscle, muscle definition, six pack abs, strength training, tom venuto, waist belts, work out
Posted in 6 Pack Abs!!!, Body Building, Weight Loss, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Faith based diets have been around for decades. But is overeating really a sin? Does God punish you for being fat? A recent column in an issue of USA Today answers, “weight loss is hard enough without feeling that the almighty is on your back, too”…
Recently, I was sitting in a wonderful little breakfast “parlor” on Main Street in Santa Monica (California), enjoying a bowl of oatmeal, a mountain of fresh fruit and a “sexy omelette” (the bodybuilder’s favorite). There was even a “Schwarzenegger omelette” on the menu – I kid you not! Although the usual dietary temptations are omnipresent everywhere, I noticed a lot more healthy eateries and healthy options on menus out here, which is okay by me! It seems like people are much more health conscious in Southern California compared to back home in the New Jersey/New York City area.
One thing is for sure – people are definitely in better shape. No doubt, it’s partly due to the year-round beautiful weather. You can’t hide under those winter coats in this weather! When I left Newark airport it was a blustery 37 degrees. It’s 77 degrees and sunny as I sit here on my hotel balcony, laptop on my lap, overlooking the palm trees and Pacific ocean.
A friend of mine once said that “Palm trees are God’s way of saying, LIVE HERE!”
Speaking of God, that brings me to the subject of this article. As I was finishing up the last few bites of my high protein omelette, I came across an article in USA Today that I simply HAD to pass on to you because it’s related to some of the weight loss work I’ve been recently doing and it bears some important lessons.
The column, written by Christine Whelan, a professor of sociology, said that religious diet groups are growing in number and some of them say that “God might not approve of that second piece of pie.” In fact, some of these groups, reported Whelan, warn that God will punish you for overeating and being fat. The Weigh Down Workshop, one of the most “hard-line” of such groups, tells their participants that God will “destroy you” if you abuse your body by overeating.
Well, we’ve certainly heard of gluttony referred to as a deadly sin, but is this going a little too far?”
I’m not sure what other people think, but I prefer to think of God as a loving God, who does not punish a person in the hereafter for being fat in this life. But then again, why would he have to? He has created a magnificent physical world based on immutable physical laws of cause and effect, reward and consequence, which mete out all the “punishment” needed, right here in this life: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, gout, and even cancer. All of them are linked to obesity. Combined with the emotional pain of being overweight and the lower quality (and sometimes quantity) of life, I’d say that’s punishment enough, wouldn’t you?
But enough of my theological viewpoint, I found some tremendously valuable practical lessons in the newspaper article.
I don’t believe that instilling guilt or fear of eternal damnation is an uplifting way to change behavior. Perhaps it might be effective for some, as fear of consequences can be a powerful motivator. But aren’t there more positive ways to achieve behavior modification than hellfire and brimstone?
For example, metaphors are also powerful motivators, especially because metaphors are language that your unconscious mind can understand. Didn’t Jesus teach in parables and metaphors? What if you said your body was like a temple? Would you behave differently? Would you look after your “temple” with more care? Those with spiritual beliefs almost certainly would, if they kept that in mind and believed it on a deep level.
In my books, I delve into the emotional, psychological and social aspects of body fat loss.
Some of the chapters are devoted to teaching you how to build a fortress of positive, uplifting, inspiring energy around you in the form of positive, uplifting, and inspiring people. But many of my readers and clients tell me this is easier said than done in their world. “What am I supposed to do when peer pressure from my friends is pulling me down?” “What do I do if my own family won’t support my new, healthier choices? What if they keep bringing potato chips, cookies and ice cream into the house?” “What if no one supports me?”
Enter spiritual diet support groups. Not all of these groups are so extreme as to pronounce that being fat is a sin. And as Whelan put it, “religion may be the ultimate trump card of many behavior modification programs.”
No matter how independent we are, we all need support in our journeys toward personal improvement. It’s the great paradox of succeeding in any endeavor in life – you have to do it by yourself, but you can’t do it alone.
Spiritual communities and religious support groups can be the last refuge of support and encouragement for some people. For anyone with spiritual beliefs, these groups may be one of the best places of all to turn for social support. There’s your church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. There are also organized weight loss support groups.
One such group mentioned in the USA Today article is BABES – Beautiful Accountable Babes Exercising Sensibly. The mission of babes is “connecting with others to lose weight and build friendships.” Accountability. Exercising. Connecting with others. That all sounds pretty sensible to me! Moreover, according to BABES co-founder, Barb Swanson, “we are not into sin and judgment. God wants balance and it’s more than the size that you are.”
Indeed it is. As I have said before, body fat is not a person, it’s a temporary physical condition. What we really are is far more than physical bodies.
There’s enough guilt, fear and shame for people who are struggling with weight issues already. They don’t need any more negativity from their spiritual leaders. Instead, if you are a person of faith, use your spiritual community as a source of social support and inspiration, and motivate yourself by focusing on the positive and uplifting side. It will pay you eternal dividends.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting:
www.burnthefat.com
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Tags: bodybuilder, burn the fat, burnthefat, christine whelan, diet groups, Diets, e fitness, fat loss, fitness, health, healthy options, high protein, metabolism, muscle, tom venuto, usa today
Posted in Christian Fitness, Diets, Weight Loss | No Comments »
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