Tricep Exercise

Tricep Exercise

Tricep Exercise

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The best tricep exercises are important to any program, whether you’re a guy trying to build bigger arms or a woman trying to get rid of that ugly flap under the arms. Either way, you need to build your triceps to reach your goal.

For building bigger arms, it’s important to realize that the tricep makes up two thirds of the arm mass.

Most people focus on building bigger biceps (it’s more motivating to watch your biceps work and blow up with a nice pump) but it you want truly big arms, you gotta get those triceps to grow.

And that means focusing on the best tricep exercises.

If you suffer from the dreaded arm flap (and let’s face it, this can be guys, too), it means you have too much body fat covering your tricep muscle and not enough muscle.

You need to develop the tricep muscle and burn some fat and you’ll be rid of the embarrassing arm flap forever.

First, you have to pick the right exercises.

 Here are my 3 favorite tricep exercises.

1. Dips

The dip is an awesome tricep exercise.

If you’re not strong enough to get a set of 10 reps, most gyms nowadays have a tricep machine where you can perform dips with less than 100% of your bodyweight. Do it!

To emphasize the triceps more, try not to lean forward too much as you lower and raise yourself each rep.

Here’s one of my favorite ways to utilize the dip for the triceps. Perform just one rep, but do it like this. Starting from the bottom position (so you are doing the positive portion of the rep first), take 30 seconds to push up to lockout and then lower in 30 seconds.
best tricep exercises

Immediately proceed to a set of lying decline tricep extensions for a set of 12 reps.

At failure, remove some weight and continue for another 5 to 6 reps, again hitting failure. That’s the workout!

You may need to work up to performing an extended rep like that. And you also don’t want to do this type of workout all the time.

When you do it, try it for 3 workouts in one week and then go back to a more traditional workout program.

2. Close grip bench press

I prefer doing this on a decline as opposed to a flat bench. There is less emphasis (and stress) on the shoulders and rotator cuff.

Don’t place your hands too close together, as you’ll place unnecessary stress on your wrists. Keep your hands slightly more narrow than shoulder width.

The second key is to keep your elbows tucked in along your sides, instead of letting them flare out, the way most people perform the regular bench press.

3. Lying Tricep Extension

I like to perform this with the EZ Curl Bar (should be the EZ Tricep bar, as it’s much better for tricep exercises than it is for curls!).

I also prefer doing this on a decline bench instead of flat. It puts more (good) stress on the tricep muscles.

Lower the bar to your forehead and press up. Your hands should still be above your head, which keeps your arms at a slight angle toward you when at lockout.

Don’t allow the bar to drift forward toward your toes, putting your arms in a straight up and down position, as this takes the stress off the tricep muscle.

Okay, I’ll go with more than three. A lot more. Other great tricep exercises include variations of the classic pushup.


You can do:

    Regular Pushup
    Medicine Ball Pushups
    Explosive Pushups
    Narrow Pushups (Hands together or close to it, like close grip bench presses)
    Pike Position Push Ups
    Handstand Pushups (fantastic shoulder exercise but also awesome for the triceps)
    Incline Pushups
    Decline Pushups

There are plenty more. I’ll do an article on pushups soon.

Try using the best tricep exercises in your workout program and start seeing some real results!

Post Workout Meal Nutrition for Best Results

Nutrition for Fitness workouts

Post Workout Meal Nutrition for Best Results

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The recommended post workout meal nutrition plan is to take in a meal of fast acting proteins and carbohdrates. After your workout your body is hungry for the important nutrients needed to make positive body transformation changes.

It’s been shown that a post workout meal or shake consisting of protein and carbs helped to boost training recovery.

Glycogen, a complex carbohydrate stored in muscle and the liver, is rapidly depleted from muscles during intense exercise, whether it’s using high intensity interval training like sprints or intense weight training.

According to Ironman Magazine….

    One study found that doing only three sets of curls resulted in a 60 percent drop in glycogen stored in the biceps.

It’s been determined that by taking in a fast acting whey protein and fast acting carbs as part of a post workout shake or meal you can take advantage of the “anabolic window” after a workout and raising insulin levels to shuttle much needed nutrients to the muscles that are hungry for them.
post workout meal

A fast acting whey protein can boost insulin levels all on their own. Past studies have shown that adding fast acting carbs with the protein boosts insulin by 37 percent more than the protein alone.

So the question becomes, how much do we need to boost insulin levels and so do we need those simple carbs as part of your post workout meal?

Let’s take a look at a recent study (Staples, A.W., et al. (2011). Carbohydrate does nt augment exercise-induced protein accretion versus protein alone. Med Sci Sports Ecer. 43:1154-61.) that tried to answer this question.

This study included nine men with an average age of 23. They performed two workouts per week of single leg leg extensions. Their post workout shake consisted of either 25 grams of whey protein or 25 grams of whey protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates in the form of maltodextrin.

While the added carbs boosted insulin there was no difference between the two groups when it came to muscle protein synthesis or muscle protein breakdown. This would point to not needing the post workout carbs but not so fast! There are other factors at play.

If you read my Secret Abs Manifesto about how to lose your belly fat, you know that other hormones such as cortisol play a role in muscle building and fat loss, as well as growth hormone, testosterone and leptin levels, too.

Exercise raises cortisol levels. Cortisol is the body’s most catabolic (breaks down muscle) hormone. It’s necessary but limiting the spike you get from a workout can boost your progress. And the best way to control exercise induced cortisol levels is to take in carbohydrates.

As Ironman Magazine states…

    The best nutrient for controlling cortisol is carbohydrate. If the cortisol remains high after training, it may interfere with testosterone release, which would significantly blunt the anabolic effects of exercise.

You can read more about the role these hormones play in your body transformation results by grabbing a copy of the Secret Abs Manifesto at the end of this article.

As I mentioned previously, intense exercise depletes muscle glycogen stores and they have to be replaced. To Ironman Magazine once again…

    Carbs are the only nutrient that effectively replenishes depleted muscle glycogen stores. Taking carbs and protein after a workout boosts muscle glycogen 2.2-fold over the other nutrient alone.

    The protein and carb combo also lowers free-radical production by 69 percent… and reduces muscle damage by 36 percent…

    An interesting study published a few years ago found still another reason to include carbs in your post workout nutrition drink: Carbs are required for the muscle to produce a localized version of insulinlike growth factor 1… it turns out that without carbs, the muscle won’t produce IGF-1 after training. The implication is that the muscle won’t fully recover without sufficient carb intake to not only synthesize glycogen but also promote local IGF-1 release in the trained muscle.

Between this bit of information and the stud on eating carbs at night, it would seem a great strategy is to get most of your carbs before and after your workout, as well as in the evening, and not necessarily every meal or just early in the day.

And if you workout at night this makes things even simpler for you. Your pre-workout meal and post workout meal or shake can be a great time to get most of your carbs and still see great results (or even better results!)

Exploring More on the Importance of Nutrition Weight Loss

Exploring More on the Importance of Nutrition Weight Loss

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Nutrition is concern primarily of the right kinds of foods and how these foods affect the health of human body. Every individual is required to eat foods to grow and maintain their health. Without foods we will surely die. Eating the right foods can help us avoid certain sickness and is also a good instrument for faster recovery of sicknesses. With the proper nutrients in the body, one can be safe from getting unwanted diseases. Our body also demands good nutrients for it to function appropriately. Nutrients are classified as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. How important are these nutrients to our body and what are the proper tips for nutrition weight loss?

    Vitamins in foods are always better than getting it from supplements. Vitamins are the most effective diet supplements. They are needed by the body for proper metabolic reactions.
    Fiber- eating fruits, vegetables, and cereals that high in fiber each day to boost your fiber intake. If you happen to feel uncomfortable of its accompanying side effects, you can increase fiber by drinking plenty of water.
    Omega-3 fatty acids - eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids is good for nutrition weight loss as long as you eat it with the right portions. Omega-3 fatty acids can also help you feel better and look younger.
    Folic acid - this is one essential nutrient weight loss than can also be found in breakfast cereals. Choose healthy, fortified breakfast cereals. This nutrient is commonly linked with lesser risk of heart disease and colon cancer.
    Calcium – not only a good nutrition weight loss, but also helps in regulating blood pressure. Limit to only 80 calories per cup for proper weight loss. Try low-fat milk and skim milk for potential weight loss.
    Iron - Choose iron-rich foods for your meal like sea foods, beef, and turkey. Breakfast cereal is also a good example of iron-rich food.  A glass of orange juice and a vegetable salad can also be a good iron-rich meal. With more energy, it will be easier for you to burn calories and for efficient workouts.

It is not that hard to lose weight when you know how to choose the proper foods with the proper nutrients. You should also take note of the amount of these nutrients needed by the body. To maintain a proper nutrition weight loss, try the helpful tips above.

Essential Fatty Acids Foods for Better Fitness

Essential Fatty Acids Foods for Better Fitness

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Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) are crucial, not just for our fat loss and muscle building results, but for our overall health and well being, too.

Omega-3 essential fatty acids are not made by the body but are essential for a variety of important functions, including lessened risk of cardiovascular disease, improved metabolism, better eye health and more.

Omega-3′s also help your body’s sensitivity to insulin. This helps your body store less fat. In addition, the fat you do store is more readily and easily converted into energy and burned during activity.

This keeps your blood sugar levels stable and keeps you away from those famed sugar crashes and cravings and irritable mood swings.

A big obstacle to getting enough omega 3′s from food is that very few foods have a significant amount of Omega 3′s in them. On top of that, the typical Western diet does not include many of the foods that are good sources of Omega 3.

To make the problem worse, by not getting enough Omega 3′s, we end up with an imbalance between other fatty acids, such as Omega 6 and Omega 9, which may cause a variety of health problems.

Here are 4 Essential Fatty Acids Foods High in Omega 3

1. Cold-Water Fish: Wild Salmon, Trout, Herring, and Sardines

These cold-water fish are very rich sources of EPA and DHA. Salmon and trout are best purchased wild or organically farmed. You can make salmon patties for dinner, or add sardines to a salad. Fresh caught, jarred, or canned varieties of these fish are equally high in these special fats, so you’re free to choose the form that works best for you. Just make sure you purchase jarred or canned items that have no added sugar or artificial flavors.

2. Seaweed, Spirulina, Chlorella

The cold-water fish listed above are rich in EPA and DHA due to their consumption of seaweed, which they convert to and store as EPA and DHA. You can add these special green foods to smoothies, or eat them on a salad. They’re also a rich source of iodine, which supports normal thyroid function.

3. Krill oil and Fish Oil

For some people, the simplest and most cost-effective way to get EPA and DHA omega-3 fats into their diets is to take it in supplement form. The two most concentrated sources of EPA and DHA are krill and fish oils. Ensure that you’re buying these oils from a reputable source that screens their product for mercury contamination, so that you avoid this harmful chemical at all costs. Fish also carries the risk of mercury, but salmon, trout, herring, and sardines contain very little compared to fish like swordfish and tuna.

4. Omega-3 Eggs

These special eggs come from chickens that were fed fish or algae oils. The EPA and DHA are then stored within the bright yellow yolks, making them an ideal source of omega-3s for people that dislike eating fish directly. Have an egg or two a day in scrambled eggs, boiled on a salad, or cooked in a quiche, to give your body the omega-3 fats it needs. Besides the long list of health benefits, Omega 3 fatty acids also help to burn fat and build muscle by increasing your metabolic rate (for fat burning) and boosting your testosterone levels (for muscle building).

Our testosterone levels start to fall naturally in our twenties and getting enough essential fatty acids can help to combat the drop.

And if you workout and stay fit…

“Studies show that higher-fat diets make more sense for fit people than low-fat diets,” says Liz Applegate, Ph.D., author of Encyclopedia of Sports & Fitness Nutrition. “In one study, endurance athletes ran up to 24 percent longer before they fatigued when they ate a diet that was above 30 percent fat compared to one that was below 20 percent,” she says.

Cord Blood Preservation

Cord Blood Preservation

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Should we or should we not, is the question most couples ask themselves in respect of cord blood banking, during the later stages of week by week pregnancy. Among various other crucial decisions, cord blood banking might not seem to carry enough magnitude initially; a close look however at the various pros and cons of cord blood preservation might help informed decision making.

Recent scientific research has found that the use of these stem cells can help the body to reproduce disease-free cells in many organs of the body including muscles, nerves and organs. Until recently the best source of stem cells was considered to be in embryos and there is much controversy surrounding the collection of cells from this source. The exciting news is that cord blood cells can be used in the same way with the same positive results.

There are implied benefits of cord blood preservation. Stem cell cord blood can be effectively deployed to deal with a host of diseases and disorders like leukemia, metabolic disorders, sickle cell ailment, thalassemia, leukemia and other genetic immuno deficiencies.

Parents can make the decision to preserve the cord blood before the baby is born. They need to fill out a donor consent form ahead of time and allow the doctor and hospital know the intent to send the blood to the bank. The placenta and umbilical cord are then saved after the birth and sent to the bank.

After the temperature stabilizes, the umbilical cord blood is transferred to liquid nitrogen tanks. Special care is taken to ensure that the cells do not get frozen ice on them- as it will damage the cell membranes permanently.

Cord blood cell preservation is already making a difference by saving more lives. The future of stem cell transplant for many diseases looks bright due to this new advancement. As science advances, the uses for stem cells will increase with the potential to treat or cure many illnesses in the future.