Health And Fitness Body Building For Women
July 5th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Just a decade or two ago, it wasn’t modish for women to be in the weight room confines of a gym. Rather, women were relegated to walking, jazzercise, aerobics and additional similar type of pursuits to lose weight. However, as times and things change, nowadays many women think nothing of pumping iron with the men to achieve overall health and fitness body building benefits.
But why is weight training so important to women in the pursuit of health and fitness body building?
It is because it jumpstarts their metabolism and hence provides a more efficient and effective method to burn calories. As muscles begin to gain mass from the weight training, more calories are being burned off in order to fuel this muscle transformation.
It’s All about Balance
When it comes to health and fitness body building for women, weight training doesn’t leave much room for fat to stick around which is a great thing. If women decide to tweak their diet a bit and lower calorie intake, they will actually lose some fat. Doing so allows the new burgeoning muscle to eat up the calories you consume and take care of some of the calories held in reserve in body fat.
There is a balance that must be determined in the diet so to avoid the body from retaliating by shrinking muscle and storing more fat than before to compensate.
Fact: While training with weights is not considered an aerobic activity, studies have shown that it will still increase the heart rate just as like cardiovascular exercise which is important in the burning of fat.
In health and fitness body building for women, there should be no hesitation about starting up a work out plan.
Weight training doesn’t add bulky mass to a woman’s body unless they pump steroids into their blood stream. Rather weight training for women creates a solid, fibrous muscle with less fat content which actually serves to provide a smaller, svelter appearance.
When compared to men, women are genetically predisposed toward less muscle mass and as a result will have lovelier feminine curves with weight training. Many experts warn women who embark on a health and fitness body building regiment to not hop on the scale for a while.
Natural Body Building Versus Anabolic Steroids
June 30th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Only the most naive person would not acknowledge the prevalence of anabolic steroids in the sport when it comes to the subject of amateur and professional body building. Needless to say, there are a lot of performance enhancing drugs in competitive body building, but also there are some people, who prescribe to natural body building which is essentially a drug free approach to the sport of body building.
Sadly, a lot of people who are proponents of natural body building do not always get the credit they deserve in regards to their contributions to the sport.
So What Exactly Are Anabolic Steroids?
Anabolic steroids are drugs which are intended to increase your body’s ability to develop muscles by increasing its ability to release growth hormones, decreasing the amount of rest one needs in order to grow muscle, and allowing the body to exercise for significantly longer duration of time than what would be possible without the use of drugs or drug agents.
Needless to say, the physiques that these drugs create are more massive and more defined than what could ever be accomplished with a natural body building physique. Keep in mind that there are a host of negatives related to anabolic steroids as well.
For example, inordinate use of steroids has been associated with a number of serious medical conditions such as heart disease, kidney failure and several other problems. As such, sticking with a natural body building program is much better for your overall health and safety.
If You Are A Hobbyist…
There is truly no reason to use anabolic steroids for the hobbyist. While there are many arguments for and against the risks associated with utilizing drugs for a profession in body building, for someone who is just trying to get in shape or look good the risks involved with drug taking simply makes the risks not worth it. Don’t you agree?
By the way, there is an old and in my opinion wise saying that many gyms use as a mantra: "It is better to feel good than to look good."
It is a veiled reference to all the problems that are associated with the health issues that can derive from using steroids. My point is if you are a hobbyist, then it is best for you to stick with natural body building, because there are no risks associated with it. As a matter of fact, this is a healthy pursuit that can greatly increase your quality of life.
Why would you want to do anything different? Again, it is best to stick to the natural route.
Body Building Exercises – Compound Exercises And Isolation Exercises
June 25th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
In body building, a lot of people mistakenly assume that all one needs to do is haphazardly do any type of exercises with no any rhyme, reason or logic. If you are one of them then this is not a wise move, because there are very specific purposes designed for body building exercises to provide two goals of either increased mass or increased definition.
So by understanding that there are differences between mass building exercises and those exercises that are designed for more definition, the ability to arrive at one’s goals will be greater facilitated.
Afterwards, if you are exercising then you have a certain set of goals in mind and you will want the proper exercises that will be required to reach those goals, right? 
Compound Exercises
The most ordinary body building exercises people do are compound exercises. When you are performing compound body building exercises, then you are mainly working on your mass. That is, compound exercises mean that more than one body part is used to lift the weight.
Bench presses, while generally considered chest exercises, also provide secondary stress to the biceps, triceps and shoulders, so these other muscles develop as well as the chest, although not to the same degree.
Other common body building exercises that perform compound exercises include squats and military presses.
Now, these exercises are not necessarily designed to attain the person’s muscle mass huge (although they certainly can be used for this purpose), these exercises can be used in a lesser capacity so as not to massively pack on muscle.
Isolation Exercises
Another type of body building exercises that are employed are isolation exercises. These do not involve more than one muscle group and are designed to particularly develop the muscles of a specific area. Such exercises can be employed with high repetitions to burn fat and usually follow a cycle of mass building so as to create the definition that mass requires for aesthetic looks.
Please note, that contrary to popular belief, these exercises cannot spot a reduce of the fat in a specific area. Yes, fat will be burned, but it will be burned evenly throughout the body as opposed to any specific or particular area.
Of course, there are other areas you need to take into consideration as well such as diet, cardio etc, but the areas of mass building and definition generally cover the basics that one would need in order to achieve a baseline level of success and to reach his or her goals.
What To Prepare Well Before Bodybuilding Competitions?
June 20th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
There is a number of different reasons why people enter the bodybuilding activity .Among the reasons why you may want to build your body is the need to train in order to achieve better health and to also look fit and trim. There are however also those that want to excel in bodybuilding. They enter into bodybuilding competitions in order to win a title and become the best in their field of activity.
But how about you? Are you eager to excel in bodybuilding or just want to improve your health? Or maybe even both?
Self Discipline
Bodybuilding can be used to both live healthy, stay in good shape and at the same time win at bodybuilding competitions. But do not forget that participating in bodybuilding competitions is not a simple task and requires the following:
- A lot of self discipline
- Being emotionally stable
- Being physically stable
- Remaining stable all the time
- Keeping a close control over your diet
Entering bodybuilding competitions also means readying hard for it, which in turn requires a great deal of self belief, having a full control over what you eat and also maintain control over all of your other activities. It requires conditioning your own mind in order to ensure that you are well prepared for what lies in front of you (both the good and the bad), and hence must be in peak physical as well as emotional condition at all times.
For people who are nervous ahead of bodybuilding competitions, it requires training to stay calm and cool in the face of all odds.
Note: You should be careful that other competitors are never allowed to even sniff that you are nervous about the competition, which will egg them on to taunt you and even beat you 
You should learn also to exercise your mind over body as it is the mind that controls your actions and the body that only follows through instinct. Since the body is sure to respond to what you think inside of your mind, it is very important to pay close attention to your own thoughts so that they follow a desired path and lead you in the direction of the winning podium.
With no doubt it is only the contestant that can remain confident about his body shape when he is on the stage that is going to get ahead in bodybuilding competitions, while those with doubts and lack of mental strength will most likely lag behind 
Afterall it is in your best interests to maintain a healthy training regime and keep your mind healthy as well.
The Legend of Body Building – Lou Ferrigno
June 15th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
If there ever was a true legend in body building, then it would certainly be the legendary Lou Ferrigno. In the 1970’s, Ferrigno was a real rags to riches story since he came from humble origins to worldwide fame as a bodybuilder and then to much greater fame in his endearing portrayal of the titular green monster in the classic television program “The Incredible Hulk”.
While some of you might be familiar with Lou and his work, you may not be all that familiar with his background which might prove to be pretty interesting even to those of you who do not follow the sport.
Let’s Go In Early Years
Lou Ferrigno was born in Brooklyn New York in the 1950’s and had the handicap of being deaf. Since attitudes towards the impaired hearing weren’t exactly progressive during this time period, Lou became somewhat withdrawn and isolated. While in his teens he would discover a new hobby in the form of weightlifting. Lou loved so much this new hobby to the point of obsession.
He would work out each day and keep an eye on his diet religiously. Eventually, he would set his sights on competing in amateur body building competitions. He participated and did well enough that he caught the eye of body building mogul Joe Weider who brought Lou into the fold of professional body building competition.
Lou did extremely well in this new profession although he alternated his time between competing and working in construction since construction paid far more than professional body building. Lou would then get featured in the classic documentary “Pumping Iron”, a documentary that would bring him to the attention of a number of Hollywood producers.
The Hulk
When former James Bond villain Richard “Jaws” Kiel bombed as the Hulk during the first few days of shooting the pilot for the TV series, Ferrigno was called to play the green goliath. While some thought that these series would be a hit, it turned out to be a colossal hit lasting many years on network TV and decades in syndication. Ferrigno was now a bona fide worldwide star!
Since he is well into his retirement years, Lou Ferrigno no longer competes in body building these days. He does, however, appear at a few competitions as a special guest and as a judge. He signs autographs at comic conventions and meets with all his fans who have followed his career through the years. In terms of pop culture history, Lou Ferrigno is a true icon and definitely one of a kind.
