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How To Tone Your Muscles

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Not only has our appearance changed (don't get me started!), but our opinions, habits and even our views of the world have evolved. Daily life has become such a laundry list of onerous chores that paying bills fells like relaxation by comparison.



Infertility, followed be a miscarriage, followed by 3 children in 2 years, a move to the big city all contributed to the neglect of our marriage in spite of our mutual devotion. It slowly occurred to me that real love is not something that happens to us, but something that requires a daily choice.

Marriage, like cars, need maintenance tune-ups and occasionally more major repairs. My husband and I decided to commit to spending more time together and to use that time efficiently. Problem was, we had no "extra" time. Like Anna Quindlen says, "Our days were like a cross between a decathalon and stations of the cross".

Over the past year, since both of our schedules showed no signs of easing, we committed our exercise time as the most available time for togetherness.

First, we evaluated what activites we both enjoyed, figuring that the couple that plays together, stays together.

We committed to three 20 minute workouts per week and at the end of each week we had a "date night" which was at least one hour to talk. Then we realized that if we spent our workout time during that week reviewing marital skills like communication, resolving conflict, meeting each other's needs that we could then discuss it at our end-of-the-week date night.

What we found out surprised us!First, we found out that our workout time had been cutting into our time spent with each other.Secondly, that exercise became a metaphor for a marriage, because working out had a way of flushing out issues. As we got to sweat together, we accepted more fully each others' weaknesses(him) and admired each others' strengths(me).

We also realized that, not only are our bodies different, but how and why we exercise are different too.

We couldn't do every exercise together. I need more stretching and my husband needs to work on his abs. What we committed to is using our workout time to think about and discuss marital issues. We picked several marriage topics and used this as our guide.

Something amazing happened! We rekindled that young passion we started with two decades before.Becoming proactive, we were tuning up our marriage while toning up our (aging) muscles. Not death-defying but possibly divorce-defying!

This pattern of regular workout time spent together is the first investment in not growing apart.

Here's the plan.Pick a list of activities both of you enjoy. If you cannot come up with a list of compatible activites, perhaps you will walk while he runs, looping back every few blocks or you do stretches while he focuses on ab work. At the end of the week, you meet for date night to discuss this week's topic and complete a few questions.

Did I forget to mention that one possible topic is "Good Sex"? Women, this is your hook to get those disinterested mates on board!

As Larry and I draw nearer to that 20th anniversary milestone, we may be in the "autumn" of our life together but this exercise program has helped us rekindle a bit of "spring" in our step and some "summer" in our marriage.

There's nothing like a program to work up a sweat outside the bedroom. Let's Tune it up!
How To Tone Your Muscles
Steps

Do some aerobics for five to ten minutes (cycling, walking, treadmill, etc.) to get the blood flowing.

Follow the workout below. With each exercise, pick a weight that you can do for the number of reps indicated before you fail to do another repetition of the movement. Do the workout 2-3 times a week with at least one or two days rest between each workout.

Warm Up sets (perform each exercise first with light weights first to ensure you don't injure yourself)

Pushups: 3 Sets of 25 (if too hard, try on knees)

Bench Press: 3 Sets of 10 reps

Leg Extension: 4 Sets of 8 reps

Military (Overhead) Press: 3 Sets of 10 reps

Barbell Rows: 4 Sets of 10 Reps

Biceps Curls: 3 Sets of 10 Reps

Crunches: 4 Sets of 20

Do this workout as a starter, for about two to three weeks. Once you are used to working out, you can begin doing split body exercise days or concentrating on particular body parts per work out.

Work particular muscle groups on particular days. For example, you can do chest and biceps one day, back and triceps another, then have a shoulder and abs day, followed by a leg day.

Each individual day will consist of at least three different exercises per muscle group. Each exercise will be three to four sets of 8-10 reps per set. These exercises should be basic exercises. You do not need exotic exercises, e.g. dumbbell presses on exercise ball. Simple bench press, arm curls, tri extensions, pull ups, pull downs, leg press, squat, etc. will do. Keep it simple stupid works very well!

You can do each body part any day you want during the week, e.g. Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun, with rest days, or do them consecutively Mon-Thurs. Whatever you desire, just do each split body routine once per week. A good, intense workout should take no more than 45 minutes to 1 hour or so, depending on the socializing you are doing at the gym.

Eat a balanced diet. It is what you do with your body the other twenty two hours of your day that will matter a great deal. Break your meals into six separate, evenly spaced meals during your waking hours.

Take your target body weight, multiply by 2 and eat that many grams of protein per day. Do the same with carbohydrate intake. Calculate these numbers, divide by six, eat that much of each every meal. Combine with a veggie and plenty of water. Track them religiously. You must avoid fats, alcohol and junk. They are the culprits to flab and fat, along with too many carbs.

You must have enough of an intake of carbs to fuel your workouts and muscle growth, so eat good carbs. Potatoes, rice, whole grains, bananas are good sources of carbs. Chicken, lean beef, eggs, protein supplements are good sources of protein. Don't forget green veggies and multivitamins. Being very disciplined with food will be the biggest struggle of looking good, but it is key to getting the most of your efforts in the gym.

You don't need a lot of equipment, even dumbbells on their own are great to start with.

Make sure you have a program to follow that suits your needs and gives you sufficient instructions on how to perform your exercises.

When performing your exercises keep your knees slightly bent, your back straight, chest out and your tummy firm, even when you are performing seated exercises you need to make sure you have good posture.

Don't swing your weights about. If you are finding that you are swinging your body around to lift your weights then you should lower the weights until you are ready to advance.

Perform your exercises correctly. If, as I mentioned above, you have to swing your body - or your weights - around then you are probably more likely to be giving your lower back a crappy workout rather than the body part you thought you were training. Don't waste precious training time by not using good form while training.

Always keep a water bottle near by so have easy access to fluids while training. This will keep you from dehydrating.

Make sure you perform a warm up before training and then cool down after wards. While your muscles are still warm, after your cool down, perform your stretches.

Sleep! You need to have sufficient sleep to ensure your body has time to repair itself and recover from your day's training and general activities.

Organize your eating plan ahead of time so that you can have your meals on hand. This will help prevent you from consuming junk as well as keeping up with regular meal times.

Protein. You will need sufficient protein intake in your diet to help supplement your muscle development. Protein shakes are fantastic for this if you're finding it difficult to include sources such as chicken, fish, meat (all are to be lean, skin or fat cut off) low fat yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, egg whites etc..

Tips

Always, always do a set with light weights to warm up that region before going for the heavy ones. This will help you avoid injuries.

Reps is another word for repetitions, meaning how many times you do the exercises in each set. Most weight training is done in sets of repetitions - an average guideline is to choose a weight that you can lift ten times, and do three sets of this separated by a very brief rest.

Wait 60 seconds between each set to recover.

Don't use these reps as a strict guideline. Pick an approximate weight where you think you can do between 6 and 12 reps and don't stop until your muscles can't do anymore.

This is a beginner's workout, once you get used to your gym and the exercises you can change as stated. The degree of muscle growth is directly proportional to intensity of exercise. It is important to progressively overload the muscles with greater resistance, reps, or both in order to stimulate muscle growth.

The more controlled the movement is the better the results will be. Don't try and lift weights you know you will need help with in the first few reps. This is called having good "form."

Don't leave out your leg workouts! They are essential. Leg workouts will actually help your other muscle groups grow and will keep you looking more symmetrical. Remember that you have muscles that you can't see in the mirror. Don't just work your chest and arms. It's important to work your legs and back as well.

Remember that a your diet is a must for developing muscle. Eat as described to get the most of your workout.

Don't expect to actually see great results in the mirror for about two months, so don't get discouraged. Be disciplined and stick with it and in at least three months, you won't be disappointed.

Make sure you allow optimal rest between workout sessions. Your muscles are growing during resting, not while working out. In order to determine optimal rest, track your weights, and repetitions to determine if more days off are needed. If your strength is increasing, rest between workouts is optimal. If strength remains the same or decreases, allow more days off between workouts.

Consume carbohydrates, and protein within a 1 hour window following training. This will help facilitate recovery, and muscle building effort.

Do not strictly do high/low rep work, since that will primarily be building muscular endurance or maximal strength. Different muscle modalities need to be worked at the same time. Work all parts of the muscle complex using ballistic, endurance, speed-strength, strength-speed, maximal strength, and supra-maximal strength.

Toning the body is best achieved by performing basic muscle building exercises. The best exercises to tone the body quickly are squats, bench presses and chin ups (a rowing movement can be just as effective as chins) performed together in the same workout. These are anaerobic exercises that burn predominantly carbohydrates for fuel but they stress numerous different muscles groups at the same time.

Squats mainly stress the quadriceps (thighs), lower back and the buttocks, they also place secondary stress on the hamstrings, carves, back and abdomen areas. Bench presses stress the chest, triceps, shoulders and chin ups stress the upper back, biceps and forearms. Three exercises to help tone the whole body which all could be completed within 20 minutes. These 3 exercises are so effective that they will tone the body within weeks providing each workout has no other exercises and the resistance used is gradually increased.

After toning the whole body it would be great to lose all excess fat to enable your newly toned muscles to show through. The best way to lose excess fat around the abs and other areas is to do plenty of aerobic work. Aerobics burns a higher percentage of fat but this form of exercise doesn't burn a lot of total calories so it will take time, however, if toning the body and burning the fat was easy everyone would be looking great!

Any muscle definition in the body comes from the right nutrition, and the right mix of cardio and weight training. Respective abdominal exercise will give you great endurance, but probably won't give you that washboard you're wanting.

the following basic guidelines:

Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level

Spread your calories into 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 big ones.

Eat a source of complete, high quality protein with each meal.

Choose natural, complex crabs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams, potatoes, brown rice and whole grains. Start with at least 50% of your calories from complex carbs and reduce carbs slightly (esp. late in the day) if you are not losing fat.

Avoid refined, simple crabs that contain white flour or white sugar.

Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim for only 15-20% of your total calories from fat. A little bit of "good fat" like flax oil is better than a no fat diet.

Drink plenty of water - a gallon is a good goal to shoot for if you are physically active.

There are 3 main abdominal regions that should be worked:

Upper Abs

Basic crunch, Swiss ball crunch, Decline crunch, Bench crunch, Cable crunch

Lower Abs

Reverse crunch, Hip up, Reverse Decline crunch, Hanging Leg Raises, Swiss ball leg lift

Obliques

Side crunch, Cross crunch, Swiss ball side crunch, Decline twist, Twisting Cable crunch.

Tip: When working the abs, suck your stomach in (imagine pulling your navel towards your back) and concentrate on feeling your stomach muscles being worked. It is very easy to use bad form and end up working the hip flexors.

Disclaimer:Before following anything from this thread please consult ur doctor/medical consultant about it.I wont be held responsible if anything happens to ur body due to following the above guides.Plz take NOTE of it.

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About Author
Both Penny Love Hoff & indoconsoles are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Penny Love Hoff has sinced written about articles on various topics from Physical Therapy, Fitness and Lose Weight. Penny Love Hoff, fitness professional and self-proclaimed marital coach, is the author of the revolutionary CD workout program"Does My Marriage Make Me Look Fat?", an eight week fitness program for couples to radically change your body and reawaken your r. Penny Love Hoff's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.

indoconsoles has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Muscle. Indonesian Consoles Games Blog.It is not just about Consoles, but Anything about IndoConsoles have in Mind.Blogging, Consoles News & Download, Computer & Internet, Music, Mobile GSM etc..... indoconsoles's top article generates over 880 views. to your Favourites.
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