Not Happy With Your Muscle Building Results? Then Workout Like A Barbarian!

We all know that for most of us, building muscles that stand out that will get you jaw dropping stares from people is no easy task. And I’m sure many of you have hit the gym, eaten the right foods, worked relatively hard and got some results.

But… there comes a day when you look in the mirror, like what you see, then put your top on and think.

‘Damn, I so need to be bigger than this. How can I do this’

You may have even taken some advice. But it could possibly have been advice from the wrong people. If some fabulous mesomorph body type of person who builds muscle even when they sneeze is advising you, then obviously things probably won’t work out the same for you.

Now most of you are going to turn around and say something logical like,

‘Take Creatine’ or ‘ take some protein supplements‘

Yes you can do that and I have used both at times. But many don’t want to use those products initially and I think that it is important to learn to live without them and how to get real weight gains when you are the skinny guy.

These are the type of gains that allow you to stand out when you wear everyday clothes and where you can actually start to feel content with your size. (perfectionist talk here)

So what is the answer?

You have to train like a barbarian!!

Let me try and make things a bit more clear and real for you.

You already workout pretty hard…right? But I bet you are not sweating buckets that could quench the thirst of a marathon runner.

I bet you are not pumping weights where everyone in the gym stops and stares and remembers who you are every time you train.

And I bet… In fact I know, that you are not training to your full potential every time you are at the gym!

If everyone in the world pushed themselves to their utmost potential, we really would be living in a very interesting world. But that is not so. So you must make it a priority that YOU are pushing yourself to your max potential and adapting it to your training.

Train like a barbarian and attack the weights with superior rage. If you want an idea of the kind of rage I am talking about, take a look at this guy this guy.

If you do not know who this is, he is a warrior from the popular Playstation game God of war. Now, you should not have this attitude 24/7, as that is not healthy for your mind set, but you should the moment you step into the gym.

Training like a barbarian

Now I’m going to give you some tips on how to do this, and you must follow this through consistently, otherwise you will fail.

1.  Treat every single set like it is your last set.

Having this mind set will ensure that you really are pushing yourself every step of the way.

2. Treat every single rep like your life depends on it.

I mean it… every step of the way.

3. Wear a stop watch and ensure that you keep the rest period honest.

No cheating, when it is time to get up, GET UP.

4. Wear a sweater so you can’t stare at yourself in the mirror.

I talked about this before. But you really must stop loving yourself during this time. Focus on building muscle and take a good look at yourself every other day instead, even better… once a week.

5. Wear a hat that tells others ‘do not disturb.’

This is extreme, but it may be necessary as many like to lounge around, talk s*** and not train. You do not need distractions.

6. No girlfriend’s allowed or non-training partners who are going to compromise the intensity of your workout.

As I mentioned, some people are not serious. If you have a gym partner then make sure they have the same goals as you.

In terms of girlfriends or women in general, my philosophy has been to train at an ‘all guy gym’. What I mean here is that women are allowed in these gyms, but you want to be in a place where everyone there has the same mindset and goal as you… to strictly workout.

It will most likely be a non-commercial/ local gym (as mine is) and you’ll probably get help from others too.

7. Train with an intensity that scares the hell out of every person that walks in your path.

You may not have been doing this before, but if you train like a barbarian, you will catch attention for sure.

For many things that you achieve in life, you will get out what you put in, and that will be the same here.

Get explosive with the weights

Now I’ve previously talked about how you should lift weights. To summarize,

1) Start with lightweights – This will allow you to understand how to lift the weights properly regardless of the exercise.

2) Do the exercise properly – Once you have mastered how to do it, focus on control and execution.

3) Lift at moderate speed – Explosive yes! But not fast and not slow.

And for the purpose of the barbarian workout you need to increase the weight and build your strength to the max. Use only one compound exercise per major muscle group and focus on a 5% increase in strength from week to week. This will then allow your muscles to grow.

Time and work balance

Now you don’t want to be in the gym for 2 hours just for the sake of it. For some people, they think that the longer you are there, the better results you will have. This is not always the case.

Instead lift heavy weights close to your max threshold but with shorter rest periods and more exercise selection per muscle group.

Stick to a program

It is very easy to test drive a musclebuilding routine for a few weeks and then say it does not work and move on to the next latest ‘breakthrough’ workout program. Training for results is not a ‘fail fast’ game and this is not acceptable!

The reality is that virtually every weightlifting workout routine will work for a certain period of time if it is done at the right intensity.

Whichever routine you choose, make sure you study the details of it fully. And make sure every aspect of that routine matches the goals that you have set out. Do not ask a million questions and try and find holes or flaws or attempt to make it ‘perfect.’ The perfect program does not exist. Trust the program, follow it honestly and monitor the progress. The experience and results you gain from following one program for a consistent period of time will be priceless.

There you have it, if you aren’t seeing the results you want, you must go into your closet and drag your barbarian alter ego out and workout like one. Once you do, you will then soon find that you will look like one too.

How have you overcome your weightlifting workout plateaus?

See you in the comments.

Please Tell Me Why My Calves Won’t Grow?

If this is you, then I feel your pain, as I too have struggled with building up my calves over the years. Out of all of the guys that I have met who train (Mostly high metabolism types), this is the one muscle over any other that they struggled to build. Although they all had excuses to why it was so hard, I believe there are other factors that contributed to the lack of muscle growth in their calves. Some factors are within their control, while there are some factors that aren’t, and today we will reveal some of the key reasons why your living human pair of drumsticks won’t pump any muscle like the rest of your body.

Calve training is your last exercise

Go on, admit it… you step into the gym, work your upper body to the max, get to the end of your workout and think to yourself ‘ooh, better work the calves… don’t wanna be top heavy now’!

Well if that isn’t you, then good on you, but that has been me and I’m sure it would be the same for many of you. Without a doubt, this mind set is unacceptable and I can guarantee that this is a key reason why your calves are lacking in ‘pump’.

No drive to build them

What you need to do is stop thinking about the raw power that you will use on that bench press and migrate it to your calf raises. But to do that you have to have a real desire to build your calves, and if you don’t, then you won’t succeed and you’ll just have to hit the beach and hurt the crowds eyes with your drumsticks.

But if you do have the desire then there are two things you will have to do.

1) Set a goal and a time frame on when you want to start seeing results (be realistic)

2) In that goal you MUST make calve training a priority in your workout. Even dedicate a whole day just for calve training if you have to!

Alternate, Alternate, and Alternate your exercises

If you are working your calve muscles religiously, yet still aren’t getting results, then not alternating your exercises could be a key reason why. I’ve definitely fallen into this trap before, and have often gotten wildly frustrated with the lack of results. I would do,

1) 3 sets of calf raises/ 15 reps

2) 3 sets of seated calf raises/ 15 reps

Not realizing that all of this repetition was killing my muscles. Your muscles have a memory and once that sets in, your muscles will get comfortable with the movements, so you have to switch it up.

Here’s the switch

I’ve talked about muscle memory before and your muscles will adapt to most routines that you do and stick to within 3-4 weeks. This is when you will usually start seeing a decrease in strength and this is when you have to change it up.

Standing Calf Raises
1 set 20 reps (warm up) 110kg
2 sets 10-15 reps 130kg
2 sets 10-15 reps 110kg with 5 second hold in top position

Seated Calf Raise
Set 1 – 40kg at 20-25 reps, slow, non-stop, continuous tension
Set 2: 60kg at 15 reps, 3 second hold at top, 3 seconds eccentric, 3 seconds concentric, then drop weight down to 40kg and do 15-20 more fast reps
Set 3: 80kg at 10-15 reps (slight “bounce” at bottom)
Set 4: 20kg as many reps as possible (up to 100)

Changing up your routine like this is when you will start to see the biggest changes in muscle mass growth.

If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting!

Damn these weak calve giving genetics

Ok, now if you suffer from weak calve muscles that have simply been handed down to you from a previous generation, then there isn’t really much you can do about that. But you are not allowed to use this as an excuse! You must work with what your mother (or father) gave you. Take myself for example. I have high calf muscles like these,

Which leave the bottom of my legs flapping about in the wind. But like the legs in the picture, I build them up with what I’ve got, and when they look strong like this, complaints are a few.

Do more calf exercises

Most of us all know the importance of giving recovery time to our muscles, but this mainly applies to our bigger muscle groups like the chest, back and quad muscles. Because the calves are so small they don’t really need much recovery time and you can work them more often through out the week. Do,

1) 3-4 calve workouts a week

2) Alternate the workouts doing half heavy and half lightweights

3) Heavy workouts = Heavy weights at 8-15 reps

4) Light workouts = Light weights at 20 to 100! reps

These are the main things to consider when you face a decrease or lack of growth when trying to build calve muscles. Follow these tips through when you next hit the gym, and you will start to see some real results. Also, don’t forget to keep a high carb diet, food that is high in carbs is what will give your muscles pump.

See you in the comments

Muscle Growth Has Stopped! I Want My Pump Back! What to do?

Without a doubt, this is possibly the most frustrating thing that will happen to all of us muscle heads.

1. The first few months of working out = explosive growth
2. The next few months after that = maintenance
3. Then… muscle growth comes to a halt

This has happened to me a few times, and when I look in the mirror, it simply makes me want to cry :’( . Sometimes it may even be worse and muscles might even shrink. The worse thing about this is that I have seen guys who’ve trained three days a week and never noticed that they’ve had five months of no progress whatsoever!

But not to worry, you are on stayfitbug.com and when you are, you can expect to find a solution to your problem. The main problem here is that you would have overworked your muscles for this to have happened, but here’s what you can do to fix it.

Alternate exercises

I’ve talked about this endlessly throughout various previous posts. Over working any muscle group will actually make them sore, and can cause them to shrink. But the good thing about this plateau that you hit is that it will be short lived, and the slowdown in progress will likely show up in one or two exercises out of an entire workout, giving you time to act. The key thing here is to make adjustments in your training before full-blown stagnation sets in.

Doing to many standing tricep pull downs? Switch it up and focus on bench dips. An even better thing to do may be to leave that muscle group alone for a few days.

Take time off

When you are ‘In the zone’ when working out, this may seem like a painful thing to do, and your reaction would be something like,

‘WHAT! Stop working out? I’m going to shrink dammit’.

Yes you will shrink… if you carry on working out that is. By simply not lifting weights for a few weeks, you allow your body to fully recover… and add new muscle growth that you’ve already stimulated, so you can return to the gym and resume training effectively.

72 hour breaks instead of 48-hour breaks

When you first begin to workout, you will probably be working out 3-4 times a week, and right fully so, as you will be in the early stages of building up muscle mass. But as you begin to grow and become stronger, your workouts will need to be spaced further apart. This is essential for further muscle growth to occur and it will prevent you from falling into the same trap again.

Do heavy leg training

By far, the best exercise you can do to increase your body’s anabolic activity is heavy leg presses. Surprised I didn’t say squats? Squats are a great all-around exercise but they are limited by how much weight you can comfortably support on your shoulders. Many people I work with do 3,000-pound leg presses. Accounting for the 45-degree angle of most leg presses, that’s equivalent to a 2,100-pound squat, something that not many people do!

The legs contain the largest muscles in the human body and when those muscles are forced to operate at the limits of their capacity, the systemic anabolic effect spills into every muscle group in the body. And now to surprise you

Heavy leg training gives you bigger arms!

Might seem strange, but is very true.

The next time you hit a plateau and your muscles stop growing, follow these tips and you will be back on track to putting on those much wanted gains.

See you in the comments

TRX Door Anchor

TRX Door Anchor

In a previous post (Hotel Workout) I talked about the importance of keeping fit while on vacation, without letting your workout routine disrupt your ‘holiday time’. For my home workouts, i use a chin up bar placed between a door frame. This allows me to maintain my muscle mass while I’m not at the gym. But while I’m away i use a door anchor instead, as i know most hotels don’t build there rooms around fitness and workout needs. My first reaction when i first got introduced to this tool was, ‘Is this thing even safe…what if it slips off the top when I’m using it?’. You are probably thinking that right now, but rest assured, it really is safe to use. I personally use it for building and maintaining my triceps, forearms and back shoulders. But the versatility of this thing is great so you can use it in a variety of ways for different muscle groups and it will work those muscles you may usually miss doing normal exercises. If you:

1. Workout at home
2. Travel a lot
3. Have no time for the gym

Then add this to your collection of home gym accessories if you haven’t already done so.

Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook

Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook

As i have stated before, I’m not really much of a book reader. What i tend to do is take excerpts from books and save them on to my laptop or iphone for reference to read later on. On the home page i have a rule:

BUGS RULES: #5 It’s OK to pig out on food sometimes, you are human after all. What’s the point of it all without a little rule breaking!

This i do believe. But one must still remain fit and focused. A solution to those visiting this site would be this book. Before i picked this book up, i did do a lot of searching around as there are a lot of ‘bad’ books out there and this wasn’t a usual recommendation from a friend. The first thing i noticed is that the books format is like a ‘cookbook’ and a ‘manual’ and if you are a single guy/girl or not a good cook like myself… I’d say, get this book! The authors are the main reason i like this book. They go out of their way to give step by step guidance on how to actually process the meals outlined properly. Some highlights:

• Building your Gourmet Nutrition – Everything you need to know about putting together a solid kitchen.
• Gourmet Recipes – 101 recipes that taste great and anyone can make (no previous cooking skills required).
• Cooking Tips – 18 cooking tips to make meal preparation a lot easier.
• Nutritional Facts and Strategies -25 hints, tips, and bits of nutritional information to enhance your nutritional knowledge.

There really aren’t any stand out negatives that i think i need to warn you about here, so that is a good and rare thing for sure. The last thing I’ll say which is good is that it comes in and e-book format, so you can put it on your iphone/ Sony reader/ Kindle for reading on the move or if you travel.

Feel free to get back to me once you have it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Scrawny to Brawny- The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way

The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way (Paperback)

Since starting this site i have talked quite a bit about going from ectomorph to a daddy mammoth. If my advice to you so far hasn’t been enough, then this is a gem you can stash away and retrieve when ever you don’t have an encouraging voice to turn to. I’m not much of a book reader myself, but this one held my attention as i was reading excerpts from a friends copy, so i got my own and started to read it from the beginning.
My number one problem with the book… is the meal plans outlined get a bit vague when it comes to your own caloric needs. Plus, the author constantly pushes his website in the book.

The other issue I have with the book, is lack of organization. He uses terms like “the above table”….when the table is on another page. There is a lot of flipping around in the book too. Grrrr!

I like the style of writing this author has. It’s comical while still keeping to the point. It is very “Men’s health” like in style.

Other than those small issues, Scrawny to Brawny isn’t just a book… as i said, it is a book you can turn to when ever that encouraging voice isn’t present.

If what i have outlined above relates to you and if you still love the ‘physical’ book, give it a shot.

Working Out is Boring! Lets Just Dance (part 1)

You guessed it! I am back on my quest to find the most entertaining ways to exercise, and why not? You get to kill two birds with one stone.

1. Exercise/ keep fit
2. And have fun

Hopefully some of you have tried playing Rockband or Guitar hero after reading last weeks post. But it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and this is a new post!

It’s time to start dancing to keep fit!

One of the reasons that dancing for fitness works so well is because traditional cardio training can get boring, and when you get bored, you lose motivation. Motivation is the very thing that you need to successfully maintain a good level of fitness.

Because dancing has so many variations and forms, it will be impossible to cover them all in one post. So welcome to part one of,

‘Working out is boring! Lets just dance’

Salsa

Salsa is great for both men at women, and for all of the men reading this, if you have not yet tried Salsa then I suggest that you should. The first time I saw guys dancing to salsa, I suddenly felt that something was missing from my ‘lady magnet-attracting’ arsenal, because all of the moves involving salsa dancing scream pure class and elegance… something that will get you the best of ladies on and off the dance floor.

The moves are sexy, yet they don’t need to be sexual, unlike some other forms of dancing (which usually promote a vertical representation of a horizontal desire).

This Latin dance is also popular in nightclubs and health clubs and all types of salsa dance are being taught as ‘dance fitness’. Salsa also has a strong global presence too, from the far-east (India, New Delhi) to the wild wild west (US, New York). So no excuses here… get Googling.

The Benefits

• Practice good form
• Looks graceful and elegant
• Attractive to the opposite sex
• Boosts self-esteem
• Learn to dance in rhythm (with it’s ‘have to move’ feel)

Cardio training comparison = Moderate intensity training (Do 2-3 salsa sessions a week)

The extras

• Lowers cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Use inhaler less (if you have asthma)
• Eases stress and tension
• Great for mind and soul

Ballroom Dancing

I mentioned that salsa dancing can be elegant and graceful. But ballroom dancing steals the crown on that front. I personally would never have been seen dead doing this dance, but after seeing how some entertainment moguls have brought this to the media mainstream and how good it can be, I began to think twice.

Benefits

• Posture – Good for back muscles, spine and spinal chord
• Balance – Strength in ankles
• Flexibility – Increase Range of Motion

Cardio training comparison = Moderate intensity training

Pole Dancing

Ladies, this one is for you, and you shouldn’t feel offended or uneasy by taking this up for fitness. In some parts of the world, Pole dancing has a bad stigma against it and is often perceived as just another form of stripping, while in some countries like Japan (how ironic), it is fully embraced and highly recommended as a fitness and sport activity.

Cardio comparison = Moderate to high intensity (3 -4 times a week with weight/ strength training)

Unless you have already been working out or have a natural strong upper body and core, taking up pole dancing will be a struggle to begin with as it requires brute upper body strength.

Think about it: One arm is supporting most of your weight as you try to propel yourself into a move or two.

So prepare to approach this form of dancing with some ‘here’s what I prepared earlier’ upper body strength. But again, this is not traditional cardio training, so not only will you be keeping yourself fighting fit, you’ll get to have fun, entertain and party with it.

As you can see so far, all of these dances are great alternatives to your everyday cardio or weight training routines. When you perform in these activities you won’t feel like you are exercising, will definitely not get bored, and you get to throw in some extra health benefits too. But stay tuned for part 2 of,

‘Working out is boring! Lets just dance’

See you in the comments

How To Build Lats (Wings) Like These

Other than the shoulder muscles, I would say that the Latimuss dorsi (Wings) muscles are the biggest contributors in promoting a large muscle bound appearance. These are the muscles that will give you a V-shaped upper back and make you look like these guys,

By having well developed lats, you can get away with wearing certain types of clothes that you can only usually wear confidentially if you have a well-rounded body (Even if you have slightly less developed arms). However, if you do have well-developed arms but have slightly less developed lats, you will just look like an ‘average Joe’ or even worse… adopt an unnatural and imbalanced appearance.

There are many exercises out there that can help you develop this muscle group, but we’ll list my favourite exercises that will help you develop a monstrous pair of lats.

Pull ups (Gironda Sternum)

I have talked about ways to build ‘real’ strength quite a lot in recent weeks, and this exercise is a really good way to do it.

Instruction

• Grab the pull-up bar with an overhand grip, approximately shoulder width apart.
• Now hang with your arms fully extended.
• As you pull yourself to the bar, have your head lean back as far away from the bar as possible and arch your spine throughout the movement.
• At the upper end of the movement, your hips and legs will be at about a 45-degree angle to the floor. You should keep pulling until your collarbone passes the bar and your lower chest or sternum area touches it.

Warning! The first time you do this exercise you will struggle!

Most people will initially struggle when lifting their own bodyweight, and doing any bodyweight exercises will be a real test of your strength. Although you will probably fail miserably and end up doing,

3 Sets

Reps

1. 8
2. 4
3. 2

Your strength will gradually increase. But in the beginning stages you can always get a spotter to help you out. However, you don’t want to rely on that help too often, as too much help will hinder your strength gaining efforts.

You are talking nonsense… this is easy!

If you are reading this and thinking that, then you would have mastered lifting your own body weight. Unless you are some sort of transformer or mutant, there is no way to dramatically increase your weight. But you can do by using a dipping belt.

This accessory will be essential when developing real muscle mass on your lats. What this belt will allow you to do is add extra weight around your waist, making it heavier and harder to lift yourself up. Once you get to this level, then I would say ‘you truly are the best’.

Straight-arm pull downs

This exercise has to be good! Every time I am in the gym there is a queue for this machine.

Putting the sarcasm aside, this is for sure one of my favourite exercises, and the pain that it inflicts never seems to ease up overtime either. This exercise is also lat specific, so you can easily gauge your efforts.

Instructions

• Stand in front of a lat pull down bar with your arms outstretched towards the bar.
• Place your palms flat on the bar and pull it down to shoulder level.
• Keeping your elbows slightly bent and your wrists locked, pull the bar down towards your body in an arcing motion.
• Once you contracted the lats fully and the bar has touched or come close to your thighs, slowly allow the bar to come back up to the starting position.
• Keep your torso erect!

Dumbbell bent over rows

Back when I first started to workout, this was one of the first exercises I would include in my routine, and it still is a key exercise that I do today. This won’t just build your lats though. It will help build up your entire upper back and even your biceps.

Instruction

• Kneel over the side of a bench by placing your knee and hand (of the supporting arm) on the bench.
• Position your foot of the opposite leg slightly back to the side.
• Grab the dumbbell from floor.
• Pull the dumbbell to side until it makes contact with your ribs or until your upper arm is just beyond horizontal.
• Return until your arm is extended and shoulder is stretched forward.
• Repeat and continue with opposite arm.

These are the 3 exercises that I KNOW have helped in building the main bulk of my lats, and they are the exercises I have used when I am trying to get back into the groove. The good thing about doing these is that they tend to give the quickest result, which is great for boosting your confidence levels, as that can tend to drop quite frequently. Include these exercises into your routines and YOU WILL build a great pair of super hero lats in no time.

Which exercises do you use to build your lats?

See you in the comments.

Don’t Forget To Build Your Scrawny Ankles!

It’s that time again! It’s only been a few days since posting about ‘ building those neglected body parts‘, but I guess I am passionate about getting you to look your best and to look that little bit better than your peers. Anyhow, today is all about how to build stronger and better-looking ankles. I wouldn’t necessarily put scrawny ankles in the same category as chicken legs, as the exercises involved to build both do differ.

On most people (mainly guys), the ankles simply are not seen as a glamorous body part. You don’t hear people saying,

‘Ooh, flex those hot ankles for me’

Or

‘Take off those socks and let me see those lovely ankles’

It just doesn’t happen. However, I think this is not the case when women are concerned. Women’s ankles are naturally more feminine than a man’s set of ankles, and because of this, I find that ankles are one of the sexiest body parts there are (on a woman). This is why there is a market for ankle bracelets.

Why build a stronger and sexier set of ankles?

This is mainly targeted at guys, but if you are a lady and you have bony, unsightly and weak ankles, then this is for you too. So lets begin our journey to building strong and sexier looking ankles.

Strong ankles prevent injury

Injury is the number one reason why people take timeout from exercise and training, whether for sport or fitness training, but by having strong ankles you can prevent this. I have personally faced the benefits of this in previous sporting activities, especially in sprint training. There was many a time where I would literally not realize how fast I was running. I would suddenly stop running, yet my body would keep moving. When ever this happened early on in training it would lead to a sure injury, but as I began to build my ankle strength, my ankles would take the pressure and I would carry on as normal.

Improves balance

Having strong ankles will definitely improve your balance and not just for training, exercise or sporting activities either.

If you are,

• On the beach having a fight in the sand.
• On a very unstable train ride.
• Take long walks regularly.
• Take a serious blow to the body in a ‘real’ fight.

Stronger ankles will help you in all of these types of situations.

Building for a stronger and sexier set of ankles

Standing and balancing on one foot

Yes, I all know we done this in the playground as kids, but this is actually a very effective way to train your ankles to be stronger. What we didn’t realize as kids doing this, is that all that struggling and shifting around to keep balance is actually working the key muscles in our ankles. You can do this exercise anywhere, but only do it in a public place if you don’t mind that people might think that you are a bit loopy!

If you are already a highly balanced ballerina type, then try it with your eyes closed. Taking away one of your senses will make for harder work on your muscles.

Standing and balancing on one foot (with weights)

This is basically weight training for ankles. This is where you will really begin to build up muscle and strength. What you do is grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them in each hand. All of the rocking from side to side will be the movements that will work the ankle muscles. If you wish, you can also use a barbell and place it behind your neck and balance with that.

Standing and balancing on one foot with weights (on an unstable surface)

Warning! Only do this once you have mastered the above methods.

This is a real challenge and definitely a step up from the two previous methods, but will again… strengthen and grow your ankle muscles. My favourite for this is to grab a set of towels and role them up together, stand on and balance.

Balance and coordination

• Put the weights down
• Balance on one foot (or on an uneven surface)
• Get some one to throw a ball at you
• Or throw a ball at the wall (if you are alone)

This one is actually funny, as I used to do this all the time as a kid. But doing this will improve your balance and coordination while working your ankle muscles.

All of these techniques will do wonders for your chicken stick meatless ankles. The great thing about them is that they are simple to do and promote functional movements (and are unique, which most exercises like this are – forearms, neck). Start doing these today and in a few months time it would be great if you could post some before and after shots of your ankles for everyone to see

How do you work your ankle muscles? Have you tried any of the above?

See you in the comments.

How to increase your metabolism – The Exercises

It’s been a while since I posted about how to increase your metabolism, and since then I have had conversations with many. It seems to be one of the hottest on going topics in health and fitness, and there doesn’t seem to be one killer answer to the question either. So for the sake of those who ask and for anyone else who is facing this problem, these are a few exercises you can include into your fitness program along with the 13 ways to increase your metabolism.

Instruction

Complete as many exercises as you can of each one within 15 minutes. Take a 1-2 minute break in-between each set

Dumbbell Split Squat

• Grab a pair of dumbbells with your arms hanging at your sides.
• Stand in a staggered stance.
• Put your right foot in front of your left.
• Keep your torso upright and lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor.
• Raise yourself back up into the staggered stance.
• Max out to 8-10 reps
• Switch legs and repeat.

Allow the heel of your rear foot to raise off floor during descent so that the weight is transferred to your forefoot. Your knees should also point in the same direction as your feet throughout movement.

Cross-Body Mountain Climber

This exercise will work your abs muscles and should be performed at high speeds for maximum results.

• Assume a push up position.
• Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Tense your abs! You will have to hold them that way throughout the entire exercise.
• Pull your left knee as close as you can to your right shoulder, without allowing your hips to sag.
• Return to the starting position and repeat, this time raising your right knee toward your left shoulder.
• Do 10 reps

If that gets a bit easy, do it on higher ground. That should test you.

Chin-up with Knee up

This exercise can be quite brutal at first, but once your strength increases you will be on your way to staying eternally ripped.

• Grab a chin-up bar with your palms facing your body.
• Do a pull-up so your chest reaches the bar, while also raising your knees to your chest. Slowly lower your body and return to the start.
• If you can’t complete a chin-up, simply raise your knees while hanging from the bar.
• Do 10 reps (or to failure)

All three of these exercises are bodyweight exercises and will work every part of your body. Working all parts of your body with compound exercises is an essential ingredient to maintaining overall fitness, but this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more exercises and techniques that will boost your metabolism even further.

What metabolism boosting techniques have worked for you so far?

See you in the comments.

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