Have you ever wondered if cardio increases your muscle building?

Most of the old time bodybuilders will tell you that doing cardio will just waste your time. This is really another one of the many myths spread about building muscle.

Cardio not only helps build muscle, it helps in two different way.

1) Muscle building cardio warm-up.

A short five minute session of cardio is the best way to warm for a weight lifting routine.

This short cardio session raises the core temperature of your body and preps your limbs for your weight lifting session. This prep is needed to help reduce the chance of injury doing your workout and should never be skipped.

Any type of cardio is good for this whether it is cycling, running, jogging in place, or using equipment like an elliptical trainer or stair climber.

Cardio will increase your heart rate causing increased blood flow throughout your body so that it is properly prepared and warmed up for weight training.

2)Cardio is good for building muscle.

If your primary goal is to just build strength and muscle volume, then cardio will not play much of a role except during your warm-up.

But, if you want to get six pack abs and be able to show of a great ripped look then you need to add some high intensity cardio to your weight routine.

In gyms all over the country you can see people that start wanting to look like their favorite sport or screen idol with that fabulous ripped  physique so they hit the gym.  They pump iron for months and they do get bigger and gain strength if they are doing it right. But they simply don’t get the definition and tone they wanted. Definition will never come if they do not include muscle building cardio in their workout routines.

So which type of cardio do you include? Do you do a hard 45 minute treadmill workout 3 times each week or long pleasant run through your local park?

Neither of them will give you what you need. You need to go for high intensity, low interval cardio if you are truly serious about muscle definition. It is a must to get those washboard abs and a seriously ripped body.

Running on a treadmill or taking a long run through the park will not do it for you. Not just any old cardio will do the job. To be really effective, muscle building cardio can be short but it has to be intense.

Okay. We know that cardio has to be intense to be effective, but how often do we need to cardio and is there a best time? Studies have shown that if you do your high intensity cardio immediately after your weight training workout you will burn the maximum fat.

Since you are going to do both your weight training and cardio at the same time you can truly have an off day to relax and enjoy. If you are up to it, doing some additional muscle building cardio on your off days can also maximize your fat loss.

Like all new routines, when you begin high intensity cardio to build muscles, you need to start slow. Trying to make up for lost time will only increase the chance of injury. This doesn’t mean that you should reduce the intensity of your workout but you should not do it every day of the week.

Some guys think that cardio is just too easy to build muscle but they are wrong. It is hard work.
When you are panting for breath, with your eyes watering and muscles burning, you may want to quit.  But if you keep on, you will finally see those muscles you have been building which have been hidden beneath the fat.

And you will realize that cardio can build muscle and it was all worth it.

Technorati Tags: cardio, Fat Loss, high intensity cardio, Muscle Building, Six Pack Abs

[ Note: This article was written by Jon Benson who graciously gave me permission to share it with you. I hope you enjoy Jon's take on fitness and nutrition as much as I do. ]

Got a minute?

That’s all I need to share my first of many video-based 1-minute fatloss tips.

Go here for the first of many….

click—–>  How To Eat Your Favorite Foods And Drop Bodyfat

My new design is something to see too.

I have my weekly live 1-minute video, tons of new features… even a “diet quiz” if you care to test your fatloss knowledge.

Plus my main presentation: “1 Tip To A Flat Belly!”

Just don’t laugh at my ballcap/unshaven look in the video… I wanted this to be super-casual, but I may have taken it a bit too far… ; )

Oh… speaking of a flat belly… I’d like to give you yet another reason to eat and workout the way I suggest in “Every Other Day Diet” and “7 Minute Body”…

I had to go to the hospital last week. No worries… I’m fine… just a bit of a scare. Definitely enough to wake you up from walking through life like it will never end! But fortunately for me, only a scare.

Anyway, the doctors in the hospital were amazed when they looked at my heart and lungs (they had to make sure I did not have any infection… and I didn’t.)

“Most 46-year-olds do not have these around their heart,” the doctor said as he showed me the pictures they took. You could see all these vessels around the heart and branching off the main arteries.

“Peripheral vessels… they were formed by your exercise program. Well-done! These help keep your heart strong and healthy.”

Every doc that listened to my heart said, “Wow… strong heart!”

Indeed… resistance training makes it so.

Before I left, after the scare went away, I asked the doctor his opinion on my dietary plan. “Well, obviously you are very lean and in fantastic shape for a man of any age.”

Thanks doc, but I wasn’t fishing for a compliment!  Since this was a heart doctor I was curious as to his thoughts.

“If you had heart disease, or if you want to prevent it, this is the exact dietary plan I would recommend.”

While I expected to hear this, it was still music to my ears.

So, my higher-than-normal dietary fat and protein, lower-carb, and relatively frequent “fun food” dietplan is “ideal” to combat heart disease according to the good doc. And according to my family doctor.

Nice to know.

Read more about my plan here…

click—–>  How To Eat Your Favorite Foods And Drop Bodyfat

Remember:  A good dietplan and exercise is not always sufficient to keep you disease-freee… but I love what the doctor told me.  “People who exercise and eat like you LIVE through it and recover much faster.”

Fortunately I didn’t have a nasty virus to recover from… but if I did, I know my condition would have helped me do just that.

Technorati Tags: Every Other Day Diet, Fat Loss, Heart Health

This bit of advice came from Mike Gear, the TruthAboutAbs guy. Many of you have probably heard about some of the health benefits of cinnamon before. I have been using 1/4 teaspoon on my oatmeal for ages. Tastes good and helps fight cholesterol.

But Mike pulled the unique benefits of cinnamon together and sent me the following email. I think you ‘ll find it enlightening.

==========

You might even call it a “fat burning spice”… in a roundabout way.

Here are some other benefits of this miracle spice:

• controls blood sugar levels
• helps maintain insulin sensitivity
• a very powerful antioxidant
• may have antibacterial and antifungal properties
• and dozens of other benefits

So what is this miracle spice?

In a study published in 2003 in the medical journal Diabetes Care, groups were split into people taking 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon per day in capsule form (the equivalent of approx 1/4th to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon).

Cinnamon can also increase insulin sensitivity, which essentially means that it is helping your body to control blood sugar while simultaneously allowing your body to produce less insulin.

As you know, chronically high insulin levels can make your body pack on the blubber.

How to harness this to lose more fat…

One possible way to benefit from cinnamon to lose more fat is to use cinnamon daily in your meals when you can, such as in yogurt or cottage cheese, in smoothies, oatmeal, or anything else you can think of where it would go well.

Also, you could use a cinnamon capsule before each of your meals.

This could help to control blood sugar and insulin response from your meals and thereby control your appetite and cravings throughout the day… hence, helping you to lose body fat more effectively over time.

So now you can see that not only is cinnamon a powerful antioxidant that can help you stay youthful longer, it can also help you to control blood sugar and get a leaner body!

Note: please make sure to consult your doctor before adding any new foods or spices to your nutrition plan if you are taking any medications or have food allergies.

Go to the link below to discover over a dozen more unique foods, spices, and weird styles of workouts that help to burn your abdominal fat faster:

TruthAboutAbs

Technorati Tags: fat burning food, fat burning foods, Fat Loss, how to lose baby fat, how to lose fat fast, lose fat quickly

It always amazes me that everyone seems to flock to each new “miracle” supplement that guarantees to burn fat fast – and keep it off! And then next month or maybe even next week they trample each other trying to get the next new supplement.

Whatever happens to the “old” supplements? Don’t they work anymore? Has our body chemistry changed that much in such a short time?

Or do we just want to lighten our wallets so the scale shows we’ve lost that extra weight?

I love it when someone reminds me of one of the old tried and true methods that has been tossed aside. Jeff Anderson is great at doing that as he shows us here.

All but lost is a little-known “Old School” supplement that used to be one of pro bodybuilding’s Top Gun supplements for when competitors were trying to shed crazy amounts of body fat, but needed to hold on to as much muscle as possible.

Why haven’t you heard of it as often?

Well quite frankly, over the years, individual supplements just haven’t been as “sexy” as the high priced “breakthrough formulas” being marketed…and not as profitable for the supplement companies!

So what is this amazing (yet boring) supplement that can dramatically increase fat-burning while helping keep the muscle mass you’ve worked so hard for?

It’s called “Medium Chain Triglycerides” (MCT’s) and it’s one of those supplements that has been PROVEN to work!

MCT’s most often come in the form of an oil (either by itself in supplement form or in coconut oil) and is itself a FAT…

…a fat that actually BURNS FAT!

You see, MCT’s are digested differently than other fats.

For one, they CANNOT trigger fat storage no matter how much you take!

Weird…but TRUE!

Also, they produce a LOT of energy and are burned very quickly, thereby saving your muscles from being broken down for fuel during cycles of intense training.

I suggest using the complete formula in “Homemade Supplements” first because I show you how to use it in combination with a few other cheap supplements to create a KILLER personal supplement you can make yourself!

(You can learn how to make your own supplements at www.MakeYourOwnSupplements.com)

However, you can also take a tablespoon by itself during dieting cycles when you need extra energy but don’t want to increase your calories.

The best times are immediately upon waking or about 20-30 minutes before weight training.

Give this “lost supplement” a try if your goal is to burn body fat while you’re still training with weights.

It’s a VERY powerful addition to your supplement program that won’t cost you a kidney!

If you haven’t taken a look at Jeff’s Homemade Supplements yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. You will be surprised how easy and cheap it is to whip up your own supplements.

Technorati Tags: Bodybuilding Supplements, Fat Loss, muscle building supplements

Several years ago Jon Benson published The Every Other Day Diet and added more content last Fall. This is still a hot selling and highly recommended diet plan for a simple reason. It works.

He doesn’t push any fads off on you, just sound nutrition backed by sound research. The following was written by Jon Benson and I am sharing it with you here to give you a taste of what the book contains. Enjoy.

Protein shakes are a dime a dozen. However a high-quality protein drink that is both homemade and nutritious is a rare find. Most protein drinks today have traveled the path of least resistance — cheap and potentially dangerous sweeteners, sugar alcohols (in order to bring down the supposed “carb count”), and protein sources that are often dubious…and accompanied with more outrageous claims than grams of the good stuff.

I use a simple, homemade, economic and super-healthy protein drink at least five times a week during my normal nutrition cycle and several times a day during peak training cycles where I need to be in top shape. My strategy for building this drink was simple:

1. Go hormone-free and organic with everything possible;
2. Go with plenty of healthy fats rather than cheap sugar substitutes to help control insulin and provide more satiety;
3. Think ‘raw’;
4. Make it delicious!

Below you will find this recipe, complete the the exact ingredients used. It takes less than five minutes to make and keeps me full for 2-3 hours. It is less than 1/3 the cost of an out-of-the-box MRP (Meal Replacement Product) and contains 1/10th the number of ingredients — and that’s a good thing. If you cannot pronounce it, it’s probably bad for you. And it tastes fantastic!

Mix the following into a high-quality blender:

1. One heaping scoop of Jay Robb’s Egg White Protein You will need to adjust this amount to your body weight. I use up to 1.5 grams times my body weight (max) and as low as 1 gram times my body weight when doing two shakes a day. For me this is between 20 and 35 grams of powder. Jay uses the best sources available, including hormone-free cattle and Stevia, a herbal sweetener, to make his excellent protein. There are no additional carbs to speak of and only the bare essentials ingredient-wise. Jay also makes a high-quality whey. I will often combine the whey and the egg white powders, using a bit over half a scoop each.

2. One raw egg (cage-free) Do not worry about cholesterol or getting food poisoning. These claims are mostly media hype. You need the high-quality protein and fats found in the egg. Most people try to go low-fat when making a protein shake. This is a mistake, as fats are crucial to the digestion of protein. As for contamination: Roll the egg on the counter. If it wobbles, you are safe to consume it. I’ve used this technique for ten years and I’ve yet to have one case of food poisoning consuming raw eggs. Oh, and it makes the protein drink taste better (believe it or not.)

3. Five grams of L-Glutamine Powdered L-Glutamine (I use Jarrow’s brand) is one of the healthiest things you can supplement your diet with. L-Glutamine has been shown to be one of the most powerful nutrients for both recovery and immunity enhancement. Bodybuilders will take up to 25 grams per day of L-Glutamine during hard training cycles; I do as well. It makes a tremendous difference in both performance and wellness. It is tasteless, too.

4. Five grams of Creatine Monohydrate If you want more strength and muscle fullness, good old creatine monohydrate (the non-fancy stuff; just monohydrate for me) works like you would not believe. Five grams per day is all you need. Like L-Glutamine, it is tasteless. I use Jarrow Brand.

5. Raw almonds I cannot say enough good stuff about almonds. Besides tasting great, they are loaded with essential fats and healthy fiber. Here is how I measure how much to use. This comes right out of my book “The Every Other Day Diet”.

Get it here:

The Every Other Day Diet The “Cheat To Beat” Diet Plan

You can find 15 other shake recipes and over 40 pages of recipes in my book that fit the bill of being tasty and fantastic fat-burning meals. Here is the trick: Divide your body weight by 10. That’s it. If you weigh 200 pounds as I do, that means 20 almonds. Simple, right? I created an entire measuring system for Every Other Day Diet’s SNAPP! System of eating that is this simple for everything: Calories (none to count), carbohydrates, fats, protein intake… even water!

6. Frozen berries (raspberries mixed with blueberries) Yes, fresh is better than frozen… but frozen makes the shake more frothy. Plus I buy organic berries and freeze them in containers. There is practically nothing lost in the process. How much? Simple: Divide your body weight by 5! In my case this is 40 berries, or about a handful. Once you count them out once or twice you never have to again.

7. Pumpkin seeds This was a great find: A super-healthy and tasty addition to my protein recipe, plus a nice bump in the fiber content. Measuring something as fine a seeds is a bit more challenging using my numeric system, so we keep it simple: Use your palm. Just pour the seeds into your palm. Make sure they are not forming a pyramid or overflowing. That’s the ideal amount.

8. 1 to 1.5 cups of pure water I use only 1 cup of water as I like my shake thick.

9. 1 cup of ice Adjust to taste and texture preference.

10. Stevia (to taste) I love Stevia. It is an herbal sweetener that does not cause an insulin spike like sugar or even sugar alcohols can, and does not have the health hazards of artificial sweeteners. I use a few packets as I like my shake nice and sweet.

There you have it: A mostly raw, protein-rich, health-fat, carb-friendly protein drink that will fill you up for hours, tastes great, and contains more raw nutrition than most people get in a week.

P.S. There’s an eye-opening weight loss video you need to see.

Watch it here: Weight Loss Video Watch

Technorati Tags: Every Other Day Diet, Fat Loss, Protein, Recipes, Shakes