New Year - A New You

So the new year is looming and 2009 looks to be an interesting one. With the bite of the economic meltdown it will be interesting to see how many people will follow their new years resolution and join a gym for a month or so before 90% of these people quit.

For those 10% of you who are looking to join the rank and file of us that frequent the gym regularly, WELCOME!!!

Now I am sure many of us have thoughts on what we want to achieve physically in the new year....mine is to bulk up more as I have shed a few pounds of muscle through my last 12 week cycle. Some of you may wish to lose fat, while others may wish to bulk up with muscle like myself.

Setting Goals

What you need to do to achieve your goal is set milestones to attain them. Say you wish to add 40 kilograms to your bench press then why not split this down in to manageable chunks. An example would be to set 4 stages where you congratulate yourself by adding 10kg, then 20, then 30 before hitting your goal of 40 kilograms. If you do this then it will keep you motivated as you are still hitting your smaller targets rather than trying forever to hit your main goal.

This process will work with any goal whether it be burning fat or packing on the muscle.

Now I hope you will all keep coming back as I post more about nutrition, workouts, exercises and much more in 2009. Hopefully some of the information I post is useful and will help you achieve your new years resolution to be trim and muscular!

Killer Home Leg Workout

Now we move to the killer home leg workout. This routine starts with no weight required at all and builds to the requirement of dumbbells, a step and a bench or chair will be required.

Legs are missed alot in training so when it comes to a home workout a killer home leg workout is very important.

We will complete three exercises at four sets each with twelve repetitions.

Exercise One

Bulgarian Split Squat

Find a bench or chair that is roughly knee height, Stand just short of your leg length in front of the bench and place the top of one foot on the bench. Keeping your body upright lower your body by bending at the knee of the leg that is not on the bench until it is at a ninety degree angle then using your leg muscles lift your body to return to your starting position then repeat.

Exercise Two

Squat

Keep your legs shoulder width apart. Bend your legs at the knee and hips so you lower your body towards the ground while keeping your torso relatively upright and your back straight, once you have lowered to a reasonable level reverse the movement you have made to return to a standing position keeping the back straight



Exercise Three

Calf Raises

Stand on the bottom step of your staircase or on a yellow pages book. Raise your heels as high as possible and you will feel your calf muscles tighten as they take the brunt of the weight then slowly move your feet back down as far as they can go, then repeat. Take one second to raise your heels but three seconds to lower your heels.

Calisthenics

Calisthenics may be something that you have never heard of, well its actually a form of exercise used to increase strength and flexibility in the body. Originating in Ancient Greese the word Calisthenics is derived from the Greek words kalos, 'beautiful' and sthénos, 'strength'.

Carrying out calisthenics is very easy as all exercises are carried out without weights or equipment. Generally you will use your own body weight in many simple movements to increase strength and flexibility.

The primary exercises performed in calisthenics, most of which you will already be familiar with are: Situps, crunches, Pushups (pressups), pullups, squats, calf raises and dips. All of these exercises can be carried out without equipment or just simply using what is found around the home such as a chair for the dips or the bottom step of the staircase for calf raises.

Surprising to many but gymnastics is a form of calisthenics as all movements involve using your strength to hold your body in different positions.

If used correctly in a workout Calisthenics can really improve strength and flexibility, if you dont own any dumbbells or a barbell at home then using calisthenics is a great way to stay in shape and keep flexibility. It must be said that calisthenics will not see you grow huge in size as it is limited because of your weight.