Good fitness page!
One of my favorites is livestrong.com! They have SO many posts about pretty much everything. Of course some of them are a bit so-so, but most of them are reallt good! Basic info on a level that everybody can understand!
Here are some examples
Body weight exercises
http://www.livestrong.com/slideshow/551492-2o-best-body-weight-exercises/#slide-12
When to eat before workout
http://www.livestrong.com/article/292099-how-long-after-you-eat-can-you-workout/
Full body, mainly core and quads
Stand in plank position. Lift one leg straight up, keeping it extended. Every part of you body except the lifted leg should be in the exact same position as when you started! No hip moves! You can choose if you want to do for expample 15 lifts in a row with the same leg, or alternate after every lift!
The upgraded version requires good balance, since we're taking it up on the ball! The moves are the same, but when you're on the ball your core gets even more engaged, as well as your back, quads and shoulders (and the rest of your body ;)!
How to get rid of love handles, muffin tops and belly fat!
One of the questions I oftenly get is how to lose the muffin top, love handles and stomach fat. And the answer is basically the same as I've said before: for any type of fat loss, no matter where on your body it is, the magical formula is: varied cardio + clean diet + weight lifting! A.L.W.A.Y.S!
Varied cardio
When I say varied cardio I mean that instead of doing the same type of cardio like running, power walk, biking etc., you choose 2 or 3 different types! By changing your cardio workout you will burn more calories, compared to when you do the same all the time. The reason to that is that if you run your 8 kilometers 4 days a week for 8 weeks in a row, your body will adapt and get used to that! This is what happens when you "plateau" (stop losing weight even though you’re doing the same amount of exercise as before). So you should never do the same workout all the time. The body needs a good challenge each time!
Clean diet
The diet part I have explained before. Basically you avoid all processed food! You eat lean meat, complex carbs and good fats. You eat 5-6 meals per day and keep your blood sugar levels normal throughout the entire day!
You can visit http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/what-is-clean-eating/ and http://www.eatcleandiet.com/ to get great info!
Weight lifting
Ok; let’s make this clear, once and for all. WEIGHT LIFTING/STRENGTH TRAINING WILL NOT MAKE YOU BULKY! What it WILL do, is boost your BMR (which is your basal metabolic rate)! Why? More muscles need more energy = they burn more calories without you doing anything. And of course you need to have worked muscles to look toned. Otherwise you could lose all the weight in the world, and when you’re done, you'd still just look skinny fat or dying. And YES it is that obvious when someone has lost their weight by just doing cardio and still eating crap, or by eating too little food. It's easily spotted and I really don’t think that is something to strive for, partly because it doesn’t look good at all, sorry, and partly because it ISN'T good for neither your outer body (meaning muscles, skin etc) nor the inner (all organs). So a good muscles base is necessary!
POINTERS
Sit ups will NOT make your belly flat
Neither will crunches or Russian twists or any other ab focused workout. They will build the muscle underneath the stomach fat, so that when you have lost your fat, you will look toned. BUT
you don’t have to do a single ab exercise to get your 6-pack. You could basically eat clean and do full body workouts and cardio and still get it!
Once again I would like to point out that there is no way of exercising that will target fat loss to one specific area. You can’t choose to lose weight in your stomach and still keep your tits. Either your stomach fat might go first, or your butt, back and tit fat goes! You can’t choose! Of course all people lose fat differently, so somebody might actually get to keep their hips and butt, and still lose the thigh fat or whatever they want to lose. It is individual!
Proper squat form
Starting position:
- Feet – Keep your feet shoulder wide. You toes should be pointing at a 45 degree angle.
- Back – You back should be straight through out the whole exercise!
- ( Bar – First of all, do not squat with weights until you are SUPER sure how to keep proper form! The bar should be placed under your shoulder blades, on the "soft" spot (also known as the "trap" muscle) and not on any bones.)
- Head and eyes – Your eyes should be focused right in front you or on a spot on the floor, aprox 2 meters in front of you. You should focus on the same spot for the entire exercise.
- Heels – When you're beginning your squat you need to focus the weight on your heels, and not your toes, which would ne the natural move.
Squatting down:
- Knees out – You knee should always follow your feet and be over your toes when squatting down. If you aren't sure if they follow your feet, you can check and see if you can see your toes at the inside of your knees. That is also OK, but you should NEVER, I mean NEVER see your toes on the outside of your knees!
- Hips – When bending yout knees your hip will shift back a bit, and it should! Almost like an arch/flat back. It will help to keep you more stable!
- Head and eyes – Your eyes should be focused right in front you or on a spot on the floor, aprox 2 meters in front of you.
- Butt - Squeeze your glutes as hard as you can while coming up
- Heels - Push the weight through your heels!
- Legs - Still keep your knees out!
- Hips – Most of the power for the squat comes from the hips. Drive the hips in upwards in one continous motion. (whatch the youtube clip to get a better idea of what I mean!)
Upper body
The picture says it all, exept you have to keep you core tight! Feel free to variate your grip between wide and close to target different muscles!
