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Weight Loss Exercise

Weight Training Accessories






While weight training is very important for overall health and fitness, lifting heavy weights can put a lot of stress on your body. Even when maintaining the correct form and technique, accidents or injury may happen. That is why many strength training instructors recommend the use of weight training accessories. Accessories for strength training can make your workout safer and more comfortable, thus enhancing the effectiveness of your workout.

Lifting Gloves

A good pair of lifting gloves is one of the most basic weight training accessories that you need. Lifting gloves help make your strength training exercises more comfortable. They can help you avoid blisters and calluses. Gloves can also help prevent your sweaty hands from slipping off barbells or dumbbells while lifting.

Gloves for weight training are usually made of leather or synthetic rubber such as neoprene. These materials are breathable and prevent sweat and heat from building up inside the gloves. Lifting gloves that are machine washable are ideal for easy maintenance and hygiene.



Weight Lifting Straps

Another important weight training accessory is weight lifting straps. Straps can help you avoid dropping the barbell. These weight training accessories are worn on the wrist and wrapped around the barbell or dumbbell to help you maintain a good grip on the bar.

Weight lifting straps can be helpful if you experience pain when doing arm curls or if you have sweaty hands. However, some experts discourage overusing weight training straps as your natural grip may grow weaker if you rely too much on them.

Wrist Wraps

Wrist wraps are different from weight lifting straps. Wrist wraps help support the wrist when doing presses, such as bench press or military press. These weight training accessories help prevent wrist or elbow pain that sometimes happens during pressing movements.

Wrist wraps are inexpensive weight training accessories and can help prevent wrist and elbow injuries.

Joint Straps

If you have weak or injured knees or elbows, straps may be able to keep your joints from becoming hyper-extended. Wrap the joint straps around your knees or elbows to prevent injuries. Knee wraps can be helpful when doing squats and are especially helpful for power lifting.

Weight Training Belts

Weight training belts help to protect the lower back as well as the muscles of the entire upper torso. This popular weight training accessory also supports the sides and prevents twisting or bending incorrectly. Weight training belts are particularly helpful when lifting your maximum weights.

Fitness experts discourage frequent use of a weight training belt, especially when lifting weights below your maximum. Limit the use of a belt to your heaviest sets when doing deadlifts or squats. Keep in mind that you do not need this weight training accessory when doing curls or rows.

Proper Use of Weight Training Accessories

Weight training accessories can help make your workout safer and more comfortable. However, you must learn how to use these accessories correctly. Get the advice of a gym instructor on the proper use of strength training equipment and accessories. When used in the right way, weight training accessories can enhance your workout.



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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Lift Weights to Lose Weight




Weight training or to lift weights to lose weight plays an important role in your goal to lose weight. While many people are aware that cardiovascular exercise and a healthy diet are important in weight loss, they may not realize that lifting weights can help you lose weight. The most efficient way to burn fat is to combine cardio workout and weight lifting. When you gain lean muscle mass, your body will get stronger and turn into a fat-burning machine.

 Lift Weights to Lose Weight

How to Lift Weights to Lose Weight

Lift Weights to Lose Weight

Lifting moderate weights is a great way to lose weight. Many people are concerned that weight lifting will cause them to grow big muscles and gain weight. Women, in particular, are afraid of developing a muscular physique even if lift weights to lose weight is really effective. This is unlikely to happen because women do not have enough testosterone for that kind of muscular gain. With the proper technique for lifting weights to lose weight, men and women can develop lean muscle mass that burns more calories.

Significance of Metabolism

Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Even when you are resting, your body continues to burn calories to sustain life. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. People with more muscle mass burn more calories than someone who has more fat, even if they weigh the same. If you want to increase your metabolism and burn more calories, it’s important to lift weight to build more muscles. Even additional pound of muscle burns an extra 35 to 50 calories per day, even without additional activity.

High Repetition Intense Workout

One of the most effective ways to lift weights and lose weight is by high-rep intense training. Exercises such as bench press, rows, squats, leg press, and military press workout the major muscle groups of the chest, shoulders, back, glutes and legs. Exercises that isolate specific muscles should also be done, such as barbell curls and leg curls.

To lift weights to lose weight, do two sets of each exercise using light weight for 15-20 reps. Limit your rest period to 30 seconds betweens sets. After completing all exercises, rest for 3 to 5 minutes and then repeat. The high-rep intense workout should take at least 20 minutes. This will elevate your heart rate and cause your body to start burning fat.

Beginners can reduce the number of exercises or increase the rest period.

Circuit Training

Circuit training is another way to lift weights to lose weight. Circuit training is a highly-intense exercise routine that should include 8 to 10 different exercises or stations. The circuit should include exercises for the major muscle groups and body weight exercises like crunches and push-ups. Do 15 to 20 reps per station and the maximum number of crunches and push-ups that you are capable of doing. Do not rest between stations.

After completing the first circuit, rest for 3 to 5 minutes and then repeat two or three times. Circuit training involves high-rep and light weights that will elevate your heart rate and burn more calories for weight loss.

I have tried to give you a lot of tools, especially for women that may be nervous about lifting weights. Always remember that it is a great method to lift weights to lose weight.


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Weight Loss Exercise

Fast Weight Lifting Workout


Read a great review of the Fat Loss for Idiots program. See if you can lose 9 pounds in 11 days and what Cycled Eating is

Fast Weight Lifting Workout

Fast Weight Lifting Workout

I know I only do this occasionally but thought that it would be nice just to post my fast weight lifting workout for the day today. This whole workout had my body worked out hard within30 minutes

As I have commented before on Twitter and on Facebook, I have switched to a much shorter, fast weight lifting workout based on lots of science but also trying to find convenience for myself. I was on the verge of splitting my workout to a 2 day split a few months ago and over the summer started trying to find ways to do heavier quicker workouts. The example I will show you today of my current fast weight lifting workout is quite good but there is still room to improve.

Start of Fast Weight Lifting Workout

So I started my workout today with a simple circuit. To me lately the key to all of my workouts are doing compound exercises, this way I am leveraging different muscles on each set and getting all of my minor muscles groups done. I hate remembering weight amounts but I will give as much detail as I can.

Please note that I did this warmup set back to back to back in about 5-10 minutes or so.

  • Bench press – machine – 12 reps I pushed these out ok and this was mostly warming up the shoulders triceps and chestFast Weight Lifting Workout
  • Military press – machine – 12 reps I find that I have a bit of soreness in my left shoulder but this exercise is a good warmup for triceps and shoulders
  • Wide Grip Pulldowns – machine – 10 reps I do wide grip pulldowns to get a good stretch and warmup my lats and biceps
  • Close Grip Rows – machine – 10 reps – Here I am working my lats differently and also stretching out my lower back. I get the weight up higher for this than a traditional warmup because I love the lat burn.
  • Tricep Pushdowns with rope – 12 reps – This is just an addon to a regular pushdown where the rope allows you to get a better peak contraction. I had a higher weight on this as well.
  • Alternating Bicep Curls – dumbells – 10 reps per arm I was just getting a good contraction for my biceps as the back exercises warm up the biceps but they could still use some work.
  • Seated Hamstring Curls – machine – 12 reps I skipped squats today to isolate a bit (maybe I was lazy?) this exercise really hits the hamstrings good and was a good warmup
  • Leg Press – machine – 12 reps I always love leg press as I can really feel the burn in the quads and the flex in my knees

Now that I was warmed up I did one superset for each of my main muscle groups. These supersets woulde make sure that I was able to get a fast weight lifting workout in and still really pound my muscles. All of the exercises were to exhaustion meaning that I could not get one more rep out even if I had to. Also there were no breaks in between the superset sets but about 2 minutes before I did the next muscle group.

Chest Superset
Cable Crossovers x 10 then machine bench press x10 Here is where I found that I am a lot stronger. I had moved up the weight I regularly use for crossovers and it was still not quite hard enough so my reps were to high. I really pushed the bench press though

Back Superset
Wide Grip Pulldowns x 8 Seated Rows x10 I did the same as my warmup sets for back but I really increased the weight. I did not get the weight high enough for the seated rows so I need to remember this for next time.

Shoulder Superset
Front Laterals x10 Side Laterals x 10 Pullups x 10 I know that the laterals are really an isolated exercise and should maybe do military press but I get a great contraction and burn with laterals vs militarys. My shoulders were really burning by the time I did the pullups and I kept my knees loose and really focussed on my form so I did not swing the weight around.

At this point I was really wiped and breathing a bit harder than I expected, I moved to legs before arms

For legs I did the same as the warmup (again I am a wimp for not doing squats) and I turned up the weight for hamstring curls and leg press.

For biceps I did 7-2-1 exercise which is done with a bar. 7 reps from bottom to half way up, 7 reps from half way up to peak contraction, and then 7 full reps. All this in one set.

For Triceps I did kickbacks to really get a great burn. I have fairly strong triceps so I get cocky about tricep exercises.

And that was the workout. Does not seem like much but this is kinda what I am doing twice a week for weights and I have to say I am getting stronger fast and think I am making better muscle gains because of the fewer sets.

Improvements needed for my fast weight lifting workout

Fast Weight Lifting Workout I am still not having perfect sets or workouts. I feel great but I have not got perfect conectration on each set and my intensity could always get better. One more thing that I need to dial in better is the weight that I use in each set. I want to get my reps to about 7 reps per set but I am not quite there yet, going a little too light compared to my strength.

And finally, I still struggle a bit with ego issues. If I do compound exercises properly then I should be able to get away with Squats, chest, back, and shoulders with no bicep or tricep exercises, I feel though still that I have to work those guns.

Why should we do a fast weight lifting workout?

There are a few things that are helping me these days and I will psot them as seperate post to make sure that they get the attention they should get but I have been moving up my strength in a large part due to the fact that I am doing less sets but each set has far more intensity. Also I am taking my sets to the very end, making sure that I am getting the most from each and every set. Finally I am concentrating on good form and a peak contraction on every rep.

I know that my exercise routine changes over time and I am sure that just as I am reducing sets now that a year from now I am sure that I will have spun it up to more sets per muscle group. Remember the most important thing to do in any workout, especially a fast weight lifting workout, is to create confusion in your muscles, making sure that you workouts, sets and reps are always changing.

Doing a fast weight lifting workout is a great way to do all of the above and save time getting stronger.