Why I consider the Leg raises as the best abs exercise - Lower body and core workout

In a lower body workout coupled with the core, if you have worked out right, you will always have wobbly legs for a good hour or two and soreness for a day or two. I am not complaining because this soreness is an indicator that the workout was great. The challenge is when you try to descend a flight of stairs later.

While the Squat is the king of all exercises according to me, the king of the abs exercises is the Leg Raise. However, there is a small catch to this. The leg raise you usually see in gyms and fitness centers does zilch for your abs. They are great for working the hip flexors, but not the Rectus Abdominis. The function of the Rectus Abdominis is to pull your hip girdle towards your rib cage or to curl the rib cage towards the hip girdle.

Therefore always continue raising your legs upwards towards your head. This will definitely send sharp contractions through the abdominal wall and make you feel the six packs beneath the layer of fat. To ensure you are working the abs properly, suck you tummy in and tighten it throughout the set. Doing this will ensure that you are working the rectus abdominis, and to a lesser degree, the transverse abdominis.

This is why I consider the leg raise (done in this manner) as the best exercise for the abs. It gets better though. Like all bodyweight exercises, even your abs training can be progressively overloaded with tougher variations of this exercise. The gold standard of the leg raises family of exercises is the Hanging Leg Raises, done with the feet going all the way to your head.

Don't take my word for it, do it yourself and you'll see the results.

For further updates on better exercises, workout tips to boost your results Subscribe to http://eurekafitness,blogspot.in today.

Read More »

Meal plan progressions and Push and Neck workout

Another day another workout. AS planned, today was the push workout with the front part of the neck. The workout progressed amazingly well. My performance in most exercises was astonishing for myself.

The routine was as below:

·         Parallel bar dips

·         Push-Ups

·         Pike Press

·         Triceps Dips

·         Front Neck simple bridges

Last Push workout, my numbers were:

·         Parallel bar dips – 3X10

·         Push-Ups – 3X8

·         Pike Press – 3X6

·         Triceps Dips – 3X10

This week was much better, my numbers were as follows

·         Parallel bar dips – 3X15/12/7

·         Push-Ups – 3X

·         Pike Press – 2X8

·         Triceps Dips – 2X10

*Sets in the pike press and Triceps dips were reduces as both muscles are getting ample work from the two preceding exercises.

The workouts are getting better with each session.

Nutrition and Diet

Having been hungry for most part of yesterday, I didn’t feel lethargic or tired. ON the contrary, I felt alert and charged. However, there were mild hunger pangs in between until the first meal, which was at 2000 hrs. Today, the hunger pangs before my first meal were very strong.

Something that I did not adhere to yesterday was segregating my meals based on the quantity of calories per meal. The idea here is to keep the higher calorie meals for the earlier part of the day and taper it down as the meals are eaten. My first meal today was the largest. The next two are about the same each but lesser than the first meal.

The intermittent fasting diet isn’t going to be easy because contrary to the leangains.com norm my:

·         First meal is not immediately after a workout

·         Consumption of BCAA is at only 10 gramsright after the workout, nothing before or during and nothing until the first meal which is 3 hours from my workout.

·         I have a flexible eating window between 8-9 hours depending on how work drives my schedule – a bit.

However, the fasting period is well over 12 hours, in the range of 14-15 hours. So I believe the benefits of fasting can be enjoyed. I do feel I need to incorporate more crunchy green vegetable in my diet, preferably in the fasting stage and during the meals, along with some leafy greens. A little more work required with the diet planner tool, I guess.

Read More »

Intermittent fasting day 1 and Back and Neck workout

While the basic 6 body weight exercises are great and enough to build a strong physique, I still felt the need to add a neck workout using bodyweight exercises to my routine. How this is going to work is that the muscles of the back of the neck are going to be done with the PULL workout and the muscles of the front of the neck are going to be done with the PUSH workout.

I began this week with the PULL workout and therefore worked the back of the neck today. The routine was as follows:

·         Wide Grip Jackknife Pull-Ups

·         TRX Inverted Rows

·         Close Grip Jackknife Pull-ups

·         Reverse Simple neck supported bridge

This was the first time I was doing a proper workout for the neck and it felt like it too. Working the neck muscles with a bodyweight of 233 lbs. can be a daunting task. Fortunately, I let the ego out of the door and did this one with the support of my hands resting on the floor next to my skull.

The back workout itself was quite amazing and I felt the immediate effects in my entire upper back and lats. My previous outings with the PULL routine in the last 3 weeks were using only the TRX, even for pull-us. But I decided to opt for the door gym to perform the wide grip pull-ups as the focus on the exercise and working muscles is far greater than with the TRX. In the latter case, the body also works hard to stabilize itself thus inducing skill work and hampering the strength work.

Nutrition and Diet

Another topic I am going to touch on today is my nutrition plan. I currently weigh in at 233lbs. Of these 233lbs about 178lbs are actually lean mass. Meaning this is the weight based on which my calorie counting begins. I am aiming or 2800-3000 calories a day on days that I workout. So today I have packed about 2900 calories using the following:

·         Chicken

·         Rice

·         Red Kidney Beans

·         Peanuts

This was further supported by other ingredients – green chilies, green beans and garlic. The total protein obtained is about 200 grams, Carbohydrates about 300 grams and Fats about 94 grams. This is being split into 3 meals.

The principle I am following is that of the 16/8 intermittent fasting. Now let’s see how this goes. This was day 1 and I carried the meals to work. While I could furnish the first two meals down, the third was a mammoth task and I had to let close to 1/3 of the contents of my lunch box remain. I also felt bloated but not heavy. 

I have been in the habit of eating small meals for a few years now and therefore unable to eat large meals at one sitting. This is something I am going to work on by force feeding myself until the body begins to accept it.

Read More »

Results noticed – weight lost - 6.67 lbs in 2 weeks

I started my workout at 108kgs or 240lbs. I checked my weight today after nearly two weeks and the reading on the machine was astounding.  In less than 14 days I have lost 3kgs or 6.67lbs. This was similar to my previous results when I first started training with bodyweight training. I did however; make a small change in my diet plan. I kept eating as much as I needed with a 12 hour period – typically 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. since I work night shifts. The idea was to keep the diet clean and whole, no processed foods and aerated drinks. This practice began on Wednesday 11^th, February 2015.

Now, I am not sure if my weight loss was due to the illness which I feel has subsided since the last 3-4 days. However, a thing to note is that my strength has increased and so has my stamina. Based on these observations it is safe to assume that the weight loss was not an unhealthy one but the contrary.

To be sure however, let’s see how I fare in this week. I currently weigh 105kgs and shall start the 5 to 5 cycle of feeding again today – 17^th February 2015. The menu plan is the same as before, keep whole foods only and consume 2600 – 2800 calories per day, within the 12 hour period. At home I prefer to workout between 1600hrs-1700hrs and consume my first meal right after the workout. The workout is always on an empty stomach on the days I follow the 12 hour feeding cycle.

Bottomline, I loved the reading on the weighing scale and am seriously motivated to continue with the dieting experiment. I shall share more on this in the coming posts. Keep in touch for more.

Read More »

A new week a new day – Push workout

The routine begins again. Only this time it is not going to be an easing into the groove thing. This was the real workout and it was fun. Keeping in tune with the routine that was defined last week, I began with the Push workout – Chest, Shoulders and triceps.

It was far better than the last push workout. The routine was the same as last time with more reps in the chest workout and more reps and sets in the shoulder workout. I added the triceps too which was missing the last time. However, I do not feel the need to overdo the workout with excessive exercises and never ending sets. My routine today was:

·         Parallel Bar dips – 3X10

·         Push-Ups – 3X8

·         Pike Press – 3X6

·         Rear triceps dips – 3X10/10/8

My entire pushing muscle group was pumped and sore. I couldn’t flex to hit a most muscular pose without the chest screaming that I stop immediately. Since the last workout on Wednesday, my chest was sore until yesterday. Yet, I was able to do better so I must be recovering and regaining my strength fast.

This is the beauty of bodyweight training when done properly; it can beat the daylights out of a regular gym workout. I honestly haven’t felt this good ever in the gym after a chest workout. There is something about the way the bodyweight exercises work that gives a much pump. I hope you guys have as much fun working out with bodyweight exercises as I do. It is incredible... but don’t take my word for it, try it out yourself.

Read More »

Easing back into workouts after my sickness

As mentioned in my previous post, I did start working out again today. The effort was to ease back into the grind and also primarily to test how well I was health wise, to being working out regularly.

I took up the push routine as the beginning module, not because Chest is my favorite workout but it is the simplest and least taxing to the system. Considering my health status (recovering) I figured picking an easier workout would be ideal.

So I performed the following routine:

·         Bodyweight Supported Dips – 3X10,8,8

·         Flat Push-Ups – 3X8,7,7

·         Pike Press – 2X6,5

The workout was good. My chest and shoulders felt pumped and challenged. They are mildly sore right now. I didn’t really push myself like I would have if I wasn’t recovering from my sickness. I skipped the triceps because the dips itself were pretty effective and gave the triceps a workout.

How did I feel at the end of it?

There were moments I just wanted to stop. My headache was so bad I felt I was going to pop a vein in my head. It has been an incessant pest since the last week. Every day after I wake up, I find a mild headache greeting me. As the day progresses the ache grows and I just wanna punch the day lights out of me to relax the headache. This grows until 4-5 hours and then automatically subsides. It has hampered the quality of my sleep which in turn isn’t letting the healing begin. This Monday was great, no ache unless I touched the spot and then I’d feel a mild ache.

Anyway, today post my workout, the headaches was too bad and I was considering taking the day off from work. But I treaded on. However, within 1 hour of finishing my workout the pain had absolutely vanished. In fact I came in to work feeling very fresh and energized.

Going further,the workout template looks simple for now:

·         Push routine

·         Pull routine

·         Legs and core

By the beginning of March I shall begin my Bodyweight 8X8 training program from scratch – 5X5. But the associated hypertrophy program will continue from where I left off. The updates on these workouts and my results shall be shared here. SO KEEP IN TOUCH.

Read More »

Why the hiatus since the 27th January?

I had mentioned in one of my posts before that I am a strong believer in the importance of absolute healing before resuming or continuing with a vigorous workout regime. However, the bodyweight 8X8 training program turned out to be a major challenge to my system and I guess I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Didn't realize that a little cold could take down so bad. The primary reason was however, excessive workout stress NOT coupled with enough calories for recovery on an already ailing health. RECIPE FOR A HEALTH DISASTER.

It's not like I haven't been working out at all,  but a push routine on Monday followed by the legs workout on Thursday is not my idea of healthy consistency. 

Having been down with a heavy cold and fever which lasted the entire last week, I have also contracted a migraine like headache that begins when I wake up and subsides as the day progresses. However, this isn’t a post to gather your sympathies. It is to tell you that if this happens to you, do not commit the mistake I did. The situation only aggravates.

My simple rules when you are down:

·         When sick, do not workout

·         When sick and you think you’re beginning to get better, do not workout

·         When you’re sick, ditch the low calories diet food and get in the required number of calories, unless your calories are already on par.

·         No matter how much you miss working out, do not workout.

·         Definitely do not perform the Bodyweight 8X8 training program when unwell. It is far too taxing on your body and will put your progress back by days if not weeks.

Wait until your good and back on track before you resume a high intensity training system like the BW 8X8 program. The goal is to build a lean, strong and athletic body that is functionally sound. If you’re going to do this when you’re sick and further aggravate your health, it puts your current progress back by several days or maybe weeks. So relax and let the body rest, this is a sign that it is crying for some time out.

Retreat now and live to fight another day.

Things are looking far better today. I refrained from workouts completely since Last Monday (2nd Feb) until yesterday and my cough is better. I don't feel the lethargy and fatigue as much.

Let's see how I feel today with a light PUSH workout.

Read More »