First, let’s have a look at the two exercises.  Here’s the scapular wall slide:

And, here’s the doorway slide:

As the voice-over on the video above notes, the scapular wall slide is an acceptable fit for just about any workout routine.  The only exceptions would be those who have upper extremity pain with overhead motions (rotator cuff tears, etc.).

However, we can utilize the doorway slide in certain folks to get to where we want to be a bit faster.  More specifically, these folks are the ones who are REALLY immobile in their upper extremity and wouldn’t even be able to get their arms back even close to the wall on the wall slides.  So, in addition to not making them feel bad about their “tight shoulders”, the doorway slide actually allows us to use the doorway as a stretching implement to get a gentle stretch across the anterior shoulder girdle (predominantly pec major and minor).  There are three very important coaching points:

1. Don’t let the head poke forward, as a forward head posture is simply a substitution for not retracting/depressing the scapulae or horizontally adducting the humerus.

2. Don’t crank too aggressively on the shoulders; it should be a subtle stretch.  And, it shouldn’t be used with those (particularly overhead throwing athletes) who already have increased external rotation and, in turn, more anterior laxity.

3. Make sure to focus on pulling the shoulder blades down and back as the elbows are lowered.  You shouldn’t have movement of the humerus without movement of the scapula.

For more shoulder mobility drills and the rationale for them, I’d encourage you to check out our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.

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Things I Learned from Smart People: Installment 1 – This features some stuff Bill Hartman taught me about the diagnosis of disc herniations.

Shoulder Range-of-Motion Norms – What’s normal – if there is such a thing?

Avoiding the Workout Routine Overhaul – This piece talks about the problem with people that jump completely from one workout routine to another at the drop of the hat – and outlines a better strategy.

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For more innovative strength exercises and a comprehensive, versatile program to get you to where you need to be, check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.

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Water

Water is an obvious part of any workout routine, yet we often forget it. Most gyms sell bottled water, but at a pretty big mark-up. If you want to save money and the earth, pack a bottle and fill it up at a water fountain at the gym. Rather than interrupting your workout to head over to the water fountain, you can stay hydrated while on the exercise equipment.

Try not to reuse commercial plastic water bottles – these bottles you pick up at the convenience or grocery store are meant to be one-use only containers. They can’t be effectively cleaned or sterilized, so reusing them multiple times after exposure to saliva and sweat is a recipe for bacteria. Aren’t you at the gym because you want to be healthy?!?

Toiletries

You’ve probably already got your shampoo and soap (or better yet, an all-in-one shampoo and body wash) packed in your trusty workout bag, but, whether you’re a guy or a girl, don’t forget the face wash. You may be resistant to washing your face more than twice a day, but you can’t skip this important post-workout step. Sweat and humidity increase oil production, which can exacerbate skin problems if you’re already prone to breakouts. Look for skincare coupons so you can pack your gym bag without worrying about spending money on extra products. Get facial cleansing wipes or travel-size products from makers like Proactiv or Burt’s Bees.

Ear Buds and Headphones

Music isn’t a nice-to-have when you’re working out – for some of us, it determines whether we’ll last 10 minutes or 40 minutes on the treadmill. Take some time before your next exercise session to make a playlist with inspirational or high-energy songs (Eye of the Tiger, anyone?). You’ll be surprised how invigorating the right song choices can be, and you’ll see the impact on your workout immediately. For a change of pace during your cool-down time or non-aerobic exercise, consider downloading audio books. If you’re the type of person who’s always short on time, listening to books while working out helps you cross two items off your to-do list at once – you’ll be in better shape and better read all at once!

Extra Towels

Many gyms rent towels or offer complimentary ones, but some of us just can’t handle used towels. It’s easier to just pack a few and close them up in plastic bags after they’ve been used and need a wash. Call us cynical, but we’d rather not trust that the towels have been through the extra-super-hot sanitizing cycle, thanks.

Change of Clothes

A bit obvious, right? Everyone knows a change of clothes is an obvious element of any gym bag, but Here’s a protip for packing your gym bag – always pack two outfits in your bag. We know you hate to have an overstuffed bag, but it’s worth the extra weight. Have you ever spent the rest of the day in a less-than-flattering outfit simply because it was what you had packed in your gym bag?

A friend recently had us in stitches at a happy hour relating this story: She finished her workout at a well-known gym in New York City, showered, and threw on the change of clothes in her gym bag as she was in a hurry to get to an event across town. She had noticed a little powder or dust on her dark shirt and skirt, but thought nothing of it as she tried to dust it off. Little did she realize the hip event she was at featured blacklights, which picked up on what she later determined was crumbled deodorant stick – her entire back was polka-dotted under the lights, which everyone (save her) found hilarious. Needless to say, it’s easy to accidentally pack a shirt with a tear, two left shoes, or some other wardrobe malfunction you may not notice until it’s too late. By having a spare set of clothes, you’ll guarantee you have another option when you realize you’ve forgotten to pack a pair of pants.

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New bodybuilders should get started with lighter weights. This will avoid injuries to your muscles. Be certain that you are properly executing the movements. When you are confident that you have mastered the moves and can handle additional weight, then progressively expand the amount of weight you are currently utilizing. You have to aim to exercise three days a week initially every other day. Your body building exercises should include bench presses, overhead presses, pulldowns, squats, and deadlifts. Repeat every single workout ten times for three sets.

It will be about twelve weeks before your body gets used to the newbie bodybuilding workout routine. At that time, it is permissible to challenge your body and see how fit you’ve become. Having said that, if in twelve weeks, you have not mastered these beginner movements, then you will need to continue with this workout until you feel confident and able to move on.

To challenge your muscles, you will put more pressure on them. This aids your muscles to grow in size and strength. Keep in mind that your workout is going to be a lot more extreme than what you are use to. Because of the added weight, you only have to do 1 set of lifting. Also, rather than doing your bodybuilding every day, you will add an extra day of relaxation. So, for those who were working out Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you will switch to Mondays and Thursdays. You may want to train like this for another twelve weeks before moving to the next degree. You want to give your body adequate time to construct and preserve your muscle groups.

The next step of the body building program challenges your muscular tissues even more so you can stimulate their growth. The number of weight lifted will be much more intense this time around. You can expect to lift less often and also will want more time to let your muscle groups rest in between training sessions. You can expect to rest two to three days in between every training session. Continue to stick to these body building tips and you should have the physical structure you wish.

For additional bodybuilding workout routines, check out DirtyLAWndry’s physical fitness page. Learn extra health, conditioning, and body building tips there.

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What you want to do right in the beginning (even before you go to the gym for the first time) is create some goals. It’s best to make them relatively easy to get oto and date them for a month or two in the future.

When your making these goals for the first time, it doesn’t really matter that much how you do them. Just put down something which you would like to be doing in a months time and date it.

As you get more experienced with goal setting, you can make some long term ones. The problem with these is that they are less motivational when your just starting out so begin with short term ones.

Once you’ve set these up, you’ll want to get some experience with different exercises and fitness machines. So I suggest you go to your local gym and test some out.

Now that you’ve got a good idea how all the machines work and what you need to do on each one, pick out a few that you like. If you can find between 9 and 12 different workouts that each push different parts of your body, then you’ve got the makings of a workout routine.

You should now get started with an eating plan. This is probably the most critical factor in becoming fit and healthy as your body depends of getting lots of good nutrition to get you there. So find some healthy foods which you also actually like eating and write them down.

For example, I really like eating watermelon when it’s in season. This is also packed full of vitamin C and lots of other great stuff. I have also developed a taste for some other exotic and very healthy foods like Okra.

Come over and read this is your going to buy used fitness equipment.

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Just like anything else, consistency is a key element in being successful, and your workout will be no exception. A full commitment is required to give yourself the best odds of success. You need to develop a consistent workout habit. A general rule-of-thumb is that it takes about two weeks to develop a habit – good or bad! If you can regularly hit the weights on an every-other-day regimen, you’ll be well on your way to establishing the consistency you’ll need to be successful.

If you can train at least 3 times per week, that should provide you with enough muscle-building stimuli to start and maintain the hypertrophic (muscle-building) process. It also gives your muscles a day in between workouts to recover. Remember, muscle growth doesn’t occur during exercise; rather, it occurs during the post-workout healing and rest process. Don’t shortchange yourself there.

Don’t let your weight lifting workouts go too long, and never let them exceed an hour. A thorough strengthening workout routine can be accomplished easily in 30 minutes or less, particularly if you only pause for less than a minute between sets, which is desirable. If you feel any sharp pains, stop your workout immediately and try to find out what the source of the discomfort is coming from. Further exercising can make a bad situation even worse, so listen to your body for warning signals.

From purely a workout perspective, muscle growth occurs when you perform a high volume of ‘work’ at a medium, increasing intensity. ‘Volume’ here means the number of reps and sets you perform, and the ‘intensity’ variable is how much weight you’ll lift. All beginning strength trainers should begin their workout regimens using a ‘high volume, medium intensity’ approach. Over time, as your muscle mass begins to build, gradually keep increasing the intensity factor a little to keep sustaining your progress.

Weight lifting and cardio exercises work at cross purposes against each other. Strength training is an anabolic process, meaning that physical and hormonal processes work together to increase protein-based muscle mass. On the other hand, cardio exercises are catabolic in nature, which means they tend to break down muscle protein in an effort to burn calories. If your primary goal is to build muscle, take it easy on the cardio. If, however, weight control is your mission, cardio comes first, only to be augmented with some light strength training.

Drinking an adequate amount of fluids may seem like a no-brainer, but it is key to your workout’s ability to help you build muscle. Increase your fluids intake before, during, and after all workouts. Remember that dehydrated muscle tissue takes longer to repair itself, slowing muscle growth. Also, waste products from the metabolic processes that are occurring during exercise are excreted and need to be flushed out of your system. Drinking plenty of fluids help get the job done.

In addition to fluids, your body needs the right kinds of fuel to assist the muscle building process, so eat before and after your workouts. Since it takes the human body about 1.5 hours to digest a meal, wait that long after eating before starting your strength training regimen. As you burn through those calories, your body gradually becomes glycogen deficient. Glycogens are basically carbohydrates, and if you don’t replace them soon after finishing your workout, muscle tissue starts breaking down searching for another energy store. The easiest approach is to drink some hi-carb fluids after your workout. Eating fruit is also a great approach.

As difficult as it is these days to maintain a balanced diet – and particularly for strength trainers – you may want to consider filling in some of those nutritional gaps with antioxidants and high quality vitamin supplements. So-called free radicals are molecules that tend to destabilize other molecules, and taking antioxidants such as Vitamins E, C, and A can prevent further damage to muscle tissue that’s just been through a hard workout. Glutamine and selenium are also very beneficial.

If you follow these basic muscle building tips, you’ll enjoy a safer and more effective workout!

Author Rocco Polagamo used to be a thin, pencil-neck dweeb until he tried to build muscle how the real strength trainers do! Read his and other articles on how anyone can build muscle fat loss with great tips from the pros!

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Did you know that doing a home abs workout is the same as exercising at the gym? You don’t have to wear your signature gym outfit and deal with traffic. Getting a decent six pack abs workout is attainable at home.

Of course, you can spend a lot cash on a gym membership and the best exercise equipment. But this is not an assurance that you will have ripped abs.

All you need are two important things before you start spending money.

1. Knowledge. Information on abdominal muscles training is available ALL AROUND YOU. Make time and start researching on how you can successfully carry out an at home abs workout without having to spend a fortune. Continuous learning will only get you to your goal faster.

2. Dedication. It takes a lot of effort on your part. You must adhere to your six pack abs workout at all times. Unless you are commited, you can forget about having rock solid abs.

To start things off, allocate a space in your living room, bedroom, or basement to use as an exercise area. This helps in sticking to your workout routine. Each time you are in that room, you feel inspired.

The only two things that I consider as good investments for an at home abs workout are the yoga mat and exercise ball. They are hardly expensive and you can use them for other kinds of muscle-targeting exercises as well.

You can start your program by working out every other day only, and do a minimum of 3 abdominal exercises. Never strain your muscles and it is beneficial to always have a whole day’s rest in between.

Kick off your six pack abs workout using these basic exercises:

a. Bicycles. For this exercise, you need to lie flat on your yoga mat. Place your hands next to your head with palms facing upward. Alternately bend your knees and begin a cycling motion. While doing so, try to touch your right elbow to your left knee as it comes up, then again with the other side.

b. Ball Crunches. To carry on with your home abs workout, use the ball like a chair. Slowly lie on your back and let the ball gently roll under you until your back is comfortable. Your thighs and the upper portion of your body should be parallel to the floor. Little by little sit back up and don’t forget to contract your muscles in your abdominal area.

c. Full Body Crunches. With this exercise, I’ll need you to lie back down on the floor. Place your hands over your chest and bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the ground. Lift your shoulders off the floor a few inches as you pull in your knees at the same time. Hold it right there for as long as you can and then gradually go back to your original position.

Keep in mind to do these exercises slowly but surely. I know you are EXCITED to have six pack abs. Steadily increasing your reps with the intensity of each exercise is the best and the SAFEST method to perform your at home abs workout.

After lots of research, money and trial & error (mostly error), I successfully found how to get shredded six pack abs. After I discovered the 2 things I was doing incorrectly from The Truth About Six Pack Abs System,my belly fat seemed to melt off with far less time exercising, exposing abs I didn’t know I had!

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Your not any worse off, but your not getting any better. If that works for you that’s fine, quite a few people only workout to maintain what they have and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want a pay off for all the hours and hard work you’ve been putting in you need to read on.

Are those last few pounds stubborn and don’t want to come off? Do you feel like your workout and progress is stagnant? If you do the exact same workout every time you go to the gym it probably is. The body adapts just like anything else. If you go to the gym and you do the same workout over and over at some point you will reach your plateau, and at that point you’re just going through the motions.

As we mature our metabolism slows 1 percent a year after 30 as a result of lose muscle mass. So why not just add more muscles you might ask, you could do that but that is not the only thing. What you eat and how you workout can also kick start your metabolism and watch the inches disappear.

The first adjustment is going to have to be to your workout routine. I know the common wisdom is to slim down you go hard on the cardio, but if you’re a little older or not a track star the way most of us do are cardio is slow long and steady which isn’t very helpful when it comes to the 24 hour resting metabolism burn. If you want to burn fat and take off a few pounds in the mean time try this routine for a month.

Do three sets of 10 to 15 reps or what every you are comfortable with of each of theses exercises.

1) Squat

2) The dead lift

3) Lunge

4) Leg curl

5) Calf rise

6) Reverse crunch

Be sure not to make the mistake a lot of people make by over working. You should only workout 3 or 4 times a week so that your body will have time to heal and build the lean muscle that you are working so hard to get.

If you want to add to your workout, you should try muscle mass supplements. Muscle Might is safe and healthy and will help energy, endurance, and strength. Maximize your workout with muscle building supplements.

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One top and competition winning shake recipe is the Chocolate Mint Super Shake. Take one quarter of a cup of water, five ice cubes, and one scoop of chocolate flavoured milk protein isolate or MPI/Casein. Add one third of a cup of cottage cheese, two teaspoons of ground flax seeds, twenty-five grams of pecans, a taste of cocoa, and two or three drops of mint extract. Together, this makes a great shake!

Creativity can keep people on a healthy path more than a strict diet and exercise routine. The more someone gets bored with their lifestyle changes, the more likely they are to fall back on bad eating and exercise habits. Creative exercises and food can keep people interested. The variety offered by different protein shake recipes makes taking protein easy, and it’s such an important part of a good workout routine.

Another great recipe for a protein shake is to use a cup of frozen blueberries, a quarter of a cup of vanilla yogurt, and one to two scoops of vanilla flavoured low-carb meal replacement protein. Add a teaspoon of ground flax seeds, a quarter of a cup of whole oats, and a quarter of a cup of crushed graham crackers. Together, this is called a Blueberry Pie. Add cold water as needed to keep it liquid.

Typically fruit is added to protein shake recipes to give them flavour beyond what they are naturally developed with. Both chocolate and vanilla protein shakes can help repair muscles after a hard or strenuous workout. Add berries, bananas and other fruits to liven them up. Frozen fruit also helps to thicken protein shakes when necessary.

Some of the best protein shake recipes aren’t shakes at all. Protein powder can liven up cooked oatmeal, if you add a single scoop for each serving. Fat free and sugar free pudding can turn your protein powder into a pudding shot. One scoop of powder plus two tablespoons of pudding and an ounce of ice water allowed to thicken can be eaten with a spoon happily. Keep in mind that this will add around fifty calories to your usual shake’s allotment, and another six grams of carbs.

Protein shake recipes can add a good serving of fruit to an already strict diet while making it just a little bit more creative. Recipes can be thicker than normal shakes if necessary, to add a good texture change. Protein powder can even be turned into a yummy desert like peanut butter balls. A half cup of all natural smooth peanut butter is mixed with a quarter cup of honey and one and one half of a scoop of your choice vanilla protein powder. Once this mixture is thick enough to roll, create one inch balls and chill them in the refrigerator. It’s important to remember that this recipe and others may have a higher fat content than your usual diet.

Protein shake recipes work well at turning boring protein shakes into something appetizing that you look forward to taking. Creativity is essential in helping anyone maintain a new lifestyle change, moving from bad eating habits to healthy ones. Protein shakes are important to strong and tough workouts as well, as they help prevent muscle depletion and help repair muscle tissues. In the end, remember that it’s your stomach that has to handle what ever you add to your shakes. Don’t be afraid to create a new recipe all your own!

Protein shake recipes work well at turning boring protein shakes into something appetizing that you look forward to taking. Creativity is essential in helping anyone maintain a new lifestyle change, moving from bad eating habits to healthy ones. Protein shakes are important to strong and tough workouts as well, as they help prevent muscle depletion and help repair muscle tissues. In the end, remember that it’s your stomach that has to handle what ever you add to your shakes. Don’t be afraid to create a new recipe all your own!

People are becoming more health-aware. With this growing consciousness of what good health can mean, more people are exercising, every day. We mean however have tips on how to lose weight more specifically how to lose belly fat

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