Why Weight Lifting Must Be A Part Of Everyone's Fitness Regime

Weight lifting also known as weight training or strength training is not just for bodybuilders. Many people focus on cardio exercises only when trying to get in shape, but weight lifting is incredibly important for every fitness plan of both men and women.

It's well known that bodybuilders and other people who want to modify the muscle on their body use weight lifting to do so, but it's important to know that even if your aim is to lose weight only, it's critical to include strength training in your program.

According to health and fitness experts, lifting weights is not just for creating impact on the muscle, it also play an important part in the weight loss process.

It has been shown that people who do cardio only and don’t do any resistance training in their program end up experiencing the negative effects of long term calorie restriction - loss of muscle mass and slow down of the metabolism.

And of course, muscle loss and/or metabolic slowdown would be counterproductive to most fitness goals, so you must do what whatever is necessary to avoid these effects. Weight lifting is a great form of resistance training that will allow you to maintain your muscle mass and keep your metabolism at optimum level to keep burning calories effectively.

So how do you fit weight lifting into your program?

How often you should lift weights, the type of weight lifting exercises to do, reps, sets etc. are all determined by the specific goals you want to accomplish. Each one of the Visual Impact programs includes specific guidelines on lifting weights to achieve a variety of fitness goals for your body including losing fat, building muscle, gaining strength, increasing muscle density etc.

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Fitness Program For Men To Build Muscle And Lose Fat
Fitness Program For Women To Tone Muscle And Lose Fat
Fitness Program For Both Men And Women To Lose Fat

Beyonce Workout Routine And Diet Plan For Her Slim And Toned Body

Judging from the way Beyonce present herself anywhere that she appears, it can be seen that she is very proud of her body and overall abilities. Beyonce always maintain her body in top shape, and have some of the most spectacular pictures and stunning music videos around.

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One of the very few instances where Beyonce has been out of shape is when she was pregnant with her baby Blue Ivy. But Beyonce showed her ambition to always have her body looking dazzling by dropping all the weight she gained during the pregnancy very soon after giving birth.

beyonce lean abs

Beyonce is much admired by men, women, boys and girls all around the world for the great package she delivers to the entertainment industry including her amazing singing ability, awesome dance moves, a splendid figure and remarkable dressing styles. The question now is: how does Beyonce keep her body always looking good?

Beyonce's Impressive Figure Begins With Her Mental Approach Towards Health And Fitness

It is well known that the mental aspect of keeping up a fit and healthy body is just as important as diet and exercise. Beyonce always maintain the right mindset when it comes to a healthy lifestyle which greatly contribute to her success to always be in jaw-dropping shape.

Beyonce know that she need to be disciplined towards permanent and healthy lifestyle habits, so she live by her own rules regarding that. "I can't eat what I want, and I can't not go to the gym," Beyonce told Self in an interview."The truth is, it's a lot of sacrifice. It's more about your mental strength than physical strength. You have to push yourself. It doesn't matter what trainer you have. And it doesn't matter what program you're on. You have to be healthy and make the right choices,"

Beyonce Diet Plan

Beyonce opted for a very low calorie diet to lose the pregnancy weight she gained. She acknowledged recently that she's been sticking to a strict diet plan, but it's not as restrictive as her plan for dropping the baby weight. Beyonce's present diet plan is not based on extreme eating limitations and deprivation.

beyonce slim body

Beyonce's regular diet leave some room for indulging which is a good approach. It is well known that severe eating restrictions is not easy to keep up with, which is why indulging once in a while is a good strategy to lose and keep weight off.

Beyonce Workout Routine 

Beyonce's exercise regime is based on making use of exercise opportunities and saving time. Beyonce makes use of her dance routines for burning calories and getting toned. So her dance rehearsals may actually be part of her workout routine.

She also does interval training to burn more calories effectively in less time. Her HIIT workout includes alternating between sprinting and running while on the treadmill.

Beyonce's workout also incorporates exercises that work several muscle groups at once. She does squats, lunges, and planks and other exercise moves that'll work her body properly.

Beyonce Also Takes Action To Keep Herself Motivated

Everyone would have their own benefits that they get from possessing a marvelous, well-shaped body. We all know the benefits Beyonce gets from her gorgeous figure.

So Beyonce's main way of keeping motivated to always control her diet and keep working out is by focusing on her career. Her photo shoots, her videos, concerts, award shows etc. are all the things that keep Beyonce pushing for a perfect physique.

How Skinny Fat People Can Get In Shape

You must have heard the term skinny fat before. Skinny fat people are chubby but at the same time they are not very big, and they possess some skinny characteristics. Skinny fat people are close to their target weight, but are soft all over. Honestly, fixing skinny fat syndrome is not very hard, but lots of people don't go after it the correct way.

Many People Remain Skinny Fat Even After Training For A Long Time

From my observation, a good number of the people in the gyms I have visited are skinny fat. A lot of people workout very hard yet don't display the level of muscle tone that they should.

Search through YouTube and you'll see many examples of this. There are tons of videos there of people working their butt off, but still don't possess impressive physiques.


Trying to Create a Calorie Deficit Through Exercise Is A Mistake To Fixing Skinny Fat

The biggest mistake I see people doing is trying to create a calorie deficit with exercise. If you want to lose body fat, you need to create a calorie deficit through your diet and burn additional calories with exercise.

Make sure your diet is in a calorie deficit even when taking away the calories burned with exercise. This is a very important rule for fat loss.

Eating Too Much and Then Trying To Make Up For It With Training Would Prevent Progress

Training hard to make up for a bad diet puts you at risk for increasing your cortisol levels. The typical mistake I see is people hitting cardio for 60 minutes at a time 5-6 days a week.

I have no problem with doing some cardio after HIIT, but I like to limit this to just a few times per week. Increase in cortisol levels cause muscle to break down and increases body fat storage. If you see someone training like crazy but they don't look lean, this is probably the cause.

Back off on Too Much Exercise to Get Rid of Fat 

The first thing I would recommend for skinny fat people is to reduce their calories and reduce their workouts. If they weren't doing resistance training, then that would be mandatory as well. In fact, if they are really lacking muscle tone I would have that person hit the weights hard under a calorie deficit with very little cardio. Maybe re-introduce cardio after 1-2 months.

Focus on Short Intense Workouts While Keeping Your Diet In Order

Skinny fat people typically need to boost the intensity of their workouts, but keep it at a certain limit. The focus should be to avoid the release of cortisol while increasing the HGH through strategic exercise.

Everybody have a sweet spot of just the right amount of exercise that is different from person to person. The key is to find that sweet spot. Once you figure that out, you are just 2-3 months at max away from a complete transformation into better shape.

Note: I know it seems unusual that working out less frequently can actually result in a leaner body, but it is true. 

How To Build Muscle Mass With Bodyweight Exercises

Do bodyweight exercises such as pushups build muscle mass?

Lots of people want to know if they can build muscle mass by just doing bodyweight exercises such as pushups and pullups. Well the answer to this question depends on how much muscle you want to build and the way you perform the exercises.

The common problem with bodyweight exercises like pushups is that you quickly get too strong for them to be challenging. Just going higher with the number of reps you are doing is not very effective for building muscle mass with bodyweight exercises neither.

A set of 50 reps of push ups, for instance, would be high rep endurance training. The problem is that even if you reach failure, it wouldn't really hit the muscle fibers with the most growth potential.

They key To Gaining Muscle Mass Is To Apply A High Work Volume Plus Heavy Weights To The Muscle

In order to build muscle mass you must aim for a high volume of work while lifting weights that are heavy enough to create enough stress on the muscles. You also need to keep the rest periods between sets somewhat brief to get the full pump in the muscles. This is the condition that is required to gain muscle mass fast.

However, if you want to build muscle mass with bodyweight exercises, here is a solution to the limitation problem of these exercises developed by a fitness trainer name Nick Nilsson

How To Build Muscle Mass With Bodyweight Exercises - Do As Many Sets of 3 Reps As Possible in 15 Minutes

Doing as many sets of 3 reps that you can in a 15-minute period is a great strategy to make bodyweight exercises work to build muscle mass. Nilsson suggests 3 reps at a time to limit fatigue in order to maximize training volume (sets and total reps).

The idea is to train the muscles for output and not fatigue so you build both muscle strength and mass. Too much fatigue is bad for building strength.  A high volume of quality reps without hitting failure is great for building strength and putting on mass.

Here's How Such Bodyweight Workout Should Be Structured

1) Pick one body weight exercise – example Push Ups

2) Do 3 reps and rest 10 seconds then 3 more reps…repeat

3) When it becomes tough to do 3 reps, extend the rest time to 20 seconds

4) When it becomes to tough to get 3 reps, extend rest time to 30 seconds

5) Keep doing this exercise for 15 minutes straight. As soon as it gets tough to complete 3 reps add another 10 seconds to the rest time in between sets.

Tips: Make sure to avoid going to failure on all of the sets you perform, but keep pushing yourself. By avoiding failure, you are keeping fatigue at a limit and you will get more sets and reps done in a 15 minute period.

Other Tips for This Bodyweight Mass Building Routine

Nick recommends 15 minutes for back, chest, and quads…and 10 minutes for hamstrings, shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, and abs. He also recommends a 2-day split doing a total of 4 workouts per week. Day One back, chest, biceps, abs and calves. Day Two quads, hamstrings, shoulders, and triceps.

Now you know how to build muscle mass with bodyweight exercises. You could also use this same strategy with weights as well. There are probably a few people who have a weight set at home that they became too strong for. Consider using this lifting method with those weights to make them work to build muscle mass again.

Matthew McConaughey Workout Routine To Keep His Body In Top Shape

Matthew McConaughey is one of the few Hollywood stars who consistently keep up fitness as an important part of their lifestyle - not just to look good for a movie.

Matthew McConaughey has also long possessed an awesome body that reflects his hard work and dedication to keeping fit.

It's easy to find pictures and videos of Matthew McConaughey working out because he likes exercising outdoors a lot. Whether it's surfing, cycling, running, hiking or doing push-ups, paparazzi are always getting shots with the actor working out, oftentimes with his shirt off.

Matthew McConaughey 

Doing these type of exercises is great for building muscular endurance and keep the body burning fat. That's the reason Matthew McConaughey is always looking lean and muscular year round, but when he has to prepare his body for a film role he'll do a special program to get in the right shape for the role.

Matthew McConaughey Workout Routine 

Men's Fitness website reports the following about Matthew McConaughey workout routine when he’s not preparing for a film:

'A typical day for Matthew McConaughey might include pull-ups followed by sprints, press-ups, one-legged squats, and finally kettlebell work. He’ll also take his bike out on the road'.

‘He likes challenging stuff,’ . ‘He’d be bored stiff going into the gym and doing one of those basic workouts.’ One favourite exercise is picking up a dumb-bell, or any weighty object, and holding it for 15 minutes. ‘It’s not as simple as it seems,’ he says.

‘You shift the weight from high above your head, in your right arm, then your left, then rest it on your shoulders, adding more weight to your back, then your legs. You get a full-body workout just by finding out how many positions you can manage without having to set the weight on the ground. You also discover the stronger and weaker spots in your physique'

Matthew McConaughey Workout Routine For 'Magic Mike'

Matthew McConaughey's physique in 'Magic Mike' is much talked about because he was in remarkable shape for that movie.

According to one of the personal trainers that helped McConaughey get in shape for the role, Gunnar Peterson, the actor was already in great shape and enthusiastic about training so it was fun working with him.

He told bodybuilding.com. "McConaughey is one of the few who keeps up his fitness year-round and on-going. The guy is a work-in-progress. It's fun when he rolls through the gym for whatever the next upcoming thing is, because he comes in at a high level and then leaves at a higher level. His 'out-of-shape' is most guys' peak level"

Matthew McConaughey Goal For His Body In Preparation For Magic Mike

Matthew McConaughey wanted to be cut up and ripped up to look like a guy who has run a male revue for years and has made it his life and livelihood in the film.

He had only two weeks to accomplish his goal. However, according to trainer Gunnar Peterson, "he was already at a decent level of fitness, but he wanted to drop some body fat.

He wasn't looking to gain any size. So really it became all about conditioning and maintaining the lean mass that he already had. It was a tough peaking program. He came in every day, twice per day, for two weeks"

Jason Statham Workout Routine And Diet Plan To Get Ripped

Jason Statham rose to fame in the movie industry after appearing as an action star in a list of successful films including "Snatch", "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", "The Italian Job", "The Transporter", "Death Race, Crank", "The Bank Job", "War", "The Expendables", and "The Expendables 2".

Jason Statham is also known for his ripped physique and great abs, which have lots of guys trying to find out Jason Statham workout routine and diet plan he used to get ripped, but the actor was not always in such marvelous shape.

Before taking a serious approach towards fitness in 2009, Jason Statham was not skinny or obese, but he didn't look like the type of guy you'll look at as a fitness icon or take any fitness advice from.

Jason Statham before getting ripped

Statham had a noticeable amount of excess body fat especially around the abdominal area back then, and he confessed in an interview with Men's Health that he never paid attention to the amount of calories he was consuming, and ate anything he wanted to at that time.

All this changed however when Statham made the decision to improve his fitness level, and successful made an impressive body transformation that had everyone talking which he is maintaining up to this day.

Jason Statham dropped 17 pounds in 6 weeks working out 6 days a week, for 35 minutes a day.

According to reports, Statham accomplished his remarkable transformation in such short period of time because his workout was very intense, he worked extremely hard and he was disciplined with his diet.

Jason Statham lean and ripped

And if you look at Jason Statham pictures before he got ripped you'll see that he already possessed a great deal of muscle.

Also, most of the fat was around his abdominal area. So once he dieted down (eat less calories than expending) and trained effectively to lose the fat, his abs would've eventually become visible and he would've looked ripped without building crazy amounts of muscle.

That's the reason most personal trainers and fitness professionals advice that anyone who want to get ripped and possess high levels of body fat should focus on getting rid of the fat first. Because if you put on a decent amount of muscle, but it's covered in a flood of fat, you'll not look nicely ripped or reveal six pack abs.

Jason Statham Workout Routine

Jason Statham worked out with guidance from his personal trainer Logan Hood. They trained every day except Sunday.

From Monday to Friday they did exercises that involed trampolines, climbing ropes, heavy bags, barbells, kettlebells, crash pads, and a complex apparatus of pullup bars. Saturdays were reserved for hour long sustained trail runs.

According to Jason Statham they changed around the exercises everyday. He said “I haven’t had one single day in 6 weeks that has been a repeat”. “Every single day has had a different combination of exercises. Obviously, you repeat exercises over the course of 6 weeks, but you’ll never do that workout you did on Thursday the 23rd of August again. It always changes, and that’s what keeps it so interesting.”

Statham also mentioned that the workout was based on tracking and recording everything as they went along the program.  “All of this is important,” said Statham. “If you want to get faster, stronger, and healthier you have to record and track progress. Making progress is the primary goal of the training I’ve been doing.”

The workout was also structured in three stages I learned. Visual Impact also use 3 stages that impact the muscle and fat loss differently. When a workout program is created in this manner it gives you a better way of controlling your results so you can sculpt the perfect physique you want.

Here are the main exercises Jason Statham did in a workout session.

1. Ten-minute warmup on a Concept2 Rowing Machine
1. Heavy lifting using compound movements like the front squat, deadlift, or power clean.
2. Short circuits of various exercises with light weights.
3. Various carrying exercises with kettlebells or sandbags.
4. A progression of about 15 kettlebell exercises.
5. Various throws with medicine balls.
6. Interval training

Jason Statham Diet Plan

Statham give credit to an intelligent diet plan for his rapid weight loss. A good diet is very important for losing weight. We have indicated in numerous other articles on this site, that when it comes to fat loss, diet is king and exercise is the assistant for getting rid of the fat.

If you want to lose body fat including burning abdominal fat to get flat abs you must eat right otherwise you may just be wasting your time with exercise.

Controlling calorie intake is the most important aspect of a diet plan to lose weight, but the amount of calories a people need to consume to lose weight vary depending upon a number of factors such as their metabolism type.

Jason Statham ate 2,000 calories a day. The following are the main features of his eating plan.

1. He cut out all refined sugar or flour from his meals including bread, pasta, fruit juices and sweets of any kind. His dessert every night was plain yogurt with fresh fruit.

2. He recorded everything he ate and drank including water. “This is the bible,” Statham says, writing everything down makes it impossible for you to muck it up,” he drink 1 1/2 gallons of water a day to himself feeling full.

3. Statham spread out his calorie intake across a number of small meals which is a weight loss method that is used to keep yourself from eating too much at once. He ate six small meals daily consisting of egg whites, vegetables, lean meats, fish, nuts, and protein shakes.

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Brad Pitt Workout Routine For Troy The Movie

Brad Pitt is a very popular actor who shows great acting skills in films he stars in, and he is also well known to attract women everywhere with his looks. Brad Pitt is known to get his body into pretty good shape in preparation for filming some of his movies, especially those where his body is in focus.

Fight Club And Troy

Of all the films that Brad Pitt starred in, he is considered to be in most impressive shape in the movies Fight Club and Troy. Brad Pitt was required to undergo appropriate fitness training to get his body in the right shape for each of these movies.

While there are many guys who consider Brad Pitt's look in Fight Club as the ideal physique for them  because he is not heavily muscular but has great tone, some other men think that Pitt's body in Fight Club should have more muscle and size.

Brad Pitt's workout for Fight Club was not aimed at gaining lots of muscle mass at all, it was more aimed at getting lean and toning up his physique to look impressive.

Brad Pitt Workout Routine For Troy

On the other hand, for the movie Troy, Brad Pitt workout routine and diet plan was structured to put on a decent amount of muscle on his body, as a result he was much more muscular in Troy.

Some men who want to look lean and athletic but at the same desire good levels of muscularity may prefer the Brad Pitt's Troy physique over his body in Fight Club.

But regardless of which of Brad Pitt's look you like most, the key to getting a stunning physique is to work on getting lean, and sensibly adding dense muscle mass on your frame without additional fat. Visual Impact Muscle Building is the perfect program for achieving all these goals.

Here is the reported workout routine Brad Pitt used to get his build for the movie Troy. I notice it's not fully detailed and I don't know if that's exactly what he did, but this is how I found it.

Chest:

Bench press – 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Incline bench press – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Cable crossovers – 6 sets, 10-12 reps
Dips – 5 sets, to failure
Dumbbell pullovers – 5 sets, 10-12 reps

Back:

Front wide-grip chin-ups – 6 sets, to failure
T-bar rows – 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Seated pulley rows – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Straight-leg deadlifts – 6 sets, 15 reps

Legs:

Squats – 6 sets, 8-12 reps
Leg presses – 6 sets, 8-12 reps
Leg extensions – 6 sets, 12-15 reps
Barbell lunges – 5 sets, 15 reps

Calves:

Standing calf raises -10 sets, 10 reps
Seated calf raises – 8 sets, 15 reps
One-legged calf raises (holding dumbbells) – 6 sets,12 reps

Forearms:

Wrist curls (forearms on knees) – 4 sets, 10 reps
Reverse barbell curls – 4 sets, 8 reps
Wright roller machine – to failure

Biceps:

Barbell curls – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Seated dumbbell curls – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Dumbbell concentration curls – 6 sets, 6-10 reps

Triceps:

Close-grip bench presses (for the all three heads) – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Pushdowns (exterior head) – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Barbell French presses (interior head) – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
One-arm dumbbell triceps extensions (exterior head) – 6 sets, 6-10 reps

Shoulders:

Seated barbell presses – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Lateral raises (standing) – 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Rear-delt lateral raises – 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Cable lateral raises – 5 sets, 10-12 reps

Abs:

Ab Crunches– 30 minutes straight until failure.

It's reported that Brad Pitt ate a low-carb, high protein diet over 4 meals a day throughout his training program. Such meal plans are considered good for building muscle and staying lean.