Simple Fitness Wisdom – My Lists of 3
Posted on 28 August 2008
This is just a short quick post of the top 3 things in my opinion to achieve various goals like; Build Muscle, Burn Fat, Be Healthy, Supplements etc….Hope you enjoy it and feel free to disagree or agree, I am sure my opinion on some of these things will change with time but for the time being here it goes.
Activities for and Athletic Body
- High Intensity Weights/Resistance Training
- Sprinting – See here……
- Intense Yoga
Things for Fat Burning
- Coffee
- Green Tea
- Cod Liver Oil
Overall Health Supplements
- Magnesium
- Cod Liver Oil
- A Natural Multi-vitamin
Exercises to do in the gym
- Deep Squats
- Standing Barbell Shoulder Press
- Pull-ups (Weighted if you can)
Exercises to do Outdoors/Without a Gym
- Jumping Squats
- Push-Ups
- Dips
Build Strong Abs (See this Post….)
- Planks – Great Post at Fitness Black Book….
- Negative Chin-ups
- Lift Heavy Weights
Nutrition Tips
- Eat Real Unprocessed food – Great Post at Modern Forager…..
- Get a wide variety of Fresh Nuts in your diet
- Have some Protein with every main meal
Comment by warren
29 August 2008
Good stuff,
I will have to give the sprinting thing a go. I like long distance running as I’m not bad at it and I love the buzz and clarity i get from it. I will try and mix a bit of fartlek in. As for yoga, I know I should give it a try but always put it off. Got into swimming pool workouts recently and dips feature alot in that. Makes a great change from the sweaty gym.
With regards supplements. I like taking the green foods, Spirulina, Wheatgrass and Alfalfa. I would have to say I’ve been taking these daily for over a year now and have seen great improvements in overall health (both physical and mental) and exercise recovery times. Oh yeah, I also take Bee Pollen.
Like you say though, eating a diet without shite procesed rubbish in it is the best place to start.
Cheers
Comment by Dan
29 August 2008
Good post Chris! I have experimented with nearly all of them, and the only things I would add would be:
1. HIIT – for athletic body
2. Protein – for fat burning
3. Dead lifts – exercises in gym
4. Any sport – exercises for outdoors
5. Consistency – Nutrition tip
Keep up the great posts!
BTW – Love the site design! Did you do this yourself?
Comment by Henry
30 August 2008
Great post.
Why magnesium?
Comment by Methuselah
31 August 2008
How about clean and jerk or clean and press for an exercise in the gym? It’s an incredibly taxing exercise – one set of those bad boys and you feel like you’ve done an entire workout!
Comment by Chris
31 August 2008
@ Henry:
Magnesium is essential and the fourth most abundant mineral in our body, it helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function in our bodies. I have found it to be an essential supplement in order for myself to feel calm and relaxed it cured anxiety for me and I feel it is an essential supplement everyone should take.
How Much? I would suggest starting at 500mg per day before food either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. I sometimes take upto 1g a day depending on how I feel and how hard I am training.
What Type? Do NOT take Magnesium Aspartate which is found in 99% of ZMA formula’s this is a toxic form of Magnesium and can cause depression, not to mention it is extremely poorly absorbed.
Take either Citrate, Glycinate or Taurate as they are well absorbed and cheap as well as easy to find.
I am sure anyone who takes Magnesium will have a far better overall feeling of wellbeing.
Also see: http://george-eby-research.com/html/depression-anxiety.html
Comment by Chris
31 August 2008
@ Dan: Love your extension and contribution to the list, anyone else who would like to add some points or views please post!!
@ Methuselah: I love clean and Jerks totally forgot about them when writing the article. I have been doing Clean and Jerks with Kettlebells recently they are superb!!
Comment by Craig UK
31 August 2008
Great site. Really interesting stuff.
Just one question. You list negative chin ups as a way to build strong abs. Why is that?
Comment by Chris
31 August 2008
@ Craig. Give them a try, they do a great job at activating your core and I guarantee a set or two of negative chinups (weighted if you can) will leave your abs feeling fried. Make sure you down slow on the decent and bring your knees up slightly. go for 8-12 negative reps should take about 1-2 minutes per set. They are really good at activating all of your stomach and lower back, and whilst they won’t give bulky abs they will get you a lean 6 pack, while being in my opinion one of the best total body workouts!
Comment by Helder
5 September 2008
I agree with all that, i only have no opinion about yoga, because i don’t know anything about it, or almost anything. I would just add pull ups for someone working outdoors, if that someone has access to a park, or to a tree:)
Comment by Henry
18 September 2008
I love this post and keep referring back to it.
I thought I already asked this but obviously did not – what do you mean by ‘intense’ yoga. Can you give examples, a sample routine perhaps.
Thanks again and keep it up!
Henry
Comment by Chris
18 September 2008
@ Henry: Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the post. As for Intense Yoga find somewhere that offers Bikram Yoga its an hour and a half and intense!! Give it a go and you will see…..
Comment by Henry
25 September 2008
Magnesium Oxide OK?
Nature’s Bounty is the brand – thanks!
Comment by Chris
25 September 2008
@ Henry: Stay away from Oxide its not very available to the human body and its cheap to manufacture hence the reason supplement companies pump it out…..Go for this stuff: http://www.petergillham.com/product-line/peter-gillhams-natural-calm.php its called natural calm and is pretty cheap $20 for nearly 2 month supply. give that a try I know Wholefoods stock it in the US. Otherwise try a Magnesium Citrate 200-400mg a day will do fine.
Comment by rosie
21 February 2009
im going to start taking the lemony flavor citroma(citrate of magnesia)is it safe to also take wheatgrass in liquid form.while eating fruits and lite meals?plz email me