Vacation is a great time to start working out! In this video I show you a fitness routine for the complete beginner that you can incorporate into your vacation, no equipment is required and it can actually make your vacation more enjoyable.

The most important aspect of the workout is the cardio. Park the car and don't get back in it till its time to drive home. Rent a bike for transportation or walk everywhere, not only does it provide exercise but its a lot more enjoyable and lower stress than driving. The workout can be incorporated into your daily tourist activities and doesn't need any special time allotted. The workout is: biking or walking, 1-2hrs per day
crunches for core/abs, 2 sets per day (should take less than 5 minutes)
pushups for chest and triceps, 2 sets per day (should take less than 5 minutes)
pullups for lats and biceps, 2 sets per day (should take less than 5 minutes)

I spend a lot of time in the video showing various places to do pullups, this is because I get an incredible number of emails from people who claim that they have "nowhere' to do pullups. In the video I point out lots of places you can do this key exercise.

The reason many people don't get started in bodybuilding is that it seems to complex and intimidating, that's why I recommend this simple program. Its an easy program and you start feeling better immediately, and your brain starts to associate exercising with feeling good. A recent study showed that as little as 10min of exercise a day can do wonders for you mind and body. Once you brain has made the connection between exercise and feeling good, motivation is no longer a problem and you will find yourself wanting to add new exercises.

If you are overweight and can only do 3 knee pushups, don't be discouraged, its not the number of pushups you can do that is important but the effort. For those of you who are overweight, think of it this way, you are lifting far more weight in your pushups than your lighter counterparts so its natural that you cant do as many pushups. What is important is that you make progress each week, if you did 3 knee pushups last week, try to do 3 1/2 knee pushups this week.  Similarly, overweight people will have a harder time doing pullups, not to worry.  Just use your legs to "spot" yourself and help you do your pullups.  Better yet, push your way up with your legs and then let yourself down slowly while hanging free.  Eventually you will be able to do "real" pullups.

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

www.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

Doesn't matter if you are trying to lose fat or gain muscle, good nutrition is key.  Part 1 of the "6-Pack Abs Fast" video series covered a common sense approach to weight loss, exercise and nutrition.  This video goes covers nutrition for those wanting to lose weight or gain muscle.  The reason that most people give for not eating right is that they "dont have time" to cook.  In this video I show many healthy "recipes" and none of them takes longer than 3 minutes from start to finish!  None of these recipes will win any awards but they are quick and healthy.  Many people also give the excuse that "they dont have time to shop" so these recipes use only canned and frozen ingredients so you can shop just once a month!  I can hear people now,

"How can you claim that eating canned/frozen food is healthy?"

Well when the alternative is skipping meals, eating candy bars, or eating fast food - Yes, my meals are VERY healthy!
A word of warning, dont fall into the trap of thinking that because you are exercising so much you can eat what you want - you cant.  No matter how much you exercise, you can eat more than you burn off and end up gaining weight unless you accompany your cardio program with good nutrition. 

First of all, dont think diet!  If you are ON a diet then you are admitting to yourself that it is a temporary thing and you will go OFF it later.  We want to change your eating habits permanently!  Good nutrition, no calorie counting, no hunger, and you will still lose weight - sound too good to be true?  Well, kinda. 

Lets start with the basics - many small meals.  You cant lose weight eating one or two meals a day, it puts your body in starvation mode and lowers your metabolism.  You need at least 5 meals a day. I know your are thinking already, I CANT eat 5x/day I dont have time!   I cant cook, I even burn water and I can eat 5 healthy meals a day.   As I was saying we want to eat 5 small meals a day and each one needs to be well balanced - what does that mean?  The bulk of every meal will be veggys and whole grains, some form of protein (beans, dairy, meat), and fruit.  Your body doesnt store protein, you cant just have a big steak at dinner and call that your daily protein.  This is especially important if you are doing a weightlifting program in conjunction with your weight loss program.  
Lets talk about protein powders and weight gain powders.  If you follow these nutritional suggestions, you dont need any supplements or protein powders - you will get plenty of protein and vitamins in the meals suggested here.   My issue is that I am a pseudo-vegetarian -  I only eat meat/fish/chicken about once a week.  Because of my low meat consumption, protein powder in the form of dairy whey is very important for me.  I like dairy whey without any artificial stuff in it, the product from optimum nutrition is the one I have been using for seven years (I have no affiliations with Optimum Nutrition) you can click here  to order it on Amazon.com.

Now obviously good nutrition alone wont make you gain muscle, you need a good resistance training program and similarly, nutrition alone wont make you lose fat as I mentioned earlier- you need to do 30 min of cardio daily.  These meals are low fat, high in protein and high in fiber so you will never be hungry. 

Most books and articles about nutrition give fancy, delicious recipes - who has time to shop, let alone cook?  Chicken, broccoli, and brown rice might be a great nutritious meal but its just too complicated for people like me who use the smoke detector to figure out when dinner is done - let me show you some easier meals.

My recipes only require the following:
•    can opener
•    microwave
•    blender

Proper nutrition is key to losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.  Here are the nutrition guidelines:

•    eat 5-6 small, well balanced meals a day each with 15-25g protein
•    eat lots of veggies
•    eat  less than 10% of your calories from fat
•    eat only whole grain carbs - no sweeteners or white flour products
•    lose weight gradually, about one pound per week

Lets talk about portion size although I hate to because most people focus way too much on calories and not enough on eating healthy.  If you stick with healthy meals like the ones I show here and eat your 6 meals a day you wont NEED to count calories - you will lose weight naturally.    OK, having said that I know that many of you still like seeing numbers,  so here they are:

Current Weight   #cals/meal to lose 1lb/wk
280lbs (127kg)    610cals x 6 meals = 3700 cals
260 lbs (118kg)    560 cals x 6 meals = 3400 cals
240 lbs (109kg)    510 cals x 6 meals = 3100 cals
220 lbs (100kg)    460 cals x 6 meals = 2800 cals
200 lbs (91kg)    410 cals x 6 meals = 2500 cals
180 lbs (81kg)    360 cals x 6 meals = 2200 cals
160 lbs (72kg)    310 cals x 6 meals = 1900 cals
140 lbs (63kg)    265 cals x 6 meals = 1600 cals

Notice something really interesting here, as you lose weight you need to eat even less if you want to continue to gain weight.  If you weigh 300lbs and eat 410calories per meal, you will lose weight rapidly at first then your weight will stabilize at 200lbs and you wont lose any more unless you decrease your intake further.  Use this chart as a starting point to give you approximate portion sizes, stick with that a month and see what happens with your weight and adjust the portion size to help you zero in on 1lb/wk fat loss.  With the meals I show, the portion sizes are appropriate for someone around 180lbs.

Happy Cooking!

Here is a killer arm workout you can do at home with just a set of dumbbells to help get those huge guns, I’m sore for days after doing this workout.  This is an arm workout for the advanced bodybuilder, if you are new to bodybuilding please check my website for a more appropriate workout.  Do this workout at most once a month and do your normal arm workout the rest of the time. This workout is too intense and you will get overuse injuries if you try and do it every week.   Remember that adding muscle is a very slow process, even with hard, consistent workouts its tough to add more 5lbs of muscle in a year.  The key is to lift consistently and focus on your increasing strength.

 

There are six exercises in this killer arm workout, three for biceps and three for triceps.  The entire workout takes 45 minutes and there is very little down time.  Make sure you have done warm-up sets for both biceps and triceps before starting this workout because we start in with really heavy weights and you don’t want to get injured. 

 

Intensity and focus are really important when you do this workout.  Don’t hold back anything, treat every set as if it were your last.  In this workout we do one exercise for biceps then without rest do the opposing triceps muscle.  Here is the workout:

 

Biceps: dumbbell curl using forced negatives

Triceps: skull crushers

 

    Rest 60-90s while preparing dumbbells for next exercises

 

Biceps: Twenty-ones with barbell

Triceps: narrow grip bench press

 

    Rest 60-90s while preparing dumbbells for next exercises

 

Biceps: reverse grip barbell curls

Triceps: dumbbell kick backs

 

Repeat the above five times, the complete workout should take about 45 minutes.  If you don’t like reconfiguring the dumbbells all the time you can also just do each bicep/tricep combo 5X and then move on to the next combo.

 

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

www.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

Losing weight is a billion dollar industry in America, there are thousands of devices and programs you can buy that promise to get you "6-pack abs fast" but they dont work!  If it were as easy as buying a pill, shake, or ab machine then the shopping malls across America would be filled with men who have abs-of-death like Mario Lopez, what do we see instead?  Obesity everywhere!
If you want 6-pack abs, there is no need to buy anything.  A common sense approach involving exercise and nutrition is all that is required.  Just a warning, there is nothing fast about losing weight and getting ripped, it is simple but takes time and dedication.