5 Effective Tips To Develop A Bigger Chest

When it comes to the human body, nothing says strength and power quite like a pumped, muscular chest. There are no shortcuts to huge chest muscles, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Take a look at these 5 tipson how to develop a bigger chest! 

1. Push Ups - A basic push up is an effective way strengthen the chest and arm muscles, and can be easily scaled as you get stronger. Simple push ups require no equipment other than your own body weight and your arms, and they can be done anywhere there is a firm surface with enough space for you to stretch out flat in.

2. Incline Bench Press - Pressing on an incline shifts the emphasis to the upper pecs, giving you that fuller look. And using dumbbells allows you to manoeuvre your arms in a way that isolates the pecs much more precisely than is possible with a barbell. Make sure you have your form right with our detailed instructions.

3. Dips - Chest dips hit your pecs whilst also working the  your triceps and front delts. As such, they are a potent upper body mass builder. You can add weight the easier they get. 

4. Rest - Growth happens away from the gym. The purpose of the chest workout is to stimulate growth, and nothing more. Once that objective is met, give your body adequate time to rest and recover. 

5. Recovery Meal - The importance of having a good post workout meal is second to none. A recovery meal will help with: Replenishing the muscle and liver glycogen stores, offering protein to assist with muscle repair, restoring fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat, supporting the immune system to handle the damage. Make sure your recovery meal includes a mixture of protein and carbohydrates. Here are some great sources of protein.

Tricep Workout!

Abdominal Workout!

Bicep Workout!

Beef up your arms and improve your upper-body strength with this tried and tested biceps workout.

Abs Exercises: Six Moves for a Shredded Six-Pack

Abs Exercises: Six Moves for a Shredded Six-Pack

Great Ab Workout here. Repeat the exercises for 2 or 3 sets with a minute break in between!

The Starter's Guide Workout

Don't confuse starter with remedial. While this program is tailored to fit true beginners—those with little to no previous training experience—nearly anyone can benefit from putting the parameters of this program to use in the gym. That's why we don't call it a "Beginner's Guide." It's a Starter's Guide because it allows anyone — novice and advanced lifters alike — to simply start anew. You might not find any complex rep schemes or extreme techniques, but the key tactics we discuss here will definitely present challenges no matter where you're coming from.

Quick Look

The Starter's Guide revolves around six key points:

1. Frequency

Trink's program includes three different training days that focus on basic movement patterns. "You'll tackle each one of the three workouts once per week for a total of six weeks," Trink says. Despite your enthusiasm or energy levels, resist the urge to enhance this schedule. Training more frequently than this can actually have adverse effects.

2. Rest

A tough concept for many guys to grasp is that change happens at home, long after your last set. You're not actually growing muscle during the workout; you're breaking it down. This makes rest a crucial component of change. A general recommendation for beginners is to train every other day (or three times per week), with the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule being a classic example. Whatever schedule you choose, just make sure to leave at least one day between workouts. This allows your muscles, joints, and nervous system to better recuperate for the next workout.

3. Intensity

Intensity is a measure of exercise difficulty and can be influenced by total weight, rest periods, work duration, and more. Intensity boosters often used by lifters include techniques such as dropsets (reducing the weight after failure) and forced reps (having a partner help you complete more reps past failure). You've probably seen or may have tried many of these, but it's a mistake to jump right into using them here. Trink does advocate supersets, which calls for you to perform two exercises back-to-back with only minimal rest in between. This allows one muscle group to recover while another works, increasing workout efficiency while also slightly boosting intensity.

4. Progression

Remembering the body's adaptability, you should steadily increase weight over time to keep it progressing. For you, this is especially important and beneficial, because as your body builds new neural pathways for given exercises, you become more efficient at lifting heavier weight. This levels out eventually, and you'll have to get more creative, but taking advantage of your body's quick-gain strength system at the outset gives you a huge starting advantage. "You are trying to increase the amount of weight you can use each week," Trink says. "For example, if you dumbbell goblet squat with 30 pounds the first week, try 35 pounds the second week. You may not always have the ability to increase, but that is your goal."

5. Failure

If you've ever stopped at 10 reps when you could have done 12 or 13 or 14, then you've shortchanged your potential gains in size and strength. We've written already about not trying to push your body too far, too fast, and going to failure would constitute going too far. Nevertheless, you need to at least approach failure if you want to make progress. Not getting close enough to your physical limitations can be just as ineffective as pushing yourself too far. "You will notice that a rep range of 10 to 12 is prescribed," Trink says. "What this means is that you are shooting to get 12 reps where you could get only one more. That's called 'leaving one in the tank.' If you can get only 10 or 11 reps, that's fine. If you can't quite manage 10, then you went too heavy and need to back off the weight on the next set. And if you feel like you could have gotten 15, you went too light."

6. Exercise Selection

As Trink has pointed out, movement patterns are key. Many experts advocate for preferential use of machines in order to train these patterns, but Trink doesn't necessarily agree. He advocates for a variety of moves using various forms of equipment. Constant tension-cable moves such as the lat pulldown appear with free-weight moves like the goblet squat. Single-arm exercises like the dumbbell row are paired with bilateral staples such as the Romanian deadlift. Stable moves like the leg press are bolstered with balance-challenged moves like the split squat. This dichotomy, Trink says, gives lifters the opportunity to benefit from a wide range of stimuli — and punch a one-way ticket to Swolesville.
Now get started!

The Complete 4-Week Beginner's Workout Program

In the realm of fitness, three-month programs dominate the landscape. You’ve even seen plenty of them in this magazine over the years. Are they effective? Absolutely. But we’re going to let you in on an interesting secret: It doesn’t necessary take eight or 12 weeks to get your feet wet in the gym. Not that you’ll be a seasoned vet after four weeks, but if you can just get that first month under your belt, you’ll get yourself over the proverbial hump where so many fail and give up, and set the stage for a lifetime of gains.

More Beginner's Tips

Let’s just call this the accelerated beginner’s guide to bodybuilding. In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding, but not so demanding as to cause injury (or worse yet, burnout), and progressive in the sense that each week you’ll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. After four weeks you’ll not only be ready for the next challenge but you’ll have built a significant amount of quality muscle. In other words, one month from now you’ll look significantly better with your shirt off than you look now. (How’s that for results?)
This program isn’t just for the true beginner who has never touched a weight before; it’s also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training. How long has it been since you went to the gym regularly? Six months? A year? Five years? No worries: The following routines will get you back on track in — you guessed it — just four short weeks. Let’s get to work.

Week 1: Whole in One

You’ll begin the program with a full-body training split, meaning you’ll train all major bodyparts in each workout (as opposed to “splitting up” your training). Train three days this first week, performing just one exercise per bodypart in each session. It’s important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Friday — with Saturday and Sunday being rest days — a good approach.
The exercises listed in Week 1 are a collection of basic moves that, while also used by advanced lifters, we feel are suitable for the beginner as well. Notice we’re not starting you off with only machine exercises; a handful of free-weight movements are present right off the bat. Reason being, these are the exercises you need to master for long-term gains in muscular size and strength, so you may as well start learning them now. Carefully read all exercise descriptions, starting on page, before attempting them yourself.
In Week 1 you’ll perform three sets of every exercise per workout, which over the course of the week adds up to nine sets total for each bodypart, a good starting volume for your purposes. With the exception of crunches for abs, you’ll do 8–12 reps per set. This rep scheme is widely considered ideal for achieving gains in muscle size (the scientific term is hypertrophy) and is commonly employed by amateur and pro bodybuilders alike.
Notice in the workouts below that your first set calls for eight reps, your second set 10 reps and your third set 12. This is referred to in bodybuilding circles as a “reverse pyramid” (a standard pyramid goes from higher to lower reps), where you decrease the weight each set to complete the higher rep count. For example, if on your first set of lat pulldowns you used 140 pounds for eight reps, try using 120 or 130 pounds on set two and 100–120 pounds on set three.

Week 2: Split Decision

You’re only a week into the program, yet you’ll begin to train different bodyparts on different days with a two-day training split (meaning the entire body is trained over the course of two days, rather than one as in the first week). You’ll train a total of four days this week; the split includes two upper-body days (Monday and Thursday) and two lower-body days (Tuesday and Friday), and each bodypart is trained twice. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday will be your recovery days.
Several exercises from Week 1 are carried over to Week 2, but one move is added to each bodypart routine — with the exception of abs — so you can train all muscle groups more completely from multiple angles. Chest, for example, includes two exercises: One is a compound movement (dumbbell bench press) that involves multiple joints (both the shoulder and elbow) to work the largest amount of muscle possible, and the other is an isolation exercise (dumbbell flye) that involves only one joint (shoulder) and targets the pecs to a greater extent. (When doing presses for chest, the deltoids and triceps are involved to a degree, meaning presses don’t isolate the pecs as much as flyes do.)
You’ll again employ a reverse pyramid scheme of reps, though in Week 2 you’ll go slightly higher in reps (15) on your third set of each exercise. Fifteen reps may be just outside the ideal muscle-building range, but these sets will help you increase muscular endurance to provide a solid foundation on which to build size and strength going forward.

Week 3: Three on Three

In the third week of the program we step it up to a three-day training split: Train all “pushing” bodyparts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the “pulling” bodyparts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. As in Week 2, you train each bodypart twice a week, so you’ll hit the gym six days this week.
One new exercise is added to each bodypart routine to provide even more angles from which to train your target muscles to promote complete development. You’ll hit each muscle group with two exercises of 3­–4 sets each: four sets for large bodyparts (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings) and three sets for smaller bodyparts (biceps, triceps, abs, calves). The result is 16 total sets for the week for large bodyparts and 12 sets total for smaller ones — again, working in the 8–15-rep range — which is a substantial increase in volume from Week 1.

Week 4: Turning Up the Volume

In the fourth and final week of the program, you’ll train four days in a four-way split that hits each bodypart just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Four-day splits are common among experienced lifters because they involve training fewer bodyparts (typically 2–3) per workout, which gives each muscle group ample attention and allows you to train with higher volume. As you’ll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders. Shoulders are trained more or less on their own, and you’ll alternate hitting calves and abs — which respond well to being trained multiple times per week — every other workout. No new exercises are introduced in Week 4 so that you can focus on intensity in your workouts instead of learning new movements.
Rep schemes remain in the hypertrophy range this week, but overall volume increases by adding more sets to individual exercises: up to five sets per move for larger bodyparts, and even 10 sets of calf raises on Thursday. This bump in volume will ensure that your muscles are overloaded sufficiently to continue the growth they’ve already begun experiencing in the first three weeks. Completion of this four-week program now entitles you to go to the next stage.

BodyBuilding Tips & Tricks

10 Best Chest Exercises For Building Muscle

Have you ever wondered what the absolute best muscle-building movements for your chest are? Wonder no more! Here are our top 10 pec-building picks.

There are dozens of exercises you can do on chest day. In fact, the Bodybuilding.com Exercise Database lists at least 84, but you probably don't want to spend a Monday afternoon—or several Mondays—trying them all. You just want to know the best exercises for building a muscular chest, no questions asked. We've done the work for you, and found the top 10.

Mind you, this list doesn't correlate to the hardest chest exercises. It's focused on the best-of-the-best mass builders, with a little bit of instruction and explanation to complement each choice. You can swap exercises in your current routine for these choices, build your own chest workout with a handful of them, or just try one when your standard chest workout gets stale.

Without further ado, here are our top 10 chest-building exercises, ranked in no particular order.

1 

BARBELL BENCH PRESS

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

You can generate the most power with barbell lifts, so the standard barbell bench allows you to move the most weight. It's also an easier lift to control than pressing with heavy dumbbells. The exercise is easy to spot and relatively easy to learn (if not master), There are plenty of bench-press programs you can follow to increase your strength.

BARBELL BENCH PRESS

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Do it toward the start of your chest workout for heavy sets in lower rep ranges. Consider varying your grip width for more complete chest development.

2 

FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL PRESS

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

With dumbbells, each side of your body must work independently, which recruits more stabilizer muscles; dumbbells are harder to control than a barbell. Dumbbells also allow for a longer range of motion than the barbell bench press, both at the bottom and top of the movement. Flat dumbbell presses allow you to hoist a fairly heavy weight, and they make for a good alternative if you've been stuck on the barbell bench for ages.

FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL PRESS

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Do flat dumbbell presses toward the start of your chest workout for heavy sets in lower rep ranges. We don't typically recommend doing dumbbell presses in addition to the barbell bench press, because both moves are so similar.

In fact, the similar nature of these movements was confirmed via electromyography (EMG) analysis, which demonstrated no significant differences between flat-bench dumbbell and barbell in regard to muscle activation.1

3 

LOW-INCLINE BARBELL BENCH PRESS

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Many benches are fixed at a very steep angle, which requires a larger contribution from the front delts than the chest to move the weight.2 If possible, go for a less-steep incline to hit the upper pecs without as much stress on the delts. You can also easily do low-incline benches with an adjustable bench on the Smith machine.

If you're really looking to build that shelf of an upper chest, EMG results have suggested that bringing your grip in a bit closer may hammer upper-chest fibers significantly more.2

LOW-INCLINE BARBELL BENCH PRESS

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Many chest workouts start with flat-bench movements first, then progress to inclines, but it's time to get out of that bad habit. Every so often, start with inclines. The benefit is that you'll be fresher and can lift more weight, which puts a greater amount of stress on the upper pec fibers and could lead to more growth.

4 

MACHINE DECLINE PRESS (CROSS-BODY)

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Some machines, like Hammer Strength, allow you to move each arm independently, which is a great feature on chest day. Besides doing a machine decline press straight on, you can sit sideways on the apparatus and press across your body one arm at a time, which delivers a completely different feel than when you sit straight-on.

One of the primary muscle actions of the pec major is transverse adduction—think cable flyes or pec-deck flyes to understand this action. By sitting in a sideways position, you can maximize your press with a pec-dominant horizontal adduction, effectively getting more from the movement.

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Do free-weight exercises first in your chest workout because they require more effort and stabilizer muscles than machines. With that in mind, this could be the last multijoint exercise in your routine.

5 

SEATED MACHINE CHEST PRESS

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Free-weight pressing moves on a flat bench are great, but the machine press has some unique benefits. For one, it's easier to slow down the repetition, both in the concentric and eccentric phases. Stack-loaded machines are also great for quickly doing dropsets.

EMG research demonstrates that the machine bench press recruits much less of the three heads of the deltoid (anterior, middle, and posterior) than free-weight variations because of a decreased need for humeral stabilization.3This allows you to really target your pecs.

SEATED MACHINE CHEST PRESS

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Again, do machine exercises at the end of your workout. For anyone looking to build mass, machines give you a greater chance to pump your pecs with minimal shoulder assistance.

6 

INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Dumbbell presses make everybody's top 10 list, but with an adjustable bench you can do a number of things you can't with a fixed bench. Our favorite: changing the angle of the incline from one set to the next, or from one workout to the next. Hitting a muscle from varying degrees of incline angles builds it more thoroughly.

INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS

IN YOUR WORKOUT

This is an occasional first movement, but it can easily go anywhere from first to third in your routine. Keep in mind, though, that the later you do this movement, the less weight you'll likely be able to push.

For even crazier pumps with this exercise, try to slowly rotate the dumbbells from palms-forward to a palms-inward position during the concentric portion of the lift, really squeezing at the top. This slight change will cause you to medially rotate the upper arm, really recruiting your pec major.

7 

DIP FOR CHEST

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

First off, make sure you're doing dips that emphasize the pecs: Put your feet up behind you, lean forward as far as possible, and allow your elbows to flare out as you dip. Chest dips are a great spotter-free alternative to the decline press.

DIP FOR CHEST

IN YOUR WORKOUT

If you're strong, this lower-chest move makes a great finisher; if you're not, you can do it earlier in your session. It makes a great superset pairing with push-ups for a big pump at the end of your workout.

8 

INCLINE BENCH CABLE FLY

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Not many single-joint exercises made the list, but this is one of our favorites. It's an effective move to isolate the pecs after completing your multijoint exercises. Cables allow for continuous tension throughout the exercise's full range of motion. If you've got a good chest pump going, nothing beats looking back at yourself in the mirror as you squeeze out a few more reps.

INCLINE BENCH CABLE FLY

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Do incline cable flyes at the end of your workout for slightly higher reps (sets of 10-12). If you're training with a partner, do a few dropsets for some real masochistic, muscle-building fun!

9 

INCLINE DUMBBELL PULL-OVER

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Forget flat-bench pull-overs; the incline version puts your chest fibers under tension for a longer range of motion! Just sit back against a bench inclined to about 45 degrees and make sure the dumbbell clears the top. Make sure you keep this a single-joint movement; don't bend or extend at the elbows.

Remember, you should have a specific reason for each movement you complete. Pull-over exercises work the shoulder-extension movement pattern (moving the upper arm rearward), which can really torch the pecs since they're one of the primary muscle groups involved in this action!

IN YOUR WORKOUT

Do pull-overs at the very end of your workout for sets of 12. On every set, hold the peak contraction of the last rep for a full five seconds.

10 

PEC-DECK MACHINE

 

WHY IT MADE THE LIST

Chest flyes are hard for many trainees to learn with dumbbells or cables because the arms need to be locked in a slightly bent position for the duration of the exercise. Luckily, the pec deck simplifies things because it allows you to work in only one pathway. So, this exercise is a great movement teacher, and you can go for a great pump without having to balance any weights.

EMG data shows that activation of the pectoralis major and anterior delt are statistically similar between the pec deck and bench press, which means that even though you'll probably be working in different rep ranges for each exercise, you'll get great chest activation from this machine.4

PEC-DECK MACHINE

BEGINNER WEIGHT/STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUT

Recently decide to get fit? Want to take up a strength or weightlifting program, but don't know where to start? Everyone has been in this position at least once before; you're new at the gym, and you don't know where to go or what to lift or how to use the machines. Well, help is here!

I am going to tell you the basic guidelines and rules for starting out in a weightlifting program; whether it is forstrength, weight loss, lean muscle gain, or just overall fitness, this article and workout can help you figure things out and get started off on the right foot toward your health and fitness goals.

Strength training provides remarkable results in those who have tried and failed at overhauling their fitness with just diet or cardio. Consistent training (more than twice per week, for 12 weeks) can provide such benefits as:

• Increased muscle-fiber size
• Increased muscle contractile strength
• Increased tendon strength
• Increased ligament strength

All of these add up to a much healthier, fitter body that is less likely to be injured. You end up looking pretty good, too!

"STRENGTH TRAINING PROVIDES REMARKABLE RESULTS IN THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED AND FAILED AT OVERHAULING THEIR FITNESS WITH JUST DIET OR CARDIO."

A FEW RULES OF LIFTING 

ETIQUETTE

• To start, always bring a towel and be kind enough to wipe off the machines, benches and equipment you use.
• Be sure to rerack all the weight and replace all the dumbbells or barbells that are used.
• Don't rest for extended periods of time on a machine that someone is waiting for; if possible, work in with them between sets. Most people are more than willing to share when asked nicely.
• Finally, please leave your cell phone in your locker or car; nothing is more distracting than listening to another person's conversation unwillingly.

COMMON MISTAKES TO 

AVOID

• Using too much weight, too soon; always start lower than your expected ability and work your way up that first workout. If your form suffers, you are swinging the weight, or using momentum, this indicates you may be using too much weight. Greater momentum increases the potential for injury and reduces the effectiveness to the muscle group being targeted.
• Not using enough weight; always play it safe, but if you can perform 30 reps with a certain weight, it's likely time to increase it a bit. Tip: Increase the weight no more than about 5% at a time.
• Moving through repetitions too quickly, going too fast; there is nothing gained by lifting weights fast. Some of the perks of lifting weight in a slow and controlled manner, include more total muscle tension and force produced, moremuscle fiber activation both slow and fast twitch fibers, and less tissue trauma. Remember, a joint is only as strong as the muscles that cross it; if you haven't lifted in a long time, or ever, be careful what you ask of your joints.
• Not resting long enough, or resting far too long; both can be a workout killer. Tip: The recommended rest period is between 30-90 seconds, for overall fitness.

BEGINNER WEIGHT/STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUT

GUIDELINES FOR THIS 

WORKOUT

This workout is designed for overall health and fitness gains of a healthy, adult individual who has never lifted weights before, or who is very inexperienced at it.

You may note that the majority of exercises are machine based; this is intentional as an unconditioned beginner, has less integrity in the joints, less stability in the core which supports the entire body during training; and this makes one more apt to be injured when attempting to lift free weight (dumbbells, barbells) when just starting out.

Using machines provides support for these weaker areas and allows the intended muscle to be isolated and strengthened before progressing to free weight.

• Perform this workout at least two times per week, significant strength and fitness gains are obtained with only two workouts per week.
• Take one day off from weight training between each workout.
• For health gains, at least one set of 8-12 repetitions should be performed to fatigue; this means a weight heavy enough to tire the muscle significantly in 8-12 reps.
• For fitness gains, two sets of 8-12 repetitions should be performed to fatigue; again with a weight heavy enough that the muscle is tired and unable to continue without a 30-90 second rest period.
• It should take four to five seconds to complete one repetition through a complete range of motion; in a slow and very controlled manner.
• Rest at least 30 seconds and no more than 90 seconds between sets of each exercise; and 1 to 2 minutes between each exercise.

How to work

The Best Exercises for Getting Pumped Up

Posted on 1. March 2015

3

In the world of fitness, there are a range of exercises that can truly help you increase fat loss, bulk up and cut up too. With these specific exercises, you can see and feel results a lot faster and can also greatly improve your strength plus see a dramatic size increase when teamed up with a balanced diet and the right supplements.
#Deadlifts
Great for your back, legs, and cheeks (not the ones on your face), this exercise can be used to tone and strengthen certain parts of your body such as your lower back which means that your body is better supported as you increase your workout to lifting heavier weights. Don’t overlook this one, I personally experienced lower back pain at an early age and after doing deadlifts for several months, I feel less pain than I did before. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and squat with your bar or dumbbell in front of you, keeping your back straight and legs bent.
#BenchPress
A bench press is great for working your chest and shoulders (aka the “show-off” muscles) and is a vital exercise for adding muscle to your upper body. Use your legs as additional support when you are doing a bench press as this is a perfect way of working an additional body part and also making sure that you can lift for longer, therefore improving your chances of muscular growth.
#Squats
If you’re tired of having skinny legs, then squats are a great way to get defined calves, buttocks and quads. Keep your back arched during the squat so that you don’t injure your lower back and lower and lift slowly in fluid, controlled motions. Don’t dip down too far – an almost parallel squat can work your quads much better and you will see great definition a lot faster.
#PullUps
Some people skip pull ups because they’re “difficult”, well no one said training to gain muscle was easy! Pull ups are great, but if they’re not challenging enough, then doing arched back reps are great for recruiting more muscles. Keeping your head back, you pull up towards the chest instead of the shoulders. This is great for working a range of muscles but hard work on your body if you’re not used to its intensity just yet make sure you have the right supplements to enable muscle recovery so that you can gain muscle mass and get the most out of this exercise. If it is still difficult, start simple with a chair for support. You’ll notice that over time, you won’t need the chair anymore.
#Extensions
There are all kinds of leg, back and arm extensions which you can fit into your routine to get a good pump on. Try the seated reverse grip Triceps Extensions making sure that you keep your upper arms still with your elbows tucked in to get the most out of this exercise. If I ever stress one thing too much, it’s quality over quantity. Make sure you are practicing good form because extensions are one of those workouts where you can really hurt yourself if you aren’t paying attention.

The Yo-Yo Cycle Of Dieting

0

Yo-yo dieting or yo-yo effect, also known as weight cycling, is a term “yo-yo dieting” coined by Kelly D. Brownell at Yale University, in reference to the cyclical loss and gain of weight, resembling the up-down motion of a yo-yo. In this process, the dieter is initially successful in the pursuit of weight loss but is unsuccessful in maintaining the loss long-term and begins to gain the weight back. The dieter then seeks to lose the regained weight, and the cycle begins again.
Weight Cycling and Effects on Metabolism and Weight
A comprehensive review of the science on weight cycling was completed by a group of obesity experts who were convened as a national task force to address the issue. They concluded that reliable evidence does not demonstrate that weight cycling decreases metabolism. In other words, repeatedly losing and regaining body weight does not make it harder to lose weight when trying to do so the next time around. Weight cycling also has not been linked to an increase in body fat or accumulating fat around the middle, which is linked to increased health risks. So after a weight cycle, those who return to their original weight have the same amount of body fat and muscle mass as they did prior to weight cycling.
More recently, while weight cyclers were found to be heavier and have a less favorable metabolic profile, they were able to lose weight and experience improvements in metabolic measures.
Weight Cycling and Physical Health
While many studies have found no relationship, some have shown a link between weight cycling and increased health risks such as hypertension, high cholesterol levels, and gallbladder disease. Among a group of older adults, weight cycling was associated with difficulties with activities of daily living and limitations in mobility. Intentional weight cycling does not appear to increase mortality, although age at the time of weight gain or loss may have an effect.
Weight Cycling Effects and Psychological Health
Repeatedly losing and gaining weight may be detrimental to psychological health. Some studies link weight cycling to increased measures of psychological distress, life dissatisfaction, reduced levels of self-efficacy., and lower quality of life. Female African-American weight cyclers demonstrated a greater desire to be thin, less satisfaction with their body, and lower self-esteem related to appearance. Additional well-designed research clearly is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
Bottom Line
Frequently losing and gaining weight is not the recommended way to maintain a healthy weight and achieve a healthy lifestyle. However, the health benefits of weight loss greatly outweigh the potential drawbacks of weight cycling and should not be used as a reason to avoid weight loss. Long-term lifestyle modification is the key to preventing weight cycling and keeping the weight off for good.

How to Be More Active during Your Workday

Do you work in an office setting? Does your job require you to sit a majority of the day? The unfortunate trend in the United States is that many of us sit more and more, whether it is at work or at home. In fact, 25 percent of the U.S. population is not active at all (CDC, 2010). From work environments to the home to transportation, modern life seems to consistently tempt us to sit more and move less—a tragic trend in environmental design and human behavior.
Is there anything that we can do to combat the ever-increasing sedentary lifestyle we are all adopting (perhaps unintentionally)? Fortunately, there are plenty of options to foster physical activity and exercise habits, whether you are working in an office setting or have fallen victim to a sedentary way of life.
First, let’s consider some practical ways you can simply move more and sit less when you are at the office:
1. Create a standing or moving workstation.

Examples: adjustable standing desk addition, movable standing laptop desk, treadmill desk, stationary bicycle desk
Free option: Build a standing desk addition by putting a box and/or some books stacked on top of each other on your desk to place your laptop or desktop (for good posture, you need to stack them to an appropriate height).
2. Replace your regular office chair with a resistance ball.

Several sizes of inexpensive resistance balls are available. Be sure to choose one that is the right height in relation to your desk to promote good posture. Sitting on a resistance ball engages your core and may assist with improving posture. Begin by sitting on the ball for short periods of time throughout the day, gradually reducing the amount of time you spend sitting on a traditional office chair.
3. Phone time = walk time
Every time your phone rings, get up and walk around in your office space. This will assist you with building an associative positive habit.
4. Meeting time = standing time (or walking time)
Movement increases productivity, which may help convince your colleagues and supervisors to conduct meetings while standing or walking. If no one is excited about your suggestion, start the trend and stand ormove during meetings.
5. The 30-minutes challenge
Set an alarm on your cell phone to alert you every 30 minutes. As soon as the alarm goes off, complete a two-minute physical activity challenge such as:

• Walking in place, pulling the knees higher toward the belly button
• Use your office chair to sit down and get up repeatedly for as long as you can during the two minutes 

Here are some basic exercises that can be done in your office space (even for the above-mentioned 30-minutes challenge). Depending on your current fitness and ability level, the number of sets and reps for each will vary.
Office desk push-ups. Use one edge of your desk to complete push-ups (some may prefer to just do them on the floor)

Office chair triceps dips. Use a chair to perform triceps dips.

Office walking lunges. Use the entire office space to complete walking lunges (from one end to the other).

Office wall sits. Use a small wall space in your office, lean against it and squat down so that there is 90-degree angle about your knees (hold as long as you can)

Office standing calf raises. Perform standing calf raises, holding on to your office chair if balancing is initially challenging.

OFFICE LUNCHTIME FITNESS