Increase Your Metabolism And Decrease Your Appetite…
Increase Your Metabolism And Decrease Your Appetite With This Fat-Burning Food Group
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
There have been countless studies performed on the role of protein in the muscle growth process to try and determine exactly how much protein you should consume to build muscle mass. Recently, several studies have looked at the role that dietary protein plays in helping you lose fat, and more importantly, helping you keep it off!
One thing scientists have discovered is that eating lean protein foods is important for regulating body composition because it decreases your appetite.
In a 2003 study reported in the journal, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition And Metabolic Care (2003; 6(6): 635-638), protein was shown to Read more
Tags: Diet & Nutrition, Fat Loss, Womens TrainingPopularity: 26% [?]
Making a Sandbag…
I posted most of this as a comment in another post, but thought it deserved its own. Obviously, there’s more than one way to make a sandbag, but here’s how I made mine.
If you want to buy a ready-to-go sandbag, you can get one from www.ironmind.com . I haven’t used one, but Ironmind has an excellent reputation for quality. They’re pretty expensive though.
Personally, I just went to Academy (a sporting goods store) and bought a good duffel bag. You’ll want one that is fairly heavy (mine’s nylon). Mine was $10 (a few years ago). They also had some cheaper, thinner nylon bags that can work as inner bags. And even with them, I put the sand in small plastic trash bags.
So, I put the sand in several plastic bags, then those inside a few thin nylon bags, then put them inside the main heavy nylon bag. This gives you a few layers of protection to keep the sand from spilling out. It also allows you to adjust the weight of the main bag. Say you make five thin inner bags at 20 pounds each; you can use four for 80 pounds or all five for 100 pounds, etc. Or, even if you just have one or two thin inner bags, you can still adjust the weight by adding/removing the plastic bags. One other tip: remove the air from the plastic bags before tying them closed. Leave the empty space, but remove the excess air. This will allow the sand to still move around inside the bag, without the air taking up so much space.
The way I built mine might be overkill, but it works for me.
For sand, you can just get play sand from a home improvement store.
If you do all this and the sandbag still isn’t heavy enough for you, you can add something heavier to the bag. A barbell plate or dumbbell buried in the middle of the inserts can work, though I haven’t tried it myself. You could also use a chain, or gravel to add to the weight.
Tags: Conditioning & Endurance, Fat Loss, Hardcore & Odd Object, Muscle Building, Strength TrainingPopularity: 37% [?]
Six Reasons to Take Up Sandbag Training
While sandbag training does seem to be growing in popularity, there are still millions of people who have never heard of it. Or, they’ve heard of it but thought it was too “out there”, ineffective, or whatever.
I’ve thought up a short list of reasons to get going with sandbag training.
- Cheap. You can make a sandbag for less than $20.
- Strength or conditioning. Depending on the weight of your sandbag and your program, you can use them for building either strength or conditioning.
- Adjustable. If you make your sandbag by using smaller inserts, you can add or remove the inserts to adjust the weight of the bag. You can make each insert 10 pounds and easily get the weight you want.
- Stabilizers. Because the sand moves around inside the bag, you end up working muscles you forget you have. The small stabilizers muscles that come into play for balancing and such get a workout more than with a nicely-balanced barbell.
- Safety. Granted a 100+ pound sandbag still weighs 100+ pounds and you can still hurt yourself by doing something wrong. However, you practically remove the risk of impact injury with a sandbag. Drop a sandbag on your toe and you’ll be fine. With a barbell… not so much.
- Versatile. The purpose of the sandbag is to build functional, real-world strength and/or conditioning. As such, it lends itself to very creative workouts that can remain effective.
I’m sure there are plenty of other good reasons not listed. If you want to give sandbag training a try, just get started. If you’re new, or you’re tired of free-form training and want a more thought-out approach to sandbags, check out The Caveman’s Guide to Fitness or Sandbag Strength.
Tags: Conditioning & Endurance, Fat Loss, Hardcore & Odd Object, Muscle Building, Strength TrainingPopularity: 38% [?]
