Lighten Up! Maximize Your Results Through Perfect Form, Not More Weight

With lifting, it's about how, not about how much

We've all seen it, and guys are the worst, wildly swinging huge weights, bodies swaying all over the place, swayed back, half or even quarter reps, then banging the weights down hard, causing everyone in the gym to look over to see if an accident just occurred. 

Yep, we're talking about what I call ego lifters.  These are the guys who boost their self esteem and try to impress others by loading up as much weight as they can lift off the ground or off the rack, and then make a ridiculous mockery of themselves and the exercise they're trying to perform.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load: Know the Difference



By Amber Alexander

Amber Alexander

Much of dieting focus recently has been placed on the glycemic index. While understanding and managing the glycemic index is important, it's equally important to go one step further and understand glycemic load. The glycemic load is a relatively new way to measure the impact of food to blood glucose levels. Simply put, glycemic index represents glucose conversion speed, while glycemic load represents the amount of glucose created.

So What's the Glycemic Index?

The glycemic index is the relative degree to which blood sugar increases after the consumption of food, that is, relative to the effect of pure sugar. High glycemic index foods can raise blood glucose levels very quickly, as well as insulin levels. In contrast, low glycemic index foods don't significantly raise blood glucose levels and insulin levels after eating. Pure glucose is given a value of 100 while other foods are given an index number representing its relative effect on blood glucose levels.

For example, sweet corn has an index number of 55 meaning it raises blood glucose levels 55 percent as much as pure glucose. Generally, foods below 55 are considered low glycemic index foods, 55-70 represents mid-glycemic index foods and over 70 are considered high glycemic foods. Previous belief was that simple sugars dramatically increased blood glucose levels while starches such as potatoes and bread were digested slowly. The results from numerous studies, however, show this is not the case. Potatoes, for example, reported an average index of 84, making it one of the higher glycemic foods available.

Get The Six Pack You've Dreamed Of!

By Amber Alexander

"How do I get six-pack abs?" How many times have you heard this question or even asked it yourself? The answer may seem complex and shrouded in mystery because popular culture throws so many "solutions" at us. We've all seen a thousand gadgets, supplements, and "30-day" programs all promising a quick and effortless path toward the coveted "six pack".

Truth is, the formula for ab definition is simple, however actually getting ab definition is hard work.

The first step toward ab definition is to build mass in the rectus abdominus, or the main wall of stomach muscles where the six pack is found. And here's a revelation - for most people standard crunches or sit ups won't get it done.

Think about how you'd build your bicep up - full range of motion, loading up heavy targeting 8-10 reps X 4 sets with maximum effort and failure about half way through the fourth set. But think about building your bicep the way most people approach their abs - limited range of motion and minimal resistance for 3 sets of 25 reps. How much do you suppose this would grow your bicep? While you'd build bicep endurance, your ability to grow the muscle would be severely limited.

So why would you try to grow your abs this way? Primarily because this is how we've all been taught to address ab strength since sixth grade.

The key to ab growth is the same as any other muscle - heavy resistance and low reps pushed to failure. A simple way to get started is getting on any ab crunch machine and weighting the same as any target muscle - 8-10 reps X 4 sets, hitting maximum effort and failure half way through the final set. Do this and watch ab growth take off. This will grow the abdominal peaks, and the higher the peaks the deeper the valleys, it's this elevation separation that provides "six-pack" definition.

Second, memorize the saying "great abs are made in the kitchen" because it's profoundly true. You could add massive abdominal gains and deep muscle trenches, but if it's all covered with body fat then it won't matter. Think about your yard covered in snow, you see no details, only smooth surfaces because the snow has filled in all of the detail.

This means that men will need to be below about 12% body fat and women will need to be below about 15% body fat.

If you're not willing to be disciplined on your diet, don't even waste your time building abdominal muscle mass because no one will ever see it beneath the body fat.

So remember, for six-pack abs 1) do heavy resistance for low reps to failure and 2) get diet discipline to drop the body fat so your hard work shows through!

Amber is a figure competitor, fitness instructor, fitness model and a candidate for Bodybuilding.com's BodySpace spokes model, her username is Amber3478. Vote for Amber at the BodySpace spokes model contest site now!

BodySpace - Your Key for Fitness Goal Achievement!

Amber Alexander

By Amber Alexander

It's happened to you or to someone you know - starting into a combined fitness and weight loss program with great intentions. But after a short period the goals get lost in a sea of busy schedules, conflicting priorities, and weakening motivation.

What went wrong?

Most times it's lack of support. Studies show that people surrounded by a solid support system, be it family or friends, are much more likely to achieve success with their fitness goals.  However, often times this need for support goes unsatisfied. 

One solution to this is BodySpace, Bodybuilding.com's online fitness social community.  Here you'll find literally hundreds of thousands of like-minded fitness individuals sharing information about their fitness journeys.

Most importantly, you'll find support.

BodySpace members create profiles about themselves, about their goals, and about their progress.  Communication among the community members is excellent, with an abundance of encouragement and goodwill toward people of all ages and fitness abilities.  Membership is totally free, an incredible value for anyone with a fitness goals that wants to share with others.

So go check it out! Click here to go to BodySpace now, create an account and join the community! 

Amber is a figure competitor, fitness instructor, fitness model and a candidate for Bodybuilding.com's BodySpace spokes model, her username is Amber3478. Vote for Amber at the BodySpace spokes model contest site now!

Youth and Clean Eating

The typical American youth diet is absolutely awful, and getting serious about youth health and fitness means changing their diet – a lot. No maybes or half-ways on this one, total youth health and fitness only happens with proper diet. Young Americans can exercise all they want to, twenty times a day, but without a disciplined diet they won’t get the body composition or the level of health that’s possible for them. In fact, if choosing between exercise and diet, excluding one over the other, diet would be the right choice, hands down. While diet and exercise absolutely go hand-in-hand, diet is really most important of the two factors. And while diet is that important, it’s also hard to manage, harder than exercise for most people and especially for a busy youth population immersed in today’s youth popular culture of consumption, leading to failure on their diet and nutrition goals.

At the most basic level, America’s youth should understand two types of nutrients exist: those providing building blocks for their bodies and those providing fuel for energy that runs their bodies. This is a vast oversimplification, and understanding this concept better comes through additional readings on this subject, but this is probably the most important distinction to make in managing youth diet. And by focusing on maximizing the building blocks and minimizing the energy sources, optimized muscle growth and body fat reduction occurs.

Are You Mentally Tough?

Okay, so really, how many of you challenge yourselves in the gym? I see this all of the time where people let fatigue get in their way, where they let their bodies control their minds.

What the heck is fatigue anyway? A rocketing locomotive that's going to vaporize us on contact? No, fatigue is nothing more than a mental perception based on sensory input into the brain.

How we interpret this input and then act on it is what sets people apart, this is the essense of mental toughness.


Simplified, the muscles say to the brain, "okay, I'm tapped, that's it, nothing left, better stop". That's the sensory input.

Muscle Growth with Full Muscle Action Spectrum

We all want to make the most of our workouts, and several techniques can provide help packing tons of benefits into a short period of time in the gym. No single approach, however, provides as much benefit for our time invested as using the full muscle action spectrum.

Good lifting form has many dimensions, and, generally speaking, most people do a crummy job with their form.  Good form, among other things, helps us get the most muscle development from every single rep. And if we're looking to make the most of our gym time, it makes sense that we'd want to get the most from each rep.

One important aspect of good form is fully utilizing the three different actions that muscles produce on every rep, known as the muscle action spectrum. The three actions are as follows:

1) Eccentric Action: lengthening of the muscle while decelerating force
2) Isometric Action: holding muscle contraction equal to the force placed on it
3) Concentric Action: shortening of the muscle while accelerating force

Let's take the standard bicep curl as an example. How many times have you seen someone quickly curl the weight up, then just drop it down to their side? What just happened? Simple, they hit the concentric action and abandoned the isometric and the eccentric actions.