If you have a back injury or chronic pain in your back, you might find it hard to exercise on a regular basis. You back is used for many different kinds of aerobic activity, and if it is strained you can injure yourself further. Before you start any workout regime you should contact your doctor, especially if you see a doctor or a chiropractor on a regular basis.

Your chiropractor can give you a list of different back exercises that will strengthen your back without injuring it. A chiropractor can take x-rays and help diagnose your back injury to know what kinds of physical activity will be bad for your back and what kinds will actually help you. If you haven’t visited a chiropractor about your back pain, you should consider it.

If you decide to make your own exercise program, you need to be careful that you are not straining your back. If you’re on painkillers or other medication, you could be masking any symptoms that would normally alert you that you shouldn’t put that kind of strain on your back muscles. This is definitely a situation where you should contact a physician before beginning the workout.

Remember the basic rules for working out. Stretch before and after you workout to improve the range of motion of your back and to strengthen it. Drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated. Remember to give your body enough time to rest and recover between workouts. This will make sure that you don’t strain and injure your back or any other part of your body.

Swim! Water aerobics and similar classes have become very popular, because they allow those with physical conditions to workout, do cardio, and build up strength. Older people and people with injuries who couldn’t exercise before can now exercise in the water. If you’re someone with chronic back pain, consider signing up for a water pilates class that will help to keep you in shape, and may even help your back pain.

Getting a medical massage or using physical therapy can add to any workout. If you get regular massages, they will lessen the chance of injuring yourself during workouts. Physical therapy can help by giving you the tools and trainers to keep you active and exercising, but these therapists also have the know how to keep you from getting hurt. Sometimes medical insurance will pay for medical massages and other types of non surgical physical therapy if you have an injury.

If you have a back injury, you can workout; you just have to be more careful than those who are in perfect health. If you have any questions or concerns about the workout you’re planning to do, the best and safest thing to do is contact a physician or chiropractor. Sometimes you can workout and feel fine but wake up the next morning in extreme pain. A doctor will be able to keep you safe and answer any questions.

For more information go to http://www.spineandsports.com.

This article has two of my favorite good weight lifting routines. Sorry there are no pictures available.

I am a fan of super sets. I generally combine two exercises together.

My Favorite Upper Back Exercise/Workout

I have yet to find an exercise that burns my back more than this one. This is called the close grip pull up or the V-Bar Pull Up. Technique and form is everything with this exercise. I am personally not a fan of the traditional pull up because the arm muscles are targeted too much and not the back. This exercise is almost all back when done properly, approximately 98 percent back.

Put a V bar over a pull up bar. Grab the V bar and tilt your head back as far as you can. You want your upper body parallel to the chin up bar. Concentrate on pulling up to your sternum or stomach. You did it wrong if your upper body is straight up and down from the pull up bar. Tilting your head way back will insure your form is correct. The nice thing with this exercise is you don’t have to pull up all the way. You can pull up half way and still fully work your back if your form is correct.

There is no harm if you do it wrong, it won’t target your back muscles as much but will target more of your arms.

The superset I like to mix in with this is a decline dumbbell row.

Grab an incline bench and adjust it to about 30 degrees. Lean over the bench so you are supported by your abdominals. Grab two dumbbells, and focus on bringing your shoulder blades together and away from your head. Raise your chest slightly off the bench as you pull while maintaining your abdominals on the bench.

Keep in mind with this exercise that you want to pull back and up. This is because as your gripping the dumbbell on the floor your hands will naturally fall too much forward.

The mix of the V bar pull up and the decline dumbbell row can be too much. You will find the V bar pull up causes muscle failure fast. I sometimes mix the V bar pull up with a chest exercise or a squat. In my gym a good squat machine is next to the pull up bar.

A Good Arm Workout Weight Lifting Routine

I tend to do biceps and triceps the same day because super setting them is really easy. It doesn’t matter if you start out with your biceps or triceps.

Bicep

Do a simple standing bicep curl. Another variation I like is to use the cable machine. Lay with your back flat on the ground with the cable running in between your legs. Drop the cable to the bottom or two slots. Do a bicep curl. I like this because it isolates the biceps. It is easy to cheat doing a standing bicep curl.

Tricep Exercise

Find a fixed bar a couple feet off the ground. Grip the bar palms down. You want your hands fairly close together. Your hands can be about shoulder width but not much further, but closer may work better. Experiment with it to see what feels the best to you.

Back your feet away so your body is parallel to the floor to for. This is will give you the hardest workout.

Bend your elbows and lower yourself so your head is below the bar. With your arms push back up. To get some serious workout push forward with your calves while you are pushing back with your triceps.

For an easier workout simply walk your feet up closer to the bar so your but sticks out.

Conclusion: These are two of the many good weight lifting routines. Click on the link below for a complete exercise system.

Bret Bradshaw owns a virtual personal training business. Get trained by over of the 40 nations top celebrity personal trainers in nearly every kind of exercise system available. You get it all included in one package. Go to www.Fit-In-Exercise.com for more information. Download the pdf there.

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How would you like to burn up your belly fat and acquire your self some extremely defined, ripped abs? The majority of blokes would most likely claim “yes please”, yet only just a few of us have actually gotten around to actually achieving the ambition? So which camp do you fall in to? Do all those months of training put you off ? Are you only ever intending to acquire a Six pack if you possibly can locate a short cut to it?

If so, you are in all probability just one of those guys who go out there and get every single mag and guide that assures you are able to get a 6 pack quickly, in just 15 minutes a day! And, yes, even though this can be achieved, and you can get a 6 pack quick, there are a number of items that have to be in position first before you can accomplish them.

Very first of all, you will need to burn off your belly fat which seems to stubbornly stick to your abdominal region. Should you have already achieved this, then you are great, otherwise you will have to include exercises into your routine which will take care of fat burning.

Next, you will require to have a healthier way of life and a excellent eating routine, which means that you are able to only have a moderate volume of alcohol, and that you stay away almost completely from those foods which will bring down your odds of getting six pack abdominals.

Nearly all men and women think that performing a bunch of ab exercises or sit ups each day will get them a six pack on it’s own. But diet and doing exercises are vital. Your belly fat is basically concealing your abdominal muscles and until you burn it away there’s no possibility of a defined mid section!

If you are doing, or you’re in the process of performing all of the items above right now, you should achieve your aim of a ripped stomach. Until you get these factors in to place, you will discover that it is pretty hard to achieve the fast results which all those magazines are promising you.

Nevertheless, there’s no reason to get dejected. With a little hard work on your part, you will be equipped to acquire 6 pack abdominals, you just won’t be able to obtain a six pack as quickly as if you decide to put in lots of hard work. A little extra time will be required. Yet with hard work and willpower, that time to the optimal stomach can greatly be lessened!

Come and take a look at http://www.burnstomachfat.net and discover some great tips on how to burn away your stomach fat to reveal your sexy 6 pack!

Summary: Weight lifting plateau is bound to occur to you, and it probably has happened if you are reading this article. This article explains some common ways to overcome this condition.

Keep A Journal

Record what you do in the gym. Record how many sets and the weight you use. You may think you can keep it in your head, but you are not likely to remember long-term progress. Recording your workouts in a type of journal will help you see patterns.

Rest

Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep. Your muscles grow while they are sleeping. 8 hours of sleep is the recommended norm, some recommend as much as 10 hours of sleep. Take a break from weight lifting. Take a full seven days off from any kind of workouts. Let your body completely renew itself. Another approach is to rest for longer than seven days, maybe a month or so but you still workout but not nearly as hard. You focus mostly on cardio at this time or if you decide to weight lift use light weights and do many repetitions.

Diet

Much of the research out there says you most likely are getting enough protein in your diet naturally. The volumes of information about increasing protein intake for heavy weight lifters cannot be ignored. Those who are not hard-core weight lifters do not need as much protein. Since you are concerned about reaching a plateau you might want to increase your protein intake. Focus on the healthiest kinds of protein such as egg whites. Some doctors also advise not to avoid eating the egg yoke. The cholesterol in the egg yoke has important nutrients.

Change Up Your Workout

Change up your routine. Try doing it in a different way. Maybe try doing a full body workout. Use a different machine than what you normally use. If you have mostly been using machines start using free-weights and vice versa.

Focus on the negative. The negative is when you are releasing or lowering the weight. Do this extremely slow and hold it in the middle. There are at least two ways of doing this. Use your normal weight and lower down as slow as you can stand. The other method is to increase the weight 10 or 15 pounds and lower it slowly. You will not be able to lower it as slowly with the heavier weight but it will shock your muscles more.

You are trying to shock your body. Make it do something that it has not done before. Try doing supersets. Supersets are different exercises combined one after another without rest.

For example if you are accustomed to doing biceps and triceps on the same workout day. Do a bicep rep and instead of resting immediately do a triceps rep.

Another method is to start heavy and after each rep take the weight down without resting. For example do a chest press set using 100 pounds of about 8 reps, instead of resting decrease the weight to say 50 pounds and pump out a few more reps. This helps insure that you truly did reach muscle failure.

You will find that with the lower weight you can still push out a few more reps. After you rested put the 100 pounds back on and do your 8 reps, then drop the weight down to 50 pounds and knock out some more reps. If you manage 8 reps with 50 pounds try it with 75 pounds. You shouldn’t be able to do too many reps with the lower weight because you should have already brought your muscles to failure. The lower weight is that extra insurance that you will reach muscle failure. If you are getting 8 reps with the lower weight your higher weight is not high enough. Increase the 100 pounds 10 or 15 pounds.

Conclusion

Weight lifting plateau is caused by doing the same thing over and over again. It is overcome by shocking your body by doing something different. Other factors such as sleep, rest and diet play a factor.

Bret Bradshaw owns a virtual celebrity professional training business. Go to www.Fit-In-Exercise.com for more information.

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Summary: Lifting weights to lose weight is either done through circuit training or the traditional approach of building as much muscle mass as possible. Circuit weight lifting will give you the most cardio effect and you will burn more calories during your workout.

Circuit training is not the same as cardio training, but as far as weight lifting is concerned it is the closest you can get to a cardio workout. I am not saying circuit training should replace cardio because it should not. Circuit training does not come without its disadvantages. Circuit training is not always the easiest or most convenient way of training.

The main goal with circuit training is to move from one exercise to another without rest. If you are at the gym this could create challenges because someone could be using the machine you need to use. Once you leave your machine and the other one is free someone else may have jumped on the one you were using. A good circuit training workout session will involve several exercises in rapid-fire fashion.

Circuit training will get your heart rate up a lot faster than normal weight training. You may or may not be able to lift as heavy weights as you would with normal weight lifting. What I mean with normal weight lifting is doing one exercise with reps of 6 to 8 and three sets of each exercise and resting approximately 30 seconds to one minute in between sets. The longer you rest the heavier weights you will be able to lift, but the less cardio effect you will have.

Another advantage with circuit training is you finish your weight lifting workout much faster. You don’t have to stay at the gym as long. You can do a modified circuit workout if hogging up several machines is not possible.

Many people break up their weight training sessions into body parts. If you are a beginner you may want to consider doing a full body workout all in one session.

One option of breaking up your body parts is the following but there are several combinations that could work. The overall rule is whatever body part you combine, exercise the larger muscle group first.
1. Back and chest
2. Arms: Bicep and tricep
3. Shoulders
4. Legs
5. Arms and shoulders
6. Back and tricep
7. Back and bicep
8. Chest and tricep
9. Chest and bicep
10. Chest and shoulders

I personally like to do opposite muscle groups i.e. bicep and tricep or back and chest if I am doing supersets.

If you do a tricep workout before your chest you will not get much of a chest workout because you triceps were already exhausted.

If you are going to do a circuit training for your chest start out with flat bench press which targets your middle chest and is the largest muscle group. Flat bench will indirectly target the other chest areas. Then immediately do incline bench press for your upper chest of one set of 8 reps then immediately move to decline bench press for your lower chest of one set and 8 reps. Do this superset three times. If you want to incorporate an arm workout do a bicep or tricep exercise after this chest superset.

Some other ideas to incorporate circuit training is do an upper body exercise then a lower body exercise. If you are at the gym and are afraid of losing your machine grab some dumbbells and have it next to your squat machine. Do a squat set then do a bicep curl set.

Some suggest if you decide to rest a muscle group in between sets, grab a jump rope and jump hard core for a couple of minutes.

To get your heart rate up the fastest with jump roping try the following routines but obviously not at the same time;
1. Jump side to side.
2. Jump forward and backward.
3. Jump lifting your knees high in the air.
4. Jump running in place with lifting your knees high in the air.
5. Jump with one leg forward and one leg back and switch off with each jump, in a cross-country skier approach.

You will get a decent jump-roping workout with the standard jumping up and down with a slight knee bent but you will need to increase your workout time. The nice thing about jump-roping is not a long workout. Most recommend jump-roping between 10 to 20 minutes with breaks. Most can’t jump rope 20 minutes straight. Jumping is also a great way to build bone mass.

Circuit training is also a good way to break free of a weight-training plateau. Change is the main way to push through a plateau.

Conclusion: Lifting weights to lose weight depends if you want a cardio effect or the traditional weight lifting method. Circuit weight lifting increases your heart rate and the traditional weight lifting not nearly as much. To lose weight without circuit training requires you put on a lot of muscle mass.

Bret Bradshaw owns a business providing virtual celebrity personal training for all the major workout programs. You can learn more at www.Fit-In-Exercise.com.

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Bodybuilding is an intense sport and injuries are often sustained by bodybuilders during the course of their training or competitions. A disturbing number of these bodybuilding injuries are preventable though and in this article we will consider some of the common causes of these mishaps, how to prevent them and how to deal with the injuries should they occur.

There are several types of injuries commonly suffered by bodybuilders and most of these are caused by overexertion, incorrect technique or equipment use and the absence of safety equipment. These conditions can range from the common or garden aches, pains and stiffness related to most strenuous exercise to permanently debilitating damage. As mentioned, most can be prevented by exercising restraint and common sense when working out.

The most common injuries suffered by bodybuilders can be broken down into the following classifications:
Fractures: These injuries consist of partial, complete or compression type bone breaks.
Strains: Strains are caused by muscular over extension or over use.
Bursitis: This injury affects the padding or bursa sacks which protect the muscles from adjacent bone mass. In bursitis these pads become inflamed and cause a lot of pain and resultant loss of mobility.
Contusions: A contusion is bruising of a muscle as a result of impact.
Sprains: Sprains are caused by over extending the ligaments that serve as connections between our bones.
Avulsion: This is the tearing of the actual muscle itself. This usually occurs at the joint between the muscle and its tendon.
Tendonitis: tendonitis is caused by inflammation of the tendons that attach the muscle mass to the bones.

This is a generalised breakdown of the different types of injuries generally suffered by bodybuilders. These in turn present themselves in many different forms, the most frequently encountered being:

Elbow Tendonitis: This particular injury consists, in itself, of several different types. Lateral Epiconylitis or tennis elbow as it is more commonly know, is a strain at the origin of the extensor muscles in the forearm. A triceps tendonitis usually results from overuse of this muscle group with a resultant tendon strain. Medial Epiconylitis, or golfers elbow, results from overuse of the flexor muscles in the wrist.
Neck Strains: This injury usually results from extensive stress placed on the neck muscles typically during squats and shrugs.
Back Strain: One of the more common bodybuilding injuries, back strains are commonly caused by incorrect technique or the use of excessive weight during dead lifts and squats.
Knee Strain: Another common bodybuilding injury that presents itself as meniscal tears, ACL tears and bursitis, knee strains are also usually the result of lifting excessive weight or bad form.
Pectoral Tears: This injury is the result of a tear or avulsion of the Pectoralis Major tendon. In serious cases this will result in a knot or balling of separated muscle towards the sternum accompanied by severe bruising.

The normal stiffness and soreness that sets in within 48 hours of a workout is usually not something to be unduly alarmed about and is caused by a build up of lactic acid, and cortisol in the muscle as well as the slight damage which is the trigger for muscle regeneration and growth.

Most of these bodybuilding injuries can be prevented by following a number of common sense good practices when working out.

Warm up: A couple of sets with light weights before engaging in the full weight series, stretches and a couple of minutes on a treadmill go a long way to preventing injuries.
Concentration: Stay focused on form and technique. Many people get hurt when they get distracted and the workout or equipment gets away from them.
Footwear: Wear gym shoes, not thongs or sandals. This prevents injuries from stubs, slips or dropping weights on your feet.
Restraint: Don’t unreasonably push the envelope. Boasting about your super deadlift looses its value if you’re doing it from a body cast.
PPE: One of the most frequently neglected measures is the use of personal protective equipment. Wraps, gloves and supports prevent injuries. Simple and straight. Rather be a huge, ripped softy, than a broken down has-been superhero.
Technique and form: Technique is as much about preventing injury as it is about maximizing on the workout. Never cut corners on form.

In the event of an injury occurring, the first line of action is to stop exercising immediately. Apply ice and a compress to control the inflammation, elevate the injured area to control blood loss or swelling, and support the injury with a brace. Then seek professional medical attention. Bodybuilding injuries are often not serious but if neglected are sure to turn out far worse than necessary. And above all always exercise common sense before you exercise your muscles.

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If your target is to simply tone your figure, you’ll want to do a lot of reps with lighter weights, whereas to develop your muscle quickly, you’ll need a work out that uses heavier weights but fewer reps. Lifting heavier weights places your muscles under more stress, and the higher intensity from the workout will develop your muscles much faster. One of the critical points I learn’t over the years is that not all muscle building exercises were created the same, and that some certain exercises generate considerably bigger results considerably quicker. Concentrating on each and every muscle group with the right exercise will transform the actual results you get.

Well no matter what your strength training objective, you will need to work the whole of your body. It’s crucial to train all of the major muscle groups for maximum results. Working your largest muscles will burn off the most calories. So to burn fat or develop muscle, you have to work your largest muscle groups first, and work down to your smaller ones. If you would like to firm up your entire body, you can work out several times every week, however if you want to develop your strength and your muscle size, you must limit your weight training to no more often than every 5 days for each muscle group.

To lower your body fat, ideally you must combine your strength training with aerobic exercise work outs. When building muscle size the aerobic element is less important, instead your main focus must be on high intensity, highly loaded strength routines that focus on building the main muscle groups.

You also need to think about nutrition and diet, and the critical significance of eating the right things if you actually want to develop muscle mass and get rid of your body fat.

The important points to take on board when muscle building, are to keep away from over exercising, focus on each muscle group with precise higher intensity exercises and to eat the right things! All 3 of these areas are the ones where amateurs make the largest blunders.

You should only train each muscle group once every 5 to 7 days, and no more, and consume the right foods before and after. Following a high intensity routine, it is advisable to allow time for your muscle tissue to recover and develop more powerful. If you don’t, it will remain “broken down” and you will see no development of one’s physique.

You will grow stronger a lot quicker with less regular, higher intensity strength training routines, they’ve undoubtedly worked for me. It is hard to stop yourself over training. We are brought up to think that more training is better, but with body building it is not. Less frequent, higher quality training is absolutely better and far more effective at producing rapid development.

Discover more of my muscle building tips and advice on my blog at http://www.buildmusclequick.net and transform your workouts for ever!