Weight Training and Strength Training

You can get results in 1-2 weeks. That is, you can 'feel' some muscles growing, but dont expect to look noticably different. On the first day lift weights for about 30 mins, and make sure you lift weights that are 'reasonably heavy' but not to an extent that you are struggling after the 3rd lift (rep). Your muscles must hurt for a few days after this session, to the extent that when you extend your arm it hurts, and when you do a sit up it hurts. If they don't , you need to go back and lift heavier weights. Once you have completed this initial session, you need to increase your weights marginally each session. For toning your body you generally go for less weights but more reps. For big muscles you go for bigger weights but fewer reps. Also, make sure you rest your muscles for at least 48 hours otherwise you could actually go backwards! So on day one you might do biceps and abs, on day 2 you do chest and triceps. If you go to the gym 4 or 5 days a week, I promise you will notice some difference (or moreso 'feeling' ) in about 2 weeks. After 4 you will notice your biceps and chest musles will be bigger. After 6 bigger, etc etc. The more results you get, the more research you can do on better exercisies , diet, etc. Finally, its important to know how muscles develop: when you lift weights you are sort of 'damaging' or tearing your muscles. Your body needs to repair them, which it does in the 48 hour rest period, but actually makes the muscle slightly bigger 'just in case'. This is why you need to increase your weights marginally after each training session.

HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND BURN FAT (suitable for men or women) How to build muscle and burn fat? Well, the correct ways to burn fat and build muscle are through specific eating habits and specific exercises. The best overall approach involves three components: (1) Eating specific foods (2) Weight/Strength training (3) Cardiovascular (cardio) exercise Awaiting you at the bottom of this answer, are links to free lists of foods to eat and foods to avoid, choices of free cardio exercise plans, and free weight/strength training exercises/routines. These links will guide you at your own pace; clearly showing you step by step how to build muscle and burn fat. First, on this page, let me give you an overview of the three component parts. (1) HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND BURN FAT THROUGH EATING Here's how to cut through all the confusion about correct eating. Eat a small meal about every three waking hours. You will not be eating more food, you will simply be spreading it throughout the day. It's critical never to skip a meal, and to obtain sufficient quality protein at each meal. 'Sufficient' means at least 15 grams per feeding if you are female and at least 20 grams per feeding if you are male. Your protein should come from unprocessed (preferably organic where possible), natural sources. To lose body fat, and for optimum health, avoid or strictly limit refined processed carbohydrates (apart from an occasional treat). Over-consumption of refined processed carbohydrates is a major cause of unwanted body fat, insulin resistance, fat accumulating around the abdomen or stomach, overall weight gain, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other diet related diseases and conditions. If you are unsure what these foods are, at the bottom of this answer you will find a page link leading to a list of refined processed carbohydrates. Replace refined processed carbohydrates with more of the so-called fat burning foods and make use of the thermic effect of fat burning foods. Drink plenty of fresh water to enable you body to process these foods. I suggest 3 quarts daily and adjusting your intake from there (unless you have a medical condition that would prohibit this). If you are unsure what these foods are, at the bottom of this answer you will find a page link leading to a full list, and more detailed information about the thermic effect of food. Eating this way (as outlined above) will significantly boost your metabolism. Increasing your metabolic rate is the key to achieving and sustaining a low percentage of body fat. Again, remember to drink plenty of clean water. As stated earlier, I suggest 3 quarts daily and adjusting your intake from there (unless you have a medical condition that would prohibit this). (2) HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND BURN FAT THROUGH WEIGHT/ STRENGTH TRAINING Proper weight/strength training will build muscle, which is your METABOLIC FURNACE that burns additional calories 24 hours a day and not just when you are exercising. Do a whole body routine. Concentrate on the basic, compound exercises, which are full squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, dips, and chins. Learn proper exercise technique and use it on every rep. Once you are able to train intensely, you'll experience DOMS. In order to ensure systemic recovery, wait 24 or 48 hours after all DOMS has disappeared before training again. Remember: you do not grow in the gym. What you do in the gym should stimulate growth during the recovery period. Exercise is like medicine: too little is ineffective and too much is counter-productive. Therefore, between sessions get plenty of rest and sleep. As stated earlier, at the bottom of this answer, you can find page links to free exercises/routines suitable for beginners and upwards, as well as relevant information such as safety and warm-up tips. (3) HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND BURN FAT THROUGH CARDIOVASCULAR (CARDIO) EXERCISE Here are a few examples of cardio exercise: brisk walking on a treadmill or outdoors running on a treadmill or outdoors rowing cross-country skiing trampolining nordic walking aerobic dancing In fact, any exercise, sport or activity that increases your heart and respiration rate for a specific period is cardio exercise. It is important to do cardio exercise at the right intensity. Cardio exercise ranges from mild to intense. Unlike mild cardio, intense cardio must always be brief. Intense cardio exercises include running, interval training, and graded exercise protocol. Brisk walking is an example of mild cardio exercise. Mild cardio exercises keep your maximum heart rate at about 60 to 65%. Intense cardio exercises involve a maximum heart rate that is considerably higher (usually up to about 85% or even 90%). In terms of burning fat during exercise, mild cardio is superior to intense cardio. So, you might think that everyone should do mild cardio exercise. That is incorrect. Mild cardio exercises are not effective fat burning exercises in the long-term. WHY? Well, they do actually burn more fat than intense cardio exercise. Unfortunately, by doing them regularly, your body adapts to mild cardio by storing fat during the recovery period until your next mild cardio exercise session. This is bad. You want to burn fat not store it! Whereas, intense cardio burns more fat overall because it stimulates more fat burning between intense cardio exercise sessions. In addition, because intense cardio is intense, it must be brief, (whereas mild cardio is prolonged). By that, intense cardio is great for people who are lazy, or do not like prolonged exercise, or grow bored by it, or do not have the time. Nonetheless, if you are new to exercise and wish to begin with mild cardio such as brisk walking see the choice of plans at the bottom of this answer, and then progress to intense cardio (see the intense cardio plan at the bottom of this answer). Whatever cardio you choose (mild or intense), choose a cardio exercise that you dislike the least and that you will stick to without giving up after the first week or so. Cardio exercise will increase the amount of calories your body uses during and immediately after exercise. HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND BURN FAT, SUMMARY So, the best way to build muscle and burn fat is to eat as outlined in the earlier part of this answer, and combine cardio exercise with weight/strength training. You can use this sustainable program from now until your dotage. If you adopt it and make it habitual, you are going to know how to build muscle and burn fat, like the way you look, and love the way you feel! Depending upon your current degree of fitness, I suggest two to three intense cardio sessions per week. In particular, if you have not been doing intense cardio exercise, I recommend starting with GXP (see the Intense Cardio Plan 3 page link at the bottom of this answer). Even if you do twice weekly strength-training as well as intense fitness exercise two or three times weekly, if you want to go further it's also a good idea to go for a brisk walk once a week. 'Brisk' means 2 miles in 30 minutes, 3 miles in 45 minutes, or 4 miles in 60 minutes. For weight loss or health, even if you start with mild cardio that will be a great step forward, and then move on to intense cardio exercise as soon as you are able. Cardio exercise will increase the amount of calories your body uses during and immediately after exercise. Weight/strength training will add more muscle and muscle is you METABOLIC FURNACE that burns calories 24 hours per day and not just when you are exercising. (Don't worry you don't have to build huge muscle (unless you want to.) Moreover, in addition to adding muscle, weight/strength training benefits your body in so many, many ways. One should never underestimate the benefits of weight/strength training for optimum health. Male of female, young or older, you are never too old to benefit from some form of weight/strength training. The free exercises and programs at the bottom of this answer are suitable for males or females, beginners of more advanced, young or old. Therefore, when you combine weight/strength training with cardio exercise you not only have the best answer for 'how to build muscle and burn fat' you also have the best exercise answer for optimum health. (Incidentally, even people who cannot engage in cardio exercise because of injuries, or specific health conditions, can usually engage in some from of weight/strength training and, by that, enjoy its many, many health benefits.) So, for the 'how to build muscle and burn fat' free programs, plans, and lists, to show you how to do it step by step, use the page links given below: FREE MILD CARDIO EXERCISE PLAN 1 (the easier plan) FREE MILD CARDIO EXERCISE PLAN 2 (the slightly harder plan) FREE INTENSE CARDIO EXERCISE PLAN 3 BEST EXERCISES TO LOSE WEIGHT LIST OF REFINED PROCESSED CARBOHYDRATES (to avoid or strictly limit) FREE FAT BURNING FOODS AND THE THERMIC EFFECT (to replace refined processed carbohydrates) and more about detailed information abut the thermic effect of food 128 people + others elsewhere, found the above 'how to build muscle and burn fat' answer very useful. You may first wish to seek the approval of your own physician before changing your eating or exercise habits, especially if you have any known condition or disease. *

Weight training, which is a subset of resistance training, has several advantages and disadvantages over other forms of training, or lack of training at all. Advantages: It can help you to build bigger, stronger, and more powerful muscles. It can help sculpt your body into a more functional and attractive shape. It is one of the key ingredients to promote a healthy lifestyle. It can increase your resistance to injury and some diseases. It often improves your mood, self-esteem, and outlook on life. Disadvantages: It can introduce injury and pain if done incorrectly or excessively. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to achieve high success.It requires a balanced, nutritional diet to be fully effective. Equipment or membership to a gym can be expensive.

'5' whoever wrote that really helpful you are, giving someone the wrong answer. This question is not answerable there are too many variables. For example F.I.T.T (frequency, intensity, time, type) basically how hard you train, how many times you train in a week, how long you train each session, and what type of training you are doing - (3-way split, 4-way split, drop sets, interval, continues, ect.) There is a lot of controversy surrounding the way people train and how they build mass because everyone is different. Also some other variables are, diet, genetics (to a degree), actually i'll save your time by shortining this answer and mine by writing the short answer. There is no correct answer to that question, try it and find out. ! any other questions e-mail me @ joshcook367@hotmail.co.uk and i will answer any questions Thanks!

well the last answer was a piece of crap it is really supposed to help your vertebrae for more info log on to vertebraeworkouts.com

Compound movements like pullups/chinups, and barbell rows will develop biceps proportionally with your other muscle groups. Isolation movements that focus on the bicep include all types of curls, concentration curls, preacher curls, hammer curls all help build your bulging biceps.

It all depends on how you train. if you are lifting "easy" (i.e. the typical 10-15 rep x 3 sets type of lifting) then you could easily fit in daily pushups to compliment your easy going training. this type of training will mainly tone your body. you can train everyday on this type of workout without any problems as your body will not undergo a huge amount of physical strain so it will not require much recovery time. however if you are training hard and heavy (i.e. 4-6 rep sets where the 7th rep is failiure) then I would recommend you fit the pushups in on your off-days but don't do anything on your 2 consecutive days off as your body will need to recover. this type of training will mainly bulk you up (with the right diet) and give you bigger muscles. it is recommended to do each muscle group once a week (e.g. day1 chest, triceps, day2 back, biceps, forearm, day3 shoulders, legs, abs) to give the muscles a full week to recover. the main thing to remember is your body needs to recover in order to grow and be ready for heavier training. which is why i wouldn't necessarily advise doing pushups every day... there are many ways to weight train, with many different results. its hard to ask a general question like this without explaining how you are training, what your diet is like and what you are trying to achieve with your body. if you are serious about training and achieving your goals, then you will no doubt be attending a gym regularly, in this case 3 times a week. The best thing to do is ask one of the personal trainers at your gym.... look for the personal trainer that has the body type best suited to your goals as he/she will probably have the bet advise. tell them your training regime, diet type, sleeping pattern, and the goal you are trying to achieve. Most of the serious guys in your gym will be very happy to give you advise trust me, just make sure you are comprehensive with your questions.

Weightlifting is good for you for several reasons. It gives you more energy and wakes you up in the day. it also makes your body release more endorphins that make you feel happy and more testosterone that also makes us happy and more sexually active. It is perhaps the best form of exercise to increase bone density and also to strengthen ligaments, joints, tendons and muscles. due to these advantages weightlifting can seriously reduce your risk of injuries in heavy contact sports or just risky activities. weightlifting also increases your metabolism throughout the whole day so you will burn of more calories and fat. These are just a few of the reasons why weightlifting is good for you and everyone could benefit from it.

It's not how long you do it but what you do. If you're lifting (not warmups) for more than 45 minutes then you're not working hard/efficient enough. If you're doing the right exercises, you shouldn't need more than half an hour after warming up.

Here are a variety of opinions: You can improve strength through correct diet and exercises. Your diet should have lots of protein in it, if you work out hard, so your body will get enough energy to grow muscles. Make sure all your muscle groups get enough exercise (because, for example, when you only train your abs and pecs and you ignore back muscles, you can get bad back pain). Lifting weights regularly and healthy eating will increase your strength and build lean muscle. Try squats and dead lifts and eat foods with plenty of protein. Do weight training no more than three times per week. Yes, the best overall approach to build lean muscle (or to build muscle and burn fat) involves three components: Strength/Weight Training Eating correctly, correct feeding frequency, sufficient protein Cardio exercise (if you also need to burn fat. In my opinion, don't strength train more than 3 times a day. To gain pure strength its not about muscle gain its about neuromuscular coordination, meaning more muscle fibers are recruited and your muscles become more efficient in the lift. To do this you will want to lift heavy heavy weights, the most you can lift for 1-5 reps, if you can do more than 5 reps, your weight is too light. Tempo is another important factor in gaining strength. You should vary your tempo fairly frequently as well as changing your workouts every few weeks. The most common tempo is 30X0 which is a 3 second lowering or eccentric phase with no pauses at the top or bottom and as fast as you can in the lifting or concentric phase. Isometric holds can be added at points of weakness to improve in those areas, but isometrics are only applicable in a 15 degree range on either side of the position they are held. For in-depth information about how to build muscle and improve strength, and for the free programs and plans to show you how to do it, see the page link, further down this page, listed under Related Questions. .

Well, if your follow the exact instructions on the product and stick to an additional diet, you might get slim fast. The problem is, once you are finished with a cure, or you stop taking slim fast, you get fat fast again. It is called "the yo-yo- effect" and it will happen with every cure, exercise or diet that makes you slim in a fast way. The best way is the cheapest way, and trust me- my father had many successes with this as a medical dietitian. Eat healthy: 200 grams (7oz) of fruit and 200 grams of vegetables (not heavily cooked) a day, some Brazil nuts every day and a balanced breakfast, lunch and dinner, vary from day to day, don't eat the same every day but try to eat at the same time every day. Avoid late night snacks, too much candy, pie, chips, fastfood restaurants, sodas, beer, sweet or fat food like pudding desserts. Use palmsugar, a glass of fresh milk, and a glass of red wine a day, fresh fish, bake in coconut-oil, use real butter instead of margerine (no matter what they tell you). Stay away from almost every product that tells you it makes you slim but instead use fresh products. And sugar is your worst enemy- the fats in sugar that is, you can hardly get rid of them. So start looking at foodlabels, to much sugar? take something else! Exercise: Walking is better than running, physical work is better than fitness. Many people that want to lose weight start exercising heavily like bodybuilding or running. The result is that the fat turns into muscles and muscles are even bigger and weight more than fat. For losing weight, normal but much movement is the best: take a long walk every day, or bike 5/10 miles everyday. It is important to put your goal of losing weight not for next month. Take the time and you will stay slim (if you not immediately run off to get a hamburger once you're slim). Slim fast always means fat fast afterwards.

In my opinion, definitely. Strength plays a huge part when playing basketball and it is important to keep your muscles in shape. I would not recommend lifting weights before a big game or during playoffs.

Chest exercises and over the head with your arms type of exercises may help some, but nothing short of surgery will make them stand up like they did when you were younger/before you had kids. Which ever the reason is for you. Here are more opinions and answers from other FAQ Farmers: * I'm pretty sure any pectoral muscle exercises gives them more definition, but they essentially are fatty tissue. * Try taking 10lb weights in each hand. (10 might be a bit much to start with. whatever seems comfortably difficult). Spread your arms and bend them so your forearms are perpendicular to the ground and your upper arms are parallel with it. Bring your hands together using your whole arm. Then you move your arms together so your elbows touch. Do lots of reps until it's a little firmer in the area above and beside your breasts then you can move up in weight. When I say a lot of reps, I mean a lot. You're gonna be real sore the day after you do it, so don't be alarmed. * Your breasts themselves have no muscle tissue so you cannot firm them up but if you do exercises to firm up the supporting pectoral muscles you can give them support from behind. * Push-ups are a main exercises in my routine. The tend to keep my breasts perky. So yeah, push-ups. These are very good guidelines, but another option to use besides free weights or dumb bells is the use of resistance bands. Stretchy bands that can tone and strengthen the muscles behind the adipose breast tissue. They work very well with less chance of injury to muscles, and in as little as 10 minutes a day, you can strengthen and tone your upper body.

Assuming you are asking about the specific lift, Good Morning, this is a wonderful lift to do, assuming you focus primarily on practicing good form. This is an exercise that requires you to simply stand up straight, head up and chest out, feet shoulder with apart, toes slightly facing out. You flex at the hips and bend forward, keeping your back straight, head up, and move your butt straight back. Make sure your shoulders are directly over your toes (do not fall forward or let your heels rise off the floor). Bend until your torso is about parallel to the ground and return back to standing position. Basically, you are performing a theatre or concert bow. Go ahead and bow. Now look forward, straight flat back, and spread your legs about shoulder width while sticking your butt back slightly to position your shoulders over your toes. As I come up from the bend I always tell people it is like waving hi and saying "good morning". Cheesy yes, but it get a chuckle from people.

HOW CAN YOU GAIN WEIGHT Here are excellent suggestions from a variety of WikiAnswer contributors. How can you gain weight in a HEALTHY way? By developing specific eating habits and by engaging in regular strength training. Strength/weight training will build more muscle and, by that, you will gain weight. At the bottom of this answer you will find page links that will show you in detail how to eat healthily and how to do weight/strength training exercises), and give you access to free strength/weight training programs suitable for beginners or more advanced. How can you gain weight in an UNHEALTHY way? Simple and easy, if you just want to gain body fat eat lots of carbohydrates and be sedentary (move around as little as possible), but be prepared that this can damage your health. First, let us outline a general overview and then move on to the EATING and EXERCISE headings. Gaining weight in a healthy way means developing healthy eating habits by eat more quality proteins, plus more quality carbohydrates, whilst eliminating or strictly limit refined processed carbohydrate (apart from an occasional treat). Refined processed carbohydrates are very high calorie, very high carbohydrate foods. Over-consumption of these foods is a major cause of weight gain and obesity. Therefore, you might think that this is an excellent way to gain weight. However, that is NOT a healthy way to gain weight. Why? Because in addition to being a major cause of obesity, over-consumption of refined processed carbohydrates is also a major cause of heart disease, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and many other diet related diseases and conditions. At the bottom of this answer you will find page links leading to a list of refined carbohydrates, plus, plus page links to how many calories you will need per day, and how many carbohydrates you will need per day. Having given you the overview, let's add more detail. Gaining healthy body weight requires a combination of five factors that you not only must learn, but must also learn how to apply. Learning these five factors will allow you to gain healthy lean body weight instead of fat. Here are the five factors that you must take into consideration to gain weight: 1. How can you gain weight through healthy eating?Your diet is as or more important than your strength/weight training workout if you are trying to gain weight. Simply put, in order to fuel your weight training workouts and allow your body to repair muscle tissue, you have to eat a healthy, well balanced diet. This means not only consuming and adequate number of calories, but also eating the right types of food. Protein is a good food to eat more of if you wish to gain 'healthy weight,' and it must be accompanied with natural (not processed or refined) carbohydrates, and plenty of fresh water to process the protein effectively 2. How can you gain weight through strength/weight Training You have to implement a structured weight-training program that incorporates the right exercises along with the correct amount of weight, number of repetitions, and sets. The frequency, intensity, and time of your weight workouts are all critical components of a successful program. For in-depth information about how to do this, see the page link at the bottom of this answer. Here are a few strength-training tips: Aim for 2 - 3 weight training workouts weekly, with at least 1 full rest day between muscle groups. Lift a weight that can only be performed for 8-10 repetitions for each exercise. Be sure to perform every exercise with correct exercise technique to maximize tension on the muscle, and minimize the possibility of injury. 3. Rest and Recovery Without adequate sleep and rest periods between workouts, your body will not have time to repair tissue (the repairing of the tissue is how you build more muscle), and your immune system will become weak. In relation to how to gain weight, here are two more rest and recovery tips: Be sure to get at least eight hours of sleep each night. This is the time that your body repairs and rebuilds muscle tissue. Inadequate sleep will not allow your muscles to repair themselves, making it very difficult to build mass. It's also important to allow enough recovery time in between your weight training workouts. Too many workouts or training the same muscle groups on consecutive days can lead to over training, which can ultimately lead to muscle loss. 4. Managing Stress Chronic stress causes the body to release hormones that literally eat away at your muscle tissue. Managing the stressful situations in your life is an important part of your muscle building program. Try to relax whenever possible, and eliminate unnecessary stressful situations from your life. Don't let yourself be worked up over unpleasant situations. Relax and take a deep breath. 5. Learning tips from someone successful Learning from those whom have been successful can be very helpful and save you plenty of time and money. Read about people online who have accomplished goals that are similar to what you are after. Successful bodybuilders can teach now only what works, but what doesn't work. They already been down the road that you are about to embark on, and can steer you in the right direction. Implementing the above five factors is the best way for you to gain healthy body weight. When designing your weight gain program, be sure to take all five of these elements into consideration. Even if only one is missing, it can have a serious impact on your progress. For more plans, programs, and information about 'how can you gain weight' in a healthy way use the page links below. HOW CAN YOU GAIN WEIGHT THROUGH BUILDING MUSCLE (and where to find the free strength/weight training exercises and programs, suitable for beginners of more advanced) WHAT ARE REFINED PROCESSED CARBOHYDRATES (to be avoided or strictly limited) HOW MANY CALORIES NEEDED PER DAY HOW MANY CARBOHYDRATES NEEDED PER DAY 22 people, + others below, found this 'how can you gain weight' answer page useful.

It depends on your desired results. For getting stronger and bigger, use a lot of weight and low repetition. I would recommend 2-3 sets of 8 reps with however much weight you can handle for that amount. For getting more toned and gaining endurance, use low weight and high reps. I would recommend 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps.

EAT

Dr. John Epley invented the sit-ups. I guess... This answer is from Kassi

Nobody invented it, it's just evolved as an idea since we've been able to lift ourselves off the ground with our legs and arms.

No, it is not bad for you. It is a very good static core conditioning exercise to do.

In terms of actual efficiency in building total muscularity, no. The reason behind this is that it is solely an isolation exercise, of course not counting forearms. An isolation exercise is an exercise which isolates only one muscle. Since curls only exercise one body part, you biceps, it might build your biceps but is in no way a good workout on its own. Curling is just too inefficient in terms of building muscle. The more muscles recruited in to a movement, the more stress will be put on your central nervous system, which promotes muscle growth. More testosterone is also released with bigger movements. By big movements, I mean compound exercises, exercises which recruit more than, often much more, than one muscle. Some examples: Squats- the king of exercises, any serious fitness/muscle building/weight loss program should include squats, it incorporates almost every muscle in your body, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, traps, abs, and obliques. Deadlifts- this probably ties squats as the best muscle building exercise. Muscle worked include: Hamstrings, quadriceps, lower back, abs, obliques, forearms, latissimus dorsi (your back v-taper), triceps, and biceps. Overhead press- Also very useful, includes: shoulders (all heads), triceps, core Chinups/Pullups- A great upper body exercise, and can replace curling, it works your biceps hard as well and the latissimus dorsi.

The powerball can help you. The best way to increase forearm size is through weighted wrist flexion and extension, which can be done with dumbbells and in many other ways. A very good way to do weighted flexion/extension is with a "wrist roller." This is a handle with a weight hanging from it where you twist the handle to coil the weight up. Light grippers used for high reps can also help to increase forearm size (as opposed to heavy grippers like Captains of Crush which cannot be done for many reps but are great for developing crushing strength). Keep in mind that while improving the grip strength through dedicated grip training does improve the size of the forearm, this is not the most efficient and direct way to increase forearm size, if that is your goal. A mixture of flexion, extension, and grip training, of course, would be great.

You can roll it into a cylinder that you can't quite reach all the way around, then just squeeze it 12-15 times, rest and repeat 3 times. You can vary this by squeezing it with your fingers held together but not bent at the middle joints,holding them as you would to finish tying a shoelace. You can also hold an end of the towel in each hand and play tug of war with yourself, which works on a more functional grip. If you have more of a problem gripping from a disease or injury, try starting with laying the towel on a table. Place your hand flat on the towel and, keeping the heel of your hand in contact with the table,gather the towel under your palm with your fingertips. You can also start in the same position and spread and close your fingers, moving the towel with your fingers. You can contact a local Occupational or Physical Therapist for more help. You may need a referral from a doctor or nurse practioner, depending on your state, but try a OT or PT in private practice (use your Yellow Pages). They can tell you over the phone how to get an appointment.

Before and after! My trainer says a good soy protein shake before helps my body work out at an optimal level, after is good for rebuilding the muscle from the workout. Answer Yes it is a good idea to consume protein before and after a workout but it should be known that the most crucial time, is after your workout. During the 3 hours after your workout is essentially your muscle making window of opportunity. This is when your muscles are basically starving for protein and makes the most use of them. I suggest a fast acting protein such as whey immediately after, like within 15 minutes! Typically, this is a protein powder that you mix with water or milk. Sometime after that, within the 3 hour window consume a good whole food meal containing at least 30 grams of protein and 50-80 grams of complex carbs such as white rice, pasta, baked potato, etc. The reason I suggest the use of a complex carbs at this time is not to make you fat, because it won't. Complex carbs will raise you insulin levels and shoot all those good nutrients through your bloodstream straight to repairing your muscles. It's also a good time to enjoy that plate of spaghetti or rice. If you are looking to gain weight then eating pasta, brown rice or a baked potatoe is a great suggestion however if your goal is to lose weight I suggest eating half of what you would for rice or pasta and replace it with broccoli and green beans.

Of course not. But don't go drinking it all up in one sitting. Go with the powdered version of it...two scoops after lifting. add one scoop if you want to gain weight before lifting.