Men's Health Big Book of Exercises
Focus on arms:
- stand tall
- chest up
- core braced
- shoulders back and down
- pelvis tucked under
- knees slightly bent if necessary
- make sure not to rock back and forth when lifting or lowering weights (puts focus on shoulders then instead of intended arm muscle)
The next time you're doing a standard bicep curl, switch it up by curling one at a time or raising one arm while the other slowly lowers.
According to a George Washington University study, lifters
gained 2.5 times more
strength when lifting a weight
fast and lowering it
slowly as opposed to lifting and lowering it slowly.
According to the Journal of Applied Physiology, you'll have a 19% increase in arm strength if you do cardio
after lifting weights instead of before.
Your
tricep muscle makes up close to
60% of your upper arm. So giving your triceps as much attention as your biceps will help you increase your arm size faster than focusing only on the muscles in front.
When doing the
tricep pressdown exercise, if you use too much weight, you'll start involving your shoulders AND back instead of the muscle you're intended to target so when performing this exercise, always remember to keep shoulders back and down and focus on keeping the upper arm and body stable.
Back to FOOD!
T made dinner last night before I headed off to a salsa party. It was delicious and very simple. He made a lovely tomato sauce with saffron and a bit of sugar (don't ask me how sugar fits into the recipe but it does!). The pasta was whole wheat and it also included sauteed mushrooms, onions, and fresh prawns. Yummy!!
It had a spicy kick with some crushed red peppas
I had two helpings!! Salsa was a lot of fun since I hadn't been out dancing in a month but my poor feet this morning!! :(
had the usual scrambled eggs, hummus, and toast for breakfast. I bought the premade reduced fat hummus from Waitrose and it's pretty tasty!
We went back to our old hood (Chelsea represent what what!!) and stopped by the Cadogen Arms for lunch. This used to be a favorite place of ours to eat when we lived around there. The pub is really cool with a an outdoorsy decor (animal heads on the walls) and a spacious drinking, eating, and pool table area upstairs.
I would DEFINITELY recommend getting their Pint o Prawns. They have the most incredible seafood taste to them and its so fresh! Plus, you can dip it in mayo.. YUM! On the down side, they got rid of their saffron dipping butter and I'm not sure why because it was delicious. The mayo worked just fine though.
huge slice of delicious bread
I peeled these suckers with no hesitation! I still surprise myself sometimes since I used to hate touching them with their heads and eyes sill on. I felt like they were looking at me!! lol.. I guess I got over my fear.
I couldn't decide which main to get so I ordered two starters. The first was a spinach and caramelised onion tart with a pouched egg and hollandaise sauce on top. It was sweet and savory=delish!
the scallops were HUGE and perfectly cooked- very buttery and perfectly complemented by the sweet corn puree
bacon chip!!
T had the Guinness steak pie with mash and gravy.
After lunch, I was supposed to go to a Beer Festival at Earls Court w. T but I just wasn't in the mood to drink beer or socialize. It was just one of those days I wanted to get other stuff done.
Agenda: R&R=Read and Relax!
