Chest Workouts: Incline Bench Press, Flat Bench Press, Decline Bench Press

Train your chest in 3 individual parts:

1. Upper Chest: The upper chest is best stimulated when exercises are done on a incline bench (30-45 degrees) using dumbbells or barbels.

2. Middle Chest: The middle chest is best stimulated when exercises are done on a flat bench.

3. Lower chest: The lower chest is best stimulated when exercises are done on a decline bench (30-45 degrees) using dumbbells or barbels.

Let us start building a massive chest with these workouts:

                               Incline Dumbbell Bench Press Workout

How to Perform: Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 

• Adjust bench to an incline of 30 to 45 degrees.
• Lie down on your back on a bench holding 2 dumbbells straight up above your chest with the palms facing your feet.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells down.
• Pause, push the weights back up, taking care not to lock your elbows.
• Breathe out when raising the dumbbells and breathe in when lowering them back.
• Then repeat for desired repetitions.

What muscles do Incline Dumbbell Bench Press Work:

Main muscles worked: Upper Chest (clavicular portion of the pectoralis major).

Other Muscles Worked: Deltoids (shoulders) and triceps (back of the arms).

Equipment: Dumbbells, Bench.




                               Flat Dumbbell Bench Press Workout

How to Perform: Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 

• Lie down on your back on a flat bench holding 2 dumbbells straight up above your chest with the palms facing your feet.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells down.
• Pause, push the weights back up, taking care not to lock your elbows.
• Breathe out when raising the dumbbells and breathe in when lowering them back.
• Then repeat for desired repetitions.

What muscles do flat dumbbell bench press work:

Main muscles worked: Chest; Pectoralis Major, Clavicular.

Other Muscles Worked: Shoulders, Triceps.

Equipment: Dumbbells, Bench.

                             
                              Decline Dumbbell Bench Press Workout

How to perform: Decline Dumbbell Bench Press: 

• Adjust bench to an decline of 30 to 45 degrees.
• Lie down on your back on a bench holding 2 dumbbells straight up above your chest with the palms facing your feet.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells down.
• Pause, push the weights back up, taking care not to lock your elbows.
• Breathe out when raising the dumbbells and breathe in when lowering them back.
• Then repeat for desired repetitions.

What muscles do Decline Dumbbell Bench Press work:

Main muscles worked: Decline bench press targets the lower part of your chest or pectoral muscles.

Other muscles worked: This exercise also works your triceps and anterior deltoid muscles.

Equipment: Dumbbells, Bench.

Also find BICEP WORKOUTS: Dumbbell Biceps Curl, Alternate Dumbbell Biceps Curl

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Cashew Nutrition and Health Benefits of Cashews

Cashew Nutrition:

A 1 ounce (28 g) serving of raw cashews will provide following percentages of recommended daily nutrient intake:

31% of copper

23% of manganese

20% of magnesium

17% of phosphorus

10% of iron

8% of selenium

5% of vitamin B6

A 1 ounce serving of cashews is about 18 whole cashews.

Health Benefits of Cashews: Here are the top 6 health benefits of Cashews:

1. Keeps Your Heart Healthy: Frequent consumption of cashews will lower the risks associated with heart disease, which including high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure. Cashews lowers your LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and improves your HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). Cashews are rich in magnesium, which help lower your blood pressure and reduces chances of having heart attack. Cashews contain very less fat, they are good source of monounsaturated fat, which reduces triglyceride levels and keeps your heart healthy.

2. Helps in Weight Loss: Cashews are high in fiber and low in saturated fat. As cashews are high in fiber, they make you feel full for longer, which restrain you from overeating, food cravings, and unhealthy snacking.

3. Improves Your Bone health: As cashews contain calcium, potassium, magnesium together with low sodium intake improves bone health. They protect against bone demineralization. Cashews are rich in vitamin K. Vitamin K works with other minerals like calcium to support bone health. It improves bone density, maintains bone flexibility, and prevent from bone deformities.

4. Healthy Skin and Hair: Cashews support healthy skin due to healthy essential fatty acids. Cashews aids in rejuvenating your skin as it contains copper. Keeps hair and skin healthy. Improves hair growth and gives natural color to your hair.

5. Improves Brain Function: Cashews promote healthy brain functioning, improves your brain power and improves oxygenated blood flow to brain, prevent from mental disorders.

6. Improves Nerve Function: Cashews makes your nervous system healthy as it contains magnesium. Relaxes your blood vessels, nerves, and muscles.

Also find Health Benefits of Almonds

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How To Reduce Stress: Stress Management Techniques

Here is the best way to relieve stress for you that you can perform at any place.

ABDOMINAL BREATHING: 

To reduce stress and anxiety, start doing abdominal breathing for 5 to 10 minutes each day. Deep breathing increases supply of oxygen to your brain and stimulates parasympathetic nervous system, helpful in achieving deep relaxation, improving concentration, increases our lungs capacity.

Here is the way to perform abdominal breathing:

Sit down: Sit down on a firm comfortable chair.  Make yourself comfortable and keep your shoulders and neck relaxed and keep your knees bent. Now place one hand on your chest and other hand on your lower stomach, so that you can know you are breathing correctly.

Breathe in and breathe out: Focus on the position of your hands while performing. Inhale through your nose, making sure the hand on your lower stomach rises while the hand on your chest remains still and then contract your stomach muscles to relax, breathing out through pursed lips. Perform this exercise for 5 to 10 minutes.

Be stress free and keep relaxing.

How To Lose Weight Fast: Best way to lose weight fast by BMI, BMR, and calorie counting methods

Let us being with the weight loss program so that you can be healthy and energetic.

The first step for weight loss is to calculate your BMI, know in which range you are, and figure out how many kgs or pounds you need to lose to fall within normal BMI range.

Let us know about BMI and calculate in which range you are:

What is BMI: Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height that applies to adult men and women.

BMI ranges: A BMI below 18.5 is considered underweight. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered healthy. A BMI of 25 to 29.9  is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

To work out your BMI:

Divide your weight in kilograms (kg) by your height in metres (m) 

then divide the answer by your height (in meters) again to get your BMI.

For example: If your weight is 80 kg and your height in meters is 1.70

Divide weight in kilograms by height in meters, which is 80/1.70=47.05

then divide the answer by your height again in meters i.e. 47.05/1.70=27.67 is your BMI (overweight)

If you fall in overweight or obese category, aim for a healthy weight in which BMI falls within the normal range (18.5 to 24.9).

Figure out how many kgs or pounds you need to lose in order to fall in normal BMI range.

It is important to lose weight because the higher your BMI, the higher your risk for certain diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, breathing problems, and certain cancers.

Once you have set with how many kgs or pound you need to lose, the next step would be to keep a track of how many calories you are eating per day.

There are so many tools online to search calories for every food and drink you eat and drink throughout the day.

Calculate calories for every food and drink you consume throughout the day.

Add up all those calories in everything you consumed and get your grand total for the day.

For example if your grand total is 3000 kcal/day, start to create a calorie defecit of 500 per day through diet or exercise or combination of both and consume only 2500 calories per day, you will reduce 1 pound per week.

According to the National Institutes of Health, aiming to lose 1-2 pounds per week is the healthiest way to go.

Generally, 3,500 calories is equal to one pound. If you want to lose one pound in 1 week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day over seven days.

500 calorie deficit per day x 7 days per week = 3,500 calorie deficit per week.

Weight loss secrets

Keep a track of calories which you are consuming daily and how many calories you are burning per day through physical activity levels in order to maintain your caloric goals.

See that you should not go below your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) levels.

What is BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate): Your BMR is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating.

How can I calculate my BMR levels:

Here is the formula for calculating your BMR levels.

Metric BMR Formula: 

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

For example: Man with an age of 31 years with weight of 80 kg and height of 170 cm, the BMR calculations will be according to Metric BMR formula:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

66+(13.7*80)+(5*170)-(6.8*31)

66+1096+850-210

2012-210=1802 calories

In this way you can calculate your BMR according to your weight, height, and age and that would be the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest.

Remember your BMR is just the number of calories your body needs at rest and does not account for the calories you need to walk, talk, exercise, etc.

To calculate the calories you need to maintain your current weight, convert your BMR to your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) by multiplying your BMR by an activity factor that represents your estimated energy level.

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : TDEE= BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : TDEE=BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : TDEE= BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : TDEE= BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : TDEE= BMR x 1.9

Let us take BMR from an above example and assume the man is lightly active then the TDEE will be 1802 x 1.375=2477 calories.  This is how many calories this person needs to maintain his weight.

Subtract 500 calories and he needs 1977 calories to lose 1 pound per week.

However, women should not eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day, and men should not eat fewer than 1,800 calories a day, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Once you know your BMR and the number of calories you burn for your activity level, you can start lose weight by setting a lower daily caloric intake limit and increasing your physical activity levels.

Set a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week.

You can achieve this by following a proper caloric diet, exercise, or combination of both.

Here are some articles which helps you to lose 500 calories per day

How to lose 500 calories per day by walking

How to lose 500 calories per day by skipping

Tips: Avoid sugary foods and drinks, junk foods, high calorie foods to maintain your diet.  Always eat nutritious food, low calorie foods, and drink plenty of water.

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How to Lose Weight Fast by Skipping

If your goal is to achieve a weight loss of 1 pound (0.45 kg) per week, you have to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories per week. Make a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day to burn 3500 calories per week. At the same time keep a track of your diet. If you want to lose weight, eat less calories than you burn.

1 pound=3500 calories

1 pound weight loss per week=500 calorie deficit per day

This can be easily achieved by skipping (jumping rope).

BENEFITS OF JUMPING ROPE: Benefits of jumping rope are numerous: Burns major calories at a fast rate, helps shed extra fat from stomach area, improves cardiovascular health, tone your muscles, improves bone density, improves body coordination, and improves breathing efficiency and stamina.

According to What’s Cooking America, if you jump at a rate of 70 times per minute, you can estimate the number of calories you burn per minute by multiplying your body weight by .074.

Let us have a look with different weight slabs:

If your weight is 160 pounds (72 kg), you have to jump rope at a rate of 70 times per minute, number of calories you burn per minute is 160*0.074=11.84 calories per minute. For burning 500 calories a day, you should do skipping for 43 minutes (11.84*43=509 calories).

If your weight is 170 pounds (77 kg), you have to jump rope at a rate of 70 times per minute, number of calories you burn per minute is 170*0.074=12.58 calories per minute. For burning 500 calories a day you should do skipping for 40 minutes (12.58*40=503 calories).

If your weight is 180 pounds (81 kg), you have to jump rope at a rate of 70 times per minute, number of calories you burn per minute is 180*0.074=13.32 calories per minute. For burning 500 calories a day you should do skipping for 38 minutes (13.32*38=506 calories).

If your weight is 190 pounds (86 kg), you have to jump rope at a rate of 70 times per minute, number of calories you burn per minute is 190*0.074=14.06 calories per minute. For burning 500 calories a day you should do skipping for 36 minutes (14.06*36=506 calories).

If your weight is 200 pounds (90 kg), you have to jump at a rate of 70 times per minute, number of calories you burn per minute is 200*0.074=14.8 calories per minute. For burning 500 calories a day you should do skipping for 34 minutes (14.8*34=503 calories).

You can calculate as per your weight how many minutes you need to jump rope to burn 500 calories using this formula.

If you are a beginner start gradually by adding 5 minutes each day to reach your goal of minutes to burn 500 calories per day in order to lose 1 pound per week.

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Benefits of getting up early in the morning

If you get up early in the morning, you will get more productive time.  If your current habit is of waking up at 7 a.m. and if you change your habit of waking up at 5 a.m., you will get more 2 hours of productive time a day, in an entire year it is 720 hours, which is equivalent of one entire month of more productive time in year, that extra one month you can utilize say for an example learning new language, learning new tasks, which you are interested in.

You will be more creative in the morning.  At night time if you try to do some work, you may feel lethargic and other thoughts of the day will run in your mind, where as in the morning you feel like you got a fresh sleep and you will be more creative and fully active in the morning.

Top 7 benefits of getting up early:
1. You get time to exercise.
2. You can plan your day.
3. You will get enough time to do breakfast.
4. You will have sufficient time to get ready and look attractive.
5. Stress free life.
6. You can spend your quality time with your family.
7. You can accomplish more goals.

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Top 10 ways to maintain healthy and strong hair

Here are the top 10 ways to make your hair healthy and stronger:

1. Have a healthy diet: Maintain a healthy diet rich in nutrients and vitamins and drink plenty of water to maintain healthy hair. Iron deficiency causes hair loss, consume fruits and vegetables, which contain iron to prevent hair loss.  Eat a high protein diet, which includes milk, egg whites, soybeans, cheese, pulses, and curd.

2. Use a wide tooth comb: Use a wide tooth comb to comb your hair, it prevents hair breakage, easier to detangle, reduces hair fall, and gentle on scalp.

3.  Avoid heat: Applying excessive heat to your hair like using hair dryer weakness the hair follicles and lead to hair loss.

4.  Control your stress: Stress causes hair loss, control your stress and be stress free to prevent hair loss.

5.  Protect from sunlight:  Excessive UV rays can cause damage to your hair, protect your hair from sunlight.

6.  Chlorine water: While swimming, wear head cap as the swimming pool contains chlorine, which is harmful for your hair and take shower after swimming to protect your hair.

7.  Massage:  Massage your scalp gently, which increases your blood circulation and is good for your hair growth.

8.  Exercise regularly: When you exercise regularly, you will have better blood circulation to your body as well as scalp, which prevent hair fall and keep your hair healthy and attractive.

9. Protect from pollution:  Always cover your head to protect your hair from dust and air pollution.

10.  Rest: Maintain a healthy sleep schedule, which will reduce your stress and boost up your energy levels and maintain a healthy lifestyle to have a strong and healthy hair.  
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