6 Ways To Build Lean Muscles

You want a body shaped with lean muscle and backed by a nutritious diet. You want to stay fit and healthy in the midst of all the fatty foods and unhealthy diets. Building lean muscle isn’t impossible with the right exercise and dieting program in place. Here are some great ways women can build lean muscle.

1. Eat Nutritious Foods

Stock up on foods that help keep your muscles lean and firm. Beef is a good source of protein, zinc, and B vitamins while brown rice, eggs, spinach increase muscle strength, endurance, good digestion, and longer-lasting energy. Just remember to select only fresh and wholesome foods when creating your diet.

2. Reduce Carbs In Your Diet

Women have the upper hand when it comes to burning fat to carbs, so stick to a low-carb or no-carb diet in order to burn the fat and gain toned muscles.

3. Strengthen Muscles With Exercise

Exercise regularly in order to stretch and strengthen your muscles, but make sure to focus on exercises that promote lean muscle throughout your body. Squats, deadlifts, and lunges are just some of the many exercises that target your legs, back, abs, and obliques.

4. Remember To Drink Your Water

Always have plenty of water to drink as you work through the program. An intake of at least 8 glasses of water not only keeps you hydrated, but it curbs mistaken hunger pains and prevents overeating. And with every intake, your body is able to flush out toxins inside your body, making you feel lighter and healthier.

5. Control Your Calorie Intake

Calorie control is essential in building lean muscle. By taking in too many calories, you gain excessive weight. This makes it difficult to tell if it is lean muscle or just a layer of body fat. But a lack of calories lessens your chances of gaining and building lean muscles. Set a target calorie count that is just right and that produces results.

6. Rest

Make sure to give your body enough rest. More than to cool down from the workouts, rest allows the body to repair the muscles. What’s more, because the muscle is metabolically active, it burns calories even while the body is resting. Consider a day off for every week.

It takes a lot of effort and self-discipline to build lean, mean muscle, but the results are worthwhile. To be sure, consult a health professional before implementing any diet or exercise program.

If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all women boot camp or fitness boxing classes please visit NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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Strength Training is for Women, Too!

If you are a woman, you might be missing out on one of the most beneficial fitness activities, and that is strength training. Women often have misconceptions about strength training, believing that it will make them look like body builders. They might believe that lifting weights is only for men or people that want to look ripped. The truth, however, is that strength training is important for women, and this importance only increases as you get older.

Strength training has a variety of benefits for women. Here are just a few:

• Strength training increases physical strength while decreasing body fat. The more you spend time lifting weights, the more you build lean muscle. The more you build lean muscle, the more you lose body fat and increase your metabolism. This means that you will burn more calories throughout the day.
• You will develop muscle tone and definition. If you want to improve the physical appearance of your body, strength training goes a long way. Lifting weights two or three times a week will tone your whole body. The key is to target your major muscle groups including your legs, upper body, chest, back, and abdominals.
• Strength training reduces your risk of injury. As our bodies age, our risk of injury increases. Strength training cuts down on this risk while improving athletic performance. Plus, weight lifting cuts down on the muscle fatigue you might experience while exercising or just participating in daily activities like laundry or carrying groceries.
• Strength training cuts down on arthritis and back pain. Besides increasing the strength of muscles, lifting weights also increases the stability and flexibility of joints. Studies have shown that strength training also reduces back pain. This are especially important as we age.
• Strength training reduces your risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, and diabetes. These three health risks become a problem as you get older, but strength training can cut down on your chances of developing them.
• Strength training improves your mood. Strength training helps women feel more confident about themselves and it wards of symptoms of depression.

If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all woman’s boot camp please visit  NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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Ways to Manage Stress

No matter who are you, everyone deals with stress. Stress can be defined as the body’s reaction to everyday challenges, and in our modern society, stress is an ever-present part of life. However, the danger comes with trying to take on too much. Chronic stress can lead to physical and emotional problems that will impact your health, relationships, and overall well-being. Women especially might feel the pressure to take on too much as they try to juggle their career, families, and lives.

The good news is that stress can be managed. Here are some ways to manage stress if you find yourself overburdened and overwhelmed:

• Take Care of Yourself – The fundamental key to managing stress in your life starts with taking care of yourself, meaning, first of all, that you take care of your physical needs. If you find yourself skipping meals or sleep, that is a sure sign you are trying to do too much. Eat healthy, well-balanced meals and make time to get physical exercise at least three times a week. Sleeping is essential to fighting stress. It is the time that you restore your body and let it repair itself. You can not function properly if you are not well rested.
• Make Time to Pamper Yourself – One of the best ways to relieve stress is to make time to do fun activities or things that help you to relax like meditation or going for a walk. Your idea of pampering yourself might be a day at the spa or retail therapy. In any case, treat yourself to something nice and put your to-do list away for a while.
• Reach Out to Others – When our lives get busy, we can tend to isolate ourselves and put our relationships on the back burner. Sometimes you just need to call your best friend, go out to coffee with a supportive family member, or make time for a date night with your significant other. Relationships are beneficial in that they not only enrich our lives but they also fortify us against stress.
• Learn to Say No – You might be trying to take too much because you haven’t learned how to set up boundaries in your life. This means being able to say no to demands and activities that you already do not have time for. Stand up for yourself and learn what you can handle.

In New York City and want to get involved in a good cause? Come to a donation based camp class for The Obesity Initiative. Read our prior blog post for more information. If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all woman’s boot camp please visit  NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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How to get rocking summer abs

You cringe at the sight of that flab clinging to your belly, but are unsure about how to get rid of it in time for next week’s beach outing. You want to be able to develop lean, firm, and attractive abs that would look awesome even in the full body swimsuit. While the midsection is one of the hardest to tone, it is possible to build summer rocking’ abs with the right exercise routine. With a positive outlook and discipline to stick to your workout, you will have great abs before the summer ends.

Work Your Core Muscles

Focus on your core muscles hidden beneath the surface. These are muscles that, when strengthened, pull your midsection in like a corset, making the area flat and toned. Perform exercises that expand and tone these muscles to produce the results you need.

Burn Calories With Cardio

Cardiovascular workouts at 20-30 minute intervals are great at burning calories. What’s more, you can make each session fun and interesting, such as biking, swimming, or walking around the park. You can perform your cardio workouts in the morning or during the weekends, so long as you keep to the routine. At NYC Adventure we use a variation of exercises to get results, but cardio is definetly the way to see fast results.

Work That Butt!

Exercises that push you to get up, move, and work your butt are very effective in building abs. Sitting for long periods causes the hip muscles to become stiff. Your posture also pushes the abdomen out, making your bulge even more obvious.

Eat The Right Foods

The kinds of food you take have a great impact when building lean abs. Remove unhealthy food that add more layers of fat and increase your protein intake. This is essential if you want to build lean muscles and eventually develop attractive abs. Lessen insulin-pumping food (this slows your metabolism) as well, and focus on eating more carbohydrates to make it easier to burn.

Avoid Bloat Triggers

Even if you are actively reducing belly fat, carbonated beverages, beans, and broccoli can make your stomach bloat. You should also avoid taking in too much sodium as this retains excess water. Excess bloating means that one day your jeans may zip all the way up, and the next day they don’t! When you avoid bloat triggers, you ensure that your tummy stays flat and your hard work shows.

As you get through each week, your abs will begin to form, flatten, and become firm and strengthened. Stick to your abs workout program and you’ll soon see the results!

 If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all woman’s boot camp  please visit  NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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Combining Proper Nutrition and Portion Control for a Killer Combo

So many health experts out there focus on what you should be eating on a daily basis. As a result we tend to focus on the “what” in terms of proper eating, but an aspect that gets lost is often the “how”. We have heard it before that we need to be eating smaller meals more frequently throughout the day, but how do you make this happen and ensure proper portion control and combining all the right foods?

It takes good planning and a focus on the right way of eating combined together. So as you plan for your mini meals all day long it’s not just about eating the most nutritionally sound foods, but also ensuring that they are dished up in the proper amounts. Though this may sound like a lot of effort you tend to fall into it without any problems as you move forward. You will learn what a proper portion of food looks like and more importantly how to get the most out of your eating with every single meal.

Making Every Bite Count

This effort really focuses on the fact that there is no more mindless eating. There is no more standing up and eating or picking at food on the run. This means that you savor the taste of your food and ensure that you are truly getting something out of your meals. So every bite that you take should be accounted for and therefore give you some real value as well.

You can achieve this by combining food groups wherever possible. Not only do you ensure that you get everything that you need in a day in terms of nutrients, but you tend to create really powerful combinations as well. Think of how great a mini meal of an apple with peanut butter sounds. This incorporates a fruit, lean protein, and even fiber and it’s a very manageable portion. Start to focus on this philosophy and you are bound to come up with some combinations that you love and that are so good for you at the same time. That’s how you make every bite taste good and work for you at the same time!

Planning Ahead for the Best Meals

You can’t possibly get the most out of your meals if you don’t plan for each and every one. If you leave things to chance then you are inevitably going to cheat or give into your temptations or hunger pangs. So the more planning that you put forth the more health conscious foods that you eat and the more that you practice portion control overall.

You want to be searching for healthy recipes all the time from trusted resources. You want to make your grocery shopping really work for you. It’s also worth nothing that you must also ensure that every single meal that you eat is carefully crafted and put together with thought. You may need to actually portion your food at the beginning but you will eventually learn to eye things and give yourself what comprises a serving size. Planning ahead becomes part of your life and ensures that every single meal works for you and not against you.

Being Mindful of What You Eat….and How You Eat It

The more that you think about portion and nutrition, the more that you are going to be aware of what you are eating. This means that you won’t be tempted to eat the remaining food off of your kid’s plate. You won’t be as apt to cheat because you know that even a little cheat means extra calories that you don’t need. You will really learn to embrace what a well planned mini meal can do for you.

When you give proper thought to the food that you eat and the portion that you eat it in then you are practicing the most important aspects of healthy eating. This is a combined effort and you soon see that it’s not just about getting proper nutrients out of food but getting them in the proper amount. So think of how eating well and portion control can fit into your life and how you can get started with these concepts today.

 If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all woman’s boot camp  please visit  NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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