5 Strength Training Techniques for Busting Through Strength, Fat Loss, and Muscle Building Plateaus

by Nia Shanks | Follow her on Twitter here

Do you ever get bored doing the same ole thing with your workouts? Sure you can do heavy 5×5 or the stand by 3×10, but sometimes changing the set and rep range just isn’t enough to break the monotony that can occur with strength training.

You’ve seen some techniques such as Rest/Pause and Ladders and also Density Training and RPT in previous articles, but we’re going to cover even more awesome strength training tweaks you can use to bust through plateaus and shake the cobwebs out of your current workout program.

Whether you’re goal is to bust through a strength or hypertrophy plateau, boost fat loss, or you just want some techniques to use for variety, add these techniques into your current … Click to continue reading

Stress and Damage Caused by Dieting, and How to Get on the Path to Recovery

by Nia Shanks | Follow her on Twitter here

This article is a guest post courtesy of Elizabeth Walling. She discusses the physical and mental stress of dieting, warning signs of chronically high stress hormones, and how to get on the fast track to recovery from getting over dieting and potential metabolic damage.

———————————————————————————————————————-

We’re often given the impression by the diet industry and mainstream media that dieting and metabolic health go together like peas and carrots. But in reality, most diet plans that claim to boost your metabolism are really just low-calorie deprivation diets in disguise. Just a quick internet search reveals a disturbing trend: these diet plans that promise to raise your metabolism often recommend eating as little as 1000-1400 calories a day.

Sorry internet diet gurus, but that’s not … Click to continue reading

Make This Your New Goal – Train to Be Awesome

by Nia Shanks | Follow her on Twitter here

Train to be awesome.

That’s a phase I’ve been saying more and more. Instead of focusing on fat loss, fixing your “flaws”, following skinny rules, or some other goal heavily driven by negative motivation, I’m encouraging women to train to be awesome. Not only will this allow you to build the body you really want, but you’ll actually have some fun in the process. Those two – having fun and getting results – go hand in hand. After all, if you’re not having fun, then what’s the point?

This is the final installment in the Train to be Awesome Series. You’ve already seen the best dang exercises to build a better body and be more awesome … Click to continue reading