ATHLEAN-X

Subscribers

Latest videos

Your Cardio Machines are LYING To You!

ATHLEAN-X
259 Views · 6 months ago

60% off all AX programs - http://athleanx.com/x/321-workouts Subscribe to this channel here - http://bit.ly/2b0coMW Did you know that your cardio machines are lying to you? In this video, I am going to show you how the cardio machines you are using are incorrectly displaying the number of calories you are burning. In fact, the number of calories displayed may be grossly overestimated. I am also going to show you which machines are the worst at doing this, and which ones you might want to spend your time on instead. First thing is first, if you are using cardio as your main method of creating a caloric deficit to lose weight, you are making a big mistake. The fact of the matter is that nothing is going to be as effective of creating a caloric deficit as keeping your nutrition in check. I talk about it all the time; you can’t outrun a bad diet. Make your caloric cuts through your diet to get the best results when trying to lose weight. Where do the inaccuracies sit when it comes to the caloric display? Well, if the machine is not asking you for your weight, it’s already off to a bad start. The cardio machine is calculating the caloric burn based on something called a MET. This unit is multiplied based on the activity, but is calculated using a standard number for weight input; 154 lbs. If your weight is different, then your caloric readout is inaccurate! The next way that your cardio machines are lying to you is by fudging the math a little bit. How so? Well, the number displayed is based on including something called the REE; the amount of calories you burn at rest. By including this number, the machine is inflating the number of calories burned. This will make you think that you are burning more calories and doing more work than you actually are. How else is are they lying to you? Well, this one comes from something you are likely doing that the machine can’t account for and that is your posture. By leaning over and resting on the handles of a bike or a treadmill, then you are actually unweighting yourself and doing less work. This can actually lead to a 50% difference in the calories you think you are burning. The fix is easy; stand up straight and perform the exercise with good posture. Next, you have to pay attention to the range of motion when you are performing the work on the cardio machine. You would obviously be performing more work by taking the exercise through the full range of motion as opposed to an abbreviated one. It’s no different when it comes to cardio. On a step mill: taking short, choppy steps instead of driving the foot down and getting to full hip extension. Look at an elliptical machine; it is likely locking you into an abbreviated range of motion based on the design of the machine itself. When it comes to a bike, standing up is how you would be achieving full range of motion while further weighting yourself to perform more work meaning more calories burnt. So, what cardio machines are lying to you the least? The stationary bike is the most accurate, overestimating the calories burnt by only 7%. The mathematical equations used to measure force output (watts) in combination with a weight input leads to a more accurate reading. Next up, is the stair master with a 12% overestimation on the calories burnt. Second to last is the treadmill, off by 13-20% which is compounded by the poor posture often included with this machine. Lastly, the most inaccurate of all these machines is the elliptical - a whopping 42%! Some of this is due to discrepancies in the range of motion from machine to machine. What can we do to nullify the inaccuracies of the machines? Well, for starters, we can look to other cardio machines. Which ones we should be focusing our efforts on is based simply on the amount of effort you need to perform them. For example; using an air-bike, a rowing machine, or ski-ERG. They may require more work, but the more work done, the more calories burnt, so these are the best cardio machine options. If you want to stick to the machines you are using right now but want to make it more accurate; try to find a machine that asks for you to input your weight to give a reading that is closer to the truth. You can also gauge the work you are doing by your heart rate (the higher it is, the more effort you are expending). Finally, you can take the output the display is reading and cut it in half and use that in your caloric intake guidelines. Don’t think that your wearable calorie counters are all that accurate either with a 20-96% inaccuracy range! If you are looking for a step-by-step training plan that has you burning fat and building muscle at the same time, check out the ATHLEAN-X Training System by clicking on the link below. If you are looking for more videos on the best way to burn fat and lose weight, be sure to subscribe to this channel here via the link below and don’t forget to turn on your notifications so you never a miss a video when it’s published.

How to Get WIDER Forearms (WORKS EVERY TIME!)

ATHLEAN-X
3,847 Views · 6 months ago

60% off all AX programs - http://athleanx.com/x/322-workouts Subscribe to this channel here - http://bit.ly/2b0coMW If you want to get wider forearms you have to train the muscles in the forearm that are most responsible for their size. Often times, people fill their forearm workouts with nothing more than wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. This is just not going to cut it when it comes to building wide, muscular forearms. The biggest reason is, this approach doesn’t even account for the muscles of the forearm that have no impact on the motion of the wrist. In this video, I’m going to show you the best forearm exercises to build thicker, wider forearms. Most of all, I’ll show you how to focus on the muscles of the forearm that are most easily able to add size and width due to their orientation in the lower arm. But first, it’s important that you measure your forearms accurately. In other words, before you look at your skinny wrists and deem your ability to build big forearms as compromised, realize that the muscles of the lower arm become largely just tendons as you get close to the wrist. This means, even if you did all the right things with your workout for forearms, if you had small bones you wouldn’t have large wrists.The good news however is that if you do the right exercises for forearms you will see thicker, wider forearms. That said, it’s time to build big forearms the right way. If you want to build up the extensor component of the lower arm you need to perform the exercises that work both the ECR or extensor carpi radialis, and the brachioradialis. The irony behind these muscles is that the latter isn’t even technically a forearm muscle. Even more ironic is the fact that the brachioradialis is responsible for the majority of the size of the forearm in the extensor component. It traditionally is viewed as an elbow flexor muscle that works well with the brachialis and biceps. So in order to accomplish growth here, you’re going to want to perform an exercise that involves elbow flexion. Ideally, you’ll want to do this from a pronated forearm position. This leads us to the reverse barbell curl. With the pronated arm position, the biceps is most diminished in the exercise, leaving the brachioradialis and brachialis to do more of the work. The issue with this exercise is that it can be a tough position for some to get into due to limited wrist mobility. In this case, the EZ bar variation is ideal. It places the forearm into a less pronated, but still not supinated position that keeps the focus on the brachioradialis. But just doing this exercise for forearms isn’t enough since we can easily incorporate the ECR by just extending the wrists at the top of the rep. As far as the range of motion of the reverse curl, there is something you want to consider here as well. First, in the fully lengthened position, the brachioradialis does not have as effective a line of pull as it does when the elbow is partially flexed. So, if you want to target this forearm muscle better, you’ll want to initiate each rep from a partially flexed elbow position. The best way to do this is with the bar starting at the waistline and dragging it up the body as if doing a drag curl. This is going to produce an intense contraction in the brachioradialis and ECR all the way through the limited, but more effective range of motion of the rep. In order to hit the underside of the forearm and get wider forearms from side to side you’re going to want to also perform another exercise. One of my favorites to do this is with the top down wrist curl. Here you let the cable handle (or band if you’re doing this at home) drift into the ends of your fingers. Start by clenching your hand and making a fist against the resistance of the weight. From here, continue the downward motion by performing a wrist curl. You’ll find that by performing this in this way, you get an even more intense contraction than you would from the standard dumbbell wrist curls performed with the forearm resting on a bench. If you want to build bigger forearms, the key is knowing which forearm exercises do the best job of targeting the most “space occupying” muscles of the lower arm. With these two moves you have a quick but effective combination that will help you get wider forearms and say goodbye to skinny arms once and for all. For a complete program that puts the science into every exercise selection so you can build muscle and burn fat faster, be sure to visit athleanx.com via the link below. For more forearm workouts and exercises for bigger forearms, be sure to subscribe to our channel via the link below and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.