How to Improve Flexibility and Circulation

Hey everyone! Welcome to Cheap Gym and Diet. I have been kind of busy lately, but now I'm back! So many people wonder, how I became so flexible. If you did not know, I can do full splits, touch my toes with my palms, and put both legs behind my head. "Wait a minute, that sounds a little creepy", you are probably thinking. Why would I want to do that? There are lots of benefits. Being flexible is great for party tricks. Nothing leaves a more lasting impression then doing a full split on the dance floor. There are less guys who can dance, than those who can't dance. Yet there are even fewer guys who can do splits than those who can dance. By being flexible you get an edge on the competition. Everyone will remember you as the one who can do a split, perhaps even the guy or girl you are interested in. Another added benefit, is the improved circulation. Stretching is a proven way of improving health. After an intense workout, stretching can help muscles to better relax. This is often neglected by many weight lifters. As a result, when they become big and bulky they also become stiff! This is no good. For exercises like Olympic Lifting one needs to be flexible during cleans, snatches, and squatting.  You don't want to be old and not able to bend over because your hamstrings have become so tight! You need to stretch now! Well actually not now exactly. There is a huge significance as to the time you stretch just as to how you do it. This article points out that stretching can actually WEAKEN muscles before the workout. This is no good. But this does not indicate you should not stretch! Stretch after your workout to loosen up and gain flexibility. Now, this article points out, "Stretching before or after exercising does not confer protection from muscle soreness. Stretching before exercising does not seem to confer a practically useful reduction in the risk of injury". While it may not have proven to reduce soreness, if a muscle remains tight from working out and does not relax, it can interfere with future workouts. Fortunately stretching DOES help relax muscles. Stretching is still a useful tool, but underrated. While the study implies (not proves) stretching doesn't lower injury risk significantly, it doesn't mention the need of getting blood flowing to the muscles. A good warmup of dynamic movements, such as agility ladders, light plyometrics, light running,  and other methods are good alternatives to getting ready for a workout. The difference between having your blood flowing to your muscles and being stiff and not well circulated is huge. This is because the early portion of a workout that has no warmup ends up being the warm up anyways, when that important time could of been used towards working the muscles hard. In short, I recommend a warm up, not necessarily stretching, before a workout, and heavy stretching after. Do consult a medical professional for help before starting any sort of physical routine, that's the bottom line.  Lastly, one of the benefits to flexibility is that you can even perform or teach others through methods like yoga or even performing on the streets. Let me show you a guy who I once met. From what I remember he got a good number of "donations" from his observers. If you are good enough it is possible to perform and make a living like this guy

In my next article, I will list all the exercises that can help you get flexible!
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The Best Vegetarian Foods for Body Building

In my last article, I discussed the benefits of vegetarian body building. Now if you liked what I wrote and have an interest in the actual foods to eat, then keep reading. Also, the foods mentioned are not exclusively for vegetarians. They are of benefit for anyone looking for extra protien in their diet. Here they are!

• Tofu/Soy beans. This food is great. I recommend pressing it and marinating it. I will write an article on this later. It's a complete chain of amino acids, which means it does not to be mixed, like other vegetables, with other foods to have a complete protien
• Quinoa. This food is amazing. it is a complete protien like soy. It makes a good breakfeast. It is also very versatile
• Nuts are great. They have fat, but this is healthy fat. Don't eat too many though, as too many can cause weight gain. A small to moderate ammount is sufficient
• I recommend a combination of beans and rice/pasta. The reason for this is because beans alone are not a complete protien. Neither is rice or pasta. The trick is by mixing these foods, when digested, your body synthesizes them into a complete protien.
• Vegetables. These themselves are not high in protien but deserve honorable mention. Why? Because they are often neglected by many. They contain many vitamins and minerals to help speed up muscle recovery and improve over all health.
• Fat free cottage cheese. This is one of the best foods out there for muscle growth. It is slow digesting casein protein. It has the benefits of milk minus the sugar and the fat! A portion before bed can help prevent atrophy.
• Egg Whites. Eggs as a whole are good. But unless you have a ridiculously high metabolism, it can he unhealthy to eat a lot of whole eggs. Egg whites are great because they are pure protien--no need to worry about cholesterol. 
• Lastly, I recommend taking a multi vitamin. This is because many don't do it right and end up lacking in nutrition.

The secret to success in Vegetarian Body Building is eating a large variety of protien from many sources including the one
Please, though, do consult a doctor before doing any changes in your diet to avoid health problems. The foods listed can be used for a vegetarian or non vegetarian. If you have any questions please look me up on twitter, facebook, email, etc.

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Vegetarian Body Building

Whether you knew it or not, I have been a vegetarian for about 8 years. Over this period of time I have had a lot of experiences with my diet--good and bad. When I first started, my diet consisted mainly of frozen pizza, which is obviously not a good idea. As I progressed, my diet included more and more variety, yet it was still lacking. It wasn't until I had to start buying and cooking my own that I realized my diet had been awful. I learned how to make different foods, how to listen to my body, how to shop smart, and how to distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy. "That's good and all" you might be thinking, "but why should I be a vegetarian". Let me list some of the benefits right now!

• If done right, a vegetarian diet is cheaper. Animals eat the plants, and then you eat the animal. When you pay for meat you are not just paying for the cow, you are paying for the hormones they use to treat it, the land it grazes on, the water, and a whole bunch of other expenses. If you buy the plants that they eat instead, you eliminate a bunch of extra costs. 
• Animals are often given many antibiotics and hormones which studies have shown could be harmful to the human body
• Being a vegetarian is good for the environment. It takes an absurd amount of vegetables produce one pound of meat. Much food is wasted for the sake of producing meat. As funny as it sounds, cow farts are harmful to the ozone layer. 
• Not many people are vegetarians. So when you mention that you are people will more likely remember you. For instance when I saw an old friend once, he asked me if I still was a vegetarian--even before really asking about how I was doing.
• Chicks dig vegetarians, and I'm serious. Your guy friends will mock you for being vegetarian, I can almost guarantee that will happen. However, when you tell a girl you are a vegetarian, she will admire and assume that you are into health, care about the environment, and love animals.

A vegetarian diet is great! If done correctly, you can lose weight, put on muscle, and impress your peers.
Your next question probably is this, "How do I get enough protien?"
Check out the next article where I discuss this called The Best Vegetarian Foods for Body Building
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The Cold Shower, a Coffee alternative

You've seen them before. Groggy, irritated, on edge--you know exactly their story. They wake up, only with faith that they will liven up when they take their first few sips. He is the coffee drinker. It started off as an innocent habit. Perhaps even a slight curiosity sparked his interest in the beverage. Whatever reason it maybe, it has gotten out of hand now. He needs that coffee to function. The seemingly minor expense of  $2.50 a day, and sometimes even higher, 365 days a year amounts to $912.50. That's nearly a thousand dollars that the average American might spend to feed the fix. Furthermore, the ideas on the health benefits of coffees are mixed. Some say it has beneficial properties, while others say it can harm the body. My response is, why take a chance with your health? What if I told you that you could wake up in the morning and feel invigorated and excited for the day, without touching a single cup. What's the secret? Cold showers. What? Yes, a cold shower can wake you up as good or better than a cup of coffee. Let me list some benefits to the benefits of a cold shower.

• You save money on your water bill!
• Relieves Stress
• Your body must heat up in response to the cold water, and therefore, burn more calories
• Hot water can dry out your hair and skin, cold water can help you avoid getting your hair and skin dried
• It improves your mood and fights depression. If you are bogged down by the constant worry and sorrow of all your problems, taking a shower can help. You stop worrying about your problems as the cold water shocks your system!
• Your focus will improve.
• You can develop mental discipline 
• Your immune system can also be strengthened.

I'd like to close by mentioning that cold showers do not work for everyone. Please consult with a doctor if you are healthy and capable of taking these cold showers. They have all the benefits and more of a cup of coffee and are a great alternative if you want to stop. If you don't want to stop take a cold shower anyways!

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Simple Tricks that improve health, that require no working out.

So some of you are thinking to yourselves that you need to get to the gym. Some of you say you need to change how you eat. These things are good. I will not discredit them. However, what people need to do besides change their exercise and diet is change their life. I'm not going to list some exercise or food in this post.  Here are a list of simple things you can do to change how you live.

1. Wake up and go to bed early, preferably a specified time.
2. Make goals, whether they be physical, intellectual, or spiritual. These three all overlap and are directly related. If you lack in one you tend to lack in the others. Find your purpose.
3. Include variety. Variety is the spice of life.
4. Add more structure. Workout at a certain time. Read a book at a certain time. Variety is the spice; structure is the olive oil--a moderate amount is healthy, but beware of too much!
5. Cold showers. What? Yes, cold showers. These are amazing in stress reduction. In fact I need to write an article about them all on their own. They can invigorate you and uplift your mood. They are uncomfortable at first.
6. Listen to positive music. Music is powerful in the fact that in alter your mood relatively quick. It has been shown to lower stress as well.
7.  Help others and engage in wholesome activities that make you feel good about yourself. This will make you happier, and consequently healthier

These are a few tips that I've followed to be healthier. While some may seem silly, you really must try them at first. Health is a style of life, not a hobby. 

Tired of being skinny?

When I was a Sophomore, I weighed 135 pounds. I was weak and small. By the time I reached called I ended up weighing around 195. How did I put on weight like that? I learned how to
work out and I learned how to diet. Let me show you how with some basic tips.
Get a good wworkout program; many are listed on this blog;

Get on a good diet. Control your carbohydrate intake. Eat moderate amounts of fat. Lots of fruits and vegetables. Consume lot of protien. It's not complicated. The effort you put in is what you get out. The only person who can choose is you.

You can look like this guy.

Or you can look like this guys.

The Secrets that Experts don't tell you.

Let's be real here. Talk is cheap. People say stuff works and usually it doesn't. I'm going to go ahead and tell you what the experts don't want you to know about. Are you ready? These are the tips that they don't want you to know so they can make you keep paying them for all the advice you don't need. Experts charge lots of money for what's about to be said. So here it is:
1. There are no weight loss miracles; anything listed as a weight loss miracle usually won't work
2. There are no no muscle building miracles either
3. Supplements tend to have unhealthy chemicals in them
4. Spending all your hours in the gym, unless you are a professional, does not work!
5. Muscle is built while you sleep, not when you use them. When you work out you actually damage your muscles. When you sleep they get built stronger according to the work they do.
6. The people who use miracle products are often sponsored to do so. They are usually paid models. They are not normal people. They are not like us! They are genetically gifted and experienced.

Stop living a lie!
Get a body that looks like this

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Train like a champ with this Cheap Gym workout!

So you want to get in shape? Do you want get be lean and ripped? So does everyone. So what are you going to do to be different from the rest. In my blogs I discuss many routines which will give mind blowing results. I'm not into gimmicks. I'm not into fad diets. I'm into results. There are many things on the market which claim to be effective. How do we tell what works? Quite simple, stick to the basics.

Gymnasts have one of the best physiques out of the many athletes. How do gymnasts train? Well I'll tell you this they don't sped their time lifting dumbbells. They spend their time lifting themselves. If you want to look like a Gymnasts, and who wouldn't, you need to train like one.

Similarly the Navy Seals do intense plyometrics training. Because they kick butt for a living of course. Aside from that, they also look like this:

Both Navy Seals and Gymnasts have some of the best bodies out there. So what do they do for results? It's quite simple really. They do intense plyometrics. Plyometrics are exercises using your body weight as resistance. If you are reading this blog, you are probably looking for ways to expand your cheap gym. Here we share cheap and effective methods.
Exercises that I have done, that I know to work are the following:
Pushups, Pullups, Squats, Mountain Climbers, Planks, Sit ups, Running, Dips, Sprawls, and Burpees.
If you incorporate these into your training routine you will get good results.
If you want to get in the best shape of your life, you need to incorporate plyometrics into your routine. They are by far one of the most effective exercise methods.

If you don't believe us, try it yourself and see.

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Get ripped with out a gym. No gimmicks, just results.

No time to go to the gym? We hear you. This routine is designed for beginners using only your body. It's perfect if you have no gym access.
So let's get started.
Monday (Legs and Abs)
Jumping Squats. The numbers you are capable of doing will vary depending on your fitness level. Squat all the way down, below paralell, and explode up. Do these as fast as you can, as many as you can, till failure, for about 5 sets. Next, find a room or a park or a...it doesn't really matter where actually...just make sure you have enough room and don't end up damaging anything. Now we are going to do sprints. I prefer 40 to 100 meters, the shorter and more explosive, the more mass we put on.  Now what you'll do is sprint forward till the end of your 40m (or whatever distance you want), pause a moment, take a 10 second rest, sprint back, then immediately do walking lunges for your 40m. Then repeat the process, sprint, sprint, lunge a total of 3 times. Your legs should be almost dead by now but we won't stop here. The hardest part begins now. Start running in place, and every 5 seconds or you are going to drop down and do a burpee. Get back up as quick as possible. Do this for about 5 minutes or until exhausted. Now get down in a pushup position and hold it. Both your legs and abs should be killing you! Try and hold for this for at least a minute or more. As soon as you collapse start doing situps. do about 3 sets till failure. Cool down with a jump rope or jumping jacks.
Wednesday (Chest, Triceps and Shoulders)
I like starting off with dips. I usually do about 5 sets till failure. If you don't have a dip station stay tuned to this blog because I will show you how to make your own. For whatever reason, if you can't do these, skip them. Now we are going to start with pushups. We will do the Solid Chest and Strong Arms method. Do Pyramid set pushups. After each set raise your arms, I know this might sound weird but it works, and reach for the sky. Pretend you are throwing a ball in the air. Do the arm raises the same amount of times you did pushups for that set. So do 10 pushups, 10 arm raises, 9 pushups, 9 arm raises, and so on, till you reach zero. Again, if this is not challenging enough please check out the Solid Chest and Strong Arms method so you can see how to make the exercises more challenging. Another technique here is getting a chair, and put your feet on it and then do the pushups. This creates more tension on all the upper body muscle groups involved. After this is finished, do some bear crawls For these it helps to have a nice room to move around in. Break crawl back and forth for about 3 sets of 10. Then crab walk till failure. Your arms chest and shoulders should feel like they are going to fall off by now! If capable try doing medicine ball throws. If not, you can do a plank till failure. Cool down with jump roping or jumping jacks.

Friday (Upper and Lower Back)
I often try to add legs, primarily hamstrings to lower back and upper back because these three often work in unison. These three are also the hardest to train, in my opinion without any external weight. It can be done though. First you'll need a pullup bar. If you don't have one, please buy one. It's one of the best investments you make, and makes back training much easier. There are alternatives which I will discuss in other articles. Do about 3 sets trying for perfect form, each till failure. Now to hit our biceps we will do more pullups, but with our hands close together, palms facing us. Now for these we will cheat. Do about 3 sets of 6-8, and use your hips to help propel you up. You shouldn't be able to do them without cheating since you did 3 sets of perfect form till failure. After doing this, do negative rep training. Start in a pullup position, use a chair or something if you need to, and slowly let yourself down. Do this for about 3 sets, the reps will vary so do about 6-10.  Next we will do ''Supermans". If you don't know how to do this, google it. Do about 3-5 sets till failure. Your legs should be fairly rested, so you can do about 5-10 100m sprints followed by 10 sprawls (wrestler sprawls) at the end of each sprint. Cool down with dynamic stretching.

Abbreviated workout
Day1
Jump Squats--5 sets till failure
Sprint, Sprint, Lunge
5 minutes of Burpees
Plank--1 minute or till failure
Sit ups--3 sets till failure
Jump rope or Jumping Jacks

Day 2
Dips (Optional)--5 sets till failure
Pyramid Set Pushups and Arm raises
Bear Crawl--3 sets of 10 laps
Crab Walk--Till failure
Plank and or medicine Ball
Jump rope or Jumping Jacks

Day 3
Pullups (with good form)--3 sets till failure
Pullups (cheating, narrow grip, palms facing you)--3 sets of 6-8
Pullups (negative movement)--3 sets of 6-10
Supermans---3 to 5 sets till failure
100m sprints followed by 10 wrestler sprawls--5-10 sets
Dynamic Stretching

This routine works for everyone. Depending on your fitness level the numbers of sets and reps will need to be tweeked. This is intended for beginner and intermediate fitness levels and is extremely intense for a beginner as well. It is okay to start slowly. The less rest taken between exercises the more difficult it becomes. Be judicious in adding cardio workouts on off days, and most importantly of all, be careful.Try this. Tell us how it works for you, We want your feed back
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The pushup, how to get a Solid Chest and Strong Arms

Most people when trying to get in shape, are concerned with 3 general areas: arms, abs, and chest. Wouldn't it be great if you get all these areas targeted at once? That would save you ALOT of time. Well, here at The Dirt Cheap Home Gym we will show you how with a few simple exercises. The first is the pushup. Now, I know what you are thinking, "This guy is telling me to do pushups...that's not inisghtful at all". I do hate being cliche but these things work. The reason why you have not gotten results from them yet is because you are doing them wrong.  So how does one do pushups wrongs? Well if you are first starting out your experience is probably this. You just do them when you wake up or before you go to bed a couple sets until failure. You do this for a few weeks and notice some definition, but then the results begin to taper off. What happened? Well to put it bluntly, workouts like that are okay when you start off, but you need to kick it up a notch. Here I will give a sample routine that will take less than 30 minutes, will burn a ton fat, get your heart going, and develop muscle.
We will do what is called pyramid training.  I will explain this as we go.
Roll your arms and neck. Loosen up a little. You don't need to worry about stretching too much, however.
Beginner Work out:

1. Pushup Position
2. Do 10 pushups and hold your pushup position for 15 seconds
3. Then 9
4. Hold your pushup position for the same ammount of time
5. Keep doing one less, but take the same ammount of rest time
6. Go all the way down to one.
7. When you hit one, if you are still not tired, then start counting up with your pushups all the way back to 10.
8. Repeat till no more repetitions can be performed

This is a good starter workout, even if you can't do a lot of pushups, most people can at least do 10 ( I hope). The initial 10 is pretty easy, however as the workout progresses doing even 1 pushup can become difficult. The 15 seconds held in a pushup position (or sometimes called a plank) gets your abs working while giving your arms some, but not too much, rest. The shoulders are used as secondary muscles, although there are ways to manipulate the workout so your shoulders can get hit harder. The triceps and chest are mainly whats getting hit here. If done seriously, this should get your muscles exhausted. This workout can be modified by increasing the starting number, like starting at 25. You can also change the number of pushups you decrease/increase by in each set, like doing 30 pushups, then 25, then 20, and so on. Another trick, if you are really stiff, and having trouble warming up, or can't do many pushups, is starting your set with one rep and increase. If there is no time to warm up, the first few sets of several pushups will warm you up as you go. Doing higher reps of pushups is sometimes easier this way.

As a peer wisely pointed out, that even though this may be a beginner's workout, a beginner may not always be capable of 10 pushups. This is fine. All you need to do is tweak the work out to make it easier or harder depending on your ability. Start from the top of the pyramid and descend, start from the bottom and ascend, or increase/decrease the reps. A variation including arm raises is also included here, specifically under the chest, triceps, and shoulders section.

Anyways, that's it for now! Please comment on what you think of this routine. Do it as soon as you are done reading this, and tell me what you think.
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So you want to get in shape?

There you are, late at night, eating your chips, drinking your soda, watching the television, and some advertisement for one of these weight loss miracles comes on. Some so called 'clinical study' at some 'university' by some 'doctor' has proven it to be scientifically effective. Meanwhile, the gorgeous men and women on this advertisement are telling you it works. Feeling extremely inadequate, yet eagerly hoping, you make the decision to trust these strangers on television, and call the number on the screen. After all, you must hurry, they will throw in some useless object in addition if you call quick enough; some object which is probably factored into the original sale price of the product. But you must hurry! You talk to the nice person on the phone, whose job is one likely outsourced to a foreign country. This person probably possesses an English vocabulary more or less sufficient to satisfy their intermediary role in acquiring your personal information. The product arrives a few day later. If you were lucky you may not have had to pay shipping. You anxiously open your box and see your new product, one probably with some catchy strange name. You entertain your dreams once more. This will enable you have the body of Hercules! You won't have to sweat, or limit the foods you find enjoyable. This product eliminates any need for discipline or hard work--it's perfect! The product is used by it's owner for one day, maybe one week, or if lucky, one month, and then it gets used as a dust collector. The owner became frustrated and gave up. Those beautiful people from the television could not possibly lie, right?
I am going to say what most don't have the courage to. In fact, I'll tell you something that almost no one will tell you. They probably did lie. If you can relate to the scenario just mentioned, then you have been taken advantage of. But you did not listen to them because they told you lies. You listened to them because they told you what you wanted to hear. These advertisements play on peoples, desires as well as their gullibility.  The people who advocate these products are paid models who very likely don't do the methods they are being paid to preach. The real people who have found success with them are rare and hand chosen. The doctors and clinical studies are often bogus, and funded by these companies themselves. They come with an inherent bias, and furthermore, by distorted interpretations, deceptively support the company's product. The products are outsourced and made for dirt cheap in poor countries, and then are advertised as being for a reduced price when the amount of profit being made off of them is extremely high to begin with. Okay, I'm getting a little off topic.
I do not necessarily want to give late night advertisements a bad wrap either. There are many good products shown, but the majority of them fail. Here is why. They guarantee success without any effort or discipline. They use biased claims and skewed data, which the viewer will never bother to verify or research themselves.
So now you might be wondering, how do I tell if a product or method works? Quite simple, one must listen to reviews from as many sources as possible, with as little bias as possible; be realistic--does an all ice cream diet really sound effective? Do you really think you will lose weight while watching Spongebob? A good product or method will not diminish your hard work. It will enhance it! There is a difference here. You need to work smarter and harder. I am going to put it bluntly, so please listen. This is the most important part of the article. It is very difficult to get in good shape without any dedication, hard work, and discipline. I repeat, it is very difficult to get in good shape without any dedication, hard work, and discipline. The three, dedication, hard work, and discipline are PREREQUISITES to good results. Many factors come into play, such as genetics and environment. It is easy for a fat person to stay fat, and a skinny person to stay skinny. Yet stockier folk put on muscle easier and are cut out for sports like football. Whereas the skinny have issues gaining weight, but can be more inclined to succeed at sports such as running. I will get into this at a later time in more detail.

If you don't learn anything from this huge wall of text, take this bit of knowledge with you, if you want to get in shape it's going to hurt. It will be uncomfortable. You will probably go to bed hungry some nights. Mommy might also get mad at you because you can't try her new pudding. Well too bad. And if you are not willing to make compromises, then leave this blog right now. Sill here? Good. Next blog I will post some cheap methods on how to make a gym in your own home.
Take Care.