Curling form

When it comes to curling weight, dumb bells or barbells, you have to be careful with form. Form is key. With good form you avoid getting injured.
One of the first things I check when curling a barbell is my elbows. I try not to swing because with swinging the weight it's not doing much, so with this at mind, concentrate in keeping your elbows next to your waist and avoid the swinging motion, and try to keep them as still as possible. When you swing your arms and your elbows are moving then you're not really working out your biceps, which is what curling is done for.

Below is a link to a video from bodybuilding.com that has helped me with my curls
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/barbell-curl

And for a final thought; lift light until you can lift right. I began curling with a 20lbs barbell and even then I struggled. Now I can rep the 50lbs barbell. Everybody has to start somewhere.

Staying fit outside of the gym

You don’t have to have a gym membership to begin to be fit. Being fit is about being active and living a healthy lifestyle. Just move! There are different ways of exercising. For example: dancing, walking your dog, rock climbing, boxing, playing sports, basically anything that involves you to be moving. Begin to just get out there and move. It’s easy and you’ll feel the change in yourself. You’ll feel the energy in yourself.

Have a plan!

It's always imperative to have a plan before going to the gym.

By “plan” I mean a work out plan. By making a work out a plan, it’s easier to value time at the gym, you’re more excited to work out, you get stuff done, and you remember what you went to the gym for. With a plan you don’t waste any time and you go straight to getting shit done.

                Below is an example of a plan

-stretch

-cardio: run 10 minutes

-leg press 250lbs 4 x 10

-stay at leg press, calves position, 130lbs 4 x 25

- and etc

The plan is simple to do. You can make it at night before going to bed, and just inserting it in your memo.

The best time to work out on weekdays (for me)

              This summer I took a summer class early in the morning. It was a little bit too early for me, so I’d always drive back home right after class to eat and take a nap. Then, after my nap, I would wake up and start getting ready for the gym. I would shake up my pre work out, get my butt in the car, and drive over to the gym. This was my best routine. I saw that I would have extra energy, concentration, and long lasting will power to keep going through my work outs. At the end of my work out, I would drive home happy, having accomplished my goals at the gym.

                On the other hand, I’ve tried getting a work out an hour after class, and my energy levels were low, I couldn’t concentrate, I was hungry, fatigued, and didn’t have the motivation to work out. Since then, I try my best not to work out in the mornings. Although, I do find it best to go for a run in the morning for 30 minutes or less, but never the best time for me to spend hours at the gym.

The guilt

One of my goals recently was to lose some belly fat and get a 2 pack, and well to do that, of course, one has to diet and exercise properly. Getting abs isn't the easiest thing to do. Diet is the biggest and hardest thing overall. So, lately I've been attempting to eat in moderation, watch over my calories, and consume the right foods. I said "ATTEMPTING". It's really difficult to follow a clean diet when my friends invite me to the restaurants I love. I'm talking about Whataburger, Ihop, you name it, and well not too long ago my friends and I discovered this new Chinese sushi buffet called Kurai. Kurai is amazing, and they have all the unhealthy fried carbs you can eat. With this happening, I haven't been seeing a drastic change on my abdomen, which really stinks. One thing I tell myself is: I fell off the horse now, but I have to get right back on it afterwards. The next hour or the next day. I have heard many people say "well, I'll just start at the beginning of the next month" or " i'll start the new year" or "I'll start on my birthday". and what I want to say is that that takes too long and the people that say all those things about starting later should start now! If not now, when? Those people can begin to exercise and eat properly and feel better about themselves right now! It is hard, but you gotta be hopeful, and have faith in yourself to strive for the best person you could ever be.

Re-racking weights at the gym

There's at least one issue when going to the gym on weekdays that is on my pet peeves list and that is when I walk over to weight rack, whether it is dumb bells or barbells, and I don't find the weight that I am looking for; this really kills my vibe.
I've seen videos, posts on the internet, and even memes where they talk about the weights that are lost every day when people don't re-rack them when they are done using them.

I recently made a video to define the struggle of those lost weights at the gym. The link is below.

http://youtu.be/H7yfG3XM1Gs

It really does suck to walk over to the weight rack and not find what youre looking for. It's kind of like going through the whole day with the craving of your favorite chocolate bar and when you get to the store they say "sorry, bro. we don't have them in stock". You immediately feel the heart break. Well, I get heart broken when I don't find the weights that I am looking for.

I'm energized and on a roll, going beast mode at the gym, then when I don't find what im looking for it throws my whole work out off, it throws off my day, it throws off my life. Just kidding. Anyway, my message is just to please re-rack your weights, errybahhdyy.

Never skip leg day

First of all, I am going to begin by talking about the picture above. Look, guys! I see a lot of male dudes with similar bodies as the one above, and let me tell ya, it is not attractive!

It is very important for guys to get big arms, but they sometimes forget about working on their legs. Why work on your legs? Because having an ice cream cone body looks strange, it doesn't look natural.

Working out your legs isn't so bad, and it isn't just for girls either. Bodybuilders always work out their legs and fail to have skinny chicken legs. I just hope that one day guys realize that legs are just as important as arms.

The magic of pre work out supp

Pre work out is a powdered supplement that you generally mix into water. This supplement contains caffeine. The purpose of pre work out is to get hyped for your work outs, focus, and overall for great performance at the gym.

This stuff is pretty much amazing. PWO is taken 30 minutes before working out and once it hits you you feel energized, on top of the world, and can conquer your goals at the gym.

Although, pre work out helps with achieving some goals with your physique, it isn't for everyone. A few people don't need to take it, or may not even work for some people, so it is best to try a few samples before purchasing pre.

On a personal level, I enjoy taking pre work out; especially on days where I don't feel my 100%. When consuming pre work out, I can definitely say that it has helped me push through the last rep or get an extra set in.

Self Motivation

Sometimes we forget why we started, so here are a few tips anyone can follow while they're  on the road to their goal physique.

It's not everyday that some of us wake up with the best motivation. There are days where our energy levels are low as well as feeling the tiredness drag on our worn out bodies. When I have days like that, I decide to do something different. Here are the things that I usually do to help higher my motivation, inspiration, and determination levels.

1. Remember why you started
-Look at a few inspirational pictures. Pictures of people with your goal physique.
The links below might are inspirational pictures of people who started with nothing and now they have amazing bodies, because of years of hard work.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/we-mirin-vol-64-20-insane-physiques.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/we-mirin-vol-58-20-built-bodies.html

2. Change up your playlist
-It helps to listen to different music while working out, rather than listening to the same tunes over and over again. I get tired of listening to the same songs at times and I sometimes lose my motivation because of that. When I get new music on my phone, I get excited and look forward to working out so I can listen to my new songs.

3. Research new exercises
-Looking up new exercises helps me look forward to doing something different at the gym. I normally go on youtube or the site bodybuilding.com (I find everything there).

4. Changing up your outfit
-I look forward to the gym when I buy a new outfit or a new shirt. I'll buy a nice shirt from the clearance section at kohl's or even tj max and ross they have cute little work out shirts or shorts.

These are the main steps that I take when trying to gain some motivation to go to the gym. These steps fundamentally involve changing up a normal routine.

Joining the fitness life

Some initiation….

At the start of joining the fitness life, most beginners say they want to bulk up, gain muscle, have a body like black dynamite, or get "shredded", which is reasonable, on the other hand they don't take into consideration a few steps they need to take before making the leap into gaining muscle.

Many males talk about working out and many of them start off either overweight or underweight. So for the sake of this blog, I will be talking about what should be done if someone is overweight then later the topic about being underweight.

Basically, some people have yet to know that gaining muscle also involves gaining fat, therefore cutting fat is something someone would have to take into account when they want to gain muscle. Why? The reason is that when a person is already overweight and begin to lift weights with the intention of gaining muscle and want to achieve lets say.. a body like Hugh Jackman, the muscle grows but with the fat still on the body. This does happen a lot. There are a few examples of those guys out there that are lifting and lifting and getting bigger but aren't seeing the results of losing fat around the abdominal area, around the arms, and thigh sections.

What is "cutting"? Cutting deals with losing the fat by diet and exercise. There are many ways to "cut". One of them is controlling your calorie intake to 1500 cals a day plus exercising at least 30 minutes a day. Results won't be seen on the very first day, but someone taking the route of counting calories would probably see results by the end of week 2(really depending on the person's metabolism).

It is said that a pound of fat is 3500 calories. So, counting calories is the basic ideal for first timers, but if someone who is looking to shed fat and loves food like me( I like to eat all the food) then that someone could go into an optional route, which would be eating whatever you want but burning 500 calories at the gym per day. If you multiply 500cals per 7 days that would be the equivalent of 3500 cals=1 pound of fat. Therefore losing a pound a week. 

Yes, you could eat whatever but it helps to eat in MODERATION. Moderation! What exactly is it to eat in moderation? It's easy. Eating in moderation is eating until you aren't stuffed to the max. Eating in moderation is feeling full without having a big stomach ache at the end of the meal. This is pretty hard considering when going out to eat and ordering a plate and getting more than what you can handle, nevertheless remember that you don't have to eat all the food on the plate. Just say "no!" and save the food to eat later that day or if its late you could eat it for breakfast.

Cardio is what is normally done to shed fat. A few people think that cardio is a really intense work out on the treadmill or doing simultaneous exercises at one time, yet it could be as easy as setting the level a little higher on the elliptical or any machine, and going at your own pace, slow or fast will still work. You can normally see the calories burned at the top of your machine, so you can take a quick glance at the top and continue until you have reached the amount of calories you want to burn.

BULKING

"Bulking" is generally a term to describe a person that is trying to gain weight. I would say that it is okay for a person to bulk if they fit the following criteria:
1)very lean, small body fat percentage
2)in shape(meaning could withstand running, and doing any cardio exercise without dying)
If someone who is underweight, and cannot withstand a good amount of cardio, then they should attempt to work on that first, trying to build up there endurance, concentrating on that for a good 3+weeks before bulking.
After achieving a good endurance, it would be an excellent time to begin to lift. Getting stronger means getting bigger. Also, muscles need protein. A good amount of protein! It helps to buy a tub of protein from a nutrition shop or even Walmart. I highly recommend going to a nutrition shop. The nutritionists will help you there and will inform you about the correct amount to take for bulking. You don't need the most expensive tub of protein. Starting off with an economical tub is still good.
Here is a link that could help with clean bulking:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/top-10-rules-successful-clean-bulking.html

I hope this blog was very informative! Good luck!