LarryLar

You love lifting. You love the plain challenge and the simple rewards—beating your previous best and feeling a great pump afterward. And maybe you hate cardio. Devoting gym time to cardiovascular exercise feels as if you’re burning away hard-earned muscle. But you’re not—you’re revealing it.

If gaining mass is all you focus on, soon no one will be able to distinguish your traps from your deltoids. For a lean and chiseled physique, you need cardio work (relax—no distance running involved). Just follow our 5 easy steps to reveal more muscle. You don’t need much cardio (15 to 20 minutes twice a week max), and most of what you do need should be at a high intensity, as befits a man with a lifter’s mindset. But after a few weeks, you’ll start to notice less fat and greater muscle definition. Consider it the fast track to the body you’ve always wanted—without feeling like a rat on a wheel.

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Been doing this the last 3 workouts. Finally getting the handstand push-ups.

Your body has about 650 muscles. It doesn’t matter that you only care about four or five of them. You need every one in order to perform the normal functions of everyday life—eating, breathing, walking, holding in your stomach at the beach.

Granted, you don’t need to spend a lot of time thinking about most of your muscles. The 200 muscles involved in walking do the job whether you monitor them or not.

You could try to impress your friends at parties by telling them the gluteus maximus is the body’s strongest muscle, or that the latissimus dorsi (in your middle back) is the largest, or that a middle-ear muscle called the stapedius is the smallest. But it probably won’t work, unless you have some really unusual friends. And muscle trivia can’t capture the wonder of muscles themselves—the brilliance of coordinated muscles in motion, the magnificence of well-developed muscles in isolation.

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Fridays are quad days. Squatting till they burn and I can't walk. I know my workout was good. See you in the gym tomorrow.

2  days ago, I posted about how much weight I lost in just over a month. I was shocked at the comments and emails I got saying it’s not me. How could it not be me, don’t you see my scar? The reason the tattoo is gone is because I Photoshopped it out. That’s the only Photoshop I used. I’m posting 2 more pictures I just took, only because I accidentally deleted the original photos, to prove its me. Ridiculous.

Losing 18 pounds in one month is not hard, if you’re willing to put in the work. I’m proud of the hard work and discipline I put into getting myself back in shape. My next update will be July 31, and I’ll keep the dam tattoo.

Plus there is my Google phone.

It was June 06, 2011. I was home from work and feeling crappy. I really let myself go. No regular exercise in almost a year and to much bad food. I decided to weigh myself, which I never do. I was shocked when I seen 195 pounds. Right there I made the decision to stop. Since then I haven’t missed a workout and the diet has been on point.

Today, July 11, 2011, I’m at 178 pounds. Only 8 more pounds to my goal weight, which I originally set for August 22, 2011. Once I hit 170 pounds, the goal is to bulk up to 180. Very attainable goal.

Stick to and set a goal for yourself. Remember set realistic goals, but set one, if you don’t reach it, just keep at it. If you have a bad day, forget about it and start tomorrow with that goal in mind.

* Set realistic goals, be patient: Don’t rush to try to accomplish your targets;

* Be consistent — Follow a regular routine;

* If you’re inexperienced. Get a personal trainer — They can help you reach your goals safely and effectively;

* Build a support system. Friends, family, co-workers;

* Eat healthily. If you need to reach that goal. Easting healthy is vital.

Good Luck in your journey.

Perform this routine as a circuit, says its creator, Martin Rooney, P.T., C.S.C.S., author of Ultimate Warrior Workouts. Do 10 reps of each exercise, and complete as many circuits as you can in 15 minutes. Rest briefly when you need to, and resume working until the time is up. As your conditioning improves, increase reps or decrease the amount of rest.

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Few men believe it, but you don’t need barbells, dumbbells, or machines to build muscle; in fact, weight-training equipment often inhibits the process. That’s because it requires you to be in a specific location, which might explain why more men consider themselves runners than lifters. After all, running is the most accessible form of exercise—anywhere you go, there’s your gym. But learn a little bit about physics and the same can hold true for your muscle workout.

Consider the pullup: It’s the standard by which all body-weight exercises are measured. And even the most hard-core lifters will agree that there’s no better muscle builder for the upper body—with or without weights. The reason for its effectiveness: It takes full advantage of the scientific laws of motion and leverage, placing your body in a position that forces your back and arms to lift your entire body weight. Call it applied science at its finest.

Now imagine if all body-weight exercises were as challenging as the pullup. You’d be able to build muscle anywhere, anytime—at home, on the road, or even in a public park. Physical science makes it possible. So with that said . . . the Five Laws of Body-Weight Training.

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Exercise machines weren’t created to punish guys who eat too much. That’s what diets are for. But men spend hours, day after day, churning their arms and legs and waiting for the StairMaster or treadmill to make their bellies vanish. The result: They make it about as far as the average rat.

But your machine workout doesn’t have to be a road—or row—to nowhere. “By decreasing the duration and varying the intensity of your exercise sessions, you’ll get better results in less time,” says Chris Carmichael, founder of Carmichael Training Systems and coach to Lance Armstrong.

Try this guide to the five most popular exercise machines, with a high-intensity 20-minute workout geared for each. Your goals: Bust your exercise rut, and your gut, in record time.
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