Weight loss tips

Weight loss tips

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Dinnys Blog

While dieting and exercising are the two main things you need to do to lose weight – or more specifically fat – there are several things you can do that will enhance your weight loss efforts. Use these tips to help you get better results from your diet and exercise routine!

Drink coffee before exercise

Exercise burns calories which, providing you are eating less than normal, will force your body to burn more fat. Unfortunately, exercising on an energy-restricted diet can be hard work because you may feel tired. Drinking a strong and preferably black coffee just before exercise can help give you energy and also increases your rate of fat burning – a real one-two punch to your fatty reserves! Caffeine, one of the main substances found in coffee, is not only a stimulant but also a lipotropic agent which simply means it makes fat cells more mobile and easier to use for fuel. If you don’t like coffee, try a caffeine pill instead. Either way, adding caffeine to your pre-workout ritual is a good way to maximize both workout intensity and fat burning. NOTE: Keep in mind that having too much caffeine can adversely gut health and may even raise your cholesterol levels so exercise caution when using this tip and definitely cut down on coffee consumption for the rest of the day.

Add cinnamon to your meals

Insulin is an essential hormone whose job is transporting nutrients out of your blood and into your liver and muscles. Insulin’s ability to do this job effectively is controlled by your insulin sensitivity which describes how receptive your cells are to the action of insulin. Low insulin sensitivity means that, instead to taking nutrients to your live and muscles, insulin ends of taking nutrients to your fat stores so, needless to say, increased insulin sensitivity is a very good thing! Exercise increases insulin sensitivity but what about the rest of the time? You can also increase your insulin sensitivity by adding pure cinnamon to your meals or, if you prefer, adding it to your coffee. This will increase your insulin sensitivity leading to better nutrient partitioning (nutrients are taken to your liver and muscles and not your fat stores) and promote more stable blood glucose levels.

Use a smaller plate

Portion control is an important part of dieting for weight loss but there is nothing more likely to make you hungry than seeing a small amount of food on a big plate. To help fool yourself into thinking you are eating more than you really are, try putting your reduced-size meals onto a smaller plate to give the illusion of a bigger meal. Make sure you eat mindfully and chew each mouthful slowly and drink 500ml of water with your meal to further fill you up.

Drink more water

Your body is made up from around 70 percent water and being even slightly dehydrated can adversely affect your ability to exercise and burn fat. To avoid even a whiff of dehydration, make sure you drink at least three litres of water per day. This will not only ensure your body can burn fat efficiently, it will buy legitimate xanax online also help prevent hunger pangs and detoxify your liver and kidneys which will, in turn, further enhance your ability to burn fat. Drinking ice-cold water may also increase your metabolic rate slightly as your body has to expend energy warming it up. Make this tip even more effective by adding lemon to alkalize your body which will help enhance fat burning and add a pinch of Himalayan Pink Rock to replace lost minerals.

Sprint – don’t jog

Jogging might be good for your heart and lungs but it’s not a very effective way to burn fat. Jogging is popular because it’s easy but when it comes to fat loss, easy doesn’t produce good results. Instead of jogging, pick up your pace and try sprinting. Head out to a soccer pitch or athletics track and try sprinting 100 meters and then slowly walking back again. Six to ten sprints should be sufficient. Don’t let the brevity of this workout fool you – you’ll not only burn lots of calories while you are doing it, you’ll also burn hundreds more afterward as a result of the afterburner effect.

Don’t exercise sat down

What do leg presses, leg extensions, the chest press machine and preacher curls all have in common? They are all performed sat down. Seated exercises may be an effective way to target specific muscles but if you want to lose weight as fast as possible, sitting down on the job makes next to no sense at all. Standing exercises such as squats, standing overhead presses, cable wood chops and Romanian deadlifts will use much more energy because, in addition to working the target muscles, you’ll also need to support and balance yourself using other muscles and the more muscles you use at a time, the more calories you’ll use. Also, don’t sit down between sets – that is another energy-saving strategy and when it comes to weight loss, the last thing you want to do is save energy!

Superset everything

A typical set of any strength training exercises takes around 30 to 45 seconds and is usually followed by a rest period that is at least as long if not longer. That means that, for a 40 minute workout, most people spend as much as 20 minutes or more resting! That is not an effective way to burn calories. Instead of wasting so much potential energy-burning time, organise your workout into supersets to halve the amount of rest. To perform a superset, simply perform your exercises in pairs so that one exercise provides a rest from the next. For example, alternate chest and back exercises, upper body and lower body exercises or biceps and triceps exercises. Alternatively, do 60 seconds of cardio between exercises – jumping rope is ideal. Remember, any time you are stationary you are not using much energy and are missing an opportunity to maximize your calorie expenditure.

So there you have it – seven effective, easy and useful tips to help you get the most out of your diet and exercise routine. Simple include one, some, or all of these tips to maximise your efforts.

Weight loss smoothies

Weight loss smoothies

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Dinnys Blog

One of the more effective ways to lose weight is drinking a weight loss smoothie in place of one or several of your regular meals. While you can buy commercially-made weight loss smoothies, these are often packed with low quality ingredients, artificial additives and sugar so making your own is generally recommended. All you need are the ingredients and a blender! Smoothies offer several klonopin generic 1mg weight loss benefits…

 

Convenience

In an ideal world, everyone trying to lose weight would have ample time to shop for, prepare and then cook several healthy meals a day however this is often far from the truth. As soon as time is in short supply, the best laid diet plans will end up in the bin and convenience has to take priority. In the case of dieting, this often means reaching for an unhealthy snack instead of eating a healthy meal. Smoothies take seconds to make and can even be put into a thermos for later and as for washing up – a quick rinse of your blender in warm water is all you need. Smoothies are the ultimate in weight loss convenience.

 

Calorie control

To burn fat and lose weight, you need to create a kilojoule deficit and that means eating less. To do this you need to know exactly how many calories you are eating per day. Working out how many calories are in your meal can be time consuming but working out how many are in a smoothie is much easier as a) there will be fewer ingredients b) most are easily measured liquids, and c) smoothies are normally prepared in single portions.  Many smoothie recipes have already been analysed so you know how many calories you’re consuming and if you create your own weight loss smoothies, you’ll only need to work out the nutrient profile once. Simply use the same amounts and ingredients to ensure your smoothie weighs in with exactly the right number of calories for your weight loss plan.

Health

Unlike many so-called diet foods, smoothies are PACKED with healthy ingredients – the choice of which are yours. You can include greens, cinnamon, fruit, coconut milk, vegetables, protein powder, herbs, spices, yogurt and any other healthy ingredients you feel like adding. Fruits and yogurt are naturally sweet so there is no need to add sweeteners other than maybe some pure honey or real maple syrup and as you’ll be drinking your smoothie shortly after making it, there is no need for any unhealthy preservatives – all too common in commercial products.

 

Filling

Because simply adding water to a smoothie turns it into a bigger meal, smoothies can be very filling and prevent overeating. While all the solid ingredients in a smoothie contain calories, water does not which means you can have as much of it as you like. If you are really hungry, you can add as much as a litre of water to your smoothie to make it a very filling meal. In addition, ingredients like fruit and vegetables contain lots of fibre. Like water, fibre is calorie-free and is also very filling, not to mention being good for your digestive health.

 

Flexible

You can choose to have a smoothie anytime you like to replace any of your normally solid meals. A smoothie is an ideal breakfast when you are in a rush, makes for a healthy, light lunch or provides a virtually instant meal in the evening when you are too tired to cook. You can have one or several weight loss smoothies per day depending on how strictly you are dieting, how much weight you need to lose and how much time you have available to commit to cooking regular meals. With weight loss smoothies, you can choose how and when you use them.

 

Four steps to the perfect weight loss smoothie

Here are the four things you need to create your own tasty, healthy combos.

 

  1. A liquid base

Milk is an ideal smoothie base – 1 percent or non-fat is best because it’s rich in vitamin D and calcium, which can help your body break down fat. Non-dairy milks, like Rice Milk or Oat and Almond, are fine too, as is plain and naturally flavoured water.

 

  1. Lean protein

Getting protein at every meal helps you maintain lean muscle mass, which means you burn more calories throughout the day. Your best bets: plain non-fat yogurt, silken tofu, cottage cheese or protein powder.

 

  1. Healthy fats

These give you energy, make your smoothie satisfying, and help your body absorb vitamins. Use up to two tablespoons of an ingredient that contains monounsaturated fats such as avocado, seeds, or nuts, flaxseed oil, fish oil.

 

  1. High-fibre carbs

Any fruit will do, but raspberries and blueberries deliver the most fibre and the least amount of sugar. As for veggies, spinach and cucumber have the mildest, easiest-to-mask flavours.

 

Recipes

While you are free to create your own wonderful weight loss smoothie recipes, here are a couple of our favourites to get you started…

 

  1. Blueberry smoothie

1 cup skim milk or milk alternative

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

1 tablespoon cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil (high in monounsaturated fatty acids)

Combine milk and blueberries in blender, and blend for 1 minute. Transfer to glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

Nutrition: 1145 kilojoules, 9 grams protein, 29 grams carbs, 4 grams fibre, 14.5 grams fat

  1. Peanut butter and banana smoothie

½ cup fat-free milk or milk alternative

½ cup fat-free plain yogurt

2 tablespoon creamy natural unsalted peanut butter (high in monounsaturated fatty acids)

¼ very ripe banana

1 tablespoon raw honey

4 ice cubes

Combine ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and serve.

Nutrition: 1537 kilojoules, 18 grams protein, 40 grams carbs, 3 grams fibre, 16.5 grams fat

 

  1. Chocolate and raspberry smoothie

½ cup skim or milk alternative

150 grams vanilla yogurt with no sugar

¼ cup dark raw chocolate chips (high in antioxidants and monounsaturated fatty acids)

1 cup fresh raspberries

Handful of ice OR 1 cup frozen raspberries

Combine ingredients in a blender. Blend for 1 minute, transfer to a glass, and eat with a spoon.

Nutrition: 1940 kilojoules, 16 grams protein, 77 grams carbs, 10 grams fibre, 13.5 grams fat

 

Dieting for weight loss is often coloured as being boring but, as you can see from these recipes, weight loss smoothies need never be dull. Inject some flavour into your diet with weight loss smoothies!

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AUTHOR

Hi, my name is Dinny Morris. I’m a personal trainer and in sunny Sydney, Australia.

I work with men and women at all levels of their physical development, from overweight couch potatoes who want to get in shape, to professional athletes and natural bodybuilders who want to beef up strength and body mass.

How many calories should I eat?

How many calories should I eat?

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Dinnys Blog

Food, as I’m sure you know, contains energy and that energy is measured in calories. A calorie is a unit of heat and is the amount required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree centigrade.

 

Calories are a bit of an old-fashioned unit of measure and many parts of the world, including Australia, use kilojoules instead – one calorie being equal to 4.2 kilojoules.

Different types of food contain different amounts of calories despite weighing the same…

 

  • Protein contains four calories or 16.8 kilojoules per gram
  • Carbohydrate contains four calories or 16.8 kilojoules per gram
  • Fat contains nine calories or 37.8 kilojoules per gram
  • Alcohol contains seven calories or 29.4 kilojoules per gram

 

Calories to lose weight

Body fat contains calories – around the same amount as dietary fat. It is estimated that to burn a single pound (or around 450 grams) of body fat, you need to create a caloric deficit of 3,500 calories/14,700 kilojoules so that means that, to lose a pound/450 grams, there needs to be a deficit of 500 calories/2,100 kilojoules per day. This deficit can come from exercise and/or physical activity or from diet but most experts agree its best when diet and exercise interventions are combined.

 

So, it might sound like simply cutting 500 calories/2,100 kilojoules from your daily food intake is all you need to do to lose weight BUT if you are still eating more food than you need, you won’t lose weight. Instead, you need to take 500 calories/2,100 kilojoules from the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight – called your basal metabolic rate or BMR for short.

 

To estimate your BMR either use an online energy expenditure calculator or break out your pencil and paper and do this equation.

 

BMR = (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) – (5 x age in years) – 161

 

If that looks kind of tricky, here is an example so you can see how the calculation works for a woman who is 35, weighs 65 kilos and is 162.5 centimetres tall.

 

Do the calculations in the brackets first…

  1. 10 x 65 = 650
  2. 6.25 x 162.5 = 1015.625 (round to the nearest whole number so 1016)
  3. 5 x 35 = 175

 

Then finally, slot your bracketed calculations into the main calculation…

650 + 1016 – 175 = 1491 calories or 6262 kilojoules

 

Remember, this figure is your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and represents the number of calories you need to eat to maintain your weight if you remain inactive the whole time. Imagine lying in bed for 24-hours and not doing anything more strenuous than reading a book or watching TV; the number of calories you’d need to ensure you neither lost or gained weight is your BMR. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that you actually do spend your day doing nothing so next we need to figure in how many calories you use during planned and unplanned physical activity.

 

How many calories you need depends on Harris-Benedict – or at least his formula! Again, you can use one of the online calculators if you prefer but this one is easy so you should be able to do it yourself.

 

To calculate your daily caloric needs, also known as your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE for short, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor. Be honest though; just because you get to the end of the day feeling tired does not mean you have been physically active. Read the descriptions that go with each level of activity and pick the one that represents you the most accurately. Most people, unless they do a manual labour are going to be in the first or second category…

Harris Benedict activity multiplier

To determine your total daily energy needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

 

  • If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Energy-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
  • If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Energy-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
  • If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Energy-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
  • If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Energy-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
  • If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Energy-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

 

So, using our previous example BMR of 1491 calories/6262 kilojoules and making the assumption that you are “lightly active” multiply that figure by 1.375 to give you 2050 calories/8610 kilojoules.

 

Once you know how much energy you need to maintain your current weight, simply take off 500 calories/2100 kilojoules to reveal how much food you need to eat to lose around a pound/0.45 kilos per week.

 

Eating for weight loss
Now you know how much you need to lose weight, it’s time to discuss how you can implement the necessary changes. There are several effective ways to reduce your energy intake – it’s all a matter of finding which one works for you.

 

  • Reduce the size of eat of your meals to create the required energy deficit
  • Eliminate snacks
  • Cut down on fat
  • Eliminate sugar
  • Swap starchy carbs such as pasta, bread and rice for vegetables
  • Swap high-energy drinks for water

 

Whichever way you choose to reduce your energy intake, do not try and lose weight too fast as doing so can trigger the starvation response – a set of circumstances triggered by eating too little food that actually promotes fat gain rather than fat loss. Half to one kilo per week is a safe and realistic weight loss target.

 

Calories to gain weight

Gaining weight or, more specifically building muscle, requires a calorie surplus of around 300 to 500 calories (1260 to 2100 kilojoules) ABOVE your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE. Simply calculate your BMR as before, use the activity multiplier to estimate your daily needs and then add between 300 to 500 calories per day to arrive at how much food you need to eat to build muscle. If you find that, after a few weeks of training hard and eating the right amount of food, you are still not gaining weight, increase your food intake by another 200 to 300 calories/840 to 2100 kilojoules. Beware of gaining too much weight too fast – it’s likely to be fat if you do.

 

Eating to gain weight
Knowing how much your need to eat is only half the battle – you actually need to do it to see any meaningful results from your training. Here are some easy ways to increase your food energy intake…

 

  • Add an extra meal per day
  • Eat larger snacks
  • Have a protein shake 1-2 times per day
  • Increase the size of your meals
  • Eat a protein bar 1-2 times per day
  • Drink milk with your meals (if you have no lactose issues)

 

Also remember, that any additional physical activity can cut into your energy surplus so be careful not to do too much additional physical activity outside of your training and if you do, eat more to ensure you maintain your energy surplus.

 

Calories to maintain weight
Of course, if you are a man or woman who is happy with their weight, you want to make sure you eat enough food to ensure you stay where you are and neither gain or lose weight. To achieve this, simply consume your BMR energy requirements, factor in your activity calculator and do not make any further changes. If you do more or less activity than you predicted, adjust your food intake as required. Keep an eye on your weight and look changes but don’t worry too much about occasional or daily fluctuations as this is likely to be water weight. Instead look for sustained changes over a week or so and then act accordingly.

 

Eating the right amount of calories is an important part of losing or gaining weight so you’ll need to track your food intake whichever one is your goal. Yes – weighing and measuring your food is a pain in the butt but it’s the only real way to ensure you are giving your body exactly what it needs. There are apps and websites that can help make the process much easier but whether you choose to go old school or high tech – if you want to get the best results for your dietary efforts, you need to track your calories.

 

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Hey Dinny – added some extra material.
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AUTHOR

Hi, my name is Dinny Morris. I’m a personal trainer and in sunny Sydney, Australia.

I work with men and women at all levels of their physical development, from overweight couch potatoes who want to get in shape, to professional athletes and natural bodybuilders who want to beef up strength and body mass.

How to lose weight fast

How to lose weight fast

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Dinnys Blog

Lots of people are in a real hurry to lose weight which is kind of ironic when you consider that it often takes many years to get fat in the first place. Slow and steady is generally the best way to lose weight because losing weight too fast may trigger something called the starvation response which will actually slow weight loss to a crawl and even result in weight gain!

 

Rapid weight loss if often muscle rather than fat which is a major problem. Muscle needs calories and anytime you lose muscle, your body ends up needing fewer calories which will reduce your metabolic rate and hamper your fat loss efforts. The name of the game should be losing fat while preserving muscle mass if you want to maximize fat loss.

 

A sensible diet, plenty of exercise and lashings of consistency are what you need for successful weight loss but, that being said, here are seven things you can do to speed up the process so that you lose weight as fast as is safely possible…

 

  1. Cut out alcohol

At 7 calories/29.4 kilojoules per gram,alcohol contains more energy than protein and carbs and only slightly fewer than fat which makes very calorie dense. Often mixed with energy-dense soft drinks, it’s very easy to ingest a lot of kilojoules simply by having one or two drinks a day – normal behaviour for a lot of people. Additionally, alcohol is a priority fuel which means that it will be digested and processed preferentially so if you eat and drink, the kilojoules from food are much more likely to be stored as fat while the alcohol is being broken down and eliminated. Cut out alcohol completely for much faster weight loss.

 

  1. Eliminate sugar

Sweets, candy, cake, cookies, cola and fruit as well as many processed foods contain sugar. Sugar tastes good so many people crave it. Unfortunately, sugar can wreak havoc on your diet by increasing insulin levels which inhibits fat burning. Sugar is also mildly addictive which means very few of us can stop after just a small amount – we tend to eat sugar to excess. Sugar is also inflammatory, bad for your teeth and commonly linked to a wide variety of health problems including various cancers and even heart disease. Bottom line – if you want faster fat loss, you need to ditch the sugar.  

  1. Eat every three to four hours

We used to think that eating every few hours elevated your metabolism but recent research has called this claim into doubt. However, eating every few hours will help stave off hunger and makes it easier to exercise portion control and meal contents as a result. When you get hungry, any good intentions of eating properly quickly fly out the window in favour of sugary snacks or junk food. However, by eating every few hours, your blood glucose levels should remain more stable and you should experience much less hunger. Additionally, if you ARE hungry, it’s nice to know that your next meal is only an hour or so away. Small, frequent meals are a great way to speed up fat loss – even if they don’t directly affect your metabolic rate.

 

  1. Have a salad for dinner every evening

A big, green, leafy salad contains very few calories but is very filling. Low in carbs, it’s the ideal food to eat before bed. Salad greens are also high in tryptophan which is a substance linked closely to feelings of relaxation and happiness and which should help you sleep more soundly. Add some lean protein and a healthy fat such as olive oil and you have the perfect fat-fighting evening meal.To make order tramadol overnight your salad even better, add some lemon juice or, alternaitvely, drink a glass of water containing freshley-squeezed lemon juice with your meal to increase your alkalinity which will futher enhance fat burning and gut health.

 

  1. Push-ups before each meal

Before every meal or snack, drop down and pump out 20 to 50 push-ups. This means that, throughout your day, you’ll clock up anywhere between 60 and 350 push-ups which will add up to a lot more kilojoules used per day. Doing some exercise before each and every meal also increases both insulin sensitivity and glut4 production which will ensure that the food you consume is preferentially partitioned into your muscles and away from your fat stores. If push-ups aren’t for you, do squats instead or, alternatively, just tense your major muscles as hard as you can for 30 seconds e.g. press your palms together in front of your chest.

 

  1. Deep breaths to beat stress

Lowering your stress levels can significantly speed up fat loss. Stress, be it physical or emotional, increases the production of a hormone called cortisol. One of cortisol’s jobs is breaking down muscle for energy which subsequently lowers your daily energy requirements or metabolic rate. Also, many of us are “stress eaters” and tend to reach for unhealthy foods whenever we feel under pressure. Instead of letting stress get you down, take ten deep breaths whenever you feel overly pressured. Stress is simply a reaction when you believe that something is too big for you to handle – but if you take a moment to reflect on what is bothering you, you’ll often find that a solution is within your grasp and there is no reason for you to feel anxious.

  1. No carbs after lunchtime

Carbs are an important food source and they provide energy as well as vitamins, minerals and fibre are the main source of energy for your muscles, major organs and brain but they are really only necessary for fuelling physical activity i.e. exercise or manual labour. If you are generally sedentary, except for your four or more workouts per week of course, you simply do not require a lot of carbohydrate other than some to power you through your workouts. By having a carb cut off time of around midday, you ensure that your body is primed for fat burning but still gets enough carbs so you have energy to work out. It’s not that carbs are inherently bad – it’s just that too many carbs can, like sugar, interfere with your blood glucose levels, increase insulin production and make fat loss much more difficult. Replace your carbs with protein as protein is not only very filling, it also has a high thermal effect which simply means a lot of energy is used in its breakdown. The main sources of carbs to avoid during this time are things like bread, rice, pasta and potatoes – the so-called starchy carbs.

 

Doing these seven things will significantly boost your rate of fat loss but only if you add them to a sound diet and exercise plan that you follow consistently. Consider these tips as the (low fat) dressing to your super-healthy salad!
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Hi, my name is Dinny Morris. I’m a personal trainer and in sunny Sydney, Australia.

I work with men and women at all levels of their physical development, from overweight couch potatoes who want to get in shape, to professional athletes and natural bodybuilders who want to beef up strength and body mass.

Deadlifts for a better butt

Deadlifts for a better butt

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Dinnys Blog

Look around most gyms and inevitably you’ll see many women and some men working on their butts. A flat, flaccid but is not something many of us want hence the popularity of workouts like Bums, Legs and Tums classes (BLT for short) and exercise machines designed to target the butt area such as hip abductions and cable hip extensions. However, all of these admittedly popular methods of working the butt are very ineffective when compared to the mighty deadlift!

Of course, there are other great butt exercises, the weighted hip bridge is AWESOME for example, but because the deadlift works not only your butt but everything from your heels to the back of your head, it really is a winner.

Butt anatomy

Your butt is made up from several muscles – the main one being the gluteus maximus and, to a lesser degree, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. These muscles work together to extend your hip joint to the rear and also pull your leg out to the side of your body – a movement properly called abduction meaning to take away from the midline. The glutes, as they are often collectively known, also externally rotate your hip. You butt is the biggest and potentially strongest muscle in your body but how do many people attempt to strengthen and tone this muscle – doing high reps with light weights; a strategy that is very ineffective.

The reason for this is probably the mistaken opinion that it is possible to “spot reduce” fat from a particular area by doing high rep exercises for a specific muscle group. Not only is this untrue – you can only burn fat with globally demanding exercises and by eating a lower calorie diet – but is also an inefficient way to improve muscle condition.

The glutes respond best to a significant amount of overload that places them under tension from a stretched position to a fully contracted position and that means that, when it comes to building a better butt, deadlifts should be your go-to exercise.

About the deadlift

There are several variations of the deadlift (barbell, dumbbell, single leg, Romanian, sumo) for you to try but the common feature that links them all is that they include a movement called a hip hinge. Hip hinging involves leaning forward without rounding your lower back, very much how a waiter would bowl to welcome a guest in a restaurant . Rounding your lower back places an inordinate amount of stress on your lumbar spine – especially the intervertebral discs and ligaments. In contrast, keeping your lower back slightly arched ensures that a) no potentially dangerous stress is placed on these potentially fragile structures and b) your butt gets the best possible workout.

There are however certain weight lifters that do train in a rounded or arched back position. However, these guys are professional Olympic or powerlifters who are extremely advanced and this is back position is not appropriate for the general population. If you do find your back tends to round, you may have a habitual posture issue that needs to be addressed. This issue is commonly caused by caused by sitting in a chair too much, or what I call computer posture, and characterised by rounded shoulders and a rounded upper and rounded lower back, which, of course can all be corrected with time.

Unlike many other popular but less effective butt exercises, the deadlift involves keeping both feet firmly planted on the ground which means that it is what is commonly referred to as a closed chain exercise. Closed chain exercises are the most effective way to work your muscles because they mean that your body moves through space rather than moving a machine. This is much more natural and more natural means more effective.

Additionally, the deadlift is a compound exercise which means it uses multiple muscle groups at the same time. This not only makes the deadlift more “functional”, it also significantly increases your metabolism – both while you are doing them and for several hours afterward. The same cannot be said about side-lying leg lifts or whatever other ineffective butt exercises you have been performing up to now…!

How to deadlift

Deadlifts are relatively simple but that doesn’t mean easy. Take time to learn this excellent exercise properly and if you are still unsure how to perform them correctly, make sure you ask a qualified personal trainer to teach you.

  1. Place a loaded barbell on the floor and stand with your toes under the bar, feet hip-width apart,
  2. Bend down and grasp the bar with a shoulder-width, overhand or mixed grip. Keep your arms straight.
  3. Lift your chest, pull your shoulders down and back and look straight ahead. Your hips should be below the level of your shoulders. Brace your abs tightly to support your spine and keep your lower back slightly arched.
  4. Without bending your arms, push your feet into the floor and pull the barbell up your shins to your knees. Keep your weight on your heels and not on your toes. Do not round your lower back.
  5. As the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward and then stand up straight. Pause and admire the view!
  6. Lower the bar by pushing your hips back and then bending your knees. Place the bar back to the floor and repeat.
  7. Inhale before and as you lift the bar, exhale as you lower it.
  8. Lower the bar slowly and under control as the lowering phase causes the most muscle stimulus and so lowering the bar under control gives you the best results. Dropping the bar or lowering it very quickly makes deadlifting much less effective.

How many, how often?

Because deadlifts are so effective, you only really need to perform this exercise once or twice a week. It can be included in a full body workout or, if you follow a split routine, on leg or back day as preferred. In terms of sets and reps, lower reps work really well as that means you only have to concentrate for a relatively short time – five to eight being about right for most people. Lower reps can work too but they tend to develop pure strength. Higher reps are also okay for some but can be hard on your grip and technique breakdown is more likely to occur, BUT stick at it you will get better. Start off with sets of five to eight and then experiment with more or less reps to see how your body responds. Make sure you stop any set as soon as you notice your form begin to break down – a rounded lower back can soon lead to an otherwise avoidable injury.

Deadlift variations

Once you have mastered the basic barbell deadlift, you can try an even more glute-centric exercise – the Romanian deadlift. Unlike the regular deadlift which starts from the floor. The Romanian deadlift starts from an upright position and involves much less knee bend but a whole lot more hip hinge. This really works your glutes hard and effectively.

Deadlifts are not just a great butt exercise, they also work your lower back and hamstrings and will improve your running and jumping performance. With credentials like that, it’s a wonder you don’t see more people doing the deadlift!

such controversy lol legs or back workout, people need to focus on using their legs or otherwise it turns into a back workout, what are your thoughts, some coaches use for back day some use for leg, day, the position or height of hips will indicate the muscle most worked? What are your thoughts?

Good point!

Quads are definitely important in the deadlift for breaking the bar off the ground but once it’s moving, the hips should take over. The knee angle shouldn’t be as pronounced as for squats – some people make the mistake of trying to turn the deadlift into a squat with the bar in front of them which really makes no sense as that’ll take load off the posterior chain and also limits the amount of weight you can lift. Conversely, some people hardly bend their knees at all which means they eliminate the quads entirely and focus only on posterior chain – again limiting the weight they can lift.

I have done deadlifts as in leg workouts and back workouts – it uses so many muscles it’s hard to say where it ought to go. When I was training for powerlifting meets, it went a few days after squats and I thought of it as a leg exercise but when I bodybuild, I think of it more as a back exercise. Morphology plays a part too – tall, long armed people (like me) useless quads and more posterior chain but a shorter guy would be more quads.