Fitness motivation is sometimes a little bit hard to conjure up. Even on good days there are moments when I wish I was on the couch instead of running on a treadmill working on my fitness. Here are my top 5 fitness motivations…

# 1 - To help other with their fitness
As you can probably tell by this site and my women’s site, Real Women’s Fitness, I love helping people achieve their own fitness goals. I really hated it when I was starting out with my fitness journey in early high school when no body was interested in helping me, they only wanted to help themselves. So, when I don’t feel like hitting the gym I think about all the people I might be able to help with the knowledge and expertise that I gain.

# 2 - To live longer
My best mate has recently survived one of the worst types of cancer there is. Not only did that help me to make some deeper spiritual changes in my life, it motivated me to work on my diet and my fitness so that I can avoid sicknesses like that one.

Cardio and weight training are scientifically proven to increase immune function and if you need to be told that a good diet can increase your lifespan then you have been living under a rock. If you can’t think of any other reason to go to the gym - think of living longer.

# 3 - For my girlfriend
I know this might sound a little superficial but I think it is important to look good for your partner. After all, my girlfriend spends hours doing her hair, shaving her legs and all that other stuff so she looks good for me - why shouldn’t I return the favour?

# 4 - To increase sporting function
As we all know, a lot of the fitness work I do (or have done) is so that I can improve my martial arts ability. Weight training not only improves strength but it also helps maintain healthy joints and tendons which often take a bit of a beating during the kung fu sessions.

# 5 - Remember how much you love it
Sometimes all I need to do is cast my mind back to why I got into weight training or why I first started kung fu and I am sent back to that place of sheer joy!

If you are having trouble getting motivated remember that you love it!

What other motivation ideas do you guys and girls use?

These exercises will blast your forearms so hard that they will grow beyond belief! A lot of people neglect their forearms but it is important for all bodybuilders and sports people. Check them out!

Forearms Training
Training the forearms is easy. You train then anytime your fingers grip anything. As I have said in previous posts, there are three general forearms motions:

1. Gripping - holding on to a bar or chin up pole;
2. Squeezing - squeezing a gripping machine;
3. Twisting - normal movements like in reverse wrist curls.

A successful forearms workout will use all of these motions in the one workout.

The Top 5 Forearms Exercises
Here are the top 5 forearms exercises for adding mass and strength quickly. You will start to see results within a week or two of training them as they respond very quickly to new stimulus.

1 - Heavy Bar Bell Holding
This is one of my all time favourite ways to blast my forearms. Stack on as much weight as you can handle and simply hold on to the bar bell while you stand still. When you don’t think you can hold it any longer, hold it for a few more seconds. Then drop the bar, shake your hands out for 15 seconds and pick up the bar again and aim to hold it longer then the last time.

Do this for 5 sets and you will find some amazing strength gains happening. This is especially good for martial artists who want to improve their gripping power. You will also notice that bar bell exercises become easier during other workout at the gym due to the added forearm strength and stamina.

2 - Chin Up Bar Holding
Same as before, hold yourself from a chin up bar for as long as you can. Strap a weight to your legs or waist and keep adding it during the workout.

Use this exercise in a pyramid style of training so that you add more and more weight as the sets go on.

3 - Reverse Wrist Curls
This is the all time classic forearms exercise. Here are some tips to make it more effective.

The secret I use is to do as many reps as you can with a medium to heavy weight with your fingers gripped tight around the bar bell. As you get tired, roll the bar down to the tips of your fingers and use your fingers to complete the set. This will give you a deep burn in your forearms. Do 5 sets for this exercise.

4 - Reverse Bar Bell Curls
Many people neglect this exercise because of some fears that it will work out your biceps too. However, it is such a good exercise that it should be used weekly. If you don’t want to work out your biceps twice then perform your forearms training after your biceps! Simple.

Keep your grip loose with this one. Sly Stallone used this to build his forearms when training for Rocky and said that the best results came when he relaxed the upward motion and kept it slow on the downward motion. This will pack on forearm size fast. Do 5 sets.

See Arnold doing some reverse wrist curls in this excellent old school image from www.illpumpyouup.com.

5 - Hammer Twists
This exercise is not so popular as it is a little hard to set up but it really does work wonders. I use this as a warm down after performing the other 4 forearms exercises.

You need an adjustable dumb bell where you can take all the weight off of one side. Put a heavy weight on the other side and sit on a bench. With your arm resting on your knee and your palm facing down gripping the dumb bell, twist the dumb bell over until your palm almost faces the roof. Keep it slow and steady.

Forearms Warm Down
After your forearms workout stretch your muscles as much as you can and shake out your hands and fingers as much as possible. It is very annoying to come into the gym the next day and not be able to pick anything up because they are too sore!

Does anyone have any exercises they really love?

If your legs exercises are weak and your legs are like toothpicks and you would rather they looked like tree stumps then read this post. We’ll look at the best legs exercises and how to go from small legs to big legs in the shortest possible time.

Essential Leg Training Elements
If you want to get bigger, stronger and more powerful legs then you need to give them some specific attention. In particular, you need to include these elements:

• Heavy weights;
• Their own specific weights training day;
• An increase in quality protein;
• Rest;
• Perfect weights technique.

These leg training elements are essential to building big legs. You cannot overlook any one of them.

Heavy Weights for Leg Development
The legs are made up of very big muscles. They get a lot of work during the day - climbing stairs, running, walking, etc. so you need to hit them with some nice heavy weights.

To start with, learn the perfect technique first and then increase the weight slowly to the point where you are doing heavy sets of about 5 or 6 reps.

The thing about training the legs with heavy weights is that it will release huge amounts of hormones into your body which will lead to an increase in size of your whole body. Remember that:

Training the legs with heavy weights makes other muscles grow!

Top Leg Training Exercises
Leg training really isn’t that hard. You need a mix of a few good exercises that have been tried an tested over the years. These are the best leg exercises for building huge legs:

• Bar bell squat in squat rack;
• Leg press machine;
• Heavy bar bell lunges;
• Jumping Squats.

These are the exercises that should make up your once a week leg training routine. Experiment with different amounts of sets and reps until you see some progress on your own body.

Make sure you warm up with light squats and weights first and stretch and stay warm inbetween sets.

Protein for Leg Growth
If you need to be told that in order to grow massive muscles you need more protein then you must have been living under a rock! Add quality foods full or quality protein to your diet like:

• Meat
• Fish
• Free range eggs and chicken
• Milk
• Whey protein
• etc

However, I’ll say it again, the most important thing you can do is make sure your post workout meal comes straight after your legs workout and it is in liquid form. This alone should boost your muscle gains.

Resting for Leg Growth
If you train your legs when they are sore they will never grow. Muscles grow when they are repairing from the damage you do to them in your workout. It is better to skip a leg workout and wait until next week then to train them when they are sore.

Legs Exercises Technique
Watch, watch, watch. It is vital that you watch the bodybuilding professional and trainers at your gym do your legs exercises and get them to watch you. Getting the technique right is more important than anything else.

Keep it slow, steady and very controlled. Try not to go below parallel with your knees if you have a history of knee injuries. Keep it slow!

Does anyone have any problems training their legs?