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Friday 23 November 2012

How To Look Attractive

You can't control your genes or your basic physical traits, but you can control how you use what you've got. Being attractive is a combination of several different factors, including grooming, personality and style. Here's how to stand out and be your best self.

Grooming

The easiest and most basic thing you can do to be more appealing is practicing good hygiene. Looking clean and smelling good will make people subconsciously want to be nearer to you. Use these steps to develop a daily routine.

Shower every day. Wash your hair thoroughly, and use a body wash or soap that has a fresh and clean scent. Wear deodorant. Find a scent and strength that works for you, and put it on first thing after you get out of the shower. If you find that you get sweaty or smelly during the day, carry deodorant in your backpack or briefcase and reapply.


  • If you forget to put on deodorant before you leave the house, find some hand sanitizer and wipe it on your armpits — it'll kill the bacteria that produces body odor. You might have to reapply a few times during the day.
Wear cologne or body spray. How you smell throughout the day can make or break your attractiveness — if you get it right, people will be automatically drawn closer to you. If you get it wrong, though, it can have the opposite effect and actually repel people. Here are some basic guidelines to follow:

  • Don't wear too much. This is the most important thing about smelling good — it can't be too strong, because it's possible to have too much of a good thing. Even roses can smell nauseating if you take a big whiff of concentrated rose oil. Do two or three pumps of cologne maximum and only three pumps of body spray. Your nose will get used to the scent and stop "smelling" it after a few minutes, but other people can still smell you.
  • Find a scent that works with your natural smell. Everyone's body chemistry is slightly different, and as a result not every scent fits every person. There are smells that "work" on some people and start to smell terrible on others. If you can, sample a cologne or body spray before you buy it. Wear it around for a day, and ask a friend to tell you how it smells a few hours later.
  • Try to match up your body wash and your cologne. They don't have to be the same scent, but they should be similar so that they don't produce a clashing smell.
  • Put cologne over pulse points. The parts of your body where large amounts of blood are flowing close to the surface, will be a little bit warmer throughout the day, which will heat up the cologne slightly and make it smell stronger. Common areas include the wrists, throat, and back of the neck.
Wash your face every morning and night. Men naturally have more testosterone than women, which is linked to an increase in pimples and outbreaks. Counteract this by taking care to keep your face clean.
  • Find products that are appropriate for your skin type. Here are the most common kinds:
    • Sensitive/dry skin: If your skin tends to be flaky and dry, or gets red and irritated easily, use an extremely gentle cleanser. Skip toner, and use a light moisturizer.
    • Combination/T-zone skin: If your forehead, nose and chin (or "T-zone") tend to be oily but your cheeks are dry, you have "combination" skin. Most people have this skin type, so look for a cleanser that's marketed for normal or combination skin. Use a gentle toner on your T-zone, and finish up with a moisturizer.
    • Oily skin: If your skin tends to be uniformly oily, find a clay-based or drying cleanser. Use a gentle toner everywhere on your face, and finish with a light moisturizer. If your skin feels oily during the day, pick up some face-blotting tissues from the skin-care section of the drug store and pat them on your skin in the afternoon.
  • If you have acne, use a salicylic acid face wash and put benzoyl peroxide cream on pimples. If this doesn't help, see a dermatologist.
Shave or trim your facial hair. Whether you choose to be bare-faced or have a beard, the key is taking care to groom your facial hair every day.

  • For a clean-shaven look, shave every morning before you leave for work or school. Wet your skin first, and use a sharp razor and shaving cream. Shaving against the grain (that is, in the opposite direction of hair growth, from your jaw to your cheek) provides a closer shave, but results in more irritation. If you struggle with ingrown hairs, try shaving with the grain.
  • Manage your beard, mustache or goatee. Make sure the edges are neat and clean, and trim any hair so that it's uniformly long. When you're cleansing your face, pay special attention to scrubbing the skin beneath any facial hair.
Groom your eyebrows (optional). You don't have to pluck your eyebrows, but it might help you look a little more well-groomed overall. Here are some basic pointers:

  • Find a good pair of tweezers. The two prongs should meet completely — this will make plucking less painful and more efficient.
  • Use the rest of your face as a guideline. Find a pencil and hold it up to the edge of one nostril, so that the pencil crosses your eyebrow. Hair that runs past the pencil and into the "unibrow" zone over your nose should be plucked. Do this for the other side as well.
  • Clean up your arches. If your brows still look a bit bushy after you've plucked out the middle, you can try plucking a bit from beneath your arches. Remember, though, to only pluck beneath your eyebrows — don't pluck the hair above the brow.
Clean and trim your nails. Every two or three days, when you get out of the shower, take a minute to quickly trim up all 20 of your nails and clean out any dirt from beneath them. They'll be softer and easier to manage after you've been in the water for a few minutes. Both your fingernails and toenails should be trimmed short, so there's just a thin line of white above the quick.

Brush and floss your teeth. Combat bad breath and maintain a pearly-white smile by taking good care of your teeth.
  • Update your toothbrush. Your toothbrush should be replaced once every 3 months, or after you've recovered from a cold or other infectious illness. If the bristles are starting to splay out, you need a new one.
  • Floss every night. Not only does flossing get plaque and food out of your mouth, it's also thought to prevent heart disease.
  • Brush your tongue. Your teeth might be sparkling white, but you'll still be saddled with bad breath if your tongue is dirty. Using your toothbrush, make a few light strokes over your tongue whenever you brush. (Don't push too hard, or you'll damage the tissue).
  • Finish with mouthwash. Swish thoroughly for 20 seconds, and spit.


Styling Hair

Have your hair trimmed regularly. Even if you're trying to grow it out, it needs regular cuts to stave off split ends. You can visit a professional stylist, or cut it yourself. Either way, consider these schedules:

  • If you prefer to keep your hair short, aim to have it trimmed every 2 to 3 weeks. Make sure that you or your stylist shaves the hair that grows down the back of your neck.
  • If you're growing out your hair, have the ends trimmed every 4 to 6 weeks. Even if it's going to be covered, take care to shave the hair that grows down the back of your neck.
Wash your hair often. Washing hair every day works for most guys, but you could stretch it to every other day if your hair is particularly dry. Find a shampoo and conditioner that seems to work for your hair type. (If you struggle with having dry hair or split ends, look for a sulfate-free shampoo, without sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate.)


Use hair products (optional)
. You don't have to use product to style your hair, but most people do. It can help your hair look shinier and healthier, as well as providing more hold and control. Here are some common products used to style men's hair:
  • Serums or creams. These can help you tame fly-aways or de-frizz curls without making your hair stiff and immovable.
  • Mousse. Use hair mousse to add volume and shine to your hair, with minimal hold. For best results, apply to wet hair and allow to dry.
  • Pomade, hair wax or hair clay. Use these products to mold your hair in to difficult-to-achieve shapes, such as pompadours or curls (for naturally straight hair). Be aware that it can take several washes to remove these products, so apply them lightly. A pea-sized amount should be plenty if you have short, medium or thin hair. Use pomade or hair wax for a shiny, wet look; use hair clay for a matte, natural tone.
  • Gel. Unlike pomade, gel contains alcohol that dries out hair and makes for a stiffer hold. For the strongest hold, apply gel to wet hair.
  • Hair glue. Ever wonder how some people get their mohawks to stand straight up? They're probably using some variation of hair glue, which provides the strongest possible hold. Be wary of product build-up, and wash hair thoroughly.
Comb your hair into a style that works for you. You might have to experiment a bit to find out what hairstyle best suits your face and your style, but eventually you'll settle into a look that works for you on a daily basis. Consider these options:

  • Part your hair. You can part your hair down the middle, to the side, or not at all. Try it a few different ways and see what you like.
  • Comb your hair in one direction, instead of parting, you can try combing the top of your hair in one way. If it's particularly short, try combing it forward; if its longer, you could comb it back or spike it up. Again, try out some different styles.
  • If you have longer hair, you can try pulling it back in a ponytail, styling it so that it hands in front of your face, or combing back and tying up just the top section.
Deal with balding (optional). If you're balding, it might be best to cut or shave your hair short, so that the difference between the two areas is less noticeable. Be sure to wash your hair right after exercising, as failing to do so is said to accelerate balding, and give yourself a nice scalp massage every time you shower.


Clothing

As they say, the clothes make the man! You don't have to wear expensive items to be attractive, but your clothing can communicate a lot about you. Consider building your wardrobe around these steps.

Wear clothing that fits. You could be wearing the most expensive suit in the world and still look awkward if it's too small or too large on you. Your clothes should fit you as well as possible, which in general means that the bottom of your pants should hit or cover your ankles, long-sleeved shirts should hit or cover your wrists, and the bottom your shirts should hit your hips.

  • Don't try to hide your body. Whether you're embarrassed about being too large or too skinny, trying to cover it up with baggy clothing only makes you look worse. You don't have to wear clothing that's completely form-fitting, but it shouldn't sag or leave too much space.
  • If you can't wear sizes off the rack, find an inexpensive seamstress or tailor. Maybe you have thin hips but long legs, and you can't find a pair of jeans that accommodates both. Buy clothing that's slightly larger than you need, and find someone to take it in so that it fits your measurements. Most dry cleaning businesses will do alterations for a fair price.
  • Throw out or donate clothes that no longer fit. You might love that old T-shirt from high school, but you shouldn't be wearing it if it doesn't fit.
Know how to highlight your best features. Here's a basic rule of getting dressed: light colors highlight, and dark colors obscure. For instance, if you like your shoulders but you're not as fond of your legs, you might try wearing dark-wash jeans and a light-colored T-shirt.

Figure out which colors look good on you. The right color will make your skin look awesome, while the wrong one can make it look washed out and sallow. Here are some basic tests to try:

  • Determine whether you look better in white or off-white. Try holding a stark white shirt up to your face, then an off-white shirt. If you're like most people, you'll look notably better next to one or the other. Once you figure it out, stick to what works.
  • Determine whether you look better in black or brown. This one isn't as clear-cut as white, but some people look notably better in black over brown, and vice versa. When you settle on one, don't mix the colors — for instance, don't wear brown shoes and a brown belt with black dress trousers. Wear black shoes, black pants, and a black belt, or all brown.
  • Try to figure out if you prefer "warm" or "cool" colors. Cool colors are generally based on blues, purples, dark greens, and blue-based reds, while warm colors are based on yellows, oranges, browns, and yellow-based reds. An easy way to figure this out is to find something that's blue-red, and something that's yellow-red, and hold them up to your face. Which one looks better with your skin tone? (If you need more help determining warm and cool colors, search online for a color wheel that demonstrates this.)
Stock your wardrobe with timeless basics. These pieces shouldn't fall out of style too quickly, and they should be made of quality materials that will last a few years. Pick up items such as solid-color polo shirts, solid or plaid button-up shirts, dark blue jeans, plain white and black T-shirts (without advertisements or graphic designs), a solid-color blazer, dark dress trousers, a dark and well-fitting jacket, lace-up dress shoes, and white sneakers. You'll always be able to put together a presentable outfit from these pieces.


Do laundry regularly. Some items of clothing can stand to go through several wears before they're dirty (such as jeans or jackets), but shirts, underwear and socks can only stand one wear before they need to be washed. Set up a regular schedule for doing laundry so that you don't spend the morning scrambling for something clean.


Having an Attractive Presence

Practice good posture. It might seem irrelevant, but standing up straight makes you seem confident and in control, which people do find attractive. Keep your shoulders squared, your spine straight, and try to center your hips over your feet. Walk with confidence and don't drag your feet or shuffle. Also don't stare at the ground.


Smile
. Offering someone a genuine smile is one of the easiest things you can do to seem instantly appealing. Practice smiling often, and try to get into a frame of mind where your grin is easy to trigger.
  • Develop a warm sense of humor. Find joy and laughter in the ridiculous aspects of life, and don't be afraid to point this out to other people. Try to keep your jokes free of references to bodily functions, sex acts, or disparaging other groups of people.
Make eye contact. When you're talking to someone (especially someone you like), demonstrate that you're interested and paying attention by making consistent eye contact.

  • Use eye contact to flirt. Throw several glances at someone sitting near you or across the room until he or she catches you. Maintain eye contact for a second, smile and look away.
Be a gentleman. You don't have to be a stuffed shirt to show basic care and consideration for other people. Say "please," "thank you," and "excuse me," and show courtesy by holding doors open for people walking behind you.

  • Be respectful of other people. Don't tear down other people's beliefs, and don't be unnecessarily rude to them. If someone tries to start a confrontation with you, walk away calmly — this illustrates that you won't sink to the other person's level.
  • Don't swear or make crude comments in public. It's fine to let your hair down a little bit around your guy friends or your family, but avoid talking this way around people you don't know well.
Know how to carry a conversation. Being a competent conversationalist can help people feel more at-ease and relaxed around you. Know how to casually inquire about how someone is doing, and let that lead into other topics of conversation. Ask open-ended questions (for example, instead of saying "Do you have any plans this weekend?", which can be answered with a simple yes or no, ask "What are you up to this weekend?"), and stay away from contentious topics such as politics and religion.
  • To sharpen your conversational skills, try striking up a chat with a stranger next time you're waiting around in public, such as at a bus stop or in line at the grocery store. If you can get a genuine smile and a few lines of conversation out of the other person, you're doing well.
Speak clearly and carefully. When you talk to other people, try not to mumble or rush your words. Form full sentences, and avoid opening your mouth before you've really thought about what you're going to say — it will save you a lot of potential embarrassment.


Taking Care of Your Body

Eat well. Sticking to a healthy diet can help you avoid bad breath and pungent body odor, as well as keeping you healthy and trim. Try incorporating some of these guidelines into your diet:
  • Avoid junk food and items that are high in sugar. These treats are fine every once in a while, but they shouldn't be an everyday thing. Try to limit modest amounts of soda, beer, candy bars, potato chips and other junky items to one "cheat" day per week.
  • Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. You've heard it a hundred times, but eating plenty of raw fruits and vegetables is vital to a healthy diet. Consider trying to eat fresh fruit (such as apples, oranges and pears) as a snack, and try to eat at least one vegetable at both lunch and dinner.
  • Learn to prepare food. Start with simple things - boil eggs, make sandwiches and salads, cook burgers and steaks, heat frozen veggies, boil rice & pasta. It will save you money, improve your health and impress people!
Stay hydrated. Your body needs a lot of water to function throughout the day, so aim to get 8 full 8-oz. glasses of water every day. If you think water is too boring to drink, try club soda with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

  • You should be drinking enough water that your urine is almost always clear (except for first thing in the morning). If it's not clear, drink more.
Exercise. Consistent physical activity can not only help your body look more attractive, but it also lifts your mood and keeps you from getting sick as often. Set up a plan that works for you, and stick to it. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
  • Do basic stretches, sit-ups, push-ups, and other exercises every other day. Stay consistent with the number of repetitions. Then, as your muscles improve, increase the number of repetitions you do and you will see results.
  • Try different weight lifting plans. Try to do as much as you can, but don't over extend yourself, and give your muscles rest days to heal and build muscle. Working out every day may actually be bad for you! However, don't be afraid about becoming way too buff. Body-builders in magazines look that huge because lifting weights is the only thing they do for a living. It won't happen to you.
    • The primary core lifts are Bench Press, Squat, Military Press, Deadlift, and Curls. If you need more chest work, consider doing Incline Press. If you would rather do more explosive workouts, consider Power Clean, Push-press. If this still isn't enough, consider doing bar snatch, workouts w/jerk, hang clean w/front squat, or other dumbbell lifts. If you have a membership, great, use the bar primarily, and use machines such as lat pull downs to supplement.
  • Walk, jog, ride your bicycle, or run for 30 minutes or for a mile or two as well (if you ride a bike, run, jog, or walk to school or work, then you can get well-exercised just walking, jogging, running, or riding your bike; this works on your stomach, legs, and back). It will help your body system to be more flexible and more upcoming to objectives.
  • Consider morning exercise. It can bring out your skin and make it look nicer throughout the day. Just make sure to take a shower after as well. Sometimes as you work out through-out the day you sweat. All that sweat would not smell nice. Taking a shower after a period of sweating to get fully clean would stop the odor.



Source: www.wikihow.com

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Exercises to Get Bubble Butts



You want strong glutes for several reasons. Your glutes protect your lower back, providing power for many of your daily activities. However, many men also want strong glutes to improve overall appearance, causing people to their heads after you walk past, just to get a glimpse of a butt that looks great in your favorite jeans. Really strong glutes and a nice butt are a package deal. The glutes are big muscles that can handle a lot of stress, and to make them grow, you're going to have to lift heavy, too.

Some of these exercises, such as deadlifts and squats, are difficult and serious lifts. If you do them wrong, it's very easy to hurt yourself. Start light and concentrate on form. Have someone experienced help you at first, and watch yourself in a mirror. If you have back problems, you may not be able to perform them at all.

Deadlift

Serious arguments happen over whether the deadlift or the squat is the king of lifts, but the deadlift is definitely the best exercise for building your glutes. Deadlifts also engage more muscles than any other single-movement lift, which is why it's one of the best indicators of overall strength, and one of the big three lifts in powerlifting. Both the traditional and sumo stance are legal in powerlifting. Sumo takes some of the strain from the lower back and puts it in your glutes and hamstrings, so although you should do whichever style you're comfortable with, give sumo stance a try.

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

Once you get strong, you'll find that it's very difficult to perform a lot of big exercises on the same day. You might not be able to perform leg press and deadlifts during the same workout, because each requires so much energy. Stiff-legged deadlifts isolate the glutes more than the traditional deadlift, so you'll use much less weight. This makes stiff-legged deadlifts excellent for warming up before or burning out after bigger lifts. To perform a stiff-legged deadlift, stand with a barbell hanging from your arms before your thighs. Keep a slight bend in your knees for balance, and maintain the same bend throughout the exercise. Lean forward, going as low as you can without rounding your back forward. Stand back up. Perform sets of eight to 12.

One-Legged Deadlifts

To target your hamstrings, butt and lower back, perform the one-legged deadlift up to 12 times. This exercise also strengthens your stabilizer muscles. Hold one dumbbell in both hands, using a weight with which you can comfortably complete 12 deadlifts. Stand up, take your left leg back behind you about a foot and rest on your toes. With the dumbbell in front of your right thigh, hinge from your hips and lower the weight as low as your flexibility allows. Keep your abdominal muscles contracted with your back flat or a natural arch. Contract your buttocks and rise back up. Repeat with the right leg.

Squats

For exercises that build up the glutes, squats come in second. Still, squatting down with all that weight across your shoulders and then standing back up will pack muscle on your legs and butt in no time. Besides the fact that they utilize the glutes heavily, both squat and deadlifts allow you to move big weight. A study by Dr. William Kraemer in the February 1998 "European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology" states that "Heavy resistance exercise (HRE) has been shown to be a potent stimulus for acute increases in circulating hormones in younger men." The bodybuilding range of 8 to 12 heavy squats will put much more muscle on your butt than a hundred bodyweight squats.

Leg Press

The leg press lets you move a lot of weight by taking your lower back out of the equation. Load the machine up and grind out some reps, and don't stop until you have to. Without having to worry about your lower back, you'll find that you can perform reps well after your muscles begin to burn with lactic acid. Stay safe, but push yourself. This is a great way to build strong glutes and quads if you have back problems. A tip to avoid back pain is to only lower the weight to just before the point where your lower back rolls off the seat. Don't worry about trying to touch your knees to your chest.

Step Ups

Step ups are a great exercise that almost everyone overlooks. Holding dumbbells in your hand, step up onto a bench or box of a height that puts your knee at a bit less than a 90-degree angle. Step down; repeat. This is the lift that led to Eastern Europe's domination of Olympic lifting. They abandoned the squat and replaced it with step ups. One benefit of the step up is that you can start doing this exercise at home with minimal equipment. Another is that it puts very little strain on your back, because it requires only about a third of the weight of squatting, and with proper form your shoulders should stay almost over your hips.

Hip Extensions

Position yourself on your elbows and knees, with your elbows directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Place your forearms with your palms face down on the floor and look down at the floor. Keeping a flat back, raise your left knee so that it is in line with your hip and form a 90-degree angle with your knee. Your foot should be flat and facing up toward the ceiling. Squeeze your buttocks and raise your foot toward the ceiling a few inches and back down so that your knee is in line with your hip. Repeat up to 12 times. To make this exercise more challenging, place a dumbbell behind your knee or use an ankle weight.
You won't get a big butt by doing lots of bodyweight squats and lunges. The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body and also one of the strongest. The glutes will grow quickly if given enough reason to, and the best way to accomplish that is very heavy exercise. Perform the right exercises strictly, consistently, carefully and with maximum effort and you'll quickly see progress.

Lunges

Lunges aren't a very heavy exercise, but because they primarily work one leg at a time, they can be very effective. "Strength Training Anatomy" explains that you can target the gluteus maximus by stepping out with a larger-than-usual step. To perform lunges, stand with your feet together, holding dumbbells at your sides. Step forward, kneeling down until your forward thigh is parallel to the ground, but not allowing your rear knee to touch the ground. Press with your forward leg and either step forward with your rear leg, or step back with your forward leg. Do the same with your other leg. Perform sets of eight to 12 reps per leg.



Source: http://www.livestrong.com