iTrainer Blog - Fitness Advice, Personal Training, Weight Loss, MP3 Fitness - The MP3 Personal Trainer on Your iPod - Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Unfortunately, spending time sitting in a chair and hunched over a computer is no way to keep yourself in shape. The same goes for an office. Here’s a few discreet ways around this problem which faces lots an’ lots of us daily. They’re quiet and will have a very small impact on your time at work.

1) Push-ups: Pushups are one of the best ways to strengthen your chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen and lower back. That’s half of your body. I’ve been told many times that if you only have time to do one thing and you want a workout, then do push-ups.
- Lie face down.
- Place your hands on either side of your shoulders, with your thumbs at the middle of your chest with you feet about shoulder width apart.
- Push yourself up off of the floor. Pause for a moment at the top and then exhale as you lower your body back down.
- Bring your chest about two inches from the floor, not all the way back down.
- Repeat.

2) Stretch: The benefits of a good stretch are many. It can improv your posture and help promote muscle symmetry. Basically, if you sit slumped in an office chair all day working at a computer you can significantly add to the natural slumping fo the shoulders that occurs with age. This is just one example of many, but you get the idea. Stretching also feels good and promotes a short term increase in circulation and alertness simpley because you are moving. There’s a great primer here on how to stretch effectively and safely in your cube or office.

3) Drink Some Water: Try and always have water near you to drink. Most people don’t know what they’re missing because they walk around dehydrated all the time and they become normalized to operating in this condition. If you’re hydrated you can think clearer, your skin will look and feel better and your mood will generally improve. Skip the soda machine and bring a water bottle to work.

4) Sit on an Exercise Ball Instead of a Chair: This will look silly, but it will also provide your core with a great “passive” sort of workout throughout the day. You see, lots of little muscles we rarely use will get used in order to keep you balanced while you work. It’s not even something you’d notice if you weren’t looking for it, but it’s there. Improved core strength is great for many reasons. It improves your balance as well as helps protect all your important bits in your torso when you’re doing strenuous activities like playing a sport.

5) Sit-ups: Oh, man doing sit-ups sucks. The reason it sucks is because you’re working a part of your body that rarely gets attention. Doing Sit-ups will help strengthen your abs which can ease back pain. Having nice abs or maybe, just not having that beer gut, can go a long way to help getting you laid as well. (And the health bennies of that are numerous.)

Womens Fitness Home

Here are the cold, hard facts – whether we like them or not. The findings of 47 separate clinical weight loss research studies involving more than 14,700 people boil down to these 12 statements:

1. The reason we are overweight has virtually nothing to do with diet or exercise, and everything to do with our own unconscious motivations – which are created by our own unique beliefs and attitudes.

2. You are, by definition, not aware of your unconscious motivations. But even so, they greatly influence everything you do, and are much more powerful than your unconscious motivations.

3. So everything in your life that's working (and everything that isn't) has its origins in your own unconscious mind. This is not theory. It has been known and accepted for more than 100 years.

4. What does this mean to you in terms of weight loss? It means that no matter how strong your conscious desire to be fit and healthy may be, if this desire isn't supported by your own unconscious beliefs and attitudes, you are destined to struggle and fail.

5. Trying to overpower your own unconscious motivations with your conscious desires is called "will power." Will power is not only ineffective, it's actually counterproductive. Here's why.

6. Trying to overpower your own unconscious motivations with your conscious desires puts you into a battle against your own deepest motivations. It's like declaring war on yourself.

7. And as you may already have discovered, it's a war you can't win. It's like having your own personal Vietnam conflict going on inside you.

8. So if you have a history of struggling and failing at weight loss, you can be sure that you have some beliefs and attitudes that are silently, invisibly, and powerfully sabotaging your success.

9. Unfortunately, as long as your self-sabotaging beliefs and attitudes remain intact and unchanged, there is no way you can achieve lasting weight loss success – or perhaps any success at all.

10. Obviously, since the root cause of your weight problem is not physical, no amount of trying to lose weight through physical means such as diet, exercise, or even surgery will bring you success.

11. Instead, your constant inner war will only create more stress, struggle, and failure until your unconscious and conscious beliefs are both aligned toward success. No other outcome is possible.

12. Bottom Line: If your present self-sabotaging but unconscious beliefs and attitudes remain unchanged, your chances of enjoying real and lasting weight loss success are essentially zero.

We may not like it, but this is the reality we need to know about and deal with. If you've every wondered why your past weight loss efforts failed, or why it all felt like such a struggle, now you know.

You can try every diet plan on the planet, count carbs and calories until your eyes are bloodshot, and buy every ab flattener and butt trimmer on the planet.

But if you don't do something about fixing your own self-sabotaging beliefs and attitudes, your future will be just endless reruns of your past.

I would much rather my clients know the truth – whether they like it or not – because life is simply too short to waste precious time doing things than can't possibly get you where you want to be.

Wouldn't your time be much better invested in doing what actually works, even is it means learning a new skill or two?

I certainly think so. And you know what? So do my success stories!

Personal Trainer Home.

FISH oil can help people to lose weight without dieting, according to new research.

Scientists said that fish oil containing Omega 3 fatty acids, plus a little exercise, helped overweight people to shed pounds - even if their diet remained unchanged.

Researcher Alison Hill said: "We were very surprised to see it was so effective, especially since these people were still eating whatever they wanted."

The Australian team fed daily fish-oil doses to obese people and told them to take moderate exercise.

Another group was given sunflower oil and told to take the same 45-minute walk or run three times a week. Other test subjects received either fish oil or sunflower oil, but took no exercise.

The study found that those who took the doses of fish oil and exercised lost an average of 2kg (4.5lb) over a three- month period. The other groups, including the one which took sunflower oil, which does not contain Omega 3, lost no weight.

Ms Hill said: "The Omega 3 increases fat-burning ability by improving the flow of blood to muscles."

Source: The Scotsman

Do you have trouble getting a good night's sleep?

What you are about to read may make a huge difference to your future health! Being well rested is essential to our wellbeing and is a major key in living an energetic lifestyle. Here are some of the benefits of a good night's sleep: You will look and feel your best; Relating to others will come easier with enough rest. You'll be a safer driver and be less likely to fall asleep at the wheel.; More alertness on the job will be a major benefit.; You'll feel less stressed.; There'll be an increased ability to fight off illness.; You'll enjoy life more.

Here are some keys to getting a better night's sleep:

1. Set your body clock.

Choose a bedtime schedule by deciding how many hours of shut-eye you need and try to stick with it. That's because we are all creatures of habit.

Try not to oversleep too often because this tends to throw your body clock off. If you are tired, try taking a short nap. However, it should not be longer than about one half an hour because more time than that and you will wind up not being able to fall asleep that night.

2. Be wise about eating and drinking.

Drinking too much fluid in the late afternoon and evening can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night to trot off to the bathroom. Also consuming food and beverages that contain caffeine before bedtime can cause you to toss and turn for hours. So it would be wise to avoid coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate before going to bed. However, a hot non-caffeinated drink can relax you.

3. Prepare your sleeping environment.

You have control over a number of factors in your sleeping environment that will make or break a good night's sleep.

One of them is the temperature of your bedroom. Adjust the temperature of your bedroom so it's conducive to sleeping. It's usually best to have your room a little on the cool side, but be sure you have enough blankets on your bed.

Another environmental issue is the darkness of our bedrooms. Many people prefer sleeping when it's totally dark, so turn off the lights except for night lights.

A key bedroom environment factor is your bed. Purchase the best mattress you can afford since you'll spend a good proportion of your life on it.

Quietness is very important to our rest. Try to keep the noise down. If that's impossible, consider using ear plugs. Play calming music and avoid watching television just before bedtime. Violent scenes can lead to sleeplessness and violent dreams!

Design your bedroom to be a peaceful sanctuary in your home. Separate your work from the bedroom area so your body knows the bedroom is a place to rest - not work.

4. Prepare yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually for bedtime.

There are a number of steps you can take before going to bed to prepare yourself physically. Slowly stretching before hitting the sack can help you relax. Regular exercise during the day will enhance your ability to fall asleep. Taking a warm bath - not a shower - can be helpful too. If you are still tense, a back massage can help you relax. Wear comfortable nonbinding clothing.

Here's the most important thing you can do once you've hit the sack - let go of the day's worries. Bedtime is a bad time to dwell on problems since worry can keep you tossing and turning for hours! I've found that reading the Bible and praying before going to bed is a wonderful way to end the day. Then I can truly relax and lay down my problems. My sleep is much sweeter and so are my dreams!

5. Seek specialized help if needed.

A medical condition could be preventing you from getting your full rest at night. See your doctor if you have continuing difficulty with falling asleep. Usually it's not wise to take sleeping pills since they can become addictive. They also interfere with the body's own inner sleeping rhythm.

Here are three organizations that offer specialized help:

National Sleep Foundation

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine

National Center on Sleep Disorders Research

The suggestions in this article have been listed to help you get a better night's sleep. Now try putting them into practice and enjoy a more rested and energetic lifestyle.

Your Personal Trainer home.

Many people, including yours truly, often lack the motivation to get off the couch.  How many times have you put on your workout clothes, sat down to tie your shoes, then suddenly said to yourself, “the producers of The Bachelor are counting on me to watch”    Oh, ok I guess I’m the only one J . We mean well, we just lack that extra push, not only to get you to the gym, but to push you through a challenging, productive workout.  My suggestion to you is to find motivation in music. Music can be one of the most powerful means of stirring up emotion, all types of emotions.  Music enables the body to release these emotions which we can translate into energy. Even if it is short term energy, it might just drive that extra rep on the bench press or that extra 10 minutes on that elliptical machine.  Find music that moves you. Preferably music that reminds you of a great accomplishment, a great scene from a movie, or anything that gets your heart pumping and your blood flowing. Put together a play list, maybe even a few play lists, designed for different types of workouts.  If you’re not sure which songs to use, leave a pad and pencil in the car.  The next time you find yourself playing the air guitar and singing like a first round American Idol contestant, write it down. Its probably a good song to add to your play list.  Please wait till you stop driving, to write it down, you’re scaring me. You know who you are.  :) 

You don’t need to spend your hard earned cash on the latest mp3 player, a simple walkman or portable cd player will do. Yes, I said walkman…. For those who aren’t sure about costs, a basic mp3 player holds about 40 songs and costs about $80, a portable cd player costs around 25-50$. 

A few things to remember, change your play list of songs every once in a while. If you listen to those songs too often, it may diminish the moving effect it has on you.  Also, you can repeat the best song during the most intense part of your workout. Sometimes I will listen to it at both the start and finish of my workout. Listening to music will also keep you focused on the task at hand and block out most distractions at the gym, including those cheesy pick up lines by the water fountain.  Do not play your music too loud, it is not the volume that moves you, it’s the music.  One last thing to remember people tend to talk louder than they realize when they are wearing headphones… Try not to sing out loud in the gym, just because you love “Eye of the Tiger” doesn’t mean everyone else wants to hear your rendition. All jokes aside, get started on your play list today, it works!

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Are you happy with your body?  Do you feel good about yourself?  Do you wish you had more energy?

These are great questions you should be asking yourself.  I’ve been a personal fitness professional for over 7 years now and the one thing that I hear the most from women is, “Between work and my family I just can’t find time.”  Unfortunately, women often put everyone in their lives first and don’t leave enough time for them selves.  This can often times be very damaging to a woman both mentally and physically.

When you’re not feeling great it makes very hard for you to give 100% to your family or work.  One thing to remember is the better you feel, the better you will do at work, at home, and in all of your relationships.  Everything in your life improves when you feel better about yourself.

My wife and I have 4 children and another one on the way and we both know how hard it can be.  The good news is it can be done, and it takes less time then most people think.

Many people feel they need to exercise 4-5 times a week to meet their health and fitness goals.  Well, guess what… you can burn off excess body fat, increase energy levels, and start feeling great with just 2-3 workouts a week, lasting only 20-30 minutes!

The keys to being successful with fitness are:

Having a well thought out and detailed plan
  
Making time for you and being consistent

If you fail to plan you plan to fail!

I’m sure many of you have heard that saying before.  Well, it applies to everything in life… including exercise.  If you want to be successful you need to map out a plan that includes steps or strategies that will take you closer and closer to your goals.

When it comes to goal setting and planning it is very important that you be specific.  The more specific your goals and planning the easier it is to monitor your progress and make adjustments to your plan if necessary.

When it comes to making time for fitness, what I’ve found to be the most effective is actually scheduling your self an exercise appointment.  Pull out your calendar right now and block out at least 1 or 2 times a week when you can spend 20-30 minutes exercising.  Take this appointment very seriously… just like you would any other.

One of the main reasons having a personal fitness trainer is so effective is because it keeps you accountable.  It’s a lot harder to skip an exercise appointment with a trainer because you’re paying for that time and because you would most likely feel like your letting them down.

Having a qualified personal fitness trainer can be the difference between exercising for months and seeing no progress and being able to see progress in a matter of weeks… maybe even days!


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 Do you want a flat stomach?  I don't know a person who doesn't!

People spend millions, if not billions of dollars, each year in the quest for a flat stomach.  Right now there are about 200 or more ab exercise devices out there.  There's the ab do-it, the ab rock-it, the ab roller, the ab dolly, fast abs, 8 minute abs, and so many more.

You would think that with all of these amazing new products that most people would be walking around with that nice, lean mid-section they've always wanted.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Most, if not all of these products, will do little or nothing to flatten your stomach.  And that's because these exercise contraptions cannot eliminate the layer of fat that lies on top of your abs.

In order to be successful at thinning your waistline you must have a basic under standing of how the ab muscles function and how your body burns fat.  The first thing that needs to be understood is the difference between fat and muscle.  Fat is excess calories and is primarily stored in layers on top of muscle tissue.  Muscle is made up of fibers that contract or shorten to produce movement.  Fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat!  However, you can lose muscle and you can gain fat.  That's what happens to most people.

So if your goal is to thin your waist line and have a nice flat stomach, the first thing you need to do is decrease / eliminate the layers of fat that are on top of your abs. We all have a flat stomach; it's just some of oar’s are covered by excess fat.

The most effective way of flattening your stomach is a combination of strength training (with a extra focus on mid-section), cardiovascular exercise (short, hard workouts), and stable blood sugar (keeps you from adding additional fat and makes it easier for the body to use body fat for fuel).

I should also mention that a flat stomach not only looks good but it also prevents muscle imbalances between the hips and abs which cause more than 80% of all lower back pain! So remember, a strong flat stomach means a strong, healthy lower back!

1. You must do some form of progressive strength training

The primary function of the abdominal muscle is to flex your torso forward.  However, there are also muscles that flex your torso to the side and muscles that rotate your torso.  Often times you see people on their ab roller every day doing hundreds of crunches or sit-ups.

If you want to effectively strengthen your stomach you need to incorporate the following types of exercises:

•1-2 forward flexion exercises (reverse crunch, knee raises, crunch, sit-up, etc.)

•1-2 side flexion exercises (side bends, side crunches, etc.)

•1-2 rotational exercises (trunk rotations, standing twists, etc.)

Choose at least 1-2 exercises that target the lower abs , 1-2 for the obliques (love handles), and 1-2 for the upper abs. There are thousands of ab exercises to choose from - way too many for me to list here, however, I will give you a list of some of the better ones.

Great Ab Exercises

      Reverse crunch

      Hanging knee raise

      Torso rotation (twist)

      Leg lowering

      Side bends

      Total crunch

      Exercise ball crunches

Again, there are tons of choices... just make sure you work them hard and progressively!

The abs, are muscles just like any other and should be worked at most 3 times per week.  You also want to make sure you are training them progressively, working them harder each time.

2. Use short, hard cardio workouts to increase metabolism

Cardio workouts are important because they CAN, if done correctly, increase your metabolism for 4-24 hours or more!  This means you are less likely to store any excess calories as body fat because they are more likely to be used by your elevated metabolism.  Plus, you are more likely to burn off some excess body fat.

Below is a sample interval workout that can be done with just about any activity (walking, bicycling, swimming, stair climbing, etc.).

Warm up at easy pace 2-5 minutes... Perform 30 seconds of hard work (almost as hard as possible)... perform 1 minute of moderate work (recovery time-catch breath)... Repeat this process 6-10 times... Cool down at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes

3. Stable blood sugar is the key

And most importantly, you must stabilize your blood sugar!  This is by far the most important factor when it comes to burning away that excess body fat and keeping it off!  To effectively stabilize your blood sugar you must feed your body frequently; like every 2-3 hours.  The key is to give your body only what it needs at that time.  Your body burns calories 24 hours a day, so, why would you only feed it once or twice a day?  Give your body the fuel it needs: vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, whole grains, and lean proteins (chicken, fish, lean beef, eggs, etc.).

Many people are too hung up on how much fat is in food, or how healthy of a choice it is.  Calories are calories and it doesn’t matter where they come from.  If there’s extra… where’s it going?  Yup, you guessed it… body fat!

This is not to say that what you eat is not important because it is, it just doesn’t have that much of an affect when it comes to fat loss.  Try to make healthy choices whenever possible, but don’t feel like if you eat a cheeseburger it is guaranteed to be stored as fat

4. Get the help of a professional

Unfortunately, most people don’t know enough about the human body, nutrition, or effective exercise to meet their health and fitness goals.  Ask yourself this one question, “Am I happy with my current progress or condition?”  If you’re not, you should consider getting the help of a qualified personal fitness professional.  Don’t depend on the information you get from magazines or from your local gym/ health club.  A qualified fitness professional can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, and in less time than you would imagine.

If you are serious about your health and fitness goals, and you are ready for that flat stomach, I recommend you start implementing the 4 strategies listed in this article.  

These 4 strategies can help you take control of your metabolism and burn off that excess body fat and having you looking and feeling great!

Be sure to check out my friend David's new ebook below on ab training - it's a great resource and it's full of dozens of ab exercises that not only work but are far more effective than traditional exercises.


Your Personal Trainer home

Unfortunately, many people are misinformed and are also misled by the many promises of the weight loss industry.  Everywhere you look, you see or hear of people promising “Dramatic Weight Loss” with products such as “The Fat Trapper”, or “Exercise in a Bottle”.

Then you also have the hundreds of diets out there such as “The Zone”, “Sugar Busters” or “The Atkins Diet”.   I’m sure you have heard of many of these yourself.  You might have even tried some of them.  Unfortunately, these products and diets are not the quick fix, or the miracles they are portrayed as.  They are also usually very dangerous.

Below are some common misconceptions among people with regard to exercise and nutrition.

1.    You need to exercise to burn fat.

The truth is you don’t gain body fat because of a lack of exercise.  You gain it because your blood sugar levels exceed what you are using.  Basically, you are eating too many calories at one time.

2.    Your metabolism slows down once you hit 30.

WRONG!  Actually, hundreds of research studies have shown that the slow down in metabolism is due to a loss of muscle tissue.  And the loss of muscle tissue is directly related to a lack of hard physical activity!

3.  Pasta and bread are fattening.

Anything is fattening!  Lettuce can be stored as fat!  Any food or drink, which contains calories, can be stored as body fat if it causes your blood sugar levels to exceed what the body needs at that time.  Bread and pasta are actually great sources of complex carbohydrate!  The key is how much you eat and when you eat it.

4.  Eating after 7pm will make you fat.

Absolutely false!  It all depends on whether or not the body needs that amount of calories at that time.  Keep in mind your body is constantly burning calories, 24 hours per day, just the amount varies.

5.  Strength training will make you bulk up.  

Another NO!  It seems as if mostly women are concerned with this one.  Muscle size is primarily affected by genetics and hormone production; therefore, most women don’t have the potential to build very large muscles.

Muscle burns calories, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn which makes easier to burn fat and harder to gain it!

By no means is this a complete list!  There are so many I could write a whole book just about them.  The key is in education, but not by reading fitness magazines!

Your Personal Trainer home

Spring is here and summer is right around the corner and I know that if you are like most people, you are thinking about what you can do to get in shape quickly for that beach weather.

Are you going to be beach ready? You will after you read this article...

Tip # 1  - STOP storing new body fat!

It amazes me how many people start an exercise program to lose weight yet end up just packing on some more new fat later that day or the next. So the number one goal should be to first stop storing new body fat. You can do this very easily by eating small, balanced meals or snacks every two to three hours. There are multiple reasons why frequent feedings not only boost metabolism but also prevent storing new fat. Here are just a few:  

Frequent eating conditions the body to use fat for energy because the body used to getting fuel and doesn't need to or tend to store is much fat. Part of it is because it doesn't worry about when the next feeding will be. I’m sure you’ve probably heard of the starvation mechanism and know what it is - basically the longer you go between feedings to worse it is as your body slows down the rate at which it is burning fuel to conserve energy.  The body is then more likely to hold onto the food as body fat just in case it has to go another long extended period of time without food.

By eating smaller and more frequent meals/snacks you lessen the likely hood of providing too many calories at one time and therefore make it much less likely that you’ll store any new fat.

Tip # 2 – short mini-workouts

I know you’re busy as most people are and you don’t have time for marathon-style workout sessions 3 to five times a week.  Most people don't need to exercise that much or that often and nor do you.

Short bouts of exercise are as effective and sometimes even more effective if done progressively than traditional exercise routines. The reason is that these short mini-workouts can be done daily (even multiple times per day) and this gives your metabolism a boost more frequently.

Just 10 to 15 minutes of moderate to high-intensity cardiovascular or aerobic exercise every day will increase blood flow and circulation, burn some extra calories, and most importantly give you that little boost.

Another reason is short mini-workouts are more convenient and practical for most people. Even if you have no equipment at home you can still get that all so important boost in metabolism. Here are just a few ideas:

1. run upstairs and walk back down run – repeat that for five or so minutes and you'll be exhausted. Plus, you'll totally elevate your metabolism and increase blood flow and circulation and have you feeling great!

2. perform 10 minutes of calisthenics (jumping jacks, kick butts, high knees, jog in place, mountain climbers, etc)

3. take a quick 10 minute power walk. Walk nearly as fast as you can and over time try to increase your distance and/or speed

Mini-workouts can work extremely well so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Tip # 3 – Stay hydrated!

Fat metabolism IS affected by how well hydrated your body is. People totally underestimate the effective that water has when it comes a fat loss and also on overall health. Over 70 percent of the processes that the place your body take place in water and things like organs can’t function optimally without enough water.

There’s still a debate on how much you need and I don’t think anyone will ever know for sure but to play it safe I would recommend you strive to drink at least 4 cups or more each day – and NO, tea and juice don’t count. Yes, they have water but they also often have sugar and other ingredients that actually limit the amount that is absorbed and used.

Tip # 4 – Exercise MUST be Progressive!

Training progressively with strength training is probably one of the most important forms of exercise you can do. Plus, this principle applies to all forms of exercise and fitness. So when you're talking about reshaping the body, boosting metabolism, and burning off that excess body fat, you have to ensure that nearly all of your workouts are progressive in nature.

Give the body a reason to change! Just because you go to the gym and do strength training a few times a week doesn’t mean anything – you have to provide a stimulus or reason for the body to make improvements.
The number of sets and reps doesn't matter, what matters is that the muscles and systems are subjected to a greater than stress than what the muscles are used to. Here are some general guidelines: one to three sets per exercise, as many reps as possible in good form on each set, perform slow controlled reps to maximize muscle involvement, change exercises frequently, etc.

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Flexibility is a joint's ability to move through a full range of motion. Flexibility training (stretching) helps balance muscle groups that might be overused during exercise or physical activity or as a result of bad posture. It's important to clearly understand the many benefits that result from a good flexibility program.

Improved Physical Performance and Decreased Risk of Injury
First, a safe and effective flexibility training program increases physical performance. A flexible joint has the ability to move through a greater range of motion and requires less energy to do so, while greatly decreasing your risk of injury. Most professionals agree that stretching decreases resistance in tissue structures; you are, therefore, less likely to become injured by exceeding tissue extensibility (maximum range of tissues) during activity.

Reduced Muscle Soreness and Improved Posture
Recent studies show that slow, static stretching helps reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Static stretching involves a slow, gradual and controlled elongation of the muscle through the full range of motion and held for 15-30 seconds in the furthest comfortable position (without pain). Stretching also improves muscular balance and posture. Many people's soft-tissue structures has adapted poorly to either the effects of gravity or poor postural habits. Stretching can help realign soft tissue structures, thus reducing the effort it takes to achieve and maintain good posture in the activities of daily living.

Reduced Risk of Low Back Pain
A key benefit, and one I wish more people would realize, is that stretching reduces the risk of low back pain. Stretching promotes muscular relaxation. A muscle in constant contraction requires more energy to accomplish activities. Flexibility in the hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, and other muscles attaching to the pelvis reduces stress to the low back. Stretching causes muscular relaxation, which encourages healthy nutrition directly to muscles; the resulting reduction in accumulated toxins reduces the potential for muscle shortening or tightening and thus reduces fatigue.

Increased Blood and Nutrients to Tissues
Another great benefit is that stretching increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures. Stretching increases tissue temperature, which in turn increases circulation and nutrient transport. This allows greater elasticity of surrounding tissues and increases performance. Stretching also increases joint synovial fluid, which is a lubricating fluid that promotes the transport of more nutrients to the joints' atricular cartilage. This allows a greater range of motion and reduces joint degeneration.

Improved Muscle Coordination
Another little-known benefit is increased neuromuscular coordination. Studies show that nerve-impulse velocity (the time it takes an impulse to travel to the brain and back) is improved with stretching. This helps opposing muscle groups work in a more synergistic, coordinated fashion.

Enhanced Enjoyment of Physical Activities
Flexibility training also means enhanced enjoyment, and a fitness program should be fun if you want to stick with it. Not only does stretching decrease muscle soreness and increase performance, it also helps relax both mind and body and brings a heightened sense of well-being and personal gratification during exercise.

As you can see, flexibility training is one of the key components of a balanced fitness program and should be a part of your exercise routine. Without flexibility training, you are missing an important part of overall health. Flexibility training provides many important benefits that cannot be achieved by any other exercise or activity. Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the wonderful benefits of an effective flexibility training program.

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Weight loss is a billion-dollar industry because everyone is looking for the quick fix when it comes to losing weight. The problem is losing weight takes time, unless of course you go on The Atkins Diet and lose a lot of muscle and water! Everyone wants to burn body fat yet few people understand how the human body uses fat for fuel! Stored body fat is the last thing your body will use as fuel. The whole reason we store extra calories (that can come from anything) is to have a back up or reserve. The only way body fat can be effectively used as fuel Is If blood sugar is stable, and the body is using more fuel than is being supplied!

This is what keeps most people from burning fat.

often have people tell me " I run all the time", or " I hardly eat anything, but I'm still not losing fat." The reason is because they have unstable blood sugar, and/or they exercise at the same level of intensity all the time (usually a moderate level). Remember that the two most important factors when it comes to burning fat are stable blood sugar and lack of hard physical activity. Let's look at these two factors more closely. Blood sugar levels are directly affected by meal frequency and food choices. Eating small, balanced meals/snacks every 2-3 hours is one way to help stabilize blood sugar. Small frequent feedings (provided they contain only enough calories necessary for the level of activity at that time) force your body to adapt or get used to having food, which will keep blood sugar fairly stable. This makes it less likely for your meals to be stored as fat.

What you eat also plays a big part in blood sugar. For example, juice increases blood sugar quickly forcing it to skyrocket as opposed to vegetables, which burn at a much slower rate. Avoid foods containing large amounts of sugar such as soda, juice, candy, ice cream, table sugar, and other refined foods. Focus on whole grains, vegetables/fruits, lean proteins, and un-saturated fats (for more info on nutrition see my Healthy Eating Guidelines Packet).

Unstable blood sugar is something that can do serious damage to your body in addition to increasing body fat levels, such as hormonal discrepancies and Type II Diabetes. Most people are totally unaware as to what blood sugar is or what it does in your body.

Activity level is the other major factor, which prevents a lot of people from making any progress! Most people are misinformed and still think they need to sweat to burn fat. This is totally not the case! I have had great success with clients losing fat with out even going to the gym! Again, all that is necessary is that blood sugar is stable and that the individual is burning more calories than they are supplying. So what does that mean? Eat small, balanced meals or snacks every 2.3 hours, increase muscle tissue with progressive strength training, and stay active (for more info on progressive strength trainings see my article entitled Success with Strength Training)!

An easy way to stay on track is to ask your self before every meal or snack "what will I be doing for the next few hours?" If you are going to be at work and not that active then your body doesn't need a lot of calories. Don't forget that any extra calories (whether from vegetables or pizza) that don't get used will be stored as fat! >MATCH YOUR EATING TO YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL! Another major problem is the common misconception that your metabolism slows down as you age. This has been proven to be incorrect with hundreds of studies! Your metabolism slows down due to a loss of muscle tissue, and that is a direct result of a lack of strenuous physical activity. That is why it is so important to due some form of strength training.I also recommend performing 2-3 high intensity cardiovascular workouts per week on non-consecutive days. These workouts should be an 11 on a scale of 1-10 (level of effort or intensity)! These hard cardiovascular workouts are great for increasing metabolism for 4-12 hours or more! Both strength training and hard cardiovascular workouts deplete glycogen (stored muscular energy). A large portion of your meals following that workout will be used to replenish the glycogen (muscular energy) that was used to fuel that workout. This also means you are a lot less likely to store any excess calories as fat! Plus, if you eat well following that workout, your body will start to metabolize fat for fuel. I have used this basic information to change people's lives! By making just a few small changes I've had people burn on average 1-2 pounds of fat per week! Just imagine what that means over the course of a few weeks or months! The human body is only capable of metabolizing 2-3 pounds of fat per week with a miracle. So a more realistic goal would be 2-6 pounds in a month. Not exactly what people want, but it's better than not making any progress at all! This information is what stands between most people and their goals.

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With obesity and disease increasing dramatically, many fitness experts are recommending walking for weight loss and fitness. Some are even going so far as saying that walking is the best way to burn fat and lose weight. I strongly disagree with this and am going to show you why walking is NOT effective at burning off body fat.

Yes, you read that correctly...

Walking is NOT effective at burning body fat and if your goal is fat loss you might be wasting your time. I am not saying that walking is not beneficial, I am saying that if fat loss is the primary goal, there are far better choices that will deliver far better results.

The primary benefits of walking are increased blood flow and circulation, improved recovery, and a strengthened immune system. There are several reasons why walking in not the best choice when it comes to fat loss. Here are just a few:

1. Walking does NOT burn a lot of calories

The lower the intensity of the activity or exercise the smaller the number of calorie s burned per unit of time. For example, you can burn more calories in 15 minutes of bicycling at a high intensity level than you can in 45 minutes of easy walking.

2. Walking does NOT result in a large increase in metabolism

Another downside to walking is that because it’s generally low intensity it results in only a small increase in metabolism that will only last approximately 1-2 hours after the walk. On the other hand, metabolism increases are larger and last longer (4-24 hrs or more) when you perform high intensity cardio workouts.

3. Walking does NOT deplete muscle glycogen

Low intensity exercise like walking does not deplete muscle glycogen levels and therefore, later that day if you have excess calories they will likely be stored a s body fat whereas if you deplete the glycogen the excess calories will primarily be stored in the muscles.

So why then do so many fitness and health experts recommend walking for weight loss? One reason is that people don’t want to hear that they have to work hard so they figure some activity is better than none. Another reason is that the body burns more fat for fuel when exercising at an easy pace, however, the total amount of energy used is so small that you end up burning off little body fat. That’s also why when you choose the “fat burning” program on your treadmill or bike it has you exercise at any easy level. Yes, you’re burning fat, but so little that you’d have to exercise at that easy pace for hours and hours each day.

High intensity cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is much more effective in burning off the excess  body fat. In fact, several studies have been done to prove this. In one study they compared one group who did moderate level aerobics for 45 minutes with another group who performed high intensity workouts for 15 minutes. They did before and after fitness testing including body fat analysis and found that the group who performed the high intensity aerobics lost nine times as much body fat!

Want more proof?

Compare the bodies of a walker, marathon runner, and sprinter. If you are not familiar with what a sprinter s body looks like, it is very muscular and has little body fat while on the other hand the body of a walker will likely have the opposite, little muscle and more fat. The sprinter does little or no low intensity exercise and does primarily short hard bursts of work while the marathoner overtrains so much they burn off both the body fat and the muscle and that’s why they tend to look almost sickly thin.

So what should you do then if your main objective is to shed those excess pounds of body fat?

Two things:

1. Perform some form of high intensity cardio 2-4 times per week

2. Stabilize blood sugar to minimize the storage of new fat

I know some of you by now are saying “I can’t do high intensity exercise, I have a bad knee” and don’t worry, I have a solution for you. The good news is that high intensity is all relative to you and your current fitness level. For example, fast walking up and down hills may be high intensity for you... it all depends. So don’t think that you have to start running or something like that. Just slowly start to increase the intensity of your cardio workouts while also maybe decreasing the time because you can either work hard or you can work long.

Also, you can make almost any activity or exercise high intensity.... here are a few examples:

• increase your speed

• use an incline or hills

• increase resistance

• perform intervals ( the most effective method)

Obviously, some exercises/activities or better suited than other s but the point is if you want to burn more fat and make your workouts as productive as possible you need to increase the intensity.

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Discover a Groundbreaking New Fat-Loss Program That Will Add Muscle Onto Your Body While Burning Off Pounds of Ugly Bodyfat, Even The “Last-To-Go” Fat and Even in Experienced Personal Trainers!
 

Fat loss is unquestionably one of the major reasons people train.  Who wants all that hard-earned muscle to hide under a thick layer of body fat?

A new program I’ve discovered, called “Metabolic Surge – Rapid Fat Loss,” will show you how to burn that fat as quickly as humanly possible while keeping and even GAINING muscle mass.  After all, what good is losing that layer of fat if you also lose all the muscle you worked so hard at building in the first place! 

To really showcase your physique, you need to do EVERYTHING you can to KEEP that muscle while you peel the fat off.  If you don’t, you may get lean, but you’ll be a whole lot smaller. 

Most fat-loss programs only show you how to burn fat – this program teaches you how to burn fat AND pile on muscle mass while you’re doing it!  And this program does it like clockwork, even in very advanced trainers.

Here’s a quick idea of how this program works so you can see the power of this program for yourself...

If you’ve been on a low-calorie diet before, you know how quickly you lose weight in the beginning...before your body has had a chance to slow your metabolism down.  The fat comes off very fast and you feel great!  But then the trouble starts.

Your body detects the low-calorie conditions and slows your metabolism down to preserve its energy stores.  NOT what we want but something that ALWAYS happens under typical reduced-calorie dieting conditions.

But when you come off the low-calorie diet and eat more food, your body senses this and rapidly rebuilds its stores. 

Unfortunately, since you’ve depleted the fat stores and artificially slowed your metabolism, your body adds fat back on. 

DEFINITELY NOT what we want!

The “Metabolic Surge” program not only takes the rapid fat-loss results of the typical first few days of dieting and combines it with the weight-gaining power of coming off of a low-calorie diet (but preferentially adding MUSCLE instead of fat), it uses these processes to FEED off each other in a cyclical fashion, resulting in extreme body massrepartitioning (i.e. less fat, more muscle) in very short periods of time.

You see, your body doesn’t like to lose fat.  It would much rather lose muscle tissue as muscle is much more metabolically costly, i.e. it takes much more energy to maintain muscle mass than fat mass. 

So with a fat-loss plan that doesn’t specifically target muscle preservation as a major goal, what’s likely to happen?

Your body will preferentially burn muscle tissue rather than fat to desperately try to hang onto its energy stores!  That’s millions of years of evolution at work and it’s not easy to overcome.  This is where most fat-loss programs fail.

And this is where the “Metabolic Surge” program takes a giant leap forward!  Using very specific combinations of eating and exercise, laid out in an easy-to-follow, day-by-day schedule, it harnesses the power of your body’s most powerful metabolic processes to efficiently peel the fat from your body while BUILDING muscle at the same time!

But where does the extra energy to build muscle come from under dieting conditions?  Doesn’t muscle-building require a caloric surplus? 

Normally, the answer would be “yes,” but with the very specific dietary and training conditions established with the “Metabolic Surge” program, your body is actually USING BODY FAT to FUEL MUSCLE GROWTH!

So not only are you burning fat through a caloric deficit AND through the actual exercise you’re doing in the program, you’re also burning fat by forcing your body to access it for BUILDING MUSCLE as well.  This is an extraordinary and unique process that can literally DOUBLE your fat-loss results with no more effort than you’re putting into your training right now.

Other than extremely rapid fat-loss AND muscle-building, here’s a short list of some of the other benefits you’ll get from the “Metabolic Surge” program:

1.  No rebound fat gain when coming off the program.  What’s the first thing that normally happens when you come off a strict diet (especially a low-carb diet)?  Rebound fat gain. 

This program is structured so that you not only eliminate rebound fat gain, you can actually KEEP losing fat after the program is done!

2.  Freedom to eat many different kinds of foods.  Most diets limit you to very specific foods.  The “Metabolic Surge” program allows you to eat foods like steak AND foods like potatoes.  The real trick is WHEN you eat them.  You’ll find out how!

3.  Doesn’t require strict calorie counting to work.  Naturally, you’ll need to keep an eye on your caloric intake (if you eat more calories than you burn, you won’t lose fat) but you WON’T have to keep track of every little thing you eat. 

The real power lies in the structure of the program, not in strict calorie counting.

4.  A complete program laid out in every detail so you’ll always know EXACTLY what you’re doing.  You’ll get meal plans, daily workout plans, and detailed descriptions of every single aspect of the program – you’ll get the guts of the program, including HOW and WHY every aspect of it works.  There will NEVER be any time where you don’t know what to do.

But the best part is, you’ll get uncompromising and unlimited customer support.  The creator of “Metabolic Surge,” Nick Nilsson, is there to help you every step of the way with ANY questions you might have as you go through the program.  His rapid and thorough customer support means you are NEVER alone in your training.  It’s like having your own professional trainer available for questions at any time!

Conclusion:

If you’re interested in losing maximum fat and GAINING muscle while doing it, the “Metabolic Surge” program is something you owe it to yourself to try.  The program is structured to take FULL advantage of EVERY metabolic process your body has for burning fat and building muscle.

I highly recommend this eBook to anyone who wants extremely rapid results in their training (who doesn’t?) and who wants to be well-rewarded for every ounce of effort they put into their training.  You work hard in the gym – now’s your chance to strip that fat off and show the results.

Click this link right now to learn more about “Metabolic Surge” and how you can use it to carve yourself a body that will turn heads and drop jaws right to the floor.

The sheer volume of cutting-edge information you’ll get in this book makes it one of the best buys you’ll ever come across.

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Wouldn't it be great if there was a safe and natural way to build more muscle in a shorter period of time? In this day and age of exercise gimmicks and quick fix solutions, most smart bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts would be skeptical if they heard such a claim. But guess what? Such an "animal" really does exist. No, it's not a drug. It's not some miracle supplement, either. Nor is it a newfangled piece of workout machinery. If you've been training seriously for any length of time, it's something you're probably already familiar with but haven't fully exploited to the maximum degree. What is this method for building more muscle in less time? Surprise, surprise; it's called supersetting!

Even if you've used supersets before, you may not be familiar with all the different types of supersets or the many ways you can incorporate them into your workouts. Just in case you're not familiar with supersets, let me start from the beginning and explain the difference between a conventional set and a superset.

Conventional weight training is done with "straight sets." A straight set is performed by doing a series of repetitions; 8-12 in a row for example, then stopping to rest for a minute or so before doing another set. A superset is an advanced training technique where you perform two exercises in a row with virtually no rest in between. Supersets are an excellent technique for muscular development, especially if you are short on time. Supersets are not, however, the most effective technique for building strength or power. Let me explain why...

When you perform two exercises in a row with no rest in between, this will reduce the amount of weight you can handle, particularly in the second movement. Your strength will also decrease from fatigue with each subsequent superset. Because supersets don't allow you to use maximal weights, they are not well-suited to building strength. Supersets are definitely a body building and "shaping" technique. You seldom see powerlifters or strength athletes doing supersets. In fact, they usually do the opposite; they take longer rest intervals between sets so that they can recuperate as much as possible. After a 3-5 minute recovery period, they can attack each set with maximum strength. If you are still fatigued from the previous set, and you start another set too soon, you won't be able to lift as much weight.

Ok, now you know what a superset is. The question is; why should you bother using them? There are three primary advantages of superset training over conventional straight set training:

1. Supersets save time. The most obvious advantage of supersetting is to save time. Even if you truly enjoy training, it's probably safe to assume that you wouldn't mind getting equal or better results in a shorter period of time.

2. Supersets increase intensity. Usually when you think of high intensity, you think of forced reps, descending sets, negatives, etc. Supersets are simply another method of increasing intensity. Shortening the rest between sets is hard work – especially if you're used to a long rest interval. The principle is: more work performed in less time equals more intensity and more intensity equals more muscle.

3. Supersets prevent injury or allow you to work around an injury. I stumbled on the value of supersets as a way to train around injuries at the age of 20 when I ruptured a disc in my lower back. I was a strong squatter at a very young age, doing 405 lbs for 6 reps before I was 20 years old. After the injury, I wanted to maintain my leg size without putting so much stress on the lower back. Because I could no longer squat more than 315lbs without re-injuring my back, I sought a way to maintain my leg size without super heavy squats. Out of necessity, I started doing high reps and supersets. After a relatively brief period training in this fashion, my quads quickly grew to become my best body part. With the exception of brief strength phases when I do straight sets with as much weight as I can, I utilize supersets extensively for quads to this day. Supersets allow you to overload a muscle and generate high intensity without requiring heavy weights. This decreases your chances of injury.

For more great muscle building information and tips visit http://www.seriousstrengthtraining.com 

There are three primary categories of supersets: 1) same muscle group, 2) agonist-antagonist, and 3) staggered sets. Let's take a look at each category and a few examples of each.

1. Same muscle group. The first and most common category of supersetting is to combine two exercises for the same muscle group. An example would be supersetting dumbbell flyes with the bench press.

Within the "same muscle group" superset category there are four sub-categories. Each one has a slightly different effect:

Pre-exhaust. Pre-exhaustion is probably the best known and most effective type of superset of all. A pre exhaust superset is performed by choosing two exercises for the same muscle group; an isolation exercise first, followed by a basic, compound movement.

The idea behind pre-exhaust supersets is to take a muscle group beyond the normal point of exhaustion and thereby achieve muscle fiber stimulation and growth that you normally could not achieve from a straight set. Here's how this works: Suppose you are doing a set of leg extensions for your thighs and you push yourself until you can't do another rep. Most people think their legs are finished at this point and that they couldn't go further if they tried. The quadriceps muscles may indeed be completely exhausted - you couldn't do another leg extension if you tried - but by walking over to the squat rack, you'll find that you are still able to do squats (albeit with a lighter poundage than usual). Why? Because even though the quadriceps reached total failure on the leg extension exercise, other lower body muscles that are used in a squat are still fresh and strong (glutes, hamstrings, adductors and different sections of the quadriceps group.) By "pre-exhausting" the target muscle with an isolated movement, you can then continue to blast the fatigued muscle even further with the help of the assisting muscles in the compound movement.

The only drawback with pre exhaust supersets is that you will only be able to use a fraction of your normal weight on the second exercise. Let's say you can normally squat with 315 for 10 reps when you do the exercise first. When you switch the order and do leg extensions first, you might find that your quads are so fried from the leg extensions that even 225 lbs for 10 reps on the squat is difficult. That's ok when it comes to muscle growth, but if your goal is power or strength then this would be counter productive. If strength is your primary goal, it would be better to just do straight sets of squats and to do your squats first. In a periodized training schedule for a bodybuilder, straight sets should be used almost exclusively during the off season strength and mass phase. Supersets can be added later during the pre-contest phase.

PRE-EXHAUST SUPERSETS Isolation Exercise (1st) Compound Exercise (2nd)
(1)Leg Extension / (2)Squat
(1)Leg Curl /(2) Stiff Leg Deadlift
(1)Dumbell Pullover / (2)Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown
(1)Tricep Pushdown / (2)Close Grip Bench Press
(1)Dumbell Flyes / (2)Bench Press
(1)Dumbell Side Laterals / (2)Military Press
(1)Barbell Curl / (2)Curl Grip Pullups

Post-exhaust. The opposite of pre exhaust is post exhaust. In a post exhaust superset you would again choose a basic compound movement and an isolation movement. This time, however, you would perform the compound movement first and the isolation movement second. The advantage of the post exhaust superset is that you will be fresh on the compound movement so you can use more weight. Post exhaust supersets can also be used as an effective variation on the heavy-light system. For example, instead of just doing the regular sets of 8-12 reps, choose a heavy basic movement for the first exercise and do about 6 reps. Then, follow it with a lighter isolation movement and do around 20 reps. This gives you the best possible of both worlds: a) size and strength increase, and b) isolation with a wicked pump.

POST-EXHAUST SUPERSETS Compound Exercise (1st) Isolation Exercise (2nd)
(1)Leg Press / (2)Leg Extension
(1)Incline Bench Press / (2)Incline Dumbbell flyes
(1)Press Behind The Neck / (2)Dumbbell Side Laterals
(1)Close Grip Bench Press / (2)Rope Pushdowns

Compound superset. This type of superset is reserved for very brave people. Supersetting two compound exercises together can create amazing muscle growth in a very short period of time, but it's incredibly demanding and exhausting. It takes all the energy you can muster to get through a series of compound supersets. It is also very taxing on the nervous system and requires that special attention be paid to recovery after the session. An example would be supersetting squats with leg presses. Combinations like these can easily leave you lying flat on your back gasping for air (but the results are well worth it!)

COMPOUND SUPERSETS Compound Exercise #1 Compound Exercise #2
(1)Squats / (2) Leg Press
(1)Bent Over Rows / (2) Deadlifts

NOTE: A word of caution about pre exhaust and compound supersets: If your second exercise is a compound free weight movement that requires a great deal of neuromuscular coordination or is the type of exercise that requires a spotter, pay extra attention to your form. When your prime movers are fatigued from the first exercise, you may feel "wobbly" and your form is much more likely to break in the second exercise. If you let your form become sloppy because you are fatigued, you are more likely to get injured. It's not uncommon for pre-fatigued muscles to give out suddenly without warning. If this happens during a bench press or squat and you don't have a spotter or safety mechanism in place, the results could be disastrous. A safer method, especially for beginners, is to select a movement for the second exercise that requires less skill and coordination (leg press, smith machine squat, hack squat) or one with a built in safeguard (power rack, safety catch, spotter, etc).

For more great muscle building information and tips visit http://www.seriousstrengthtraining.com 

Isolation supersets. The fourth and final way to do a same muscle group superset is to superset two isolation exercises, such as cable crossovers and dumbbell flyes. This is a useful technique for isolating one particular muscle group or section of a muscle group to the exclusion of others. It is used most often during pre-contest or definition phases when mass and strength are no longer the primary concerns.

ISOLATION SUPERSETS Isolation Exercise #1 Isolation Exercise #2
(1)Dumbbell Flyes / (2)Cable Crossover
(1)Leg Extension / (2)Sissy Squat

Ok, now that you know all four types of same muscle group supersets, let's take a look at the other two categories of supersetting: antagonistic supersets and staggered supersets.

2. Antagonistic muscle groups. When you do two exercises in a row for the same muscle group, it tends to significantly limit the amount of weight you can use because of fatigue and lactic acid buildup. Pairing opposing (antagonistic) muscle groups together can help you keep your strength up because as one muscle is working, the opposite one is resting. Common examples include pairing biceps with triceps, chest with back, or hamstrings with quadriceps. This is also an excellent technique for bringing up lagging body parts (priority training). For example, barbell curls paired with Tricep pushdowns are a great combination for blasting the arms.

ANTAGONISTIC SUPERSETS Exercise #1 Exercise #2
(1)Barbell Curl / (2) Tricep Extension
(1)Leg Extension / (2)leg Curl

3. Staggered sets. The final category of supersetting is staggered sets. A staggered set is a type of superset where you combine a major muscle with a minor and completed unrelated muscle. This technique is most commonly used for abs and calves. The way you use this principle is to "squeeze in" a set of abs or calves in between sets for any major muscle group. For example, you could throw in a set of calves in between every set of chest you do. Instead of resting and doing nothing in between sets of chest, you are doing something productive - working your calves! This gets your workout finished much more quickly and spares you the monotony that many people feel from doing these small body parts by themselves.

As you can see, many benefits can be gained from including supersets in your training program. They are a proven technique for increasing intensity and bringing up lagging body parts. They allow you to gain muscle while working around injuries that might be aggravated with heavy weights. If your training program is getting stale, supersets can also help relieve your boredom. Best of all, supersetting is a legitimate way to get more results in less time. If you need to squeeze a result-producing workout into a short period of time, then supersets could be the answer to your muscle-building prayers.

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A lot can happen in 30 days...

The dream of everyone who trains is to lose maximum fat and build maximum muscle in the shortest period of time possible. While it is definitely possible to both lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, in my experience, the best results come from concentrating on one major goal at a time.

Let me put it this way: to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. To build muscle, you need a caloric surplus. If you try to do both at the same time, you may just remain exactly where you are!

So the question before us is - how do we maximize both fat loss and muscle gain, two very much opposing goals, in only 30 days?

It's simple - we focus on both goals in the same program but not at the exact same time!

By alternating rapidly back and forth between reduced-calorie fat loss training and higher-calorie mass-oriented training, you can not only accomplish both goals at the same time, you can actually use the two opposing goals to feed on each other and send your results through the roof!

To illustrate my point, remember how quickly you gain weight when coming off a strict diet? Remember how quickly you lose weight when you start to diet and you haven't been careful about what you've been eating? That's your body rapidly adapting to a stress. One of the most powerful features of this switching back and forth is in the change itself - your body changes far quicker when you give it a powerful reason.

What is the result of this switching back and forth? Extremely rapid fat loss and extremely rapid muscle gain.

To maximize the effects of this switching, you must tailor your training, diet and supplementation towards your specific goal during that particular time. Proper manipulation of these factors will greatly enhance the body's hormonal response to this program, which is the real key to maximizing your results.

For five days, we will target everything about your training and nutrition towards fat loss.

You will reduce your caloric intake below maintenance levels to promote fat burning.

You will reduce the rest periods between sets in your weight training to increase the intensity of the workload and boost the metabolism.

You will increase your training volume, performing more sets for each bodypart.

You will not push your body to muscular failure - pushing to failure can be too stressful to the muscles when on a reduced-calorie diet. Stop one rep short of this point.

You will include cardio training, preferably High Intensity Interval Training for best results, to burn calories and further boost your metabolism.

You will NOT take creatine during this time (I'll explain why below).

It is best to follow a low-carb diet during this time for maximum effectiveness. Eating this way will be especially powerful when you switch to the next phase of the program.

After five days, your metabolism will be just starting to get used to the training and nutritional program you're following. Now we'll throw it a curveball and change everything!

For the next five days, you will be focusing your training, nutrition and supplementation completely on muscle building.

You will increase your caloric and protein intake to promote gains in muscle mass.

You will increase your rest periods in between sets to allow for more recovery and increased strength in your sets.

You will decrease your training volume, doing fewer sets but with greater intensity. This is the time to really push your muscles to the edge! You're feeding them now, so don't be shy about training them hard.

You will eliminate all cardio training in order to maximize muscle gain. Cardio training can burn calories that should be used for the muscle building process.

You will load creatine for the first three days of the muscle-gain phase. This will take advantage of and greatly enhance the flood of water and nutrients into the muscles.

You will NOT follow a low-carb diet during this time. We want lots of carbs to provide energy and promote insulin release (the body's primary storage hormone). This insulin release will help shuttle protein and other nutrients into the muscles to help with building.

The body's hormonal response to this huge change in training, nutrition and supplementation is tremendous. Sensing a feast after a famine, it will greedily take in all the nutrients it can and store them in the form of glycogen (for carbs), muscle mass (for protein) and fat (to some extent). Since you will only be doing this phase for 5 days, however, fat gains will be minimal so don't be shy to eat!

It is important to note that you should eat a lot but you should eat clean - loading up on junk food will not give you the best results. You've got to provide your body with quality materials to rebuild with or you may not gain as much muscle and you may add too much fat.

After five days of this training, your metabolism will be cranking along, happily building muscle. Now we'll pull the rug out and go right back into fat-loss training for five days. Since your body is used to getting more food and your metabolism is still moving fast, switching to fat-loss training at this time will immediately result in your body burning far more fat than if you were using a conventional fat loss program.

In 30 days, you will complete three rounds of this rapid-adaptation training. As you will soon experience, this switching back and forth between a short, targeted fat loss program and a short, targeted muscle-building program can have a tremendous and rapid impact on bodyfat and muscle mass levels.

What does this mean for you? It means you can lose fat faster and gain muscle faster, taking FULL advantage of your body's natural reaction and rapid adaptation to massive change.

Think this program sounds good? You ain't seen nothing yet...

This particular program is just a taste of what you'll find in the full All-Star Trainers eBook from AtoZFitness. In addition to a detailed explanation of how to perform my program, including a day-by-day guide and set-by-set workouts to follow, you'll also get the rapid fat-loss and muscle-building secrets of 11 of the most knowledgeable and respected trainers in the world, including Tom Venuto, Pete Sisco, David Grisaffi, Jeremy Markum, Phil Campbell, Christopher V. Guerriero and many others!

The next 30 days are going to pass by whether you get this information or not. You could stick to your conventional programs and get slow (if any) results. How would you like to make these next 30 days the most productive of your entire training career?!

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Q What is the average calorie burn for a cycling class at the gym, and how does it compare to step and kickboxing?

A Research suggests you can burn roughly the same number of calories, 300-450, in all these fitness classes, although your exact calorie burn depends on how hard you work, your weight and, of course, how long the class is. "The difference in calorie burn tends not to be large enough to justify selecting an activity you're not enthusiastic about," says Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D., chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise.

One study on group cycling found that in a typical 39-minute class--including an 11-minute warm-up and a three-minute cool-down--female participants who weighed from 100-133 pounds routinely burned an average of 346 calories.

In a step class, the calorie burn correlates in part with step height. For a 150-pound person, burning 300 calories in a step class takes 32 minutes on a 6-inch step, 30 minutes on an 8-inch step and 28 minutes on a 10-inch step. So, depending on step height, a 40-minute class might burn 375-429 calories--fewer if you weigh less than 150 pounds.

Research on kickboxing found that women who weighed an average of 129 pounds burned about 350-450 calories during a typical 55-minute class. Movements that used both the upper and lower body burned the most calories--about 8.3 per minute.

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HOW many times have you kicked off the New Year vowing to get fit? How many times have you rolled out a rigorous fitness plan that lasted all of, well, 3 days out 365? How many times have you signed your name on the dotted line of an expensive gym membership that you visited maybe a haft of a dozen times? And how many times have you promised to stay away from fried, greasy and cheesy foods, only to find that someone keeps sneaking them onto your plate?

The good news is that all of those other times were just practice. You can make healthier choices this year. Begin by setting modest goals that you can adhere to year-round--even through the frenzied holiday season, advises Gregory D. McCollum, co-owner of the Training Loft, a private personal training studio in Chicago.

"Start slowly, but do it with zeal," says McCollum, a certified personal trainer who has been in the industry for 14 years. "Ninety percent of all fitness programs work if you simply apply yourself."

Besides setting realistic daily and weekly goals, fitness experts advise people to rotate between cardiovascular, flexibility and strength training. "You will see a positive change in yourself by improving your cardiovascular health, increasing your flexibility and building up your strength," he says.

Exercise

Find out your starting point through a fitness evaluation or a physical from your doctor. After that, don't be afraid to hire a personal trainer, or join a fitness group to help you get on track. Cardiovascular health can be greatly improved through regular fitness walks, runs and aerobic sports. If it's too cold in your neck of the woods for outdoor activities, consider taking the stairs at work and using the hallways at home to do lunges, which help tone the thighs and buttocks. If you have a fitness club membership, be sure to take advantage of the treadmill and stationary bike. If you are looking to tighten that bulging midsection or simply to maintain your waistline, crunches are always good.

Yoga classes and other exercises, such as side-bends, stretch the muscles and help improve flexibility. You can build your strength by using free weights and circuit training, fitness experts say.

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Fitness Fact 1. Studies have suggested that walking at a brisk pace for three or more hours a week can reduce your risk for coronary heart disease by 65 percent.

Fitness Fact 2. About 25 percent of American adults — and an even greater percentage of women — are sedentary. After age 44, upwards of 30 percent of women are sedentary, and by age 65, the proportion increases to almost 35 percent. By the time they reach age 75, about 50 percent of all women are sedentary.

Fitness Fact 3. Only about 22 percent of American adults engage in regular, sustained physical activity for at least 30 minutes five times a week, and only 15 percent exercise both regularly and vigorously.

Fitness Fact 4. No matter how poor your current level of fitness, you can start an exercise routine and become fitter and healthier. Even 90-year-old women who use walkers have been shown in studies to benefit from light weight training.

Fitness Fact 5. Simply adding movement into your daily routine can increase your level of fitness. For example, if you park in the last row of the parking lot and walk briskly five minutes each way between your office and your car, walk up and down the stairs at your office during your 10-minute afternoon coffee break, and walk the dog for 10 minutes when you get home, you've racked up 30 minutes of exercise for the day.

Fitness Fact 6. Women with heart disease or arthritis actually experience improved daily function from involvement in various modes of physical activity.

Fitness Fact 7. Fitness consists of four components: your body's ability to use oxygen as a source of energy, which translates into cardiovascular fitness; muscular strength and endurance; flexibility; and body composition.

Fitness Fact 8. To address all the components of fitness, an exercise program needs to include aerobic exercise, which is continuous repetitive movement of large muscle groups that raises your heart rate; weight lifting or strength training; and flexibility exercises or stretching.

Fitness Fact 9. Walking at a brisk pace (a 15-minute mile or 4 mph) burns almost as many calories as jogging for the same distance. The benefit of jogging is that it takes less time to cover the same distance and it benefits the bones; however, it may be too strenuous for some.

Fitness Fact 10. It takes about 12 weeks after starting an exercise program to see measurable changes in your body. However, before 12 weeks, you will notice an increase in your strength and endurance.

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Are you a smoker who would like to quit? Opinion polls show that a majority of people who smoke, would also like to quit. The reasons to quit are obvious—health, quality of life—and longevity being some of them. You know why you should quit, and may even have tried to quit several times, only to start smoking again. Remember, smoking is more than a physical addiction, it is a psychological addiction as well.

Here are some tips to help:

1. Make a list of times that you reach for a cigarette. Write down how you feel, where you are, and if you really want the cigarette or are just lighting up out of habit.
2. Set a "Quit Day" and make sure that plenty of people know about it. Accountability can be a GREAT motivator.
3. Find others who would like to quit with you. This will allow you to go through the experience with other people. When you feel like having a cigarette, make sure to talk to one of these people, or to someone else to whom you are accountable.
4. Find a time to quit when your stress will NOT be high. For example, a vacation would be a good time.
5. When you feel like smoking, wait a few moments to see if the feeling will pass.
6. Set times during the day that you will not smoke, such as when you are on the phone or in the car. Gradually increase the amount of time you are not smoking.
7. When you feel like smoking, distract yourself with a conversation or with physical activity.

You can become smoke-free for life. Millions have done it—you can too

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Are you a fast eater?

Do you blitz through meals like a chainsaw through soft wood? When you're at work, do you usually eat a quick lunch at your desk? Or even worse, eat breakfast or lunch in the car, on the way to work ot to appointments?

Well, as a reformed fast eater, I can tell you there's a better way. And slowing down your eating could make a big difference in your weight, your health...even your enjoyment of life.

First, let me explain what's happening when you eat fast.

Typically you're eating on the run or at your desk because you are very busy and trying to fit the meal in. So you're under time pressure. Not the most conducive environment for eating.

Eating fast puts tremendous stress on your body. When you gulp down your food, without really tasting or enjoying it, you mess with your digestive system.

More importantly, you're stressing yourself to the point that your body actually begins to release stress hormones, such as cortisol. This does three things.

First, it slows down the digestive process. Second, it slows down your metabolism. Third, it increases the amount of insulin in your bloodstream causing your body to deposit more fat from the calories you are taking in.

What a triple whammy on your body! Add in the indigestion you are likely to experience as you rush to that next meeting....it's definitely a recipe for eight gain and stomach problems.

If you're eating in such a way as to decrease your metabolism and promote
fat storage, then you're likely to a gain weight.

Excess weight can exacerbate other health conditions. And it makes it harder to get in gear and exercise to control or reduce your weight.

Eating quickly also causes major digestive problems. In fact, it's estimated that eating too fast is a major cause of acid reflux disease, or GERD.

A little factoid here: did you know that digestive aids and stomach relief medicines are the number one type of product sold over the counter in the U.S.? They sell more of these than they do painkillers.

What does that tell you about the stress that we are under - or more correctly,often put ourselves under.

Acid refluz is an incidence of inflammation in your body. Remember, inflammation is systemic: where there's smoke, there's fire. Inflammation in one part of your body can lead to inflammation elsewhere, such as heart problems, arthritis...even Alzheimers.

If you are interested in losing weight, or improving your enjoyment and quality of life, do like the French do: slow down.

Set aside the time to actually sit and enjoy your meals. Even if you can't do this for every meal, try to take more time more frequently. See how many meals per week you can eat in a more relaxed manner.

And free yourself from the chains of your desk. Yes, oh corporate hard charger, you CAN go out to lunch once in awhile. Or take your sandwich and drink outside to a park bench and soak up some sun while you are
dining.

Here's one more very important thing you can do, even when you don't have a lot of time for your meal.

As you begin to eat, take 5 to 10 deep breaths. And try to take some deep breaths while, and immediately after, you eat.

This will naturally and quickly relax you, allowing you to enjoy your meal. It will limit or eliminate the release of stress hormones. And it will literally ncrease your metabolism, so your body will more efficiently process and use those calories.

You'll burn more of what you are eating as energy. Your body will have less reason to deposit those calories as fat.

Trade fast eating for deep breathing....and see how much better you feel as you go through your day.

You Can Do It!

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Wanna lose belly fat, get healthier, and look better for spring? Then speed up your workouts! A recent study from Duke University found that people who perform regular higher-intensity workouts were able to significantly lower their abdominal fat levels and lose weight relatively quickly.

However, people who only did low-intensity exercise (like walking at an easy pace) for 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week did not lose any belly fat -- in fact they gained an average of 1 1/2 pounds over the course of the 8-month study!

According to Duke researcher William Kraus, MD: "All exercise helps prevent fat gain... but to lose abdominal fat, you have to work harder."

The 30-minutes-per-day, 5-days-per-week walking regimen that so many doctors and weight loss "gurus" recommend is certainly better than not exercising at all, and it may help to prevent weight gain. But, at least according to this study, it's not going to put a real dent in your fat stores.

There's a lot of evidence that abdominal fat is more dangerous than other types of fat. Studies have linked it to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. So getting rid of it is about more than just "looking good" -- though that's not a bad side effect. If you want to lose belly fat simply boost your exercise intensity, eat a healthy diet, limit alcohol intake, and try to reduce stress levels.

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Weight-lifting is one of the fastest ways to see changes in your body but too many people are scared away from it by horror stories of women turning into bulky Schwarzenegger clones as well as torn ligaments and other afflictions. The reality is nothing like that; women will firm up, not bulk up, and when you lift weights properly there’s practically zero risk that you will injure yourself. Don’t miss out on the benefits of weight lifting any longer; start one of these simple routines and be on your way to firmer muscles right away! Follow the exercises described below and incorporate them into your exercise plan at least three times per week, and you will start to see results in as little as three weeks. Pair you’re weight lifting up with daily cardio exercise and watch your body truly reinvent itself!

Begin by assessing your current strength level. If you are a member of a gym, the staff can help you determine the best weight for you, but if you’re a home exerciser, don’t worry. Invest in a good set of dumbbells that range in weight from three to ten pounds (more if you are an old pro at weight-lifting and expect to increase your strength considerably). Hold the 5-lb. weight in your dominant hand and do as many bicep curls as you can before tiring. If you can do more than 15 curls without feeling your muscle tire, you need to use a higher weight. On the other hand, if you were only able to do twelve repetitions or less, you should probably use a lower weight until you have built up more strength. Between twelve and fifteen reps means the five-pound weight is appropriate for you right now.

Once you have identified the right weight for you, the next step is to know the right form to use. Proper alignment is crucial to avoiding injury and getting the most out of your workout, so stand up straight as you move the weight and remember to keep your shoulders back and lifted and your head high. Imagine there is a string attached to the top of your head that is pulling your body straight. If you feel yourself begin to hunch over or slouch, stop and take a deep breath and then resume your good posture. Staying in alignment earns you the most results from your workout.

Build Upper Body Strength

This is a simple routine that you can easily incorporate to your preexisting workout schedule. Simply add these exercises three to four days per week and watch your muscles become shapely and defined.

Bicep Curl (tones front of arms)

The classic move, bicep curls can be underestimated and overused if you’re not careful. It’s not just about lifting a weight up and down; when done correctly, this can be one of the most powerful moves in your arsenal. Begin by holding one weight in each hand with your palms facing inward. Rotate your arms out so that your palms now face to the front and slowly lift the weight almost one hundred and eighty degrees until your palm and the weight face your shoulder. Slowly lower the weight back to its original position and then repeat. By slowing down the speed of the movement, you force the muscle to work harder than it would with the momentum of a fast action. This develops the bicep muscle faster and better. Repeat this move for three sets of 25 repetitions for each arm.

Tricep Press (tones back of arms)

The tricep muscle can be one of the most difficult muscles to develop primarily because most people do not use it very often in daily life. Running along the back side of the arm opposite to the bicep, the tricep muscle can turn flabby and droopy without exercise. The best move to tone saggy arms is to begin standing with feet shoulder-width apart with weights in hand. Take a giant step forward with your right foot, lean forward slightly and then raise the weights behind you with your palms facing the ceiling. Raise the weights toward the ceiling as far as possible and then slowly lower. Repeat this move for three sets of 20 repetitions: on the final repetition of each set, hold your arms up and gently pulse the weight up no more than a few inches. Asking your tricep muscle to squeeze every ounce of strength out of it will start to show serious results in a short amount of time.

Overhead Raise (tones shoulders)

Shoulders can be neglected when you focus on improving the arms, but having strong, healthy shoulders is vital to many everyday movements. Strengthening the shoulders will allow the arms to grow stronger as well and improve your overall upper body muscle. Begin by standing with weights in hands about shoulder height. Slowly lift the weights overhead and then lower. Repeat the movement for three sets of 25 repetitions. This move tones the muscles that run on top of your shoulder and increase performance from the bicep. When these muscles grow in strength, they complement each other and increase effectiveness as well as turning your muscles into lean, beautiful powerhouses.

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Who doesn’t want a more attractive bottom line? Exercise mavens note that shaping the glutes (gluteus maximus, the official name for the muscles of your tush) is the single item most likely to appear on the priority lists of both men and women on all ages. It tends to creep its way up the priority list over the years as age and nature take their inevitable toll on the bottom line. The loss of muscle mass that goes along with aging is the prime culprit in sagging tushes and dropping bottom lines. However, say a fitness expert, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything to tone your tush, even in the golden years.

If you’re looking to shape up your butt with just exercise, though, it won’t be that easy. According to Women’s Sports & Fitness magazine, it takes a combination of healthy diet, cardio exercise and specific shaping exercises to get that shapely, rounded and firm bottom that is everyone’s goal. Because the rear end is one of the body’s storehouses for fat, you can shape and firm the underlying muscles all you want – but it won’t make a difference if you can’t see them through the layer of fat that covers them. In addition, some of the best butt-sculpting exercises are ones that can be hazardous if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or arthritis. Here are the best tips for seniors who want to tone their tushes – the safe and fun way.

Before undertaking any exercise program, see your doctor to get his blessing. Exercise is a good thing – and most doctors will be happy to refer you to a professional who can help you design a workout program that’s perfect for you.

Take a good look at your diet and tune it up. Eating healthy will help keep that fat padding over your bottom to a minimum and let all the effort you’re putting into toning your tush show through.

The best toners for your tush are stair-climbing and jogging – exercises that work those gluteus muscles to the max. They also have the advantage of being aerobic – they’ll keep your cardio and pulmonary systems working at top capacity and reduce the risks of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis.

To get maximum benefit from your walking and jogging, you can add light weights to ankles. That way you also take advantage of strength and resistance training that can strengthen your bones and help improve your balance.

If your doctor or physical therapist Okays them, squat thrusts are amazingly efficient at sculpting your bottom into shape. Because one-leg thrusts put all your body’s weight on one leg, you’ll be practicing balance as well as improving your bottom line. Don’t do these if you have osteoporosis or any type of arthritis, though. The risk of compression fractures is too great.

If your doctor feels that jogging and stair climbing are too risky because of joint problems, it doesn’t mean you can’t work those glutes. Jogging and working out in water takes the pressure off joints and eliminates impact stress entirely, while increasing the benefits of most exercise because of the added water resistance. Check with your doctor to be sure, but most experts feel that water aerobics are an excellent alternative to high-impact and joint-stressing exercises like jogging.

Another alternative to high impact, weight bearing aerobics is chair aerobics. Seated exercise may sound like a contradiction in terms, but you can get one heck of a good workout for your butt with leg bounces, knee lifts and crossing scissor-kicks all without ever standing up on your own two feet.

Among the physical activities that are great for your bottom are golfing, walking, swimming, jogging, dancing and bowling. If a regular exercise program isn’t for you, engage in one of these activities three times a week (or three of them once a week or.. you get the idea) for at least half an hour.

A regular workout and exercise program that focuses on toning your tush is a great way to keep your body looking – and feeling – young and healthy. Don’t let a sagging bottom bring your spirits down – join in the fun and trim your bottom line.

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You’ve heard the stories: weight training makes women look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, exercising on an empty stomach burns more calories, and more. While some fitness myths make sense on the surface, deeper examination proves these stories are simply made up and have little or no basis in reality. Let’s tackle five of the most common myths and check out the real story behind them.

1. No pain, no gain – Perhaps the most common myth out there is this one that says if you don’t feel pain when you exercise, you’re not doing it right. The truth is absolutely opposite: exercise done right should never be painful and professional trainers recommend that you stop your workout at the first sign of pain. The logic behind “no pain, no gain” says that you can’t expect good results without sacrificing something – twisted at best, downright sadistic at worst. Exercise should be something you enjoy or else you very quickly become disillusioned and drop it entirely. While an intense workout may create slight discomfort, it should never get to the point where you are in actual pain.

2. Training with weights bulks women up – Few women want to look like professional bodybuilders, so this myth scares thousands of female exercisers away from weights every day despite scientific evidence to the contrary. The physiological differences between male and female bodies decree that men have a higher percentage of muscle throughout the body; thus men tend to increase bulk with weight lifting. On the other hand, female bodies have a higher percentage of fat to assist with childbearing and have less muscle to build and bulk up. Weight training for women is aimed at producing stronger muscles that can take more stress and bounce back better than ever.

3. Exercising on an empty stomach burns more calories – This one seems like it should make sense since exercise burns calories and an empty stomach has no calories to burn. It seems like you would be ahead of the game! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Your body needs energy to run, so when you exercise on an empty stomach the body has to find fuel somewhere else. The body tries to provide energy while looking for it at the same time and can get overwhelmed, resulting in the risk of dizziness or even fainting in extreme situations. The smartest choice is to have a small snack about ten to fifteen minutes before working out. Carbohydrates are the best source of energy, so have a small slice of toast or a banana.

4. Crunches are the best way of firming up the stomach – Too many videos and articles send the message that hundreds of crunches are the best way to correct a jelly belly but fail to take into account that most saggy abs are because of excess fat, not weak muscles. Simply doing crunches alone strengthens the abdominal muscles but doesn’t address the layer of fat over the muscles. You may see your stomach appear to grow larger since the muscles are gaining strength underneath the fat layer. The best strategy for getting firm abs is simple: burn fat and strengthen abdominal muscles at the same time. By using a two-pronged approach, fat that covers muscles is burned and the muscles are firmed at the same time, accomplishing your goal and giving you strong, sleek abdominal muscles.

5. Protein will help build muscles – Protein can do great things for your health but it won’t help you increase your muscle strength. Too much protein in your diet can lead to unintended health risks such as kidney strain or dehydration. Extra protein also packs extra calories into your diet that can result in extra pounds – definitely not what you want. The best source of fuel for weight lifting is carbohydrates – easily digestible by the body, carbs provide fast, consistent energy for the body and allow you to continue lifting weights longer. That alone is what builds strength, not the specific kind of food you eat. Provide your body with the right kind of energy to use and you’ll be able to build muscle better.

There are many more myths about health and fitness, but the best defense against false information is education. When you are confident that you know the right plan for your body, spotting myths become easy.

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The yoga craze of the late twentieth century ended up segueing into the Pilates craze of the early 2000’s but many people questioned the exercise value of both. Despite media hoopla, few people actually seemed to understand the physical benefits of either. The truth is that both forms of exercise have unique approaches to fitness and can provide significant benefits for the strengthening and conditioning of the body. Though similar in the focus on strengthening the body through isometric movements, the paths of yoga and Pilates ultimately diverge.

Yoga was developed over five thousand years ago in Northern India. It is first mentioned in the sacred Hindu text Rig Veda. During its first clear period, yoga was practiced and refined by Vedic priests, who documented the practice in their writings. Patanjali, who is considered by most to be the father of classical yoga, fostered the next phase of yoga’s development. Following Patanjali’s broad expansion of yoga and its meanings, Tantric yoga became accepted as the new form of yoga and concentrated on cleansing both the mind and the body. Yoga finally neared its modern form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when more and more Indian yogis traveled to the West, sharing their art and increasing the world’s interest in yoga. The 1947 premiere of Indra Devi’s yoga studio in Hollywood became the opening bell to the American fascination with yoga. While most incarnations of yoga have had a strong spiritual element, modern Hatha yoga does not align itself with any religion or spirituality; instead it focuses primarily on the yoga postures and using them to reach and maintain strength and flexibility as well as inner calm.

Compared to yoga, Pilates is a spring chicken in terms of age. Joseph Pilates, who was born in Germany and suffered frail health as a child, created the program. Pilates overcame his childhood sicknesses through exercise and began to create a system of physical development that would later become his legacy to the world. In his thirties, Pilates traveled to England to work as a self-defense instructor to Scotland Yard but was forced into an internment camp during World War I. Despite the hardship of internment, Pilates went about his business within the camp, teaching his physical program to his fellow internees. During the terrible flu epidemic of 1918, thousands of people died, but none of Pilates’ protégés were affected. Following the war, Pilates returned to Germany but left for good when asked to teach his method to the German army. Settling in New York City with his new wife, Pilates opened his first fitness studio. He taught thousands of students until his death in 1967 at the age of 87. Trusted students carried on with the Pilates name and method, and by the early twenty-first century more than 5 million Americans were practicing Pilates.

Despite the wildly different histories, yoga and Pilates share the same focus on developing the muscles of the body and strengthening it by primarily using the body’s own resistance to build up power. The postures of yoga and the movements of Pilates are sometimes strikingly similar, but ultimately the two follow separate roads. Yoga has spawned a multitude of varieties that range from Kundalini to Iyengar to Tantric, though Hatha remains the most popular form in the United States. Many first-time yoga practitioners can find the pace to be overly slow or grow impatient while waiting to see results. The best candidate for Hatha yoga is a person who appreciates time to slow down, meditate, and spend quiet time with oneself, and does not become easily discouraged by failure to immediately master a pose. Yoga requires a certain measure of patience and while this can be developed through practice, lacking it can make the first several weeks of yoga practice very trying for a person. The good thing about yoga is that it rarely requires extra equipment. You will need a yoga mat to begin with but after that, accessories are optional. Blocks, straps, and other tools can be helpful, but are not required.

Pilates is a method that is fairly easy to master. It doesn’t call for complicated movements and is usually straightforward and simple to understand. The program’s movements also tend to build strength fairly quickly so that results are apparent sooner than in yoga. The ideal Pilates practitioner should be able to discipline himself to complete his routine every day, which is a large part of the method. Attending classes is a great way to start but for the maximum results, the method should be practiced daily to benefit the body. Pilates typically doesn’t require many props or accessories, though advanced practitioners will probably want to add machines or tools to their collection in order to maintain a high level of fitness.

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Pilates. Looks almost like Pirates, but sounds more like string cheese. Actually the pronunciation of Pilates is puh-lah-teez. So what is it? A weird kind of coffee drink like a latae? Something with pulleys? An odd way to say please?

To explain what a Pilates is you have to go all the way back to a gentleman by the name of Joseph Pilates. This poor guy was your typical 98 pound weakling and sickly to boot. He had no energy, no strength and quite honestly was in terrible health. Finally he decided to do something about his terrible condition. To do this he developed a health system. He may have been sick but obviously not dumb. This system consisted of yoga, Zen philosophy, and a number of exercises taken from ancient Romans and Greeks.

During the second world war Pilates was held in a German prison camp. While he was there he introduced these exercises to other prisoners at the camp. These exercises helped the prisoners maintain their strength and fight off illness. While he was doing this he also developed other techniques for working out on the floor or a mat. He started developing equipment as well that he made out of bed springs and other materials. This equipment was perfect for creating resistance which aided in strengthening the muscles. What he developed in this prison camp and what he taught the other prisoners is what was the start of the current Pilates movement. The modern version is a series of exercises made for the purpose of improving flexibility and strength through a series of stretching and balancing movements.

The group of people who are most attracted to this system are dancers, especially ballerinas. This should be fairly obvious as to why since dancing requires a lot of strength and agility and a great deal of flexibility. The regiment is also said to aid in preventing injury which dancers are very prone to. Pilates is said to strengthen the body from the inside out. And in addition to that the effect this system has on the mind is supposed to be very beneficial as it helps to relieve stress and anxiety.

Chiropractors highly recommend Pilates for the strengthening of the back and spine. They say after a sufficient amount of time using this system a person can expect increased mobility in the joints, a flatter stomach, thinner waist and thighs, and improved circulation.

Pilates is a low impact routine, meaning it does not cause a lot of stress on the body since there is very little bouncing as with other forms of exercise. This makes it very attractive to people rehabilitating from an injury who need physical therapy. It is also good for elderly and overweight people as it increases circulation and reduces weight gradually. For those with arthritis this is also a good routine as it helps ease stiffness in the muscles. It is also said to get women back into shape who have just had a baby.

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Getting and staying in shape doesn’t have to be dull and boring! Try some of these fun fitness activities to make your workout time more enjoyable.

MUSICAL EXERCISES – Put on your favorite music and do some yoga! No need for slow, elevator music. Move to your favorite beat. Or pop on the headphones or earphones and grab your MP3 or cassette player or handheld PC and bike to a nearby park. Too cold or rainy? Then head to a mall or other enclosed area where you can walk. Caution: make sure you are alert while listening to music with headphones or earphones.

FUN IN THE SUN – Check out the latest tanning solutions and try fun, scented versions with funky, multi-colored sunglasses. Grab your cassette player or MP3 player and favorite tunes. And pack some flavored water, new flavored health bar that you’ve been dying to try and some frozen berries in your carryall for breaks and have a “sense”-ational time.

FITNESS CLASSES – Try out a new fitness class for fun. Enjoy a full water aerobics workout with less stress on your joints. Grab some colorful water gear and swim to the beat. Or try a dance or Jazzercise routine. No need to commit long-term, just ask about popping in for a class or two to check it out and enjoy. Meet new friends and get fit all at once.

VCR / DVD – Head to the library or local rental store and grab a fun fitness video or DVD. Crank up the sound when your favorite tunes come on and join the taped workout participants in the privacy of your own home.

GYM / FITNESS CENTER – Dig out those coupons you’ve been receiving in envelop mailers and those money saving coupon magazines. Again, no need to commit long-term. Just head on over and use the free or low-cost trial / invitational period and enjoy!

JOURNALING – Spice up your logging routine with an inexpensive new journal from a discount or dollar store nearby. Crate snazzy charts with colored markers. Add bright colored stickers for each workout. Paste or tape clipped pictures of your goals throughout the covers and inside sections. For example, paste pictures of that vacation spot you want to travel to with your new, healthy YOU wearing a new swimsuit.

So add some fun in with your fitness activities. Wake up your senses with new taste, smells, sights, touches and sounds. Forget that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” stuff. Workouts plus play make Jack a fun, fit boy!

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When you’ve got a busy schedule crammed full of meetings and work, you don’t have time to mess around with your workout. You want to get the best results possible for the time you invest – the good news is that you can get extra benefits with just a few simple changes to your workout!

1. Keep proper form.

One of the most common mistakes in exercise is not maintaining the right form during the workout. Bad form can lead to muscle pain and stiffness but, more importantly, bad form prevents you from burning as many calories as you normally would. Maintain good posture during exercise and you’ll build more muscle faster!

Take giant steps.

During your cardio workout, take deep, wide steps to shape up your thighs and buttocks. By taking a larger step than normal, you require more effort from your muscles – more effort equals more strength and shapeliness. Short, shallow steps don’t place enough stress on the muscle to produce fast results, but when you change to bigger movements, you start to see serious muscle taking shape. The same concept is true for running as well: runners who take long, deep strides burn more calories and cover more distance than short-striders.

Listen to your breath

During a cardio workout, check your breathing to see how hard you’re truly working. If you can carry on a conversation with ease, it’s time to increase intensity. How to know when you’re at the right level? The general rule of thumb is that when you can sing the national anthem but need a breath after every phrase, you’re most likely at the appropriate level for your needs. You should never work out so hard that you can’t talk or begin to feel faint.

Double up your workouts.

Add weights to your cardio routine (or vice versa) and you can start to see results within three weeks! You really see the best of both worlds by using interval training. Interval training is highly effective because you introduce your body to a new challenge every five minutes or so. Traditional cardiovascular exercises focus on building aerobic capacity while weightlifting concentrates on increasing muscle strength. Combining the two into one interval training workout means you get benefits from both!

Add variety.

The fastest way to become disillusioned with your workout is to do the same thing over and over again, plus your body can become conditioned to the movements and fail to burn as many calories as you would like. Avoid all this by surprising your body with new and different challenges at least once a week. If you typically run several times during the week, try hiking at a nearby park. If you’re a Spinning devotee, take a Pilates class instead. The ultimate switch-up for most exercisers is swimming: an exercise that requires much more aerobic and muscle strength that imagined. Do a few laps in the pool and you’ll see what I mean.

Challenge yourself.

Set a goal for yourself every week that is beyond your normal effort. Try lifting weights that are five pounds heavier than you normally use, or walking three miles daily rather than two. Small goals like this are easily attainable and can make big changes in the results you see from your workout.

Introduce yourself to stretching.

Stretching is sometimes the crazy uncle of the exercise family – nobody really wants to talk about it, but the fact is stretching is key to getting more out of your workout. Stretching assists in muscle recovery from strenuous workouts and can prevent soreness that might stop you from working out. Your entire body feels more comfortable when you have strong, flexible muscles. Spending a few minutes when you wake up and again before and after your workout really add up in terms of flexibility.

Don’t exercise on an empty stomach.

Sure, it may seem efficient to work out when you haven’t eaten in hours but in reality it’s a bad decision. When your body’s fuel supply is low, you start feeling sluggish and slow – definitely not the ideal mood for a productive workout. An empty stomach does not equal more calories burned.

9. Snacks, not meals, provide the best fuel.

After dining at the all-you-can-eat buffet, you may feel like you should work out just to compensate for overeating, but don’t do it. Exercising on a full stomach can lead to cramps, upset stomach, and/or diarrhea because your body is trying to digest the meal and also provide you with energy at the same time. The best way to fuel your body without nasty side effects is to have a small snack 15 to 30 minutes before you exercise. Ideal snacks include foods with adequate carbohydrates: bread, cereals, and rice.

Drink plenty of water.

You’ve heard it over and over, but it really is true: water will help you lose weight. Water helps fill your stomach to stop hunger pangs and keeps you alert throughout the day. When you become dehydrated, your entire body slows down and works much less efficiently. Working out causes you to lose hydration through sweat, so it’s important to replace lost water after a workout.

We all run short on time these days but by incorporating one or more of these simple strategies you can maximize your workout time and see fantastic results fast!

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While most of us know that consuming excessive amounts of fat will make us fat, we don't all understand exactly why this is true. To implement a successful weight management program, you need a good understanding of fat and why this nutrient makes us fat.

The amount of energy a particular food has depends on the quantity of fat, carbohydrates, and protein it contains. Food energy, both in its consumption and expenditure, is measured in terms of calories. Foods are either made up of fats, protein, carbohydrates, or a combination. A food that contains mostly fat will contain more than twice the calories than a food containing mostly carbohydrates and/or protein. For example, compare a serving of low-fat yogurt to a serving of nonfat yogurt--the low-fat yogurt has quite a few more calories than the nonfat variety because every gram of fat has more than twice the calories of a gram of protein or carbohydrate. Fat contains 9 calories per gram; protein and carbohydrates yield only four calories per gram. Therefore, it is important that you move towards replacing foods high in fat with foods higher in protein and complex carbohydrates.

No more than 25 percent of your total calories should come from fat, fewer than 10 percent from saturated fat, the most damaging form. A recent study of 23 lean men and 23 obese men found little difference in the total number of calories each group consumed. But the obese men consumed, on average, more than 33 percent of their total calories from fat, compared with 29 percent for the lean men. Because the body converts dietary fat into body fat more easily than it converts protein and carbohydrates into body fat, the obese men were storing more fat even though both groups consumed the same total number of calories.

During the process of converting protein and carbohydrates to fat, your body uses them as energy and burns more than a quarter of their calories; it takes more energy (calories "burned") to convert carbohydrates and protein into body fat than it does to convert dietary fat into body fat. Thus, more carbohydrate and protein calories are used and fewer are stored as fat. Dietary fat, on the other hand, goes straight into storage, with very few calories being used. For example, John consumes 2,000 calories a day of which 40 percent come from fat. If John replaces half of the fat calories (20 percent of total calories) with calories coming from complex carbohydrates, less food will be converted to body fat even though the total number of calories consumed has not changed.

It is important to note that when that 20 percent of the 2,000 calories from fat now comes from carbohydrates (or protein), you consume a lot more food, since each gram of carbohydrate or protein contains less than half as many calories per gram. Therefore, when you begin to decrease the amount of fat in your diet and replace it with carbohydrates and protein, even if you still consume the same amount of food as before, you will be consuming a lot fewer calories.

If dietary fat were easy to control, most "diets" would probably succeed. Even with the recent explosion of low-fat and nonfat products, people generally still eat too much fat. The reason is simple: We have grown up loving fat, and we are accustomed to its taste and texture. Although most people do not usually crave fat as they do sugar or salty foods, we do have a strong taste preference for fat. Fat is responsible for the flavor and texture of many of our favorite foods: meats, cheese, dressings, sauces, creams, desserts, etc.

Because a high-fat diet increases fat storage and yields more than twice the amount of calories, the most effective way to reduce body fat is to concentrate on reducing your daily fat intake. Even if you do not consciously lower your total caloric intake, making the switch to a low-fat diet will most likely result in fat loss. However, attempts to suddenly restrict high-fat foods when you still have a strong preference for them causes feelings of deprivation which may, in turn, cause a higher intake of fat than normal. Deprivation is part of the "diet" process, and one of the main reasons it is doomed to fail. It is very important to make gradual, healthier changes to the foods you enjoy. Drastic changes backfire. When people base their food choices on the number of calories consumed and a "foods allowed/not allowed" list, the focus is on numbers rather than satiety and enjoyment of the foods' taste and texture. This often negates any positive effect the original focus on choosing low-fat foods may have had. Simply counting calories and grams of fat does not make for a permanent healthy lifestyle change. If tastes do not shift to enjoying foods lower in fat, this quickly becomes too restrictive and normal eating habits resume.

I'm not saying that you should avoid counting grams of fat altogether. The way to lower fat in your diet is to become a fat-conscious eater--and this requires that you know the amount of fat in each food. However, instead of counting fat grams and deciding if it is a "good food" or a "bad food," try to balance the foods you are eating so that you average 25 percent or less of your total calories from fat each day. It's okay to have a piece or two of high-fat pizza (pizza can be low-fat) if you are truly hungry and craving it, as long as you balance that out with low-fat foods at other meals soon after. What's crucial is to learn how to make small healthier changes. Consume fat in moderation by balancing higher fat foods with lower fat foods.

You should now have a better understanding of fat and why excess consumption of this nutrient makes us fat. Your greatest challenge, however, is not learning new low-fat shopping or cooking techniques. Nor is it remembering how to calculate fat percentages or what to say to the waiter to reduce the fat in your restaurant meal. The greatest challenge facing you at this moment is deciding whether you are willing to make a change--to make small, gradual changes to the foods you love.

Sure, there is plenty of work to be done, but it really doesn't matter how long this new process takes. If you allow changes to take place over several years, your body will adjust comfortably, and you will be more likely to maintain the healthy lifestyle permanently. When you begin achieving improvements in energy and physical and psychological performance, the fun and excitement you experience will make the change well worth the effort. Action creates motivation! Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle.

This article was provide by Chad Tackett, President ofGlobal Health and Fitness. Please visit his site at www.global-fitness.com

A safe and effective weight management program is not a plan that you go on and start over when you've been "bad." You must become flexible enough to allow it to become a comfortable, enjoyable way of life. Then these healthier habits will work with you and for you rather than against you. As you experiment, you will discover what works best for you.

Diets teach us that changing our exercise and eating habits are short-term projects rather an improved lifestyle. Headlines and advertisements everywhere read "Lose 30 pounds in 30 days," and most people believe them. They go on and off diets, start and stop exercise programs, and their weight--and self-esteem--go up and down. Unfortunately, most people don't realize that there is a real alternative to diets, so they jump back on the diet roller coaster when their weight goes back up or a new miracle diet comes on the market.

In order to break free from the diet mentality, you need to view these healthier changes you're making as part of a permanent lifestyle transformation. To gain the lasting benefits of this program, it is important to re-orient short-term thinking towards realistic goals.

Goal setting is a great way to stay motivated and achieve the results you deserve. Unfortunately, many people set goals simply to look better in the short run and not for the other many benefits a healthy lifestyle offers us in the long run. For example, setting a short-term goal of losing 10 pounds for a class reunion isn't helpful. Once the reunion is over, most people will either revert to their previous habits because the special event is over or simply quit all together because the goal they set was unrealistic.

Living a low-fat lifestyle and decreasing your body fat takes a long-term commitment. Trying to do it all at once, however, only makes you frustrated and discouraged. Instead, set a realistic long-term goal; then achieve it by reaching smaller, short-term goals. For example, if your goal is to decrease your body fat by 10 percent, shoot for modest goals, such as decreasing your body fat by one percent each month. Decreasing body fat slowly is not only the safest and most effective way, it is also the most realistic. Every goal, short-term or long-term, should be one that is truly attainable.

Every goal should also be one that you are in charge of. Setting a short-term goal where you are in charge, such as exercising four times a week, will help you achieve your long-term goal. Remember--and remind yourself: each time you reach a short-term goal, you are one step closer to achieving what you really want: a healthier, more attractive body.

Focusing on how you're going to look and feel at some time in the future prevents you from enjoying the way you look and feel today. Focusing instead on the day-to-day process rather than the end result paradoxically brings about a better end result. Thinking only about the future reminds you of how far you still have to go rather than focusing on what you should do today.

If you happen to overeat, or eat a high-fat meal, or skip a workout, enjoy it; don't worry about it ruining your program or your future. Shift instead to living low-fat and healthy the rest of the day. By taking it one day at a time, you can do a better job of concentrating on what's working for you and what's not, how you're feeling and what you're thinking.

For example, perhaps you've just enjoyed a low-fat version of your favorite pizza, using healthy cooking techniques you recently discovered. You can't believe how great it tasted and how easy it was to prepare. Focusing on this present moment, when you're feeling satisfied, energized, and confident, helps you stay more balanced in your decision-making about food and exercise. On the other hand, reflecting on this scenario from a future focus might leave you feeling overwhelmed: "Boy, do I have a lot still to learn about healthy cooking. I'll have to experiment with my favorite foods for the rest of my life!"

Setting small goals and acknowledging all the small achievements on your path are essential to successful change. Remember, successful programs are for life--take it one day at a time. Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the many great benefits of a succussful weight management program.

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