Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

Lat is short term for “Latissimus dorsi”, the primary upper back muscle which gives a V shape look for our trunk, and makes our waist look smaller. Our back muscles enable us to pull with power, or grab something heavy from the ground, like a heavy baggage for example.

Lat pulldown is a great upper back exercise, but I advise against pulling down behind your head. I see sometimes guys in the gym pulling behind the head; it could lead to shoulder injuries and should be avoided.

This exercise also works your rhomboids, which lie between your spine and your shoulder blades. Don’t overdo the amount of weight.

As always, a workout video showing the exercise, provides a better grasp of the workout instructions. Below is a video of bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrating the correct form of doing lat pulldown.

Muscles Involved:
Primary: Latissimus dorsi (outer section).
Secondary: Rear deltoid, lower trapezius, rhomboids.

Proper Lat Pulldown Execution:

1. Sit at a lat pulldown station. Grasp the bar overhead, placing your hands shoulder-width or farther apart. Your palms should face away from your body. Keep your upper body straight and your eyes forward.

2. Slowly pull the bar down in front of your head until it reaches the top of your shoulders and touching your upper chest, keeping your upper body fairly upright throughout the movement. Hold for a second, then slowly return your arms in the starting position.

Struggling to have your first baby? One of the reason could be obesity of the woman, according to infertily specialist, Laurence A. Jacobs, MD. He had developed a special program for fitness and fertility for those women who are fighting both obesity and infertility.

“In overweight women with excessive adipose tissue, abnormal pituitary hormone secretions are common, leading to a lack of proper ovulation. Obesity is strongly related to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Overweight woman are also particularly susceptible to Diabetes and Insulin resistance. Even with the use of fertility medications or IVF treatments, pregnancy rates are adversely affected by obesity. Many studies have shown that in obese women, especially those with PCOS, a 5-10% weight loss often results in resumption of ovulation and higher pregnancy rates with all fertility treatments.”

The special program has the right ingredients for success of losing weight: involving in a fitness program, utilizing good nutrition, having a support group and working with a specialist. The program also includes reducing stress, keeping a food diary, and incorporating other holistic methods to lose weight. What is encouraging here is the program’s involvement too of the husbands to encourage their wives and lose weight too.

Preacher Curls are great for isolating biceps and concentrating on them. It is called a ‘preacher’ curl since the slant board resembles a preacher podium. Instead of standing in-front giving a sermon, you will be sitting behind it and curling your arms with weights on it to focus on your biceps.

As always, it is better to see in a workout video how it is done. A video speaks a “trillion” words! Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates below how to properly do Preacher Curls.

Proper Way of Execution:

1. Sit with your upper arms resting on the preacher bench, and take a shoulder-width underhand grip on the bar with arms out straight.

2. Curl the bar up toward your shoulders.

3. Lower the weight back down to the arms’ extended position.

What can be more pathetic than knowing that even at death, obesity can be a problem? This is what crematoriums in UK have been experiencing, since wider bodies could not fit “standard” furnaces and they have to be shipped out to other crematoriums that could accommodate them. Chilling news about obesity, right?

Standard coffins range from 16 to 20 inches. However, increasingly coffins anywhere up to 40 inches are being ordered to fit larger bodies. Around 430,000 choose to be cremated in Britain each year.

Now this is not to frighten overweight people, but I thought sharing this would somehow put a “negative” motivation to exercise and keep fit. I was motivated then to lose weight because of impending health problem - hypertension - before I started to exercise. I am now enjoying good health since I overcame hypertension by regular exercise. Check more information about losing weight here and get motivated to overcome obesity and overweight problems.

Let’s get moving and be energized!

This is a question most overweight persons have in common. I have been overweight then and I too had tried to find ways how to lose weight without any effort, without any exercise. I tried some diet pills out there, but you know what? They never worked. Sadly that’s the truth.

But sadly too, most are still looking for ways to do it without effort of exercising, as evidenced from increased Market for Weight Loss Products in 2007. Most will still patronize rip-off weight loss companies, as they are desperate in their search for the magic pill or fad diet that will help them lose weight.

What I am concerned about is that the marketers of these fad diets never emphasize enough for buyers to have a regular physical exercise. “Lose 10 lbs. in 3 days” just by drinking this, or by following this diet–these are all common. But no mention or very little information are given about the necessary exercise that should go with it. People are given false hopes on losing weight.

Ever wonder why more and more people are getting obese? It is because they are given wrong information or misled on how to effectively and permanently lose weight. Losing weight or losing fat means having a calorie deficit by doing regular physical exercise and having a nutritional diet. It is not effortless! Feel free to browse more information about this here. Be motivated on doing physical exercise and lose weight or fat permanently!

Very neurotic men die sooner than those who mellow down.

People with a heavy dose of neuroticism do not handle stress well, and are often anxious and moody. Such negativity has been linked to increased mortality in a number of studies headed by Purdue University psychologist Daniel Mroczek.

In the study by Dr. Mroczek, those who increased over time in neuroticism was a ticket to an early grave. In other words, these men–all middle age or older to begin with–did not grow old gracefully. They likely got more and more stressed, worried or fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease.

The good news is that men with a fretful temperament, if they managed for whatever reason to calm down a bit over time and handled stress well, had survival rates similar to those of emotionally stable men.

What can be advised to all of us then: Be cool!

Here are some tips to stay cool and how to handle stress:

1. Give yourself a break. Remember to take time out for family, fun and relaxation. All work and no play makes Jack a neurotic man, and die younger

2. Eat healthy food, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. It helps to workout and exercise, not only physically but also emotionally. I find myself being in a relaxed state of mind, while running in perspiration. Science has proven the release of the “relaxing” hormones like endorphins during exercise.

Fitness machines. Learn More.

3. Talk things out. If you’re worried or under pressure, share it with a close friend, family member, professional counsellor, or clergy man.

4. Set realistic goals for your life, and watch how you will spend your resources. Live within your means. Sometimes money matters and overspending keeps the stress level too high.

5. Do something for someone else; it will help get your mind off your own troubles. Volunteer around the house or in the community.

6. Learn new skills, just like painting, or even blogging! Keep your mind stimulated and active. It helps me de-stress by writing this blog about stress.

Just a side note here about Technorati–appreciate readers or other bloggers if you could favorite my blog in Technorati, doing so would help you aggregate your reading in Technorati. You will have a summary to read and you would not switch back and forth on reading your favorite blogs.

There is an experiment technorati program by Doshdosh–aiming to see what are the effects of being top in the list of Technorati’s “most favorited”. If you are a blogger, you can participate on it and see for yourself what are the benefits. I am also joining in the fun!

To join in the fun:

1. Favorite this blog in Technorati. You can either favorite this blog here or you can go to the link on the sidebar saying “Add to Technorati Favorites”. Put in the comments here after you faved this blog. Please indicate your Technorati username, I will favorite your blog too.

2. Put this blog in a link or blogroll in your site, and I will do the same too. I will be able to see in trackback or in Technorati who had linked back and so I will return the fave to you.

Thanks for reading, hope this will help us make our blog to have more “exposure”.

Other blogs joining the fun:

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Will keep on updating this list of blogs who joined the fun!