Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

Every time we flip through a magazine or newspaper, it seems another nutrition article guaranteeing to fix our body’s ills, or improve our overall health and performance. Yet where does the truth lie? A recent edition of Newsweek says the mixed messages we are receiving from the so-called nutritionists and media often leave us confused than enlightened. Do we all need these vitamins, and in what form and amount?

There is no doubt that Vitamins are essential for good health. In fact, our bodily functions greatly depend on nutrition to keep it going - these vitamins and minerals are essential nutrition, and are referred to as micronutrients. The body only needs small amounts of micronutrients because it uses them without breaking them down, unlike carbohydrates and other macronutrients (proteins and fats). They are used by our body to function normally or to repair or rejuvenate. Most of us know that vitamin A is good for the eyes, and vitamin C is good for fast healing of wounds.

In times of stress, or illness, and in polluted environents, our body’s vitamin requirements change and we may just need to add a daily supplement to insure ourselves against illnesses. When we are training hard, for example, most of us would supplement our intake of protein with protein powder.

But the pertinent question: if one has a healthy diet, would it still be necessary to consume supplements? Until recently, nutritionists would have said no. However, today, according to The Harvard School of Public Health, there’s good evidence that taking a daily multivitamin makes good sense. There’s also a growing evidence that many vitamins do more than ward off the so-called diseases of deficiency, like scurvy and rickets. Intake of several vitamins above the minimum daily requirement may prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases. If one often feels tired and lethargic, unwell and stressed, an extra vitamin B may help the process of recharging the body.

Yet high doses of vitamins can be detrimental to our health. At high doses, vitamins start to behave like drugs, not supplements. To help ensure that people do not overdose on vitamins, authorities have dispensed with recommended levels of consumption.

Discretion
So my own advice, much as we would like to rely on pills, our wellbeing requires that we have regular exercise and a healthy diet - one that’s rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, along with smaller amounts of fish, nuts and dairy. Everything should be done in moderation, including the intake of vitamin supplements.

I find this article very interesting from Mike Geary.

Excess Abdominal Fat is Not Only Ugly, but Extremely Dangerous to Your Health - This is More Than a Vanity Issue!
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

Did you know that the vast majority of people in this day and age have excess abdominal fat? The first thing that most people think of is that their extra abdominal fat is simply ugly, is covering up their abs from being visible, and makes them self conscious about showing off their body.

However, what most people don’t realize is that excess abdominal fat in particular, is not only ugly, but is also a dangerous risk factor to your health. Scientific research has clearly determined that although it is unhealthy in general to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is also particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

There are two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area. The first type that covers up your abs from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and on top of the abdominal muscles.

The second type of fat that you have in your abdominal area is called visceral fat, and that lies deeper in the abdomen beneath your muscle and surrounding your organs. Visceral fat also plays a role in giving certain men that “beer belly” appearance where their abdomen protrudes excessively but at the same time, also feels sort of hard if you push on it.

Both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in the abdominal area are serious health risk factors, but science has shown that having excessive visceral fat is even more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Both of them greatly increase the risk your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, various forms of cancer, and other degenerative diseases.

Part of the reason visceral fat is particularly dangerous is that it apparently releases more inflammatory molecules into your system on a consistent basis.

If you care about the quality of your life and your loved ones, reducing your abdominal fat should be one of your TOP priorities! There’s just no way around it. Besides, a side effect of finally getting rid of all of that excessive ugly abdominal fat is that your stomach will flatten out, and if you lose enough stomach fat, you will be able to visibly see those sexy six pack abs that everyone wants.

So what gets rid of extra abdominal fat? Is there actually a REAL solution beyond all of the gimmicks and hype that you see in ads and on commercials for “miracle” fat loss products?

The first thing you must understand is that there is absolutely NO quick fix solution. There are no pills or supplements of any sort that will help you lose your abdominal fat faster. Also, none of the gimmicky ab rockers, rollers, or ab belts will help get rid of abdominal fat either. You can’t spot reduce your stomach fat by using any of these worthless contraptions. It simply doesn’t work that way.

The only solution to consistently lose your abdominal fat and keep it off for good is to combine a sound nutritious diet full of unprocessed natural foods with a properly designed strategic exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response within your body. Both your food intake as well as your training program are important if you are to get this right.

I’ve actually even seen a particular study that divided thousands of participants into a diet-only group and an exercise & diet combined group. While both groups in this study made good progress, the diet-only group lost significantly LESS abdominal fat than the diet & exercise combined group.

Now the important thing to realize is that just any old exercise program will not necessarily do the trick. The majority of people that attempt getting into a good exercise routine are NOT working out effectively enough to really stimulate the loss of stubborn abdominal fat. I see this everyday at the gym.

Most people will do your typical boring ineffective cardio routines, throw in a little outdated body-part style weight training, and pump away with some crunches and side bends, and think that they are doing something useful for reducing their abdominal fat. Then they become frustrated after weeks or months of no results and wonder where they went wrong.

Well, the good news is that I’ve spent over a decade researching this topic, analyzing the science, and applying it “in the trenches” with myself as well as thousands of my clients from all over the world to see what works to really stimulate abdominal fat loss.

The entire solution… all of the nutritional strategies, as well as training sequences, exercise combinations, and more have all been compiled in my Truth About Six Pack Abs Program.

Keep in mind that the point of this whole program is NOT abdominal exercises (that is only a very small portion of it). The main point of this program is showing you the absolute most effective strategies for losing your stubborn abdominal fat, so you can get rid of that dangerous health risk, as well as get a flatter more defined midsection.

If you follow the guidelines, you WILL lose your belly fat that has been plaguing you for years. This is not guesswork… it is a proven system that works time and time again for all of my clients on every corner of the globe that actually apply these strategies. If you apply it, the results will come. It’s really that simple.

The only reason most people fail in their fitness goals is that they have good intentions at first to adopt a new lifestyle, yet after a few weeks or months, they abandon their good intentions and slip right back into their old bad habits that gave them the excess body fat in the first place.

Don’t waste another day allowing that nasty abdominal fat to kill your confidence as well as contribute to your risk for MAJOR diseases.

Get the solution to rid yourself for life of this problem by reading more details about the program at the Losing Dangerous Abdominal Fat home page

Train hard, eat right, and enjoy life!

Hey, we think we know all about stretching. Is it really that simple? Do you know the basics? First off, forget everything your PE teacher, gym buddy or yoga-loving girlfriend has ever told you about stretching. Read and memorize these new rules. In doing so you’ll reduce your risk of injuries, and improve your overall athleticism.

There are two major types of stretching: static and dynamic. A static stretch for your hamstrings is exactly what you think it is - a movement in which you lean forward until you feel a slight discomfort in the target muscle. You then stretch the hamstring muscle by holding that position for few seconds.

Some trainers may prescribe this as an injury-prevention measure to take before you start your workout — if they do, you have my full permisision to hold-up a large card with Wrong! boldly written on it. Static stretching just before a workout is on par with 3-course-meal-ing just before a workout. It forces the target muscle to relax, temporarily making it weaker. As a result, a strength imbalance can occur between opposing muscle groups.

Static stretching also reduces blood flow to your muscles and decreases the activity of your central nervous system - meaning it inhibits your brain’s ability to communicate with your muscles, limiting your capacity to generate force effectively.

Used wisely, static stretching can improve your ” passive” flexibility. Static stretches will help your non-athletic, everyday endeavours - such as bending, kneeling and squatting. All you have to know is the right stretch for the right time.

Dynamic stretch is, as its name suggests, the opposite of a static stretch — they don’t look the same, and they don’t feel the same. In this version, you quickly move a muscle in and out of a stretched position. For example, a body-weight lunge is a dynamic stretch for your quadriceps and hips.

This difference matters because improvements in flexibility are specific to your body position and speed of movement. So if you do only static stretching — you’ll primarily boost your flexibility in that exact posture while moving at a slow speed. Static stretching could be used any time of day, except before a workout. This would improve general flexibility.

Whereas dynamic stretching must be used as a warmup before any type of workout or sport. It would help to improve performance and reduce injury risk. It excites your central nervous system, and increases blood flow, as well as boosting your strength.Try these old favorites of dynamic stretching: star jumps, arm circles, trunk rotations, front lunges, high knees and body weight squats.

Abdominal knee raises also is a good overall workout for the abs. The main abs muscles (rectus abdominis) and the obliques are exercised and resistance is provided by your body weight.

Doing correct Abs knee raises:

1. Place your elbows on the pads. This will support your upper body.
2. Keep back pressed to the back pad, so it will be a guide to make your body straight and don’t jerk.
3. Slowly lift knees into chest.
4. Keep the movement slow. Feel the flexing of your abdominal muscles on the move way down and up.

Here is a good training video by Frank Sepe to demonstrate how:

an interview by Geovanni Derice with Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Geovanni Derice, of 4evertoned.com. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it…I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike Geary to 4everToned’s Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 15 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning. At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 30 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20’s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work…if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is…after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is…are you ready for this? They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing…and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains. Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.

The point is to not fall for some gimmick like low carbs, low fat, high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another. Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don’t already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I’ve developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!

Here are some exercise tips you might find useful in the gym or elsewhere. I will be giving these short tips so it will be easier to read and remember.

1. Split Cardio.
Spread your cardio to double your gains. A University of New Hampshire study found splitting a 30 minute session into two halves led to a 29% rise in workout capacity. Reap the benefits by cycling to and from work.

2. Rest to Grow.
A Taiwanese study found that performing heavy bicep curls with sore muscles did not slow muscle recovery - as long as there had been at least a 48-hour rest period. So hit the gym four times a week, working the same muscles every other session.

3. NO Floor-gazing.
Looking down when you squat can cause an injury, say scientists at Miami University. Floor-gazing during the move causes your body to lean forward, increasing the strain on your lower back. Keep your head straight by looking at your image in a mirror.

It’s the news every man has been waiting for - drinking beer doesn’t give you a beer belly! Yeah it’s true - its not ONLY the beer, but a whole about dieting and exercise or the lack of it, that gives a beer belly! The article in sundeyherald is interesting - with answers to common misconception that muscle building can shrink your testicles. Quite funny, its not really the body building per se, but the abuse of testorerone booster that some bodybuilders use that may cause it.

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