Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

By Alison McCook

Pilates may do more for your gut than stomach crunches, but don’t expect it to work miracles on your cardiovascular fitness or body weight, according to new study findings.

Developed in the early 20th century for dancers, Pilates has now become a mainstay of gyms across the U.S. However, there is little information about how many calories people typically burn with the technique.

After monitoring ten people during Pilates workouts, researchers found that a basic routine burns as many calories as a session of moderate stretching.

Intermediate workouts burned as many calories as basic stepping, while advanced workouts approximated the calories burned during speed walking at 4.5 miles per hour.

However, Pilates exercises appeared to provide a better workout for the external obliques, or muscles on either side of the abdomen, than basic crunches. The move known as the “Criss-Cross” gave those muscles the best workout.

The “Teaser” and “Roll-Up” exercises also challenged the rectus abdominis muscle, in the mid-section of the abdomen, more than standard bent-knee crunches.

These findings show that Pilates can be great for the abdominal muscles, but won’t do much to help you lose weight, study author Dr. Michele Olson of Auburn University Montgomery in Alabama told Reuters Health.

“You can say Pilates is legitimate core training,” she said. But if you’re trying to lose weight, “you’re going to definitely have to supplement with something else,” such as a running regimen and diet, Olson noted.

During the study, Olson and her team asked ten people with an average of five years’ experience with Pilates to follow basic, intermediate and advanced Pilates workouts for 30 to 45 minutes each, and measured how many calories they burned.

In a separate experiment, the researchers measured the activity of the abdominal muscles in ten people as they completed five Pilates moves and a standard stomach crunch.

The researchers found that, on average, a person weighing 75 kilograms (or 165 pounds) burns 480 calories per hour from an advanced workout, 390 calories per hour from an intermediate routine, and 276 calories for every hour of a basic Pilates workout.

However, some exercises burned more calories than others. For instance, during the intermediate and advanced workouts, the “Roll-Over, “Jackknife” and “Boomerang” exercises used a higher-than-average amount of calories, while the “Hundred,” “Leg Circles” and the “Seated Twist” burned fewer calories, on average.

In terms of abdominal muscles, Pilates largely out-performed basic abdominal crunches.

Olson and her colleagues presented their findings last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the American College of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition.

Sex does a body good in a number of ways, according to Davidson and other experts. The benefits aren’t just anecdotal or hearsay — each of these 10 health benefits of sex is backed by scientific scrutiny.

I’m not surprised at all, especially the one that says: “Sex improves intimacy”? that is so obvious! Another one is - “Sex helps you sleep better” - another benefit that no one needs you to be told about. Overall that article in WebMD is not so useful at all.

read more | digg story

Supplements taken by millions may raise risk of premature death, claims new scientific review. Although there could be some truth on this report, I doubt it should be taken seriously if you are only taking 1 or 2 tabs a day. If someone is nuts who take them in volumes, of course, taking too much of them simultaneously has a bad effect, everything in excess is not good. But these vitamin supplements are there as “supplements” - to add to our daily body needs for vitamins. Hate these report of “may”, there’s really no certainty and it did not take responsibility of truly studying for it and reporting with conviction about it.

read more | digg story

Seated Cable Rows are great for the lats muscles, and it also exercises the trapezius, rhomboids and rear deltoids. It will give you wider lats if done correctly, but may result to lower back pain if not done correctly.

Below are the steps on proper way of doing seated cable rows:

1. Sit at the pulley row machine. Anchor your feet against the foot platforms, with your knees slightly bent.
2. Keep your back straight, lean forward slightly and grasp the handles with a narrow grip.
3. Pull the handles high toward your chest, keeping your spine straight. Your elbows should point behind you. Don’t lock your knees.
4. Hold for a second, then return to the starting position.

To target more on the trapezius, pull the handles or bar through a high trajectory towards the middle chest; a low trajectory toward the abdomen works more on the latissimus dorsi.

Remember to keep your back straight and torso upright, to prevent injury to your lower back and you are contracting the right muscles (lats and traps). Squeeze the shoulder blades together to maximize muscle contraction.

Below is a video demonstrating the proper execution of seated cable row:

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.