Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) has become a popular mode of training in recent years due to three main factors; it is short in duration, more effective in subcutaneous fat loss when compared to other types of cardio workouts and can relieve the boredom often experienced with long, steady state cardio. The attraction of reducing your training time may be attractive to you and spark some initial interest, but HIIT training affords you far more benefits than just a short or enjoyable workout.
HIIT is far superior compared to steady state exercises when ...
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"You look great! You lift weights right? I would love to look like you but I don't want to bulk up." Admit it ladies! How many of you have if not verbalized at least have thought about this at some point in your life? I know I have. For years I was dreading to lift weights, especially when training legs, out of fear of bulking up. I was under the false impression that if I concentrate on cardio and light weight reps, I would manage to keep my legs lean as I tend to hold most of my weight in the lower region. It wasn't until I started competing that my perception changed. We women are not genetically built to "grow" as men do from lifting weights. On the contrary: ...
Protein is a major functional and structural component for the growth and repair of our cells. They are made up of long chains of amino acids, which are nutritionally essential and obtained by our diet and provide 10-15% of our dietary needs.
There a several things you can do for fitness success. Here's some things you can do to get started!
Physical
Are you trying to find the best abs
We all expect immediate results. That is just part of the age we live in. Communication is fast. 
Exercise is an important component in the overall strategy for improving the
health and strength of your bones. The optimal exercise regime for preventing osteoporosis has yet to be established, but these guidelines are based on our current state of
knowledge. We do know that exercise works best when you have adequate levels of estrogen, calcium intake and vitamin D. The diet should be low in fat with
emphasis on cereals, fruits and vegetables.
One of the hottest debates in our fitness culture is that of Nature vs. Nurture. On one side, we have the idea that Mother Nature is ultimately in control of our fitness level. The idea is that your DNA and genes are ultimately in control of how much fat you carry and how strong you are. No matter what you do, you simply cannot change your situation very much. If you diet, the weight will come back. If you workout, you will lose what little muscle you have gained very quickly.
With every passing day the percentage of
Do you think fitness and/or health care professionals should recommend supplements? I personally don't think fitness and health care professionals should be recommending supplements of any kind unless they are qualified to do so, for example, if they hold a dietitian's or nutritionist's certification and/or license to prescribe individual diet plans based on their client's goals.
It seems hard to keep weight off in the summer because of all the parties and barbecues, but there so much fun! You don't want to miss out because you're afraid of gaining weight. So how can you still have fun without gaining the weight? Is it possible? The answer is YES! You can totally have your cake and eat it too. You can enjoy yourself just as much as your friends who aren't concerned about their diet. The trick is to substitute your food and drinks. For example, if you want a hot dog (because you know every barbecue has them so you have got to have one, it wouldn't be the same if you didn't) have a chicken hot dog instead. They are just as delicious! And they are half the sodium and fat of a real hot dog. Hot dogs are VERY high in sodium. They are also VERY high in fat, so this ...
Not warming up before stretching. Because stretching cold muscles increases your chances of injury; you should always warm up before stretching (i.e., perform activities that will increase your body temperature enough to "warm" you up sufficiently to safely begin exercising). Contrary to popular belief, stretching is not a warm-up.
You’re over 40, and as far as exercise is concerned, you fall into one of two groups - either you exercise regularly or you do not. Okay, there is a third group, “you exercise when someone makes you.” Let’s assume you’re either in the “do not” or the “when someone makes you” exercise group.
Many great healers from Hildegard to Albert Schweitzer have suggested that we are our own best physicians. In understanding hormones, we learn that we are also our own best pharmacies. However, if our bodies fail to produce hormones in adequate amounts, we do not feel well and not feeling well can lead to a devastatingly downward spiral.
If you've been following a fitness plan, working out hard and trying to stick to a healthy nutrition regimen but you still wake up every morning and struggle with the dilemma of what to eat for breakfast, then this article is perfect for you! So many people have a difficult time choosing the right foods to eat in the morning when their overall goal is to lose body fat and get lean. Whether they are in a rush for time or just have no idea about which breakfast foods to fit into their diet plan, this article will give you some quick and easy healthy breakfast ideas that you can make in the matter of minutes. Nobody likes to eat the same foods all the time, so its nice to have a list of nutritious choices to pick from when you get up in the morning and want to start ...
A few years ago I decided, rather ignorantly, to paint the outside of my house. It's a true two-story. Now I didn't just go get the paint and start painting. I did do some planning and it all worked out fine and my house got painted. It took me a month, but I got it finished. My only focus was the end ...my newly painted house. Now, if I had sat and planned a little more carefully, it might have been an easier task. However, I was only focused on the ending as I had a life to live and three small children to raise. The point of this story, we are so focused on the goal, we don't do what is necessary to reach it. Just like every rung of the ladder must be used to reach the top, daily tasks must be done to reach a goal.
Back in college I was a cardio junkie. Were talking a hard-core, life-sucks-if-I-don't-workout kind of junkie. My public reason for doing cardio 2-3 hours a day, 6-7 days a week was because I was a bike racer. I had teammates who were counting on me to perform on the bike and I wanted to do everything I could to stay competitive. However, underneath there was the real reason why I was compelled to spend 2 hours a day like a hamster on a wheel. I call it the cardio trap.
In my last article, we were working off the idea that
I had the great honor to speak with Dave Tate the other day. We talked about a wide variety of topics, but one thing that stuck out about what Dave said was that athletes are more interested in playing their sport and practicing their skills, not numbers in the weight room. I find that many strength coaches and sports coaches are more concerned with the numbers in the weight room than if they are actually getting better on the field.
I had the great opportunity to speak with two very accomplished strength coaches the past two days. These exclusive interviews with Steve Maxwell and Elliott Hulse will be available shortly, but one of the common threads that I spoke about with them was "health". This doesn't just mean exercise in this case, but rather mind-body-spirit health. Coach Maxwell is known as a mobility expert and he explained that the joints have no direct blood supply so they can only be nurtured in synovial fluid through movement. I just did an hour of one of his routines and it was awesome! There is much research behind some of his moves such as figure eight movement with ...
It's getting dirty out there in the world of fitness and weight loss product marketing. Gone are the days where companies would just take a sound bite of an athlete saying they use a product. Now, fitness and weight loss marketing has become a science of persuasion and manipulation to get you to part with your cash for less than optimal products.
While speaking yesterday with Northeastern University's basketball strength coach and director of sports medicine, Art Horne, the issue of knees naturally came up. The reason I say that it naturally came up is because being that he works with a lot of basketball players and I work with a lot of basketball players, we both encounter knee pain a lot. He made the very interesting point that basketball is really one of the only sports that you can play by yourself. So these players are basically playing year-round. This is something that I have written about before and I am not really that fond of.
I used to believe that most diet and exercise theories were either good or bad. However I've come to understand that there is some good in the worst ideas and vice versa. However, when it comes to the theory that we all have a programmed set point, I want to bash my head against something hard and immovable.
I am a big fan of Usain Bolt. Unfortunately, he was disqualified the other night at the world championships for a false start. The man is super human and I doubt we will see anyone near his speed in our lifetime again.
Almost all guys want them, but not all guys know how to possess them. I am not a big proponent of isolation or bodybuilding style routines and that even means for the most famous muscle of them all, the biceps. Whenever someone says, "Show me your muscle", they really mean, show me your biceps.
Functional training has long been a buzzword in our fitness culture. It's a fantastic training modality but like everything else it can be abused, misused and is often misunderstood. It's kind of funny to label certain exercises as functional because that would imply that there are other exercises that are not functional at all. While some folks might claim that to be the case, one of the most basic principals of exercise science says differently.
It seems there has been a sort of watershed in the past few years with respect to pulling back the curtain on our modern food supply. There has been a barrage of documentaries all looking to put a spotlight on various aspects of our food industry. Have you ever thought about where the meat in your cheeseburger comes from? How about the tomato in your salad? Your granola bar? Your water? If asked these questions a few years ago, I would only be able to tell you the restaurant or grocery store where it was purchased. Any further than that, I had no clue and to be honest, never really thought about it. I assumed, like most, that if it was in the restaurant or grocery store, that was certified enough for me. After all, weren't there people who watched food safety ...
Are you the type of person that believes you create your own destiny? I am going to guess that if you are reading this, then somewhere inside of you, you do believe that. I often tell my students and gym members that you can either be like 99% of the population and go with the flow, kind of being pushed along the river of life or you can be a "one percenter". The one percenters are the people that are going to stay up all hours of the night and work tirelessly to achieve their dreams. The worst thing to be is average or mediocre, yet most of the world is just that. The things that follow are very simple to do, yet very few make them a daily habit. If you continue on, I will teach you how to climb to the top of your own personal mountain and have a killer body to ...


