Fitness Training

Archive for July, 2009

Somewhere in the fitness and health community there is a misguided logic that we are all subject to metabolisms beyond our control…that we are born one way, and there is not much we can do about it. Metabolism, people think, is simply something that slows to a crawl the older you get because, well, it is an age thing, and just the toll Father Time takes on your body.

As a fitness expert for over 25 years, it is difficult for me to listen to this line of logic, or “illogic” I should say, without wanting to bite a penny in two. I have worked one-on-one with multiple clients for the last 25 years. I have seen their highs and lows, as well as my own, and have come to the understanding that metabolism is not a wild card over which you have no control.

It is something you can take the reins of today, and lead yourself to a healthier lifestyle; but let it first be said that this is something you have to want.

Getting in shape and staying in shape are goals that require commitment. It is not always an easy task, but it is one that reaps rewards that will improve the quality and the length of your life. With diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, only a few of the potentially fatal effects of an unhealthy lifestyle can you afford not to take action?

This is why you must learn to improve your metabolism. And the faster you can do it, the better. Here are just three great tips for what you can do to get started:

Drink Ice Cold H2O

Hey, if you are drinking your required amount of water every day, then hats off to you. But drinking cold water offers the side benefit of helping your body burn more calories. How does this work exactly? Your body must work harder at getting the reduced temperature up to your normal body temperature. This does not exactly offer a drastic difference, but it is a helpful bell-and-whistle to increase your metabolism.

Keep Your Body Guessing

During homeostasis, your body attempts to adjust your metabolism to the number of calories you consume per day. By constantly fluctuating your calories, you use one of the greatest tools at your disposal for increasing metabolism. You keep your body’s coping mechanism on its toes, and force your metabolism into a greater state of activity. You may try 1700 calories per day for a week, then up it to 2100 on a 1900-calorie plan. Confuse your body, and you will control your metabolism rather than allowing it to control you.

Eat More

That is correct. To lose weight, you should eat more often. Supply the body with a continual supply of nutrients, and you will force it into more frequent digestion, a process that requires the use of calories. Burn more calories. Lose more fat.

There are many more great ways for you to take charge of this all-important factor in the conquering of your fitness goals. There is also a lot of false information out there. So be careful, and only listen to the experts, or those who have put in the necessary time and research to get the positive results and change lives in the process.

Discover How To Create A Leaner, Firmer, Younger Looking Body By Turbo-Charging Your Metabolism in 30 Days or Less. – Check out the Hot Metabolism website now! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

You have seen them on TV. Whether it is taking a swing at that home run pitch, knocking a few of the other guy’s teeth out in an octagonal-shaped cage or snatching down a Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass, athletes today are bigger, faster, and stronger.

It is easy for the aspiring bodybuilder to get discouraged when looking at this more famous gallery of Who’s Who in the muscle-bound community. If you can relate to what I am referring to, do not worry or blame yourself. It is very possible that you make a point of hitting the gym a few times a week. It is also very possible that you put in a good, solid workout. You may even like what you see at the time you are doing the reps.

But when you get home, and your body has settled in, so to speak, there is a good chance that what you see in the mirror is a little disappointing. “I’m not bad,” you may be thinking, “but I wish I could get ripped like .”

And then again, some of you may long for a more muscular physique, but are convinced it is a goal that is simply too far out of reach.

Well, no one said it was going to be easy, but just because something is not easy, that does not mean it has to take forever to accomplish it. Here are some great tips for how to build muscle in less time, so you can soon enjoy the physique you have always wanted:

Use free weights. – Free weights assist you in building your core, as well as the muscles they isolate. With free weights, your body is forced to not only lift the weight for the isolated region of the body, but also maintain balance throughout the rest of the body. This increases your level of overall strength more quickly.

Nurture your muscles at night with adequate amounts of protein. – Whey protein is an especially good source for after a workout, because it assists in the production of amino acids that help heal and grow muscles.

Get the right amount of sleep. – Your body needs to rest, especially as you push it harder during weight training. Make sure you are recharged before taking on more than you can handle. The recommended rest period is about 48 hours. So you have to be a little patient here. Don’t overuse your muscles, especially when they are still sore. Otherwise, you risk injury. And injury will jeopardize your workout program.

Try these tips, and see if they do not make a difference in your regular exercise routine. Whatever you do…however hard you push it…do not let your body get used to what you dish out. If you can keep it guessing, and incorporate these helpful hints, you will be in control of your body, rather than your body being in control of you.

Good luck, and take it one day at a time.

Discover How To Create A Leaner, Firmer, Younger Looking Body By Turbo-Charging Your Metabolism in 30 Days or Less. – Check out the Hot Metabolism website now! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

If you have been trying to lose weight and failing miserably at that, it may not be entirely your body’s fault. You are probably overlooking a major aspect of how your body deals with fat. You have to understand why you gain weight through the accumulation of fat in your body before you can successfully remove it. It makes sense, doesn’t it? That you will need to go to the root of a problem to understand how it began before you can successfully weed it out. So first, we take a look at how you body utilizes what you eat before understanding how you can lose weight.

The body uses the food that you eat to run all the bodily functions that go on through the entirety of your body. This is called metabolism – your body is utilizing the food you give it for creating energy, essentially burning the carbs, sugars, proteins and fats to give you energy. However, not all bodies work the same way and hence, some people need more food to burn and some need less of it. What is common, however, is that most people are ignorant of how much they should really eat and of what. Some can tell simply by intuition, by watching their bodies. But most cannot.

For knowing exactly the amount of different food groups that you should eat everyday, you should seek out a proper diet plan. Your daily activities, lifestyle, height, weight, age and body type will all be taken in to consideration before a diet plan is given to you. And this has to be combined to an active lifestyle and regular exercise to help you lose weight permanently. However, sometimes people fail to lose weight even after this.

That is because their metabolism is often too slow to cope with the calories that they are consuming on a day to day basis. So the excess is stored away as fat. However, you need to tell your body that the time to burn that fat is now and you can do that by enhancing your metabolism.

The way to boost your metabolism is to exercise intensely, then feed your muscles. Having muscle mass helps to burn fat. And the only way to enhance your metabolism is through exercising and allowing your muscles to grow.

Note that your muscles don’t growing while you are working out. Your muscles only grow after an intense work out. Intensity is very important here. Exercises like walking or jogging is good for relaxation and leisure, but they don’t help to build strength and muscles. So accept the idea that you need to workout hard to achieve the fitness level you are looking for.

After a hard work out, get plenty of rest, hydrate yourself, and feed your body. Work with a diet plan that will work for you. The two most important figures you need to know are the amount of calories per meal, and the amount of proteins you should be taking.

When you embark on such a fitness program, you are encouraging your body to utilize the food you eat at a much faster rate. Hence, instead of fat getting stored up, your excess fat is burned to power your bodily functions. In simpler words, your body’s power consumption is gradually increased so that you can burn fat faster.

You may wake up in the morning feeling like you are worth a million bucks! Now that is something really worth having. Ask an expert how to do supercharge your metabolism.

Discover How To Create A Leaner, Firmer, Younger Looking Body By Turbo-Charging Your Metabolism in 30 Days or Less. – Check out the Hot Metabolism website now! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

Diets are not miracles and they have limitations of their own. In addition to that, the market is filled with fad diets that do not do much but waste your money and time. Some are in fact dangerous for your body if you over do them. So if you feel your diet is not working for you. You are not alone. There are a lot of people out there just like you who are facing similar problems. They are feeling undernourished, suffering from poor concentration and they are also feeling starved. Under these circumstances, you really need something that goes beyond just your diet.

Diets do not work because they fail to address the main issue at hand, which is to build strength and increase the metabolism rate. Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns fat. The higher your metabolism, the more calories you burn. But you can’t achieve a higher metabolism if you are not combining a proper diet with an adequate workout program.

So now do you understand what you truly need?

You don’t need a diet that starves you half to death. That’s a train wreck waiting to happen. Your body starts to store fats to conserve energy because it doesn’t know when the next meal is coming. Hence, the metabolism rate drops. That means you are getting further and further away from your goals.

Some people hold on to the illusion that dieting works because they appear to have lost weight in the beginning of a diet. Indeed, they may have lost some weight. But losing muscle mass and losing fats are two different things altogether. If you lose weight due to your muscles getting smaller, that is never a good thing. You are becoming weaker! Your goal is to become healthier so that you can lead a fuller life. So dieting is certainly not the way to go.

It is common knowledge that very few people benefit from the diets and the celebrities that are often chosen to aid the campaign are more than often, paid to do so. In addition to that, their daily routines can be regulated to a large extent because they have other people to take care of their work whilst they take care of their body. With so many fitness experts and trainers around them, they are likely to succeed on any diet.

So do not be fooled by fancy diets. Instead, try to work on your body by exercising and having a healthy diet. If you have healthy body, you can easily make it work for you exactly the way you want it to. And this needs you to know exactly what your body needs and how much it needs it. Strike a balance with all the food that you eat and by combine your diet with intense workouts and exercise. You will immediately start to feel stronger and healthier within a few short weeks.

Discover How To Create A Leaner, Firmer, Younger Looking Body By Turbo-Charging Your Metabolism in 30 Days or Less. – Check out the Hot Metabolism website now! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

No amount of fancy diet food and/or supplements can give you the benefits of a good workout and proper food. That is because your body is naturally accustomed to use up the food it gets in performing the everyday tasks that you do. However, when you become sedentary and cease to have an active lifestyle, it can seriously affect your health. This is when you stop getting your daily dose of exercise and hence you lose out on the benefits that your body is used to getting. This is the perfect recipe for you to start gaining weight and if you are reading this article; it is possible that you have already started gaining weight.

So if you are looking around for quick ways to lose weight, let me tell you that none of these fancy diets will work for you. You need to make your body capable of handling the fast by itself and starvation is never an answer. In fact, if your body thinks that it is going through a famine situation, something called the famine syndrome will kick in. This is when the body starts to gather more fat than usual so that you have energy reserves for using if continuing not getting food. This is a natural defense mechanism but it completely baffles people when they see that despite eating less, they are gaining weight faster than before.

Don’t let this happen to you; eat as much as you think you need. Do not eat till you are stuffed. Rather, eat till you are hungry no more. The best things to eat are natural products. So make yourself a large, raw salad everyday and you can eat as much as you want. You can also create a delicious fruit salad for yourself every morning and have a hearty breakfast with it. Use home made yoghurt with it instead of cream. Yoghurt contains lots of protein, which is good for muscle growth.

If you are just starting out, try out some weights to find out the intensity level that you should be working out with. With the weights, try a set with repetitions of 8. If you find that you are doing more than 8 repetitions, you can add more weights. But if you find that you can’t even hit 8 repetitions, then you need to reduce the weight.

Intensity is a key factor here. Dancing and aerobic related exercises are good for fun and leisure, but they don’t help you to build strength and muscles. You need to have lean muscle mass so that you can supercharge your metabolism rate and burn off the excess fat in your body. Only then will you be to achieve long term results.

If nothing is helping, you need to see a fitness expert and get professional advice on what you should do. You can then take up the custom exercise program that your fitness coach creates for you and hit the gym. Sometimes, it is also possible to carry small gym equipment like small dumb-bells and hand presses to everywhere you go. This way you can keep up with your routine no matter where you go. You can also buy home gym equipment have a good work out within the comfort of your home.

Don’t find excuses to skip your exercises. Nothing should be more important than your health. Eat right, exercise regularly and soon you will be on your way to your ideal weight and shape.

Discover How To Create A Leaner, Firmer, Younger Looking Body By Turbo-Charging Your Metabolism in 30 Days or Less. – Check out the Hot Metabolism website now! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

As a fitness enthusiast, protein is perhaps the most important nutrient of all. But first, let’s get your foundations right.

Whatever nutrients that you consume, needs to be properly absorbed into your body. That means you should have a healthy body to start with. If you are having some health problems, and your immune system is weak, then you need to strengthen your foundation.

How do you do that?

Start by taking lots of rest and drinking lots of water. Take multivitamins on top of your daily diet to ensure that you get the daily amount of vitamins that your body needs. Soon, you will start to feel healthier and more energetic, even without working out.

When you feel well enough, you may wish to start your exercise program. Working out is important because it can increase your metabolic rate. When it comes to losing weight and improving health, metabolism is everything. You need to do whatever you can to boost your metabolism.

Your metabolism helps to convert oxygen and food into energy. In other words, if you have a high metabolism, your body is more efficient at energy conversion. That’s why you won’t feel tired easily. In addition, a higher metabolic rate helps to burn more fat, even while you are at rest. Imagine burning away all those stubborn calories even while you are working at your computer. That’s a nice thing to happen!

Soon, you will find yourself having a much toner body due to your efforts. But working out is never enough. You mustn’t forget to eat well and feed your muscles.

To super charge your metabolism, you need to build lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle you have in your body, the higher your metabolism. Therefore, your primary goal is to build as much lean muscle as you possibly can. How? By working out regularly and eating well.

After each workout, if it’s intense enough, you find that your muscles become sore and tense. That’s your muscle responding to the stress that you are putting on them. It’s a good sign though. The muscles will then respond accordingly and grow to meet the demand that you are placing on them.

But in order for your muscles to repair and grow, you must give it the nutrients that it needs – protein!

Protein is already available in your daily diet. But most people don’t make a conscious effort to notice what they eat. In reality, you don’t even have to count the calories if you burn more than what you consume. But you should at least have some ability to “eyeball” the meals you are taking and make a good guess of the amount of protein you are consuming, and the amount of calories you are taking in.

If you find that the meals do not have enough protein, you can always take protein supplements such as protein shakes or whey protein shakes to help increase the amount of protein intake.

There are a lot of times in sport where one member of the team will have made it possible for them to get through to the final – the place where they really want to be, and had maybe wanted to be for many years. But sometimes bad luck and or fate would have it that so that the one team member who most deserves to be there doesn’t make it. A prime example of this was Laurent Blanc who made it possible for his team to get to the last eight of the 1998 Football World Cup. He had been one of the most popular and stylish players and the leadership qualities he displayed in the run up to the World Cup earned him the nickname Le Président. Blanc unfortunately was sent off in the semi-final after ‘pushing’ Slaven Bilic of Croatia, injuring his right eye. TV replays however showed that any contact between Blanc and Bilic was below the neck, but he was still suspended.

Another sportsmen who missed out on glory was Nomar Garciaparra. He had played for, and was the face of the Boston Red Sox for 10 years, and for those ten years it was his and the team’s dream was to win the Baseball World Series. However he was traded to the Chicago Cubs on Major League Baseball deadline day in 2004. He was quoted as saying at the time ‘If it was in my control, I’d still be wearing a Red Sox uniform. That’s the place I know, I love, all those fans, I’ll always remember’. Three months later the Boston Red Sox won the Baseball World Series for the first time in 86 years.

Filbert Bayi broke the 1500m world record in the 1974 Commonwealth Games, narrowly beating local hero John Walker. They would have competed against each other again in the 1976 Olympics had Tanzania not boycotted the Olympics in protest at a rugby union tour of South Africa , by the New Zealand team. Needless to say Walker won the gold medal at the games.

Miguel Angel Martin missed out on the Ryder Cup in 1997 due to being axed from the team three weeks before the tournament. The reason? He refused to play 18 holes to test a wrist injury.

Micheal Jones, the All-Black flanker refused to play matches on a Sunday due to his faith, and therefore missed the semi-final of the World Cup in 1991, where the All-Blacks were playing Australia, who eventually won.

Jenny Gunn, who has been playing cricket since she was 10 years old, had to be replaced before the Cricket World Cup final this year when she sustained a calf injury in the warm up to the game. It was England’s first time in the Cricket World Cup final in 16 years.

And there’s Roberto De Vicenzo, who has had to endure the sting of making one of Argentina’s worst sporting mistakes. No South American has ever won the Green Jacket of the Masters but their (and his) chance of victory in 1968 was lost when he inadvertently submitted an incorrect scorecard, thereby giving American Bob Goalby a one shot victory instead of sending the year’s first major to a playoff.

The Irish Grand National is one of the most exciting steeplechases in the world and the winners board reads like a who’s who of national hunt greats. It is an annual racing even which takes place at Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland, just 12 miles northwest of Dublin. The race traditionally takes place on Easter Monday. The first race took place in 1870, for a prize of 167 sovereigns and was won by Sir Robert Peele. The winner of the second race was Scots Grey who won again in 1875 – the first dual winner of the Irish Grand National. The race has taken place every year since then bar two – 1919 and 1941 due to the First and Second World Wars. The 2010 event will be the 138th running of the race.

The racecourse is 3 miles 5 furlongs short – it is in fact the shortest of the Nationals. But there are 25 fences to clear, which is quite an amount for such a short course. The event is Ireland’s most prestigious steeplechase event, and is a handicap race for horses five years or over. Steeplechasing is the ideal kind of race for staying horses, and although a gruelling race, it is a fair one and attracts the best contenders from around the world.

One of these contenders was Arkle who won the Irish Grand National in 1964. Arkle was so good that two weighting systems were created for the handicap – the first was used when Arkle was running and the second when he wasn’t! This meant that in 1964 he had to carry 2.5 stone more than all the other horses in the race. And he still won! In the same year he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for the first time. He won 27 out of his 35 races but had to stop racing after he injured his hoof in the King George Chase, and was put down at 13 due to arthritis. His name does however live on as the best steeplechaser ever.

Another legend of the Irish Grand National was Flying Bolt who won the race in 1966. As well as this huge achievement Flying Bolt won at the Cheltenham Festival three times – in 1965 he won the Champion Chase and a day later he came second in the Champion Hurdle. Flying Bolt was trained by the same trainer as Arkle, Tom Dreaper. Flying Bolt contracted Brucellosis aged 7 and he was never the same afterwards, winning only one race until he turned 11 and was retired.

Rhyme N Reason won the Irish Grand National in 1985, one of a very few horses to have won both the Irish and English Grand Nationals. He also won the Grand National and the Racing Post Trophy in the same year – remarkable achievements.

Desert Orchid was another extremely popular steeplechaser who won the Irish Grand National in 1990. Desert Orchid won almost every steeplechase race, including the Whitbread Gold Cup, the Tingle Creek, the Racing Post Chase and the Victor Chandler.

If you are working out intensely, you certainly need to consume more protein. Protein is the primary ingredient that will help you build lean muscle and increase muscle strength.

As time goes by, your metabolism rate increases, and your overall health improves. Your metabolism rate is what helps you keep a nice figure (assuming that’s your goal). A person with a higher metabolism will burn fat more easily. He or she can eat more without having to worry about putting on extra weight.

It is best that you consume protein supplements before and after your workout. As those are the best times that have been scientifically proven to improve your results.

Your protein supplements are taken on top of your daily diet. You should, by now, know how much protein you should be taking each day. The average person usually doesn’t consume enough proteins each day because he is not doing any tracking. As a result, these individuals start to lose muscle mass and their metabolism rate drops as they grow older. That’s why you see so many overweight people on the street – they don’t work out and they certainly don’t eat well.

A simple whey protein shake, which doesn’t take too long to prepare may be all you need on a daily basis. If you are working out, the recommended number of servings is 2 to 3 per day.

It takes just a few minutes to prepare a delicious protein shake. But first, what exactly is a whey protein shake?

Whey protein isolate is extracted from milk, and it contains both essential and non-essential amino acids that helps in muscle growth. It is believed to be protein is its purest form.

Many fitness enthusiasts who have consumed whey protein on a regular basis have seen great results.

There are many ways you can prepare your protein supplements. You can mix them in a drink, or in a smoothie. Most will taste just like any ordinary smoothie. Some products come in powder form, while others come in cream form. That means they can be easily mixed with any food.

You can also mix the protein powder with your high protein meals.

Remember, protein alone won’t make you fitter. You must workout and combine your exercises with your diet. The supplements are meant to help you make up the short fall (if any) in your daily diet. If you don’t workout, excess proteins can be converted to fat and stored in the body. You are then growing fatter instead of stronger!

The key is to build muscle mass so that your metabolism can eventually take over and help you lose weight.

There are many different types of protein supplements to choose from. The most popular to date, is perhaps the whey protein shakes. They are easy to prepare and delicious! Chocolate flavor would be your favorite if you have a sweet tooth.

Whether you are a fitness enthusiast or someone serious about female bodybuilding, you need to understand that there is a difference between how the female body is constructed when compared to a male body.

Here are some key differences.

For example, the female body is a higher body fat percentage when compared to a male body. That means it is natural for you to look less defined.

Most ladies just want a well toned body. Usually, only those who are taking part in special competitions need to build muscles with definitions.

The process of strength building is similar. But if you want definition, you may need to consult with health experts.

In general, most women just want to improve their metabolism so that their bodies can burn away the fat, which makes them look unsightly.

Losing weight is all about improving the metabolism. That is the only way to achieve long term health benefits.

Never attempt to try starving diet methods. Those methods have been proven to fail. Maybe you start losing a few pounds in the beginning because you haven’t been eating well.

But you could be losing water, fat or worse – muscles! When you lose muscles, your metabolism rate decreases. And that means your ability to burn fat has gone down.

The body cannot be starving forever. Sooner or later, you will have to eat. It’s just cyclical.

When you do start eating again, you usually find that you will gain back all the weight you have lost. In fact, most people experience an increase in weight because now the body is storing all the fats due to a lower metabolism!

The answer is to exercise. And I’m not talking about leisure exercises like walking or jogging. It has to be intense enough so that you start building up your muscles.

Don’t worry about looking like a she-hulk when you start working out. You find that it’s not so easy, especially for females. Unlike males, the female body does not bulk up as easily as males. Those women with ripping muscles you see in the magazines? Well, those are meant to provide entertainment. And they are mostly professional bodybuilders.

You don’t have to look like that. In fact, it’s VERY difficult for you to achieve that kind of results. You will have to have a very strict diet and consume all kinds of supplements and get your body fat to a very low percentage. Very few people can achieve that.

So start working out. If you haven’t been working out, start with a workout program that is manageable. You realize that your muscles become very sore the next day. In part, this is because you haven’t been using them very much!

But it’s the right direction. When you workout, your muscles respond to the stress. That’s why it’s sore. Now all you have to do is to give it ample rest and nutrition and allow it to grow.

Don’t make the mistake of stressing your muscles too much. It will just lead to injury. And there goes your workout program.

Be patient, exercise consistently, rest well and eat well. That’s the proven formula for a healthy lifestyle.