Stationary bikes are the ideal exercise equipment for the home. We are all recommended to exercise for 30 minutes per day to stay healthy combined with a good intake of balanced meals. Most people complain about not having time to go to the gym or get ready for a run etc, but if it was 30 minutes of TV, I bet time wouldn’t be an issue. Why not combine the two, TV and exercise? Watching TV while exercising eliminates the boredom of being locked in a room staring at all four walls while exercising. If you have a show that you watch regularly, time will just fly by.

What stationary bike will I buy?

Stationary bikes come in all wonderful styles, from the basic stationary bike to integrated programs for spin and mountain races. The best is what you can afford to pay, the main thing is that you exercise regularly or intend to. The most basic stationary bike can be as low as $80 and up, and usually has a few different gears available to make the exercise more intense as you progress with fitness. I have to say that if you can afford to spend $200, you will find stationary bikes that have preset exercise programs that are easy to follow and are a great way to burn fat.

How to start:

Getting started can be daunting, but after a week or so you’ll notice your fitness level and overall health improve. You should introduce your body to the exercise for the first few days, for many people who buy stationary bikes it is the first time they have done an exercise of this type in years. The first few days should be a slow introductory pace, if you go all out on the first day you will only end up with sore muscles and may even stop exercising again. Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Who are the main manufacturers of exercise bikes?

Weslo, Reebok, Tuntui, Stamina, Proform, Nordic Track and Fitness Track have for many years made some of the best exercise bikes we have ever seen and they all continue to do so. There are folding bikes available for those who live in apartments or people who are simply limited by space. Many people are now trying to build a home gym with the essentials of exercise equipment; the exercise bike should be first on the shopping list. The exercise itself is a great aerobic workout, easy to get started with, and works ideally as a cross trainer with most other fitness equipment.

Some exercise bikes have a double function, exercise for the upper and lower body. In addition to the obvious leg exercise you will also find upper body levers on some, this is an ideal exercise for a full body workout and will burn fat faster than the standard stationary bike (the more muscle groups you exercise, the more fat you will burn). and faster).

Why buy an exercise bike when I can get a treadmill?

The exercise bike has a very low impact on the joints. If you have previous injuries or generally weak joints, the stationary bike is an ideal gentle exercise. The treadmill is a much higher impact exercise on the joints and should be taken into account by those with weak knees or ankles. If you decide to get a dual exercise (upper and lower body) stationary bike, you will burn more fat than with the treadmill since you have no upper body resistance with the treadmill. There are arguments on both sides of the fence as to which is better the bike or the treadmill, but you should look at your goals and see what fits both your budget and your overall fitness or weight loss goal. Cardio currently benefits you as a user is greater with the dual-function stationary bike than with the treadmill.

Soon:

The exercise bike is ideal for beginners and more advanced groups; offers a low-impact, calorie-burning workout that’s a great cardio workout. Combined with a balanced diet, the exercise bike used regularly will help you achieve your fitness goals.

The Amazon encompasses 1.2 billion hectares on the northern side of the South American continent, a part of which is in Brazil and covers almost half of that vast country. In fact, the Amazon and its fertile land for various plants and animals that thrive in its exotic climate, that Amazon products are better than what we call organic: they are wild. As a result, things that grow in nature are strong in their own defense mechanisms to fight off insects and all sorts of combatants. Amazonian products such as the Brazil nut, Guarana, and Acai berry are renowned for their complex composition and concentrated nutritional values.

Destruction of the rain forest!

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest reached its highest level in the years 2004 and 2005. Satellite photographs show that loggers burned and cleared nearly a record more than 10,000 square miles of rainforest in 2004 alone.

One of the main reasons is the worldwide demand for hearts of palm, which is a garnish for salads. Poachers were known to illegally cut down between 5,000 and 10,000 palm trees a week. This was just to get the 12- to 16-inch (30-40 cm) section that is near the crown of a 65-foot (20-meter) palm tree.

For this delicacy alone, a poacher would have cut down an average of 50 trees per day just to earn about $1 for each tree from which the heart of palm was extracted. Once the core is removed, the tree dies and rots.

The crop from a palm tree that has grown for over 100 years has enough of this delicacy to fill two 14-ounce cans of hearts of palm. This would retail in a supermarket for less than $5.00 per can. To feed salad bars and salad connoisseurs the world over, is such palm and rainforest destruction worth it? It is particularly wasteful because hearts of palm have no particular nutritional value beyond its fiber.

This is not the case with the Acai berry, which has significant nutritional density and harvesting it is a completely different approach.

Harvesting Acai in this way can save the jungle!

Due to the great interest and demand for the Acai berry, this has begun to help locals realize that cutting down these precious palms for just a few inches from the top core of the tree was no longer a solution, and he discovered that there were better ones. Available options. Each palm tree produces a bumper crop of Acai fruit twice a year. Within a few years, the value of the palm fruit itself far exceeded the value of removing the top core of the palm just to use it as a salad garnish.

Thus, a legitimate reason was found not to cut down those trees by harvesting the Acai berry in another way.

Workers now climb to the top of the 90-foot palm to collect what is known as the Black Pearl of the Amazon.

As these workers soon realized this type of reputed harvest every year or in some cases twice a year is a better way to secure their jobs and increase their profits.

Harvesting the fruits of the palms is better for the environment because the palm will continue to grow for years. This was the way to stop unscrupulous loggers destroying Acai palms for quick profits.

This is opening another window of opportunity for the indigenous people and showing them how to protect one of the best treasures they have, by saving the palm tree that contributes so much to people’s health.

Preparations after harvesting the Acai berry!

The Amazon River is long and wide and a ship can sail inland from the sea for more than 3,218 km (2,000 miles).

The river provides the best opportunity to navigate barges for transport and quick preparations immediately after the fruit is harvested. The timing is crucial; if not cared for properly, the oxidation process begins and quickly spoils the delicate fruit.

Without a way to keep the fruit refrigerated or to be processed quickly, it would deteriorate rapidly as almost all food in the tropics does. In the last decade or so, a reliable and cost-effective transportation infrastructure has been established including large refrigeration facilities. Well-equipped barges can navigate the river deep into the jungle collecting the harvest.

Barges equipped with this type of facilities where certain stages of processing have been carried out and transported to cities near the Amazon River. One of the most effective ways is to freeze the fruit in large blocks and send it to different destinations. Why freeze flash? This is the only and most effective way for the fruit to maintain all its benefits and nutritional values.

The power of Acai

As reported in the Journal of Agriculture and food chemistry, a study showing that extracts from Acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in more than 86 percent of leukemia cells tested.

This study was one of the first of its kind conducted by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to show what people can gain from using beverage, dietary supplements made from the berries. There are many reports of these types of different health benefits. Therefore, there is no better reason for distributors and companies to be eager to use the advantage of the Acai name.

Not all Acai products are the same

The label doesn’t say it all. On the label it may say that it includes Acai, but how much does it contain? Also, was it preserved as it should have been? Therefore, not all Acai products shown on the labels are the same, nor do they contain the right amount to have the effect it is meant to. The way this berry is preserved and processed can have a dramatic effect on its overall quality.

Many product labels list that they include Acai, but most have only a fraction of the amount of Acai and its antioxidant activity that they should. Some companies don’t understand how important all the post-harvest processing actions are, or are simply trying to save money by cutting corners in the process.

Around the late 1990s, university laboratories became more advanced in accurately measuring the amounts of specific nutrients in Acai fruits and other foods. Only that preservation methods caught on and became available, such as freeze-drying that would curb its nutritional quality.

Not many leading companies have researched and follow strict rules and guidelines to preserve and transport this high-quality product without losing any of its nutritional value.

Acai berry processing and preservation

The key is that the benefits of the Acai berry are delivered in the most effective and concentrated form. A process of freezing fresh harvested fruit to preserve the nutrients in the fruit that is done at a very low heat temperature; this process removes moisture from the berry, leaving behind the pure Acai powder.

Freeze-dried Acai powder, gram for gram, has an ORAC of 1,027, which I talked about in the previous article. That makes it one of the highest of any type of fruit or vegetable.

A product with one of the best health benefits has been found and developed for anyone who wants to take advantage of it. Now, more than ever, people are stepping up to accept responsibility for their own health and the food they eat. Scientific evidence shows that the most powerful health benefits come from Mother Nature, and using natural foods as medicine is the most logical step.

Public health officials are urging consumers to eat several servings of fruits and vegetables every day to get all the important antioxidants. Unfortunately, most people have very little knowledge about what antioxidants are and why they are important.

The other positive step is to change the harvest process, save the palm trees and protect the Amazon rainforest. It’s not just for taking, it’s also for giving back.

The dreaded love handles, not only because belly fat is closely linked to the development of cancer and diabetes, but also because love handle fat is so hard to lose. We’ve all heard the deal with you can reduce fat, so you’ll lose fat from different areas before you start to see a bit of an impact on your stomach fat.

As you begin the weight loss battle, there are a few important things to remember to ensure you stay motivated and happy as your body begins to change. The most common approach to love handles is to start doing tons of cardio followed by lots of abdominal exercises in an attempt to quickly slim down your stomach.

Not only will your body take a huge hit from all the cardio, but it will also prevent your body’s natural body from healing and rebuilding itself. The problem with a lot of direct abdominal work at this stage is that you still have a fairly thick layer of fat separating your abdominal muscles from the outside world. Strengthening and developing your abdomen with certain exercises will only make you look more bloated and will not help you get rid of love handles.

This is where your motivation takes a huge hit and motivation is everything when it comes to losing weight, if you’re not in the right mindset your workouts are less effective and worst of all, you’re just not happy.

The best cardiovascular exercise for burning fat is the type of anaerobic exercise that works a full range of muscles in the body while also working the heart and strengthening cardiovascular health. A great example of this is jumping, which works your leg, shoulder, and core muscles, giving you an amazing workout that can fit into any busy schedule.

So you’ve decided it’s time to lose weight, and like everything in life, you want it to happen RIGHT NOW. We live in a society that thrives on immediate gratification: fast food, fast cars, fast service, and now we even shop online so we don’t have to wait in line. And according to the usual rhythm of our lives, most of us even want to lose weight quickly!

But there are some basic weight loss principles to follow, even when you want to lose weight quickly. You have to forget about dieting and learn to focus instead on healthy eating habits. Cutting calories alone doesn’t give your body the nutrition it needs to maintain a fast metabolism and keep your energy up.

On the other hand, by eating nutrition-dense, low-calorie foods, you won’t be as hungry, give your body the vitamins and minerals it needs, and have the energy to drive past the donut table in the middle of the afternoon. And finding these foods is not as difficult as you think. Did you know that you can eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as you want without fear of gaining weight?

Exercise is another important factor in losing weight, regaining health, and having more energy. As much as you think you hate exercise, keep in mind that you’re not training to compete in the Olympics. Instead, you’re just trying to boost your metabolism and burn a few extra calories. Try taking the stairs instead of the elevator, park farther away so you have to take a few extra steps, or work a 30-minute walk or other exercise program into your schedule each day.

Remember to stay too! Many of us are busy from the time we get up until we go to bed. Sometimes finding time to eat or exercise can be a challenge. But cutting back on sleep will only sabotage your weight loss efforts.

Shoot for 7-8 hours a night. Some people believe they can get by with less, and even though you’ll be awake, studies have shown that you’ll snack more in an effort to jump-start your brain and stay awake. Lack of sleep also adds to your stress level, which releases hormones known to pack on the pounds. It is the natural way to protect the body.

And for an added boost to your weight loss efforts, try incorporating these natural weight loss drinks into your diet every day.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Weight Loss

Apple cider vinegar is a very powerful natural appetite suppressant if you can get past the taste, which is bad enough. But, because hunger tends to be the biggest stumbling block in your efforts to lose weight effectively, you may need the help of appetite suppressants like apple cider vinegar, at least until you get into the habit of eating. less.

You can trust prescription weight loss pills, but apple cider vinegar is 100% natural, making it a much safer alternative to medications. Three tablespoons of vinegar mixed with eight ounces of water and drunk just before meals will give your metabolic rate a boost and you’ll feel more energized throughout the day.

green tea for weight loss

I think almost everyone must have heard of the great health benefits of green tea by now, especially when it comes to weight loss. Most weight loss supplements these days contain green tea, and for good reason. Not only is it loaded with antioxidants, but the active ingredient in green tea, epigallocatechin (EGCG), is highly valuable in boosting fat burning processes such as thermogenesis and fat oxidation in humans.

Green tea drinks for weight loss can be purchased almost anywhere other bottled drinks are sold, but you can also make your own fresh drink. If the taste of green tea isn’t to your liking, try it with lemon juice and honey.

Thyroid imbalance is much more common today than it was a decade ago. Despite all the information available through books, magazines, and articles like this, more needs to be done to educate the public and the medical community. It has become a hidden epidemic in the United States, so it is important to learn how to eat right to support your thyroid.

The best eating plan for someone dealing with any thyroid disorder is one that contributes to their overall health. This means a diet low in fat, high in complex carbohydrates, and low on the glycemic index. Eating foods that fall into this category will make you lose weight and keep it off forever. The best part is that you’ll stay full longer, consume fewer calories, and get plenty of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and fiber.

This means staying away from refined sugars and simple sugars that cause sugar to enter your bloodstream faster and lead to a greater spike in blood sugar. The higher the blood sugar levels after consuming food, the higher the insulin levels. The GLYCEMIC INDEX is defined as how high blood sugar rises in response to eating a particular food. The greater the rise in blood glucose, the higher the glycemic index of the food.

You must learn to reduce the amount of simple sugars you eat each day, as well as lower the glycemic load at each meal. Here are some hints and tips on how to do just that:

1. Replace white bread with 100% WHOLE BREAD which has a lower glycemic index.

2. Increase your consumption of AVENA and BARLEY.

3. Eat foods like whole grains, barley, nuts, rye bread, and dried vegetables that have a much lower glycemic index.

4. Avoid white bread, white potatoes, French fries, sweetened breakfast cereals, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, white rice, crackers, biscuits, and buckwheat, all of which have an intermediate glycemic index. .

5. Choose leafy greens, whole grain breads, sugar-free crackers made from rice, and sugar-free muffins.

6. Avoid cookies, cakes, ice cream, donuts, and pastries that are full of refined sugars and fats.

To lower the glycemic index of your meals, increase the fiber content. This will increase the efficiency of insulin, keep you full longer, and reduce your caloric intake naturally. If you eat cereal, choose whole grain varieties that provide more calcium, fiber, iron, folate, vitamin C, and zinc. They will make you eat less fat and cholesterol and will help you lose weight by eating more fiber.

Although fruits are high in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants, they are quite high in simple sugars. For this reason, keep your fruit intake to 2 servings per day. Eat fruits with the lowest glycemic index which are organic apples and berries. When it comes to fats, you should avoid fats that come from meat and dairy, as well as fats that are solid at room temperature. If you eat too much fat, you’ll still be hungry and eat more calories as a result.

Your body can adjust its metabolism when you eat good quality protein and carbohydrates. You can’t do this if you eat too much fat. Fat is absorbed from the intestines and goes directly to fat cells for storage. If you reduce the fat in your diet, you will lose weight even if you eat the same number of calories. In other words, if you reduce your fat intake by 10%, you will lose approximately 10 pounds. Include good fats like olive oil, sesame oil, macadamia nut oil, and walnut oil.

The Mediterranean diet is a great way to eat. Include plenty of vegetables, nuts, fish, lean meats, whole grains, and olive oil that will help you lose weight and prevent you from gaining weight. This way of eating is your first line of defense against chronic illness, heart disease, and weight loss.

Here are some more tips for a successful weight management program:

1. Don’t skip meals: Make a plan to eat 300-400 calorie meals every 3-4 hours. Increasing meal frequency will promote lower insulin levels, improve insulin efficiency, and lower cholesterol in the process.

2. Eat breakfast: It’s the best way to jump-start your metabolism for the day and give you energy.

3. Be careful what you drink: Avoid drinking drinks with high fructose corn syrup used in many soft drinks that cause weight gain.

4. Keep portion sizes in mind – you can fill your plate with vegetables, leafy greens, etc. but the protein source should be about the size of a deck of cards and the whole grains should equal about 1/2 -3/4 cup.

5. Increase your calcium intake: Calcium affects fat cell metabolism and speeds it up, helping you lose weight when consumed with high amounts of branched-chain amino acids. You can get these amino acids by eating fish, whole grains, chicken, sesame seeds, mushrooms, lentils, and chickpeas.

Young ballet dancers often throw in casual comments, referring to their self-esteem issues. Whether it’s a body image issue, a perfection issue, a weight management issue, or a slightly depressed low energy issue, they either don’t come out and say it, or they can’t really articulate what the issue is. Recently, when I started reading about hypoglycemia and blood sugar balance, I began to connect its symptoms to many of the statements I had heard.

I became more interested in hypoglycemia and its sometimes subtle symptoms because of a conversation I had with a non-dancer, a talented artist, in another field. This person has performed in many countries, all of her teachers push her forward, and yet he can’t accept the praise from teachers or peers, or the enthusiasm from fans, because he just can’t.

The lack of self-esteem in this person confuses me. A person who won the number one state award for acting while still in high school? That’s like winning the ballet competition performing the Blue Bird or the Swan Lake pas de deux.

An eating disorder is more broadly defined as behavior that results in an emotional outcome from controlling what you eat. This doesn’t necessarily mean anorexia or bulimia, but it can refer to a practice of self-control or self-approval in terms of the food you eat, the caloric content, and this doesn’t just apply to dancers.

It could be a borderline situation like a teenager who insists on being vegan, where I have personally witnessed the result causing stress fractures in this dancer who still thought she was going to be able to get stronger on her points and have a professional career. in ballet, while she was looking at her X-rays.

I recently took a look at hypoglycemia and its symptoms. Now this is complicated. The symptoms are almost unique to the individual. But the dominant symptoms, as I have read, are:

• sadness
• self-criticism
• despair
• feelings of absolutely no self worth
• periodic complete lack of energy, dizziness, mental confusion
• suicidal thoughts, although there is not enough energy to think beyond that

Hypoglycemia is…drum roll…blood sugar too low!

It is caused by a nutritional protein deficiency, or simply a lack of food.

Hypoglycemia does not mean you are diabetic or near-diabetic. More concisely called reactive hypoglycemia, this is a condition that results from poor diet or not eating often enough for whatever reason. Or eating too many carbs without enough protein.

The most common recommendation for hypoglycemics is to eat some protein every two hours.

Also, I would like to mention the rule of nutritionists, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? Proteins set up your brain chemicals for the day. Skip them and your brain chemicals won’t work properly until the next day IF you eat protein for breakfast.

Dancing parents reading this – how often does your dancing daughter or dancing son run out of the house and skip breakfast because they stayed up late?

And what will they eat when they get to the food dispensers at school? Or will they go hungry until they get to the school cafeteria for lunch? This is a miserable situation for a non-athlete student, not to mention a ballet dancer or any other athlete.

And later, when they escape to their ballet academy? Are you one of those ballet parents who has to suffer hearing “I’m not that good”…”I’m not good enough”…and worse? While the ballet teacher tells her that her son should aim higher: audition for professional summer intensives?

Confused yet? Let me give you some relief. Hypoglycemia Without Diabetes at http://benjimester.hubpages.com is an eye-opening discussion. The whole thread is worth reading.

I personally believe that hypoglycemia is caused by:

• lack of nutrition education
• processed, fast food, frozen food products
• there is not enough time to serve fresh food indicating which foods are nutritious
• sugar addiction (nutritional ignorance)
• ignorance about cereals, transgenic cereals, glutin and transgenic sugars

And unfortunately I can’t cover much more here. BUT please, if your dancer child or any member of your family has energy issues or depression, but not severe enough to see your doctor (who probably won’t have nutrition education) or therapist, investigate hypoglycemia. It’s an insidious condition, but it can be reversed with a good diet!

It is not so difficult. I would love to never hear from a ballet dancer or any other type of artist who feels grumpy, depressed, sad, or hopeless about their talent or potential, when they have no idea where all this negativity is coming from. And they skip meals, snack without nutrition, and have low blood sugar…

I would love to never hear from a sad and depressed ballet parent again, whose amazingly talented child is failing, sinking, not even treading water, suffering from body image issues or self-esteem issues, and contemplating quitting ballet, or even committing suicide. . Due to lack of nutritional balance.

This may require a lot of extra food prep for ballet parents! If you’re still reading this post, I bet you’re okay with that.

Is your liver helping you or hurting you?

Aside from your skin (yes, that’s an organ), your liver is the largest organ in your body at 3-3.5 pounds, it has an incredibly wide range of critical functions in the body, so you can’t really live without it. It sits below your lower right ribcage and is only separated from your right lung by your main respiratory muscle, the diaphragm.

Among the many functions of the liver are optimizing your metabolism by processing, storing, or producing proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, producing cholesterol and triglycerides, synthesizing proteins and hormones for proper blood clotting and blood pressure, breaking down circulating hormones for your excretion, produce bile for the digestion of fats, and to detoxify the entire body system of ingested chemicals, drugs, or other toxins.

Basically, the liver is a giant transformation machine and can be your health’s best friend when it’s running optimally OR it can be your biggest ball-and-chain if it’s overloaded and malfunctioning, dragging you and your health down into common persistent symptoms. they can’t seem to resolve.

Clues that your liver health needs some attention:

Obviously, seeing your doctor to rule out or rule out a serious liver problem is always your first step. But then there’s that gray area of ​​dysfunction I often refer to, where, thankfully, you don’t have a specific diagnosis, but you do have certain nagging ailments that you might even seek over-the-counter remedies for.

The health problems you hear about most often and see ads on TV are those that can have a variety of sources and an overloaded or malfunctioning liver that can no longer detoxify the existing system, but only what continue entering. it can be a major source of persistent symptoms that should not be overlooked.

The top 10 signs of slow liver function are:

1. Poor tolerance or strong reaction to coffee, alcohol or other vapors and odors.

2. Headaches and mental confusion at any time, but especially in the morning.

3. belching or indigestion after eating.

4. Constipation, diarrhea, or light-colored stools.

5. Difficulty losing weight despite being on a diet.

6. high cholesterol or tiglycerides that do not change with diet.

7. Pressure or pain under the right rib cage, right shoulder, or scapula, possibly including limited range of motion and no initial injury.

8. Neck pain and stiffness that is difficult to resolve and may present with a pronounced lump at the base of the neck. This can be due to an unhealthy fat pad and/or a misaligned vertebra, both of which can stem from suboptimal liver function.

9. Difficulty losing abdominal fat that is up your waist. Women can even feel this as if their bra is uncomfortable on their ribcage at the end of the day!

10. a pattern of waking up at night between 2 and 4 am. He may feel irritable, agitated, or even notice that his heart rate is a little higher at this time, too.

An extra hint for the ladies.: Your perimenopause or menopause can be very symptomatic and difficult to control.

What can you do about it:

When your digestion is working as it should, everything you eat and drink is broken down into

the digestive tract and the by-products, whether good or bad for you, all go through the liver! That’s a HUGE job for the liver. It is not at all different from sorting all the trash that is thrown at the recycling center into what needs to be kept which is actually useful vs. what needs to be thrown away vs. what needs to be handled in a special way because it is actually dangerous.

Optimizing liver function comes down to…

1. Don’t put SO MUCH into this, remember that the digestive tract, ie. what we eat and drink is a major entry point to the liver. Not putting in as much allows the liver to rest a bit and catch up with what it already has to do.

2. Give your liver a break from what taxes it the most: alcohol, coffee, processed foods with chemical additives, and products derived from flour, sugar, and fructose.

3. Give your liver the support it needs to strengthen and stimulate its detoxification function with specific nutrients such as B vitamins, amino acids such as glycine, taurine and methionine, and herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion and artichoke.

4. Eat vegetables that naturally cleanse the liver and boost its detoxification function, such as all leafy greens like kale, collards, spinach and broccoli, artichokes, garlic, onions, and beets. . Drinking green juices made from these vegetables is also excellent for stimulating liver function.

5. Exercise to improve blood flow to and through the liver, which promotes detoxification of the liver itself. Stretching and yoga help break the patterns of physical tension that develop between the liver and the shoulder, rib cage, or neck.

A total detoxification program that addresses all of these areas to optimize liver function is the best recommendation to improve your health. Taking the time at least once a year to participate in a cleanse program is your insurance to keep you and your liver healthy!

Out of sight, out of mind…

You clean the lint trap in the dryer, even clean the windows, carpets, pool, or fireplace, you would never think of letting the crap build up or not running the disposal. What if you didn’t see your dental hygienist or get your car tuned up for several years? Do you know what I mean.

Just because you can’t see your liver, and maybe not even feel it, doesn’t mean your liver is working as well as it could. She reread the track list and see if any of them sound familiar. If so, consider adding your liver to the list of what might need an annual tune-up!

Each time you perform a set of repetitions, you follow a certain rhythm. If asked what tempo their reps are performed at, most people will shrug or raise an eyebrow, since many people don’t consider tempo when training. It’s common for the average gym goer to follow a typical 1010 pace, which means they spend the same amount of time flexing the muscle being worked as relaxing it. For example, someone following a tempo of 1010 spends as much time pushing up as going down to the ground. A tempo of 1010 is very typical for cardio workouts, as it increases activity and calories burned. However, for mass and strength gains, your priorities should be different. Similar to how we lower reps and increase weight for strength exercises, we also need to manipulate the rate at which we do our reps to maximize gains during workouts.

Before going too deep into an explanation of how to set the most effective tempo for strength gains, it’s important to understand how tempo is measured in these cases. There are various tempos, so it’s important to know what the numbers really mean. In the case of 1010, the first number defines the amount of time spent in the eccentric phase, or the “relax” phase of the exercise. The 0 indicates the amount of time spent pausing after the relaxation phase. The third digit indicates the time spent in the concentric phase, or the phase in which the muscle being exercised is flexed. The last digit indicates the amount of time spent pausing after the concentric phase. To help visualize this, in a pushup, the eccentric phase is bending your arms and lowering yourself toward the floor, and the concentric phase is pushing yourself up. So, at a tempo of 1010, a second is spent going down, then a second going up, with no pause before or after any of these moves. For a 4010 tempo, 4 seconds are spent bending the arms and lowering towards the floor, and one is spent pushing up. For exercises that require explosiveness and quick flexion, the tempo may include an “X” instead of a number. This is commonly seen in the Olympics, where X0X0 tempo lifts are commonly performed; Explosive eccentric and concentric phases, without pauses before or after. For hypertrophy exercises and mass gain attempts, the most effective and commonly used tempo is 40X0.

By taking tempo into account, changes can be made to the amount of time muscles spend under tension. Time under tension, or TUT, is a measure of how long a muscle, or group of muscles, is under the weight of the load. When it comes to strength training and maximizing muscle mass, more TUT is needed. For kettlebell strength training, 40-70 seconds of TUT is the optimal length of time, anything shorter than this would result in less hypertrophic gains. Basic calculations can be done to see the difference in time under tension between training with tempo and without tempo. Taking a look at the real world variation in the different tempos being used is a good way to paint a picture of why it’s so important to include tempo training in your kettlebell workouts for strength gains. For example, for a typical 1010 kettlebell overhead press, a single rep will take about a second to push and a second to release, making the total duration of the rep 2 seconds. Over the course of about 12 reps per set, this equates to 24 seconds of TUT. However, if you stick to tempo training, the length of a single repetition will change. If you switch to a kettlebell press at 40X0 pace, the flexion will be immediate and there will be no pause at the apex before you drop the weight and relax for 4 seconds. When the kettlebell returns to the rest position, there is no pause and it is immediately raised for the next repetition. The total time for this rep is about 5 seconds, with a total of 60 seconds of TUT for a set of 12 reps. When tempo is taken into account, the same weight, reps, and sets can be used to achieve better strength training results. This is why tempo training is so important for real mass and strength gains. If you only factor in reps and sets and don’t factor in the time it takes to complete each, you’ll miss out on huge strength and mass gains from your kettlebell training.

When building strength and mass are their goals, many people often increase the weight of the kettlebell they are using and adjust the sets and reps to maximize muscle gains. Although this is an effective way to build strength, it’s important to note that the tempo can also be altered to get the most out of each repetition. Although it may require more concentration, tempo training is one of the most effective ways to successfully reach your kettlebell strength training goals.

checkweigher it has been around the longest of almost all weight loss programs. They have introduced a unique points system to keep their diet interactive and easier to follow, and it works.

Depending on your weight you start in a category and are assigned a certain number of points. You are then allowed to eat that number of points, and assuming you stay within that limit, you will lose weight. All foods are assigned a point value. That means, for example, that technically half of your points could come from pizza for the day, assuming you don’t go over your allotted points.

The good:
o Tracking of points is done with a journal and calculator – simple
o No food restrictions
o Attend a weekly support team to get advice from a leader and assess to stay accountable
o Access to tools and online support
o Foods such as chocolate, bread, yogurt and sweets ARE allowed
o You learn healthier eating habits

Points awarded for food are based on serving size and not on the food. Obviously, they cannot account for all the foods in the world, so when the food is not listed in the Weight Watchers food chart, you are given a formula to calculate the points. The formula takes into account the fiber, fat and calorie content of the food.

The bad:
o Can be expensive: $10 to $15 per class plus your registration fee
o Must be disciplined and willing to track and record what you eat
o The point system has drawbacks: you don’t want to be counting calories your whole life

If you go to the grocery store, you’ll even see some frozen foods that aren’t part of the Weight Watchers program that contain point values. Talk about making it easy.

The Weight Watchers diet plan encourages exercise not right out of the gate, but after about a month of being on the diet.

The dots are just a guide for eating. Those who wish to become truly healthy and not just a smaller unhealthy fat person will need to eat healthier by following the guidelines and not just live by the points.

One of the best things about exercising at home is that it is extremely convenient and saves a lot of time. However, sometimes it is missing some of the equipment that makes a gym so effective. However, one inexpensive piece of equipment that is a great addition to any home gym is an ab bench.

The abdominal bench is excellent because it is an adjustable piece of equipment that can be adapted to almost any body type. And you can adjust the angle of the bench to work your abs from a variety of positions and create a more intense ab workout… Plus, variety is just plain fun.

Here are some things to help you get the most out of a bank.

First, before starting your workout, it’s best to warm up. Do some light cardio, like biking or running, to warm up your muscles. Then do some light stretching.

Once you are fully warmed up, the next step is to set the angle of your sit up board. For the most part, the greater the angle of the sit-up board, the more difficult your workout will be.

A person with strong abs will want to take advantage of a greater angle. Someone relatively new to the exercise will want the angle to be zero… or flat.

Now that you’ve established the angle, step on your sit-up bench. Start by contracting your abs, not forcefully, and pull your navel in toward your spine. Stand up using your abs.

Don’t move your arms to assist and don’t lean your head forward to build momentum. You want to focus on using your abs to get the job done. Do 3 sets of 20 repetitions of this exercise.

Once you’ve completed the above exercise, move into the position to focus on your lower abs. You do this by placing your head where your feet were anchored and holding onto the post or bench. Again, pull your belly button in toward your spine before beginning the movement. Then, pull your knees in toward your chest making sure not to rock with the movements. Focus on letting your abs do the work.

As you get stronger, you can consider adding weight. For the first exercise, the crunch, you can hold a weight across your chest. For the lower abs exercise, you can add ankle weights to make it more challenging.