Real Fitness Experts

Purchasing a home gym can become quite a daunting task. Walk into any sporting goods store and your senses will quickly become stimulated. Your eyes will gaze at all the attachments and cables. Your ears will hear the greasy sales pitch from the store associate. Your mouth will drop to the floor when you realize a home gym is going to set you back thousands of dollars.

Consumers have alternatives to the clunky and expensive home gyms on the market these days. A few simple pieces of equipment can save you precious space and loads of cash. You may have heard of the following home gym alternatives, but rest assured they are just as effective as the super-duper model 5000 brand in your local sporting goods store.
Continue reading ‘How To Build A Low Cost Home Gym — by Lynn VanDyke’

Identify the Problem and Find a Solution to your Child’s Weight Gain

If you have recently found yourself fretting over your child’s waistline, you are not alone. The youth of today are fatter than ever before, and parents are starting to panic. Why are our kids so big, and what should we do about it?

Childhood obesity has been described as an epidemic. It puts our children’s health at risk, making them more susceptible to problems involving their cardiovascular systems, endocrine systems, and even their mental health. Type 2 diabetes mellitus, depression, and low self-esteem are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems looming over the heads of our overweight children.

It is ironic that both the problem and the solution to this heavy problem boil down to one simple equation. Energy In vs. Energy Out. When more energy is consumed than is utilized, the result is fat storage. In short, our kids eat too much and do too little.
Continue reading ‘Help, My Kids are Overweight! — by Diana Keuilian’

Whoever told you that weight loss was difficult never read this article!

Weight loss is a hot topic among people today, especially considering the fact that more than half of us are overweight. As we get older we often get busier, and before we know it, find ourselves in the prime of our lives and packing a few extra pounds. With so little extra time in our lives it is impractical to join the latest diet fad or commit to sweating in the gym for hours at a time. Are we all destined to grow outward with each passing year, or is there a simple way for us to reclaim our healthy figures? If you struggle with your own battle of the bulge read on for five sure-fire ways to drop a few of those unwanted pounds, and more importantly learn how you can prevent packing them in the first place!

TIP #1: Burn it in the AM

What is the first thing you do when you wake each morning? Hit the snooze button for an extra ten minutes of sleep? What if I told you that taking those ten minutes to strap on your sneakers and walk briskly around the block would result in weight loss? It has been proven that aerobic activity done on an empty stomach forces your body to recruit energy from storage. This energy is stored in the form of fat on various parts of your body. Starting tomorrow take ten minutes out of your morning to walk briskly around the block before breakfast. Do not sprint or try to walk as quickly as possible, simply walk at a pace that you could comfortably hold a conversation. This seemingly small activity, when done consistently, will produce surprising weight loss results!
Continue reading ‘5 Tips for Easy Weight Loss — by Diana Keuilian’

Inline skating is a fun way to get in shape and stay fit especially on warm sunny days when it’s a lot more enjoyable to exercise outdoors than on a treadmill or exercise bike indoors at the gym. These days most cities have nicely paved paths through parkland, beach and waterfront areas to make your rollerblading experience more enjoyable. Unfortunately depending on where you live, you may not be able to or want to rollerblade all year round.

There are many benefits to be derived from inline skating. It’s much easier and safer on the knees and back than jogging since your legs aren’t taking as much pounding against a hard surface. You don’t have to travel as far as cycling to get maximum benefits. Along with a great cardiovascular workout, blading provides you with a fantastic lower body workout by strengthening and toning your thighs, gluteus, calves and hamstrings. It’s like doing thousands of lunges using your own body weight without even realizing it or getting bored!

I also recommend that you combine blading with strength training exercises with weights such as leg extensions, leg presses and calf raises to name a few. This will ensure that your muscles and bones remain strong and it helps to prevent any possible injuries from occurring.
Continue reading ‘Inline Skates and Exercise Benefits - by Peter Kudlacz’

The game of fitness is a physically demanding form of art. Where else in this world do you have the joy of showing off your art to everyone you meet day in and day out? Most artists would die for this kind of exposure! Just like any master of the arts though, in order for you to fully express yourself through this beautiful art form, you first have to know how to use your tools!

The tools of the fitness artist are subtle but potent. Each small flick of the wrist, turn of the dumbbell and shaving of seconds can have a profound effect on your masterpiece. Here are a list of the most basic tools you’ll have to familiarize yourself with in order to become the Michelangelo of fitness.

o Sets and reps
o Rest between sets
o Cardio Guidelines
Continue reading ‘Sweating The Details: The Basics Of Working Out — by Ray Burton’

OK, first let’s get something straight here…

If you think that buying a shake or taking a few pills will all of a sudden make you huge, then you are mistaken.

No supplement will help you if you are not training and dieting correctly — they will just give you very expensive urine. All aspects of your program have to be in order for you to get the maximum benefit from sports nutrition supplements. From my experience, supplements enhance your program by:

1. Adding an element of convenience: Using food supplements like Meal Replacement Powders and whey protein help to eliminate the common problem of ‘not enough time’, by providing you with an quick efficient way to get your required nutrients each day.

2. Increasing strength and decreasing recovery time: Using vitamin and amino acid supplements help to minimize the negative side effects of weight training and speed your recovery.
Continue reading ‘Using Bodybuilding Supplements To Build Muscle Mass - by Anthony Ellis’

Your heart is between one to two times the size of your clenched fist. Contrary to popular belief, it is not located to one side of the body - it is located almost in the exact center of your chest. Due to the shape of the heart and chest cavity, the heart pounds against the chest wall on your left side, so the heart rate is stronger when felt there. Your heart is responsible for pumping about six quarts of blood throughout your body, with about the same amount of force that the average person applies when squeezing a tennis ball. The heart is not under voluntary control. A system known as the autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, is responsible for regulating your heart rate.

There are many ways to measure how healthy a heart is. A healthy heart should beat with a fairly regular rhythm that will change based on levels of exertion and oxygen requirements. A healthy heart has a high stroke volume, which refers to the amount of blood that is pumped out with each beat. A healthy heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood, so the resting heart rate of a healthy heart will be lower than average. Blood pressure is another indicator of heart health and should be in the healthy range of around 120 over 80, as determined by the national average.

Various types of training have different effects on the heart. Training that elevates the heart rate for even brief durations can increase the size of the heart. This will increase the stroke volume, and result in a lower resting heart rate. Training can also increase the rate at which the heart recovers from a bout of intense work. In other words, a trained individual will return to their resting heart rate faster than a sedentary individual. Exercise has been shown to lower blood pressure. In addition, regular cardiovascular exercise can increase the concentration of hemoglobin in blood, allowing the body to become more efficient at transporting oxygen to the cells that need it (as well as removing waste products such as carbon dioxide).
Continue reading ‘Heart Matters — by Jeremy Likness’