So how fast should you walk when you are getting exercise? A new study from San Diego State University seems to answer that question.

People who walk for exercise should aim for a pace of 100 steps per minute to ensure their workout is intense enough, according to researchers.

Many people who want to keep fit use a pedometer to keep track of how many steps they take. However, the device gives no information on how intensely they’re exercising — that is, whether their heart rate is being raised enough to improve physical fitness. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

I do not watch a lot of videos online but soemhow I just ran into this one. Probably the funniest workout video ever made.

Working out with kids

We all know that people with kids have their own challenges when it comes to working out. This guy will actually show you some workouts where he is doing exercises with his kids, not just having them around but using them for his workout.

Even people without kids will enjoy this video.

One of the most basic ways to get in shape is using your own bodyweight. Uou have undoubtedly done this already in the past using pushup, situps, chinups and there are lots more.

I ran across an article on CNN about some people trying to popularize working out only using your own bodyweight lathough some of the equipment may be a bit hard to come by.

The Bartendaz of New York want to serve as many young people as possible — and that’s a good thing.
One of the Bartendaz, Metaphysics, performs the flag move during a demonstration at an Atlanta-area school.

These fitness gurus aren’t promoting underage drinking. Named for the creative moves they perform on the pull-up bar, the Bartendaz are empowering youths through calisthenics. Read the rest of this entry »

I was not feeling well over the last couple of weeks and Wednesday was my first day back at the gym. Everyone knows that crappy feeling after getting better from any sickness; the sore muscles, listlessness, down energy. I wanted to ease back into the gym and used the same workout for Wednesday and Friday.

So first, you need criteria for your workout and I had the above plus really I wanted to push my muscles a bit, I wanted to to get some cardio just to get my blood pumping and I wanted to stretch, all in 30 minutes or so.

Here is the workout that I have done:

5 minutes on stationary Bike or rowing.

10 minutes on Elliptical Trainer

Bench Press 1 set of 8 to failure, dropped weight for another 4 reps

Seated Row 1 set of 10 to failure (guessed the weight to use well)

One armed lateral raise  with cable 1 set of 12 for each arm

7-2-1 for Biceps (this is 7 reps going from bottom to half way up, 7 from half way up to the top, and 7 full reps

Tricep pushdowns 1 set of 10

Squats 1 set of 10

Hamstring curls 1 set of 10 heavy weight

10 minutes of stretching, stetching every muscle group a minimum of two times for 10 seconds each.

OK, so probably 35 minutes but this workout did a few things well. It stretched my muscles really well, it woke me up with cardio and I really pushed my muscles quickly. I like the workout but very quickly I am worried I will stop getting much out of it since I am not doing anything really well, I am only hitting muscles with one set and the cardio is too short.

For a general workout and improving fitness I really do think that this works best. If you are not working out or like me am getting over a bit of a cold or flu then by all means I think that this is a nice workout.

Recently my workplace brought in a workplace gym in the new building. I love the idea of workoing out at work but there are a few things to think about when you are about to start training at work.

Gym Hours – What time are you going to workout? Before work is great but also there is lunch, after work and during odd hours. I prefer working out after lunch as I eat a smaller lunch and have the energy and the gym is really quiet. Be aware of when the gym is busy as social calls and waiting can really wreak havok on your workout.

Eating Plans – You need to make sure that you are not skimping on lunch or breakfast for the sake of working out. There is nothing worse when working out than to not have the food for energy and slowing of your metabolism form not eating. This may affect the time that you workout but make sure that you eat! Read the rest of this entry »

Many people want to know how long to workout for. I tend to find that most people spend to much time in the gym and if you could decide to have your workouts only last 45 minutes you would keep your motivation and get in better shape because you will be much more consistent than you could ever be with two hour workouts.

So what can you get done in 45 minutes? Well 45 minutes is all that it takes me to go through my circuit training workout. You can get 3 sets for every muscle group using basic, compound exercises as long as you do circuit training and minimize your rest between sets.

If you are doing cardio 20 to 30 minutes will seem like a long time when you get started but after a month or so of cardio you can easily do cardio for an hour. Instead of doing an hour of cardio you would do much better to pick up the intensity and only do 30 minutes of cardio per session.

If this one 45 minute workout is not enough of course some people sill workout twice in a day, one weight or cardio in the morning and another cardio or weights in the exening. This would definitly be considered very advance workouts to be sure and not anything you would want to worry about until you are some kind of competitive athlete.

As I have mentioned a few times before and offered bonuses upon, there are three diet, weight loss, or health improving plans that I have reviewed. The plans are really very different from each other and I often get questions about which is the best based on a persons attitude and often which is the best of the three for me. These plans are:
Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle

fat loss for Idiots

Turbulence Training

I have a lot of questions coming at me about which of these is the best and I wanted to make sure that I answered these questions before I move on to writing about any other plans and programs in the future.

Any weight loss program to me has two components, exercise and diet. Here is where the above diets sit in those categories. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the years I have seen a lot of flimsy ideas of how to get a set of six pack abs. The most common scams are special machines that will do it and sometimes some kind of drink. I remember at one point Slim Fast seemed to be showing chubby people suddenly spawning a set of six pack abs.

Anyway I wanted to put this notion to rest that there is some magic to getting a six pack. Sure there is some genetics involved in sculpting perfect abs but the two most important factors are diet and exercise.

What? Did you think there was a shortcut?

Six Pack Abs Diet

The diet part is fairly simple; you need to drop any extra fat. You have probably heard this before but there is no such thing as spot reduction when you are losing weight. You will lose weight proportionately, generally, as you lose weight. What you may find is that you have a large stomach and if that is the case of course you will lose that fat faster than you lose the fat on your legs but that is just because that is where the fat deposits will be easiest for your body to use.
Read the rest of this entry »

Almost everybody in the world wishes for greater health, vitality, and stamina. The problem is that very few people are willing to take the simple steps necessary to make this goal a reality.

I want to let you know about five powerful methods for achieving the ultimate in health and vitality some of which are of course well known and some that are more of an alternative nutrition method. If you wish to feel more vigorous and energetic you will definitely want to try these health tactics out for yourself. Let’s get right into the specifics of how to do it.

Detoxify your body

Over time we all accumulate toxins in our bodies. They can come from polluted air, water, and the food we eat. Toxins and pollutants of all kinds have a very detrimental effect on health. They provide the necessary environment for disease to thrive. Detoxifying your body is the single most important thing you can do. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a few things that you can do to gain muscle weight fast. The first thing to remember is that to gain muscle weight fast you need to take care of your diet, you need to train correctly and finally you need to rest very well so that you can make the most of those workouts.

In the last article I pointed out that most people do not use weightlifting as a form of exercise although it is critical to do this instead of just cardio to help drive up your metabolism. There are a few problems though. Most people as they try to gain muscle weight fast make the critical mistake of overtraining while also not eating and resting enough.

So lets look at the proper way for eating, resting and training to maximize gains and minimize overtraining in your quest to gain muscle weight fast. Read the rest of this entry »