Many people have a vision of what the word fitness means. With so many advertisements and promises of a physically fit body, it can become difficult to determine and define what fitness is. It’s definitely a multi-million dollar per year industry, but sadly many Americans don’t know what it means to truly be fit.

Different people have different definitions and limitations on what fitness means. For example, a long distance or marathon runner might define it as having a strong lung capacity and good leg muscles. A bodybuilder or a weight lifter may say that fitness is in how many pounds one can bench press, or the amount of muscle mass one has. The reality is that fitness is determined by each individual person’s definition of what fitness truly is for them and their needs.

True physical fitness is the ability to have endurance, strength, flexibility, and stamina all in one. It also includes speed and balance. While no one will be perfect in all of these areas, just being able to maintain them all at a reasonable level is sufficient to be deemed physically fit.

Some athletes excel in certain areas, while they might fall back on others. But they should be able to at least perform all skill sets in a minimal way without too much difficulty. This is the real definition of someone who is fit. The ability to perform all of these physical tasks in a way that a person can go from one thing to another without any problems is considered fit.

For the “average Joe,” physical fitness might not be as easy as it sounds. It takes hard work and determination to get someone’s stamina, speed, and muscle capacity up to par. Training on a daily, if not weekly basis can help tone someone’s body and get it trained into a working machine that will be able to run, jump, throw, and stretch much further than ever before. Come up with a plan and a program that will be easy to perform, and then expect to increase the difficulty as time goes by.

If you don’t notice a change within the first few months, your fitness plan may need to be revised. With time and patience, anyone can be fit and healthy. You do not have to be an Olympic swimmer or a famous football player to be physically fit and able to perform physically challenging tasks. Training the body to work harder and smarter is something anyone can do, and the rewards are amazing.

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.

Tags: football, football player, marathon runner, Olympic, Olympic swimmer, USD

Michael Phelps is a phenomenal athlete and it has to do with a few things. Michael works out hard, very hard with 5 hours a day working out and training as well as goal setting an a giant diet. In fact the most I have ever been able to eat is around 5,000 calories a day when I was doing a lot of weightlifting, Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day every day.

According to nutritionists, the average man of the same age and height (Phelps is 6′4″) should be ingesting about 2,000 calories a day. By comparison, Phelps consumes a staggering (doctor-approved) 12,000 calories probably a weeks worth of food for a mere mortal in a single day.

Here is a typical Michael Phelps breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. And that’s just to get his stomach warmed up for the main portion of his breakfast, which includes two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: elite athlete, energy, Energy drinks, food, great Olympic level athlete, michael phelps, muscle glycogen, Olympic, Olympic athlete, olympic level, phenomenal athlete, Swimming, weightlifting

We have all watched as Michael Phelps has seemed for the last week to be completely unbeatable in a crowded sport, swimming, that has a low barrier of entry for people and is very very competitive. Michael Phelps ended up winning all of his eight events with records in seven of them. This after winning six Gold medals in the Athens Olympics four years ago.

I heard a little bit of an interview with Micheal Phelps yesterday and someone asked him how he could break all the swimming records and if his records will ever be broken. He said:

“Everything is possible if you dream. My coach helped me to dream big. When I got to him he said to me that I should dream big. He told me to dream as big as you can.”

Five hours of training a day and an attitude that he would win, noth that he hoped that he would win but he dremed big that he would win his Olympic gold medals.

Tags: coach, michael phelps, Micheal Phelps, Olympic, olympic gold medals, olympics, Swimming, swimming records, the Athens Olympics

One of the problems that you may having right now in getting started or moving forward in your fitness and health goals is the fact that you may have no confidence.

Confidence is something that is built only from the inside. We have all met people that are very confident and many people that have no confidence. Often I find that there is no reason for people in either group.

The best way to build confidence is to simply achieve simple goals and build upon them. When I say that you need to achieve a goal I don’t mean that you need to win an Olympic medal or anything, all you need to do is set a tiny goal, achieve it and move on. The first time years ago that I road my bicycle to work was a juge leap of faith at the time, I had not ridden a bike in years. After I rode to work and home that first time I knew that I could do it again, I learned that dressing and packing differently would make it easier and I was confident that I now had a new skill.

This is all that you need to build confidence. There is no secret to building confidence although everyone thinks that there is. People spend years and lots of dollars trying to find the secret to great self confidence when all it really takes to be confident is to build little goals, achieve them and move on to slightly bigger goals. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Olympic, snp

I have found a list of 99 ways to get more exercise. These tips range from stuff to do at home and around the neighborhood to things to do around the city with your family and neighbors.

Exercise Getting started…

1. Schedule a regular time throughout the week for physical activity.
2. Take turns selecting an activity for the family to do as a group each week.
3. Start a log of daily fitness activities for each family member.
4. Adapt all activities to suit those with special needs and preferences.
5. Help everyone to find something active that makes them feel successful.

Exercise Tips for the Home

6. Designate indoor and outdoor play areas where rolling, climbing, jumping, and tumbling are allowed.
7. Buy toys or equipment that promote physical activity.
8. Select fitness-oriented gifts with the recipient’s skills and interests in mind.
9. Limit time spent watching television programs, videotapes, and playing computer games.
10. Use physical activity rather than food as a reward (e.g. family goes in-line skating).
11. Include grandparents, other relatives, and friends whenever possible.
12. Emphasize the importance of having fun and learning; avoid a push “to win”.
13. Get off the couch and change the channel manually — or better yet, turn it off!
14. Spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Exercise Tips for the Kitchen

15. “Pack your own” nutritious snacks and meals for family outings.
16. Keep fresh fruit and vegetables washed, cut-up, chilled and readily available for post-exercise snacking.
17. Have attractive containers of water available during and after workouts.
18. Take the family grocery shopping so everyone can learn to read the nutrition labels (find the cereal that offers the most fiber per serving; find the tastiest non-fat cheese).
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Tags: breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, co-worker, cycling, diabetes, family member, fever, food, Golf, hypertension, kite flying, modified backyard sports, Olympic, physical education teacher, school board, school physical education teacher, skiing, Softball, stroke, Tennis, volleyball, water sports

Mens Health is a great magazine ofr telling it like it is, sometimes with a liitle to much brovado. I think this article is really worth it to read though for food substitutions that can make a real difference.
If you keep eating the way you always have, you’ll never improve on the body you’ve got. And the prognosis — on the mom diet, at least — isn’t good. Look at your dad. That’s why we’re providing you with 15 sneaky ways to improve your diet. Same foods, better results. And nobody needs to be the wiser. Just think of these food strategies as the cork in your bat, the glue on your glove, your own personal, syringe-wielding East German Olympic swim-team coach. Only difference is, each one is simple, nutritionally sound, and perfectly legal in all 50 states.

1. Whey your options
Add a cup of ricotta cheese to your fruit smoothie. Ricotta is a soft, mild cheese that’s made almost entirely of whey, the liquid that separates from curd during the cheese-making process. Whey contains cysteine, an amino acid that helps produce a cancer-fighting antioxidant called glutathione. When Ohio State University researchers treated prostate cells with whey protein, glutathione levels jumped by 64 percent.

2. See red
Got leftover tuna salad? Stuff it into a red bell pepper instead of sandwiching it between two slabs of Wonder bread. Red peppers and other red-fleshed fruits such as tomatoes, watermelons, and ruby-red grapefruit are high in lycopene, a phytochemical that can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 20 percent. Bake the pepper and you’ll make it even more potent; heat makes lycopene easier for your body to absorb.
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Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Author, Banish iceberg, Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care, brussels, California, cancer, Cancer Care, chemical compound, Cheryl Forberg, colon cancers, Cynthia Sass, David Grotto, director of nutrition education, Evanston, food, food strategies, food substitutions, food tips, Golf, health-food store, heart attack, heart disease, Illinois, Leonard Bjeldanes, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, Ohio State University, oil, Olympic, Olympic swim-team coach, professor of nutritional sciences, prostate cancer, prostate cancers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of California