Building Fitness Requires Muscle And Nutrition

If people are at all aware of what is going on around them, then they also have heard that building fitness in their body is an important way to assure good health, even as they move through the aging process.

However, there still is a common misunderstanding that people have about being skinny and equating this to being in good physical condition.

The incorrectness of this thought was recently illustrated on a popular television show which features celebrities learning how to do ballroom dances. One of the contestants was a model, who fit the media "ideal" of how a healthy woman should look.

But, the first thing her dance instructor discovered was that under the svelte exterior there was no muscle tone. The first thing he attempted to do was to help her in building fitness and strength.

In order for the body to start building fitness, the best place to start is to build the strength of the musculoskeletal system by toning and firming the muscles.

Many people do this by utilizing home exercise equipment because of the convenience and time savings they enjoy by having such equipment quickly available to them.

Strength training with the use of weight equipment and free weights can also be very beneficial in building fitness levels. It is muscle that gives the body strength to carry out the necessary tasks in an ordinary day, so increasing muscle strength even slightly can make everyday undertakings easier.

Also, it is muscle that gives shape and definition to the body, meaning that good muscle tone adds to the overall attractiveness of a person.

Building fitness in the physical body can be undertaken by simply increasing the amount of activity you get on a daily basis. This can be something as simple as adding 20 minutes of walking per day, or can also include a strenuous workout on commercial fitness equipment.

The experts say that the best thing to do in building overall fitness is to use a combination of exercises. For example, you might want to engage in a brisk walk one day and then the next day make use of weight equipment or some abdominal exercise equipment.

Experts also say that one of the biggest problems people have with sticking to a fitness routine that will help in building fitness, is encountering boredom. This is one reason why it is good to vary the fitness activities in which you engage.

If you rotate your workouts by doing something different each day, such as walking one day, weight lifting the next day, swimming the following day, using Bowflex home gyms the day after that and continuing to rotate through various activities, you are less likely to become disinterested and quit your exercise endeavors.

Rotating through a variety of different fitness activities is also advantageous in helping to train your muscles while building fitness.

If you do the very same exercise every single day, your muscles become accustomed to the routine and you start to experience diminishing effects.

Giving your muscles different tasks to tackle each day helps to keep them developing to meet the changing demands put on them.

Another aspect of building fitness that many people try to overlook, or outright avoid, is in the area of diet. And, diet does not only include the restriction of some foods, but also means giving your body proper nutrition by means of eating good quality foods.

Natural and organic foods will help to strengthen the body. Good nutrition combined with regular home fitness exercise routines will make you stronger and healthier overall.


A whole world of information about building fitness eagerly awaits you from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our home gym fitness equipment blog.

Never Underestimate Your Body Type

It doesn't matter if you are trying to burn fat to loss weight or you are training to build muscles, the first step that you really need to know is to know what your body type is. Although the extend of success of your fat burning program or your muscle building regime is not predominantly determined by it, it makes a difference knowing your body so that you can eat and train more efficiently!

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. William H. Sheldon, a professor from Harvard created a body classification after having conducted extensive research which include viewing of thousands of photographs and interviewing of hundred of people. There are generally three body types in his system: endomorphs, mesomorphs and ectomorphs. In a nutshell Endomorphs are the "fat retainers." Mesomorphs are the "genetically gifted." Ectomorphs are the lean and skinny types. . Not everyone fits exactly into one of these categories but contains characteristics of each, usually with one that is predominant.

The Ectomorph
Ectomorph tends to be tall and skinny with small joints and a small waist. They are naturally lean and usually never have trouble with excess body fat. They have a metabolism rate that is too effective that excess calories are wasted as body heat. Therefore they can almost always eat whatever they want without even getting fat. On the other hand it is always challenging for them to gain muscle.

Nutrition And Training For Ectomorph
Ectomorphs are people with fast metabolisms. So the first and most obvious solution is less activity. The fact that they can burn calories even while not physically active, brings up the next point on having undisturbed quality sleep every night. Taking naps is also helpful. The best type of training for them is short and intensive training programs, daily workouts and excessive cardio are especially counter productive as they need to have plenty of recuperation time between work outs. Never ever miss a single meal! At least 50% of daily calories should be derived from carbohydrates.

The Mesomorph
Mesomorph are characterized by lean and muscular waists, broad shoulders, medium-sized joints and large, round muscle bellies. They are those genetically gifted people who can get their body in shape without much effort.

Nutrition And Training For Mesomorph
There isn't much to say for mesomorph in this section as it usually doesn't matter what they eat and how they train, they still burn fat and develop muscle anyway. Mesomorph should strive to consistently eat a healthy and well rounded diet and never take their genetics for granted.

The Endomorph
Endomorphs generally exhibit slow metabolism and are genetically prone to store fat easily. They are generally large framed. Generally endomorphs will find it challenging to loss fat with diet alone. Because diet alone is unable to provide the boost in their metabolism rate that exercising provide.

Nutrition And Training For Endomorph
Best diet for endomorphs are high protein, low to moderate carb diets. Avoid sugar at all cost! In addition to dieting, they need to combine their diet with regular exercise so as to boost their metabolism rate. A larger quantity of cardio is almost always necessary for the endomorph to lose burn fat. Start by adding your favorite aerobic activity on a regular basis such as cycling. Build up to at least 30 minutes per day five 5 to seven 7 days a week. Then the next phase should be incorporated by weight training routine 2 to 3 times per week.
Johnathan Gihon Burn Fat Tip



Johnatahn Gihon is a health and fitness enthusiast who loves to learn and share his knowledge.

Proper Diet and Nutrition is Important to Body Building

Just as you can't build a good house without a good foundation, you can do a good job of building your body without a good foundation either. While lifting weights and exercises are a key component of body building, so is having a good diet and good nutrition. Without these, the workouts will not be as effective. Not only that, but without proper nutrition, you will not even have the strength you need to work out.

Some people say that you need to have lots of supplements, vitamins and minerals before you can effectively work out. These do have their place, but more importantly, just plain good healthy eating habits will go a long way to building your body.

I'm not saying you should totally abandon eating a candy bar and having a soda, but this shouldn't be your sole source of nutrition. You need to eat food that has the right balance of carbohydrates and proteins to allow your body to grow properly.

If you are going into a heavy competition, you may need to bulk up on the carbs, and eat more spaghetti and noodles, but for every day eating, try for a well balanced diet. Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains. Try to get whole grain breads, instead of bread that has all of the nutrients processed and bleached out of it. Have an apple for a snack instead of that candy bar, it is healthier for you.

Regardless if you are truly serious about body building, and are trying to enter competitions or you are just working out with friends to lose weight, you need proper nutrition. Visit with your medical professional prior to starting your body building routine, they will be happy to provide you with the nutritional guidance that you need to keep healthy and get the maximum benefit from your routine.

You can get excellent diet and nutrition information from the various body building magazines. Most of them devote at least one article a month to nutrition. If it is important enough for the professionals to follow, doesn't it make sense for you to consider modifying your diet and nutrition as well?

As they say, a house that is built on shifting sands will not withstand the winds and the waves. The same can be said for our bodies, if we do not take care of them with proper nutrition, our efforts at body building will be shortchanged, and we will not succeed as well as we should.



For more information about body building check out http://www.bodybuilding.best-info-online.com/, your guide to body building.

Effective Natural Bodybuilding for Fitness and Health

It is very important to keep your body fit nowadays. More and more people are suffering from different medical conditions because they don't get the right amount of exercise. This is why you must undergo a natural bodybuilding regimen to develop your body muscles.

The natural way is said to be the best and that includes bodybuilding. When you say bodybuilding, the first thing that comes into the minds of people is the big and huge muscles of the body. This can be achieved through proper exercise and there is also a natural way to emphasize your muscles.

Bodybuilding involves two types of exercises, the resistance and cardio exercises. You don't need exercise equipments especially if you want to do it the natural way. If you want to build your muscles, you must be able to do twenty percent cardio and eighty percent resistance exercises. For example, you conduct your exercises about an hour a day. That would be 48 minutes for the resistance exercises and the 12 minutes will be left for cardio exercises.

What are the cardio exercises? Well, you can try jogging, walking, running, jumping rope, aerobic dancing, and other exercises that will get your heart pumping rapidly or faster. If you're not used to having a daily exercises, you should not overdo any form of exercise because your body may react differently towards it. Just do it several minutes a day and then gradually increase the time as your body adjusts to the different exercises.

Resistance exercises can include lifting weights, abdominal exercises, and other exercises that are aimed for a specific muscle area of the body. If you can't afford the expensive exercise equipments, you can always improvise at home. For the weights, you can use books and other materials.

Resistance and cardio exercises should go hand in hand before you can achieve perfect muscles. With a healthy and fit body, you can do any kind of activity without worries. Your body is functioning well and you have an excellent health.

Before going through a natural bodybuilding fitness exercise, you must first consult your doctor. This way, your doctor can monitor your health condition as you go about the fitness program.
Aside from the cardio and resistance exercises, you should have a balanced and healthy diet.
The diet of every individual is very important that can either make or break his or her exercise program. If you don't know the right foods to eat, you can consult your dietician. The dietician can provide you with a diet program that you can follow as you go about your exercises regimen.

Another factor that can affect the effectiveness of your exercise program is your attitude. You must have the right attitude, the right drive, so that you can pursue bodybuilding. You must have self-discipline so that you can achieve your goals in the future. If you have all these things - cardio and resistance exercises, diet, and attitude, you will achieve those great-looking muscles in no time.

Natural bodybuilding is 100% safe and free from any side effects as long as you know how to conduct the proper exercises at the right time and amount. If you don't want to make mistakes, you can always hire the services of a professional exercise instructor. The instructor will teach you the proper exercises that you can to achieve natural bodybuilding.



Sandra Stammberger owns and operates http://www.bodybuildingcenter.net/naturalbodybuilding.html - Natural Bodybuilding

The Importance of Physical Fitness

One of the simplest and most effective ways to bring down blood glucose levels, cut the risk of cardiovascular disease, and improve overall health and well-being is physical fitness and exercise. Yet, in our increasingly sedentary world, where almost every essential task can be performed online, from the driver's seat, or with a phone call, exercising and being physically fit can be tough case to sell.

In reality, everyone should exercise, yet survey shows that only 30% of the United States adult population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all.

Inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in America, because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance and other factors that trigger other kinds of diseases.

The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling the onset of any kinds of diseases. For people who are already candidates for some serious diseases like diabetes and heart failure, exercise and physical fitness can improve the condition of some parts of the body like insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

In 2003, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism had published an issue regarding the result of their study and found out that lack of exercise and physical fitness were the key factors behind obesity and other serious diseases like diabetes. Hence, it is extremely important for a person to stay healthy and be physically fit in order to avoid such illnesses.

Getting Started
The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a "dyed-in-the-wool" couch potato, is to consult with your health care provider.

If you have cardiac factors, your doctor may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Certain complications of some diseases will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk for further blood vessel damage and possible "retinal detachment."

Health experts also contend that patients with sever peripheral neuropathy or PN should avoid foot-intensive weight-bearing exercises such as long-distance walking, jogging, or step aerobics and opt instead for low-impact activities like swimming, biking, and rowing.

If you have conditions that make exercise and physical fitness a challenge, your provider may refer you to an exercise physiologist who can design a fitness program for your specific needs.
If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor.

The bottom line is that physical fitness and exercise should not have to be a rigid activity and should not come off strong. Your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk, walking the dog, or simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The important thing is that you keep on moving. Every little bit really helps a lot.

In the end, you will realize that the many things that good food can bring you are equally the same as what physical fitness can do for you.



John Caylor is the owner of Fit4Life Idaho Personal Training and Nutrition and has been a fitness professional for over 18 years. Caylor is available for interviews or to discuss other story ideas related to weight loss and fitness. He can be reached via email at john.caylor@fit4lifeidaho.com. To sign up for a copy of his free monthly newsletter go to http://postfallspersonaltrainer.blogspot.com. Online training go to www.ultimateonlinefitnesstraining.com

Sauna - For health and fitness

The term sauna is an ancient Finnish word referring to the traditional Finnish bath. A sauna is a small room or house. It is a kind of bath to experience dry or wet heat sessions. It can be a social event in which all the members remove clothes and sit in temperatures of over 80 °C. Around the world, doctors, researchers and other professionals have discovered the incredible value of using sauna heat to help boost the human body's white blood cell count, stimulate its immune system, facilitate detoxification, and produce a state of general relaxation that is vital to the healing process.

Historical evidences show that the Finns built the first wooden saunas in the 5th or 8th century. In Finland swimsuits, towels, or any other garments were rarely worn in the sauna. Families often use to go to the sauna together. In these private saunas swimsuits or towels were never worn. In public saunas it is usually common that men and women go to the sauna separately, although people of both sexes may sometimes bathe together. Historically saunas were the most sacred places after the church, and houses which had enough money to build a sauna had one. Finns always prefer to be sitting in the sauna in silence. The temperature is usually kept between 80°C and 110°C. Sometimes people use to make a 'vihta'; Small fresh birch branches with leaves on, are tied together and people swat themselves and their fellow sauna bathers with it. Vihtas can be brought from a shop, and they may be stored for use later on. Use of vihta improves blood circulation, and its birch odor is considered very pleasing.

Currently there are a wide variety of sauna options are available. Heating sources may comprise of wood, electricity, gas and other more unconventional methods such as solar power. There are wet saunas, dry saunas, smoke saunas, steam saunas, and those whic work with infrared waves are functioning all over the modern world. The Finnish term for a heat source of sauna is kiuas. There are two major kinds of kiuas: continuously heating and "always on". Continuously heating kiuases have a small heating capacity, and these can be heated up as per demand basis, while "always on" kiuas have a huge heating capacity and it can take up to one whole day to heat up.

Temperatures approaching and greater than 100 °C would be totally unbearable. This problem effectively negotiated by controlling the humidity in the sauna. The hottest saunas use to have comparatively low humidity levels. This allows air temperatures that could boil water to be tolerated and even enjoyed for longer periods of time. Other types of sauna, where the humidity approaches 100%, set to a much lower temperature of around 40 °C to compensate. The "wet heat" would cause scalding if the temperature were set much higher. Finer control over the temperature is achieved by choosing a higher level bench for those wishing a hotter temperature and a lower level bench for a more moderate temperature level.

Good sauna manners require that the door to a sauna not be kept open for long so that it cools the sauna. Leaving the door even partly open or keeping it open for a minute will significantly cool down the small amount of hot air present inside the sauna.

Findings suggest that it is more than the heat of a sauna that is so beneficial to human health. Tests have pointed out that the practice of tossing or splashing water on heated rocks in a traditional sauna produces very high quantity of negative ions in the air inside the sauna. It is concluded that air rich with negative ions offers enormous benefits for the human health, while lack of negative ions or a higher ratio of positive to negative ions in the air we breathe can cause physical harm. Regular sauna bathing can be an effective therapy for the people laden with conditions like arthritis and hypertension and a sound measure for prevention against colds, flu and other health hazards.

Saunas can be dangerous too. Heat incapacitation or hyperthermia can result from saunas. Cool showers or plunge after coming out of a sauna always results with a great increase in blood pressure, so be careful, a very careful moderation is advised. A good practice is to take a few moments after exit the sauna and before entering a cold plunge.




Leanne Kemp is the Managing Director for Wotaboutme. Look online to find a day spa, haircut, aromatherapy massage anywhere in Australia. Perfect for gifts for him or gifts for her. For updates, check out the Wotaboutme Blog

Alcohol and Fitness

Alcohol has been implicated as a factor that may hurt your efforts to lose body fat. Whether alcohol is "fattening" has been a very controversial subject because technically speaking, alcohol is NOT stored as fat; it is oxidized ahead of other fuels.

Whether moderate drinking is healthy has also been a subject of controversy. Many studies show that cardiovascular health benefits are associated with moderate beer or wine drinking (which has been of particular interest lately with reservatrol in the news so much), while other studies show improved insulin sensitivity. Some experts however, say that alcohol has no place in a fitness lifestyle.

A recent study published in the journal Obesity adds new findings to our knowledge about alcohol, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity. Analysis of the results as compared to other studies also gives us some insights into why some people seem to drink and get fat while others seem to drink and get thin!

The truth about the beer belly phenomenon
This new study, by Ulf Riserus and Erik Inglesson, was based on the Swedish Uppsala Longitudinal cohort. The researchers found that alcohol intake in older men did not improve insulin sensitivity, which contradicted their own hypothesis and numerous previous studies.
They also said there was a very "robust" association between alcohol intake, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio. They pointed out that a high alcohol intake, especially hard liquor, was closely associated with abdominal body fat, not just overall body mass.

Abdominal fat accumulation is not just a cosmetic problem, it can be a serious health risk.
Abdominal fat, also known as "android" or "central" obesity, increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, glucose intolerance and elevated insulin levels.

Many other studies have also found a link between alcohol intake and abdominal fat, but this too has been controversial. A study that was widely publicized by the BBC in 2003 dismissed the concept of the "beer belly."

Nevertheless, it looks like there's some scientific support to it after all (or at least a "liquor belly" according to this newer study).

Hormones may be strongly involved because high alcohol intake has been shown to decrease blood testosterone in men, and also increase cortisol levels, which can lead to visceral fat accumulation.

Why is there so much controversy? Why the discrepancy in research findings about alcohol's influence on obesity, abdominal fat, and insulin sensitivity?

Well, here's the real story of why some people don't get fat when they drink:

A lot of the confusion is because epidemiological research cannot show cause and effect relationships and mistakes can easily be made when drawing associations based on limited data.
With the nature of these longitudinal studies, you have to look at the lifestyle and nature of drinkers in general (or in this study, hard liquor drinkers). Also, the Swedish study focused on older men, so age may have been a factor. You may be more likely to deposit alcohol right on your belly as you get older.

When you hear that alcohol increases belly fat, you also have to look at what else is going on in the life of the drinker, particularly what the rest of a person's diet looks like, and how alcohol intake affects appetite and eating habits.

Research says that alcohol can mess up your body's perception of hunger, satiety and fullness. If drinking stimulates additional eating, or adds additional calories that aren't compensated for and which lead to positive energy balance, then you get fat. You may also get fat in the belly, no thanks to what booze does to hormones.

Another thing that confounds the reports on whether alcohol contributes to weight gain is the fact that the game changes in heavy drinkers. We know that alcohol contains 7.1 calories per gram and these calories always count as part of the energy balance equation... or do they? With chronic excessive alcohol consumption, it's possible that not all of these calories are available for energy. Due to changes in liver function and something called the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS), alcoholism may be a real case of where some calories don't count. Many alcoholics also skip meals and eat less with increasing alcohol consumption.

Alcohol metabolizing pathways notwithstanding, even if binge drinkers, daily drinkers or heavy drinkers consume most of their calories from alcohol, if they eat very little, and remain in a calorie deficit, they will not get fat. Compound this with the hormonal effects and you witness the skinny, but under-nourished, unhealthy and atrophied alcoholic (the person you'd think would be most likely to have a beer belly).

It's the calories that count
The bottom line is, the idea that alcohol just automatically turns into fat or gives you a beer belly is mistaken. It's true that alcohol suppresses fat oxidation, but mainly, alcohol adds calories into your diet, messes with your hormones and can stimulate appetite, leading to even more calories consumed. That's where the fat gain comes from.

If you drink in moderation, if you're aware of the calories in the alcohol, if you're aware of the calories from additional food intake consumed during or after drinking, and if you compensate for all of the above accordingly, you won't get fat.

Now, with that said, you might be wondering: "You mean I can drink and still lose fat? I just need to keep in a calorie deficit?"

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. But before you rush off to the pub for a cold one, hold that thought for a minute while you consider this first: The empty alcohol calories displace the nutrient dense calories!

When you're on a fat loss program you have a fairly small "calorie budget", so you need to give some careful thought to how those calories should be "spent." For example, if a female is on a 1500 calorie per day diet, does she really want to "spend" 500 of those calories - one third of her intake - for a few alcoholic drinks, and leave only 1000 for health-promoting food, fiber and lean muscle building protein?

I realize some people may answer "yes" to that question, but then again, if some people spent their money as frivolously as they spent their calories, they would be in deep trouble!
To summarize this into some practical, take-home advice, here are 7 of my personal tips for alcohol consumption in the fitness lifestyle:

(1) Don't drink on a fat loss program. Although you could certainly drink and "get away with it" if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit as noted above, it certainly does not help your fat loss cause or your nutritional status.
(2) Drink in moderation during maintenance. For lifelong weight maintenance and a healthy lifestyle, if you drink, do so in moderation and only occasionally, such as on weekends or when you go out to dine in restaurants. Binge drinking and getting drunk has no place in a fitness lifestyle (not to mention hangovers aren't very conducive to good workouts).
(3) Don't drink daily. Moderate drinking, including daily drinking, has been associated with cardiovascular health benefits. However, I don't recommend daily drinking because behaviors repeated daily become habits. Behaviors repeated multiple times daily become strong habits. Habitual drinking may lead to heavier drinking or full-blown addictions and can be hard to stop if you ever need to cut back.
(4) Count the calories. If you decide to have a bottle of beer or a glass of wine or two (or whatever moderation is for you), be sure to account for the alcohol in your daily calorie budget.
(5) Watch your appetite. Don't let the "munchies" get control of you during or after you drink (Note to chicken wing and nacho-eating men: The correlation to alcohol and body fat is higher in men in almost all the studies. One possible explanation is that men tend to drink and eat, while women may tend to drink instead of eating).
(6) Watch the fatty foods. When drinking, watch the fatty foods in particular. A study by Angelo Tremblay back in 1995 suggested that alcohol and a high fat diet are a combination that favors overfeeding.
(7) Enjoy without guilt. If you choose to drink (moderately and sensibly), then don't feel guilty about it or beat yourself up afterwards, just enjoy the darn stuff, will you!



This is Jon Potkins sharing the tips I've learned in the #1 best selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle," which teaches you how to burn fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: http://www.squidoo.com/spikeyourmetabolism/

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Fitness Ball Exercises

Most people dream of getting into shape, losing weight, and exercising more. It can mean signing up at local gyms. However, many fitness enthusiasts prefer to purchase home fitness equipment that can be effective for them. They can take the benefits of a total workout while at homes and within flexible times.

One of the best options to consider is buying a fitness ball. It is time for you to experience a unique workout at home. There are various reasons why this piece of exercise equipment has become very popular. In fact, it is utilized by most physical therapists to treat their patients back pains.

A fitness ball having a diameter of about 55 to 85 centimeter is made of elastic rubber. It is utilized in exercise and physical therapy. There are various names for a fitness ball such as exercise ball, Pilate's ball, gym ball, therapy ball, balance ball, body ball, yoga ball, sports ball, and Swiss ball.

The major benefit of a fitness ball exercise is enabling the body to respond to the ball's instability while keeping your balance and engaging more muscles as well. Keep in mind that the muscles are strengthened upon struggling to maintain the balance. The core muscles of the body, back muscles, and abdominal muscles are the target of the fitness ball programs of exercises.

Exercises done on or with a fitness ball will never bore you. In fact it can challenge your stamina, patience, perseverance and, self-discipline. This is the true form of exercising. Working the entire core muscles to achieve the best results.

A fitness ball is effective because of its rounded shape. It can create instability to induce your core body muscles to work. Compared to floor crunching, the muscles that are only working are the upper abs, but when you do the crunching on a fitness ball, the core muscles including abs muscles, back muscles, pelvic muscles, and hip muscles are working together in helping you stay on the ball.

Try doing a few pushups using a fitness ball, your hands on the floor and your feet on the fitness ball or vice versa. This exercise gives more stability when the feet are spread apart and tougher when the feet are put closely together.

Although a fitness ball provides many advantages. There are also some pitfalls especially if overused. Strength coaches revealed that the exercise ball can cause injury if not used properly. Approximately 70 percent of fitness ball exercises are considered worthless. Nevertheless, it is still prescribed by some therapists in treating patients with back pain.

Incorporating a fitness ball in your fitness program can mean surpassing all the difficult levels involved during the exercise. Each exercis requires support from your stomach muscles and back to help in keeping the trunk muscles firm.

More often then not a fitness ball is good for people who have lower back pain. Other uses include developing overall strength and control of the body's core muscles, increasing the strength of back and abdominal muscles,learning proper posture and body mechanics when lifting objects, and increasing mobility of the lower back.



Jennifer Felker CSCS. is the author of many fitness articles and research papers. Jen is also the publisher of the very poular excersise and fitness blog which can be found at: http://exercise-fitness-advisory.com/

How To Guarantee You Reach Your Fitness Resolution

A few days ago 1 out of 2 people set out to do something great - something challenging - and something that will possibly change our life forever - all through a New Year's Resolution. A month the top resolutions: eating healthier, starting a fitness plan, and weight loss.

Fitness themed resolutions are by far the most widely pursued new-year goals making making up over half of the proposed new year's resolutions.

All too often these half-hazzard resolutions are nothing more than proposed fitness dreams - hopes of accomplishments - never to see the light of fulfillment.

In a recent study - after just 7 days into the new year - 1/4 of the crowd has already dropped out. After 1 month that jumps to nearly half - still more dropping as the year progresses. In the end only an estimated 2 out of 10 resolution seekers will stick with it to the end. Why is it that fitness resolutions seem to drop like fly onto flypaper? There are several common mistakes to avoid - that will not only help you to keep on track - but nearly guarantee you stick with your fitness resolution until the end!!

A Department of Labor survey asked adults to identify the single biggest issue that prevents them from achieving their new year's resolutions and goals. The top 3 reasons stated were procrastination, lack of discipline, and not having a game plan - not knowing what to do.

Procrastinating
Why do today what I can put off until tomorrow type of attitude, wait shouldn't that be the other way around. New dieters often fail because they never get started. Continuing with the infamous, "I'll start tomorrow". Keep going with that philosophy and you'll find that infamous tomorrow never comes. After all, tomorrow, is never today.

Make a promise to yourself and stick to it. Don't say the Smith's are having a party tomorrow so let's wait until tomorrow. Then it's Saturday so might as well start on Monday. Then Monday comes it's an office party. Tuesday you have a family gathering. Wednesday, oh the week is almost over already so let's just wait until next week. Just get started - NOW.

Lack Of Discipline
Here's a tip - don't do it on your own. Have a positive support system. In a study of beginning exercisers when people were held accountable they were 20 times more likely to stick with their fitness plan 6 months down the road.

A fitness coach or a friend can be a great help encouraging you along your goals and giving you the discipline that you need. Just be sure your support members are not struggling with the same issues and are not willing to commit themselves to such a plan.

No Game Plan
Have a specific action plan. Break it down and make it less intimidating - specific action steps. Start your new fitness plan slowly - remain consistent and build up on it. Make gradual and permanent changes that you can maintain forever.

Are you familiar with the Chinese language? Did you know there are over 2,000 Chinese characters used in writing? What if I was to say you have to learn to write and speak Chinese and I want it done by next week. That's the same as losing 100 pounds by next week.
Take that same scenario and learn one chinese character a day for 6 days, then review them all on the 7th. Repeat this pattern each week until you learn language. While it would certainly take longer you would surely get it done.

In the end only 20% of fitness resolution seekers follow through with their goals. While we can't wave a magic wand and make a resolution come true, there are easy steps to take that will indeed make it easier and give us a much higher chance to fulfill our promises to ourselves.
Get started as soon as possible, have a positive support system, and have a specific plan of attack. These 3 simple strategies will see to it that you will be one who is guaranteed to reach your fitness resolution.

Zach Hunt is the owner and head fitness coach of Physzique, a high-end personal fitness coaching service in Spokane, WA. He helps his clients to quickly and permanently drop unwanted fat and transform their body with a proven system that takes less than 3 hours of exercise each week.



Zach Hunt is the owner, head Spokane Personal Trainer of Physzique. A high-end Personal Trainer Spokane service.
Go now to: Spokane Fitness to see how you can benefit from the Physzique services. Go here: Fitness Spokane