Emotional Eating - what's your excuse?

One of my children (it would be unfair to give a name) has tried every trick in the book to get out of handing in homework. Actually, they've all gone through a phase of doing that, so much for my brilliant parenting. Don't kids realise that teachers have heard every excuse and no longer believe any of them?

Over the past few weeks I have heard all sorts of excuses from my clients:

It was Easter (al the snacks are chocolate not like the healthy nuts and seeds we have at Christmas).

It snowed and I couldn't exercise (some allowance here - the weather has been weird. But when the snow went, what did you do then?)

It snowed and I didn't feel like it. (Strange logic here - snow = winter = comfort food)

I forgot (forgot to diet? Forgot that when you have one bit of the cake you eat the lot? Forgot you have 60lbs to lose?)

I've been busy. Look, you'll always be busy. And you'll have to eat for the rest of your life. So eat sensible stuff. Otherwise you'll be too ill or too dead to be busy)

I was away with the family. (Family get togethers are difficult - it's so easy to overeat. But if you stick to the right food groups and the right quantities you can do it. Have one celebratory meal; don't over eat the whole way through the weekend.)

A sensible eating plan isn't technically difficult. Lean meat or fish, veg and salads, a little fruit. Any food that looks as if it grew on a tree or in the ground or grazed in a field or stream. You don't have to count calories or fat grams, weigh or measure foods and it does allow the odd celebratory meal or comfort fest.

But you do have to be disciplined and apply some common sense to your eating habits on a day to day basis. It is the consistent behaviour in your diet that makes the difference. Consistently eating well, you'll get away with the odd lapse. Consistently loosening your waistband, slumping on the sofa and troughing out when you don't need to will end in misery.

It's also important to identify why you are eating the food. Is it to meet your physical needs (hunger) or are you using it to deal with your emotions? You'll be trying to feed your emotional hunger if you eat when you are sad, lonely, frustrated or simply bored. You may even feel your emotions in your stomach and mistake that for physical hunger!

So ask the question before you eat - "If I eat now, what am I feeding, my body or my emotions?" If you don't deal with these feelings you'll have to use incredible willpower to stay on a diet. Look at your emotional eating patterns, decide now to be consistent in your eating habits, take one day at a time and consistently shed the pounds!

Happy eating!

Liz Copeland is a Nutrition Coach who can show you how to change your beliefs and behaviours around food so you can eat well, look good and feel great. Find her "Live Your Best Life" guide and the newsletter No More Rabbit Food - weight loss tips for people who love food at http://www.tranzformations.co.uk/signup.php

Making Exercise More Fun

Nothing beats waking up in the morning with the thought of going to the gym to lift weights or jog on the treadmill. After a hard days work, the gym is one place you don't even want to think about. Sometimes, even the thought of exercising at home with your own equipment can be less than desirable.

Sometimes, just trying to get and stay motivated to exercise on a regular basis can be a challenge. No matter how you look at it, exercise can be downright boring and even tedious at times.

So, you may be wondering just how you can get the motivation you need to exercise on a regular basis. If you've been wondering what you can do to make exercise more fun, you'll find some ideas below that just may help to make exercise more fun and a little bit easier.

First things first, you should exercise with a friend. You can challenge each other, help each other out, keep each other motivated and on track, make each other laugh or just make a game out of your exercise programs.

You can also try something different. If you go to the gym each and every day and use the same piece of equipment or use the same piece of equipment at home, you should try mixing things up. Reverse your routine or just change the order of your exercises.

Go to a city park that has playground equipment and use the slide, climb on the monkey bars, do pull- ups, hang from your knees, just let your imagination guide you. You don't always need to follow a strict routine, just get out there and have fun working your muscles.

An outdoor circuit in the park is also something you can try. There are some parks that have circuit courses set up with a planned course where all you have to do is walk or jog to each station and then follow the instructions. If there isn't a planned course, then you should do a combination of jogging and walking, picking a distance of a couple hundred feet. Jog 100 feet then drop and do a couple of pushups, walk the next 100 feet and then drop to do sit ups.

You can also ride a bike around your neighborhood or hike on a hiking trail. A walk in the park or around your neighborhood is also a great way to get some exercise. Doing yoga in the park or on a beach is also a nice and relaxing way to exercise both your body and your mind.

Playing a competitive sport is also something you can try. A lot of cities have team activities such as softball, volleyball, tennis, soccer, and so on. These types of activities will not only provide you with good exercise but they will also help you to meet new people as well.

When you exercise, try to picture your muscles getting bigger. Research has shown that if you focus all of your thoughts on the muscles that you are working, they will respond better. Try to watch them work with each repetition as your muscles contract and relax.

As you can tell, there are plenty of ways you can make exercise more fun and interesting. You don't need to follow the same routine day after day, as you can do many other things to get in some exercise.

The important thing is that you should always try to incorporate exercise in any various form into your everyday life and make these habits the kind of habits that will last a lifetime.

If you want more treadmill workouts tips, visit http://www.treadmilluse.com to read about treadmill exercises.

Muscle Fiction

If you'v been training, here's a short list of bodybuilding fiction.

1. 12 Rep rule

Most weight training program include this much repetitions for gaining muscle. The truth is this approach places the muscles with not enough tension for effective muscle gain. High tension e.g. heavy weights provides muscle growth in which the muscle grows much larger, leading to the maximum gains in strength. Having longer tension time boosts the muscle size by generating the structures around the muscle fibers, improving endurance.

The standard prescription of eight to 12 repetitions provides a balance but by just using that program all of the time, you do not generate the greater tension levels that is provided by the heavier weights and lesser reps, and the longer tension achieved with lighter weights and more repetitions. Change the number of reps and adjust the weights to stimulate all types of muscle growth.

2. Three Set rule

The truth is there's nothing wrong with three sets but then again there is nothing amazing about it either. The number of sets you perform should be base on your goals and not on a half-century old rule. The more repetitions you do on an exercise, the fewer sets you should do, and vice versa. This keeps the total number of repetitions done of an exercise equal.

3. Three to four exercises per group

The truth is this is a waste of time. Combined with twelve reps of three sets, the total number of reps amount to 144. If your doing this much reps for a muscle group your not doing enough. Instead of doing too many varieties of exercises, try doing 30 to 50 reps. That can be anywhere from 2 sets of 15 reps or 5 sets of 10 reps.

4. My knees, my toes

It is a gym folklore that you "should not let your knees go past your toes." Truth is that leaning forward a little too much is more likely a cause of injury. In 2003, Memphis University researchers confirmed that knee stress was almost thirty percent higher when the knees are allowed to move beyond the toes during a squat.

But hip stress increased nearly 10 times or (1000 percent) when the forward movement of the knee was restricted. Because the squatters needed to lean their body forward and that forces the strain to transfer to the lower back.

Focus on your upper body position and less on the knee. Keep the torso in an upright position as much as possible when doing squats and lunges. These reduces the stress generated on the hips and back. To stay upright, before squatting, squeeze the shoulder blades together and hold them in that position; and then as you squat, keep the forearms 90 degree to the floor.

5. Lift weights, draw abs

The truth is the muscles work in groups to stabilize the spine, and the most important muscle group change depending on the type of exercise. The transverse abdominis is not always the most important muscle group. Actually, for most exercise, the body automatically activates the muscle group that are needed most for support of the spine. So if you focus only on the transverse abdominis, it can recruit wrong muscles and limit the right muscles. This increases the chance of injury, and reduces the weight that can be lifted.

To learn more about treadmills, including treadmill exercises and hiit training, visit http://www.treadmilluse.com.

Reasons To Exercise

Many us need to follow an exercise program, in order to remain healthy. Below, you'll find several good reasons why you should start exercising now.

1. Contributes to fat loss It is well proven from scientific research all over the world that physical exercise contributes to weight loss. If you burn more calories than you consume through nutrition, you'll lose weight. When you exercise, you burn more calories than when you don't. It's really simple - the more you exercise, the more weight or fat you'll lose.

2. Prevent disease The chances of developing several various diseases has been proven to decrease when exercising. These diseases include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the stroke.

Around 4 out of 5 deaths caused by heart disease and cancer, are linked to factors that include stress and lack of exercise. We all know that diabetes increases the chance for heart attacks and strokes. What this shows, is that many of the risk factors and diseases caused by not exercising are working in conjunction to damage your health. To prevent this from happening, start exercising.

3. Improving disease Many severe and minor diseases can be improved or even healed through regular exercise. These even include the diseases listed above. By following a regular plan, you can also decrease HDL cholesterol levels, decrease triglyceride levels, and decrease your blood pressure as well.

Exercising on a regular basis will also reduce the risk of prostate cancer for men, breast and uterine cancer for women, and much more. All of this is scientifically proven, which is why you should start exercising today.

4. Enhance your state of mind Everyone knows from the many scientific studies that regular exercising will lead to an increased release of endorphins in the body. These chemicals will fight depression and make you feel happy. The body releases these endorphins only 12 minutes into the workout.

There is another chemical known as serotonin that is increased during and after a workout. The increased levels of serotonin in the central nervous system is associated with feelings of well being and decreased mental depression. The chemical can also help you sleep better at night.

5. Enhance your wellness When you are in great shape and well fit, you'll have more energy and you'll notice that your overall mood is improved. You will have experienced that you can stretch beyond your own limits and you know that you can do more than you thought possible.

6. Persistence Exercising regularly will give you more energy, which can help you be more productive at home and at work. Exercising can help give your new goals a sense of purpose and give you something to focus on and aim for. This can help you increase your persistence and prevent you from going off track while you aim for your goal.

7. Social capabilities After a workout on a regular basis you can boost your self esteem. This can help you look better and you'll be more comfortable as well. Exercise will also help you to become more active and meet new people, which will prevent you from feeling isolated and unsupported. Exercise will also increase your interests in sex, and can help you to improve your marriage or your partner relationship.

After knowing all of these tips and reasons to exercise, you shouldn't hesitate to get out there and exercise. You can exercise at home or go out there and join a gym. There are several different ways that you can exercise, all you have to do is select a few that you like. Take a little bit of time out of your day and start exercising - you'll feel better than ever before and your body will thank you.

At The Treadmill Workouts website, you can read more about treadmill workouts and the tread climber.

Do You Hate Exercise?

Do You Hate Exercising? Here Are Some Workout Tips for You

If you're anything like me, you wouldn't consider exercising your favorite pastime. In fact, some people downright hate exercising. However, exercising is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle, and without it you definitely will not be able to lose weight. There are certain tips, however, for learning to love exercising, even if you truly hate it.

First, try finding some exercises that you like to do. Of course, you should work out all of your body, but if you absolutely hate doing one kind of exercise, then look for another to take its place. You don't have to do crunches to strengthen your core muscles. You don't have to do lunges to work out your lower body. You don't even have to run,you can replace it with cycling or swimming. Find the exercise you like to do and your workout will seem more enjoyable right away.

You can also find other activities you like to do and make them work for your body. For example, if you like working on your garden, try doing some exercising surrounding raking or mow your yard by hand. If you enjoy the winter weather, you can try ice skating or sledding with friends. No matter what you like to do, you can find ways to get some exercise. Thanks to the introduction of the Wii and games like Dance Dance Revolution, you can even combine video games and exercise.

Another great tip to liking exercise is to find a training partner. When you work out together, you can help one another stay motivated, even if you don't absolutely love exercising. With a partner, you can have fun as well, trying things like tennis or challenging one another to meet certain goals. Trainers can also provide this for you, as well as show you new and fun exercises to help you avoid getting bored or feeling overwhelmed at the gym.

Lastly, try taking some classes. Exercise classes are a great way to meet new people, learn new exercises, stay motivated, and above all, have fun. Most gyms offer low-cost or free exercise classes with membership or you can check out options at your local community center.

Staying motivated if you hate exercising can be hard, but set goals and don't quit. You need to exercise as well as diet if you really want to lose weight. Make exercise fun and it won't seem like such a chore.

Dennis Sperl http://dmsperl.superbeing.hop.clickbank.net/

I hope you like the information in DO YOU HATE EXERCISE.If you would like to learn to like exercise you can start with these 10 free health and fitness reports. http://dmsperl.superbeing.hop.clickbank.net/

Building Muscle - The Concept That Makes Muscle Building Easy!

Introduction to Building Muscle

Building muscle is something that most people have trouble mastering. Unless you really know what you're doing, muscle building can be like winning the lottery. It's hit or miss with too many people. I've built over 60 pounds of muscle onto my small frame, so I know how to build muscle. I'm here to help you understand a single concept that will take your muscle building efforts to a whole new level!

Weight lifting combined with a calorie surplus is needed for muscle building. Many people realize they need a good diet, more calories than their body burns, and a stimulus created from weight lifting in order to build muscle. Many people follow those three guidelines and still cannot build the amount of muscle that they want. Why?

The Muscle Building Concept

Do you really want to know how to build muscle? Here's what you do. You concentrate on getting stronger in the muscle building rep ranges over time while gaining 1 to 2 pounds of body weight per week. It's really that simple. In order to fully understand that concept, you must know how to get stronger in the correct rep ranges, how to gain 1 to 2 pounds per week, and how many reps to lift.

What are the muscle building rep ranges? These rep ranges are not set in stone, but I've always believed in the rep ranges of six to twelve. You get progressively stronger in these rep ranges over time and eat a calorie surplus, and I guarantee you will build muscle. The rep ranges of 6 to 12 is where I've built over 60 pounds of muscle.

How do you gain 1 to 2 pounds per week? Gaining weight is easy. All you have to do is set aside a specific time each week to weigh yourself. You will want to weigh yourself under the same conditions so that you get the most accurate reading possible. For example, weigh yourself as soon as you wake up every week on Sunday morning. Count calories each day of the week and obtain a weekly average. Use your weekly average along with your body weight measurement to adjust your calorie intake for the coming week. If you did not gain weight, raise your calories until you are gaining 1 to 2 pounds per week. Weigh yourself each week and adjust your calorie intake each week.

Getting stronger in the rep ranges of 6 to 12 requires a little more planning. A good weight lifting program will have components built into the program to help you build strength. You need to find a good program that will help you with that. For example, the WLC Program has you lift sub-maximal weight for 12 reps to start the program. You then progress throughout the weeks by increasing the weight lifted while decreasing the reps to 6.

Summary

What do you think will happen to the size of your legs if you start out lifting 135 pounds for 12 reps and finish by lifting 315 pounds for 6 reps over 10 weeks all while gaining 1 to 2 pounds per week? I know what happens! You build slabs of muscle onto your legs and your whole body.

The right weight lifting program will help you build strength in the muscle building rep ranges. Getting stronger in the correct rep ranges while gaining weight will build muscle. You control how much muscle you gain with your diet and your effort in the gym. Be consistent with your diet and your weight lifting and get the results you want! You're in control.

To find more information about the WLC Program, please visit http://www.weight-lifting-complete.com/wlc-program.html

The WLC Program is a free weight lifting program developed by me. I've used all the knowledge over my 9 years of weight lifting experiences to build the WLC Program. Read everything you can about the WLC Program, and you'll understand why it works so well!

Expert in building muscle and losing fat.

Making Time To Exercise

Most of us are masters at not finding time for exercise! Whether it is a sub conscious block or a jinxed activity, we simply can't seem to fit in the exercise schedule in our daily routine. Exercising is great activity that had to be followed in order to reap the benefits. Now how do you make time for exercising amidst the already overflowing schedule?

1. Firstly, you should understand the importance and appreciate the benefits of exercising and weight loss. You should understand why it should be a priority in our life.

2. Understanding alone will not help. You should make it a priority. Be serious about allocating time for the activity, it's important.

3. Make it a routine. Finding time does not mean you stuff in exercising in all the nooks and crannies of your schedule. Instead allocate a specific time, your exercise time, which you will follow every day. This way it becomes an integrated part of your schedule and becomes a routine and eventually a habit which you won't be able to do away with!

4. If you can allocate the time in the mornings, it's great! It's good for health to exercise in the mornings; also you won't be interrupting your day's schedule in any way. Mornings are usually characterized with less interruptions and distractions!

5. Getting up early in the morning to exercise will give you extra time.

6. A study states that, 16 hours is the time spent per week by an average adult on watching television! So if you're the couch potato soccer watching type, watch soccer while you're on the treadmill. It adds to the action! You have two options; you either spend less time on TV or use it for exercising. Or you watch TV while you exercise. If you are following the latter don't get involved too much in the TV programs and reduce the intensity of your exercises. Do it with the same vigor.

7. Try to exercise for at least half an hour during the lunch break.

8. If you are catching up with an old friend or spending quality time with your spouse talking, what best than taking a walk around the neighborhood? Take a walk instead of sitting indoors. It is bound to be refreshing.

9. Review the time you spend exercising every day. You will know if you are spending enough time and rework the schedule if necessary. This way you can efficiently make time for other things too.

10. Make exercise a fun activity. That way you will want to do it often. Having an exercise partner is a great way to make it interesting. There will be healthy competition as well as motivation to exercise.

These are a few way by which you can make exercising a routine which you will look forward to. Exercising is a great way to stay fit. Making time for this activity is essential. So get started and have a great time toning your body!

Gary Grewal is the founder of 101weightloss.com; a site featuring many articles on weight loss diets, pills, eating right, exercises etc. Visit his site for many more quick weight loss tips.

Use Your Pre-Sleep Time to Program your Mind for Success

What do you think about before you nod off at night? Your day at work? Your significant other? Your chores at home? Whatever it may be, you could put that time to better use in an attempt to maximize your bodybuilding goals.

Rather than going through the usual unconscious or semi-conscious processing of your day’s experiences or what you need to do tomorrow, mentally reinforce and strategically motivate yourself for success in the gym.

Think about it. Why allow random experiences of your day to comprise the sensory impressions that are processed while you sleep when you could use those 6 …#34; 8 hours to fuel your inner power for peak goal accomplishment. To do so, you must ingest the most positive, success inducing programming possible, which is basically a form of imagery.

We cannot think or imagine without some level of physical response occurring. In visualization, thoughts and images lead to neurological patterns, which in turn lead to muscular responses. With a repetition of thoughts and images (visualization), the associated neurological pattern is strengthened, and the responses imagined have a higher probability of occurring in an actual situation. It’s as though by visualization a neurological blueprint or template is created. Basically, with proper imagery you can program yourself to experience success. If you can visualize yourself pumping iron and growing, you’ll grow.

Use the following pre-sleep process for sensory imaging to unite your determination, conviction and indomitable success expectancy and fuel your training efforts. In other words, pre-program yourself to succeed in the gym as early as tomorrow.

Superhuman Workout Forcefulness: Mode A

Imagine a graphic scenario of a set you intend to perform in your next workout. But instead of seeing yourself in your current physical condition, envision yourself with the exact physique you desire …#34; the ultimate thick, dense, cut, flaring muscularity that represents peak accomplishment.

Once you mentally project this scenario, imaginatively step into the picture and into your desired physique, and experience yourself powerfully and masterfully performing the set. Take charge, imaginatively pushing yourself to the limit and then beyond. As you perceptually generate this superior effort, feel every accompanying physical/sensory factor of emotion, body temperature, heart rate, etc., all reflecting levels you know would be necessary to complete the set with the most superhuman effort you can conceive.

Stretch your imagination and in reaching the full unbridled reflection of your muscular success, perceptually blast out a set that literally depicts you melting the iron.

Peak Muscular Success Imaging: Mode B

Immediately after you complete mode A, envision yourself in front of a full length mirror in posing trunks or a swim suit and see your physique as the total embodiment of this commanding muscular success. As you look at your imagined reflection from calves to traps, clearly notice the exceptional size, fullness, shape and proportion of every body part. Precisely experience each cut, groove, line, peak, vein and sinew. Feel your body’s natural power and proportional density from head to toe.

Spend 3 …#34; 4 minutes richly experiencing yourself as this maximum muscular success, first from the front, then from the rear. Then let yourself feel each body part in this peak development from within, sensing the density, power and fullness of each muscle as if you’ve internally become it. Take another 3 …#34; 4 minutes to engage in this process of internal peak muscularity unification.

Again, imaginatively look at your peak muscular development in the mirror, and notice yourself reflecting the facial expression and emotional state you sense you’d naturally express if you actually had this physical dimension.

Future Success Impact Visioning

Project yourself back into the gym as the epitome of your desired level of muscular accomplishment, but this time envision yourself studying your fully pumped physique in one of the gym mirrors after finishing a magnitude exertion set. As you do this, listen to others around you comment on your size, power and level of development. Hear their compliments, praise, and seeing excitement and appreciation over your physique.

Spend 3 …#34; 4 minutes with this vision, then see yourself in your street clothes, your head held high and a gleam of masterful self esteem in your eyes. You exude healthy muscular power and confidence and, with every step, you feel a commanding level of personal power and self respect …#34; a genuine sense of pride and value in your achievements and muscular success.

After another 3 …#34; 4 minutes, again envision yourself standing in front of a full length mirror in posing trunks or a swim suit. Feeling a deep connection with every body part at this superior development level, as well as a sense of rightful, expectant capacity to achieve, slowly let your mind clear, begin to focus on your breathing and let it all just mentally slip away. With this rich capacity for peak muscular success within you, let yourself easily and comfortably drift off into a deep, soothing slumber.

Performing this pre-sleep motivation scripting every night can help you keep your dreams positive and enriching, and your subconscious drenched with the sensory forcefulness that commands muscular progress.

Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuilding101.110mb.com.

Water Exercise: Spa & Pool Exercise Light Weight Equipment

Low impact exercise can be done in your spa or pool. Exercising with light weight equipment offers many benefits. Gentle on the joints, water exercises are good for pregnant women, people with joint or back problems and the overweight. Using lightweight equipment allows for less strain on the muscles. A basic piece for water exercising is the flotation belt, the swim bars, fins, kick boards and hand paddles. Water provides warmth and buoyancy. Spas provide access to warm water to exercise at home. The warm water relaxes the muscles allowing them to perform better. With relaxed muscles you get an overall feeling of comfort. Pools offer more space than spas for exercising, letting you do a wider variety and more vigorous exercise program.

The light weight equipments that are useful for exercise and easy to use in the pool or spa are these following equipments. A buoyancy belt can help to suspend you in deeper water. Using a kick board helps build leg muscles. Lightweight dumb bells and wrist weights add resistance to tone and strengthen the upper body. Weights let you do biceps curls and chest press in the water for more resistance. Using the weights on your legs, do kicks in the water to build muscle. Swim bars work great for upper body workouts. Be sure to wear proper water shoes for stability and traction in the spa or pool. A good pair of water shoes can provide buoyancy.

If you think spa or pool exercise are only healthy but are not entertained activity, so there're the ways to inspire you to do it. If you have your private pool at your home or public pools or spas near your place, it is very convenience for you to exercise with light weight equipment as much as you want. Then you can enjoy this healthy activity with you family or friends that will encourage you more than do it alone. And using your favorite music or relaxing music can also another way to support you to have fun by design and maintenance your exercise program continuously. This water exercise should be done at least once a week or it is better if you can do it 3-4 times a week but the duration is up to your age and how physically strong you are.

There are many benefits gained through water exercise. The following benefits are only sample benefits that you will get after spa and pool exercise. The first one is that water exercising works your muscles and help tone them while working your heart for better health. Then the second is weight loss that is also achieved through the use of a spa or pool exercise routine with light weight equipment. Next is one of the important benefits that are water exercise can help lower blood sugar levels, lower blood pressure and reduce stress. So no matter what fitness level you are, what your age is, what gender you are, or your ability in exercise, finding a spa and pool exercise using lightweight equipment is meet your needs for your future of healthy life.

A.Jambrik's the owenr of www.spapartysite.com that provides the Spa Party Ideas and read more content please visit http://www.spapartysite.com

Lose Fat Outdoors!

The weather is finally turned and winter is quickly becoming a distant memory. If you love the summer and being outdoors then I'm sure you enjoy this time of year.

The weather however isn't the only thing to change, so is our wardrobes. As we put away the the winter coats and bring out the less reveiling summer wear, I'm sure a lot of us are a bit conscious that we can no longer hide behind our clothing.

What to do? How to lose those few pounds quickly?

I've mentioned it before....Interval Training! One of my clients has incorporated interval training twice a week in to their fitness program and sure enough the body fat has started to come off. Recently however they've mentioned how they just don't enjoy being indoors in a sweaty gym when it's so beatiful outside. That's great! Interval training outdoors can be a lot of fun, especially if you go with a friend.

Here are two things you can do:

1) In a park or a quiet road free of traffic, warm up for 5 minutes. Then run as fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be breathing very heavy at the end of it and unable to speak more than a few words.

Next walk for 1 minute, and I mean walk! This is where most people go wrong, they think it's better to keep jogging rather than fully recovering; don't make this mistake, you want your breathing to be back to normal before starting again. Do this walk run 4 times to start and add one until you reach 8. Once you've done that then decrease your walking time by 15 seconds and increase the running time by 15 seconds.

If you'e doing this with a friend, it's fun to race during the 30 seconds and have a good chat during the walks.

2) Warm up jogging for 5 minutes. Next choose a lamp post, tree or some marker that you can sprint to. Go has fast as you can until you reach it. Then walk until you fully have your breath back. Do this until you've run for a total of 20 minutes, including with in there your 5 minute warm up and cool down.

This type of training is a great way of spicing up your regular interval training.

If you find jogging or running difficult, start of with walking very quickly.

Have fun!

Remember it's always a good idea to consult your GP prior to starting a new fitness program

Rosa Coelho is a Performance Coach, Personal Trainer and Sports Massage Therapist at Dax Moy Personal Training Studios in London. Rosa specialises in applying a holistic approach to health and fitness through The POWER Principles. For a Rosa's free report 'Highly Effective Metabolism Boosters' Go to http://rocofitness.blogspot.com/ or sign up to her FREE NEWSLETTER at http://www.rocofit.com/newsletter

Fast Muscle Mass Building: The Ten Success Principles

As the saying goes, "methods are many, principles are few, methods may change, but principles never do." This has just as much validity with weight training and bodybuilding as it does anything else. Every day we hear of revolutionary new workout programs, exercises, tricks, quick fix's, you name it. Though I can't say I agree on many of the different "methods" of gaining weight and building muscle mass these days, the principles for reaching your goals will always remain the same.

As a result, I have created what I call, "The Ten Success Principles for Fast Muscle Mass Building." I have listed these principles so that even the skinniest hardgainer can apply and grow from. Follow these principles, ingrain them in your mind, and you will be on the right track for long term success from your efforts. If you're wondering what is the best way to build muscle fast, then your answers are below. All you have to do is apply these principles.

Principle 1: You Don't Know what You Don't Know - Become a Student

When we realize that you don't know what you don't know, we can become more teachable and absorb knowledge that we can apply to better our results from the gym. If you have the "know-it-all" attitude, that simply means you are stagnate and your mind will never grow past its current state. Become a student for life to weight training and bodybuilding, read as much material as you can about each subject: training, diet, supplements, the whole works. One word of caution is this: be careful where you get your opinions and information. Only seek those with proven results, and watch out for "arm chair experts" and "magazine bodybuilders."

Principle 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Far too many trainees today just wonder aimlessly around in the gym doing whatever exercise they like and working out whenever they feel like it. If you don't have a target, you're going to hit it with amazing accuracy! In other words, if you don't know EXACTLY what you are trying to achieve by going to the gym each day, you're never going to get anywhere. Always make sure you're on a program, and stick with it to the end. Figure out your "why" and you will be able to overcome any "how." Always go to the gym knowing exactly what you are going to do down to the last rep of the last exercise.

Principle 3: You Get What You Picture

As David Schwartz says in his fantastic book, The Magic of Thinking Big, "Belief, strong belief, triggers the mind to figuring ways and means and how-to...Disbelief is negative power. When the mind disbelieves or doubts, the mind attracts "reasons" to support disbelief." Always go to the gym with a positive attitude and a firm belief that you are progressively gaining muscle mass. Wipe out all negative belief about your success or you will pay the price of getting exactly what you pictured.

Principle 4: There is No Great Success without Great Commitment

If you are not committed, you can be swayed. Fix in your mind exactly the results you want, and commit to yourself that you will do what it takes to get it. When you are committed, truly committed, no petty thought or inconvenience will ever stop you on your way to your goal. You will be unstoppable and your end in mind will be a forgone conclusion. As Yoda said, "There is no try, only do."

Principle 5: You Are Only Defeated When you Accept Defeat as a Reality, and Decide to Stop Trying

Failure is a HUGE key to success. The price of success is thousands of failures. Those not willing to pay that price will not succeed in getting the body they want. As long as you learn from your experience you will always be moving forward. Continue to learn and perform, and do this cycle over and over and over until you succeed. Success is often right after where most people quit. Remember, "Quitters never win, winners never quit."

Principle 6: Less is More - Quality, not Quantity

When you goal is to gain weight and/or build muscle mass, always keep your workouts short. All your muscles need is an intense workout with compound exercises and 110% effort, a few days a week. Don't think that by training 7 days a week for 2 or 3 hours a day will produce better results. Focus on a few exercises, a couple days a week for no longer then 90 minutes tops. Overtraining is one of the major causes of failure when trying to gain weight and build muscle. Don't confuse ambition with workout time, it's not how much time you put into the gym, it's what you put into the time you're at the gym that counts.

Principle 7: Major on Compound Exercises

Though there are literally thousands of workout programs you can find today, one truth that will never change for gaining muscle mass is that compound exercises have and will always be the best of the best. Exercises such as squats, the bench press, and bent-over rows will always remain at the top of any successful bodybuilders list. Focus on these and other core compound exercises and you'll never be disappointed in your results.

Principle 8: Hard Work

Nothing beats good old fashioned hard work, and what better way to express it than weight training. Unfortunately, the media today is always trying to make your workout and exercises "easier." If you want to build a mass of muscle, you're going to have to poor out some blood and sweat and tears, no two ways about it. As long as you follow a few solid workouts for muscle mass and are using safety cautions and common sense, then push yourself to your limit each and every workout. You're never going to ease your way to true muscle mass, even if you trained easy for a thousand years.

Principle 9: Progressive Overload

If you want more muscle mass, you're going to have to continue to add weight on a regular basis, period. This is one of the most basic but overlooked principles in gaining muscle mass. Get in the habit of progressively adding weight whenever you can. The moment you settle and stop pushing yourself is the moment your muscle mass gains will begin to stagnate. Resistance is the only opportunity for growth. The worst thing you can do is hit a goal without setting another one in advance.

Principle 10: A Proper Diet

I couldn't leave this one out. After all, the food you eat is the direct fuel for your muscles to grow. You can workout until the cows come home but without a proper diet plan for building muscle mass your body simply will not grow, it's not physically possible too! It is an absolute must to know the correct food to eat to build muscle properly. Refer to the first principle and learn all you can about dieting for muscle mass so that you can get the most for your efforts in the gym.

Derek Manuel is the author of the best-selling, "How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers". If you want to learn how you too can gain 20 to 30 pounds of solid muscle in as short as 8 weeks, or if you just want more quality information on how to gain weight and build muscle, please visit http://www.hardgainers-weight-tips.com