Fitness & Health News Headlines

Up-to-the-minute fitness and health-related news updates from all over the Web...

• Fit Fact: Forget Dieting Over the Holidays

Last week, I posted a blog about finding balance and got a variety of interesting comments from readers, many of whom said they have a hard time finding balance in their diets. As one reader said, "To lose weight or maintain my proper weight I am a very restrictive eater...I just have not been able to incorporate the "no BAD food" reality into my daily diet."

With the holidays coming up, this struggle can add even more stress for some people. On the one hand, we want to enjoy ourselves and indulge in foods we don't get very often. On the other hand, we don't want to go overboard or gain the 5 or so pounds that some of us put on during the holidays.

So, what's the answer? Below are a few tips that may help you find a little balance this year:

Focus on being healthy rather than dieting or restricting foods. Keep your mind on the core elements of healthy living - being active as much as you can, eating healthy options most of the time and enjoying life with rare and favorite indulgences. Relaxing that control can sometimes free you to enjoy yourself without overdoing it. Be picky. Don't waste calories on things you can get any old time (chips, dip, etc.). Instead, save your indulgences for things you truly love - a small slice of homemade apple pie or grandma's famous cornbread dressing. Eat before you go. Eat small, healthy meals throughout the day before the party. That way, you don't show up starving, which is only asking for overindulgence. Know your weak spots. Family gatherings can be stressful and many of us mitigate that stress by mindless munching or drinking a little too much. If you know that tends to happen, plan ahead for how you'll deal with your stress. You may need to fill a plate with carrot sticks or simply relocate to a room without food in it. Knowing what you'll do ahead of time makes it easier to follow through.

What about you? Are you worried about gaining weight over the holidays? If so, how do you plan on dealing with it? Leave a comment and tell us what you think about dieting over the holidays.

Fit Fact: Forget Dieting Over the Holidays originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 07:00:14.

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• Reader Success Story: I Lost 322 Pounds

Wow. That was my reaction when I read Algarvi's amazing story. As a mother of four, she wanted to be a healthier mom and wife and decided to make some chances after reaching her highest weight of 488 pounds.

Algarvi is proof that slow and steady changes will eventually get you there. She started with small goals, walking three miles each week or drinking more water each day. She eventually started using exercise videos at home and kept herself going by rewarding herself for every accomplishment, no matter how small.

All that hard work paid off and she lost 322 pounds over four years. Read more of her amazing story and share your weight loss success story, if you've got one. This one is truly inspiring.

Reader Success Story: I Lost 322 Pounds originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 07:00:33.

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• Alcohol and Weight Gain

If you're watching your waistline, you already know about watching what you eat, exerting a little portion control and working out. Many of you probably do this (or at least, like most of us, you give it your best shot), but we sometimes forget to count those sneaky calories - the ones that live in our favorite cocktails.

Estimating how many calories we're eating may be common practice for some, but what about the calories you're drinking? How many calories does your favorite drink have and how does that affect your waistline? In my latest article, I talk about how alcohol can sabotage your weight loss goals - something that's definitely on my mind with the holidays coming up and my grandmother's boiled custard to contend with.

What about you? Do you watch what you drink or is it something you haven't paid much attention to? Or maybe you're a non-drinker. Leave a comment and tell us how you deal with alcohol and your weight.

Alcohol and Weight Gain originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 07:00:43.

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• Exercise of the Week: Save Time with Compound Movements - Pushups and Pikes

My clients are busy and easily bored, which is one reason I include a variety of compound movements in their workouts. Working more than one muscle group not only saves time, it adds challenge and intensity - something my clients beg for endlessly (Or maybe they're begging me to stop...whatever).

That's one reason I like the pushup with a pike. The pushup works the chest, arms, shoulders and abs, of course, while the pike focuses attention on the core as well as balance and stability, making this a great dynamic, timesaving exercise. This one is also easy to modify if any of the moves are too difficult. You can keep the ball under the thighs to make the pushup easier and you can roll the ball in, rather than keeping the legs straight, to make the pike easier. Either way, you'll feel this one.

Do it right: Get into a pushup position with the ball under the shins/ankles (easier) or the tops of the feet (harder). Bend the elbows and lower into a pushup. Push back up and contract the abs to pull the ball in as you lift the hips up towards the ceiling in a pike position. For a modification, bend the knees and roll the ball in towards the chest instead of keeping the legs straight. Continue alternating a pushup with a pike for 8-16 reps.

Exercise of the Week: Save Time with Compound Movements - Pushups and Pikes originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 07:00:44.

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• Vote in This Week's Poll: How do you schedule your cardio and strength train...
"> One of the most common questions I get from readers and clients alike is: "How do I fit all these different workouts - cardio, strength and flexibility - into an already overloaded schedule?" The answer is very simple: Quit your job, give your kids away and stop doing all those time-sucking chores like laundry and cleaning the toilet. The response to this is usually, " You mean I can do that?" Well, at least one of those things might actually be illegal and the rest are fantasies most of us can only dream of.

Setting up a complete program can be confusing. Should you do cardio and strength in the same workout? Which one should you do first and which do you choose if you run out of time? Those questions don't have an easy answer. The types of workouts you do, as well as when and how you do them, will depend on what you're trying to accomplish and, of course, how much time you have.

The upside to this is that you can get a lot done in the time you have, whether it's 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour.

The important thing is that there really is no right schedule to follow. Talk to 5 different exercisers and you'll get 5 completely different programs. While each program may be different, they provide what each exerciser needs to reach his goals. I think it's helpful to find out what others do, so I'd like to know how you schedule your cardio and strength workouts each week. Do you do them together or separately? What do you do when you run out of time? Vote in this week's poll and then leave a comment to give us some insight into new ways to fit in exercise.

More About The Time Factor

If you run out of time, consider a short, intense interval workout, a circuit workout or a little cardio followed by a fast-paced strength routine with a focus on compound movements. Hitting the major muscle groups can be done with very few exercises - just make sure you use enough weight to really challenge yourself.

Vote in This Week's Poll: How do you schedule your cardio and strength training workouts? originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 07:00:42.

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• Is There A Bodybuilding Training Routine To Get Big and Strong at the Same Time?

Gaining muscle size and gaining strength are two different adaptations. Gaining muscle size requires the muscle fiber to increase its diameter through the accumulation of protein and other energy substrates such as glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and even some fats (intramuscular fats). This is called muscle hypertrophy and in order to train for it one must use repetition ranges of around 6-15 reps, generally speaking, and keep the rest periods to a minimum in between sets (between 60-90 seconds). When training in this manner, some strength gain is experienced but not nearly as much as if one trained just for strength.

Gaining maximal muscle strength however is a totally different type of adaptation. Basically the brain has to become better at activating as many muscle fibers possible in order to move a weight from point A to point B. This is called a neural adaptation because it happens at the nervous system level. The more muscle size one has, the more strength potential an athlete possesses. In order to train for maximal strength, one has to train with nearly maximal weights; mostly hovering in the 2-6 repetition range, and also, one has to rest 3-4 minutes in between sets of the same exercise. In this case, muscle hypertrophy will be minimal but strength gains will be maximized.

It would seem that one cannot achieve maximum muscle size and maximal strength gains at the same time, but if one uses clever periodization training techniques, you can have the best of both worlds. As a matter of fact, top experts like Charles Poliquin propose that it is imperative for the bodybuilder to include maximal strength training in the bodybuilding program as after enough muscle size is achieved, one needs to train that new size for strength as well in order to ensure continued growth.

So with that said, here is my Periodized Bodybuilding Training Routine for Achieving Maximum Muscle Size and Strength at the Same Time.

Is There A Bodybuilding Training Routine To Get Big and Strong at the Same Time? originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 07:07:11.

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• Bodybuilding Routines for Those Short on Time

With the Holidays approaching, many people's bodybuilding routines get affected adversely due to the tight squeeze many experience in the amount of free time that they have available to themselves. Between Holiday shopping and finalizing any sort of projects at work (or even at home) before the end of the year, it seems that there is just not enough time in the day to get a good bodybuilding workout in.

However, with good planning and a properly designed workout that can get you in and out of the gym in 25-30 minutes, you can squeeze in your bodybuilding routines at any time of the day.

Here are some good bodybuilding routines that you can use to get you through the Holidays in one piece:

Short 25-30 Minute Bodybuilding Workouts Bodybuilding Training During the Holidays Bodybuilding Routine for Busy Bodybuilders

Bodybuilding Routines for Those Short on Time originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 05:10:25.

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• What Is The Best Time To Perform Your Bodybuilding Workouts for Best Results?

Is there a time that is better than others to perform your bodybuilding workouts for best results? If you ask ten bodybuilders, more than likely, you will get ten different answers. However, if you ask me, I'll tell you that it depends on what you are looking to accomplish.

For fat loss with muscle gain, I feel working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is the way to go. Since your glycogen (stored carbohydrate) levels are low, it will be easier for your body to use the fat stores for energy. As long as you are not a hardgainer who has a raging metabolism and can easily burn muscle, or a bodybuilder with diabetes who needs to watch his/her blood sugar, this is a good strategy. And if you are concerned with cortisol levels and being catabolic due to training in the morning before eating, drinking water and taking 5 grams of glutamine, 5 grams of creatine, 5-10 grams of branched chained amino acids, and 1 gram of Vitamin C prior to the workout will more than protect your muscle mass. Working out in the morning on an empty stomach takes some getting used to but I promise you that after two weeks your body will be adapted to it.

When muscle gain is your main bodybuilding goal, training in the afternoon offers the advantage of a higher glycogen level created by the multiple meals consumed, and thus, this results in more energy to push yourself harder. Hardgainers should definitely stick to training at any time other than in the morning on an empty stomach.

With all of these being said, at the end of the day, in bodybuilding consistency of execution is what wins the game. So even if fat loss with muscle gain is your goal, and you cannot train in the morning, then the best time to train is whenever you can allocate the time to perform your bodybuilding workouts.

Since training time is often a subject of controversy, I not only wanted to give you my opinion on the subject, but also the opinion of top bodybuilding legend (IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Famer) and fitness expert Lee Labrada on what is the best time to perform your bodybuilding workouts.

Please feel free to comment and let us know what bodybuilding workout times have worked best for you and why.

What Is The Best Time To Perform Your Bodybuilding Workouts for Best Results? originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 15:25:54.

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• Bodyweight Exercises Do Bodybuilding Good!

Bodybuilding training is composed mostly of weight training exercises. For the best results possible, your bodybuilding training should be composed of mostly free weight exercises that use dumbbells and barbells for resistance. However, I often get asked the questions: "What about bodyweight exercises? Are these useful for bodybuilding?"

Truth of the matter is, that bodyweight exercises are the best exercises for the fastest bodybuilding results! Examples of such exercises are the pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, dips, squats, lunges and calf raises. Any exercise where you have to move your torso through space and that can be done just by using your body as the resistance is a bodyweight exercise.

These exercises provide the best bodybuilding results because you have to activate the most amount of muscle fibers (since they provide the most neural stimulation) and use several stabilizer muscles (in addition to the main muscles being targeted) to accomplish the task of moving your body through space. In addition, these exercises are excellent for creating functional strength; in other words, strength that can be used to any task in your daily life.

As you get stronger, resistance can be added by using a weight belt for exercises like the pull-ups, chin-ups and dips, while barbells and dumbbells can be used for the squats, lunges, and calf raises. For push-ups, you can have a partner provide you with the resistance.

So be sure to incorporate plenty of bodyweight exercises in your bodybuilding routine and watch your bodybuilding results soar!

Which Exercises Provide The Fastest Bodybuilding Results? Best Equipment Needed for Bodybuilding Training at a Home Gym

Bodyweight Exercises Do Bodybuilding Good! originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 23:34:00.

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• Lab Results Do Not Always Apply To Real Life

Yesterday I was reading an article that my dad gave me to take a look at regarding Quercetin and the debate over its effectiveness. The article was from the October 11, 2009 edition of the New York Times Magazine and was written by Gretchen Reynolds.

Quercetin is a flavanoid found in vegetables, wine, and the skin of apples (amongst many other foods) that seems to have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. In addition Quercetin has been shown in lab rats to increase mitochondria in the cell, and as a result, the rats are able to run for significantly longer periods of time. However, it turns out that while lab results show great promise in terms of performance enhancement, real life data in humans seems to show otherwise. While this does not take away from the fact that Quercetin may provide several benefits to one's health, maybe in the gym there is not much that it can do for you.

The reason I point this out is because if you browse through a muscle magazine there are countless ads for products that have been "proven" to work. However, the fact that a product may turn a mouse into Mighty Mouse does not mean that the product will have the same effect on you. This is something I learned early on from the writings of one of my good friends Will Brink (as he always points out what the lab says vs. what the real world shows) and also from my own Research and Development background of my engineering days. What applies in the lab does not always apply in the same manner to the real world.

So before you buy another bodybuilding supplement to enhance your performance in the gym, do your research on the products carefully and make sure that it has been tested in humans as well. To be honest, only every so often there comes a new product that can really impact your performance in the gym, so my advice to you is to save your money and stick to the basics. Also, always remember that as the author of the article I mentioned above rightfully said, you "can't expect improved performance to be delivered, without effort, in pill or liquid form."