The Single Best Ab Exercise
What is it with our fascination with abs? Why are we as a nation so fixated on six packs, on shredded cores and defined [...]
What is it with our fascination with abs? Why are we as a nation so fixated on six packs, on shredded cores and defined [...]
We’ve all be there, where for a few months you’re cruising along, working out right, making steady advances and losing weight. We’re finally getting on top of our nutrition plan, we’re gaining more energy and feeling great. And then something goes wrong. An injury, a weekend of fun, a vacation, a family tragedy, we lose our focus, we stop exercising, we enjoy a few tasty snacks, and before you know it two weeks have passed and we’re gaining weight once more and feeling low energy. How do you deal with this? How can you get back on track with your workout?
The Insanity Fast & Furious Workout Is Here! As if the INSANITY Workout wasn't enough. As if 10 DVD's of action packed Max Interval Training [...]
In 2004 Beachbody released P90X, Tony Horton's infamously tough and results oriented workout. The workout has gone to receive national acclaim and incredible success, with over 2 million people using it and constant, round the clock media coverage as pro athletes, celebrities, military officers and politicians promote their success with this program. Tony hasn't been resting on his laurels, however; during the last 6 years he's been working at improving his workouts, at designing new and more rigorous training exercises, all of which is culminating in a new workout slated to be released in 2011: P90X MC2 (Muscle Confusion 2).
So there you are, wearing your fancy workout clothes, hair slicked back into a killer pompadour, ready to press play and get to work. You're about to jump into your latest bout with Shaun T or Tony Horton, about to break a sweat and try to break some personal barriers. Score some new records, do more than you've ever done before. What can you do to help you in this journey toward excellence? Fancy kicks, check. Recovery drink, check. 72" inch flatscreen monitor with 3D capabilities: check. What else could get your blood pumping, stir your heart, push you farther than you've ever gone before? That's right, music.
Pumping iron. The term is old school, and refers to the classic exercise of lifting dumbbells and barbells. In a way, lifting heavy pieces of metal is as old school as it gets (barring lifting rocks), and there's a certain amount of revered tradition to it. Which is why these brightly colored resistance bands can strike so many of us as strange; how can you get the same ripped arms by doing curls with a bright green piece of plastic? For that reason, many people are resistant to using resistance bands, and hew to the classic dumbbells. But is this resistance logical? Can resistance bands give you the same quality workout, or an even better one? In today's blog post we're going to analyze their benefits and downfalls, and see if we can answer that question once and for all.
I get this question all the time. "I'm doing everything right," they say. "How come I'm not losing more weight?" Whether it's somebody who has been pounding away at Insanity for a couple of weeks, or who's about to finish their first round of P90X, people will often climb onto that dreaded scale and get disheartened. Expectations run high when people start, and yearning for a total body transformation, they pour their heart and soul into their workouts, only to find themselves betrayed when they haven't dropped the 50lbs they hoped to lose. What's happening here? What went wrong, and why?
Is it too late for you to start exercising? Is there a certain point beyond which extreme workouts are no longer possible? How do things change when you leave your 20's for your 30's? What should you know about your body so that you can best train it to maximize gains and performance? These are the kinds of questions people who treat health and fitness as a life long goal have to ask, and that people who are only in it to lose 10lbs never consider. Health and fitness is a life long passion, and today we know that exercise can not only make you feel better, but even reverse aging's effects. As such, we have to ask: how does your age affect your workout routines?
People start new programs all the time, and people quit them just as fast. For every ten bright eyed, enthusiastic newbies ready to start their latest fitness endeavour, there are nine burnt out, hollow eyed folks who failed to go the distance. What's that one person doing right, that those nine people are failing to do? How do you line up your factors so that you're most likely to stick with your workout, and less likely to quit? If you've glanced at the banner above, you're likely to have an idea as to where I'm going, but listen up folks. Sometimes its the basics that people forget first.