Americas Fittest Cities

These result's where on yahoo this morning. I thought it was pretty interesting and I noticed the fact that these cities tend to have more activities to do outdoors. I feel that our culture likes to bunker down inside and become inactive. We all need to get out, get some fresh air and engage in some physical activity each day. Remember being active helps with so many things in life from happiness to better sleep at night and of coarse good health and physical shape! Anyways heres the link if you want to view the full article.

http://health.yahoo.com/featured/111/america-s-fittest-cities-2010

No. 5: Portland, Ore.
Score: 70.4
Obesity Rate: 23.9%
Exercise Rate: 82.3%

Portland is dotted with dog parks, doctors offices and "no smoking" signs--which add up to impressive health stats.

No. 4: Seattle, Wash.
Score: 70.5
Obesity Rate: 22.8%
Exercise Rate: 81.9%

The Pacific Northwest either produces or attracts health citizens. Seattle scores high by providing physical education classes for kids and tennis courts for adults.

No. 3: Minneapolis, Minn.
Score: 71.7
Obesity Rate: 23.9%
Exercise Rate: 84.3%

A penchant for exercise offsets slightly above-average obesity rates in the Twin Cities.

No. 2: Boston, Mass.
Score: 72.6
Obesity Rate: 19.9%
Exercise Rate: 78.6%

Boston's relatively affluent population avoids cigarettes and stays trim. The state also mandates that all its residents have health insurance.

No. 1: Washington, D.C.
Score: 73.5
Obesity Rate: 22.6%
Exercise Rate: 80.1%

Caffeine

Caffeine, you know the stuff our parents used to always try to limit for us. Some people think it's bad for you and think they should cut it out completely but then there are those who don't really care. In between is a group that thinks its fine but shouldn't make up the majority of your consumption. So which is right? The truth is that caffeine is not bad for you but, consuming to much can be bad and the effects it may have on you are what you need to worry about. Everybody reacts to it differently so you just have to be smart about how much you consume.

The good things about caffeine are that it stimulates the central nervous system, it increases your basal metabolic rate meaning you can burn fat easier, it temporarily increases your mental clarity, and increases your muscular coordination for physical activities. Caffeine can open your air passageways to increase breathing quality. So as you can see, caffeine can be a very good thing to consume regularly.

Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. The only real bad thing that can come from caffeine is addiction. What happens is people start craving it so they consume more and more which can lead to a jittery feeling from all of the sugar in most caffeinated drinks. So other than the fact that you shouldn't drink too much soda or coffee, caffeine is actually something that can be very positively effective for your fitness goals.

Replacing Bad Habbits With Good Ones

We all have a bad habit or two and they come and go throughout our life but we can't just stay in that habit. It would be counterproductive actually! Say you have a bad habit of staying up too late and sleeping in until noon or later every day! This all starts because you allow yourself to get off track by staying up late one night! That's right just one night. What happens is in that one night you stay up until 2 in the morning rather than going to bed at 11 or midnight and instead of waking up at 7 or 8 you start waking up at 10 or 11.

Then you get onto this slippery slope and each night you stay up a little later and later until you eventually turn into an insomniac! In order to fix this problem you have to replace your nighttime activities with more relaxing things and begin to wind down in the evening so that you can get to bed at a decent time. You are simply replacing a bad habit with a good habit and it works with everything from sleep habits to eating habits, to drinking or smoking habits. If you want to kick a habit replace it with a good one.

The Effects of Junk Food

We all know their bad for us but we still seem to keep eating them. It's funny because we as people all seem to want the good things now! We would rather have something that feels good at the current moment than discipline ourselves to have better effects in the long run. We see this in every aspect of life in today's world and it's sad. Everybody want's the good things in life but few are willing to pay the price to get them. If you want to live healthy you need to learn to stay away from junk food. If your going to the gym and working really hard to get in good shape but your eating junk food every day your pretty much defeating the purpose.

Eating too much junk food will lead to less energy and you will realize that you get exhausted really easy when doing physical activity. Junk food also causes you to crave more food and leads to over eating. Like I have said in recent posts you should feed yourself with meals throughout the day rather than snacking a lot throughout the day and eating 2 or 3 meals because when you eat more meals your metabolism stays at a steady state resulting in using that food for energy rather than storing it as fat.

Junk foods also have high amounts of cholesterol which leads to an unhealthy heart. The heart is the main organ needed to pump blood throughout the body so obviously it's important to keep your heart in healthy condition. Junk food leads to a build up of plaque in the arteries. As a simple guideline you should stay away from foods that taste to salty or to sweet. It's okay to have something sweet here and there but when you eat sweets on a regular basis you endanger yourself. So learn to eat healthy for your own benefit!

High Intensity Interval Training

High-Intensity Interval Training is an exercise strategy that is intended to improve performance with short training sessions consisting of 15-30 minutes. High intensity interval training is aimed at building strong endurance. A training session would consist of a warm up followed by 6-10 repetitions of a high intensity exercise done near maximum intensity. High intensity training is meant to push you to do as much as you can in a short period of time. The rest periods between sets are really short, about 10-15 seconds.

Studies have shown that 2.5 hours of high intensity interval training produce similar amounts of biochemical muscle change. High intensity interval training increases the resting metabolic rate for the following 24 hours due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and can improve maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) more effectively than your typical long aerobic exercise.

Long aerobic exercises have been promoted as the best method to reduce fat but high intensity interval training has been proven to burn more fat.High intensity interval training is also known to increase athletic performance. With experienced athletes it can become harder to gain strength, high intensity interval training is a great method of overcoming these obstacles. Improvements in endurance can be achieved through high intensity interval training.

Comfort Kills

One of the biggest reasons people plateau at some point with the results they are getting out of their fitness program is because they get too comfortable. They get into this repetitive mode of doing the same workouts throughout the week, never switching it up, never raising the bar, and never living up to their full potential. Say you keep going to the gym Monday threw Friday doing different muscle groups each day of the week with the same routine just raising the weight here and there. Yeah you might see results for a while but you will eventually flat line.

In order to gain strength, build stronger muscles, and to keep moving forward you need to confuse your muscles with new exercises as well as push yourself out of your comfort zone! Don't limit yourself with what your can do, it's mind over body and if you push yourself you can do anything you want to do. The only limit is that you can't do too much too fast or you will end up injuring yourself. For example say your benching, your doing a set of 6 with 160 a set of 6 with 170 and two sets of 4 with 175 but when your done you know you could have done a little more. This doesn't mean that you have to go raising the weight just yet but doing more repetitions, and then progressively raise the weight.

This is why goal setting with deadlines is so important! When you set a goal with a deadline your telling yourself okay, I need to be able to put up this much weight by this date and in order to do this I am going to push myself a little further with each workout. It's all about progress! You need to keep making progress and constantly look to better yourself through creating more challenges weather it's a tougher workout, being more disciplined, or even adding a new activity to your daily life like running every morning. Look for ways to constantly challenge yourself in ways that will make you stronger in everything you do. If you allow yourself to slip into a cycle of comfort and continual repetition you will surely hit the wall so keep the challenges coming!

Keeping A Regular Work Out Schedule

Have you ever realized how people seem to go through phases of living healthy and slacking off? It's like going through a popular trend or something to some people but then they stop for a while losing all the hard work they put in. It's as if people think they can just go to the gym and work out for a couple weeks and see some results then their good to go. They end up gaining the weight back in half the time they spent working so hard to get it off!

The bad thing is that some people actually repeat this type of cycle over and over again always ending with the same results! The bottom line is this. "Being physically fit requires living a physical lifestyle", there's no shortcuts or magic tricks to get the results you want. I don't care what the add on TV says, sure they might help you shed some weight or whatever they advertise but they don't keep you moving forward constantly increasing your health! In order to live a healthy fit lifestyle there are 10 things you need to take into account.

A balanced diet, getting the needed vitamins and minerals, quitting any bad habits like smoking or drinking consistently, "Exercising regularly", having regular annual doctor check ups, balance your life to reduce stress, be yourself, find some healthy hobbies you enjoy, and most importantly have fun! If you stick to these ten principals you will not only feel better but you will start to enjoy your day to day life as well as your work outs! Don't think of working out as stressful either! Make sure to keep it fun with new exercises and always be sure to push yourself to be the best you can be!

Eating More Speeds Up Your Metabolism

A lot of people want to shed some weight so they try to watch the amount of food they eat thinking they will stop putting on more weight. The opposite ends up happening. After a while they begin to realize that they are actually gaining weight even though they aren't eating as much. The truth is that when you don't eat much your metabolism slows down and you begin storing more and more calories each meal. So to speed up your metabolism you need to start eating more meals each day along with drinking plenty of water. When you eat more your body starts burning fat calories more than carbohydrates.

You should actually eat 6 meals per day rather than 2 or three! I know that does seem like a lot but what has happened is we have become a culture that snacks more than we eat meals. When we snack our metabolism slows down and we begin to store more calories and have a harder time burning them. Yes this actually takes effort, work and planning. You have to discipline yourself if you want to get the body you want to get! It's not impossible like a lot of people begin to think at one point or another. It just takes a whole lot of discipline and organization.

Another problem is that most people wait too long between meals! We tend to wait until we are actually hungry to eat, I know that may sound crazy but you need to change your mindset from "eat when I'm hungry" to "eat to keep fueling my body". The truth is that if you feel hungry you have already waited too long to eat! So make sure to keep eating throughout the day! And not junk food of coarse! Eat things like, fruits, vegetables, wheat's, grains, and yogurt. Keep yourself fueled and you will start to see a change in your metabolism! Start starving yourself and you will find it harder to burn fat!

Children & Physical Activity

Physical activity is extremely important for a healthy lifestyle. Children should be out running and playing each day! That's why they need to have recess in school so that they can remain active, not just to give them a break from being taught. Physical education is so important in schools and it needs to remain a main course for all students! There has been a rapid decrease in the activity level of children in the last couple decades and it's still declining. This is mostly due to the big boom of electronics. Kids can now have fun right at home sitting down not moving anything but their fingers now.

Kids should be outside having snow ball fights, riding their bikes, skateboarding, playing sports or playing on a playground. Kid's don't need to be working out but they definitely need to remain active! According to Sports Illustrated For Kids 64% of active teens and young teens believe that being healthy and physically active is extremely important, compared to 44% of non-active kids. Respondents were asked to choose the group to which they belong.

Three quarters of the active respondents 75% say they are physically active enough, while fewer than half 47% of the non-active respondents say so. The survey shows that 40% of non-active teens report being overweight. Only two in 10 of the active respondents believe they are overweight. So as you can see physical activity is really important and we should all work to promote fun physical activity in the life's of children. We need to work to establish a healthy lifestyle at a young age so that when they get older they are already engaged in living healthy.

Dedication

Nothing is accomplished without dedication. If you want something you have to get out there and take it for yourself. If you want to get in the best shape of your life you have to get in the gym and consistently keep working to get better. If you aren't dedicated to your fitness goals then you will find yourself losing interest, dreading your workouts, and eventually dropping your goals! Dedication is a mindset that must be put into effect. The truth of the matter is that if you really honestly want something then you will go out there and do what it takes to get it.
Fitness is a lifestyle, and that means living healthy day to day striving to better yourself every chance you get.

This means, eating healthy, staying active each day doing some form of physical activity and constantly looking to improve yourself. If Michael Jordan hadn't been dedicated like he was he wouldn't have become the best player to ever play the game. He told himself at a young age that he was going to be the best player there was and he did it. From this example you can see that you have to first agree with yourself and be confident in yourself. Then you have to dedicate yourself to working each day at accomplishing your goal. So keep working, never give up, never give in, stay dedicated and you can do anything you set your mind to!

My Love For Living A Healthy Lifestyle

Do you remember being a child? Back when you would always want to be outside with your friends playing? Weather it was playing basketball, baseball, skateboarding, riding my bike, or just running around with friends playing tag or whatever I remember being very active. But I have realized that as we grow up we tend to fall away from being active. We seem to start staying inside more as we work or when we get home from work we sit down and relax for the rest of the evening. But in all honesty we all know that we could get out for at least half an hour at some point in the day and engage in some form of activity. It's almost as if we make fun things out to be some form of hard work! What happened to the spirit of fun? We all need to have a list of activities we enjoy doing and engage in something each day. It could even be just going to the gym and working out.

Honestly, how bad would it be to get out of the house and take a bike ride around your neighborhood or go to the park for an hour with some friends and play catch or football, basketball, baseball, or volleyball. If you like skateboarding then go to the skate park for a while. If you have a dog take it for a walk in the evenings. There are so many things you can do that will contribute to living a more healthy life. The effects of living an active lifestyle range from feeling better physically to feeling better emotionally and even to sleeping better as well as maintaining a higher level of energy throughout the day.

I love to stay active. If it's nice outside I want to be outside doing something. Activities that I enjoy would be going skating, playing sand volleyball, basketball, or just walking around downtown. The key is to do things you enjoy that keep you active day to day. If you don't enjoy what your doing then you will most likely stop at some point due to lack of interest. So make a list of things you love to do and get out and have some fun living healthy. Bring back the spirit yo had as a child!

The Importance of A Strong Back

The back muscles are more important than people tend to give them credit for. Most people focus on the arms and chest when they go to the gym because that's what society portrays to be the most important. Well the truth is every muscle is important and you should exercise all your muscles! But back to the back. We use our back muscles all the time from lifting objects, to standing, to sitting, and even to coughing and sneezing! Think about what would happen if you had some thing stuck in your throat and you where to weak to cough it up! I know it's drastic but it is realistic!

Having a strong back will also make your day to day life easier and less strenuous. There are three muscle groups in the back, the Latissimus Dorsi, Erector Spinae, and Rhomboids. The Latissimus Dorsi muscles are found on the sides of the back and are used for flexibility and extension for the upper body as well as rotation. The Erector Spinae is known mainly as the lower back but it actually spans from the buttocks to the neck. The Erector Spinae is used for flexibility and extension for the upper body as well as rotation. The Rhomboids are made up of minor and major muscles that go between the shoulder blades to help with rotation, elevation, and retraction of the shoulder blades. The back is worked through exercises like seated rows, bent over rows, kneeling bench dumbbell one arm rows, dead lifts, and reverse fly's.

So as you can see, the back muscles should be a regular part of your training plan. Not working the back will lead to injury and obviously back problems! The main reason most people end up having back problems is due to the fact that they neglect the back muscles and go on working their arms and chest. Then they end up hurting their back doing something as simple as kneeling over to pick up their keys they just dropped on the floor! Also remember to avoid sitting too much throughout the day, sitting is terrible for your back and it is something we all do too much!

Make it a priority each day to stretch your back as well as the rest of your body to build flexibility and be active! Get some good circulation throughout your body and you will start to see the improvements in tight or sore muscles. It's all about living an active healthy lifestyle and maintaining a good amount of flexibility. Always warm up and stretch before working out as well as cooling down and stretching after working out. Also learn to stretch your back in the morning before your feet even touch the ground. This will help with back soreness and tension a lot!

Incorporrating Cardio Into Strength Training

We all know it can be long and strenuous getting on the treadmill and running to burn fat. Yes you still need to do it but you should also learn to incorporate cardio right into your actual workout. This is done by taking smaller rests in between sets and setting your workout up so that you are doing two to three lifts or exercises at once working different muscle groups. For example say you are working chest and back. So in order to set up your workout this way you would get three workouts ready to go at once.

Let's say your doing dumbbell chest presses, bent over row, and heel touches. One set would consist of doing something like 8 dumbbell chest presses, 8 bent over rows, and 20 heel touches, then a rest before the next set of sets. Working out this way raises your heart rate and allows you to engage in a form of cardio training due to the small rest periods as well as building muscle with the resistance training.This type of training should not be done until a good solid foundation has been built.

Jumping into this type of training to fast can lead to fatigue and discouragement. So understand your boundaries, but push yourself to see results. Also remember that fat can be burned through your workout by designing a workout like the one described above. Yes you do need cardio, but you should also look to have lifting routines that challenge you aerobically. One of the big mistakes most people make is thinking they only loose fat from running or cycling but you actually burn several calories throughout the course of a good resistance training session.

Gym Essentials

Usually when you go to a big gym you are surrounded by so many high tech machines which all seem to amaze people with advances. The truth is that yes these machines are good and they do work but gyms tend to pack in more than they really need. In all honesty if you want to get a good workout all you need is some form of cardiovascular exercise, a set of dumbbells and barbells with adjustable weights along with a couple leg machines. I have come to find that most commercial gyms use the presence of several unnecessary machines to draw in customers.

This presence of several machines causes those using the facility to potentially neglect free weight exercises which are the most important. Using a machine engages your muscles on one level keeping the movement on a set path. When you use free weights like dumbbells or barbells your muscles have to work harder in order to stabilize the weight throughout the lift. This engages your stabilizer muscles. For example if you use a machine to do biceps curls you are only engaging the biceps and not the muscles that support it. When you use dumbbells you engage you biceps as well as all the surrounding muscles of the arm, chest and back.

So remember not to get sucked into a gym just because they have a bunch of fancy machines. The truth is that you only need a good set of dumbbells, barbells, a few machines, and a cardiovascular section with treadmills, bikes, and possibly stair climbers. If you do go to a gym with all of these machines learn to use free weights more often and you will start to see and feel a difference in the results you get!

Training Load Progressions

One of the biggest mistakes people tend to make when they go to the gym is the rate at which they increase their workout intensity. Some don't push themselves enough while others try to do to much to fast leading to injury. Most individuals tend to get caught up in a routine that starts out great, giving them immediate results, but then they hit a plateau and they cant seem to make more gains. This is because your muscles become to the load put on them as well as the same old routine over and over again. So in order to counteract this from happening you need to change up your routine and make sure you keep raising the bar. Muscle confusion is needed to see good results!

The easiest way to tell that your plan is working like it should is the fact that you should constantly be seeing gains. You should have monthly goals to aim for like raising your bench press 15 lbs or losing 6 inches from your waist. The goal needs to be kept in a place where you can see it on a daily basis. So the two key things to remember when approaching a plan is that it is both goal oriented and that there is constant progressions taking place.

As you go on with training you should always challenge yourself more. Set goals with steps leading to completion and when you complete a goal set another one! Remember, you are embarking on the journey to a better lifestyle. You need to continue making progress and keep moving forward!

Speed Strength

Speed strength is the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce the greatest possible impulse in the shortest possible time. There are two aspects of speed strength, starting strength and explosive strength. Speed strength is a necessity for athletes as it serves to increase your ability of quickly changing directions as well as getting an explosive start from a resting position. Sprinters for example need good starting strength in order to get a good explosive start off of the starting blocks.

Speed strength is built through olympic lifts and power lifts. Olympic lifts are lifts such as snatches and cleans. Power lifts consist of squats, bench press, and dead lifts. The olympic lifts should consist of 80-90 percent of your one rep max, and your bench should be at 50-60 percent of your one rep max. Explosive leg power is important to pretty much every sport ranging from football to basketball to track and so on. Speed strength is needed in every sport, without it you are cheating yourself out of being the best you can be.

Absolute Strength

eAbsolute strength is the maximum force you can exert with your muscles. Training absolute strength improves speed both in the aspect of running and in the aspect of moving limbs. The greater your absolute strength is the greater your speed and explosiveness. Absolute strength is developed through heavy weight training. This involves using 80-85 percent of your one repetition max. There are three areas of training used to build absolute strength. These three areas are concentric strength, eccentric strength, and static strength.

Concentric strength is your one repetition max for a movement. Eccentric strength is your one repetition max for lowering a weight rather than lifting it. Static strength is the maximum holding strength in a given position. All three areas need to be worked in order to build absolute strength. You need to balance them out and maintain a stable balance.

There are many beneficial things like supplements, hypnosis and therapeutic techniques to help increase absolute strength. Any of these things are fine to use as long as you don't cross into anabolic steroids. Serious athletes or bodybuilders should look into these things but make sure to stay away from steroids.

Limit Strength

Limit strength is the amount of force you can generate for one all-out effort. Limit strength is basically your foundation for getting stronger. Limit strength has three sub categories, eccentric, concentric, and isometric. Limit strength is needed in sports such as shot put, football, and can only bring better athleticism for sports like baseball, basketball, wrestling and pretty much about every other sport. Limit strength is what gives a basketball player the explosion to jump high, the lineman his ability to lung forward quickly with force, the shot putter the quick drive and snap of power from the legs that drives the force from the ground through the body to the put.

Eccentric strength is measured by how much weight you can lower under controlled. Eccentric strength is done through the negative phase of a lift. For example when you lower the bar during a bench press. So what you would do to train for eccentric strength you would first start by warming up with a regular bench press for a few sets. Then, when your muscles start contracting you lower the weight and only lower the bar and the spotter raises it for you.

Concentric strength is measured by how much weight you can lift in one all out effort. Concentric strength is trained through using heavier weight in your workout. Power lifting focuses mainly to build concentric strength for example. Concentric strength is usually known of as your one rep max in lifting terms. To measure your concentric strength you use all of your energy to move the weight 1 repetition.

Isometric strength is measured by the amount of weight you can hold without losing control. To train isometric strength you would for example hold your arms straight out level with your shoulders with light weight not moving but just holding the position. This is done with any exercise to improve the isometric strength of that muscle. Training should consist of high repetitions for short periods of time. For example hold the position for 3-5 seconds 12 to 18 times.

All three areas of limit strength should be built in order to maintain a solid foundation especially if you are an athlete. Limit strength is one of the most important things for an athlete to have because if you don't have good limit strength as an athlete you will not be able to reach your full potential. Limit strength should be developed before you start your sport and should always be maintained and enhanced.

The Importance of Breakfast

When you wake up in the morning your blood sugar level is depleted and needs a boost. Breakfast replenishes your blood sugar which is needed for proper brain function throughout the day. Breakfast also helps by breaking the fast you go through while you sleep promoting healthy eating habits throughout the day. When you don't eat breakfast you are more liable to want to snack throughout the day rather than eating from meal to meal and fueling with liquids.

If you skip out on breakfast you will get pangs of hunger throughout the morning which leads to snacking. When you snack you usually look for a quick fix leading to candy bars or other snacks high in sugar. You should try to eat a breakfast consisting of some form of fruit, a good source of vitamin D, and fiber. Try to avoid cereals with a lot of sugar. Stick to things like oats, grains, and whole wheat toast with a glass of low fat milk and some fruit.

Think of breakfast as "breaking the fast" and make sure you start off the day with a good healthy breakfast that isn't full of sugar and fats. The traditional bacon in eggs is actually something to avoid. It's okay periodically but the focus of breakfast should be to set the foundation for the rest of the day. Always think of eating as simply fueling your body for the next 3 to 4 hours.

Take into account how active you will be in the next couple hours and eat accordingly. Another problem is that most of us overeat and we don't even realize it. Learn to only eat what you need and not to the point that you can't eat anymore. Change your outlook on eating and you will learn to only eat what you need leading to a better body and good energy.

Exercise: Children & Adults

It is important that kid's stay active, especially with all the electronic entertainment that's booming these days. I think that kids should get involved with youth sports or if that isn't their thing maybe skateboarding or bike riding. Kids just need to stay active and not worry about hard weight lifting until about the age of 15. If kids want to engage in working out they should focus more on things like running, push-ups, sit-ups, and light dumbbell exercises. These exercises are meant to build lean muscle not mass.

From the age of 15 on you can start engaging in more muscle building exercises. Always keep in mind that you should have a foundation built to get into more strenuous exercises. This is why kids should be active. When your established you can start doing more exercises like bench press, squats, leg presses, cleans, etc. But a solid foundation is important to have in order to properly and safely preform these exercises.

As we age our metabolism slows down and we can't remain on the same diet that we had as a child. Also as we age our body begins to wear and our bodily systems slow down. Exercise and a healthy diet are the key to remaining healthy as we age. Living healthy has to become a lifestyle not just going to the gym here and there. Get out of the house and go to the park. Find something you enjoy doing like skating, riding your bike, running, playing basketball, sand volleyball, etc.

So the key to staying in shape as an adult is keeping a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and staying active in your day to day life. Remember, living healthy is a lifestyle not just something you do a few days out of the week. Make it your goal to do some form of physical activity each day weather it's going to the gym for a workout, swimming, or playing sports at the park. If you begin to do this you will begin to feel and be more healthy.

Exercise & Music

Music motivates us, it relaxes us, it pumps us up, and it helps set the tone for the moment. When you exercise it's good to have music playing. Music can help get your respiration's and slightly rise your heart rate preparing you for the exercise to come. You should have music on while you prepare to work out following into your warm up and stretching. Then when you get to the actual work out you are pumped up and ready for the task at hand. Just as athletes throw on some music to pump themselves up before a game you can do the same with working out.

Slower music has been found to decrease muscular fitness potential. So if you are going to listen to music while exercising it should be something upbeat that promotes energy. For example some hard rock or upbeat rap would be beneficial whereas some slow alternative, country, or R&B would promote a more relaxed atmosphere. It is very important that when you go to workout you are looking to expend energy. Fat burn and muscle gain come from expanding energy not relaxing. If that where the case we could sit at home all day doing nothing and stay in perfect shape.

It's not that music improves the workout but that it stimulates the mind so that you can stay engaged and motivated. Music can help you push through to that last rep, it can keep you excited about what your doing, and it can help maintain your stamina. Music can endure you to overcome challenges brought on through exercise. This is why music is important with exercising. But remember it should be stimulating music, not relaxing music.

Relaxing music is great for post workout therapy. You could throw on some relaxing music when you cool down and stretch to begin the relaxation phase. So the basic principal of music and exercise should be something like this. Upbeat energetic music for the warm up and exercise phase. Then as you cool down turn on some more relaxing music. This will allow you to leave the gym feeling good about yourself but at the same time refreshed and relaxed.

Do You Believe In Your Own Potential?

Every action begins with an thought transmitting a signal from the brain to the body part telling it to move. When you lift a weight your brain tells your arm to lift it and you do. This is where the term mind over body comes from. Now you do have to take into account that there are physical limitations that could lead to injury or just not be done with your current state of strength. But for the most part if you believe in yourself you can get the job done.

Think about this, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. But he decided in his mind that he was going to be the best basketball player in the world. He accomplished his task. I think it is important that everyone realizes that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to!!! Weather it's fitness, school, sports, dreams, etc. When you tell yourself you can do something you have pretty much done it, you just have to go through the motions. It's also important to put your goals down in writing and keep them posted where you see them every day to keep you on track.

Your goals need to be broken down with steps. Say you're benching 150 lbs and you want to get it up to 210 lbs. What you need to do is start by first setting a goal like "Bench 160 lbs by next Friday" and so on. You need to be able to see your progress. When you see your progress you gain more motivation knowing that you are making gains and not remaining stationary. Its a continuing process! Keep Moving Forward!!! It all starts with that first step and putting one foot in front of the other.

A Better Lifestyle

We live in a world where a lot of people want results without the hard work and time. Everyone has dreams and aspirations but the problem is that a majority of these people aren't dedicated enough. They have the goal and they really want the results but become lazy and slack off because of a lack of self discipline. I myself have always had my brothers and friends pushing me and challenging me which has established this mentality that I need to keep making progress and never settle with where I am.

If we could just walk through life without struggles and hard work then we would be in Heaven! But the fact is we are still here living our lives on earth for the time being so why not make the best of it and live a healthy active lifestyle! I know that when I have kids I want to be interactive with them and able to go outside and play some sports or games. I want to be active as long as I can! We weren't given this life to just sit around and do nothing! We are meant to be active, happy, and confident in ourselves!

I'm not saying that everyone needs to be a gym rat but I'm encouraging an active, fun, healthy lifestyle. Just because you've grown up doesn't mean you have to miss out on physical activity and work all the time! Even if your working 8 hours a day you can still go to the gym right after work or early before! Even if you can't make it to the gym you can still go for a run in your neighborhood, workout at home, shoot some hoops or something!

It's also important to find one or a few of these activities that you enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy it it becomes in a sense more like work! But when you find a physical activity that you enjoy engaging in that's where you find success because you look forward to that activity, you have fun doing it, and the thought of it being hard work is no longer a fact but what is a fact to you is that it's fun!

So I really encourage everyone to find some form of physical activity that you enjoy! It could be shooting hoops, running, bicycling, going for a walk, even swimming is a good exercise! Make a list of some physical activities you enjoy and start engaging in fun, healthy, physical activities on a daily basis. It's simple, it increases your happiness, it helps you stay fit, and you have fun doing it! So what are you waiting for! Make a list of activities you enjoy and start living an active lifestyle!

The Importance of Dumbbell Training

In today's world of fitness we have tons and tons of machines, as well as new ones being developed and put out in gyms everywhere. These machines do provide you with a good work out and I'm not saying they shouldn't be used. That would be nonsense! They are great to use when used safely and properly. There are a few problems that machines bring to the table though. First off you need to be within a certain height to safely use most machines. You could be injured or the muscle that is intended to be targeted isn't the muscle getting the workout. And second, all machines tend to only focus on the intended muscle used throughout the motion.

There isn't any resistance applied to the stabilizer muscles and this is the main reason why it is so important to use free weights in your workout routine. There are several different types of dumbbells available but the reason dumbbells are so important is the fact that when you use them they engage not only the intended muscle for the motion but also engage its stabilizers. When you do dumbbell curls the main focus is on the Biceps brachii but in turn you also work the stabilizers.

These would be the brachialis, the deltoids, muscles of the forearm and back as well. As you can see dumbbell and free weight training offers a better work out that targets your stabilizer as well as the muscle intended for contraction. There are literally hundreds of dumbbell exercises ranging practically for every muscle in the body. Dumbbell training allows for synergistic and stabilizer muscles to come into play far more prominently than most machines are capable of doing.

When you use dumbbells your stabilizer muscles are forced to act in all directions whereas the barbell connects your two arms together taking this use of stabilizers away. So the truth of the matter is you can get a good effective workout with a good set of dumbbells that range to weights you will be using. So next time your at the gym don't just go around using all the fancy machines.

Think about how effective and important it is to get your stabilizer muscles involved. What good would it be if you only trained your upper body and completely neglected your legs? How many back problems would you have if you worked your abs really hard and neglected your back? The same goes for all of your muscles, make sure you keep your stabilizers engaged in your routine!

Motivation

Motivation is one of the main keys to being successful fitness wise. You need to have a passion and desire to keep moving forward. My motivation comes from where I've been and seeing where I am going knowing that every day is a new day, learn from yesterday, and prepare for tomorrow. You can't get in the routine mode! When you start getting to routine you lose sight of why you want to achieve your goal. Keep everything new and fresh while maintaining your building blocks. Once you have a solid foundation its time to step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself to a new level.

Don't stay somewhere because of comfort because when you become comfortable with bad settings you become afraid of good setting. You need to stay focused on what you as a person are capable of doing and not be fearful of the hard work. "Nothing of value comes without being earned". Be content with where you are, look to where you want to go, observe what you need to do to get there, and follow through with action.

It doesn't matter where your starting point is, you could already be in really good shape or you could be eating poorly and skipped out on fitness for the last 5 years. All that matters is that you take that first step, set your eyes on whats to come, prepare for tomorrow, and follow the path that leads you to where you want to be. Most people take the first step and follow the path they want for a while but eventually get off track. This is because they forget the roots of their motivation. This is why you need to have your motivation written down stated positively that you keep in mind.

For example my motivation is to keep moving forward. As I have talked about, my goal is to take each day and move another step forward, maybe a couple steps forward if I can!!! How do you walk a million miles? You have to take the first step and keep taking more steps. It's the same with fitness as it is in anything you want to accomplish in your life. You have to constantly improve, learn, grow, and use the time your given for all it's worth.

Don't fear failure, failure should be used as a source of motivation. When you get knocked down you need to get back up and catch back up. This means you should accept it and realize you need to try harder and use it as motivation. Never give up, never give in, use your trials to come out twice as strong as you where before that trial came into your course. The strength you gain from pushing through the storm will give you a stronger drive when you get out of that storm and into the clear weather!

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational/watch/v18674688j2kh9MqS

As a child I was always into sports ranging from basketball to skating. I loved to remain active everyday doing one thing or the other. But I had one thing going against me the whole time. I was born with transposition of the arteries, so basically everything in my chest was backwards, I was blue and not breathing well. God spared my life on the first day of my life when I was so close to losing the life I now have before I even had a chance to start it. I had another open heart surgery as a baby and after that i became another normal kid running around playing with my little basketball hoop and carrying my "boom ball" everywhere I went. That's what I called it, and I think those where my first words actually I'm not 100% sure on that but that's the story.

From an early age I became a sports addict, from first grade up to 8th grade I spent pretty much every day playing basketball for an hour or so whatever the weather was, even in snow. I looked up to my big brothers, Jeremy was the star athlete in high school and I remember wanting to be like him, good at what I did, hard working, and passionate about it. My other brother Trevor was always my best friend growing up, he wasn't the athletic one, he was the artistic one, the funny one, and the one that was always fun to hang out with. I acquired attributes from both of them that make up who I am today. When it came time to start high school I was so excited to play basketball at the high school level and do the best I could.


But just when everything seemed to be going good I hit a huge bump in the road, my pulmonary artery hadn't been growing with my body resulting in me loosing my energy and becoming light headed playing the sports that I used to play nonstop for hours. The doctors tried to fix it with a stint but it didn't hold. This meant they had to do an open heart surgery to replace the valve. I couldn't play basketball, I couldn't even participate as much in P.E. anymore. My plane crashed, all my dreams and hopes vanished before my eyes. I was now starring down A long rough road, I felt like everything had just been ripped away from me.



When I got back to school it was February and when I was strong enough I was able to play the last three or four basketball games with the freshman team. I remember going out and drilling a three point shot my first time back in a game, that was definitely a turning point where I realized I made it through and I was back. Over the summers I played on the schools tournament team but after my freshmen year my endurance was never good enough to make the cut. Track became my main focus in sports throwing shot put and discuss, that's when I really got into lifting weights and training.
My brother Jeremy who threw in college and made it to nationals his last two years was assistant coaching and he pushed me as hard as he could but always making sure I wasn't pushing to hard after what I had just gone through earlier in the year. That's when I became a gym rat, I was always trying to get stronger, faster, and better myself. I remember me and Jeremy used to stay late after practice and work out a little longer then the rest of the team, the coaches allowed it because they had coached him and all knew him which was really cool. He taught me a lot when it came to lifting and I think he has a lot to do with the drive that I have today.
My sophomore through senior years I took weights class as well as went to the reservation gym every day for an extra work out, some basketball and swimming. I remember waking up in the morning, going to school then right after school getting something to eat and going straight to the gym for 2 to sometimes 5 hours. I would go play basketball, work out, swim, then sit in the Jacuzzi and sauna. I was at the gym probably every day. That was my life, always staying active and working as hard as I could to make up for what I lost when I had my surgery and to make sure I stay as healthy as I could.
After high school I enrolled in the ISSA and began my journey to where I am today. I was at the gym every day working my tail off as well as keeping plenty busy with school. In March 2009 I moved to Boise ID where I started going to Golds Gym. I was like a kid in a candy store the first time I went. Finally here I am certified continuing the next leg of my journey as I work to establish my business and help people move forward in life as I have done over the coarse of the years.
I know that God has taken me through the trials I have been through to give me this story to tell and hopefully inspire someone to start living a healthier lifestyle. All because I took a negative and turned it into a positive. I got knocked down hard, but I stood back up, brushed off my shoulders and through it I gained a new passion, Fitness. It's something I really enjoy, it's something that has kept me going at times when I had my back against the wall, it's built my self confidence and constantly keeps building it. My hope is that I can inspire, help, guide, push, lead, and establish a healthy lifestyle in any individual who comes across my path searching for some help.