Health and Fitness – No Myth Fitness

Determining your Body Type

Before embarking in an elaborate workout plan, it is important to know your body type. Most people already have a vague clue of the category in which they would fall. Factors such as easily taking on weight or difficulty in bulking up are good giveaways.

However, to be on the safe side, it is important to counter check that information. Here are the 3 main body types that people generally fall into. Keep in mind that you might fall in between those types, and that would be perfectly normal.

Ectomorph

These are usually thin individuals with long limbs and small joints. They are often blessed with a rather weird quality which makes it easy for them to lose fat. Naturally ectomorphs will require less cardio to get in shape. However, gaining muscle is hard for ectomorphs. Some even have have to abandon cardio training to concentrate on strength to stand any chance of bulking up.

Mesomorph

Mesomorphs are naturally muscular and tend to gain muscles, as well as lose fat, easily. No wonder this is considered as the most lucky body type. Since they already have a natural balance, mesomorphs may alternate cardio and strength to achieve desired body shaping results.

Endomorph

Endomorphs are characterised by their wide clavicles and blocky look. They gain fat easily and have a harder time losing them. This means that endomorphs need to do quite a bit of cardio before seeing any fat loss. As for bulking up, it will only be possible if the cardio sessions are continued.

Steady Cardio Versus Interval Training

Article by Blythe Flake

There are different ways to do cardio workouts. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Put simply, it often boils down to what you want as end goal. The difference between the two main types of cardio workouts are explained below.

Steady-state cardio

This is the traditional way of doing cardio. You do a repetitive action for a prolonged period, over a steady pace. One example would be running at a steady speed for 30 to 60 minutes. The advantage here is that the runner is running at a comfortable pace, meaning that the same workout can be done every week for years. The disadvantage is that it is not as effective as it can be, especially in the long run. Doing something at a steady pace means your muscles will adapt so as to burn less calories.

Interval training

Interval training is a more effective approach to cardio. It requires the cardio exercise to be done with more vigour, at the expense of rest times in between. One example would be to sprint for 30 seconds and rest for 3 minutes, for a total time span of 30 to 60 minutes. The advantage here is that the workout is more efficient. By fluctuating the workouts, your muscles have a hard time adapting and end up burning calories every time the workout is repeated. The disadvantage here is the recovery time. Interval training is much more straining, especially for the joints. This makes interval training quite tricky to keep up with.

The Effects of Strength Exercises on the Body

Strength exercises are those where you either lift an artificial weight, or you use your own body as resistance. The more obvious example is weight lifting, while the less obvious examples include crunches and pushups. These exercises suit both men and women, and they are effective in weight management and in shaping the body.

It makes the body look better

The benefits of strength training do not just involve losing excess body fat. Strength training will also tone up your body, leaving you with tighter arms and legs. This is where it differentiates itself with cardio. While cardio will help you lose weight faster, it will leave you feeling rather flab. This depends on how much weight you are losing, but a little strength is guaranteed to make you look tighter.

It burns calories even after the workout

A recent study has seen that strength training exercises actually burns up to 120 calories, 24 hours after the workout. All that while doing your daily activities. Another benefit comes in the fact that your body’s metabolism gets boosted by regular strength training.

It makes you stronger

By regularly applying resistance to your muscles, a person will undeniably end up being stronger, but there’s more to it. By strengthening your body muscles, you are actually making your body more efficient. This means that your body will use more muscles for your daily activity. In turn, this ensures that less strain is applied to your individual muscles, therefore helping to alleviate chronic pains in certain parts of the body.

Almost everything they told you about Fat burners is wrong

Article written by Remedy Healthcare

Flip through a magazine, scan a newspaper, or channel surf and you see them everywhere:

Ads that promise quick and easy weight loss without diet or exercise.

Wouldn’t it be nice if – as the ads claim – you could lose weight simply by taking a pill, wearing a patch, or rubbing in a cream?

Too bad claims like that are almost always false.

First off, the public’s obsession over ephedra and other over-the-counter weight loss stimulants exemplify the magnitude of misinformation.

There is a minefield of fat burner supplements that are based on partial truthsexaggerated by powerful marketing campaigns at an enormous cost to women’s health.

The partial truth is that in clinical studies Ephedra does promote fat loss!

With this partial truth the health and wellness industry has flooded the market with these so-called natural fat burners.

As many you may be aware, On April 12, 2004, a final ruling by the FDA went into effect prohibiting the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids (ephedra) in the USA.

But this has not stopped many women from having access to ephedra-based products through internet sales from rouge online pharmacies.

Also, many of the big supplement companies like Metabolife have simply substituted the ephedra ingredient with a similar derivative called synephrine.

It (synephrine) is a drug that has a very similar molecular structure as ephedra — and when used in place of ephedra the product is labeled Ephedra-Free!
Just in case you want to know… Ephedra, also called Ma huang, is a naturally occurring substance derived from plants.
Its principle active ingredient is ephedrine, when chemically synthesized is regulated as a drug and is used as an effective treatment for asthma.
Over the past 15 years ephedra products have been extensively promoted to:

Aid weight loss
Fat burning
Enhance sports performance
Increase energy

While Ephedra products are banned in the USA, there are still a huge selection of similar products available.

There are many fat burners in the market. Just do a google search and you will find them.

If you must have them, then at the very least buy them from a reputable store.

But how do you choose between these products?

What product will give you the best results?

If you care about these questions, then there is only one obvious conclusion!

…my answer is NONE of them! But, if you want a specific review on a fat burners product, consumerlabs.com is a great fee based service.

The big question is how effective is ephedra-based products and at what cost to your health!

This is where the exaggeration and hype creeps into the picture. After you look at ALL the scientific data on ephedra research you will understand the real story.

Fitness at Home

The New Year is not so new anymore, but that doesn’t mean that there is not a huge section of the population still clinging on to those resolutions. So, if you are one of the millions around the country that vowed to bring in the New Year with a new attitude when it comes to fitness, the good news is that there’s still hope yet.

Investing in a bit of home fitness equipment may be the best and easiest way to get the physical activity you need without even leaving the house. The advantage is that you won’t have to invest thousands of dollars in gym equipment that may sit around and collect dust. Take advantage of what is sitting unused around your house and figure a way to turn it into an exercise that improves your body. The results can be even more rewarding than a gym as it requires imagination to effectively pull off a passable workout from your living space. Here are a few ways that you can get in shape at home for a fraction of the cost.

Utilize Your Body

It’s not necessary to buy weights when you can use only your own weight to get healthier. Using tricep dips, pushups, squats, and situps, it is indeed possible to get a total body workout using only your own body weight as resistance. You can also use items you’ve found around the house to double as weights like soup cups or jugs of water. For a cardiovascular exercise, grab that jump rope and get moving! Just ten minutes a day of high-intensity jump-roping can make all the difference in the world, and costs significantly less than what a gym normally lists as their core price.

Bio: Dev Randhawa is a nurse and health food blogger who writes about the power of a healthy diet. For more information on healthy living and eating, follow Dev Randhawa.

How To Burn More Fat & Calories For Women Who Want Effortless Weight Loss

Are you mystified and confused by the concept of fat burning and how to get your body to burn more fat while you sleep?

First understand that the health principles of getting your body to burn fat, verses burning carbohydrates, as its primary source of energy is scientifically valid.

We all are born with a body that burns fat naturally, but through poor diet, stress and a ‘go hard or go home’ exercise mentality we transform to a unhealthy sugar burning state.

There are 7 exceptional good health reasons to transform your body into a fat burning machine!

1. Effortless Weight Loss
2. Easy Appetite Control
3. More Energy
4. Improved Sleep Recovery (sleep less, rest more)
5. Better Quality of Thinking
6. Calm Mood Control
7. Increased Sexual Response

The big mystery is how to achieve a fat burning metabolism?

For most women the answer is a fat burner supplement.

Unfortunately the truth about fat burning is buried under the media hype of Ephedra and other stimulant-like supplements.

Not to mention the considerable differences between men and women’s fat metabolism – something that no one seems to talk about!

That is why a weight loss program like Diet.com is so powerful – it looks not only at gender but also personality differences. You can take a Free fat burning assessment on their website.
Understanding how women differ in how they burn fat during exercise and rest is the key to solving the puzzle of fat burners.

What Not to Do On Leg Day

Don’t allow yourself to fall into a void of bad habits and techniques.

leg-day Leg day has been unanimously voted by many as the most disliked workout day of one’s entire weekly schedule. It’s excruciatingly painful, it makes you walk with a limp, and it’s especially challenging. The horrors of having to endure a 60 to 90 minute leg session once every five days is almost as bad as having to go back to work after a relaxing vacation in an exotic country. Well, that may be reaching, but you get the point. However, if you want to maintain a balanced approach to your workout and benefit from having a symmetrical physique, then it’s important that you take on leg day with fury.

Don’t Become Lazy

It sounds easy. Once you get pumped up, you let the adrenaline take over your body. However, getting the willpower and drive to go all-out during leg day takes a bit of mental preparation, to say the least. Once you begin your workout routine, don’t hold back. Drive yourself with the goal of toned legs, strong glutes, and an impenetrable lower body.

Never Let You Knees Stray Inward

This is important because of the large amount of weight that you’re going to carry, especially with squats. You face the risk of tearing your anterior cruciate ligament, which will undoubtedly leave you writhing in pain. This often arises when one has weak hip abductors. If you feel like you’re carrying more than you can lift, start small. There’s no shame in progressively increasing weight as you get stronger.

Nick Diruscio is a professional fitness trainer that has over a decade of experience mentoring and tutoring individuals that are looking to be in better physical shape.

Why do some people seem to burn fat better that others?

Article written by Free health remedies

Everybody seems to have that one friend that can eat anything they want without putting on 1 oz of extra weight.

This observation often leads to the question: “Why do some people seem to burn fat better that others?”

Unfortunately, many women believe that some people are simply born with a high metabolism that allows them to burn fat effortlessly …
…and if you are not born with a high fat burners metabolism, then you are destined to count calories and be stuck with the body of your mother and grandmother.

Sound familiar?

This is one of the BIGGEST myths about fat burning! The reality is that anyone can train her body to burn fat naturally.

And it does not involve:

Fat burning supplements (and yes some pills do encourage your body to burn fat instead of sugar)
Spending hours of each day lifting weights (and yes more muscle does means higher metabolism)
Pushing yourself to the max every time you work out (and yes you do burn more calories per hour if you workout at a higher intensity)

Even thought the above statements contain some truth, the above conventional thinking about fat burning is one of the biggest hoaxes today in the health and fitness industry today.

I call it a hoax because it is an obsession with:

Increased muscle mass
Pills
High intensity workouts

all of which prevent you from getting to what it really means to be a fat burner.

Even though each of the above statements is true, none of the actions will effectively and efficiently train your body to burn fat as the primary source of energy.

Watch Out for Weight-Loss Scams

Article written by Family health advices

Weight loss myths are the easiest scam to fall into. Who isn’t Looking for a quick and easy way to lose weight?

You’re not alone and the marketers lying in wait to feed you product after program after pill!

An estimated 50 million Americans will go on diets this year. And while some will succeed in taking the weight off, very few–perhaps 5 percent–will manage to keep all of it off in the long run.

One reason for the low success rate is that many people look for quick and easy solutions to their weight problems.

They find it hard to believe in this age of scientific innovations and medical miracles that an effortless weight-loss method doesn’t exist.

So they succumb to quick-fix claims like:

“Eat All You Want and Still Lose Weight!”

“Melt Fat Away While You Sleep!”

Some natural products like hoodia and green tea can help but not one thing alone is going to create the miracle.

And they invest their hopes (and their money) in all manner of pills, potions, gadgets, and programs that hold the promise of a slimmer, happier future.

The weight-loss business is a booming industry. Americans spend an estimated $30 billion a year on all types of diet programs and products, including diet foods and drinks.

Trying to sort out all of the competing claims–often misleading, unproven, or just plain false–can be confusing and costly.

The Ultimate Fat Burning Strategy

Article written by Free weight loss guide blog

The basic scientific truth that no one seems to talk about is that your body has two energy sources it can choose.
To keep the science lingo to an absolute minimum – I refer to these 2 primary energy sources as sugar and fat.
Ultimate you have a choice to burn fat or burn sugar – as a primary source of your energy.
It is a choice you make through the way you choose to:

Think about life
Train and experience movement
Eat and feed your body, mind and spirit

Technically you will always be burning sugar and fats at the same time – the real question is what is your PRIMARY or dominate source of energy.

Fat or Sugar?

When I work with my clients I ‘m always talking about fat-burning or sugar-burning as though they are exclusive and I will do that throughout this website for the sake of convenience.

But, please take note what it really means – when I say you are a Fat Burner, what I am saying is that your body’s favorite type of energy is FAT!

Naturally, the next question is how do you know if your body is burning sugar or fat?

Well, technically you can always go to an exercise physiology lab using scientific analytical equipment – but that simply is not practical.

Ideally you should be able to complete a self-check or scan and establish a sense of what fuel your body is burning.

An effective skill to learn is to listen and understand your body’s messengers.

According to fitness & nutrition expert Caroline Smith, these “metabolic messengers” can give you clues about what energy source you are using.

During exercise there a specific:

Auditory
Visual
Breathing

pattern clues that will tell you exactly whether you are burning sugar or fat.

The real advantage of training your body to burn fat is being able to do so at rest or any time after you exercise.

This is the component that is often missed by advocates of high intensity training.

They often speak of ‘metabolic activity’ after exercise and point out that the more muscle you have the more calories you burn.

What they don’t say is what kind of calories do the muscles burn during rest? Is it fat or sugar?

Without the science lingo I will attempt to give you a story about what happens with high intensity training and your metabolism.

It is true that you will burn more fat and total calories per exercise session if you work at a higher intensity.

But the real question for weight management is:

– What is the total number of calories burned in each day?

– What is the main source of energy during exercise?

When you train at high intensities you utilize your sugar stores for energy.

And when you do that, you need to feed your body sugar to replace these emergency energy stores in your muscle and liver.

When you finish your workout your body will be craving sugar, so you feed it sugar –

Bananas
Apples
Gatorade
Powerade
Powerbars
Balance Bars

are all sugar based foods and drinks that people commonly use during and after a high intensity workout.
And when you eat sugar, you set up a vicious cycle “sugar begets sugar”! When you eat sugar you need to keep on eating it!
Imagine all the insulin that pumps into your body every time you eat sugar. Is there any wonder that Type II diabetes is such a problem in America!

“Go Hard or Go Home” and “Faster and BIGGER is Better ! “

These are the North American cultural messages about exercise and they are dangerous!
Do you know what insulin does beside regulate your blood sugar?

It promotes fat storage of the extra sugar that you do not need. Then you add the high intensity stress component and increase cortisol release for even more fat storage.

So, what you have is a recipe for fatness!

Many of my clients complain that they exercise and exercise hard, but never seem to loose the fat! This is why – they are caught in the FAT – TRAP induced by a body craving sugar as its fuel.
Okay, let’s return to the post high intensity exercise scenario I was describing above…

…the next day you repeat – you rush to the gym, complete a high intensity exercise routine, and feed the body sugar.

What do you think a fat burner supplement will do for a sugar burner?

A Sugar-Burner’s body is completely confused – a fat supplement is working against the way you are training your body!