Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a new explanation

Sixty-seven percent of 101 patients diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) were found to be infected with a retrovirus called XMRV (Science, published online October 8, 2009). One hundred percent of those with CFS who subsequently developed lymphomas or leukemias were infected with the XMRV virus. If further studies confirm this finding, doctors will soon have a test to diagnose this horrible condition and possibly a vaccine to prevent it.More than a million Americans are seriously ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic encephalomyelitis. CFS symptoms include severe weakness, exhaustion after any activity, loss of memory, and chronic recurrent infections. Patients rarely recover.The retrovirus XMRV was first found in...

Read more »

Top 5 Butt Blaster Cardio Exercises

Every one needs butt blaster exercises to either tone your butt or keep your butt toned! You can use cardio to blast the butt fat and overall body fat----just do the right type and intensity...top cardio exercises to blast butt, hips and thighs fat are:1. Sprint Intervals: Sprinting activates and shapes the bulkier, shapely fast-twitch muscle fibers. Just check out the sprinters at the next track meet you attend and see how toned their butt, hips and thighs are. You may not go to that extreme, but you get the idea! Do your sprints:--on grass (incline)--on grass (flat surface) --on sand--on...

Read more »

Top 5 Weight Loss Plateau Busters

A weight loss plateau will happen to you at some point in your "exercise career!" If you're frustrated with having "no progress" in your weight loss and fat loss, then you're not alone! Usually, its easier to lose weight at the beginning of your exercise program. This is especially true if you are, let's say, 120 pounds overweight. At this point, your metabolism is "running high" because of the excess weight. And, if you have not been active, your body will respond quickly to any new exercise program.As time moves on, you have to make frequent changes (like weekly or bi-weekly) to your exercise routine/eating habits or your body will adapt. That's when you reach a weight loss plateau and your progress begins to stall. So, here are...

Read more »

Fat Loss Frequently Asked Questions

There's 2 things about fat loss frequently asked questions, 1) you need to ask the right fat loss questions and 2) you need to recognize the right fat loss answers when you see them! Why? Because there is alot of bad information out there about fat loss and weight loss! Some of that bad information will give you short-term solutions (such as rapid weight loss) but long-term failure! If you want the right answers, you've come to the right place! First, you need to know my belief statement about fitness:“Make a lifetime commitment to health and fitness. This commitment trumps all other fitness commitments. Without it, you will always fall prey to the inevitable obstacles and pitfalls along the way.” With this statement as background, here...

Read more »

Tone Ab Obliques With Side Plank

Tone your ab oblique muscles and strengthen your deep core muscles with the side plank. You will also burn your belly fat!External Oblique - these muscles are on the side and front of the abdomen and wrap around your waist.Internal Oblique - these muscles lie under the external oblique and run in the opposite direction. --Lie sideways on your left side.--Raise your body, resting on your forearm and side of foot. Keep your right leg on top of the left leg. Keep your body stiff and brace your torso (as if taking a punch). Keep your head in line with your torso (don't let your head drop or jut...

Read more »

The Potassium Deficiency Myth

Sports drink promoters have convinced many athletes that they need special drinks to replace potassium during exercise. A recent study of female soccer players confirms that this is a myth (International Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2009). When body levels of potassium are low, the kidneys and sweat glands conserve potassium so effectively that potassium deficiency rarely occurs.Tiredness in healthy athletes can have many causes, but low potassium is not one of them. Many years ago, Dave Costill of Ball State University tried to create potassium deficiency in healthy national champion runners. He couldn't do it because potassium is found in all foods except refined sugar, and his athletes would not stay on a diet that consisted only of...

Read more »

Burn Abdominal Fat With Medicine Ball Front Chop

Burn more of the dreaded abdominal fat with the medicine ball front chop! This exercise is also a great full body exercise that you can do as a regular strength exercise or power (full-speed) exercise. Because of speed and intensity, power exercises help you burn more fat during and after your workout.Besides burning abdominal fat and helping sculpt your six pack abs, medicine ball front chops are great for improving your flexibility. Medicine ball exercises help you to exercise with natural movements. Your training needs to give you a body that you can use in every day life. Tight, rigid...

Read more »

Eat Healthy Fats, Burn Body Fat

Don't confuse eating healthy fats with your body fat! You need to eat healthy dietary fats every day! How much (or how little) body fat you have depends on how many calories you eat and burn every day. At one time, health experts encouraged people to eat very little dietary fat to avoid "getting fat!" Of course, the issue is that maintaining your daily caloric surplus causes you to gain weight and fat. First, you need fats (one of the macronutrients) in your diet for your body to function properly. Get about 20% of total daily calories from fats. Eat very little or no trans fats or saturated fats. Eating too many (and too often) trans fats and saturated fats will land you in the doctor's office with heart and cholesterol problems!Focus...

Read more »

Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes

As the standard of living in a country increases, so does the incidence of Metabolic Syndrome. Today, one of three North Americans will suffer premature death from the consequences of Metabolic Syndrome, which is caused too little activity and too much food (The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, September 2009). Warning signs include: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low good HDL cholesterol, overweight, high blood sugar and high HBA1C. (HBA1C is a blood test that measures sugar stuck on cells. An HBA1C greater than 5.7 shows that you have Metabolic Syndrome).Metabolic Syndrome means that you are in the early stages of diabetes. If you store fat primarily in your belly, you probably have high blood insulin levels, a sign that your body...

Read more »

Burn More Fat With Power Exercise Workouts!

Burn more fat with power exercise workouts and shorten your workouts! Many of you just need to ramp up your workouts to get past your fat loss plateau! Try a power exercise workout 1 time a week to start out and you will burn more fat during and after your workout! Make your whole workout one power exercise after the other! The ultimate advanced level workout! Its definitely not for beginners! And, all it takes is 45 minutes to 1 hour! You might need 2 days to recover!Remember that power is the ability to exert maximum muscle force in the shortest amount of time (rate-of-force production)....

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Burning, Body Sculpting Tips

My Top 5 Fat Burning and Body Sculpting Tips will show you how to shape and tone your body all day---not just during your workout! Take advantage of all the time you have available to you during the day to burn more fat and sculpt your body! I will assume you know that you MUST follow your fat burning meal plan to be successful with any fitness program!So, with that in mind, here is the Top 5 Fat Burning and Body Sculpting Tips!1. Posture – Sitting, Standing, Walking and Running - Brace your torso all the time (like you’re preparing to take a punch in the gut). This is great core work all...

Read more »

Top 10 Weight Loss Tips

The Top 10 Weight Loss Tips will help you keep the weight off! If you're looking for quick weight loss tactics, this article is not for you! To get real weight loss (not just quick water weight loss), you MUST include fat loss. This takes time folks! Go ahead and make the commitment to consistent exercise and changed eating habits!So, here we go....The Top 10 Weight Loss Tips:WEIGHT LOSS TIP #1 Make a commitment to a lifetime of fitness, weight loss and fat loss. This commitment trumps all other fitness commitments. Without it, you will always fall prey to the inevitable obstacles and pitfalls along the way. Get your motivation right!WEIGHT LOSS TIP #2 Be willing to change your eating habits! Sixty to 70% of your weight loss/fat loss...

Read more »

Preventing Muscle Cramps

Most older textbooks explain that muscle cramps are caused by lack of water (dehydration) and lack of salt. However, studies on endurance athletes show that athletes who cramp do not have less body water or sodium than those who do not cramp (British Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2009). So the current explanation for muscle cramps in conditioned athletes is that prolonged, intense exercise damages muscles, which can cause sustained contractions or cramps.Cramps may occur as a side effect of drugs used to treat high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes. Oral contraceptives, various other drugs or alcohol can also cause muscle cramps. If you suffer from recurrent muscle cramps that cannot be explained, check with your doctor. Possible...

Read more »

Eat For Fat Loss

If you want fat loss then you MUST eat for fat loss! Everyone needs a meal plan! You need to have some sort of idea of what you are going to eat for the day. If you don't have a meal plan, you might eat anything at any time! If you have a plan, you are more likely to follow it or at least eat similar foods.Haphazard eating or grazing is probably the biggest killer of meal plans! And, if you don't have a meal plan, grazing with high-calorie and high-fat foods will skyrocket your calories day after day.....you know where that leads.....Its the same story folks, a caloric imbalance is the cause of weight gain (consuming more calories than you burn in a day). If you want to speed up your metabolism and burn more calories then exercise regularly...

Read more »

Medicine Ball Lateral Lunges Shapes Hips and Thighs

The medicine ball lateral lunge will shape your hips and thighs better than popular seated exercises. This exercise works the often neglected frontal plane (lateral movement) of motion.If you want to shape your hips and thighs faster, do more medicine ball lateral lunges! Get rid of the “saddle bag hips” and “jiggling-jelly thighs! The seated hip adductor and hip abductor machine exercises don't match up to a standing exercise like the medicine ball lateral lunge. You will get more fat-burning and calorie-burning benefits from doing the medicine ball lateral lunge. Matter of fact, do as many...

Read more »

Top 10 Fat Loss Tips

You need my Top 10 Fat Loss Tips to simplify the fat loss and weight loss process! Even though fat loss is not rocket science, you still need a simple plan to follow day-in and day-out! How many times have you followed your meal plan and exercise program all week and then blown it on the weekend by going on an eating binge!? Or, how many fad diets have you tried and failed! Or, how many times have you lost 25 pounds really fast and then regained 50 pounds really fast! Staying on your fat loss and weight loss track through all the events of life can sometimes throw you off kilter....So, fat loss and weight loss is not rocket science but it is based on basic science, experience and good old common sense!Read the Top 10 Fat Loss article!Get...

Read more »

New Rules for Sunscreens

If you use sunscreens, be sure to reapply them frequently. Many sunscreens contain the filters octylmethoxycinnamate, benzophenone-3 or octocrylene, which reflect ultra violet rays away from your skin to protect it only when they are on the surface of the skin. However, when these sunscreens are absorbed and the skin is not re-coated, they increase skin production of harmful oxidants that can cause skin aging and cancer (Free Radical Biology & Medicine, September 2009). Reapplying the sun screen so some remains on the skin's surface can prevent this damage.• Before you go out in the sun, apply sunscreens to the areas with the most exposure to sunlight over your lifetime: the top of your ears, your face, the back of your neck, and your arms...

Read more »

Burn More Fat With Vertical Jumps

Are you looking to burn more fat? Vertical jumps will burn fat and sculpt your lower body! Vertical jumps will burn more fat because they are very intense! Shorten and intensify your workouts with jump training (plyometrics)! Plyometric workouts also burn more fat and calories during and after your workout! Just do 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions at full speed! Jump as high and fast as you can and jump on a soft surface like rubber or grass to protect your knees against injury.If you're having trouble sculpting your butt, hips and thighs then you need to do more jump training. Jump training...

Read more »

You Need "Six Pack Athletic Abs"

Six pack abs are great but if your body is "stiff as a board" you will walk and move like a robot! Your training needs to give you a body that you can use in every day life. Tight, rigid muscles will lead you to many injuries! My Fitness Hut’s Athletic Abs Training System will give you the sculpted, six pack and athletic abs that you need! And, you will build those abs using every day movements! We all kneel, stand, walk and run, so your abs and overall body strength and stability should be trained for you to live an active life every day! That is the essence of my Fat Blaster Athletic...

Read more »

Ball Plank Strengthens Deep Core Muscles

The stability ball plank is a great core exercise to advance you from the plank exercise on the floor. The ball plank strengthens and stabilizes your deep, foundational core muscles even more than the regular plank. Balancing on the ball while holding the plank position is not easy! Your deep, foundational core muscles are more important than your "six pack abs!"1. Place your elbows on the ball and balance on your toes while keeping your body in a straight line.2. Hold the plank position for a count of 5-10 seconds without moving. The ball will move, so it is a challenge to hold the right alignment....

Read more »

How To Avoid Travel Weight Gain

Avoid weight gain while you travel by packing more than just your clothes! Some of you travel as much as 200 days a year! You have to get your eating under control or your weight will quickly get out of control!If you are a frequent flyer or driver, you know the food traps found in airport or roadside restaurants! The food choices are usually high-calorie, high-carb and high-fat. And, you know how much money you can waste at these food establishments. So, don't just plan and pack your clothes! Plan and pack your foods also! Eating while you travel can turn into a weight gain disaster! Try to stay with your meal plan as much as possible while traveling. Haphazard eating or grazing will skyrocket your calories and pack pounds on...

Read more »

Large Thighs are Good

Large thighs appear to confer health benefits, not risks. A study reported this month shows that people who have small thigh muscles, independent of how much fat they have in their bellies, are at increased risk for premature death, particularly from heart attacks (British Medical Journal, September 2009). 2800 men and women aged 35 to 65 had their thighs measured and were followed for ten years. Those whose thigh circumference was below 24 inches (60 cm) were at increased risk for death from heart attacks.Other studies show that having very low body fat is also associated with early death, as are being overfat or storing fat primarily in the belly. If you store most of your fat in your belly and have very small thighs or buttocks, you are...

Read more »

Burn Butt, Hips and Thigh Fat With Clock Lunges

Burn butt, hips and thigh fat with clock lunges! This exercise will help your lower body look better in 3-D space! You don't need butt-busting fitness gadgets! Do more clock lunges and they will strengthen most of the major muscle groups of your lower body. Clock lunges also improve your core strength, coordination and balance.Many of you do forward lunges, reverse lunges and walking lunges. These exercises work your lower body in one plane of motion (sagittal). I don't see enough people doing side lunges and transverse lunges. If you will do clock lunges, you are covered in all 3 planes...

Read more »

CRP Better Predictor of Heart Attacks than Cholesterol

Blood tests for cholesterol and C-reactive protein (CRP) both help to measure heart attack risk, but CRP may be more important. CRP measures inflammation which indicates an overactive immunity, while cholesterol measures a type of fat in your blood. Having a high CRP blood test increases your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke by twice as much as having a high cholesterol (New England Journal of Medicine, November 2002). Everything that activates your immunity can increase risk for heart attacks and everything that damages your body turns on your immunity. Inflammation is part of the immune reaction that protects you from infection. It causes redness, pain and swelling, and can damage the inner lining of arteries or break off clots...

Read more »