Why You Need Interval Training for Both Speed and Endurance

To have great endurance for any sport, you have to do interval training: short bursts of moving almost as fast as you can, slowing down until you regain your breathe and then repeating these all-out efforts a number of times.The old theory was that lactic acid makes the muscles more acidic which causes them to hurt and burn and interferes with their ability to contract, so you feel tired. George Brooks of the University of California/Berkeley has shown that lactic acid buildup in muscles does not make muscles tired and can make muscle contract more efficiently, which increases endurance. This research contradicts what many instructors teach in their exercise classes. When you exercise, your muscles burn sugar, protein and fat in the presence...

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Losing Weight The Healthy Way

Losing weight the healthy way is the only way! Health is more important than weight loss. Don't lose your health and self respect trying quick weight loss tactics. Check out this video about a former Biggest Loser television show contestant who experienced major weight loss (and disappointment):Your goal should be to be the biggest fat loser. Losing huge amounts of weight can be gained back quickly if you don't build muscle mass. Build muscle, burn fat, speed up your metabolism and lose weight (and keep it off)!So, here are some tips to help you achieve your best health and fitness:1. Make a commitment TODAY to a lifestyle of health and fitness! Without this commitment, you will eventually go back to short-term solutions like quick weight...

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Your Cellulite Reduction Strategy

Do you have a cellulite reduction strategy? Have you given up trying to reduce your cellulite? Don't give up, just be realistic about how to reduce your cellulite. Cellulite is collections of fat just underneath (subcutaneous fat) the skin which causes it to dimple, pucker up or lump up.There are many factors that determine whether you have cellulite---your genes, gender, skin thickness and amount of body fat all play a part. What you need to know is that there are no quick fixes for cellulite.Research reports that over 80% of women get cellulite at some point in their lives. So, there are plenty of chances for these advertisements to deceive people. Don't buy in to quick cellulite reduction stories! As usual, your best bet in reducing...

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Snackaholics At Risk For Weight Gain

Attention snackaholics! You could be gaining weight because of your snacks between meals. It doesn't have to be that way. What you eat for snacks can mean the difference between out-of-control weight gain or weight loss management/fat loss.The American Dietetic Association also recommends healthy snacking. Snacks bridge the gap between meals and can help you eat less at mealtime. Going too long between meals can cause you to load up on sugary carbohydrates to get quick energy. These types of snacks are usually high in calories, not very nutritious and cause rapid ups and downs in blood sugar levels (you will crash). You also end up wanting to eat more and more. That means out-of-control weight gain if continued.I'm a person who snacks pretty...

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Taking Sugar When You Exercise Is Good for You

My last post showed how eating refined carbohydrates and drinking sugared liquids at rest can cause high blood sugar levels, increasing risk for diabetes, heart attacks and premature death. However, during exercise, sugared drinks help you move faster and stronger. It is usually safe to take sugared drinks while you exercise because blood sugar levels rarely rise too high during exercise or for an hour afterward. Contracting muscles draw sugar so rapidly from the bloodstream that there is no sharp rise in blood sugar.• Contracting muscles help to prevent the high rise in blood sugar that follows eating refined carbohydrates during rest (1).• Unlike resting muscles, contracting muscles do not require insulin to move sugar inside their cells...

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Tone Hips And Butt With Lateral Lunge Steps

Tone your hips and butt (glutes) better by including lateral lunge steps in your workout routine. Butt, hips and thigh fat can be stubborn fat areas for many women and men. Doing dynamic leg exercises on your feet will help you burn more leg fat and calories. Sprints also help you burn fat faster! Sprinting is one of the best ways to help get your legs and total body lean and toned. You will also improve your dynamic flexibility with lateral lunge steps. As an exerciser, you MUST improve your dynamic flexibility in the frontal plane of motion (side to side movements). The exercise is...

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Eat Quality Calories--What You Eat Matters

Aim to eat quality calories. What you eat really matters. Junk food like chips, pastries, candy, donuts and sodas aren't nutritious and have loads of calories. They also have you wanting to eat more in just a short time. Control your eating with a nutrition plan and food journal. For instance, a 12-ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). If HFCS is the first or second ingredient listed, the product is heavily "laced" with HFCS. Other sweet foods are also high in HFCS.Nutritionists point to HFCS consumption as a major player in the nation's obesity crisis (the fact that we eat it is the real problem). According to government data, sweetened soft drinks add about 10 percent...

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Health Tips e-Course

Get your FREE Health Tips e-Course from Dr. Suzanne Gudakunst!This e-Course will help you: 1. Fight off sickness 2. Look better and feel great 3. Lose weight and feel full of natural energy 4. Help limit diseases 5. Stop dependence on prescription drugs Dr. Gudakunst has finally come forward to reveal her discovery of how to help get rid of toxic build-up in your intestines and parasites living in your stomach!This toxic build-up eventually forms a plaque that coats the interior walls and lining of your colon. This "plaque" is something relatively new in the world of medicine and human anatomy, having its origin in the newer synthetic foods, preservatives, and chemically-enhanced materials now found in foods after the 1960s.Check...

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Fad Diets Never Work Long-Term

Fad diets will never work for you long-term, unless you count "going in circles" as progress. Actually, fad diets will place you further away from your weight loss goals as you yo-yo back and forth with glee (lose 40 pounds) and dispair (gain back 60 pounds)!A "quick weight loss only goal" is a short-term fix for your weight problem and will not ultimately help you attain your goals! Establish eating and exercise habits that will help you burn fat and lose weight for a lifetime. The type of food you eat and timing of what you eat is very important for your metabolism to work properly. Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly. Increasing muscle mass is critical to permanently...

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Why Sugar Can Shorten or Lengthen Your Life

A high rise in blood sugar can damage every cell in your body. When blood sugar levels rise too high, sugar can stick to the surface of cell membranes. Once stuck there, it can never get off. In a series of chemical reactions, glucose (the only sugar that circulates in your bloodstream) is converted to another sugar called fructose and eventually to a sugar alcohol called sorbitol that destroys the cell to cause every know side effect of diabetes: blindness, deafness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and so forth.When you eat, sugar can go into:• your muscles, to make you a better athlete and prolong your life,• your brain, to keep you smart and alert, or• your liver to store sugar for future use. Sending too much sugar to your liver can...

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Top 10 Nutrition Tips For Weight Loss And Fat Loss

Successful weight loss and fat loss comes to those of you who have figured out the nutrition puzzle. It takes more than just working out hard to reach your goals. Its important to eat enough but not too much or too little. What you eat matters. Eating 1000 calories of healthy food is more effective than eating 1000 calories of junk food. Follow my Top 10 Nutrition Tips and you will have a better chance of losing the fat and weight and keeping it off.1. Eat breakfast.....momma was right! I ate alot of oatmeal for breakfast growing up. She didn't say it was good for me......she just said eat it! A good healthy breakfast gets your metabolism kicked off for the day. Eat small meals every 3-4 hours to keep up your energy and to keep your...

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Stop Yo-Yo Dieting With Exercise And Healthy Meals

Do you want to stop yo-yo dieting (or weight cycling)? Exercise, eat healthy and don't stop. Are you tired of losing 40 pounds and regaining 60 pounds? Exercise, eat healthy and don't stop. Are you tired of quick weight loss "solutions" that aren't solutions (the problem gets bigger with each yo-yo weight regain)? Exercise, eat healthy and don't stop. See a pattern developing? You can stop the weight loss/weight regain cycle with regular exercise and healthy menus. Its that simple. But, somehow its not that easy for many people. Why? Because they buy in to...

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Strength Training to Improve Endurance

Weight lifting can improve performance in endurance sports such as running, cycling or rowing. A study from Spain divided highly trained, competitive rowers into four groups:1) four arm exercises leading to repetition failure,2) four exercises not leading to failure,3) two exercises not to failure, and4) no resistance training.All four groups did the same endurance training (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, June 2010). Those who did the four exercises not to failure improved the most in *rowing performance, *lifting the heaviest weight that they could lift once, and *the highest muscle power output.Athletes who train primarily for strength must train to muscle failure. That means that they lift weights repeatedly until they can...

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Lifestyle More Important than Genes for Longevity

How long you live is usually up to you. Extensive research show that most people who live to be 100 have never had any one else in their family also live to be 100. Longevity researcher James W. Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany feels that longevity is only three percent genetic and 97 percent environmental. Compare that to factors that govern how tall you will be, which are more than 80 percent genetic.For most people, living to 90 or 100 requires a healthful diet, daily exercise and avoidance of exposure to life-shortening infections and toxins. Centenarians virtually never have diabetes or arteriosclerosis, the most common causes of death in North America today.One of the best ways to compare the effects of genetics and environment...

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You Achieved Quick Weight Loss, Are You Healthy?

You can achieve quick weight loss. But, your body might feel like a total wreck. Ever lost 35 pounds in a week? I hope not (at least not voluntarily).If you have weight loss, fat loss and good health, you're in a great place! Just continue to eat right and work hard to stay there!Quick weight loss implies that it's something that probably won't last! Health should be stressed before weight loss and beauty! It does you no good to look great if your body is a total wreck and unhealthy!Optimal health involves making lifestyle changes to improve your:1. health2. fitness3. energy levels4. quality of lifeWe are living longer on this earth so quality of life is important! The "quick weight loss lifestyle" is narrow minded when you compare it...

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Emergency Resuscitation

You are in a room where a person suddenly drops to the floor unconscious. You put your ear over his heart and hear no heartbeats. That person is dead unless you pump on his chest immediately to circulate blood to bring enough oxygen to keep his brain alive, and then shock his heart with an electrical defibrillator to make it start beating again.He passed out because •his brain suffered from lack of oxygen, •caused by lack of blood circulating to his brain, •caused by his heart fibrillating (shaking rather than pumping) or having a heart beat too weak to pump blood. His brain will die in a minute or two if you don't circulate blood by compressing his chest, and his heart will not start beating again unless you shock it as soon as possible, within...

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Prolong Life with Exercise

How does exercise prolong life? The leading theory is that exercise prolongs life and prevents heart attacks and cancers by causing the body to dispose of free radicals with increased production of antioxidants.Exercise speeds up the reactions that turn food into energy, so exercise actually increases the production of free radicals. The body responds to this increased production of free radicals during exercise by producing tremendous amounts of antioxidants that sop up the free radicals and render them harmless.Most cells in your body have mitochondria, very small energy-producing chambers that number anywhere from a few to thousands in each cell. As you age, mitochondria in muscles decrease in number and size. This interferes with your body's...

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Burn Major Calories With Athletic Workouts

Athletic workouts will burn major calories and help you burn fat and lose weight---sooner! If you need to ramp up the intensity and break through your weight loss plateau, athletic workouts will work. Athletic workouts are very intense and will improve your body's composition (fat loss, more muscle). These workouts will sculpt your body without your joints taking a pounding from lifting heavy weights! To get your muscles to improve power (how fast your muscles can produce force), do some or all of the exercises full speed. Also, you will really burn fat and shape your bulkier, fast twitch muscle...

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