A Weight Belt Hinders Core Strength Development

Should you use a weight belt when doing exercises like squats and deadlift? The answer is generally no.

Unless you are a powerlifter using super heavy weights, you shouldn't use a weight belt. You need your body to develop core strength and stabilization without the help of a weight belt. If this means lifting a little lighter load to develop core strength then that's okay! Don't let your ego lead to low back injuries!

If you are recovering from a low back injury, a weight belt could come in handy until you recover. In this case, tighten your belt during the lift and loosen it between sets. Research shows that your blood pressure can significantly elevate during the lift while wearing a belt.

As a general rule, you want your body to develop strength under loads that it can handle. Sacrifice lifting less weight on exercises like squats, deadlift, good mornings and standing shoulder press to naturally strengthen and stabilize your core and other musles.

Train hard and safe!

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Athletic Abs Training System

My Fitness Hut’s Athletic Abs Training System will give you the sculpted, toned abs that you want! 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 Training System, which is training movements and not just muscles! Some of you are competitive athletes and some of you are not. Competitive athletes should try Sports Fitness Hut’s Athletic Abs Training System!

This training system has 3 levels: basic, intermediate and advanced. So, you can progress at your own pace. You can have the TONED ABS you want for summer if you start now! This workout will also work perfectly with any Fitness Hut full body strength workout program!

Get your Athletic Abs Training System now!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Fitness And Nutrition Assessment

So, what will a fitness and nutrition assessment tell you? Well.....



Identify your fitness goals and determine why your fat loss and weight loss efforts have failed or succeeded in the past. You also have to get your motivation right for your exercise program to work for you. This step takes you being "very honest" with yourself! Sometimes it is a painful process.

You will learn your body composition (body fat % vs. lean mass %). You will also learn "where you are fat." Excess abdominal fat has been shown to be a precursor to diseases such as cancer.

When's the last time you had your body measurements taken (chest, arms, neck, hips, waist, etc.)? This is part of your fitness assessment.

What's your health history? You might need a doctor's clearance before you can begin an exercise program.

What are your eating habits? Part of your assessment will look at what you are eating, how you are eating and changes that you need to make.

What is your basal metabolic rate? Don't know? You will after your fitness assessment. This rate helps you set the daily calories you will need.

Have you had low back pain for some time? If so, you probably have postural problems that need to be corrected. And, yes, a postural assessment is part of your fitness assessment.

Had any muscle spasms or "knotted muscles" lately? Then, you need to improve your flexibility. The fitness assessment will tell you where your muscles are tight, lengthened or weak.

When's the last time you checked your resting pulse rate? Your resting pulse rate will tell you how hard your heart is working in a resting state. For instance, my resting pulse rate was 58 beats per minute the last time I checked it. That's pretty low. When I was at peak condition as a college athlete, my resting pulse rate was 54-56 beats per minute.

How ready is your body for physical activity? You don't know? You will after your fitness assessment!

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Use Lactate Threshold instead of Maximum Heart Rate

My report on the unreliable Maximum Heart Rate formula brought many questions on how heart rate SHOULD be used for training. Competitive athletes often use a guide called lactate threshold (LT). When you exercise, your muscles require oxygen to convert food to energy. If you exercise so intensely that you cannot get enough oxygen, lactic acid accumulates in your muscles and spills over into your bloodstream. This makes your muscles more acidic which causes terrible burning, and you to become short of breath and slow down as you struggle to get more oxygen. Your lactate threshold occurs when you exercise at the highest average heart rate you can maintain for 45-60 minutes. RoadBikeRider.com offers the following guidelines for cyclists; the same principles can be used in any other endurance sport.

"A good way to find your LT is to ride a fairly flat 15-mile course at a hard pace. Use a heart monitor that averages heart rate for the distance or just check it occasionally to see where HR settles.

You'll quickly find that you can maintain a certain high HR, but if you go a few beats higher you'll start panting and be unable to control your breathing. Trial and error will reveal the highest HR you can maintain for the distance. That's your LT.

Three simple exercise zones based on your LT heart rate are sufficient. These guidelines should work for most riders:
Recovery takes place about 40 beats below LT
Endurance is built on rides about 25 beats below LT
Breakthrough training is done from 10 beats below LT to about 5 beats above LT
No heart monitor? You can do just as well by monitoring your perceived exertion. For instance, recovery rides should be so easy that you barely feel the pedals. The idea is to take a 'walk' on the bike. Hard efforts, such as intervals and climbing, should be at the limit separating steady-but-labored breathing from panting and gasping. By experimenting you'll find this LT boundary."

Whatever your sport, I recommend subscribing to RBR's free newsletter; it's full of useful information for exercisers.

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Warmup To Workout Hard!

Don't waste time when you warmup for your workout! Your warmup should get you ready to workout hard! Warmup is not a time to play around or talk with your friends!

A good dynamic warmup is a MUST before your workout. A dynamic warmup will prepare your body best for a tough workout. Do static stretches after your workout (when muscles are warm) to increase your range of motion.

During your dynamic warmup:

1. Make sure your "power center" is flexible. Your "power center" consists of the glutes, hips, quadriceps and hamstrings. This area of your body is prone to some hard-to-recover-from injuries!

2. Your hip flexors need to flexible. Tight hip flexors cause many problems, including problems with your glutes and hamstrings.

3. When you warmup, practice relaxing your face, shoulders, arms and torso. You want your body to work like a "well oiled machine."

Some good dynamic warmup exercises are lunges, jumping jacks, jump rope, jogging and step ups.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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NSAIDs Interfere with Proper Training

Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs - Motrin, Advil, Alleve and so forth), taken before or after exercise, interfere with the benefits of training for fitness and athletic competition because they delay healing of damaged muscles (British Journal of Sports Medicine, August 2009). You train for sports by taking a hard workout that damages muscles and makes them feel sore. You then take easy, less intense workouts for as long as it takes for the soreness to go away. Only then should you take intense workouts again. Swimmers take hard and easy workouts every day, but athletes in virtually all other sports allow at least 48 hours between intense workouts.

Biopsies done the day after a hard workout show bleeding into the muscle fibers and disruption of the Z-bands that hold muscle fibers together. Injured muscles release healing prostaglandins that cause collagen to be laid down in muscle fibers to make them larger and stronger. They also cause pain. NSAIDs block the training effect by blocking healing prostaglandins, thus delaying recovery and collagen production. They prevent bones, muscles, tendon and ligaments from thickening and becoming stronger.

Athletes taking NSAIDs during competition are at increased risk for bleeding into their kidneys, and for intestinal bacteria to enter their bloodstreams (Brain, Behavior and Immunity, November 2006). An estimated 60 percent of athletes competing in triathlons and other endurance events take NSAIDs because they think that it will block the pain of competition. NSAIDs have not been shown to block the pain and fatigue of competing in athletic events that require endurance.

Ordinary aspirin delays muscle healing by blocking many of the same healing prostaglandins that are blocked by NSAIDs. Aspirin also increases risk for
bleeding if you should have an accident.

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Nutrition Tips For Weight Loss Management

Here are some nutrition tips for successful weight loss management. Sixty to 70% of your weight loss and fat loss success or failure will depend on what you eat and how much....So here it is: some broad nutritional guidelines:

Make the commitment to change your eating habits no matter what it takes...this commitment will help you overcome the stumbles and setbacks along the way.

Start keeping a food journal as soon as possible! Research has proven that you will have a better chance of succeeding with your nutrition plan and fat loss if you keep a food journal! By logging your actual food choices, you are holding yourself accountable throughout the day. You will also be forced to plan your meals better and avoid binge eating and emotional eating.

Get an accountability partner such as a spouse, friend or personal trainer. You can challenge each other to make good food choices.

Add foods to your menu that you like. You are more likely to stay with a menu loaded with foods you like. I am amazed at some of the "healthy menus" in some magazines! Do people really eat that stuff! Find healthy, nutritious foods that you like and get rid of the foods that are bad for you (interpreted "adds fat to your body").

Set your daily calorie intake based on your basal metabolic rate and your activity level. This way, you won't eat too much or too little. Maintaining the right amount of calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume) is the key to burning fat and losing weight.

I don't recommend any diet that omits one of the macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat). Your body's metabolism needs all 3 macronutrients to work efficiently.

The various "body organ cleansers" out there on the market are not the key to your fat loss and weight loss.....regular exercise (weight training and interval cardio) and good nutrition are your tickets to a permanent lean and toned body. Use the cleansers if you want for cleaning you out I guess. Just remember that healthy foods such as fruits and veggies also play a role in keeping your body clean (and alot less expensive)!

Along the same lines, there are no magic pills, powders or creams that will give you a permanent lean and toned body.

Control calorie intake by eating more water-based foods (volume eating). The basics of it is to eat as many foods with high water content/low calories as you can. Foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables are examples. These types of foods help you to feel fuller (satiety) while eating fewer calories. For instance, grapes with the same calorie amount as raisins will provide more satiety and theoretically help you eat less the rest of the day. Energy density of food is a key component when trying to add volume to your diet. Energy density (ED) is defined as the amount of calories of a food divided by its weight in grams.

You would basically focus on foods rich in fiber with high water content (or low ED value). Fresh fruits (apples, etc.) and vegetables (such as tomatoes and broccoli) whole grain pastas, rice, whole grain breads and cereals, soups, salads and skinless white chicken/turkey are some examples.

Get enough sleep! Researchers have found that the less sleep the test subjects got, the higher their body mass index. The shorter sleep time altered the subjects hormone levels, energy decreased and appetite increased. And we already knew that decreased energy affects your workout performance. What's enough sleep? The general rule is 8 hours of sleep a night. Some may need more sleep or a little less than 8 hours. Don't sabotage your exercise program and weight loss efforts by not getting enough shut-eye.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

Read more »