Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Marilyn Nelson


Cellulite is something that is difficult to avoid. You can exercise consistently, eat healthily, remain within your idea body mass index, and still get unsightly cellulite. After trying all of the anti cellulite treatments available at your local pharmacy, purchasing the seemingly best cellulite treatment you can find online, performing all of the home remedy anti cellulite treatments you could discover, you are still left with cottage cheese dimpled thighs, buttocks, and stomach. What are you to do? Nothing seems to be working, and all you want to do is find an anti cellulite treatment that works for you.

Turning To Medical Anti Cellulite Treatments

The solution for you might be to use a medical anti cellulite treatment. This type of anti cellulite treatment is much more effective (and pricey!) than the over the counter anti cellulite treatments or home remedies. Now comes the hardest part: which medical anti cellulite treatment is for you?

Types of Medical Anti Cellulite Treatments

There are many different types of medical anti cellulite treatments. There are deep tissue massages, which may work, but are really not permanent solutions. The Endermologie machine works to lift skin to get a deep, subdermal massage to the underlying fat layers. This is very positively reviewed. In addition, there is localized, superficial liposuction. This is a more controversial procedure, as a patient with an inhospitable skin type could wind up looking worse after the liposuction than before!

In addition to the previously mentioned procedures, there is also an anti cellulite treatment in the medical community called soft tissue augmentation. This is where fat is injected into localized areas, such as the dimple of cellulite. It will push out the dimple, making a smooth appearance. Mesotherapy is much like this type of liposuction as an anti cellulite treatment. The only problem with mesotherapy is that the chemical injected is uncontrollable, and it is possible for it to spread after it is injected. Your anti cellulite treatment may wind up giving you more dimples than you had before you had the treatment!

There are many, many different types of anti cellulite treatments available through the medical community. However, the only way to determine what is the best cellulite treatment for you is through trial and error. This may be very costly when using a medical anti cellulite treatment, so make sure that you look up many consumer reviews and medical reviews on each anti cellulite treatment before you attempt it. You do not want to pay a large sum of money only to wind up looking the same, or sometimes, looking much worse.

Organic products can also work well for sensitive skin care as organic means that they’re without a lot of added chemicals and harsh irritants. Organic products are becoming more and more popular among many people as we learn more about what additives and other chemicals do to our bodies. It’s usually very easy to find organic products that are even made for sensitive skin care; they are typically available at any retailer or pharmacy and you don’t even need to drive to the health food store or vitamin store to find them.

You can also make up your own natural products that will probably work well for sensitive skin care. Using natural products is usually best for the skin anyway; try a simple honey and oatmeal paste as a cleansing agent. The honey moisturizes the skin and the oatmeal acts as a cleansing and exfoliating agent. Raw eggs are also good for the skin as they contain a high amount of vitamin A. You can just beat one with a fork and apply it as is on your face, leaving it on for a few minutes before rinsing away. And it’s important to be gentle with your face regardless of what you use for sensitive skin care. This means no harsh scrubbing and exfoliating only once or twice per week at most.

Guest Author: Jami Goode


What is the best anti wrinkle cream to correct fine lines, while improving firmness and reducing the depth of wrinkles?  What is the best wrinkle cream for your skin’s health?  They are one and the same.

You might think of wrinkles and lost firmness as symptoms.  The symptoms merely reveal that your skin is not healthy.  The things that affected its health may include overexposure to the sun, cigarette smoking, poor nutrition, neglect or all of the above.  What is the best anti wrinkle cream going to do about those things?

You might think that it is just too late, that you can’t improve your skin’s health and appearance.  But, if you learn about what is the best wrinkle cream and you start using it, you will see a definite improvement.  How much of an improvement depends.  But, in clinical studies, everyone saw results and I have seen them myself.

So, what is the best wrinkle cream going to do to improve your skin’s health?  Let’s see.

Overexposure to the sun and cigarette smoking caused the formation of reactive oxygen species, commonly referred to as free radicals.  They cause damage on a cellular level, unless there are enough antioxidants to neutralize them.  There would need to be at least one antioxidant molecule for every free radical that formed.  That’s where poor nutrition comes into play.

The skin can handle some sun damage, by simply replacing the damaged layer, with new skin.  Constant overexposure and repeated burning, however, inhibits its ability to repair or “rejuvenate” itself.  It also damages the strands of DNA that are present in the cell, as can free radicals.  So, when the cell reproduces, it doesn’t look quite the same anymore.

What is the best anti wrinkle cream going to do about all of these?  If it contains antioxidants, it can prevent additional free radical damage.  Antioxidants are pretty amazing, because they can actually repair damage that has already occurred.

If it contains an amino acid complex called SYNERGY TK, it will increase the production of new cells and fibers.  In other words, it stimulates the cellular rejuvenation processes.  What is the best wrinkle cream proven to do?

In clinical studies, it has been proven to increase skin cell proliferation by over 100% after only three days of use; increase firmness by over 40% in less than three weeks; reduce inflammation, when present, and the redness that it causes by as much as 70%; act as a unique enzymatic antioxidant that neutralizes millions of free radicals.

Now, you know what is the best anti wrinkle cream, in terms of effectiveness.  All that you need do is look for those ingredients, but be sure that it does not contain chemicals that can interfere with the process.  Concerned about price?

What is the best wrinkle cream in terms of price?  The one that I use is quite affordable.  But, when you learn what is the best anti wrinkle cream, you’re willing to pay anything.



Instant Skin Tightener

Guest Author: Darrell Miller


Chemically, Resveratrol is a polyphenol that includes the flavanoids and proanthocyanadins, both very powerful antioxidants. These are very useful for the destruction of free radicals that threaten your health and well-being in this age of excessive pollution and vehicle emissions, and also excessive exposure to the harmful factors of sunlight through the erosion of the ozone layer that acts as a filter against these harmful free radical-inducing rays.

Biohemically it is a phytoalexin, a chemical used by a plant to protect against and destroy invaders. Each phytoalexin is specific to a particular invader, whether it is an insect, a bacterium or a fungus. They can take the form of terpenes, alkaloids or any other chemical that disrupt the cell walls of or otherwise destroy the enemy to the plant concerned.

Resveratrol is particularly well known for existing on the skins of red grapes, but can also be produced synthetically and marketed as a nutritional supplement. The so-called ‘French Paradox’ relates to the low incidence of coronary heart disease in Southern France in spite of the high saturated fat content of their diet. At least part of this is claimed to be due to the Resveratrol content of the red wine they drink, although the quantity even in a whole bottle is very small.

However, before considering the nutritional benefits of the extract, apart from red grape skins where else can resveratrol be found? Japanese knotweed is a bushy perennial plant, about 4 to 10 feet high, is a very rich source of resveratrol, and is the more important natural source of the two. Red grape skins hardly contain enough to be worthy of extracting. It is also present in minor quantities in pine nuts, peanuts and various other vines and grapes.

It has been under study for many years now for its effect on the heart and other parts of the body, and the antioxidant effect of resveratrol has been found to be unique. The effect of free radicals on the arteries is to help, along with cholesterol, to promote the thickening and hardening of the artery walls. Damage to the arteries by free radicals, and the resulting scar tissue, causes the production of even more free radicals and a vicious circle of damage and even more free radical production occurs.

The antioxidant action of resveratrol is in the enhancement of the nitric oxide content of the blood. Free radicals can reduce the levels of blood nitric oxide that in turn increases blood pressure. An increase in nitric oxide by appropriate antioxidants can help to reduce blood pressure closer to normal. Resveratrol is more effective in achieving this than any of the vitamin antioxidants, A, C or E. It does so by opening up the arteries and reducing the resistance to blood flow through them. .

It also helps to prevent blood cells from sticking together and forming clots that can lead to serious cardiovascular problems, and has been found by Canadian studies to be effective against a much wider range of chemicals that promote blood clotting than any other anti-clotting components of wine. In fact it has now been established, and more or less confirmed by the medical profession, that drinking red wine significantly reduces the effects of cardiovascular disease and can even go a long way towards curing it. Napa Valley here we come!

Inflammation is a condition that is caused by the immune system of the body, the purpose of which is to protect us against foreign invaders. However, once inflammation starts, it triggers even further immune responses itself, that if not controlled can lead to extremely painful and sometimes very serious conditions, even after the major trigger for the initial immune response has been dealt with.

Inflammation is regulated by chemicals known as cytokines, the master of which is NF Kappa B that controls all other cytokines. NF Kapa B also controls the activity of cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) essential for that part of the immune system that causes inflammation.

COX-2 is an enzyme that increases the production of Postaglandin E-2 (PGE-2) that is an essential trigger for T-cells that attack perceived foreign cells. If PGE-2 is suppressed, then the T-cells will not be activated. This is an essential part of reducing unwanted inflammation. However, it can be dangerous to suppress molecules below NF Kappa B such as COX-2 or PGE-2. VIOXX is a prime example of the type of heart problems that can occur if you try that type of inhibition, and Celebrex is another.

The beauty of resveratrol is that, although advertised and claimed to control COX-2 and Prostoglandin E-2, it does so by suppressing the action of NF Kapa B, the ’supreme controller’ of the inflammatory war.

Finally, there is also some evidence that resveratrol can have an effect on aging. It is well known that powerful anti-oxidants can help to protect against the cell destruction that free radicals can cause, and so help to protect the body against the aging effect of this cell destruction. However, there is another way in which resveratrol might contribute to us all looking more youthful in future (though for many of us it is a bit too late!).

Sirtuins (silent information regulator proteins) are enzymes that are known to promote the survival of cells through adverse conditions, such as SIRT 1 that protects against premature aging by suppressing the destruction of damaged cells long enough for them to be repaired. Plant polyphenols such as resveratrol are though to be able to activate sirtuins with the possibility of lengthening life by slowing natural cell destruction, and have also been shown to be able to slow aging by activating sirtuins to mimic the benefits of calorie restriction.

There is still a lot of research and work required on resveratrol, but the signs are evident that this is a possibility in the future for extending the average lifespan of human beings by a significant amount. In the case of yeast it has been demonstrated to be as much as 80%.

Translated to you or I that would mean us living to about 140 years old – if we want it!

Guest Author: Sean Saunders


You know as well as everyone else that companies and retailers give away free things all the time. In light of that fact, it should be of no surprise then to find out that some cosmetic companies are willing to give you wrinkle cream for free. That’s right, you don’t have to buy wrinkle cream, you can get it absolutely free. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, in a in very real way, it is.

When these companies use the term “free”, they usually have a bit of fine print added to the offer. Typically, this means you won’t be receiving an unlimited supply of the wrinkle cream — you’ll only get enough to provide you with a small taste of what you “could” be using.

Does this mean the free offer is a scam? No, not at all; it simply means it’s not as “wonderful” as you first thought it was — However, the situation remains the same, as you still need to take advantage of the offer in order to find an anti wrinkle skin cream that is right for you. How do you do that? Basically, you just follow their rules & do as they ask. As long as you comply with their requests & are honest with the necessary transactions, they will be all the more happy to do business with you.

Find as many wrinkle cream “free trial” offers as possible and start signing up — Not all at once, mind you, but slowly over time. With a constant string of wrinkle cream trial offers at your disposal, you won’t have to spend a fortune testing all the different wrinkle creams that are out on the market. Why? Because only the best of the best of anti wrinkle creams are offered on trial basis; meaning you’ve already got the cream-of-the-crop identified for you. Having said that, the trial & error part of finding an effective wrinkle cream should be entirely easy & inexpensive. Honestly, what more could a wrinkle sufferer ask for?

Guest Author: peterhutch


Yoga has really increased in popularity in the last couple of years. Widely held as a great form of exercise for both your body and your mind, people have been adopting this ancient form of meditation all over the world. As far as equipment is concerned there is very little required to get started.

As time goes by you will improve your technique, posture and that’s when you start enjoying your routines a lot more.

Yoga clothing is an important aspect of yoga. In yoga there is no strict rule that you need to wear a particular style of clothes but what you need to wear is something that provides you comfort and ease while you do the yoga postures. Wearing the right and appropriate clothes makes you feel good while you get your body in the various postures.

Yoga apparel is available in a huge range of different fabrics: from cottons and synthetics to the more unique, such as hemp and bamboo. Yoga apparel is definitely not limited to just the studio anymore. Yoga clothes popularity makes sense, given that the clothing is so comfortable. Yoga clothing selection tips: comfort is always the main consideration.

You can usually find good yoga clothes in a specialty store but almost anything used for sports can be yoga clothes. It makes sense to stay as close to popular styles but there’s still room to experiment. For example, you can use warm-up pants as yoga pants. The high tech, synthetic shirt that you use for camping can also work for yoga.

The traditional clothing for yoga is comprised of white loose-fitting or shapeless clothes along with turban. Since yoga requires a lot of stretching, your movements cannot be limited by your outfit. As you work on meditation and relaxation, you should not be plagued with worries about tearing your outfit with all the necessary movements and stretching required for yoga.

Comfortable and breathable clothes that are usually worn at the time of yoga are known as yoga clothes. They should let you to move freely in different yoga poses. Yoga tops, sweat clothes, and leotards are the best clothes that should be worn at the time of yoga practice. Loose fitting yoga clothes allow you to do different yoga poses easily.

Your Yoga clothing should give you room to manoeuvre because of all the different types of yoga moves performed which may entail twists, turns and stretching. By dressing in slack or baggy clothing you will be more content doing your yoga – stretchable elastic materials is also practical clothing for these exercises. Perspiration and how heavy you sweat needs taking into consideration when selecting your yoga clothing. Certain materials can make matters worse.



The French Women’s Beauty Secret

Guest Author: Rika Susan


Are you concentrating on the physical aspects when contemplating the best cardio workout for weight loss? Don’t stop there! Once you discover the psychological benefits, you will become hooked on fitness. Countless studies have proven the mood-enhancing effects of a 20 or 30 minute workout. From teens to seniors will experience this uplifting, invigorating result. Geared to create your new body? Ready to get ripped to burn belly fat? Let’s see why a cardio workout for weight loss delivers the goods every time.

Ten vital benefits of a stretching, strength training, weight loss cardio workout:

1. Outwits osteoporosis

2. Trounces type 2 diabetes

3. Helps heart health

4. Whittles down weight

5. Diminishes mild depression

6. Spruces up sleep quality

7. Promotes mind-power

8. Improves self-image

9. Fine-tunes flexibility

10. Elevates energy levels

Now, how do you go about making this impressive list of benefits your own? Mention the word ‘exercise’ and many folks visualize expensive gym memberships, bulge-revealing gym mirrors and staring eyes. Relax! You really don’t have to go this route if it isn’t for you. There are dozens of ways to reach your fitness goals. Aim to include the following three components in your exercise routine:

Aerobic Training: This refers to those activities that get your heart really pumping and your breathing thoroughly revved up. Now, you don’t need to invest in heavy-duty elliptical exercise equipment to achieve this. You can simply come up with a range of informal, enjoyable family activities. Anything from mountain biking, to walking or dancing will do.

Flexibility Training: The second leg of your cardio workout for weight loss, should include some stretching exercises to increase your flexibility. This is another way of preventing injuries, as it enables your joints, ligaments and muscles to stretch and bend with ease. It also helps to prevent the stiffness that is often associated with aging. Here some basic yoga exercises or an exercise band will do the trick.

Strength Training: Strength training is vital to increase your lean muscle mass. Again, you don’t need expensive home gym equipment. Many reputable, budget, fat-burning programs take you by the hand in your weight loss quest. In these, experts give you step-by-step instructions for using little more than a bench and a set of dumbbells to get you to your weight training quota. Remember to work on your core-strength (mid-section) as well. This is one of the best ways to strengthen your back, in order to prevent back injuries.

The great thing about weight training is that it really turns your body into a calorie-crunching furnace. Your goal is to up your lean muscle mass, while reducing your body fat. This equips you with a super-efficient metabolism that continues to burn calories even while you sleep. Doesn’t that sound great? Compare this scenario to fad diets that are likely to put your metabolism on a go-slow strike, by shifting all your body-gears into starvation mode.

That’s all there is to it. You can try to work up to 30 minutes four or five days a week for maximum benefits. Just make sure that you get some expert advice when you start out. Consult your doctor if you haven’t been training for a while, or if you have any illness or injury.

There is no area of your being that will remain untouched by a regular, relaxed weight loss cardio workout. Just imagine the dividends in terms of the positive effect it will have on your self-image, the way you will carry yourself, the way your clothes will fit, and the mood-lifting endorphins that will be produced. This is your recipe for health and wellbeing.

The most important thing to do, is to put the fun back into fitness. If you enjoy what you are doing, you will keep it up. If you include the rest of the family, you are also more likely to stay with it. It really doesn’t have to be a drag. If you prefer to combine your cardio workout for weight loss with a health club membership, by all means go for it. But if you can’t afford it, don’t let this fact stop you from creating your new, healthy, toned body.



The French Women’s Beauty Secret

Guest Author: Tom Gifford


Have you ever been able to successful use a weight loss cardio workout to successfully lose body fat?

If you are like most people the answer is yes and no ‘ and usually in the order!

This article is going to go over a few reasons why the average weight loss cardio workout might actually be preventing you from losing weight. Please pay special attention to this article because it can save you lots of time, help you enjoy exercise more, and give you a new outlook on losing with with cardio.

By using “cardio”, I am talking about using cardiovascular exercise on a basic cardio machine such as treadmills, rowing machines, upright or recumbent bikes, ellipticals, or any other common cardio machine you see at the gym or at a department store. This also refers to things such as walking outside or going for a bike ride.

It is very common see someone try to lose weight in the gym by getting on a cardio machine and trying to go for 30-60 minutes at a slow pace. They may try to do this 3, 4, or 5 days per week!

In the beginning 2-3 weeks, you see some results pretty quickly. The weight on the scale goes down and you are feeling great. Soon after however, the weight loss slows down and your progress comes to a crashing halt.

Let’s go over 3 quick reasons why your hit a frustrating plateau with the normal cardio workout, and more importantly, how to avoid it completely.

Reason #1: It Is Boring!

Unless you are training for a triathlon or are a distance runner, you would more than likely have more engaging things to do with your time then being on a cardio machine for 30-60 minutes. A 60 minute cardio workout 3-5 days a week is a sure way to lose all enthusiasm for exercise and be really bored throughout the whole process.

Lots of people do whatever they can to distract themselves during their cardio workouts. The cover the timer with a towel, watch television, read books, or just about anything else to try and distract themselves.

Reason #2: You Burn Fewer Calories Each Time You Workout

Your body will adapt very quickly to doing a very slow and long weight loss cardio workout. Think about it like this. If you went outside and ran a mile right now it would feel pretty difficult if you were not already a conditioned runner. But what if you ran the same mile 5 days per week for the next two months? It would get easier. Your body would adapt to it because that is what it does best.

The same goes for the average weight loss cardio workout that lasts for 30, 45, or even 60 minutes. At first you might burn a lot of calories, but after doing the same type of cardio workout for too long, the body will become more efficient and will adapt.

This means that the workout that burned 300 calories in January might only be burning 150 calories in March! The only thing you can do it so longer or work harder. Neither one sounds like a very appealing option.

Reason #3: The Average Weight Loss Cardio Workout Does Not Stimulate Your Metabolism

Instead of focusing on the number of calories you burned during a single workout, I want you to instead focus on burning calories during the workout and for hours afterwards!

Research has shown that slow same speed cardio does next to nothing to stimulate your resting metabolism. This means that you workout for 45 minutes, burn 300 calories, and then negate the whole workout with a Gatorade afterwards.

How to Fix This Problem

Did you know that you can use a different type of cardio called interval training that can burn a lot of calories during the actual cardio workout and for hours afterwards as well?

When performed correctly, interval training is faster, more fun, and most importantly, has been shown in research to have a dramatic effect on your resting metabolism. What this means is that you might burn 350 calories during your cardio workout, then another 500 throughout the rest of the day!

Interval training is an excellent weight loss cardio workout option for this very reason. Interval training simply consists of using both high and low speeds and intensities at set points in your workout. It can be done on any cardio machine and can even be done walking outside!

If you are truly serious about achieving weight loss with a cardio workout, then learning more about interval training is an absolute must. Your will feel like you got twice the workout in half the time and have a lot more results to show for it!



Look Young Again

Guest Author: james sameul


What is Weight Lifting? Lifting barbells or dumbbells with the goal of increasing your strength and/or muscle size. Weight lifting can take several forms:

·    Weightlifting Sport. The sport of Weightlifting is part of the Olympic Games. It consists of 2 lifts: the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. The goal is to lift more weight than competitors in the same weight class.

·    Strength Training. Lifting weights to increase your physical strength. More muscle & a lower body fat are byproducts of strength training.

Weightlifting Olympic sport since 1896

An ancient sport as old as mankind, embodying the most direct manifestation of human strength, weightlifting has not only flourished, but also developed into a modern sporting discipline for the 21st century. The apparent simplicity of lifting the barbell from the ground and over the head in one or two movements is deceiving. Weightlifting requires a combination of power, speed, technique, concentration and timing. Super heavyweight lifters normally claim the title of World’s Strongest Man or Woman. However, kilo per kilo,  the lightest weightlifter is often the strongest. Men’s weightlifting was on the programme of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Women participated for the first time at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.

Find an instructor.

Find an instructor who can help you learn how to do the exercises correctly. Good technique is one of the most important ways to avoid injury. A high school coach or athletic trainer can help you. If a college is located in your town, the weight coach for the varsity athletic teams may be able to give you advice or recommend another instructor. The

National Strength and Conditioning Association may also be able to recommend a qualified coach in your area. Advice from people who have never learned good technique themselves,

such as parents, friends, coaches or other weight lifters, may not be correct. Books can help, but nothing beats personal coaching.

Without your diet supplying the raw materials your body needs to build muscle, all the hard work you do in the gym will be wasted. If you don’t provide the body enough rest time with which to repair and rebuild muscle, all your weight training will be wasted.

There is a dominant basic weight training philosophie:

1.    HIT – HIT is an acronym for High Intensity Training. HIT calls for the trainer to workout 1-3 times a week with full body single-set routines. These are to be short but very intense workouts. The basic prescription is 8-12 reps per set always done to failure. Each and every workout is expected to produce an increase in strength so that when

performing your next workout you should either look to perform more reps with the same weight or the same number of reps with a greater weight.

How to Do the Concentration Curl for Biceps

The concentration curl is an exercise for targeting the biceps of the upper arm. By supporting the back of the arm, you can target the biceps brachii muscles more directly by inhibiting assisting muscles while doing a biceps curl.



Secret of Youth

Guest Author: Roger Leblanc




Many people who are seriously into weight training shy away from doing cardio exercise because they think that it will eat away at their hard won muscle mass. While there is a valid concern for those thinking of running a long distance marathon, most of these fears are unwarranted. Basically, the concern is that as you are running, the body may run short of fuel in the bloodstream for immediate use. Although the body has a mechanism for replenishing energy by breaking down fat deposits, this doesn’t always happen quickly enough. The body compensates by breaking down proteins to use some of the amino acids for fuel. Therefore muscle is wasted.

While this basic analysis is correct, the body builder’s fears are exaggerated. A short run of say twenty to thirty minutes, especially before lifting, will not break down hardly any muscle mass. Almost al the fuel used will come from what is already present in the blood stream and the energy stored in the liver. This is especially true if you ate at least a moderate high carb meals a few hours before. Actually, a good meal of complex carbs fully digested followed by a 20 minute run is an excellent warm up for a good hour of lifting in the weight room. This is a prime reason to run. It warms the cardiovascular system up for your lifting routine. You will get better workouts and with better workouts, better gains. Following this logic, a light to moderate run will actually help you to gain muscle rather than lose it! But the warm up should not be the only motivation for cardio exercise.

There are several outstanding reasons for adding cardio to your regimen. Cardio is the best way to exercise your heart and lungs, it is the most efficient way to cut fat, and it will boost your metabolic rate more naturally and efficiently than any pill on the market. So how much cardio should you do? That is a hard question to answer. Some suggest that you could start to lose muscle after about a half hour of running. Though they may be literally correct, you should take this with a very large grain of salt. The muscle that you lose even after an hour run is miniscule. Furthermore, since you train with weights on a regular basis, you are continually sending signals to your body to save and to build more muscle. Lifting and running done on a regular basis will condition your body to efficiently handle both the running and the body building. Essentially, when your body is conditioned, what is likely to happen is you still lose a miniscule amount of protein after a run of an hour or so, but your body adds that protein back in a short time. A hardcore professional body builder trying to bulk up for the next Mr. Olympiad may think twice about running that much, but you and I could do it without any net loss over the long run. The only real issue is whether your gains could slow by a margin of 2 – 3% or so. The benefits of cardio to your overall health to your energy level is well worth a theoretical miniscule slowdown, and it is the best and most natural way to get cut.

Cardio exercise has significant health benefits and should not be avoided for those overly concerned with a muscular physic. The truth is cardio actually improves physic because it cuts fat from your body and enhances definition of your muscular build. The substantial benefits gained by cardio are more than worth any small decrease in muscle building. Anything up to one hour of cardio training when combined with a regular lifting program will provide a well balanced program for both physic and health.



Smooth Away Wrinkles Instantly

Guest Author: Chuck Smalley


In my early adult years, I was a reasonably fit guy. I paid some attention to my fitness level, but I wasn’t fanatical about it. Not surprisingly, things changed in my forties. I was no longer able to maintain a reasonable fitness level without concentrated effort. In fact, by the time I was 44, I was out of shape and overweight. I had little energy and many outdoor activities were not fun anymore. I was not getting sufficient exercise.

It is a simple fact that as we age, if we do not exercise, we will begin to lose muscle mass and gain body fat. Our metabolism slows, and this slow but steady downward spiral will catch up to us eventually. Our fitness level will degrade unless we counteract this with a physical fitness exercise program that includes a muscle building component.

I knew that I wanted, and needed, to regain a healthy fitness level. I tried various forms of exercise including jogging, hiking, walking and working out with light weights. I also made changes to my diet. And I had various levels of success with each.

What really turned the corner for me was finding the right combination of a weight training – muscle building exercise routine, with aerobic exercise and a proper nutrition diet. While it is always important to begin gradually when initiating a new exercise and fitness routine, it was not until I started pushing myself with weights that I began to notice significant progress. My wife noticed too. Initially, I had been doing 3-4 sets of 4-5 different exercises, 2-3 times per week. That is not bad. However, I was not really challenging myself. I was typically doing 15 reps of each exercise, which meant that the weight that I was using was fairly low. Again, this is not a bad thing. But what I did not realize is that rather than building new muscle tissue, I was mainly building muscle endurance instead.

But building muscle endurance, instead of building new muscle, is not going to transform your body like intense weight training exercise will. Weight training, also known as resistance training, builds muscle, which in turn increases your metabolic rate. And that change in metabolic rate is sustained throughout the day, not just while you are working out. It takes energy, and burns calories, to maintain and build new muscle. It is the exercising of muscle during a workout, followed by muscle rebuilding after a workout, that provides the desired transformation. This applies to both men’s fitness and women’s fitness. And an effective muscle building fitness workout does not require extensive home exercise equipment or an expensive gym membership. Satisfying results can be achieved with a few dumbbells and a small bench.

So, what changed for me? I changed my weight lifting workouts from usually doing 12 to 15 reps of each exercise, to a more intensive routine that provides more muscle resistance. For each exercise, I start with 12 reps and a moderate warm-up weight. On each successive set, I increase the weight and reduce the number of reps. I increase the weight on the second set and do 10 reps. For set 3, I increase the weight again, performing 8 reps. On set 4, the weight is increased again, and I do 6 reps. On the final set I change things up and decrease the weight to the amount used in set 3 and do 12 reps. This is known as an exhaustion set.

On each weight training workout, I keep written notes of my workout and progress. I then adjust the weight used for each exercise based upon how I perform on set 4. If set 4 was too easy, then I know I need to increase the weights used, starting with sets 1 or 2. The process is iterative but this is an important key. I want to keep increasing my weights until the last 1 or 2 reps on set 4 are difficult. I really push myself on this set. If I can actually perform 8 reps on this set when my target was only 6 reps, then I need to increase the weight.

The point of all this, is that I am now lifting heavier and with greater intensity than when I first started. As a result, I am building muscle and this has made a significant difference in my results. My fitness level is up. My body fat is down. I feel better and have more energy. Fitness over 40 is attainable, but consider weight training exercise as a component to build and tone healthy muscle for better fitness. It is important to combine this with proper nutrition, vitamins, aerobic activity, and sufficient rest. Good luck on your journey!