The bodybuilding and fitness industry has the highest number of myths out there, even some of the ‘professionals’ are under the influence of myths. Knowing what stuff is true and what is false can be critical to achieving great results and staying injury free. This article should hopefully educate you and you’ll be one of the few people that know the truth.

1.The workouts of professional bodybuilders are the best – You want to become massive and ripped, so it makes sense to follow Mr. Olympia’s routine…right?

Wrong, Pro-bodybuilders have had years of training there for their bodies are capable of recovering faster from the workouts they do. If you or I did their workout for a while, we’d probably just over train and injure ourselves. Pro’s also have many years of experience, meaning their bodies are capable of going through such vigorous workouts so often.

2.There is one, and one only perfect workout plan for everyone – Some magazines or articles may try to say that there’s only one workout that produces the greatest results for everyone. Funny thing is, I see hundreds of different perfect workouts! Everybody is different, a workout that works for you may not work for me, and so on.

This is why it’s important to educate yourself so you can make a workout thats ‘perfect’ for you. If you’re a real beginner, you can get an experienced trainer to make a program designed exclusively for you.

3.(eg. Protein) supplement ABC is 500% more effective then (eg. Protein) supplement XYZ – There are many supplement companies out on the market today, with a huge range of different brands available, its hard for consumers to choose one product over another.

At the end of the day, the difference between supplement companies is minimal in the single percentages. Unless the supplement company you buy from is your neighbor, who mixes the ingredients in his basement, its very unlikely that there’s a 500% difference between the different big name companies. However, I do recommend Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!

4.You need to exercise to burn fat – Nobody gains body fat because of a lack of exercise. You gain body fat if you eat more calories then you burn. For example; If your daily caloric requirement is 3000 calories, you only need to consumer 3000 calories that day.
If you consume more then 3000 calories you will gain fat.
If you consumer less then 3000 calories you will lose fat.
If you combine exercise to a good diet you will burn more calories, resulting in you losing fat faster.

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Stability Ball: An Effective Workout to Improve Posture

By Bodytrends Health and Fitness

How many of your clients have good postural alignment? Most people do not. Because of a sedentary lifestyle, most people have poor posture. The muscles of the trunk are no longer able to support the body in the most efficient way possible. Because of external support from a chair, couch, car seat, etc., the neuromuscular system has “forgotten” how to maintain posture easily and efficiently. This usually leads to breakdown and dysfunction.

Using a stability ball is a very effective way to correct postural alignment. Exercises on the ball can be very mild or extremely challenging depending on the needs of the client. By balancing on the ball, the client now has no other support to rely on except her own body. The body will automatically call on the righting and equilibrium responses, facilitating a coordinated effort of the postural muscles. The client unconsciously finds a way to balance on the ball with the least amount of muscle use possible, therefore reinforcing positive movement patterns.

The first exercise on the ball is for the client to sit on the ball. Just sit. This alone is very challenging for some. Stay close to the client and constantly reassure her that you are there if she needs you for balance. The following exercises are progressions to add more challenge:

•While sitting, the client moves the ball forward and back, relearning how a pelvic tilt feels.
•Client moves the ball in a circle like she is moving a hula-hoop.
•Client bounces up and down while sitting on ball.
•Add arm movements or feet marching to increase difficulty.

Some personal trainers laugh at these exercises, but they are some of the best for introducing self-reliance through internal feedback and body awareness. This means the client doesn’t require any cues on how to perform these movements, they learn them unconsciously on their own. Their body becomes their best teacher. And that’s what we as personal trainers promote: eventual self-sufficiency and independence.

Plus, remember: strength training is not just moving against resistance. Teaching the neuromuscular system to work in a coordinated fashion with many other systems to produce efficient movement is also strength training.

The following stability ball exercises are great for reinforcing neutral spinal alignment, as well as improving stability and mobility in the abdominal and back muscles.

Squat and Arch: Sit on ball and walk down to a squat position. Reach arms overhead and straighten legs to arch over ball.

Push-up: Kneel with stomach on ball. Walk arms out as far as strength and balance allows. Perform push-ups.

Prone Knee-Tuck: In prone position push-up position, lift hips and bend knees into chest. Return to starting position.

Airplane: Kneel with stomach on ball. Round over ball with toes on floor. Extend back and reach arms out.

Straight Back Cross: Sit on ball. Keep spine erect as you lean back as far as possible. At the same time lift both arms. Hold position and lower one arm down to outside the opposite knee. Return to starting position and repeat with other arm.

Roll-Up: Sit on ball with legs straight to the front and feet flat on floor. Roll down as you bend knees, until you are parallel to the floor. Roll up. Feet do not move the whole time.

Hip Lift: Lie on back with lower calves on the ball. Roll up and down the spine, lifting and lowering the hips.

The stability ball is a great tool for the personal trainer to use. Clients enjoy using the ball, and it also promotes body awareness, improves balance and coordination, and reinforces proper spinal alignment. If you are looking for an inexpensive tool to incorporate into your workout routine, a stability ball may just be what you are looking for. Shop for a stability ball now at Bodytrends.com.

Over the last year or two, many people have started talking about the Glycemic Index, particularly how it effects weight loss and weight gain.

But many still don’t really know what this is, or how it can help you lose weight. There are actually diet plans these days which are based around the glycemic index such as the Nourish Program from NutriSystem but just knowing what it is and how it works can go a long way towards helping you meet your own weight loss goals.

So what exactly is the glycemic index? It’s basically a food chart, which tells you how fast specific foods are converted to sugars by your body.

When you eat foods that are converted to sugar by your body quickly, you experience a quick rise in insulin levels. These are referred to as “spikes”. Your body produces quick amounts of extra insulin to help deal with the extra sugar in your body.

Once that sugar is dealt with however, your insulin levels drop very low, very quickly. And these drops are what cause hunger pains. In many cases they can cause you to be dizzy, nauseous, and irritable too. And of course the most basic response to these feelings is to eat again… too often most of us will grab a “quick” snack that’s filled with more simple sugars, thus we start the whole spike and drop insulin process all over again.

Foods which have or release quick sugars in this way, also have a high GI (glycemic index) rating. Now some foods are easy to recognize as having a high GI rating, because they have tons of regular sugar added to them from the start. Regular sodas for instance, or sweet rolls, cookies and pastries.

Other food items might not be so obvious though. Broccoli for instance, has a fairly low GI rating, while carrots - which are also quite healthy for you - have a high GI rating. Technically you have to eat a heck of a lot of carrots to experience the full glycemic load though, so eating small amounts of them is not usually a problem.

Some fruits such as grapes have high GI loads, while others such as strawberries are quite reasonable. White potatoes have a higher GI load than yams, or “sweet” potatoes do.

Using the Glycemic Index to regulate your food intake can make a world of difference with meeting your weight loss goals though. If you eat primarily foods which have a low GI load, you’ll actually stay feeling full and satiated for longer periods of time. You’ll also control your bodies insulin production. By keeping the insulin levels fairly even throughout the day, you don’t go through the cravings, sever hunger, and other responses noted above. And when you’re not experiencing those unpleasantries, you’re not as likely to grab quick sugar snacks on the run.

Keeping your body’s insulin production at fairly even levels throughout the day is one of the key secrets to losing weight.

Some times sorting this all out may be confusing. As with any type of diet, avoid light or white colored foods as these are usually the high spikers on the GI chart. Choose foods that are darker in color or very brightly colored as these will usually be low spikers.

If you are still a bit confused visit http://glycemicindex.com which is maintained by the university of Sydney or visit NutriSystem
for more glycemic index information.

What is the 3 Hour Diet?

The 3 Hour Diet is based on 3 simple principles
1. Eat the right foods within 1 hour of waking up
2. Eat the right foods every 3 hours throughout the day
3. Stop eating 3 hours before bedtime

While you are on the 3 Hour Diet your metabolism will be blasting all day and night, and since you eat frequently your blood sugar levels stay even and you will find that you are not hungry all day and you also will not have the usual “diet cravings”.

Your body actually becomes a 24/7 fat blaster!

Although, the 3 Hour Diet is simple; the shopping, food preparation, cleaning up and cooking can become overwhelming.
This is where 3 Hour Diet At Home comes in.

With the 3 Hour Diet at Home Delivery Program you receive FRESH - not frozen meals delievered directly to your door!

3 Hour Diet meals are cooked and packaged at the peak of perfection, arriving fresh, allowing you to savor their natural flavors.

Ready in just minutes, 3 Hour Diet meals, allow you to stay true to the 3 Hour Diet quickly and suprisingly inexpensively.

The 3 Hour Diet is helping celebrities keep their weight in check, and help them get ready for a photo shoot. Don’t you deserve the star treatment?

The 3 Hour Diet At Home

Detoxing is getting more and more popular and people get to understand the health benefits related to detoxing.

You dextox when your body shows some signs that you have built up toxins. These toxins can affect your whole body fitness and health.

There are times that you feel sluggish and feel the stressful. Your body may experience continuous aching, diarrhea, constipation, and feeling of clumsiness. Rapid weight gain and the incapacity to lose the excess weight can also be signs of having toxins in the body.

Moreover, the toxins found in the body are found and stored on your fat cells. For Americans who are taking the usual American diet, a person may consume 70 trillion garbage cans for each cell. In detoxing your body and cleaning that unwanted garbage in your cells, you should pay attention on your elimination organs.

There are particular organs in your body that deal on cell waste management. These organs play a major role in the detoxing process for a fit and healthy body.

1. Your liver is the organ that recycles the unwanted chemicals in the body. It sorts out the toxins and places them to the organ for elimination during the process of circulation. The principal elimination organs will back up the liver on where these toxins will be stored and then eliminated.

2. The lymph glands also play an important role in eliminating the toxins. A network of tubing brings out the excess waste of the cells from the body and to the final eliminating organs. The appendix, thymus, tonsil, and spleens are major lymphatic glands that help the major organs of the body in cleansing and detoxing.

3. The kidneys help in the water management of the body. They are the ones that keep the good chemistry of the blood alkaline by eliminating the dissolved acid waste. You can help your kidney to function very well by drinking plenty of water. It is much better if you drink fresh alkaline juices and purified water. You may take ½ ounce of alkaline everyday to see positive results on your body weight.

4. The lungs are the organs that keep the blood air purified. They allow the oxygen to go directly to the bloodstream. It is also responsible in removing waste gases that are found in every cell of the body. Deep breathing and fresh air is very helpful in keeping the lungs healthy and free from toxins. If you are in the urban area, it is recommended that you find an oxygen rich area where you can perform deep breathing.

5. The colon is a solid waste management organ in your body. Medical practitioners have found many peolpe that may have an 80-pound mucus and rubber like solid waste that are found on the walls of the colon. Detoxing and cleaning the colon can be a real tough thing to do. However, having a free waste colon can certainly provide you good benefits of having a clean and healthy body.

If you are experiencing some signs of detoxification, you may try doing a regular walking exercise. Exercise is a good key in having a fit and healthy body. Many diet doctors also suggest that you drink plenty of water with fresh squeezed lemon juice. This is an effective way of maintaining a very good circulation and can increase the rate of detoxification inside the body.

There are many products on the market for detoxing, before using any be sure to read the instructions carefully. If you are detoxing for the first time, make sure that you have no plans for the day (like working or traveling) and have an easy access to a bathroom as you will spend a good portion of your day there.

Do you still have a skinny picture hidden in the back of your wallet that you pull out whenever you want to relive the “good old days?”, most dieters do so don’t be ashamed. You may be onto something positive, and it’s more than just harboring dreams of days gone by.

Many experts now recommend that dieters visualize where they want to be – so that they can achieve their weight loss goals more quickly, and without the normal “pains” of dieting. That could mean fitting into your jeans from when you were 20, or just being a healthy person for the first time in your life.

Visualization techniques help people achieve their goals by bringing it one step closer to reality. If done correctly, you begin to live life as if you’ve already reached your healthy weight, which reinforces good habits. The top cancer institute has cancer patients learning this technique, to visualize their tumors shrinking, then finally disappearing. Visualization is not hocus pocus, it is based on clinical testing, with the worlds largest health faciliates teaching and using it with their patients.

Picturing yourself healthy is a good way to encourage you to stick it out and adhere to your diet and exercise plan. You have something to look forward to and you know what it will feel like once you get there.

Visualization is more than a static image. True visualization techniques use all of the senses. You can close your eyes and imagine what it would feel like to lose 100 pounds, not just how great your backside will look in a new pair of tight-fitting jeans.

It’s also a technique that doesn’t require any special skill, money, or time – you can do it anywhere and no one will know that you’re secretly visualizing your weight loss success.

You want to start by fully imagining how your future self will be once the weight is off and you’re at your goal size. Picture yourself sitting down to a healthy meal at a nice restaurant and envision the smells, tastes, and sounds around you.

What feelings would you have at that very moment? Surely a sense of satisfaction – one that will carry into the present and help you work harder to make that image come to fruition.

Don’t picture yourself sitting at a table as if you’re a nearby diner. Instead, visualize the scene from inside your own body – the new you that worked so hard to lose weight and get fit.

As you implement visualization techniques to your daily diet plans, you can also reaffirm your goals as you do it by focusing on positive affirmations. The process of visualization can be addictive in itself because it brings about a sense of self-confidence and excitement about the future that’s in store for you.

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