What works?  What doesn’t?

As a licensed personal trainer, I’ve witnessed the multitude of myths and fads that run rampant through the fitness and nutrition industries.  We all want a program that takes the least amount of time, yet misses nothing crucial.  There is no five-minute work out, no magic pill, and no single supplement available, that will give you instant results.

Follow these 10 proven strategies:

1.  Weight Train:  Train three times a week, allowing a minimum of twenty-four hours rest, between sessions.  Optimum increases in muscle growth, fat loss, and strength, occur only with complete recovery.  So, rest on your days off.

2.  Length of Session:  If you are able to weight train for more than fifty minutes, you are not pushing yourself hard enough.  Increase your intensity!  You should be at muscle exhaustion, by the fifty-minute mark.

3.  Body Parts:  On DAY ONE, train your biceps and triceps.  On DAY TWO, train your legs and shoulders.  And, on DAY THREE, train your back and chest.   Change up the order every six weeks, or so, to maintain muscle confusion.

4.  Training Load:  There is an inverse relationship between the amount of weight you are actually lifting and the number of repetitions and sets you can actually complete, with good form.  Typically, the heavier the weight the less repetitions you will be able to perform, and vice versa.  Basically, 5 to 12 repetitions enhances muscle strength, 13 or more repetitions enhances leanness and muscle endurance, and 1 to 4 repetitions enhances muscle size and power.

5.  Muscle Failure:  The goal of weight training is to sufficiently fatigue the targeted muscle fibers, to obtain a training effect.  This concept is called ‘muscle failure.’  You must reach muscle failure to sufficiently place demand on the muscle, ensuring change.

6.  Consistency:  Consistency is the most important training modality, to produce positive changes in your body.  Establishing the habit of regular exercise is vital to your success.  Remember, it took you longer than 30 days to put your weight on, and it will take more than 30 days, to take it off.

7.  Cardiovascular Training:  You are not in your ‘fat burning’ zone until the twenty-minute point, so train at least thirty to forty minutes.  Do your cardiovascular training on the SAME days you weight train, so your body can get the rest it needs to recover and change.  Vary your choices of cardiovascular routines, and choose exercises you enjoy doing!

8.  Train Abs / Obliques:  These exercises must be done in a variety of positions and angles, to fulfill the needs of the core musculature.  Work your core region at least four times a week, ensure your movements are deliberate, exhale as you move toward the peak of the movement, and keep your repetitions in the 50 to 100 range.

9.  Training Log:  Regardless of your experience level, record your workouts!  Would you plan a trip without first mapping out your route?  Logs keep track of your progression, and hold you accountable to your training sessions.

10.  Supplement Your Body:  An athlete MUST consume more protein, and other vital supplements, than someone whom is otherwise sedentary.  The following three all-natural supplements are considered by most experts and trainers to be the most vital to fat loss, muscle maintenance, and health.

Whey Isolate Protein:   High quality protein is approximately 90% pure, with only 0.5 grams of fat, per serving.  Protein repairs body cells and muscles and bones, provides a source of energy, aids in the control of metabolism, preserves lean muscle tissue while burning fat, and stabilizes blood glucose levels, thereby reducing hunger.

L-Carnitine:  This is a naturally occurring amino acid, which aids in transporting long-chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane, to be metabolized.  L-Carnitine spares the supply of glycogen stored in the liver, thereby allowing the body to burn more fat, save more glycogen, and ultimately boost stamina and endurance.  It is considered the ‘miracle’ supplement, in that it acts as a forklift, removing fat from the largest area of your body, first.

L-Glutamine:  This is a semi-essential amino acid, transferred by the blood to other body tissues, where it is used as fuel.  For athletes, this amino level is depleted by 34 to 50%, during each exercise session, and so must be replenished.  It increases glycogen levels, increases muscle endurance, lowers muscle catabolism, enhances nitrogen retention in the muscles for better cardiovascular effect, and aids in increasing the immune system.

Realize regular exercise, coupled with a nutritionally balanced meal plan, is the only realistic solution to permanently reduce body fat.  You MUST consume fewer saturated fat grams than your body expends through metabolism, muscular activity, and digestive activity.  By doing so, it is virtually impossible to remain or become overweight.

Does a healthy diet create healthy skin?  Mike Adams, The Health Ranger, offers some answers. Diet plays an important role in maintaining the health of the skin. Diet should supply all the nutrients needed to build health, namely, protein, carbohydrates, fats, essential fatty acids and all the essential vitamins and minerals.

Want to live to be 100 and still be mentally sharp and healthy? Writing at NewsMax Health Dr. Russell Blaylock says that it IS entirely possible.

National statistics indicate that the leading causes of death are heart attacks, cancer, and strokes, with death related to normally prescribed pharmaceutical drugs close behind.

Short of death, the major scourges of aging are dementia and a generalized loss of function — failure of vision, hearing loss, severe weakness, and a loss of taste.

Younger people like to say that the old just run out of gas. More people who live to be 100 years old are healthy into old age, and a healthy early start will help you go a long way.

Follow these five rules:

• Eat a healthy diet. Your diet should include at least five servings of fruits and vegetables and no more than a slice of whole grain bread a day. Fruits, and especially vegetables, contain some of the most powerful chemical antioxidants found naturally. And don’t overeat. Many animal studies have shown that those on low-calorie diets live significantly longer than those on regular, or especially, high-calorie diets.

• Exercise regularly. Exercise is very important, regardless of your weight. Newer studies have found that obese people who exercise regularly will benefit significantly, just as with thinner people. In fact, being too thin presents its own risks: Studies have shown that young men who exercise excessively and have little body fat are at a much higher risk of developing Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS).

• Get plenty of restful sleep. The lack of sleep can sharply influence your quality of life as well as raise your risk of everything from automobile accidents to obesity and heart attacks.

• Banish excess stress. Mental stress can actually cause cells in your brain to shrink and die! It can even set the stage for serious diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

• Avoid toxins. Environmental toxins, such as pesticides, herbicides, and other toxic chemicals, including the food additive MSG, can program one for a life of illness and speed the effects of aging.

If you follow these rules, you will have a much better chance of enjoying life into the 100s.

Source: NaturalNews.com

A recent two-year international study demonstrated that a long-term weight loss plan featuring the reduction of calories and processed foods with an increase in vegetables can reduce blood pressure and reverse atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

The subjects, mostly men, included 140 overweight workers at Israel`s Dimona Nuclear Research Center. Head researcher Dr. Iris Shai, from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, said the study sought not only to restrict calories, but also to educate subjects and their spouses on healthy eating regimens for weight loss. The research center`s cafeteria managers cooperated with clinicians and nutritional advisors to provide healthy meals, changing the food service program in accordance with each of the three diet regimens. The spouses cooperated on the home front to provide the same required foods.

Probably because of such cooperation at work and at home, the study achieved an unprecedented result in the adherence rates. The first year achieved 95 percent adherence; after the second 85 percent stayed with the diet.

All three diets, which featured an increase in vegetables and the omission of trans-fats and processed foods, combined with calorie reduction, led to weight loss. In most diets, the dieters lose weight at first and start re-gaining after six months. This regimen showed that there might be some weight gained back, but a long-term change to one of these diet strategies can reduce carotid atherosclerosis. This is most true for those who are mildly obese and experience a decrease of more than ten pounds in weight and more than seven mmHg in systolic blood pressure.

The main diet changes call for reducing the amount of red meat, eating more fruits and veggies and eliminating as many sugars as possible, including alcohol and fruit juices.

The five most critical foods to avoid are doughnuts, chips, fried non-fish seafood, soda and French fries. If these items could gradually be replaced by dark green and cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, Brussel sprouts), spinach and Swiss chard, over time, weight will come off and arteries will become less clogged.

>> CONTINUE AT NATURALNEWS.COM

Sources: NaturalNews & Mercola.com

Blueberries! – Among fruits, blueberries may be the perfect example of “big things come in small packages.” Organic blueberries taste good, are low in calories, high in fiber and are densely packed with important nutrients, including the phytochemical anthocyanin, which help protect you against Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders by helping reverse the effects of aging which occurs in the brain.

Blueberries have been proven to lower blood pressure, protect against oxidative stress and now a recent study shows that blueberries might help you lose that hard to get rid of abdominal fat.

Mercola.com reports – “Not only do blueberries have the highest antioxidant capacity of any fruit, but they have also been proven to help with a number of diseases and conditions. Highly purified proanthocyanidin found in blueberry leaves has been found to inhibit Hepatitis C, and blueberries have been used for centuries to improve liver-related conditions. Blueberries provide a natural alternative to expensive and ineffective pharmaceuticals that tend to only worsen the condition.”

NaturalNews reports: “Blueberries contain Epicatechin, which is why they are so potent at improving liver function. While grapes, green tea, and other items also contain this ingredient, blueberries carry other beneficial ingredients that help to improve total body function. Pterostilbene, another major component of blueberries, has been found to protect against colon cancer. Colon cancer is currently a major killer, with an estimated 50,000 people per year dying from colorectal cancer.”

An even larger killer than colon cancer, breast cancer is the number two killer of women. About 1.3 million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide this year, and 465,000 will end up dying from the disease. Blueberry extract inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells and was found to decrease enzymes associated with cancer spreading. Blueberries are truly an anti-cancer fruit.

If supplementing with blueberry extract, be sure to make sure that your supplement contains standardized pterostilbene, as all blueberries do not contain the same amount of pterostilbene. Of course supplementing with blueberry extract will not deliver the same results as eating fresh blueberries. Eating fresh berries will lead to better absorption by the body, and therefore better results. While supplements are a great means of getting vital nutrients that are hard to obtain through food alone, it is no supplement to real food. It is important to get most of your nutrients from whole foods.

Unfortunately, all blueberries are not prepared equally. Blueberries that are both fresh and organic will deliver a bountiful amount of antioxidants that non-organic blueberries will not. Blueberries that have been sprayed with harmful pesticides can do more harm than good. In fact, many chemical pesticides are neurotoxins and have been linked to conditions such as ADHD. The best way to avoid these pesticides is to buy local 100% organic produce. Growing your own food may also be a viable option, as long as you use seeds that are not genetically modified.