Fitness Tip: Warm Your Engine

Fitness Tip: Warm Your Engine - Never start any training session, whether you are lifting weights or doing a cardio work-out, without properly doing a 5-10 minute warm up with your body. A proper warm up that consists of jogging in place, jumping jacks, moderate cardio on a machine, or just taking a quick jog are crucial in making sure that you help warm your core and get your muscles in a flexible ready to train state.

Fitness Tip: Exercise of Choice - Many people are looking for the best overall exercises. If I was to select the best single exercise if you could only pick one, then it would be the Leg Squat. Squats are an excellent lower body exercise that hit the largest muscles in your body which includes glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves.

Will a gluten-free diet improve your health?

(Health.com) -- Sarah Cooper was a new mom in her mid-20s, busily juggling her family and a career as an electrical engineer, when everything came to a halt.

She lost all her energy. She developed acne. And she began experiencing gastrointestinal problems: bloating, diarrhea, cramping, constipation. Her doctors, thinking something must be missing from her diet, put her on various vitamins, none of which helped.

"It was all I could do to go to work," she says.

Don't Over Indulge

Fitness Tip: Don't Over Indulge - Life is about balance, and when you do anything in excess, your body pays the price. So when it comes to drinking alcohol, you need to be wise about your decision making process. Think of the effects of too much alcohol in your current and future fitness and health.

• Can Damage your liver
• Shuts your metabolism so you can't burn food energy
• Impairs your decision making process - especially with healthy food decisions
• Adds tons of liquid NO quality Calories to your daily diet: Sugar & Fat

Exercise of the day: The Ball Spinal Twist provides a great stretch and also tones and develops your core region with the support and stability of your exercise ball.   Click Here to see it in action!

Click here to Get Your GoFit Exercise Ball

Fitness Gear: Ultimate Pro Gym in a Bag

 

Robert Kennedy, publisher of Oxygen, MuscleMag, dies of cancer at 73

The man behind the Ontario-based publishing house that produces a slew of popular health books and fitness magazines, including Oxygen and MuscleMag, has died.

Robert "Bob" Kennedy, who founded Robert Kennedy Publishing, died of complications from cancer on Thursday night at his home in Caledon Hills, Ont., north of Toronto. He was 73.

"He showed me how to live my life as one filled with possibilities. Through him I became what I am today, a story that is familiar to many others who have been touched by Bob’s generous, warm and colourful spirit," his wife Tosca Reno wrote on her personal blog Friday.

Got a Favorite Snack that's a little odd?

Anyone else have some go-to snacks that seem to make those around you nervous? The more new health food novelties I experiment with (kale chips? Bright orange nutritional yeast sprinkled on everything?) the more I'm discovering a great side benefit: I can freely offer to share with those around me, and no one takes me up on it!

My new favorite, which I mentioned last time, is a seaweed snack that the sinister folks at Trader Joe's are seducing innocent snackers with.

I was cheerfully oblivious for many years, because I've never been a sushi fan and thought "seaweed? No way!"

And the first time I tried one of these seaweed snacks, I almost spit it out.  Eww!  It tastes fishy, what a vile and disagreeable thing for a cracker to do! Who would eat these on purpose? That's... hmm, hang on... because it seems there is this also a nice little oily salty crunchy action going on behind the fish taste.... Maybe not so gross? Perhaps one more... No, Eww there's the fish again! Aack! But wait... mmm, oil and salt, yumm!

By the end of the first pack, sadly, I was hooked.  Now, damn it, I am forced to visit Trader Joe's on an ever-escalating schedule. Because if I tried to buy a week, or god forbid, a month's, supply... I'd need a forklift and a dumptruck and it's hard to find parking for 'em in the crowded TJ's lot.

However, it could be worse: as it happens, there are lots of nifty seaweed health benefits, since sea vegetables have "anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, and antiviral properties."

And despite the lovely oily/salty flavor, the nutritional info isn't too horrible at all:

Hate Me For Going On and On About Trader Joes 'Cause You Don't Have One?

Doesn't it suck that we can have a McDonald's on every freakin' corner throughout the world, and yet getting to your nearest Trader Joe's may require you to drive for 47 hours and cross through several large red states on your way?  Well, there are other brands of seaweed snacks at Asian grocery stores and health food places. And I'm too much of a novice to have investigated other sea vegetables, or even tried the bit sheets of nori that aren't conveniently marketed and displayed as snacks. But I suspect these may be options as well.

Anyone else know of any Scary Snacks, either that you or others around you fear? Or any thoughts on anything at all?

Build Muscle With Light Weights

Many fitness experts maintain that exercisers must work within the 8 to 12 repetition range to initiate muscle hypertrophy. However, recent studies suggests that low-load, high-volume strength training can also impact muscle growth.

Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, studied 15 men as they performed four sets of unilateral leg extensions at 90% 1-RM and 30% 1-RM. The subjects were instructed to work until failure. The study authors reported that at 90% 1-RM, subjects usually managed 5–10 repetitions before failure; at 30% 1-RM, failure set in at about 24 repetitions. 

Which Vending Machine Snack Should You Unwrap?

Ah, the infamous vending machine. It's great and convenient when you need an afternoon pick-me-up, but you probably already know that most vending machine foods are not the healthiest choices.

Here are two common vending staples, both from Hostess: the cherry-flavored Fruit Pie and a three-cake serving of Ho Ho's. Okay, the cherry pie does contain some fruit, but also has lots of sugar.

The Ho Ho's are chocolate cake with cream, but one package usually contains three cakes! If you want a good size treat, which of these Hostess treats will satisfy your sweet tooth for fewer calories?