This 14 year-old deadlifts more than you

Rachel McInnis is pretty serious about CrossFit. She's dedicated. She's strong. She's 14 years old.

Fitness Tip: The Ball Squeeze - Video

The Ball Squeeze is an excellent way to hit your core abdominal region with the use of your fitness ball.


Muscle Groups Worked in This Exercise: Pectineus, Adductor longus, Adductor Magnus and Gracilis

Preparation: Lie on your back and place your arms at your sides with your palms facing the floor. Grasp the ball between your calves with your legs extended.

Breathing: Inhale to grasp the ball, exhale after exercise.

Execution: Grasp the ball with your calves, inhale and lift the ball off the floor. Squeeze the ball between your calves as hard as you can and then release; alternate between squeezing and releasing for 20-30 seconds breathing normally while you do this. After 20-30 seconds, exhale and release back down to the floor.

Why Your Muscles Get Sore and What You Can Do About It

When you're struggling to walk down the stairs the day after a tough workout, should you view your soreness as proof you worked hard, or as a sign you overdid it? The truth is somewhere in between. Let's learn about where soreness comes from and how to keep it from making you miserable.

What Soreness Is

That next-day soreness isn't from lactic acid or any toxins produced during exercise. Think about it: if it were, the soreness would start at the gym and resolve over time. Instead, it's called delayed-onset muscle soreness (or DOMS) because it begins several hours afterward, and peaks (on average) around two days after exercise.

Top 10 Reasons to Exercise Regularly (Besides Losing Weight)

You've been told a hundred times that exercise is good for you, and it's true—but it's good for a lot more than just losing weight or building muscle. Here are 10 other benefits you'll see from just a little daily exercise.

Control the Damage From Overeating

Here's what you need to know...

• Any meal over 750 calories (not including the peri-workout nutrition period) results in a measurable amount of fat storage, regardless of macronutrient profile.
• Glycogen-depleting workouts done before a cheat meal can help counteract its detrimental effects.
• Eating a low-glycemic meal a couple of hours before a big meal can improve carbohydrate tolerance and quell the appetite.
• Taking thermogenic and nutrient-partitioning supplements before pigging out can undo much of the damage.
• If you ignore any or all of the preceding tips, you can do a modified Pulse Fast the day after the meal to set you right.

The Ultimate Home Workout for Women

The following are a few simple exercises that you can do at home that require no specialized other than basic equipment that you may find around your home that you can do to tone up and look great!
The object of the workout should be intensity, so rest no more than two minutes at the end of each circuit before starting the next one.



Other tips: Perform 8-12 repetitions of each exercise (resulting in failure at the last rep), and work up to four to six complete circuits.

Now before you start, you should warm up properly and stretch. Warm-up exercises and stretching are essential to any workout. Both help prepare your muscles and joints for more intense activity. This helps prevent injury, as well as promoting circulation. Warm-up exercises should be done before stretching.

Warm-up exercises increase the temperature of the body, making the muscles more flexible and receptive to strenuous activity. Warming up should slightly increase the heart rate but not to the level experienced during your workout. The warm-up should be intense enough to increase your body temperature but not strenuous enough to cause fatigue. A rule of thumb might be to work hard enough to break a mild sweat.

Fitness Tip: Whole Grain Goodness

Fitness Tip: Whole Grain Goodness - 100% Stone Ground Whole Wheat products are the way to go when it comes to eating high quality wheat derived carbs. They are loaded with more fiber, reducing you risk for heart disease, cancer, and other health related diseases. Focus on Oats, Barley, Bulgur, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Millet, Buckwheat, and Ground Flaxseed.

Flush It Out

Fitness Tip: Flush It Out - Water does the body good when it comes to good health. Water helps flush out toxins and other unwanted things lingering in your body. Water also replenishes fluids that help lubricate the internal body, while keeping you hydrated, lowering your desire to eat, and also helps keep your skin looking smooth and young. I know it's hard to drink lots of water, but find bottled water you enjoy the taste of or filter your tap water and keep it chilled in the refrigerator. You should be drinking at least 64 oz per day up to 128 oz to keep your body hydrated and working properly.

Mental Health And Exercise

Mental Health And Exercise

Want to alleviate stress or cope with depression? Exercise may help. Increasingly, there is evidence from researchers that certain levels of physical activity can positively affect mental health. Len Kravitz, PhD, researcher and program coordinator of exercise science at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, takes a look at what research has discovered about the connection between exercise and mental health.

Stress

A growing body of research over the last 10 years shows that physical activity and exercise also improve psychological well-being (Dubbert 2002). Published data show that people with higher levels of fitness are capable of managing stress more effectively than those who are less fit (Hassmen, Koivula & Uutela 2000). It appears that cardiovascular exercise is the method that most benefits stress reduction. The research indicates that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, performed three times a week (sessions lasting over 20 minutes) for up to 12 weeks, has the most influence on stress management.

Rest time for muscle growth

Two things are required for muscle growth: the first is optimal load during your training sessions and the second is quite long intervals between them because the process of muscle growth and recovery is taking place not during workouts but after them, during rest periods.  That’s why you ‘go on’ doing bodybuilding even when you are sleeping because your muscles continue to grow.

Exercise and Pregnancy

Exercise and Pregnancy - Just because you have a baby on board does not mean that you are done with your fitness training regime. Of course, ALWAYS check with your doctor before you start any physical training, especially when pregnant. But once you get the green flag, you will find things like ball wall squats, arm curls and other exercises can be done with safety and ease. When in doubt, ask your Doc!

Cooling down

Cooling down should be a part of every workout routine - A cool down helps your body recover from the stress of exercise and helps the circulatory system return to a resting state. Not cooling down can lead to dizziness and fainting... not a good idea with the sharp metal objects typically found in gyms! A typical cool down can be light aerobic exercise at a slow, steady pace or stretching.

Use the TV for training

Use the TV for training - The TV can be a great tool for working out, but here's the catch; work out only during your favorite shows. Or, even better, record your favorite shows and exercise then (but don't fast forward through commercials, unless you have more than one hour of programming to watch). This tip can really help time to fly by faster during your workout, and you get the added bonus of spending less time with your butt on the couch.

Toning Overview

Everyone is looking for that elusive, magic weight-loss trick. The only "magic" weight-loss trick I know of is strength training - weight-bearing exercise designed to build and strengthen your muscles. That's what this section of my site is all about toning and firming those muscles!

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.

Germany RTL Network broadcast of Chris Tina Bruce

Germany RTL Television network broadcast of
transgender body builder and fitness spokesperson Chris Tina Bruce.

What you should know about artificial sweeteners

Aspartame, sucrose, acesulfame potassium, stevia: From yogurt to diet pop, artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes are everywhere, appealing to the growing number of consumers who want to watch their weight.

Despite the sweeteners’ ubiquity in the grocery aisles, however, there’s no end to the confusion about their safety.

Companies that sell artificial sweeteners, or foods made with them, assert they are harmless. Advocacy groups, such as the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, cite studies that link some of them to cancer. The sugar lobby (yes, such a thing exists) argues artificial sweeteners are inferior to the real article. Then there’s the conspiracy theorists who liken sugar substitutes to poison.

The Vegetarian Athlete

As a vegetarian, do you wonder if you’re getting the nutrients you require for your fitness or sport activities?

This is still a common question: can vegetarians perform as well as their carnivorous counterparts in physical competition?

To meet your nutrient needs and improve athletic performance, use these suggestions:

Meeting Calorie Needs

To best meet energy demands, consume six to eight small meals daily. These feedings supply a steady energy source and are easier on the body’s digestive system than three large meals per day.

Reduce Pain Caused By Daily Activities

Did you know that time spent sitting, standing and even sleeping could be hurting your body? The cumulative effect of the long hours spent in these positions can lead to prolonged damage to both your muscles and fascia (strong connective tissue). To keep your body fully functional, it is important to address this damage by performing corrective exercises.

To determine what specific exercises to do, you can work with a qualified personal trainer who has expertise in this area. You can also make the following adjustments yourself.