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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

Germany RTL Network broadcast of Chris Tina Bruce

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

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.