Stomach Exercises: Six Poor Stomach Exercise Habits

As with all things, there is a right way to go about working for a flatter midsection, and several wrong ways. Working out the wrong way can lead to no physical improvement or worse, serious injury. When doing stomach exercises or any other exercise, be sure to consult a professional, warm up properly, and remember the following tips.
Keep Your Knees Up
When doing crunches, you want your knees to bent and your feet flat on the floor so that your knees are centered and pointed upward. Keep them centered and up, not to one side. If you drop your knees to one side, you are unnecessarily compressing your vertebrae, which can lead to a painful back injury.
Sit-Ups
Traditional sit-ups actually do very little for the abdominal muscles. Even when done properly, the strain is mostly on the hip muscles. There is also the tendency to pull the torso up with the arms, which of course is not the point of the exercise. Further, when sit-ups are done very quickly, as people have a tendency to do, it is momentum that mostly forces the torso up and down, rather than any muscle groups. The crunch is a good alternative to old school sit-ups.
Straight Leg Lift
Another traditional “stomach exercise,” this move actually works the lower back more than any muscles in the midsection. This is also another way to put strain on your back, possibly leading to injury.
Too Many Reps
There is never a need to do more fifty reps of a stomach exercise. If fifty reps is not giving you results, doing more than that will not help wither. As you build strength, if you feel the need for a bigger challenge, try a more difficult exercise as an alternative to adding reps.
Sleeping
Believe it or not, how you sleep has an effect on your stomach exercise routine. If you sleep in a position that cause back pain, it will make it much more difficult to work on your midsection in the morning. Sleeping mostly on your stomach is one of the best ways to cause back pain, as it forces your back to arch, often resulting in annoying back pain. The best way to avoid this is to sleep on your back with a pillow under your knees. This will help keep your vertebrae in line, prevent back pain and allowing you work out pain free in the morning.
No Resistance
All stomach exercises need resistance to be effective, whether it comes from a resistance band, an exercise ball, or just gravity. Exercises that do not use any resistance, such as standing broomstick twists, will not be beneficial to your midsection. The good news is that this particular exercise will not do any harm and is actually a good warm up for your trunk. Just do not expect it to flatten out your stomach.
Proper exercise technique is important. These are just a few tips to help you avoid wasting time and potential injury. Be sure to research thoroughly before beginning a new exercise, and always consult your physician before beginning any physical fitness routine.

Triathlons and Equipment Required

Triathlon is an equipment-intensive sport. To compete, you need to have gear for swimming, biking, and running (which adds up to a carload), and there are many added extras that are nice to have during training. Although the fitness and strength of a rider are the biggest determining factors in performance, equipment is a key area where improvements can be made. Obviously, you will go faster with less energy on a 19-pound, titanium, triathlon filly than a 40- pound, discount-store steed. A fast bike will make any rider, regardless of his or her level, faster. Energy-wise, equipment improvements are free speed. Dollar-wise, however, they can be very costly.

On average, the power produced to pedal a bike along a flat road is spent as 60% rider drag, 12% rolling resistance, 8% wheel drag, 8% frame drag, 8% bike/rider inertia, 0.5% wheel inertia, and 3.5% miscellaneous forces. While the area in which you can achieve the biggest performance gains is rider drag, every little bit helps.

HELMETS

Helmet companies have produced a lot of nice data demonstrating that helmets do not make your head heat up and that a helmet is more aerodynamic than your bare head. The bottom line, however, is safety- helmets save lives. Everybody, has a story about a crash that has ended with a helmet split In two. So get a good helmet and wear it every minute you are on the bike. Be sure that your helmet has been approved for cycling by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and that it fits properly.

A helmet does not work if it rolls off your head during a crash. Cycling helmets are designed to be crushed (rather than your skull) on impact, and once they are crushed you need to replace them. Frequently check the condition of your helmet; a new one is vastly cheaper than a trip to the emergency room.

THE BIKE

There is a dizzying array of bikes available, made from different materials, built with different geometries, and optimized for different purposes. To determine the type of bike that is best for you, consider the primary event in which you will compete. Short course or long course? On road or off road? You want the fastest machine to handle the job you are giving it. Weight, handling ability, aerodynamics, and comfort will all factor into your decision. In shorter events, weight and aerodynamics are most important, and a degree of comfort can be sacrificed for speed. In longer events such as the ironman, comfort becomes paramount to continued optimal performance over long periods of time. The slower speeds and rougher terrain of off-road events make agility; handling ease, and the weight of the bike more important than aerodynamics.

When looking for a new bike, you have a lot of choices. The best way to find the bike that fits your needs, abilities, and body type is to contact a qualified bike fit professional. A bike fit expert will measure you and help you research the best bikes that are both in your price range and suit your needs.

The Obesity Epidemic – How Helping Fight It Can Increase Your Revenue

According to recent research (The Culprit and the Cure, Dr. Steven Aldana), 60% of company CEOs state health care costs and lost productivity as their number one concern. An overweight employee can cost an employer $450-$2000 annually in health care costs and lost productivity. Seventy percent of health care costs come from tobacco use, poor nutrition and lack of exercise. As a personal trainer or health club manager/owner, you can help in the fight against obesity and increase your revenues at the same time.

The World Health Organization sites that 17 million deaths annually occur because of obesity and that number is on the rise. Officials believe it will reach epidemic proportions in the next decade. Furthermore, being overweight puts a person at higher risk for chronic disease, which in turn taxes the already burdened health care system.

In addition 67% of Americans do not get enough exercise to reap the benefits. Changing their minds about exercise, (how to do it, when to do it, where to do it and that it can in fact be FUN!), can help increase your membership, clientele numbers and retention rates.

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

As a society, we have done just about everything possible to avoid physical activity. We have drive through restaurants, banks, ATMs, and even pharmacies. We have garage door openers so we don’t have to get out of our car to pull right up to our door so we don’t have to walk any distance before walking in our back door. We have TV remote controls. And how many times have you driven around the grocery store parking lot looking for a closer space so you didn’t have to walk as far?

Because of all of these modern conveniences and advances in technology, we now have to go to great lengths to make sure we are getting the recommended amount of physical activity to maintain good health. Committing to an exercise program is often the most difficult challenge we face. As a health club owner/manager or personal trainer you can help fight obesity while also increasing your business.

But, since there is so much competition out there, how do you get people to commit to a workout plan and more importantly, how do you get them to choose your facility or select you as their personal trainer?

The first step is to make sure that your target audience is aware of the benefits of exercise. Use websites, direct mail pieces, in club or community challenges with prizes to get the word out. Part of the problem is that the general public doesn’t even realize the risk in obesity. Sure, they know it isn’t healthy but do they fully realize the risks? Or the benefits of exercise? Now it is up to you to get the work out and get the business in!

– Prevent or lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. If you compare the long-term health of people who exercise regularly to those who are not physically active you’ll see that the risk of heart disease, instances of heart disease death, and stroke drops dramatically with a consistent increase in physical fitness and physical activity.

– Lower blood pressure.

– Lower cholesterol.

– Maintain or obtain a healthy body weight.

– Prevent or lower the risk of certain types of cancer. People who exercise regularly have a 30-40% lower risk of colon cancer than their sedentary counterparts. Researchers are still working to determine why exercise, not diet, is a key factor here but in the meantime, we know that exercise does reduce the risk. Some studies show a reduction in the instances of breast cancer among those that exercise as well. Again, we don’t know exactly why that is, but we do know it is beneficial.

– Relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety.

– Improve mood.

– Improve self esteem and self confidence.

– Reduce the symptoms of stress.

– Have fun!

HEALTH CLUB AND PERSONAL TRAINER PROFITS

According to the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), it is a national objective to cut the obesity rate to 15% from 31.6% by 2010. Since 1980, the increase in overweight individuals in the United States has grown marginally (32% to 33%) but the rate of increase in those individuals who are obese has grown dramatically. The number of obese individuals in the United States was 14.5% in 1980 and today nearly two thirds of the population is considered obese. A new category is even being added by the CDC to include those considered morbidly obese.

As health club owners and personal trainers, now is the perfect time to get in on the profits of this national objective. First and foremost, your goal should be to help reduce the obesity rate. However, as a business owner, if you are able to build business and profit from a positive national objective, why not do it?

– Talk to your local congress members about what your city, county and state are doing to support this national objective. Find out how you can get involved.

– Set up meetings with local doctors, physical therapists and hospitals in your area to create a referral system. If a person they are treating can benefit from your services (and who couldn’t), set up a system of working with each healthcare professional to design well rounded programs that they are happy to recommend to their patients.

– Hold a meeting at your facility emphasizing the growing obesity epidemic and the problems it presents. Then explain the benefits of exercise. Perhaps you can get a well known health care professional to speak at the meeting and support this information.

– Talk to local health care corporations to see if they would be willing to pay a certain portion of employees’ health club or personal training costs to help keep rising health care costs and lowered productivity to a minimum. Explain how investing the money in prevention will benefit them and their employees in the long run.

– Sponsor a local weight loss/shape up challenge for your health club members as well as non-members. Non-members can see what your facility can offer and may become members to maintain their progress after the challenge ends.

Now it is time to put your knowledge and your skills to work to do all you can to help in the national objective and join the fight against obesity. Unlike other diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, and certain genetic cancers, the obesity problem is linked directly to lifestyle choices. There has never been a better time to be a personal trainer or be in the health club business. You can increase your own business while helping to fight obesity, one person, one choice at a time.

Truthaboutabs Blog

The Truth about Abs is a program written by Mike Geary, who is an individual nutritionist and trainer. It is an eBook coming into being in 2004, which represents an efficient way to lose weight and to gain six sexy abs. Instead of telling you how to train their abs, it gives a guidance to do body exercises. Treat the belly as a part of the whole body, as when you are doing body exercises, the belly will help to give some strength.

Shocking foods that burn belly fat Click here

In this way, the fat on the belly can be burnt and abs can be built. Besides, do the exercises intensively and fat loss will be obvious in a short period. There are 8 levels both for the body and abs exercises respectively. There is no need for you to join the membership of a fitness club—doing workouts at home is time-saving and convenient, more importantly, the same effect can be achieved in your room with this program.

Unlike other books of the same kind, this one does not ask you to follow some strict recipes. It just gives a very simple meal plan, and you can choose your own food based on the principles of the plan. What’s more, The Truth about Abs is also represented by the diet program. So you can build your figure with nutrition-balanced diets.

In addition, the book has a guarantee, that is, if you fail to achieve anything following the book in two months, you can claim to have all your money back.

So, why not find your self-esteem with its guidance right now?

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The Fundamentals Of Handicapping In A Horse Racing System: What You Need To Know First

Before you can progress from betting proficiency to betting artistry, you first need to learn about the fundamentals of handicapping. There are a lot of terms and situations you will encounter in your career as a professional gambler, but the ability to incorporate these fundamentals spells success or failure for your horse racing system.

The Basics Explained

There are basically just four fundamentals to consider in a horse racing system where handicappers are concerned: speed, pace, class, and form.

Speed is the most important and most desired characteristic in a racehorse, for obvious reasons. This can be determined through speed figures that assist handicappers in comparing vital information like actual times, different distances, race days, and racetracks and against various paces.

By removing non-contenders, the Beyer Speed Figures, which illustrates the horse’s speed in its past races, is a standard tool in speed handicapping. Just eliminate from your list of possibilities the horses that will not make it through the wire. You can also analyze the pre-race workouts of the horse to ascertain class and fitness, and in turn speed.

Together with speed, pace can make or break a horse. You can pace handicap a race by classifying the horses’ running style, whether frontrunner, stalker, presser, or closer, and then choosing the horse that best suits the race’s forecasted pace. You just have to contend with the variability of the human factor since the jockey determines the pace of the horse. Incorporate jockey style into your horse racing system to partially offset it.

Class does not refer to elegance, though it will not hurt the horse’s magnificence if it has loads of it. Class simply refers to the levels of competition a horse is entered in by its trainer. Determine if the horse can hold its end in a lower or higher class than its previous race.

Form refers to the fitness of the horse. Look for strong finishes (read: “in the money”) during the horse’s most recent races. Scrutinize the dates of races and distance ran to determine if the horse is in top condition; remember that the longer the layoff, the harder the comeback. However, account for the trainer factor in your horse racing system where relatively long layoffs are seen.

Other Handicapping Factors

In addition to these basic factors in handicapping, your horse racing system to be effective must also take into account secondary factors. These include the human factors of jockey ability and trainer performance.

Jockeys must intimately know their horses as they must ride as one. The jockey decides the pace of the horse, which makes knowing the abilities and riding style of the jockey important to a handicapper. This truth goes true for trainers as well. Try to get to know the trainer, even on a professional basis only.

Non-human factors of equal importance include ground and weather conditions, post positions, and other factors that not even the most experienced of handicappers could anticipate. But therein lies the beauty of gambling – exciting uncertainty.

The combination of all these handicapping factors can be intimidating to a novice. Just remember that you have to find the horse racing system that fits you best in terms of your needs, risk tolerance and abilities at present.